NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Obama Judge Hands Trump a Victory But mysteries remain from the case of Democrats’ IT man Imran Awan. by Lloyd Billingsley

Posted By on February 25th, 2025

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm-plus/obama-judge-hands-trump-a-victory/

Fourteen states, all led by Democrats, sought to stop Elon Musk’s DOGE from accessing data systems at seven federal agencies. On Tuesday, a federal judge found that the Democrats had not carried their burden “and therefore plaintiffs’ motion is DENIED.”

The federal judge was Tanya Chutkan, a donor to Obama’s presidential campaigns in 2008 and 2012, and appointed by the composite character president in 2014. Assigned to the cases of January 6, 2021, Chutkan handed out prison sentences even longer than the government requested. Before that, Chutkan handled a case with significance for national security that after seven years remains unresolved.

Of all the IT people in all the IT firms in all the world, House Democrats thought Imran Awan was best man for the job. Sometimes working from his native Pakistan, Awan and his family team accessed the computers of some 40 Democrats on the intelligence and foreign affairs committees. Without their consent, Awan and his team stashed the Democrats’ data on a server controlled by Xavier Becerra, then chair of the House Democratic Caucus.

Capitol Police wanted a copy of the server but the one Awan produced turned out a fake. In February, 2017, Awan got booted off the House computer network but Becerra had already fled to California where Gov. Jerry Brown made him attorney general. Becerra had nothing to say about Awan’s IT intrigue, and Chutkan provided additional protection. The Obama judge repeatedly delayed Awan’s trial on bank-fraud charges, and the case did not become a factor in the 2018 election that kept Becerra in the AG slot.

In August of 2018, Chutkan sentenced Awan to time served, his single day in detention and 11 months of GPS monitoring and three months’ supervision. “There have been numerous allegations lobbed at him from the highest branches of the government,” the judge said, “all of which have been proved to be without foundation by the FBI and the Department of Justice.” In reality, Awan had never been formally charged with unauthorized possession of government material or anything of the sort. Judge Chutkan, a vocal opponent of President Trump’s travel ban, conveniently left out the context and background.

Debbie Wasserman Schultz charged that Awan was “put under scrutiny because of his religious faith and that “the right-wing media circus fringe” was jumping to conclusions. Awan’s attorney Chris Gowen, a former aide to Bill and Hillary Clinton, said Awan’s arrest for bank fraud was “clearly a right-wing media-driven prosecution by a United States Attorney’s Office that wants to prosecute people for working while Muslim.”

WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Germany can’t ignore migration any longer The AfD’s voters are not going anywhere, even if their party is locked out of government. Paul Lever

Posted By on February 25th, 2025

https://www.spiked-online.com/2025/02/25/germany-cant-ignore-migration-any-longer/

Sunday’s federal elections in Germany produced a clear-cut result. The two right-wing parties came first and second. The Christian Democratic Union (CDU) picked up 28.5 per cent of the vote, while the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party won 20.8 per cent. Together, they will have 360 out of 630 seats in the Bundestag, enough to form a stable coalition that would reflect Germany’s political mood.

But it seems that won’t happen. The CDU, in common with all the other parties, has said that it will not co-operate with AfD. It will now open talks with the Social Democrats (SPD), which was the big loser of the election, falling from 25.7 per cent of the vote in 2021 to just 16 per cent this time round – its worst election result in over 100 years. The CDU and SPD together will have 328 seats, even with a combined vote share of only 45 per cent.

The reasons the other parties give for refusing to work at all with the AfD are partly its policies – the AfD is opposed to the provision of aid to Ukraine, sceptical about membership of NATO and against any sanctions on Russia (ironically all positions now espoused by the president of the United States). More importantly, it’s because Germany’s established political parties question whether the AfD can be trusted to uphold democracy. They also accuse some of its leading members of having Nazi sympathies.

The AfD actually started life as a party that opposed the euro in 2013, and was led by some mild-mannered economics professors. But it quickly shifted its focus on to immigration. It argues for a near total clampdown on arrivals and the large-scale deportation of illegal immigrants. In this, the party is in tune with the mood of the German electorate as a whole. All the polls before the election suggested that voters saw immigration as a major issue of concern. The fact that in the weeks before the election there were several fatal attacks mainly carried out by asylum seekers on members of the public served only to heighten this concern.

EDUCATION Comments turned off

Neetu Arnold How Left-Wing Activism Corrupted America’s Schools Trump was right to slash education contracts. He should keep going.

Posted By on February 25th, 2025

https://www.city-journal.org/article/trump-department-of-education-contracts-left-activism

On February 10, the Trump administration slashed almost $900 million in U.S. Department of Education research contracts, in an effort to reduce “waste, fraud and abuse.” Education activists attacked the move, claiming that it would stifle important research.

Quality education research certainly matters. But the Institute of Education Sciences, which administers the contracts, has abandoned this mission. The IES has abused what should be a nonpartisan mandate and pushed progressive political agendas through research and training programs.

Consider the IES’s Regional Education Laboratory program. Created by the 1965 Elementary and Secondary Education Act, RELs were charged with studying effective educational practices and disseminating the latest scientific knowledge to local school authorities. Despite this noble-sounding goal, critics have complained that the RELs promote fads, waste resources, and are prone to politicization.

The Department of Education allocates nearly $60 million to run 10 RELs across the country. Each lab oversees a set of states. Within its designated region, each REL works with local schools and state education leaders.

RELs have pushed progressive identity policies in schools. REL Mid-Atlantic collaborated with the New Jersey Department of Education to promote racial preferences in teacher hiring. This laboratory developed six training sessions on “culturally responsive hiring practices” for state leaders to “build an educator workforce that more closely reflects the ethno-racial diversity of the state’s student population.” Another part of the project featured REL staff working with ten local school districts to increase the “hiring of teachers of color.”

MEDICINE AND HEALTH Comments turned off

Leor Sapir The Corruption of The New England Journal of Medicine A leading medical journal has capitulated to transgender activists.

Posted By on February 25th, 2025

https://www.city-journal.org/article/new-england-journal-of-medicine-transgender-activists

The New England Journal of Medicine is the world’s most prestigious medical journal. It publishes only 5 percent of the original research submissions that it receives. Physician Marty Makary, President Trump’s nominee to head the Food and Drug Administration, has written that publishing a study in the journal “is rocket fuel for your academic career.”

But like so many other institutions, NEJM has allowed a dubious commitment to “social justice” to overtake its pursuit of excellence in medical science—particularly when it comes to youth gender medicine. NEJM’s coverage of this controversial field has abandoned even the pretense of objectivity, declining to hold researchers to scientific standards or air alternative views that would advance scientific knowledge.

“Gender-affirming care” for youth involves the use of puberty-blocking drugs, cross-sex hormones, and surgeries to treat children who experience distress associated with their sex. Once embraced by many Western countries, this protocol has faced criticism in recent years for lacking credible evidence of its safety and benefits, for its potential harms, and for imposing life-altering treatments on children unable to give informed consent. In the U.S., though, medical associations have bucked the growing international consensus, maintaining their commitment to what they regard as a nonnegotiable human right.

In his first days in office, President Trump signed executive orders designed to starve the pediatric gender industry of federal funding. Transgender advocacy groups and several Democratic attorneys general filed lawsuits to block the administration from achieving its goal.

Commentators on all sides lament that this issue has become so politicized. But the politicization is the result of scientific and medical institutions failing to impose high standards and to facilitate open debate.

NEJM’s conduct is a good illustration of that failure. Its refusal to hold the research it publishes to high scientific standards and its documented track record of suppressing debate on these novel, invasive, and risky procedures has directly contributed to the politicized environment we see today.

ENVIRONMENT AND JUNK SCIENCE Comments turned off

Everybody Freeze! It’s the Climate Police

Posted By on February 25th, 2025

https://www.thefp.com/p/everybody-freeze-climate-police

https://newsletter.doomberg.com/

In their quest to slow climate change, bureaucrats in the U.S. and Canada advance restrictive edicts that make very big headlines and very little difference.

We have it on good authority that it sometimes gets quite cold in Canada during wintertime. As our Canadian readers can attest, in such brutal conditions machinery often acts a little funky. Batteries refuse to turn over, hard things become brittle, fluids freeze or gum up, and dimensions of solid materials quite literally contract. Operating an automobile in this environment can be particularly challenging for the passenger and engine alike, as both need to be warmed up before they can be expected to perform within specifications. In particularly harsh conditions, a car might require 15 to 20 minutes of idling before the engine and cabin reach comfortable conditions, and remote car starters have become incredibly popular solutions.

An ironclad canon of the Church of Carbon™ is that parishioners are not allowed to have nice things, which explains the following bit of regulatory tomfoolery:

In what it is calling “a bold move” to combat climate change, the City of Ottawa has introduced a strict by-law limiting residents from using remote car starters to warm up their vehicles for more than one minute before driving. The law, intended to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and improve local air quality, has sparked heated debate, especially given Ottawa’s notoriously harsh winters. The new rule allows vehicles to idle for just 60 seconds if the driver is not inside.

Yes, you read that right: It is illegal in Ottawa to heat up your car in subzero weather. Further in the same article, we find an early leading candidate for quote of the year:

“Every little bit counts,” said city councillor Laura Green. “We know it’s cold, but we also know that climate change is a real and urgent problem. This is about protecting our future.”

We should confess that we have been unable to verify that Green exists or is quoted accurately in the article. No such person is listed on the city leadership’s website, for example, suggesting her name or job title may have been inaccurately reported.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Musk Is ‘Shredding’ Government? Not Even Close

Posted By on February 25th, 2025

https://issuesinsights.com/2025/02/25/musk-is-shredding-government-not-even-close/

As night follows day, Democrats and their champions in the mainstream press have started trotting out their shopworn horror stories about budget cuts. And why not? It’s always worked in the past, turning Republicans’ knees into jelly. President Donald Trump needs to tell them to man up this time, and he can start by calling out the left’s world-is-about-to-end nonsense.

Anyone who follows the news would think that Trump and Elon Musk are carpet bombing the federal government. We keep seeing headlines about how Musk and DOGE are “shredding” and “dissecting” the federal government, about how spending cuts are causing “cruel and senseless devastation,” and the “human toll of the administration’s malevolence and incompetence.”

Reporters are busy scouring the earth for any sob story they can find – or make up – to put a human face on this supposed tragic turn of events, such as those poor federal workers who are confused and scared about having to list five things they did the previous week.

Then there are the repeated proclamations about “growing anger” among the public about the heartlessness of it all – with no evidence to support it – and how this is “putting Republicans in a difficult position.” (Never mind that Trump’s approval rating is currently higher than it ever was in his first term, according to the latest Harvard-Harris poll.)

The cumulative effect of all this is meant to rankle the public and put pressure on GOP lawmakers to make it stop.

Well, it’s time for a reality check.

As is always the case when it comes to cutting federal spending, both sides exaggerate what is going on. The ones cutting spending want the public to think they are hitting bone — witness Musk brandishing his chainsaw at the CPAC convention. The big government types want to play up the supposed harm. The result is usually that little, if anything, actually ends up getting cut.

EDUCATION Comments turned off

Barnard College expels students involved in anti-Israel class disruption Columbia University, of which Barnard is an affiliate, suspended a third student involved in the incident last month By Haley Cohen

Posted By on February 24th, 2025

https://jewishinsider.com/2025/02/barnard-college-expels-students-involved-in-anti-israel-class-disruption/

Barnard College has expelled two second-semester seniors who last month disrupted a History of Modern Israel class, banged on drums, chanted “free Palestine” and distributed posters to students that read “CRUSH ZIONISM” with a boot over the Star of David, Jewish Insider has learned, according to a source familiar with the matter.

During the demonstration, which occurred on Jan. 21 — the first day of the spring semester — two Barnard students, a Columbia student and a fourth person who remains unidentified also tried to plaster the walls of the classroom with a sign featuring an illustration of Hamas terrorists pointing guns and the words “THE ENEMY WILL NOT SEE TOMORROW.”

Columbia University suspended the Columbia participant on Jan. 23, “pending a full investigation and disciplinary process,” according to the university. The investigation remains ongoing. Students have the right to appeal suspensions under the guidelines to the Rules and the Anti-Discrimination and Discriminatory Harassment Policies and Procedures for Students. Barnard College is an affiliate of Columbia University.

In a statement to JI, Barnard President Laura Rosenbury declined to provide details about the expulsions. “Under federal law, we cannot comment on the academic and disciplinary records of students,” Rosenbury said.

“That said, as a matter of principle and policy, Barnard will always take decisive action to protect our community as a place where learning thrives, individuals feel safe, and higher education is celebrated,” Rosenbury continued.

“This means upholding the highest standards and acting when those standards are threatened. When rules are broken, when there is no remorse, no reflection, and no willingness to change, we must act. Expulsion is always an extraordinary measure, but so too is our commitment to respect, inclusion, and the integrity of the academic experience. At Barnard, we always fiercely defend our values. At Barnard, we always reject harassment and discrimination in all forms. And at Barnard, we always do what is right, not what is easy.”

As of Sunday, the expulsions had not been announced campus-wide. Upon learning of the crackdown from JI, Lishi Baker, a junior studying Middle East history and a student in the History of Modern Israel course, said he was “extremely happy” about Barnard’s decision and called for Columbia to do the same.

WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

The German Establishment’s Last Chance Immigration drove Germans to the polls in record numbers, and it doubled the AfD’s vote share. Is the next chancellor listening? Christopher Caldwell

Posted By on February 24th, 2025

https://www.thefp.com/p/the-german-establishments-last-chance

The winner of Sunday’s German elections has been known for months, almost since the outgoing government, led by Social Democrats and dominated by Greens, collapsed last November. As expected, Friedrich Merz’s Christian Democrats have finished on top, albeit with a flabbier than foreseen 29 percent of the vote.

Out of power since Merz’s intraparty rival Angela Merkel stepped down in 2021, the center-right party is back. But that prospect is not why 83 percent of voters—the highest turnout in the history of post–Cold War Germany—thronged the polls on Sunday.

German voters have decided that stopping mass immigration, legal and illegal, is a national emergency. And the party addressing it most directly is the Alternative for Germany. The so-called AfD finished second with 21 percent of the vote, doubling its share of seats. But many on the country’s center and left claim it is exactly the kind of party the country’s post-Nazi constitutional order is meant to exclude.

The 69-year-old Merz comes to power in a tricky position. He was a star of the Christian Democratic party in the old days, until Merkel bested him for the leadership at the turn of the century and sent him into banking-industry exile. Now, it would seem, a majority of Germans want him to carry out the AfD’s policies—but without the AfD. How? The question will be hard to resolve within the highly regulated (some would say semi-) democracy that Germany has been since the Second World War.

Germany is getting less efficient. Its railroads, despite the stereotypes, are among the least punctual in Europe—only 31 percent of its intercity trains arrive on time. It is getting poorer, too: The German economy has shrunk two years in a row. Volkswagen, Bosch, and other industrial giants have laid off tens of thousands of employees. And for years, Germany’s American ally has been raising the price of its decades-old alliance. First Germany was supposed to trade less with China. Then, once Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, the Amis demanded a boycott of Russian gas. Now Donald Trump is calling for a doubling of the country’s defense expenditures.

But the issue that has come to symbolize all these problems is migration. Germany’s foreign-born population has risen by millions since Merkel announced she would welcome refugees from the Syrian civil war in 2015. Assimilation has been difficult, as the buildup to election day made clear.

IMMIGRATION Comments turned off

Oops! I Think the NYT Just Said the Quiet Part About Deportation Out Loud Sarah Anderson

Posted By on February 24th, 2025

https://pjmedia.com/sarah-anderson/2025/02/23/oops-i-think-the-nyt-just-said-the-quiet-part-about-deportation-out-loud-n4937259

Tell me you’re out of touch without telling me you’re out of touch. 

I wasn’t planning on writing anything today as I’m knee-deep in a house cleaning project, but I took a little break to peruse the news and saw an article in the New York Times that had me wondering if I’d accidentally stumbled upon a satire site like the Babylon Bee. It was about how deporting illegal migrants would have a negative impact on the wealthy people who have homes in the Hamptons. You know, the real victims in all of this.  

The article is entitled “They Help Make the Hamptons the Hamptons, and Now They’re Living in Fear.” The subtitle reads “Latino immigrants care for some of America’s most lavish beachside mansions. Their disappearance would affect the wealthy, too.” But wait, it gets better. The article begins: 

The party dresses must be double-pressed, the hedges shaved into sharp rectangles. The hand soap and lotion dispensers must be formed into neat lines along bathroom sinks. Caterers need to slip out of view as soon as the oysters and cocktails are served.

Wealthy residents of the Hamptons demand perfection. Now, many of the people who make it so — Latino immigrants, some of them undocumented — are panicking about President Trump’s deportation orders.

It goes on with great quotes like this one: “Some of the wealthy are quietly beginning to make calculations about what it would mean if their undocumented workers were deported. Who would mow the lawn?”

(Note: their undocumented workers)

Or this one from Marit Molan, director of Hamptons Community Outreach: “Everyone relies on housekeepers and carpenters and tree cutters and grass cutters. People come to the Hamptons to enjoy their houses, and who is going to take care of their houses?”

Who would mow the lawn? Or shave the hedges into sharp rectangles or fill the hand soap dispensers? Are you kidding me? I couldn’t believe what I was reading. We’re talking about human beings, and the New York Times is worried about how elitist Hamptons homeowners will take care of their plantations properties.

FOREIGN POLICY Comments turned off

Trump’s Ukrainian Tightrope Putin invaded Ukraine in 2022 because he saw weakness in the West, but now both he and the world want an end to the war—Trump may be the only one willing to cut an imperfect but necessary deal. By Victor Davis Hanson

Posted By on February 24th, 2025

https://amgreatness.com/2025/02/24/trumps-ukrainian-tightrope/

To find an impossible peace between Ukraine and Russia we must understand the recent history of the war and the European and American roles in it. So, Americans should revisit some fundamental realities and questions from which to remember before going forward:

Why Did Putin Invade Ukraine in 2022?

Putin did start the war. Trump’s trolling aside, he knows that because he correctly pointed out that Putin invaded his neighbors in three of the last four administrations—but not his own, given Trump’s deterrence.

The most obvious answer why Putin did is that he thought he easily could. But why in 2022—as he had in 2008 and 2014?

Putin has nonending opportunistic desires to recombobulate what he thinks properly is and will always be Russian—whether territories to be formally absorbed or as coerced satellite states. But he moves on them only whenever he thinks the benefits outweigh the costs.

And by February 2022, he certainly felt they did.

The U.S. and NATO had lost all appearances of deterrence vis-à-vis Russia. Joe Biden had been part of the Obama-Biden administration that had naively appeased Putin for some eight years. Remember their 2009 reset by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton that was based on numerous flawed and disastrous assumptions:

The prior Bush sanctions against Putin for invading Georgia and grabbing parts of South Ossetia were overly harsh, reflective of his supposed cowboyism evident in Iraq.
The Obama mystique, coupled with criticism of the prior Bush administration, would win over Putin. Remember Obama’s 2012 hot mic appeasement in Seoul, when Obama promised Putin “flexibility” (i.e., cancellation of Eastern European defense, if Putin gave Obama “space” for his “last election” (i.e., please don’t invade and embarrass Obama until after he was reelected in 2012).
The U.S. thought it could act unilaterally in Libya and Syria, talk of expanding NATO in Europe, and expect a humiliated Russia to keep silent and distant.
Once rebuffed by Putin, who took Obama’s measure, an angry and rejected U.S. would cajole, beg, and finally try to force European Union democratic values onto the Putin regime—by sanctions, by aiding Russian dissident groups, and by claiming Putin was America’s archenemy.

The flawed working theory was that an either compliant or defiant Putin could acquiesce and begin liberalizing Russia, in emulation of EU and US democracy.