EDUCATION Comments turned off

UCLA Students File Criminal Complaints Against anti-Israel Disruptors Doing the job the university won’t do. Edwin Black

Posted By on June 14th, 2018

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/270460/ucla-students-file-criminal-complaints-against-edwin-black

Criminal complaints are now being filed by students following the belligerent disruption of a May 17, 2018 Students Supporting Israel [SSI] event at University of California Los Angeles. At least a half-dozen students announced they would visit the UCLA police department to file formal complaints reporting criminal disruption of a meeting, as well as disturbing the peace and conspiracy.

The move follows media disclosures that the UCLA was reneging on the public pledge by two chancellors in the Daily Bruin —bolstered by a statement for the record by a university spokesman — to refer the belligerent May 17 incident to prosecutors.

The disruption and nose-to-nose intimidation of the students attending the May 17 SSI event at UCLA was documented in a video, beginning at minute 41. Disruptors suddenly and loudly stormed into the room mid-session. One person tore down a flag, demonstratively pulled away a desk placard, and cursed threateningly close to the face of a panelist. With bullhorns, whistles, staged dancing, and slogan shouting, the event was shut down.

The Louis Brandeis D. Center, led by attorney Alyza Lewin, along with Director of Legal Initiatives Aviva Vogelstein and three law students in the UCLA Brandeis chapter, dispatched a letter to the university asserting that the disruption crossed the line into misdemeanor violations of the California criminal code. They cited Title 11, section 403 (which covers deliberate disruption of a public meeting —successfully used to convict the so-called Irvine 11), section 415 (which covers malicious disturbance of the peace), and section 182 (which forbids any conspiracy to violate the other sections).

WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Hey, Liz! An open letter to Queen Elizabeth II.

Posted By on June 14th, 2018

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/270408/hey-liz-bruce-bawer

To Your Most Royal, Majestic and Imperial Personage, by the Grace of God Sovereign of the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Tuvalu, Antigua and Barbuda, the Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Grenada, Jamaica, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, and (last but not least) Saint Vincent and the Grenadines:

Your Multifariously Magnificent Queenship, I must begin by confessing that I am not exactly a monarchist. In fact I’m not a monarchist at all. Some of my best friends are monarchists, but I’m not one of them. The problem here is that I’m an American, and some of my ancestors, as it happened, fought a Revolution to liberate us from your screwy, drooling, and, let’s face it, essentially ga-ga great-great-great grandfather, George III. As a result, we norteamericanos kind of have anti-monarchism in our genes. Sorry about that. Nothing personal.

Another problem is that I’ve lived in a couple of monarchies – although not any of yours (and boy, what a list! What’s it like to be Queen of Saint Lucia?) – and I’ve seen European kings and queens whose lives are supposed to be consecrated to the welfare of their people but who routinely say and do things that amount to a cruel betrayal of those very people.

You want me to be specific? Okay, one example: in 2004, when a jihadi terrorist slaughtered Theo van Gogh, a celebrated writer and filmmaker and an outspoken critic of Islam (and a collateral descendant of the famous painter) in the streets of Amsterdam – in broad daylight, mind you – the now-retired Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands not only didn’t do anything to honor his memory; she rushed to the nearest Muslim community center to show solidarity with her nation’s Islamic minority. It was, in a word, despicable. She might as well have spit on van Gogh’s grave.

Beatrix is a coward. Her son, the current Dutch king, is no better. Maybe worse, in fact. Yes, probably worse. Ditto the horrific royals in Sweden and Belgium. That Queen Margrethe in Denmark isn’t so bad – sometimes, in fact, she’s quite impressive – but her record in these matters is uneven.

WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Riots In Jordan Put Gulf States On Edge Will Abdullah II be the next Arab leader to fall? Ari Lieberman

Posted By on June 14th, 2018

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/270440/riots-jordan-put-gulf-states-edge-ari-lieberman

The oil-rich Gulf States – Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates – are not known for easily parting with their petro-dollars. But this miserly instinct dissipates when the Sheikhdoms perceive a direct threat to the stability of their respective governments. On Sunday, the three nations led by Riyadh pledged to provide Jordan with a cash infusion of $2.5 billion to help the arid kingdom prop up its free-falling economy. Separately, the European Union announced that it would provide Jordan with $23.5 million. The hefty Gulf State bailout is testament to how seriously they view the problem.

Jordan has recently experienced a spasm of popular unrest and widespread demonstrations, sparked by tax increases and painful austerity measures implemented by King Abdullah II’s prime minister, Hani Mulki, to deal with growing debt. In 2016, cash-strapped Jordan secured a $723-million loan from the International Monetary Fund. The economic reforms instituted by PM Mulki were tied to this loan but proved to be widely unpopular.

Jordanians watched as subsidies on basic food items were eliminated and standards of living declined while taxes increased. Paychecks got smaller while everything became more expensive. This was enough to push Jordanians over the edge. As the riots spread to every province and major town, Abdullah moved quickly to quell the unrest by firing his prime minister and reversing previously implemented tax hikes and austerity measures.

The move has ameliorated tensions and demonstrations have tapered off for now but the underlying problems highlighting the monarchy’s fragility remain. Jordan is a poor, mostly desert country that produces nothing and relies principally on handouts for its existence. Unemployment hovers at a staggering 18 percent and the national debt continues to rise.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

From 9/11 to Spygate: The National Security Deep State The men that failed on 9/11 used their new powers to suppress the truth about Islamic terror. Daniel Greenfield

Posted By on June 14th, 2018

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/270430/911-spygate-national-security-deep-state-daniel-greenfield

On September 4, 2001, Robert Mueller took over the FBI. At his confirmation hearings, fraud had overshadowed discussions of terrorism. And as FBI Director, Mueller quickly diverged from the common understanding that the attacks that killed 3,000 people had been an act of war rather than a crime.

In 2008, Abdullah Saleh al-Ajmi, who had been unleashed from Guantanamo Bay, carried out a suicide bombing in Iraq. Al-Ajmi had been represented by Thomas Wilner who was being paid by the Kuwaiti government.

Wilner was a pal of Robert Mueller. And when the families were having dinner together, Mueller got up and said, “I want to toast Tom Wilner. He’s doing just what an American lawyer should do.”

“I don’t know what he was doing from inside the government. I’d like to find out,” Wilner mused.

We know some of what Mueller was doing. The same official who paved the way for raiding the president’s lawyer, who illegally seized material from the Trump transition team and whose case is based in no small part on illegal eavesdropping, fought alongside Comey against surveilling terrorists. Materials involving the Muslim Brotherhood were purged. Toward the dawn of the second Obama term, Mueller met with CAIR and other Islamist groups and a green curtain fell over national security.

But the surveillance wasn’t going anywhere. Instead it was being redirected to new targets.

ENVIRONMENT AND JUNK SCIENCE Comments turned off

The Left’s Cynicism Overshadows Its Environmentalism By Todd Myers

Posted By on June 14th, 2018

https://www.nationalreview.com/2018/06/leftist-democrats-environmental-hypocrisy-on-gas-prices/They advocate steep taxes, then complain about high gas prices.

A recent letter sent to President Trump says a great deal about how cynical energy and environmental policy has become in the United States. An excerpt: “The impact of rising fuel prices on our economy and on family budgets is significant and widespread.”

Those words of concern about the price of gas are from a letter co-signed by Senate Democratic leader Charles Schumer. Ironically, Senator Schumer (D., N.Y.) has long supported increasing the price of gas as part of a policy to reduce CO2 emissions to fight climate change.

So too have the three others who signed the letter. Senator Maria Cantwell (D., Wash.) proposed a “cap-and-dividend” bill that would have increased gas taxes by up to 21 cents per gallon. The letter was also signed by Senator Ed Markey (D., Mass.), whose name adorns the most aggressive climate legislation of the last decade, a bill that would have increased gas prices by up to 63 cents per gallon, according to the Energy Information Administration.

The senators’ letter laments the rise in oil prices as summer approaches, calling on the president to jawbone Saudi Arabia to cut prices and “put pressure on oil exporting nations.” Ironically, the United States may soon become the world’s leading oil-exporting nation.

Demanding that the president cut gas prices so families can use more fossil fuels demonstrates how cynically the Left uses environmental policy. The explicit goal of carbon taxes and cap-and-trade systems is to increase the price of gasoline, home heating, and electricity, providing an incentive for consumers to use less. Schumer and the others who signed the letter all support these policies, which would, in their words, have a significant impact “on our economy and family budgets.”

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Rod Rosenstein’s Subpoena Threat: He’s Conflicted, and He’s Acting Like It By Andrew C. McCarthy

Posted By on June 14th, 2018

https://www.nationalreview.com/2018/06/rod-rosenstein-subpoena-threat-shows-conflict-of-interest/He clings to his role in the process despite being a central witness in Comey’s dismissal.

The House Intelligence Committee is investigating whether the government has used the Justice Department’s awesome investigative authorities as a weapon against political adversaries. We learned yesterday that, in response to this very investigation, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein . . . threatened to use the Justice Department’s awesome investigative authorities as a weapon against political adversaries.

That Rosenstein threatened to subpoena the committee’s records does not seem to be in serious dispute. There are differing accounts about why. House investigators say that Rosenstein was trying to bully his way out of compliance with oversight demands; the Justice Department offers the lawyerly counter that Rosenstein was merely foreshadowing his litigating position if the House were to try to hold him in contempt for obstructing its investigations. Either way, the best explanation for the outburst is that Rosenstein is beset by profound conflicts of interest, and he’s acting like it.

The first thing to bear in mind about the news reported Tuesday by Fox News’s Catherine Herridge is that the dispute in question — which is just one of many during a year of Justice Department stonewalling — happened five months ago, on January 10.

So, what was going on back then?

EDUCATION Comments turned off

Campus Insanity Hits High School As Teachers Protest ‘Eurocentric’ ‘Imperialism’ Of History Classes By Joy Pullmann

Posted By on June 14th, 2018

http://thefederalist.com/2018/06/13/campus-insanity-hits-high-school-teachers-protest-eurocentric-imperialism-world-history-class/

It’s idiotic to decide who is important to study based on what their skin and hair looks like rather than our available knowledge about their civilization and its effects on the world.

It may not be comfortable for parents to realize that their kids’ teachers are molded by an almost entirely left-wing credentialing cartel, but it’s been happening for decades and is now overtly politicizing K-12 history classes. This week high school teachers protested the College Board’s changes to its Advanced Placement world history classes, which thousands of high schools teach across the country every year.

“You cannot tell my black and brown students that their history is not going to be tested and then assume that that’s not going to matter. Right, the people in power in our country already are telling those same students that their history, that their present, that their future doesn’t matter. And by you making this decision, you are going along with that,” teacher Amanda DoAmaral told College Board Senior Vice President Trevor Packer at a conference this week.

Rather than pointing out to DoAmaral that it’s historically illiterate — not to mention possibly racist — to assume you know a person’s ancestry simply by looking at his or her skin color, Packer told her other parts of the curriculum could fit in her demands. The AP curricula changes teachers object to are primarily simply dividing world history into two classes because, as one might reasonably imagine, it’s difficult to thoroughly cover the history of the entire world in a single class. College Board frequently gets complaints about cramming too much into its courses.

MEDIA Comments turned off

OUR IMPLODING PRESS: PATRICK MAINES

Posted By on June 14th, 2018

https://amgreatness.com/2018/06/14/our-imploding

Patrick Maines recently retired as president of the Media Institute, a nonprofit think tank promoting a strong First Amendment, sound communications policies, and journalistic excellence

If democracy in the United States is imperiled, as some say it is, then the pregnant question remains: Imperiled by whom? For the Left, Democrats, the pop culture industry, most of the mainstream press, and those in the permanent government bureaucracy known colloquially as “the deep state,” the answer is always Donald Trump. Trump because he is a president unschooled in the manners and mores of the country’s so-called elites.

For most everybody else, the answer may be found in the reflection of those same people and institutions whose over-the-top antics are a consequence of their hatred of Trump. They marinate in a vat of hypocrisy and self-promotion, and soothe themselves with the belief that the ends (removing Trump) justify their means.

Consider, for instance, the quality of political news coverage from outlets like CNN, NBC, and its offspring, MSNBC. No matter when you tune in, you can count on tendentious and nonstop anti-Trump commentary offered in a manner that perfectly blends hubris with hysteria.

But where is the historical perspective? Where is the gravity one would expect from people who work in the only industry protected by name in the constitution? If, in fact, the media are essential to our democracy, is it too much to expect from them the modest acknowledgment that nothing is more central to a democracy than elections, even those that are won by people one dislikes?

A Shameful Surrender

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

The Real Rising Extremism in America By Eric Lendrum

Posted By on June 14th, 2018

https://amgreatness.com/2018/06/14/the-real-rising-extremism-in

As the adage goes, “Accuse your opponents of that which you are guilty.” Avoid the blame, or embarrassment, for your own vices by first declaring that your enemies are guilty of those same ills so that the disgust and attention are shifted away from you.

The American Left has all but mastered this tactic, having successfully accused the Republican Party—and the Right as a whole—of being bigoted, sexist, racist, and the like, while completely erasing the Democratic Party’s history as supporters of slavery, against women’s suffrage, and in favor of segregation and Jim Crow. Their dramatic switch came only when it was politically expedient for them to attempt it, as Lyndon Johnson understood with his infamous (private) declaration before signing the Civil Rights Act of 1964. (For those who aren’t aware . . . let’s just say Johnson had a blunt way of declaring that African-Americans would be loyal to Democrats for the next two centuries.)

But this tactic has never before been used so liberally (pardon the pun) as it is used today, where just about every person to the right of Joseph Stalin is “literally Hitler,” anyone who voted for Trump (if even reluctantly) is “alt-right,” and anyone who opposes open borders, multiculturalism, and globalism is “far-right.” Everyone from libertarians to Christians is part of some kind of fringe, although the definition of “fringe” now encompasses the bulk of the cloth.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

The Silencing of the Inspectors General By Victor Davis Hanson

Posted By on June 14th, 2018

https://amgreatness.com/2018/06/14/the-silencing-of-the-inspectors

Department of Justice Inspector General Michael Horowitz, an Obama Administration appointee, is scheduled to deliver a report this week on DOJ and FBI abuses during the 2016 campaign cycle. Remember: His last investigation of FBI misconduct advised a criminal referral for fired former Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe, who allegedly lied to federal investigators.

McCabe and at least a half-dozen other FBI employees quit, retired, were fired, or were reassigned as a result of fallout from the politicization of the FBI. Yet, as Barack Obama left office, his chief of staff, Denis McDonough, strangely boasted that the Obama Administration “has been historically free of scandal.” Obama himself recently concluded of his eight-year tenure, “I didn’t have scandals.”

Those were puzzling assertions, given nearly nonstop scandals during Obama’s eight years in office involving the IRS; General Services Administration; Peace Corps; Secret Service; Veterans Administration; and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, not to mention the Clinton email server scandal, the Benghazi scandal and the 2016 Democratic National Committee email scandal.

For nearly eight years, the Obama Administration sought to cover up serial wrongdoing by waging a veritable war against the watchdog inspectors general of various federal agencies.

In 2014, 47 of the nation’s 73 inspectors general signed a letter alleging that Obama had stonewalled their “ability to conduct our work thoroughly, independently, and in a timely manner.”