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Kamala Harris’s Relentless Pursuit of Power By David Harsanyi

Posted By on August 13th, 2020

https://www.nationalreview.com/2020/08/kamala-harris-relentless-pursuit-of-power/

There is no power Harris has held that she hasn’t abused.

T he New York Times contends that Joe Biden’s vice-presidential pick Kamala Harris is a “pragmatic moderate,” which is either the usual misleading bias or a sign that the Overton Window is about to fall off the edge of the political spectrum. To judge Harris by her own words and deeds is to be confronted by a candidate who is more antagonistic towards the Constitution than perhaps any to appear on a presidential ticket in modern times — and maybe ever.

The fact that Harris will say and do anything for power is evident in her very acceptance of Biden’s offer. It’s going to be fascinating to watch Harris explain why she is running with man who only months ago she strongly insinuated was a racist. “There was a little girl in California who was part of the second class to integrate her public schools, and she was bused to school every day, and that little girl was me,” Harris explained, as she hit Biden on his history of working with segregationists to oppose busing laws in the 1970s.

It will be even more fascinating to hear the moral calculus Harris employs to rationalize running with a rapist. This isn’t George Bush and Ronald Reagan making up after tussling on “voodoo economics.” Concerning allegations of sexual misconduct against Joe Biden, Harris once said, “I believe them, and I respect them being able to tell their story and having the courage to do it.” One of the women Harris was referring to was Tara Reade, whom accused Biden of sexually assaulting her in 1993, when she worked as an aide for the then Delaware senator. “I believe them” doesn’t lend it itself to much interpretation.

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Getting to Know Kamala Harris How Biden’s running mate blocked a hospital rescue to help the SEIU.

Posted By on August 13th, 2020

https://www.wsj.com/articles/getting-to-know-kamala-harris-11597273754?mod=opinion_lead_pos1

Joe Biden and Kamala Harris made their first appearances as a campaign ticket on Wednesday, and Americans still know little about the running mate who may be President sooner rather than later. One way to fill in the gap is to inspect Ms. Harris’s record as California’s Attorney General, and one revealing episode is the way she used her power to blow up a deal to rescue struggling Catholic hospitals.

The saga started in 2014 when for-profit Prime Healthcare Services made an $843 million bid for six insolvent hospitals operated by the Catholic Daughters of Charity Health System. The hospitals had been bleeding cash for years due to inflexible labor contracts and miserly Medicaid payments.

Prime Healthcare was the only bidder that agreed to assume Daughters’ $300 million liability for worker pensions, and it scored high on the bidding criteria that included financial wherewithal and service quality. Nurses, physicians and the public supported the deal.

But the Service Employees International Union-United Healthcare Workers West (SEIU-UHW), which represented 2,000 hospital workers at Daughters, opposed Prime’s takeover because the company refused to sign a neutrality agreement that would let them organize all of Prime’s hospitals. Only four of Prime’s 15 hospitals in California at the time were unionized.

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$14.8 Billion In Federal Funding Flows Into Just Five Major U.S. Cities Where Civil Unrest Looms & Police Stand Down by Adam Andrzejewski

Posted By on August 13th, 2020

https://www.forbes.com/sites/adamandrzejewski/2020/08/08/148-billion-in-federal-fun

Open The Books: Transparent Government Spending
www.openthebooks.com

After the George Floyd protests broke out across major U.S. cities, some mayors and police chiefs were accused of issuing stand-down orders to their police officers. Nightly news streamed video footage of the looting, rioting, and general mayhem that ensued in the absence of a civil order.

“Autonomous zones” sprung up in progressive cities and were described as part of a “summer of love.” Mayors pushed to defund local police departments. Center-right politicians called these cities “lawless” for refusing to protect the life, liberty, and property of its residents.

In Seattle, the highly compensated city council voted to defund their police department. In Congress, an effort led by U.S. Sens Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Joni Ernst (R-IA) pushed to defund these cities of their federal aid.

President Donald Trump indicated a willingness to review the situation. However, nobody knew exactly how much federal funding was “at stake.”

Our auditors at OpenTheBooks.com quantified $14.8 billion in federal contracts and grants flowing into five major cities where civil unrest looms and policing is restrained: Seattle, Portland, New York, Washington, D.C., and San Francisco.

We mapped the flow of federal funds during fiscal year 2019 to all units of government based within the city location. Here’s how it breaks down:

Portland, Oregon (Federal awards: $252.5 million | pop. 653,115) A family of four, on average, received $1,548 in federal subsidies ($387 per person).

IMMIGRATION, NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

‘Sanctuary’ NYC Creates Its Own ‘Border Patrol’ Once again, leftist hypocrisy rears its ugly head. Michael Cutler

Posted By on August 13th, 2020

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2020/08/sanctuary-nyc-creates-its-own-border-patrol-michael-cutler/

Back on March 18th of this year, I wrote an article, “Because of the Coronavirus, Borders Suddenly Matter” which noted that New York State even establishes internal borders.

The irony is that for decades New York City and other cities have adopted “Sanctuary” policies that, to one extent or another, block federal immigration law enforcement officers from interacting with local and state officials. The level of cooperation between local officials and federal immigration authorities or lack thereof, varies greatly from one jurisdiction to another, but as of late, has all but ended in many such jurisdictions across the United States.

The State of New York even has taken to providing illegal aliens with driver’s licenses while blocking DMV (Department of Motor Vehicle) information from federal immigration agencies including the U.S. Border Patrol, Customs and Border Protection inspectors at ports of entry, and ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) as I reported in my recent article, “New York State Blocks ICE and Border Patrol Access to DMV Database.”

Governor Cuomo has outrageously taken to calling ICE agents “thugs.”

Meanwhile the 9/11 Commission made it abundantly clear that international terrorists, and not just the 9/11 hijacker-terrorists, exploited key vulnerabilities to enter the United States and embed themselves within the immigration system, hiding in plain sight as they went about their deadly preparations. The very same immigration system that the city most devastated on September 11, 2001 — New York — has acted most aggressively to undermine and subvert.

WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

‘Worried for the Jews, but much more for France’

Posted By on August 13th, 2020

https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/285179

Jewish MP responds to anti-Semitic attack in elevator in Paris. ‘It is increasingly difficult to be a Jew in France.’
A young Jewish father arrived to pick up his seven-month daughter from his parents’ apartment in the 19th district of Paris when he was attacked by two men of African descent.

The man had entered his parents’ apartment building when two men he had never seen before followed him into the elevator. When it arrived at its destination, the two physically assaulted him.

While hitting him, the assailants yelled “You dirty Jew, you’re going to die!” The man said he was saved by his parents who came to his rescue when they realized what was going on after becoming worried their son had yet to arrive.

“I came to pick up my seven-month-old daughter who was with my parents,” says David. “Two young guys, complete foreigners, dressed relatively nicely, in their 20s, came up behind me. When I typed in the entry code to the building they came with me into the elevator. When I got to my parents’ floor, they jumped and grabbed my throat. I tried to scream. I was only a few meters from their door but they could not hear because the doors are massive,” the young man said.

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PETER SCHWEIZER : PROFILES IN CORRUPTION- KAMALA THE COVER GIRL

Posted By on August 12th, 2020

Profiles in Corruption: Abuse of Power by … – Amazon.com
https://www.amazon.com/Profiles-Corruption-Abuse-audio-cd/dp/1094149683

www.amazon.com › Profiles-Corruption-Abuse-audio-cd

Profiles in Corruption: Abuse of Power by America’s Progressive Elite Audio CD … Washington insiders operate by a proven credo: when a Peter Schweizer book … pursuit of capitalist gains, Kamala Harris who appears to be a very dirty cop.

Washington insiders operate by a proven credo: when a Peter Schweizer book drops, duck and brace for impact.

For over a decade, the work of five-time New York Times bestselling investigative reporter Peter Schweizer has sent shockwaves through the political universe.

Now Schweizer and his team of seasoned investigators turn their focus to the nation’s top progressives—politicians who strive to acquire more government power to achieve their political ends.

Can they be trusted with more power?

In Profiles in Corruption, Schweizer offers a deep-dive investigation into the private finances, and secrets deals of some of America’s top political leaders. And, as usual, he doesn’t disappoint, with never-before-reported revelations that uncover corruption and abuse of power—all backed up by a mountain of corporate documents and legal filings from around the globe.

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Last Gasp of the Mensheviks? by James W. Lucas

Posted By on August 12th, 2020

https://amgreatness.com/2020/08/11/last-gasp-of-the-mensheviks/

Will the signers of the Harper’s letter realize that only an alliance with the Right can save liberal values?

Some note has been taken of a letter appearing in Harper’s titled “A Letter on Justice and Open Debate.” Signed by an impressive array of eminent left-leaning literary and academic figures, it challenges the intolerance of the new radical Left. While denouncing “right-wing demagogues” and, of course, Donald Trump, its main focus is to call out the broader “intolerance of opposing views, a vogue for public shaming and ostracism, and the tendency to dissolve complex policy issues in a blinding moral certainty.”

The letter points generally to recent incidents where researchers and writers have lost positions and platforms for routine actions which aired even small deviations from the new orthodoxy of the radical Left. It concludes by refusing “any false choice between justice and freedom,” and calls for a culture that preserves “the possibility of good-faith disagreement without dire professional consequences.” 

The letter has not been well-received by the woke Left. Nonetheless, close on the heels of the Harper’s letter came a poll from the Cato Institute revealing that 62 percent of all American respondents say that the current political climate inhibits them from expressing their honest views. 

Pertinent to the Harper’s Letter, 37 percent of those under 30 and 44 percent of those with postgraduate degrees feel that their careers could be harmed by expressing their sincere political beliefs. Even centrist liberals feel the increasing hostility to open expression, with 52 percent feeling the need to self-censor, an increase from 45 percent only a few years ago. Only those with strongly held liberal views showed a majority who did not feel inhibited. 

This is not the first time that luminaries of the Left have found themselves outflanked by intolerant radicals even further to the Left. Examples from the last century suggest three possible approaches for dealing with this dilemma.

WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Crucial Vote on Iran Looms at U.N. Top U.S. envoy to Iran resigns, to be replaced by former NeverTrump and neoconservative diplomat Elliott Abrams.By Eric Lendrum

Posted By on August 12th, 2020

https://amgreatness.com/2020/08/10/crucial-vote-on-iran-looms-at-u-n/

The United Nations is preparing to vote on a resolution that would extend an arms embargo against the Islamic dictatorship of Iran, which is seen as a major test of President Donald Trump’s hardline policy on the rogue state, The Hill newspaper reports.

The vote comes as a top State Department official prepares to exit the administration and a once-vocal critic of President Trump prepares to assume a higher profile.  

The proposed resolution marks the latest tough action taken against Iran by the United States under President Trump, who famously withdrew from the Iran nuclear deal, officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, back in 2018. 

President Trump had been a frequent critic of the deal, which was the centerpiece of Barack Obama’s foreign policy legacy. The deal eased restrictions on the Islamic nation and made it easier for the oil-rich Iranians to pursue the development of nuclear weapons.

But other member-states of the United Nations have remained more sympathetic to the regime and continue to support the idea of the Iran deal, even as the deal itself has all but collapsed following the U.S. withdrawal.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo made his case for the resolution, and reminded others that the United States would ultimately ensure some sort of arms embargo against Iran. 

“The proposal we put forward is entirely reasonable,” Pompeo told reporters last week. “One way or another, we will do the right thing,” he added. “We will ensure that the arms embargo is extended.” 

In the event the resolution fails, Pompeo suggested the United States could impose a “snapback” of all sanctions that the Obama Administration levied on Iran prior to the conclusion of the deal.

State Department official Brian Hook, who had been traveling to various allied countries to convince them to vote in favor of the resolution but was increasingly seen as ineffective, resigned from the department on Thursday. Hook was named as Pompeo’s special representative to Iran in 2018. Previously, he was a top advisor to former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson.

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Why Is Desperately Poor India Beating New York’s COVID-19 Response? Adam Mill

Posted By on August 12th, 2020

https://amgreatness.com/2020/08/11/why-is-desperately-poor-india-beating-new-yorks-covid-19-response/

For some reason, Andrew Cuomo and Anthony Fauci have become the faces of responsible COVID-19 policy. Nothing could be further from the truth.

New York spends more money per capita on healthcare than any other state in the Union. It ranks third in the country in physicians per 100,000 population at 375.1. In terms of raw infrastructure and medical resources, New York should have been one of the best places in the world to receive treatment for COVID-19.

Yet analysis of New York’s COVID-19 statistics reveal it to be one of the most deadly places in the world for a COVID-19 patient. Consider that the tiny country of San Marino reports the worst “deaths per 1 million population” for COVID-19 at 1,238 per million. Belgium, which is the second worst, reports 852. New York is a disaster compared to even those grim numbers. New York is second in the nation at 1,688 deaths per million. If it were a country, it would lead the world. 

The numbers don’t lie. New York should be the poster child of what not to do. Because whatever it’s doing to respond to COVID-19, it’s not saving lives. 

Dr. Anthony Fauci somehow learned the opposite lesson from these morbid statistics. He said, “Many parts of the United States didn’t do enough to combat the coronavirus—but New York state did . . . New York got hit worse than any place in the world. And they did it correctly by doing things [that are recommended to fight the disease].” One of those recommendations was to ban or severely restrict the use of hydroxychloroquine to treat COVID-19. This ban came quickly in response to President Trump endorsing the drug.

ISRAEL Comments turned off

‘F’ for reading comprehension: EU study says PA textbooks promote peace European Union-sponsored study concludes that the Palestinian Authority does not incite against Israel, but examines Arabic-language textbooks used in the Israeli school system.By Ariel Kahana

Posted By on August 12th, 2020

https://www.israelhayom.com/2020/08/12/f-for-reading-comprehension-eu-study-says-pa-textbooks-promote-peace/

A European Union-sponsored study to examine whether textbooks used by schools in the Palestinian Authority incite against Israel actually examined textbooks in Arabic used in the Israeli school system.

The study concluded that PA textbooks not only do not incite against the Jewish state, but actually promote coexistence between Palestinians and Israelis.

The study was ordered by former EU Foreign Policy Chief Federica Mogherini following criticism from EU lawmakers and non-governmental organizations that the EU was essentially funding incitement against Israel rather than educating toward peace.

With that, IMPACT-Se, an international research and policy institute that analyzes school textbooks throughout the world and has a proven track record of examining PA textbooks, suspected from the outset that the EU study was unprofessional and intended to whitewash the facts.

To conduct the study, the EU hired the services of the Georg Eckert Institute for International Textbook Research. The study, portions of which were obtained by Israel Hayom, consists of incorrect translations from Arabic to English. Although the editing process for the study was completed some time ago, the EU has repeatedly delayed the publication of its conclusions.

It has now also become apparent that the study also failed to distinguish between Palestinian textbooks and Israeli Arabic-language textbooks used by schools in east Jerusalem. These are textbooks that were written in the PA but, before being approved for use by the Israeli Education Ministry, were heavily edited to replace anti-Israel content with messages of tolerance and peace.