NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Disneyland for the Old Two days of magical cheer in The Villages, Florida. Katie Hopkins

Posted By on May 14th, 2021

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2021/05/two-days-villages-florida-katie-hopkins/

“But why are they dancing?” I asked the gentleman who had come to collect me for my speaking engagement at one of the nearby recreation centers.

It was 5 p.m. on a Wednesday afternoon and the square was filled with the sound of a great band and a happy gathering of oldies in floral shirts or sparkling tops, dancing away in the sunshine.

“Because it is Wednesday,” he replied without a hint of comedy.

And that’s the thing here in the largest retirement community on the planet: people dance just because it is Wednesday and they are darned happy to be alive. I can confirm this firsthand because I went back the next day and joined them doing the same thing again because it was Thursday.

Around 150,000 people now live in this place that some term Disneyland for the Old, and it is easy to see why. I used to work at Disneyland, Paris and the similarities are remarkable. Everything appears perfect, the buildings in the main squares are all fabricated to a theme, and an army of gardeners, food and beverage staff and community police keep the place looking Disney-perfect at all times.

If there are 150,000 residents, each of them must own at least two golf carts, if the sheer volume of cart traffic is anything to go by. These retired folk whizz about in these things embossed with their names – his on the driver’s side, hers right beside him – with purpose and at speed, as if late for every tee-off on every golfing green.

IMMIGRATION Comments turned off

DHS Created ‘Operation Sentinel’ To Combat Human Trafficking But it should be renamed “Operation Back Rub.” Michael Cutler

Posted By on May 14th, 2021

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2021/05/dhs-created-operation-sentinel-combat-human-michael-cutler/

On April 27, 2021 the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) issued a press release, DHS Announces Operation to Target Criminal Smuggling Organizations, that heralded the creation of what was described as a new multi-agency anti-smuggling effort, “Operation Sentinel.”

Here is how the press release began:

WASHINGTON — Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro N. Mayorkas today announced a new counter-network targeting operation focused on transnational criminal organizations affiliated with the smuggling of migrants.

“Transnational criminal organizations put profit over human life, with devastating consequences,” said Secretary Mayorkas.  “With the help of our federal and foreign partners, we aim to cut off access to that profit by denying these criminals the ability to engage in travel, trade, and finance in the United States. We intend to disrupt every facet of the logistical network that these organizations use to succeed.”

The new anti-smuggling effort, called Operation Sentinel, is a collaborative effort with U.S. Customs and Border Protection, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, the U.S. Department of State, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Drug Enforcement Administration of the U.S. Department of Justice.

It is hard to imagine that the Biden administration is sincere about its desire to combat human trafficking and alien smuggling, because, as I noted in my recent article, “Biden Amps Up The Immigration Delivery System,” The refusal to declare a border crisis is more than a matter of semantics.

Could it be that the administration created the illusory Operation Sentinel to respond to the concerns of the American public but not to actually combat the smugglers who are part of the immigration delivery system?

On April 19, 2021, roughly one week before the DHS issued the press release about the creation of Operation Sentinel, The Hill published an opinion piece, “Biden’s border polls lower than bottom of Rio Grande,” that began with the following:

ENVIRONMENT AND JUNK SCIENCE Comments turned off

The Green New Deal’s Shock Troops

Posted By on May 14th, 2021

https://issuesinsights.com/2021/05/14/the-green-new-deals-shock-troops/

The news didn’t last long in the cycle. But it deserved more attention. Americans don’t need an army of indoctrinated global warming zealots lecturing, hectoring, and harassing them over their insignificant carbon dioxide emissions. They should be aware of what their “superiors” in Washington want to unleash on them.

As reported May 5 by Fox News, “Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and other progressive lawmakers are calling for the creation of a 1.5 million-strong group of civilians to work on federally funded projects addressing climate change as part of their sweeping Green New Deal legislation.”

This $10 billion show, which President Joe Biden wants as part of his “infrastructure” plan, would be called the Civilian Climate Corps, its foot soldiers trained to work with community groups on projects intended to “reduce carbon emissions, enable a transition to renewable energy, build healthier and more resilient communities, implement conservation projects with proven climate benefits, and help communities recover from climate disasters.”

We can imagine the “training” the members will receive. They won’t be learning the Boy Scouts’ oath, studying the great works of this nation’s founders, or pledging to uphold the Constitution. They’ll be told that human activity is overheating the planet. That American and Western lifestyles are unsustainable and must be reeled in by government. That environmental injustices have to be rectified by policies that will hurt the middle and lower classes. That the only way to stop the march of global warming will be the enactment of the Democrats’ socialist wish-list legislative agenda.

POLITICS Comments turned off

Meet the 100 Republicans Threatening to Form a Third Party By Jim Geraghty

Posted By on May 14th, 2021

https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/meet-the-100-republicans-threatening-to-form-a-third-party/?utm_source=recirc-desktop&utm_medium=homepage&utm_campaign=hero&utm_content=related&utm_term=first

On Tuesday, the New York Times reported, “over 100 Republicans, including former officials, threaten to split from the G.O.P.

We can now see the list of 100 Republicans who “believe in pushing for the Republican Party to rededicate itself to founding ideals—or else hasten the creation of an alternative.” The list includes some well-known names like Anthony Scaramucci, Mark Sanford, Joe Walsh and Evan McMullin, and quite a few names that will not ring bells to most of the public. Connie Morella last served in Congress in 2003, and served as an ambassador until 2007. Arne Carlson was governor of Minnesota back in the 1990s. Christopher Bayley was the King County, Washington prosecuting attorney from 1971 to 1979.

It is far from clear that a warning from, say, former Massachusetts governor Bill Weld that he’s thinking of leaving the GOP will sway the thinking of other Republicans; the man was the Libertarian Party nominee for vice president in 2016. In other words, the last time Weld left the GOP, the party thrived without him.

I asked Wednesday what form this group would take, as “successfully building a lasting and significant third party will require a gargantuan commitment of resources and a sustained Herculean effort.”

As of now, it appears this group is truly starting from scratch, with an open letter and a request for e-mail addresses, phone numbers, and zip codes.

ISRAEL Comments turned off

The Truth about the Sheikh Jarrah Eviction By Erielle Davidson

Posted By on May 14th, 2021

https://www.nationalreview.com/2021/05/the-truth-about-the-sheikh-jarrah-eviction/?utm_source=recirc-desktop&utm_

It’s worth rebutting the deceptions about the incident at the supposed center of a resurgence in violence between Arabs and Israelis.

The east Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah has become the latest flashpoint in the Arab–Israeli conflict, sparking the very tension that Hamas seeks to exploit for its own political advantage.

Several Palestinian-Arab families living in Sheikh Jarrah face eviction from homes following a ruling from Jerusalem’s District Court. In anticipation of a Supreme Court hearing of an appeal of the ruling, Palestinian Arabs have rioted nightly in Sheikh Jarrah, joining violent Palestinian-Arab attacks related to the Ramadan holy month, and culminating in violent eruptions across the city, including at some of Jerusalem’s holiest sites.

Meanwhile, Hamas has capitalized on the unrest by launching some 1,000 rockets toward Israel, with at least seven targeting the capital city, in the hopes of killing Jews and inciting further violence.

Since Sheikh Jarrah is emerging as the battle cry of the Palestinian-Arab violence, it is worth discussing why the supposed “scandal” isn’t really a scandal at all.

For starters, the title to the land never belonged to the Palestinian Arabs currently residing on the property. There is nothing pernicious happening beyond a standard landlord eviction of non-paying tenants. But you wouldn’t know that based on the current media coverage and outcry on the progressive left.

For instance, Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D., N.Y.) penned a tweet labeling the evictions “inhumane” and stating she stood in “solidarity” with the Palestinian families being evicted from “their homes.” Senator Bernie Sanders (D., Vt.) demanded that the evictions be halted, while Senator Elizabeth Warren (D., Mass.) labeled the evictions “abhorrent and unacceptable,” asserting, “The Administration should make clear to the Israeli government that these evictions are illegal and must stop immediately.” Some progressives are even arguing to condition aid to Israel over the Sheikh Jarrah issue, suggesting that U.S. aid to Israel is being used to oppress Palestinian Arabs. In turn, the Biden administration has also expressed concerns over the evictions, albeit far less forcefully.

Meanwhile, the Washington Post just published an op-ed titled “Sheikh Jarrah highlights the brazenness of Israel’s colonialist project.” Or, not to be outdone, Reuters published a piece yesterday strangely lacking an opinion label, but nonetheless featuring the title, “East Jerusalem’s Sheikh Jarrah becomes emblem of Palestinian struggle.”

There is intellectual laziness, and then there is shameless misinformation. All of the above falls into the latter category.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION, POLITICS Comments turned off

The Justice Department’s Resident Conspiracist Susan Hennessey’s appointment suggests the department will be politicized again. By Kimberley Strassel

Posted By on May 14th, 2021

https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-justice-departments-resident-conspiracist-11620944310?mod=opinion_featst_pos1

House Democrats in February stripped Georgia Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene of her committee assignments, punishment for promoting conspiracy theories. Democrats this week rewarded their own conspiracy theorist with a powerful position at the Justice Department. Anyone miss William Barr yet?

Lawfare Executive Editor Susan Hennessey announced this week she’s taking a job at the department’s National Security Division, reportedly as senior counsel. Lawfare began in 2010 as a national-security blog, though by the Trump era it had become an unabashed mouthpiece for the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Central Intelligence Agency, and partisan enough to marinate in the anti-Trump fever swamps.

Before QAnon, there was that tinfoil-hat document called the Steele dossier. It read like the world’s worst spy novel—secret meetings, perverted sexual acts, bribes, blackmail, cutouts—but Ms. Hennessey and her fellow Lawfare contributors lapped it up and played a central role in building and promoting the Russia-collusion fiction. Ms. Hennessey’s history as a National Security Agency lawyer gave credibility to the craziness.

“The allegations are being taken quite seriously,” she assured readers in a post in January 2017, when news of the dossier first broke. Dossier author Christopher Steele is “a person whose work intelligence professionals take seriously,” she added. She also promised that this was not a case of Obama officials “leaking sensitive information” out of “revenge,” since intelligence officials treat sensitive information “with the utmost care.” Within days Lawfare was weaving madcap webs involving Mike Flynn, Roger Stone, Russian banks and Carter Page.

Like all good conspiracists, she also worked hard to cast doubt on facts that disproved her theories. She excoriated a 2018 memo by former House Intelligence Chairman Devin Nunes about FBI surveillance abuses, suggesting it was a “lie.” She wrote this before she’d even read the memo, which proved accurate. When the Justice Department inspector general released a 2019 report lambasting the FBI’s conduct in the Russia probe (including that Mr. Steele had cobbled together gossip), she tweeted that she didn’t “think the findings are significant enough” to “justify the work of a podcast.” (In the runup to her job offer, thousands of her prior tweets disappeared.)

IMMIGRATION Comments turned off

Homeland Secretary Mayorkas blames Trump administration for unaccompanied minor surge on border Mayorkas said the surge in unaccompanied children began under the Trump administration.

Posted By on May 14th, 2021

https://justthenews.com/government/congress/dhs-secretary-mayorkas-blames-trump-administration-unaccompanied-minor-surge

Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas told Congress on Thursday that the Trump administration is responsible for the growing number of unaccompanied illegal immigrant minors on the southwest U.S. border.

“We began our work with systems and tools that the prior administration had dismantled and with assistance programs that had been torn down or cut short,” Mayorkas said during a House Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee hearing. 

Mayorkas said the former administration had dismantled facilities used to temporarily hold migrant children and programs that supported legal immigration and said it ended the Central America Minors Program that provided a legal pathway for children to enter the U.S.

The Trump administration “did nothing to facilitate addressing of the surge. What they did was they dismantled the tools that we had to address it. And they tore down the programs that could have helped alleviate the pressure,” Mayorkas said.

IMMIGRATION Comments turned off

Biden urged to dump ‘absolutely abysmal’ Harris as border czar, poll agrees by Paul Bedard,

Posted By on May 14th, 2021

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/washington-secrets/biden-urged-to-dump-absolutely-abysmal-harris-as-border-czar-poll-agrees

Vice President Kamala Harris’s lack of action on the border has prompted a call for President Joe Biden to dump her as his border czar.

“Her response to the border crisis has been absolutely abysmal, so I am requesting that she be replaced as your ‘border czar,’” Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich wrote in a letter to Biden.

With his state overwhelmed by the historic surge of illegal immigrants, Brnovich has led the leaders in border states to call for immediate action from the administration — calls that have so far been ignored.

He said he has reached out to Harris, who has yet to visit the border. But, he added, “I have not received a response from Vice President Harris or anyone in your administration.”

YouGov America

@YouGovAmerica
Do Americans have a favorable or an unfavorable opinion of Vice President Kamala Harris? US adults: 41% favorable / 48% unfavorable Democrats: 74% / 19% Independents: 32% / 57% Republicans: 12% / 84% https://today.yougov.com/topics/politic

His letter, shared with Secrets, came at the same time a new poll found national disgruntlement with the new vice president.

ISRAEL, POLITICS Comments turned off

The Squad Is Rooting for Hamas By David Harsanyi

Posted By on May 14th, 2021

https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/the-squad-is-rooting-for-hamas/?utm_source=recirc-desktop&utm_medium=homepage&utm_campaign=right-rail&utm_content=corner&utm_term=second

Ocasio-Cortez, usually a font of half-baked socialist economic ideas, now regularly offers thoughts on the Israeli–Palestinian situation to her 12 million Twitter followers.

Here is one:

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
@AOC
Blanket statements like these w/ little context or acknowledgement of what precipitated this cycle of violence – namely, the expulsions of Palestinians and attacks on Al Aqsa – dehumanize Palestinians & imply the US will look the other way at human rights violations. It’s wrong.

First of all, there are no “expulsions of Palestinians.” Six Palestinian families may be evicted from their homes in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood in a property dispute — and the Israeli supreme court has delayed a decision — over land that was seized from Jewish families by the Jordanian Army after 1948. It’s a complicated case, brought to the judicial system by private citizens and adjudicated in an independent court. The case has been litigated for nearly 50 years, through the existence of numerous Israeli governments, both left and right. Now, I realize Ocasio-Cortez has little use for independent judiciaries or private property — or history, for that matter — but cases like these are just a pretext for the Palestinian Authority, frustrated by the Abraham Accords and their own failures, to create chaos and deflect blame.

Second, the Al-Aqsa mosque was not “attacked.” Israeli police fired stun grenades and tear gas at rock-hurling rioting Palestinians, spurred by rumors of Jewish intrusions into the Muslim holy site. Palestinian leaders have relied on this ugly tactic for nearly a century — even before the idea of Palestinian state had been concocted — to gin up protests and insurgency. Anyone with even a rudimentary understanding of the situation knows the Israeli government has absolutely no interest in controlling or taking Al Aqsa. If they did, they would never have handed administration of the site over to Muslim authorities. If they did, the Israeli military wouldn’t be rerouting Jewish marchers celebrating the reunification of Jerusalem to placate Palestinians.

Other Squad members such as Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib openly spread blood libel. If you listen to them, you’d think Israelis go around killing Palestinian children for kicks. It’s odious. They’re Jew haters, and there’s no reason to pretend otherwise:

To wit: Ilhan Omar

@IlhanMN
Israeli air strikes killing civilians in Gaza is an act of terrorism. Palestinians deserve protection. Unlike Israel, missile defense programs, such as Iron Dome, don’t exist to protect Palestinian civilians. It’s unconscionable to not condemn these attacks on the week of Eid.

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

‘Where’s Durham?’: Investigation of Russia-collusion probe’s origin quietly hits second anniversary

Posted By on May 14th, 2021

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2021/may/13/wheres-durham-investigation-russia-collusion-probe/?

Former President Trump gushed “I am so proud” when then-Attorney General William P. Barr tapped John Durham to look for widespread wrongdoing by FBI officials in the early stages of its Russia-collusion probe.

That was in May 2019.

Two years later, Mr. Trump and other conservatives mock the investigation that has practically disappeared without an utterance from Mr. Durham or any sign that he has uncovered anything.

“Where’s Durham?” Mr. Trump said in March. “Is he a living, breathing human being? Will there ever be a Durham report?”

Mr. Trump’s about-face is emblematic of the extent to which conservatives have soured on the Durham investigation. Those who once breathlessly predicted the probe would uncover a deep state conspiracy against Mr. Trump have now reduced it to a punchline.

When a poll last month revealed that 67% of Americans are unaware of the Durham probe, some internet jokesters wondered if Mr. Durham himself was among those oblivious to its existence.

As the investigation sputters toward its second anniversary on Thursday with few signs of life, conservatives are questioning what Mr. Durham has been up to for the past 24 months and if the public ever finds out, will anyone care?

“To say there has been a federal investigation into these FBI abuses and there has been one plea deal is to condemn it,” said Tom Fitton, president of the conservative activist group Judicial Watch. “You are describing failure.”

Once hopeful conservatives believed Mr. Durham would ride into town and aggressively expose malfeasance by Obama-era FBI and Justice Department officials. They expected his probe would shed light on whether FBI officials knowingly misled a court when it obtained permission to wiretap former Trump adviser, Carter Page.

Now they are puzzled as to why he has yet to interview FBI officials who held senior roles in 2016. Former FBI Director James B. Comey, Deputy Director Andrew McCabe and anti-Trump investigator Peter Strzok haven’t spoken with Mr. Durham, according to people familiar with the probe.

Mr. Durham did interview former CIA Director John O. Brennan in 2020 but told him that he was not the target of any criminal inquiry. The reason for the Brennan interview remains opaque.

Robert Ray, who succeeded Kenneth Starr as independent counsel during investigations into then-President Clinton, said these types of investigations have a shelf life. The longer an investigation runs, the more obstacles emerge because witnesses’ memories fade and cooperation becomes more difficult to obtain.