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September 2018

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Playing Hardball with Hungary The EU’s disgraceful attempt to bring PM Orban to heel. Bruce Bawer

By on September 18th, 2018

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/271349/playing-hardball-hungary-bruce-bawer

Criticize the government of Viktor Orban, prime minister of Hungary since 2010, all you like. But the European Union’s despotic and disgraceful attempt to bring him to heel, which came to a head with a vote in the European Parliament on September 12, has nothing whatsoever to do with the purported “erosion of democracy” in his country.

First, let it be said that the vote itself was a result of a report by Judith Sargentini, a Dutch MEP who belongs to her country’s GreenLeft Party. In the report, Sargentini accused Hungary of “a serious breach…of the values on which the Union is founded,” namely “the values of respect for human dignity, freedom, democracy, equality, the rule of law and respect for human rights.” She proceeded to reel off dozens of complaints about the way things work in Hungary.

For example: “Patriarchal stereotyped attitudes still prevail in Hungary with respect to the position of women in society.” (Well, yes, compared to the Netherlands.) She accused Hungarian authorities of prejudice against Roma, or gypsies, because an inordinate percentage of gypsy children are placed in special-education classes. (She gave no indication of entertaining the possibility that the children in question might actually require such classes.) Another grievance was the domination of Hungary’s media by pro-government voices. (As if you couldn’t say the same thing about the media in much of Western Europe.)

Sargentini also cited Orban’s supposed interference with academic freedom. In fact, when Orban took power, many of Hungary’s universities were so insular and ill-managed that the government had to step in and appoint competent rectors; meanwhile some of the new colleges that sprung up in post-Communist Hungary were shady, unaccredited foreign rackets that required oversight and regulation. Last month, the Hungarian government proposed a ban on gender studies, arguing that they were valueless on the job market. You may regard this either as an inappropriate violation of ivory-tower autonomy or as a sane and practical response to inane developments in higher education.

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NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

A New Color of Censorship from the SPLC A hate group sets out to coopt major corporations. Daniel Greenfield

By on September 18th, 2018

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/271310/new-color-censorship-splc-daniel-greenfield

Reprinted from Amgreatness.com.

Color of Change, a radical leftist group campaigning to censor conservatives and right-leaning groups, exploited the 2015 Charleston church shooting to go after the David Horowitz Freedom Center. The Freedom Center’s investigations had exposed Color of Change, but the leftist group’s campaign to silence the Center briefly succeeded last month.

“Bloodmoney,” Color of Change’s smear campaign, seeks to shut down the fundraising abilities of conservative organizations by pressuring credit card companies and payment processors to deny access to conservative groups blacklisted by the Southern Poverty Law Center.

Color of Change falsely accuses all of these groups of promoting violence and white supremacy.

Two weeks ago, the group’s pressure campaign successfully misled Mastercard into refusing to process donations for the Freedom Center, until an outcry forced the company to change course. Though the battle may have been won, Color of Change’s censorship campaign continues.

Color of Change’s “Bloodmoney” campaign is a blood libel. The effort falsely links conservative organizations targeted by the SPLC—including some run by African-Americans and Jews—to the Charleston church shooting and the violence in Charlottesville. The leftist group founded by CNN’s Van Jones and funded by George Soros is out to censor conservative organizations by choking off their fundraising.Color of Change’s blood libel accuses credit card companies and payment processors of taking “blood money” and financing “violence” and of complicity in “white supremacist murders” if they process donations for conservative organizations, including the David Horowitz Freedom Center.

“Financial service companies doing business with white supremacists are profiting from hate,” the campaign alleges.

The truth behind the blood libel is that Color of Change is a racialist partisan group trying to cut off financial services to mainstream conservative groups using shameless lies.

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FOREIGN POLICY Comments turned off

Bolton Speech Underscores Trump Administration Putting America First On The Global Stage The Trump administration is taking stock of agreements and treaties that do not serve American interests first. By Rebeccah Heinrichs

By on September 18th, 2018

http://thefederalist.com/2018/09/17/bolton-speech-underscores-trump-administration-putting-america-first-global-stage/

National Security Advisor John Bolton delivered a blockbuster speech at an event hosted by the Federalist Society last Monday, about how monumentally dumb and dangerous the International Criminal Court is for America.

The ICC is a multinational organization established by the Rome Statute. President Bill Clinton signed on to the statute in 2000 but never submitted the international treaty to the Senate. President George W. Bush then unsigned the treaty. President Barack Obama never signed the treaty, but he was friendly to it and cooperated with the ICC.

Bolton made the Trump administration’s position on the ICC ultra-clear in his speech:

The United States will use any means necessary to protect our citizens and those of our allies from unjust prosecution by this illegitimate court. We will not cooperate with the ICC. We will provide no assistance to the ICC. We will not join the ICC. We will let the ICC die on its own. After all, for all intents and purposes, the ICC is already dead to us.

It was a powerful rejection of the court. But that’s not all it rejected, and to singularly focus on the ICC misses larger principles that will surely guide the administration’s decisions about other international agreements. Three principles stood out.
The United States Is Not the Peer of Somalia

First, not all countries are equally bad or equally good; the United States is a force for good and rejects the notion that the United States, just like other nations, must be constrained.

“The largely unspoken, but always central, aim of its most vigorous supporters was to constrain the United States,” Bolton said. “The objective was not limited to targeting individual US service members, but rather America’s senior political leadership, and its relentless determination to keep our country secure.”

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NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Kavanaugh and Accuser to Testify Publicly Before Judiciary Committee Monday By Jack Crowe

By on September 18th, 2018

https://www.nationalreview.com/news/brett-kavanaugh-and-accuser-to-testify-before-judiciary-committee/

““He is somebody very special; at the same time, we want to go through a process, we want to make sure everything is perfect, everything is just right,” Trump told reporters at the White House. “If it takes a little delay, it will take a little delay — it shouldn’t certainly be very much.”

Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh and the woman who accused him of sexually assaulting her when they were high-school students will testify publicly regarding the allegation before the Senate Judiciary Committee, the New York Times reported.

The hearing will delay Kavanaugh’s confirmation vote, which was previously scheduled for Thursday.

“Judge Kavanaugh looks forward to a hearing where he can clear his name of this false allegation. He stands ready to testify tomorrow if the Senate is ready to hear him,” White House spokesman Raj Shah told the Times.

Judiciary Committee Chuck Grassley confirmed Monday evening that a public hearing has been scheduled for the following Monday.

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EDUCATION Comments turned off

No Surprise: Americans Don’t Like Racial Preferences By Roger Clegg

By on September 18th, 2018

https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/americans-dont-like-racial-preferences-education/

This is not news, being quite in line with many earlier polls, but the time and place are rather propitious, with the Harvard affirmative-action case going to trial in a month. A new survey, by Boston’s public-radio station no less, asked this question: “The Supreme Court has decided colleges can use race as one factor in deciding which applicants to admit. Do you agree or disagree with this ruling?” And 72 percent of those surveyed said they disagreed with the Court’s ruling, with only 24 percent agreeing. (Indeed, the only group that the station identified as having more supporters than critics of the Court’s decision was those with a graduate education, and among them by only 49 to 45 percent. This proves, by the way, that the more time you spend on today’s campuses, the worse your judgment becomes.)

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HOMELAND SECURITY Comments turned off

Lenient Prison Term for ISIS Terrorist Pits Prosecutors Against Federal Judge By Todd Bensman

By on September 18th, 2018

https://pjmedia.com/homeland-security/lenient-prison-term-for-isis-terrorist-pits-prosecutors-against-federal-judge/

On September 10, just ahead of this year’s 9/11 anniversary, Texas resident Asher Abid Khan finally turned himself in to the U.S. Marshal’s office in Houston for providing material support to ISIS. He was off to the Federal Correctional Institute known as “Forrest City Medium” in Forrest City, Arkansas, according to court filings.

The 23-year-old University of Houston student had been facing a potential life term in prison when he pleaded guilty to one count related to recruiting fighters for ISIS, including one fellow Texan who died in combat. Instead, he must have felt some relief when, last month, the Ronald Reagan-appointed U.S. District Judge Lyn Hughes gave Khan 18 months.

But Khan can’t be making any long-term plans for his post-prison future.

In a highly unusual turn of events, prosecutors with the U.S. Department of Justice, angry about the perceived leniency of the sentence, have taken the judge’s decision to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. This just doesn’t happen. A Houston Chronicle report established that DOJ’s appeal of Judge Hughes’ sentence was a first involving ISIS cases. (More on the eccentric Judge Hughes in a bit).

The outcome of the coming bout will have consequences for the government’s ability to punish and deter future homegrown terrorists like Khan. America’s current and future Islamic extremists, while trying as hard as they can to die for The Cause, might view an 18-month prison stint more as delayed gratification than as wait-just-a-minute deterrent.

Here’s what the fight’s about in a quick nutshell: In the aftermath of 9/11, U.S. prosecutors were given tough new anti-terrorism laws and sentences as primary tools in the nation’s counter-terrorism strategy to punish and deter. The idea was to throw a bigger book at not only terrorist acts that directly cause death and destruction but also at soft “material support” activities that enable the violence. The USA Patriot Act, one of the new laws, increased the maximum terms of imprisonment for material support for two of the more common kinds of material support, which you can read more about here. One provision at issue here, 2339B of 18 U.S.C., takes into account supportive activity that results in death and allows prison sentences of up to 20 years or life in prison.

That’s the charge to which Khan pleaded guilty and for which Judge Hughes dished out an 18-month sentence. CONTINUE AT SITE

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WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Haley: ‘Russian Corruption Is Like a Virus,’ Could Sicken UN Security Council By Bridget Johnson

By on September 18th, 2018

https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/haley-russian-corruption-is-like-a-virus-could-sicken-un-security-council/

UN Ambassador Nikki Haley tore into Russia at the UN Security Council today for blocking a report showing that the Kremlin and Beijing are “actively working” to undermine the sanctions regime against North Korea.

Haley said the U.S. sought the briefing for “the chance to examine the difference between words and deeds” and to see whether the Security Council’s “efforts to eliminate North Korea’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs are being honored and enforced and, if not, why.”

Russia voted for sanctions, she noted, and now wants to ease sanctions on the Kim regime as it wants to pursue economic projects in North Korea. “The question one should ask is why? Why, after voting for sanctions eleven different times, is Russia now backing away from them? We know the answer. It is because Russia has been cheating. And now they’ve been caught,” Haley declared.

“Despite its repeated support for UN sanctions, Russia is actively working to undermine the enforcement of the Security Council’s sanctions on North Korea. Its violations are not one-offs. They are systematic,” she added. “Russia has not simply looked the other way as its nationals and entities engage in activities explicitly prohibited by UN sanctions. Russia has engaged in a concerted campaign in the Security Council to cover up violations of sanctions, whether they’re committed by Russia or citizens of other states.”

Haley said the U.S. “has evidence of consistent and wide-ranging Russian violations” that “should offend every current and former member of the Security Council who knows how difficult it was to gain passage of these sanctions.”

“And it should offend every country that has felt the looming threat of North Korean nuclear weapons,” she added.

One example, she said, was a Russian vessel filmed in April conducting a ship-to-ship transfer of oil with a North Korean tanker.

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WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

South Africa: We’ve seen this sort of chaos before By Andrew Thomas

By on September 18th, 2018

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2018/09/south_africa_weve_seen_this_sort_of_chaos_before.html

Rhodesia/Zimbabwe, Zaire/Congo, Bangladesh, Angola, Mozambique, Somalia. All victims to the bloody rise of communism in Africa.

To paraphrase Agent Smith of The Matrix: “You hear that, South Africa? That is the sound of inevitability. It is the sound of your death. Goodbye, South Africa.”

There appears to be no stopping the descent. And as S.A. goes, so goes the continent.

Dave Blount posts an eye-opening piece on the current status of S.A. in his blog, Moonbattery.

The tragedy unfolding in South Africa is relevant to all of us because it indicates the fate of the West in general if political and demographic trends continue. However, few people in the USA have any understanding of South Africa and its history other than the narrative the liberal media hammered through people’s heads during its campaign to bring down Apartheid.

He cites horrific details of brutal torture, rape, and murder of white citizens (primarily farmers in the north regions) at the hands of black mobs that are rarely brought to justice by the socialist ANC government. The S.A. constitution is in the process of being revised to allow the government to seize any lands owned by white farmers without compensation, which will inevitably lead to greater bloodshed. Dave further reports:

Seventy-one percent of children live in households where no one is employed. Fewer work than receive welfare. Democracy under these circumstances is a dysfunctional form of slavery. The state is failing. The straightforward communism that Apartheid defended against is only a step away.

You can’t bring this topic up in public, as you will be branded a racist and a liar for lying about the black-on-white violence in S.A. Everyone is getting along fine there, you see. None of the leftist news outlets report any of this, so lefties don’t believe that it is happening. The media won’t touch the forbidden topics of failing socialism, rising communism, and black racism.

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NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

A Spectral Witness Materializes The passage of time sometimes causes people to forget, sometimes to invent or embellish. By Lance Morrow

By on September 18th, 2018

https://www.wsj.com/articles/a-spectral-witness-materializes-1537225498

The Salem witch trials turned on what was called “spectral evidence.” That was testimony from witnesses—either malicious or hysterical—who claimed the accused had assumed the form of a black cat or some other devilish creature and had come visiting in the night in order to torment the witness with bites and scratches, or to rearrange the bedroom furniture, or to send the baby into paroxysms.

Susannah Sheldon, aged about 18, testified that the defendant Sarah Good’s apparition—not the actual Sarah Good, but her spirit, her specter—“most violently pulled down my head behind a chest and tied my hands together with a whale band and almost choked me to death.” Other witnesses blamed Good for the mysterious deaths of cows or for causing a broom to fly up into an apple tree.

The judge, William Stoughton, admitted this nonsense into evidence. Hysterical fantasies had real consequences: Sarah Good and four other defendants were hanged on July 19, 1692.

Three hundred twenty-six years later, an anonymous woman—a spectral and possibly nonexistent woman, for all that one knew when the story emerged—accused Brett Kavanaugh of sexually assaulting her 36 years ago, when he was a high-school student. It seemed as if the American constitutional process might be drawn back to the neighborhood of Salem, Mass. According to this phantom testimony, 17-year-old Brett held the girl down, pawed her and tried to force himself upon her, and held his hand over her mouth when she screamed, until a second prep-school devil piled on top, they all tumbled to the floor, and the girl managed to slip away. The boys were “stumbling drunk,” according to the account.

You were supposed to feel the sudden wind-shear of hypocrisy. The nominee was a seeming paragon—perfect father and husband and coach of his daughters’ basketball teams. He is a Roman Catholic with an Irish name, but now the script became as gleefully Calvinist as a Hawthorne tale. What imp of hell had possessed the Kavanaugh boy? The Protestant tale seemed to obtain subliminal verification against the background of Catholic sex-abuse scandals.

Thus the constitutional process takes on an aspect of the 21st-century medieval. The accuser’s story first emerged in a letter that came into the hands of California Sen. Dianne Feinstein. Ms. Feinstein brought it to light only after the Senate Judiciary Committee’s hearing, which featured somewhat Salem-like drama—costumed apparitions from “The Handmaid’s Tale” arranging themselves outside the committee room; inarticulate background screams of people being led away for disrupting the proceedings. It seemed as if Ms. Feinstein, not liking the odds of defeating Judge Kavanaugh’s confirmation, had found a devilishly clever way to head it off after all.

But then the accuser materialized, in the form of a 51-year-old California professor of clinical psychology, Christine Blasey Ford.

What to make of it now? The tale became a lot less spectral. Still, there had been no police report, and there were no witnesses. The second boy allegedly in the room said he had no memory of such an incident and called the accusation “absolutely nuts.” Judge Kavanaugh flatly denied it. Her therapist’s notes from 30 years later are not objective reporting, merely a transcription of what Ms. Ford herself said. CONTINUE AT SITE

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