NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Third Time’s a Charm For Merrick Garland Would Merrick Garland have wheeled out the old special counsel wheeze absent Trump’s announcement that he was running for president again? Roger Kimball

Posted By on November 21st, 2022

https://amgreatness.com/2022/11/19/third-times-a-charm-for-merrick-garland/

What do you suppose the chances are that Merrick Garland, Joe Biden’s attorney general and chief enforcer, is a student of Søren Kierkegaard? Pretty slim, I’d wager. But his announcement yesterday that he was getting the old band back together and appointing yet another “special counsel” to investigate Donald Trump made me think that he should take a gander at Repetition, a book that Kierkegaard published in 1843 under the pseudonym Constantin Constantius.

The book is an arch, hothouse affair, full of Kierkegaard’s mocking and self-indulgent philosophical curlicues. But the MacGuffin of the book—whether one can really repeat the events of one’s life and, if so, what significance that repetition has—is something Garland might want to ponder for himself. I don’t think I will be spoiling things by revealing that Kierkegaard—or at least his pseudonymous narrator—concludes that, no, “there simply is no repetition” in life.  

I don’t expect that would faze Garland. A man who can direct his Stasi agents to treat parents as domestic terrorists because they complain about the actions of their local school board is clearly made of strong stuff. Why not conduct an unprecedented raid on a former president’s home? Why not organize another political vendetta against him? 

Sure, this will be the third special counsel assigned to harass Donald Trump, the most investigated American president in history. It would be nice if Garland could lure Robert Mueller out from his Golden Pond activities to take on the attack against the once and possibly future president once more. I suspect, though, that Mueller is too deep in Bidenesque (or Fettermanesque) mental twilight to mount that steed again. Maybe Garland can harness up the despicable Andrew Weissmann, Mueller’s brain and primary dogsbody in the now thoroughly discredited “Russian collusion” delusion. 

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Trump in Exile: A Tale of Two Men By Frank Miele

Posted By on November 21st, 2022

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2022/11/21/trump_in_exile_a_tale_of_two_men_148495.html

He was the best of candidates. He was the worst of candidates. He was regaled for his wisdom. He was reviled for his foolishness. He gave his followers hope, led his opponents to despair.

Donald Trump is not Paris, and no 21st century American political writer reminds anyone of Charles Dickens, but I invoke the opening of “A Tale of Two Cities” to illustrate the duality of hope and despair that the name Donald J. Trump elicits.

MAGA Republicans got their wish Tuesday when Trump announced his third campaign for president. So did progressive Democrats. It remains to be seen which of them will live to regret their luck.

Will ex-President Trump be able to harness the raw power of Candidate Trump circa 2016, the populist tornado who wrecked his opposition, or will he be a lackluster imitation who is motivated not by any desire to improve the nation, but by a puerile desire to salve his own ego?

It’s no secret that I’ve been a nearly unswerving supporter of the man ever since his famous ride down the escalator at Trump Tower in June of 2015. The one exception was a column I wrote in September 2017 when it appeared that Trump was about to surrender on the issue of illegal immigration. It is useful to recall that moment because it demonstrated what could be called Trump’s potential fatal flaw – an overweening desire to be liked. Trump is most successful when he follows his instincts and throws caution to the winds. When he curries favor with the political class, or follows polls rather than his heart, he can lose his way.

ENVIRONMENT AND JUNK SCIENCE, FOREIGN POLICY Comments turned off

Biden Signs Up for Climate Reparations The latest shakedown is a new fund to pay poor countries for supposed damage caused by Western use of fossil fuels.

Posted By on November 21st, 2022

https://www.wsj.com/articles/biden-signs-up-for-climate-change-reparations-europe-fund-un-john-kerry-poor-countries-bank-capitalism-11668974219?mod=opinion_lead_pos1

The use of climate policy to soak Americans keeps getting worse, and the United Nation’s climate conference in Egypt ended this weekend with agreement on a new fund to pay reparations to poor countries. Welcome to the latest climate shakedown.

Poor countries have long sought to force wealthy countries to pay for the “loss and damage” they suffer from natural disasters that are supposedly climate-related. This is separate from the $100 billion a year that rich countries have promised to help poor countries reduce emissions and adapt to climate change.

The 2015 Paris accord suggested rich countries compensate poor countries for climate damage—the rationale being that industrialization has increased temperatures and led to natural disasters. Poor countries finally forced discussion of a formal mechanism to pay climate reparations onto this year’s U.N. conference agenda.

John Kerry, the U.S. climate envoy, dismissed the idea earlier this month: “It’s a well-known fact that the United States and many other countries will not establish . . . some sort of legal structure that is tied to compensation or liability. That’s just not happening.” But on Thursday Europe abandoned the U.S. by proposing a deal, and Mr. Kerry rolled over.

Wealthy countries will now set up a fund to cover climate damage for the least developed countries—i.e., not China or middle-income nations. This will be financed from “a broad donor base” and “mosaic of solutions,” such as international development banks and taxes on aviation, shipping and fossil fuels.

ISRAEL Comments turned off

AZERBAIJAN-FIRST MUSLIM MAJORITY COUNTRY TO OPEN EMBASSY IN ISRAEL SEE NOTE PLEASE

Posted By on November 21st, 2022

https://unitedwithisrael.org/breakthrough-1st-shiite-muslim-majority-country-to-open-embassy-in-israel/?utm_source=newsletters_

My e-pal Nurit Greenger has been writing about this nation for years…..rsk

Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz visited Azerbaijan in October to discuss security and policy and foster defense cooperation.

Azerbaijan’s parliament on Friday initiated the process of opening an embassy in Israel, making it the first Shi’ite Muslim-majority country do so.

“Azerbaijan is an important partner of Israel and home to one of the largest Jewish communities in the Muslim world,” Prime Minister Yair Lapid said in a statement following the development. “The decision to open an embassy reflects the depth of the relationship between our countries. This move is the result of the Israeli government’s efforts to build strong diplomatic bridges with the Muslim world,” he added.

Last April, Azerbaijan opened a tourism office in Israel for the first time and signed a cooperation agreement. The month also marked the 30th anniversary of establishing diplomatic ties between the two nations.

Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz visited Azerbaijan in October to discuss security and policy and foster defense cooperation.

Israel buys 40% of its oil from Azerbaijan, and supplied 27% of Azerbaijan’s major arms imports from 2011 to 2020, including 69% from 2016 to 2020, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.

Both Israel and Azerbaijan see Iran as a threat.

ANTI-SEMITISM Comments turned off

INTERMISSION- NOVEMBER 19- 21

Posted By on November 19th, 2022

WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

The Russian-Turkish Bond to Harm the West by Burak Bekdil

Posted By on November 18th, 2022

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/19123/russia-turkey-bond

Turkey’s skies remain open to Russian airlines and its doors remain open to hundreds of thousands of Russians and their money. Turkey’s exports to Russia are surging.

Russian cash helped to plug the growing hole in Turkey’s foreign currency reserves — and at a time when Erdogan needs foreign money to shore up the country’s ailing economy before the presidential and parliamentary elections in June 2023.

Some analysts see this as a scheme to open up room for parking Russian funds in Turkey.

The Erdogan-Putin bond has two main pillars. One is pragmatism: They both strategically, politically and economically benefit. The other is ideological: They both hate Western civilization.

If they had met as presidents of other countries, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Russian President Vladimir Putin would probably have hated each other. Historically, Turkish Islamists have hated both Tsarist and Soviet Russia. Similarly, Russians have never been fond of the Turks. Today, however, Erdogan, with a foot in NATO, is exhibiting a pro-Russian tilt never seen before. What is the secret of this ostensible marriage?

Turkey has refused to join Western sanctions against Russia over Ukraine, thereby throwing Putin a lifeline. Turkey’s skies remain open to Russian airlines and its doors remain open to hundreds of thousands of Russians and their money. Turkey’s exports to Russia are surging. In July alone, exports to Russia shot up by a dizzying 75% year-on-year.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

New Democrat Group Led By David Brock to Mount Multi-Million Dollar Campaign to Undermine GOP Investigations By Debra Heine

Posted By on November 18th, 2022

https://amgreatness.com/2022/11/17/new-democrat-group-led-by-david-brock-to-mount-multi-million-dollar-campaign-to-undermine-gop-investigations/

In the wake of the Republican midterm election trickle, a coalition of left-wing Democrats led by Media Matters founder David Brock is planning a multimillion-dollar counteroffensive against congressional Republicans.

With funding from some of the biggest donors in Democrat politics, Brock’s new nonprofit group, “Facts First USA,” plans undermine congressional Republicans as soon as they take control the House of Representatives.

The group intends to spend $5 million-a-year to push back against an expected onslaught of investigations into Joe Biden’s incompetent and corrupt administration, as well as his notoriously corrupt family’s foreign business dealings.

Brock has stepped away from his position as chairman of Media Matters and American Bridge, “to focus on Facts First USA, for which he will serve as president,”  the New York Times reported on Thursday.

After the 2016 election, Brock, through his American Bridge PAC, began concocting a project to “hobble the Trump Administration with lawsuits, media criticism and new media competition.”

Now, his new group “Facts First USA” and the White House appear to be working together to hobble any investigation into the Biden regime’s rampant malfeasance. Together, they are reportedly assembling opposition research intended to cast Republicans conducting oversight as hypocrites, “pointing to those who defied subpoenas in the congressional investigation into the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.”

FOREIGN POLICY Comments turned off

US Has Sent a Net $309 Billion to Communist China This Year America’s next move must be one that won’t make the Chinese Communist Party happy. by Terence P. Jeffrey

Posted By on November 18th, 2022

https://www.frontpagemag.com/us-has-sent-a-net-309-billion-to-communist-china-this-year/

Two weeks after he was inaugurated, President Joe Biden traveled over to the State Department to deliver a speech about his foreign policy.

One point he repeatedly stressed in that speech: He was not going to let the People’s Republic of China take advantage of the United States.

“American leadership must meet this new moment of advancing authoritarianism, including the growing ambitions of China to rival the United States,” Biden said at the beginning of his speech.

“We must start with diplomacy rooted in America’s most cherished democratic values: defending freedom, championing opportunity, upholding universal rights, respecting the rule of law and treating every person with dignity,” Biden said.

“And we’ll also take on directly the challenges posed by our prosperity, security and democratic values by our most serious competitor, China,” Biden declared.

“We’ll confront China’s economic abuses; counter its aggressive, coercive action; to push back on China’s attack on human rights, intellectual property and global governance,” he said.

Then, Biden specifically focused on the well-being of the American working class — including how it related to U.S. relations with China.

“Every action we take in our conduct abroad, we must take with American working families in mind,” said Biden. “Advancing a foreign policy for the middle class demands urgent focus on our domestic … economic renewal.”

FOREIGN POLICY Comments turned off

The Diplomacy Delusion When fools cling to fantasies about the powers of persuasion. by Bruce Thornton

Posted By on November 18th, 2022

https://www.frontpagemag.com/the-diplomacy-delusion/

President Biden recently met with China’s Xi Jinping in Indonesia. As Gordon Chang reported for the Gatestone Institute, Biden’s goals for the meeting was to “lay out” each power’s “red lines” and “critical national interests,” and determine “whether or not they conflict with one another. And if they do, how to resolve it and how to work it out.” As usual with such diplomatic theater, nothing of substance was discussed, and tired bromides about “working together” and “candid exchange of views” were exchanged.

The assumptions behind Biden’s statement of the goals themselves reveal the dangerous flaws and delusional thinking that define the fetish of “diplomatic engagement,” which for a century has been the heart of the “new world order.” Ancient common sense and the sorry record of failed diplomacy should have long ago disabused us of this feckless idealism and reliance on “parchment barriers,” negotiated written agreements that almost always lack a robust, credible threat of force to punish violators.

Many of the problems that vitiate the recent talk with China have troubled diplomatic engagement for a century. In the case of China, Chang writes, for decades “of fruitless conversations with China, American presidents regularly postpone taking needed action.” Thus, like other talks with rivals and malignant enemies like North Korea and Iran, such talks produce “horrible results,” and allow our enemies “to buy time and often run out the clock”––just as North Korea did to create nuclear weapons, and Iran is currently doing to achieve the same end.

Moreover, such talks with the world’s most consequential power inflate China’s already arrogant sense of superiority, as well as our own weakness. Such a dynamic only encourages more aggression. Finally, these agreements, which usually lack a serious enforcement mechanism for punishing violations, are what Thomas Hobbes nearly four centuries ago called a “covenant without the sword,” mere “words of no strength to secure a man at all.”

MEDIA Comments turned off

SHOCKER! WaPo Update About Mar-A-Lago Raid Doesn’t Fit the Narrative By Kevin Downey Jr.

Posted By on November 18th, 2022

https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/kevindowneyjr/2022/11/16/shocker-wapo-sheepishly-admits-the-fbi-found-no-nuclear-secrets-or-anything-else-in-mar-a-lago-raid-n1646445

There is nothing funnier than watching leftist Punchinellos beclown themselves over the latest “We’ve got Trump NOW!” hijinks.

Remember when the FBI raided Trump’s home supposedly looking for “nuclear secrets” a few months back? Guess how that turned out?

I’ll let the quislings at the Washinton Post spell it out:

Federal agents and prosecutors have come to believe former president Donald Trump’s motive for allegedly taking and keeping classified documents was largely his ego and a desire to hold on to the materials as trophies or mementos, according to people familiar with the matter.

In other words, Trump was keeping souvenirs, as everyone else does.

Funny how WaPo sat on that story until after the midterms, right?

But wait, there’s more!

That review has not found any apparent business advantage to the types of classified information in Trump’s possession, these people said. FBI interviews with witnesses so far, they said, also do not point to any nefarious effort by Trump to leverage, sell or use the government secrets. Instead, the former president seemed motivated by a more basic desire not to give up what he believed was his property, these people said.

The WaPo also found no evidence that Trump was looking to “leverage, sell or use the government secrets.”