WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Japan’s New Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga could bring renewed energy for economic reform.

Posted By on September 16th, 2020

https://www.wsj.com/articles/japans-new-prime-minister-11600195666?mod=opinion_lead_pos4

Yoshihide Suga becomes Japan’s prime minister this week, having been elected leader of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party on Monday. His elevation comes at an important moment for the world’s third-largest economy, and presents new opportunities.

Mr. Suga succeeds Shinzo Abe, who resigned for ill health. He inherits an economy that contracted nearly 28% on an annual basis in the second quarter due to the pandemic. The 2020 Summer Olympics, intended to mark a national renaissance, were postponed. Tokyo has rolled out fiscal stimulus worth some $2.2 trillion, or 40% of gross domestic product—despite a debt-to-GDP ratio already at 230% before the crisis.

Mr. Suga seems set to respond by extending his predecessor’s reform program. Mr. Abe promised to revive the Japanese economy by firing “three arrows” of fiscal and monetary stimulus and policy liberalization. Only the first two arrows launched as hoped, although Mr. Abe did make progress on labor-law and corporate-governance reform and more open immigration. He also tried to negotiate high-quality trade deals such as the Trans-Pacific Partnership to spur domestic competitiveness.

Mr. Suga played a leading role in the development and implementation of this agenda as Mr. Abe’s long-serving cabinet secretary. Now he’s coming with ideas of his own, including an emphasis on reforming inefficient regional banks. Japan has too many and they earn too little profit. Mr. Abe’s monetary explosion hasn’t helped, and Mr. Suga has long believed that consolidation would boost their ability to lend to smaller companies. He also appears to want to remove policy hurdles to consolidation and mergers among smaller firms in the hope that this might stimulate productivity gains.

ISRAEL, WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

The Long Road to Israel’s Very Good Month The Jewish state has become too valuable to the Arab world to be treated as a pariah. Walter Russell Mead

Posted By on September 16th, 2020

https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-long-road-to-israels-very-good-month-11600124843?mod=searchresults&page=1&pos=9

Not since May 1948, when both the U.S. and the Soviet Union recognized the state of Israel in the critical weeks of its war for independence, has Israel had a diplomatic month like this. On Aug. 13, the United Arab Emirates and Israel signed an agreement to normalize relations, with the formal ceremony to be held Tuesday in Washington with President Trump. On Sept. 11, Bahrain followed suit. The Palestinian Authority, holding the rotating chair of the Arab League, introduced a resolution condemning the U.A.E. move at a Zoom session of Arab foreign ministers, but in a shocking departure from past practice, the motion failed to pass. On Sept. 13 another Arab nation, Oman, issued a statement of support for Bahrain’s decision to normalize relations.

Meanwhile, defying pressure from the European Union and in exchange for Israeli recognition of Kosovo’s independence, Kosovo became the first Muslim-majority country in the world to agree to place an embassy in Jerusalem in another Trump-brokered deal. (The status of a similar pledge from Serbia isn’t clear.)

With Saudi Arabia allowing flights from Israel to the U.A.E. to pass over its territory and Morocco reported to be close to allowing direct flights to the Jewish state, something of a tipping point seems to have been reached in the Middle East. Resentment of Zionism and sympathy for the Palestinians will no longer be allowed to interfere with what embattled Arab rulers see as a vital relationship.

These changes are evolutionary rather than revolutionary. Arab opposition to Israel’s existence has never been as unanimous or implacable as casual observers sometimes assume. Geopolitically, conservative Arab states have long understood that their interests and Israel’s are connected.

ELECTIONS Comments turned off

The Art of a Mideast Deal Trump was willing to break with a failed conventional wisdom.

Posted By on September 16th, 2020

https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-art-of-a-mideast-deal-11600211909?mod=opinion_lead_pos1

How would official Washington respond if a Democratic President brokered a peace deal between Israel and two Arab states? The papers would be stacked with play-by-plays of how the historic breakthrough was achieved and adulatory profiles of the people in the room. The hosannas to the President’s strategic vision would flow from think tanks and academia, if not also from Oslo’s City Hall.

The reaction Tuesday to the signing of the Abraham Accords between Israel, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain at the White House was more muted, and maybe that’s for the best. Some groundwork for the cascading thaw in Arab-Israeli relations was laid by a decade of shifts in the Middle East’s balance of power as Israel grew stronger, the Iran threat persisted, and the U.S. signaled its intention to draw down.

Yet the Trump Administration deserves credit for taking advantage of these strategic shifts, and for setting aside the failed conventional playbook for how Arab-Israeli comity could be achieved. The Abraham Accords, named for the prophet of Jews, Christians and Muslims alike, are based on mutual interest. Mr. Trump has been criticized for a transactional view of world affairs, and we sometimes worry about how that will play out, for example, in East Asia. Yet in the Middle East, hard-headed transactionalism may have been what was needed.

American negotiators have tried for years to press the Israelis and Palestinians to give up something in a leap of faith and hope that peace will follow. Each side saw that as a lose-lose proposition. But peace between Arab states and Israel offered a win-win.

ELECTIONS Comments turned off

22 Reasons Jews Should Vote for President Trump Janet Levy

Posted By on September 16th, 2020

1)    Trump denounced antisemitism in two State of the Union addresses.  

2)    He moved the American Embassy to Israel from Tel Aviv to Israel’s eternal capital of Jerusalem.  In solidarity with the U.S. decision, Guatemala moved its embassy to Jerusalem and Honduras, Paraguay, Moldova, Czechia, Romania and Hungary announced that they may soon follow suit.

3)    Trump declared support for Israeli construction in Judea and Samaria.

4)    He recognized Israel’s sovereignty over the Golan Heights, a major strategic asset that protects Israel from aggression from the northeast, and signed the document with Netanyahu at his side right before Israeli elections.

5)    Trump increased U.S. military aid to Israel and offered a mutual defense treaty between the U.S. and Israel to further the alliance between the two countries.  

6)    He defunded the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), a so-called relief agency for Arab-Palestinians marked by corruption that has incited against Israel and worked with Hamas, even enabling the building of terror tunnels under its buildings. 

7)    President Trump pulled out of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in protest of its bias against Israel and its extension of membership to notorious human rights abusers. 

8)    He withdrew from the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) citing its anti-Israel bias after it designated Hebron and the Tomb of the Patriarchs (Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Sarah, Rebecca and Leah) as Arab-Palestinian world heritage sites. (Jews have had a 3800 year presence in Hebron, which is situated in Judea – “the land of the Jews.”)

ELECTIONS Comments turned off

Joe Biden Promises Fewer Fires, Floods, and Hurricanes if He Wins in November By Tyler O’Neil

Posted By on September 15th, 2020

https://pjmedia.com/election/tyler-o-neil/2020/09/14/joe-biden-promises-fewer-fires-floods-and-hurricanes-if-he-wins-in-november-n930658

On Monday, Democratic nominee Joe Biden condemned President Donald Trump as a “climate arsonist,” predicting that if the president wins reelection in November, America will witness more “hellish” events like fires in the West, flooding in the Midwest, and hurricanes on the East Coast. He effectively promised that if he wins, America will suffer from fewer fires, fewer floods, and fewer hurricanes.

Although Biden excoriated Trump for “ignoring the facts” and “denying reality,” he focused his remarks on the wildfires ravaging California, Oregon, and Washington State — fires exacerbated by bad forest management more than any sort of climate change.

“If you give a climate arsonist four more years in the White House, why would anyone be surprised if we have more of America ablaze? If you give a climate denier four more years in the White House, why would anyone be surprised when more of America is under water?” Biden asked.

“Donald Trump’s climate denial may not have caused these fires and record floods and record hurricanes, but if he gets a second term, these hellish events will continue to become more common, more devastating, and more deadly,” the Democrat insisted.

ELECTIONS, MEDIA Comments turned off

Media Pushes Unverified Gossip To Hide Trump’s Amazing Economic And Foreign Policy AchievementsBy Andy Puzder

Posted By on September 15th, 2020

https://thefederalist.com/2020/09/15/media-pushes-unverified-gossip-to-hide-trumps-amazing-economic-and-foreign-policy-achievements/

With the most dynamic economic comeback in U.S. history and unprecedented progress towards peace in the Middle East, what did the media establishment choose to cover?

The Democrat-media complex has a new mission: to distract our attention from President Trump’s incredible—and I mean incredible—progress on both economic and foreign policy.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics recently announced another historic month of job growth as the economy added 1.4 million jobs in August. It was the fourth-best month of job growth on record dating back to 1939 (and likely ever), beaten out only by the preceding three months.

As a result, the country’s unemployment rate dropped to 8.4 percent from its post-pandemic high of 14.7 percent. Recall that in April the Congressional Budget Office forecast a 16 percent unemployment rate for the third quarter.

By historical measures — by any measure, really — this is a remarkable resurgence. Based on recent data, the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta’s GDPNow forecasting model increased its prediction for third-quarter GDP growth to 30.8 percent. That would be the highest number on record dating back to 1947 (and, again, likely ever).

Of course, this is all on top of news about the Trump administration’s historic steps towards peace in the Middle East. First, it was the United Arab Emirates and Israel making peace. Then Serbia and Kosovo agreed to normalize economic relations with Kosovo (a mostly Muslim nation) recognizing Israel and Serbia moving its embassy to Jerusalem.

Then Bahrain and Israel agreed to normalize relations. Despite protestations from the Palestinians, the Arab League refused to condemn the Israel/UAE deal. Saudi Arabia agreed to let Israeli commercial aircraft fly over its territory.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

New evidence makes Hunter Biden’s ‘business’ deals reek worse than ever ever By Peter Schweizer and Jacob McLeod

Posted By on September 15th, 2020

https://nypost.com/2020/09/14/new-evidence-makes-hunter-bidens-business-deals-reek-worse-than-ever/

Foreign entities looking to influence American politics sometimes devise lucrative commercial deals involving a politician’s family. While the deals can, and do, ensnare politicians of all stripes, those involving the Biden family are particularly troubling: The transactions implicate US national security.

While Joe Biden served as vice president, his son Hunter received offers from foreign governments and oligarchs in areas where he had little or no expertise. That his foreign partners included a rival state, Communist China, makes these arrangements particularly brazen, even by Washington’s swampy standards.

Newly released Secret Service travel records for Hunter paint a clearer picture of how extensive these efforts were. The documents, reviewed by Judicial Watch, show that between 2009 and 2014, Hunter made 411 trips across 29 countries. While some of those trips were perhaps leisure and others related to his volunteer work for the World Food Program, many of them appear to be connected to deals that he or his associates either secured or sought with foreign governments and oligarchs.

For example, Hunter visited China five times between 2009 and 2014. Most notoriously, he traveled with his father aboard Air Force Two in December 2013 as part of an official visit with Chinese officials. Ten days after their return to Washington, Hunter and his associates partnered with the state-owned Bank of China to formally establish BHR, a new, first-of-its-kind fund aimed at making investments outside China through the newly established Shanghai Free Trade Zone.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Heather Mac Donald: Protesters demand cops let themselves be stabbed or shot If the nation’s police officers walked off the job today, it would be hard to blame them

Posted By on September 15th, 2020

https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/heather-mac-donald-protesters-demand-cops-let-themselves-be-stabbed-or-shot

If the nation’s police officers walked off the job today, it would be hard to blame them. Sunday’s anti-cop riots in Lancaster, Pa., have made the current de facto rules of engagement clear:

Officers may never defend themselves against lethal force if their attacker is a minority. They should simply accept being shot or stabbed as penance for their alleged racism.

In Lancaster, an officer responded to a domestic violence call at a residence where a man had stabbed four people last year. As the officer approached the house, a female escaped out the front door. A man – the suspect from the previous slashings – then emerged and ran at the officer, brandishing a knife over his head. The officer shot him, as the officer was by all appearances legally authorized to do, to stop the threat of deadly force. Twenty-seven-year-old Ricardo Munoz died from the officer’s gunfire.

The response from the “community,” after this summer of lethal cop hatred, was predictable. Rioters pelted Lancaster cops with bricks, glass bottles, and sharp projectiles ripped from road barricades. They smashed the windows of police cruisers, the downtown police precinct, the post office, cafés, and stores. They torched a dumpster dragged from another part of the city. They pulled street signs and bike racks out of sidewalks to use against the police.

Such anarchy, with its photogenic arson, is just the latest chapter in the violence that is now routinely directed at officers during ordinary law enforcement activities, as well as during riots.

CHARLOTTE'S NEWS WEB, ELECTIONS Comments turned off

Hey Democrats: What’s the Strategy? Christopher Chantrill

Posted By on September 15th, 2020

https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2020/09/hey_democrats_whats_the_strategy.html

One of the things I like to analyze in political events is evidence of strategy. For instance, when Nancy Pelosi says the California wildfires mean that “Mother Earth is angry,” I think that is just reactive — and primitive, because Mother Earth goddesses go way back.

But when President Trump (or Jared Kushner) comes up with almost one peace deal a week — first Israel-UAE, then Serbia-Kosovo, and now Israel-Bahrain — and lo and behold, as if on cue, Swedish politicians start nominating him for Nobel Peace Prizes — my strategy detector goes crazy. And now the Black Swan guy, Nassim Nicholas Taleb, is asking what the betting odds are for an Israel-Saudi Arabia peace deal by November 1.

Or whatabout 9/11 observance? Trump sent Vice-President Pence to New York City last week to stand next to Joe Biden, but the president headed for Shanksville, PA to celebrate the All-American “let’s roll” spirit of Flight 93. I wonder why?

That is the point about Trump. Everything he does, you have to ask yourself: “I wonder what he meant by that?” Because Trump is the master strategist. That is to say, he seems to be good at seeing round corners.

Plus, he has courage. Generations of U.S. presidents have mumbled about moving the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem, but they didn’t: they were afraid to. Trump did it, and lo and behold, three years later peace is breaking out all over. How did he do it?

Two things: strategy and courage.

To be a competent strategist you have to know yourself and know your enemy. You have to know the lay of the land, how your mind works, and how your enemy’s mind works.

But then you have to have the courage to act upon your knowledge.

I think that our lefty friends fail on all counts.

ANTI-SEMITISM Comments turned off

Segregation Makes a Comeback By Deion A. Kathawa

Posted By on September 15th, 2020

https://amgreatness.com/2020/09/14/segregation-makes-a-comeback/

If we cannot rally around equality before the law and within our institutions, and embrace color blindness within our own hearts, then we will not survive as a nation.

Dust off your “2020 bingo card.” Even with all this year’s craziness—impeachment; millions of acres of hellfire spreading across California; a global pandemic unleashed by China (which was also the occasion to shut down the engine of the greatest economy the world had ever seen); more than 100 consecutive days of rioting and looting in Portland, Oregon (not to mention similar criminal activity taking place across the country since the death of George Floyd in May)—did you seriously ever expect you’d be covering the square that reads, “American university unironically and enthusiastically endorses Plessy v. Ferguson”?

Didn’t think so.

But you’d better dig up your chips because that’s what very nearly happened at the University of Michigan-Dearborn. (2020 needs to slow down.)

The university tried to bring back Jim Crow-era segregation. The Center for Social Justice and Inclusion (CSJI) recently advertised its creation of a “Non-POC Cafe.” In plain language, it’s a (virtual) cafe just for white students, i.e., those who “do not identify as people of color,” “to gather and to discuss their experience as students on campus and as non-POC in the world.”

It goes on: “Feel free to drop in and discuss your experiences as non-persons of color and hopefully brainstorm solutions to common issues within the non-POC community. The Cafe will be facilitated by a non-POC faculty/staff member to ensure that discussions are kept safe and respectful.” (Go back and re-read that: CSJI considers whites are non-persons of color. Tell us how you really feel!)