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Ruth King

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History Is Clear: Socialism Isn’t the Cure. So Why Do Millennials Like It? By Victor Davis Hanson

By on November 8th, 2019

https://pjmedia.com/victordavishanson/history-is-clear-socialism-isnt-the-cure-so-why-do-millennials-like-it/

Multiple forms of socialism, from hard Stalinism to European redistribution, continue to fail.

Russia and China are still struggling with the legacy of genocidal communism. Eastern Europe still suffers after decades of Soviet-imposed socialist chaos.

Cuba, Nicaragua, North Korea and Venezuela are unfree, poor and failed states. Baathism — a synonym for pan-Arabic socialism — ruined the postwar Middle East.

The soft-socialist European Union countries are stagnant and mostly dependent on the U.S. military for their protection.

In contrast, current American deregulation, tax cuts and incentives, and record energy production have given the United States the strongest economy in the world.

So why, then, are two of the top three Democratic presidential contenders — Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren — either overtly or implicitly running on socialist agendas? Why are the heartthrobs of American progressives — Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) and Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) — calling for socialist redistributionist schemes?

Why do polls show that a majority of American millennials have a favorable view of socialism?

There are lots of catalysts for the new socialism.

Massive immigration is changing the demography of the United States. The number of foreign-born U.S. residents and their children has been estimated at almost 60 million, or about 1 in 5 U.S. residents. Some 27 percent of California residents were born outside of America.

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The Court of Justice of the European Union Limits Free Speech by Judith Bergman

By on November 8th, 2019

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/15139/european-court-free-speech

“This judgment has major implications for online freedom of expression around the world…. The ruling also means that a court in one EU member state will be able to order the removal of social media posts in other countries, even if they are not considered unlawful there. This would set a dangerous precedent where the courts of one country can control what internet users in another country can see. This could be open to abuse, particularly by regimes with weak human rights records.” — Thomas Hughes, executive director of ARTICLE 19, a non-profit organization that works on “protecting the right to freedom of expression around the world,” October 3, 2019.

The judgment from the Court of Justice of the European Union… appears to give EU member states unprecedented power to determine public discourse online — to determine what citizens can and cannot read…. [T]he prospects now look even bleaker for the future of free speech in Europe.

On October 3, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) ruled in a judgment that Facebook can be ordered by national courts of EU member states to remove defamatory material worldwide:

“EU law does not preclude a host provider such as Facebook from being ordered to remove identical and, in certain circumstances, equivalent comments previously declared to be illegal. In addition, EU law does not preclude such an injunction from producing effects worldwide, within the framework of the relevant international law which it is for Member States to take into account.”

The ruling came after the Austrian politician Eva Glawischnig-Piesczek, chairman of Die Grünen (The Greens) party, sued Facebook Ireland in the Austrian courts. According to the Court of Justice of the European Union:

“She [Glawischnig-Piesczek] is seeking an order that Facebook Ireland remove a comment published by a user on that social network harmful to her reputation, and allegations which were identical and/or of an equivalent content.

“The Facebook user in question had shared on that user’s personal page an article from the Austrian online news magazine oe24.at entitled ‘Greens: Minimum income for refugees should stay’. That had the effect of generating on that page a ‘thumbnail’ of the original site, containing the title and a brief summary of the article, and a photograph of Ms Glawischnig-Piesczek. That user also published, in connection with that article, a comment which the Austrian courts found to be harmful to the reputation of Ms Glawischnig-Piesczek, and which insulted and defamed her. This post could be accessed by any Facebook user.”

The judgment has brought concern among free speech organizations. Thomas Hughes, the executive director of ARTICLE 19, a non-profit organization that works on “protecting the right to freedom of expression around the world,” said:

“This judgment has major implications for online freedom of expression around the world.

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Defending Israel’s justice minister Amir Ohana His detractors have attempted to discredit him in a host of ways, particularly by insinuating that he has no special skills beyond being Bibi’s pet and sycophant. By Ruthie Blum

By on November 8th, 2019

https://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Defending-Israels-justice-min

Justice Minister Amir Ohana must have known his address to the Knesset on Wednesday was going to unleash the rabid dogs that have been hounding him for the past six months. After all, ever since he was appointed by Prime Minister Benjamin (Bibi) Netanyahu to the coveted – albeit interim – cabinet post, Ohana’s criticism of the Israeli judiciary in general, and controversial comments about the courts in particular, have aroused the wrath of the self-righteous.

Rather than recoil, however – as a lawyer with blossoming political ambitions might be expected to do – Ohana has remained firm in and vocal about his convictions. This is in spite of the fact that in the immediate aftermath of each of his ostensibly scandalous statements, his detractors have attempted to discredit him in a host of ways, particularly by insinuating that he has no special skills beyond being Bibi’s pet and sycophant.

It’s a ridiculous claim, of course. But it’s a handy one for those who virulently oppose the Nation-State Law that Ohana was instrumental in drafting, for example, (not to mention his support for a bill that would grant a sitting prime minister – in this case, Netanyahu, who is under threat of indictment – immunity from prosecution).

Though it’s true that Ohana is a Netanyahu loyalist, he has been one since long before he entered the Knesset. Furthermore, his continued backing of the PM in the face of the investigations against him has to do with his professional assessment that the cases are legally flimsy, at best, which they are. 

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Israel’s credit rating, natural gas and automotive tech Ambassador (Ret.) Yoram Ettinger

By on November 8th, 2019

1. According to Standard & Poor, Fitch and Moody’s – the world’s top credit rating companies – Israel and Australia are the only two Western countries whose 2019 credit rating (reflecting economic growth) is higher than it was before the global economic meltdown of 2007/2008. Currently, Israel is rated AA- by Standard & Poor, A+ by Fitch and A1 by Moody’s.

2. According to the London Economist (November 5, 2019), despite short-term political uncertainty, Israel’s economic growth is sustained by a strong domestic consumption, an expansion of natural gas explorations, findings and export, and the continued dynamism of the hightech sector, which has attracted substantial foreign investment. For example,Intel announced its plan to invest $11BN in a new export-oriented semiconductor manufacturing facility in Israel [as a follow up to the 2016 acquisition of Israel’s Mobileye for $15.3BN and investment in scores of Israeli startups].

Israel’s economy features low unemployment (3.7%) and rising real wages. Exports are expected to rise despite the relative global economic slowdown, and independent of the continued appreciation of the Shekel (the strongest currency against the US dollar), but due to the initiation of natural gas exports.
GDP growth is expected to slow to 2.9% in 2020, before recovering to 3.8% in 2021 and 4% in 2022.

3. The NYC-based Centerbridge Partners and Greenwich, CT-based Gallatin Point Capital acquired 32.5% of Phoenix (Israel’s 2nd largest insurance group) for $450MN (Globes Business Daily, Nov. 5, 2019). Germany’s insurance giant, Munich Re, invested $250MN in Israel’s Next Digital Insurance startup, which was founded in 2016 by entrepreneurs who in 2014 sold their previous startup, Check, to the Silicon Valley-basedIntuit for $360MN (Globes, October 8). The Greenwich, CT-based General Atlantic led a $165MN investment in Israel’s Riskified, which develops software preventing fraud and verifying consumer identities (Wall Street Journal, Nov. 5). Israel has become Europe’s Silicon Valley. During the first half of 2019, German investors accounted to 30% of the number of European deals in Israel’s ecosystem, including a branch of Merck, the global pharmaceutical giant. While German investment profile is dwarfed by the USA, 60% of the leading Frankfurt Stock Exchange companies have Israeli branches, seeking Israeli technologies, surging since 2016. In 2018, German investors were 4th in the number of Israeli deals – 5% of total deals foreign investment – between the UK’s 7% and China’s 4% (Globes, August 12).

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SYDNEY WILLIAMS ON IMPEACHMENT

By on November 8th, 2019

http://swtotd.blogspot.com/

“Impeachment is a distraction to a people who must decide what sort of country they want – Socialism, with its costs in dollars and lost freedoms, or free market capitalism, which offers the social and economic escalator of opportunity that takes people up and down. For all of our sakes, I hope they choose the latter.”

The American journalist and satirist H.L. Mencken once wrote: “The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the people alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by an endless series of hobgoblins, most of them imaginary.” And the granddaddy of all hobgoblins is impeachment, at least here in the fourth quarter of 2019, a year from a presidential election that will see the most vilified President we have ever had run against one of the most far-left leaning candidates ever nominated. “Fasten your seat belts; it’s going to be a bumpy night,” said Bette Davis in the 1951 movie “It’s All About Eve.”  For us Americans, it will be a bumpy year.

Cynicism fills the air. Politicians live by scruples known only to themselves. Their concern is their own welfare and that of their party. Their goal is power. That end justifies whatever means or processes are felt necessary to achieve it. Yet, they wrap themselves in cloaks of righteous indignation. “Every member should support allowing the American people to hear the facts for themselves…this is nothing less than our democracy.” Stirring but hypocritical words spoken by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, as she allowed Adam Schiff, Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee to conduct impeachment hearings – hearings held in secret, where Republicans were not allowed to call witnesses and to which Mr. Trump’s lawyers were banned from attending. Schiff and the media have made much of diplomats fired, like the former ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch. Do they forget that elections have consequences? Foreign policy is the responsibility of the President and changing ambassadors is expected and common.

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Pompeo: United States Fostered China’s Rise At The Expense Of American Values Ben Weingarten

By on November 8th, 2019

https://thefederalist.com/2019/11/07/pompeo-united-states-fostered-chinas-rise-at-th

What was revelatory in Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s remarks was his forthright recognition of the nature of the Chinese Communist Party and its ambitions.

While Washington is consumed with the political theater of impeachment, Trump administration officials have begun a vital effort to engage the American people—and the world—on the defining substantive issue of our time in national security and foreign policy: The imperative to counter the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

At last week’s annual Hudson Institute Herman Kahn Award Gala, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, the guest of honor, delivered a poignant and powerful address on the unfolding strategic competition between the United States and China.

In Pompeo’s speech, dubbed “The China Challenge,” he surveyed the history of American willful blindness and consequent folly toward the totalitarian regime, acknowledging that “we accommodated and encouraged China’s rise for decades…even when that rise was at the expense of American values, Western democracy, and security, and good common sense.”

He illustrated the dichotomy whereby the CCP has created a “permanent class of China lobbyists in the United States” that has manipulated U.S. leaders while exerting complete control over the flow of information into its mainland. Therefore, while the CCP’s narrative has flourished here, our counter-narrative has never entered there.

He detailed the harmful consequences for America and the world, in the way of China’s: rampant intellectual property theft; demands that those who transact with it toe the Communist Party line; asymmetric weapons development; threats to international order and commerce on the seas where trillions of dollars in goods flow; “debt trap diplomacy”—or a “loan-to-own” plan to buy power and influence around the world—memorialized by the “Belt and Road Initiative”; coercive acts eroding any semblance of “One Country, Two Systems” in Hong Kong; and persecution of the Uighur minority in Xinjiang.

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McGill University’s student newspaper publishes anti-Israel editorial

By on November 8th, 2019

https://www.jns.org/canadian-university-student-newspaper-publishes-anti-israel-editorial/

The paper also refused to publish a letter to the editor on the basis that pro-Israel students are not entitled to be part of a “dialogue that gives a platform to ideas which dehumanize a group of people.”

The newspaper at McGill University in Montreal, The McGill Daily—one of Canada’s largest student papers—published an editorial this week falsely describing Zionism as a “colonial movement,” a “racist attitude” and “a violent practice,” and advised students who wanted to learn more about Zionism to refer to a leading BDS website for more information.

The Monday editorial also expressed outrage at the school’s administration, which had stepped in to apply pressure on the editorial board to publish a letter to the editor written by two Jewish pro-Israel law students decrying the paper’s anti-Semitic description of Zionism. According to the Daily’sown constitution, it is required to publish all letters it receives.

Regardless, the editors refused to publish the letter on the basis that pro-Israel students are not entitled to be part of a “dialogue that gives a platform to ideas which dehumanize a group of people.”

After McGill administrators threatened to pull Daily funding over the issue, the paper’s editors capitulated and published the letter, titled “Response to McGill Daily on Zionism,” which also appeared in Monday’s issue. It pointed out that “there’s a reason why the vast majority of Jews around the world (especially those at McGill) identify as Zionist, and it’s not because they’re violent, racist, colonialists; it’s because they actually understand what Zionism is and through their lived experiences, understand why it’s necessary.”

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Former BU Law School faculty member writes scathing letter to the university’s president

By on November 8th, 2019

https://mailchi.mp/peaceandtolerance/boston-university-anti-semitism-scandal-heats-up?e=c4e6370125

In these times of rising anti-Semitism, I have just learned that Boston University is considering appointing Sarah Ihmoud, a terrible anti-Semite to a tenure track position in its sociology department. I understand that letters of concern and alarm submitted to the president, provost, and others have been met with a “none of your business” type of response, together with assurances that the process is being handled “based on peer evaluation of a candidate’s scholarly and professional achievements within the appropriate discipline and according to established disciplinary criteria… consistent with our established criteria and processes.”  The quote is from a form letter being sent out by President Brown. 
 
In point of fact, I have learned from colleagues on the law school faculty, where I taught in the BU Defenders Program, that nothing about this potential hire is being handled in accordance with established criteria and processes. The hire is being considered as an accommodation to a recent law faculty hire — Ihmoud is his wife. The position was not advertised, and there was no applicant pool, as required by BU’s established — and written — practices and processes.
 
What is worse is that her “scholarly” achievements are works based on viciously defamatory and easily refuted assertions about Israel. For instance, she writes in In the Absence of Justice, a report she co-authored with Shaloub-Kevorkian, another rabid anti-Semite who claims that Israelis sell Palestinian body parts, do medical experiments and test weapons on Palestinian children — see http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Articles/Article.aspx/23511, that

Existing studies on gendered aspects of military occupation in East Jerusalem reveal that even in times of death, women are stripped of dignity and security, and their safe burial is jeopardized by the militarized regime (Shalhoub-Kevorkian 2013). Women are prevented from safely reaching health professionals and finding a safe place to give birth, and face humiliation in Israeli hospitals during treatment, operations, giving birth, miscarriages and more (ibid.). Gendered violence was also apparent when examining the effects of surveillance over women, mainly in relation to the immense security devices and cameras in and around homes, schools and streets (Shalhoub-Kevorkian, 2015). Sexual and psychological abuse and harassment of women at checkpoints, by Israeli soldiers was also another factor affecting women. harassment by Israeli soldiers, including being made to undress when crossing checkpoints, was found to have increased women’s sense of loss of their bodily integrity and added to their humiliation and oppression (ibid., p. 63).

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APROPOS BOSTON UNIVERSITY A NOTE FROM DPS

By on November 8th, 2019

Be sure to read the BU Law Professor’s letter to BU’s President.

I could inundate you with dozens of new articles on this subject every day. I won’t do so daily but I will periodically so the subject doesn’t fade from your consciousness. And please don’t fall for the outright lies about Israeli oppression of Palestinian Arabs. That’s nothing more than the evolution of anti-Semitism into a new form the way deadly viruses and bacteria have genetically changed themselves over the years as they become resistant to then available cures.  

Most American Jews are in a state of denial about this because it hasn’t affected them personally yet (despite the armed guards outside their synagogue entrances) and many Americans are either totally unaware of what is happening because it doesn’t affect them at all or, if they are aware of it, are willing to say it’s not good, but not willing to do a whole lot about it because it doesn’t really mean much in their daily lives. But one day they’ll come for the Christians (it has already begun) and then perhaps they get more active.

The Jews’ best allies in this war are Evangelical Christians, whom Jews on the right side of the political spectrum love and share many values with. Jews on the political left are too married to the left’s political doctrine of “social justice,” still thinking of themselves as having to right the world’s perceived wrongs – many of which are total baloney – because they were once the persecuted, and refusing to see and acknowledge that their supposed allies in those battles are now their anti-Semitic enemies. 

This Jew hatred isn’t driven by the extreme political right. They are truly a fringe element of our society. It is driven by the political left and the Muslim world – and most especially Muslims on college and university campuses around the country  Academia has been its petrie dish and now the deadly germ nurtured there has escaped into broader western culture – right into the House of Congress and one of the two major British political Parties, to cite but two highly visible examples amongst hundreds around the world every day. DPS

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Do Not Support China’s Huawei, Cripple It Instead by Gordon G. Chang

By on November 7th, 2019

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/15138/china-cripple-huawei

China, with control of 5G, will be in a position to remotely manipulate the world’s devices. In peacetime, Beijing could have the ability to drive cars off cliffs, unlock front doors, and turn off pacemakers. In war, Beijing could paralyze critical infrastructure.

There is no mystery to how Beijing thinks it will grab control…. The Chinese will use Huawei Technologies…. Huawei is a dagger aimed at the heart of America, and as the unnamed adviser… suggests, the threat is a mortal one.

There are various strategies for meeting China’s 5G challenge, but the most direct one is crippling Huawei. The Trump administration has taken steps to do so, but now that effort is on the verge of collapse.

The Commerce Department looks set to support that dangerous Chinese firm. US Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross is thinking too small. The United States, instead of trying to make sales, should be stopping everyone from selling to Huawei.

The Trump administration should be forcing others — Japan, South Korea, Taiwan — to make a choice: sell to Huawei or sell to the world’s largest market, America’s…. If they should not be buying Huawei, then Americans should not be supplying that Chinese company either.

Let us put Huawei out of business, not support its efforts to harm us.

“A prominent Republican who advises President Donald Trump called America’s 5G strategy ‘the biggest strategic disaster in U.S. history,'” wrote China-watcher David Goldman recently.

Many people will regard that as an exaggeration, but America’s failure to have a 5G strategy will almost certainly prove to have historic consequences.

“5G” is shorthand for the fifth generation of wireless communication.

“In the very near future, dominating the wireless world will be tantamount to dominating the world,” wrote Newt Gingrich in Newsweek in February. That is not an exaggeration.

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