Displaying posts published in

August 2018

Abbas’s Responsibility for Gaza Crisis by Bassam Tawil

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/12898/gaza-crisis-mahmoud-abbas

In a letter to the UN Secretary-General, Mahmoud Abbas’s Foreign Ministry accused Israel of committing “crimes” against Palestinians civilians, especially in the Gaza Strip, and renewed the call for providing “international protection” for the Palestinians.

This is the same Abbas whose sanctions have triggered the recent violence along the border between the Gaza Strip and Israel. If anyone needs “international protection,” it is those protesters who are being targeted by Abbas’s security forces in the West Bank.

Abbas is especially worried that the international community will be funding economic and humanitarian projects in the Gaza Strip behind his back. He wants the money to be spent through his government. He wants to control every penny the international community earmarks for the welfare of his people.

What exactly does Abbas want? He wants the people of the Gaza Strip to continue protesting so that he will be able to continue to demonize Israel.

The Palestinian Authority (PA) is continuing to pursue a policy of double-dealing regarding the Gaza Strip.

On the one hand, President Mahmoud Abbas and the PA leadership continue inciting against Israel by holding it solely responsible for the humanitarian and economic crisis in the Gaza Strip. On the other hand, Abbas and his Ramallah-based government continue to impose strict economic sanctions on the Gaza Strip.

Now, Abbas is bending over backwards to foil a cease-fire agreement between Israel and Hamas and the other Palestinian terror groups in the Gaza Strip. Abbas says he is worried that such a deal would pave the way for the implementation of US President Donald Trump’s yet-to-be-announced plan for peace in the Middle East.

Although they have never seen the Trump plan, Abbas and the Palestinian leadership in Ramallah claim that it envisages the establishment of a separate Palestinian state in the Gaza Strip. They also argue that the Trump plan seeks to transform the Palestinian-Israeli conflict from a political and national conflict into one that is related only to humanitarian and economic issues. Abbas says he fears that the humanitarian and economic aid that the international community is promising to the Gaza Strip, as part of a cease-fire deal, is aimed at extracting concessions from the Palestinians, especially on issues related to Jerusalem and Palestinian refugees.

From One Psychodrama to Another By Victor Davis Hanson *****

https://amgreatness.com/2018/08/20/from-one-psychodrama

Michael Wolff and his media-hyped blockbuster—that supposedly game-changing landmark of a book Fire and Fury—are now ancient history.

Fading similarly is Karen McDougal, Playboy‘s 1998 Playmate of the Year, and her National Enquirer grifter lawsuit that was also supposed to destroy the Trump presidency.

We are by now mostly tired with Stormy Daniels and her unhinged lawyer Michael Avenatti, who at least proved more entertaining than his porn-star client.

Consiglieri Michael Cohen, the Trump attorney who secretly taped his own client and apparently has been flipped to Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s side in his veritable war against Trump, is also sliding into the netherworld of no-news coverage and a legal morass.

Cohen now competes with the narcissist Omarosa Manigault, entering from stage left with her trunkful of tapes and gossip to demand her own proverbial 15 minutes of fame. She promises to release never before told, shocking, unprecedented, flabbergasting dirt on Donald Trump that will ensure his impeachment, indictment, and jail time—or reify the dreams of celebrities who have variously voiced desires to hang, dismember, smash, blow up, stab, shoot, and ignite the president.

Is There an Islamic Terror Group UK Labour Leader Corbyn Didn’t Meet With? Corbyn may have lost Patrick Stewart’s vote, but he’ll always have Hamas. Daniel Greenfield

https://www.frontpagemag.com/point/271091/there-islamic-terror-group-uk-labour-leader-corbyn-daniel-greenfield

Some politicians are so ensconced in sex scandals that another one just doesn’t make a noise.

In recent weeks, we’ve learned that Jeremy Corbyn, the radical leftist leader of the UK Labour Party, had been caught making the Muslim Brotherhood’s version of its Nazi salute, and had laid wreaths at the graves of the Munich Olympics terrorists.

Professor Shaul Ladany, who represented Israel at the racewalking competition in the 1972 Munich Olympics and survived the massacre, told the Daily Telegraph of his feelings upon seeing photos of British Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn laying a wreath on the terrorists’ graves.

The massacre, carried out by Black September terrorists, claimed the lives of 11 Israeli athletes.

“I was really upset,” he told the Daily Telegraph. “Going there and laying a wreath is a stand. It is saying, ‘Look, I am in favor of it, I admire it.'”

China Ratchets Up Its U.S. Spying Programs American Universities and financial institutions are at risk. Michael Cutler

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/271074/china-ratchets-its-us-spying-programs-michael-cutler

Russian efforts to corrupt American politics captivates the media, but they pay scant attention to the aggressive actions of the Chinese. This under-reporting is concerning, given the concerted Chinese efforts go well beyond the hacking of U.S. computers – an illegal activity of great concern – but they also extend onto the campuses of our universities.

There are, however, occasional acts of real reporting on Chinese espionage. One example comes from, the usually liberal and globalist publication, Newsweek back on May 20, 2015, A New Cold War, Yes. But It’s With China, Not Russia.

Another story worthy of mention is this from the Houston Chronicle reported on August 8, 2018, which reported: FBI warns Texas academic and medical leaders of ‘classified’ security threats.

The piece led off with this ominous excerpt:

In an unprecedented gathering, FBI officials warned top leaders of Texas academic and medical institutions Wednesday about security threats from foreign adversaries, the first step in a new initiative the bureau plans to replicate around the country.

Then went on to note:

The meeting reflects the bureau’s increasing concern, made in public comments and before congressional committees, about cybersecurity threats posed by adversaries such as China, Russia, and Iran. Following a 2017 report that found intellectual-property theft by China costs the U.S. as much as $600 billion annually, FBI Director Christopher Wray this June called China “the broadest, most significant” threat to the United States and said its espionage is active in all 50 states.

Social Media Corporations Step Up Attacks on Conservatives The critical off-year elections are a little over two months away. Coincidence? Matthew Vadum

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/271089/social-media-corporations-step-attacks-matthew-vadum

The politically-driven censorship of conservatives by the gigantic, unregulated social media corporations controlled by the Left is moving into high gear as the crucial midterm congressional elections of Nov. 6 approach.

It’s no secret that social media platforms have been suppressing and marginalizing ideas they don’t like — and the ideas they don’t like are overwhelmingly of the conservative and patriotic variety.

But the social media corporations are ramping up censorship of right-leaning groups and individuals to give Democrats an advantage in the upcoming elections.

The stakes are high. If Democrats recapture either chamber of Congress from Republicans, President Trump’s conservative reform agenda will grind to a halt and investigating Trump for all manner of imagined misdeeds will be all Americans hear about 24/7/365. It will be political payback – pure and simple.

The immediate goal is to silence and intimidate conservatives, as well as anyone who supports Preside

Is “The Truth, the Truth” When It Comes to Prosecutors? by Alan M. Dershowitz

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/12896/is-the-truth-the-truth-when-it-comes-to

All the Special Counsel needs, in order to charge a subject of an investigation with lying to a prosecutor, is a single witnesses willing to contradict the subject.

The witness may not only be “singing,” he may also be “composing” – that is making up or embellishing a story because he knows that the better his story, the better the deal.

Under federal law, the testimony of such a flipped witness need not be corroborated in order to secure a conviction.

Even one question that results in an answer that is contradicted by one witness would be enough to spring the perjury trap.

When Rudy Giuliani stated, perhaps inartfully, that “truth isn’t truth,” he was getting at a higher – or should I say lower – truth. This is a truth that virtually every experienced defense attorney and prosecutor understands: namely that prosecutors get to pick which witness — and which “truth” — to believe.

Giuliani was discussing President Trump’s decision whether or not to be interviewed by Special Counsel Robert Mueller. Giuliani made the point that even if President Trump testified truthfully, he could be accused of lying to a prosecutor – a serious felony – if the prosecutor chose to believe witnesses who have provided a different account.

A Free Tuition Education Ken Langone’s book should be required reading at NYU.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/a-free-tuition-education-1534805635

New York University announced late last week that it will offer free tuition for every current and future student attending its medical school. That’s pretty cool and will save students some $55,000 a year and a lot of debt. But in the spirit of Milton Friedman’s line that there is no such thing as a free lunch, allow us to suggest that every NYU student should have one obligation in return for accepting the gift—read and write an essay on Ken Langone’s autobiography, “I Love Capitalism!”

The medical students should at least know where the money for their free tuition will come from. It doesn’t flow from the good intentions of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and it isn’t a product of the Cuban health-care system.

It will come from capitalists like Ken Langone and his wife Elaine, who donated about $100 million of the $600 million that NYU says it will need to fund the scholarships. The son of a plumber and a cafeteria worker, Mr. Langone went to Wall Street after Bucknell and NYU business school. He went on to found Home Depot , the national home-improvement chain that now provides a livelihood for some 400,000 people.

Mr. Langone has channelled much of his wealth into philanthropy, including the medical center at NYU that is named for him and his wife. As Mr. Langone explains in his book, this is how a free society creates wealth and then redistributes it. Socialism creates little wealth and redistributes poverty, as Venezuelans are discovering. The medical students could spend a semester in Caracas to learn these lessons, but they can save time and considerable pain by reading Mr. Langone.

College Offers Class on ‘Consequences’ of Whiteness By Toni Airaksinen

https://pjmedia.com/trending/college-offers-class-on-consequences-of-whiteness/

The University of Oregon is offering a course this summer to teach students about the “consequences” of masculinity in the United States.

Taught by Ashley Woody and Tony Silva, Sociology 399: Whiteness, Masculinity, and Heterosexuality is a featured course on the sociology department’s website, and it aims to take a critical approach to the historical development of masculinity and heterosexuality.

The class —which also goes by “Sociology 399: Straight White Heterosexuality Masculinity” — must be taken for a grade by sociology majors, but its description notes that grading is “optional for all other students.”

“What do whiteness, heterosexuality and masculinity mean today? How do they differ across contexts? How do they intersect, and what are the consequences?” the course description opines.

Neither Woody nor Silva responded to a request for more information about the class, but they appear to take a social constructionist approach to gender theory. In one of Silva’s recent works, for example, he interviewed 19 men from Grindr and Craigslist to document the “centrality of heterosexuality to normative rural masculinity.”

According to Silva’s research, hobbies such as hunting, fishing, cutting firewood, ranching, and farming are ways that certain men “perform a rural masculinity,” as Silva documented in his seminal article “Bud-Sex.”

Emails Show Cuomo Administration Officials in Regular Contact with Corrupt Lobbyist By Jack Crowe

https://www.nationalreview.com/news/andrew-cuomo-administration-regular-contact-corrupt-lobbyist/

Senior New York state officials regularly corresponded with, and acted on behalf of, a lobbyist and former aide to governor Andrew Cuomo in the months and years leading up to his indictment on federal corruption charges.

While the Cuomo administration has downplayed lobbyist Todd Howe’s access to senior officials, emails obtained by the New York Times after a protracted legal battle with the administration demonstrate Howe’s continuing influence.

In one particularly revealing email sent to Jim Malatras, then the director of state operations, Howe urgently requests payment for his clients, two developers contracted by the state for a public-private infrastructure project.

“Both need some payment as a sign of good faith before the close of business tomorrow,” Howe wrote to Malatras and his deputy, Andrew Kennedy, in December 2014 .

Chelsea Clinton Says Future Political Career Is a ‘Definite Maybe’ By Mairead McArdle see note

https://www.nationalreview.com/news/chelsea-clinton-future-political-career/

At least Caroline Kennedy knew when to quit…..terminally insipid Chelsea should know better…..rsk

Chelsea Clinton is leaving the door open to a possible run for political office down the road.

In an appearance at the Edinburgh International Book Festival Sunday, Clinton said that a political career is a “definite no” at the moment, but a “definite maybe” in the future.

“At federal level, as much as I abhor so much of what President Trump is doing, I have a great amount of gratitude for what my congresswoman and my senators are doing to try to stop him at every point,” Clinton said. “While I disagree with the president … I think my family … is being really well represented. But if that were to change — if my city councilor were to retire, if my congresswoman were to retire, my senators — and I thought that I could make a positive impact, then I think I would really have to ask my answer to that question.”

In wide-ranging remarks that touched on her family and her feelings about the Trump administration, Clinton went out of her way to assert that she feels “incredibly protective” of twelve-year-old Barron Trump, recalling her own experience as a teenager in the White House during her father’s presidency, when critics mocked her appearance.

“I disagree with [Barron Trump’s] father on everything, but people have made fun of him, bullied him for his appearance or for him being more private,” the former first daughter said. “Equally I have no patience for that because he’s a child and he deserves a childhood as every child does.”

Clinton has upped her social-media presence since the 2016 presidential election, defending Barron Trump several times from online bullies and advocating for LGBT and women’s rights.