Thanks, Private Property! By John Stossel

https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/thanks-private-property/

Families will argue this Thanksgiving.Such arguments have a long tradition.

The Pilgrims had clashing ideas about how to organize their settlement in the New World. The resolution of that debate made the first Thanksgiving possible.

The Pilgrims were religious, united by faith and a powerful desire to start anew, away from religious persecution in the Old World. Each member of the community professed a desire to labor together, on behalf of the whole settlement.

In other words: socialism.

But when they tried that, the Pilgrims almost starved.

Their collective farming — the whole community deciding when and how much to plant, when to harvest, who would do the work — was an inefficient disaster.

“By the spring,” Pilgrim leader William Bradford wrote in his diary, “our food stores were used up and people grew weak and thin. Some swelled with hunger… So they began to think how … they might not still thus languish in misery.”

His answer: divide the commune into parcels and assign each Pilgrim family its own property. As Bradford put it, they “set corn every man for his own particular. … Assigned every family a parcel of land.”

Private property protects us from what economists call the tragedy of the commons. The “commons” is a shared resource. That means it’s really owned by no one, and no one person has much incentive to protect it or develop it.

Netanyahu indictments are shifting few Israeli voters Ruthie Blum

https://www.jns.org/opinion/netanyahu-indictments-are-shifting-few-israeli-voters/

The only move has been among some of his supporters who fear having the greatest and longest-serving leader in Israel’s history end his career on a low note.

According to a poll released this week by Israel Hayom, 64 percent of Israelis say that the indictments against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced by Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit on Nov. 21 will not affect how they vote in the next Knesset elections. The same survey revealed that 44 percent of the public considers Netanyahu the leader best suited to be prime minister, compared to only 37 percent who feel that way about Blue and White chairman Benny Gantz. The same poll predicts that Gantz’s party would maintain the single-seat lead over Netanyahu’s Likud that it gained on Sept. 17.

The seeming inherent contradiction in terms—that Gantz is far less popular than Netanyahu, yet his party would still beat Likud by a sliver—sheds light on the Israeli political system and the predicament in which the country has been thrust since the first of what is likely to turn out to be three legislative elections in less than a year.

Ahead of the April 9 election, polls also showed Netanyahu beating Gantz as a preferred candidate for prime minister, yet indicated a neck-and-neck race between the parties of the two. When the votes were counted, the victory appeared to be clear. Though Likud and Blue and White tied, with each garnering 35 out of the total 120 Knesset seats, the right-wing bloc was much greater than the left. A government headed by Netanyahu seemed to be in the bag yet again.

Wikipedia’s anti-Israel editors unmasked by Adam Kredo

https://worldisraelnews.com/wikipedias-anti-israel-editors-unmasked/

A pro-Israel organization has exposed the identities of top Wikipedia editors who use the online encyclopedia to promote anti-Israel bias and causes, a first-of-its-kind effort that is unmasking a global online network of Israel critics.

The Israel Group, a nonprofit organization that combats anti-Israel bias, is set to launch next year a database that will expose the true identities of many leading Wikipedia editors who harbor anti-Israel bias and have implanted this viewpoint across the website through more than 325,000 edits during the past 10 years. It has already listed the identities of several of these editors.

The new effort, dubbed Wiki-Israel, seeks to provide accountability for the numerous and often anonymous editors who control all of the content that exists on Wikipedia.

Leaders of the Israel Group accuse these individuals of acting as “a cabal of virulently anti-Israel anonymous editors” who are “responsible for decimating virtually the entire pro-Israel editing community.”

Leaders of the Israel Group view Wikipedia, with its global reach and wide readership, as a central battleground in the fight to combat the anti-Semitic Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement.

Will Justice for Trump be Served in the DOJ Inspector General Report? When solidarity and loyalty are more important than truth or justice. Bruce Thornton

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2019/11/will-justice-trump-be-served-doj-inspector-general-bruce-thornton/

Advance hints about the conclusions of Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz’s investigation into the abuses of the FISA process are starting to trickle out. Rather than the “historic,” as Trump put it, bombshell exposing deep-state miscreants gaming the system to take down the president, the report, to be released December 9, will document mere “sloppiness” and “mistakes” on the part of lower-level functionaries. But more important, it also will absolve more highly placed officials of any political bias.

The 500-page report may not confirm this preview. Perhaps it will address what Andrew McCarthy identifies is the real question:

On four separate occasions, the FBI and the Justice Department solemnly told the FISC there were grounds to believe that Carter Page and others in the Trump campaign, potentially including Donald Trump himself, were complicit in a criminal conspiracy with the Kremlin. The question is: What was their compelling basis for making that explosive representation, which breached the American norm against government intrusion in our political process?

We’ll have to wait for the answer to that question.

But these leaks are grounds for suspicion. Back in June, Horowitz made a similar determination about James Comey––incompetent at following proper protocol, but not “politically biased.” Given that ample evidence of Comey’s political agenda had long been public, common sense suggests that those of us concerned about the politicization of our judicial and investigative agencies have some reason to worry about Horowitz’s new report.

Equal justice under the law is the bedrock of constitutional governments. This principle was serially violated during the Obama years, when those responsible for the abuse of the IRS for partisan political gain, and for the ATF’s Fast and Furious operation, which was basically running guns to Mexican cartels, were never punished, despite the death of an American citizen by a gun provided by the ATF. Then there’s Hillary Clinton’s ongoing immunity for patent crimes related to violating security protocols with her private server, and running a pay-to-play State Department to enrich the Clinton Foundation.

ADL Acknowledges Excess Muslim Jew-Hatred In Western Europe But in typical fashion, it was downplayed. Andrew Bostom

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2019/11/adl-acknowledges-excess-muslim-jew-hatred-western-andrew-bostom/

November 21, 2019, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) released its 2019 survey data on the prevalence (occurrence) of extreme Antisemitism (defined, below) within 18 countries assessed between April 15 and June 3, 2019. Six of these countries—Belgium, The United Kingdom, Germany, Spain, France, and Italy—included a Muslim over-sample, allowing for a direct comparison of Muslims vs. Christians, those professing no religion, and the overall populations.

As ADL’s own press release stated:

Muslim acceptance of anti-Semitic stereotypes was substantially higher than among the national populations—on average almost three times as high—in the six countries tested: Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and The United Kingdom.

In sadly typical fashion, however, the ADL downplayed these findings in its press release, effectively concealing them as the last of six bullet points, i.e., # 6 of 6.

The ADL also failed to expressly note how compared to Western European Christians, specifically, Muslims were also ~3-times more likely to harbor extreme Antisemitic attitudes as gauged by abiding at least 6 of 11 Antisemitic stereotypes queried. (see tabulated data)

In brief, the ADL presents respondents with the following questionnaire:

Jews are more loyal to Israel than to [this country/to the countries they live in]
Jews have too much power in the business world
Jews have too much power in international financial markets
Jews still talk too much about what happened to them in the Holocaust
Jews don’t care what happens to anyone but their own kind
Jews have too much control over global affairs
Jews have too much control over the United States government
Jews think they are better than other people
Jews have too much control over the global media
Jews are responsible for most of the world’s wars
People hate Jews because of the way Jews behave

The “Index Score” determining the occurrence of “extreme Antisemitism” in each population surveyed is calculated as follows:

Shocking Testimony in Florida Court Accuses Rep. Ilhan Omar of Being a Qatari ‘Asset’ By Rick Moran

https://pjmedia.com/trending/testimony-in-florida-court-accuses-rep-ilhan-omar-of-being-a-qatari-asset/

Shocking testimony in a Florida court where a Qatari-born Canadian businessman, Alan Bender, told the court in a video statement that Representative Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) is a Qatari intelligence asset who has passed on sensitive information to the government of Qatar, which then passed it on to Iran.

The testimony came during the trial of Sheikh Khalid bin Hamad al-Thani, the brother of the former emir of Qatar, Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani. He is accused of ordering his American bodyguard to murder two people, and of holding an American citizen hostage.

Bender accused Omar of being bought by the Qatari security services and said she was getting money and support even before she ran for office.

Jerusalem Post:

According to his sworn deposition, the three officials told him: “If it wasn’t for our cash, Ilhan  Omar would be just another black Somali refugee in America collecting welfare and serving tables on weekends.”

Bender testified that the officials asked him to recruit American politicians and journalists as Qatari assets, and that when he objected, was told that several prominent figures were already on the payroll. Omar was described as the “jewel in the crown,” he said.

How The Media’s Impeachment Push Harms Democrats The corporate media simply don’t have the power that they once did to control the narrative and control political outcomes.By Mollie Hemingway

https://thefederalist.com/2019/11/26/how-the-medias-impeachment-push-harms-democrats/

Right up through the end of Rep. Adam Schiff’s (D-Calif.) impeachment hearings, the media were impeachment’s most enthusiastic supporters. While they’ve been convinced of the need to impeach President Donald Trump for several years now, the hearings convinced them even more of the urgent need to do so.

The media weren’t entirely clear on exactly what grounds he should be impeached, a problem shared by Schiff and his team, but that didn’t dint their enthusiasm one bit.

Instead of making the case that Trump had committed some sort of high crime or misdemeanor meriting immediate removal, they instead just asserted that an unspecified crime had occurred and that witnesses had testified unambiguously that it had occurred. People who actually suffered through the hearings might be forgiven for not having the same impression.

Sure, viewers saw a bunch of hand-selected bureaucrats assert that Bad Orange Man wanted Ukraine to investigate various things, but we already knew that from Trump’s release of the transcript of his call with the Ukrainian president and his many public statements on the matter. The question was never about whether Trump wanted these investigations, or even whether one involved the Bidens, but whether it was criminal, much less impeachable, to want these things from a country that receives hundreds of millions of dollars in American taxpayer funds each year.

Trump’s well known efforts were so anodyne and frankly ineffective that — despite the media’s promises of bombshells after bombshells — the best evidence there was for him wanting these things were his own public statements, and not any of the testimony from third- or fourth-hand witnesses.

Are Thought Crimes Impeachable? . By Victor Davis Hanson

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2019/11/26/are_thought_crimes_impeachable_141814.html

During special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation, his legal “dream team” tried to make a secondary case that Donald Trump also obstructed efforts to prove Trump-Russian “collusion.”

Trump was said to have advised his lawyers and other subordinates, past and present, not to cooperate fully with the Mueller investigation. Yet the special counsel did not pursue any actionable cases of egregious interference by the White House.

Indeed, Mueller would never have concluded his $35 million, 22-month investigation had he not enjoyed cooperation from the White House.

White House employees were questioned freely by the special counsel. Documents were released. When the special counsel’s exhaustive investigation into purported Trump-Russia collusion found no such crime, the fallback claim of obstruction arose. Trump allegedly wanted to curtail Mueller’s parameters of inquiry into something that was proven not to be a crime.

Mueller found no grounds for a criminal referral on obstruction of justice. But he repeatedly hinted that Trump had thought about obstructing the non-crime of collusion.

In the Ukrainian melodrama, Trump is accused of the thought crime of considering the withholding of military assistance unless Ukraine investigated possible Ukrainian tampering in the 2016 U.S. presidential election and also former Vice President Joe Biden’s intervention in Ukrainian politics on behalf of his son.

As a historian of England’s shameful anti-Semitic past,I dread the idea of Prime Minister Corbyn  By Tom Holland 

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2019/11/16/englands-shameful-history-blood-libel-compelled-denounce-corbyns/

OnThursdayIjoinedJohnLeCarré,TrevorPhillips,FiyazMughalandmanyothersinsigningaletterexplainingourrefusaltovoteLabouron12December.Theconcern–indeed,thedread–whichweexpressedwas“theprospectofaprimeministersteepedinassociationwithantisemitism.”WhetherJeremyCorbynispersonallyanti-semitic,orwilfullyblind,orboth,Idonotpresumetojudge;butthesheerrangeofhiscontactswithindisputableanti-semites,hisrepeatedexpressionsofenthusiasmforthem,meansthatIhavelongfounditimpossibletoignoretheanxietiesofJewishfriends.

Oneassociationinparticularseemstomebeyondthepale.In2011,writingintheMorningStar,thefutureLabourleadercondemned“theZionistlobby”forsecuringthedeportationfromBritainofaPalestinianactivistnamedRaedSaleh.Ayearlater,CorbynwasstillcampaigningonSaleh’sbehalf,andevenissuedhimaninvitationto“teaontheHouseofCommonsterrace.”Itishardtothinkofanyonelessdeservingofsuchaninvitation.SalehhasbeenconvictedofdeployingthemostrepellantofallthemanycalumniesdirectedagainsttheJewsoverthecenturies:thechargethattheyareinthehabitofmixingchildren’sbloodwiththeirritualbread.

ThisbloodlibeliswidelyrepeatedacrosstheMiddleEasttoday–butitdidnotoriginatethere.ItoriginatedinEngland.Thecontextwasagrowingdreadin12thcenturyChristendomoftheJewsaswillingagentsoftheDevil.Increasinglytheywerefingeredassorcerersandblasphemers:enemiesoftheChurchwho,giventhechance,wouldpollutethesacredvesselsusedintheeucharistwiththeirspit,theirsperm,theirexcrement.Darkestofall,theywerechargedwithmurder.

In1144,thediscoveryofayoungboy’scorpseinawoodoutsideNorwichpromptedahostofsensationalaccusations:thattheboyhadbeenkidnappedbythecity’sJews,torturedasChristhadbeentorturedandofferedupasasacrifice.Thestoryspreadlikewildfire.AssimilartaleswerereportedacrossChristendom,afurtherhellishrefinementwasadded:thattheJews,inagrotesqueparodyoftheeucharist,mixedbloodintotheirbread.

Thatthisclaimwascondemnedasalibelfirstbyanimperialcommission,andthen,in1253,bythepapacyitself,didnothingtostopitsspread.Twoyearslater,thediscoveryinLincolnofasmallboynamedHughatthebottomofawellsawninetyJewsarrestedforthemurderontheordersofthekinghimself.Eighteenofthemwerehanged.Themurderedboywashailedasamartyr.ThatthepapacypointedlyrefusedtoconfirmthiscanonisationdidlittletocheckthegrowthofthecultofLittleSaintHugh.

A Meaningful Milestone in Sweden? by Bruce Bawer

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/15208/sweden-milestone

Conditions in Sweden have deteriorated so drastically — with everything from child care to elder care being deprived of funds that are instead being used to feed, clothe and house refugees, faux refugees, and other foreign freeloaders — that many Norwegians worry, with good reason, about a massive spillover of social chaos, poverty and crime from a country with which it shares a thousand-mile-long border.

One is reminded, of course, of the indefensible way in which British authorities handled — or refused to handle — decades of child-rape cases in Rotherham, Rochdale and other cities throughout Britain. But in Sweden — whose distinctive history of ideological conformity and self-image as a “moral superpower”… the readiness to deny unpleasant realities is even more widespread and deep-seated than in the U.K. and other Western European countries.

It was the Social Democrats and Moderates that created Sweden’s current crisis and allowed it to endure and worsen and be considered beyond criticism….

The Sweden Democrats’ triumph, then, may well be at once a genuine milestone in the advance of Swedish democracy and individualism and a mere turn in the road to ultimate cultural displacement.

When I moved to Norway twenty years ago, a term I encountered often was “American conditions” (amerikanske tilstander). It was always used disparagingly. It referred to such things as urban sprawl, strip malls, inner-city gangs, school shootings and private health care. After Barack Obama became president, I heard the term far less frequently — in Norway, after all, you cannot get too rough on a country with a black president, especially a president to whom you have given the Nobel Peace Prize.

Today, even though Trump-bashing — in Norway as in the U.S. — is the media’s favorite sport, the term does not seem to have come back into widespread use, which perhaps has something to do with the fact that the U.S., among other things, now has the world’s strongest economy and staggeringly enviable employment figures. Meanwhile, there is another term that has become increasingly common in Norway: “Swedish conditions” (svenske tilstander). It really took off about two years ago, when Sylvi Listhaug, Norway’s then Minister of Immigration and Integration, used it after visiting some of Sweden’s worst Muslim enclaves — a reaction that outraged politicians and journalists on both sides of the border.

Although recently there has been good news from Sweden — which I will get to shortly — let it be said, at the outset, that the term “Swedish conditions,” when used in Norway, has exclusively negative connotations. While “American conditions” covers a wide range of purported sins, however, “Swedish conditions” means basically one thing, or rather one set of intimately related things: admitting masses of unvetted immigrants from a very different culture into your country, encouraging them to settle in monocultural, autocratic enclaves that become no-go zones, allowing them to sit home collecting generous welfare benefits instead of learning the local language and finding jobs, and punishing even their most brutal crimes with a slap on the wrist — all the while continuing to repeat the mantra that their culture has enriched Sweden and to ignore the glaring reality that Sweden is undergoing a long-term conquest as well as what one Norwegian observer has called “an inferno of violence.”