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December 2017

The Way Forward on Federal Mental Health Policy A federal agency’s report on the problem of serious mental illness is a good start. By D. J. Jaffe

Last Thursday, the Trump administration issued the first iteration of its congressionally mandated Interdepartmental Serious Mental Illness Coordinating Committee (ISMICC) report. Titled “The Way Forward,” the report is intended to be a blueprint for how the federal government can improve care for the most seriously mentally ill. It is a step in the right direction.

The ISMICC, working under the leadership of Dr. Elinore McCance-Katz, the assistant secretary of Mental Health and Substance Use Disorders, comprises ten federal members representing different agencies and 14 members representing the public- and mental-health industries. These officials were tasked with evaluating the nation’s response to the seriously mentally ill and proposing improvements to Congress.

The problem with our mental-health policy is huge. As I documented in Insane Consequences: How the Mental Health Industry Fails the Mentally Ill, despite $147 billion of annual spending in federal funds and another $40 billion or so in state funds, 140,000 seriously mentally ill individuals are homeless while 390,000 remain incarcerated. Thankfully, the ISMICC defined the rates of homelessness, arrest, incarceration, violence and needless hospitalization as the biggest problems facing the seriously mentally ill.

Helping the most seriously ill, those who can’t help themselves, is a legitimate core function of government. Unfortunately, both the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) and the Center for Mental Health Services (CMHS) remain headed by Obama holdovers who refuse to focus on the most seriously ill or address the most-pressing issues like violence, fearing that doing so will cause a “stigma” by highlighting the association between violence and untreated serious mental illness. Instead, these officials focus their agencies on pumping out pop-psychology webinars, publications and grants to improve “mental wellness” among the higher functioning. President Trump and acting HHS secretary Eric Hargan should replace the leaders of SAMHSA and CMHS with doctors like Dr. McCance-Katz who are committed to using taxpayer dollars for the most important issues that affect the seriously ill, not for the sideshows.

Beyond defining the problem, this first report contains initial recommendations made by the public members of the committee. Many are relevant to reducing homelessness, arrest, incarceration and needless hospitalization, but others are not. This is likely the result of the committee having very little time to sort through their ideas: The final report is not due until four years from now. So there is plenty of time to modify the recommendations and prioritize the most-important ones. Hopefully, the committee members will.

A Solid Accomplishment on Taxes By The Editors

As we hoped, the Republican tax legislation improved as it moved through Congress. Harmful ideas such as eliminating the adoption tax credit were abandoned. Some tax relief for the working poor was added. The final bill should increase investment, reduce the distortionary effect of tax breaks, and lighten the especially excessive burden that the federal government puts on parents. While the bill is nobody’s idea of perfection, it is nonetheless a solid accomplishment and we are glad that Congress is moving quickly to pass it.

Our 35 percent corporate tax rate has stayed in place for decades as our major trading partners cut their rates. The new tax rate of 21 percent should help us compete better for capital. Allowing businesses to write off the cost of investments more rapidly is another pro-growth win in the bill.

The legislation rightly pares back two major deductions: the ones for mortgage interest, which will be capped at mortgages of $750,000 rather than the current $1 million, and for state and local taxes, which will be capped at $10,000 rather than being unlimited. In both cases we would have preferred more aggressive action, but the more moderate course chosen has the virtue of reducing the number of people who will face tax increases thanks to the bill. If some high-income households react to this change by leaving high-tax states, perhaps those states will in turn be moved to rethink their policies.

The bill’s major contribution to tax simplification is the expansion of the standard deduction. That expansion will make tax deductions less important: Only a small percentage of taxpayers will find it worthwhile to itemize. The bill also reduces the number of people who will have to calculate their taxes twice, by limiting the reach of the alternative minimum tax.

Thanks largely to the interventions of Senators Marco Rubio and Mike Lee, the legislation expands the child tax credit. We have long favored a large tax credit for children as the most practical way to remedy a disparity in our old-age entitlements: They overtax parents, who pay the same tax rates and get the same benefits as childless adults no matter how much they have contributed to those programs by raising children.

What Roy Moore’s Candidacy Teaches Us The weaponization of sexual harassment and assault charges. Bruce Thornton

Following Roy Moore’s defeat in the Alabama Senatorial race, the political Nostradami of both parties are furiously predicting either doom or salvation for the other party. Dems think Doug Jones’ win means the South is up for grabs, and flipping the Senate and maybe even the House is possible. Donks predict that with the toxic Moore off the table, Jones’ win will no more flip the Senate than Scott Brown’s win did for the Republicans in 2010. More interesting is what Moore’s rise and fall tells us about our dysfunctional political culture.

Take the weaponization of sexual harassment and assault charges. A movement that started with Harvey Weinstein, a blatant offender who left enough credible evidence to start a criminal investigation, expanded into an orgy of accusations including clumsy flirting, boorish passes, juvenile gags, and other behaviors that in a workplace might constitute sexual harassment, but would not be subject to legal sanction. The level of subjective interpretations involved in many of these charges confuses the issue even further, and can leave determining “sexual assault” in the eye of the beholder. And of course, false charges are easy to manufacture once we are instructed to believe every accuser before any corroborating evidence is available.

An example of how subjective the standards are for making a serious accusation can be seen in the case of one of the three women who recently accused Trump of sexual impropriety. Here’s NBC’s reporting of one woman’s charge:

[The accuser] said when she competed in Trump’s Miss USA pageant in 2006, Trump came backstage unexpectedly when she and other contestants were wearing nothing but robes and he personally inspected the contestants. “I just felt so gross,” she said. “Just looking me over like I was a piece of meat . . . “Nobody dreams of being ogled when you’re a little girl wanting to wear a crown,” she added.

As reported, this charge is preposterous. We’re talking about a beauty pageant, not a spelling bee or the Academic Decathlon. These contestants are chosen for their physical beauty, including their sexual allure. I’ve never seen an obese homely woman in one of these pageants. And wouldn’t the accuser have shown more of her body during the swimsuit competition than Trump would’ve seen when she was wearing a robe? And isn’t being “ogled” the whole point of parading around on stage in a bikini? Given the accuser’s standard, every male judge and audience member was guilty of sexual assault.

Terrorist Provocations in Gaza may lead to Full Scale War Tensions escalate as Israelis endure barrage of terrorist rocket fire from Gaza. Ari Lieberman

Sirens went off in southern Israel last Thursday as jittery Israeli civilians dashed for cover or scanned the skies for rockets and counter-rocket fire. It turned out to be a false alarm but no less disconcerting. Approximately 17 rockets have been fired at Israel from Gaza since December 7, the day following America’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.

Four rockets were fired on December 13. One landed in open area, two were intercepted by the Iron Dome anti-rocket defense system and a fourth landed in Gaza, hitting a United Nations-run school. It’s a sure bet that had the school been damaged as a result of Israeli fire, Israel would have been excoriated by so-called human rights groups and their nefarious allies in certain quarters of the establishment media. Another rocket was fired on Friday but it too fell short and landed in northern Gaza, ironically hitting the home of the brother of a senior Hamas official. A further two rockets were fired on Sunday, landing in the vicinity of the Hof Ashkelon region and causing damage to a house and car.

The sudden escalation in rocket fire from Gaza has the potential of spiraling into a wider conflict. It is believed that those responsible for the uptick do not belong to Hamas but are taking their orders from other terrorist groups that roam Gaza, such as the Palestinian Islamic Jihad. Still, Hamas controls the borders and they could put a stop to the mischief if they wanted. That is why Israel holds Hamas, Gaza’s governing authority, responsible for all rocket fire and that is why Israel often directs its retaliatory fire at Hamas installations.

Thus far, the rockets have caused little damage though one hit the courtyard of a kindergarten in the border town of Sderot, shattering a window and causing light damage to the building. The building was fortuitously empty at the time but the indiscriminate nature of the attack demonstrates just how truly savage Israel’s genocidal enemies are. It also demonstrates how precarious the situation is. A direct hit on a school packed with children would instantly trigger a massive and crushing Israeli military response.

Words Not Enough to Deter Iran Brazen actions by Quds Force commander Qassem Suleymani show he is not deterred. Kenneth R. Timmerman

In a dramatic press conference held at Andrews Air Force base on Thursday, the U.S. Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, accused Iran of violating its commitments under UN Security Council resolution 2231, the instrument that renders official the deadly “Iran deal” known as the JCPOA.

Standing in front of a giant section of fuselage from an Iranian Qiam missile shot down by Saudi Arabia as it was hurtling toward the Riyadh international airport recently, Haley said: “Just imagine if this missile had been launched at Dulles Airport or JFK, or the airports in Paris, London, or Berlin. That’s what we’re talking about here. That’s what Iran is actively supporting.”

In other words, acts of war. Let me make that very specific: Iran has declared war on Saudi Arabia, and is engaging in that war by attacking civilian targets in the Saudi capitol, Riyadh, and by targeting civilian facilities, such as the international airport and the Yanbu oil export terminal, where another Qiam missile was shot down.

“What is most revealing about this missile is what’s not here,” Haley said. “It is the large stabilizer fins that are typically present on these kinds of missiles. The Iranian Qiam missile is the only known short range ballistic missile in the world that lacks such stabilizer fins and includes nine valves that you will see running along the length of the missile. Those valves are essentially Iranian missile fingerprints.”

Haley revealed that Iran delivered those Qiam missiles to Houthi rebels in Yemen, who acted as Iranian surrogates by launching them against Saudi targets. She then invited reporters to walk around an array of parts from the Qiam missile, including pumps bearing the tell-tale stamp of Shahid Bagheri Industries, the Iranian manufacturer.

I first exposed the involvement of the Shahid Bagheri Industrial Group in Iran’s ballistic missile programs in 1998 in Reader’s Digest, where I documented the active collaboration of Russia and China in Iran’s missile programs. That’s nineteen years ago. You can read that article here.

A Pentagon spokesperson, Laura Seal, provided additional detail this week to Ambassador Haley on three other Iranian weapons systems captured by the Saudis from Houthi rebels. These were an anti-tank guided missile, the Toophan; the Qasef-1 armed attack drone; and the Iranian Shark-33 boat, “an explosive-laden, unmanned boat used in an attack the Saudi Arabian frigate HMS al Madinah,” Seal said.

Guilt by Accusation is the New Norm Don’t believe all women or all men. Daniel Greenfield

Time has named #MeToo its ‘Person of the Year’ and every other day the hashtag lynch mob drags someone else in front of the spotlight. The accusations range from rape to harsh words. The evidence is hearsay. The target is shamed, fired from every job he ever held and purged from polite society.

Some are guilty. Some might be innocent. But we’ll never know because there’s no investigation. The time frame between accusation and purge is hours or days when it takes your average HR department a week to file a form. Just like in every totalitarian leftist state, the accusation is enough.

And then it’s on to the next one.

There’s nothing American about #MeToo. It’s the revolutionary justice of a leftist purge where random political violence against ideological enemies is used to heal social ills. If there’s poverty, shoot a few rich men. If there’s unhappiness, string up some priests. And if there’s sexual assault, destroy whichever names are passed along by a few influential, but enigmatic figures, Ronan Farrow, Yashar Ali, with ambiguous backgrounds and agendas, through pressure campaigns aimed at their employers.

And don’t ask any questions. Only bad people ask questions. Only bad people want proof. Only bad people don’t instantly believe an accusation. And you’re either with #MeToo or with its targets.

But maybe we should start asking a few questions.

Six years ago, I was stopped by a reporter and asked if I believed a rape victim.

Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the head of the International Monetary Fund who was likely to be the next president of France, had been arrested for sexually assaulting a hotel maid. Local tabloids and cable news quickly descended on the case of the suave powerful man who had assaulted a refugee hotel maid who had been gang raped in her own African country.

The French reporter who accosted me asked me if I believed the victim. He wanted to know what Americans thought should happen to Strauss-Kahn. I told him that in this country we put people on trial and we get all the facts before we punish them.

France didn’t wait for all the facts.

Dominique Strauss-Kahn’s political career ended. Sarkozy became the next President of France. And there were always rumors that the whole thing had been a setup by his political opponents. Nafissatou Diallo, the hotel maid, had managed to lie convincingly about almost everything. She had even lied about soldiers in Guinea gang raping her and what she had done right after the attack.

Finally, prosecutors gave up.

“In virtually every substantive interview with prosecutors, despite entreaties to simply be truthful, she has not been truthful,” they wrote about their own witness. “The nature and number of the complainant’s falsehoods leave us unable to credit her version of events beyond a reasonable doubt.”

She lied.

Like many of the accused men, Dominique Strauss-Kahn appeared to have little control over his appetites. But his reputation had been destroyed based on an accusation.

And an accusation alone should not be enough to destroy a person.

In the longest and most expensive trial in American history, members of the McMartin family were prosecuted for Satanic child abuse. The Los Angeles case dragged on for 16 years. The whole thing proved to be groundless.

During the Iraq War, Hillary Clinton, Al Franken, Rachel Maddow and many other leftists championed the case of Jamie Leigh Jones who worked for a Hailburton subsidiary in Baghdad’s Green Zone. Jones claimed to have been gang raped by her fellow employees. After 6 years, the case completely collapsed.

The University of Virginia’s Phi Kappa Psi fraternity won millions from Rolling Stone after being vandalized and harassed because of the magazine’s recent rape hoax article. ‘Jackie”, the woman in question, had made the whole thing up. But by then the witch hunt had already been unleashed.

That’s why Believe All Women is a terrible idea.

Trump offers a daring program to restore US dominance US President proposes a muscular kind of global activism, fostering new alliances while reinforcing America’s existing commitments; plus a layered missile defence shield David Goldman

In a speech later today, US President Donald Trump will propose a shift in US national security strategy more profound than any proposed by his predecessors since Ronald Reagan. According to a preliminary copy of the president’s 2017 National Security Strategy obtained by the Asia Times, Trump envisions a radical upgrade in the US industrial base, large-scale support for scientific and technical education, and rebuilding of infrastructure, in response to China’s economic and strategic challenge.

In so many words, Trump’s 67-page summary of national security policy declares that America is a frog that will not be boiled. No doubt the report will be portrayed as war-like, although that is not its intention. “Competition does not always mean hostility, nor does it inevitably lead to conflict – although none should doubt our commitment to defend our interests. An America that successfully competes is the best way to prevent conflict. Just as American weakness invites challenge, American strength and confidence deters war and promotes peace,” the document states.

The contrast with the two previous administrations is stark. The Trump report praises American values and institutions but betrays no ambition to remake the world in America’s image after the fashion of George W. Bush. Nor does it accept the slow decline of American influence into a geopolitical mush of multilateralism per the “soft power” conceit of the Obama Administration. It is centered on the American economy, the American homeland, and American interests, but it proposes a rough-edged activism where American interests are threatened that will make the world a less predictable place during the next several years.

The report admonishes China and Russia on a number of grounds. Beijing and Moscow will take the report in stride, gauging carefully where Washington might alter the strategic balance. But the new report will cause alarm in Tehran. For the past dozen years – since Robert Gates replaced Donald Rumsfeld as America’s Defense Secretary in 2006 – American policy has sought to include Iran in the regional security architecture. The Trump Administration’s strongest language is directed towards Iran, and the Shi’ite regime’s response is incalculable. Some analysts believe that Iran already is inclined to go to war with Israel, and the new report may prompt the militaries of several Middle Eastern nations to raise their level of alert.

The report embraces the term “America First,” by which Trump means that national security depends first of all on fixing what is wrong in America: a shrinking industrial base, disrepair in infrastructure, sagging innovation, inadequate scientific and technical education, and an excessive federal debt burden. Although the report promises a crackdown on forced technology transfers, intellectual property theft, and other forms of “economic aggression,” it identifies the problem and its solution in domestic US policy: tax reform, deregulation, innovation policy, budgetary controls and education.

Jerusalem: An Opportunity for Islamic Reformation? by Nonie Darwish

Despite the cries that Islam is a religion of peace, Islamic terror threat is everywhere; Muslims still teach hatred of Jews and Christians and they still preach jihad and killing the enemies of Allah. How can any sane person trust that Islam is moderate and is serious about wanting peace when the Muslim world is exploding with terror?

Only Trump could have done that at this moment — and with the help of brave Muslim leaders, a new milestone towards peace can begin.

It is not a surprise that all Arab leaders, including some of the closest Arab allies of president Trump such as president al-Sisi of Egypt, are publicly against the decision by president Trump to move the US embassy to Jerusalem. Arab leaders understand a certain bloody backlash against them if they don’t. This is because Islamic law dictates that all land once occupied by Muslims must remain Muslim forever. Under Sharia Muslims have the right to take over land from non-Muslims but the reverse is considered an attack on Islam.

That is where the problem of Jerusalem stems from and it does not matter to Muslims if Jerusalem, or its other name Zion, is mentioned in the Jewish bible 850 times but never mentioned in the Quran not even once. It does not matter if Jerusalem is the holy land of the Jewish people, if it was Israel’s capital over 3000 years ago or that Jews pray facing Jerusalem while Muslims pray facing Mecca.

The Western world would do itself and the truth a favor if they, at least for once, stand united to support Israel in its right to Jerusalem as its undivided Capital. In fact, it is time for Muslims to accept that facts about Jerusalem and right historical wrongs. Not too long ago Arabs used to tell Jews when relations did not go well between Muslims and Jews in various areas of the Middle East, to go back to their holy land Jerusalem. Now that Jews have done so, Arabs are trying to rob them again and again of their holy land.

But with the historic announcement by president Trump to move the US embassy to Jerusalem, the Arab world has a great opportunity to prove to the world that Islam is a religion of peace and co-existence as they claim. The moment of truth has come to give a historical opportunity to Muslims to write the wrongs against the Jewish people.

Is the UK Overthrowing the Christian Basis of the West? by Giulio Meotti

As the progressive publication Prospect asked, “if we are no longer a Christian country, what are we?”

Christians in the UK are on course to be in the minority by the middle of the century.

What defines Europe are its boundaries – not physical but cultural. Without its culture, Europe could not be distinguished from the rest of the world. And the pillar of this culture is based on the Judeo-Christian heritage and values.

British Christian publications have been wondering if we are witnessing the “extinction of Christianity in Egypt”, where the Christian faithful have suffered persecution and terror attacks at the hands of Islamic fundamentalists. Christian leaders also seem to be wondering if Christianity will be “extinct within a generation” in the UK, where religious people enjoy total freedom of worship and faith.

Last year, the Church of England began to formulate a religious revolution. Its canonical laws require that British churches hold their functions every Sunday. The dramatic crisis of Christianity in the UK, however, is pushing the Anglican church to rewrite those rules, in order not to officiate in empty and abandoned churches.

A quarter of the British rural parishes now have fewer than 10 regular members of the faithful on Sunday. There are no more children in 25% of the Church of England’s congregations, as new figures have just shown. On average, nine children attended each church service across all Anglican churches in 2016. Generally speaking, churchgoers have dwindled in the UK by 34,000 in just one year.

What Is Really to Blame for Palestinian Violence? by Ruthie Blum

Rather than engage in institution-building, which the United States, Europe and even Israel funded with billions of dollars, PA President Mahmoud Abbas – Arafat’s successor – made no effort to reform Palestinian civil society, including the education system.

In fact, textbooks for the 2017-2018 academic year are even more filled with incitement to violence in the name of Allah than in years before…. “Children are expendable.”

The crux of this report is that Palestinian education is for war and against peace with Israel. When educators employ blood libels to provide a rationale for terrorism against innocent Israelis — and the PA leadership backs these up by paying salaries to terrorists and their families — the only process you are going to get is one of war.

At a rally in Orlando, Florida shortly after U.S. President Donald Trump’s historic declaration recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, an activist at the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR)-sponsored event ranted, “[Jews] are the crappiest piece of shit on this planet.”

The activist was Said Lufti, uncle of Rasha Mubarak, Orlando Regional Coordinator for CAIR-Florida, and one the protesters in attendance, many of whom were wearing keffiyehs [checkered men’s headscarves] and waving Palestinian flags.

Lufti continued:

“You [Jews] are baby-killers. You Jesus-killer…You Christians, walking behind Jesus-killers… Jesus’s blood [is] on your hands… You crucified Jesus!… Record me! You are Jesus-killers!… Jesus’ blood on this piece of crap Jew [the man filming the clip] hands. And [addressing a non-Jew behind the camera] you’re walking with him? You are a Christian?… Your people [the Jews] killing everything that walks on this planet…”

Despite US President Donald J. Trump’s assurance that his giving presidential approval to the Jerusalem Embassy Act, passed by the U.S. Congress in 1995, was not tantamount to a delineation of borders, Lufti’s comments illustrate that the true enmity towards Israel based on long-standing, deep-seated Jew-hatred. This will not surprise anyone who follows the material being taught in schools, preached in mosques and spread by the media in Muslim-majority states whose regimes exercise total control over their populaces.