IMMIGRATION Comments turned off

Who Killed the Center-Left? By Matthew Continetti

Posted By on July 9th, 2018

https://www.nationalreview.com/2018/07/pro-illegal-immigration-politicians-killed-center-left/

Pro-illegal immigration politicians, that’s who

The victory of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez over long-time Democratic congressman Joe Crowley of New York inspired some hysterical punditry. We were told that the 28,000 people who voted in a district of more than 600,000 had decided the fate of the political universe. Ocasio-Cortez, in this telling, heralds the coming of Democratic-Socialist, multiracial, female-dominated America. The 28-year-old bartender and community activist is the Democrat of the future — according to no less an authority than the chairman of the Democratic National Committee. And in a polarized media climate, with hyperbolic insinuations of “civil war” and calls for the harassment of political opponents, one is tempted to believe that romanticism and extremism grow ever stronger.

I remain skeptical. For one thing, New York politics is sort of the equivalent of the Las Vegas party scene — what happens there tends to stay there. Crowley was boring and out-of-touch; Ocasio-Cortez is appealing and a tireless campaigner. Her picture of democratic socialism is all rainbows and unicorns, platitudes and aspirations. And the numbers involved in the primary were so small that randomness has to have played some part in her 4,000-vote win. Ocasio-Cortez is neither a threat to America nor to the American right. But she is representative of the transformation of the American left.

The only civil war happening at the moment is within the Democratic party. The old-guard corporatists are under attack from activists with radical goals and immoderate tempers. You can trace a line from Occupy Wall Street in 2011 through Black Lives Matter in 2013 through Bernie Sanders in 2016 through the Women’s March a year later, Tom Steyer’s and Maxine Waters’s impeachment campaigns, the growing prominence of Democratic Socialists of America, and the movement to abolish Immigration and Customs Enforcement today.

This is a trend that has been building for some time but over the last two years acquired galvanic force. Why?

WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Russia in Central America, Again The Kremlin is up to its old tricks in Daniel Ortega’s corrupt Nicaragua. By Mary Anastasia O’Grady

Posted By on July 9th, 2018

https://www.wsj.com/articles/russia-in-central-america-again-1531074911

Sometimes it seems that Central America is unwilling or unable to make the connection between strong institutions and a free and just society. The privation in the northern triangle—Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador—that has sent thousands of migrants to the U.S. border in search of work and a better life is ultimately the result of failed institutions.

The bloody upheaval in Nicaragua is another case in point. Since April 19 more than 300 people have been killed while protesting against strongman Daniel Ortega, according to local human-rights groups. The U.S. Treasury last week imposed sanctions on three Ortega henchmen—the national police commissioner and a Sandinista Youth official for human-rights violations, and the head of Nicaragua’s state-owned oil company for corruption.

Central America is strategically important to enemies of the U.S., and Russia’s role is particularly notable. It has a large and secretive satellite compound at the edge of the Nejapa lagoon on the outskirts of Managua, and its Interior Ministry has a large “police training center” in the capital’s Las Colinas neighborhood. The Soviet Union was an Ortega ally in the 1980s, and Russia today has every incentive to help him prosper as a dictator.

Nicaragua hasn’t had a fair, transparent national vote since the one that brought Mr. Ortega to power in 2006. He and his unpopular wife Rosario Murillo, now Nicaragua’s richest couple, are often called “the new Somozas,” a reference to the ruling family Mr. Ortega’s Sandinista movement removed in 1979.

When it’s all over except for carting away the dead, as in Venezuela, U.S. diplomats and legislators are good at tsk-tsking abuses of power. But when something can still be done about it, they are mostly AWOL and sometimes complicit. Witness U.S. funding of the U.N.’s International Commission against Impunity in Guatemala, or CICIG. CONTINUE AT SITE

FOREIGN POLICY Comments turned off

Trump’s NATO Progress A stronger alliance can put him in a stronger position against Putin.

Posted By on July 9th, 2018

https://www.wsj.com/articles/trumps-nato-progress-1531088542

President Trump will attend a summit of North Atlantic Treaty Organization national leaders this week, and the stakes are unusually high for everyone. He plans to meet Vladimir Putin shortly afterward, and Mr. Trump will be at a disadvantage if he doesn’t set the right tone in Brussels.

That tone should be a united front between America and its allies, within a NATO committed to and capable of deterring new threats. This doesn’t mean Washington must always avoid raising uncomfortable truths within the alliance. It does mean Mr. Trump should recognize how NATO benefits America, and how it can help him avoid the diplomatic traps into which his predecessor fell.

The good news is that Mr. Trump is doing better on this score than many of the pearl-clutchers among foreign-policy worthies will admit. He has taken a particularly aggressive stance on defense spending among NATO members, most recently in a series of testy letters reportedly sent to other national leaders. Allies have pledged to spend at least 2% of GDP, a promise they repeated at the 2014 Wales summit. Mr. Trump is continuing a long tradition of bipartisan frustration in Washington when they don’t meet that pledge.

But Mr. Trump should also give credit where it’s due, especially when he can claim part of the credit for success. Inflation-adjusted defense spending among non-U.S. NATO members has increased each year since 2014, and at an accelerating rate that likely will deliver the largest annual spending growth since the Cold War this year. More than half of NATO’s 29 members are on track to meet their 2% pledge by 2024, compared to four or five in a typical year before 2014. Mr. Trump’s win here is keeping up the pressure for more burden sharing as memories of Russia’s 2014 invasion of Crimea fade.

IMMIGRATION Comments turned off

America Is Not a Nation of Immigrants By Pedro Gonzalez

Posted By on July 8th, 2018

https://amgreatness.com/2018/07/08/america-is-not-a-nation

“America belongs to no one but Americans. It does not belong to the foreign masses of the world and it does not belong to the Left who, having rejected the American way, cannot count themselves among its patriots.”

America is a nation of immigrants. It’s a commonplace among the political class. Rep. Joe Kennedy (D-Mass.) and Senator Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), emergent leaders in the open-borders vanguard of the Democratic Party, never tire of saying so. Both object to the Trump Administration’s hard line on border control and have buttressed their calls for an “immigration reform” that would in effect re-open the floodgates of migrants from south of the border. The reason, they say, is that immigration is the defining characteristic of the nation.

It isn’t.

The “nation of immigrants” trope is relatively new in American history, appearing not until the late 19th century. Its first appearance in print was most likely The Daily State Journal of Alexandria, Virginia, in 1874. In praising a state bill that encouraged European immigration, the editors wrote: “We are a nation of immigrants and immigrants’ children.” In 1938, Franklin Delano Roosevelt said to the Daughters of the American Revolution: “Remember, remember always, that all of us, and you and I especially, are descended from immigrants and revolutionists.” John F. Kennedy would later use the term as the title of a book, written as part of an Anti-Defamation League series, so it is undoubtedly objective, quality scholarship.

EDUCATION Comments turned off

Trump to revoke Obama-era guidelines on race in college admissionssions By Yaron Steinbuch

Posted By on July 8th, 2018

https://nypost.com/2018/07/03/trump-to-revoke-obama-era-guidelines-on-race-in-college-admissions/

The Trump administration is set on Tuesday to revoke a series of Obama-era guidelines that encourage considering race in the college admissions process as a means of promoting diversity, according to a report.

Two sources told the Wall Street Journal that the move comes as the Justice Department investigates whether Harvard University illegally holds Asian-Americans to a higher standard in the admissions process.

The guidelines — put in place during the Obama administration in 2011 and 2016 — laid out legal recommendations that Trump officials argue “mislead schools to believe that legal forms of affirmative action are simpler to achieve than the law allows,” the paper reported.

Anurima Bargava, who led civil rights enforcement in schools for the Justice Department during Obama’s presidency, disagreed with that assessment, saying the documents simply offered guidelines to schools looking to continue using affirmative action legally.

POLITICS Comments turned off

Wayne Allyn Root :The Democrat Party is #CLUELESS.

Posted By on July 8th, 2018

https://www.reviewjournal.com/opinion/opinion-columns/wayne

The Democrats probably weren’t beating Donald Trump or the GOP no matter what they did or said — in either November or 2020. The economy is just too good. But they certainly had a chance if they didn’t go completely off the rails.

But then they chose illegal immigration as their headline issue. And as their new star (DNC Chair Tom Perez calls her “the future of the party”), Dems just elected Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a proud socialist. She was a bartender last year. Now call her “congresswoman.” She believes in open borders, abolishing ICE, sanctuary cities and that illegal aliens “deserve the right of passage” to freely enter the United States. Her words. I’m not joking.

No one could be that dumb and clueless, could they? Yup. See “Democrat” in the dictionary.

I’ll get to that. But first, the good news keeps coming in waves for President Trump.

■ The Trump economy added another 213,000 jobs in June. The U.S. Department of Labor also revised the April and May job figures upward by 37,000.

■ Even better news: Some 601,000 Americans re-entered the workforce in June. The economy is so good and wages rising so fast, everyone on the sidelines wants back in the game.

■ A record 155,576,000 Americans were employed in June, the most in history.

■ Pay growth is up every month this year, with blue-collar wages growing the fastest.

■ Because of Trump’s “Hire American” policy, even disabled Americans are seeing record job growth.

■ The U.S. trade deficit just plunged the most in 10 years. And. U.S. exports rose to an all-time record. Trump is winning “trade wars” for U.S. workers and companies.

■ Because of the Trump tax cuts, more than $300 billion was repatriated to the United States in just the first quarter.

How bad can it get for those poor, clueless, delusional Democrats?

BOOKS Comments turned off

DEAR AMERICA: WHO IS DRIVING THE BUS BY LINDA GOUDSMIT

Posted By on July 8th, 2018

http://goudsmit.pundicity.com/21361/dear-america-who-driving-the-bus http://goudsmit.pundicity.com
http://lindagoudsmit.com

Dear America: Who’s Driving the Bus? is a philosophy book that offers a universal paradigm for understanding the often confounding and contradictory ways in which people behave.

America is currently embroiled in a second civil war that it is unaware of and that threatens our way of life. The civil war in this country is being fought over the same thing all great wars are fought over: power. But in this war, the adversaries are ourselves. Civil War II is not a race war, an economic war, or a war between states. It is a psychological battle between states of mind that will determine who has the power in our society, who is in control.

The human growth process is twofold; it has a physical component and a psychological component. Chronological age is an uncontested biological accomplishment. Psychological growth is another matter entirely. We struggle with the wish to become powerful, independent adults and the longing to remain powerless, dependent children.

Psychological growth is the universal challenge of childhood. Every society in the world needs its children to grow into physical and psychological adulthood in order to continue the cycle of life. Theoretically, if a society were to remain a society of children that society would necessarily collapse and extinguish itself. The psychological growth process is a difficult struggle, but it always involves a choice. It is impossible to become a responsible adult without choosing to relinquish the irresponsibility of childhood.

Until the 1960s American institutions cooperated in common cause to help American children become responsible adults whose individualism and embrace of the meritocracy produced enormous contributions to society that strengthened the country. The family, the church, and the government including educational curricula were uniformly determined that American children grow into responsible productive psychological adulthood. What happened??

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Independence Day for Sgt. Derrick Miller By Diana West

Posted By on July 8th, 2018

was sentenced yesterday to life in prison with the chance of parole for the murder of an Afghan civilian.
I have wonderful Independence Day News to report from Beverly Perlson of Band of Mothers.

Beverly writes in with a July 3, 2018 update on Sgt. Derrick Miller, whose story readers of this website will be all too familiar with:

Sgt Miller’s mother, Renee Myers, received the phone call she’s been waiting for! Derrick called his mother today and let her know he received a letter from the Army that his sentence is reduced to 20 years (from a life sentence!!!) and he is eligible for parole immediately!

A parole packet must be completed and submitted, but for this brave Soldier, there is FINALLY a light at the end of this dark tunnel and there is no doubt, he is going home! I hope and pray very soon.

To all of you wonderful, caring Patriots out there who wrote letters and made calls on Derrick’s behalf, God Bless Everyone Of You, and THANK YOU! YOU all never let Derrick be forgotten. YOU fought for him, as he fought for us! YOUR efforts made a difference in this Soldier’s life!

Again, my deepest gratitude to Congressman Babin and Congressman Gohmert! In the meetings we had with you, you promised to help Derrick and our Soldiers and YOU kept your promise. In my book, you will forever be regarded as the “Soldier’s Congressmen” and I hope your ears are burning, because this military daughter, sister and mother will never stop singing your praises. I will never be able to thank you enough for your compassion and the hope you instilled in Derrick’s parent’s heart that day we met with you. I honestly knew when we left your offices that something good was FINALLY going to happen for Derrick. THANK YOU BOTH! And Congressmen Babin, please thank your lovely wife!

POLITICS Comments turned off

The Revolution Was by Diana West

Posted By on July 8th, 2018

http://dianawest.net/Home/tabid/36/EntryId/3758/The-Revolution-Was.aspx

The lovely clenched fist signifying violent revolutionary solidarity with Marxists the world over, is cover art from (a) the Revolutionary Communist Party, USA (b) Democratic Socialists of America (c) the Congressional Progressive Caucus d) Sanders for President. Pick one.

Don’t look now but the answer is (c). “The People’s Budget: A Roadmap for the Resistance” is the explicitly collectivist, anti-capitalist budget of the Democratic Party’s largest caucus in Congress: the Congressional Progressive Caucus (CPC). The CPC includes one US senator (Sanders) and 78 House members. If Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez wins in November as expected, this member of the Democratic Socialists of America from Da Bronx by way of Westchester will not only find political comrade-ship in the CPC, she will blend right in.

That’s right. The 28-year-old, single-payer, ICE-breaking, rich-soaking, subsidizing, dictating, free-riding, 21st-century Westchester Marxist — sorry, Democratic Socialist — will not be riding to town to storm the citadel; as Garet Garrett explained so lucidly and so depressingly 80 years ago, The Revolution Was.

I find his opening irresistable:

There are those who still think they are holding the pass against a revolution that may be coming up the road. But they are gazing in the wrong direction. The revolution is behind them. It went by in the Night of Depression, singing songs to freedom…

There can be no counter-revolution without considering this “lost” lore, without junking our “court history” and taking off the blinders to study and appreciate the extent to which the USA, especially since its Second Revolution under Franklin Roosevelt, has been ever and ever recreated as a socialistic nation. What Left-wing media bristle at today, I think, is Ocasio-Cortez’s definitional frankess as a “Democratic Socialist.” That’s because this may well alarm and motivate moderate citizens, generally lulled by the familiar party labels, to a point of actually noticing Ocasio-Cortez’s successful demagoguery, her forthright anti-capitalism and matching them to the Democratic Party.

WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

International Community Ignores Genocide of Christians in Nigeria by Raymond Ibrahim

Posted By on July 8th, 2018

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/12645/christians-genocide-nigeria

This brings the death toll of Christians to more than 6,000 since the start of 2018.
“The Islamists of northern Nigeria seem determined to turn Nigeria into an Islamic Sultanate and replace Liberal Democracy with Sharia as the National Ideology. The object of course, is to supplant the Constitution with Sharia as the source of legislation.” — National Christian Elders Forum, a wing of the Christian Association of Nigeria.
The Nigerian government and the international community, however, have from the start done little to address the situation. This lack of participation is not surprising: they cannot even acknowledge its roots, namely, the intolerant ideology of jihad.

In what the Christian Association of Nigeria is calling a “pure genocide,” 238 more Christians were killed and churches desecrated by Muslims last week in the west African nation. This brings the death toll of Christians to more than 6,000 since the start of 2018.

According to a joint statement by the Christian Association, an umbrella group of various Christian denominations, “There is no doubt that the sole purpose of these attacks is aimed at ethnic cleansing, land grabbing and forceful ejection of the Christian natives from their ancestral land and heritage.”

The statement condemned the recent attacks, “where over 200 persons were brutally killed and our churches destroyed without any intervention from security agencies in spite of several distress calls made to them.”

The statement adds that the majority of those 6,000 Christians massacred this year were “mostly children, women and the aged… What is happening in … Nigeria is pure genocide and must be stopped immediately.”

The details of the murder of these thousands, though seldom reported, are often grisly; many were either hacked to death or beheaded with machetes; others were burned alive (including inside locked churches or homes); and women are often sexually assaulted or raped before being slaughtered.