NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Washington WhodunIt: Who Pushed the Dossier, Brennan or Comey? By Debra Heine

Posted By on May 16th, 2019

https://pjmedia.com/trending/washington-whodunit-who-pushed-the-dossier-brennan-or-comey/

Former FBI Director James Comey and former CIA Director John Brennan continue to be at odds over whose idea it was to include the unverified Steele dossier in the Intelligence Community Assessment of January 2017 (ICA).

The high-level dispute erupted after news broke that Attorney General William Barr appointed a U.S. attorney to examine the origins of the Russia investigation and to determine whether the FBI and DOJ’s actions were “lawful and appropriate.”

“This is very serious business and for the first time, I now believe that some of these guys are going to go to prison,” Washington attorney Joe diGenova told Fox News host Laura Ingraham on Tuesday.

According to Fox News’ Catherine Herridge, sources familiar with the records say that “a late-2016 email chain indicated then-FBI Director James Comey told bureau subordinates that then-CIA Director John Brennan insisted the dossier be included in the intelligence community assessment on Russian interference, known as the ICA.”

This would be the same email chain former congressman Trey Gowdy referred to in a Fox News interview with Martha MacCallum on Tuesday, when he said, “In 2016, well after it [the Steele dossier] had been used, it was still unverified and the people responsible for it were referring to it as unverified and one or the other demanded that it be included in the intelligence assessment …”

HISTORY Comments turned off

Our Modern ‘Satyricon’ By Victor Davis Hanson

Posted By on May 16th, 2019

https://pjmedia.com/victordavishanson/our-modern-satyricon/

“Petronius also argues that with too much rapid material progress comes moral regress. His final warning might be especially troubling for the current generation of Western Europeans and Americans. Even as we brag of globalizing the world and enriching the West materially and culturally, we are losing our soul in the process.”

Sometime around A.D. 60, in the age of Emperor Nero, a Roman court insider named Gaius Petronius wrote a satirical Latin novel, “The Satyricon,” about moral corruption in Imperial Rome. The novel’s general landscape was Rome’s transition from an agrarian republic to a globalized multicultural superpower.

The novel survives only in a series of extended fragments. But there are enough chapters for critics to agree that the high-living Petronius, nicknamed the “Judge of Elegance,” was a brilliant cynic. He often mocked the cultural consequences of the sudden and disruptive influx of money and strangers from elsewhere in the Mediterranean region into a once-traditional Roman society.

The novel plots the wandering odyssey of three lazy, overeducated and mostly underemployed single young Greeks: Encolpius, Ascyltos and Giton. They aimlessly mosey around southern Italy. They panhandle and mooch off the nouveau riche. They mock traditional Roman customs. The three and their friends live it up amid the culinary, cultural and sexual excesses in the age of Nero.

POLITICS Comments turned off

U.S. Democrats Follow U.K. Labour Party Down The Anti-Semitism Rat Hole By Erielle Davidson

Posted By on May 16th, 2019

https://thefederalist.com/2019/05/16/u-s-democrats-follow-u-k-labour-party-anti-semitism-rat-hole/

What level of Holocaust revisionism or Farrakhan-cavorting might it take for Democrats to realize their party is sick with racism?

This past Tuesday, yet another Labour member of the United Kingdom’s Parliament resigned from the party. After 45 years, Bridget Prentice, a former member of Parliament (MP) for Lewisham East, called it quits in a letter to the acting general secretary of the Labour Party.

Prentice’s letter offered a stinging rebuke of the devolution of the Labour Party under the auspices of Jeremy Corbyn. Unsurprisingly, among Prentice’s top concerns, in addition to the party’s anti-Europe swivel, was Labour’s inability to address concerns about anti-Semitism. Prentice’s letter is a dark omen of what the future may portend for the American Democratic Party, which, similar to the Labour Party, has been reeling from accusations of anti-Semitism.

Prentice writes, “Over the past three years I have watched in horror as Jewish members have begged for support against the growth of anti-Semitism both within and out with the Party.” She criticizes Labour’s “slow, reluctant and inadequate” response to claims of anti-Semitism and the mere “slap on the wrist” that was supposed to reprimand such bigotry.

Luciana Berger was a prominent Jewish MP who left Labour earlier this year due to repeated and unpunished harassment. In reference to her departure, Prentice censures the general secretary, “For a pregnant woman MP to [be] bullied out of the party is shameful and embarrassing.”

EDUCATION Comments turned off

CUNY College Disgraces Itself By Giving Honorary Degree To Al Sharpton Craig Traiinor

Posted By on May 16th, 2019

https://thefederalist.com/2019/05/16/cuny-college-disgraces-giving-honorary-degree-al-sharpton/

The indictment against Al Sharpton is public record. For more than 35 years of public life, he has proven himself a charlatan and a race hustler. The evidence is irrefutable.

The City University of New York is a lifeline to the examined life and the middle class for generations of poor and working-class students, from Irving Kristol to Colin Powell to me. Medgar Evers College, a senior college within the City University of New York system, intends to confer an honorary degree on Al Sharpton at its June 5, 2019, commencement. Sharpton is many things; a doctor of humane letters is not one of them.

Medgar Evers was a World War II veteran who organized fellow Mississippi NAACP members to obtain the civil rights being denied to black Americans in the 1950s and ’60s. As dangerous as it was noble, he coordinated voter registration drives and boycotts of segregated businesses. Thurgood Marshall said Evers had “more courage than anybody I’ve ever ran across.” Evers gave his life for the advancement of black Americans when a Klansman shot and killed him in his driveway in Jackson, Mississippi, on June 12, 1963.

By contrast, Sharpton’s greatest achievement has been avoiding criminal prosecution. Sharpton has spent a public career enriching himself under the banner of advancing civil rights. He didn’t calm racial tensions; he inflamed them. He didn’t work for racial healing; he rubbed the wounds raw. Evers was a genuine civil rights leader; Sharpton played one on TV. Simply put, Sharpton is not a good man. He is unworthy of this honor.

ISRAEL Comments turned off

The Reason Why the Gaza Wars Continue By Fred Maroun

Posted By on May 16th, 2019

https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/the-reason-why-the-gaza-wars-continue/?fbclid=IwAR2TuleWPf_lOGlqg3kBpyqELHYeIBzpOPu8tJADF_OnbVI0tKOvRffO8TA

Fred Maroun, a Canadian of Arab origin who lived in Lebanon until 1984 (including during 10 years of civil war), says it in a nutshell…thanks to KRD Daily…..Pretty much all the mainstream reporting on Gaza’s conflict with Israel misses the most important fact, leading the general public that relies on the mainstream media to totally misunderstand the situation: The reason why the conflict continues is because Israel does not hit Gaza hard enough to end it. Once it is said, the statement sounds obvious, yet journalists rarely say it.

Israel withdrew its military and its settlements from Gaza in 2005, and left it 100% in the hands of the Palestinians. At first, there was no blockade. The blockade by Egypt and Israel developed later, after terrorists started attacking Israel from Gaza, as even the anti-Israel Al Jazeera recognizes. The only purpose of the blockade, which is backed by the United Nations, is to limit the supply of weapons to Gaza terrorists.

Yet Gaza terrorists keep attacking Israel, knowing that the attacks result in a blockade. The terrorists themselves tell us why they make that choice, by using expressions such as the “Great March of Return” and “Raising the banner of Allah on every inch of Palestine [Israel]”. Their clearly stated objective is to invade Israel.

The Gaza terrorists are not a resistance force because there is nothing for them to resist. Israel would gladly leave Gaza alone if it could. The Gaza terrorists are an invasion force, regardless of the fact that they are not capable of invading Israel at this time, and while they cannot invade, they can kill and terrorize, and they do it at will.

When Gaza terrorists attack Israel, they are attacking a sovereign nation that they have no legal right and no moral justification to attack, and Israel’s duty is to protect its citizens and the integrity of its borders. As was written in the National Review, “The actual law of war would allow Israel to invade Gaza, utterly destroy Hamas, and occupy Gaza City until Israel’s safety is ensured, even if it [Gaza City] burned in the fight”. Yet, Israel chooses to only manage the attacks and not to stop them. It chooses to not burn down Gaza City.

EDUCATION Comments turned off

SAT to Give Students ‘Adversity Score’ to Capture Social and Economic Background New score comes as college admissions decisions are under scrutiny By Douglas Belkin 

Posted By on May 16th, 2019

https://www.wsj.com/articles/sat-to-give-students-adversity-score-to-capture-social-and-economic-background-11557999000

The College Board plans to assign an adversity score to every student who takes the SAT to try to capture their social and economic background, jumping into the debate raging over race and class in college admissions.

This new number, called an adversity score by college admissions officers, is calculated using 15 factors including the crime rate and poverty levels from the student’s high school and neighborhood. Students won’t be told the scores, but colleges will see the numbers when reviewing their applications.

Fifty colleges used the score last year as part of a beta test. The College Board plans to expand it to 150 institutions this fall, and then use it broadly the following year.

How colleges consider a student’s race and class in making admissions decisions is hotly contested. Many colleges, including Harvard University, say a diverse student body is part of the educational mission of a school. A lawsuit accusing Harvard of discriminating against Asian-American applicants by holding them to a higher standard is awaiting a judge’s ruling. Lawsuits charging unfair admission practices have also been filed against the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the University of California system.

ISRAEL Comments turned off

International Law Backs The Trump Golan Policy For decades Syria has defied a U.N. mandate to negotiate with Israel. By Michael R. Pompeo and David Friedman

Posted By on May 16th, 2019

https://www.wsj.com/articles/international-law-backs-the-trump-golan-policy-11557875474

Mr. Pompeo is U.S. secretary of state. Mr. Friedman is U.S. ambassador to Israel.

President Trump’s recognition of Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights was met with condemnation from the European Union and others. Leaders called the move “invalid,” “illegitimate” and “absolutely worthless.” United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called Israel’s 1981 annexation of the Golan “null and void and without international legal effect.” These assertions are baseless.

Virtually every nation cited U.N. Security Council Resolution 242, which outlined a framework for achieving peace in the Middle East. The preamble speaks of “the inadmissibility of the acquisition of territory by war.” Yet President Trump’s Golan proclamation is entirely consistent with Resolution 242.

Resolution 242 was heavily negotiated and agreed to in 1967 by all but one of the warring parties in the Six-Day War—Syria, which controlled the Golan before the conflict. Damascus stayed on the sidelines until 1973 when, with its Arab allies, it launched and lost the Yom Kippur War. After that defeat, Syria signed on to Resolution 338, which made 242 applicable to all—the only substantive resolution to which all combatants have agreed.

MY SAY: Comments turned off

MY SAY: ELECTIONS ARE COMING

Posted By on May 16th, 2019

 The immortal composer and lyricist Kurt Weill wrote “But it’s a long while from May to December…..” But time does fly, and the election season goes into full gear in early February.

All the states will be choosing representatives for Congress and many Senate sets will be up. Those are critical, since the Dems are relentless in their drive to distract or destroy President Trump.
February 3, 2020 The Iowa Caucus
February  11,2020 The New Hampshire Primary…Democrat and GOP
February 22, 2020 Nevada Caucus- Democrat

February 29, 2020 South Carolina Democrat Primary

Then in March the primaries of both parties start on the 3rd for 23 States…..Stay tuned rsk

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION, POLITICS Comments turned off

Mackubin Thomas Owens: The Democrats’ Looming Self-Destruction

Posted By on May 16th, 2019

https://www.providencejournal.com/opinion/20190514/my-turn-mackubin-thomas-owens-democrats-looming-self-destruction

I was raised a Democrat. My parents, like most people of their generation (Depression and World War II), were Roosevelt Democrats. I, like most of their children, followed in their footsteps.

The first election in which I could vote was 1968 (the voting age was still 21) and I voted for Hubert Humphrey. I couldn’t bring myself to vote for either Richard Nixon or George McGovern in 1972, but I did vote for Jimmy Carter in 1976. Carter turned me into a Republican. As Ronald Reagan said, I did not leave the Democratic Party; the Democratic Party left me.

But despite my estrangement from the Democrats at the time, there was still room in the party for a Scoop Jackson, a Sam Nunn, and a Phil Gramm. It claimed the mantle of the middle and working classes. It was anti-communist and patriotic. It was committed to free speech and freedom of religion. But those days are long gone. Today’s party would have no place for John Kennedy.

It is now the party of rich bi-coastal liberals who disparage those who grow their food and make things work—the “deplorables” clinging to their guns and religion. It is the party of dueling victimization narratives (mirror, mirror, on the wall/who is the most oppressed of all?).

WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

The Iranian Government’s 40 Years of Hatred Towards America by Majid Rafizadeh

Posted By on May 16th, 2019

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/14235/iran-hatred-america

It was Iran, not the US, that breached international law by carrying out the US Embassy takeover in Tehran…. It was also Iran, not the US, that immediately began using its proxies, such as Hezbollah, to commit terrorism and incite antagonism towards America.

Should the mullahs be appeased for killing thousands of Americans? For continually taking Americans as hostages? For being the leading executioner of children in the world? For ranking the first in the world per capita when it comes to executing people? For being the world’s top state sponsor of terrorism? For making every possible effort to damage US national security and scuttle US foreign policy objectives?

The Iranian government’s hatred towards the US often seems the most important reason for its existence. As long as the ruling mullahs remain in power, the Islamic Republic will continue its acts of terror and deep antagonism against Americans, their Sunni neighbors, the lands they try to control — such as Iraq, Syria, Yemen, parts of Gaza and Venezuela, Lebanon — and the West.

The argument that the US must take an apologetic stance towards the theocratic establishment of Iran is being repeatedly made without the evidence of any effectiveness to back it up.

Former President Barack Obama created this policy, and insisted that it would be successful. Even as Iran flaunted its disregard for the American government, as well as human life, President Obama would continually apologize to the Iranian leaders. He made it sound as if America was to blame for initiating the hatred that the Iranian government projects toward the United States.