The Front Page Cover
The Events of the Week -- Featuring:
The war against history
by Clifford D. May
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The Wave Kept Going Down the Ballot
Thomas Gallatin: In light of Donald Trump's historic election victory, it may be easy to overlook just how deep and wide the victory was, not just for Trump, but for the GOP. The Trump victory is looking like the crest of another Republican wave. The GOP maintained majorities in both the House and Senate, giving Republicans the presidency and both houses of Congress for the first time since 1928. But Republicans also picked up three more governorships, increasing their number by three to 33 — and they'll perhaps add yet another soon. And they expanded their control of state legislatures to more than two-thirds.
There were also significant initiatives on the ballot in several states. Four more states — California, Maine, Nevada and Massachusetts — voted in favor of legalizing recreational marijuana use, with voters in Arkansas, Florida and North Dakota passing a medical marijuana measure. It now seems likely that the legalization of marijuana nationwide is not far off.
Several states had minimum wage increases on the ballot. Voters in Arizona, Colorado, Maine and Washington chose to raise the minimum wage, while a measure to lower the minimum wage to those workers under the age of 18 was rejected in South Dakota. So long as the economy languishes at near stagnation levels, the minimum wage issue won't be going away anytime soon.
In Colorado, voters rejected a ballot initiative that would have implemented a single-payer health care model. If this had passed, Colorado residents would have seen a 10% tax on their payroll and veered to the left of even Vermont.
The death penalty removal measure on the ballot in California appears to have been rejected by voters, while Nebraska voted to reinstate the death penalty.
Four states had various gun control related measures on their ballots. California voters appear to have approved a measure to require background checks on the sale of ammunition. Maine voters rejected a measure to increase background checks for gun sales. In Nevada, the result was not yet fully known on whether an initiative requiring private buyers and sellers to conduct background checks had passed. And in Washington, voters passed an initiative allowing courts to temporarily seize guns from individuals.
Alabama voters passed a measure that added a right-to-work guarantee to its state constitution, while Virginia voters rejected a similar measure. South Dakota voters rejected Measure 23, which would have effectively eliminated the state's right-to-work law, in place since 1947.
Results have yet to fully come in on Colorado voters' choice regarding Proposition 106, legalizing physician-assisted suicide.
In California, voters by a large margin approved Proposition 58, which now allows for public schools to teach in Spanish. And Massachusetts voters rejected school choice in voting against an initiative that would have added 12 new charter school each year.
All in all, 2016 produced an awful lot more hope and change than many observers were counting on. Let's see what Republicans at the local, state and national levels can now do with their winnings. ~The Patriot Post
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OPINION IN BRIEF
Washington Examiner: "Donald Trump's stunning victory in the presidential race is not just devastating to liberals in general and liar-Hillary Clinton in particular. It is also concerning to many conservatives as well. Trump's vision of America, the 'Crippled America' of which he has written, is not one that most people share in all its particulars. But most Americans can see some plain, unvarnished truth in it, which is why Trump is on his way to the White House. ... Trump will now be president, and every American owes it to him and to their country to hope he succeeds. This is every incoming president's due. That doesn't mean rolling over and letting him win every item on his agenda. It means, rather, starting with and sustaining the desire to see the Trump presidency promote the common good. ... Trump can learn from liar-nObama's most egregious mistake, which was to govern as though his opinion was the only one worth considering. ... America has rarely been so divided. It falls to Trump to heal those divisions. Few people, even among his supporters, might think of him as right for that emollient role. But he has surprised everyone repeatedly in the past 18 months, and he now needs to do so again." ~The Patriot Post
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White House open to a liar-Clinton pardon
by Daniel Halper
{nypost.com} ~ The White House isn’t ruling out the possibility of liar-Hillary Clinton receiving a last-minute pardon from President liar-nObama — even though she hasn’t been charged with a crime... Asked at Wednesday’s press briefing whether liar-nObama had considered utilizing his unique executive power, press secretary Josh Earnest was cryptic. “The president has offered clemency to a substantial number of Americans who were previously serving time in federal prisons,” Earnest said...He will do it to save himself. http://nypost.com/2016/11/09/white-house-open-to-a-clinton-pardon/?AID=7236
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Canada: Parliament Condemns Free Speech
by Judith Bergman
by Judith Bergman
The Parliament of Canada, in Ottawa
{gatestoneinstitute.org} ~ On October 26, Canada's parliament unanimously passed an anti-Islamophobia motion, which was the result of a petition initiated by Samer Majzoub, president of the Canadian Muslim Forum... The petition garnered almost 70,000 signatures. According to the text of the petition,
"Recently an infinitesimally small number of extremist individuals have conducted terrorist activities while claiming to speak for the religion of Islam. Their actions have been used as a pretext for a notable rise of anti-Muslim sentiments in Canada; and these violent individuals do not reflect in any way the values or the teachings of the religion of Islam. In fact, they misrepresent the religion. We categorically reject all their activities. They in no way represent the religion, the beliefs and the desire of Muslims to co-exist in peace with all peoples of the world. We, the undersigned, Citizens and residents of Canada, call upon the House of Commons to join us in recognizing that extremist individuals do not represent the religion of Islam, and in condemning all forms of Islamophobia"...
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American Muslims Are Here to Stay,
CAIR Tells Trump
by PATRICK GOODENOUGH
by PATRICK GOODENOUGH
{familysecuritymatters.org} ~ The Council on American-Islamic-Relations and other Muslim groups called on President-elect Donald Trump Wednesday to reach out to Muslims and other communities "impacted" by his campaign rhetoric... "As citizens of this great nation, we accept the result of the democratic process that has bound us together as one nation," said CAIR National Executive Director Nihad Awad. "Regardless of who won or lost yesterday's election, American Muslims are here to stay. We are not going anywhere, and will not be intimidated or marginalized."...Oh really. http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/publications/detail/american-muslims-are-here-to-stay-cair-tells-trump?f=must_reads
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‘Lie, absolute lie!’ Mark Levin systematically destroys
the liberal media mantra about Trump voters
by Scott Morefield
{bizpacreview.com} ~ As expected, the liberal media is trying to spin Donald Trump’s historic electoral victory in the worse way possible... Thankfully, conservatives like radio host Mark Levin are wise to their deceit and more than willing to let the American people know. The Great One did just that on his Wednesday post-election radio show, laying out several key media lies about Trump voters. First, the lie that Hispanics and minorities would never support Trump. Wrong! In fact, despite the myth that Hispanics would never support Trump because he doesn’t want to bring criminals from Mexico to the United States, the Republican got almost a third, 28 percent, of the Hispanic vote, a full percentage more than Romney received in 2012...
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NYC Council ‘Stands United’ With
Standing Rock Against Dakota Access Pipeline
by Madina Toure
{observer.com} ~ The City Council today issued an official proclamation of support to Standing Rock Sioux Chairman David Archambault II, whose reservation has battled the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline... amid fears the oil conduit could contaminate the American Indians’ holy sites and water supply. Protesters —mainly Native Americans and environmental advocates—set fire to a bridge and tire in North Dakota today, the latest development in the six-month protest of the $3.7 billion, 1,172-mile pipeline slated to connect the Bakken and Three Forks production areas in North Dakota and Pakota, Illinois. The tube will pass close to the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation in North Dakota, crossing under the Missouri River—the reservation’s only source of water...
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The war against history
by Clifford D. May
{jewishworldreview.com} ~ "He who controls the past controls the future. He who controls the present controls the past." This, as you may recall, was the slogan of the totalitarian state imagined by George Orwell in 1984, his classic novel.
Today, various groups of Islamists - which we can define as those committed to Islamic supremacism - are operationalizing this concept, attempting to alter the historical record in support of their totalitarian ambitions.
Six months before the attack of Sept. 11, 2001, Taliban leader Mullah Omar ordered the destruction of Afghanistan's ancient Buddhas of Bamiyan. Why? Because those monumental statues were reminders of a time when the country was not Islamic.
In 2012, Ansar Dine, a jihadi group affiliated with al Qaeda, destroyed ancient shrines, tombs and mosques in Timbuktu. Why? Because they represented a version of Islam marinated in African culture - and were therefore seen as heretical.
Most infamously, the Islamic State has been demolishing the religious and historical heritage of Syria and Iraq, turning into rubble such sites as a temple in Palmyra dedicated to the Canaanite god Baal, Christian churches in Nineveh and shrines built by Muslims whose interpretation of scripture differs from that of the would-be caliphate builders.
UNESCO, a United Nations agency whose ostensible mission is to advance world culture, has been taking a less kinetic - but perhaps no less effective - approach to this war on history. The intention is to establish that Jerusalem's holiest sites belong to Muslims and that Jews and Christians have no valid religious or historical claims in that ancient city - never had, never will.
A resolution to this effect, backed by seven Muslim-majority nations on behalf of Palestinian leaders, was passed by UNESCO members last month. Only the United States, Germany, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Lithuania and Estonia voted against it. Twenty-six countries chose to abstain - as if they didn't know the truth or as if the truth were a matter of no consequence.
Some prominent individuals have been speaking out. Irina Bokova, UNESCO's own director-general, said that the vote violated the organization's responsibility to "bridge the divisions that harm the multifaith character" of Jerusalem.
A spokesman for U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon said that "the shared heritage of the three monotheistic religions of the holy sites should not be put into question."
More than three-dozen members of Congress, Republicans and Democrats alike, deplored the resolution. "World bodies do not have the right to rewrite history," said Rep. Alcee Hastings, Florida Democrat. Rep. Steny Hoyer, Maryland Democrat, called the resolution "a dangerous effort to erase history." Rep. Ted Lieu, California Democrat, labeled it "rabidly anti-Semitic and anti-Christian." Rep. Peter Roskam, Illinois Republican, recognized it as a "drastic violation of international religious freedom."
Last month, Palestinian Authority officials also announced the "Balfour Apology Campaign," a separate but related attempt at historical manipulation. To jog your memory: The Balfour Declaration was a letter written 99 years ago this month by British Foreign Secretary Lord Arthur Balfour recognizing the right of the Jewish people to self-determination in part of their ancient homeland.
It was adopted by the League of Nations, the international community of that era. The Palestinian Authority and its allies are now charging that the Balfour Declaration was "a crime" - and demanding an apology.
In truth, the Balfour Declaration expressed progressive views. For centuries, most of the Middle East had been ruled by the Ottoman Empire. But the Turkish Sultan, Mehmed VI, made the mistake of allying with the Germans in World War I. Not long after the conclusion of that conflict, his once-powerful empire would be dismantled by the victorious British and the French.
They were hardly saints but they were prepared to grant autonomy to peoples who had long been Ottoman subjects. The Balfour Declaration also spoke of the "civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine."
Three years later, the League of Nations gave Britain a mandate to govern Palestine. The eastern three-fourths of that territory became what is now the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. Other new Arab nations on territories formerly under the Ottoman yoke include Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Saudi Arabia.
In 1947, the U.N. proposed the founding of two states in western Palestine - one Arab and one Jewish. Palestinian Jewish leaders accepted this "two-state solution." Palestinian Arab leaders (they had not yet appropriated the name "Palestinian" as theirs and theirs alone) rejected it. The following year, Jordan, Egypt, Syria, Lebanon and Iraq attacked the fledgling Jewish state.
The conflict ended not with a peace agreement and borders but only a truce and armistice lines - lines that held from 1949 until 1967 when Israel fought another defensive war against its neighbors, one that ended with Israel taking Gaza from Egypt and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, from Jordan.
This should not be forgotten: During the years of Jordanian occupation, Jews were banned from Jerusalem's Old City and prohibited from praying at the Western Wall. Numerous Jewish religious sites in Jerusalem were desecrated or destroyed.
And now a U.N. agency is endorsing a falsified version of that city's past while the Palestinian Authority portrays the Balfour Declaration - a statement in support of a diverse Middle East - as a criminal act.
It doesn't end there: The Palestinians are now also reportedly considering asking UNESCO to demand that the Israelis turn over to them the Dead Sea Scrolls, nearly 1,000 religious texts, most in Hebrew and Aramaic, dating back to the time of the Second Temple.
One is tempted to say "you can't make this stuff up." But, of course, you can. Orwell did. The question is whether we've learned anything since.
Today, various groups of Islamists - which we can define as those committed to Islamic supremacism - are operationalizing this concept, attempting to alter the historical record in support of their totalitarian ambitions.
Six months before the attack of Sept. 11, 2001, Taliban leader Mullah Omar ordered the destruction of Afghanistan's ancient Buddhas of Bamiyan. Why? Because those monumental statues were reminders of a time when the country was not Islamic.
In 2012, Ansar Dine, a jihadi group affiliated with al Qaeda, destroyed ancient shrines, tombs and mosques in Timbuktu. Why? Because they represented a version of Islam marinated in African culture - and were therefore seen as heretical.
Most infamously, the Islamic State has been demolishing the religious and historical heritage of Syria and Iraq, turning into rubble such sites as a temple in Palmyra dedicated to the Canaanite god Baal, Christian churches in Nineveh and shrines built by Muslims whose interpretation of scripture differs from that of the would-be caliphate builders.
UNESCO, a United Nations agency whose ostensible mission is to advance world culture, has been taking a less kinetic - but perhaps no less effective - approach to this war on history. The intention is to establish that Jerusalem's holiest sites belong to Muslims and that Jews and Christians have no valid religious or historical claims in that ancient city - never had, never will.
A resolution to this effect, backed by seven Muslim-majority nations on behalf of Palestinian leaders, was passed by UNESCO members last month. Only the United States, Germany, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Lithuania and Estonia voted against it. Twenty-six countries chose to abstain - as if they didn't know the truth or as if the truth were a matter of no consequence.
Some prominent individuals have been speaking out. Irina Bokova, UNESCO's own director-general, said that the vote violated the organization's responsibility to "bridge the divisions that harm the multifaith character" of Jerusalem.
A spokesman for U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon said that "the shared heritage of the three monotheistic religions of the holy sites should not be put into question."
More than three-dozen members of Congress, Republicans and Democrats alike, deplored the resolution. "World bodies do not have the right to rewrite history," said Rep. Alcee Hastings, Florida Democrat. Rep. Steny Hoyer, Maryland Democrat, called the resolution "a dangerous effort to erase history." Rep. Ted Lieu, California Democrat, labeled it "rabidly anti-Semitic and anti-Christian." Rep. Peter Roskam, Illinois Republican, recognized it as a "drastic violation of international religious freedom."
Last month, Palestinian Authority officials also announced the "Balfour Apology Campaign," a separate but related attempt at historical manipulation. To jog your memory: The Balfour Declaration was a letter written 99 years ago this month by British Foreign Secretary Lord Arthur Balfour recognizing the right of the Jewish people to self-determination in part of their ancient homeland.
It was adopted by the League of Nations, the international community of that era. The Palestinian Authority and its allies are now charging that the Balfour Declaration was "a crime" - and demanding an apology.
In truth, the Balfour Declaration expressed progressive views. For centuries, most of the Middle East had been ruled by the Ottoman Empire. But the Turkish Sultan, Mehmed VI, made the mistake of allying with the Germans in World War I. Not long after the conclusion of that conflict, his once-powerful empire would be dismantled by the victorious British and the French.
They were hardly saints but they were prepared to grant autonomy to peoples who had long been Ottoman subjects. The Balfour Declaration also spoke of the "civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine."
Three years later, the League of Nations gave Britain a mandate to govern Palestine. The eastern three-fourths of that territory became what is now the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. Other new Arab nations on territories formerly under the Ottoman yoke include Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Saudi Arabia.
In 1947, the U.N. proposed the founding of two states in western Palestine - one Arab and one Jewish. Palestinian Jewish leaders accepted this "two-state solution." Palestinian Arab leaders (they had not yet appropriated the name "Palestinian" as theirs and theirs alone) rejected it. The following year, Jordan, Egypt, Syria, Lebanon and Iraq attacked the fledgling Jewish state.
The conflict ended not with a peace agreement and borders but only a truce and armistice lines - lines that held from 1949 until 1967 when Israel fought another defensive war against its neighbors, one that ended with Israel taking Gaza from Egypt and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, from Jordan.
This should not be forgotten: During the years of Jordanian occupation, Jews were banned from Jerusalem's Old City and prohibited from praying at the Western Wall. Numerous Jewish religious sites in Jerusalem were desecrated or destroyed.
And now a U.N. agency is endorsing a falsified version of that city's past while the Palestinian Authority portrays the Balfour Declaration - a statement in support of a diverse Middle East - as a criminal act.
It doesn't end there: The Palestinians are now also reportedly considering asking UNESCO to demand that the Israelis turn over to them the Dead Sea Scrolls, nearly 1,000 religious texts, most in Hebrew and Aramaic, dating back to the time of the Second Temple.
One is tempted to say "you can't make this stuff up." But, of course, you can. Orwell did. The question is whether we've learned anything since.
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