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Post by soonernvolved on Sept 5, 2020 18:30:57 GMT -6
And the nail in the coffin for the Atlantic. They are having a festival later on. www.theatlanticfestival.com/Look at who the keynote speakers are:
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Post by Dotard is toast on Sept 6, 2020 0:23:20 GMT -6
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Post by redrex on Sept 6, 2020 7:30:19 GMT -6
Another tweet ICKY?---Good job ---Never heard of Tiffany Chantel=====Other than you who cares what she thinks ?
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Post by soonernvolved on Sept 6, 2020 9:26:00 GMT -6
Interesting twist here. Seems Apple is heavily invested, etc in China. This might further explain their Owner pushing the agenda against President Trump. www.manufacturingglobal.com/technology/apple-suppliers-aim-resume-full-china-production-february-10Apple Inc.’s major suppliers in China, including iPhone-maker Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., plan to resume full-scale production in the country February 10, despite the coronavirus that has infected thousands and limited travel.
Foxconn’s Hon Hai, the most important manufacturer for the U.S. company, said Tuesday it still expects to be able to restart facilities throughout China on schedule, according to a text message sent to Bloomberg News. Suppliers such as Quanta Computer Inc., Inventec Corp. and LG Display Co. also said they would go back to work next week in China.
While Chinese officials and companies have targeted Feb. 10 as the date to resume work in much of the country, doubts about the timing have grown in recent days as the virus death toll rises, workers find themselves stuck in municipal lockdowns and the transport of people and goods has been hampered. More than 20,000 people have been infected with the virus and more than 400 have died.
Virtually all of the world’s iPhones are made in China, primarily by Hon Hai at its so-called iPhone City in Zhengzhou and by Pegatron Corp. at an assembly site near Shanghai. Each of those locations is more than 500 kilometers away from Wuhan in central China, the epicenter of the viral outbreak.Not only that, but several articles over the years have chronicled the sweatshop-like conditions in these Chinese factories. For example, USA Today did a story last year that accompanied the announcement of the latest iPhone: www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2019/09/09/iphone-11-apple-still-breaking-labor-laws-china/2261874001/Ahead of Apple’s new iPhone unveiling set for Tuesday, a New York-based watchdog group released a report accusing the tech giant and its partner Foxconn of breaking Chinese labor laws to build its upcoming smartphones.
Apple denies most of the allegations.
The non-profit China Labor Watch (CLW) released a lengthy report Sunday alleging that the latest “iPhone 11” – the exact name of the new phone hasn’t been released – was “illegally produced in China.”
“Several investigators were employed at the Zhengzhou Foxconn factory, and one of the investigators worked there for over four years,” CLW said in the report. “Because of the long investigation period, this report reveals many details about the working and living conditions at the Foxconn factory.”
CLW says that the factory is dubbed “iPhone City” and is one of the largest iPhone factories in the world. Apple’s factory is accused of underpaying workers and forcing them to work in harsh conditions.
One of the most glaring laws broken involved temporary employees or “dispatch workers,” according to the report. Chinese laws require that only 10% of the company’s employee base be dispatch workers; however, Foxconn’s labor force was made up of about 50%.
Unlike full-time employed workers, dispatch workers do not receive paid sick leave and social insurance for medical expenses, CLW said. The report also accused Apple’s factory of paying base wages “insufficient to sustain the livelihood for a family” living in the area.The article goes on to accuse Apple and Foxconn of exposing workers to toxic chemicals. Apple also stands to lose bigly from Trump clamping down on Chinese owned apps that serve, in part, to spy on US citizens. Bloomberg reported last month: www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-08-12/apple-s-44-billion-china-market-threatened-by-trump-wechat-banApple Inc. spent years building China into a $44 billion growth driver. Then the U.S. president last week cast all that in doubt.
IPhone loyalists across China are now reconsidering their attachment to the device after Donald Trump issued an executive order last week barring U.S. companies from doing business with WeChat, the super-app that has become integral to everyday life in the country. Scheduled to come into effect in roughly five weeks, the ban threatens to turn iPhones into expensive “electronic trash,” said Hong Kong resident Kenny Ou, who sees WeChat as one of the most essential software on his handset.
On Wednesday, Tencent executives on a post-earnings conference call stressed they believed the ban applied only to WeChat in the U.S. and shouldn’t affect its Chinese cousin, known as Weixin. But they added that they themselves were still seeking clarity, and the sweeping language of Trump’s order means it could still spell trouble for Apple.
The U.S. company has just come off a strong quarter in China, its most important international market and where it is facing intensifying competition from local Android rivals like Huawei Technologies Co. — which, unlike Apple and its locked-down app stores, are free to either offer WeChat directly or allow their users access to download it themselves. The Cupertino company’s strategy of tapping first-time buyers and wooing back consumers with cheaper devices like the iPhone SE could be entirely derailed if it can’t offer WeChat and U.S.-China trade tensions continue to worsen.
If Apple was forced to remove the service from its global app stores, iPhone annual shipments will decline 25% to 30% while other hardware, including AirPods, iPad, Apple Watch and Mac computers, may fall 15%-25%, TF International Securities analyst Kuo Ming-chi estimated in a research note. Apple didn’t immediately respond to Bloomberg News’ requests for comment.
A survey on the twitter-like Weibo service asking consumers to choose between WeChat and their iPhones has drawn more than 1.2 million responses so far, with roughly 95% of participants saying they would rather give up their devices. “The ban will force a lot of Chinese users to switch from Apple to other brands because WeChat is really important for us,” said Sky Ding, who works in fintech in Hong Kong and originally hails from Xi’an. “My family in China are all used to WeChat and all our communication is on the platform.”Regarding WeChat, Bloomberg reported in a separate article: www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-09-03/tencent-s-wechat-is-china-s-everything-app-and-the-we-is-increasingly-suspectWhen the Trump administration issued executive orders on Aug. 6 that would essentially ban the Chinese apps WeChat and TikTok over national security concerns, executives at TikTok were quick to distance themselves from any user anxiety over the social media phenomenon’s relationship with the mother country and authorities there.
WeChat was less quick to push back. That’s because Tencent Holdings Ltd., the company that owns WeChat, has for years worked to keep the app aligned with the values of China’s ruling Communist Party. The day after the ban was announced, Tencent—which has a market cap of more than $660 billion—simply said it was “reviewing the potential consequences” of the executive order; it later tried to make a distinction between the app’s Chinese and overseas versions but didn’t address U.S. security allegations.
It was the Chinese government that assailed the U.S. move—as it has done repeatedly over the past few years when the U.S. has gone after companies from the mainland—with foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin telling reporters on Aug. 7 that it was “nothing short of bullying.” He said, “The U.S. side has put selfish interests above market principle and international rules to the detriment of American users and companies.” Political manipulation and oppression “will only end up with its demoralization, eroded national image, and trust deficit.”
All the platforms are expected to toe the party line and ensure content doesn’t “cross any of Beijing’s red lines,” Ryan says. Article 28 of China’s 2017 cybersecurity law says, “Network operators shall provide technical support and assistance to public security organs and national security organs that are safeguarding national security and investigating criminal activities in accordance with the law.” In a regular press conference with foreign media on Sept. 1, foreign ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said it was the U.S. rather than China that had turned apps into surveillance systems to spy on the public.
Trump’s two orders would prohibit “any transaction” by U.S. individuals and entities with WeChat and TikTok, but the administration’s sweeping language seemed to indicate the ban might extend well beyond their use in the U.S.—leaving investors confused and trying to figure out the orders’ definition of transactions as it applied to Chinese companies. Did it include the use of the apps outside the U.S. and specifically in China where WeChat is ubiquitous and essential to business?
Zhou Fengsuo, a former student leader during the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 and a naturalized American citizen living in the U.S., says his WeChat account has been temporarily suspended numerous times over the past seven years. “WeChat censorship is so obvious that people are no longer sensitive about it,” he says. “My account is dealt with in the same way as Chinese accounts, which are under surveillance all the time.” Shortly after Chinese activist Liu Xiaobo died in 2017, Zhou says he couldn’t commemorate Liu by sharing photos of the Nobel Peace Prize laureate and his wife with friends on WeChat, or on the app’s semi-public feed.Wired would go on to elaborate on Apple’s interesting position with China: www.wired.co.uk/article/apple-china“There’s a confusion about China,” Cook said a couple of years ago at the Fortune Global Forum in Guangzhou, pushing back against the notion that Apple assembles products there to save money. Instead, he argued, China’s deep tech ecosystem makes it the only country capable of providing the right mix of expertise, suppliers and labour at the scale Apple needs.
Even so, as US-China trade tensions have intensified, Apple’s reliance on China has become as much a source of weakness as strength. In the US, it risks being attacked by Trump for its reliance on China – hence the very public nature of Cook’s factory visit with Trump.
Meanwhile, China’s government always has the option of using Apple as a bargaining chip, especially if trade talks with the US break down once again, for instance by restricting access to the crucial rare earth metals needed for smartphone production. Trade ructions have hit Apple’s Chinese sales too, as patriotic consumers turn to domestic brands, giving a bump to Huawei in particular.
Apple’s role as an employer provides a measure of political protection: it says its activities “support” more than five million Chinese jobs, more than twice as many as in the US. Yet this did not stop it running into trouble with Beijing in October 2019, when it was pressured to remove the mapping app HKmap.live from its app store, following its use by protesters in Hong Kong.
The ongoing trade tensions are now forcing Apple to consider still more drastic scenarios, in particular what would happen if greater technological “decoupling” between the US and Chinese economies forced it to shift large portions of its supply chain away from China.Combined with Trump’s tariffs and sanctions, along with the always-contentious currency battle, Apple stands to lose bigly without a weak, China-first, anti-America president. In all-out-war mode, Apple’s biggest stock holders need to pull out every stop to make sure Trump loses so they can continue to profit. Similarly, Disney, Mrs. Jobs’s other big stock asset set, has also been going out of their way to work with China. The Drum ran a story in 2017 titled “Walt Dynasty: Why Disney’s long-term focus is on China“: www.thedrum.com/news/2017/09/05/walt-dynasty-why-disneys-long-term-focus-chinaWill China be all ears as the House of Mouse comes calling?
While Disney’s history is rooted in American culture, its focus for future growth lies outside of the United States. The company makes more TV shows outside the US than in it, operating 110 Disney channels around the world. Most of all, it thinks it can win in China.
Disney’s advance into China has been a model of diplomacy, stealth and long-term planning. Barely a year after opening its doors, Shanghai Disneyland is already China’s largest amusement park, attracting 12 million visitors.
“There were 18 years between first setting foot on the property in Pudong and cutting the ribbon with government officials of China to officially open Shanghai Disneyland,” says chairman and chief executive Bob Iger.
The most challenging aspect of the project, he says, was to build something that “would be viewed by the people of China as a great experience and enable them to have a sense of pride in it and ownership of it, meaning they felt like it was their theme park”.
However, it hasn’t always been this way. Andy Bird, chairman of Walt Disney International, says that when he joined Disney 13 years ago the strategy was to create products in the US and then sell to overseas markets: “Like many multinational companies we were in the export business and a large proportion of everything we produced was produced here. It was literally one size fits all.”In 2016, The New York Times published a story about Disney’s convenient affair with the Chinese Communist Party: www.nytimes.com/2016/06/15/business/international/china-disney.htmlMr. Iger, Disney’s chief executive, took a corporate jet to Shanghai in February 2008 to meet with the city’s new Communist Party boss, Yu Zhengsheng. Over dinner at a state guesthouse, Mr. Iger offered a more conciliatory approach, setting the tone for the next phase of talks.
After that, Disney substantially dialed back its demands. In addition to handing over a large piece of the profit, the control-obsessed company would give the government a role in running the park. Disney was also prepared to drop its longstanding insistence on a television channel.
For Disney, such moves were once unthinkable. Giving up on the Disney Channel meant abandoning the company’s proven brand-building strategy. “We’re kidding ourselves if we think we’re going to get everything we want,” Mr. Iger recalled saying at the time.
Mr. Iger’s trip and the new attitude in the talks that followed appeased Chinese officials. Before long, they had struck a landmark deal to build the $5.5 billion Shanghai Disney Resort, opening China to a singularly American brand and setting the pace for multinational companies to do business in the country.
The Shanghai park, which opens on Thursday, has become mission critical for Disney as it faces business pressures in other areas like cable. It is designed to be a machine in China for the Disney brand, with a manicured Magic Kingdom-style park, “Toy Story”-themed hotel and Mickey Avenue shopping arcade. More than 330 million people live within a three-hour drive or train ride, and Disney is bent on turning them into lifelong consumers.
But Disney is sharing the keys to the Magic Kingdom with the Communist Party. While that partnership has made it easier to get things done in China, it has also given the government influence over everything from the price of admission to the types of rides at the park.
From the outset, Disney has catered to Chinese officials, who had to approve the park’s roster of rides and who were especially keen to have a large-scale park that would appeal to adults as well as children. The Shanghai resort, which will ultimately be four times as big as Disneyland, has a supersize castle, a longer parade than any of the other five Disney resorts around the world, and a vast central garden aimed at older visitors.Even the Chinese Communist Party run news paper, China Daily, lauded Disney’s growing market in the country. Remember the CCP also banned Winny The Pooh because the the old cartoon bear looked too much like China’s most honorable chairman President Xi Jinping. This is not unlike how the NBA has caved to China’s demands and has come out against players and executives who have stood with the pro-freedom Hong Kong protesters. Billionaire stock holders, such as Laurene Powell Jobs, need a President Harris, err, President Biden, in order to continue their windfall from China. They can’t get that with a president that stands for America. The irony is not lost that the party that claims to stand up for the working class, stand against multi national corporations, and stand against the oppression of workers and exploitation of labor is essentially acting as a surrogate for multi national corporations that exploit working class laborers. Scarier yet, they also own the corporate media that will tear down anyone who stands in their way.
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Post by soonernvolved on Sept 6, 2020 9:42:09 GMT -6
www.breitbart.com/middle-east/2020/09/06/serbia-kosovo-to-normalize-ties-with-israel-open-embassies-in-jerusalem/Serbia, Kosovo to Normalize Ties with Israel, Open Embassies in Jerusalem The Muslim-majority Balkan nation of Kosovo has agreed, along with neighboring Serbia, to establish full diplomatic relations will Israel and will open embassies in Jerusalem, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced. It will mark the first time a European country has opened an embassy in Jerusalem, and in the case of Kosovo, the first mostly Muslim country to do so. The announcement comes on the heels of a similar statement by President Donald Trump, who met with the leaders of Serbia and Kosovo in Washington to establish economic ties between the rival Balkan nations. Netanyahu thanked the president of Serbia for moving his country’s embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. He said: I thank my friend, Serbian President Vucic, for the decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and to transfer to it his country’s embassy. I would like to thank my friend, President Trump, for his contribution to this achievement. We will continue efforts so that additional European countries will transfer their embassies to Jerusalem. Netanyahu also commented on Israel’s expanding “circle of peace.” “Kosovo will be the first Muslim majority country to open an embassy in Jerusalem. As I have been saying in recent days, the circle of peace and recognition of Israel is expanding and additional countries are expected to join it,” the prime minister said. Last month, Israel and the United Arab Emirates agreed to normalize ties in what Netanyahu has described as a warm peace. Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi urged all countries to follow Serbia and Kosovo’s example by opening embassies in Jerusalem. “The city of Jerusalem, the eternal capital of the State of Israel, will be a bridge of peace to the entire world. I call on other countries to follow in their footsteps [of Serbia and Kosovo] and move their embassies to Jerusalem, the capital of Israel.” He continued by saying that “Israel has no more important ally than the United States.” “The US administration continues to lead to significant diplomatic breakthroughs, both in our relations with Serbia and Kosovo, as well as the promotion of normalization and the historic peace agreement between Israel and the United Arab Emirates. Israel’s ambassador to the U.N. Gilad Erdan hailed the U.S. administration’s diplomatic achievements. “Another breakthrough, another Muslim country normalizing ties with Israel. After the UAE & Kosovo, I believe more Muslim & Arab states will opt for peace, leaving the Palestinians isolated. Perhaps this will convince future Palestinian leaders to make concessions for peace,” Erdan posted to Twitter. “I congratulate Prime Minister Netanyahu and President Trump on this great achievement. Serbia and Kosovo will now open embassies in Jerusalem, following in America’s footsteps, and paving the way for more countries,” he added. Turkey called Kosovo’s decision to recognize Israel and establish an embassy in Jerusalem “disappointing” and a “clear violation of international law.” On Saturday, the newly elected president of Malawi, Lazarus Chakwera — an ardent pro-Israel supporter — announced his intention to open an embassy in Jerusalem. The east African majority-Christian currently has no embassy in Israel.
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Post by soonernvolved on Sept 6, 2020 9:44:58 GMT -6
thefederalist.com/2020/09/05/democrats-are-fighting-trumps-judges-like-never-before-but-trumps-still-winning/Democrats Are Fighting Trump’s Judges Like Never Before, But Trump’s Still Winning Trump’s judges have received nearly half of all no votes in U.S. history, an average of about 22 per judge (and about 36 per circuit judge) — as compared to just over 6 per judge under Obama. By Ilya Shapiro SEPTEMBER 5, 2020 President Trump, who wouldn’t have won had it not been for the Supreme Court vacancy created by Justice Antonin Scalia’s death, has now ensured that a major part of his legacy is in the judiciary. Having appointed nearly a third of all circuit judges — a record 30 in his first two years, about the same as Bush and Obama combined at that point in their presidencies, and 50 in three (where Obama had 55 in two terms) — he has also had back-to-back Supreme Court picks. And Justices Ginsburg (87), Breyer (82), and Thomas (72) aren’t getting any younger. That’s a big deal, because a president has few constitutional powers more important than picking judges. Legislative victories can be short-lived, regulations can be rescinded, and policy guidance isn’t worth the paper it’s written on. But judicial appointments are for life; those black-robed arbiters continue shaping our world long after the president who appointed them has left the White House. And all this goes just as much or more for the lower courts, which decide 50,000 cases annually, dwarfing the Supreme Court’s output. An important ruling on nonprofit-donor disclosures was made in April 2016 by a district judge appointed by Lyndon Johnson. Every four years, a president appoints 20 percent or more of the federal judiciary. To put it another way, when President Obama took office, only one of the 13 federal appellate courts had majorities of Democratic appointees — the west-coast Ninth Circuit — but when he left, nine did. When Trump was inaugurated in January 2017, there were 108 vacancies in the lower courts, which rose to about 150 before a Senate rule change enabled speedier confirmations. The remaining vacancies — all in district courts — are mostly in states where both Democratic senators refused to negotiate any sort of deal, preferring to leave their states shorthanded rather than allow Trump to get any say in their judges. These judicial slots were real wildcards. If a constitutional lawyer who had been president of the Harvard Law Review (Obama) deprioritized judicial nominations in his first few years, how much would a celebrity real-estate developer care? Would Trump see these as patronage posts for his casino lawyers and others he encountered in the entertainment world? Would he just focus on immigration and trade and let the judiciary erode away? Selecting Committed and Vibrant OriginalistsTo his credit, the president let the White House Counsel’s office run the show. Senators will occasionally insist on cronies, but the ratio of solid, “movement” nominees to establishmentarian hacks is exceedingly high. The result has been Trump’s biggest success, with judges of the same kind and caliber as those conservative-constitutionalist Ted Cruz would have picked — and probably better than Jeb Bush or Mitt Romney. This administration has surpassed even George W. Bush in picking committed and youthful originalists, particularly in the circuit courts, and getting them through the Senate. There is little concern of anyone moving left or being a “squish.” Former White House Counsel Don McGahn likes to say that, rather than “outsourcing” judicial selection to the Federalist Society, he “insourced” the operation, meaning that his team, which was far leaner than in previous administrations, were all “Fed Soc” members who understood the need for solid judges with a record of accomplishment. That’s why it’s no surprise that so many of Trump’s nominees are intellectual superstars, and why the Democrats have tried to smear them in various ways. Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) said about Seventh Circuit Judge Amy Coney Barrett, the odds-on favorite to be elevated if Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s seat becomes vacant, that “the dogma lives loudly within you” — which sounds like a rejected Star Wars line. Fifth Circuit Judge Don Willett was assailed for humorous tweets, particularly one about a constitutional right to marry bacon. D.C. Circuit Judge Neomi Rao and Second Circuit Judge Steven Menashi were attacked for their (standard conservative-libertarian) collegiate writings, as was Ryan Bounds, a Ninth Circuit nominee who ultimately withdrew when two Republican senators, Tim Scott (S.C.) and Marco Rubio (Fla.), unreasonably declined to support him. Democratic California senators Feinstein and Kamala Harris tried especially hard to block Patrick Bumatay, who became the first openly gay Ninth Circuit judge and first circuit judge of Filipino descent. Unlike some of their colleagues in deep-blue states, including Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), they also haven’t played ball on district judges, despite judicial emergencies in California’s federal courts. The ABA too has been a source of renewed controversy, with nine nominees rated “not qualified,” including three circuit nominees whose ratings seem based almost entirely on ideological disagreements. Reversing the TideReturning to numbers, on Inauguration Day, Republican-appointed majorities remained only in the Fifth, Sixth, Seventh, and Eighth Circuits, basically the middle of the country. While those majorities have grown and gotten younger, and more originalist, more interesting is how Trump and McConnell have been able to reverse the tide in the other nine circuits. For only the second time, the Senate confirmed double-digit circuit judges three years in a row. The Third Circuit, based in Philadelphia, was the first one to flip from Democratic-appointed majorities to Republican-appointed ones. Then in quick succession came the New York-based Second and the Atlanta-based Eleventh. A far more significant shift has occurred on the Ninth Circuit, which has moved from 19 Democrat-appointed judges, nine Republican-appointed, and one vacancy, to 16 Democrat and 13 Republican. The resulting ratio of D:R appointees is lower than in five other circuits. Ideological rebalancing is already being felt in the makeup of three-judge case panels and, unique to this court, the “limited” en banc panels of eleven. And the Ninth Circuit skews old, so if Trump is reelected, it could end up with a GOP-appointed majority for the first time since before the Carter-era judiciary expansion (which is why the court skews left in the first place). Realizing the danger in all this to a jurisprudential non-theory of social-justice-seeking, Democratic senators have used every parliamentary trick in their power to slow this Trump train. They no longer have the biggest brake, the filibuster — Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) frequently thanks his predecessor Harry Reid (D-Nev.) for having gotten rid of it for lower-court judges — so they’ve forced more cloture votes than in all previous presidencies combined. Nearly 80 percent of Trump’s judicial nominees have faced cloture votes, including many who are confirmed with upwards of 90 votes. In comparison, about three percent of Obama’s nominees faced cloture votes and fewer than two percent in the previous five presidencies. Until the Senate majority voted to cut back on floor time, Democrats also demanded the full 30 hours of floor time per nominee the rules allowed, even on judges who ultimately got approved by voice vote. Democrats are also refusing to return “blue slips,” the home-state senators’ prerogative to have significant say in whether to let a nominee be considered. Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) thus made them non-dispositive for circuit nominees, assuming that the White House engaged in good-faith consultation — a policy Chairman Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) has continued. Facing Massive Democratic Party OppositionAs it happens, Trump’s 203 Article III judicial appointees have received more than 4,500 no votes, while all 329 of Obama’s judges got 2,039. Trump’s judges have received nearly half of all no votes in U.S. history, an average of about 22 per judge (and about 36 per circuit judge) — as compared to just over 6 per judge under Obama, 2 under George W. Bush, 1.3 under Clinton, and the rest fewer than one. In 2019 alone, when the Senate confirmed 102 judges, 12 percent of the total and second-highest ever for one year, those judges received 88 percent more no votes than all 2,680 judges confirmed in the 20th century. The number confirmed in 2019 is eclipsed only by the 135 in 1979, when Congress had just created 150 new judgeships and President Carter’s Democrats had a 59–41 Senate majority. Judiciary Committee Chairman Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.) even considered seven circuit nominees in one hearing and the Senate confirmed more than 20 judges on a single day at least twice, confirming more than 97 percent of judges on voice vote and taking no cloture votes. It was a different world. One final statistic: The average Democrat has voted against nearly half of all Trump judicial nominees, while the average Republican voted against fewer than 10 percent of Obama nominees and — get this — since the turn of the 20th century, senators of one party voted against fewer than 2 percent of nominees of the other. It’s a shame that quality nominees are confirmed on party-line votes; only 16 of 53 circuit judges confirmed under Trump have gotten more than 60 votes. But we’ve gotten here because we’re at the culmination of a long trend whereby different legal theories map onto ideologically sorted parties. Federal judges are a big deal, so it’s understandable that senators try to advance or block as many as possible. That’s why I’d never tell senators to vote for a nominee they think will do damage to the Constitution and the rule of law. Senator Graham really impressed me in the Kavanaugh fight, but he and Senator Susan Collins (R-Maine) are wrong to simply defer to presidents from both parties so long as their judicial nominees are qualified as a matter of intellect and experience. For senators and citizens alike, it’s absolutely appropriate to question judicial philosophy. Judicial nominations are now properly an election issue, so it’s heartening that voters are paying attention. This essay is adapted from the author’s forthcoming book, Supreme Disorder: Judicial Nominations and the Politics of America’s Highest Court, due out from Regnery this month. Ilya Shapiro is a senior contributor to The Federalist. He is director of the Robert A. Levy Center for Constitutional Studies at the Cato Institute. Follow him on Twitter, @ishapiro.
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Post by soonernvolved on Sept 6, 2020 9:47:33 GMT -6
thefederalist.com/2020/09/05/trump-administration-bans-critical-race-theory-trainings-at-federal-agencies/Trump Administration Bans Critical Race Theory Trainings At Federal Agencies SEPTEMBER 5, 2020 By Tristan Justice The Trump administration announced it would prohibit federal agencies from subjecting government employees to “critical race theory” or “white privilege” seminars moving forward, opening up a new front in the 21st-century culture wars erupting in the aftermath of George Floyd’s death in May. “It has come to the President’s attention that Executive Branch agencies have spent millions of taxpayer dollars to date ‘training’ government workers to believe divisive, anti-American propaganda,” read a Friday memo from the Office of Budget and Management Director Russ Vought. “These types of ‘trainings’ not only run counter to the fundamental beliefs for which our Nation has stood since its inception, but they also engender division and resentment within the Federal workforce … The President has directed me to ensure that Federal agencies cease and desist from using taxpayer dollars to fund these divisive, un-American propaganda training sessions.” The news, first reported by RealClearPolitics comes just two months before the November election following a historic summer of civil unrest centered on race, where the left’s “critical race theory,” the idea that the United States is an inherently racist country in every possible way has begun to cement its grip on the nation’s legacy institutions transforming from a fringe left-wing ideology to a mainstream movement. As woke revolutionaries impose the Marxist concept once isolated to liberal college campuses on the nation’s city streets, threatening those who dare oppose the woketopians, taxpayer-funded agencies have begun to use public resources to instill them throughout the federal bureaucracy. In July, the National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC) became the center of online outrage after releasing a racist curriculum outlining key characteristics of white people put together at least in part by “critical race theory” architect Robin DiAngelo, the author of the leftist manifesto “White Fragility.” Tristan Justice is a staff writer at The Federalist focusing on the 2020 presidential campaigns. Follow him on Twitter at @justicetristan or contact him at Tristan@thefederalist.com.
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Post by soonernvolved on Sept 6, 2020 16:17:01 GMT -6
As he should: www.dailywire.com/news/trump-threatens-to-pull-federal-funding-from-schools-teaching-controversial-1619-projectTrump Threatens To Pull Federal Funding From Schools Teaching Controversial ‘1619 Project’ In an early-morning Twitter announcement Sunday, President Donald Trump said that the Department of Education was considering investigating whether schools are teaching The New York Times’ controversial re-framing of the Revolutionary War and America’s founding, the “1619 Project.” He also suggested that schools using the curriculum could face a loss of federal funding. The “1619 Project,” which won a Pulitzer Prize last year, but which has also been widely criticized by prominent historians, suggests that America’s founding did not occur in 1776, but rather in 1619, when the first slaves arrived in the new world. The project claims that “capitalism” was at the root of the Revolutionary War, and suggests that the Founding Fathers fought to preserve a slave economy from the British Empire, which, at the time, its author, Nikole Hannah-Jones claims, was on its way to abolishing the practice. The project itself forces teachers and students to view the Revolutionary War through the lens of racial oppression and aims to put “the consequences of slavery and the contributions of black Americans at the very center of our national narrative,” even if such reframing is, according to some scholars, historically questionable. “The project, created by Nikole Hannah-Jones, was awarded the 2020 Pulitzer Prize for Commentary,” Fox News notes. “However, multiple historians have criticized the series of articles for multiple inaccuracies, including the argument that the American Revolution was fought not to achieve independence from Britain, but to preserve the institution of slavery.” In a letter to The New York Times itself, a number of prominent historians said that while they “applaud all efforts to address the foundational centrality of slavery and racism to our history,” the “1619 Project” twists “matters of verifiable fact” in ways that “cannot be described as interpretation or ‘framing’” and exhibits a complete “displacement of historical understanding by ideology.” “These errors, which concern major events, cannot be described as interpretation or ‘framing,’” the historians wrote. “They are matters of verifiable fact, which are the foundation of both honest scholarship and honest journalism. They suggest a displacement of historical understanding by ideology. Dismissal of objections on racial grounds — that they are the objections of only ‘white historians’ — has affirmed that displacement.” A number of schools in California, New York, and Illinois, have already pledged to work the “1619 Project” into their history curriculum, spawning, according to the president, a Department of Education review of their history curriculum. Chicago’s and New York City’s school districts have both adjusted their history curriculum requirements to add aspects of the “1619 Project.” “Department of Education is looking at this,” Trump tweeted in reference to the situation in California. “If so, they will not be funded!” Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) is a step ahead of the president, announcing in July that he was drafting a bill that would prevent schools from using the “1619 Project,” and his bill would also deny federal funding to those schools that choose to teach the curriculum, regardless. In a speech to the Senate earlier this summer, Cotton called the Project “a racially divisive, revisionist account of history that denies the noble principles of freedom and equality on which our nation was founded.”
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Post by soonernvolved on Sept 7, 2020 3:13:24 GMT -6
dailycaller.com/2020/09/06/donald-trump-1619-project-department-of-education/Trump Says He Will Stop Funding Schools That Teach New York Times’ 1619 Project President Donald Trump said in a tweet Sunday that the Department of Education would stop funding California public schools if they teach the New York Times’ 1619 Project. “Department of Education is looking at this. If so, they will not be funded!” Trump said in a tweet as a response to a post that claimed “california has implemented the 1619 project into the public schools. soon you wont recognize america[sic].” Republican Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton proposed legislation in July to forbid federal funds from being used towards “the 1619 Project curriculum in elementary schools and secondary schools, and for other purposes,” according to the text of his bill. The New York Times’s 1619 Project is a racially divisive, revisionist account of history that denies the noble principles of freedom and equality on which our nation was founded. Not a single cent of federal funding should go to indoctrinate young Americans with this left-wing garbage,” Cotton said in a press release. Nikole Hannah-Jones, the lead writer for the 1619 Project that aimed to reframe the history of America’s founding around slavery, was awarded a Pulitzer Prize in commentary for the project in May. The project has been incorporated in some public school curriculums in the U.S. Critics say the project has “misrepresentations and inaccuracies,” according to the National Review. The Department of Education did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
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Post by soonernvolved on Sept 7, 2020 6:27:29 GMT -6
thefederalist.com/2020/09/07/atlantic-editor-concedes-central-claim-of-trump-hit-piece-could-be-wrong/And another media lie dies. Try again Icky..... Atlantic Editor Concedes Central Claim Of Trump Hit Piece Could Be Wrong SEPTEMBER 7, 2020 By Jordan Davidson On Sunday, Atlantic Editor in Chief Jeffrey Goldberg admitted the White House’s account that President Trump’s trip to a cemetery of fallen World War I soldiers in France in 2018 was modified due to bad weather is probably accurate. “I’m sure all of those things are true,” Goldberg told CNN in an interview on Friday when asked to respond to evidence a story he published saying otherwise is false. In the story published in The Atlantic on Thursday, Goldberg asserted that multiple senior White House staffers heard President Trump express a desire to cancel his visit to the cemetery because “It’s filled with losers.” “When President Donald Trump canceled a visit to the Aisne-Marne American Cemetery near Paris in 2018, he blamed the rain for the last-minute decision, saying ‘the helicopter couldn’t fly’ and that the Secret Service wouldn’t drive him there. Neither claim was true. Trump rejected the idea of the visit because he feared his hair would become disheveled in the rain, and because he did not believe it important to honor American war dead,” Goldberg wrote, citing only anonymous sources. Despite conceding that the cancellation due to weather might be true, Goldberg stood by his story about President Trump’s trip to the cemetery, claiming that “the public’s interest in meeting this information outweigh the ambiguities or the difficulties of anonymous sourcing” and that he will “be continuing to make that effort to move this material directly onto the record.” While others have claimed to “confirm” the report with more anonymous sources, The Atlantic has published false stories before, which raises more questions about the legitimacy of a report given by unknown people. President Trump denied the claims by Goldberg and his anonymous sources, saying that other people on the trip such as the Secret Service and Gen. Keith Kellogg can “refute” the allegations. “I would be willing to swear on anything that I never said that about our fallen heroes. There is nobody that respects them more. So I just think it’s a horrible, horrible thing,” he told reporters as he deplaned from Air Force One. “We made a great evening into, frankly, a very sad evening, when I see a statement like that. No animal, nobody — what animal would say such a thing?” The White House also denounced the piece in The Atlantic, calling it “patently false” and “offensive fiction.” “This report is patently false. President Trump holds the military in the highest regard. He’s demonstrated his commitment to them at every turn: delivering on his promise to give our troops a much-needed pay raise, increasing military spending, signing critical veterans reforms, and supporting military spouses. These nameless anecdotes have no basis in fact and are offensive fiction,” said White House strategic communications director Alyssa Farah. Former National Security Advisor John Bolton’s book, released earlier in the year to criticize Trump, corroborated the White House account that the trip to the cemetery was canceled for the president’s safety over bad weather and response time if the need to leave France unexpectedly arose. “Marine One’s crew was saying that bad visibility could make it imprudent to chopper to the cemetery. The ceiling was not too low for Marines to fly in combat, but flying POTUS was obviously something very different. If a motorcade was necessary, it could take between ninety and a hundred and twenty minutes each way, along roads that were not exactly freeways, posing an unacceptable risk that we could not get the President out of France quickly enough in case of an emergency,” Bolton wrote. “It was a straightforward decision to cancel the visit but very hard for a Marine like Kelly to recommend, having originally been the one to suggest Belleau Wood… Trump agreed, and it was decided that others would drive to the cemetery instead.” Despite claims by CNN that the alleged conversation about the cancellation could’ve occurred after Bolton left, Bolton confirmed the account from his book in an interview with Bloomberg on Friday, saying he had never heard President Trump disparage fallen soldiers. “I didn’t hear that,” Bolton told The New York Times. “I’m not saying he didn’t say them later in the day or another time, but I was there for that discussion.”
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Post by soonernvolved on Sept 7, 2020 6:32:06 GMT -6
thefederalist.com/2020/09/07/wsj-trump-to-pick-foreign-policy-realist-as-afghanistan-ambassador/WSJ: Trump To Pick Foreign Policy Realist As Afghanistan Ambassador Scholar, Afghanistan veteran, and naval reservist Will Ruger wants to pull U.S. troops out immediately. His elevation implies the president finally understands that personnel is policy. Sumantra Maitra By Sumantra Maitra SEPTEMBER 7, 2020 According to anonymous Wall Street Journal sources, President Trump is set to pick William Ruger as the U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan, in a move that would have major consequences for U.S. foreign policy and meaningless wars across the globe. Ruger, a scholar at the Cato Institute and a vice president for research at the Charles Koch Institute, is also an Afghanistan veteran and a naval reservist. He is a dyed-in-the-wool conservative realist who has been a consistent voice for troop pullout from not just Afghanistan, but also from the Middle East, including Syria and Iraq. This comes after President Trump selected retired Army Col. Douglas Macgregor as ambassador to Germany, and shows an elevation of foreign policy realists in an administration that has often struggled to manage the president’s nationalist vision with bureaucratic inertia in Washington. The nomination has not been officially declared but has been widely reported. Ruger has been tight-lipped about the process and according to the Wall Street Journal has undergone vetting for the last three months, corresponding with his Twitter silence. When I reached out, he refused to confirm or deny the nomination. This move would have wider political implications. Ever since Trump’s campaign speech in South Carolina in 2016, there has been a tension between his vision and the broader party and governmental establishment. As Tucker Carlson’s book pointed out, there was a palpable shock when Trump thundered that humanitarian wars and especially the Iraq War were a once-in-a-century mistake. Every opposition to Trump, from the Never Trump movement to the current resistance, spawned since then. But the Trumpian retrenchment instinct never really shaped policy. There are a few reasons for that, including his lack of knowledge about diplomatic and military processes, as well as his overarching vision, which often collided with the details of policy formation. Primary among them was the president’s inexperience in policy, which hampered his choice of personnel. Personnel is policy in this business, and every time the president wanted something, the perma-bureaucracy scrambled it. Consider how many times Trump wanted to get out of Syria, Iraq, and Afghanistan, as well as all those times he was hesitant to start a war with Iran and Venezuela. At every step, he was thwarted in his attempts to channel and reshape an American grand strategy, although he did manage not to start a new war in the last four years. Ruger has been a consistent voice about pulling troops out from endless wars and other assorted policing missions. As a realist, Ruger is opposed to imperial overstretch. I met him in DC last year at the national conservatism conference, and he was vocal then about his opposition to continued war in Afghanistan. He has also repeatedly written about it, most recently in May, saying that “President Trump has correctly concluded that a full and speedy withdrawal of our troops is imperative. Our national interest isn’t served by continuing to wage a futile battle but by exiting it.” While the United States has supported a peace deal with the Taliban, Ruger remained unconvinced that a deal is necessary for the United States to get out. Ultimately, to him, it is about serving American interests by leaving a bloody quagmire. If Ruger’s nomination news is true, and it seems to be, then that points to two things. First, Trump is serious about ending stupid wars. For all his rhetorical flaws, he understands that America needs to stop wasting trillions in policing the globe and ensuring a sexual revolution in the Middle East and Asia, guarded by American blood and treasure. In fact, one can causally link the repeated uncorroborated leaks against Trump to an effort to stop him from ending wars. Of all the presidents in the last quarter-century, he faced the most resistance from entrenched DC interests, but he still seems to be serious about keeping his campaign promise of ending wars. Second, it highlights that Trump has understood or at least grasped that he has been frequently thwarted by some of his team. Historically, politics has always been about a candidate selling his vision to the masses. If that vision gets rewarded and he gets elected, he then proceeds to choose personnel who can implement that particular vision. Lately, however, in both the United Kingdom and the United States, that has been in reverse. In both countries, a steady perma-bureaucracy and their allies in media and academia have ensured a muscular globalist liberal-internationalism despite who wins the nation’s top election. The resistance to Trump and Brexit are both the logical conclusion of this Praetorian politics. Ruger and Macgregor’s elevation would change that dynamic to a more traditional form of politics. The two are also aligned with broader American public opinion, which opposes foreign overstretch, utopian wars, and allied free-riding. Both will naturally face resistance during their confirmation process, but the nominations are themselves a welcome change toward reversing a sclerotic post-Cold War foreign policy
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Post by soonernvolved on Sept 7, 2020 15:22:37 GMT -6
www.breitbart.com/politics/2020/09/07/u-s-ambassador-france-denies-atlantic-story-potus-never-denigrated-any-member-us-military/Exclusive — U.S. Ambassador to France Denies The Atlantic Story: ‘POTUS Has Never Denigrated Any Member of U.S. Military’ U.S. Ambassador to France and Monaco Jamie McCourt told Breitbart News exclusively on Monday that the Atlantic story about President Donald Trump allegedly bashing troops is untrue. Ambassador McCourt was there the day President Trump’s team called off the trip to the cemetery at Belleau Wood because of inclement weather. She is the latest U.S. official who was actually present at the event to publicly deny the Atlantic’s account of events, which is based entirely on anonymous sources. “Needless to say, I never spoke to the Atlantic, and I can’t imagine who would,” McCourt told Breitbart News. “In my presence, POTUS has NEVER denigrated any member of the U.S. military or anyone in service to our country. And he certainly did not that day, either. Let me add, he was devastated to not be able to go to the cemetery at Belleau Wood. In fact, the next day, he attended and spoke at the ceremony in Suresnes in the pouring rain.” McCourt’s denial regarding the Atlantic comes after former White House deputy chief of staff Zach Fuentes, a top confidante of former chief of staff John Kelly, denied the story earlier on Monday in an exclusive statement to Breitbart News. In addition to Fuentes, former National Security adviser John Bolton has denied the account—as has every other person who could have witnessed the president saying this: officials who were there, from former White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders to senior adviser Stephen Miller to advisers such as Jordan Karem and Derek Lyons. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who was traveling with the president there, has also denied the report. In addition, first lady Melania Trump has denied the report and called the Atlantic article fake news. While Kelly himself has not said anything publicly at this stage, Fuentes’s denial essentially serves as a denial from Kelly. That’s because Fuentes, in his denial, made clear that Kelly would not have stood idly by if Trump had, in fact, made the remarks that were alleged in the Atlantic story. “Honestly, do you think General Kelly would have stood by and let ANYONE call fallen Marines losers?” Fuentes asked Breitbart News. Now, with McCourt’s denial, along with those of everyone else who was in the president’s presence in France during this supposed episode, White House officials familiar with the matter told Breitbart News that there is nobody left who could have witnessed the president say something like this privately about fallen troops: In other words, White House officials current and former told Breitbart News this denial from Ambassador McCourt essentially eliminates any possibility of an actual firsthand account of the president making such remarks, as everyone who was with him on this trip has denied the report except for Kelly–and Fuentes’s statement makes clear Kelly would not have stood by if the president said this. At a news conference on Monday at the White House, the president again bashed the Atlantic report: The story is a hoax, written by a guy who has a tremendously bad history,” Trump said, adding, “The magazine itself, which I don’t read but I hear is totally anti-Trump—he’s a big Obama person, he’s a big Clinton person—he made up the story. It’s a totally made-up story. In fact, I was very happy to see Zach Fuentes came out and said—I think that’s now number 15. These are people that were there. That’s the 15th person—Gen. Kellogg, everybody that was there, knew what happened. So I was happy to see Zach came out and said it’s not true. He just came out. It’s a disgrace. Who would say a thing like that? Only an animal would say a thing like that. There is nobody that has more respect for not only our military, but for people that gave their lives in the military. I think John Kelly knows that. I think he would know that, and he knows that from me. But Zach Fuentes, as you know, worked for John. I think they both know that, but Zach, as you know, came out today or yesterday, last night, and said very strongly that he didn’t hear anything like that. Even John Bolton came out and said that was untrue. Now what was true is we had the worst weather. We had as bad of rain as I’ve just about ever seen, and it was a fog you literally couldn’t see. I walked out—I didn’t need somebody to tell me—I walked out and said, ‘There’s no way we can take helicopters in this.’ I understand helicopters very well. They said, ‘No, sir. That’s been canceled.’ They would have had to go—Secret Service, I have the whole list. They would have had to go through a very, very busy section during the day of Paris. They would have had to go through the city.”
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Post by soonernvolved on Sept 8, 2020 8:28:13 GMT -6
And Icky's big revelation just died: dailycaller.com/2020/09/08/the-atlantic-editorial-in-chief-jeffrey-goldberg-anonymous-sourcing-not-good-enough/The Atlantic Editor In Chief Jeffrey Goldberg Says Anonymous Sourcing Is ‘Not Good Enough’ After Backlash Over Trump Story Jeffrey Goldberg, The Atlantic’s editor in chief, conceded on MSNBC’s “All In with Chris Hayes” Monday that anonymous sourcing is “not good enough” after backlash over a story about President Donald Trump. Goldberg faced criticism after a Sept. 3 story used four anonymous sources to allege that the president referred to fallen soldiers as “losers” and “suckers.” Since its publication, Fox News and other publications have confirmed details of the story. Meanwhile, multiple current and former Trump administration members on the trip where the comments were allegedly made have denied the report, according to NBC News. After saying the sources were allowed to remain anonymous because they feared “angry tweets and all the rest,” Goldberg elaborated and suggested criticism regarding the sourcing is fair. Despite the comments, Goldberg also backed up his decision on anonymous sourcing for the article as well as the contents of the story. “These are people just like other people, and they have this anxiety,” Goldberg said. “It is a reasonable question to ask why people who have had direct exposure to Donald Trump, who know what Donald Trump has said, who know what Donald Trump has done, won’t simply come out and say it.” “And I share that view that it’s not good enough,” he continued. “But, you know, like other reporters, I’m always balancing out the moral ambiguities and complications of anonymous sourcing with a public’s right to know.” (RELATED: Biden Megadonor Owns The Atlantic, Reportedly Communicates Often With Journalist Behind Anonymously-Sourced Trump Bombshell) WATCH: Goldberg reiterated his past defense, saying, “there is a fear on a kind of superficial level of a Twitter mob.” He also said that he thinks “people are torn” with interfering “in Democratic electoral processes” and dealing with “a president unlike something” people have experience before. “There is also real fear of personal safety, fear for your family, fear for what you’d put everybody around you through if you started talking about this sort of thing,” Goldberg said. The editor in chief continued on to quote Fox News’ Jennifer Griffin, whose reporting has, in part, backed up The Atlantic’s story. Griffin said Saturday to Fox’s Neil Cavuto that her “sources are not anonymous to” her after Trump called for her to be fired. Griffin noted Saturday that although she did not confirm “every line of the Atlantic article,” she “did find people who were able to confirm” most of the report. “I trust these sources. These are people in the various rooms. And, but yeah, obviously it would be better if people would say — attach their names to what they know,” Goldberg said on MSNBC.
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Post by soonernvolved on Sept 8, 2020 8:34:22 GMT -6
This sorry ass motherfucker! His supporters really are brainwashed cult members Trump: Americans Who Died in War Are 'Losers' and 'Suckers' Source: The Atlantic When President Donald Trump canceled a visit to the Aisne-Marne American Cemetery near Paris in 2018, he blamed rain for the last-minute decision, saying that “the helicopter couldn’t fly” and that the Secret Service wouldn’t drive him there. Neither claim was true. Trump rejected the idea of the visit because he feared his hair would become disheveled in the rain, and because he did not believe it important to honor American war dead, according to four people with firsthand knowledge of the discussion that day. In a conversation with senior staff members on the morning of the scheduled visit, Trump said, “Why should I go to that cemetery? It’s filled with losers.” In a separate conversation on the same trip, Trump referred to the more than 1,800 marines who lost their lives at Belleau Wood as “suckers” for getting killed. Belleau Wood is a consequential battle in American history, and the ground on which it was fought is venerated by the Marine Corps. America and its allies stopped the German advance toward Paris there in the spring of 1918. But Trump, on that same trip, asked aides, “Who were the good guys in this war?” He also said that he didn’t understand why the United States would intervene on the side of the Allies. Trump’s understanding of concepts such as patriotism, service, and sacrifice have interested me since he expressed contempt for the war record of the late Senator John McCain, who spent more than five years as a prisoner of the North Vietnamese. “He’s not a war hero,” Trump said in 2015 while running for the Republican nomination for president. “I like people who weren’t captured.” There was no precedent in American politics for the expression of this sort of contempt, but the performatively patriotic Trump did no damage to his candidacy by attacking McCain in this manner. Nor did he set his campaign back by attacking the parents of Humayun Khan, an Army captain who was killed in Iraq in 2004. Trump remained fixated on McCain, one of the few prominent Republicans to continue criticizing him after he won the nomination. When McCain died, in August 2018, Trump told his senior staff, according to three sources with direct knowledge of this event, “We’re not going to support that loser’s funeral,” and he became furious, according to witnesses, when he saw flags lowered to half-staff. “What the fuck are we doing that for? Guy was a fucking loser,” the president told aides. Trump was not invited to McCain’s funeral. (These sources, and others quoted in this article, spoke on condition of anonymity. The White House did not return earlier calls for comment, but Alyssa Farah, a White House spokesperson, emailed me this statement shortly after this story was posted: “This report is false. President Trump holds the military in the highest regard. He’s demonstrated his commitment to them at every turn: delivering on his promise to give our troops a much needed pay raise, increasing military spending, signing critical veterans reforms, and supporting military spouses. This has no basis in fact.”) Read more: www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2020/09/trump-americans-who-died-at-war-are-losers-and-suckers/615997/This one stings doesn't it? dailycaller.com/2020/09/07/iraq-war-veteran-bobby-henline-trump-loser-propaganda-stop-using-my-image/‘Stop Using My Image’: Wounded Vet Says Trump Never Called Him ‘Loser,’ Demands His Face Be Taken Off ‘Propaganda’ Four-tour Iraq War veteran and comedian Bobby Henline demanded Monday that people stop using his image for “propaganda.” Within a day of a report from The Atlantic claiming that President Donald Trump had called wounded veterans “losers” and saying that no one wanted to see them, Henline’s face appeared on anti-Trump memes that used that message. (RELATED: Trump Introduces Iwo Jima Veterans At Colorado Rally — One Chants ‘USA! USA!’ Along With The Crowd) www.instagram.com/bobby_henline/http://instagram.com/p/CEzFFWvnNqW “Are we done lying to people yet?” he asked in a video Monday, demanding that his face not be used in “propaganda” to promote that agenda. WATCH: “People, stop using me for your propaganda, for your agenda. I’m not here for that,” Henline said. “I don’t know what Trump said, but I’m sure he didn’t call me a loser. I didn’t hear him call me a loser, so this has got to stop. Stop using my image.” (RELATED: Here Are All The People Close To Trump Who Have Gone On The Record Denying The Atlantic Story) Henline then asked for help in calling attention to the situation, adding, “Fox News, call me. Somebody, let’s get this out there on a bigger platform so people would know not to use me — not to put a face to whatever this is they think he said. It’s ridiculous.” “Let’s stop the sh*t, let’s move on,” Henline concluded. “I’m not part of all this.” ........................................................................................ Humorous thing is, Facebook took his video down lol. So, Icky, what other piece of propaganda do you have for me to destroy with facts & the truth?
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Post by soonernvolved on Sept 9, 2020 7:54:06 GMT -6
dailycaller.com/2020/09/09/donald-trump-nominated-nobel-peace-prize-uae-deal/Donald Trump Nominated For Nobel Peace Prize Over UAE-Israel Peace Deal President Donald Trump was nominated Wednesday for the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize. The nomination was submitted by Norwegian Member of Parliament Christian Tybring-Gjedde, who also nominated Trump in 2018. Citing Trump’s hand in the recent UAE peace deal with Israel, Tybring-Gjedde explained, “For his merit, I think he has done more trying to create peace between nations than most other Peace Prize nominees.” (RELATED: ‘Defend That!’: Joy Behar Scolds Sarah Sanders For Taking Offense At Personal Attacks While Defending Donald Trump) “As it is expected other Middle Eastern countries will follow in the footsteps of the UAE, this agreement could be a game changer that will turn the Middle East into a region of cooperation and prosperity,” he added. Tybring-Gjedde and one other Norwegian official previously nominated President Trump in 2018 after his Singapore Summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. Some were quick to congratulate the president for the accomplishment. While others pointed out that nomination only requires one parliamentarian’s nomination — and previous nominees included German dictator Adolf Hitler, Russian dictator Josef Stalin and Italian dictator Benito Mussolini. Tybring-Gjedde said he felt that Trump was more deserving than previous nominees and even some previous recipients, according to Trish Regan. “The people who have received the Peace Prize in recent years have done much less than Donald Trump. For example, Barack Obama did nothing,” he said.
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Post by soonernvolved on Sept 9, 2020 8:17:29 GMT -6
Interesting: thefederalist.com/2020/09/09/watch-tucker-carlson-airs-audio-of-cnn-chief-offering-trump-a-weekly-show/Watch: Tucker Carlson Airs Audio Of CNN Chief Offering Trump A Weekly Show SEPTEMBER 9, 2020 By Tristan Justice Fox News’ Tucker Carlson aired new audio Tuesday night showing CNN President Jeff Zucker offering then-candidate Donald Trump debate advice in March 2016 before floating out the idea of a weekly program. “I have all these proposals for him,” Zucker said in a recorded phone call with Trump’s personal attorney Michael Cohen. “Like, I want to do a weekly show with him and all this stuff.” Zucker then went on to ease campaign anxieties over Trump’s upcoming debate performances, giving the candidate unsolicited advice in the process. “I think the other guys are going to gang up on him tremendously… and I think he’s going to hold his own, as he does every time. He’s never lost a debate. And you know what? He’s good at this… He’s going to do great.” “How many times do you think Cruz will call him a conman?” Cohen asked Zucker. “No, Rubio,” Zucker corrected. “A lot.” “I say 100,” Cohen said. “So you know what you should do?” Zucker replied. “Whoever’s around him today should just be calling him a conman all day, so he’s used to it, so that when he hears it from Rubio, it doesn’t matter.” Throughout the conversation, Zucker also re-affirmed his respect for Trump, declaring his fondness for “the boss.” “It’s not that I don’t want to talk to [Trump] every day. I’ve just got to be careful, because, I’ve just got to be careful … I just don’t want him talking about it on the campaign trail … But you know what? I’m going to give him a call right now and I’m going to wish him luck in the debate tonight.”
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Post by kcrufnek on Sept 9, 2020 11:08:33 GMT -6
dailycaller.com/2020/09/09/donald-trump-nominated-nobel-peace-prize-uae-deal/Donald Trump Nominated For Nobel Peace Prize Over UAE-Israel Peace Deal President Donald Trump was nominated Wednesday for the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize. The nomination was submitted by Norwegian Member of Parliament Christian Tybring-Gjedde, who also nominated Trump in 2018. Citing Trump’s hand in the recent UAE peace deal with Israel, Tybring-Gjedde explained, “For his merit, I think he has done more trying to create peace between nations than most other Peace Prize nominees.” (RELATED: ‘Defend That!’: Joy Behar Scolds Sarah Sanders For Taking Offense At Personal Attacks While Defending Donald Trump) “As it is expected other Middle Eastern countries will follow in the footsteps of the UAE, this agreement could be a game changer that will turn the Middle East into a region of cooperation and prosperity,” he added. Tybring-Gjedde and one other Norwegian official previously nominated President Trump in 2018 after his Singapore Summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. Some were quick to congratulate the president for the accomplishment. While others pointed out that nomination only requires one parliamentarian’s nomination — and previous nominees included German dictator Adolf Hitler, Russian dictator Josef Stalin and Italian dictator Benito Mussolini. Tybring-Gjedde said he felt that Trump was more deserving than previous nominees and even some previous recipients, according to Trish Regan. “The people who have received the Peace Prize in recent years have done much less than Donald Trump. For example, Barack Obama did nothing,” he said.
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Post by kcrufnek on Sept 9, 2020 11:09:24 GMT -6
Interesting: thefederalist.com/2020/09/09/watch-tucker-carlson-airs-audio-of-cnn-chief-offering-trump-a-weekly-show/Watch: Tucker Carlson Airs Audio Of CNN Chief Offering Trump A Weekly Show SEPTEMBER 9, 2020 By Tristan Justice Fox News’ Tucker Carlson aired new audio Tuesday night showing CNN President Jeff Zucker offering then-candidate Donald Trump debate advice in March 2016 before floating out the idea of a weekly program. “I have all these proposals for him,” Zucker said in a recorded phone call with Trump’s personal attorney Michael Cohen. “Like, I want to do a weekly show with him and all this stuff.” Zucker then went on to ease campaign anxieties over Trump’s upcoming debate performances, giving the candidate unsolicited advice in the process. “I think the other guys are going to gang up on him tremendously… and I think he’s going to hold his own, as he does every time. He’s never lost a debate. And you know what? He’s good at this… He’s going to do great.” “How many times do you think Cruz will call him a conman?” Cohen asked Zucker. “No, Rubio,” Zucker corrected. “A lot.” “I say 100,” Cohen said. “So you know what you should do?” Zucker replied. “Whoever’s around him today should just be calling him a conman all day, so he’s used to it, so that when he hears it from Rubio, it doesn’t matter.” Throughout the conversation, Zucker also re-affirmed his respect for Trump, declaring his fondness for “the boss.” “It’s not that I don’t want to talk to [Trump] every day. I’ve just got to be careful, because, I’ve just got to be careful … I just don’t want him talking about it on the campaign trail … But you know what? I’m going to give him a call right now and I’m going to wish him luck in the debate tonight.”
It sounded like Trump was his best buddy.
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Post by kcrufnek on Sept 9, 2020 11:29:50 GMT -6
Bill Clinton, John Kerry and The Military: What The Atlantic Tries To Forget In Their Trump Fairy Tale
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Post by soonernvolved on Sept 10, 2020 8:35:40 GMT -6
This should bolster President Trump's Nobel Peace Prize chances: www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/286978The Arab League on Wednesday failed to pass a resolution proposed by the Palestinian Authority (PA) which would have condemned the normalization deal between Israel and the United Arab Emirates, Times of Israel reports.
“After a three-hour debate, some Arab countries refused to include statement condemning [the UAE] for abandoning Arab decisions. Additionally, they struck out a clause which discussed the trilateral agreement” between the UAE, the US, and Israel, the PA representative to the Arab League, Muhannad al-Aklouk, was quoted as having told the Ma’an news agency.
Senior Arab League official Hussam Zaki said, “Discussion around this point was serious and comprehensive. But it did not lead to agreement over the resolution proposed by the Palestinians.”
Zaki said the PA representatives had insisted they would either accept a condemnation of the agreement or no statement on the issue at all.
“A number of amendments were proposed, and then counter-amendments…and we were at a point in which Palestinian demands had not been realized, and the Palestinians preferred it not to pass rather than have it pass in a manner which they believed to be inadequate,” Zaki said.Let that sink in for a moment. The Arab League of 22 Muslim nations failed to pass a resolution condemning the peace agreement between Israel and the United Arab Emirates. After three hours of discussion the League members decided to drop the topic and move on. The President is fulfilling another campaign promise and is bringing peace to the Middle East, while his enemies are delivering a civil war to America.
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Post by soonernvolved on Sept 10, 2020 13:07:46 GMT -6
www.foxnews.com/politics/trump-reacts-nobel-peace-prize-nomination-honorTrump reacts to 'great honor' of Nobel Peace Prize nomination, calls it 'great thing for our country' 'It shows that we're trying to make peace, not war all the time,' Trump tells 'Fox News Rundown' President Trump welcomed his nomination for the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize in an exclusive interview with the "Fox News Rundown" on Thursday, calling it "a great thing for our country." "It's a great honor to be nominated, and I know it has tremendous significance," Trump told Fox News Radio White House correspondent Jon Decker. "I just think it's a great thing for our country. It shows that we're trying to make peace, not war all the time." Trump's nomination for the Peace Prize was submitted by Christian Tybring-Gjedde, a member of the Norwegian Parliament who lauded the president's role in brokering a peace agreement between Israel and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). SUBSCRIBE AND DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS RUNDOWN According to Trump, the so-called Abraham Accord is just the start of a broader U.S. effort to resolve protracted conflicts worldwide. "We're working on a peace deal in Afghanistan, working directly with the Taliban, and that's going along pretty well .. we'll probably know about that fairly soon," the president said. "So we're looking to create a lot of peace around the world because the world has other problems that we have to focus on." Tybring-Gjedde, in his nomination letter to the Nobel Committee, said the Trump administration "has done more trying to create peace between nations than most other Peace Prize nominees." But as Decker observed, not everyone would characterize Trump as a peacemaker. TRUMP ANNOUNCES HISTORIC PEACE AGREEMENT BETWEEN ISRAEL, UAE Former Defense Secretary Jim Mattis recently described Trump as "the first president in my lifetime who does not try to unite the American people. Instead, he tries to divide us." "I think sometimes you have to break up the eggs to make the omelet," Trump responded. "Sometimes you do have to go in and rough it up...and then all of a sudden you come out with something that could be very beautiful." — President Trump, Fox News Rundown "Sometimes you do have to go in and rough it up and mix it up, so to speak. And then all of a sudden you come out with something that could be very beautiful." The president claimed that his predecessors had failed on the peacemaking front because, as he put it, " we never had the talent to get there and to negotiate these deals. "And I will tell you that other countries from the Middle East are dying to come in. They are, they want to come in so badly," Trump went on. "We're going to start piecing it all together like a beautiful puzzle. TRUMP NOMINATED FOR NOBEL PEACE PRIZE AFTER ISRAEL, UAE DEAL "It's been a very complex puzzle for a lot of people. But I understood it and I do understand that they want peace. They've been fighting for decades and decades and they've been fighting for centuries in some cases. And they would like to see peace and it's going to happen." Turning to the announcement Wednesday that 2,200 U.S. troops would leave Iraq by the end of this month, Trump said that the American military is "at a stage now where we can go back very quickly. If something happens, we can be back very quickly. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP "This is a different age, militarily," the president said. "We've just spent $2.5 trillion on military equipment and other things having to do with our military ... We've never had more modern equipment, and today it's equipment that's much different than it was even 10 years ago, even five years ago. And we don't necessarily have to be there." However, Trump added, the leaders of Afghanistan and Iraq "have an understanding and they've all been told that if anything happens, we can be back so fast with a power that's far greater than we have right now."
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Post by soonernvolved on Sept 10, 2020 15:58:48 GMT -6
thefederalist.com/2020/09/10/trump-nominates-decorated-veteran-foreign-quagmire-skeptic-for-u-s-ambassador-to-afghanistan/Trump Nominates Decorated Veteran, Foreign Quagmire Skeptic For U.S. Ambassador To Afghanistan SEPTEMBER 10, 2020 By Jordan Davidson President Trump nominated foreign-policy expert William Ruger for U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan on Thursday in a move speculated to help reduce U.S. troops in the area after nearly 20 years of war. The announcement comes just a week before Afghanistan and the Taliban are expected to begin peace talks. Ruger, “a veteran of the Afghanistan War and an officer in the United States Navy (Reserve Component),” will replace John Bass, who left the ambassadorship in January. Ruger has been a prominent public opponent of “imperial overstretch” and has repeatedly called for bringing American soldiers and treasure home. According to the White House’s announcement of the nomination, Ruger has been decorated with the “Defense Meritorious Service Medal, the Navy Achievement Medal, and the Afghanistan Campaign Medal with campaign star” and has a Special Operations Warfighter Certificate. Ruger is also accomplished and experienced in foreign policy and political science, serving as vice president for research and policy at the Charles Koch Institute and vice president for foreign policy at Stand Together, formerly teaching at multiple Texas universities, writing “two books on state politics,” and a board member for “several non-profits.” Ruger will have to undergo Senate confirmation to fully step into his new role.
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Post by soonernvolved on Sept 11, 2020 12:48:25 GMT -6
Just go ahead and give him the Nobel now..... www.jpost.com/israel-news/trump-expected-to-announce-historic-bahrain-israel-normalization-agreement-641961Bahrain agrees to normalize relations with Israel, Trump announces “Our two GREAT friends Israel and the Kingdom of Bahrain agree to a Peace Deal – the second Arab country to make peace with Israel in 30 days!”Bahrain has joined the United Arab Emirates in striking an agreement to normalize relations with Israel, President Donald Trump said on Friday, a dramatic move aimed at easing tensions in the Middle East.
Trump tweeted out the news after he spoke by phone to both Bahrain’s King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the White House said.
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Post by kcrufnek on Sept 12, 2020 11:05:49 GMT -6
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Post by soonernvolved on Sept 15, 2020 12:23:43 GMT -6
Luca Toccalini is an Italian politician and Federal Secretary of the Youth League in Italy. The Lega Giovani, a youth conservative movement, released a statement on Tuesday in support of the candidacy of President Donald Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize. President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his wife Sara Netanyahu in the White House on Tuesday before the historic signing of the historic peace agreement between Israel and the Arab State of Bahrain. During their meeting President Trump broke some news of his own saying the Palestinians will be joining soon. And President Trump said several countries will come forward soon to make peace with Israel. President Trump: These countries are all signing with us. They’ll all be signing with us. I spoke to the King of Saudi Arabia and we had a great conversation and I think positive things will happen there too. He’s a great gentleman. We’ve made tremendous strides and we made peace in the Middle East without blood in the sand… And this is strong peace, really strong peace. And it’s a different way. We went in the back door I call it going in the smart door. And the Palestinians will definitely be a member.
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Post by soonernvolved on Sept 15, 2020 12:28:00 GMT -6
President Donald Trump made history again on Tuesday by signing peace agreements between Israel, the UAE and Bahrain.
It was a spectacular moment in history!
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Post by soonernvolved on Sept 15, 2020 17:14:18 GMT -6
dailycaller.com/2020/09/15/trump-israel-peace-saudi-arabia-uae-bahrain/Trump Expects ‘8 Or 9’ More Arab Countries To Join Israel Peace Agreement, Including Saudi Arabia President Donald Trump expects “seven or eight or nine” additional Arab states to sign peace agreements with Israel in the near future, including Saudi Arabia, he announced Tuesday during a White House ceremony. Trump made the comments after formally signing peace agreements between Israel, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Bahrain. Known as the Abraham Accords, Trump and its other signatories hope it heralds “a new dawn for peace in the Middle East.” Trump also said that he spoke with the King of Saudi Arabia and expects the country to join the agreement “at the right time,” according Agence France Press (AFP). “We’re here this afternoon to change the course of history,” Trump said in his remarks at the White House. “In Israel’s history there have only been two of these agreements, and now we have achieved two in a single month.” Trump says the administration anticipates several other Arab states to join the agreement in the near future. Leaders from Israel, the UAE and Bahrain joined Trump in praising the accords during the White House signing ceremony. Israelis, Emiratis and Bahrainis are already embracing one another,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said. “We are eager to invest in the future of partnership, prosperity and peace.” Netanyahu went on to say the three nations are already cooperating on combating the coronavirus pandemic in the region. (RELATED: Report: First Commercial Flight Between Israel And UAE To Take Off Monday) Saudi Arabia has already made the step to open its airspace to Israeli airlines to allow easier transit between the Jewish state and the UAE. Central to the peace agreements has been Israel’s halt on the annexation of land claimed by the Palestinian people, with UAE Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah Bin Zayed Al-Nahyan thanking Netanyahu for pausing the move during his remarks at the White House. “This initiative would not have been possible without the efforts of his excellency President Donald Trump and his team who worked hard and sincerely for us to get here,” he said, according to a translator. “Your Excellency, Prime Minister Netanyahu…Thank you for choosing peace and for halting the annexation of Palestinian territories.”
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Post by soonernvolved on Sept 15, 2020 17:18:43 GMT -6
www.dailywire.com/news/breaking-up-to-9-additional-nations-could-join-peace-deal-with-israel-including-saudi-arabia-trump-saysUp To 9 Additional Nations Could Join Peace Deal With Israel, Including Saudi Arabia, Trump Says President Donald Trump said Tuesday afternoon that up to nine additional nations could join a peace deal with Israel in the near future, including Saudi Arabia. “We have many other countries [that are] going to be joining us and they’re going to be joining us soon,” Trump told reporters on the White House lawn. “We’ll have, I think, I mean I think seven, or eight, or nine. We’re going to have a lot of other countries joining us, including the big ones.” It’s not something that my critics thought was possible and now they say, ‘wow, that was a good idea,'” Trump continued. “I will say, it’s gotten rave reviews.” About a minute later, Trump added: “I spoke with the king of Saudi Arabia, at the right time I do think they will come in, yes, I do. This is a very big and very historic moment.” The remarks from the president come after he declared the “dawn of a new Middle East” on Tuesday afternoon during a signing ceremony of two peace deals between Israel and its neighbors. “The deals between Israel and the United Arab Emirates, and Israel and Bahrain, involve the exchanging of ambassadors, establishment of embassies and co-operation on a range of fronts — including trade, security and tourism,” Fox News reported. “The agreements, known as the ‘Abraham Accords’ also allow Muslims to visit Islamic holy sites in Israel. Trump said the deals would form ‘the foundation for a comprehensive peace across the entire region.'” The Abraham Accords Declaration states: We, the undersigned, recognize the importance of maintaining and strengthening peace in the Middle East and around the world based on mutual understanding and coexistence, as well as respect for human dignity and freedom, including religious freedom. We encourage efforts to promote interfaith and intercultural dialogue to advance a culture of peace among the three Abrahamic religions and all humanity. We believe that the best way to address challenges is through cooperation and dialogue and that developing friendly relations among States advances the interests of lasting peace in the Middle East and around the world. We seek tolerance and respect for every person in order to make this world a place where all can enjoy a life of dignity and hope, no matter their race, faith or ethnicity. We support science, art, medicine, and commerce to inspire humankind, maximize human potential and bring nations closer together. We seek to end radicalization and conflict to provide all children a better future. We pursue a vision of peace, security, and prosperity in the Middle East and around the world. In this spirit, we warmly welcome and are encouraged by the progress already made in establishing diplomatic relations between Israel and its neighbors in the region under the principles of the Abraham Accords. We are encouraged by the ongoing efforts to consolidate and expand such friendly based on shared interests and a shared commitment to a better future.
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Post by soonernvolved on Sept 15, 2020 17:28:45 GMT -6
www.dailywire.com/news/rush-limbaugh-trumps-bringing-peace-to-middle-east-and-the-media-wont-tell-you-soRush Limbaugh: Trump’s Bringing Peace To Middle East, And The Media Won’t Tell You So Conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh underscored the historic Middle East peace deal President Donald Trump signed at the White House on Tuesday, and emphasized that the media will not come anywhere close to providing the coverage it deserves. “So a big signing ceremony at the White House in mere moments for the peace deal between Israel and the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain,” Limbaugh told his listeners. “And we mentioned the significance of this a couple of times. The real significance of this is that the Palestinians have sort of been rendered irrelevant in the whole deal. In the past, it was the Palestinians which were the focus, the focal point. They could stop anything from happening, and they did.” Limbaugh noted that peace deals within the Middle East have always been an unreachable feat for U.S. presidents — until Trump. “My whole life this has been a major political initiative that every new president tackles,” he said. “Every new president, my entire life, every new president, every new term has made Middle East peace an objective.” George W. Bush, George H. W. Bush, both tried for peace deals, Limbaugh continued. “Barack Obama is the only president who didn’t care about Middle East peace from the Israeli perspective. But Reagan. Jimmy Carter. I think about all of these presidents and their attempts to come up with the ultimate peace in the ultimate part of the world where there is ultimate strife, the Middle East.” And who does it? Donald Trump,” he said. “Donald Trump, Mr. Bull in the china shop, Mr. Stupid, Mr. Dummkopf, Mr. Outsider, Mr. Illegitimate, Mister ‘he stole the election working with the Russians’ has come along and achieved something every American president since the 1950s has been attempting to achieve,” the conservative host bellowed. Limbaugh noted that Trump was able to achieve what he’s done thus far by “leaving the Palestinians out of the process” at the beginning. “This would be like trying to establish civil rights relations while ignoring Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton. And this is exactly what Trump did,” he analogized. And, lo and behold, it worked,” Limbaugh said. “We now have peace in the Middle East, and it’s just beginning. United Arab Emirates, Bahrain. You watch. The Saudis are gonna be signatories to this deal before long. Other Arab nations in the Middle East are going to come along with this. Jordan I expect will sign onto this at some point, King Abdullah there.” “This is truly historic, and it is I don’t think going to get anywhere near the proper weight and coverage that this event deserves,” the host asserted. Later in the show, Limbaugh added, “Here in less than four years Donald Trump has fixed a massive world problem. It’s literally stunning. And it will not be properly reported. It will not be given its due respect by the media and by the Washington establishment.” The host was seemingly quickly proven correct. As highlighted by David Reaboi, CNN decided to focus one of their chyrons on the lack of “social distancing” at the signing, instead of the historic deal.
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Post by redrex on Sept 15, 2020 18:23:45 GMT -6
Do we have to send them plane loads of cash?-----Thats the Barack model
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