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January 2019

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Senate panel postpones William Barr’s confirmation vote amid Democrats’ concerns By Karoun Demirjian

By on January 29th, 2019

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/senate-panel-postpones-william-barr%E2%80%99s-confirmation-vote-amid-democrats%E2%80%99-concerns/ar-BBSTWla?OCID=ansmsnnews11

A planned Senate Judiciary Committee vote on William P. Barr’s nomination to serve as attorney general has been delayed for a week, as Democrats continue to raise concerns about whether he will allow special counsel Robert S. Mueller III to finish his probe and publicize the results unimpeded.

The delay, which is customary for high-profile nominations, is not expected to impede Barr’s eventual chances of being confirmed by the full Senate. But it is the latest reflection of the deep partisan tension surrounding Barr’s nomination, most of which centers on Democrats’ desire to protect Mueller’s probe from being unduly constrained.

The committee postponed its vote on Barr as one of 46 nominations the panel was scheduled to vote on Tuesday but decided to delay until its next meeting.

In both his public testimony and his written answers to senators’ questions, Barr has repeatedly refused to give senators any firm guarantee that he will release Mueller’s report to Congress and the public free of redactions. In similar fashion, he has only promised to ask for, but not necessarily heed, the advice of the Justice Department’s ethics counsel on the matter of whether he should recuse himself from oversight of the probe.

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WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

County lines gangs make £500m profit as they exploit 10,000 children to sell drugs, say police

By on January 29th, 2019

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2019/01/29/county-lines-gangs-make-500m-profit-exploit-10000-children-sell/

Criminal gangs are making £500m profit a year from “county lines” networks with 10,000 children as young as 11 being exploited to sell drugs, police have revealed.

There are now 2,000 county lines through which gangs run their drug dealing networks, almost treble the 720 of just a year ago, according to analysis by the National Crime Agency (NCA) and National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC).

Each line generates more than £800,000 profit and turns over some £5,000 a day, equivalent to £3.6bn a year if scaled up.

The gangs exploit children whom they recruit to sell heroin, cocaine and crack in areas outside their normal territories, directing them via mobile phone “lines.”

Duncan Ball, NPCC lead on county lines, said 10,000 was a “reasonable” estimate of the number of children now being used, with most being boys aged 15 to 17.

He said the youngest gang member police had safeguarded was just 11 but there was evidence gangs were grooming younger children so they could join their operations when they reached 11.

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WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Laura Plummer lands back in Britain after being released from prison in Egypt

By on January 29th, 2019

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/01/29/laura-plummer/

A British woman has told of her “15 month trip to hell” after her holiday turned into a nightmare when she was jailed over painkillers.

Laura Plummer, 34, landed at Heathrow Airport on Tuesday afternoon and said she thought her “nightmare would never end” when she was held in al-Qanater women’s prison, south of Cairo in Egypt.

The shopworker from Hull was sentenced to three years in prison on Boxing Day 2017 for taking 290 Tramadol tablets into the country.

Breaking down in tears as she arrived back in the UK, Ms Plummer said: “Words cannot express how delighted I am to be home.

“At times I thought this nightmare would never end. What should have been a two-week holiday in the sun turned into a 15-month trip to Hell.

“I would like to thank everybody for supporting me throughout this, especially my family.”

Ms Plummer was arrested at Hurghada Airport on October 9 2017 when she flew into the Red Sea resort.

She claimed she was taking the tablets – which are legal in the UK but banned in Egypt – for her Egyptian partner Omar Caboo, who suffers severe back pain.

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POLITICS Comments turned off

2020 Democrats’ Progressive Profligacy By Michael Tanner

By on January 29th, 2019

https://www.nationalreview.com/2019/01/2020-democrats-progressive-profligacy/

The field has moved so far left it’s about to fall off the political charts.

By almost any traditional measure, President Trump should be extremely vulnerable in 2020. Although the president often brags about his victory in 2016, it is important to recall that a shift of just 107,000 votes in three states would have changed the outcome. That was less than 0.09 percent of all votes cast — and this when Trump was running against one of the most unpopular presidential candidates of all time. Since his victory he has done virtually nothing to expand his support beyond his loyal base. His approval rating hovers somewhere between low and dismal. A significant majority of Americans feel the country is on the wrong track.

Given this terrain, Democrats can be said to have just one job for 2020: Don’t be crazy. And they are failing at it.

Conventional wisdom says that the Democrats offer no agenda other than opposition to Trump and various forms of identity politics. If that were true, it might actually be good enough to win. Hardly a day goes by without Trump alienating a new swath of the electorate. As the midterms showed, he remains popular in deep red states, but Democrats can make big gains in swing districts simply by not being Trump.

And while character and culture will be a big part of the upcoming campaign, elections are also about policy. Maybe not about the nitty-gritty details of 25-page white papers, but about the broad strokes of where candidates want to take the country. And unfortunately for them, the Democratic contenders are not offering an attractive policy vision.

It’s an agenda not just for big government, but for gigantic, enormous, jumbo, super-colossal government. In fact, the rapidly growing Democratic field has collectively moved so far to the left that it is about to fall off the edge of the political charts.

Consider that in 2016, Bernie Sanders was an outlier with his call for a $32 trillion government-run single-payer health-care system, a $15 minimum wage, free college, and guaranteed jobs for everyone. Today, those are positions held by every major Democratic candidate. Were Hillary to run again today, she would be considered far too moderate for today’s Democratic party. And that’s saying something.

And that’s just the start. The “free” goodies keep on coming: universal preschool, rent subsidies, expanded retirement benefits, and, of course, a Green New Deal. Details are sparse, and plans vary from candidate to candidate, but we are talking price tags that easily exceed $50 trillion over the next ten years.

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IMMIGRATION, MEDIA Comments turned off

In Defense of Assimilation By Rich Lowry

By on January 29th, 2019

https://www.nationalreview.com/2019/01/tom-brokaw-defends-assimilation-immigration-debate/

Immigrants can become wholly American while making a distinctive contribution to our national culture.

The worst thought crime is the one you don’t realize you’re committing.

So it was with NBC News legend Tom Brokaw, who — for good reason — didn’t understand that assimilation is now a third rail of American politics.

He caused a furor with comments on the venerable Sunday news program Meet the Press over the weekend, including, most controversially, his statement that he believes “that the Hispanics should work harder at assimilation.”

The condemnations were swift and sweeping and a sign that being a beloved media figure who has never before said anything that could legitimately be considered bigoted is no defense when the furies descend.

It was Presidential Medal of Freedom to white hood in one sound bite. A group called Latino Victory hit Brokaw for allegedly giving “credence to white supremacist ideology.”

Typically, his apologies were deemed insufficient and part and parcel of the original offense.

Let’s stipulate that using a definite article to refer to any minority group will always strike people as tone-deaf, but what Brokaw was getting at — the importance of assimilation to cultural cohesion — should be uncontroversial.

It isn’t anymore. The head of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists rejected the very idea of assimilation, which he decried as “denying one culture for the other.” It is astonishing that in that formulation “the other” is American culture. We are perhaps the only nation in world history that has sought to “otherize” its own culture.

It’s also been a trope to accuse Brokaw, as Democratic Congressman Joaquin Castro did, of xenophobia. But saying immigrants should assimilate is the opposite of xenophobia — it is an expression of a belief that they can be and should be fully part of the American mainstream.

The old American ideal of the melting pot is that immigrants become wholly American (learning the language, embracing the folkways and traditions, becoming deeply patriotic), but also make a distinctive contribution to our national culture, which is organic and open to a variety of influences. It is wrong to view this dominant culture as hateful or exclusionary.

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HOMELAND SECURITY Comments turned off

Time To Reconsider CAIR’s Non-Profit Status (Again) By Samantha Rose Mandeles and Daniel Krygier

By on January 29th, 2019

https://pjmedia.com/homeland-security/time-to-reconsider-cairs-non-profit-status-again/

In an era of increasing anti-Muslim attacks, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) markets itself as a mainstream Muslim civil liberties organization fighting tirelessly for the rights of immigrants, racial and ethnic minorities, and on behalf of religious freedom. To support its efforts, CAIR, like most other American non-profit organizations, solicits public tax-deductible donations from concerned citizens all over the country. Unlike most other non-profits, however, questions about what CAIR does with its donations have dogged the organization for years — with good reason.

Founded in 1994, CAIR’s officials have long nurtured ties to extremism and funding overseas terrorism. Indeed, in 2009, the FBI banned its offices from cooperating with CAIR after federal prosecutors named the Islamist group an unindicted co-conspirator during the 2008 Holy Land Foundation terrorism financing trial. Despite its subsequent designation as a terrorist organization in the UAE, CAIR has so far avoided such a designation in the United States. However, as the Middle East Forum has uncovered, CAIR’s activity in the months leading up to this November’s midterm elections could land the group in hot water for other funding-related issues.

Every American non-profit organization is subject to IRS rules that make it eligible for a federal exemption from payment of tax. One of the requirements for a registered charity’s tax-exemption is that it may not be an action organization, meaning that it “may not participate in any campaign activity for or against political candidates.” Non-profits are also prohibited from “directly or indirectly participating in …voter education or registration activities with evidence of bias that (a) would favor one candidate over another; (b) oppose a candidate in some manner; or (c) have the effect of favoring a candidate or group of candidates.”

In the months prior to the midterm elections, CAIR stepped up its political activism nationwide. Multiple chapters published ”voting guides” — documents that summarize the platforms of the main candidates, the issues up for a vote, and that explain American election processes. Other chapters have held candidate forums, enabling local constituents to connect directly with candidates and ask questions. While this all sounds helpful and benign, some CAIR chapters’ political “education” has been decidedly partisan. CONTINUE AT SITE

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NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

New details of 2016 meeting with Trump dossier author conflict with Dems’ timeline By Catherine Herridge, Cyd Upson

By on January 29th, 2019

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/new-detai

New details contained in congressional transcripts and emails about a July 2016 meeting involving the author of the anti-Trump “dossier,” Justice Department official Bruce Ohr, and his wife, Nellie, appear to conflict with claims from Democrats — and the co-founder of the firm behind the dossier — that significant contacts did not occur until after the election.

According to the records, the little-known breakfast meeting was held on July 30, 2016 at Washington, D.C.’s Mayflower Hotel.

Congressional transcripts, confirmed by Fox News, showed Nellie Ohr told House investigators last year that Christopher Steele, the British ex-spy who compiled the dossier, wanted to get word to the FBI at the time.

“My understanding was that Chris Steele was hoping that Bruce (Ohr) could put in a word with the FBI to follow-up in some way,” Nellie Ohr testified in response to a Republican line of questioning, regarding the purpose of the meeting. Bruce Ohr did just that, almost immediately contacting then-FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe and FBI lawyer Lisa Page.

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ANTI-SEMITISM Comments turned off

A sneak preview of Jim Acosta’s new book Ghostwritten by Roger Kimball (Spoof)

By on January 29th, 2019

https://spectator.us/jim-acostas-book/

Exclusive! * Exclusive! * Exclusive!

An advance excerpt of the forthcoming tell-all memoir from the battle lines of America under siege by the world’s bravest investigative journalist, Jim Acosta.

‘Will the president tell the truth?’ I generally like to start with questions like that because, at a time when American is occupied by the spirit of Donald Trump, it always throws his spokesmen off base.

It’s asking questions like that that made me Chief White House Correspondent for CNN. It’s a big job. But it’s the job I was born for.

Some people have a sense of destiny. I guess I am one. I have always been known for my courageous truth-telling. It’s one reason my colleagues in the press corps idolize me. You can tell that because they always fall silent and look at me with a mixture of awe and envy when I enter the press room at the White House.

I have been going to White House press conferences for many years. I get to sit near the front because of my seniority and reputation for asking brave, hard-hitting questions, and because I am Chief White House Correspondent for CNN. One of my most famous performances — it will probably make the Oxford Book of Quotations — was when I reminded Stephen Miller, Donald Trump’s chief speech writer that the Statute of Liberty says ‘Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses.’ That was early in Donald Trump’s reign when he was first trying to close America’s borders to brown and black people, whom he does not like.

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POLITICS Comments turned off

The Progressive Race to the Bottom By Victor Davis Hanson

By on January 29th, 2019

https://www.nationalreview.com/2019/01/progressive-politics-abolish-ice-tax-increases-free-college/

Abolishing ICE, offering ‘free’ college to all, raising taxes to 70 percent: Will the somnolent GOP take notice?

The old Democratic party championed the working classes, wanted secure borders to protect middle-class union wage earners, and focused generous federal entitlement help on the citizen poor. Civil rights were defined as equality of opportunity for all.

That party is long dead. An updated Hubert Humphrey or even Bill Clinton would not recognize any of the present “Democrats.”

Even the old wing of elite liberals is mostly long gone, with its talk of legal immigration only, opposition to censorship, pro-Israel foreign policy, let-it-hang-out Sixties indulgence, and free speech.

It was superseded by grim progressives who are not so much interested in a square, new, or fair deal for the middle classes, as an entirely different deal that redefines everything from the Bill of Rights and the very way we elect presidents and senators to an embrace of identity politics as its first principle.

Indeed, we are currently witnessing a quite strange series of North Korean–like reeducation confessionals, from repenting erstwhile liberals and now presidential hopefuls such as Joe Biden, Tulsi Gabbard, Kamala Harris, and Kirsten Gillibrand. They and other would-be candidates parade before show cameras to apologize for their prior incorrect heresies, including their erstwhile support for drug laws, tough sentencing, and border enforcement.

The subtext of these charades is that 28-year-old socialist Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez (who won her Democratic primary with 15,897 votes and with that victory an assured congressional seat in a gerrymandered Democratic district) is the new Robespierre — warning that the earth as we know it will end in twelve years, ICE must be disbanded, all student debt abolished, wealth taxes levied, and Medicare provided for all. And her political guillotine awaits any progressive with lingering stains of the Ancien Régime.

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ISRAEL Comments turned off

Featured Column Ruthie Blum Commanding scorn The taking of personal responsibility is befitting of someone leading others into battle.

By on January 29th, 2019

https://www.jns.org/opinion/commanding-scorn/

In a letter to the officers in his command early this week, the head of the Israel Defense Forces’ Judea and Samaria Division declared that “immoral and illegal actions” by IDF soldiers against Palestinians would not be tolerated.

“Those who cannot control themselves and do not undertake to operate professionally during a security mission and in accordance with the spirit of the IDF will have no place with us,” warned Brig. Gen. Eran Niv. “We will stand firm against our subordinates.”

Niv went on to assert that the use of force is legitimate only when required for the execution of a mission, and only against those who pose an immediate threat. So, for example, he explained, it’s OK to break down the door of a suspect, but not to trash his home as a form of punishment.

According to Kan 11 News, which broke the story on Monday evening, Niv was spurred to pen this directive by four investigations underway into the allegedly criminal or unbecoming conduct of IDF soldiers in the field.

Too bad Niv is not among them.

In the first place, such a seasoned, high-ranking officer ought to be aware that his dramatic “new” directive is as old as the 1994 IDF Code of Ethics and Mission. In fact, if it weren’t for that 25-year-old document—concerned with the “purity of arms” of the Israeli military—none of the investigations that supposedly sparked his letter would be taking place.

Nor would so many Israeli boys and girls in uniform be given the sense that they need to sling their rifles over their shoulders to free up their hands for law books and cameras. Fear of not being able to provide evidence at a later date to judges and hostile NGOs that they acted according to the IDF’s often ridiculously stringent rules of engagement will do that.

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