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Friday, April 26, 2024

Left's Banana Republic Lawfare Only Strengthens Trump

Left's Banana Republic Lawfare Only Strengthens Trump

presidency election year campaign white house

Then-first lady Melania Trump (2nd R), Barron Trump (R) and Tiffany Trump stand with then-U.S. President Donald Trump after he delivered his acceptance speech for the Republican Party nomination for reelection during the final day of the Republican National Convention at the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, D.C. on Aug. 27, 2020. (Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images)

By Michael Reagan with Michael R. ShannonSaturday, 20 April 2024 07:35 AM EDTCurrent | Bio | Archive

Have the left-adherent forces of lawfare finally overreached themselves?

An expert panel of kangaroos agrees with us that every new "indictment" of Donald Trump only strengthens his support among Republican voters.

If you don’t agree, you can always ask Gov. Ron DeSantis, R-Fla.

The other side of this coin is that the indictments only increase Trump loathing among angry white suburban wine women and Democratic Party apparatchiks of every sex and orientation.

The question is, what is the effect of this full court lawfare press on independent voters?

Currently, this is hard to discern.

But now the banana republic lawyers and the legal apparatus may have overreached themselves and given Trump a golden opportunity to perform a brilliant example of political jujitsu, turning their legal strength against them.

Judge Juan Merchan, an acting justice of the New York State Supreme Court in New York County, is presiding over the hush–money show trial.

He has ordered Trump not to attend the high school graduation of his son Barron.

Judge Roy Bean, er . . . Merchan, told Trump that he was required to be in court, behaving himself, for every day of the trial, and that if he was absent to attend the graduation, he would face arrest.

Not that this is a big deal.

Trump has already been arrested in Fulton County, Georgia; his mug shot and fingerprints are currently in the system.

The big deal is some vain judge, drunk on power, ordering Trump to miss the only high school graduation his youngest son will have.

This isn’t going to sit well with American parents who move heaven and earth to attend their children’s graduation.

To quote the youthful climate hysteric and scaremonger, Greta Thunberg, "How dare you!"

We think Trump should tell the judge to pound sand and attend the graduation.

We aren’t alone.

Fox News says we have support among participants in "The Five."

Piers Morgan — no fan of our nation's 45th president — said, "Donald Trump should go to his son's graduation . . . go to the graduation.

"Honestly, if you're watching, President Trump, just go to the graduation. Every parent in America, whether they like you or hate you, will go, 'Yeah, I'd have done that, too.'"

Fox's Jesse Watters seconded that suggestion, "If this judge says he can't attend Barron's high school graduation, [Trump] wins in a landslide. He'll win California if that happens."

We won’t go that far, but we think this latest edit from a beyond politicized "justice system" plays right into Trump’s hands.

He’s a reality TV star (NBC's "The Apprentice") who has used to media to advance his career from the beginning.

Barron Trump attends a private school in West Palm Beach, Fla., approximately 1,200 miles away from Judge Merchan’s show trial.

What a spectacle it would be if Judge Roy had U.S. Marshals arrest Trump as he left the graduation.

It would play directly into Trump’s hands.

We aren’t sure if it would allow Trump to carry California, but we do think it would persuade a majority of independent voters that the Democrats are completely out of control and the only hope of stopping them is father and graduation attendee Donald Trump.

https://www.newsmax.com/reagan/banana-barron-republic/2024/04/20/id/1161763/

Lefty SCOTUS Justice Says Quiet Part Out Loud in Argument Over Huge Homeless Case

Lefty SCOTUS Justice Says Quiet Part Out Loud in Argument Over Huge Homeless Case

VICTORIA TAFT

Ever since the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in 2018 that cities can't boot out homeless in encampments on public sidewalks, parks, and freeway exits unless there's a shelter bed for them, the result has been homeless and drug addiction chaos on the West Coast, Messed Coast™. Billions of dollars have been spent and lost. Now the U.S. Supreme Court has been asked to overrule the decision and allow cities to prevent camping on the streets and public spaces.

The decision on paper has been an unmitigated disaster on the real mean streets of Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, L.A., San Diego, and little old Grants Pass, Oregon, where the U.S. Supreme Court took up the appeal by the city over its no-camping ordinance. Last year, the 9th Circuit federal court slapped down the city's attempt to regulate long-term camping because it constitutes "cruel and unusual punishment" under the 8th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

California has spent and lost billions of dollars to do something about the homeless crisis. A recent audit showed that Gavin Newsom's government didn't keep track of the money. Because of consequence-free lifestyles of the homeless and drug addicts , homeless tourists have swarmed to California. The state hosts nearly 30% of the nation's entire homeless population, though some believe it's much higher. Nearly 70% of those people live outside, in tents, or in RVs.

And under "Martin v. Boise," they can do little about it.

Indeed, this case has been disastrous. When given a chance to mitigate or toss "Martin v. Boise" last year when Grants Pass appealed it, the liberal wing of the 9th Circuit Court whiffed.

The scathing dissent by the more conservative wing asked the San Francisco-based jurists to look out the window to see what their decision had wrought.

During Monday's extended oral arguments, while arguing against one side of the case, which she often does during oral arguments, Justice Sonia Sotomayor let it slip that 9th Circuit Court of Appeals decisions are often ridiculous and wrong. She said it more nicely, however. Instead of calling it the 9th Circus Court of Appeals as many court watchers do, Sotomayor blurted out that "some of the 9th Circuit's decisions are not rational" before she caught herself and redirected her comments.

This is one of the few things she's been right about since being named to the bench by Barack Obama.

In one of her colloquies with Grants Pass attorney Theane Evangelis, Sotomayor summed up the liberal wing's concern when she asked, "Where do we put [the homeless] if every city, every village, every town lacks compassion and passes a law identical to this?" And, continuing in her how long have you been beating your wife way, she asked, "Where are they supposed to sleep? Are they supposed to kill themselves, not sleeping?"

She asked if anyone sleeping on a blanket could get arrested. "You don't arrest babies who have blankets over them; you don't arrest people sleeping on blankets at the beach" she averred before mentioning how she liked to sleep at the beach.

"There's nothing in the law that criminalizes homelessness," the Grants Pass attorney said.

In Monday's hearing, Justice Brett Kavanaugh gave a tell that he works with the homeless with his comment about the number of homeless versus beds and how homeless people sometimes don't want to be sheltered. "This can be a challenging issue of [people not wanting help], I know," he said.

Chief Justice John Roberts pushed back some on the government's attorney who said, "By prohibiting sleeping, you can't live in Grants Pass." He said they were "banished" from the city. Roberts replied dryly, "Banishment is a strange word when you're talking about something [more homeless services in a town] ten minutes away."

Liberal but not insane Justice Elena Kagan was concerned about whether homelessness is status or conduct that the city said was able to be ticketed. "Breathing is conduct too. Sleeping is kind of like breathing in public," because every human has to do it.

There are legitimate concerns about homelessness as everyone knows. Something in our societal structure switched off in the last 20 years or so, making anti-social behavior acceptable -- a life choice with all of its externalities that the rest of society must tolerate. We used to try to dissuade or punish behavior such as drug taking on the street. Now law-abiding citizens are asked to conform or risk being called intolerant.

But tolerating bad behavior is bad for society. It's bad for the individual to be hopelessly addicted and without hope—that is not the natural or metaphysical state of things. Without hope, you are nothing but a vessel. We see them on the streets all the time.

When homeless outreach was done by the religious community, its emphasis was on healing people from their addictions and their estrangement from their family and community.

Now that it's a governmental cash cannon that has been aimed at the problem there's a distortion in the response. The government has made the homeless industrial complex a money-making bonanza for NGOs. Where's the incentive to solve the problem when the problem is a cash cow?

There are drug and alcohol addictions that come with a large portion of the homeless population and they make cities much less safe for the law-abiding citizens. Oregon has made a step toward fixing this by re-criminalizing (barely) taking hard drugs in public places. Unfortunately, the same woke cities that passed these dumb policies are the ones that got rid of cops so enforcement is an issue.

Grants Pass's attorneys called the 9th Circuit's ruling a "failed experiment which has fueled the spread of encampments while harming those it purports to protect."

Exactly right.

https://pjmedia.com/victoria-taft/2024/04/22/lefty-scotus-justice-says-quiet-part-out-loud-in-argument-over-disastrous-homeless-decision-n4928414

Happy Earth Day: Offshore Wind Is Disastrous for Maine Fishermen, Marine Life

Happy Earth Day: Offshore Wind Is Disastrous for Maine Fishermen, Marine Life

CATHERINE SALGADO

This Earth Day, as most of the media goes wild on climate alarmist propaganda, we here at PJ Media are bringing you a dose of sobering reality instead: "Green” wind turbines are terrible for the ocean and they can cripple the fishing industry in Maine.

A group of more than a dozen fisher organizations is sounding the alarm on a massive area of ocean about two times the size of Rhode Island, reserved for erecting floating wide turbines. Such turbines are always expensive, toxic, unreliable, and inefficient, but in this case the turbines will be disastrous for the Maine fishing industry and do potentially permanent damage to marine species. During a media call Monday, fisherman Jason Joyce and Roda Fisheries executive director Annie Hawkins explained why the wind turbine craze in government and business presents practically no benefit aside from enriching oligarchs.

The coalition of organizations explained, “The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management’s (BOEM) final designation of an enormous Wind Energy Area (WEA) for the Gulf of Maine is the culmination of a rushed development process that is poorly informed on economic, scientific, environmental and cultural issues of paramount importance.” Joyce and Hawkins expounded in more detail.

The WEA could produce potentially around 32 gigawatts of capacity, or around 3200 turbines, according to Joyce. He said that he is perpetually told, in justification, that the Gulf of Maine is warming at an alarming rate and climate action is needed. This seems improbable, since the world is actually experiencing a cooling trend, alleged atmospheric warming would reportedly warm less than the top inch of ocean water, and Maine was experiencing extreme cold as recently as early last year. But Biden administration financial incentives through the misnamed Inflation Reduction Act have made businesses careless of reality in pursuing wind turbines.

But Joyce pointed out an even bigger irony about the WEA. Once the turbines are set up there, they have what he called “cooling stations” to cool down the heating turbines. A conservative estimate of the amount of heated water associated with the cooling stations in the projected WEA would be “29 billion gallons of [90 degree] water a year” if the WEA ended up producing only 15 GW. So, in order allegedly to cool down the Gulf of Maine (which has an average temperature of between 42 degrees and 61 degrees Farenheit during different seasons), climate alarmists plan a massive wind turbine area bigger than Rhode Island to pump up to 29 billion gallons of 90 degree water in the gulf! How does that make sense?

Joyce also explained, “The area that they’re calling the WEA…it’s going to affect every marine species that has any movement at all. You know, it probably won’t affect barnacles, but that’s about the only thing that it won’t affect.” He noted marine life, including shellfish and seals, move very rapidly over a large area. For instance, a lobster he once caught and released was tracked by its tag as going about 50 miles in around 2 days. Yet the WEA would take up some 2 million acres of ocean, essentially completely destroying that area for the purposes of marine migration! That will end up hurting not only the marine life but also, therefore, the fishing industry.

Another issue with the turbines is radar. Not only do the turbines contribute to increased whale deaths by the sonar blasting used in their construction, but the windmills themselves can interfere with the radar boats used to navigate at night or in bad weather. This will affect fishermen, search and rescue, and even crafts involved in national security, Joyce argued. That doesn’t even address the fact that parts of turbines will certainly fall off during bad weather, to the severe detriment of local marine life and boats alike. This includes not only turbine blades but the chains used to secure them, which wear out quickly over a few years’ time and can break. “In regards to navigation, it creates a whole new dynamic,” he said.

Hawkins, building on Joyce’s comments, noted that not only is the WEA large, but, once designated a WEA legally, it is considered thus forever. There was one example of a WEA where the turbines were not built after all, but the companies could potentially come back years later and build with few regulatory hoops, because once a WEA, always a WEA. “They are rushing to get some lease on paper [in Maine] before the end of this administration, it’s very clear that they are — by making this designation, they’re making it sort of ‘political proof,’ so that in the future” a presidency more interested in fishermen and marine life than in climate virtue-signaling could not reverse the damage.

The whole claim of protecting the environment through offshore wind is bogus. As Hawkins explained, the environmental review on the turbines’ impacts is not even conducted until businesses get agreements from state governments and fully design their projects! “They’re just rushing ahead to lease it before the election,” Hawkins said.

There is no climate crisis, as Nobel Prize winning scientist Dr. John Clauser emphasized last year, with plenty of data to back him up. Climate alarmists have been consistently wrong for 50+ years, and they’re not any more accurate now. The offshore wind craze will be horrible both for the environment and for the Maine fishing industry, but climate alarmists in government and Big Business don’t care as long as they can increase their own wealth and power.

Big Tech would love it if none of the truths about climate alarmism were available to the public, which is why they have demonetized many of our climate articles here at PJ Media. Consider becoming a VIP subscriber to support our reporting.

https://pjmedia.com/catherinesalgado/2024/04/22/happy-earth-day-offshore-wind-is-disastrous-for-maine-fishermen-n4928418

Thursday, April 25, 2024

It's Out in the Open at the University of Michigan: ‘Freedom for Palestine Means Death to America’

It's Out in the Open at the University of Michigan: ‘Freedom for Palestine Means Death to America’

ROBERT SPENCER

As open support for Hamas and gleeful defiance of the authorities whom the students know are both impotent and sympathetic sweeps across our nation’s campuses, it comes as no great surprise that a flyer has been circulating at the University of Michigan that proclaims: “Freedom for Palestine Means Death to America.” Well, at least we now know where we stand and where all this is tending. But this has been coming for a long, long time.

Aviva Klompas, the former chief speechwriter for the Israeli Mission to the UN, on Monday, posted a partial photo of the flyer on X. It also says: “Ultimately, our main task as revolutionaries in the United States remains to be the unmaking of the American empire.”

It is remarkable how easy it is for these newly-minted Minecraft-playing study hall Bolsheviks to ape the choked syntax of their Marxist ideological mentors, but in any case, the import of what is being said is clear: these clowns aren’t just calling for the destruction of Israel and a new genocide of the Jews but for the demise of the very land in which their mom’s basement is located. To put it delicately, these leftist geniuses haven’t exactly thought this through.

Anyway, the groundwork for all this was laid decades ago. In the 1960s, leftists began what Communist activist Rudi Dutschke indelibly dubbed “the Long March Through the Institutions.” In China, Communist top dog Mao Zedong began the Long March in 1934 to evade nationalist forces; the term, however, came to be associated with his slow, steady, patient rise to power, culminating in the Communist takeover of mainland China in 1949.

The Long March Through the Institutions was the same kind of slow, steady takeover, as Communists, leftists, and their allies gradually gained control of America’s colleges and universities, its primary and secondary educational systems, its popular culture, and above all, its ever-growing federal bureaucracy.

Now imagine growing up in this atmosphere. The left’s stranglehold on American culture has led to a situation in which those who oppose this multifarious and all-encompassing establishment are universally derided and ridiculed virtually everywhere one turns — in what are supposed to be objective and impartial news broadcasts; in lessons about the nation’s history, present condition, and future prospects at every level of the educational system; in movies, popular music, and more. All of the late-night comedians who host talk shows are part of this camp, and although they hobnob with the political elites, they still posture as if they were plucky outsiders going up against a stultified and stultifying entrenched orthodoxy. Amid all this, most college students who might be tempted to think clearly don’t stand a chance.

At this point, the anti-establishment rebels of the 1960s have become the establishment all over the world, and are working hard now to consolidate their power and crush all dissent. The University of Michigan’s coddled tent anarchists, and their counterparts at Columbia, Yale, and elsewhere, would be shocked to hear it, but there is nothing courageous or daring about the stand they’re taking. They are the quintessential establishmentarians.

Although they have been rising to power in all fields for decades, only in recent years (most notably as part of the fallout from the election of Donald Trump as president in 2016) has the true extent of their hegemony and the sweep of their future plans become widely known. The 2024 election will take place amid greater general awareness of the motives, goals, and general endeavors of this group than any other election in American history. That is one reason why so very, very much is at stake.

Meanwhile, the left’s takeover of the universities is hardly news; it has been known for decades. North Carolina Senator Jesse Helms was widely rumored way back in the 1970s to have said that instead of building a zoo, just build a fence around the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and charge admission. He denied having said it, but the charge lingered for years, and had real substance to it, as Helms was referring to the leftist subculture that dominated that university as well as universities all over the country even as long as five decades ago.

By now, the Marxist takeover of the universities has been a done deal for years, all dissent has been crushed, and the indoctrination is in full swing. We see the fruits of it today at the University of Michigan, Columbia, Yale, and all over the country. But make no mistake: this will neither die down nor stay on university campuses. What we’re seeing now is just the beginning.

https://pjmedia.com/robert-spencer/2024/04/22/its-out-in-the-open-at-u-michigan-freedom-for-palestine-means-death-to-america-n4928412

Alan Dershowitz No Longer Feels Loyal to the Democratic Party

Alan Dershowitz No Longer Feels Loyal to the Democratic Party

MATT MARGOLIS

On Monday, famed lawyer and Harvard Professor Emeritus Alan Dershowitz announced he no longer feels any loyalty to the Democratic Party in light of its tolerance of antisemitism.

During an interview on the “Just the News, No Noise” show, Dershowitz expressed profound disappointment in his party's failure to address the pro-Palestine demonstrations at Columbia University that have been ongoing since last Wednesday.

“We're hearing nothing from Democrats. We are hearing nothing from Chuck Schumer,” Dershowitz explained. “We're hearing nothing really direct from President Biden. He made a very disappointing statement. In the same breath, he talked about the demonstrators in passing and he said, ‘but you have to understand the Palestinian situation.’ No, you don't have to understand the Palestinian situation. When people are calling for rape and murder and beheading. The Democrats are an extraordinary disappointment."

"I am no longer presumptively voting for Democrats," he added. "I'm gonna vote for whoever is the best candidate, that may include Democrats, but I have no loyalty anymore to the party.”

Dershowitz criticized college admissions practices and Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) policies, which he argued have contributed to the recent issues observed at prestigious universities.

“Many of the students [protesting] today are unqualified students,” Dershowitz said. “They were admitted because of DEI. They were admitted because Qatar and other Arab countries are paying for foreign students. These are not the best and the brightest students, they are the loudest students, but they're certainly not students who are looking out for the best interests of America.”

The former Ivy League professor additionally claimed that Jewish students are being treated like “third-class citizens,” and that what has erupted in the country over the Israel-Palestine war is worse than the January 6 riot on Capitol Hill in 2021.
“What we're seeing is something that I believe, and this is going to be very controversial, I believe is potentially more dangerous than January 6, which was terrible, and than Charlottesville, which was terrible,” Dershowitz said. “Because those didn't involve as many students, not as many elite people, as many future leaders. We're hearing the future leaders of America chanting ‘We are Hamas.’ In other words, ‘we are rapists. We believe in raping Jewish women. We are beheaders. We are kidnappers. We are murderers.’ That's what they're chanting. And these are people who will run for Congress ... 10 years from now, who will be partners at law firms, and who will be working in the editorial rooms of CNN, and the New York Times.”

On Sunday, the Orthodox rabbi at Columbia University and Barnard College issued a statement advising Jewish students to flee campus and return home for their own safety because of ongoing demonstrations by anti-Israel activists.

Rabbi Elie Buechler, director of OU-LJIC at Columbia/Barnard, urged students via WhatsApp to leave campus "as soon as possible" prior to the onset of Passover. He emphasized the urgency of the situation, noting that "what we are witnessing in and around campus is terrible and tragic."

https://pjmedia.com/matt-margolis/2024/04/22/alan-dershowitz-no-longer-feels-loyal-to-the-democratic-party-n4928420