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Le·gal In·sur·rec·tion

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For years, virulently anti-Israel, and in some cases even antisemitic, Palestinian non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have been playing a successful con game in Europe. They’ve presented themselves to foreign donors as paragons of virtue worthy of financial support, while funneling their money into anti-Israel demonization campaigns, youth programming and infrastructure that glorifies violence, and collaborative civic-engagement projects with designated terror groups.

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There used to be a stereotype about people with delusions of grandeur believing they were Napoleon Bonaparte. In Bill de Blasio's case, he thinks he is Edison, Henry Ford and Gandhi all rolled into one.

Prior to the Brexit vote, the Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR) lent fuel to the "remain" proponents' "Project Fear" by predicting economic gloom for the UK should voters choose "leave."  Their doom and gloom report assured the world that leaving the EU would plunge the UK into economic decline. Indeed, the Bank of England predicted, incorrectly as it's turned out, that a UK vote to leave the EU would lead to recession.  This didn't happen, and as I noted in 2016, the UK has no problem reaching trade agreements on its own.  Unfettered by the EU albatross, the UK economy is now expected—by the CEBR no less—to flourish.

Poynter, which self-describes itself as "a global leader in journalism," recently released a survey showing a wide partisan divide in trust in the media and whether the media creates fake news to attack Trump. Not surprisingly, Democrats love, love, love and trust the media. Of course they do, the media is on their side. By contrast, Republicans understandably view the media with grave suspicion, because the media serves as lead attack dog against Trump. Poynter called this a "wake up call":

As someone who studies the anti-Israel movement, the outburst on Twitter by pollster and Bernie Sanders backer James Zogby comes as no real surprise. But unless you study the bizarro alternate-universe of Israel hatred, this probably will leave you shaking your head in disbelief.

Before Trump was sworn in, several so-called 'grassroots organizations' were pushing for his impeachment. The Huffington Post had the whole impeachment gig planned out: impeach Trump now because he's guaranteed to do something wrong at some point. Some of that chatter bubbled up and resulted in the same sentiments being shared publicly by elected officials. Rep. Maxine Waters was so convinced Trump ought to be impeached, she called for an investigation to find evidence enough for impeachment.

A week after voting against Israel at the United Nations, German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel is proposing an ambitious plan to strengthen relations with the Erdogan regime in Turkey. Gabriel, who also serves as Germany's Vice Chancellor, wants an EU-wide customs union with Turkey, a move aimed at bringing the Muslim-majority country 'as close as possible to the bloc', media reports claim. The German proposal will treat Turkey, presently run by the Islamist strongman Recep Erdoğan, at par with Britain after it leaves the EU at the end of the ongoing Brexit negotiations.  President Erdogan, who took office in 2003, has assumed authoritarian powers by amending the country's constitution following a controversial referendum in April this year.  Since then, Erdogan has been busy purging the opponents of his regime from the military, judiciary and civil services.

Just before Christmas, Legal Insurrection noted reports that North Korea was loading potentially deadly anthrax bacteria onto intercontinental ballistic missiles as part of a biological weapons test program. The stated goal is to eventually deliver a payload of deadly pathogens to the United States. The challenge facing the North Koreans is that the heat generated from the missiles launch, flight, and strike is deadly to the lifeforms on board.

Oberlin College is suffering financially and in enrollment after several years of negative publicity regarding racial, gender, anti-Semitic and social justice activism on campus. I documented that history in September 2017, Radical fallout: Oberlin College enrollment drops, causing financial problems. Those financial and enrollment problems also more recently received attention at Inside Higher Ed.

Democrat Candidate Shelly Simonds is attempting to stop the random selection of a winner for a tied Virginia House race. Wednesday, the names of each candidate will be placed in separate film canisters. Those canisters will be placed into a larger container, then one will be drawn at random. The name drawn will be declared the winner of the race. But not if Simonds is successful in her legal challenge.

The Democrats honestly believe they can take back the House of Representatives in 2018 despite needing 25 seats. Who knows if that will happen, but it's a possibility they could put a dent into the GOP majority. After all, back in October, the Cook Political Report (CPR) changed ratings in 12 districts, showing vulnerability for the GOP. Earlier today I blogged about Politico's list of top Senate races to watch. The publication did the same for the House and chose 10 of the important battles.