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February 2020

WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

‘I have lost four years of my life’: the desperate migrants stuck in squalid Libyan camps Around 650,000 migrants live in Libya, according to the UN, with around 2,000 in barely sanitary ‘detention centres’

By on February 14th, 2020

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/02/13/have-lost-four-years-life-desperate-migrants-stuck-squalid-libyan/

When Osas Akahomoen set out from Nigeria in search of work in Europe in 2016, he imagined his qualifications as a welder would help him find a decent job and a living wage somewhere in Europe. 

Instead, he embarked on an odyssey of suffering that would see him kidnapped and ransomed twice, abandoned to die by people smugglers in the Sahara desert, and finally held incommunicado in a barely sanitary ‘detention centre’ in Libya without functioning toilets. 

“There’s no toothbrushes, no running water, there’s lice everywhere. At least in Nigeria I can have a shave. I can brush my teeth,” he said in an interview in the Libyan detention compound where he is being held. “I just want to go back to Nigeria. And I wouldn’t advise anyone else to do what I did. I have lost four years of my life.”

Mr Akahomoen, a thoughtful twenty-eight year old from Nigeria’s Edo province, has been through an extraordinary ordeal. But among the inmates of Libya’s migrant detention centres, it is not out of the ordinary. 

More than 40,000 would-be migrants to Europe have been intercepted at sea since Italy began paying and equipping the Libyan coastguard to do so in 2017.

But the fate of those detained has caused outrage. Last month, the European Union’s commissioner for Human Rights called on Italy to suspend the arrangement because of “serious human rights violations.” 

“Humanitarian rhetoric doesn’t justify continued support to the Coast Guard when Italy knows people apprehended at sea will be returned to arbitrary detention and abuse,” said Judith Sunderland, associate Europe and Central Asia division at Human Rights Watch, in a statement calling for Italy to suspend the program.

Oil-rich but sparsely populated, Libya has long been a destination for immigration. Under Muammar Gaddafi’s regime, there were as many as two million migrants workers living and working here, sending remittances back to families across Africa and the Middle East. 

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Sharp Rise in Coronavirus Cases Raises Questions About Outbreak’s Peak Epidemiologists, officials and investors may need to recalibrate projections for the trajectory of a pathogen that remains little understood By Wenxin Fan and Natasha Khan in Hong Kong and Chao Deng in Wuhan, China

By on February 14th, 2020

https://www.wsj.com/articles/sharp-rise-in-coronavirus-cases-raises-questions-about-outbreaks-peak-11581617783

New cases of the coronavirus rose sharply after Chinese authorities changed the criteria for diagnosing the illness, raising questions about how soon the outbreak will peak.

On Thursday, health officials in Hubei province, the epicenter of the infections, announced the largest one-day jump in cases—14,840 on Wednesday, about nine times the number of new cases a day earlier. Epidemiologists, government officials and investors might now need to recalibrate their projections for the trajectory of a virus that remains little understood.

In recent days, investors had pushed U.S. stocks to records as Chinese officials touted gains in the fight against the fast-spreading illness that has gripped central China for the past month, fixing their attention on one number—a drop in the growth rate of new infections—that suggested the virus was running out of steam.

Such a dramatic surge in cases as announced Thursday is likely a one-off. It reflects the shift in how Hubei province authorities are classifying patients as having clinically confirmed infections after they are diagnosed by a doctor, such as through an X-ray, rather than just counting those patients who have positive laboratory identification of the virus.

The new practice isn’t a standard way to diagnose the presence of a specific virus.

“This does not represent a significant change in trajectory of the outbreak,” said Michael Ryan, executive director of the World Health Organization’s Health Emergencies Program. He called the jump in cases “an after-fact of reporting.”

Dr. Ryan said the move would allow authorities to do more public-health investigations, such as by tracking down patients’ contacts, which are needed to contain the outbreak.

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Italy: Salvini Facing Show Trial for “Kidnapping” Migrants by Soeren Kern

By on February 14th, 2020

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/15597/italy-salvini-show-trial

In September, Sicilian prosecutor Carmelo Zuccaro said that the kidnapping accusations against Salvini were “groundless” and recommended that he be acquitted of all charges. The Court of Ministers, however, overruled Zuccaro, who is now, paradoxically, required to proceed with prosecuting Salvini, even though he has already found him to be innocent.

The charges against Salvini appear to be part of a political vendetta against him as well as his opposition to mass migration. Case in point: Although the decision to prevent those onboard the Gregoretti from disembarking in July 2019 was made by Salvini in close coordination with senior members of the Italian government, only Salvini is facing prosecution.

“No contrary position was taken by the Prime Minister Conte…. This makes the hypothesis of individual action by Minister Salvini completely improbable.” — Senator Erika Stefani, Lega Party, presenting documents showing that other ministers were deeply involved in discussions over the Gregoretti.

“If I have to go to court, I will explain to the judges that defending the borders of my country and protecting citizens was my duty and, serenely, I will go to that courtroom to represent millions of Italians, because I simply did what they asked me to do: to control who enters and who leaves Italy.” — Former Interior Minister Matteo Salvini in a tweet, February 12, 2020.

Like Trump, Salvini’s legal troubles are fuelling his approval ratings…. Surveys indicate that if Italy held elections now, Lega would win a majority together with its conservative allies.

The Italian Senate has voted to strip former Interior Minister Matteo Salvini of parliamentary immunity so that he can face kidnapping charges for refusing to allow migrants to disembark from a ship at a port in Sicily.

If Salvini, who leads the anti-mass-migration party, Lega (League), is found guilty, he faces a ban on holding political office and up to 15 years in prison. He has said that he acted in Italy’s national interest and that the charges against him are politically motivated, aimed at silencing criticism of the country’s open-door migration policy.

Under Italian law, ministers enjoy immunity for actions taken while in office — unless the Senate votes to lift that protection. On February 12, the Italian Senate voted 152-76 in favor of lifting Salvini’s immunity, after a parliamentary committee on January 21 recommended the action.

In December, the Court of Ministers in Catania, Sicily, ruled that Salvini should be indicted for “aggravated kidnapping” for depriving 131 migrants onboard the Gregoretti coastguard ship of their liberty by refusing to allow them to disembark. The incident, which occurred over a four-day period in July 2019, was part of Salvini’s “closed ports” policy against illegal immigration and an attempt to force EU member states to share the burden of mass migration.

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EDUCATION Comments turned off

Skills Development, Not Education, Is Key To Workforce Transformation Walt Malone

By on February 14th, 2020

https://issuesinsights.com/2020/02/14/skills-development-not-education-is-key-to-workforce-transformation/

As a new decade dawns, the U.S. workforce will face tremendous challenges, but also unprecedented opportunities, especially in manufacturing.

We know that the face of the workforce is changing. As the Wall Street Journal reported in December, American manufacturers are on pace to employ more college graduates than workers with a high school education or those without high school degrees in the next three years. While it is essential for manufacturers to hire developers, coders, analysts, and employees with specialized backgrounds, employees across our manufacturing operations are proving that it doesn’t take an advanced education to have a fulfilling, well-paying career. At Koch, we have close to 2,000 openings in manufacturing roles throughout our enterprise. These openings won’t all be filled by employees with four-year degrees.

Much of the U.S. workforce is facing a future in which their current roles will almost certainly give way to automation, artificial intelligence and other innovations. A recent report by the McKinsey Global Institute highlights the importance of upskilling current employees and supporting programs that prepare the emerging workforce. Without continuing education initiatives and skills training across demographic groups, education levels, and geography, the report found that automation and other technological changes could leave millions of workers behind. That is why manufacturers must encourage alternatives to traditional educational structures while empowering employees with the tools to improve and transform.

By 2028, there could be as many as 2 million unfilled manufacturing jobs across the United States. Filling that gap will require not just a shift in how businesses think about these roles but also how employees can grow with them.

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NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

America’s Growing Approval Of Socialism Is A Rejection Of Freedom J. Frank Bullitt

By on February 14th, 2020

https://issuesinsights.com/2020/02/14/americas-growing-approval-of-socialism-is-a-rejection-of-freedom/

In February 2009, just after the inauguration of President Barack Obama, Newsweek declared on its cover “We Are All Socialists Now.” More than a decade later, socialism has taken over the Democratic Party, and has a strong hold on young Americans. It’s gone mainstream in a nation founded on principles opposite the tenets of socialism.

Seven in 10 millennials say they would vote for a socialist candidate, while 64% of Generation Z told pollsters last year it is “somewhat/extremely likely” they’d vote for a socialist, according to a YouGov-Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation poll taken last fall.

Among Democrats of all ages, socialism is held in high esteem. Seven in 10 (again) said last spring socialism is “a good thing,” marking a disturbing shift. The year before, only 57% of Democrats held the same opinion of socialism.

Cultural critic Camille Paglia has said that young Americans lean toward socialism because they are ignorant of history. So maybe they just don’t understand what socialism is. To them, it’s an avuncular white-haired guy yelling about concentrations of wealth, which they’ve been led to believe is an evil that must be broken by the state, and too many choices in deodorant; a frail but angry-for-some-reason woman promising to cancel the debt on their student loans who says she has a plan to fix all economic and societal ills; and a young, photogenic New York congresswoman with a tippy-top coolness factor who they think speaks for them.

Socialism, though, is coercion by the state, “a boot,” said George Orwell, “stamping on the human face forever.” It requires the exclusion of freedom, operates by command, requires reluctant participants to yield to its plans. Socialism “cannot co-exist with individual rights,” its solidarity “is enforced at gunpoint,” its notions of equality and fairness ensured by squads that will ultimately “show up with truncheons.”

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POLITICS Comments turned off

Conventional Wisdom About the Democrats’ Primary Is Wrong Conrad Black

By on February 14th, 2020

https://amgreatness.com/2020/02/13/conventional-wisdom-about-the-democrats-primary-is-wrong/

Commentators are scrambling to decide which candidate—Sanders, Buttigieg, or Bloomberg—has the advantage on Super Tuesday. They’re not seeing things clearly.

There are three widely proclaimed verities now bandied about in the aftermath of the Democratic presidential primary in New Hampshire on Tuesday.

They are that Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) is a clear front-runner with a chance for a break-through to a commanding lead in the quest for the nomination. The second is that former South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg is a serious candidate with a chance for the Democratic nomination, and the third is that former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg has been providentially assisted by the disintegration of the candidacy of former Vice President Joe Biden and the bunching together of Sanders, Buttigieg, and Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), and will seize the leadership of the race when he gets to the ballot in 15 states simultaneously on Super Tuesday, March 3.

I think all three of these deductions are mistaken.

Bernie Sanders won 60 percent of the vote in New Hampshire in 2016 against Hillary Clinton, where he won about 26 percent this week in an eight-candidate race. But five of the candidates collected 30 percent of the vote, and Sanders only got 26 of the remaining 70, about 36 percent. If the competition is whittled down to Sanders and Buttigieg, who is a much less formidable candidate than Clinton was four years ago, Sanders got about 52 percent of the vote. He did not win the nomination last time, though without the vote-rigging of the Obama-Clinton party establishment and their hundreds of unelected superdelegates, he would have made it a very close race. Still, New Hampshire in 2016 produced a much better vote for Sanders than it did this year.

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IMMIGRATION Comments turned off

Trump’s Crackdown on Sanctuary Cities Is Good… . . . but a crackdown on employers would be even better. Nicholas L. Waddy

By on February 14th, 2020

https://amgreatness.com/2020/02/14/trumps-crackdown-on-sanctuary-cities-is-good/

This week, Attorney General Bill Barr’s Department of Justice announced a raft of lawsuits against sanctuary jurisdictions that are undermining the ability of the federal government to enforce the nation’s immigration laws.

So-called sanctuary policies are designed to prevent local and state law enforcement from cooperating with ICE and the Border Patrol. The goal? To nullify federal laws against illegal immigration and shield criminal aliens from deportation.

Now the Trump Administration is fighting back. In addition to Justice Department lawsuits against California, New Jersey, and King County in Washington state, the Department of Homeland Security has made New York residents ineligible to participate in “Trusted Traveler” programs because of that state’s new policies preventing the Department of Motor Vehicles from providing critical information to the Department of Homeland Security. New York residents will be perturbed, but they have only left-wing Governor Andrew Cuomo and a deep-blue state legislature to blame.

It’s about time that the Departments of Justice and Homeland Security started taking seriously their obligation to prioritize the safety of U.S. citizens and to quash, once and for all, the Democrats’ lawlessness.

The crackdown on sanctuary jurisdictions is just the latest in a long series of bold and largely successful efforts by the Trump Administration aimed at suppressing illegal immigration. Trump has ended the disastrous “catch-and-release” policies of the Obama years. No longer will illegals be bussed to their final destinations in the United States and asked politely to turn up for hearings months or years later. Instead, they are detained and rapidly returned to Mexico or their countries of origin.

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Unindicted Co-Conspirator of ’93 WTC Bombing Coming to Speak in South Florida February 2020 ICNA banquet featuring Siraj Wahhaj and other Muslim radicals. Joe Kaufman

By on February 14th, 2020

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2020/02/unindicted-co-conspirator-93-wtc-bombing-coming-joe-kaufman/

On February 26, 1993, a truck bomb exploded under the North Tower of the World Trade Center killing six people and injuring over a thousand others. The bomb was meant to collapse the building and, if successful, would have taken the lives of thousands, as we later witnessed during 9/11. On February 22, 2020, just days shy of the 27th anniversary of the ’93 bombing, one of the named unindicted co-conspirators of the attack, Brooklyn imam Siraj Wahhaj, will be the main speaker at the South Florida annual banquet for ICNA Relief. Besides its sorrowful anniversary, this shameful event is a reminder, as well, that radical Islam is thriving in America and that Florida is a hotbed of Islamist activity.

Siraj Wahhaj is the imam of the At-Taqwa Mosque, located in Brooklyn, New York, and the President of the Muslim Alliance in North America (MANA). In 1995, along with Osama bin Laden and bin Laden’s mentor, Abdullah Azzam, Wahhaj was named by the US government as an “unindicted co-conspirator” for a federal trial dealing with the 1993 World Trade Center (WTC) bombing. Wahhaj had been linked to the bomb-maker of the attack, Clement Rodney Hampton-El, and during the trial, he was a character witness for the spiritual leader of the attack, the “Blind Sheikh” Omar Abdel Rahman, whom Wahhaj has openly praised.

Wahhaj recently made the news, when his son, two daughters, son-in-law and daughter-in-law were arrested on charges of abusing children at an alleged terrorist training compound in New Mexico. According to Reuters, “Eleven children ranging from 1 to 15 years of age were found ragged and starving.” Another child and grandson of Wahhaj, 3-year-old Abdul-Ghani Wahhaj, was found dead at the compound, after his reported abduction by Wahhaj’s son, Siraj Ibn Wahhaj, from the Atlanta, Georgia home of the child’s mother. According to prosecutors, the children were being trained at the compound to commit school shootings.

This month, Wahhaj will be the keynote speaker at the 2020 annual banquet for ICNA Relief, taking place at the Marriott Coral Springs Hotel and Convention Center. The location has become a go-to venue for radical Muslim events, as the Hamas-related Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) just held their annual banquet there, this past October.

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IMMIGRATION Comments turned off

Trump Demands Justice for Victims of Sanctuary Cities It’s time for leftist jailers who free dangerous illegal aliens to pay the price. Matthew Vadum

By on February 14th, 2020

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2020/02/trump-demands-justice-victims-sanctuary-cities-matthew-vadum/

Crime victims harmed by dangerous illegal aliens should be able to sue the so-called sanctuary jurisdictions that unleashed them on an unwitting public in defiance of federal immigration authorities, President Donald Trump declared in his State of the Union address. At the same time, he endorsed pending legislation that would accomplish this goal.

This is another politically astute immigration-related proposal from Trump who demonstrates time and time again that he is one of the few Republican presidents in modern American history who actually knows how to fight the Left. It puts the illegal alien-coddlers and open-borders fanatics on the defensive and educates the public in clearly understandable terms about who the bad guys really are in this fight over the nation’s future. It comes almost a year after Trump proposed shipping immigration detainees to sanctuary cities, which are Democrat strongholds.

As FrontPage readers know, the sanctuary movement gave illegal aliens permission to rob, rape, and murder Americans by, among other things, stigmatizing immigration enforcement. Some left-wingers call sanctuary jurisdictions “civil liberties safe zones” to blur the distinction between citizens and non-citizens by implying illegal aliens somehow possess a civil right to be present in the U.S. Leftists also like to refer to all migrants, including illegal aliens, simply as “immigrants” in order to further muddy the waters. This helps the Left portray conservatives, who are generally not anti-immigrant –they’re anti-illegal immigration— as xenophobic bigots.

Sanctuary cities really ought to be called traitor cities because they are in open rebellion against the United States just as much as the Confederate Army was when it opened fire on Fort Sumter.

President Trump railed against the sanctuary laws of California in his address.

“Senator Thom Tillis has introduced legislation to allow Americans like Jody to sue sanctuary cities and states when a loved one is hurt or killed as a result of these deadly practices,” Trump said Feb. 4, referring to Jody Jones, a guest at the speech whose brother, Rocky Jones, was allegedly shot and killed by two-time deportee Gustavo Garcia, an illegal alien wanted by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Local authorities in California ignored ICE and let Garcia go.

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NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION, P.C.-CULTURE Comments turned off

The #MeToo movement ignored a Ninth Circuit judge guilty of terrible misconduct By Andrea Widburg

By on February 14th, 2020

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2020/02/the_metoo_movement_ignored_a_ninth_circuit_judge_guilty_of_terrible_misconduct.html

In December 2017, the #MeToo movement claimed Judge Alex Kozinski, widely recognized as one of the most brilliant judges on the Ninth Circuit. Kozinski was also a libertarian in an activist circuit. Ironically, it now turns out that his close friend, the late Judge Stephen Reinhardt, a judicial activist, was the real sexual harasser.

At the #MeToo movement’s height, around fifteen women claimed that Kozinski, a Romanian-born child of Holocaust survivors, had sexually harassed them. Their charges ranged from his showing female clerks pornography, to using trying to read a hidden label name tag as an excuse to touch the woman’s breast, to kissing both male and female lawyers on the cheeks.

An interesting aspect of Kozinski’s departure was that one of the main people to help push him out was Heidi Bond, who alleged that Kozinski showed her pornography on the office computer, asked inappropriate questions, and was generally abusive to her.

Bond was in the news again in December 2019 because of her alternative career as bestselling romance novelist Courtney Milan. The Romance Writers of America kick Bond out after she used social media to accuse other romance novelists of racism. Bond, who is half Chinese, wrote on Twitter that one novelist’s 1999 work was a “f**king racist mess.”

While conceding that she not read the book, Bond found offensive the way the novel described its Chinese heroine. It was a vicious attack against a book that tried to write with sympathy (whether successfully or not) about a different culture two decades before “cultural appropriation” was a thing. Bond’s role in two attacks from the left, one against a judge and the other against an author, doesn’t mean that her accusations were wrong. Still, her commitment to identity politics is noteworthy.

The real irony is that the truly vile judge on the Ninth Circuit wasn’t Kozinski, it was Judge Stephen Reinhardt, an activist judge and an icon of the left. Although Reinhardt died in 2018, a House Judiciary subcommittee heard testimony on Thursday about Reinhardt’s incredibly abusive, demeaning conduct towards Oliva Warren, a female clerk:

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