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July 2020

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Trump v. big-city mayors: When the feds should and shouldn’t act By Andrew C. McCarthy,

By on July 23rd, 2020

https://thehill.com/opinion/criminal-justice/508509-trump-v-big-city-mayors-when-the-feds-should-and-shouldnt-act

More than 38,000 cops protect and serve the city of New York. By contrast, in the entire country, the FBI employs just 14,000 agents. And comparatively few of those are assigned to combat violent street crime. 

These are facts the Trump administration must weigh as the president and the Justice Department design a federal response to the surge in crime that is plaguing major American cities.

Let’s draw important distinctions, from the federal standpoint, between what is possible, what is imperative, and what would be a prudent exercise of discretion.

First, what is legally possible. It is patently absurd to contend, as many have, that the federal government needs state government permission to conduct law enforcement operations within a state’s territory. The Constitution explicitly commands the president to see that federal law is faithfully executed. The FBI and other federal law enforcement agencies not only may but routinely do enforce federal law without even giving state authorities notice, much less asking for their approval.

But there is an important limitation: There must be a federal criminal law that justifies federal enforcement. 

In our federalist system, policing crime within a state’s jurisdiction — particularly violent crime and property crime — is primarily a state responsibility. The feds, by contrast, may prosecute only if Congress has enacted a law based on some responsibility the Constitution assigns to Washington.

That brings us to what it is imperative for the federal government to do.

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CHARLOTTE'S NEWS WEB, NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

CHAOS BRINGS A SECOND TERM : DON SURBER

By on July 23rd, 2020

https://donsurber.blogspot.com/2020/07/chaos-brings-second-term.html

Democrats are having a good old time these days, running around, torching churches, looting stores, pulling down statues, painting Official Graffiti on the streets, and hitting cops with baseball bats.

I say to each of them, knock yourself out because it is all fun and games until the election comes around and you have to pay for your Summer of Hate.

President Donald John Trump trolled them in Seattle. He sent undercover agents to Portland, Oregon, to stop and question rioting Democrats.

That was on Friday.

On Monday, United Press International reported, “Democratic congressional leaders have called for an investigation into the legality of the Trump administration’s use of federal law enforcement officers during protests following reports of abusive practices being deployed against demonstrators in Portland.

“In a letter to the inspectors general of the Justice and Homeland Security Departments on Sunday, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler, Homeland Security Committee Chairman Bennie G. Thompson and Oversight and Reform Committee Chairwoman Carolyn B. Maloney urged for an investigation to be opened into reports Trump administration officials have abused emergency authorities to prevent Americans from exercising their right to peaceful assembly.”

The right to peacefully assemble does not cover throwing rocks and other objects at the police.

Americans know this.

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NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Gottlieb’s Pfizer Announces $1.95 Billion Deal with Feds for COVID-19 Vaccine By Julie Kelly

By on July 23rd, 2020

https://amgreatness.com/2020/07/22/gottliebs-pfizer-announces-1-95-billion-deal-with-feds-for-covid-19-vaccine/

One would be hard-pressed to find a more influential figure in the ongoing coronavirus crisis than Dr. Scott Gottlieb, the former chief of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. In late March, Gottlieb, now a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, authored a lengthy report detailing how the country could get back to normal after the 15-day “Flatten the Curve/Stop the Spread” order. (Remember that?)

“A Road Map to Reopening” established the phased-in process most public officials are following as America struggles to recapture the daily life we abruptly abandoned more than four months ago. Much of the report fixated on the need to develop a widely-available vaccine to fight COVID-19; only then, according to Gottlieb, could the country return to some sense of “normal.”

The media, Democratic and Republican governors, and the White House have embraced Gottlieb’s report as the gold standard. Trump’s ex-FDA commissioner is a fixture on CNBC and the Sunday morning talk shows, where he often touts the need for a vaccine. “Life’s never going to be perfectly normal until we get to a vaccine,” he said March 22 on “Face the Nation.”

It looks like Gottlieb is getting his wish. On Wednesday morning, the federal government announced plans to purchase and distribute 100 million doses of a coronavirus vaccine; this is the first step in fulfilling the goal of “Operation Warp Speed,” a public-private partnership committed to delivering 300 million doses of a “safe, effective vaccine for COVID-19 by January 2021.”

The initial order, paid for by the U.S. government but nonetheless advertised as “free” to Americans, will cost $1.95 billion.

In a joint statement, Pfizer and BioNTech, the two companies providing the vaccines, confirmed that two trial vaccines have received fast-track approval from the FDA; pending further testing, the companies will seek emergency regulatory approval “as early as October.” The companies plan to have 1.3 billion vaccines available by the end of 2021. Gottlieb should be thrilled.

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ISRAEL, WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

China-Iran Strategic Accord Changes Calculus for Israel Now that China has chosen to stand with Iran, Israel must recognize the implications and act accordingly. Caroline Glick

By on July 23rd, 2020

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2020/07/china-iran-strategic-accord-changes-calculus-caroline-glick/

When Chinese President Xi Jinping visited Tehran in 2016, most observers dismissed the significance of the move. The notion that Beijing would wreck its relations with America, the largest economy and most powerful global superpower, in favor of an alliance with Iran, the world’s greatest state sponsor of terrorism, was, on its face, preposterous.

But despite the ridiculousness of the idea, concern grew about Sino-Iranian ties as Iranian political leaders and military commanders beat a path to China’s door. Now, in the midst of the global recession caused by China’s export of the coronavirus, the preposterous has become reality.

Following weeks of feverish rumors, Iran and China have concluded a strategic accord. Last weekend, The New York Times reported on the contents of a final draft of the agreement.

In its opening line, China and Iran describe themselves as “two ancient Asian cultures, two partners in the sectors of trade, economy, politics, culture, and security with a similar outlook and many mutual bilateral and multilateral interests.”

Henceforth, they, “will consider one another strategic partners.”

Substantively, the deal involves Iran supplying China with oil at below-market prices for the next 25 years and China investing $400 billion in Iran over the same period. China committed to expanding its presence in the Iranian banking and telecommunication sectors. Among dozens of infrastructure projects, China will construct and operate ports and train lines. China will integrate Iran into its 5G internet network and its GPS system.

The implications of the deal are clear. China has opted to ignore U.S. sanctions. Beijing clearly believes the economic and diplomatic price it will pay for doing so will be smaller than the price the U.S. will pay for the diminishment of its position as the ultimate arbiter of global markets.

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EDUCATION, ISRAEL Comments turned off

Indoctrinated in Hate: Palestinian Schools Are Typical Muslim Schools No Israeli “oppression” is needed to explain the hate. Raymond Ibrahim

By on July 23rd, 2020

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2020/07/indoctrinated-hate-palestinian-schools-are-typical-raymond-ibrahim/

Indoctrinating Palestinian schoolchildren to hate and oppose the existence of Israel is rife, a recently study found after examining nearly 400 textbooks and over 100 teachers’ guides issued by the Palestinian Authority’s Ministry of Education between 2013 and 2020.

According to its author, Dr. Arnon Groiss of the Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center, there are three aspects to this education:

[1] De-legitimization of the State of Israel’s existence and the very presence of Jews in the Land of Israel, including the denial of the existence of Jewish holy places in the Land of Israel; [2] demonization of Israel and the Jews: “The Zionist enemy,[”] according to the description appearing in the schoolbooks, is wholly evil and constitutes an existential threat to the Palestinians who are depicted as the ultimate victim, with no shared responsibility for the conflict; and [3] education for a violent struggle for the liberation of the Land of Israel (Palestine) with no education for peace and co-existence. In none of the PA’s schoolbooks has any call for the resolution of the conflict peacefully, or any mentioning of co-existence with Israel been found.

A distinctly religious element further permeates if not dominates Palestinian views of Israel.  According to an earlier report on this topic, also by Groiss, “Jews are demonized as well in the religious context, outside the context of the conflict. They are depicted as a corrupted nation from its very beginning and as enemies of Islam since its early days.”

Citing the Koran and other Islamic scriptures, Palestinian textbooks teach that “The corruption of the Children of Israel on earth was and will be the reason of their destruction”; and, though allied to them, Muhammad “was aware of the Jews’ deceitfulness and conspiracies.”

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EDUCATION Comments turned off

Sacrificing Children to Progressive Politics How kids have become collateral damage in the quest to “fundamentally transform” America. Bruce Thornton

By on July 23rd, 2020

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2020/07/sacrificing-children-progressive-politics-bruce-thornton/

California governor Gavin Newsom along with other states has ordered schools to be closed to in-person instruction this fall. Against the wishes of the majority of parents, millions of students will continue to be cooped up at home, trying to learn from “virtual” curricula with hit-and-miss instruction and support. An educational system mediocre in the best of times has now descended into a dystopian world redolent of the old Soviet Union: Teachers pretend to teach, while students pretend to learn.

Education, our most important social institution already long corrupted by ideological fads and deteriorating standards, is heading for complete collapse in order to serve the political and pecuniary interests of the progressive technocracy: Removing Donald Trump and the Republicans from power so that the Democrats can achieve their long-term goal of “fundamentally transforming” the United States. Children are just collateral damage.

Of course, these decisions to sequester the cohort least vulnerable to the virus are being sold as the result of “science” and a concern for “safety.” But across the world evidence from real science shows that kids in school pose little danger to themselves or others. Hence the American Academy of Pediatricians “strongly advocates that all policy considerations for the coming school year should start with a goal of having students physically present in school.” As this spring’s experience in educational sequestration has shown, the AAP continues,

Lengthy time away from school and associated interruption of supportive services often results in social isolation, making it difficult for schools to identify and address important learning deficits as well as child and adolescent physical or sexual abuse, substance use, depression, and suicidal ideation. This, in turn, places children and adolescents at considerable risk of morbidity and, in some cases, mortality. Beyond the educational impact and social impact of school closures, there has been substantial impact on food security and physical activity for children and families.

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ANTI-SEMITISM Comments turned off

A Few Thoughts on Law and Justice by Alan M. Dershowitz

By on July 23rd, 2020

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/16266/law-and-justice

For me, the real enemies of America are the extremists on both sides: the hard left that would bring America down, the hard right white supremacists and neo‑Nazis…. People from the hard left do not even want to hear from people on the center left.

I think the last thing The New York Times wants is for people to come to their own conclusion, because The New York Times bars dissenting points of view and fired editors who authorize them to be published on its pages…. The Times has taken the “op” out of “op-ed.”

The combination of elected prosecutors and elected judges has made our legal system far too political. Too many decisions are made by people, crowds, and pressure groups. When you combine four aspects of our system — prosecutors are elected, judges are elected, juries are ordinary, lay people, and the judges who control the juries are often subject to re‑election — the risks of our justice system being turned over to the masses, to the mobs, to the crowds, to the chanters, becomes all too real, and our system of checks and balances becomes weaker.

Remember that when America was founded at the end of the 18th century, the greatest fear was of the mob. We were watching what was happening a little later on in France with the revolution, and with the killing of so many innocent people in the name of the revolution.

In China, some years ago, I was invited to go to a trial, a man who was accused of stealing some items. After the evidence came in — you had evidence from the prosecution, the defendant testified — and then the judge ordered the doors opened. Hundreds of people poured in from the streets. The judge said, “Now we’ll hear from the masses.” The masses started yelling, “Convict! Convict! Convict!” Of course, the judge convicted, because the masses were the ones in a communist country who had control over the justice system. I never want to see that happen in the United States of America

It is very hard to be a dissenter today. If you are a dissenter today, you risk being canceled. If you are an editor who is willing to publish dissenting material, you risk being fired. If you are a dissenter today in a crowd, you risk being beaten up.

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WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Iran’s Sprint to the Bomb by Peter Huessy

By on July 23rd, 2020

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/16262/iran-buclear-bomb-sprint

It cannot… be a surprise that Iran is still sprinting toward deliverable nuclear weapons with the very uranium enrichment technology permitted by the 2015 agreement. While the U.S. Senate was told the deal would halt Iran’s pursuit of nuclear weaponry, the deal only camouflaged the mullahs’ ambitions to acquire it.

Worse, when the deal’s provisions were to sunset this decade, Iran would have been free to acquire full nuclear capability without pretending it was not.

China is buying time for Iran. Perhaps China believes that its presence in the region will persuade the United States to show “restraint.” The United States should not take the bait.

The prospects ahead are possibly dark. A change in US administration may likely see a return to the JCPOA, an end to sanctions and maximum pressure, and an Iranian sense of having won a major struggle with the “Great Satan.” That is not a prospect America’s allies want to accept. The United States should not risk waiting, either.

In 2013, Danny Danon, Israel’s Deputy Defense Minister, warned that Iran was speedily moving to develop advanced centrifuges that will enable it to enrich uranium needed for nuclear weapons within one month. “We have made it crystal clear ,” Danon said, “Israel will not stand by and watch Iran develop weaponry that will put us, the entire Middle East and eventually the world, under an Iranian umbrella of terror.”

This concern was shared by the United States and thus, in 2015, a nuclear agreement — the Joint Comprehensive Program of Action (JCPOA) — was made between the United States, along with Russia, China, France, Great Britain and Germany, and supposedly Iran, which never signed the deal. Ostensibly Iran would give up its pursuit of nuclear weapons and the U.S. would withdraw its economic sanctions.

Iran, of course, had no intention of giving up its pursuit of nuclear weapons; contrary to what JCPOA supporters claimed, the Iranians, even under the JCPOA deal, could continue pursuing their quest for nuclear capability. This “loophole” was clear especially after it was revealed the Obama administration had conceded that Iran had a right to enrich uranium, which is not required for “peaceful” nuclear energy.

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IMMIGRATION Comments turned off

President Trump’s Case For Excluding Illegal Aliens From The Census Is Stronger Than You Think Robert Romano

By on July 23rd, 2020

https://issuesinsights.com/2020/07/23/president-trumps-case-for-excluding-illegal-aliens-from-the-census-is-stronger-than-you-think/

President Donald Trump has issued an executive memorandum to Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross to discount illegal aliens who are subject to legal removal from the U.S. Census.

Here, the president is invoking the Fourteenth Amendment, Section 2 of the Constitution, which states, “Representatives shall be apportioned among the several states according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each state, excluding Indians not taxed.”

From the president’s memorandum: “The Constitution does not specifically define which persons must be included in the apportionment base.  Although the Constitution requires the ‘persons in each State, excluding Indians not taxed,’ to be enumerated in the census, that requirement has never been understood to include in the apportionment base every individual physically present within a State’s boundaries at the time of the census. Instead, the term ‘persons in each State’ has been interpreted to mean that only the ‘inhabitants’ of each State should be included.”

So, who are the inhabitants of each state? The president’s memorandum says it “requires the exercise of judgment.  For example, aliens who are only temporarily in the United States, such as for business or tourism, and certain foreign diplomatic personnel are ‘persons’ who have been excluded from the apportionment base in past censuses.”

Which, raises the question, if tourists — whose travel visas have certain expiration dates — can and have been excluded from the census, then why not illegal immigrants who are subject to removal upon discovery by federal authorities?

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ENVIRONMENT AND JUNK SCIENCE Comments turned off

The Climate Virus: Hysteria Needs To Shelter In Place

By on July 23rd, 2020

https://issuesinsights.com/2020/07/23/the-climate-virus-hysteria-needs-to-shelter-in-place/

Give the global warming alarmists credit. They never let circumstances distract them. Even amidst a pandemic, they continue to pump fear and fanaticism. It doesn’t matter to them if their fearmongering produces grave human costs.

Take a look at these headlines from just the last few days:

“Climate change: Summers could become ‘too hot for humans.’” — BBC
“Climate change: Polar bears could be lost by 2100” — BBC
“Climate Change Poses ‘Systemic Threat’ to the Economy, Big Investors Warn” — New York Times
“Major new climate study rules out less severe global warming scenarios” — Washington Post
“Why the next president should establish a Department of Climate” — Vox

That’s a heavy load of mania for the public to bear. So we’d like to present a single headline in rebuttal:

“Climate-change hysteria costs lives – but activists want to keep panic alive.”

It tops an op-ed in the New York Post written by Michael Shellenberger, who last month apologized, “on behalf of environmentalists,” for being part of the “climate scare we created over the last 30 years.”

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