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May 2019

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Frances Fox Piven, Icon Of The Left: Francis Menton

By on May 14th, 2019

https://www.manhattancontrarian.com/blog/2019-5-13-frances-fox-piven-icon-of-the-left

In the New York Times, they have a section that goes by the name “New York” on weekdays and “Metropolitan” on Sundays. This section contains next to no useful information about what is going on in New York and/or the surrounding area. Even local news staples like murders and fires rarely get covered. And if you want to learn about the latest corruption in City government, or important new laws coming out of the state legislature, you mostly have to look elsewhere.

But they have to fill the space with something. A fair characterization of the large part of it would be “support for our team.” To illustrate, yesterday’s “Metropolitan” section was totally dominated by a single article that contained nothing about relevant local news. Instead, it was, to put it mildly, a fawning profile of a woman named Frances Fox Piven. The headline was “This 86-Year-Old Radical May Save (or Sink) the Democrats.”

Have you heard of Frances Fox Piven? She first came to my attention way back in the 1960s, when she had become one of the early enlistees in the “War on Poverty,” and went around leading loud welfare “rights” demonstrations. She’s been doing variations of the same ever since. But I can’t say that I have closely followed her career. This Times profile fills in many details, and in the process makes clear that Ms. Piven is a true archetype of the species sometimes known as the Upper West Side progressive radical. I thought that readers here might like an introduction.

Here is how the Times chooses to introduce its piece:

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NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

John Durham for Accountability His investigation can help restore public confidence in the FBI and intelligence services.

By on May 14th, 2019

https://www.wsj.com/articles/john-durham-for-accountability-11557876040?mod=cx_picks&cx_navSource=cx_picks&cx_tag=collabctx&cx_artPos=2#cxrecs_s

Attorney General William Barr has assigned U.S. Attorney John Durham to investigate possible abuses by law enforcement and intelligence officials in the 2016 election campaign, and the reaction has been predictably partisan. Trumpians are demanding heads on pikes while liberals are calling it a hunt for conspiracies that didn’t exist. We see it as a necessary step toward accountability and restoring public confidence in America’s enforcement agencies.

Mr. Durham comes with more experience than even special counsel Robert Mueller in navigating U.S. law enforcement, including the FBI and intelligence services. He uncovered rogue FBI behavior in the case of Boston mob boss Whitey Bulger, and former Attorney General Michael Mukasey tasked him to look at the CIA’s destruction of videos of its terrorist interrogation program.

As a U.S. Attorney, Mr. Durham will have the power to convene a grand jury and subpoena people outside the government. Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz has been looking into some of the same questions, but he lacks similar power. Mr. Durham can also pick up any criminal referrals from Mr. Horowitz’s looming report.

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Liberals Who Cry Roe An obscure case over state sovereignty triggers a Supreme Court exchange over precedent.

By on May 14th, 2019

https://www.wsj.com/articles/liberals-who-cry-roe-11557876134

Who would have thought that a Supreme Court ruling in an interstate tax dispute would devolve into a brawl over abortion politics? Such are our political times as the four liberal Justices on Monday chided their conservative colleagues for overturning a 40-year precedent, which progressives warn will create a stare decisis slippery slope to banning abortion.

At issue in Franchise Tax Board v. Hyatt was whether states enjoy sovereign immunity in other states’ courts. California urged the Court to overturn its Nevada v. Hall (1979) precedent, which held that states aren’t required to grant legal immunity to other states. Most do for comity purposes, and state courts have entertained only 14 cases by private citizens against other states in the past four decades.

The Court reasoned in Hall that states have a sovereign interest in protecting their citizens, and the Constitution doesn’t explicitly require interstate sovereign immunity. But there are strong opposing constitutional arguments, which Justice Clarence Thomas explained in the 5-4 majority’s opinion overturning Hall.

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Tulsi Gabbard Becomes First 2020 Dem to Speak Out against Facebook Censorship By Jack Crowe

By on May 14th, 2019

https://www.nationalreview.com/news/tulsi-gabbard-becomes-first-2020-dem-to-speak-out-against-facebook-censorship/During a recent appearance on comedian Joe Rogan’s podcast, Representative Tulsi Gabbard (D., Hawaii) became the first and only Democratic presidential contender to voice opposition to the censorship of Facebook users.

During the interview, Gabbard split with fellow Democrats — many of whom have cast conservative concerns about tech censorship as a “conspiracy theory” — arguing instead that companies like Facebook have betrayed the longstanding American commitment to free expression by ousting unpopular political commentary from their platforms.

“There’s just been news recently about Facebook banning certain individuals . . . because of their speech. They disagree with the speech they’re using or the ideas they’re pushing forward. Unchecked, First Amendment rights going out the window,” she said, referring to Facebook’s recent purge of users on the political fringes such as Infowars reporter Paul Joseph Watson and notorious anti-Semite Louis Farrakhan.

“The argument is [the First Amendment] doesn’t apply because they’re a private company, right?” Rogan responded.

“Yes, but they re trying to get the best of both worlds. The fact that they are claiming to say, ‘Hey, this is a free space for open communication for everyone’ while at the same time saying ‘You know, what Joe, I don’t like what you’re saying about this, so we’re going to ban you and whoever your friends are from this conversation’ — I think that’s a big problem.”

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BOOKS, WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Echoing Words: A Talk with Vladimir Bukovsky, Part II By Jay Nordlinger

By on May 14th, 2019

https://www.nationalreview.com/2019/05/vladimir-bukovsky-dissident-conversation-echoing-words/

Editor’s Note: Jay Nordlinger recently interviewed Vladimir Bukovsky, the legendary Soviet-era dissident, at Bukovsky’s home in Cambridge, England. The first installment in this series is here.

When Bukovsky was released to the West in 1976, he was in his mid-thirties. He wanted to continue his education, which had been rudely interrupted by the Soviet authorities, who confined him to the Gulag for twelve years.

Bukovsky got invitations from two universities, he tells me: Leiden in Holland and King’s College, Cambridge. He wished to study biology, and, in particular, neurophysiology. Leiden had a program that lasted five years, and King’s had a program that lasted three.

For Bukovsky, every minute counted. Or, as he puts it, “Every year meant a lot to me.” He felt the need to get on with life. He opted for the three-year program over the five-.

There was another reason to choose King’s, not Leiden. Instruction at Leiden was in English, but “the everyday language of communication,” says Bukovsky, “was Dutch, and Dutch is an impossible language to master.” He was loath to begin this language in his mid-thirties.

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WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

China’s Brilliant, Insidious Strategy By Victor Davis Hanson

By on May 14th, 2019

https://www.nationalreview.com/2019/05/china-strategy-build-economic-military-technological-superiority/

Slowly but steadily they build up their economic, military, and technological superiority at our expense

The Chinese Communist government does not have so much a strategy to translate its economic ascendance into global hegemony as several strategies. All of them are brilliantly insidious.

On matters of trade, China is always flexible in responding to critics of its asymmetrical, 30-year mercantilism. In the initial stages of Westernization, China was exempted from criticism over serial copyright and patent infringement, dumping, and espionage. Western elites assumed that these improprieties were just speed bumps on the eventual Chinese freeway to liberalism. Supposedly the richer China got, the more progressive it would become. Huge trade deficits or military technological appropriation were small prices to pay for an evolving billion-person Palo Alto or Upper West Side.

After a time, the now-worrisome huge trade deficits and Chinese cheating were further contextualized as “our fault.” The Tom Friedman school of journalism chided our clumsy republican government as lacking Chinese authoritarian efficiency that could by fiat connect new planned utopias by high-speed rail and power them with solar-panel farms. The Wall Street–investor version of this school saw flabby, pampered Americans getting their just deserts as more productive and deserving Chinese workers outhustled and outproduced us. In such tough-love sermonizing, the more Michigan or Pennsylvania rusted, the quicker culpable Americans would either emulate China or die. China of course again agreed.

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POLITICS Comments turned off

22nd Dem Enters 2020 Race — With Tirade Against Free Speech in Politics By Tyler O’Neil

By on May 14th, 2019

https://pjmedia.com/trending/22nd-dem-enters-2020-race-with-tirade-against-free-speech-in-politics/

On Tuesday morning, Gov. Steve Bullock (D-Mont.) announced his candidacy for president in the Democratic 2020 presidential primary. Bullock may have a #MeToo scandal brewing — New York Mayor Bill de Blasio “ripped” into him for failing to warn about an aide’s history of sexual harassment before that aide became de Blasio’s chief of staff. Bullock is virtually unknown across the country, and he decided to enter the gates campaigning against free speech in politics.

That’s right — spinning a yarn on the evils of corruption, Bullock condemned free speech in politics in his campaign announcement video. In fact, he made it the center of his campaign.

Democrats like Bullock don’t phrase it this way, of course, but when they condemn “Citizens United,” they’re condemning the ability of everyday Americans to band together and spend money to promote political messages in the public square. Americans should be able to do this anonymously, just like Benjamin Franklin did under the pen name “Silence Dogood.” Contrary to the narrative spun by Bullock and others, Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission (2010) was a victory for free speech in politics and primary challengers, not corporate interests or corruption.

Bullock begins his video with an image of Berkeley Pit in Butte, Montana. The open pit copper mine is a toxic threat to the water in the area, and the Montana governor tried to make it an image of corruption. CONTINUE AT SITE

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Warren: ‘Fox News Is a Hate-For-Profit Racket That Gives a Megaphone to Racists and Conspiracists’ By Tyler O’Neil

By on May 14th, 2019

https://pjmedia.com/trending/warren-fox-news-is-a-hate-for-profit-racket-that-gives-a-megaphone-to-racists-and-conspiracists/

While some 2020 Democrats have appeared in town halls on Fox News, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) drew a line in the sand against the network on Tuesday.

“I love town halls. I’ve done more than 70 since January, and I’m glad to have a television audience be a part of them. Fox News has invited me to do a town hall, but I’m turning them down—here’s why,” she began in a long Twitter thread.

“Fox News is a hate-for-profit racket that gives a megaphone to racists and conspiracists—it’s designed to turn us against each other, risking life and death consequences, to provide cover for the corruption that’s rotting our government and hollowing out our middle class,” Warren tweeted.

“Hate-for-profit works only if there’s profit, so Fox News balances a mix of bigotry, racism, and outright lies with enough legit journalism to make the claim to advertisers that it’s a reputable news outlet. It’s all about dragging in ad money—big ad money,” she said. “But Fox News is struggling as more and more advertisers pull out of their hate-filled space. A Democratic town hall gives the Fox News sales team a way to tell potential sponsors it’s safe to buy ads on Fox—no harm to their brand or reputation (spoiler: It’s not).”

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HISTORY, ISRAEL Comments turned off

MENACHEM BEGIN’S BROADCAST TO THE NATION, MAY 15, 1948- THE STATE OF ISRAEL HAS ARISEN!

By on May 14th, 2019

Only a brief 2 years and seven months after World War 11 and the Holocaust ended Israel gained its independence. This is excerpted from Begin’s address on Israel’s Independence Day on the Irgun’s radio station. His words are worth remembering in this time of unprecedented challenges to Israel’s right to exist. Now as then the words are stirring. rsk

Citizens of the Hebrew Homeland, Soldiers of Israel, Hebrew Youth, Sisters and Brothers in Zion! Today is truly a holiday, a Holy Day, and a new fruit is visible before our very eyes. The Hebrew Revolt of 1944-1948 has been blessed with success — the first Hebrew revolt since the Hasmonean insurrection that has ended in victory. The State of Israel has arisen in bloody battle. The highway for the mass return to Zion has been cast up. The foundation has been laid — but only the foundation — for true independence.

One phase of the battle for freedom, for the return of the entire People of Israel to its homeland, for the restoration of the whole Land of Israel to its God-covenanted owners, has ended. But only one phase. We should recall that this event has occurred after 70 generations of dispersion and unending wandering of an unarmed people and after a period of almost total destruction of the Jew as Jew. Thus, although our suffering is not yet over, it is our right and our obligation to proffer thanks to the Rock of Israel and His Redeemer for all the miracles that have been done this day, as in those times. We therefore can say with full heart and soul on this first day of our liberation from the British occupier: Blessed is He who has sustained us and enabled us to have reached this time. The State of Israel has arisen. And it has risen “Only Thus”: through blood, through fire, with an outstretched hand and a mighty arm, with sufferings and with sacrifices. It could not have been otherwise.

And yet, even before our state is able to establish its normal governing institutions, it is compelled to fight, or rather, to continue to fight satanic enemies and blood-thirsty mercenaries, on land, in the air and on the sea. In these circumstances, the warning sounded by the Philosopher-President Thomas Masaryk to the Czechoslovak nation when it attained its freedom after three hundred years of slavery has a special significance for us. In 1918, when Masaryk stepped out on to the Wilson railway station in Prague, he warned his cheering countrymen: “It is difficult to set up a state; it is even more difficult to keep it going.”

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David Harsanyi :Seth Meyers, Useful Idiot The host doesn’t just shill for Democrats, he gives people like Rashida Tlaib a platform to spread destructive lies.

By on May 14th, 2019

https://thefederalist.com/2019/05/14/seth-meyers-useful-idiot/

After listening to Seth Meyers run interference for Rep. Ilhan Omar last week, an exasperated Meghan McCain asked him: “Are you her publicist? Are you her press person?” Perhaps the more pertinent question is, who else do you represent?

Because on the same day Rep. Rashida Tlaib was complaining (via her 500,000-follower Twitter account) that powerful forces were “trying to silence” her, the freshman representative also appeared on NBC’s “Late Night with Seth Meyers.”

Tlaib’s presence on “Late Night” is unsurprising, whether it was booked earlier or not, as the show has become something of a safe haven for unaccomplished freshman reps with very specific opinions about a certain ethnicity. The fact that Meyers, like most of his colleagues, shills for Democrats isn’t particularly noteworthy. It’s more pertinent, however, when an alleged comedian not only provides someone like Tlaib a giant platform to spread a despicable historical lie, but helps her do it.

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