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Posted by Leslie Eastman on November 22, 2016 42 Comments
It has been fascinating to watch the the elite media and Washington insiders reactions to the speed and efficiency of Trump's transition team organization and appointee selection. With so much happening so quickly, I wanted to keep an eye on one of the most troubling agencies under the Obama Administration: The Environmental Protection Agency. The response of the big government bureaucrats in the EPA is likely to offer a clue about how they are going to behave in other federal organizations. Legal Insurrection readers may recall that 27% of federal employees claimed they would quit their jobs if Donald Trump was elected. However, instead of quitting, it's more likely they'll exit a little less gracefully.

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Posted by Vijeta Uniyal on November 22, 2016 14 Comments
It’s official! Merkel will run for a fourth term as German Chancellor. After months of speculations, Chancellor Merkel has announced her decision to lead the Christian Democrats (CDU) in next year’s election. The chief architect of Europe’s open border policy, 62 year old politician has been at the helm of Germany for the last eleven years. President Obama dropped in to lend a helping hand. On the last leg of his presidency, U.S. President gave Merkel a “glowing endorsement” -- to quote London-based Financial Times -- as he toured Germany last week. Obama asked Germans to “appreciate” Merkel. “If I were here and I were German, and I had a vote, I might support her,” Obama told reporters in Berlin.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on November 22, 2016 103 Comments
Assuming this statement by Kellyanne Conway proves to be the case, it's a major promise broken by Trump. The NY Post reports:
President-elect Donald Trump won’t subject Hillary Clinton to a criminal inquiry — instead, he’ll help her heal, his spokeswoman said Tuesday. “I think when the president-elect who’s also the head of your party … tells you before he’s even inaugurated he doesn’t wish to pursue these charges, it sends a very strong message, tone and content, to the members,” Kellyanne Conway told the hosts of MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” who first reported that the president-elect would not pursue his campaign pledge to “lock up” Clinton, his Democratic opponent.

Posted by Miriam Elman on November 22, 2016 1 Comment
For Hamas, Hezbollah and other terrorist groups, the most prized possession is the body of an Israeli, alive or dead. Those bodies are used both to inflict mental anguish on the Israeli public, but also to trade for prisoners who themselves have killed or attempted to kill Israelis. It's a sad, ghoulish dance by Israel's enemies. There have been many similar kidnap attempts in Israel proper, as well as Judea and Samaria (the "West Bank"), in which local Palestinian terrorist groups have tried to kidnap, or succeeded in kidnapping, Israelis. Because of Israeli control of the area, unlike in Gaza and Lebanon, the kidnapping doesn't get far, resulting in repatriation or death. Yet, in the prevailing narrative of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the settlements in the West Bank and the Jews who live in them are called the main obstacles to peace. West Bank settlers—some 350,000 Israelis—are typically stereotyped as zealots and racists who are hostile to Arab Palestinians.

Posted by Mike LaChance on November 22, 2016 2 Comments
The recent "Hamilton" incident with Mike Pence is an opportunity to talk about ideological diversity, a subject we often address on this site. I usually focus on higher education but I also worked in the arts for years, which I'll expand on at the bottom of this post. We've often pointed out the lack of ideological diversity in higher education but believe it or not, it's actually worse in the arts industry. Larry O'Connor of Hot Air used to work in professional theatre and wrote this:
And this is why I was a closeted conservative when I worked on Broadway When the cast of Hamilton chose to thrust their play (and the professional theatre industry) into the national political conversation Friday night, it was inevitable that I would write the post you are about to read.

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Posted by Mark Finkelstein on November 21, 2016 21 Comments
Imagine if just after the 2008 election, a conservative pundit had said this of President-elect Obama: "how do you dog-train Obama? I mean it tough. Dog train. If he poops in the hall, you make his nose go in it." Western civilization as we know it might have ended right there. But on this evening's Hardball, that's precisely what Chris Matthews said—except about Donald Trump, of course. His point seemed to be that Trump must be brought to heel should he have the audacity to follow through on his promises to build the wall and end Obamacare.

Posted by Mark Finkelstein on November 21, 2016 15 Comments
On With All Due Respect, John Heilemann was aggressively questioning Kellayanne Conway, arguing that conflicts of interests would arise when the Trump administration makes decisions that could affect Trump business interests at home or abroad. Conway eventually had enough. She shot back: "look, John, I know the election results are very tough to swallow, particularly for those of you who just couldn't see it coming, couldn't even conceive of the possibility that the other candidate may actually win, that you don't understand America." Ouch.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on November 21, 2016 10 Comments
On Friday morning, September 18, 2015, the third grade classes at the Beverly J. Martin School in Ithaca, NY, heard a presentation on “human rights” by Palestinian activist Bassem Tamimi and local anti-Israel activists, led by Ariel Gold. In fact, through the investigative and litigation efforts of Legal Insurrection, it has become clear that the Tamimi event was an anti-Israel propaganda event targeting young children, and as we just learned, caused at least one student to suffer nightmares.

The Attempt to Portray the Tamimi Event as Loving and Promoting Peace

On Sunday night, September 20, Legal Insurrection broke the story, Anti-Israel activism hits elementary school in Ithaca, NY. Because of Tamimi’s notoriety for exploiting children in videotaped confrontations with Israeli soldiers, Tamimi’s mere appearance in a third grade class raised suspicions about the event.

Posted by Mary Chastain on November 21, 2016 12 Comments
The New York Times public editor Liz Spayd's op-ed contains a lot of harsh truths and realities for those who write for one of the world's most famous newspapers: drop the bias. Her office has received "five times the normal level" of complaints "and the pace has only just recently tapered off." Spayd does not flat out say that, but she portrays it in her eloquent article:
But I hope any chest thumping about the impressive subscriber bump won’t obscure a hard-eyed look at coverage. Because from my conversations with readers, and from the emails that have come into my office, I can tell you there is a searing level of dissatisfaction out there with many aspects of the coverage.

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on November 21, 2016 13 Comments
President-elect Donald Trump's campaign website recently published an online survey. This latest survey seeks the options of anyone with an internet connection on how the incoming administration should prioritize their first three months. With a total of 29 questions, the survey doesn't seek opinions on the issues themselves, just whether or not particular issues are important to the respondent. A sampling:

Posted by David Gerstman on November 21, 2016 11 Comments
Early on in his first term, President Barack Obama suggested that in order to achieve peace between Israeli and the Palestinians, there needed to be more "daylight" between the United States and Israel. Obama, according to a report on a meeting between the president and American Jewish leaders, said, referring to the Bush administration, "During those eight years, there was no space between us and Israel, and what did we get from that? When there is no daylight, Israel just sits on the sidelines, and that erodes our credibility with the Arab states." During Obama's two terms in office, he made efforts to put daylight between his administration and Israel, and not just in terms of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict: in 2010 the administration harangued Netanyahu over a plan to build apartments in Jerusalem, the administration pursued the nuclear deal with Iran over Israeli objections, senior administration officials, on and off the record, have disparaged Netanyahu, and Obama is said to be considering a move in the UN to support Palestinian statehood.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on November 21, 2016 26 Comments
Recently, there has been one bright spot for me remaining a California resident: The sheer entertainment value offered by the dramatic response of our leading politicians to President-elect Trump. For example, our state's representatives are lining up to work actively against our new President. The apparent goal is to make California to Trump what Texas was to Obama.
In the early morning hours after Donald Trump became president-elect of the United States, California Senate leader Kevin de León and Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon were on the phone grappling with what comes next.

Posted by Mary Chastain on November 21, 2016 42 Comments
President Barack Obama has said that he will not constantly criticize President-elect Donald Trump once they transition, but he will speak up if a certain situation arises:
"As an American citizen who cares deeply about our country, if there are issues that have less to do with the specifics of some legislative proposal or battle or go to core questions about our values and ideals, and if I think that it's necessary or helpful for me to defend those ideals, I'll examine it when it comes," Obama told reporters.

Posted by Mike LaChance on November 21, 2016 10 Comments
Oleg Atbashian is the creator of the satirical political website The People's Cube, which eventually spawned the satirical political website iOwnTheWorld. Atbashian was born in the former Soviet Union and knows the evils of censorship and unchecked government power all too well. As we mentioned in a recent post, he was arrested earlier this month for placing anti-terrorism posters on the campus of George Mason University. Now he's telling the full story:
Why I was arrested & thrown in jail by @GeorgeMasonU police As you may have heard, on November 4th I was arrested, handcuffed, and taken to jail for posting anti-terror stickers on George Mason University campus. I was charged with "class 6 felony for destruction of property," threatened with five years in prison, and released 14 hours later on $8,000 bail posted by my wife. The court date is now set for February 14th, 2017.

Posted by Mark Finkelstein on November 21, 2016 22 Comments
Last week, we reported on Morning Joe ripping the notion of Rudy Giuliani as Secretary of State, with Joe Scarborough saying "he’s temperamentally not qualified to be, and he’s not qualified to be it based on any experience or training or any contacts." This morning, the show was still on its anti-Rudy rampage, with Scarborough stating: "it's one of these things that everybody says off camera. I'm going to tell you it to you on camera . . . Even people close to Trump say Rudy Giuliani mentally is a few steps slower than he was several years ago."

Posted by William A. Jacobson on November 20, 2016 79 Comments
The Hamilton Musical protest, in which the cast went political on VP-elect Mike Pence at the end of the show, certainly made the weekend interesting. Mike Pence this morning brushed off the event, stating that the boos were "what freedom looks like" and said he wasn't offended by the cast members actions; though he did say he'd "leave it to others" to decide if that was the right time and place for a political protest. President-Elect was less forgiving, sending out multiple tweets criticizing the protest. You can see additional reactions in our two prior posts (here and here). Most of those reactions miss the big point.
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