Was Moshe Landau a Fascist? Why opposition to Court reform in Israel is the real threat to the nation’s democracy. by Kenneth Levin

https://www.frontpagemag.com/was-moshe-landau-a-fascist/

“[I]f the policy of the government, upon vital questions, affecting the whole people, is to be irrevocably fixed by decisions of the Supreme Court, the instant they are made…the people will have ceased, to be their own rulers…”

Abraham Lincoln

Moshe Landau was President of Israel’s Supreme Court from 1980 to 1982. In 2000, he wrote of subsequent Supreme Court President Aharon Barak’s record of arrogating more and more power to the Court: “I think that… Barak has not, and does not, accept the rightful place that the court should have among the various authorities in our regime.… [Instead, he is seeking] to interject [into all areas of Israeli life] certain moral values as he deems appropriate. And this amounts to a kind of judicial dictatorship that I find completely inappropriate.”

Was Israel not a democracy during the four and a half decades before Barak’s ascent to the Supreme Court’s presidency and his choreographing what in short order became the court’s unlimited supremacy within Israel’s governmental system? Was Landau’s assessment completely wrong and his criticism of Barak an attempt to perpetuate prior anti-democratic governance? Was it only Barak’s establishing of judicial supremacy that rendered Israel finally a democracy?

This seems to be the conviction of the large numbers of Israelis who oppose judicial reform to rein in the power of the Supreme Court and who not only argue that reform will destroy Israel’s democracy (and not infrequently accuse its supporters of fascism), but who have demonstrated multiple times a week in the hundreds of thousands, closed down highways, blocked access to Ben-Gurion airport, vowed to refuse IDF reserve duty, sought to close the port of Haifa, picketed politicians’ homes and promoted mayhem in other ways, all in the service of blocking reform.

But, in fact, there is little in the Israeli Supreme Court’s present powers and prerogatives that resonates with the concept of democracy.

There is no precedent in Western democracies for a court to assert whatever authority it chooses over any aspect of a nation’s political life without any checks or balances.

Millions of Dollars to Floyd 2020 Rioters Philadelphia leftist organizations and Woke attorneys bestow the award. by Thom Nickels

https://www.frontpagemag.com/millions-of-dollars-to-floyd-2020-rioters/

Thanks to the work of two legendary leftist activist organizations and a Philadelphia law firm that is venerated within the ranks of the Democrat Party, $9.25 million was awarded to 343 Plaintiffs who claim they sustained “physical and emotional” damages in 2020 while engaging in peaceful George Floyd protests.

Also under the agreement, $500,000-$600,000 will be provided to the Bread & Roses Community Fund, a Socialist Feminist ‘equity’ based organization, for free mental health counseling for West Philadelphia residents as a result of perceived police abuses during the riots.

The City of Philadelphia was under no obligation to admit any wrongdoing as the suit progressed through the courts: that is to say, the city maintains that police actions during those riots were more justified in controlling the burning of squad cars, the destruction of a sizeable part of Center City near Rittenhouse Square, the blowing up of multiple ATM machines, and the destruction of businesses in Port Richmond along Aramingo Avenue, all of which necessitated a military-like response.

The 2020 Floyd rioters held Philadelphia hostage for a number of weeks, necessitating nightly curfews and terrorizing neighbors who feared that roving bands of anarchists would begin to torch private residences.

The police, if anything, exercised great restraint in controlling the rioters. In some instances, rioters chased police, turned over their squad cars and set them on fire.

Despite this reality, two other leftwing activist lawyers had a hand in the settlement.

Paul Hetznecker, known throughout the city as a radical lawyer who represented masked bandanna-wearing rioters who blocked an entrance to an interstate highway during the 2000 Republican National Convention (action by police at that time resulted in 4 police injuries and damage to at least 20 patrol cars), and attorney Michael Coard, famous in activist circles for his long dreadlocks, spoke to news outlets after the $9.25 million verdict.

“The First Amendment is sacrosanct,” Coard said:

It is not to be praised one day as this glorious document and then used like a piece of toilet paper the next day even if the city and police think that peaceful protesting is a shitty way to petition your government. What happened here is blatant, obvious and egregious. There should not only be civil liabilities but also more criminal prosecutions.

Bjørn Lomborg : Life After Climate Change-Better than you think

https://www.nationalreview.com/magazine/2023/04/17/life-after-climate-change/?utm_source=recirc-desktop&utm_medium=homepage&utm_campaign=top-of-nav&utm_content=hero-module

The global discussion about climate change has become quite hysterical. Some 60 percent of people living in the rich world think it is likely to bring an end to humanity. This is not only untrue; it is also harmful, because fear makes people embrace bad policies and ignore many other urgent challenges facing the world. Consider, for example, how the World Health Organization declared climate change the defining public-health issue of the 21st century in 2014, but perhaps should have been more focused on pandemics, like Covid. Or take the World Economic Forum participants who in January 2020 found the greatest policy risk of the next ten years to be climate-action failure — ignoring the rapid spread of Covid. Or consider how development institutions increasingly focus on helping poor countries with climate-change responses, often at the expense of other things those countries urgently need, such as growth and development, stronger health-care systems, better education, and a more plentiful energy supply.

Climate change is a real and man-made phenomenon, and it will have negative impacts overall. That’s a fact, and it is one that we hear a lot. The “catastrophe narrative,” however, is drowning out many other relevant facts about climate change — for example, that 98 percent fewer people are dying from climate-related disasters today than did a century ago, and that net-zero-emission policies are eye-wateringly costly. The following are eight charts that I think more people should see, to understand that the climate-change data are very different from what we hear in the commonplace narrative.

Trump Indicted: The Corruption of Justice The Deep State versus America. Jeffrey Lord

https://spectator.org/trump-indicted-the-corruption-of-justice/

As this is written, news arrives that a grand jury in Manhattan has indicted former President Donald Trump.

Shocking — not.

The column below was written before this news arrived. But without a doubt, this news makes the point of Trump and America versus the Deep State more relevant than ever.

If ever there were a corruption of justice, this indictment is it.

By chance, before this news arrived, there was one telling moment back to back with another.

On Saturday, March 25, former President Donald Trump spoke at a rally in Waco, Texas, and said this: “Either the deep state destroys America or we destroy the deep state.”

Only days later, Americans read this headline in the Wall Street Journal:

The IRS Makes a Strange House Call on Matt Taibbi

An agent shows up at the home of the Twitter files journalist who testified before Congress.

The Wall Street Journal story reported:

Democrats are denouncing the House GOP investigation into the weaponization of government, but maybe that’s because Republicans are getting somewhere. That includes new evidence that the Internal Revenue Service may be targeting a journalist who testified before the weaponization committee.

Let’s End The Era Of COVID Tyranny

https://issuesinsights.com/2023/03/31/lets-end-the-era-of-covid-tyranny/

America and the rest of the world have suffered under big government’s smothering hand during the three-year COVID “emergency,” which has been used to silence critics and force obedience to nonsensical medical edicts. It’s time to reclaim our ancient liberties and live free again.

And here’s a good start: A Republican-led bill to declare an official end to the COVID emergency passed the Senate for a third time Wednesday, this time by a 68-23 majority. While President Joe Biden “strongly” opposes the measure, a White House source told Associated Press, he’ll sign it anyway.

Why? Rising public anger over the COVID lies, lockdowns, closed schools, mandatory masking and vax edicts has become a serious political issue for Democrats. In a Rasmussen poll taken last week, 59% agreed with the statement: “The experts in charge of the government’s COVID-19 policy ‘were wrong about almost everything?’ ”

After more than a million U.S. COVID deaths, Biden and other elected Democrats just want to walk away.

The Senate’s move to end our government-caused COVID nightmare came after a long series of revelations about the deep damage that the federal response to COVID inflicted on us.

A piece by the Brownstone Institute’s Justin Hart summed up the lengthening list of governmental, bureaucratic and corporate incompetence, duplicity and outright misconduct:

Medical errors increased in hospitals due to the constraints on health care resources and mandates. Millions of cancer screenings were missed, potentially causing a future surge in late-stage cancer cases. HIV testing was disrupted, leading to delayed diagnoses and treatment. Additionally, the pressure to report Covid deaths led to inaccurate death counts, prompting more fear and furthering egregious policies.

Ron DeSantis Throws a Wrench in DA Bragg’s Indictment of Trump By Matt Margolis

https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/matt-margolis/2023/03/30/ron-desantis-throws-a-wrench-in-da-braggs-indictment-of-trump-n1683202

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has swiftly responded to the partisan indictment of Donald Trump. In a statement posted to Twitter, DeSantis denounced the weaponization of the legal system to promote political agendas, and called out  Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s soft-on-crime record, contrasting it with his current willingness to stretch the law to target political opponents by stretching the law to its limits.

“The weaponization of the legal system to advance a political agenda turns the rule of law on its head. It is un-American,” DeSantis tweeted. “The Soros-backed Manhattan District Attorney has consistently bent the law to downgrade felonies and to excuse criminal misconduct. Yet, now he is stretching the law to target a political opponent.”

Governor DeSantis also took the bold stance of refusing to assist in an extradition request due to the blatantly partisan nature of the investigation.

“Florida will not assist in an extradition request given the questionable circumstances at issue with this Soros-backed Manhattan prosecutor and his political agenda,” DeSantis said.

Pandora’s Donald Trump Prosecution The first indictment of a former U.S. President is a sad day for America.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/pandoras-donald-trump-prosecution-e060ceee?mod=opinion_lead_pos1

The news late Thursday that a Manhattan grand jury has indicted former President Donald Trump is a sad day for the country, with political ramifications that are unpredictable and probably destructive. If there was ever a case that opens Pandora’s box, the first indictment of a former President in U.S. history is it.

The indictment itself remains under seal, so we can’t examine the specific charges and evidence. But we know the charges relate to hush-money payments in 2016 to adult film actress Stormy Daniels about her alleged affair with Mr. Trump. Perhaps Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg has new evidence that will be compelling.

But nearby, Ethan Greenberg and Sam Braverman offer speculation based on experience about the potential violations and pitfalls of the case in court. Their analysis doesn’t inspire confidence that this will go down well with the country, or even perhaps inside the courtroom.

As these columns have made clear, we believe any prosecution of a former President should involve a serious offense. The evidence should also be solid enough that a reasonable voter would find it persuasive. The last thing a politically polarized America needs is a case in which partisans line up on either side like a political O.J. Simpson trial. The prosecution must be seen by most of the country as an example of fair-minded justice.

That is doubly so when the case involves a former President who is also running again for the same office, as Mr. Trump now is. Add that the prosecutor belongs to the same Democratic Party as the current President whom Mr. Trump is running against, and the suspicion of a political prosecution will be rampant. This is why we urged Mr. Bragg not to revive a seven-year-old case that federal prosecutors declined to act on.

Russia Takes a Journalist Hostage The Kremlin arrests a WSJ reporter on phony espionage charges.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/russia-takes-a-journalist-hostage-evan-gershkovich-wall-street-journal-vladimir-putin-fsb-dc2317a8?mod=opinion_lead_pos2

Russia’s arrest of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich escalates the Kremlin’s habit of taking Americans hostage, and it’s more evidence that Russia is divorcing itself from the community of civilized nations. President Vladimir Putin is now responsible for Mr. Gershkovich’s health and safety, and the Biden Administration has an obligation to press for his release.

Agents of Russia’s notorious Federal Security Bureau snatched Mr. Gershkovich on Wednesday in the city of Yekaterinburg, about 800 miles east of Moscow, where he was on a reporting trip. As of late Thursday, neither the Journal nor the U.S. government had been allowed to contact Mr. Gershkovich.

The FSB is the successor to the Cold War-era KGB, where Mr. Putin learned his brutal methods. An FSB statement on Thursday said the reporter, who is accredited to work in Russia by the country’s foreign ministry, is being charged with espionage.

The Journal denies the allegation, which is dubious on its face. The government closely monitors foreign reporters in Russia, and Mr. Gershkovich has worked there for years. The FSB could have expelled him long ago if it really believed he is a spy.

Turkey: A Belated Farewell to Erdoğan? by Burak Bekdil

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/19535/turkey-farewell-erdogan

Polls suggest that although the presidential race will be tight, the gap against Erdoğan is widening…. [T]he CHP-led opposition bloc, with the participation of the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party, would win a combined 55.4% of the nationwide vote.

Reuters reported that new polls show the opposition’s presidential candidate, CHP leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, leading against Erdoğan by more than 10 percentage points ahead of elections seen by many as the most consequential in Turkey’s history.

Polling in Turkey can be a murky business. But with or without polls, realities spell existential danger for one of the world’s most anti-Semitic and disruptive leaders.

Nearly a month and a half before the most critical presidential and parliamentary elections in Turkey’s modern history, it is still too early to make a guess as to who will win: all indicators show that May 14 will be an extremely tight race. The results may even be inconclusive: there may be chaos, vote rigging, allegations and objections from both sides, the electoral board having to struggle with which side it should politically favor, potential re-runs in disputed districts, further disputes and even potential street violence.

An overall re-vote is also one of the possibilities. Another is that the country’s Islamist strongman, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, battling for his survival after 21 corrupt and autocratic years in power, wins the presidential race but that his party loses its parliamentary majority. This result will mean governmental and administrative chaos.

Axis vs. Allies, Then and Now by Lawrence Kadish

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/19538/axis-vs-allies-then-and-now

In their summit meeting, Chinese and Russian leadership have done democracy a service of sorts. They have made their intentions clear and unmistakable. We need to have the strength, wisdom, insight, and courage to confront an alliance whose intent is to reduce America to a historic afterthought.

World War II was already a year old when Germany, Japan and Italy formally signed the Tripartite Pact in 1940, creating a military alliance among three nations intent on world domination. History would subsequently call them the Axis powers. It would be another year before America entered the conflict, but this Axis alliance of power sent a sharp and chilling message to Washington. There was no mistaking now that our nation, and our very civilization, was now in serious jeopardy.

In its wake, America accelerated its defense planning and just prior to the Axis pact being signed, the United States reintroduced the draft in recognition that, pact or no pact, democracy was at risk.

Today’s “Axis” alliance membership is different — China and Russia, along with North Korea and Iran — but the goals are the same. For Chinese and Russian leadership to meet over the bodies of Ukrainian freedom fighters sends a message to free nations around the world. This 21st Century Axis has the same goals of its historic predecessor: global domination. While China is clearly the more powerful of those two nations, its intent to achieve global dominance is obvious to even the most casual observer.

Consider the data that is available as public information. Analysts report China spends $300 billion a year on its military, up from $22 billion some 23 years ago. The Chinese Communist Party intends to own the Pacific. Their navy is now larger than ours and they have created artificial islands upon which they have built military bases capable of firing missiles at American aircraft carriers patrolling international waters. Analysts also report they are gaining on nuclear warheads and with more land based missiles than the U.S.