POLITICS Comments turned off

The Democrats Embrace Not Making Sense By Jonathan F. Keiler

Posted By on March 1st, 2019

https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2019/03/the_democrats_embrace_not_making_sense.html

“Stop Making Sense” is a classic 1984 concert film featuring the alt-rock group Talking Heads. The title has a certain punkish frisson, but is also a joke. Not so the modern Democratic party which might as well adopt “Stop Making Sense” as its platform.

Nothing about the competing positions of Democratic candidates makes much sense, and that’s not just from a Republican or conservative perspective. That’s from a position of logic, consistency, and anything resembling sound judgment.

Internally, the positions being advocated by the leading Democratic candidates and the party activists that support them are an incoherent contradictory mishmash of ideas that might sound like the stuff you’d hear at a college campus pot party, with a lot of pot.

It appears the Democrats do not care whether the emerging positions of its candidates and activists make are incoherent, contradictory, thoroughly impractical, and/or unconstitutional as a matter of law.

Three contradictory and irreconcilable planks dominate Democrat politics today and nobody is trying to rationalize them — socialism, identity politics, and

ISRAEL Comments turned off

Gaslighting Gaza: Initial Analysis of UN Commission of Inquiry on Gaza Riots

Posted By on March 1st, 2019

https://www.ngo-monitor.org/reports/gaslighting-gaza-initial-analysis-of-un-commission-of-inquiry-on-gaza-riots/

On February 28, 2019, the UN Commission of Inquiry (COI) on the riots along the Israel-Gaza border, which began in March 2018, alleged that “Israeli soldiers committed violations of international human rights and humanitarian law… and may constitute war crimes or crimes against humanity.” The COI created a “confidential file” of “which is recommended be given to the International Criminal Court (ICC)” and to be used by governments to “consider imposing individual sanctions, such as a travel ban or an assets freeze.”

Methodological Failures

In contrast to professional fact-finding standards, the COI clearly established pre-determined legal and factual conclusion and merely gathered “evidence” to fit its desired outcome.
In preparing its report, the COI relied heavily on Palestinian sources, including Hamas and terror-linked non-governmental organizations (NGOs). Notably, the COI uncritically adopts the NGOs’ application of a domestic law enforcement paradigm – erasing the context of the armed conflict with Hamas and other Palestinian terror groups – to analyze cross-border violence.

ISRAEL Comments turned off

Palestinians: Marching Backwards as Israel Prepares for Elections by Khaled Abu Toameh

Posted By on March 1st, 2019

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/13812/palestinians-israel-elections

Instead of marching Palestinians towards democracy, the Palestinian Authority (PA) and Hamas have chosen the model of totalitarianism as a way of governing their people. The pro-Abbas demonstrations organized by Fatah in the West Bank are reminiscent of dictatorships in the Arab world that send their loyalists to the streets to voice support for the ruler. The Hamas-sponsored anti-Abbas demonstrations in the Gaza Strip will not solve any of the crises facing the Palestinians there. These protests are Hamas’s way of distracting attention from its failure to improve the living conditions of the people living under its repressive regime.

The only way for the Palestinians to move forward is by protesting against their failed leaders in the PA and Hamas. Many Palestinians, however, are afraid to speak out against their rulers in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Why would any Palestinian speak out against Abbas when the PA arrests and harasses those who even dare to post critical remarks on Facebook? Why would any Palestinian in the Gaza Strip criticize Hamas when he or she knows that this would endanger their lives?

On April 9, Israelis will again celebrate democracy by voting in a free and democratic election. The Palestinians, meanwhile, will mark another year of dictatorship and failed leadership, and will continue to dream about heading to any ballot box at all.

Israelis are scheduled to head to the ballot boxes on April 9 to vote for a new parliament (Knesset). This will be the fifth general election in Israel since 2006.

The Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, on the other hand, have, since 2006, failed to hold a single election for their parliament, known as the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC).

ISRAEL Comments turned off

What Bibi’s Indictment Means By Avi Bell

Posted By on March 1st, 2019

https://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-news-and-politics/281282/what-bibis-indictment-means

Israeli Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit’s announcement to the media, 40 days before general elections, that he intends to indict Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on charges of bribery and breach of trust in three different cases was political drama of the highest order. There’s no gainsaying the importance to Israel’s politics and the election. But more importantly, Mandelblit’s announcement heralds a crisis for Israel’s democracy and the public image of its legal system.

Mandelblit’s announcement inserts law enforcement officials into the political arena in an unprecedented way, and on a very shaky legal foundation. If the legal theories that the attorney general is introducing against Netanyahu become general law, a considerable part of the democratic life of Israel will have to pass through police interrogation rooms. If they remain restricted to Netanyahu, the partisanship will permanently damage public trust in the Israeli legal system.

To be sure, Mandelblit’s announcement is only an interim step in the legal drama. Any actual indictment will have to wait for hearings in the attorney general’s office in which Netanyahu’s lawyers will be afforded the opportunity to attempt to dissuade Mandelblit from his chosen course. The hearings will take place after the election, and only in a year or so will Mandelblit be in a position to request that the Knesset lift Netanyahu’s immunity or formally file an indictment. And the political fallout will not end with the opinion polls now being conducted. It is likely that Mandelblit’s announcement will influence not only the number of votes received by the parties on April 9, but the coalition negotiations to follow.

ISRAEL Comments turned off

Israel’s attorney general decided to bring charges in all three investigations against Netanyahu. By David Isaac

Posted By on February 28th, 2019

Israeli Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit announced on Thursday that he will file charges in all three criminal investigations against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The decision was expected throughout the day, and tension was high in political circles ahead of the long-awaited announcement.The charges came despite a last-minute Likud effort to convince Israel’s High Court of Justice on Thursday to stop the attorney general from making the announcement, arguing that it would cause “unprecedented interference” in the political system.

However, High Court justice Noam Sohlberg rejected the petition.Netanyahu faces charges in Cases 1000, 2000 and 4000.In Case 4000, (aka the Bezeq-Walla! Affair) Mandelblit charged Netanyahu with bribery. In Case 1000, (the Illegal Gifts Affair) Mandelblit brought lesser charges of fraud and breach of trust. In Case 2000, (the Yediot Ahronot-Israel Hayom Affair) Mandelblit will charge with breach of trust only.Case 4000Case 4000 is reportedly the strongest case against Netanyahu in the opinion of the State Attorney’s Office. In that case, Netanyahu is accused of driving through a merger for businessman Shaul Elovitch in return for favorable coverage on website Walla!Netanyahu maintains that the merger involving Bezeq, Israel’s largest telecommunications firm and Yes, a satellite TV provider, both owned by Elovitch, was carried out by the book.

Netanyahu also argues that coverage at Walla! was not positive toward him, undermining the case.

POLITICS Comments turned off

Ilhan Omar Fears Her ‘Jewish Colleagues’ Are Using Anti-Semitism Charge to Shutdown Debate By Jack Crowe

Posted By on February 28th, 2019

https://www.nationalreview.com/news/ilhan-omar-fears-her-jewish-colleagues-are-using-anti-semitism-charge-to-shutdown-debate/

Representative Ilhan Omar (D., Minn.) pushed back Wednesday against the rash of anti-Semitism accusations that have been leveled against her since she was elected, suggesting her “Jewish colleagues” and others may use accusations of bigotry to chill debate over U.S. policy toward Israel.

“What I’m fearful of — because Rashida and I are Muslim — that a lot of our Jewish colleagues, a lot of our constituents, a lot of our allies, go to thinking that everything we say about Israel to be anti-Semitic because we are Muslim,” said Omar, who was joined at the “Progressive Townhall” event in Washington, D.C. by fellow freshman representative Rashida Tlaib (D., Mich.).

“To me, it’s something that becomes designed to end the debate because you get in this space of – yes, I know what intolerance looks like and I’m sensitive when someone says, ‘The words you used Ilhan are resemblance of intolerance,’” [sic] Omar continued. “And I am cautious of that and I feel pained by that. But it’s almost as if, every single time we say something regardless of what it is we say . . . we get to be labeled something. And that ends the discussion. Because we end up defending that and nobody ever gets to have the broader debate of what is happening with Palestine.”

P.C.-CULTURE Comments turned off

Bioethicists Urge Animal Research into Male Uterus Transplants By Wesley J. Smith ?????!!!!

Posted By on February 28th, 2019

https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/bioethicists-urge-animal-research-into-male-uterus-transplants/

Years ago the crassly utilitarian Fletcher — who has been called the “patriarch of bioethics” –swooned at the prospect of males giving birth in his 1988 book The Ethics of Genetic Control:

[T]ransplant or replacement medicine foresees the day, after the automatic rejection of alien tissue is overcome, when a uterus can be implanted in a human male’s body—his abdomen has spaces—and gestation started by artificial fertilization and egg transfer.

Hypogonadism could be used to stimulate milk from the man’s rudimentary breasts—men too have mammary glands. If surgery could not construct a cervical canal the delivery could be effected by a Caesarean section and the male or transsexualized mother could nurse his own baby.

It was a classic “it will never happen” argument. Nobody took it seriously. But once again, we find that if radicals envision it, eventually we will try to go there.

FOREIGN POLICY, WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

A Welcome Failure By The Editors

Posted By on February 28th, 2019

https://www.nationalreview.com/2019/02/a-welcome-failure/

Donald Trump walked away from talks with North Korea, the best possible outcome given that he never should have walked into the talks to begin with.

In the unlikely event that North Korea wanted to give up its nuclear program, it could have demonstrated its commitment over time in low-level talks building toward an agreement. Instead, President Trump took the high-wire route of two direct meetings with Kim Jong-un, giving the North Korea dictator, if nothing else, an incalculable propaganda coup by enhancing his international standing.

Worse, Trump couldn’t help but make boosterish comments about the Supreme Leader, who enslaves and immiserates his people. In Hanoi, he even professed to take seriously Kim Jong-un’s denial that he had anything to do with Otto Warmbier’s murder, as if rogue security services are kidnapping and torturing Americans on their own initiative in the most tightly controlled society on Earth.

All signs were that the North Koreans were heading to a diplomatic win, getting sanctions relief — as well as a U.S. liaison office in Pyongyang and a formal end to the Korean War — in exchange for steps to dismantle its Yongbyon enrichment facility. This is a version of the sucker’s deal that the U.S. has fallen for time and again with the North. Pyongyang’s play is to pocket any economic relief and diplomatic recognition, and then cheat on its commitments. Indeed, President Trump revealed that we are aware of a second, heretofore unknown enrichment facility.

FOREIGN POLICY, WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Trump Walks on Kim Give him credit for refusing to accept less than denuclearization.

Posted By on February 28th, 2019

https://www.wsj.com/articles/trump-walks-on-kim-11551389478
President Trump’s critics are carping that his top-down negotiating model undermined his nuclear summit with Kim Jong Un because the details hadn’t been settled on at lower levels of diplomacy. We give Mr. Trump more credit for walking away from a deal that would not have required North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons.

Despite the long history of the North’s military threats, only recently has it developed and tested both nuclear bombs and the missiles to deliver them across the Pacific. The Hwasong-15 missile, successfully tested in late 2017, is theoretically able to reach deep into the U.S. mainland. For the current U.S. Presidency, which happens to be Donald Trump’s, that is the hard reality. Something has to be done about this threat, and Mr. Trump has thrown away diplomatic convention to address it.

One can quibble about Mr. Trump’s negotiating style—the over-the-top buttering up of the North Korean dictator, pushing the process to a summit before the principals on either side had arrived at a mutually agreed framework. But in the event, President Trump was willing to walk away without the deal Mr. Kim was offering. It was the right decision.

WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Political Scandal Worsens for Canada’s Justin Trudeau Former justice minister says prime minister’s top aides repeatedly pressed her to drop the prosecution of SNC-Lavalin By Paul Vieira and Kim Mackrael

Posted By on February 28th, 2019

https://www.wsj.com/articles/political-scandal-worsens-for-canadas-justin-trudeau-11551312209

OTTAWA—A political firestorm surrounding Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau became more damaging Wednesday, as his ex-justice minister accused his top aides of repeatedly pressuring her to drop the prosecution of a global engineering and construction firm.

The testimony delivered by Jody Wilson-Raybould to a parliamentary committee offered the most detailed version yet of events fueling a scandal that risks upending Mr. Trudeau’s re-election effort later this year. She said that between September and December, she and her staff had roughly 10 phone calls and 10 meetings about the matter involving SNC-Lavalin Group Inc. with Mr. Trudeau’s senior aides and other government officials, including staff from the finance minister’s office.

“I experienced a consistent and sustained effort by many people within the government to seek to politically interfere in the exercise of prosecutorial discretion,” Ms. Wilson-Raybould said.

The former justice minister recounted how senior government officials, mostly from Mr. Trudeau’s office, attempted to persuade her to order prosecutors to cut a plea deal with SNC-Lavalin, which is based in the politically important province of Quebec. A plea deal would have allowed SNC-Lavalin to avoid a decadelong ban on bidding on government contracts in Canada and elsewhere.