NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

The Inherent Strength of a Democracy by Lawrence Kadish

Posted By on June 3rd, 2022

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/18583/strength-of-democracy

In the movie Juarez, a 1939 film that dramatized the life of Benito Juarez, Mexico’s “George Washington,” a screen writer drafted words for the freedom fighter that send a message to every democracy today, “If a Monarch misrules; the people change… If a Presidente misrules; the people change the Presidente…” The film debuted on the eve of World War II when 20th Century “monarchy,” — fascism — had installed itself as one of the most destructive and murderous forces the world had ever endured.

In our current era, when a president’s ad-lib remarks have the means to alter world events, when inflation is forcing Americans to choose between paying the rent and putting food on the table, when our allies wonder whether this administration has the courage and stamina to confront an ever more powerful China, one could easily question the future of our nation.

But as the script from Juarez reminds us, the inherent strength of a democracy over a monarchy is that its citizens have the means to peacefully change their leaders if they suffer through failed leadership. One suspects our enemies abroad may be hoping that we will not exercise that right — from the belief that we are distracted by the continuing aftershocks of COVID or seeking to cope with slashed earning power at the gas pump and the supermarket.

ISRAEL Comments turned off

THE TREACHERY OF THE SQUAD by Paul Schnee:

Posted By on June 3rd, 2022

‘SQUAD’ DEMOCRATS INTRODUCE RESOLUTION CALLING FOUNDING OF ISRAEL A ‘CATASTROPHE’

Some people are born to commit shameful acts.

When the resolution was introduced on May 16th. in the House of Representatives by the “SQUAD”, better known as the terrorist caucus of the Democratic Party, calling for the founding of Israel to be designated as a “catastrophe,” out popped the cloven hoof.

It is not only shameful, it is historically wrong. Israel was not “founded” in 1948; it was reconstituted in its ancient and historical homeland where Jerusalem had been its undivided capital a thousand years before Christ and sixteen hundred years before Muhammad. The SQUAD and its fellow travelers must have been very poorly educated.

The claims they submit in favor of Arab Palestinian ownership of the geographical area known as Palestine, and ruled by the Ottoman Empire for almost 400 years prior to its defeat by the allied powers in 1918, are in inverse proportion to the evidence they can provide for them. 

Furthermore, during the entire time the Ottomans controlled the region, no effort was made by Arab Palestinians until to establish their own state until about 1964, yet now they claim that they have always owned the entire region and that Jerusalem is their capital city.  They have even advanced the preposterous notion that Jesus was an Arab Palestinian.

ISRAEL Comments turned off

Blinken’s immoral Palestinian-Israeli equivalence Ruthie Blum

Posted By on June 3rd, 2022

https://www.jpost.com/opinion/article-708472

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken seems to think that his job entails creating moral equivalence where it doesn’t exist. The way in which he approaches Palestinian Authority aggression against Israel is a prime example.

In fairness to Blinken, he was appointed to toe the line of US President Joe Biden and the crew behind him. Luckily for all concerned – other than the Jewish state – America’s top diplomat possesses the right ideological outlook and ambition to fulfill the task with little effort.

The only pushback he encounters emanates from “Squad” Democrats and their apologists, who consider Israel to be a criminal entity and view the Palestinians as its victims. In other words, while Blinken places Palestinian terrorism on a par with Israel’s response to it, the far-left members of his party don’t even bother with the charade of equivocation.

This distinction is moot, however. Nothing short of Israeli suicide will satisfy Squad or Palestinian demands. So, peace of the kind that the Biden administration touts is nowhere on the horizon.

IT IS NOT clear whether Blinken is oblivious to this or merely enjoys going through the motions that playing his prominent role in international relations requires. Either way, the game itself is dangerous for Israel.

“Good to speak with Palestinian Authority President [Mahmoud] Abbas… to discuss maintaining calm and refraining from escalatory actions and the importance of advancing a two-state solution,”
Blinken tweeted on Tuesday.

EDUCATION Comments turned off

My Cancel-Culture Nightmare Is Over After a four-month investigation, Georgetown concludes I wasn’t yet an employee when I wrote an errant tweet. By Ilya Shapiro

Posted By on June 3rd, 2022

s://www.wsj.com/articles/ilya-shapiro-georgetown-twitter-kbj-cancel-law-school-supreme-court-appointee-twitter-free-speech-11654211044?mod=opinion_lead_pos7

My long public nightmare is over. Tomorrow I assume my duties as a senior lecturer at Georgetown University Law Center and executive director of its Center for the Constitution. A four-month investigation by the human-resources department and the Office of Institutional Diversity, Equity and Affirmative Action determined that I wasn’t yet an employee when I posted a tweet to which some at the school objected (which the Journal covered from the beginning) and so wasn’t subject to the relevant policies on antidiscrimination and professional conduct.

It was an experience I wouldn’t wish on anyone except perhaps the instigators of the Twitter mob that launched this tempest—particularly the first few days, which were truly terrible for me and my family. Although my administrative leave was paid, the uncertainty made it a roller coaster of emotions and instability, a personal and professional purgatory. I’m grateful to the many allies who supported my cause. I found out who my friends are, even if I would’ve preferred not to have had the need to know.

What I achieved was a technical victory but one that still shows the value in standing up for free speech in the face of cancellation. That’s so even when that speech is inartful, as I readily admitted was my criticism of President Biden’s decision to limit his Supreme Court pool by race and sex. Although I apologized for my poor phrasing—some advised “never apologize,” but I take pride in clear communication—I stand by my view that Mr. Biden should have considered “all possible nominees,” as 76% of Americans agreed in an ABC News poll, and that the best choice would have been Judge Sri Srinivasan, who is an Indian-American immigrant.

I’m relieved that now I’ll get to do the job for which I was hired in January. I’m confident that even without the jurisdictional technicality, I would’ve prevailed. After all, Georgetown’s Speech and Expression Policy provides that the “University is committed to free and open inquiry, deliberation and debate in all matters, and the untrammeled verbal and nonverbal expression of ideas.” There’s an exception for harassment, of course, but I wasn’t harassing anyone except possibly Mr. Biden.

In any case, I look forward to teaching and engaging in a host of activities relating to constitutional education and originalism. As befitting a center for the Constitution, all students and participants in my programs can expect to be accorded the right to think and speak freely and to be treated equally. A diversity of ideas will be most welcome.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

John Durham vs. the Beltway Swamp Michael Sussmann’s trial showcased the incestuous culture of elite Washington. By Kimberley A. Strassel

Posted By on June 3rd, 2022

https://www.wsj.com/articles/john-durham-vs-the-beltway-swamp-dossier-clinton-fbi-trial-expose-politics-11654207276?mod=opinion_featst_pos1

The Michael Sussmann trial is over, but the stench lingers. Special counsel John Durham did more than expose Hillary Clinton’s dirty political tricks. He exposed the incestuous elite Washington world that enabled those tricks to succeed. America, meet again the Beltway swamp.

Mr. Sussman was acquitted Tuesday of lying to the FBI, but not before the Durham team revealed the Clinton campaign’s work in 2016 to use both the FBI and the media to smear Donald Trump. The campaign relied on outside techies for false accusations of Trump links to Russia’s Alfa Bank, which Mr. Sussmann fed to the FBI. Fusion GPS and Christopher Steele separately funneled their infamous dossier to the Bureau. Then the Clinton team shopped the dirt to the media, using the fact of FBI investigations as proof it deserved coverage.

Still, it’s a long way from unfounded smears to full-fledged FBI investigations. The entire Clinton operation depended on getting the FBI to bite. The Durham trial was a glimpse at the chummy web of brokers who used their access and influence to make that happen.

One trial revelation was that Rodney Joffe —the tech executive who used privileged access to nonproprietary data to create the Alfa claims—was a confidential human source for the FBI in 2016. Yet Mr. Joffe, according to testimony, didn’t take his accusations to his regular handler. He instead gave them to . . . Mr. Sussmann, a lawyer in private practice whose clients included Mrs. Clinton.

WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Turkey, Terrorists and NATO by Uzay Bulut

Posted By on June 2nd, 2022

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/18581/turkey-terrorists-nato

Turkey, reportedly on the verge of yet another military incursion into Syria, appears up to other fun and games as well.

The so-called “terrorists” to whom Erdoğan is referring are Kurdish politicians, political activists, and refugees who live in Sweden and Finland. In particular, those who engage in advocacy for political equality and the official recognition of Kurds in Turkey and Syria. The Turkish government wants the two Nordic nations to extradite these individuals to Turkey.

Erdoğan’s regime, however, does not see actual jihadists in the region as terrorists and even actively supports them. For instance, news outlets have documented evidence of Erdoğan’s government’s close relationship with ISIS (the Islamic State).

ISIS collaborators received Turkish citizenship, a leaked official Turkish report showed, detailing how the jihadi group used Turkey to traffic money and obtain supplies.

Turkey is also home to Hamas terrorists…. “Hamas operates its headquarters in Istanbul.” — Israel Hayom, February 1, 2022.

Turkey’s Islamist allies in Afrin have since committed many crimes against civilians, including Christians, Yazidis and Kurds. These crimes include extortion, detention, abduction, rape, torture and murder.

For NATO’s well-being, Turkey’s threats, aggression and blackmail must not be allowed.

Turkey, reportedly on the verge of yet another military incursion into Syria, appears up to other fun and games as well.

While Russia’s invasion of Ukraine remains ongoing, two Nordic nations have applied for NATO membership: Sweden and Finland.

ELECTIONS, NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Trumpology The path to the 2024 presidential election will be shaped entirely by how things look for Donald Trump in the wake of the 2022 midterms. By Victor Davis Hanson

Posted By on June 2nd, 2022

https://amgreatness.com/2022/06/01/trumpology/

Donald Trump has signaled he will announce his presidential intentions after the November midterm elections. Yet his record of endorsements is quite mixed. By the sheer numbers of winning primary candidates his stamp of approval is impressive, but in a few of the most important races, not so much. 

The disaster that is the Biden Administration has been a godsend for Trump. Had Biden simply plagiarized the successful Trump agenda, there would have followed no border disaster, no energy crisis, no hyperinflation, and no disastrous flight from Afghanistan. 

Had Biden followed through on his “unity” rhetoric, he could have lorded over Trump’s successful record as his own, while contrasting his Uncle-Joe ecumenicalism with supposed Trump’s polarization. 

Of course, serious people knew from the start that was utterly impossible. A cognitively challenged Biden was a captive of ideologues. Thus, he was bound to pursue an extremist agenda that could only end as it now has—in disaster and record low polls. 

Still, how ironic that the Biden catastrophe revived a Trump candidacy. Biden likely will cause the Democrats to lose Congress. His pick of a dismal Kamala Harris as vice president has likely ensured, for now, fewer viable Democratic presidential candidates in 2024. 

So, will Trump run? 

ANTI-SEMITISM, EDUCATION Comments turned off

Challenging SJP Chicago’s Lies and Toxic Radicalism The Freedom Center’s leaflets expose Jew-hatred. Richard L. Cravatts

Posted By on June 2nd, 2022

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2022/06/challenging-sjp-chicagos-lies-and-toxic-radicalism-richard-l-cravatts/

In yet another revealing example of its hypocrisy and obtuseness when assessing the consequences of its own behavior, the University of Chicago’s chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) was again whining about being victimized by ideological opponents.

What was SJP’s complaint this time? In a letter to the editor in the university’s newspaper, The Chicago Maroon, SJP expressed its displeasure with the fact that on May 23rd, “the David Horowitz Freedom Center plastered more than 5,000 leaflets on and around campus demonizing Palestinian and pro-Palestinian students.”

Employing its tired tactic of whining that any effort by SJP’s critics is motivated by a desire to shut down any support of Palestinian self-determination, the letter preposterously suggested that the leaflets were posted on campus solely “in order to muzzle and disparage pro-Palestinian activism . . . .”

More absurdly, SJP claimed that the Horowitz Center’s “work aims to censor and misrepresent our academic production and to create an environment of surveillance and fear surrounding scholarship about Palestine.”

ENVIRONMENT AND JUNK SCIENCE Comments turned off

Green Energy Chickens Coming Home to Roost Never in history has a civilization willfully embarked on destroying its own material foundations. Bruce Thornton

Posted By on June 2nd, 2022

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2022/06/green-energy-chickens-coming-home-roost-bruce-thornton/

This year will graphically demonstrate the malign consequences of the misguided efforts to replace cheap, reliable fossil fuel energy with unreliable, inefficient “renewable” energy like wind and solar. Never in history has a civilization willfully embarked on destroying its material foundations, based solely on a hypothesis rather than scientifically established fact.

The first red flag alerting us to this feckless policy appeared during Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Much of Europe––the most aggressive nations in replacing fossil fuels with wind turbines and solar panels––has grown dependent on Russian exports to make up for the energy lost from shutting down nuclear and coal-fired power plants. Since directly helping Ukraine by fighting is politically impossible, sanctions were imposed on Russia’s oil and gas industries.

But sanctions severe enough to concentrate Putin’s mind carried a political cost as well as an economic one. So Europe is still buying Russian energy, postponing tougher sanctions until the end of the year. The result has been the embarrassing and dishonorable spectacle of European countries helping to finance Russia’s brutal war crimes. Indeed some have accepted Putin’s condition that purchases be made in rubles, thus mitigating the damage to Russia’s economy.

Here at home, warnings of electricity blackouts across the country this summer have not slowed down many states’ increased efforts to shutter electrical plants powered by coal, natural gas, and nuclear fission. In New York, Governor Kathy Holchul has announced the state’s commitment to enforcing a requirement that new power plants must achieve “zero on-site greenhouse gas emissions for new construction no later than 2027.” This policy of wishful thinking follows New York’s Climate Act of 2019, which requires that all power generation comes from “green” sources by 2040, including 70% from renewable energy by 2030.

ELECTIONS Comments turned off

A Democratic Circus Is Shaping up in the New York Tenth Congressional District Primary: John Fund

Posted By on June 2nd, 2022

https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/a-democratic-circus-is-shaping-up-in-the-new-york-tenth-congressional-district-primary/?utm_

“As depressing as politics is, we need to look for any entertainment available. It looks like the Democratic primary in New York’s tenth congressional district will provide as many laughs, groans, pratfalls and surprises as a world-class circus when it comes to town.”

Now that New York’s highest court surprised everyone by tossing out the state’s blatant Democratic gerrymander of its congressional districts, voters can look forward to real competitive races in many of the districts.

A new congressional district that includes Lower Manhattan and the “woke” Park Slope neighborhood of Brooklyn won’t be competitive in November, but the wide-open Democratic primary will provide a fascinating look at every crazy form of leftism ever catalogued.

The most well-known candidate is former NYC mayor Bill DeBlasio, who left office loathed by even most Democrats, but who’s banking on some people forgetting his two failed terms.

Yuh-Line Niou represents Manhattan’s Chinatown in the state assembly, but is best known for embracing the Black Lives Matter campaign, as when she liked a tweet that contained a photo comparing the attendees at a recent police funeral to Nazi storm troopers.