Delingpole: A Few Things We Could Happily Live Without in 2020…

Happy New Year! Here’s a few things the public sphere could probably survive without by this time in 2020…

Greta Thunberg

Every time you thought that the cult of St Greta could not get any more insane, reality said: “Hold my beer.” After being feted across the world by everyone from Arnold Schwarzenegger to the Pope, hailed by Canadian novelist Margaret Atwood as the new Joan of Arc, St Greta achieved full apotheosis at year-end when a Swedish pastor described her as the successor of ‘Jesus of Nazareth’.

How sad it will be in 2020 when the world wakes up to the fact that this teenage school drop out is nothing but a puppet for green crony capitalists in her native Sweden, who have choreographed every stage of her progression from ‘lonely schoolgirl protesting against climate inaction’ to Nobel-Prize-nominated superstar. No one likes being taken for a fool – and Greta the Puppet has fooled almost everyone.
Princess Meghan

I’m sorry America, but you’re going to have to take Meghan Markle back. It’s bad enough that she turned our favourite bad boy prince — Afghanistan veteran, chopper pilot and all-round cheeky chappie Harry — into a joke-averse, henpecked appendage, but what’s worse is that she has infected the whole Royal Family with Hollywood woke values.

The younger ones have all convinced themselves they’re mentally ill victims (maybe they are too – but tradition has it that you don’t boast or whine about it), while even the Queen herself was heard on her annual Christmas broadcast mentioning the word ‘climate’ like it was any kind of problem. Don’t worry, America we’ll give you a fair prisoner swap. In return for your third-rate actress from a fading TV drama, we’ll take back Henry Cavill or Robbie Williams or, if you really want to play hardball, James Corden.

Never Trumpers

For four long, miserable, embarrassing years they’ve been testing their fancy writing skills, their imaginative powers, and our credulity to the very limits with erudite commentary abundant with gossamer theories ‘demonstrating’ how the Trump presidency has been – and will be – a disaster for the U.S. and the world beyond. Meanwhile, on everything from the economy to black employment to the Dow Jones to the killing of Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi to the great escape from the Paris Climate Accord, President Trump has just gone on #winning. Imagine the Never Trump butthurt when the Never Guy comes back even bigger in 2020.

Taxes

Almost every bad thing that has ever happened in the world — from the U.S. Civil War to the rise of Hitler, from the French Revolutionary terror to the absurdity whereby for well over a century English houses bricked up their windows and suffered gloom and dark in preference to having to give their government more money — is the result of excessive or ill-conceived taxes.

Lowering taxes – see Margaret Thatcher, Ronald Reagan and the economic miracles of Hong Kong and Singapore – almost invariably makes things better for everyone apart, maybe, from the grasping authoritarian busybodies that all normal decent people hate. For further details, watch my fascinating discussion with comic and tax historian Dominic Frisby. I do hope Boris Johnson is paying attention in 2020 and beyond. Trump too, for that matter.

Bat-chomping, bird-slicing eco-crucifixes

They kill birds and bats; ruin views; disturb sleep and injure health with their low frequency noise and shadow flicker; the energy they produce is intermittent, unreliable and expensive; they are a subsidy engine for crony capitalists, taking money from the pockets of the poor and funnelling it into the wallets of the rich.

But now, in the U.S. at least, these monstrosities will have to fend for themselves.

Congress has voted to abolish subsidies for wind – and its ugly little sister, solar – with tax credits dropping to zero by 2025. Since most renewables can only survive with subsidy, it means they’ve reached the end of the line in the U.S. In Europe and Australia, unfortunately, the scam looks likely to continue for some time yet. Until, maybe, some bright spark notices how much better the U.S. economy is doing now that is no longer shackled to the corpse of ‘clean’ energy…

John Bercow

Scene: INT; AN ENGLISH PUB, Christmas 2020.  A haggard, silver-haired man of dwarfish stature and cuckoldish disposition walks to the bar and taps a punter on the shoulder.

DWARF: Shall I do it for you, mate? Go on, mate, please let me do it. I’ll do it for the price of a pint.

PUNTER (faintly disgusted): Do what?

DWARF: My thing. You know… (winks meaningfully)

PUNTER: I really don’t…

DWARF: OOORRRRRRDER! Go on, mate, I’ve done it now. If you can’t buy me a pint, I’ll settle for a half.

PUNTER: I’m sorry, I’ve really no idea who you are or why you are saying ‘Order’ in that silly voice.

NARRATOR [V.O.] Denied a place in the House of Lords, considered too toxic for even the most desperate Christmas panto, the former Speaker of the House of Commons — who only a year before had seemed to hold the fate of Britain in his chubby fingers — had fallen on desperate times….

Excuses for Muslim terrorism

‘Mental illness’ used to be the favourite excuse — tirelessly trotted out by the failing MSM after each new terrorist incident — but in 2019, a French judge took disingenuousness to new extremes in the case of African immigrant Kobili Traoré who murdered his Jewish neighbour.

Though Traoré recited verses from the Koran and yelled Allahu Akbar as he stabbed elderly Jewish woman Sarah Halimi, before throwing her three floors to her death, the judge ruled that he had no criminal case to answer because he had smoked marijuana beforehand. The weed – yeah, that’ll be it. Funny, though, isn’t it how it only makes you a psychopathic killer if you belong to one particular religion?

Sir Elton John

Sir Elton John recently announced during a show in Verona, Italy that he is ‘sick to death of Brexit’ and ‘ashamed’ of Britain. He added that he is a ‘European’ and not a ‘stupid colonial imperialist English idiot.’ It’s quite possible that not even the lyrical genius of Bernie Taupin could describe what a sad, so sad, sad sad situation this is. Nor how unhappy we British will be if Sir Elton takes the cruel decision to leave our bigoted island forever and never grace us with his regal presence again. But I guess we’ll manage, somehow.

George Soros

Do I really need to explain why?

Care Bear Commies

Expensively educated kids from the most prosperous generation in history confidently assuring us that ‘the only problem with communism is that it has never been tried properly yet.’ In 2019 part of me hoped that Jeremy Corbyn’s neo-Marxist Labour party would win the general election so that these university-brainwashed idiots could learn an important life lesson.

But it’s OK: as a loving conservative parent, you can still steer your Commie Kids gently towards the path of righteousness with a few gentle hints.

1. Cancel their allowance. 2. Confiscate their iPhones, their computer and their television. 3. Torch their car. 4. Barbecue their pet. 5. In extremis, but only in extremis because this is actually banned under international law along with biological and chemical weapons and extreme forms of torture, make them spend a year following the Twitter feed of left-wing activist Owen Jones until the Chinese-water-torture drip drip drip of the same old words and phrases – alt-right, Trump, racism, homophobia, demonising Muslims, gammons, etc – drives them to the point of insanity.

Remoaners

Between 2016 and 2019, historians will recall, British democracy was held hostage by a minority of bitter, spoilt Remainers who couldn’t accept that they lost the Referendum and so did everything in their power to sabotage it. Unfortunately, because many of them were leading members of the Establishment they very nearly succeeded.

Fortunately, by the grace of God, they still lost in the end. But some of them — like Japanese soldiers on remote Pacific Islands still unaware that the Emperor has surrendered — are not ready to give up just yet.

The BBC

The relentlessly left-liberal-biased — anti-Trump, anti-Israel, anti-Brexit, anti-free-markets — news coverage are the least of its problems.

Worst, still, is the propaganda disguised as entertainment: Sir David Attenborough’s climate tragedy porn documentaries; the detective dramas where the baddie is always the white middle-class professional; the United Colours of Benetton tick-box diversity casting. For a while, the Beeb got away with it because old viewing habits die hard. But now everyone who isn’t irredeemably PC has woken up to the fact that the BBC despises them and that both Amazon Prime and Netflix offer cheaper services.

This cannot end well for the BBC, not least because — just like its political wing, the Labour party — it refuses point-blank to concede that it is doing anything wrong.

‘The Squad’ [Democrat congresswomen Ilhan Omar, Alexandria Occasional-Cortex, Rashida Tlaib and Ayanna Pressley]

See: George Soros.

James Delingpole is the host of the Delingpod podcast 

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Grooming Gang Epidemic: Nearly 19,000 Children Sexually Exploited in the UK Last Year

The scourge of sexual exploitation of children has reached “epidemic” levels in the United Kingdom, as nearly 19,000 children were sexually groomed over the past year.

Local authorities have reported over 18,700 suspected victims of child sexual exploitation at the hands of grooming gangs between 2018-19, more than five times higher than the 3,300 reported cases just five years ago.

Sammy Woodhouse, a victim of the Rotherham rapist Arshid Hussain, said that the authorities have not implemented meaningful changes in combatting the crisis.

“You hear this bullshit line, ‘lessons have been learned’, but they haven’t learned anything”, she told The Independent.

“I still hear a lot about the authorities aren’t doing things as they should. It’s not very often I hear something good and for all different reasons – if the police won’t act on reports, people feel they’re not being listened to or supported properly, or information not being shared”, she added.

“I’ve said for years that this country’s in epidemic when it comes to abuse and exploitation. Authorities claim it’s under control but it’s not”, Woodhouse concluded.

Lancashire was the locality hit the hardest last year, with a total of 624 suspected victims, followed by Birmingham with 490, 447 in Surrey, 414 in Bradford and 409 in Gloucestershire. Thousands of more cases of abuse have been discovered across the country over the past decade, especially as the scandals of predominantly Pakistani male child rape gangs have been exposed.

The Labour MP for Rotherham, Sarah Champion, said that the figures demonstrate that grooming “remains one of the largest forms of child abuse in the country”.

“The government has singularly failed to tackle this issue head-on. Its approach has been piecemeal and underfunded”, she said.

The Home Office has allocated 7 million pounds to support survivors of child sex abuse for 2019-20 and has set up investigations into the institutional responses to the scandals in Rotherham and Norfolk, with a series of public hearings expected in the spring of 2020.

“The Home Office is committed to tackling child sexual abuse and will leave no stone unturned in tackling this abhorrent behaviour”, a spokesperson said.

“This is why we launched the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse to get to the truth, expose what has gone wrong and learn lessons for the future. The inquiry operates independently of government and, within its terms of reference, decides for itself what it investigates”, the spokesperson added.

Earlier this month Breitbart London reported that 16 men of South Asian descent, including a police officer, were charged in connection to grooming crimes allegedly committed against three teenage girls in Halifax, England.

The following day an additional four men of South Asian-origin were convicted of sexually exploiting children during the early 2000s in Telford, England.

In 2018, then Home Secretary, Sajid Javid launched an inquiry into the ethnic origins of members of grooming gangs in the UK. Speaking to the BBC in December, Javid determined that the majority of perpetrators were of Pakistani origin.

“When it comes to gang-based child exploitation it is self-evident to anyone who cares to look that if you look at all the recent high-profile cases there is a high proportion of men that have Pakistani heritage”, Javid said.

“There could be – I’m not saying that there are – there could be some cultural reasons from the communities that these men came from that could lead to this kind of behaviour”, he added.

Follow Kurt on Twitter at @KurtZindulka

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Doctors Reportedly Say ‘Brain-Dead’ Woman in 7-Month Coma Should Have Plug Pulled. Then She Wakes Up.

According to the mother of an Ohio mother of two, when her daughter went into a long coma following a seizure, doctors told the woman’s mother that her daughter was “brain dead” and she should “pull the plug.” But seven months after slipping into a coma, the daughter awakened, making a full recovery.

Kertisha Brabson’s mother, Kertease Williams, told WBNS that in September 2018, after Kertisha went to the hospital, she got a call from the hospital about her daughter, hearing that Kertisha was reaching out for things that weren’t there, speaking weirdly and dancing as if she were at a concert. Then Kertisha had a seizure, putting her into a coma.

Williams stated, “I don’t have no doctor’s background … never been to school for anything, but when it’s your child, you’re going to do everything in your power to bring your daughter back.”

Willaims had Kertisha moved from hospital to hospital; she told WBNS, “We were going to keep moving her because once I saw the doctors scratching their heads that clearly let me know they gave up and they don’t know what’s going on with her. They told me she was brain-dead and pull the plug and all those things.” She added, “Every decision that I made was because she got two little people that was depending on their mother to come home and that was her kids.”

Kertisha, who was suffering from anti-NMDA receptor encephalitis, eventually wound up at Ohio State’s Brain and Spinal Hospital at the beginning of 2019, where she was having up to 20 seizures a day. Doctor Shraddha Mainali at the Brain and Spine Hospital, admitted later, “In someone like her condition there is mortality above 60 percent.” He said he took an aggressive stance toward the disease.

When Kertisha awakened on April 7, 2019, she thought it was still back in September. Mainali said, “One of my residents who was on-call at night texted me in the morning and says you won’t believe what I saw today. I was like, what happened? [I was told] Tisha is opening her eyes and she’s following simple commands.”

Kertisha recalled, “[The nurse] was like ‘Yeah, Ms. Brabson, you’ve been asleep for seven months.’ I was like, ‘Do my mom know?’”

Williams added, “’He said, well, she’s woke up. Oh, my goodness, we just jumped up and down and screamed and nobody slept that morning.” Mainali offered, “I am quite hopeful in her case that she’s going to continue to do well and hopefully live a normal life.”

The Daily Mail explains:

Anti-NMDA receptor encephalitis is a type of brain inflammation caused by the body’s antibodies. The disease often sees the body’s antibodies attack its own brain cells, causing swelling in the brain. Early symptoms can include a fever, a headache and tiredness, that develop into delusions and psychosis. Patients can become agitated and confused and suffer variable blood pressure, with seizures eventually developing. Diagnosis often relies on finding specific antibodies in the patient’s cerebral spinal fluid and misdiagnosis is common. Around half of cases are caused by tumors, most commonly in the ovaries.

 

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IRS Busted Hunter Biden for $112,805 in Unpaid Taxes While He Was at Ukraine Gas Company: Report

News

IRS Busted Hunter Biden for $112,805 in Unpaid Taxes While He Was at Ukraine Gas Company: Report

Hunter Biden speaks at the World Food Program USA's Annual McGovern-Dole Leadership Award Ceremony at Organization of American States on April 12, 2016, in Washington, D.C.Paul Morigi / Getty Images for World Food Program USAHunter Biden speaks at the World Food Program USA’s Annual McGovern-Dole Leadership Award Ceremony at Organization of American States on April 12, 2016, in Washington, D.C. (Paul Morigi / Getty Images for World Food Program USA)

By Jack Davis
Published December 31, 2019 at 11:26am

A new report casts light on the financial status of Hunter Biden during his time on the board of Burisma Holdings, a controversial Ukrainian energy company that emerged in 2014 as a focus of corruption investigations.

According to The Daily Caller News Foundation, the Internal Revenue Service placed a tax lien on Hunter Biden seeking $112,805, which would cover taxes that were not paid in 2015.

The lien notice, dated Dec. 5, 2016, said it pertained to the “small business/self employed area” of the IRS. The lien was filed with the Washington, D.C., Recorder of Deeds in November 2018.

“We have made a demand for payment of this liability, but it remains unpaid,” the IRS stated in the lien notice. “Therefore, there is a lien in favor of the United States on all property and rights to property belonging to this taxpayer for the amount of these taxes.”

The tax lien names Hunter Biden and his ex-wife, Kathleen Biden. The DCNF reported that the address on the lien corresponds with an address linked to Hunter Biden’s law firm. No lien release form has been filed, the outlet said.

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The DCNF reported that it received no comment on the report from Hunter Biden’s attorney.

The federal lien was not the only indication of Hunter Biden’s finances in 2015.

That same year, Washington, D.C., reportedly placed its own lien against the Bidens, seeking to recover $48,929 in unpaid income taxes. That lien was released in 2017, The DCNF reported.

Hunter Biden was on the board of Burisma from 2014 until 2019. According to The DCNF, the money routed to Biden from Burisma through a third party totaled $708,302 between June 2014 and October 2015.

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During her divorce from Hunter Biden, finalized in 2017, Kathleen Biden claimed he was responsible for the “shocking and overwhelming” amount of debt they faced, including “maxed-out credit card debt, double mortgages on both real properties they own, and tax debt of at least $313,970.”

In her divorce papers, she claimed the money Hunter Biden made was spent on “his own interests (including drugs, alcohol, prostitutes, strip clubs and gifts for women with whom he had sexual relations) while leaving the family with no funds to pay legitimate bills.”

Hunter Biden’s connection to Burisma has emerged as a major issue due to the activities of his father, former Vice President Joe Biden, in 2016.

At that time, Biden intervened in Ukraine affairs to successfully demand the resignation of a prosecutor who had investigated Burisma as part of a corruption probe.

Although the issue has dogged his bid for the Democratic presidential nomination, Joe Biden maintains he did nothing wrong, because multiple agencies believed the prosecutor was himself corrupt and should have been fired.

RELATED: After Dems Impeach Trump for Defying Subpoenas, Biden Defies Own Subpoena

On Sunday, CNN’s Jake Tapper admitted that the whole story left a bad taste.

“You know, it’s true that there’s no evidence of any wrongdoing by Vice President Biden or that Hunter Biden broke any laws at all, but frankly, it does stink that Hunter Biden got this contract with no expertise in the energy sector and that he likely — he’s already said it, basically — that he got that money, which was significant because of his connection with his father, the vice president at the time, who was also in charge of Ukraine at the time,” Tapper said, according to Fox News.

We are committed to truth and accuracy in all of our journalism. Read our editorial standards.

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NY Times Plays Defense for Iran: Claims Thousands of Organized Iranian al-Quds Thugs Storming US Embasssy in Iraq are Grieving “Mourners”

Hundreds of Iranian-backed activists stormed the US Embassy in Baghdad on Tuesday.

Iraqi security forces failed to stop the siege of the US Embassy.
The Iraqi protesters were carrying Hezbollah flags.

Several pro-Iranian faction leaders were leading the raids today in Baghdad including:
** Qais al-Khazali, the leader of Asa’ib Ahl al-Haq, a pro-Iranian militia behind the deaths of several US soldiers
** Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, founder and leader of Kata’ib Hizballah.
** Badr Corps chief Hadi Ameri

The New York Times played defense for the terrorists today.
It’s like the Iranian regime wrote their headline.

They are openly defending the Iranian ayatollahs.
Disgusting.

Mourners in action–

The mourners torched the embassy—

Jack Posobiec mocked the NY Times:

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SICK! As Fighters Stormed Embassy, Democrats Blamed Trump for Iran Militia Attack on Baghdad Embassy, Some Cheered for Benghazi Replay

Democrats and Never-Trumpers attacked President Trump even as Iranian backed militias were storming the U.S. embassy in Baghdad, with several blaming Trump–not Iran–for the attack while others cheered for a Benghazi replay. It was so bad that a Hillary Clinton State Department/Obama NSC alum called on one Democrat group to delete a Benghazi tweet about the Baghdad attack and Trump nemesis Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) came off as an adult in the Democrat party.

Former Obama NSC spokesman Ben Rhodes blamed President Trump, not Iran, for Tuesday’s attack on the U.S. embassy in Baghdad.

Laura Rosenberger urged the Democrat front group VoteVets to delete their tweet that read, “Hey @POTUS remember you’re Benghazi rants during 2016? You’re about to have your own one unfortunately in Iraq. Rosenberger clapped back, “Please delete this tweet. It shows such disregard to our personnel under siege”

VoteVets also issued a statement attacking Trump on a personal level, but did not blame Iran.

Here’s Adam Schiff, sounding responsible for a change, “The storming of our embassy in Baghdad by protestors and Iran-backed militias is deeply disturbing. The first priority is the safety of our personnel. Iraq has an obligation to protect them. Once secure, we need to be clear-eyed about reducing tensions and the path forward.”

Psycho never-Trumper Rick Wilson spelled out his Benghazi fantasy for the day:

Democrat presidential candidate Julian Castro blamed Trump, not Iran, “The attack on the U.S embassy in Baghdad is a tragedy and a result of the Trump administration’s reckless escalation and incoherent foreign policy. I’m praying for the safety of our diplomats and service members in Iraq.”

Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA) blamed Trump, not Iran, “The US conducted airstrikes in Iraq over the objections of the Iraqi government. Now Iraqi protesters broke into the US Embassy. Trump’s malpractice in the region is making us less safe. Time for Congress to stop this foolish rush to war.”

Amb. Wendy Sherman, a Democrat activist who led the Obama administration’s team negotiating the Iran nuclear deal scuppered by Trump lectured Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to do what Hillary Clinton never dared do when an embassy was under siege, “If @SecPompeo was a real SecStste, he’d leave today for Iraq to meet with leaders and most importantly spend new year with embassy employees on duty protecting all of us.”

Former Obama NSC spokesman Ben Rhodes, blamed Trump, not Iran, “It’s hard to overstate what a total failure Trump’s Iran policy has been. Nuclear program resumed. Regional provocations escalated. US isolated…Trump sanctions on Iran have done nothing to change Iranian behavior except make it worse. This is what happens when your foreign policy is based on Obama envy, domestic politics, Saudi interests, and magical right wing thinking.”

Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) blamed Trump, not Iran, “The attack on our embassy in Baghdad is horrifying but predictable. Trump has rendered America impotent in the Middle East. No one fears us, no one listens to us. America has been reduced to huddling in safe rooms, hoping the bad guys will go away. What a disgrace”

Murphy then went on an anti-Trump rant, “The attack on our embassy reminds us of all Trump’s Middle East disasters: 1/ Emboldened Iran starts attacking U.S. targets; 2/ Turkey invades Syria; 3/ Saudi Arabia gets away with murder; 4/ Israeli/Palestinian peace slips out of reach. And that’s just the start…4/ Thousands of Yemeni children continue to die in a U.S. fueled civil war; 5/ Iran restarts their nuclear program; 6/ Saudi Arabia and Qatar break relations, pushing Qatar to Iran 7/ Turkey buys weapons from Russia, breaking NATO’s back…8/ Brutal crackdown on political dissent in Egypt ramps up 9/ U.S. abandons Kurds to die in Syria, leaves our bases for Russia 10/ U.S. hold on aid to Lebanon weakens their army, empowers Hezbollah 11/ ISIS begins to regroup in Iraq, breaks out of prisons in Syria…The list keeps going, but the point is this: The attacks on our embassy in Iraq (and Iraq’s unwillingness to defend us) is – on this last day of 2019 – a reminder of how catastrophic this year has been for U.S. interests in every corner of the Middle East.”

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Trump’s Executive Order Against Anti-Semitism Will Protect US Jews

Earlier this month, President Donald Trump issued an executive order reiterating that Title VI
of the Civil Rights Act
protects Jews—just as every other race,
color, national origin, and ethnicity—from discrimination at taxpayer-funded
universities.

The administration also recognized that anti-Zionism
is a contemporary manifestation of anti-Semitism. Although hate speech is protected under
the Constitution, the anti-Semitism infesting many college campuses goes far
beyond the exercise of First Amendment freedom.

Make no mistake: Anti-Semitism in schools and on
college campuses—from fellow students, outside agitators, and even faculty—is a
growing problem.

The Anti-Defamation League reports anti-Semitic incidents jumped 48% from 2016 to 2018. Nearly 30% of these ugly events occurred on college campuses or at non-Jewish schools. Jewish students welcome this partial solution from the Trump administration to this evil.

Anti-Semites routinely target Jewish students by
silencing speakers and shutting down private events with criminal trespass or
disorderly conduct. They also vandalize private property with anti-Semitic
messages, harass Jewish students, block public passageways, and commit outright
assault.

Just last month, Students for Justice in Palestine led a prolonged interruption of a Vassar College event focused on the indigenous Jews of the Middle East—lambasting the audience with an overtly anti-Semitic chant. Similar incidents have occurred across the nation.

Many universities fail to prevent or respond properly to non-constitutionally protected anti-Semitic activity. Some universities have even furthered the cause of the anti-Semitic Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement, which boycotts Israeli investments or businesses. This echoes the boycotts of Jewish businesses throughout the Third Reich.   

Much misinformation persists
regarding the executive order.

The New York
Times claimed the order would classify Judaism (the Jewish faith) as a
nationality. Yet the executive order’s text merely states what should be
obvious: “[I]ndividuals who face discrimination
on the basis of race, color, or national origin do not lose protection under
Title VI for also being a member of a group that shares common religious
practices.”

This closely mirrors existing guidance from the Office for Civil Rights. In other words, harassing
someone perceived to be of the Jewish race due to her practice of the Jewish
faith is an act of anti-Semitism.

Despite
claims to the contrary, the executive order does not—and should not—ban “hate
speech.” Such a ban would violate the First Amendment and complicate the
already challenging debates over free speech on campus.

Furthermore,
even if such a ban on hate speech were constitutional, any ban would result in government
suppression of speech. Harassment
is a form of discrimination included in
existing guidance

from the Office of Civil Rights in the Department of Education. It is important
that definitions of “harassment” not include constitutionally protected speech.

Although individuals have the right to counter hate
speech, the government may not ban such speech. The danger exists that some institutions may misapply this
guidance and violate expressive rights.

If history is any guide, the
danger definitely exists that some campus officials may make speech codes
mischief with this guidance. We must be alert for any such violation of free
speech rights. However, nothing in the clear language of the executive
order blocks anti-Semites from continuing their bigoted, hateful (but
constitutionally protected) speech.

Another misconception is that the order equates
criticism of Israel with anti-Semitism. It does no such thing. This myth stems
from the administration’s instruction to rely on examples provided by the
International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance in identifying contemporary
anti-Semitism. The
examples simply show how anti-Semitism cloaks itself in the language of
anti-Zionism.

In fact, many of the examples given
(such as “calling for, aiding, or
justifying the killing or harming of Jews in the name of a radical ideology or
an extremist view of religion”) don’t mention Israel at all.

The International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance does point out that the following rhetoric—“taking into
account the overall context”—relating directly to Israel are manifestations of
contemporary anti-Semitism:

  • Accusing the Jews as a people, or Israel as a state, of inventing or exaggerating the Holocaust.
  • Accusing Jewish citizens of being more loyal to Israel than to the interests of their own nations.
  • Using the symbols and images associated with classic anti-Semitism (e.g., claims of Jews killing Jesus or blood libel) to characterize Israel or Israelis.
  • Holding Jews collectively responsible for actions of the state of Israel.
  • Drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis.
  • Applying double standards by requiring of it a behavior not expected or demanded of any other democratic nation.
  • Denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination, e.g., by claiming that the existence of a state of Israel is a racist endeavor.

Of important note, the executive
order is not an attempt to ban any of this rhetoric. As discussed previously,
hate speech is protected by the First Amendment of the Constitution.

However, using the rhetoric of an individual to determine whether her non-speech-related conduct is anti-Semitic in nature can be incredibly helpful. Administrators should be careful to distinguish between constitutionally permitted codes of student conduct vs. speech codes that unconstitutionally restrict free speech.

These examples of anti-Semitic
rhetoric masquerading as anti-Zionism should serve only to identify the
anti-Semitic nature of other conduct not related to free speech. 

Perhaps the International Holocaust
Remembrance Alliance’s list
of examples are too precise for an executive order. However, the use of
examples in this context helps administrators to identify instances of
anti-Semitism in the form of anti-Zionism.

Rabbi Andrew Baker, director of international Jewish affairs at the American Jewish Committee, played a vital role in crafting the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition in 2005. He explains:

It was important for authorities to understand that what might appear to be a political activity, simply because it references Israel or Zionists, shouldn’t be thought of as that and taken at face value. … If you have a responsibility to monitor, to address the problem of antisemitism, whether it’s on college campuses or in the streets of Stockholm, then having a definition like this one is a helpful tool.

Anti-Semites
indeed do compare the world’s only Jewish nation to the Nazi regime, singling
Israel out for alleged human rights violations while largely ignoring the very
real plight of religious, ethnic, and political minorities in places such as
Cuba, China, and Turkey.

Israel
protects the rights of religious and ethnic minorities. All Israeli citizens
have the right to vote, access to public health care, public education, freedom
of speech, freedom of religion, and property rights. Arabs serve in the Israeli
parliament and in the Israeli Defense Forces.

Lastly, denying the very right of an entire people to
even have their own nation-state is far different than criticizing the
government of a nation. Yet many anti-Semites support the right of
self-determination for countless others while opposing the right of the Jewish
people to have a nation of their own in their ancestral homeland.

Jewish
students must also be accorded the same civil rights protection as every other racial and ethnic group—no more and no more less.
When
anti-Semitic activity breaches the bounds of free speech, universities must comply with their
obligations under the Civil Rights Act.  

University-sponsored or -enabled discrimination—including toleration of anti-Semitic behavior breaching the bounds of free speech—must stop.  

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Anti-Trump Christians, Would You Prefer a President Who Supports Secular Social Agenda?

The battle between church and state is as old as church and state, as is the conflict within religious circles over who supposedly speaks for God.

The latest dustup occurred after the departing editor of Christianity Today magazine, Mark Galli, wrote an editorial in which he said President Donald Trump is an immoral man and his impeachment by the House is cause for his immediate removal from office.

This ignited a firestorm.

Major media, which regularly ignore the opinions of religious publications, overnight transported Galli from relative obscurity to national prominence. Anti-Trump evangelicals called his comments a breath of fresh air. More like stale political air.

During the debate over slavery in America, pro- and anti-slavery clergy selectively quoted Scripture to President Abraham Lincoln to justify their positions. Lincoln responded to the contradictory arguments of North and South in his second inaugural address: “Both read the same Bible and pray to the same God; and each invokes His aid against the other.”

Scripture, which conservative evangelicals claim is inerrant and infallible, contains stories of leaders with severe moral flaws, whom God used for His own purposes. Those who want President Donald Trump removed from office and can’t wait until the next election for voters to decide, ignore one of the most profound verses about temporal power: “Everyone must submit to governing authorities. For all authority comes from God, and those in positions of authority have been placed there by God.” (Romans 13:1 NLT)

If “everyone” and “all” doesn’t mean everyone and all, including people for whom some evangelicals did not vote, pray tell what does it mean?

Galli and other anti-Trumpers don’t tell us their presidential preferences. One hopes it isn’t any of those on the far left who have an agenda that evangelicals would consider an abomination. Trump is right when he says he has done more to advance evangelical concerns than any other president.

What the anti-Trump forces are uncomfortable with are the resumes of people who voted for and still support the president. They are not part of the elites. They didn’t go to the “right” universities, where truth is subjective—if it exists at all. They don’t read The New York Times, or The Washington Post, or watch CNN and MSNBC. They watch Fox News and listen to Rush Limbaugh.

They are tired of being treated like second-class citizens who don’t deserve to have their principles upheld by a government to which they pay taxes.

I recently spoke about the Galli editorial with a former Democratic member of Congress, who is a Christian. He said one of the problems with uncritical evangelical support for the president is that it dilutes their “witness” to non-believers, who think faith in God means having to join the Republican Party and support the president.

What would their position have been had Hillary Clinton, a liberal Methodist, been elected president? Do they believe they would have been in a better position to share their faith?

People have always used such excuses for not pursuing faith, but my friend does have a point. When non-churchgoers (who are increasing in numbers, especially among the young) see people they think should be preaching about another kingdom and another King selectively ignore a leader’s moral failings, they justify their unbelief.

On the other hand, anti-Trump Christians must answer this question: Would they be happier if a liberal Democrat were president, one who supports abortion and the rest of the secular-progressive social agenda and sees the Constitution as a “living document” to be interpreted by individual judges? That was the choice in 2016.

The same choice is likely in November. Such a “preferred” Democrat might be morally upright and even attend church every Sunday.

Apparently, they forget we have already had such a president. His name is Jimmy Carter.

(C) 2020 Tribune Content Agency LLC

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Some of the $1.5 billion cash that Obama gave to Iran traced to Iran-backed terror groups

When President Barack Obama shipped $1.7 billion in cash to Iran as part of his nuclear deal, he was funding terrorists. It was entirely predictable, for his partners in the deal are committed to the destruction of Israel first, and then of the United States, once they have the nuclear means to do so.

The Armageddon that would break out after the US defends itself is a feature, not a bug in this plan, for the return of the Twelfth Mahdi will accompany the climactic global conflagration, and bring about the end of history, with Islam triumphant.

So, expecting the Mullahs to cozy up to the US in return for a vast amount of cash is foolish at best.  That money was just a means to an end that includes killing infidels, with priority given to Jews in Israel.

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamei (Photo credit: President of Russia)

Bill Gertz, whose Pentagon sources are second to none, reports that the actual cash bills sent to Iran have made their way to Hezb’allah in Lebanon, the Houthis in Yemen, and to the hardline Quds forces of Iran: The U.S. government has traced some of the $1.7 billion released to Iran by the Obama administration to Iranian-backed terrorists in the two years since the cash was transferred.

According to knowledgeable sources, Iran has used the funds to pay its main proxy, the Lebanon-based terrorist group Hezbollah, along with the Quds Force, Iran’s main foreign intelligence and covert action arm and element of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps. (snip)

The U.S. money supplied to Iran as part of an arms settlement dating back to the 1970s also has been traced to Iran’s backing of Houthi rebels seeking to take power in Yemen. Iran has been supporting the Yemen rebels as part of a bid to encircle and eventually take control of Saudi Arabia.

 “The enormous financial windfall the Iranian regime received because of the deal — access to more than $100 billion, including $1.8 billion in cash — has not been used to better the lives of the Iranian people,” Mr. Trump said Jan. 12. “Instead, it has served as a slush fund for weapons, terror, and oppression, and to further line the pockets of corrupt regime leaders.”

What’s done is done. That money will continue to fund attacks and advance the mullahs’ goal of Armageddon. Thanks, Obama. Nobody is surprised but morons and your supporters.

When President Barack Obama shipped $1.7 billion in cash to Iran as part of his nuclear deal, he was funding terrorists. It was entirely predictable, for his partners in the deal are committed to the destruction of Israel first, and then of the United States, once they have the nuclear means to do so.

The Armageddon that would break out after the US defends itself is a feature, not a bug in this plan, for the return of the Twelfth Mahdi will accompany the climactic global conflagration, and bring about the end of history, with Islam triumphant.

So, expecting the Mullahs to cozy up to the US in return for a vast amount of cash is foolish at best.  That money was just a means to an end that includes killing infidels, with priority given to Jews in Israel.

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamei (Photo credit: President of Russia)

Bill Gertz, whose Pentagon sources are second to none, reports that the actual cash bills sent to Iran have made their way to Hezb’allah in Lebanon, the Houthis in Yemen, and to the hardline Quds forces of Iran: The U.S. government has traced some of the $1.7 billion released to Iran by the Obama administration to Iranian-backed terrorists in the two years since the cash was transferred.

According to knowledgeable sources, Iran has used the funds to pay its main proxy, the Lebanon-based terrorist group Hezbollah, along with the Quds Force, Iran’s main foreign intelligence and covert action arm and element of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps. (snip)

The U.S. money supplied to Iran as part of an arms settlement dating back to the 1970s also has been traced to Iran’s backing of Houthi rebels seeking to take power in Yemen. Iran has been supporting the Yemen rebels as part of a bid to encircle and eventually take control of Saudi Arabia.

 “The enormous financial windfall the Iranian regime received because of the deal — access to more than $100 billion, including $1.8 billion in cash — has not been used to better the lives of the Iranian people,” Mr. Trump said Jan. 12. “Instead, it has served as a slush fund for weapons, terror, and oppression, and to further line the pockets of corrupt regime leaders.”

What’s done is done. That money will continue to fund attacks and advance the mullahs’ goal of Armageddon. Thanks, Obama. Nobody is surprised but morons and your supporters.

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