Democrats Hold Secret Meeting with Iranian Foreign Minister Pining for the Obama days of appeasement. Joseph Klein

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2020/02/democrats-hold-secret-meeting-iranian-foreign-joseph-klein/

Democratic Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut, along with several of his Senate Democrat colleagues, reportedly met secretly with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif (pictured above) during the Munich Security Conference last week. The Federalist raised the question whether that “would mean Murphy had done the type of secret coordination with foreign leaders to potentially undermine the U.S. government that he accused Trump officials of doing as they prepared for Trump’s administration.”

Senator Murphy tweeted that he was simply engaging in a dialogue with Zarif, which he claimed was within Congress’s authority as “a co-equal branch to the executive.” While acknowledging for the record that “no one in Congress can negotiate with Zarif or carry official U.S. government messages,” Murphy declared that “there is value in having a dialogue.”  He added, “It’s dangerous not to talk to adversaries, esp amidst a cycle of escalation.” That all depends on what Murphy and his cohorts had to say to the Iranian foreign minister behind closed doors.

According to Senator Murphy’s own telling, he used his meeting with Zarif to urge Iranian action to control Iran’s proxies in Iraq, release American citizens being unlawfully detained in Iran, and end the Houthi blockage of humanitarian aid in Yemen. That sounds innocent enough, if Murphy was telling the truth about everything that was said during his tête-à-tête with Zarif. But there is no reason to take Murphy’s self-serving account as representing anywhere near a complete record of the meeting.

Trump Takes a Stand for the Mentally Ill His budget proposes to end a 55-year ban on Medicaid funding for institutional care. By D.J. Jaffe

https://www.wsj.com/articles/trump-takes-a-stand-for-the-mentally-ill-11582071818?mod=opinion_lead_pos10

Hundreds of thousands of Americans with serious mental illness sleep in jails, shelters and prisons on any given night. Fewer than 40,000 are in state psychiatric hospitals. This is largely due to a federal policy, the Institutions for Mental Disease Exclusion, which created a financial incentive for states to kick the mentally ill out of hospitals. The White House’s new budget proposes easing the exclusion. It’s the most important thing federal government could do to improve care for the seriously mentally ill.

The IMD Exclusion, part of the 1965 law that established Medicaid, prevents the program from funding care for mentally ill adults while they live in hospitals or even adult homes with more than 16 beds. It was intended to prevent the federal government from taking on care of the mentally ill, which had historically been a state responsibility. Many mistakenly believed that newly developed antipsychotic drugs and community mental-health centers would obviate the need for institutions.

It’s been a disaster. Before Medicaid was enacted, states paid for psychiatric hospitalization, and it was readily available. But states soon realized that if they kicked patients out of hospitals, Medicaid would kick in and pay half the cost of care. This “deinstitutionalization” continues. The country has lost more than 450,000 mental-hospital beds since the 1950s, 12,000 of them since 2005.

Pompeo: Iran Without Delusions

https://www.nysun.com/editorials/pompeo-calls-out-the-democrats-over-secret/91020/

Good going to Secretary of State Pompeo for calling out a group of Democrats — including, apparently, Secretary of State Kerry — for reportedly meeting with the Iranians on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference, and in secret. Mr. Pompeo was responding to a report of the parley in the Federalist. “If they met,” the secretary said, “I don’t know what they said. I hope they were reinforcing America’s foreign policy, not their own.”

Fat chance. The notion that they might be reinforcing America’s foreign policy was mocked by Senator Christopher Murphy, the Connecticut Democrat who led the delegation. He had been stonewalling reports of the meeting for days. Then Mr. Murphy posted confession to meeting the Iranian, though he did, according to the Times, acknowledge that he lacks standing to “conduct diplomacy on behalf of the whole of the U.S. government.”

Mr. Murphy’s view is that “if [President] Trump isn’t going to talk to Iran, then someone should.” In other words, he’s going to defy the decision of the elected government of America to refrain from rushing into talks with the Iranian camarilla. He’s going to instead take it upon his own unauthorized self. Mr. Murphy says he has “no delusions” about Iran, but his actions belie that boast.

History: 1776 vs. 1619 There’s now an alternative to the New York Times’s revisionist, race-baiting project. Lewis Morris

https://patriotpost.us/articles/68650-history-1776-vs-1619-2020-02-18

A wide-ranging group of writers from ideologically diverse backgrounds has come together to challenge leftist assertions in the New York Times’s 1619 Project that the United States was built on slavery. In response, the educational series 1776 was recently launched by the Woodson Center under the guidance of longtime activist and scholar Robert Woodson.

The Woodson Center was founded in 1981 to raise awareness and funding for neighborhoods seeking to solve critical community problems through innovative initiatives. Robert Woodson began 1776 as a direct response to the misguided and harmful history put forth by the Times.

Woodson described the 1619 Project as a “lethal” narrative that perpetuates a culture of victimhood in the African American community by claiming that life for blacks in America has been predetermined by slavery and Jim Crow.

“This garbage that is coming down from the scholars and writers from 1619 is most hypocritical because they don’t live in communities [that are] suffering,” said Woodson. “They are advocating something they don’t have to pay the penalty for.”

Glenn Loury, economics professor at Brown University and 1776 contributor, added, “The idea that the specter of slavery still determines the character of life among African Americans is an affront to me. I believe in America, and I believe in black people. Something tells me … the 1619 Project authors don’t. They don’t believe in America … and I’m sorry to have to report, I get the impression they don’t believe in black people.”

Trump Acknowledges Barr’s Complaint about His Tweets: ‘I Do Make His Job Harder’ By Mairead McArdle

https://www.nationalreview.com/news/trump-acknowledges-barrs-complaint-about-his-tweets-i-do-make-his-job-harder/

President Trump agreed Tuesday with Attorney General William Barr’s claim that his incessant tweeting, particularly as it relates to ongoing DOJ cases, makes the job of the attorney general more difficult.

“I do make his job harder. I do agree with that. I think that’s true,” Trump told reporters at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland.

“Everybody has the right to speak their mind. I use social media. I guess I use it well because here I am,” Trump said. “I probably would not have gotten here without social media, because I certainly don’t get fair press.”

The attorney general expressed frustration last week after Trump complained on Twitter that the prosecutors’ seven-to-nine-year sentencing recommendation for his longtime adviser Roger Stone was a “horrible and very unfair situation.”

Afterwards, the Justice Department submitted a revised filing stating that the prosecutors’ recommended lengthy sentence “could be considered excessive and unwarranted,” sparking allegations that Trump was influencing Barr.

“I think it’s time to stop the tweeting about Department of Justice criminal cases,” Barr said, but added that he is not being “bullied or influenced” by anyone regarding any DOJ cases.

Chris Murphy Is a Massive Hypocrite on Iran By David Harsanyi

https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/chris-murphy-is-a-massive-hypocrite-on-iran/

The Federalist reported yesterday that Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut and other Democratic senators secretly met with foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif during the Munich Security Conference last month. Today, Murphy acknowledged that the meeting took place, arguing that “Congress is a co-equal branch to the executive” and, well, Donald Trump is bad.

It’s quite a volte-face for Murphy. In March of 2015, when President Obama was involved in negotiations with the mullahs, Senator Tom Cotton and 46 of his colleagues released an open letter to the Islamic Republic of Iran, offering some basic lessons on the American constitutional system — namely, an explainer on binding treaties.

At the time, Murphy called the letter “unprecedented” and claimed it was “undermining the authority of the president.” Then-Secretary of State John Kerry claimed to be in “utter disbelief” when asked about the letter. Kerry, no stranger to negotiating with America’s enemies, would a few years later meet Zarif a number of times to try and ‘salvage’ Obama’s Iran deal, in direct conflict with the position of the American government in Trump’s administration.

When Dianne Feinstein, then the Democrats’ ranking member of the Intelligence Committee, heard about Cotton’s letter, she was “appalled” at the “highly inappropriate and unprecedented incursion into the president’s prerogative to conduct foreign affairs.” Only a few years later, Feinstein would host the Iranian Foreign Minister for dinner.

Chicago Newspapers Split on Democratic Primary in Illinois’ Third District By Alexandra DeSanctis

https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/democratic-primary-in-illinois-third-district-splits-chicago-newspapers/

DEMOCRAT INCUMBENT DAN LIPINSKI (ILLINOIS District 3) SHOULD BE RE-ELECTED EVEN THOUGH HE VOTED FOR IMPEACHMENT
www.lipinskiforcongress.com

Next month, U.S. representative Dan Lipinski (D., Ill.) will face a progressive challenger, Marie Newman, in the Democratic primary in Illinois’ third congressional district, which encompasses a large section of Chicago’s southwestern suburbs. Newman attempted to unseat Lipinski last election cycle and came very close to doing so, falling behind by only about 2 percent, or 2,000 votes.

Newman’s campaign in 2018 was backed in large part by left-wing activist groups, which were frustrated primarily with Lipinski’s continual refusal to support legal abortion. Since taking over his father’s congressional seat in 2005, Lipinski has remained one of the few Democratic politicians who espouses pro-life views and votes according to them. Though his progressive opponents refer to Lipinski as a “conservative,” the truth is he’s plenty liberal — but he’s not a liberal in the modern social-justice–activism mold, focusing instead on the policies that matter to blue-collar, working-class voters in his district. And, most abhorrent to today’s Left, he simply won’t cave on abortion.

The last time Lipinski faced Newman, he received endorsements from both of Chicago’s newspapers, the Tribune and the Sun-Times. This cycle, he has retained the support of only one of them. “Seeking his ninth term, Lipinski has been in sync with the district for a long time,” the Chicago Tribune editorial board writes, noting the congressman’s concerns about the divisive effects of radical progressivism on the Democratic Party. Newman, on the other hand, supports Obamcare “but ultimately sees Medicare for All as the best option” and favors the ultra-expensive Green New Deal.

“We’re concerned that such massive government spending programs are unworkable and unaffordable,” the Tribune concludes. “Lipinski’s outlook, which includes participation in the House bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus, is both more moderate and realistic. Lipinski is endorsed.”

Universities Can Be Global or Serve the National Interest. But Not Both. By Daniel Tenreiro

https://www.nationalreview.com/2020/02/education-department-investigates-harvard-yale-foreign-funding/

The Department of Education cracks down on alleged foreign funding of Yale and Harvard.

L ast week, the Wall Street Journal reported that the Department of Education had opened investigations into Harvard and Yale for allegedly failing to disclose billions in donations from foreign governments. The department claims that American universities received as much as $6.5 billion in unreported gifts from countries including China and Saudi Arabia.

Foreign governments use donations to influence the work of professors and gain access to intellectual property. China’s Thousand Talents Plan, which figures into the investigation, has funneled money to 3,000 university faculty members. In return, Beijing requires them to turn over intellectual property to which they have access, as well as to sign agreements preventing them from disclosing the results of work conducted under Chinese patronage. Meanwhile, Beijing-funded Confucius Institutes, which ostensibly support Chinese studies in the U.S., have reportedly engaged in censorship and espionage of American students and professors.

Section 117 of the Higher Education Act requires universities to disclose foreign contributions exceeding $250,000. If Harvard and Yale failed to comply, that indicates either a disregard for the law (which was enforced only loosely before Trump took office) or a tacit acknowledgment that the funding compromises the integrity of the institutions. In any event, it is clear that American universities do not see themselves as American.

That is not entirely surprising. Harvard and Yale were founded prior to the American Revolution. Primarily focused on ministerial training, they were colleges that educated American leaders but had no strong connection to the government. Universities were considered citadels of knowledge independent of their societies. Since they did not conduct scientific research for roughly the first two centuries of their existence, Harvard and Yale had only an indirect impact on the American military and economy.

Saving Higher Education By Victor Davis Hanson

https://www.nationalreview.com/2020/02/saving-higher-education-student-constitutional-rights-truth-in-lending-standards/

Start by guaranteeing students’ constitutional rights and holding schools to truth-in-lending standards.

D espite the denials of universities boards, administrators, and faculty, American higher education, particularly in the humanities and social sciences, is a hopeless mess. What basis is there for such a harsh diagnosis?

One, a college education is far too expensive. Nearly 45 million young Americans owe $1.5 trillion in student loans — a staggering sum unmatched in American history. Millions have either defaulted on their loans or are able to pay only the interest and are making no progress on the principle.

Universities have for decades upped their tuition and services higher than the rate of annual inflation. Yet they deny they have any responsibility for the staggering student debt, even though the encumbrances have altered the U.S. economy, culture, and demography. One of many reasons youth are marrying later, delaying child-rearing, and unable to buy a home is that so many of them are burdened well into their late twenties and early thirties with student-loan debt, on average over $30,000 per student. Again, the university more or less shrugs, insisting it has no responsibility for this collective national disaster that it helped create

The student-loan crisis could be alleviated if universities, not the federal government, were the co-signers of the loans, which would make them share with students the moral hazard of loan repayment. Instead of spending superfluously on “diversity and inclusion” czars and entire castes of non-teaching facilitators, universities would have incentives to lower non-teaching costs. It would be in their own financial interest to ensure that students could minimize debt by graduating within four years, and also to invest in job placement for their graduates, so they could move into the full-time workforce months after finishing school.

Two, universities have no methods to analyze whether students are, in fact, better educated after they graduate than when they enrolled. While most colleges still demand to see applicants’ standardized SAT or ACT scores, so they can judge the relative quality and significance of their high-school grade-point average, they allow no such audits on the efficacy of their own four-year course of study.

Ruthie Blum: Winds of Mideast change worth remembering at the ballot box Evidence of thawing anti-Israel enmity among states wishing to ally themselves with Washington against the ayatollah-led regime in Tehran should be cause for great celebration in the so-called “peace camp.”

https://www.jns.org/opinion/winds-of-mideast-change-worth-remembering-at-the-ballot-box/

The significance of two events that have been upstaged this week by the Hebrew media’s incessant coronavirus coverage cannot be overemphasized—particularly with the fast approach of the March 2 Knesset elections.

One was the rejection of an appeal by an activist in Bahrain sentenced to three years in prison for burning an Israeli flag during a pro-Palestinian protest last May. The other was the flight of an Israeli plane over the skies of Sudan.

Each occurred over the past weekend. Both indicate winds of change (one quite literal) in the Middle East, made possible through policies promoted by U.S. President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whose enhancing of ties with Arab leaders in the effort to keep the Islamic Republic of Iran’s regional and global hegemonic ambitions at bay is bearing fruit.

The Bahraini verdict comes amid the now-overt warming of ties between Manama and Jerusalem, which do not have official diplomatic relations. In October, for instance, Israeli Foreign Ministry counter-terrorism department head Dana Benvenisti-Gabay attended the “Working Group on Maritime and Aviation Security” conference in Bahrain. The gathering of 60 countries—co-hosted by Manama, Washington and Warsaw—was referred to by the Bahraini foreign ministry as “an occasion to exchange views on how to deal with the Iranian menace and to guarantee freedom of navigation.”

That conference took place four months after the White House gave a preview of the economic side to its “Peace to Prosperity” plan during a two-day workshop in Bahrain last June, attended by businesspeople and diplomats from the Middle East and elsewhere. The much-touted happening—the preview of Trump’s “deal of the century” that was unveiled on Jan. 28 in the presence of Netanyahu—was boycotted by the Palestinian Authority, in whose interest it was held in the first place. (The Israeli government wasn’t even invited as a gesture to the P.A.)

It is in the above context that Manama’s intolerance for the desecration of the Israeli flag can and should be understood.