Displaying posts published in

October 2018

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Nazis old and new: Douglas Murray

By on October 18th, 2018

http://standpointmag.co.uk/node/7278/full
So far as I know there was only one public statue erected in Europe after the war to commemorate a Nazi. And on a recent visit to Dublin I finally managed to visit it.

During the 1920s and ’30s while he was a senior figure in the IRA, Sean Russell cosied up to almost anyone he could in order to gather arms and allies for the war against the British. In the ’20s he headed to the Soviet Union and America looking for support. It took till the late ’30s for him to find his truest ally. Sure enough, in 1939 the IRA declared war against the British on the side of the Nazis. In the mind of people like Russell the ultimate defeat of the British would mean an Irish Republic without partition. I suppose they imagined they were thinking big at the time.

The IRA began its campaign of bombings in English cities just before the Luftwaffe took its turn. The IRA-Nazi pact did so well that in 1940 Russell went to Germany on behalf of the IRA Army Council to be trained by the Nazis’ intelligence service.

It was Russell’s personal tragedy to die on the German U-boat returning him to Ireland, meaning he never managed to put his new bomb-making skills to use. His statue was erected in Fairview Park, Dublin, after the war, and has remained there ever since.

It has suffered intermittent bouts of vandalism. An arm was removed quite early on by a group complaining that its posture suggested Russell was a communist rather than a fascist (presumably the vandal’s own preferred side). Then during the decade before this one the statue was decapitated by an anonymous group professing opposition to the mass murder of millions of Jews, homosexuals, Roma and others by Sean Russell’s friends.

This should have been the perfect excuse for the Irish authorities to end the embarrassment and permanently remove the statue. Amazingly, in 2009 they commissioned a fresh one, this time cast in bronze, so as to deter further vandalism.

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ISRAEL, WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

U.S. Closes Jerusalem Consulate Serving Palestinians Israel cheers move, while Palestinian officials call it another blow to aspirations for an independent stateBy Felicia Schwartz

By on October 18th, 2018

https://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-closes-jerusalem-consulate-serving-palestinians-1539882780

TEL AVIV—The Trump administration said it would merge its Jerusalem consulate responsible for relations with the Palestinians into its newly relocated U.S. Embassy there, another symbolic blow to American-Palestinian relations.

The consulate in Jerusalem has functioned essentially as an embassy to the Palestinians. It was separate from the operations of the U.S. Embassy, which stewarded relations with the Israelis from Tel Aviv until May, when President Trump moved it to Jerusalem to fulfill a campaign promise.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Thursday said the consulate closure was aimed at efficiency and wasn’t a policy change. He said a newly created Palestinian Affairs unit will operate out of the old consulate building, conducting reporting, outreach and programming with Palestinians in the West Bank, Gaza and Jerusalem.

Michael Oren, Israel’s deputy minister for diplomacy and a former Israeli ambassador to the U.S., welcomed the move on Twitter, calling it a great day for Israel, Jerusalem and the U.S.

Senior Palestinian officials called it another blow to their aspirations for an independent state.

“The Trump administration is making clear that it is working together with the Israeli government to impose greater Israel rather than the two-state solution on the 1967 borders,” said Saeb Erekat, the Palestine Liberation Organization’s secretary-general. “The U.S. administration has fully endorsed the Israeli narrative, including on Jerusalem, refugees and settlements.”

Palestinian officials have cut off contact with the Trump administration since December, when Mr. Trump said he would move the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem and recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.

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Hungary Cuts Taxpayer Funding To Inane Gender Studies Departments There is an intra-academic war to control the academy, and the reason is simple: control of institutions like media and academia is essential for a social revolution. By Sumantra Maitra

By on October 18th, 2018

http://thefederalist.com/2018/10/18/hungary-cuts-taxpayer-funding-inane-gender-studies-departments/

“Gender studies challenge existing structures that are perceived as natural and enduring, and in doing so, they directly challenge the ideological commitments of the radical right,” thundered an obscure British teaching fellow named Megan Armstrong in an op-ed for openDemocracy.

Armstrong argues that Hungary’s lurch toward the right is essentially an attack on open inquiry at universities, as shown by the latest hardline move of “banning” gender studies classes from Hungarian universities. This, she argues, is an effort to “curtail academic freedom.”

Why? Because “gender studies, for all its rich interdisciplinarity, is critical. Students who undertake a gender studies course are trained to think critically, and to engage critically with the world around them.” You get the idea.

Gender studies is an interdisciplinary field that combines feminism, Marxism, race, and gender. It became vogue around the late 1980s and posits that sex isn’t biological, and gender, like everything else in life, is completely performative. In the words of social theorist Simone de Beauvoir, “one is not born a woman, but one becomes one.”

The field is heavily influenced by post-structural ideology and suggests that there’s no objective, scientific, or biological truth. Over time, with the rise of interdisciplinary journals that are often ideological echo chambers, this ideology has spread into other fields and subjects, with an overall sinister motive. Gender studies academics essentially act as Soviet commissars, and try to dictate debate in academia and policy, which has resulted in severe intra-academic conflict on transgenderism, workplace gender gaps, how sex differences function in the military, and policies on gender in general.
Is Hungary’s Bold Move Worth Emulating?

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POLITICS Comments turned off

Democratic Operative Arrested For Allegedly Attacking Female GOP Campaign Manager By Bre Payton

By on October 18th, 2018

http://thefederalist.com/2018/10/18/democratic-operative-arrested-allegedly-attacking-female-gop-campaign-manager/

A Democratic operative was arrested in Las Vegas, Nevada on Tuesday night after he allegedly grabbed and shoved a female campaign manager for Republican gubernatorial nominee Adam Laxalt.

Witnesses say 50-year-old Wilfred Michael Stark III, of Falls Church, Virginia, grabbed Kristin Davison by the arm, pushing her into a room, and would not let go. He yelled and shoved a camera and his body at her and Laxalt, according to The Associated Press. The altercation left her with bruises on her arms and neck.

Davidson was arrested by The Las Vegas City Marshals and charged with misdemeanor battery. He was released Wednesday on $1,140 bail, the AP reported. Laxalt’s campaign said Stark works for American Bridge 21st Century, a political group founded by David Brock and funded by George Soros.

This is not the first time Stark has been arrested for his behavior as a political operative. In March, he was arrested for allegedly shoving an aide to Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke — an incident American Bridge said Stark “adamantly” denied, Fox News reports.

He also reportedly followed Rep. Devin Nunes around Capitol Hill in June, prompting the Republican congressman to tweet a photo of what appears to be Stark standing nearby holding up a cell phone.

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ELECTIONS ARE COMING: MISSOURI #SHE TOO (D) CLAIRE McCASKILL VS. (R) JOSH HAWLEY

By on October 18th, 2018

https://www.nationalreview.com/news/claire-mccaskill-demands-investigation-into-exposure-of-her-planned-parenthood-ties/
McCaskill Demands Investigation into Exposure of Her Planned Parenthood Ties By Jack Crowe

Senator Claire McCaskill of Missouri has demanded that a special prosecutor be appointed to investigate a sting operation that exposed previously secret alleged ties to Planned Parenthood and various gun-control-advocacy groups.

McCaskill’s campaign manager David Kirby called on her Republican Senate challenger Josh Hawley, the sitting Missouri attorney general, to appoint a special prosecutor to launch an investigation into the video-surveillance operation that captured her staffers discussing tactics used to conceal Planned Parenthood’s financial support for their campaign.

“We have reason to believe that fraud has been committed against our campaign,” Kirby told reporters Wednesday. “There’s no question that the videos were captured under false pretenses and misrepresentations, which under Missouri law is fraud.”

McCaskill accused Hawley of participating in the sting operation during a Tuesday television appearance.

“It is startling that Josh Hawley would be part of fraudulently embedding somebody in my campaign,” McCaskill told KOLR-10 in Springfield, Missouri on Tuesday.

Hawley, who previously denied participating in the operation, dismissed the notion of a possible investigation in a response posted to Twitter Wednesday.

In the secretly captured surveillance video, released Wednesday by the controversial right-wing investigative group Project Veritas, McCaskill campaign staffer Nicholas Starost explained that Planned Parenthood secretly funnels donations to the senator to avoid the scrutiny of Missouri’s conservative electorate.

“They go through other means to get us that money,” Starost says while being recorded on a hidden camera. “They specifically will not donate to us.”

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ELECTIONS ARE COMING: TEXAS GOP TED CRUZ VS. DEMOCRAT BETO O’ROURKE

By on October 18th, 2018

https://www.nationalreview.com/2018/10/beto-orourke-media-coverage-embarrassing-spectacle/
The Embarrassing Spectacle of Betomania By Heather Wilhelm

It’s enough to drive even the most mild-mannered Texan crazy.

Attention, journalists of America: Time is running out! You have under three weeks left to publish your last batch of over-the-top pre-election puff pieces on Texas Democrat/cross-country liberal sensation/wing-and-a-prayer Senate candidate Beto O’Rourke!

It is here that we must face the difficult truth: Barring a GOP-related disaster of some sort, O’Rourke — he of that ineffable “cool factor” and “special sauce,” at least according to easily impressed columnists at the Washington Post — is likely to lose big. According to the latest polls, Senator Ted Cruz leads him by anywhere between seven and nine points. Tuesday’s debate between the two, meanwhile, was so mismatched that O’Rourke’s best moment might have involved a random deer-in-the-headlights story in which he described how he “got to meet this blind squirrel who is slowly regaining its sight.”

In summary, this year’s Betomania — a somewhat weird phenomenon, as we’ll explore in a bit — seems set to disappear from view just as quickly as it arrived, at least in the Lone Star State. On one hand, this possibility warms my heart, given that in my neck of Texas, it has grown rather exasperating to have to wade through 15,000 blaring BETO yard signs when I’m simply trying to get a breakfast taco or four. On the other hand, I also feel a tinge of melancholy and regret about all of this, given that I never got my act together enough to print ironic t-shirts with the following brilliant slogan I made up all by myself: “You BETO vote for Ted Cruz.”

Anyway, back to the matter at hand. I’d like to further discuss the debate between O’Rourke and Ted Cruz, and also actual policy issues, and also perhaps the fact that many people in politics seem to be slowly going insane. But first, can we talk about how embarrassing Betomania is? Friends, I am deeply concerned for our culture. When you look at a middle-aged establishment politician as an icon of “rock star” cool, you’re doing something wrong.

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Why is Germany beefing up its military? Jonathan Marcus

By on October 18th, 2018

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-45863448

In the face of new challenges, Germany is recommitting itself to the Nato alliance. But what will playing a more central military role mean to a country that has often been accused of reluctance about its armed forces?

It was an unseasonably mild morning as the Sun rose slowly over the training range at Pabrade in Lithuania. This is effectively Nato’s eastern front. Belarus is just a few kilometres away, with Russia beyond.

Lurking just outside the perimeter wire loom several Leopard battle tanks of a German armoured battalion.

So what are the Germans doing here and what is the significance of this deployment for Berlin and for the Atlantic alliance as a whole?

Germany commands the Nato multinational battle group in Lithuania, intended to reassure a small ally in the face of a more assertive and aggressive Russia.

Other countries command similar formations in the two other Baltic states – Estonia and Latvia – and in Poland, the whole mission being known in Nato-speak as an “enhanced forward presence”.

Here in Lithuania, Germany is the so-called framework nation, providing the headquarters and a significant proportion of the troops. Other smaller Nato countries also provide troops for the German-led force.

Currently there are contributions from Belgium, the Czech Republic, Luxembourg, Norway and the Netherlands. The whole German battle group then forms part of a larger Lithuanian brigade.

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Harvard’s Discrimination Isn’t ‘Likeable’ By David Randall

By on October 18th, 2018

Harvard President Lawrence Bacow just sent out a letter to Harvard’s alumni and donors to reassure them that there’s no merit to Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. v. President and Fellows of Harvard College. Students for Fair Admissions argues that Harvard discriminates against Asian-American applicants. Bacow, however, is confident that “The College’s admissions process does not discriminate against anybody.” After all, “The Supreme Court has twice ruled on this issue and has held up our admissions process as an exemplar of how, in seeking to achieve a diverse student body, race may enter the process as one factor among many in consideration.”

What Bacow means is that the Supreme Court licenses racial discrimination so long as it isn’t too obvious, and that Harvard has been sufficiently discreet. In any case, Harvard has never before had to defend its admission policies in Federal court. It received honorable mention in Justice Lewis Powell’s eccentric 1978 opinion in Regents of the University of California v. Bakke, but no other justice concurred with Powell’s view on the subject. Justice Sandra Day O’Connor in her 2003 opinion in Grutter v. Bollinger endorsed Powell’s view. That’s the foundation of Bacow’s claim—which seems awfully close to wishful thinking.

How wishful? Harvard uses ugly tactics to get the “diversity” it wants—where “diversity” looks remarkably like the “race quotas” that the Supreme Court said are illegal. Harvard uses “personality” evaluations to help it decide which students to admit, but it appears that “Harvard consistently rated Asian-American applicants lower than others on traits like “positive personality,” likability, courage, kindness and being ‘widely respected.’” Harvard admissions officers didn’t even have to see the Asian-American applicants to know they weren’t likable enough.

A 2013 internal review by Harvard concluded that just accounting for extracurricular and personal ratings reduced the Asian-American share of the Harvard class by one sixth, from 31% to 26%. “Demographic” imperatives, which increased the number of admitted African Americans and Hispanics, reduced the number of Asian Americans by another third, down to 18% of the Harvard class.

18%. Which is a remarkably familiar number. Asian enrollment at elite universities has stabilized at around 18% for a generation, even as the proportion of Asian Americans in the population has risen substantially. Harvard’s Rube Goldberg admission procedures just happen to achieve the same result that you would have gotten by a simple racial quota—of the sort that once kept down the number of Rube Goldbergs at Harvard.

It’s no wonder that Attorney General Jeff Sessions has come out in support of the plaintiffs against Harvard. “Harvard has failed to carry its demanding burden to show that its use of race does not inflict unlawful racial discrimination on Asian-Americans,” said the Justice Department. CONTINUE AT SITE

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P.C.-CULTURE Comments turned off

Move Over Vagina Costumes: Fendi Debuts $990 Designer ‘Vulva Scarf’ By Megan Fox (!!!!????)

By on October 18th, 2018

https://pjmedia.com/trending/move-over-vagina-costumes-fendi-debuts-1300-designer-vulva-scarf/

Move over vagina costumes and pu**y hats! There’s a new ridiculously offensive genitalia-themed apparel on the loose thanks to designer Fendi.

Yes, just imagine! The Women’s Marchers have really got to be jumping on this one, although $990 for a hairy muff seems a little steep. But when you’re woke, no amount of money is too much to spend on protest gear.

The photoshop opportunities for this monstrosity cannot be underestimated, though.I don’t know what this says, but whatever it is, it’s super hilarious when you turn this scarf upside down. This tweet is proof that Fendi is reaching a worldwide audience with this horror of a fall “must-not-have.”

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POLITICS Comments turned off

GOP Candidate Recovering From Assault Blames Maxine Waters, Hillary Clinton, and Eric Holder By Tyler O’Neil

By on October 18th, 2018

https://pjmedia.com/trending/gop-candidate-recovering-from-assault-blames-maxine-waters-hillary-clinton-and-eric-holder/

Shane Mekeland, a Republican candidate for the Minnesota House of Representatives, blamed Democrats for the climate of incivility and violence that led to the assault against him last weekend. He also called out the Minnesota Democratic Party for refusing to fire a staffer who posted on Facebook that Democrats would “guillotine” Republicans after the election.

On Friday evening, he suffered a concussion after being sucker-punched in the head in a politically motivated attack. A full recovery will take 4 to 6 weeks. The election is in 19 days.

In an interview with PJ Media on Wednesday, Mekeland described his struggles with memory loss and light sensitivity after the attack, and blamed Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.), former secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and former attorney general Eric Holder for stoking a climate of incivility and violence that led to his assault.

“Right as he hit me, he said, ‘You f*cking people don’t give a sh*t about the middle class,'” Mekeland told PJ Media, recounting the assault. “How can you take my getting sucker-punched in the head to be anything other than politically motivated?”

The candidate recounted the suspect’s interview with police after the assault. The assailant, remorseful after the attack, admitted that Mekeland did nothing to provoke him, and confessed, “I hit him right in the side of his head by his eye, and I think I hit his nose, too.”

As the candidate got hit, he remembered, “The chair goes flying over, it whacked my head on the floor and that’s the last thing I remember. I guess the guy jumped on me, he wasn’t done.”

The assault has wreaked havoc on Mekeland’s day-to-day life. “Right now, I’m taking round 6 of Advil,” the candidate told PJ Media. “No TV, stay away from computer screens. I went into town on Monday, I didn’t realize the sun was giving me a headache! I’m sitting there thinking, ‘How the hell am I going to get home?’ CONTINUE AT SITE

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