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March 2018

WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

South Africa’s Economic Peril Land expropriation produces misery wherever it is tried. see note please

By on March 2nd, 2018

South Africa is going the way of Zimbabwe, once the breadbasket of Africa and a stable and productive nation which is now a hell hole of famine, epidemic and crime…..One day historians will write of the terrible outcome of Africa’s decolonization and home rule….rsk

No country ever became rich through its government’s seizure of private property (exhibit A: the Soviet Union), but politicians in South Africa want to give it another go.

That’s the disheartening news from Cape Town this week, where the National Assembly voted 241-83 on Tuesday to start a process to amend the constitution and allow land expropriation without compensation. A parliamentary committee will review the motion and report by Aug. 30.

Land long has been a fraught issue in South Africa, where during the apartheid era blacks were barred from buying property in white areas. Post-apartheid, the government bought land and offered compensation to South Africans whose property had been forcibly seized after 1913.

Many of those claims are now settled, and more than 90% of claimants chose to receive cash instead of land titles, a reflection of the country’s rapid urbanization. According to a 2016 Institute of Race Relations survey, less than 1% of South Africans think land is one of the country’s “serious unresolved problems.” Unemployment, public services, housing and crime rank far higher.

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HOMELAND SECURITY Comments turned off

RACHEL EHRENFELD: EPPS AVIATION AND THE HIJAB

By on March 2nd, 2018

A growing number of fashion runways and department stores promote the hijab as the latest “chic” thing to wear, a “fashionable identity symbol.” The buying power of fast-growing Muslim communities in the West is being used by Islamist to entice designers to present the “latest trend” with models who wear “covered-up clothes, heads in the swathing scarves.”

The power of the Islamist purse, supported by politically correct media and progressive identity propaganda, also helps to promote the hijab at many workplaces, even those with strict dress code banning any religious symbol.
The hijab is forbidden throughout the air travel industry (except in Saudi Arabia; Iran; and Aceh, Indonesia). Nonetheless, it has become a powerful tool for shakedowns by Islamist groups masquerading as “civil rights” activists in Europe and the United States.

Such Islamist groups are using lawfare to intimidate and extort Western industries, institutions, and private companies. Their objective is clear: force acceptance of Islamic customs, even though they contradict secular, globally accepted industry standards and corporate policies. These groups have been targeting U.S. aviation and aerospace firms.

Taking advantage of Western democratic systems, well-funded entities such as the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) are constantly attempting to impose Islamic religious values and practices on the West, severely undermining freedom of speech and intimidating citizens. Consequently, people fearing backlash and false accusations often choose to not speak up, even when their own safety is imperiled. Lawfare has proven to be a useful weapon.

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NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

How to Probe the FBI Trump is wrong. Inspector General Michael Horowitz is the man for the job. Kimberley Strassel

By on March 2nd, 2018

Donald Trump is rightly frustrated that so many in Washington and the media refuse to take seriously the evidence that the government abused its surveillance powers during the 2016 election. Still, let’s remember who the bad guys are in this story. Hint: not Attorney General Jeff Sessions or Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz.

Mr. Trump’s Wednesday tweetstorm included a blast at both men after news that Mr. Sessions had asked Mr. Horowitz to look into whether the Federal Bureau of Investigation went rogue when it asked the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court for a warrant against ex- Trump aide Carter Page. The president complained that Mr. Horowitz will “take forever, has no prosecutorial power and [is] already late with reports on [James] Comey, etc.” He berated the inspector general as “an Obama guy” and asked why Mr. Sessions won’t use “Justice Department lawyers” to investigate “massive FISA abuse.” And then, of course: “DISGRACEFUL!”

Hardly. The Sessions request is the best—arguably the only—way to get an honest assessment of 2016 out to the public. Congressional Republicans are doing excellent work, but they face Democratic sabotage and a biased media. The Justice Department has no business investigating itself, and any finding from the Trump Justice Department would be cast as tainted. The last thing anyone should want is another special counsel, who would bring still more controversy and really would “take forever.”

No one should underestimate the power of the inspector general. Congress created these watchdogs in 1978 after the nightmare of trying to pry information out of a crooked Nixon administration. Inspectors general were deliberately placed within the executive branch and empowered to seek out information in ways that Congress can’t, even with subpoenas—including by demanding quick and comprehensive access to documents and promptly interviewing relevant officials. But inspectors general are still accountable; They go through extensive vetting before appointment and have a statutory duty to report to Congress. Most take their duty of neutrality seriously. CONTINUE AT SITE

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NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

How to destroy the United States: Ditch the rule of law By Don Wilkie

By on March 2nd, 2018

The United States is about freedom. Central to any system of freedom is the “rule of law” – the principle under which all persons, institutions, and entities are accountable to laws that are:

Publicly promulgated,
Equally enforced,
Independently adjudicated, and
Consistent with international human rights principles.

What we have seen throughout United States history, up to and including recent events, is that when we ignore the “rule of law,” as we often have, we do so at our own peril.

During the slave years, there were obviously two sets of rules. It took over 600,000 lives to attempt to straighten that out. Then there was the mistreatment of American Indians. That error, which caused untold misery, was followed some years later by the Jim Crow laws. Known as “separate but equal,” they pretended to be consistent with the rule of law, but everyone knew they weren’t. The races were separate, and they weren’t equal. Suffering ensued.

Fast-forward to today, and you see that “sanctuary cities” have a separate rule of law for illegal aliens. College campuses twist themselves into pretzels describing what is “allowed speech” and what is “hate speech.”

In Broward and Dade Counties, Florida, school administrators along with local police created a two-tiered rule of law. As Jack Cashill wrote recently, “[t]he spurious ‘same behavior’ insinuation would put the onus on law enforcement to treat black students more gingerly than they would non-blacks.” Many argue that this policy led directly to the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting.

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MEDIA Comments turned off

Headlines that most of the media doesn’t want the public to see By Jack Hellner

By on March 2nd, 2018

I understand why most of the media is focusing on the fictional Russian collusion, Hope Hicks resigning and rumors about Jared Kushner. Since they hate Trump, they certainly wouldn’t focus on how well the economy is doing, which shows up in the following articles on the Drudge Report on March 1st

Jobless claims plunge to 49-year low…

Manufacturing Expands at Fastest Pace Since ’04…
US crude oil output hits all-time high; Takes out 1970 record…
Foreign Holdings of U.S. Securities Rise to Record $18 Trillion…

I do find this article in the WSJ, that was also published on March 1st, funny. They state that foreign investors aren’t buying as many government bonds, while the above bullet point says foreign investors hold a record amount.

I also find the following to be funny: Does Fed control Trump 2020 destiny?

Predictions about the 2020 election are absolutely nuts. I will give the authors a clue. If the economy continues to do so well that the fed believes they need to continually raise rates, Trump will probably do pretty well against the leftists who want bigger government and who want more people to be dependent on government. My guess is the majority of people will be happier with better jobs, less regulations and lower taxes, versus more food stamps, more regulations and higher taxes.

Some other headlines that most of the media are virtually ignoring:

Great consumer confidence along with business confidence;
Higher home ownership;
Declining minority unemployment, and;
Women’s employment at an 18 year high.

It is no wonder that Trump is around 50% approval in Rasmussen, which is around 7% higher than Obama at this point in his presidency. And it is also no wonder that almost all the media ignores the Rasmussen poll while touting low numbers in Gallup and CNN polls. They do enjoy misleading the public to push their agenda.

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NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Broward State Attorney’s Opened At Least 66 Cases Of Criminal Misconduct Into Sheriff’s Office Crimes that run the gamut from armed kidnapping to narcotics trafficking Sara Carter

By on March 2nd, 2018

There are more than 66 investigations by the Broward County State Attorney’s office into Broward County Sheriff’s deputies and employees, ranging from drug trafficking to kidnapping since 2012, according to a 2014 Brady list produced by the Broward State Attorney’s office. Forty of the investigations occurred under embattled Sheriff Scott Israel’s watch. His office is now under investigation for allegations that his deputies failed to allow first responders from treating patients at the scene of Stoneman Douglas High School shooting on Feb. 14, and failure of his deputies to enter the school during the rampage that left 17 people dead, according to reports.

Over the weekend Israel fought back on calls for his resignation saying the actions of his deputies were “[not] his responsibility” when they failed to enter the high school that was under siege by Nikolas Cruz, 19. Police responded to calls regarding Cruz over 45 times over a seven-year period, although Israel disputes the report, stating his office only received 23 callsduring that time frame. The FBI also received a detailed call on Jan. 5, warning that Cruz had posted disturbing images of slaughtered animals and comments on his Instagram saying he wanted to kill people, according to reports. The FBI stated on Feb. 16, that the tip was not forwarded to the FBI Miami Field Office.

But Israel has long had been criticized for his leadership. While Israel is battling allegations that his office failed to appropriately respond to the Cruz shooting, he is also fighting a civil court case brought by the family of Jermaine McBean, an African-American information technology engineer. McBean was killed in 2013 by Israel’s deputies after they responded to a call that McBean was walking in his neighborhood with what appeared to be a weapon. It was an unloaded air rifle.

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HOMELAND SECURITY Comments turned off

Broward County Considered Hotbed for Terrorism, Sheriff’s Deputy a CAIR Leader There’s more going on in Broward County than a school shooting. Trey Sanchez

By on March 2nd, 2018

Broward County, Florida, is on everyone’s lips in the United States. What was just another American community has been launched into the spotlight as the location of the latest mass-casualty school shooting. Yet, Broward County, which is just north of Miama and includes Fort Lauderdale and Hollywood, has a sinister, and seemingly forgotten, relationship with Islam and terrorism.

A 2002 article in Florida’s The Ledger makes the case that Broward County is a hotbed for terrorists. Several terror plots have been discovered in the county, mosques are well attended, and then there’s the connection to the 9/11 hijackers:

Jose Padilla, accused of conspiring to explode a “dirty bomb” in the United States, worked at a suburban Taco Bell and discovered Islam here.

Two young Pakistani immigrants from nearby Hollywood allegedly hatched a plan to attack South Florida power plants and a National Guard Armory.

And several of the Sept. 11 hijackers roamed the area’s libraries, gyms and beachfront motels.

They all made their home — at least temporarily — in South Florida’s Broward County, leading some to wonder if this growing suburban and tourist area north of Miami has become a common destination for would-be terrorists.

The 16-year-old article went into detail about all of the cases which occurred in just the nine months leading up to the report, which included the 9/11 terror attack. Seven of the 19 men responsible for killing 3,000 Americans on that fateful day spent time in Broward County: “Mohamed Atta and Marwan al-Shehhi went to a Hollywood bar the week before the attacks and played video golf.”

At the time, a 21-year-old computer tech, Safraz Jehaludi, was charged with threats to blow up the White House and a nearby power plant. Forty-year-old Adham Hassoun had also been arrested on an immigration violation and attended the same mosque in Fort Lauderdale as Padilla mentioned above.

The South Florida Muslim community, noted as Arabs on government census, showed a 70% increase over 10 years, bringing the population to 11,000 — and that was back in 2002. The report added:

Observers say the county’s growth and diversity have added a layer of anonymity for potential wrongdoers. Recent census figures show Broward County’s population grew nearly 30 percent during the past decade to more than 1.6 million.

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ISRAEL, WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Purim 5778: Persians, Jews, and Kurds–Still Dealing With Haman and Achashverosh Gerald A. Honigman

By on March 2nd, 2018

Since the fall of the Pahlavi shahs in Iran in 1979, Jews both there, Israel, and elsewhere have once again become endangered species…this time with would-be atomic mullahs threatening them (especially Israelis) with massive conventional and/or nuclear attack from multiple sides.

With this mind, please think once again of the Jewish holiday of Purim (spelled out in the Hebrew Bible’s Book of Esther) which is now upon us.

In some ways, some things change, but in others they do not. Instead of Purim’s (“casting of lots”—referring to the day Haman chose by lot to carry out the massacres) Iranian emperor’s wicked prime minister plotting their demise some twenty-five centuries ago and recorded in the Hebrew Bible, Jews now face attack and extermination by Arabized Iranian Islamists instead.

Jews have lived in Iran at least since the days when Cyrus the Great liberated many of them from Babylonian captivity in what’s now Iraq. The great king allowed those who wanted to do so to return to Judah, the surviving kingdom (along with the tribe of Benjamin) of the Jews after the split with the ten northern tribes of Israel following the death of King Solomon and the conquest of the north by Assyria…all together, about 2,700 years ago.

Not all returned, and many chose to stay behind and formed prominent Jewish communities as they spread eastwards.

Judah became a thankful vassal state to the vast Iranian empire, with Jewish warriors serving as part of the Iranian military. Judean garrisons served in places such as Elephantine, Egypt, near today’s Aswan. Ancient papyri have been discovered which give additional testimony to this vibrant community which actually pre-dated the Iranian conquests and, among other things, had its own temple. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elephantine_papyri

Corroboration is very important to the historian.

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BOOKS Comments turned off

CONDOLEEZZA RICE GOES TO THE SEASHORE BOOK REVIEW BY DAVID GOLDMAN

By on March 2nd, 2018

In Jules Dassin’s 1960 comedy Never on Sunday Melina Mercouri’s Piraeus demimondaine weeps at the awful denouement of “Medea,” but cheers up when the actors take their curtain call. They didn’t die after all, Mercouri exclaims, adding, “And they all went to the seashore.” Former Secretary of State and National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice has written a report, Democracy: Stories from the Long Road to Freedom, on the tragic failure of democratic movements in the Middle East, Russia, and elsewhere, but with the sad bits left out. So convinced is she of democracy’s inevitable triumph that every story has a happy ending.

Iran’s regime “may for a time prevent the Iranian people from rising against their government, but it almost ensures that when they do, the landing will not be a soft one for the regime or the country.” Rice reports her “shock” when Hamas terrorists won the 2006 Palestinian elections urged by the State Department (so shocked, she says, that she called the State Department watch officer from her elliptical workout to confirm the news). She learned, she tells us, that “armed groups should not participate in the electoral process.” The remedy lies in “nurturing a diverse set of institutions…empowering entrepreneurs and businessmen, educating and empowering women, and encouraging social entrepreneurs and local civic organizations.” She praises former Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, who told her that the P.A.’s security services were “a bunch of gangsters,” but does not bother to mention that Fayyad was fired in 2013 after he failed to make a dent in the P.A.’s kleptocracy.

* * *

Of Hosni Mubarak’s fall and the Egyptian military’s return to power she declares that “the Egyptian people were calling for [Mubarak’s] immediate ouster” in February 2011. By the people, she means the fraction of Egypt’s population that fit into Cairo’s Tahrir Square. Then the Muslim Brotherhood “won an impressive victory in peaceful elections.” Unfortunately, the Brotherhood’s president, Mohamed Morsi, had an “Islamic and autocratic tilt” and “was blamed, whether fairly or not, for attacks on religious minorities.” In July 2013 the military overthrew him, after “violent protests swept the country, with millions of Morsi supporters and millions of his critics facing off.”

This involves an improper use of the plural. The Cairo-based International Development Center’s report on the demonstrations counted fewer than one million pro-Morsi and 30 million anti-Morsi demonstrators in July 2013—a majority of Egypt’s total adult population. Never before or after did the “Egyptian people” proclaim their views with such unanimity. To Rice, the “Egyptian people” were present to topple Mubarak but not to expel Morsi. It happens that Egypt had less than a month’s supply of wheat on hand when General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi took the country back from the Muslim Brotherhood with the manifest support of a supermajority of Egyptians. Mass popular support for a return to military rule does not fit Rice’s narrative, so she simply leaves out the unpleasant facts.

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ANTI-SEMITISM Comments turned off

FEBRUARY 2018 THE MONTH THAT WAS: SYDNEY WILLIAMS

By on March 2nd, 2018

The month was one of extremes, reminding me of Jim McKay’s signature words about the dozen Olympics he covered: “The thrill of victory. And the agony of defeat.” The month’s news swung between the glory of the Olympics, the tragedy in Parkland, Florida and the return of volatility to Wall Street.

The Olympics showed us at our best, whether in victory or in defeat. For the first time in twenty years, the women’s hockey team won gold. We saw compassion when Brita Sigourney embraced her teammate Annalisa Drew, when the former beat the latter for the bronze in the freestyle skiing halfpipe. The worst of America was seen in Nikolas Cruz, as he shot seventeen people at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas high School in Parkland, Florida. The horrific incident also brought out heroes, like 15-year-old Anthony Borges who took five bullets, while saving 20 classmates and football coach Aaron Feis who died saving students and teacher Scott Beigel who died opening the door of his classroom to let in students. There were others. (See my TOTD, “Another School Shooting,” February 22). I hope we resolve this, without naiveté as to causes and without imposing police-state-like conditions. No one should live in fear, least of all children.

The dog-bites-man story of the month is the continuing saga of Russia meddling in our election. The hypocrisy and hyperventilation by the liberal press reminds one of Claude Rains in “Casablanca” – they were “shocked, shocked” that Russia would meddle in our elections. Of course Russians do. They have for decades. It is what propagandists do. The Kremlin is less interested in outcomes, than in making our democracy appear weak and ineffectual – to sow discord. They have succeeded. Exhibit A, B and C are the front pages of the New York Times and the Washington Post, TV news shows like CNN, MSNBC and Fox News, and late-night comedians like Jimmy Kimmel and Stephen Colbert. Meddling served Russia’s purpose: an ineffectual Congress and a polarized people. We have been guilty of the same. Think of Thomas Jefferson’s support for the French Revolution, or the CIA disrupting/influencing elections from South America to South East Asia, or the role of Radio Free Europe during the Cold War. President Obama campaigned against the re-election of Benjamin Netanyahu in 2015 and for Brexit in 2016. Nevertheless, meddling in others’ elections is a violation of international and U.S. law, something we must guard against. If not doing so already, we should deploy our best crypto-security specialists to counter Russian activity.

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