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The Big Lie About ‘Russian’ ‘Hacking’ Diana West

Posted By on March 6th, 2019

https://www.theepochtimes.com/the-big-lie-about-russian-hacking_2825871.html

Hearing Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.) address former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen in committee last week was another grating reminder of how unproven theories—fantasies, even—become Big Lies: through constant, brazen repetition. At a certain point, they cut channels through the public mind and run through history evermore as “conventional wisdom.”

We now teeter at this point with the unproven theory—a.k.a. Big Lie—that “the Russians” “hacked” the Democratic National Committee (DNC).

Something happened at the DNC in 2016, all right, and that “something” led to the WikiLeaks publication of thousands of DNC emails, and the swift disgrace and resignations of top DNC officials, including DNC “chair” Wasserman Schultz, over revelations of DNC favoritism toward Hillary Clinton over Bernie Sanders.

Nearly three years have passed, however, and no one has produced forensic evidence of a DNC “hack” by “the Russians”—and that includes special counsel Robert Mueller, whose 2018 indictment of a dozen or so Russians presents zero evidence to support his accusations. Not even the FBI discovered any “hack” evidence at the DNC because, in part, the nation’s federal law enforcement body never examined the DNC’s computer servers.

MEDIA, NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Phony Constitutionalists Despise This Freshman Senator By Mark Pulliam

Posted By on March 6th, 2019

https://amgreatness.com/2019/03/05/phony-

Newly elected U.S. Senator Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), who handily defeated incumbent Democrat Claire McCaskill in November, is a former Supreme Court clerk who served previously as Missouri’s attorney general. At age 39, he is the youngest member of the Senate. Generally regarded as a rising star, the cerebral Hawley was named to the Senate Judiciary Committee, a plum assignment for a freshman. Yet just months after taking the oath of office, Hawley was blasted—twice—by the Wall Street Journal, which not only accused him of “bad judgment” but nastily remarked about his youth and physical appearance (referring to him, oddly, as having “a lean and hungry look”).

What apostasy did Hawley commit to warrant such opprobrium? Did he sell out to Planned Parenthood, endorse the Green New Deal, or betray the Republican platform?

No, Hawley had the temerity to express concern about a pending judicial nominee to the D.C. Circuit, widely viewed as the second-most-important court in America, next to the Supreme Court.

Hawley questioned the judicial philosophy of Neomi Rao, President Trump’s choice to replace Brett Kavanaugh on the appellate court that often serves as a stepping stone to the high court (as it did for Kavanaugh, Chief Justice John Roberts, Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Clarence Thomas, and the late Antonin Scalia). Hawley stated he had reservations about Rao’s position on Roe v. Wade—the notorious activist ruling that invented a constitutional right to abortion out of whole cloth—and also concerns about her opposition to the doctrine of “substantive due process.”

For this, the Wall Street Journal berated him for applying a “litmus test,” “inhaling rumors,” and attempting “to make himself a hero of the anti-abortion right.”

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North Korea: How the Discussion Was Changed by Peter Huessy

Posted By on March 6th, 2019

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/13840/north-korea-discussion

It may be the North Korean leadership wants only to survive, keep its nuclear weapons, and work to secure sufficient funds to take care of its ruling elite — and wait for the day that US forces leave the peninsula.

What if North Korea regarded its nuclear program as the very leverage necessary to bargain concessions from the US and South Korea? What if the goal were to secure an extremely important concession — the removal of US military forces from the Korean peninsula, a goal long-sought, put on the table before North Korea even acquired nuclear weapons?

The Trump administration took office after eight years of “strategic patience,” which led only to more North Korean missiles, nuclear bombs and weapons shipments to terror states. The proponents of these policies — having failed miserably — now lecture the Trump administration about what America’s North Korean policy should be. They seem, however, unwilling to see that the very nature of the discussion has now been changed — to a necessary focus on North Korea’s nuclear capability and not on the US military presence or ostensible US “hostile policy” in the region.

The rationale for the summits between US President Donald Trump and North Korea’s Chairman Kim Jong-Un may well be misunderstood by the critics of the American administration. By meeting with the North Korean leader, the administration is seeking to change the “accepted” narrative about the Korean peninsula and Western Pacific, just as it has with respect to the Middle East.

Whether the administration can be successful is an open question, but changes already secured in the Middle East give support to the administration’s strategy and goals.

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How Islamic “Aid” Organizations in Turkey Feed Jihadists in Syria by Uzay Bulut

Posted By on March 6th, 2019

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/13838/aid-organizations-jihadists-syria

It appears that many radical Islamists in Turkey have established an international network to sustain the jihadist terrorists in Syria.

Because this network operates under the guise of “charity,” European governments are having difficulty monitoring its activities — particularly in jihadist-controlled territory — and holding the perpetrators to account.

“We get most of our donations from abroad through the bank accounts we share on social media,” Fukara-Der’s president Hasan Süslü said in a 2014 interview. “And most of the donations are from the Netherlands, Germany and Belgium.”

Turkish police recently raided the homes of, and detained, more than a dozen nationals suspected of “joining conflicts in Syria, providing logistics and money, and recruiting for [terrorist] organizations.”

Four days after the raids, which were carried out on January 13, all thirteen detainees were released — eleven of them pending trial and the other two on judicial control. The Turkish government-run Anadolu Agency, which reported on the detentions, later removed the story from its website and social media pages.

Among the detainees was Hasan Süslü, president of the NGO Fukara-Der (Aid and Solidarity Association for the Poor), suspected of aiding Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) — a coalition of al Qaeda-affiliated groups, formerly known as the al Nusra Front, and currently the dominant jihadist force in Idlib in northern Syria.

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The Post-Child Democrats: Daniel Greenfield

Posted By on March 6th, 2019

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/273040/post-child-democrats-daniel-greenfield

Kill 100,000 babies a year and maybe global temperatures will drop.

“Is it okay to still have children?” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez wondered while making a salad.

“It’s basically like, there is a scientific consensus that the lives of children are going to be very difficult and it does lead, I think young people, to have a legitimate question.”

It’s easy to dismiss her, but the loudest proponent of a Green New Deal doesn’t come up with original ideas, she just snatches extreme lefty ideas already being mainstreamed, and dumbs them down into a ridiculous and easily digestible form. Cortez hadn’t come up with the idea of cracking down on air travel or cows. And she hadn’t invented environmentalist proposals for human extinction on her own.

“Is It Cruel to Have Kids in the Era of Climate Change?” the New Republic had asked.

“If the looming 12-year deadline is missed,” the formerly liberal, and now radically leftist publication, suggested, “what purpose could life have in the face of an unavoidable, collective downfall?”

“Bringing children into a decaying world, without even the opportunity to do something about it, seems a cruel fate to inflict on someone, especially your own child.”

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Israel in the Cross Hairs of the International Criminal Court How Israel can counter the Palestinians’ lawfare strategy at the ICC. Joseph Klein

Posted By on March 6th, 2019

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/273065/israel-cross-hairs-international-criminal-court-joseph-klein

The Palestinians have weaponized the International Criminal Court (ICC). Leveraging the decision of the United Nations General Assembly to bestow Palestine with the title “Non-Member Observer State,” the Palestinian leaders decided to join the ICC, which accepted its application with open arms. Then, on May 15, 2018, the Palestinians exercised their “right as a State Party to the Rome Statute to refer the Situation of Palestine for immediate investigation” of alleged Israeli crimes to the ICC prosecutor, who had previously opened an informal “preliminary examination” on her own initiative.

The Palestinians’ referral checked many of the boxes defining the crimes subject to ICC jurisdiction, particularly the alleged crimes against humanity and war crimes. On May 24, 2018, the ICC’s Presidency assigned the “Situation in Palestine” to the ICC’s Pre-Trial Chamber, which took steps to begin informing alleged “victims” as to the ICC’s role and activities, so they can “properly exercise their rights.”

The ICC’s chief prosecutor Fatou Bensouda’s office issued its “Report on Preliminary Examination Activities” for 2018 dated December 5, 2018, which included a section on the Palestinian situation. It appears that a decision is near on whether to open a formal investigation into Israeli actions in the West Bank and Gaza mentioned in the report, including demolition of Palestinian property, eviction of Palestinians from the West Bank and East Jerusalem, plans to evacuate residents of the Bedouin village Khan al-Ahmar, settlements construction, the 2014 Gaza war, and more recent violence in and around the Gaza Strip border with Israel stemming from Palestinian mass protests. Experts believe that the prosecutor will open such an investigation with the Pre-Trial Chamber’s blessing in the near future, especially in light of her recent expressions of concern over continuing casualties in the proximity of the Gaza border with Israel.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Women’s March leader blasts ‘white feminist’ Nancy Pelosi for Ilhan Omar condemnation By Eric Ting

Posted By on March 6th, 2019

https://www.sfgate.com/politics/article/Ilhan-Omar-Linda-Sarsour-anti-semitism-Pelosi-13665817.php

Women’s March leader Linda Sarsour ripped into House Speaker Nancy Pelosi after House Democrats drafted a resolution condemning anti-Semitism in response to Rep. Ilhan Omar accusing pro-Israel lawmakers of pushing for “allegiance to a foreign country.”

Sarsour, who served as co-chair of the Women’s March in 2017 and 2019, accused Pelosi of “doing the dirty work of powerful white men” by condemning Omar.

“Nancy is a typical white feminist upholding the patriarchy doing the dirty work of powerful white men,” she wrote in a Facebook post. “God forbid the men are upset – no worries, Nancy to the rescue to stroke their egos.”

Sarsour, who has faced anti-Semitism accusations herself, said the resolution of condemnation gives Republicans an “easier path” in 2020.”Democrats are playing in to the hands of the right,” she wrote. “Dividing our base and reinforcing their narrative and giving them an easier path towards 2020… You want a resolution? Condemn all forms of bigotry. All forms of bigotry are unacceptable. We won’t let them pin us up against each other. We stand with Representative Ilhan Omar. Our top priority is the safety of our sister and her family.”

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The Democrats’ Resolution Condemning Anti-Semitism Is A Transparent Joke Liberals do their best to deflect and dilute Ilhan Omar’s bigotry By David Harsanyi

Posted By on March 6th, 2019

http://thefederalist.com/2019/03/05/the-democrats-resolution-condemning-anti-semitism-is-a-transparent-joke/

Democrats’ draft measure condemning anti-Semitism, which the House will vote on this Wednesday, is a useless and transparent attempt to distract from a serious problem. The melodramatic resolution mentions Alfred Dreyfuss, Leo Frank, Henry Ford, and “anti-Muslim bigotry”—because, hey, even when Jews are being smeared it’s about Islamophobia—but not once does it condemn Rep. Ilhan Omar or the strain of Jew-hatred she is helping normalize on the left. The resolution, teeming with useless platitudes, is one that even Omar could probably support.

Omar argues that American “democracy is built on debate” and that she “should not be expected to have allegiance/pledge support to a foreign country in order to serve my country in Congress or serve on committee.” No decent person disagrees with this comment in theory. Also, no sane person believes this contention, perpetually repeated by anti-Israel progressives, is true of Omar.

No one asked her, or anyone else, to pledge allegiance to a foreign nation. It’s her belief that supporting the Jewish state, a long-time ideological and geopolitical ally of the United States, is an act of dual loyalty — either by Jews themselves, or by those they’ve hypnotized to do “evil” for them. She is the one who accuses Jewish Americans, a group that has played a robust role in the nation’s civic life for a long time, of doing the bidding of a foreign nation to the detriment of their own.

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Sincerely, Emmanuel Macron offers Europe an earnest recitation of his worst ideas.

Posted By on March 6th, 2019

https://www.wsj.com/articles/sincerely-emmanuel-11551831254

As political campaign tactics go, we’ve seen better than the open letter that French President Emmanuel Macron sent this week laying out a pan-Europe agenda ahead of May’s European Parliament elections. He manages to combine bad ideas with off-putting self-promotion.

Mr. Macron is trying to rally voters around a centrist, “pro-European” message amid fears that euroskeptic parties could win a third or more of the seats in the next parliament. Violent protests against a fuel-tax hike at home have thwarted Mr. Macron’s effort to build a pan-European political movement, so he’s making do with the letter published in newspapers across the Continent in 22 languages. His platform is “freedom, protection and progress.”

Some ideas are merely impractical. European voters increasingly demand more effective border enforcement, especially after 2015’s migration crisis. Mr. Macron’s call for more stringent border controls around the passport-free European Schengen zone may resonate. But his demand for more burden-sharing in processing asylum claimants will flop. Voters in Poland don’t want to be obliged to house migrants that countries such as Germany or Italy have welcomed or proven powerless to stop.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Nadler’s ‘Obstruction’ Quest The examples he cites as crimes are legal presidential actions.

Posted By on March 6th, 2019

https://www.wsj.com/articles/nadlers-obstruction-quest-11551833245

Well, we’re off on the march to impeachment, as we predicted last year even as Democrats said it wasn’t on their minds. With Chairman Jerry Nadler’s subpoena swarm from House Judiciary this week, and his assertions that President Trump obstructed justice, the articles of impeachment are apparently awaiting only the collection of the readily available details to fill in the blanks.

“Do you think the President obstructed justice?” asked ABC’s George Stephanopoulos on Sunday.

“Yes, I do,” replied Mr. Nadler. “It’s very clear that the President obstructed justice. It’s very clear—1,100 times he referred to the Mueller investigation as a witch hunt, he tried to—he fired—he tried to protect [Michael] Flynn from being investigated by the FBI. He fired [FBI director Jim] Comey in order to stop the Russian thing, as he told NBC News.”

Credit Mr. Nadler for candor that Democrats didn’t display when they campaigned last year. Then they talked only about holding the President “accountable.” Now they claim they already have enough to impeach Mr. Trump, though as Mr. Nadler admitted Sunday, “you have to persuade enough of the opposition party voters, Trump voters . . . that you’re not just trying to steal the last—to reverse the results of the last election.”