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February 2019

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Trump tax returns: House Democrats ready for ultimate fishing expedition by Byron York

By on February 12th, 2019

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/columnists/byron-york-trump-tax-returns-house-dems-ready-for-ultimate-fishing-expedition

Yes, Democrats want to start a new investigation into already-under-investigation Trump-Russia allegations. And yes, they want to investigate Trump associates like Michael Cohen, Roger Stone, and others. But by far the biggest thing Democrats want, now that they have the majority in the House, is to get their hands on the president’s tax returns.

House Democrats want to use a 1924 law that allows any one of three entities — the House Ways & Means Committee, the Senate Finance Committee, or the Joint Committee on Taxation — to demand that the Treasury Department turn over the returns of any individual. Passed in the wake of the Teapot Dome scandal and controversy over the finances of Treasury Secretary Andrew Mellon, the law has almost never been used. For the first 50 years of the law’s existence, no one tried to get a president’s returns — although the law played a role in the fight over Richard Nixon’s finances — and in the years since Gerald Ford took office, presidents have voluntarily made their returns public. Until Donald Trump.

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POLITICS Comments turned off

In El Paso, Beto O’Rourke Makes It Easy For Trump To Target ‘Extreme’ Democrats By John Daniel Davidson

By on February 12th, 2019

http://thefederalist.com/2019/02/12/el-paso-trump-sets-sights-extreme-democrats/

With Beto O’Rourke as a perfect foil, Trump kicked off his 2020 reelection bid by painting Democrats as ‘outside the mainstream.’

EL PASO, Texas — It was altogether fitting that President Trump’s rally Monday night in El Paso was something of a circus. After all, it was the first official campaign event of his 2020 reelection bid.

The rally had all the trappings of any other Trump rally: itinerant Trump vendors hawking their wares outside the venue, supporters decked out in MAGA gear who traveled from several states away, a handful of angry protesters who managed to sneak signs into the stadium and disrupt things for a minute or two.

But it also had something extra. There were the theatrics of being right on the U.S.-Mexico border while another government shutdown looms over funding for Trump’s border wall. There was also the spectacle of a protest march and counter-rally a few hundred yards away featuring none other than Beto O’Rourke, a likely 2020 Democratic contender.

It was a perfect setting for Trump to draw out the contrasts between his GOP and the Democratic Party heading into the 2020 cycle. On everything from the border wall to abortion to the Mueller investigation to the booming economy and the Democrats’ Green New Deal, Trump presented himself as reasonable and Democrats as extreme.

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ANTI-SEMITISM Comments turned off

MY SAY: ILHAN IS A SYMPTOM OF A MAJOR EPIDEMIC

By on February 12th, 2019

Oooh….defenders of the Democrat party have their knickers in a knot….what to do about Ilhan Omar and anti-Semitic tantrums of other members of Congress. Their scoldings and her apology are perfunctory. I suggest they look for the locus of this resurgence of the ancient hatred of Jews which has seeped into the corridors of power in America.

Listen to the sermons in mosques throughout the nation. Read the New York Times. Check out the academics who teach “Mid-East Studies” in all the Universities in every single state in America. Their lectures are defined by MESA (Middle East Studies Association) which toes the line of Edward Said to schools which receive serious funding from the Arab Emirates.

And to legitimate their bias, there are myriad Jewish groups of “social justice warriors” who focus their hatred on Israel.

It is easy to target Ilhan, but difficult and not comfy to confront the disease and its promulgators. I call it the silence of the ostriches….rsk

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WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Hamas, Islamic Jihad War Crimes Against Children and Women by Bassam Tawil

By on February 12th, 2019

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/13710/hamas-war-crimes-children

It is worth noting that the Hamas and Islamic Jihad members who were killed while participating in the violence near the Gaza-Israel border did not come there dressed in military uniforms or carrying their weapons. Instead, the Hamas and Islamic Jihad men participated in the weekly protests dressed in civilian clothes. They pretended they were ordinary and innocent civilians protesting against the economic crisis in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip.

While they are in Cairo, the Hamas and Islamic Jihad leaders continue to send thousands of women and children to engage in violent attacks on Israeli soldiers. These leaders do not care about the safety or welfare of their women and children. On the contrary; the more dead women and children, the better. That way, they can blame Israel for killing innocent civilians and incite more Palestinians to join the jihad against Jews.

Those who are encouraging women and children to take part in a violent confrontation with the Israeli army should be held accountable for war crimes. It is time for the international community to call on Hamas and Islamic Jihad and the other terrorist groups in the Gaza Strip to stop hiding behind women and children and to stop using them as human shields in their jihad to eliminate Israel.

When Hamas launched its weekly demonstrations along the border between the Gaza Strip and Israel 10 months ago, it first sent its men and their family members to participate in the protests. A few weeks later, however, Hamas instructed its men to stay away from the border after many were detected and killed by the Israeli army. Most of the Hamas men who were killed during the violence belonged to the group’s military wing, Izaddin al-Qassam. Others belonged to the military wing of another terrorist group, Islamic Jihad.

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WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Turkey: Imprisoned Former Opposition Lawmaker Symbol of Unjust Justice System by Uzay Bulut

By on February 12th, 2019

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/13716/turkey-eren-erdem

During his tenure as an Turkish member of parliament, Eren Erdem exposed ISIS and al-Qaeda activities across Turkey and often called on the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) government to stop those activities and bring the militants to account. For that, he has been subject to pressure, investigations and trials.

In 2015, Turkey’s president Erdogan condemned Erdem and called him a “traitor”. An investigation into treason was launched against Erdem, who also received death threats over social media, with his home address posted by pro-government Twitter users, presumably to enable an attack on his house.

“On January 7, the court decided to release me by unanimous vote, as there is not a single piece of evidence against me….” – Eren Erdem, letter written from prison around January 28.

A former deputy of Turkey’s main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), Eren Erdem, who has been under arrest for seven months on terrorism charges, remains incarcerated — even though a court ruled on January 7 that he would be released pending trial.

Just before he was to be let out of prison, Istanbul’s chief public prosecutor’s office objected to his release. A higher court accepted the objection and once again issued a detention warrant against him.

In reaction to Erdem’s re-arrest despite the court ruling, his father, Hasan Erdem, said: “I’m talking to the person who is giving the instructions for this. You should know that my son and I are not afraid of you. You will not be able to bring us to our knees.”

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POLITICS Comments turned off

Watchdog Group Files Fundraising Ethics Violation Complaint Against Gillibrand By Mairead McArdle

By on February 12th, 2019

https://www.nationalreview.com/news/kirsten-gillibrand-fundraising-ethics-violation-complaint/

A watchdog group filed an ethics complaint on Monday against Democratic 2020 presidential contender Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, saying she violated Senate ethics rules by using improper fundraising methods.

The Foundation for Accountability and Civic Trust (FACT) filed the complaint with the Senate Select Committee on Ethics, noting that the New York Democrat sent out a tweet during President Trump’s State of the Union speech inappropriately asking for campaign donations by using footage of herself on the House floor during the speech.

“Chip in $5 so we can put an end to this,” Gillibrand’s tweet said.

The watchdog requested that the committee “immediately investigate” Gillibrand, who announced her run for president last month and vowed to take on institutional racism, corruption and greed in Washington, and special interests.

“Presumably Senator Gillibrand is aware of her ethics violation because she later removed the tweet after raising funds in violation of ethics rules, all of which should be returned,” FACT wrote in its letter.

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EDUCATION Comments turned off

We’re Failing Our Students, and It Hurts Us All By Ilana Redstone Akresh

By on February 12th, 2019

https://www.nationalreview.com/2019/02/colleges-universities-left-wing-bubbles-failing-students/

They can go through their entire education without coming across a principled, non-left viewpoint.

In late January 2019, Kenneth Mayer, a political-science professor at the University of Wisconsin, drew the attention of a Republican state legislator for language in his syllabus that described Trump as “a president who gleefully flouts the norms of governing and presidential behavior.” His supporters see this as “not a bug, but a feature,” the professor wrote in his syllabus, adding, “To others, he is a spectacularly unqualified and catastrophically unfit egomaniac.” In response, the campus issued a statement supporting Mayer, stating that he “leaves his political opinions at the classroom door and asks his students to do the same.” Regardless of one’s views of the current administration, it is difficult to support the claim that Mayer’s opinions stayed at the door, given that they’re embedded in the course syllabus. Professor Mayer’s endorsement of a singular political perspective in the classroom points to a larger problem that plays out more broadly and has serious implications.

We can trace the current level of political polarization to multiple sources, but, whatever the causes, we could arguably reduce polarization by increasing our ability to see issues from perspectives other than our own. Given its potential to bridge divides, nurturing this ability should be a high priority. And yet, this is neglected in one of the places where it could do the most good: the college classroom.

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P.C.-CULTURE Comments turned off

The Intersectional Road to Perdition By Victor Davis Hanson *****

By on February 12th, 2019

https://www.nationalreview.com/2019/02/virginia-democrats-controversy-intersectional-politics/

Who is the greatest victim of them all? Leave it to the mob to pick the ‘winner.’

From The Ox-Bow Incident to To Kill a Mockingbird, novelists warned of the American propensity to become mob-like and often lethally so. Our Puritan roots, when coupled to elements of Athenian-style democracy, can on occasion vary wildly between dangerous bias and equally mindless self-righteousness.

Update those traditions within the modern bane of electronically charged instantaneous social media, identity politics, the decline of journalism, and vicarious virtue-signaling, and we increasingly suffer psychodramas like the Virginia fraternity mess, the Duke Lacrosse fiasco, the Kavanaugh hearings, and the Covington nightmare.

In such cases, predictable constructs often set afire the new mob. “Vulnerable” women or minorities or both are juxtaposed against young white males who have the scent of traditionalism, conservatism, or “privilege.” I say “psychodramas,” because the point is never to assess guilt or innocence or to establish some set of objective standards by which to condemn or exempt the accused. No, the aim is to vent outrage — the quicker, the more venomous, and the more public, the more advantageous either in a careerist or psychological sense.

The result is that there are now no rules in the Roman arena of feeding the accused to the carnivores — except two. If the progressive cause can be advanced, then necessary, one-time adjustments can call off the mob. And, two, given the complex hierarchy of victimhood and the relative degrees of perceived progressive correctness, it is sometimes difficult to sort out who should be rescued from, and who served up to, the famished lions.

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ANTI-SEMITISM Comments turned off

Vote on the Green New Deal Every Member of Congress should step up and be counted.

By on February 12th, 2019

https://www.wsj.com/articles/vote-on-the-green-new-deal-11549931107?cx_testId=0&cx_testVariant=cx_1&cx_artPos=0#cxrecs_s

Democrats rolled out their Green New Deal last week, and by all means let’s have a national debate and then a vote in Congress—as soon as possible. Here in one package is what the political left really means when it says Americans need to do something urgently about climate change, so let’s see who has the courage of those convictions.

Thanks to the resolution introduced last week by New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Massachusetts Sen. Ed Markey, there’s already official language. While it’s nonbinding, the 14 pages give a clear sense of direction and magnitude in calling for a “10-year national mobilization” to exorcise carbon from the U.S. economy.

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ENVIRONMENT AND JUNK SCIENCE, WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Green New Deal: A Cautionary Tale Australia’s costly and fatal 2009 effort to upgrade houses for energy efficiency. By Tim Blair

By on February 12th, 2019

https://www.wsj.com/articles/green-new-deal-a-cautionary-tale-11549928511

The Green New Deal—introduced in Congress last week and immediately endorsed by several Democratic presidential candidates—calls among other things for “upgrading all existing buildings in the United States . . . to achieve maximal energy efficiency.” We’ve tried it in Australia—on a much smaller scale—and it didn’t go well.

On Feb. 3, 2009, Labor Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and his treasurer, Wayne Swan, announced the Energy Efficient Homes Package. “To support jobs and set Australia up for a low carbon future the Rudd Government will install free ceiling insulation in around 2.7 million Australian homes,” declared a press release from Mr. Swan’s office.

“For a time-limited period of two and a half years, from 1 July 2009, owner-occupiers without ceiling insulation will be eligible for free product and installation (capped at $1,600) simply by making a phone call.” At the time, A$1,600 was worth about US$1,280.

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