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The Agenda That Dare Not Speak Its Name Column: The Democrats’ plans for 2019—and beyond Dems BY: Matthew Continetti

Posted By on August 17th, 2018

https://freebeacon.com/columns/agenda-dare-not-speak-name/

The Democrats have decided that agendas are overrated. Back in May, the party unveiled its “Better Deal” program, calling for expanded broadband access, an increase in the minimum wage, and paid family and sick leave. Voters didn’t bite. So last month the Democrats came up with “For the People,” which simplifies the platform to infrastructure spending, lowering health care costs, and draining the swamp. Again, crickets.

What to do? Party leadership has declared that it’s every cis-het man for himself. “We trust our candidates to know their districts and the challenges facing their communities better than anyone,” House campaign chair Ben Ray Luján tells the New York Times. Translation: If you are Conor Lamb, run as a gun-friendly champion of the working class. If you are Rashida Tlaib, feel free to announce that you would vote against aid for Israel and to call for bi-nationalism that would end the Jewish State. Texas Democrat Colin Allred, following Hillary Clinton, says everyone should be able to buy into Medicare. Maine Democrat Jared Golden, following Bernie Sanders, says, “We need to move towards a universal health care system, like Medicare-for-all.”

Such diversity of approach troubles the philosopher kings of Forty-First Street. Discarding a “Washington platform,” write Sheryl Stolberg and Nicholas Fandos, is “a risky strategy.” It leaves unanswered the question of what the Democratic Party stands for. It “could raise questions among voters about how Democrats would govern.” Questions to which there are few substantive answers.

The truth, though, is that the Democrats do have an agenda. They just can’t say it aloud. The reason Democrats seek power in 2018 is to obstruct President Trump wholly and without exception, to tie down his administration using the subpoena powers of a dozen committees, and ultimately to lay the groundwork for his impeachment. The Democratic grassroots expects nothing less.

ENVIRONMENT AND JUNK SCIENCE Comments turned off

Eco-Groups Push for ‘Vegan Electricity,’ Free from Animal Byproducts By John Ellis

Posted By on August 17th, 2018

https://pjmedia.com/trending/eco-groups-push-for-vegan-electricity-free-from-animal-byproducts/

No, you did not accidentally click on The Onion or the Babylon Bee. Yes, vegan electricity is now a thing. Ain’t capitalism grand? I mean, capitalism has solved so many real problems and now it’s solving made-up problems.

Prior to reading the HuffPost article titled “The Dirty Secret in Your Electricity: Animals” I had no idea that animal byproducts are used in the production of electricity. And I had no idea because I had literally never thought about it. Or cared. Still don’t. But some people care. Deeply, in fact.

Before delving into the “solution,” you should probably be made aware of the “problem” So, to that end, you should know:

Most of the electricity in countries like the U.S. and the U.K comes from burning fossil fuels. Renewables such as wind power, as well as nuclear energy, likewise feature in the mix. But energy can also be derived from breaking down animal byproducts, like poultry poop, and even whole animals, into gas that can be burned.

In fact, it gets “worse,” because, “In December, the U.K newspaper The Times reported that British energy firm SSE had sold energy generated at Scotland’s Barkip power station using dead farmed salmon unfit for human consumption.”

To be fair, “A spokesperson for SSE told HuffPost the company was unable to confirm whether diseased salmon had definitely been used to generate electricity because the Barkip station ‘just takes waste to save it going to landfill,’ but said it would be ‘fair to assume it took fish carcasses at one point.'”

Now that you’ve been acquainted with the dastardly “problem” of non-vegan electricity, I’m sure that you’ll be relieved to learn about the “solution.” Thankfully, concerned people are finally taking a stand in the defense of diseased salmon that may or may not be used to power things like the lights in children’s hospitals or homeless shelters or, *gasp* the kennels in humane societies. As animal rights activist Lex Rigby told HuffPost, “Those who chose not to eat fish, whether for ethical or welfare reasons, would be ‘disgusted’ to discover that energy providers had used sick fish to produce energy.”

That concern for sick fish has created the market for vegan electricity.

HOMELAND SECURITY Comments turned off

When Antifa Chants ‘No America at All’ By Sarah Hoyt

Posted By on August 17th, 2018

https://pjmedia.com/trending/when-antifa-chants-no-america-at-all/

Apparently while countering the “Unite the Right” (which is neither) demonstration, the brown shirts of Antifa got a little upset there was no one there to fight them.

According to this article on Powerline, quoting an article in the Washington Post by Petula Drorak who covered the Antifa demonstration:

Masked — in black instead of KKK white — they pinballed around the empty streets of downtown D.C., randomly chanting and searching for a brawl .

“Bust some windows!” (Why?)

“Nazis, go home!” (They did.)

“No border! No wall! No USA at all!” (Huh?)

First, I want to say that if Ms. Drorak’s puzzlement at these slogans isn’t faked – is that possible – it might be time she paid some attention to what is happening in the party she (being a liberal) ostensibly endorses. That last chant is no surprise for those of us who have been awake for the last 15 years or so. The democratic party – whose violent arm the Antifa is – has long since become the Midgard Worm, gnawing at the root of all that allows it and its – generally helpless – supporters to exist.

For those I lost in the last paragraph: the Norsemen, people not known for their sunny outlook on the future, believed that at the root of the “world tree” (i.e the tree that supports our entire reality) there lay a worm, the Midgard Worm, which gnawed at the root and would eventually cause reality as we know it to cease to exist, thereby bringing about Ragnarok (which it turns out is more than just a movie, yes.)

Okay, that’s it, and I promise I won’t be inflicting any more reminders of my misspent – if you don’t think sitting in a corner and reading a lot is misspent, you must be me – youth on you. I also promise that there won’t be a test on Tuesday. (Perhaps next Wednesday, but not Tuesday!)

WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

North Korea on the Mediterranean David Isaac

Posted By on August 17th, 2018

http://www.renewamerica.com/columns/sharpe/180817

Since March 30, when Hamas launched its first “return march” with thousands storming Israel’s border, Israel’s media pundits have said neither side wants escalation. They had it right. What’s being termed “the small arrangement” looks like a big win for Hamas, whose strategy most resembles that of North Korea.

In 1999, North Korea was in a similar situation to Hamas now. Its economy was in tatters. State rations hadn’t been distributed for five years. Control of its population was slipping. Today, Hamas can’t make payroll or provide basic services and faces staggering unemployment. One of the generally agreed reasons why Hamas whipped its people up in the first place was to distract them from their economic problems.

According to the agreement, which sources say will be signed Friday in Cairo, Hamas will accept a yearlong ceasefire in exchange for a sea lane to Cyprus, extension of its fishing waters, the opening of border crossings on the Israel and Egyptian sides of the Gaza Strip, and humanitarian projects and funding from Egypt and Qatar to pay the salaries of its public servants. Qatar will also pay Gaza’s electric bills.

Curiously, despite the nearness of a deal, Khalil al-Haya, Hamas’s deputy head, called on Gazan residents to march en masse to the border. Terrorists continue floating fire bombs into Israel. One was spotted above the skies of Netivot on Thursday. This continued aggression, too, follows North Korean strategy.

The North Korean Model

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Multiculturalism and Diversity FacebookTwitterGoogle+ By Victor Sharpe

Posted By on August 17th, 2018

http://www.renewamerica.com/columns/sharpe/180817

In the marvelous science fiction story, The Time Machine by H.G. Wells, the blond haired Eloi who exuded beauty and kindness, but who were frail minded, became victims of cruel and brutal creatures called Morlocks. The story took the time traveler to a place thousands of years into the future.

But back in the second decade of the 21st century, and in the reality that now confronts us, I found myself making a disturbing comparison between the fate of the Eloi with what is happening in Sweden. As the Muslim migration – some would characterize it as an invasion – predictably has turned violent, cruel and brutal rioting is now roiling Swedish cities and towns.

Sweden was the first European country to fully embrace the ‘diversity’ myth, which posits that nation-states are unquestionably improved by a huge influx of non-native cultural aliens. It was also once one of the most peaceful countries in the world, then they welcomed in 600,000 Muslim migrants and the country is getting worse and worse, filled with Muslim violence and intolerance.

Many Swedes were horrified in early 2017 when U.S. President Donald Trump linked such immigration to rising crime in Sweden, but an increasing number now agree with him.

As I have written before, the vogue for ‘multiculturalism’ – along with its pernicious and suicidal handmaiden of ‘political correctness,’ – is effectively a process by which the native culture is supplanted and replaced by a foreign one. It is otherwise known as invasion and conquest and has since spread to other nations, to the manifest detriment of each of them.

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Ex-US attorney: Jury asking about reasonable doubt is ‘glimmer of hope’ for Manafort

Posted By on August 17th, 2018

http://thehill.com/hilltv/rising/402396-ex-us-attorney-jury-asking-about-reasonable-doubt-is-glimmer-of-hope-for

Former U.S. Attorney Kendall Coffey said that a question posed by the jury in Paul Manafort’s criminal trial about the definition of “reasonable doubt” offers a “glimmer of hope” for the former Trump campaign chairman.

Coffey told told Hill.TV’s Buck Sexton and Krystal Ball on “Rising” that Manafort is facing an uphill battle in his trial on bank and tax fraud charges over the vast number of documents presented against him by federal prosecutors.

“But his team has to have a little bit of glimmer of hope just from the question that jurors want to know more about reasonable doubt,” Coffey said.

“Because there are certainly cases where that can be the final thing that at least gives them a few hold-out jurors,” he continued, “because a hung jury here would be a big victory for the defense.”

A hung jury, or a jury that is so gridlocked that it cannot reach a verdict, would mark the end of the case for now; federal prosecutors could decide whether to retry Manafort.

The jury in Manafort’s trial in federal court in Alexandria, Va., ended its first day of deliberations on Thursday by asking the judge in the case to redefine “reasonable doubt,” along with three other questions.

Manafort’s team celebrated the question at the time, saying that it “indicates someone has doubts.”

The jury signaled in a note on Friday afternoon that they would not reach a verdict in the case before the weekend, requesting to end deliberations at 5 p.m. so a juror could attend an event.

WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Being Pro-Muslim in a Complicated World by Denis MacEoin

Posted By on August 17th, 2018

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/12633/being-pro-muslim

No doubt those who ignore or cover up abuses such as beatings, female genital mutilation or general repression do so out of cultural sensitivity, deferring to traditionalist leaders and self-appointed representatives of various communities, including Muslim bodies. Their sensitivity, however, can end up gravely impairing the lives of literally hundreds of millions of Muslim women in allowing harmful practices to be perpetuated.

Genuine humanitarian concerns about injustice to Muslims, however, have been mingled with a political and religious attitude that condemns anyone who expresses even the mildest questioning of Islam — so much so, in fact, that many well-intentioned Western politicians, human rights advocates, church leaders and journalists have turned Islam into the one and only ideology that must never be criticized, and have called anyone who so much as comments on some of the precepts of Islam as “racist.”

The view that Islam should not be questioned, seems to have led to a lack of reciprocity: radical Islamic individuals and bodies are often permitted to preach hatred for the West in mosques, centres, and university campuses, but non-Muslims commenting on genuine concerns are frequently the objects of public abuse and even criminal prosecution.

What is needed are more organizations that stand out as pro-Muslim in support of bettering the lives of Muslims; many are often too fearful of retribution to speak out.

My, how the world changes. When, in late 1978, your humble correspondent presented the first translations into English of passages from Ayatollah Khomeini’s book, Velayat-e Faqih (“Governance of the Jurist”), bought in Tehran in 1977, I knew the religious extremists would challenge the shah’s rule, but I was certain they had no chance against his army, police, and security services.

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The Death of France How French leaders trigger lawlessness by their own cowardice and passivity. Stephen Brown

Posted By on August 17th, 2018

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/271029/death-france-stephen-brown

If radical Islamic clerics thought they were immune to terror threats themselves, then they have now been disabused of that notion. Last month in France, instead of the predictable pattern of arrests of Islamic jihadists plotting deadly terrorist attacks; this time, the jihadists were apparently the targets themselves. This turn of events signals France’s accelerated spiral into lawless violence.
The French newspaper Le Figaro reported that police in June took ten people into custody for allegedly targeting for attack “radical imams, veiled women and convicted jihadists released from prison.” (There are currently 512 people convicted on terrorism charges in French prisons.) The arrests were made in the Paris region, Corsica, and in Charante-Maritime.

“This group was aiming for ‘targets presumed in connection with radical Islam,’ ” a source told Le Figaro.

Raids on several homes turned up “rifles, pistols, and homemade grenades” and police reported this “groupuscule” (small group) “trained regularly at sport shooting clubs and had prepared arms caches and food supplies in case of a major crisis.” (Which makes one wonder whether they were “ultra-right” terrorists or simply survivalists.)

MEDIA, POLITICS Comments turned off

New Evidence Emerges In Ellison Domestic Abuse Allegations Democrats and media go into protection mode. Matthew Vadum

Posted By on August 17th, 2018

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/271050/new-evidence-emerges-ellison-domestic-abuse-matthew-vadum

Minnesota Democrats have chosen an in-your-face Muslim lawmaker who has been accused of serial domestic abuse as their official candidate for the top law enforcement post in that state.

Minnesota is an important state for President Trump and Republicans. Trump barely lost the state in 2016 and is hoping to put it in his column in 2020. Democrats there are still traumatized over Sen. Al Franken’s resignation over sexual harassment allegations.

In voting Tuesday, Ellison won 49.8 percent or 280,282 votes, besting his nearest rival, Debra Hilstrom, who garnered 19.1 percent or 107,794 votes. An admirer of convicted cop killer and leftist folk hero Mumia Abu Jamal, Ellison will face Republican nominee Doug Wardlow in the general election Nov. 6.

Ellison is a former co-chairman of the Communist-linked Congressional Progressive Caucus. He is also a former member of the Nation of Islam who described its Hitler-loving leader Louis Farrakhan as “a role model for black youth.”

Ellison said he was “honored to have earned the overwhelming support” of Democrats.

“As the People’s Lawyer, I will be on the front lines to defend the rights and freedoms of all Minnesotans,” said the alleged serial girlfriend beater. “As your Attorney General, I will fight every day to put Minnesota families ahead of powerful special interests, to increase access to affordable health care, make our economy more fair, and expand opportunity for all.”

ENVIRONMENT AND JUNK SCIENCE Comments turned off

Junk Science and Leftist Folklore Have Set California Ablaze How left-wing “global warming” policies are torching the West Coast. Bruce Thornton

Posted By on August 17th, 2018

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/271044/junk-science-and-leftist-folklore-have-set-bruce-thornton

The Left Coast is burning. Oregon is fighting 13 wildfires encompassing 185,000 acres. California is battling 19 fires, including tornados of fire called “fire whirls,” which have gobbled up 577,000 acres and left eight dead. A good progressive who never lets a crisis go to waste, Governor Jerry Brown told Californians, “With climate change, some scientists are saying that Southern California is literally burning up.” He warned that man-made global warming created a “new normal,” and that “more serious predictions of warming and fires to occur later in the century, 2040 or 2050, [are] now occurring in real time.”

A few days later Brown had a tweet-duel with President Trump, who in contrast claimed, “California wildfires are being magnified & made so much worse by the bad environmental laws,” like those against thinning and clearing forests: “Tree clear to stop fire spreading!” Seems like on this issue, the allegedly doltish Trump has the better argument than the Berkeley and Yale-trained Brown.

Indeed, doctor of environmental science and forester Bob Zybach for years has been the Cassandra warning about misguided policies on forest management. According to Zybach, wildfires began to increase in the late 70’s, at the same time policies moved away from active management of forests to a more hands-off “natural” approach. In the past, “Mostly fuels were removed through logging, active management — which they [the Feds] stopped– and grazing,” Zybach said in an interview. “You take away logging, grazing, and maintenance, and you get firebombs.”

In other words, leaving the forests to “nature,” and protecting the endangered Spotted Owl created denser forests––300-400 trees per acre rather than 50-80–– with more fuel from the 129 million diseased and dead trees that create more intense and destructive fires. Yet California spends more than ten times as much money on electric vehicle subsidies ($335 million) than on reducing fuel in a mere 60,000 of 33 million acres of forests ($30 million).