Friday Noon ~ thefrontpagecover

[Rudy Tirre]

TheFrontPageCover

~ Featuring ~

The Fall & Our Future

  Gary Bauer

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Impeachment Inquiry Finally

Sees the Light of Day

by DAVID CATRON

{ spectator.org } ~ Wednesday, seven weeks after House Speaker liar-Nancy Pelosi launched the “official impeachment inquiry” into alleged misdeeds committed by President Trump... the Democrats leading that probe finally emerged from the bowels of the Capitol building to convene a hearing in the light of day. They made the odd choice to devote their first public hearing to a couple of Foggy Bottom diplomats, William Taylor and George Kent, from whom they have already taken testimony. Neither of these gentlemen have firsthand knowledge of the storied conversation during which Trump is supposed to have demanded that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky open a political investigation in return for U.S. aid. The most conspicuous feature of their testimony was that both Taylor and Kent were in a state of consternation concerning the supposedly sinister implications of the Trump–Zelensky call, about which they learned secondhand from a Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman. The latter is one of the only witnesses who actually listened in on the fabled phone call, but his testimony to scumbag/liar-Adam Schiff’s select committee contains no explicit claim that Trump requested any quid pro quo arrangement, much less engaged in the kind of “extortion” and “bribery” that have now become staples of Democratic impeachment talking points. This is probably why Wednesday’s hearing featured Taylor and Kent rather than Vindman. The hearing commenced shortly after 10 a.m. when Chairman scumbag/liar-Adam Schiff introduced the proceedings with his trademark admixture of bombast and innuendo. He began with a gratuitous account of the historical antipathy between Russia and Ukraine and quickly proceeded to a rote recitation of the evidence-free charges he and other Democrats have been leveling against the president since the mystery whistleblower filed his original complaint. scumbag/liar-Schiff then spent several minutes attacking Trump’s attorney, Rudy Giuliani, accusing him of blackmailing Ukrainian officials and spreading “debunked conspiracy theories.” At long last he finally got to the point of the exercise: The questions presented by this impeachment inquiry are whether President Trump sought to exploit that ally’s vulnerability and invite Ukraine’s interference in our elections. Whether President Trump sought to condition official acts, such as a White House meeting or U.S. military assistance, on Ukraine’s willingness to assist with two political investigations that would help his reelection campaign. And if President Trump did either, whether such an abuse of his power is compatible with the office of the presidency. Ranking Member Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) opened by recounting the unrelenting attacks on the president. He pointed out that, even after the collapse of the incompetent Mueller investigation, the Democrats remained determined to move forward with their coup and thus invented the Ukraine scandal. He reminded the voters that Chairman scumbag/liar-Schiff and his fellow Democrats had routinely lied about the amount of evidence they possessed proving Trump’s collusion with the Russians, read transparent fabrications into the congressional record, accused the president’s son of colluding with WikiLeaks, and illegally leaked classified information to the media, ad infinitum. He then raised the inevitable point: And yet now we’re supposed to take these people at face value when they trot out a new batch of allegations.… Though executive branch employees including State Department officials are charged with implementing the policy set by our president, who is elected by and responsible to the American people, elements of the civil service have decided that they, not the president, are really in charge.… This spectacle is doing great damage to our country. It’s nothing more than an impeachment process in search of a crime...  https://spectator.org/impeachment-inquiry-finally-sees-the-light-of-day/?utm_source=American%20Spectator%20Emails&utm_campaign=b0b04b3fbf-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2019_11_14_04_13&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_797a38d487-b0b04b3fbf-104608113   

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Trump Caught America’s Biggest Lawbreaker

By Richard A. Viguerie and Mark J. Fitzgibbons

{ americanthinker.com } ~ Last week in his now-classic style of quips to the media President Trump said, “I caught the Swamp.” To the tens of millions of Americans who elected him, Trump is telling them he’s fulfilling yet another campaign promise... But this one is something perhaps if not certainly no other president could claim. It’s not just the Swamp that Trump caught -- it’s actually America’s biggest lawbreaker. Three years into the scumbag/liar-nObama administration, while America was under the throes of being “transformed” into post-constitutional socialism, we wrote a Thomas Paine-style pamphlet, or e-book, entitled The Law That Governs Government: Reclaiming the Constitution from Usurpers and Society’s Biggest Lawbreaker. The law that governs government is, of course, the Constitution. It was established by “We the People” not merely to create government’s basic structure, but as a fundamental and paramount law over government, legally granting it certain powers and limiting its authority to infringe on God-given rights of the People. People who properly understand that the Constitution is man-made law governing government have a better appreciation for the reasons why it is central to the modern day fight between conservatism and radical leftism. Our book began: Government is the oldest, largest and most pervasive lawbreaker in America. Lawbreaking by government in terms of cost and the number of people victimized is of a scale unmatched by any other organization or group -- leaving nothing as a close second. The Swamp that President Trump “caught” is comprised of more than government, of course, and includes the parasites and abettors in, around, and combining with America’s biggest lawbreaker. The core of the Swamp, however, is corrupt, lawless, lawbreaking government. Under scumbag/liar-nObama, the role of the Departments of Justice and State, as well as the intelligence community, expanded as part of America’s biggest lawbreaker. Those who attempted to “catch” the lawbreaking met with reprisal. scumbag/liar-nObama’s unprecedented use of the Espionage Act against reporters, for example, was the equivalent of using goon squad enforcers to intimidate the fainter-hearted white hats...  https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2019/11/trump_caught_americas_biggest_lawbreaker.html   

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Judge dismisses Trump lawsuit 

over New York tax returns

By Ronn Blitzer and Bill Mears  

{ foxnews.com } ~ "Mr. Trump bears the burden of establishing personal jurisdiction, but his allegations do not establish that the District of Columbia’s long-arm statute is satisfied here with respect to either Defendant,"... Nichols wrote in a decision handed down Monday. "Mr. Trump has also not demonstrated that jurisdictional discovery is warranted. Mr. Trump may renew his claims against the New York Defendants should future events trigger one or more provisions of the D.C. long-arm statute, and he may, of course, sue either New York Defendant in another forum presumably in New York." The judge noted that in theory there could be a situation where the D.C. court could have jurisdiction over the New York officials in this matter, such as if the commissioner hand-delivered Trump's tax returns to a congressional committee. "But speculation that they might occur is insufficient to exercise jurisdiction over the Commissioner now," Nichols wrote. In a footnote, Nichols also cited potential legal complications involved in having a D.C. federal court rule on the constitutionality of a New York state law. Trump has argued that the law poses a First Amendment issue, claiming that it targets him due to his political beliefs and speech. New York Republicans also opposed the law, claiming that is what is known as a "bill of attainder" – meaning one that singles out an individual for punishment – which is prohibited by the Constitution. The language of the law does not mention Trump at all, but Democrats like state Sen. Brad Hoylman, who sponsored a version of the bill, and House Judiciary Committee Chairman Rep. scumbag liar-Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., specifically mentioned Trump in reference to the legislation before it passed. scumbag liar-Nadler described it in the context of House Democrats' quest to get Trump's tax returns, calling it "a workaround to a White House that continues to obstruct and stonewall the legitimate oversight work of Congress." Trump's lawsuit also named the House Ways and Means Committee as a defendant. The case against the committee is still proceeding in federal court.    https://www.foxnews.com/politics/judge-dismisses-trump-case-against-ny-tax-return-law   

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Impeachment Witness Stuns Dems 

President Trump CLEARED

by Martin Walsh

{ explainlife.com } ~ Speaker liar-Nancy Pelosi tapped House Intelligence Committee Chairman scumbag/liar-Adam Schiff to lead their impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump, and it has completely backfired on them in recent weeks... Every time scumbag/liar-Schiff releases new information to the public about their impeachment witch hunt, it further proves they have no case at all. But a bombshell new revelation this week completely clears the president.Democrats claim that Trump directly ordered the U.S. to withhold military aid to Ukraine in exchange for the country reopening their investigation into loose lips liar-Joe and Hunter Biden’s shady business deals in the country. Democrats argue Trump is guilty of an inappropriate “quid pro quo” and that he should be removed from office over it. However, testimony from a senior State Department official specializing in Ukraine revealed that military aid to Ukraine had been withheld previously by the White House — long before the requested investigations came into play — and for very valid reasons, according to Breitbart. State Department official Catherine Croft testified on Oct. 30 that the military aid had been placed on hold for about “a week or two” in late 2017 at the direction of Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney. Croft testified the military aid was withheld in 2017 — almost two years before Trump’s July 25 call with the Ukrainian president — over concerns that Russia would react negatively to the provision of lethal aid to Ukraine. But wait, it gets better. Croft also said that the scumbag/liar-nObama administration shared this same concern, which is why they never provided similar aid to Ukraine over the course of the preceding years. The hold was lifted and the military aid was delivered around April 2018. But Croft also revealed in her testimony that Mulvaney’s OMB hadn’t just taken an interest in aid to Ukraine, but was, in fact, looking closely at all aid provided to foreign nations. When asked specifically about the temporary hold on aid to Ukraine in 2017, Croft noted Trump’s reasoning for the hold was “pretty well-known” and that the president was “skeptical of providing weapons to Ukraine.” Asked to elaborate, she said, “When this was discussed, including in front of the Ukrainian delegation, in front of former President Petro Poroshenko, he described his concerns being that Ukraine was corrupt, that it was capable of being a very rich country, and that the United States shouldn’t pay for it, but instead, we should be providing aid through loans.” Here’s the main takeaways: Croft testified that (1) the hold on military aid was enacted in 2017, not around Trump’s July 25, 2019 call; (2) the scumbag/liar-nObama administration never provided similar aid to Ukraine amid the same fears that the Trump administration had; (3) the aid was delivered in early 2018, well before Trump’s phone call with the Ukrainian president, meaning it was never a condition of the phone call; (4) and the Trump administration was looking at all aid to foreign nations, not just Ukraine, in an attempt to ensure it wasn’t going to corrupt actors/governments. scumbag/liar-Schiff brought in Croft to give him ammunition to impeach Trump over his Ukraine phone call. But instead, she set the record straight and proved that Trump did absolutely nothing wrong.

https://explainlife.com/impeachment-witness-stuns-dems-president-trump-cleared-17344/?utm_source=Explainlife.com%20Newsletter&utm_medium=email  

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By 'abandoning' PIJ, Hamas risks 

sparking crisis with Iran - analysis

By KHALED ABU TOAMEH

{ jpost.com } ~ Hamas’ failure to join the round of fighting between Israel and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, which began after Tuesday’s assassination of PIJ commander Bahaa Abu al-Ata... was one of the main reasons why PIJ agreed to the Egyptian-brokered ceasefire, Palestinians said on Thursday. The heavy casualties PIJ suffered during the two days of fighting also contributed to the terror group’s decision to accept Egypt’s mediation efforts, they said.  Several Palestinians in the Gaza Strip said that relations between Hamas and PIJ have been strained as a result of recent round of fighting with Israel. The tensions between the two groups could trigger a crisis between Hamas and Iran, they predicted. Officials from the two groups, however, sought to dismiss the talk about a crisis between Hamas and PIJ and accused Israel of seeking to drive a wedge between the Gaza-based groups.  Sources close to Hamas explained that the movement chose not to involve itself in the fighting out of fear of dragging the Gaza Strip into an all-out war with Israel. “The residents of the Gaza Strip can’t afford another major war like the one that took place in 2014,” the sources said, referring to the seven-week Operation Protective Edge military offensive after Hamas fired rockets into Israel.  According to the sources, Hamas did not believe that the assassination of al-Ata was sufficient to spark another war with Israel. “As far as Hamas was concerned, this was an internal issue concerning Palestinian Islamic Jihad,” the sources explained. “While Hamas did not try to stop the group from avenging the death of its commander, it saw no reason why its men should join the rocket attacks on Israel.”...  https://www.jpost.com/Arab-Israeli-Conflict/By-abandoning-PIJ-Hamas-risks-sparking-crisis-with-Iran-analysis-607876   

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IDF, Iranian-led PIJ battle was limited, 

will not be the last - analysis

By SETH J. FRANTZMAN

{ jpost.com } ~ Forty-eight hours of fighting between Israel and Palestinian Islamic Jihad was monitored by Iran and its proxies in the region, including Hezbollah... IRGC commander Hossein Salami spoke at a ceremony on Thursday, warning that the Islamic world would soon see the “fall of the Zionist regime.” He said that Iran’s military industry has greatly improved and that advanced weapons were being deployed. They were so advanced that the Iranian media would not even be allowed to see them.  What he is hinting at is precision-guided missiles, cruise missiles and drones – the same kind of threat that Iran used against Saudi Arabia’s Abqaiq facility in September. “We assure the Iranian nation that the armed forces and the IRGC are so great that they can cope with the enemy, and our people will live comfortably with the knowledge that we can crush our enemies,” Salami said, according to Tasnim and Fars News in Iran. “We will never stop or retreat due to sanctions.” Iran’s IRGC commander and his aerospace units, which have missiles as well as drones, watched closely the battles with Islamic Jihad in Gaza. Salami hinted at this by noting that he had monitored the “Palestinian resistance commanders and leaders of Hamas and PIJ.” He said that they have a right to defend themselves and the “Zionist regime” was leading itself to destruction...  https://www.jpost.com/Arab-Israeli-Conflict/After-Gaza-the-Iranian-threat-607839  

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3 senior Haqqani Network leaders 

to be freed in prisoner exchange

By BILL ROGGIO

{ longwarjournal.org } ~ The Afghan government plans to free three senior Haqqani Network leaders, including a brother and an uncle of deputy Taliban emir Sirajuddin Haqqani... in exchange for an American and an Australian professor who were kidnapped in 2016. The release of the three senior Haqqani leaders will provide a boost to the Taliban’s leadership, but likely will do little to further derail the moribund negotiations between the US and the Taliban. Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani said that it has to “pay this bitter price” to secure the release of American University of Afghanistan professors Kevin King and Timothy Weeks, who were kidnapped by the Haqqani Network in Kabul in Aug. 2016, TOLONews reported. Both King and Weeks are believed to be in poor health. In exchange, the Afghan government will free Haji Malik Khan, Siraj’s uncle and a top leader in the network; Anas Haqqani, Siraj’s brother and a propagandist and ambassador; and Qari Abdul Rasheed Omari, the group’s military commander for southeastern Afghanistan. The US is likely pressuring Afghanistan to complete the swap in the hopes of a positive development in the negotiations, if history is any guide, it won’t have a positive effect. The Taliban has been clear in that past that prisoner exchanges are conducted merely to release their jailed comrades, and that it does not link such exchanges to peace talks. Like the previous high-profile prisoner swap, the Taliban is likely to portray this exchange as a key victory. In addition to the propaganda win, the three leaders will also provide a boost to the Taliban’s leadership. Before their capture, all three played key rolls within the group...   https://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2019/11/3-senior-haqqani-network-leaders-to-be-freed-in-prisoner-exchange.php   

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The Fall & Our Future

  Gary Bauer

 

Saturday marks the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. I’ll never forget the emotion I felt watching that stark symbol of communism come tumbling down.

Young Germans poured out of their homes and overwhelmed the security guarding the piece of concrete that physically and psychologically separated East and West Berlin. They quickly began demolishing it piece by piece.

The seeds of the wall’s destruction were planted a couple of years earlier in 1987 when President Ronald Reagan delivered one of his most famous speeches.

Standing before the historic Brandenburg Gate in West Berlin, Reagan spoke directly to the leader of the Soviet Union and forcefully declared:

General Secretary Gorbachev, if you seek peace, if you seek prosperity for the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, if you seek liberalization, come here to this gate. Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!

While reflecting on this anniversary, I couldn’t help but think of a recent poll of millennials. It found that nearly 70% of millennials are willing to vote for a socialist candidate. Even more frightening, a third said they approve of communism.

How is that possible? How can the most highly educated generation of Americans, with Google literally at their fingertips, be so clueless about what life was like under communism?

This is beyond shocking. It’s scandalous. It is a damning indictment of our modern educational establishment and the elected politicians who failed to prevent that establishment from becoming an indoctrination enterprise.

Either we haven’t taught our children what the Berlin Wall was and why it came down or we have taught them a lie. Sadly, I fear it is the latter.

I suspect most young Americans are being indoctrinated to believe that capitalism and free markets are evil, that America is evil. So evil that they’re willing to embrace economic and political ideas that have resulted in tremendous death and suffering.

My friends, 30 years ago I thought America had won the Cold War. Apparently, the fight against communism still continues. Only today the battlefield isn’t West Berlin. The fight is on our high-school and college campuses.

The Culture War

The Supreme Court is hearing several cases this term with tremendous implications for religious liberty. Not surprisingly, at least one far-left group is attempting to rig the result by demanding that Justices Samuel Alito and Brett Kavanaugh recuse themselves from these critical cases.

Why? Because they had the audacity to pose for a picture with the president of the National Organization for Marriage, which advocates for the “radical idea” that marriage should be the union of one man and one woman.

This is further evidence of just how extreme the left has become. Not content with having won the battle over the civil definition of marriage, it is now trying to restrict religious liberty across the board.

It has launched an aggressive campaign called “Beyond I Do.” The success of this effort could be seriously impacted by the outcome of these pending Supreme Court decisions. Thus the attempt to intimidate Alito and Kavanaugh.

The left lost the fight over Kavanaugh’s confirmation, but it never gives up. It wants to disqualify him over a picture. And impeach him if possible.

More Impeachment Lies

Yesterday we noted that the alleged CIA “whistleblower” may have committed perjury by failing to disclose his contacts with Democrat congressional staffers prior to filing his complaint. It seems he isn’t the only one.

Marie Yovanovitch, the former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine and an scumbag/liar-nObama holdover, is widely seen as a star witness in the Democrat impeachment effort. President Trump removed Yovanovitch in May.

Ambassador Yovanovitch testified before Rep. scumbag-Adam Schiff’s kangaroo court last month. Under questioning from Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-NY), Yovanovitch said she had ignored messages sent in August from a Democrat staffer on the House Foreign Affairs Committee who wanted to speak with her about “quite delicate/time-sensitive” matters.

The timing of the staffers email to Yovanovitch is suspicious as it was sent just two days after the CIA “whistleblower” filed his complaint.

Yovanovitch told Zeldin that she referred the message to the State Department so that someone in the Legislative Affairs Office could “handle the correspondence.”

You can appreciate why State Department officials would be sensitive about handling official business through the proper channels after scumbag/liar-Hillary Clinton’s private-server scandal. In fact, scumbag/liar-Hillary warned State Department employees against using personal email accounts for official business and she even fired an ambassador for doing so.

So kudos to Yovanovitch for following proper protocol. Except she didn’t.

Fox News has obtained emails indicating that Yovanovitch did in fact reply to the Democrat staffer using a private email account. It seems that her response to Rep. Zeldin was not entirely truthful.

Responding to this revelation, Rep. Zeldin said, “It is greatly concerning that Ambassador Yovanovitch didn’t answer my question as honestly as she should have, especially while under oath.”

In related news, Republican senators are stepping up their efforts to expose Hunter Biden’s dealings with the Ukrainian natural-gas company Burisma. It turns out that the company was aggressively lobbying the State Department and using Biden’s name to gain access and favor.

2020 Update

The Democrat presidential primary took a bizarre turn Friday. Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg filed paperwork to have his name appear on the Alabama primary ballot, the state with the earliest filing deadline.

Bloomberg’s move was motivated by growing angst among establishment Democrats that loose lips liar-Joe Biden, Elizabeth dinky/liar-Warren, and commie-Bernie Sanders just can’t cut it. In fact, Bloomberg’s spokesman said as much, telling reporters that “Mike is increasingly concerned that the current field of candidates is not well positioned” to defeat Donald Trump.

It is widely reported that Bloomberg is particularly concerned about the rise of the progressive left and the possibility that commie-Sanders or dinky/liar-Warren could win the nomination due to loose lips liar-Biden’s weakness.

But it’s not at all clear to me that Bloomberg has any support in today’s Democrat Party. In spite of his well-known liberal positions on social issues and anti-Second Amendment activism, 75% of Democrat voters said they would vote for a socialist for president. It seems that Bloomberg lost this fight a long time ago.

Bloomberg may not be the last candidate to jump in. There are reports that former Attorney General scumbag-Eric Holder may get into the race too.

Meanwhile, President Trump and Vice President Pence headed to Georgia Friday, kicking off a major push to attract black voters to the Republican Party.   ~The Patriot Post

https://patriotpost.us/opinion/66698?mailing_id=4647&utm_medium=email&utm_source=pp.email.4647&utm_campaign=snapshot&utm_content=body