Month: March 2017

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Anti-Semitism and the U.S. Left

The New York Analysis of Policy and Government begins a three-part examination of the growing acceptance of anti-Semitism by Leftists and Progressives in the United States.

Anti-Semitism has become acceptable to the American Left.  It is occasionally masked as merely being sympathetic to the cause of the Palestinians, but that is only camouflage.

Anti-Semitic incidents rose in 2015 by 3%, according to the Anti-Defamation League.  The organization’s 2016 statistics are also expected to be disturbing. But it is not just in reportable, specific crimes that the trouble manifests itself.

The new anti-Semitism is broader than the traditional ethnically-based hatred that history is all too familiar with.  It contains the seeds of the broader Progressive/Left’s disdain and hatred for all religion. A devotion to religious principles means that individuals see a higher power than government, a belief that the Left, which places the power of government on a solitary pedestal above individual rights, cannot tolerate.

The reality and political power of modern anti-Semitism in the political Left is clear, and one need look no further than the recent race for national leadership of the Democrat Party itself for evidence. Keith Ellison, a member of Congress from Minnesota, came extremely close to being elected head of the DNC. His past association with anti-Semites, and his statements that U.S. foreign policy is “governed” by Jewish interests should be noted.

In a Haaretz article generally sympathetic to Ellison, Michael Olenick, “a Jewish student who clashed with Ellison and who was the opinions editor at the [Minnesota Daily, the student newspaper], recalled Ellison maintaining that an oppressed group could not be racist toward Jews because Jews were themselves oppressors. ‘European white Jews are trying to oppress minorities all over the world,’ Olenick remembers Ellison arguing. Keith would go on all the time about ‘Jewish slave traders.’”

A Daily Caller examination of Ellison notes:
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“… a 33-year-old Ellison read aloud that he was there to ‘support the truth’ of [Joanne Jackson’s] alleged comment that ‘Jews are the most racist white people…in some Black areas, some exploitative shopkeepers are, yes, Jewish.’  In his 2006 campaign that ultimately won him his first term in Congress, Ellison received roughly $50,000 campaign contributions that were given or raised by officials of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), which was spun off of Hamas front group Islamic Association for Palestine (IAP).  Several senior CAIR employees have been jailed and convicted for ties to terrorism, and IAP apparently shuttered in 2004 after it was found liable in a 2004 civil court case of supporting terrorist organization Hamas.”

Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) President Morton A. Klein, in a statement concerning Ellison’s leadership bid, noted: Ellison was a devotee and worked for anti-Semite Louis Farrakhan for many years… and co-sponsored anti-Semitic speeches by Kwame Ture entitled, “Zionism, Imperialism, White Supremacy or Both.” The anti-Israel smears in Ellison’s “Gaza 54” letter are still being used today to promote anti-Israel, anti-Semitic boycotts, divestment and sanctions (BDS), on the website of the leading [anti-Israel] BDS [boycott, disinvest, sanction] group in the U.S…Ellison also spouted “blame President Bush” 9/11 conspiracy theories.   Ellison analogized Bush’s prosecution of the war on terror to Hitler’s rise to power…”

Longtime Democrat party loyalist and legal scholar Alan Dershowitz had threatened to leave the party if Ellison was elected. Unfortunately, the problem didn’t end after the election. The new chair, Tom Perez, immediately named Ellison his top deputy.

The acceptance of anti-Semitism has extended to both the popular culture and academia.

The Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs  notes that “Political cartoons often have more of an immediate impact in reinforcing negative stereotypes about Jews than a lengthy essay…A yet uncharted field of hate cartoons against Jews is that in progressive blogs…Most of the progressive blogs…containing such anti-Semitic imagery cited in this essay generally fail to remove such hateful cartoons, despite blog policies expressly prohibiting posts that contain “hateful” or “inflammatory” content…A yet uncharted field of hate cartoons against Jews is…in progressive blogs. .. The cartoonist most frequently appearing on the progressive blogs analyzed…is an extreme left-wing political activist who [participated in the] … notorious Iranian Holocaust Cartoon Competition. …[this cartoonist has] a staggering amount of work dedicated to advancing explicitly anti-Semitic political imagery.”

The Report continues tomorrow

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Quick Analysis

State Attorneys General Abuse Office for Partisan Political goals, part 2

The New York Analysis of Policy and Government concludes its review of how some state attorneys general abuse their office for partisan political purposes.

Hans Bader, writing for The Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI), outlines the various ways that some state attorneys general have abused their office for partisan political purposes, aimed primarily at implementing leftist agendas rejected by the voters or prohibited by the Constitution.

“State attorneys general (AGs) are among the most powerful office holders in the country, with few institutional checks on their power.  A State Attorney General…can bring a politically motivated prosecution in violation of the First Amendment, yet his victims may well have no legal redress. With the possible exception of former New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, the enormous power wielded by state attorneys general has received little scrutiny…Under all state constitutions, the legislature, not the attorney general, is given the power to make laws. If the legislature has not specifically given the attorney general the right to enforce a particular law, then he may be exceeding his authority by bringing a lawsuit under it. Federal law also limits an attorney general’s power. When a state attorney general attempts to regulate conduct in another state, that may violate not only state law, but also the Constitution’s Due Process and Commerce clauses, which forbid any state from imposing its laws on another state or regulating interstate commerce. Unfortunately, many state attorneys general now ignore these constraints. In recent years, many state AGs have increasingly usurped the roles of state legislatures and Congress by using lawsuits to impose interstate and national regulations and extract money from out-of-state defendants who have little voice in a state’s political processes.”

The CEI report outlines the various means leftist state attorneys generals have abused their authority:

  1. The Ethical Breaches and Selective Applications of the Law. Using campaign contributors to bring lawsuits. Using the attorney general’s offi ce to promote personal gain or enrich cronies or relatives. Favoritism towards campaign donors and other uneven or unpredictable application of the law (including refusal to defend state laws or state agencies being sued when plausible defenses exist).
  2. Fabricating Law. Advocating that courts, in effect, rewrite statutes or stretch constitutional norms in order to make new law—for example, seeking judicial imposition of new taxes or regulations, or restrictions on private citizens’ freedom to contract.
  3. Usurping Legislative Powers. Bringing lawsuits that usurp regulatory powers granted to the federal government or other state entities, or that are untethered to any specifi c statutory or constitutional grant of authority.
  4. Predatory Practices. Seeking to regulate conduct occurring wholly in other states—for example, preying on out-of-state businesses that have not violated state law and have no remedy at the polls.

The actions of the state attorneys general who are seeking to influence national policy through legally baseless lawsuits is similar to the legal offense known as “malicious prosecution.” The legal dictionary defines malicious prosecution as

“an action for damages brought by one against whom a civil suit or criminal proceeding has been unsuccessfully commenced without Probable  Cause and for a purpose other than that of bringing the alleged offender to justice.
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An action for malicious prosecution is the remedy for baseless and malicious litigation. It is not limited to criminal prosecutions but may be brought in response to any baseless and malicious litigation or prosecution, whether criminal or civil.”

The use of baseless law suits which seek to defy the Constitution’s separation of powers and general governing system, will first garner success both in terms of public relations with the left wing of the Democrat Party and before sympathetic judges—and, following eight years of hard-left control of the White House, there is a significant number of them.

A Fox News analysis noted: “The president, [Obama] over the course of his two terms, has appointed hundreds of justices to the lower federal courts, leading to a majority of appeals courts now dominated by Democratic picks. While those nomination battles aren’t nearly as high-profile as they are for the high court, the impact of the appointments is just as pronounced.” A Reuters study agreed. “His appointments of dozens of judges to the country’s influential federal appeals courts have tilted the judiciary in a liberal direction that will influence rulings for years to come…”

Democrat legal officials have a history of using lawsuits as a means of gaining influence in areas in which they have been rejected by the voters. A 2014 Federalist analysis  of a lawsuit against Texas elected officials outlines the tactic.

“Since 1982, the Democrat-controlled Travis County District Attorney’s Office has received state funding to manage the “Public Integrity Unit,” which has jurisdiction to investigate and prosecute political corruption by elected officials statewide. (It is odd that a local district attorney, rather than the state Attorney General, has this responsibility.)  Travis County politics ensure that the PIU is used as a bludgeon against Republican officials.  The notoriously partisan former District Attorney Ronnie Earle used the PIU to bring bogus charges against then-state Treasurer (and later U.S. Senator) Kay Bailey Hutchison and House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, both Republicans…”

Similar baseless actions, some prompted by organizations funded by George Soros, were brought against Texas governor Rick Perry.

However, the ultimate arbiter will be the U.S. Supreme Court.  The politicized decisions of federal judges who have placed personal ideology over the law will encounter a substantial roadblock at the highest level. According to an analysis by the American Bar, the politicized Ninth Circuit, which recently ruled against President Trump’s travel ban, has a stunningly high reversal rate at the U.S. Supreme Court of 80%. The median reversal rate is 68.29%.

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State Attorneys General Abuse Office for Partisan Political goals

The New York Analysis of Policy and Government presents a two-part examination of how some state attorneys general are abusing their offices for partisan political purposes.

The concept of elected and appointed officials exercising their office with complete impartiality is a basic tenet of fair government.  While the absolute perfection of this ideal is rarely achieved, the past eight years have seen an unprecedented abandonment of the goal. Agencies such as the Justice Department and the Internal Revenue Service were extensively misused for partisan purposes.

With the regime change following the 2016 elections, the center of gravity for using public office to benefit party or ideological interests shifted to some state attorneys general.  Martin Morse Wooster, writing for the Capital Research Center  notes that “Aiming to reshape society, state attorneys general wield ever-expanding powers over private corporations, foundations and nonprofits. Their activities–too often motivated by ideology and politics–frequently undermine the very institutions they are supposed to protect.” The author was discussing partisan assaults on private organizations, but the concept now applies to the highly partisan and overt attempt to de facto overturn the impact of the 2016 election.

Alan Greenblatt writing in Governing magazine reports that “’Democratic attorneys general are going to be very active, suing a number of regulatory agencies,’ says Paul Nolette, a political scientist at Marquette University. ‘They will be prepared to use a kitchen sink strategy against everything coming out of the EPA…’ The number of Democratic attorneys general has ticked down with recent Republican successes at the state level. But there are still 21 of them — more than the number of Democratic governors or legislatures…And it isn’t really the number of Democratic AGs that matters. A single activist attorney general such as Eric Schneiderman of New York or Xavier Becerra of California can command a small army of lawyers.…But with prominent Democratic AGs threatening to challenge Trump before he even has made many policy pronouncements, it’s clear that legal briefs will be among the most powerful weapons progressives will be able to deploy against him.”

The City Journal offers  this description of Schniederman: “New York’s progressives scored a breakthrough by electing as the state’s attorney general Eric Schneiderman, who had no prosecutorial experience but, as Ben Smith noted in a Politico profile…had ‘spent his career building an ideological infrastructure for the left.’

The issue that has gathered the most headlines in the battle between partisan attorneys general and the White House is immigration.

An Economist study emphasizes that “Lawsuits are likely to be a critical form of resistance for Democrats in the Trump era…On January 29th, 17 Democratic attorneys-general signed a letter vowing to ‘use all of the tools of our offices to fight this unconstitutional order.’ Four Democratic attorneys-general have officially filed or signed onto lawsuits challenging the restrictions. On January 31st, the city of San Francisco sued Mr. Trump over another executive order demanding that federal funding be withheld from so-called ‘sanctuary cities’ that limit their cooperation with federal immigration authorities.”
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Law suits by state attorneys general are nothing new, and both sides have used them to varying degrees. What differs in the current, concerted effort is the overt attempt to use their offices as a substitute for the political influence lost by the Democrat Party in state and federal elections over the past seven years.

The involved attorneys general are sufficiently trained in the law to know that seeking to direct border security and immigration policy is beyond their jurisdiction.  As the New York Analysis of Policy and Government has previously noted, the case they brought opposing President Trump’s travel ban was successful in the radicalized Ninth Circuit, but could not pass Constitutional muster in a less politicized forum:

“There is a reality surrounding the Ninth Circuit Court’s upholding of a stay on President Trump’s temporary travel ban: It is based on that Court’s political preferences, and not on the law. It is a reflection of an ongoing and desperate attempt by the left to nullify by disruption and force the election of 2016.

“There is no Constitutional provision, no statutory law, and no legal precedent that could reasonably be cited as the justification for the opinion.  There is not even political precedent to back it up.  Former Presidents Carter and Obama, during their tenures in office, engaged in similar acts, without facing the obstacles now levied at the current Administration. President Bill Clinton deported 12 million illegal aliens, without the opposition of the same forces that seek to discredit Trump.

“The Constitution has no provision allowing the courts to set this type of policy.  Further, Statutory law Title 8, Section 1182 of the U.S. Code explicitly, clearly, and undeniably provides the president with this authority.  The Court ignored both facts in its decision. A first-year law student would be given a failing grade if he or she wrote a moot court opinion without noting those key facts.”

The report concludes tomorrow.

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Taxpayers Pay Heavy Costs for Immigration, Part 2

The New York Analysis of Policy and Government concludes its review of immigration costs

Many specific, costly areas highlight the economic weight of illegal immigration.

Louise Radnofsky, writing for the Wall Street Journal, reports:

“When federal lawmakers wrote the act overhauling the nation’s health-care system… they ruled out any possibility of extending health insurance to illegal immigrants. Local officials where many of those immigrants live are treating them anyway. A Wall Street Journal survey of the 25 U.S. counties with the largest unauthorized immigrant populations found that 20 of them have programs that pay for the low-income uninsured to have doctor visits, shots, prescription drugs, lab tests and surgeries at local providers. The services usually are inexpensive or free to participants, who must prove they live in the county but are told their immigration status doesn’t matter…Unauthorized immigrants account for at least one-quarter of the approximately 30 million uninsured people in the U.S., the Congressional Budget Office estimates…For communities that provide care to illegal immigrants, the financial commitment is significant. Interviews with officials in the 25 counties indicated that local initiatives provide nonemergency care for at least 750,000 unauthorized immigrants across those counties, costing them more than $1 billion a year—almost all from local funds.”

Educational costs for illegal immigrants are massive.  The Daily Caller,  citing Federation for American Immigration Reform statistics,  noted that “It cost taxpayers an estimated $43.9 billion to educate illegal alien students in the 2015-2016 school year, and $59.2 billion for programs to educate voters lacking proficient English skills.”
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A study by the American Enterprise Institute notes that:

“According to the Pew Research Center, from 1995 to 2012, the percentage of K-12 students with at least one undocumented immigrant parent rose from 3.2 to 6.9%.  In California, this figure was 13.2%, and 17.7% in Nevada…In New York, almost 12% of public school students are undocumented minors, according to a New York Post article. A report by the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) estimates the state will spend over $147 million in the 2014-2015 school year educating undocumented minors from the border crisis in 2014, a cost of $35,520 per pupil. California enrolls the highest amount of the nation’s 5 million English Language Learners (ELL) with nearly 1.5 million, and spends an estimated $12.3 billion annually educating children of undocumented immigrants.”

Law Enforcement costs are also a factor. A General Accounting Office  study found that:

“the number of criminal aliens in federal prisons in fiscal year 2010 was about 55,000, and the number of State Criminal Alien Assistance Program (SCAAP) criminal alien incarcerations in state prison systems and local jails was about 296,000 in fiscal year 2009…The number of criminal aliens in federal prisons increased about 7 percent from about 51,000 in fiscal year 2005 while the number of SCAAP criminal alien incarcerations in state prison systems and local jails increased about 35 percent from about 220,000 in fiscal year 2003… in 2005, [the General Accounting Office] (GAO) reported that the percentage of criminal aliens in federal prisons was about 27 percent of the total inmate population from 2001 through 2004. Based on our random sample, GAO estimates that the criminal aliens had an average of 7 arrests, 65 percent were arrested at least once for an immigration offense, and about 50 percent were arrested at least once for a drug offense. Immigration, drugs, and traffic violations accounted for about 50 percent of arrest offenses…About 40 percent of individuals convicted as a result of DOJ terrorism-related investigations were aliens. GAO estimates that costs to incarcerate criminal aliens in federal prisons and SCAAP reimbursements to states and localities ranged from about $1.5 billion to $1.6 billion annually from fiscal years 2005 through 2009…”

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Taxpayers Pay Heavy Costs for Immigration

The New York Analysis of Policy and Government takes a two-part look at the cost of immigration to the American taxpayer.

 In the furious battle over illegal immigration, far too little attention is paid to the extraordinary costs borne by the American taxpayer to provide care and services to recent arrivals, legal and illegal.

Unlike earlier generations of immigrants, many of those arriving in the U.S. have an expectation of government assistance, and in fact do get taxpayer-funded help.  With an economy already nearing $20 trillion in debt, a crumbling infrastructure, burdensome taxes, and numerous needs, the question is of exceptional importance.

An Association of Mature American Citizens (AMAC) study found that  “In 2010, the average unlawful immigrant household received around $24,721 in government benefits and services while paying some $10,334 in taxes. This generated an average annual fiscal deficit (benefits received minus taxes paid) of around $14,387 per household. This cost had to be borne by U.S. taxpayers.”

According to the Heritage Foundation “Today’s immigrants differ greatly from historic immigrant populations. Prior to 1960, immigrants to the U.S. had education levels that were similar to those of the non-immigrant workforce and earned wages that were, on average, higher than those of non-immigrant workers. Since the mid-1960s, however, the education levels of new immigrants have plunged relative to non-immigrants; consequently, the average wages of immigrants are now well below those of the non-immigrant population. Recent immigrants increasingly occupy the low end of the U.S. socio-economic spectrum. The current influx of poorly educated immigrants is the result of two factors: first, a legal immigration system that favors kinship ties over skills and education; and second, a permissive attitude toward illegal immigration that has led to lax border enforcement and non-enforcement of the laws that prohibit the employment of illegal immigrants. As a result of this dramatic inflow of low-skill immigrants,

  • One-third of all immigrants live in families in which the head of the household lacks a high school education; and
  • First-generation immigrants and their families, who are one-sixth of the U.S. population, comprise one-fourth of all poor persons in the U.S.”

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Startling numbers have been revealed by a number of studies examining the fiscal implications of this issue. The Center for Immigration Studies  provides this overview:

  • “51 percent of immigrant-headed households used at least one federal welfare program — cash, food, housing, or medical care — compared to 30 percent of native households.
  •  The average household headed by an immigrant (legal or illegal) costs taxpayers $6,234 in federal welfare benefits, which is 41 percent higher than the $4,431 received by the average native household.
  • The average immigrant household consumes 33 percent more cash welfare, 57 percent more food assistance, and 44 percent more Medicaid dollars than the average native household. Housing costs are about the same for both groups.
  • At $8,251, households headed by immigrants from Central America and Mexico have the highest welfare costs of any sending region — 86 percent higher than the costs of native households.
  • Illegal immigrant households cost an average of $5,692 (driven largely by the presence of U.S.-born children), while legal immigrant households cost $6,378.
  • The greater consumption of welfare dollars by immigrants can be explained in large part by their lower level of education and larger number of children compared to natives. Over 24 percent of immigrant households are headed by a high school dropout, compared to just 8 percent of native households. In addition, 13 percent of immigrant households have three or more children, vs. just 6 percent of native households.”

The Federation for American Immigration Reform adds this summary:  adds this summary:

  • “Illegal immigration costs U.S. taxpayers about $113 billion a year at the federal, state and local level. The bulk of the costs — some $84 billion — are absorbed by state and local governments.
  • The annual outlay that illegal aliens cost U.S. taxpayers is an average amount per native-headed household of $1,117. The fiscal impact per household varies considerably because the greatest share of the burden falls on state and local taxpayers whose burden depends on the size of the illegal alien population in that locality
  • Education for the children of illegal aliens constitutes the single largest cost to taxpayers, at an annual price tag of nearly $52 billion. Nearly all of those costs are absorbed by state and local governments.
  • At the federal level, about one-third of outlays are matched by tax collections from illegal aliens. At the state and local level, an average of less than 5 percent of the public costs associated with illegal immigration is recouped through taxes collected from illegal aliens.
  • Most illegal aliens do not pay income taxes. Among those who do, much of the revenues collected are refunded to the illegal aliens when they file tax returns. Many are also claiming tax credits resulting in payments from the U.S. Treasury.”

The Report concludes tomorrow

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Christian Persecution on a Global Scale

Strangely missing in the debate about President Trump’s temporary travel restrictions, which is significantly less dramatic that President Carter’s actions in response to the Iranian embassy takeover, and roughly similar to President Obama’s actions in 2011, is the near total exclusion of Christians from U.S. Middle Eastern refugee programs over the past eight years.

In a recent CBN interview, President Trump announced a sharp change in policy, noting that Christians in the Middle East have “been horribly treated. Do you know if you were a Christian in Syria it was impossible, at least very tough to get into the United States? If you were a Muslim you could come in, but if you were a Christian, it was almost impossible and the reason that was so unfair, everybody was persecuted in all fairness, but they were chopping off the heads of everybody but more so the Christians. And I thought it was very, very unfair.”

The move is overdue. Christians have been subjected to extraordinary maltreatment across the globe.

The Ethics and Liberty Review Commission has reviewed the latest data from the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, and outlined the five key facts concerning Christian persecution.

“1. In China, Christian communities have ‘borne a significant brunt of the oppression,’ with numerous churches bulldozed and crosses torn down.
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  1. In Sudan, the government  stiffened penalties for both apostasy and blasphemy.The regime prosecutes Christian pastors on trumped-up charges and marginalizes the country’s minority Christian community.
  2. Boko Haram continues to attack with impunity both Christians and many Muslims.From bombings at churches and mosques to mass kidnappings of children from schools, Boko Haram has cut a wide path of terror across vast swaths of Nigeria and in neighboring countries, leaving thousands killed and millions displaced
  3. The situation is “particularly grave” for Evangelical and Pentecostal Christians in Eritrea.The government requires all physically- and mentally-capable people between the ages of 18 and 70 to perform a full-time, indefinite, and poorly-paid national service obligation, which includes military, development, or civil service components.  There are no exemptions for conscientious objections and individuals completing their national service obligation in the military are prohibited from practicing their religion. Failure to participate in the national service results in being detained, sentenced to hard labor, abused, and having one’s legal documents confiscated.
  4. The report notes numerous incidents over the past year of Iranian authorities raiding church services, threatening church members, and arresting and imprisoning worshipers and church leaders, particularly converts to Evangelical forms of Christianity.Since 2010, authorities ‘arbitrarily arrested and detained more than 550 Christians throughout the country.’ As of February 2016, approximately 90 Christians were either in prison, detained, or awaiting trial because of their religious beliefs and activities.”

According to a Vatican Radio report translated by The Blaze  in “2016, nearly 90,000 Christians were martyred around the world, according to a new study by an Italian research group. According to the Center for Studies on New Religions…a Christian was martyred about once every six minutes in 2016, making them the most persecuted religious group in the world. Massimo Introvigne, director of CENSUR, told Vatican Radio last week that approximately 70 percent of the martyred Christians were from ‘tribal villages’in Africa because Christians often refuse to take up arms during conflicts. The other 30 percent, according to the study, were Christians who fell victim to terrorism or governmental persecution. Still, the number of Christians who were martyred in 2016 is likely more than 90,000 because the study was unable to include data from China or India, two east Asian countries that have large Christian populations, because of the ‘underground’ nature of churches in those countries.”

Open Doors  notes that persecution took place in over 65 nations. North Korea is ranked as the worst offender. “It is illegal to be a Christian in North Korea and Christians are often sent to labor camps or are killed if they are discovered.”

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Cravotta on Vernuccio/Novak

Red State’s Leonora Cravotta will appear on this week’s Vernuccio/Novak The person is afraid to disclose this condition and live with viagra sale without prescription it. Track Signs of Erectile canada pharmacy viagra Dysfunction The problem of erectile dysfunction is very embarrassing and devastating for a man. You may also wish to have an enema if you are viagra lowest prices failing to ‘rise to the occasion’, don’t despair, fixing erectile dysfunction is likely possible. Motor vehicle accident along with sports incidents tend to be more irritable and are often found to be the most effective one. cialis price in canada Report to discuss the stunning level of media bias.

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Left Uses Violence and Intimidation to Quell Free Speech

President Obama’s attempts to put government monitors in newsrooms were defeated, as was legislation introduced by Senator Schumer (D-NY) to limit the First Amendment.  Now out of office, Progressives continue to seek ways to restrict free speech.  Having lost the ability to do so through government action, they have turned to violence, intimidation, and other forms of pressure.

The violence is evident in the streets, as supporters of President Trump have, to their dismay, frequently found. There have been extensive news reports, including extensive video footage, of left-wing violence in response to Clinton’s loss in the 2016 election and the inauguration of a new president. What has been missing is condemnation of these acts by much of the mainstream media, academia, and progressive politicians.

Intimidation and pressure are evident in many areas, most notably within educational institutions. The Daily Mail  provides an example. Gavin, a 12-year-old 6th grade student in St. Louis, Missouri, was assaulted on a school bus for wearing a Trump “Make America Great Again” hat. The incident was recorded on video. The school response was extremely telling.  Although he was the victim, he was suspended along with his assailants.

A Goldwater Institute study  found that “freedom of speech is dying on our college campuses, and is increasingly imperiled in society at large…Freedom of speech, that cornerstone of our liberty and most fundamental constitutional right, is under siege on America’s college campuses. Speakers who challenge campus orthodoxies are rarely sought out, are disinvited when called, and are shouted down or otherwise disrupted while on campus. Speech codes that substantially limit First Amendment rights are widespread. New devices like ‘trigger warnings’ and ‘safe spaces’ shelter students from the give-and-take of discussion and debate. When protesters disrupt visiting speakers, or break in on meetings to take them over and list demands, administrators look the other way. Students have come to take it for granted they will face no discipline for such disruptions. Administrators themselves often disinvite controversial speakers and limit the exercise of liberty to narrow ‘free speech zones.’ Administrators also focus enforcement on silencing ‘offensive’ speech and give short shrift to due process protections for students accused of saying the wrong thing to the wrong group.

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Writing for the Daily Wire, Ben Shapiro points out the American left has made political violence its current method of limiting the free speech of those they disagree with the “ New Normal.” Stein writes: “In recent years, under the tender tutelage of the Obama Department of Justice, mass violent action by leftists has become commonplace across the country, from the Occupy Wall Street movement to Black Lives Matter-inspired mob violence in Ferguson and Baltimore, from campus chaos at California State University of Los Angeles to this sort of violence at Trump rallies. The tendency of the media has been, however, to blame the rise of Donald Trump for this violence.”

The Gatestone Institute believes that “Universities and colleges in the United States need to be safe places where students of all backgrounds and beliefs can live and study, free from intimidation by other students, faculty, and administrators. Protests are fine, and they are our right as Americans, but there needs to be zero tolerance for violence and intimidation. If a speaker or group is committing or inciting battery, assault or vandalism, the situation should be a police and judicial matter — as well as valid grounds for mandatory expulsion. There is no place for vigilantism by students, faculty or administers on campus to enforce political conformity. There is no place for any kind of intimidation and violence anywhere in the US. We should never let rioters have a hecklers veto over who gets to speak…The rioters have been doing us a favor by showing their real colors.”

David Harsanyi, writing for The Federalist,  asks, “Why Aren’t We Having a National Conversation About Leftist Violence?… Trump’s rhetoric doesn’t excuse the liberal attacks on speech we saw in California and Chicago, or the illiberal “protests” we’ve seen on college campuses for decades now.  A protest is a statement or action expressing disapproval of or objection to something. What campus lefties engage in are efforts to stop free expression. For that matter, it’s doesn’t excuse the Democratic Party’s constant assaults on the First Amendment. The Left has a free speech problem. When are we going to treat ourselves to a national conversation about the Left’s propensity to undermine free speech? Why aren’t we talking about leftist violence? We treat these events as isolated incidents that have nothing to do with the politics of the contemporary liberalism.”

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China Makes its Move in Latin America

China’s rapidly growing influence is not confined to the far reaches of the Orient.  Beijing’s presence is increasingly being felt within the U.S.A.’s own hemisphere.

A decade of escalating interaction in Latin America and the Caribbean has risen to a crescendo into 2017. President Xi Jingping, during a visit to Ecuador, Peru and Chile, set up a series of trade deals. It’s part of China’s goal of becoming a major influence in the area. Beijing has issued plans setting out its methodical goal to begin a “new era” in China-Latin American relations, according to a report by the Wall Street Journal.

According to The Economist  “China’s aims in the region are expansive. In 2015 it signed a slew of agreements with Latin American countries promising to double bilateral trade to $500bn within ten years and to increase the total stock of investment between them from $85bn-100bn to $250bn. China also wants good relations in order to diversify its sources of energy, to find new markets for its infrastructure companies and to project power, both soft and military, in the western hemisphere.”

The long-term benefits of the deals to the region are in doubt. The Economist notes that “the impact on employment is slight. A study by Boston University found that trade with China generated 17% fewer jobs per dollar’s-worth of exports than did trade with other countries…Almost all imports from China are cheap manufactures. Some Latin American economists argue that Chinese subsidies to their producers undermine domestic industries. A new study published by the Atlantic Council…concludes that Chinese exports ‘have had an effect on the region’s de-industrialization”.

Thus , there devensec.com levitra without prescription is nothing wrong in saying that ” a healthy intercourse keeps a couple bind and close to each other. This failure during devensec.com brand viagra the intimate moments brings disappointment to both people. Other levitra fast shipping symptoms like breasts discharging milky liquid even when someone is suffering from this disease. Significant clinical generic cialis viagra benefit usually is experienced 6 to 8 weeks of use. Should Americans be worried? Paul Coyer, writing for Forbes noted that the Obama Administration didn’t consider Beijing’s growing influence as a problem. However, Coyer writes, “Beijing’s investments globally are rarely undertaken with solely business goals in mind – the Chinese, unlike Americans, are practiced strategic thinkers, with a rich history, thousands of years old, of strategic thinkers to inform their approach to geopolitics. In fact, whereas Americans tend to be woefully deficient in this area, geopolitics and the ability to think strategically and take the long view are deeply embedded parts of Chinese culture. Nowhere is this asymmetry in strategic thinking ability so evident as it is Latin America. Whether the US think this is the case or not, it is certainly Beijing’s goal to grow its influence at Washington’s expense… Chinese investment is driven much of the time by strategic considerations directed by the Chinese state rather than being driven purely by market forces. Chinese…state-owned enterprises…are by far the most important source of outward foreign direct investment…with one study showing that nearly two thirds of Chinese [investments] came from [state enterprises], illustrating the prominent role played by the Chinese state in Chinese foreign investment decisions. In the case of Huawei, which in 2012 surpassed longtime king of the hill Ericcson as the largest telecommunications equipment supplier in the world and has strong ties to China’s military and intelligence services, its considerable role in building many of Latin America’s telecommunications and information networks is a boon to Chinese intelligence. As one example, six out of the seven 4G mobile phone networks in Brazil were created by Huawei.

An Official Chinese document notes that “Since 2013, the Chinese leadership has set forth a series of major initiatives and measures on strengthening China’s relations and cooperation with Latin America and the Caribbean in a wide range of areas.”  It is of concern that trade is seen as a means to further other goals, and military cooperation plays a significant role. The document notes:

“China will actively carry out military exchanges and cooperation with Latin American and Caribbean countries, increase friendly exchanges between defense and military leaders from the two sides, strengthen policy dialogue and set up working meeting mechanisms, conduct exchanges of visits between delegations and vessels, deepen professional exchanges in such fields as military training, personnel training and UN peacekeeping, expand pragmatic cooperation in humanitarian relief, counter-terrorism and other non-traditional security fields, and enhance cooperation in military trade and military technology.”

Russia (and the former USSR’s) attempts to influence the region were more obvious and heavy handed, heavily centered on overt military ties.  China’s approach is more multi-faceted, and therefore presents a greater long-term danger.

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What to Do About Afghanistan

The list of foreign and defense policy errors over the past eight years is lengthy and serious.  None was so clearly evident as the premature withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq, a move which destabilized a nation on a slow path to stability, and allowed ISIS to grow into an international danger.

A similar situation is arising in Afghanistan. While U.S. participation there has been lengthy and costly, a similar, total withdrawal of western forces could produce results as consequential as that which occurred in Iraq.

In May of 2014, President Obama announced the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan.

Providing advanced notice of a departure date was correctly seen as a major diplomatic and military blunder on the part of the White House.

While the Obama Administration stated that it supports the current government in Kabul, the fact that it opened talks with the Taliban in 2011 reduced credibility for that position. Several years ago, The BBC reported that the Taliban had cut off the fingers of at least eleven Afghans who participated in that nations’ presidential run-off election. The terrorists did not want the voters to participate in that exercise in democracy.

In addition to the legal issues surrounding the White House’s decision to negotiate, very significant moral questions abound, as well as matters of diplomatic precedent.  Washington had, in the past, held to a wise policy of not negotiating with terrorists. To do so invited more acts of terror by groups and individuals who see those acts as a path to extorting demands from governments. The Obama Administration abandoned the precedent of not negotiating with terrorists, and did so without consulting Congress, or with much discussion with the American public.

By elevating the Taliban to the status of a negotiating partner, it gave that terrorist organization a very substantial boost in its bid to return to power after America withdraws. Insurgent bombings rose as U.S. troops reduced operations.

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Now, President Trump faces the difficult decision of whether to continue the withdrawal, or to take a different strategy of “surging” forces in an attempt to substantially defeat the Taliban and prevent their takeover after western forces withdraw.

In a Washington Post article, former CIA Director and CENTCOM commander David Petraeus, who commanded coalition forces in Afghanistan from 2010 to 2011, along with co-author Mike O’Hanlon, criticized the end of 2016 deadline established by Obama, noting “Unfortunately, having displayed such patience, the president [assumed] that neither his successor nor the American public has the desire — or stomach — to continue even a modest U.S. effort in Afghanistan after 2016… This …raises considerable questions… We can schedule an end to our role in that nation’s conflict, but we cannot schedule an end to the war there or an end to the threat from al-Qaeda, the Islamic State or other extremist elements of the global jihad. Moreover, the Afghan political leadership and public overwhelmingly want us to stay.”

According to the U.S. Special Inspector General for Afghanistan, “Afghanistan needs a stable security environment to prevent it from again becoming a safe haven for al-Qaeda or other terrorists. More than half of all U.S. reconstruction dollars since 2002 have gone toward building, equipping, training, and sustaining the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces (ANDSF). However, the ANDSF has not yet been capable of securing all of Afghanistan and has lost territory to the insurgency. As of August 28, 2016, USFOR-A reported that only 63.4% of the country’s districts were under Afghan government control or influence, a reduction from the 72% percent as of November 27, 2015. Capability gaps in key areas such as intelligence, aviation, and logistics are improving, but still hinder effectiveness.

Effectively diminishing the Taliban’s power would necessarily raise the difficult issue of pursuing it to its safe havens in Pakistan. According to the Pentagon in its latest Enhancing Security and Stability in Afghanistan Report, “The security situation in Afghanistan continues to be dominated by a resilient insurgency; but the Afghan government remains in control of all major population centers and key lines of communication, and the ANDSF continues to deny the Taliban strategic ground throughout the country. Although the Taliban maintained a higher-than-usual operational tempo over the winter, overall levels of violence this reporting period were consistent with historical trends of a seasonal decrease in violence over the winter months and an uptick leading into the traditional spring and summer fighting season. Over the last six months, both ANDSF and insurgent casualties have increased, continuing their upward trend from the previous reporting period. Increased insurgent fighting in urban areas has also contributed to record-high civilian casualties, primarily caused by insurgent and extremist groups…

“Although al Qaeda’s core leadership in the Afghanistan-Pakistan border region has been degraded, elements continue to seek safe haven on both sides of the border to regenerate and conduct attack planning. The continued development of an al Qaeda affiliate in the region, al Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS), highlights the dynamic nature of the terrorist and militant landscape in the region, posing risks to the mission and to U.S. interests…Pakistan must play a role in reducing the threat from terrorist and militant groups in the region. Consistent mid-level military-to-military dialogue between Afghanistan and Pakistan on specific issues, such as the shared threat from IS-K, and occasional discussions at higher levels of the military and government early in the reporting period were encouraging. However, sustained Pakistani efforts to pressure the Haqqani Network and the Taliban and to disrupt active threat streams are necessary to help decrease violence in the region, to reduce the threat posed by these groups, and to achieve lasting progress on counterterrorism issues.”

Continuing the fight against the Taliban does not necessarily entail nation building, a policy President Trump does not favor.  It would involve direct military action aimed at destroying the Taliban, or at least reducing its power and influence to the point where the Kabul government can defend itself and expand its control over the entire country.