Thursday PM ~ thefrontpagecover

TheFrontPageCover
~ Featuring ~   
 China's in Trouble With Hong Kong
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Harold Hutchison
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Vermont Is Going Insane
Will the Rest of America Follow?
By John Klar
americanthinker.com } ~ This spring, visiting professor Ryszard Legutko was prevented from speaking at Vermont's prestigious Middlebury College due to strident opposition by extremist and intolerant students... This was the second such embarrassment for the college: writer Charles Murray and a Middlebury professor were insulted and assaulted there in 2016. Professor Legutko recently related his perspective on the experience, revealing that the college not only caved to the disruptive and disrespectful students, but legitimized their conduct! Further, the students have set out to proscribe future discourse that might again ignite their sociopathic anarchy. Last year, our nation's children walked out of high schools to complain about school shootings.  Encouraged by teachers and principals, these students proclaimed that they would finally end school violence by effecting changes to national gun laws. Many have praised these optimistic youths; others have condemned them. Both approaches are wrong. Addressing the rebellion of America's youth in the 1960s, writer Wendell Berry remarked that "this generation is as subject as any other to intelligent scrutiny and judgment, and as deserving of honest criticism. It has received much approbation and condemnation, very little criticism" "Discipline and Hope," 1970. Mr. Berry argued that the '60s youths correctly criticized their parents' world but that without guidance, they eventually embraced those same values in new forms. Thus, the Flower Children took root in Silicon Valley, where they now grow bald while the military complex and industrial waste flourish. Allan Bloom's The Closing of the American Mind: How Higher Education Has Failed Democracy and Impoverished the Souls of Today's Students sharply criticized college professors who encouraged student walk-outs to protest the Vietnam War. Disrupting education and politicizing issues in this way is destructive both of education and of political discourse. Or worse...
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Virtue-Signaling Jewish Dems 
Betray Israel and Themselves
By Jonathan F. Keiler
americanthinker.com } ~ President Trump has ripped the Band-Aid off a festering wound: the increasing division between Israel and American Jewish Democrats... This split has been worsening for decades, but the anti-Zionist infection afflicting Jewish Democrats has largely been salved and covered over rather than addressed directly. Now Trump is forcing the matter. That the Democratic Party has long been moving toward a leftist anti-Zionist ideology, and is willing to harbor anti-Semites within its ranks with nary a quibble, is old news. The last Democrat president, someone named scumbag/liar-nObama, is no Zionist, and while not personally an anti-Semite, he didn't mind their support. Post-scumbag/liar-nObama, Democrats have moved more forcefully leftward than he dared and are busy adopting the far left's open hostility to Israel and actively welcoming active and obvious anti-Semites.  The Democratic Party's open embrace of fervently anti-Zionist congresswomen worthless-Rashida Tlaib and worthless-Ilan Omar, as well as their corresponding anti-Semitism, is the acute problem, but the underlying issue with Jewish Democrats runs deeper. It's an issue that plagues the left in general, and it says much about leftist ideology. That issue is virtue-signaling — publicly doing or saying things that demonstrate one's good character and moral virtue. Much of the Left's current agenda is largely driven by this dynamic, rather than real needs or credible rationales. Issues like climate change, immigration reform, gun control, on-demand abortion, and national health care are treated as ideological litmus tests often passed via virtue-signaling and little more. Liberal American Jews tend to be strong virtue-signalers. It likely stems in part from Jewish history itself.  Attempting to assimilate into dominant Christian societies, urban European Jews tended to adopt new bourgeois ideas and customs with a vengeance, so much so that this alone occasionally bred resentment. Now Trump has called out the Democrats on their slide toward anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism. Democrat Jews like Dems in general despise Trump, and this exacerbates their bind. Will Jewish Democrats betray Israel to embrace the anti-Trump Left, itself dominated by anti-Zionists and anti-Semites? Or will they give up their incessant virtue-signaling and move away from a party that never really wanted them in the first place and is now quite ready to abandon them? Unfortunately, I expect the virtue-signaling to continue, the lesson of Dreyfus long lost in the lefty fog...
The Political Perils Of Supporting Israel 
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By David Harsanyi
thefederalist.com } ~ During his diatribe about the recent exploits of anti-Israel Democrats worthless-Ilhan Omar and worthless-Rashida Tlaib, President Donald Trump dropped this line... “And I think any Jewish people that vote for a Democrat, I think it shows either a total lack of knowledge or great disloyalty.” An uproar followed due to the president’s use of the word “disloyalty,” which usually insinuates the charge of dual allegiances, a smear that’s been deployed against Jews in various iterations since the beginning of the Diaspora. In case there was any confusion, the president reiterated today that, yes, “If you vote for a Democrat, you’re being disloyal to Jewish people and you’re being very disloyal to Israel.” If you’ve been following the adventures of progressive Democrats, you might be familiar with the dual loyalty smear. Then again, watching the same media that has been white-knighting worthless-Omar and worthless-Tlaib now feign horror at the word “disloyalty” has been quite a spectacle. I assume most mainstream news consumers were confused about the motivation for Trump’s outburst, which was aimed at two members of Congress who had teamed up with an organization that literally praised suicide bombers and made accusations of blood libel. This aspect of worthless-Omar and worthless-Talib’s aborted Israel trip was not particularly newsworthy. Mostly because media hypocrisy is breathtaking. Incidentally, not a single Democrat now accusing Trump of peddling antisemitic tropes condemned them. Needless to say, it’s irresponsible and counterproductive to use the word “disloyal” when talking about politics—your party isn’t your family, faith, or national identity—and especially bad when using it in connection with Israel. Trump’s comments, whether the president comprehends this or not, whether he think it helps him politically or not, make it far more difficult to push back against the growing normalization of antisemitism. Then again, this obsession with seeing everything through the prism of TRUMP!!!, means it’s difficult to have a debate about the broader issue here. For example, intent matters. One group in this back-and-forth claims that Jewish “loyalty” to Israel is something nefarious, while the other argues that it’s something positive. That’s an important distinction...  https://thefederalist.com/2019/08/22/the-perils-of-supporting-israel/?utm_source=The+Federalist+List&utm_campaign=b83ff837f0-RSS_The_Federalist_Daily_Updates_w_Transom&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_cfcb868ceb-b83ff837f0-83771801   
Former Senator Hank Brown: ‘I Would Be
Surprised If loose lips liar-Biden
Survives The Primaries’
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By Tristan Justice
thefederalist.com } ~ Former U.S. Sen. George Hanks Brown (R-Colo.), who goes by “Hank Brown,” said in a recent interview that former vice president and current Democratic presidential front-runner loose lips liar-Joe Biden is by no means a moderate... “Senator loose lips liar-Biden is a pleasant, outgoing individual,” Brown said. He was a colleague of loose lips liar-Biden’s in the early to mid-90s. But Brown added that loose lips liar-Biden is certainly no moderate: “He was consistently one of the most liberal members of the U.S. Senate. To hear him described as a moderate could only happen only in Washington D.C.”Hanks’ comments on loose lips liar-Biden came in an interview with National Review when discussing the Supreme Court confirmation hearings for Justice Clarence Thomas in 1991 and comparing them to the way Democrats acted last fall during the Senate proceedings on Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination. loose lips liar-Biden, who was chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee during Thomas’s hearings, delayed the process after Democratic attacks on the judge’s qualifications for the high court failed to bring down the African-American nominee. The delay allowed Thomas’ opponents to organize and bring forward charges of sexual assault that allegedly occurred years earlier, in a last-ditch effort to remove Thomas from consideration. Brown said that, after his years of observing loose lips liar-Biden, the former Colorado senator does not think his former colleague is up to the task of commanding the nation’s highest office. “I never observed in him the qualities of intellect, vision, exceptional integrity, or savvy that are required to be an effective president,” Brown said. “I will be surprised if he survives the primaries.”...
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The anti-Israel lobby
by Clifford D. May
fdd.org } ~ I’m a stickler for sovereignty. Sovereign nations have borders and their leaders decide who gets to cross them. Excluding individuals who are hostile or even just objectionable is common practice... Among those who have not been permitted to come to America: Michael Ben Ari, a far-right Israeli legislator, and Narendra Modi, accused of doing too little to prevent anti-Muslim riots in 2002, and now India’s prime minister. Unless Israel is to be held to a separate and unequal standard, its leaders must enjoy the same right, which they exercised by declining to welcome worthless-Ilhan Omar and worthless-Rashida Tlaib. The dominant media narrative is that Benjamin Netanyahu excluded the two far-left congresswomen in deference to President Trump, who had tweeted that they “hate Israel & all Jewish people, & there is nothing that can be said or done to change their minds.” Perhaps that did influence the prime minister’s thinking, but other factors undoubtedly were weighed as well. Allow me to mention a few. House Majority Leader scumbag-Steny Hoyer invited Reps. worthless-Omar and worthless-Tlaib to join a bipartisan delegation that went to Israel and the West Bank earlier this month. They preferred not to accompany their colleagues. Separately, the Israeli government granted a request by Rep. worthless-Tlaib to enter the West Bank to visit relatives, asking only that she not use the occasion to promote boycotts against Israel. She said no deal. The itinerary for their trip was titled: “Delegation to Palestine.” That strikes me as erasing Israel from the map. When they landed at Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion Airport, where did they think they would be? They were planning to meet with individuals and groups directly tied to terrorism and anti-Semitism. Among them: Shawan Jabarin, identified by Israel’s Supreme Court as a senior member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a Marxist-Leninist organization responsible for airplane hijackings and suicide bombings, and designated as a terrorist entity by the U.S. Japan, Canada, Australia, and the European Union. Organizing their visit was Miftah, an organization that in 2013 published an article alleging that Jews use Christian blood for their Passover matzahs – a very old and very sick libel. Miftah also published “an  American neo-Nazi treatise” called “Who Rules America: The Alien Grip on Our News and Entertainment Media must be Broken.” Apparently, to Ms. worthless-Tlaib and Ms. worthless-Omar, white supremacy in defense of Jew-hatred is no vice...
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China's in Trouble With Hong Kong
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Harold Hutchison:  The protests in Hong Kong have caught America’s attention, and rightly so. The waving of American flags, the singing of our national anthem, and even signs that wish citizens of Hong Kong had Second Amendment rights resonate with your Patriot Post team.

Some have complained that President Donald Trump has not been more vocal in supporting the demonstrators. Well, his comparative resistance to speaking out can be best described in the ongoing trade negotiations. It’s never a smart play to insult those with whom you are trying to make a deal. How inclined are you to listen to socialist-Beto O'Rourke or Pete Buttigieg since they began implying you’re racist if you vote for President Trump’s reelection?

With a couple of tweets, though, President Trump has opened the door to not only escalate the trade war but also have new grounds to walk away. The first tweet, noting the delay on some new tariffs, said that China “wants to make a deal.” He then added, “Let them work humanely with Hong Kong first!” The second tweet was in a similar vein, when he said, “I have ZERO doubt that if President Xi wants to quickly and humanely solve the Hong Kong problem, he can do it.”

We in our humble shop know our history — especially from just three decades ago when Chinese government thugs earned the nickname “Butchers of Beijing” by sending troops and tanks to crush peaceful pro-democracy protests in Tiananmen Square. President George H.W. Bush made a huge mistake in not hammering China with sanctions then. His successors, who kept giving China “Most Favored Nation” trading status, compounded that error.

The results of the decades of unfettered trading with Beijing are now apparent: China has become an economic power, its military has improved by leaps and bounds, and the nation poses a serious geopolitical threat. This is particularly true of China’s naval buildup, which has helped turn the South China Sea into a maritime powder keg. In spite of this, the U.S. foolishly also cut its navy, particularly the hard-to-build aircraft carriers.

While the wisdom of the trade war on economic grounds has been debated (although there is tons of evidence China is not trading fairly and thus started the trade war), should China replicate Tiananmen Square in Hong Kong, the calculus will shift into a more moral/human rights dimension. In that case, President Trump can argue that China cheating us out of money and jobs is one thing, but the wholesale violations of basic human rights by China warrants cutting off talks and imposing tariffs and sanctions.

The thing is, with two tweets, the more difficult position is no longer Trump’s, it’s Xi’s. If he lets the protests continue, or gives in, the regime’s grasp on power becomes weaker, and it could lead to more. The Chinese saw what happened to the Soviet Union — and they know they need to keep it under tight control.

But now the preferred means of control, a Tiananmen Square-esque crackdown, could be just as risky for Xi. The crackdown would maintain political control, but it would also result in sanctions and tariffs that would be even tougher than those in place now. Furthermore, other American allies could very well join in, adding even more economic pressure.

The people of Hong Kong are in a desperate situation, and they deserve the support of the United States of America. And their plight should loudly remind us of the importance of our First — and Second — Amendment rights.  ~The Patriot Post

https://patriotpost.us/articles/64933?mailing_id=4481&utm_medium=email&utm_source=pp.email.4481&utm_campaign=snapshot&utm_content=body 

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