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May 2017

Posted by Mary Chastain on May 26, 2017 9 Comments
Remember last week when Turkish bodyguards beat the crap out of protesters in front of the Turkish Embassy in Washington, D.C.? Since then Turkey has feigned anger and insisted they did not do anything wrong and the men simply tried to protect themselves. Well, the New York Times dissected the videos released of the fiasco to identify the men and prove they started the fight.

Posted by Mary Chastain on May 26, 2017 1 Comment
While in Saudi Arabia, President Donald Trump signed a $110 billion arms deal with the kingdom. The White House has claimed the deal "includes defense equipment and other support to help the Arab nation and the rest of the Gulf region fight again terrorism and the threat of a nuclear-armed Iran." But Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) has a problem with the munitions part of the deal due to Saudi Arabia's continued coalition in Yemen against the ousted government.

Posted by Mike LaChance on May 26, 2017 10 Comments
The rush to promote the idea of sanctuary cities was one of the left's first reactions to Trump's election victory last fall. Democrats, who pushed the expansion of executive power for eight years under Obama, suddenly liked the idea of local control. Trump's new budget takes aim at sanctuary cities and would put them in a tricky spot. Andrea Noble reports at the Washington Times:
Trump budget would force sanctuary cities to comply with immigration laws A day after Attorney General Jeff Sessions issued guidance that narrowly defined a “sanctuary city,” the Justice Department is attempting to broaden its authority to compel such jurisdictions to cooperate with immigration authorities.

Posted by Mary Chastain on May 26, 2017 9 Comments
At least 10 gunmen opened fire on a bus transporting Coptic Christians in Cairo, Egypt, and killed 28 people. The Christians were headed to the St. Samuel the Confessor monastery. Men, women, and children are among the dead. Fox News reported that Copt United news portal confirmed only three children survived the massacre. The gunmen also injured 22 others.

Posted by Occam's Razor on May 26, 2017 5 Comments
We've written extensively of the disturbing phenomenon of anti-Israel activists taking over professional and academic associations (even associations in memory of holocaust victims), and diverting them for their own radical political agendas. This has been especially pronounced in the long battle that seems to dominate large portions of the social sciences and humanities academy: we refer of course to the apparently serious question of whether the academy should be devoted to the furtherance of knowledge and wisdom...or whether it should be devoted to fighting the State of Israel.

Posted by Mark Finkelstein on May 26, 2017 16 Comments
Today's Morning Joe aired a mock anti-Republican ad that its staff created. Scarborough said he told "the kids in the back that work for us" to "draw up an ad that will look like what we're going to see next year." As you'll see from the video clip, the ad is predictable campaign fare, focusing on the Republican health care bill. Pre-existing conditions coverage disintegrates. Medicaid is "slashed." And, of course, "huge tax cuts for the rich," with images of President Trump against a backdrop of yachts and mansions. The ad ends with the disclaimer: "not an actual ad, but probably will be."

Posted by William A. Jacobson on May 26, 2017 52 Comments
Rock'em Sock'em Republican candidate Greg Gianforte, best known for "body-slamming" and ego-shaming a reporter for The Guardian, defeated Democratic Candidate Rob Quist, best known as a nudist resort socialist Cowboy poet and singer. While the final numbers are not in as of this writing, it looks like the margin for Gianforte will be in the 6-7% range. http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/files/elections/2017/by_state/MT_Page_0525.html?SITE=AP&SECTION=POLITICS

Posted by Fuzzy Slippers on May 25, 2017 25 Comments
A Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) Court ruling was declassified and released this week. The ruling reveals that the Obama administration engaged in widespread violation of NSA surveillance rules. The Obama administration was reprimanded by the FISA court for illegal searches that constitute "very serious Fourth Amendment issue.” According to previously classified documents, this admission of methodical and long-term violations of Americans' Constitutional rights was made on October 26th of 2016.

Posted by Mike LaChance on May 25, 2017 6 Comments
In March of this year, a mob of students at Middlebury College in Vermont stormed into a talk by sociologist Charles Murray. After shutting down the event, the mob chased chased down Murray and ultimately sent a professor who was assisting him to the emergency room. Since then, the school has claimed twice that students were being disciplined but refused to release details about any punishment. Now we know why. There wasn't any. Scott Jaschik reports at Inside Higher Ed:
No Suspensions Seen at Middlebury More than two months after Charles Murray visited Middlebury College and was shouted down there, the college has finished reviewing and in some cases punishing students who were involved in preventing him from giving his talk.

Posted by Vijeta Uniyal on May 25, 2017 32 Comments
While President Donald Trump had a busy day getting all the 28 NATO partners on board the global anti-ISIS alliance, former President Barak Obama appeared at a youth rally in Berlin alongside German Chancellor Angela Merkel. The event in Berlin was organised to mark the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation. Taking a swipe at his successor’s immigration policy, Obama got cheers from audiences in Berlin with meaningless platitudes like “we can’t hide behind a wall.” Yes, Obama decried walls as he sat fenced behind a security cover with “helicopters patrol[ling] the skies and snipers with balaclavas watch[ing] the scene from nearby rooftops” -- as one news-outlet described it.

Posted by Mike LaChance on May 25, 2017 23 Comments
It has been almost five years since news broke that officials at the IRS used the power of government to harass members of the Tea Party and other conservative groups. The media has largely ignored the scandal and so far, no one has gone to jail. Earlier this month, IRS officials claimed they couldn't testify because their lives were at risk. USA Today reported:
IRS officials say lives at risk in tea party bias case Details about tea party bias claims against the IRS could remain secret because current and former agency officials say their lives are in danger if they publicly testify about the case.

Posted by Mary Chastain on May 25, 2017 1 Comment
Investigators in Florida have torn apart a sex trafficking ring in Florida that took place across two counties, which forced women to have sex with at least 100 men a week. Authorities arrested three men who face accusations "of forcing women to have sex with dozens of men a day." CBS12 discovered "at least six women from different counties were sex trafficked out of several brothels" that existed in Martin and Palm Beach Counties and Lake Worth.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on May 25, 2017 71 Comments
The 4th Circuit Court of Appeals, which heard the case en banc, has upheld substantially all of the Maryland District Court injunction against Trump's revised travel Executive Order in an opinion (pdf.) dripping with politics. (Full embed at bottom of post). The opinions (including concurring and dissenting) are 200 pages, so it will take some time to digest, but you'll get the message from the opening paragraph:
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