NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

How Bruce Ohr Could Implicate High-Ranking Obama Officials In Spygate Reporting on Bruce Ohr suggests DOJ and FBI employees operated outside the chain of command and concealed evidence from congressional oversight committees.By Margot Cleveland

Posted By on August 16th, 2018

http://thefederalist.com/2018/08/15/bruce-ohr-implicate-high-ranking-obama-officials-spygate/

Investigative reporter John Solomon broke news last week of texts and emails between former associate deputy attorney general Bruce Ohr and Trump dossier author Christopher Steele regarding the Russia investigation, and revealed the content of notes Ohr took during a December meeting with Steele’s boss at Fusion GPS, Glenn Simpson.

Solomon’s reporting confirmed the FBI used Ohr to continue gathering information from Steele, even after the former British spy was terminated as a source by the bureau because he leaked word of the investigation to the press. Ohr’s role as a conduit allowed the FBI to continue to use Steele as an indirect source, even after Trump was elected and inaugurated.

Ohr lost his high-ranking slot at the Department of Justice in December 2017, when the Trump administration learned of his connection to Steele, and with it his office just doors away from Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein. He briefly retained a high-ranking position as the director of Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces, but was demoted a second time in January 2018. He still works for the DOJ, but no longer holds a top leadership position.

Rep. Devin Nunes, who chairs the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI), said last week Ohr “is going to become more and more important” to the investigation into the DOJ’s use of Steele’s dossier on Trump to obtain permission to spy on his former campaign advisor, Carter Page. That’s the understatement of the year.

EDUCATION Comments turned off

‘Social Justice’ Spreads over the University of Texas By George Leef

Posted By on August 16th, 2018

https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/texas-university-social-justice/

If you think that universities are immunized against the “social justice” plague because they’re located in conservative states, well, think again. They’re not. Once “progressive” thinking administrators get their hands on the school — and very few people who climb the academic ladder are not progressive — the contagion is sure to get in.

In today’s Martin Center article, attorney Mark Pulliam gives us Exhibit A, the University of Texas. He writes,

The latest racket in higher education, evident at my alma mater, the University of Texas at Austin, is the disturbing proliferation of ‘social justice’ as a degree program, a course topic, an academic emphasis, and even as a prerequisite in campus job descriptions.

Consider, for example , UT’s Social Justice Institute. Pulliam gives us the flavor of this institute’s contributions:

The Institute hosts monthly programs (the Social Justice Conversation Series) on selected readings related to social justice and diversity. Topics have included “ableism, sexism, religious oppression, ageism, adultism, heterosexism, transgender oppression, racism and classism.” For each session, cohort leaders “help the conversation flow from a social justice perspective.”

That’s isn’t education; it’s propaganda for statism.

EDUCATION Comments turned off

A Teacher’s Lament, Then and Now By Eileen F. Toplansky

Posted By on August 16th, 2018

https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2018/08/a_teachers_lament_then_and_now.html

In his 1962 essay titled “A Dog in Brooklyn, a Girl in Detroit: A Life among the Humanities,” from The Age of Happy Problems, Herbert Gold recounts how “neither glory nor pleasure nor power, and certainly not wisdom, provided the goal of [the] students” he attempted to instruct.

Attempting to teach a college-level humanities course, Gold “could classify [his] students in three general groups, intelligent, mediocre, and stupid, allowing for the confusions of three general factors – background, capacity, and interest.”

Reminiscing about his attempt to motivate young people, Gold admits that he “often failed at inspiring [his] students to do the assigned reading. Many of them had part-time jobs in the automobile industry or its annexes.” Thus, the plaintive “I couldn’t read the book this week, I have to work” reverberated in the classroom with “its implied reproach for a scholar’s leisure.” Continuing to describe the paradoxes of teaching in a university, Gold finds little common ground between himself and his students.

When he attempted to explain Seurat’s “La Grande Jatte” and the “importance of … pointillism to students who only wanted to see life clear and true, see it comfortably,” he encountered students who asserted that “this kind of painting hurt [their] eyes.” In addition, students clamored that “there was too much reading for one course – ‘piling it on. This isn’t the only course we take.'”

Then, in the middle of his essay, Gold details how, in front of the school building, a skidding truck sideswiped a taxi, and the cab “was smashed like a cruller.” From the door of his cab, the driver emerged, stumbling holding his head. There was blood on his head and hands. He was in confusion and in shock – “[d]rivers turned their heads upon him … but did not get involved.”

ISRAEL Comments turned off

In Islam, Jerusalem is not Mecca by A. Z. Mohamed

Posted By on August 16th, 2018

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/12844/islam-jerusalem-mecca

When the time for the Muslim prayer came, Omar declined the invitation by Sophronius, the patriarch of Jerusalem, to pray inside the Church and instead prayed outside. Omar’s fear was that that Muslims who would come after him might establish a mosque in place of the church if he would pray at the site. Omar, then, was conscious of what belonged to the Muslims and what belonged to the Christians.

Naming the Jerusalem mosque Al-Aqsa was an attempt to say that the Dome of the Rock was the very spot from which Mohammed ascended to heaven, thus connecting Jerusalem to divine revelation in Islamic belief. The problem however, is that Mohammed died in the year 632, which was 73 years before the first construction of the Al-Aqsa Mosque was completed.

Intriguingly, only when non-Muslims are in control of Jerusalem do Muslims seem to remember the city. Otherwise, as history shows, Muslims have never attached real significance to it. They never claimed Jerusalem as the capital of any country or empire. In fact, Muhammad instructed his people not to pray toward Jerusalem, as they had done previously, but to Mecca:

“And We did not make the qiblah which you used to face except that We might make evident who would follow the Messenger from who would turn back on his heels. And indeed, it is difficult except for those whom Allah has guided. And never would Allah have caused you to lose your faith.” — Quran 2:143, Sahih International.

WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

France: The Rise and Fall of Emmanuel Macron by Guy Millière

Posted By on August 16th, 2018

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/12850/emmanuel-macron-rise-fall

France’s Justice Department is not independent of the government; no judge will seek to know more about Macron’s scandal. No thorough and deep investigation will take place. The French media are largely subsidized by the government and no more independent of the government than the Justice Department is.

Even the French media that are not funded by the state self-censor what they report, because they are supported by businesses that depend on government contracts. No French journalist will try to discover a thing.

The economist Charles Gave recently used statistical data to demonstrate that if nothing changes, the non-Muslim population of France could be a minority in 40 years. He added: “What happened to Spain or Asia Minor in the 10th and 11th centuries will happen to Europe in the 21st century, that is a certainty.”

When Emmanuel Macron was elected president of France in May 2017, he was portrayed as a reformer who was going to change everything in France and beyond.

Fourteen months later, illusions are gone. The reforms carried out have been essentially cosmetic and failed to slow France’s sclerotic decline. Economic growth is close to zero: 0.2 per cent in the second quarter of 2018. Unemployment, at around 8.9%, remains high. French public spending as a percent of GDP is, at 56.4%, still the highest in Europe. The country is still frequently paralyzed by public transportation strikes. No-go zones continue to spread, and Macron himself recently admitted his helplessness by asking for a “general mobilization” of the population. Riots are frequent; large-scale public events lead to looting and arson. The night after the French team’s victory at the soccer World Cup, hundreds of thugs mingling with the crowds broke windows, vandalized banks and ATMs, destroyed street signs and torched cars.

As most economic activity in France stops in July and August, Macron might have thought he could enjoy a summer break. He could not.

ISRAEL, WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Ireland’s War on Israel Another EU country launches BDS attacks on the Jewish State. Joseph Puder

Posted By on August 16th, 2018

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/271009/irelands-war-israel-joseph-puder

The Irish Senate approved a bill last month criminalizing trade of products from the so-called “occupied territories,” or more specifically from Israeli communities in Judea and Samaria. The BDS legislation was titled the “Control of Economic Activity (Occupied Territories) Bill 2018.” The bill prohibits the import and sale of goods, services, and natural resources originating in illegal settlements in the occupied territories.

In recent decades, the Republic of Ireland has become one of the leading anti-Israel within the European Union (EU). Irish politicians, journalists, and intellectuals have regularly excoriated Israel for many years. Every action undertaken by Israel has been denounced in the Irish parliament and in the media echo chamber, regardless of the context or circumstances. The parties of the hard Left are particularly hostile to Israel, demanding boycotts and the expulsion of the Israeli ambassador. The Sinn Fein party is the most vocal. It is a party that has had long ties with Hamas and other Palestinian terror groups. Neither of the governing coalition parties, the Center-Right Fine Gail and the populist Fianna Fail, have defended Israel, the only pro-Western liberal democracy in the Middle East. What is rather astonishing about this latest anti-Israel bill is its hypocrisy and double-standards that clearly border on anti-Semitism.

There are over a hundred disputed territories around the world. Judea and Samaria are disputed territories and not “occupied” or taken away from a Palestinian state. Such a state has never existed. Israel captured these historically Jewish lands in the 1967 defensive war from the Jordanians, who illegally conquered them in Israel’s 1948 War of Independence. For Ireland to pass judgment on this matter by legislating a punitive bill is not only hypocritical but an outrageous interference in an issue that should be settled between Israelis and Palestinians. Ultimately, the Bill will hurt the Palestinians who depend on Israeli employers based in Judea and Samaria for their livelihood.

WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Self-Loathing and Appeasement A tragic glimpse into our suicidal concessions. Bruce Thornton

Posted By on August 16th, 2018

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/271042/self-loathing-and-appeasement-bruce-thornton

In the Thirties many in England blamed their own country for the First World War. Whether for causing the war in the first place, or imposing a “Carthaginian Peace” with “punitive reparations,” considerable numbers of British politicians and intellectuals made excuses for Germany. One Labour M.P. mourned that England had not acted “wisely,” “generously,” or “justly” towards the Germans, and bore “a heavy responsibility for the tensions and menaces of the present international situation.”

What Churchill called “unwarrantable self-abasement” contributed to the wide-spread failure of nerve that led England down the road to appeasement at Munich. But despite that gruesome historical warning against projecting weakness in the face of a brutal enemy, in our fight against Islamic jihad and Iran’s nuclear ambitions, we are repeating that same error.

After 9/11, the bodies were still entombed in the rubble when the blame was being cast on the United States and the West in general. A whole issue of The Nation confirmed the preposterous pretexts for the slaughter publicized by Osama bin Laden. Our premier leftist journal identified “the sources of the hatred” of the U.S. and its “decade of neglect and, worse, neglect of international affairs,” and “the failure of our own leadership and the role our government has chosen to play in the world.” There were fears expressed about “an enraged blind superpower” and what horrors it might perpetrate in response. Then there were other crimes like “U.S. missiles smashing into Palestinian homes” and other “historical wrongs and injustices” that had caused “the firestorms.” There was a hope, tinged with schadenfreude, that “our nation’s suffering could open our eyes to the rest of the world’s pain.”

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

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

Posted By on August 16th, 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.”

MEDIA Comments turned off

The Weekly Standard’s Ties to Fusion GPS By Julie Kelly

Posted By on August 16th, 2018

https://amgreatness.com/2018/08/15/the-weekly-standards-t

In his online appeal for money after being fired this week, disgraced former FBI agent Peter Strzok credited an unlikely source to vouch for his victim status: The Weekly Standard.

At one time a leading conservative magazine, the Standard declared last month that Strzok’s plight was merely an “overwrought tale of bias” and the case against him is “just sound and fury.” The article brushed off Strzok’s actions as “several bad judgment calls” and blasted Congressional Republicans for continuing a criminal investigation into the now-unemployed G-man.

Strzok is following only 32 people on his newly-verified Twitter account. Bill Kristol, the editor-at-large of the Standard, is one of them.

So, what’s with the fanboying between the Standard—an allegedly serious publication dedicated to advancing conservative principles—and a corrupt government bureaucrat who embodies everything the conservative movement fought against for decades?

I found an article in the Standard archives this week that might explain why. On July 24, 2016, just days before Strzok helped launch a counterintelligence probe into the Trump campaign, Kristol gave Strzok and the Obama Justice Department a big assist from the anti-Trump Right by posting a flawed and questionably-sourced article. “Putin’s Party” is compelling evidence that Kristol and the Standard were far from mere sideline observers as the Trump-Russia collusion scam took shape in the summer of 2016.

At the very least, the timing of the article suggests there was careful coordination between the central players—including the Hillary Clinton campaign—and Bill Kristol to derail Trump’s candidacy just weeks before the election. But the article’s content also serves to raise alarming questions about the claims by many Republicans that “conservatives” had no knowledge of or involvement with the Christopher Steele dossier.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

The Double Standards of Postmodern Justice By Victor Davis Hanson

Posted By on August 16th, 2018

https://amgreatness.com/2018/08/16/the-double-standards-of-

The New York Times recently hired as a writer and board member Sarah Jeong. The Times knew that in recent years Jeong had posted a series of unapologetically racist anti-white tweets. She had offered wisdom such as “#CancelWhitePeople” and expressed hatred for males.

Yet when the Times discovered less graphic versions of such tweets from newly hired technology writer Quinn Norton earlier this year, the newspaper immediately fired Norton.

The message of disparate treatment was that what bothers the Times is not racism per se, but who is the racist and who are her targets.

Over at The Atlantic, there are also no ostensible rules concerning who is and is not fired, and for what reason. Essayist Kevin Williamson was allegedly dropped by The Atlantic for his prior incendiary suggestion that abortion might warrant the death penalty.

Fine, it is a free country, and private companies can fire whomever they chose. But The Atlantic had no problem hiring writer Julia Ioffe. She been let go at Politico for tweeting that President Trump might have engaged in incest with his daughter Ivanka.

Again, the impression conveyed is that The Atlantic is not so concerned with inflammatory speech as with calibrating at whom the venom is directed. If Ioffe had tweeted the same perversities about Barack Obama and his daughters, The Atlantic surely would have fired her immediately.

The American people are losing confidence in special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation not just because after 15 months, he has not charged anyone with Russian collusion—the original reason he was appointed. Instead, the pushback is due to the growing sense that rules are made up ad hoc.