ENVIRONMENT AND JUNK SCIENCE Comments turned off

Green Groups Fight Trump’s Oil-Drilling Deregulation By Robert L. Bradley Jr.

Posted By on June 26th, 2019

https://www.nationalreview.com/2019/06/green-groups-fight-donald-trumps-oil-drilling-deregulation/

He’s cutting pointless red tape and they’re angry about it.

The Interior Department just revised a series of Obama-era regulations governing offshore oil and gas drilling — and environmentalists are hopping mad.

Recently, green groups including the Sierra Club and EarthJustice filed a lawsuit against Interior’s update. These groups claim the Trump administration is “softening” and “relaxing” safety standards.

That’s not true. The revision simply cuts redundant federal regulations, making it easier for private offshore companies to manage risks, and the department deserves applause for boosting workers’ economic opportunities.

As many as 90 billion barrels of oil and 328 trillion cubic feet of natural gas lie buried in the U.S. Outer Continental Shelf — the federally owned land beneath the Arctic, Atlantic, and Pacific Oceans and the Gulf of Mexico. To collect these energy riches, oil and gas firms use offshore rigs or platforms to drill wells into the ocean floor.

Interior’s update eliminates bureaucratic red tape around this process. The revision gets rid of redundant tests on wells and blowout preventers, the specialized valves that quickly seal wells to prevent oil spills. Without these repetitive tests, offshore workers have more time to focus on other, more effective safety measures.

IMMIGRATION Comments turned off

Hawley Slams Fellow Lawmakers’ ‘Pathetic’ Inaction on Border Crisis By Jack Crowe

Posted By on June 26th, 2019

https://www.nationalreview.com/news/hawley-slams-fellow-lawmakers-pa

Senator Josh Hawley (R., Mo.) lashed out at fellow lawmakers during a Wednesday hearing, expressing frustration with the lack of substantive legislative responses to the ongoing crisis at the southern border.

Hawley cited grisly reports of inhumane conditions that migrants, especially children, are being forced to endure, and argued that those hardships are the direct result of Congress’s failure to allocate more resources to the agencies tasked with sheltering and providing medical care to the record number of asylum-seekers arriving at the border.

“The behavior of this Congress is absolutely pathetic. I mean, it is just pathetic,” Hawley began. “The problem is this Congress never does anything. This Congress refuses to do anything. We know what the facts are, you’ve outlined them again today: CBP is overcapacity, underfunded, undermanned. ICE: overcapacity, underfunded. HHS: overcapacity, underfunded. Yet this Congress will do nothing.”

Hawley’s testimony comes one day after acting Customs and Border Protection (CBP) chief John Sanders announced his resignation amid continued reports of migrant children receiving inadequate housing and medical care at Border Patrol holding facilities, where the migrants are held until they can be transferred to HHS custody. That transfer process now routinely exceeds the 72 hours allotted by law due to HHS’s own inadequate funding and staffing.

The Senate plans to vote this week on a $4.5 billion spending package that would provide increased funding to CBP, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and HHS. The bill’s passage has been threatened by a companion bill, which passed the House Tuesday, that bars the allocation of funds for certain Department of Defense enforcement actions.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Hawley’s Plan to Regulate Social-Media Giants Draws Muted Response on Capitol Hill By John McCormack

Posted By on June 26th, 2019

https://www.nationalreview.com/2019/06/josh-hawleys-plan-to-regulate-social-media-giants-draws-muted-response-on-capitol-hill/

Many Senate Republicans, and some Senate Democrats, appear to be taking a wait-and-see approach to the Missouri freshman’s controversial proposal.

One week ago today, freshman senator Josh Hawley (R., Mo.) introduced a bill requiring large social-media companies to prove to the Federal Trade Commission that their platforms are not politically biased. Failure to satisfy the FTC in this regard would result in companies such as Facebook and Twitter losing immunity from liability for defamatory content posted by their users, meaning they could be sued out of existence.

Hawley’s proposal drew sharp criticism from several voices on the right, including our own David French, who wrote that the bill is both unconstitutional and unwise. On Capitol Hill, there hasn’t been a groundswell of support for Hawley’s legislation, which currently has zero cosponsors. But neither has there been much pushback from Hawley’s Republican colleagues.

Representative Justin Amash (R., Mich.), a frequent thorn in his caucus’s side, tweeted that the bill is “a sweetheart deal for Big Government. It empowers the one entity that should have no say over our speech to regulate and influence what we say online.” But only one of more than a dozen Republican senators contacted by National Review expressed any criticism of Hawley’s legislation: Nebraska’s Ben Sasse, who “is not a co-sponsor of this government-control approach and has concerns that this could open the door to the left for a new government Fairness Doctrine,” his spokesman, James Wegmann, tells National Review.

“My gut reaction is it’s a pretty blunt instrument. But I’m going to take a look at it,” says John Kennedy of Louisiana.

EDUCATION Comments turned off

Inventing Victimhood Universities too often serve as “hate-crime hoax” mills. Andy Ngo

Posted By on June 26th, 2019

https://www.city-journal.org/campus-hate-crime-hoaxes

This month, an Ohio jury awarded the owners of Gibson’s Food Mart and Bakery in Oberlin $44 million in combined punitive and compensatory damages in its defamation action against Oberlin College and a top university administrator. The incident at the heart of the lawsuit stems from a 2016 hate-crime hoax involving three black students, occurring the day after Donald Trump’s presidential victory. Gibson’s, owned and operated by the same family for over a century, has been a popular spot for Oberlin College students looking to buy groceries within walking distance of campus. Gibson’s also supplied the college dining hall with baked goods.

On November 9, 2016, Oberlin students Jonathan Aladin, Endia Lawrence, and Cecelia Whettstone fought with Allyn Gibson, the owner’s grandson, after he tried to apprehend Aladin for stealing alcohol. The students claimed that they had been racially profiled. Students, professors, and even some in the Oberlin administration launched a boycott of the bakery, including protests and pickets. The school cancelled its contracts with Gibson’s. But the allegations proved baseless: the students had in fact been caught stealing from the store, and they admitted as much when they pled guilty the following August.

Advocacy groups like the Southern Poverty Law Center make headlines by claiming that hate crimes have surged since Trump’s election, but the real surge is in hate-crime hoaxes, especially among university students. The day after the 2016 election, Eleesha Long, a student at Bowling Green State University—about 90 miles west of Oberlin—said that she was attacked by white Trump supporters, who threw rocks at her. Police concluded that she had fabricated the story. That same day, Kathy Mirah Tu, a University of Minnesota student, claimed in a viral social-media post that she was detained by police after fighting a racist man who had attacked her. Campus and local police said that they had had no contact with her. And again that day, a Muslim student at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette made up a story about being attacked and robbed by Trump supporters, who supposedly ripped off her hijab. For weeks after Trump’s election, America was fed a series of outrageous stories of campus race hatred that fell apart upon examination.

ISRAEL Comments turned off

Arab Officials Mute Criticism of Israel at Trump Administration’s Middle-East Peace Conference Jared Kushner puts focus on $50 billion economic plan; warmer ties between Gulf states and Israel: Felicia Schwartz

Posted By on June 26th, 2019

https://www.wsj.com/articles/arab-leaders-mute-criticism-of-israel-at-trump-administrations-middle-east-peace-conference-11561578645

MANAMA, Bahrain—The most striking feature of the Trump administration’s conference showcasing the economic side of its Middle East peace plan was what was largely absent: Criticism of Israeli policy toward the Palestinian territories.

Arab officials steered clear of speaking about Palestinian statehood or Israeli policies at the two-day gathering, which wrapped up Wednesday in Bahrain, a contrast with their comments at other international forums.

That was by design. U.S. officials sought to avoid the political issues that have dogged talks on the conflict for years and focus instead on the economic potential should peace be achieved. The Israeli government wasn’t invited, but Israeli businesspeople were. Arab government ministers with political portfolios didn’t attend, and most Arab governments sent either midlevel officials or ministers overseeing fiscal affairs.

The Trump administration hoped to build support from Arab states and investors for a $50 billion program to invest in and around the Palestinian territories over 10 years, before unrolling the much thornier political half of its peace plan.

Images beamed out of the conference showed Gulf Arabs in full national dress chatting casually with the small Israeli business contingent that Bahrain allowed to travel here—encounters that some here said would have been unthinkable only a few years ago.

POLITICS Comments turned off

Cory Booker Says He’s Up For Listening To The Racist Louis Farrakhan By Erielle Davidson

Posted By on June 26th, 2019

https://thefederalist.com/2019/06/26/cory-booker-says-hes-listening-racist-louis-farrakhan/

Recently, at a faith breakfast doubling as a campaign event, 2020 Democrat presidential candidate Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) announced that he would be willing to meet with infamous anti-Semite Louis Farrakhan, acknowledging that he was “very familiar with Louis Farrakhan and his beliefs and his values.”

Booker’s comments, while alarming, serve as a steady reminder that the American Democratic Party does not regard anti-Semitism as a form of ethnic hatred, but as a mere difference of opinion. Indeed, Booker’s speech at the breakfast in Columbia, South Carolina provides a roadmap for the type of Farrakhan whitewashing we might come to expect from 2020 Democrats attempting to justify their continued correspondence with Farrakhan (outlined here are numerous connections between Farrakhan and the Democrats).

“I live in Newark so we have famous Mosque 25, we have Nation of Islam there,” Booker stated at the breakfast. “As mayor I met with lots of folks talking to [Farrakhan]. I have heard Minister Farrakhan’s speeches for a lot of my life, so I don’t feel like I need to do that, but I’m not one of these people that says I wouldn’t sit down with anybody to hear what they have to say. But I live on a neighborhood where I’m getting guys on the streets offering and selling his works. I am very familiar with Minister Louis Farrakhan and his beliefs and his values.”

Booker’s blasé discussion of Farrakhan reminds American voters that Democrats are wholly unserious about tackling anti-Semitism within their own ranks. Booker had been responding to an audience member who had specifically asked whether Booker would reject speaking with Farrakhan on the basis of Farrakhan’s anti-Semitism.

Instead of using his response as an opportunity to offer a full-throated condemnation of Nation of Islam leader, Booker took the opportunity to normalize the rabid anti-Semite, referring to Farrakhan’s “beliefs and his values” as if they were a matter of philosophical debate.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Bias At Tech Companies Hurts Americans More Than You Think When you start banning people who are normal citizens, who are not intentionally in the political game, it crosses a line, and at a great risk. Ben Domenech

Posted By on June 26th, 2019

https://thefederalist.com/2019/06/26/bias-at-tech-companies-hurts-americans-more-than-you-think/

So regarding this line from Peter Suderman’s piece, critiquing Sen. Josh Hawley and Sohrab Ahmari, titled “The Moral Scolds of the New Illiberal Right Are Coming For Your Internet”: “A private company, like Facebook or Twitter, suspending an account or deleting a post is no more censorship than a bar owner kicking out an unwelcome patron is censorship.”

That’s a particularly libertarian perspective. But is that really how people think about and define censorship? Or is that an uncommon definition at odds with one more commonly held by American citizens?

We have a current example relevant to this question from yesterday in the knitting site crackdown which will permanently ban any accounts posting content in support of Trump or his administration (as representing hate speech and endorsement of white supremacy).

Now, this may not seem like a big deal. But if you’re a mom in Wyoming who’s been making money off of selling your knitted projects for more than a decade – as one of our writers at The Federalist is – does anyone honestly think they don’t view that as censorship? That kids or family don’t view this as grandma getting censored just because of her support of one of the major political parties?

I doubt a narrow definition of censorship which is limited solely to governmental activity sounds that believable to most people. Of course it’s not a First Amendment violation; these are private businesses. But it is pretty obviously a form of market-based censorship: you can’t post on our marketplace if you think X or your product is perceived as supporting X. That view is a lot more common than the narrow “only the government can censor” view.

IMMIGRATION Comments turned off

There is an Existential Threat to the Very Idea of American Citizenship and Democrats are Leading the Charge By Rick Moran

Posted By on June 26th, 2019

https://pjmedia.com/trending/there-is-an-existential-threat-to-the-very-idea-of-american-citizenship-and-democrats-are-leading-the-charge/

Jim Geraghty in NRO:

Sometimes our political debates are furious and deeply divided because of demagogues, clickbait media, and hype. But sometimes our political debates are furious because they reflect a conflict of fundamentally opposed worldviews, where no compromise is feasible.

Many of the 2020 Democratic presidential candidates want to fundamentally redefine who is American — that is, if you show up from another country and want to be here, you ought to enjoy the full rights of citizenship and all of the benefits provided to American citizens.

Bernie Sanders put it clearly: “We’re going to make public colleges and universities tuition-free and open that to the undocumented.” In other words, if are a citizen of another country and you want a free college education, all you have to do is show up in the United States and get accepted at any one of the 1,626 public colleges in the United States.

Listen carefully to Elizabeth Warren’s statement today backing a proposed law by Democratic candidate Julian Castro that would destroy any semblance of a border.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

So Many Democrats, So Many Bad Ideas By John Stossel

Posted By on June 26th, 2019

https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/so-many-democratic-candidates-so-many-bad-ideas/

So many people want to be president. Unfortunately, many have terrible ideas.

Sen. Kamala Harris wants companies to prove they pay men and women equally. “Penalties if they don’t!” she shouts. But there are lots of reasons, other than sexism, why companies pay some men more than women.

Harris also wants government to “hold social media platforms accountable for the hate infiltrating their platforms.” But “holding them accountable” means censorship. If politicians get to censor media, they’ll censor anyone who criticizes them.

Sen. Bernie Sanders wants the post office to offer banking services. The post office? It already loses billions of dollars despite its monopoly on delivering mail. Sanders also wants to increase our national debt by forgiving $1.6 trillion in student loan debt.

He wants to ban for-profit charter schools and freeze funding for nonprofit charters. That’s great news for some government-school bureaucrats and teachers unions that don’t want to compete but bad news for kids who flourish in charters when government schools fail.

Sen. Cory Booker once sounded better about charters, saying, “When people tell me they’re against school choice … or charter schools, I say, ‘As soon as you’re willing to send your kid to a failing school in my city … then I’ll be with you.'”

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Project Veritas’ Bombshell Video Ruffles Some Feathers By Debra Heine

Posted By on June 26th, 2019

https://amgreatness.com/2019/06/25/project-veritas-bombshell-video-ruffles-some-feathers/

James O’Keefe’s explosive video exposing Google’s political agenda appears to have ruffled some feathers in the media world.

Jen Gennai, the Google executive seen talking to Project Veritas undercover journalists about Google’s plans to prevent “the next Trump situation,” has already published a response complaining that she was taken out of context.

And the bombshell video didn’t last even a full day on YouTube before it was removed from the platform.

YouTube, which is owned by Google, removed the video due to privacy complaints about the footage.

“We have strong privacy guidelines in place, including the ability to file a complaint if someone feels their privacy has been violated,” a YouTube spokesperson said in a statement. “When complaints are received, we may also provide the uploader a chance to remove or edit private information in their video.”

The powerful video can still be viewed on BitChute, Vimeo, and on Project Veritas’ website.

Meanwhile, Gennai, Google’s head of innovation, has weighed in on O’Keefe’s report at Medium.

In her piece, she complains that she was duped by Project Veritas and as a result, was being besieged by “an enormous collection of threatening calls, voicemails, text messages and emails, from people I’d never met.”

Yes, her crisis management team advised her to play the victim card:

Someone wrote “Your ideology will be shredded to pieces, just moments before you got executed for treason…you are living lended time, enjoy till then”. There were plenty more threats like this. I’ve never been so fearful.