NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

The Museum of Jewish Heritage Needs to Remember Its Own Mission By Samuel J. Abrams

Posted By on May 7th, 2022

https://www.nationalreview.com/2022/05/the-museum-of-jewish-heritage-needs-to-remember-its-own-mission/

Its reported decision to ban Governor Ron DeSantis is unacceptable.

The Museum of Jewish Heritage in Lower Manhattan overlooks the harbor of New York with Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty in the distance. From the grounds, visitors are reminded of potent American symbols and values that drew so many to this nation’s shore before and after the Shoah. And one of the most sacred American values for those “yearning to breathe free” is that of open and unrestricted expression — the ability to question, debate, and disagree without state threat. So the entire Jewish community should be appalled over organizers’ claims that the museum banned Florida governor Ron DeSantis from speaking at the Tikvah Fund’s upcoming Jewish Leadership Conference, which was intended to host a variety of writers, politicians, and thought leaders to talk about conservative ideas that “can help strengthen the Jewish people, the Jewish nation, and the American civic future.” This move is a direct contradiction of the museum’s very mission and Jewish tradition.

The Tikvah Fund is a philanthropic organization established to support the “intellectual, religious, and political leaders of the Jewish people and the Jewish State,” and it invests in a wide range of educational initiatives around the world with a particular focus on teaching young Jews about Jewish history and civilization. The organization has hosted a conference at the museum in the past and was set to host another meeting on June 12, with DeSantis set to speak about the thriving Jewish community in the Sunshine State. According to Tikvah Fund organizers writing in the Wall Street Journal, Governor DeSantis did not “align with the museum’s values and its message of inclusivity,” and organizers were told that either the governor could be disinvited, or the event would not be welcome at the museum.

This position is simply unacceptable. It should be noted that the Museum of Jewish Heritage has disputed the claims, calling its decision a “logistical” one and saying, “No one was banned or cancelled.” But if the Tikvah account is even mostly accurate, the museum’s board and staff need a lesson in history and speech.

IMMIGRATION Comments turned off

All the President’s Border Policies That Have Illegals Heading North James Varney

Posted By on May 7th, 2022

https://www.realclearinvestigations.com/articles/2022/05/03/all_the_biden_border_

While a federal court has stayed the Biden administration’s attempt to lift pandemic-prompted restrictions on immigrants pouring across the southern border, that is just one setback in a largely successful push by the president to make it easier for migrants to enter, live, and work in the U.S.

Since Joe Biden’s first day in office, when he signed seven executive orders on immigration that, among other things, suspended deportations and ended the Trump administration’s “Remain in Mexico” program that had eased the crush of those awaiting asylum hearings, the president has in word and deed sent signals that migrants have interpreted as welcoming. The initiatives include reviving the Obama-era policy known as “catch and release,” “paroling” illegal border crossers so they can enter the country, resettling migrants through secret flights around the country, and ending the “no match” policy that had helped the government identify people who were using fraudulent credentials to find work.

At the same time, the administration has deflected responsibility for the surge of immigrants. Initially, Biden’s team claimed there was no significant spike in immigration, later attributing it to “cyclical” and seasonal trends. Even as a record number of migrants from around the world were streaming across the border, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki declared last year that “the border remains closed.” Last week, Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas said the administration had “effectively managed” the border crisis while also blaming “a broken and dismantled system” the administration had inherited.

MEDICINE AND HEALTH Comments turned off

We still need to learn the right lessons from America’s disastrous COVID response By John Tierney

Posted By on May 7th, 2022

https://nypost.com/2022/05/05/we-still-need-to-learn-the-right-lessons-from-americas-disastrous-covid-response/

More than a century ago, Mark Twain identified two fundamental problems that would prove relevant to the COVID pandemic. “How easy it is to make people believe a lie,” he wrote, “and how hard it is to undo that work again!”

No convincing evidence existed at the pandemic’s start that lockdowns, school closures and mask mandates would protect people against the virus, but it was remarkably easy to make the public believe these policies were “the science.”

Undoing this deception is essential to avoid further hardship and future fiascos, but it will be exceptionally hard to do. The problem is that so many people want to keep believing the falsehood.

Adults meekly surrendered their most basic liberties, cheered on leaders who devastated the economy and imposed two years of cruel and unnecessary deprivations on their children. They don’t want to admit these sacrifices were in vain.

They’re engaging in what social psychologists call “effort justification,” which has been observed in studies of painful initiation rituals for fraternities and other groups. Once people endure the pain, they convince themselves that it must have been worthwhile even when their reward is actually worthless.

If one brief bad experience can transform people’s thinking, imagine the impact of the pandemic’s ceaseless misery. It’s been a two-year-long version of Hell Week, especially in America’s blue states, with Anthony Fauci and Democratic governors playing the role of fraternity presidents humiliating the pledges.

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Former AG Barr: Hunter Biden case ‘shameful self-dealing’ by Biden family by Byron York

Posted By on May 7th, 2022

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/former-ag-barr-hunter-biden-case-shameful-self-dealing-by-biden-family

Some Republicans want a special counsel appointed to investigate presidential son Hunter Biden’s shady business dealings in Ukraine, China, and elsewhere. The calls started in the last months of the Trump administration, when revelations about his activities, and suspicion that his father, President Joe Biden, might have been involved, began to emerge. (Those were, of course, the revelations some big media organizations tried to downplay and that social media giants Twitter and Facebook tried to suppress.)

The attorney general at the time, William Barr, declined to appoint a counsel, explaining that the case was being handled “responsibly and professionally” within the Justice Department by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Delaware. This week, Barr, now a year and a half out of office, said he still believes his decision was the correct one. But in remarks to the American Enterprise Institute on Thursday, discussing his memoir One Damn Thing After Another, Barr issued a devastating critique of what the Hunter Biden case represents.

“Whether it is a crime or not,” Barr said of the Biden case, the people can “see what it was, which was shameful self-dealing by that family.”

The question for Barr was what the Justice Department should do about it. First, remember that the department was already investigating Hunter Biden’s taxes and, perhaps, the question of whether he properly registered as a foreign agent. That investigation was being overseen by David Weiss, the Trump-appointed U.S. attorney in Delaware. We still do not know the extent of that investigation, but there have been reports that Hunter Biden has paid at least $1 million in back taxes in an effort to fend off indictment. That may or may not be successful.

Barr noted that the purpose of a special counsel is to conduct an investigation when the Justice Department has a serious conflict of interest in a matter. The Trump Justice Department had no such conflict, Barr said. Maybe the Biden Justice Department does, but not the Trump Justice Department.

IMMIGRATION Comments turned off

The Great Betrayal of American Democracy The American people will have their chance to hold Joe Biden and his party accountable in November. By Christopher Schorr

Posted By on May 6th, 2022

https://amgreatness.com/2022/05/05/the-great-betrayal-of-american-democracy/

The Biden Administration is aiding and abetting an invasion of the United States.

Let’s review the facts. As a candidate, Biden precipitated the crisis with several campaign promises: 

Amnesty and citizenship 
Halting construction of the southern border wall 
Suspending deportations
Abandoning successful asylum fraud prevention efforts like the “Remain in Mexico” policy and “safe third country” agreements with Central American nations. 

Upon taking office, Biden swiftly implemented these promises, escalating the crisis. He reinstituted the Obama-era policy of releasing migrants apprehended at the border into the interior of the country, pending hearings they often skip. His Department of Homeland Security secretly transported migrants across the country in the dead of night to avoid public scrutiny. Confronted with a court order to reinstate the “Remain in Mexico” policy, Biden passively refused to comply. 

In March, monthly border encounters hit a new record of 221,303, beating the previous record (also set by Biden) of 213,953 in July. Biden has funneled 1 million illegal aliens into the United States in just over a year. 

Last month, Biden announced his plan to end Title 42, a public health authority under which 1.8 million migrants have been turned away at the border. By the administration’s own estimates, this could swell border incursions to 18,000 per day. Ending Title 42 eliminates the last vestige of American control over the southern border. With 19 months remaining before the 2024 election, Biden could add another 10 million illegal aliens to the United States. The number could be lower—the planet might run out of economic migrants posing as asylum seekers—or it could be much higher. In any event, American law would no longer govern entry into the United States. 

The Politics of Dismantling U.S. Sovereignty 

Biden has determined that displacing Americans with foreigners is in the long-term interest of his party. No other explanation makes sense. 

Consider the invasion’s short-term politics. Americans disapprove of Biden’s handling of immigration by 57-35 percent. By 51-34 percent, most Americans believe that Biden is “purposefully encouraging illegal immigration.” Facing a midterm rout, vulnerable Democrats are rebelling, but Biden seems intent on punishing his party and the voters it claims to represent: low-wage earners, blacks, and Latinos.

A humanitarian crisis did not necessitate Biden’s invasion, but it has caused several, including:

A migrant rape crisis. Human traffickers reportedly rape 60-80 percent of migrant women and girls. This is the true face of open borders: Central American parents giving their pre-teen daughters birth control, expecting the worst.
Making Cartels Great Again. Biden’s invasion enriches Mexican drug cartels, fueling violence and corruption in Mexico.
China’s new Opium War against the American people. Mexican cartels funnel Chinese fentanyl through border security gaps they create by tying down U.S. Border Patrol with migrants. Fentanyl is the leading cause of death for Americans ages 18 to 45. 
American families under siege. Cartels (and migrants) destroy property, threaten families, and burn homes to the ground. 

These are some of the invasion’s costs. What are its benefits? 

BOOKS Comments turned off

Hail to The Donald-The Ultimate Contrarian Salvatore Babones

Posted By on May 6th, 2022

https://quadrant.org.au/magazine/2022/04/hail-to-the-donald/

Why was Donald Trump such a remarkably successful president, both in politics and in policy? Anyone who doubts his success in politics, or thinks he bought his way to office, need only look to the unsuccessful presidential campaigns of Nelson Rockefeller, Ross Perot, Steve Forbes, Michael Bloomberg and Tom Steyer. And anyone who doubts his success in policy need only look to his record: tax cuts, regulatory reform, a four-year pause in illegal immigration, Arab-Israeli peace, the US-Mexico-Canada agreement, and the building of a Western consensus against China. Even his coronavirus performance was a toss-up: most of America’s excess deaths are attributable to the incompetence of Democratic governors, and Trump can rightly take credit for the push to develop vaccines in record time. About the worst that can reasonably said about President Trump is that his Tweets were impolite—and he was extraordinarily ungracious in defeat.

So how did the Donald do it? We’ve all heard lots of opinion from academics, journalists and just plain philistines, but Richard Alston in Donald Trump: The Ultimate Contrarian writes from the perspective of a practical politician and policy-maker. A former senator, cabinet minister and president of the Liberal Party, Alston writes that Trump’s

…genius was to discern what no one else understood—that the political establishment and its acolytes had gone off the rails and were much more interested in media-driven priorities … than bread-and-butter issues.

Once elected, he was then naive enough to actually keep his political promises. The result was that, through the unlikely avatar of a New York property developer, middle America took control of the White House. Commonsense (seat-of-the-pants?) politics and policies trumped the refined civilities of the professional political class. Alston calls it “democracy’s finest hour”.

Alston writes of Trump that “the seeds of his triumph and Hillary Clinton’s defeat lay in the creeping atrophy of politics … in recent decades”:

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Has The Metropolitan Opera Violated Anti-Discrimination Laws by Firing a Russian Singer? by Alan M. Dershowitz

Posted By on May 6th, 2022

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/18505/metropolitan-opera-discrimination

The law of New York and many other jurisdictions prohibits employment discrimination based on national origin. Anna Netrebko’s firing would seem on its face illegal. Had she been born in the Donbas region of Ukraine instead of across the border in Russia, she would not have been fired even if she had refused to condemn the war or Putin.

She did condemn the war but refused to condemn Putin personally. If she had, she would be endangering her family, friends and her own ability to ever return safely to her homeland.

Netrebko is an Austrian citizen, but her country of origin is Russia.

“Forcing artists, or any public figure, to voice their political opinions in public and to denounce their homeland is not right…. I am not a political person…. I am an artist and my purpose is to unite people across political divides.” — Anna Netrebko, quoted in The New York Times, March 2, 2022.

“She’s damned if she does, and damned if she doesn’t.” — Simon Morrison, Princeton Professor of Music, The New York Times, April 1, 2022.

[W]e want artists to speak out — when we agree with what they are saying. But in this age of quickly changing criteria for cancellation….

I had planned to see the Metropolitan Opera’s production of Turandot staring Anna Netrebko. But the Met fired her on the ground that she is Russian and did not sufficiently condemn Vladimir Putin for waging war in Ukraine. She did condemn the war, but refused to condemn Putin personally. If she had, she would be endangering her family, friends and her own ability to ever return safely to her homeland. Netrebko is an Austrian citizen, but her country of origin is Russia.

WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Russia and China: The Worst Moment in History Coming Soon by Gordon G. Chang

Posted By on May 6th, 2022

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/18506/russia-china-nuclear-escalation

Russia has a nuclear doctrine known as “escalate to deescalate” or, more accurately, “escalate to win,” which contemplates threatening or using nuclear weapons early in a conventional conflict.

It cannot be a good sign that Russia, China, and North Korea at the same time are threatening to launch the world’s most destructive weaponry.

Because the Western democracies have largely stood down and are clearly not fighting in Ukraine, Beijing and Pyongyang want similar successes.

“Like Vladimir Putin, the Communist Party of China has lost its fear of American power… China’s nuclear threats expose… perceived American weakness, expose the risk of the lack of a U.S. regional nuclear deterrent, and expose the inadequacy of U.S. leadership.” — Richard Fisher of the Virginia-based International Assessment and Strategy Center, to the author, March 2022.

Whatever the reason for the threats, Putin and Xi have told everyone what they intend to do. Unfortunately, Western leaders are determined not to believe them.

In response to Russian threats, President Joe Biden on February 28 said the American people should not worry about nuclear war. On the contrary, there is every reason to worry.

In line with Western thinking, presidents and prime ministers have almost always ignored nuclear threats, hoping not to dignify them. Unfortunately, this posture has only emboldened the threat-makers to make more threats. The later the international community confronts belligerent Russians, Chinese, and North Koreans, the more dangerous the confrontations will be.

The world, therefore, looks like it is fast approaching the worst moment in history.

On May 1, on Russian TV, the media executive often called “Putin’s mouthpiece” urged the Russian president to launch a Poseidon underwater drone with a “warhead of up to 100 megatons.” The detonation, said Dmitry Kiselyov, would create a 1,640-foot tidal wave that would “plunge Britain to the depths of the ocean.” The wave would reach halfway up England’s tallest peak, Scafell Pike.

“This tidal wave is also a carrier of extremely high doses of radiation,” Kiselyov pointed out. “Surging over Britain, it will turn whatever is left of them into radioactive desert, unusable for anything. How do you like this prospect?

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

A shadowy left-wing group operating under the moniker ‘Ruth Sent Us’ is asking activists to target Supreme Court justices at their homes. Tristan Justice

Posted By on May 6th, 2022

https://thefederalist.com/2022/05/05/meet-the-shady-left-wing-group-targeting-scotus-justices-and-their-families/

A shadowy left-wing group operating under the moniker “Ruth Sent Us” is asking activists to target Supreme Court justices who may overturn Roe v. Wade with demonstrations at their private homes.

On Thursday, the group published the alleged home locations of the six conservative justices who heard Mississippi’s request to return the abortion debate to the states by overturning the 1973 decision. A February draft opinion leaked to Politico on Monday revealed five out of the six, Justices Samuel Alito, Amy Coney Barrett, Clarence Thomas, Brett Kavanaugh, and Neil Gorsuch, were planning to vote to overturn the Roe decision with Chief Justice John Roberts remaining undecided. Each of their homes is targeted for protests between now and Wednesday.

“Our 6-3 extremist Supreme Court routinely issues rulings that hurt women, racial minorities, LGBTQ+ and immigrant rights,” reads the group’s website. “We must rise up to force accountability using a diversity of tactics.”

Stipends are being offered to artists who join the march. Payment and compensation were also offered to protesters who came to Washington to disrupt the constitutional proceedings at the Senate to confirm Brett Kavanaugh in 2018.

The organizing group’s leadership remains concealed on its website, even though it uses a .us URL. Websites with a .us URL are unusual, and according to Wired in 2005, new registrants could not include privacy protection in .us domain name purchases. RuthSent.us, however, redacted information related to its owners’ purchase. Another online domain tool, “WHOIS,” revealed the name Sam Spiegel as its registrant along with a P.O. box.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Durham Scores Huge Victory Against Hillary Camp and Fusion GPS By Matt Margolis

Posted By on May 6th, 2022

https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/matt-margolis/2022/05/05/durham-scores-huge-victory-against-hillary-camp-and-fusion-gps-n1595364

The trial of former Hillary Clinton campaign lawyer Michael Sussmann will take place soon, and on Wednesday, special counsel John Durham scored a huge pre-trial victory.

Sussmann’s lawyers fought Durham’s efforts to secure documents from the Hillary Clinton presidential campaign that they claimed were protected by attorney-client privilege. Durham argued that the Clinton campaign couldn’t shield materials based on attorney-client privilege when the materials they were trying to hide were widely distributed to third parties.

A federal judge in Washington, D.C. agreed with Durham and has decided to compel the production of the documents in question.

Durham had accused the Democratic National Committee, Hillary for America, and Fusion GPS of withholding and/or redacting documents and communications that incriminate Sussmann.