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Prager U links: Most people – even atheists – acknowledge that the book most responsible for creating Western civilization is the Bible. Until recently, that was considered an enviable achievement. Today however, many of the well-educated living in that very civilization no longer regard their society as morally superior to any other. In this week’s video, Dennis Prager explains why this view stems not from intellectual rigor, but from intellectual laziness.
And:
This is a catch-up memo simply to clear the decks. Then must get back to clearing the same decks of mail, tax information and preparing for Savannah Music festival house guests. These are friends from my early market days and have not seen them in years. They also retired, left New York and now live in Wilmington.
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In a subsequent memo will report on our cruise and have some personal thoughts that will take time to put together in a rational format.
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Before I left, I reminded my memo readers that when I leave you experience increased market volatility but not necessarily direction and once again that has proven to be the case.
The market was extended in technology valuations and it was a matter of time before a correction set in and I suspect the current one still has somewhat more to go.
Youthful management of some of the great companies, like FACEBOOK, are being challenged and in the case of Zuckerberg his arrogance is showing. The stooges on the various Senate and House Committees will bring him down a notch because they smell blood and love the drama they create through questioning on TV.
I always thought, and said, Bezos acquired the Washington Post fin order to have his personal lobbying media outlet and now he is paying the price for bashing this president.
In time, these great companies will pass the test of fire and will recover because they are the future but earnings and multiples, do matter in high wave periods.
I believe there will be some rotation before year end into economic sectors that have lagged and this would include health care and energy. I also believe financials still have more upside. Depending upon the degree of aggressiveness on the part of The Fed, Southern Company could be a decent value at current levels for those seeking income in a utility that has been through the ringer. Even Coca Cola might see better days from current levels.
A week old Rant from Ross. (See 1 below.)
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An interesting observation sent by a friend and fellow memo reader (See 2 below.)
Governor "Moonbeam" is a serious and dangerous nut case.
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One day, after PC'ism is dead and buried, we will return to what once worked, ie. select the best qualified regardless of their color, religion and political leanings. (See 3 below.)
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Out of the mouths of babes and a few adults:
Attending a wedding for the first time, a little girl
whispered to her mother, 'Why is the bride dressed in white?''
The mother replied, 'Because white is the color of happiness, and today is the happiest day of her life.'
The child thought about this for a moment then said,
'So why is the groom wearing black?'
=
A Sunday school teacher was discussing the Ten
Commandments with her five and six year olds.
After explaining the commandment to 'Honor thy
father and thy mother,' she asked,
'Is there a commandment that teaches us how to
treat our brothers and sisters?'
Without missing a beat, one little boy answered,
'Thou shall not kill.'
=
A police recruit was asked during the exam,
'What would you do if you had to arrest your own
mother?'
He answered, 'Call for backup.'
=
2018 List - You May Be A Redneck If1. You take your dog for a walk and you both use the same tree.2. You can entertain yourself for more than 15 minutes with a fly swatter.3. Your boat has not left the driveway in 15 years.4. You burn your yard rather than mow it.5. You think "The Nutcracker" is something you do off the high dive.6.The Salvation Army declines your furniture.7. You offer to give someone the shirt off your back and they don't want it.8. You have the local taxidermist on speed dial.9. You come back from the dump with more than you took.10. You keep a can of Raid on the kitchen table.11. Your wife can climb a tree faster than your cat.12. Your grandmother has "ammo" on her Christmas list.13. You keep flea and tick soap in the shower.14. You've been involved in a custody fight over a hunting dog.15. You go to the stock car races and don't need a program.16. You know how many bales of hay your car will hold.17. You have a rag for a gas cap.18. Your house doesn't have curtains, but your truck does.19. You wonder how service stations keep their rest-rooms so clean.20. You can spit without opening your mouth.21. You consider your license plate personalized because your father made it.22. Your lifetime goal is to own a fireworks stand.23. You have a complete set of salad bowls and they all say "Cool Whip" on the side.24. The biggest city you've ever been to is Walmart.25. Your working TV sits on top of your non-working TV.26. You've used your ironing board as a buffet table.27. A tornado hits your neighborhood and does $100,000 worth of improvements.28. You've used a toilet brush to scratch your back.29. You missed your 5th grade graduation because you were on jury duty.30. You think "loading the dishwasher" means getting your wife drunk.
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America's societal problem?
Notice the flag in the background…this is Israel 2017:
Where Teachers Carry AR-15’s.
Where it’s mandatory that young People Serve in the Military and they are armed 24/7.
Where They Eat Right and Don’t over medicate.
Where They Eat Right and Don’t over medicate.
Where the Murder Rate for the entire country is a fraction of Nashville TN’s.
Where Parents teach respect and values instead of letting Disney and X-Box raise their children.
Where they Stand for their flag and would defend it with their lives!
WAKE UP AMERICA
Where Parents teach respect and values instead of letting Disney and X-Box raise their children.
Where they Stand for their flag and would defend it with their lives!
WAKE UP AMERICA
WE DON’T HAVE A GUN PROBLEM
WE HAVE A SOCIETY PROBLEM!
WE HAVE A SOCIETY PROBLEM!
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American's are a generally fair minded lot and they will take a lot of crap but then the tide eventually turns.
I believe "The Rosanne Show" could be the beginning of a watershed. Not that Trump will ever be loved, because he is a bit too prickly and self-centered but the mass media have had their fun and day in the sun and like Icarus, they got too high and mighty, too full of themselves and their prejudice, their jumping on, their obvious bias and hypocritical pickiness is causing their wings to melt a bit.
There are a lot of Americans in between New York and California who the mass media and their chosen candidate find deplorable.Rosanne is their hero as Archie Bunker was some 50 or so years ago though I believe his writers were far more clever etc. (See 4 below.)
I believe they call it getting ahead of your skis.
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Islamist influence. (See 5 below.)
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1)
So everyone Is clear, my views are no driven by political ideology, but instead by history and observation of how world evets unfold, and how various leaders in the US have acted and failed, or prevailed. My views are purely results oriented, and not political as many of you think they are. On occasion I have voted Democratic because I vote for people not ideology. I think Trump is a bad guy, and he has several personality issues, but I also see the actual results which so far are mainly good for the country and the world, even if his style is not so good. I observe that Obama’s results were disastrous for the world and the country.
There is all sorts of hand wringing that the economy may be slowing, that there will be a trade war that will slow the economy, retail sales had slowed, rates are rising, labor costs are rising and we will have inflation and even higher rates, the budget is out of control, Mueller will get Trump, and on and on. And so the market has tanked for now. My view -no trade war-risk way over blown, retail sales slower- they will pick up as workers start to use their tax savings which they just started to receive, interest rates will rise 3x, but predictably, inflation will not rise much over 2% if at all, there will be a much better budget deal next time if the Republicans hold the House, Mueller will have nothing on Trump, and now capital expenditure by corporations is rising nicely. Q1 GDP will be slower than first expected, but still around 2.5%, which is good for Q1, but we see that employment is growing fast, the number of unfilled jobs is at a record high, unemployment will be below 4% soon, tax reductions have kicked in, bonuses have been paid, and capital expenditure has finally begun to rise materially for corporations, and most of the world’s developed economies are still growing well. Q1 is always the slow quarter. We just need to get through this tariff issue, and things at the White House need to settle down a little which they will soon. Pompeo will be confirmed as will Haspel, and Bolton will not start a war. Israel may attack in Syria to eliminate ISIS and Iranian missile bases, and that may become a real mess. We need to pay attention to the real economic numbers, and not the forecasts and speculation of pundits, and surely not the press. China barely retaliated at $3 billion which strongly suggests they understand they need to make changes and this is a start of negotiation not the start of a trade war. S Korea just completed a renegotiation of its trade agreement and NAFTA should be wrapped up soon subject to the far left candidate in Mexico being elected which is likely.
When Brexit first passed many “experts” forecast calamity, IMF, Barclays, Obama, many economists, lots of business CEO’s etc all said it would be terrible for one reason or another. For those who were on the Rant in 2016, you may recall I suggested it would not be any major problem because London has been the heart of the capital markets for Europe and much of the world for centuries, and the capital markets infrastructure was too deep and well established for it to just be dissipated. Actual results for 2018- Number of employed record high, income inequality near record low, new orders for manufacturing highest in a generation, serious labor shortages. In short, the UK economy is doing fine. The banks have not fled-at least not yet, and maybe never, other than opening some added branches in Frankfurt and Ireland. May has seemingly been able to work out key issues now, and from here Brexit seems to be on its way to happening in a year pretty smoothly. The transition is getting worked through, and is unlikely to be disruptive for either side. My contention then and now is -London is simply far too important to the world capital markets, and it is a very comfortable place for flight money from the Mid-East and Russia among other places. In the end Brexit will work out for the UK, and that will inspire others to seriously consider it. There are political trends now in Europe thanks to Merkel, and her refugees and Germany controlling Brussels. One day it will be seen that Merkel was a disaster for Europe due to a huge increase in Muslims in several countries which will lead to Muslim majorities in 15-20 years. Also, by pushing through policies that were good for German exports, and not so good for some others, and for not dealing with the imbalances between economies in member countries, there are still bank problems and economic problems in many places. This is what has led to rise of the right wing in many countries in Europe and over the long term it could potentially lead back to some form of fascist regime in one or more places as the Muslims rise in numbers and political power. You already have seen it in Italy, Netherlands, France, Germany, Poland and Hungary.
Merkel’s actions over the past several years will have long lasting impacts, and many will not be good. The world, and especially Europe, has a history of making short term decisions with horrible long term consequences. In two major cases, the US president was too ill to have any real sway. Examples are the end of WWI where the treaty led to Hitler and the current mess in the Mid-East, where they drew lines on a map with no consideration to tribal and religious realities on the ground. Wilson was far too ill to have any influence, and was totally incapacitated the last few months of his presidency when his influence might have been critical. In Yalta, Roosevelt was dying, and was not able to deal with Stalin. From there we had the cold war and now Putin. To me Merkel has created the conditions for a long term disaster that is not apparent today, but is in the making. Obama was a very weak president, and while healthy, he never understood what was actually happening. Just as in WWI, and then after WWII, what she has done was good for her country these past few years, but has been very bad for others, and for what is to come in the long term. Over and over, world leaders in Europe have made terrible decisions that do not come home to roost for decades in some cases. The refusal of Merkel now to fully work with Trump on all the revisions of the Iran nuke deal in ways that will possibly prevent an Iranian nuke breakout, and would possibly prevent the coming attack on Israel in the next year or two, are driven by her very short term desire to push German exports to Iran, instead of understanding the immense threat Iran poses to the world. The whole Iran nuke deal will turn out to be a historic disaster equal to Chamberlain, and may lead to war soon between Israel and Iran and Hezbollah, and will be very ugly. The US will get drawn in immediately. What will be unusual is that the Saudis will come in on the side of Israel, and all of the region will end up in a major war with the US having to intervene with a major military effort. Netanyahu was not here a week ago to wish Trump happy birthday. One of the biggest problems we have in dealing with Putin is Merkel’s fear of German dependence on Russia for oil and gas. That is what closing down all the nuclear power plants in Germany has resulted in, and Putin uses this to great effect.
I keep hearing from my liberal friends how Trump is so horrible, and will be impeached etc. Maybe I have just been a NY real estate guy for too long. I know several other NY real estate developers who are just like him, or even worse in some ways. So I do not get so emotional about his bad behavior. Anyone in NY who has been developing for as long as him on a large scale, has had to deal with mob control of the unions and cement, the electrical workers unions Local 3, as it is known, who liked to pour cement into the nice new toilets on a job if the developer did not do as they wished, corrupt building inspectors and property managers, and at one point the near bankruptcy of the city, along with a myriad of other impediments to development. Trump was right up there as one of the worst to deal with, but he was not alone. The problem is, he seems not to realize being president is not being a NY developer. However, when I compare him to Obama, I pick Trump. Obama led the world to its current crisis of wars, human catastrophe in Syria, Muslim mass migration to Europe, the Iran nuke deal, the hollowing out of the US military, Obamacare, lying about most everything, setting back race relations by 30 years, an over regulated and slow economy, and a doubling of the national debt which many now define as a threat to national security as rates increase, failing to act in 2009 to help overthrow the mullahs, and failing to act on his red line letting Russia and Iran control Syria, pulling out of Iraq and letting ISIS get formed, failing to act in Ukraine, and now political division. I believe we will find out he and his people are behind the whole effort to destroy Trump and there was a conspiracy to do so which the dossier is just one part. McCabe is just the first one to be caught out, with Strozck, Page, Powers, Rice, Brennan, and others to come. Brennan’s tirade was as bad as any of Trump’s tweet attacks, and maybe worse with the suggestion Russia has something on Trump. When we know the whole story it will make Watergate look like child’s play.
We just had 8 years of weakness and withdrawal, and the hollowing out of the military which made it clear to Putin, Iran, N Korea and China that we had no military power and a president with no will to do anything. Weakness is always a loser. Washington famously said the way to prevent war is to be well prepared to fight one. Did nobody learn anything from being nice and unprepared for WWII, the Korean War where we nearly got pushed entirely off the peninsula due to be unprepared, and the last 8 years. With Bolton and Pompeo in place, and a huge increase in defense spend, now everyone knows the real hawks are in charge, and Trump has the will, so when we threaten someone they need to think we really might push the button and destroy them. That is how you maintain peace. That is 180 degrees away from the establishment and liberal and European view, but look where 8 years of weakness and lack of will has gotten us. The highest risk of war since WWII. Putin, Kim, the mullahs, and Xi are all killers who care not for niceties. They got where they are by being ruthless. These are not guys who give a damn about democracy, human rights or their people. It is all about power, and the only way to deal with that mind set is raw counter, overwhelming power, and the clear willingness to use it.
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2) How do civil wars happen?
By David Vincent Gilbert
An interesting perspective….Two or more sides disagree on who runs the country. And they can't settle the question through elections because they don't even agree that elections are how you decide who's in charge.That's the basic issue here. Who decides who runs the country? When you hate each other but accept the election results, you have a country. When you stop accepting election results, you have a countdown to a civil war.The Mueller investigation is about removing President Trump from office and overturning the results of an election. We all know that. But it's not the first time they've done this. The first time a Republican president was elected this century, they said he didn't really win. The Supreme Court gave him the election. There's a pattern here.What do sure odds of the Democrats rejecting the next Republican president really mean? It means they don't accept the results of any election that they don't win. It means they don't believe that transfers of power in this country are determined by elections.That's a civil war.There's no shooting. At least not unless you count the attempt to kill a bunch of Republicans at a charity baseball game practice. But the Democrats have rejected our system of government.This isn't dissent. It's not disagreement. You can hate the other party. You can think they're the worst thing that ever happened to the country. But then you work harder to win the next election.When you consistently reject the results of elections that you don't win, what you want is a dictatorship. Your very own dictatorship.The only legitimate exercise of power in this country, according to Democrats, is its own. Whenever Republicans exercise power, it's inherently illegitimate. The Democrats lost Congress They lost the White House. So what did they do? They began trying to run the country through Federal judges and bureaucrats. Every time that a Federal judge issues an order saying that the President of the United States can't scratch his own back without his say so, that's the civil war.Our system of government is based on the constitution, but that's not the system that runs this country. The Democrat's system is that any part of government that it runs gets total and unlimited power over the country.If the Democrats are in the White House, then the president can do anything. And I mean anything. He can have his own amnesty for illegal aliens. He can fine you for not having health insurance His power is unlimited. He's a dictator.But when Republicans get into the White House, suddenly the President can't do anything. He isn't even allowed to undo the illegal alien amnesty that his predecessor illegally invented. A Democrat in the White House has "discretion" to completely decide every aspect of immigration policy. A Republican doesn't even have the "discretion" to reverse him.That's how the game is played. That's how our country is run. Sad but true, although the left hasn't yet won that particular fight.When a Democrat is in the White House, states aren't even allowed to enforce immigration law. But when a Republican is in the White House, states can create their own immigration laws. Under Obama, a state wasn't allowed to go to the bathroom without asking permission. But under Trump, Jerry Brown can go around saying that California is an independent republic and sign treaties with other countries.The Constitution has something to say about that.Whether it's Federal or State, Executive, Legislative or Judiciary, the left moves power around to run the country. If it controls an institution, then that institution is suddenly the supreme power in the land. This is what I call a moving dictatorship.Donald Trump has caused the Shadow Government to come out of hiding: Professional government is a guild. Like medieval guilds. You can't serve in if you're not a member. If you haven't been indoctrinated into its arcane rituals. If you aren't in the club. And Trump isn't in the club. He brought in a bunch of people who aren't in the club with him.Now we're seeing what the pros do when amateurs try to walk in on them. They spy on them, they investigate them and they send them to jail. They use the tools of power to bring them down.That's not a free country.It's not a free country when FBI agents who support Hillary take out an "insurance policy" against Trump winning the election.It's not a free country when Obama officials engage in massive unmasking of the opposition.It's not a free country when the media responds to the other guy winning by trying to ban the conservative media that supported him from social media.It's not a free country when all of the above collude together to overturn an election because the guy who wasn't supposed to win won.Have no doubt, we're in a civil war between conservative volunteer government and a leftist Democrat professional government.
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3) Museum slammed after hiring white curator for African art exhibit
The Brooklyn Museum has sparked outrage in the black community after tapping a white woman to curate its vast African art collection.
On Monday the museum appointed Kristen Windmuller-Luna, 31, who has a Ph.D. in African art history from Princeton University, lectures in Columbia University’s department of art history and archaeology, and once worked as an educator for the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where she was “responsible for adult and college gallery tours in the African galleries.”
Despite the stellar résumé, her hiring left some wondering why a qualified person of color did not get the post.
“Seriously, @brooklynmuseum? There goes the neighborhood for good,” opined Philadelphia journalist Ernest Owens on Twitter.
“People from the African Diaspora are frustrated w/white people being gatekeepers of our narrative,” tweeted Kimberly Seldon.
The museum defended its decision.
“Kristen is the perfect choice to build upon the Brooklyn Museum’s track record as an innovator in the collection and exhibition of the arts of Africa,” said Jennifer Chi, the museum’s chief curator, in a statement.
The museum said it was “committed to equity” but would not discuss the hiring process with The Post.
Following days of criticism on social media, the museum tweeted Thursday: “We have been listening closely to the debate about our recent appointments to our curatorial team. We’re listening and we hear you. As we think about ways to engage in this conversation with the care it deserves, we want to assure you that you can count on us, as ever, to continue working deeply on equity within our institution and beyond.”
African-Americans make up just 4 percent of all “curators, conservators, educators, and leadership,” according to a Mellon Foundation demographic study in 2015. The same report said that people of color occupied 42 percent of “intellectual leadership” positions at the Brooklyn Museum.
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4)
Balance of Evidence Is Starting to Flow Against Trump’s Foes
No one following the Russian-collusion and related dramas should be in any doubt about the steady flow of the balance of damaging evidence away from Trump and on to his accusers.
It is clear that the hierarchy of the FBI and analogues in the Justice Department and intelligence services, horrified at the thought of a Trump victory though confident it would not occur, took liberties — in the soft treatment of Hillary Clinton’s email and uranium problems, and in abetting the Clinton campaign’s effort to smear Mr. Trump with the Russian-collusion argument.
As the parallel investigations and diluvian leaking have unfolded, the anti-Trump Resistance has received a series of gradually suppurating mortal wounds. The Steele dossier was commissioned and paid for by the Clinton campaign; over a hundred FBI agents and Justice Department lawyers expected Hillary Clinton to be charged criminally, and President Trump was correct in saying conversations by his campaign officials had been tapped, a claim that was much ridiculed at the time.
Deputy FBI director Andrew McCabe testified that the Steele dossier was essential to obtaining a FISA warrant on a junior Trump aide (Carter Page), and Mr. McCabe and former director James Comey’s rabidly partisan helper Peter Strzok, and his FBI girlfriend Lisa Page, texted suggestions for influencing the FISA judge in the case. The judge recused himself, voluntarily or otherwise, after granting the warrant.
Mr. Mueller set up his “dream team” of entirely partisan Democrats; McCabe failed to identify to the Bureau his wife as a member and beneficiary of the Clinton entourage and political candidate in Virginia; and the fourth person in the Justice Department, Bruce Ohr, met with Steele, and Mrs. Ohr helped compose the Steele dossier.
The Justice Department inspector general, Michael Horowitz, whose report is expected imminently, showed the FBI director, Christopher Wray, findings about Andrew McCabe’s conduct that caused him to retire Mr. McCabe prematurely. The Office of Professional Responsibility, one of the few centers of unquestionably ethical and nonpartisan conduct in Washington, advised the attorney general to fire Mr. McCabe.
Mr. McCabe himself was reduced to mind-reading in his attack on the president on Friday night, claiming Mr. Trump’s real motive was to weaken the Mueller inquiry. Mr. Trump didn’t fire Mr. McCabe. Mr. McCabe scuttled his own credibility.
Former CIA director John Brennan’s outburst on Saturday indicates that the Resistance is cracking up. He tweeted to the world, but specifically the president: “When the full extent of your venality, moral turpitude, and political corruption becomes known, you will take your rightful place as a disgraced demagogue in the dustbin of history.”
It was seemly that someone who voted for Gus Hall, the American Communist leader, for president in 1976 would invoke Marx. But he went on to accuse Mr. Trump of trying to destroy America. Former National Intelligence director James Clapper has been routinely announcing, at home and abroad, since shortly after Inauguration Day, that the Russian-collusion story was a greater scandal than Watergate.
Mr. Brennan didn’t mention treason in his tweet — he seems to have given up on collusion and to be focused on Stormy Daniels and Trump’s financial career. (Anthony Scaramucci, in his drunken interview with the New Yorker, was more rational than Mr. Brennan.) Messrs. Brennan and Clapper were improperly leaking partisan information for months, and Mr. Clapper lied to a congressional committee.
The immolation of Mr. McCabe has resulted in a moving of the focus to Mr. Mueller by both pro- and anti-Trump forces, for different reasons. The Democrats and their press allies desperately want Mr. Trump to fire Mr. Mueller, to keep the impeachment canard alive. The president will not oblige them, though he has made the point that there was no excuse for this inquiry, as there was no prior crime nor any evidence of collusion, and that it was weakly and reflexively created by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein after Attorney General Jeff Sessions gave a mistaken answer on a small Russia-related question at his confirmation hearings and recused himself on anything to do with Russia.
Mr. Mueller is there only because James Comey, after he was fired, illegally leaked a contested memo of a conversation with the president, as he acknowledged without embarrassment at a congressional hearing, to force the appointment of a special counsel on Russian matters (this despite his and Mr. McCabe’s assertions that there had never been government interference in the Russian investigation).
Although Mr. Comey disparaged the Steele dossier, he and Mr. McCabe were complicit in allowing that dossier to be used as the basis for an illegally obtained and renewed FISA warrant against Carter Page, and for precipitating the Mueller inquiry. It is a reasonable supposition that what is terrifying the Resistance now is that the real scandal (as a number of us have been laboriously reciting at intervals for more than a year) is the corruption of the FBI and the Justice Department.
All now awaits the inspector general’s report on the internal functioning of the FBI and the Justice Department. If, as Senators Charles Grassley and Lindsey Graham and others have urged, he says he needs a special counsel or the powers of one, to get to the bottom of all this, he will have it, as the monstrous fraud that these people can be relied on to monitor themselves won’t wash even with the press.
If his report is damning enough, and it is unlikely to be pleasant reading for Mr. Comey and his claque, there will be an irresistible public and congressional demand to clean the stable and prosecute the apparently guilty, including in the intelligence services and the State Department.
Senator Mark Warner and Representative Adam Schiff will be talking to themselves, without the presence of the television camera that incites their logorrhea every day. If Mr. Mueller is as dedicated and incorruptible as his champions claim, he will produce an honest debunking of the collusion charade and make serious suggestions about lobbyists for foreign interests and about foreign meddling in U.S. elections. (He shouldn’t get too exercised, given the wanton historic disposition of the U.S. to interfere in the elections of other countries.)
The best possible outcomes of this controversy would be the reform of criminal procedure and the end of the criminalization of political differences. The entire U.S. criminal-justice system is an anthill of oppressive fraud where prosecutors win 99% of their cases, at least in part, 97% without a trial, as Mr. Mueller is proving by throwing monstrous charges against his victims and settling for guilty pleas to trivial and technical counts to extract catechized and rehearsed inculpatory testimony with immunity for perjury.
No one should imagine that General Flynn is the sole victim of this. Mr. Mueller was there for the shameful persecution of Senator Ted Stevens, and has been in the vanguard of the mass-destructive weaponization of the American prosecutocracy. (The United States has 5% of the world’s population and 25% of its incarcerated people.)
The immediate problem is not draconian severity but the capricious abuse of the practically unlimited power of prosecutors — and especially the pandemic of partisan infection of the federal law-enforcement and intelligence apparatus.
There had been no discussion of the impeachment of a president for over a century until Watergate. Richard Nixon had the authoritarian Truman-Eisenhower view of what a president could do under the cloak of national security, and by the time his overzealous aides had propelled the White House into the crosshairs of heavy Democratic artillery, he suddenly froze and had no idea how to get through it.
Reagan blundered for reasons of compassion for the American hostages in Lebanon into the Iran-Contra mess, but it was never an impeachable offense — just the Congress trying to run foreign policy. Reagan was popular and near the end of his term, and his national-security adviser, Admiral Poindexter, took the bullet. (He was acquitted on appeal.)
Bill Clinton didn’t commit impeachable offenses either, and was shafted by Republican congressional majorities, but he waged a skillful-public relations campaign, and enough Democratic senators supported him so he could finish his term.
Donald Trump saw it coming. His tweets may sometimes be imprudent, but his domination of social media has countered the press’s firing squad, which, in trying to depose him, has largely missed the real story and savaged its own credibility. Mr. Trump will win this epic struggle, and both parties should get the message that trying to impeach your opponent without legal cause can lead to unpleasant surprises.
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5)
Islamist Infiltration of American Universities
Ryan Mauro is the national security analyst and Shillman Fellow for the Clarion Project. This article was written with the assistance of Campus Watch, a project of the Middle East Forum.
In 1988, an FBI source inside the Muslim Brotherhood revealed that the Islamist group’s proxies in America had a six-phase plan to “institute the Islamic Revolution in the United States.” [1] Among these front groups was The International Institute of Islamic Thought (IIIT), a think tank committed to the “Islamization of knowledge.”[2] This ideology, as Professor Vali Nasr writes, entails the subordination of scientific inquiry to “the mere implementation of the assorted teachings of the Shariʿa.”[3]
Over the last three decades, IIIT’s part in the Brotherhood’s plan has met remarkable success. The institute has made itself an indispensable resource for Islamic studies scholars: It has provided funding for over 70 active researchers based at institutions across America (see appendix); it has spent millions of dollars on endowing chairs in Islamic studies;[4] and it has publicized the research of hundreds of like-minded academics at its Summer Institute for Scholars.[5]
IIIT’s activities are integral to the Brotherhood’s broader strategy of inciting an international Islamic revolution. As an official IIIT handbook notes:
At a time when we are forced to fight and defend ourselves on political, economic and military fronts … (these efforts) can be accomplished by developing (the Ummah’s, that is, the Muslim community’s) ideological power and the power of the “islamization of knowledge (sic)” to effectively harness its full potential.[6]
In other words, the long-term success of the Islamists’ revolution is dependent not only on success on the battlefield and at the ballot, but also on the cooptation of education in order to foment popular sympathy for the Brotherhood’s objectives.
While IIIT’s actions are ostensibly nonviolent, it has not hesitated to cultivate ties to international terrorists. In 2002, an anti-terrorism taskforce raided the IIIT’s office. Based on the evidence obtained in this investigation, U.S. Customs Service Special Agent David Kane said in a sworn affidavit that IIIT co-founder and former vice president for research, Jamal Barzinji, was “not only closely affiliated with PIJ [Palestinian Islamic Jihad] . . . but also with Hamas.”[7]
Furthermore, IIIT provided donations to the front organization of convicted Palestinian Islamic Jihad leader Sami al-Arian, formerly a professor at the University of South Florida. Al-Arian subsequently wrote a thank you note to IIIT, in which he emphasized that his organization and IIIT are essentially a single institution rooted in “an ideological and cultural concordance with mutual objectives.”[8]
While IIIT is unapologetic about its links to violent Islamism, it is less forthright about the sources of its generous revenue. It is clear that the Brotherhood provided the start-up money for IIIT in 1988, when the aforementioned FBI memo notes that the organization had almost “unlimited funds” at its disposal.[9] That was 30 years ago. Nevertheless, today, IIIT’s assets appear undiminished. Yet IIIT’s website does not solicit donations; indeed, a search for “donate” on the site returns no relevant information.
This raises the question: Who is supporting IIIT today?
We cannot know for sure. However, we do know that IIIT has never shirked its loyalty to its parent organization, the Muslim Brotherhood. IIIT’s website boasted—in a post that has now been removed—that two of its officials, Hisham Altalib and Abubaker Al-Shingieti, met with the leader of the Brotherhood and then-president of Egypt, Mohammed Morsi, in New York on September 24, 2012. Morsi “welcomed the participation of IIIT in the reform of higher education in Egypt.”[10]
Furthermore, IIIT has cultivated relations with the wealthy Qatar Foundation, an arm of the Qatari government.[11] Qatar is one of the world’s foremost state sponsors of international terrorism. Moreover, the state enforces its conception of the Shariʿa at home. Its laws prescribe death for apostates and Muslims who commit adultery with non-Muslims; uphold the incarceration of men found guilty of homosexual relations; and sanction one of the world’s most extensive and brutal human-trafficking systems.[12]
Qatar has sought to sanitize its illiberal reputation by constructing an “Education City” in the nation’s capital, Doha. Education City is a network of campuses including Islamic colleges and proxy estates for six major U.S. universities: Texas A&M, Virginia Commonwealth, Cornell, Carnegie Mellon, Northwestern and Georgetown. The Qatar Foundation covers the expenses for these institutions to maintain their campuses in the country. It has invested over $400 million in Education City.[13]
Qatar has portrayed Education City as a repression-free zone that respects Western norms in a kingdom that otherwise upholds the rule of Islamic law.[14] Yet Islamists with terrorist affiliations, including IIIT’s former director, Dr. Louay Safi, teach there.[15] Furthermore Professor Jasser Auda—an active associate of IIIT with extensive ties to the Muslim Brotherhood—is also based there.[16]
Yet the six U.S. universities listed above have shown no inclination to repudiate their Qatari sponsors. These institutions legitimize the Qatari regime, sanctioning the presence of violent Islamists in Education City. Their actions are reminiscent of IIIT-funded scholars’ complicity with their own sponsors’ illiberal, “revolutionary” agenda.
For too long, American universities have allowed IIIT to shape the development of Islamic Studies in this country. They have ignored IIIT’s anti-intellectualism expressed in its commitment to the “Islamization of knowledge,” meaning the suppression of scholarship not sympathetic to Islamists. Left-wing activists who censor campus discussions about radical Islamism provide cover for IIIT’s regressive ideology. They further its agenda to suffocate any scrutiny of Islamism and the broader Islamic tradition.
It is time to bring IIIT’s action to light. It is time for parents, students and policy makers to demand that IIIT ends its role in the radicalization of Islamic Studies—a discipline that has long showed itself predisposed to anti-Western agendas.
Ryan Mauro is the national security analyst and Shillman Fellow for the Clarion Project. This article was written with the assistance of Campus Watch, a project of the Middle East Forum.
Appendix I: Selective List of Professors with Ties to IIIT(The following list, while not exhaustive, demonstrates the extent of IIIT’s infiltration into American universities.)
- Abdulaziz Sachedina: IIIT Chair in Islamic Studies. IIIT funded the position with a gift of $1.5 million.
- Cemil Aydin: member of IIIT’s Council of Scholars (now at UNC-Chapel Hill).
- Sumayya Al Shingieti: IIIT recognized Sumayya Al Shingieti for completing her Bachelors’ degree in film and video studies at George Mason University and receiving an award for the film she produced.
Shenandoah University
- Calvin Allen Jr.: “Dr. Allen signed last year an agreement with IIIT to cooperate in ‘course development, educational programs, and research with a goal of promoting an understanding of Islam and Muslims in America, and Islamic civilization and culture,’ based on ‘the principles of equality and reciprocal benefit.”
Hartford Seminary
- Heidi Hadsell: “Professor Hadsell praised the special relationship between the Harford Seminary and IIIT and the continued support that the seminary receives from IIIT, particularly in the area of Imam Training and education, and the study of Christian-Muslim relations in general.”
- Mahmoud Ayoub: member of IIIT’s Council of Scholars whose teaching of courses about Shia Islam was sponsored by $35,000 from the Alavi Foundation in September 2012.
Huron University College
- Ingrid Mattson: member of the IIIT’s Council of Scholars
United States Naval Academy (Formerly)
- Ermin Sinanovic: IIIT’s Director of Research and Academic Programs.
Binghamton University
Seifudein Adem is there, as was the late Ali Mazrui, a very radical preacher.
Howard University
- Sulayman Nyang (retired from Howard): member of IIIT’s Council of Scholars.
- Altaf Husain: IIIT recognized the academic achievements of Altaf Husain for receiving tenure at Howard University.
University of Notre Dame
- Asma Afsaruddin: member of IIIT’s Council of Scholars
University of Delaware
- Muqtedar Khan: member of IIIT’s Council of Scholars
American University
- Mohammed Nimer: visited IIIT with American University students in 2013 to discuss the “Islamic revival and role of Islam in politics of the Muslim world.”
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