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September 2018

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MY SAY: BI-PARTISAN GRANDSTANDING

By on September 28th, 2018

At the hearings yesterday, the GOP senators were even more lavish than the Dems, in their praise of Dr. Christine Ford’s “courage” in confronting the scourge of sexual harassment and being a “voice for all the victims and survivors.” Oh Puleez! Rosa Parks she ain’t.

It was even more sickening than the efforts of the Dems in asking the “gotcha” question intended to floor Brett Kavanaugh. The prize in a long list of contenders including proven liar oily faced Richard Blumenthal, preening Cory Booker, squirming Feinstein, and Harris always rehearsing for 2020, goes to Dick Durbin who tried to pin Kavanaugh down by defying him to demand an FBI investigation from the White House.

The winner by a mile? Senator Lindsay Graham. rsk

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ANTI-SEMITISM Comments turned off

Hal G.P. Colebatch Trump Derangement Syndrome Intensifies

By on September 28th, 2018

https://quadrant.org.au/magazine/2018/09/trump-derangement-syndrome-spreads-intensifies/

The furious, unhinged and ongoing reaction to Hillary Clinton’s 2016 defeat reveals the extent to which leftist poison has penetrated not just Washington but the whole Western political class. Trump’s task is to lance the abscess while there are healthy parts remaining.

When President Barack Obama began packing the United States of America’s courts, senior appointments in the armed forces and a host of other positions, it looked to the extreme Left as if their long-cherished dream of seizing power—which would in fact mean controlling the world—was coming true at last.

Donald Trump’s election was shattering for them. Trump Derangement Syndrome persists even though, or rather because, he has had both economic and foreign policy successes, which appear to stand a chance of crippling the Left’s project, and which seem to have given Middle America new confidence and purpose.

The intensity of this derangement is fairly new. Even recently, Americans of both parties respected their presidents once elected, and in general did not doubt their presidents’ patriotism and public-spiritedness. Further, politicians’ families were off-limits for attacks.

It was a commonplace amongst journalists that you could not get an ordinary American to criticise his or her country or president when travelling abroad. Election results were respected as an expression of the democratic process. The idea that anyone’s career would have been in danger as a result of voting for the candidate of a mainstream party would have been a scandal. Now, some commentators predict that leftist rhetoric may evolve into a shooting war. In one of his famous paintings celebrating American freedom—in this case free speech—Norman Rockwell depicted a dissenter at a political meeting being heard by the others present with respect and politeness.

It is dismaying for friends of American democracy that the Democrat senators in 2018 were prepared to vote against President Trump’s nomination for the Supreme Court no matter who that nominee was, or how qualified and suitable that nominee might be. This showed a willingness to wreck the processes of government without consideration of the national interest—a plain abrogation of the duty attached to the high positions to which they had been elected. Edmund Burke said: “Your representative owes you, not his industry only, but his judgment; and he betrays instead of serving you if he sacrifices it.” It is a principle of representative democracy so basic that one is taken aback by the need to repeat it. In the twenty-four hours after President Trump nominated Brett Kavanaugh for the Supreme Court, former Speaker Nancy Pelosi declared Kavanaugh would be “a destructive tool on a generation of progress for workers, women, LGBTQ people, communities of color [and] families” and that he would “radically reverse the course of American justice [and] democracy”.

There is nothing in his previous career to suggest people would die because of Kavanaugh. NBC News journalists spread, as news, a false rumour that Anthony Kennedy had negotiated his retirement contingent on Kavanaugh’s appointment. One report noted:

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Welcome to Sanctuary Sweden! by Judith Bergman

By on September 28th, 2018

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/13016/sanctuary-sweden

Feras, an illegal alien to begin with, and a convicted felon, was allowed to stay in Sweden for the sole reason that he committed a violent hate crime against Swedish Jews. This despite the fact that Sweden had rejected his asylum request, and he therefore lacked any legal right to stay in the country.
The precedent that this case establishes is highly disturbing: If you commit crimes against Jews that can “be perceived as a serious political crime directed against other Jews,” then you might be eligible for asylum in Sweden. The rights of Sweden’s vulnerable Jews have apparently ceased to matter.

In Sweden, and perhaps other places as well, it appears that that the “human rights” of foreign aspiring murderers are more important than the human rights of law-abiding citizens.

Are you in a European country illegally, flouting your deportation order and committing arson? No problem. If the country to which you are to be returned might conceivably harm you, instead you are welcome to stay in Sweden, commit more crimes and harm Swedes.

A Swedish Court of Appeal recently overturned the deportation ruling against one of three convicted perpetrators of an arson attack against the synagogue of Gothenburg in December 2017, on the grounds that it would be in contravention of his “fundamental human rights”.

The 22-year old Arab man from Gaza, known as Feras, was in Sweden illegally when he committed the attack. His asylum request had been rejected by the Swedish Migration Agency (Migrationsverket); he had apparently been told to leave the country, but he did not. For reasons that are unclear, he was not held for deportation, but still walking around freely in Sweden.

Feras used that freedom to participate in an attack on the Gothenburg synagogue. Approximately 10-15 other young men, of whom only three were charged, joined him. It seems that while young Jews were gathered for a party in an adjacent building, Feras and his friends threw burning objects at cars parked inside the synagogue fence. No one was hurt and the fires were quickly extinguished by rain, leaving only marginal material damage. The court therefore refused to categorize the crime as attempted murder, as the prosecution had requested. Both the lower court and the Court of Appeal did find, however, that the arson attack constituted an anti-Semitic hate crime.

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Kavanaugh’s Testimony Was His Joseph N. Welch Moment By Victor Davis Hanson

By on September 28th, 2018

https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/kavanaughs-testimony-was-his-joseph-n-welch-moment/

Christina Ford’s testimony did not alter, positively or negatively, the facts of her allegations. She still cannot adduce where or when the alleged assault of 36 years prior occurred, or how she arrived at, or departed from, the alleged, but unnamed, location of the assault, or how many people and of which gender were present at the alleged assault. Nor did she name a single witness that could corroborate her narrative. Nor could she refute any of the named witnesses who contradicted her accounts.

The entire purpose of today’s hearing was for the Democrats to call for a lengthy “FBI investigation,” and thereby delay the hearings until after the midterms, excusing Trump-state senators up for reelection from having to vote No on Kavanaugh, while giving time for a likely fifth, sixth, and seventh psychodramatic accuser to step forward, whose lurid falsified allegations take days to refute, but insidiously bleed Kavanaugh by a thousand lies.

It is true that Ford was an empathetic witness in recounting what she seems to believe happened. And the argument of her supporters is that, because she sincerely believes that she was assaulted and that on some occasions 30 or more years after the alleged incident mentioned it to others, therefore her allegations are proven — when in fact raising the allegations 30 years and more later confirms only that she believes her own allegations, not that her allegations as they concerned Judge Kavanaugh are valid.

There was almost no attention paid to the Ramirez and Swetnick accusations — apparently because Democrats concluded that the advantages of trying to prove a Kavanaugh pattern of illegal or improper behavior was far outweighed by the utter lack of credibility by subsequent accusers, who, if they were to appear, would make that embarrassing fact quite clear. There was still no adequate explanation of why Democrats forced Ford to lose her anonymity or why they did not prompt an “FBI Investigation” immediately upon receipt of the allegation by Senator Feinstein.

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The Kavanaugh Stakes A vote against the judge is a vote for ambush tactics and against due process.By Kimberley A. Strassel

By on September 28th, 2018

https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-kavanaugh-stakes-1538088433

The Ford-Kavanaugh hearing consumed most of Thursday, and unsurprisingly we learned nothing from the spectacle. Christine Ford remains unable to marshal any evidence for her claim of a sexual assault. Brett Kavanaugh continues to deny the charge adamantly and categorically, and with persuasive emotion.

Something enormous nonetheless has shifted over the past weeks of political ambushes, ugly threats and gonzo gang-rape claims. In a Monday interview, Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski noted: “We are now in a place where it’s not about whether or not Judge Kavanaugh is qualified.” Truer words were never spoken. Republicans are now voting on something very different and monumental—and they need to be clear on the stakes.

To vote against Judge Kavanaugh is to reject his certain, clear and unequivocal denial that this event ever happened. The logical implication of a “no” vote is that a man with a flawless record of public service lied not only to the public but to his wife, his children and his community. Any Republican who votes against Judge Kavanaugh is implying that he committed perjury in front of the Senate, and should resign or be impeached from his current judicial position, if not charged criminally. As Sen. Lindsey Graham said: “If you vote ‘no,’ you are legitimizing the most despicable thing I have seen in my time in politics.”

The stakes go beyond Judge Kavanaugh. A “no” vote now equals public approval of every underhanded tactic deployed by the left in recent weeks. It’s a green light to send coat hangers and rape threats to Sen. Susan Collins and her staff. It is a sanction to the mob that drove Sen. Ted Cruz and his wife out of a restaurant. It is an endorsement of Sen. Dianne Feinstein, who kept the charge secret for weeks until she could use it to ambush the nominee with last-minute, unverified claims. It’s approval of the release of confidential committee material (hello, Spartacus), the overthrow of regular Senate order, and Twitter rule. It’s authorization for a now thoroughly unprofessional press corps to continue crafting stories that rest on anonymous accusers and that twist innuendo into gang rapes. A vote against Brett Kavanaugh is a vote for Michael Avenatti. No senator can hide from this reality. There is no muddy middle. CONTINUE AT SITE

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Female Christian Victims of Boko Haram And leftist feminists’ deafening silence. Jack Kerwick

By on September 28th, 2018

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/271422/female-christian-victims-boko-haram-jack-kerwick

Among the world’s suffering masses are the adherents of Christianity, the most persecuted of religions. Indeed, aside from what our establishment media would like you to believe, it is not Muslims who constitute the most oppressed of the world’s religions. It is Christians. Moreover, about 80% of the time, the oppression under which Christians in Africa and the Middle East are made to live is inflicted upon them by Islam.

And unlike women, or at least self-described “feminist” women, in the West who would have us think that they’re injured every time a man (or, more specifically, a white heterosexual man) fails to use gender-neutral pronouns, or expresses his opposition to abortion, Christian women in places like Nigeria are made to genuinely suffer.

Take the case of Leah Sharibu. Leah is a 15 year-old Nigerian, a Christian, who was taken from her family by Boko Haram thugs eight months ago. Yet recently, matters took another turn.

According to Open Doors, an organization dedicated to helping persecuted Christians, Boko Haram is now threatening to murder Leah unless the demands that it has issued to the Nigerian government are met. Considering that it just released a video of the murder of a 25 year-old aid worker with the International Committee of the Red Cross, Saifura Hussaini Ahmed Khorsa, a woman who it was holding along with Leah, Boko Haram’s threats must be taken seriously.

Khorsa was kidnapped on March 1 when Boko Haram set upon the town of Rann, near the Cameroon border. In addition to Leah, two other women were abducted, two relief workers—Hauwa Mohammed Liman, a midwife employed by the International Committee of the Red Cross, and Alice Loksha Ngaddah, a nurse for UNICEF.

Upon releasing the video of the murder of Khorsa, a spokesperson for Boko Haram announced that the terrorist organization had “contacted the government through writing and…audio messages,” but to no avail.

This being so, Boko Haram would leave “a message of blood.”

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Brainwash Your Babies When you’re deceiving everybody about Islam, don’t forget the kids. Bruce Bawer

By on September 28th, 2018

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/271416/brainwash-your-babies-bruce-bawer

Quick quiz. Find the main difference between these brief excerpts from accounts of the world’s two major faiths. First, this:

Christians believe [Jesus Christ] to be the Son of God….according to Christian teaching after three days he rose from the dead….Christians believe that there is only one God, but that he is revealed in three different forms.

Next, this:

The Qur’an was first revealed to the Prophet Muhammad during [Ramadan]. The actual night that the Qur’an was revealed is a night known as Lailut ul-Qadr (‘The Night of Power’).

The difference, of course, is that while the details of the founding of Christianity are presented as a set of beliefs, the supernatural elements of Islam’s founding narrative are recounted as if they were historical fact.

Both of these excerpts are from a BBC website intended for the use of teachers in secular British schools.

After 9/11, it was imperative that people in the West be educated about Islam. There was no need to stuff their heads with countless historical and theological details; all that was necessary was for Western leaders to get across the point that Islam isn’t just another religion but is, rather, totalitarian ideology with religious elements. That never happened. Instead, we were all told repeatedly that Islam is a religion of peace, that all those terrorists are misunderstanding it every time they do something naughty, and that the chief victims of their misunderstanding are the overwhelming majority of their fellow Muslims who are thoroughly decent, God-fearing types.

As it happens, these days schools across the Western world do set aside time for Islam lessons. But to judge by the teaching materials available online, what goes on during these classroom sessions is the very opposite of education.

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Kavanaugh Kicks Away Democrats’ ‘Political Hit’ Christine Blasey Ford flops in “Summer of 82” hearing. Lloyd Billingsley

By on September 28th, 2018

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/271462/kavanaugh-kicks-away-democrats-political-hit-lloyd-billingsley

“I was pushed onto the bed and Brett got on top of me.” Christine Blasey Ford testified Thursday. “He began running his hands over my body and grinding his hips into me. I yelled, hoping someone downstairs might hear me, and tried to get away from him, but his weight was heavy. Brett groped me and tried to take off my clothes. He had a hard time because he was so drunk, and because I was wearing a one-piece bathing suit under my clothes. I believed he was going to rape me. I tried to yell for help. When I did, Brett put his hand over my mouth to stop me from screaming. This was what terrified me the most, and has had the most lasting impact on my life. It was hard for me to breathe, and I thought that Brett was accidentally going to kill me. Both Brett and Mark were drunkenly laughing during the attack.” And so on.

Dr. Ford described herself as “a fiercely independent person and I am no one’s pawn.” Yet, since she accused Kavanaugh it has become clear that she is a partisan, activist Democrat. Ford was flanked by attorney Debra Katz, a partisan Democrat who defended Bill Clinton, not the women who accused him, and Michael Bromwich, a POTUS 44 appointee who also served as an attorney for fired FBI boss Andrew McCabe.

In testimony it emerged that Dr. Ford had sent her letter to Dianne Feinstein, not to both Republicans and Democrats on the judiciary committee. That is what one would expect if Ford’s action was simple “civic duty,” as the professor has proclaimed, and not part of an attempt to smear Kavanaugh and block him from the high court.

Ford was well cast as an ingenue and professional victim, clad in blue like Anita Hill, as ranking member Feinstein noted. In effect, the accuser served as her own expert witness, speaking of the brain’s “hippocampus” and explaining “the etiology of PTSD is multifactoral.” Yet despite her ease with psycho-medical jargon, the professor was shaky about her handlers, the polygraph, and many other details. The professor even told the committee she did not know what “exculpatory evidence” is. So at times, as Joseph diGenova predicted, she did “look like the loon she is.”

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