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January 2019

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WaPo Reporter: Lie-A-Watha’s 2020 Run Has Registered A Whopping Zero On The Enthusiasm Scale Matt Vespa

By on January 3rd, 2019

https://townhall.com/tipsheet/mattvespa/2019/01/03/wapo-reporter-lieawathas-2020-run-has-registered-a-whopping-zero-on-the-enthusiasm-scale-n2538368

So, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) has announced she’s running for president. She’s a hard-core liberal. One of the faces of the progressive left in the Democratic Party. Maybe a tinge (using it very loosely here) more moderate than Bernie Sanders, but still pretty far left. So, there should be hyper-enthusiasm, right? She’s a Democrat, a liberal, and a woman, the three things that are defining the party right now. The future is female supporters must be flocking to her banner, right? Nope. The Warren wave is registering a whopping zero on the enthusiasm scale, and voters in Massachusetts who know her don’t like her compared to the other Democrats running. On CNN yesterday, host Alisyn Camerota asked Washington Postreporter if the Ready for Warren cohorts are jacked up—and no one is about Warren 2020. Umm…ouch (via NTK Network):

Camerota asked Linskey, who previously reported for Warren’s hometown Boston Globe, if she sensed the same hunger for Warren to run for president today as there was in 2016.

“I think that has changed a little bit. I think there is some truth to that,” Linskey said. “You look back to 2015 and the run-up to the 2016 election, and there was this organization, ‘Ready for Warren,’ really pushing her to run.”

Linskey noted that during many of Warren’s speeches in 2105, she was often interrupted by people urging her to run for president.

“That sort of enthusiasm…we haven’t detected it much yet,” Linskey said about Warren’s 2020 run.

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WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Benjamin Netanyahu in Brazil

By on January 3rd, 2019

http://daphneanson.blogspot.com/

The great communicator with the deep sense of history at his very best, paying tribute in Brazil to Christian evangelicals, and reiterating Israel’s close friendship with Christianity in a world where so many Christians are imperilled.

“My wife Sara and I are delighted to be with you in Brazil.

We have no better friends in the world than the Evangelical community, and the Evangelical community has no better friend in the world than the State of Israel.

If you are a Christian in the Middle East, there’s only one place where you are safe. There’s only one place where the Christian community is growing, thriving, prospering. That’s in the State of Israel. Because everywhere else, if you’re a Christian, you have to be very careful, or you have to leave. Not in Israel. You are pour brothers and our sisters and we protect the rights of Christians as we protect the rights of all religions.

But this isn’t only a matter of justice, and it’s not only a matter of value. It’s a matter of the deepest sympathy in recognizing our common traditions, our common heritage.Israel and Jerusalem are one. And Jerusalem, from the time of King David, 300 years before King Hezekiah, was the capital of our people, has remained the capital of our people, and will remain the united, eternal capital of the Jewish people for all time. You don’t need this reminder because you know our history, and you know our common roots.

Our histories are intertwined, our faith is intertwined, our values are intertwined. And so every time that we dig with a shovel in our land, we find ancient synagogues or ancient churches. And sometimes we don’t even have to dig.

And when you come to Israel today, you see a country that welcomes you as brothers and sisters. You see a country that values religious freedom. You see a country that is pride of our past and carries our values to the future. You see a country where the ideal was that every person is born in the Image of God. This is the original idea of equality, in the ancient world, thousands of years ago.

These are the values that produced our modern civilization. And they’re anchored in the faiths that we hold dear. These are also the faiths, the values that create the future. Israel is seizing the future. We now have an opportunity in Brazil to seize it together. President Bolsonaro says, ‘We are brothers,’ he says. We are brothers, and we are going to seize the future together.

You know that President Bolsonaro’s first name in Hebrew is Yair, which is also the name of our son. But Yair means something in Hebrew: He who brings light. And I think that we have now an opportunity together to bring a lot of light to the people of Brazil and the people of Israel. This is an alliance of brothers.

So I want to invite all of you next year in Jerusalem. I want to invite all of you to come to Israel, next year, it’s only two days away. We shall welcome you with all the love and warmth that we reserve for family. You are part of our family and we are part of yours.

I look forward to seeing you in Jerusalem, my brothers and my sisters.”

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MEDIA, POLITICS Comments turned off

NYT Puff Piece On Democrat Ilhan Omar Again Whitewashes Her Apparent Anti-Semitism Ilhan Omar has tweeted, ‘Israel has hypnotized the world, may Allah awaken the people and help them see the evil doings of Israel.’ The New York Times didn’t see fit to discuss that in its profile. Warren Henry

By on January 3rd, 2019

http://thefederalist.com/2019/01/03/nyt-puff-piece-democrat-ilhan-omar-whitewashes-apparent-anti-semitism/

The bad news is that The New York Times decided to close 2018 by whitewashing the anti-Semitic record of incoming House Democrat Ilhan Omar. The good news is that the Times and Omar apparently still believe the whitewashing is necessary.

“Glorified and Vilified, Representative-Elect Ilhan Omar Tells Critics: ‘Just Deal’” is a fairly representative headline for the story by Sheryl Gay Stolberg, a puff piece of the sort one might find at Teen Vogue instead of the Gray Lady.

In this telling, soon-to-be representative Omar is the plucky immigrant who transcends bullies, the sexism of Somali culture, and the intolerance of an unnamed Christian pastor to become one of the first two Muslim women in Congress. Indeed, a professor quoted in the article calls Omar “the epitome of the so-called American dream, but for much of white Christian America, she’s an American nightmare.”

The problem with this sort of propaganda is what was left unreported. According to the story, “Her support for the boycott, divest and sanctions movement to pressure Israel to improve treatment of Palestinians is making Jewish leaders nervous.”

This formulation is laughably incomplete, beginning with the failure to quote any Jewish leader detailing their issues with Omar. (Lonny Goldsmith, editor of TCJewfolk, a media nonprofit in the Twin Cities, says only that she’s a “politician,” and in paragraph 23 of the story.)

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BOOKS Comments turned off

Churchill’s ‘Admirable Self-Restraint’ Adrian Williams Reviews “Churchill: Walking with Destiny” by Andrew Roberts

By on January 3rd, 2019

https://quadrant.org.au/magazine/2018/12/churchills-admirable-self-restraint/

In April 2002 The Atlantic published an essay by the Anglo-American writer Christopher Hitchens on Winston Churchill (“The Medals of His Defeats”), which reviewed some of the prominent and recent Churchill biographies and more broadly attempted to critically evaluate his career and legacy. After expounding on what he saw as the “Churchill cult”, fostered by sycophantic, sentimental historians whose works are riddled with turgid prose and hopelessly mixed metaphors, even the arch-contrarian Hitchens was unable to avoid the conclusion that Churchill was a great man.

This view, unsurprisingly, comes down to the events of May and early June 1940. These were the crucial few weeks in which, with the imminent fall of France and the threat of a German invasion of the British Isles, Churchill rallied a defeatist War Cabinet, spurned Hitler’s offers of a negotiated peace and resolved to commit his people to fight on to the end—events that may be fresh in readers’ minds after the recent release of the Churchill biopic Darkest Hour. So despite, for example, pointing to Churchill’s part in battlefield defeats like Gallipoli in the First World War, the ignominious retreats from Norway, France, Greece and Crete in the Second World War, or the inevitable dissolution of the now debt-laden British Empire by 1945, Hitchens writes:

I find that I cannot rerun the tape of 1940, for example, and make it come out, or wish it to come out, any other way … Alone among his contemporaries, Churchill did not denounce the Nazi empire merely as a threat, actual or potential, to the British one. Nor did he speak of it as a depraved but possibly useful ally. He excoriated it as a wicked and nihilistic thing. That appears facile now, but was exceedingly uncommon then … Some saving intuition prompted Churchill to recognize, and to name out loud, the pornographic and catastrophically destructive nature of the foe. Only this redeeming x factor justifies all the rest—the paradoxes and inconsistencies, to be sure, and even the hypocrisy.

To what hypocrisy is Hitchens referring? This is surely Britain’s wartime alliance with the Soviet Union, which he alludes to several times:

The argument about World War II and its worthwhileness is the most apparently settled and decided of all major questions in our culture … Even the standby argument of some anti-Churchill Tories (and others, including George Orwell), about the callous collusion between Churchill and Stalin, seems almost anachronistic in view of the eventual implosion of the Soviet system.

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NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION, P.C.-CULTURE Comments turned off

Women’s March in Mostly White City Canceled for Being Too White By Katherine Timpf

By on January 3rd, 2019

https://www.nationalreview.com/2019/01/womens-march-in-mostly-white-city-canceled-for-being-too-white/

Is no march at all better than a march with the wrong demographics?

Organizers of a Women’s March that was scheduled to take place in Eureka, Calif., on January 19 wound up calling it off over concerns that there were going to be too many white people there.

“Up to this point, the participants have been overwhelmingly white, lacking representation from several perspectives in our community,” states a post on the group’s Facebook page. “Instead of pushing forward with crucial voices absent, the organizing team will take time for more outreach.”

After the cancellation made news, the group posted a follow-up explanation.

“The organizers of the Eureka Women’s March in Humboldt County, California, are moving the focus towards an event date on March 9th, in conjunction with International Women’s Day, to ensure that the people most impacted by systems of oppression have an opportunity to participate in planning,” another post stated. “We failed to have the type of collaboration needed to be inclusive of some of the most underrepresented voices in our community, namely, women of color and people who are gender non-conforming.”

This is, in a word, stupid. For one thing, Humboldt County, where Eureka is located, is approximately 74 percent non-Hispanic white. In other words: The projected demographics of the march might have been a simple reflection of the demographics of the city where it was scheduled. It might not have been a racism issue or an inclusion issue, but a logistical one.

What’s more, I am having a hard time understanding how having no march at all is better than having a march that happens to be mostly white. If these marches do anything to fight Trump — which I’m not sure they do, but if they do, the way the organizers believe they do — wouldn’t they want to have as many of them as possible? It’s especially rich when you consider how often white women are slammed as a group because so many of them voted for Trump. People on the left have often calling these women traitors (and all other sorts of terrible names) because they chose Trump over Hillary, but when they try to do something to fight Trump, then that’s a problem, too? Give me a break.

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WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Afghan and Iranian Asylum Seekers Rampage Through German Town, Injuring 12 By Patrick Poole

By on January 3rd, 2019

https://pjmedia.com/trending/asylum-seekers-rampage-through-german-town-injuring-12/

The Bavarian town of Amberg is in shock after a group of asylum seekers from Afghanistan and Iran rampaged through the city Saturday night. Four attackers aged 17 to 19 randomly beat exiting passengers at the train station, and then moved to the city center to continue their rampage.

According to reports, the attackers shouted “kafir” (a derogatory term meaning “non-Muslim,” “unbeliever”) and “n*****” at some victims.

In all, 12 victims ranging from ages 16 to 42 needed medical attention. A 17-year-old victim was treated for severe head wounds.

German authorities announced that at least two of the attackers have already had their asylum claims rejected, and that at least one should have already have been deported. This has prompted German Interior Minister Horst Seehofer to demand changes to deportation laws, as Deutsche-Welle reports:

Germany’s Interior Minister Horst Seehofer said asylum-seekers who commit violent crimes must leave the country, after a group of apparently drunken teenagers attacked a dozen people in the Bavarian town of Amberg.

“If existing laws are not sufficient, they must be changed,” Seehofer told Wednesday’s edition of Germany’s Bild newspaper. “The events in Amberg are very troubling. This is excessive violence, which we cannot tolerate.”

Seehofer — the leader of Bavaria’s Christian Social Union (CSU) party, the Bavarian sister party to Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democrats — said that he would make suggestions to the federal government. Seehofer had already made similar proposals in mid-December for the beginning of this year.

…

The accused are currently being held in pretrial detention on charges of causing dangerous bodily harm. CONTINUE AT SITE

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Congresswoman Hopes Reparations Bill is Path to ‘Repair Some of the Damage’ Caused by Slavery By Nicholas Ballasy see note please

By on January 3rd, 2019

https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/congresswoman-hopes-reparations-bill-is-path-to-repair-some-of-the-damage-caused-by-slavery/

Rep. Lee is famous for booting seating passengers off flights with insults and tantrums, and demanding their seats; she has stated that the US Constitution is 400 years old; asked if the Pathfinder had succeeded in taking a picture of the flag planted on Mars by Neil Armstrong in 1969; in 2010 she stated“Today, we have two Vietnams, side by side, North and South, exchanging and working.”not withstanding that there is no longer a South Vietnam. She graduated from Yale and the University of Virginia Law School….She should get reparations from those schools because she learned so little….rsk

WASHINGTON – Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas) told PJM that the federal government should conduct a study of reparations for descendants of slaves to be able to determine the best way to “repair some of the damage” that slavery has caused to the African-American community.

Jackson Lee became the lead sponsor of H.R. 40, the Commission to Study and Develop Reparation Proposals for African-Americans Act, after Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.) resigned from Congress.

The legislation seeks to “address the fundamental injustice, cruelty, brutality, and inhumanity of slavery in the United States and the 13 American colonies between 1619 and 1865 and to establish a commission to study and consider a national apology and proposal for reparations for the institution of slavery, its subsequent de jure and de facto racial and economic discrimination against African-Americans, and the impact of these forces on living African-Americans, to make recommendations to the Congress on appropriate remedies, and for other purposes.”

“It’s a commission to study the issue of what was the economic impact of the work of slaves and how does it translate in the 21st century. And what we want to do is to build a narrative, a story of the facts and out of that be able to access how we repair some of the damage,” Jackson Lee said during a recent interview after her speech at the annual Legislative and Policy Conference organized by Rev. Al Sharpton’s National Action Network.

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ISRAEL Comments turned off

The True-State Solution Follow the map the British drew in 1922, which put Arab and Jewish Palestine across the Jordan River. By Daniel J. Arbess

By on January 3rd, 2019

https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-true-state-solution-11546473263

The Trump administration has offered tantalizing clues about its forthcoming “Deal of the Century” for Mideast peace. It could be a bold new concept—replacing the failed “two-state solution” with a Jordan-Israel confederacy, in which Jordan would be recognized as the Palestinian state. Call it the true-state solution.

Palestinians have always been the majority in Jordan, though they haven’t been treated as such since its creation as a British-appointed Hashemite monarchy in 1921. The true-state solution would enfranchise the Palestinians. Jordan would extend citizenship to, and assume administrative responsibility for, Arabs now living on the West Bank of the Jordan River—including the cities of Jenin, Nablus, Ramallah, Bethlehem and Jericho—which would be Israeli territory. West Bank Jordanians could receive financial support to relocate across the river to Jordan itself if they wish, or remain as permanent residents (but not citizens) of Israel. Israelis would be free to live anywhere west of the Jordan River. Variations of this “Jordan option” have received increasing attention across the region in recent years.

Why would King Abdullah II accept such an arrangement? To be blunt, it would be his best option. His rule—and his family’s security and fortune—already teeters under pressure of regional migration and domestic Palestinian discontent. The king’s acquiescence—or possibly U.S.-guided abdication—would probably buy his family’s protection.

Trump administration officials have promised their plan will take advantage of Israel’s recent unprecedented collaboration with its Arab neighbors and other developments that suggest “things can be done today that were previously unthinkable,” as then-Ambassador Nikki Haley said last month. The administration promises a new approach based on practical realities.

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POLITICS Comments turned off

Enter the House of Pelosi The main Democratic goal will be destroying Donald Trump.

By on January 3rd, 2019

https://www.wsj.com/articles/enter-the-house-of-pelosi-11546473467

Nancy Pelosi takes the oath as Speaker of the House for the third time Thursday, a suitable reward for gaining 40 seats. If you expect a new era of progress in Washington, however, fair warning. The main Democratic goal will be investigating, not legislating. Then again, the country could do worse than policy gridlock, and it probably will.

The new Democratic House is being compared with the first Pelosi majority of 2006, but there’s one big difference: The 2018 Democrats ran on no discernible agenda beyond rejecting Donald Trump and all his works. The animating purpose of Congress will be investigations to damage, and perhaps impeach, the President to tee up total Democratic control after 2020.

Mr. Trump’s tax returns and foreign business dealings will get frequent star turns. Democrats think they can prove Mr. Trump has exploited his office for personal enrichment, or in some way that matters to Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation. If not, at least they’ll embarrass the Trump family. Ivanka and Jared should prepare for subpoenas and dives into their email habits and security clearances.

Democrats will also run investigations into payments to Stormy Daniels; the Administration’s policy of separating children at the border; and every consultation with a business about a deregulatory decision. House Democrats will trail every cabinet officer down to whether he ordered a cocktail on a commercial flight. This will present even greater problems in staffing federal agencies.

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POLITICS Comments turned off

Nadler-Trump Feud to Resume — With Higher Stakes . By Adele Malpass

By on January 3rd, 2019

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2019/01/03/nadler-trump_feud_to_resume_–_with_higher_stakes_139078.html

Old grudges die hard and Donald Trump and Rep. Jerry Nadler have been stoking theirs for decades. The two New Yorkers with a history of mutual dislike are preparing for another rumble in the new Congress, when Nadler takes the gavel as chairman of the House Judiciary Committee. After years of back-and-forth, Nadler may get to land the ultimate punch on Trump by controlling the first step in an impeachment process.

Unlike other New York Democrats who have tried over the years to ingratiate themselves with Trump for campaign donations, Nadler has tried a different tack. For the last 30 years, he’s consistently attacked Trump, which has elevated the congressman’s profile among liberals in New York and Washington.

The two have been trading barbs since the late 1980s when Nadler was in the New York State Assembly and Trump was developing the Penn Rail Yards into an apartment complex and park in Nadler’s district on Manhattan’s Upper West Side. Using his now-familiar rhetorical style, Trump called the project the “greatest ever” and the “most important project” needed for New York City. He wanted one of the buildings to be taller than Chicago’s Sears Tower so it would be the tallest building in the U.S., which he said was a distinction that should belong to Manhattan.

The original plans for “Trump City” included a television studio, shopping mall, massive parking structure, and private park — and it involved moving a highway. This would be a major change to the neighborhood. Nadler aligned with community groups who opposed the development, which they called “the phallic symbol,” “tacky” and “overbearing.” By the early 1990s, Trump was having financial difficulties and just wanted to get the project approved and built.

At one point, he wanted federal highway funds for the undertaking, which Nadler, who by then was serving in Congress, managed to kill. Nadler also convinced then-HUD Secretary Andrew Cuomo to stop Trump from getting a federal mortgage guarantee for his project, which the real estate mogul wanted to categorize as blighted land. “This was an area in the middle of some of the most expensive real estate in the country, which Trump was calling blighted in order to receive federal funds,” recalls Nadler spokesman Daniel Schwarz. “Donald Trump has a long history of trying to take advantage of the system to help himself. Congressman Nadler has always stood on the other side.”

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