ANTI-SEMITISM Comments turned off

Trump’s Plan To Trim Platform Could Emerge As New Contract With America Adele Malpass

Posted By on June 3rd, 2020

https://www.nysun.com/

President Trump’s plan to distill the Republican platform to its essential principles may be opposed by some conservatives. By no means all of them, though. Count me as one former Republican county chairman and a member of a past platform committee who sees this plan as long overdue — potentially a new kind of contract with America.

The work on the platform for 2020 is reportedly being led by Jared Kushner. The idea is to shrink the party platform down to an index card, meaning to its pith — and, I’m predicting, in language that is so plain that no lipreading will be necessary. The points will be there in black and white so that everyone can quickly understand them and compare them to the Democrats’ nostrums.
What a difference that would be from the doorstops of recent history. The GOP platform has long been considered an unimportant document, a policy wish list rather than a political statement. This may be why so many people were shocked when President Trump started redeeming one campaign promise after another — from taxes to Jerusalem.
The roadmap for a condensed party platform is the one-page political document from the 1994 campaign, “A Contract With America.” Just six weeks before the congressional midterm elections, Newt Gingrich, then a congressman from Georgia, laid out an eight-point plan of what he would do as Speaker. It would go on to change history.

WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Venezuela, the Oil-Rich Nation without Fuel By Jorge Jraissati

Posted By on June 3rd, 2020

https://www.nationalreview.com/2020/06/venezuela-economic-mismanagement-oil-rich-nation-without-fuel/

Years of economic mismanagement and corruption have combined with a poorly designed and inefficient system to create an unprecedented crisis.

 T here are just a handful of countries as blessed as Venezuela. It has the largest oil reserves of any country on Earth. It has abundant reserves of natural gas, coal, timber, and gold. And as if this weren’t enough, it also has miles of fertile land and an ideal geographical location to export all of its blessings. Yet, there is a popular joke around here that says: “Why was God so generous to us? He gave us everything, even perfect weather, and beautiful beaches. Well, because he also gave us our politicians and a society that has not been capable of taking care of its nation.”

Personally, I have always found this “joke” dangerously misleading, because it implies that Venezuela is a rich country in the first place. Countries are not rich because of their natural resources. Developed nations are rich because they have dynamic economies, with innovative private sectors, an impressive stock of human capital, and institutions that incentivize people to become responsible and productive citizens — plus governments willing to complement the market by providing infrastructure, collective security, a well-functioning educational system, and other public goods that are essential for economic development. In Venezuela, unfortunately, we have neither markets nor a well-designed and efficient public sector. This, rather than the gross mismanagement of our natural resources, is the reason we are undeveloped.

One need not look far for the proof. This year, Venezuela officially became the first resource-rich nation without fuel, in a crisis that has paralyzed the country like never before. Currently, fuel can only be procured on the black market, at a staggering price of nine dollars a gallon. This would be a worrisome situation for any country. But Venezuela’s minimum wage is less than five dollars a month, meaning virtually no Venezuelans can afford fuel. It’s the latest indignity in a years-long political crisis that has seen the country grow accustomed to daily power blackouts, an unreliable water supply, and chronic shortages of food and medicine.

ANTI-SEMITISM Comments turned off

The Toxic Narrative About Police Is Wrong Awful as they are, episodes like George Floyd’s death are outliers; extensive data on cops’ use of force reveal professionalism and restraint. Rafael A. Mangual

Posted By on June 3rd, 2020

https://www.city-journal.org/toxic-narrative-about-police-is-wrong

In the aftermath of George Floyd’s death in police custody in Minneapolis—a death that appears, from all video evidence, to be a brutal and unjustified use of police force—rioters have set cities ablaze across the United States, looting businesses, destroying property, and attacking police. For many, this prolonged civil unrest is shocking. It shouldn’t be. Police have been the targets of a poisonous, decades-long campaign to paint law enforcement as a violent cog in the machine of a racially oppressive criminal-justice system. As more and more serious-minded people embraced this narrative and disregarded the astonishing progress made in racial tolerance, the question ceased to be whether America would see the large-scale riots of the kind that occurred in the mid- to late 1960s—when charges of widespread racism in policing had some merit—but only a question of when.

Many protest supporters have expressed frustration with the attention being given to a relative handful of agitators driving the violence and looting—behavior, they say, that distorts the image of what is largely a peaceful movement. Their frustration is understandable but also ironic: the narrative that has driven thousands into the streets is itself a distortion. Just as the violence that has alarmed the American public does not represent the peaceful protesters exercising their right to air their grievances, the police violence depicted in viral videos does not characterize the institution of law enforcement.

MEDIA Comments turned off

The Media Are Lying To You About Everything, Including The Riots By John Daniel Davidson

Posted By on June 3rd, 2020

https://thefederalist.com/2020/06/03/the-media-are-lying-to-you-about-everything-including-the-riots/

The media lied about the Russia collusion hoax, about the Mueller probe, about impeachment, about the coronavirus—and now they’re lying about the riots.

It seems no great event or upheaval in our national life can pass now without the media lying to our faces about it.

They lied about the Trump campaign colluding with Russia in 2016. They lied about the Mueller probe and Brett Kavanaugh and former national security adviser Mike Flynn. They lied about Trump’s phone call with the Ukrainian president and the impeachment farce that ensued. They lied about the coronavirus and the lockdowns and the White House response. And now they’re lying about the riots.

In recent days we’ve heard a steady drumbeat of lies, distortions, and disingenuousness from the mainstream media about almost every aspect of the unrest now gripping American cities. The deceit is almost too pervasive and amorphous to describe, but I’m going to try anyway.

Over the weekend we were told, for example, that the looting and violence was being instigated not by left-wing anarchists and antifa groups but by the media’s favorite villains: white supremacists. CNN, whose Atlanta offices were vandalized Friday, went on and on—without a shred of evidence to back it up—about how white supremacists might be infiltrating the protests and stirring up trouble. The New York Times, in a report that even quoted a senior police official in New York City saying outside anarchist groups were coordinating mayhem before the protests began, nevertheless veered into a long aside about how far-right “accelerationists” were hoping the unrest would bring about a long-sought second civil war.

By Monday, no one was talking about the white supremacist agitators anymore. The media had moved on to better, more plausible lies.

Here’s Matthew Yglesias of Vox, disingenuously comparing the rioters and looters to pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong. His snarky tweet is meant to suggest Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton is a hypocrite for supporting the Hong Kong protesters but calling for the restoration of order at home.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Surely Minneapolis, Of All Places, Must Have Cured Racism By Now Francis Menton ****

Posted By on June 3rd, 2020

https://us7.campaign-archive.com/?e=a9fdc67db9&u=9d011a88d8fe324cae8c084c5&id=2659226039

Progressives and Democrats are the people who never tire of accusing their political adversaries of racism, or maybe even of “white supremacism.” Elect us, the message is, and we will do away with these evils for good.

If that proposition were valid, then clearly Minneapolis would be in the forefront of those places that have long since done away with racism. Among bastions of woke progressivism in this country, it is almost impossible to top Minneapolis. The place is currently run from top to bottom and at all levels of government by representatives of the far left wing of the Democratic Party; and that has been true for as far back as human memory stretches. Consider:

The current Mayor of Minneapolis is Jacob Frey. He won the office in 2017 in a free for all among 17 candidates, of whom 10 were from the Democrat-Farmer-Labor Party and not one was a Republican. The candidates competed as to who was the farthest left. Frey out-lefted them all. His big issues were “climate change,” affordable housing, and, yes, reforming the police.

The last Republican Mayor of Minneapolis was Richard Erdall, who served for one day in 1973. Prior to Erdall, the previous Republican Mayor was Kenneth Peterson, who left office in 1961.

The City Council consists of 13 members, of whom 12 are members of the DFL (Democratic) Party, and one is a member of the Green Party. There are no Republicans.

The federal Congressperson is Ilhan Omar: far-left Democrat, Muslim, immigrant from Somalia, and member of “the squad.” Omar won her seat in 2018 by a margin of 78-22 over her Republican opponent.

The Governor (Tim Walz) and both U.S. Senators (Amy Klobuchar and Tina Smith) are all Democrats.

Minnesota’s chief law enforcement officer is Attorney General Keith Ellison, a Democrat of the radical left variety, an African American and a Muslim, who previously held Omar’s Minneapolis Congressional seat for 12 years, and who has recently been Deputy Chair of the Democratic National Committee.

The police commissioner in Minneapolis is a mayoral appointee. The current commissioner, Medaria Arradondo, an African American, has been in office since 2017..

CHARLOTTE'S NEWS WEB Comments turned off

Children of the revolution Dominic Green

Posted By on June 3rd, 2020

https://spectator.us/children-revolution-chiara-de-blasio/

Some steal their luxury leisure goods, but others take their leisure by the luxury of right, and all of it is wrong. While gangs using luxury vehicles and lookouts cross the bridges into Manhattan for targeted looting — as opposed to looting Target, which is how the George Floyd riots began — the children of the elite parade their virtue and distract the police by acting out fantasies of violent revolution.

How proud Mr and Mrs de Blasio of Yorkville, Manhattan must be of young Chiara, arrested on Saturday night in Manhattan for unlawful assembly. The 25-year-old ‘activist’ usually lives on the frontlines as a ‘program co-ordinator’ for a feminist group on the mean but leafy pathways of Santa Clara University in California, applying ‘activism and justice to address social issues in and around the campus community’. But the coronavirus has forced her to squeeze into her family’s cramped quarters in the notorious Gracie Mansions housing complex.

Eyewitnesses claim Chiara and about a hundred others blocked the road and then disobeyed police orders to move. She was applying justice by shouting at the police, but not throwing missiles at the white supremacist pigs.

‘I’m proud of her that she cares so much,’ dad Bill said afterwards. Chiara cares enough to raise the temperature and incite others. But not enough to dirty her hands.

CHARLOTTE'S NEWS WEB Comments turned off

How to Destroy Civilization Roger Kimball

Posted By on June 3rd, 2020

https://spectator.us/destroy-civilization-riots-universities-tenured-radicals/

Yogi Berra was right: it’s déjà vu all over again. Just turn on the evening news. If you are old enough, you might blink twice and wonder whether you are not back in 1968. The looting and mayhem, the promiscuous invocations of universal ‘racism’ and ‘non-negotiable demands.’ Haven’t we been there, done that? ‘We must recognize that justice is a higher social goal than law and order.’ Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to some eager CNN reporter? No, that was William Sloane Coffin, Jr., Chaplin of Yale University, in 1972.

Remember Bobby Seale and the Black Panthers? When his trial for murder opened in New Haven in 1970, Yale’s President, the pathetic patrician Kingman Brewster, said that ‘I am skeptical of the ability of black revolutionaries to achieve a fair trial anywhere in the United States.’ That more or less guaranteed, and half-excused, the round of violence that followed.

Over the last few days, numerous policemen have been attacked, several have been killed, in the wave of domestic terrorism coruscating across the country. Seale would have been pleased. ‘If a pig comes up to us and starts swinging a billy club,’ he told a crowd, ‘you got to [shoot] that pig in defense of yourself! We’re gonna barbecue some pork!’ Tom Hayden, all admiration for Seale’s performance, told the crowd to ‘make sure that if blood is going to flow, it will flow all over the city.’

ISRAEL, MEDIA, WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Why Western Media is Biased Against Israel by Bassam Tawil

Posted By on June 3rd, 2020

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/16078/media-bias-israel

Many foreign journalists seem to see the conflict along the lines of “good guys (Palestinians) versus bad guys (Israel).” They wake up every morning and search for any story that reflects badly on Israel. The foreign correspondents then hire Palestinians to assist them in spreading lies about Israel.

What is particularly disturbing about the dismissal of Hamad is that the Associated Press knew one of its Palestinian workers was engaged in anti-Israel activities, but failed to stop him. Hamad even ignored repeated warnings from his employers against pursuing political activities.

If Hamad had “repeatedly” violated AP policies by engaging in anti-Israel political activities, why was he allowed to continue covering Palestinian affairs even though his anti-Israel sentiments were known to his employers and everyone else?

The incident also shows that international news organizations evidently have no problem hiring anti-Israel activists as reporters and cameramen.

The AP evidently knew that Hamad was engaged in political activities. It nevertheless chose to turn a blind eye because Hamad was directing his hate only against Israel. As far as the AP is concerned, the moment Hamad spoke out against the brutality and repressive measures of the Palestinian Authority security forces, he crossed a red line. That is when he was informed of the decision to terminate his employment.

The problem is, there are many more Palestinian journalists like Hamad working for the international media in the Middle East. These journalists see themselves as soldiers serving the Palestinian cause, and their as duty bashing Israel on a daily basis.

When Palestinian journalist Eyad Hamad criticized Israel, his employers at the Associated Press (AP) summoned him for a hearing, which ended only with a warning.

When Hamad criticized the Palestinian Authority, however, he received a letter from the AP informing him that “your employment has been terminated.”

WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Erdoğan’s Libya Campaign: Another Neo-Ottoman Design by Burak Bekdil

Posted By on June 3rd, 2020

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/16066/erdogan-turkey-libya-campaign

Erdoğan knows that every political adventure outside Turkish borders increases his popularity, especially at a time when economic hardships could prune his approval at home.

Further escalation may turn Libya into a second proxy for Turkey’s war theater, after Syria. There, Turkish and Russian interests remain deeply conflicting. Turkey wants to overthrow President Assad and to replace his regime with Sunni jihadists; Russia wants Assad in power and is fighting Sunni jihadists.

Libya is fast becoming another challenge for a man who loves military challenges — but tends to lose most of them.

A military confrontation between Turkey and Russia in Libya would be too risky a venture even for a ruler who does not want to miss a single opportunity to revive his country’s once glorious imperial past — especially at a time when Russian President Vladimir Putin apparently wishes to seal his country’s imperial dream of having a permanent presence in the Mediterranean — in Syria and Libya.

For Turkey, the Libya campaign is part of a sectarian (pro-Sunni) war. Erdoğan wants a loyal, Turkey-friendly regime in Libya, one that could be useful for restoring to power in Egypt the Muslim Brotherhood, another Islamist Erdoğan ally, like Hamas

Russia’s Putin also appears keen to have his second permanent military presence in the Mediterranean after Syria.

Ironically, even during the Ottoman era (from early 16th century to 1912) Libya was divided into two parts: one linked to Tripoli in the west and the other linked to Benghazi in the east. Even then, the country largely resembled today’s division between an internationally-recognized government in Tripoli and its adversaries in the east.

More than a century after the last Ottoman soldiers left Libya following an Italian invasion in 1911, Turkey’s neo-Ottoman leader, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who has apparently long harbored dreams of reviving the Ottoman Empire, at least revived the Libyan war theater with Turkish soldiers fighting a proxy war in the desert.

ANTI-SEMITISM Comments turned off

Governor Cuomo Orders Nursing Homes To Admit Rioters (Satire)

Posted By on June 3rd, 2020

https://babylonbee.com/news/governor-cuomo-orders-nursing-homes-to-admit-rioters

ALBANY, NY—New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has ordered nursing homes to admit violent rioters and protesters throughout the state.

“If we are going to be compassionate, caring, and pro-science, we need to admit these oppressed individuals into every care facility available,” he said at a press conference this morning. “I don’t want to hear any talk of how this might hurt old people. This isn’t the Dark Ages — we listen to SCIENCE in this state!”

The order forced nursing homes to admit anyone carrying a brick, Molotov cocktail, baseball bat, or bike lock and house them until they recover. Scientists agree this is the best possible move and say that anyone who has concerns about how it might affect the elderly is an anti-science bigot.