From the the-UN-is-a-sewer-of-moral-rot file:
The General Assembly rejects Nikki Haley's resolution condemning Hamas.
And, regarding the threat on Israel's northern border from Hezbollah,
Israel has been striking the tunnels Hezbollah has been digging. Pretty big setback to Hezbollah's strategic aim of taking control of as much of Galilee as it can.
Labor and employment attorney Adam Mill writing at The Federalist, says that the Pence rule - the policy of never being alone with a woman not your wife - is actually ill-advised. He uses Brett Kavanaugh's track record of amassing a lifetime of female colleagues to vouch for his stellar character to illustrate his point:
One feature of my life that has remained true to the present day is that I have always had a lot of close female friends. I’m not talking about girlfriends; I’m talking about friends who are women. That started in high school. …
The committee has a letter from 65 women who knew me in high school. They said that I always treated them with dignity and respect. That letter came together in one night, 35 years after graduation, while a sexual assault allegation was pending against me in a very fraught (ph) and public situation where they knew — they knew they’d be vilified if they defended me. Think about that. They put theirselves (sic) on the line for me. Those are some awesome women, and I love all of them. …
One of those women friends from college, a self-described liberal and feminist, sent me a text last night that said, quote, ‘Deep breaths. You’re a good man, a good man, a good man.’ …
Throughout my life, I’ve devoted huge efforts to encouraging and promoting the careers of women. I will put my record up against anyone’s, male or female. I am proud of the letter from 84 women — 84 women — who worked with me at the Bush White House from 2001 to 2006, and described me as, quote, ‘a man of the highest integrity.’
Kavanaugh was surrounded by a ring of women who stood by him. It was necessary for his attackers to recruit accusers from the distant past outside his circle of friends. Kavanaugh-supporting women wept tears of frustration over the totally unsubstantiated accusations.
Because Ford was recruited from so far outside Kavanaugh’s social and professional proximity, her story had a number of problems. I identified 10 red flags one should look for in a sexual assault case here. Ford met many or all of these tests.
For example, she eagerly shared her story with The Washington Post, but delayedcooperation with Senate investigators (flag 1). She asked that Kavanaugh be forced to testify first before she committed to a final version of her account (flag 5). She made unusual demands to modify or control the process (flag 7). And Ford’s witnesses either didn’t corroborate or contradicted her account (flags 9 and 10).
These weaknesses demonstrated a lack of confidence in her account and were emphasized because she stood so far outside the established circle of friends and colleagues who had more than 30 years of first-hand experience with Kavanaugh. These women Kavanaugh chose to include in his life were assets, not liabilities.
As an employment attorney, I need these women in my client’s corner. Not only can women speak up for their colleagues when the chips are down, but they also seem to have an uncanny sense of the workplace dynamics that can really help in defense of a falsely accused executive.
If any of today's roundup links is a must-read, it's
this Townhall column by Craig Rucker on the current gathering of human-advancement-haters in Katowice, Poland:
Any blizzards that blanket Poland this winter can’t compare to the massive snow job climate campaigners are trying to pull off.
Some 30,000 politicians, activists, computer modelers, bureaucrats, lawyers, journalists, renewable energy sellers and a few scientists are in Katowice, Poland December 2-14, for another Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change conference. Four issues will dominate the agenda.
* Proclaim that humanity and the planet face existential cataclysms, unless fossil fuel use and carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions are slashed to zero by 2050 – to “prevent” average planetary temperatures from rising more than 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 F) above what they were in 1820, when the Little Ice Age ended and the modern industrial era began.
* Finalize 300 pages of “guidelines,” to implement the Paris climate agreement – by driving the switch from coal, oil and natural gas to wind, solar and biofuel energy.
* Reach a binding agreement that wealthy countries (excluding China and other newly rich nations) must transfer at least $100 billion annually to poor countries.
* Ensure “transparency” on discussions, disclosures and treaty compliance.
This entire agenda deserves skepticism and ridicule.
Earth’s climate is always changing somewhere, due to powerful natural forces over which humans have no control. To say we can now perpetuate current conditions by controlling emissions of plant-fertilizing carbon dioxide is sheer fantasy.
Average global temperatures have already (thankfully) risen nearly a degree since 1820. To suggest that another half degree would be catastrophic is absurd. Indeed, average temperatures were higher during the Medieval Warm Period – and except during recent El Niño events have barely risen since 1998, even as CO2 levels climbed significantly, spurring plant growth worldwide.
Constant references to the “hottest ever” day or month involve hundredths of a degree, less than the margin of measurement error, often by activist scientists who have a history of doctoring data. They also ignore record cold snaps, like this Thanksgiving weekend in the U.S. Northeast.
Human activities certainly affect climate and weather to some degree, at least locally. But there is no real-world evidence that they have major (much less cataclysmic) impacts. Computer models say otherwise, but their record for accuracy is abysmal to zero.
AOC is proving to be that exquisite combination of overly-sensitive snowflake, jackboot ready to silence critics, economically illiterate buffoon, and Dem legislator with a decidedly underbaked understanding of the body of which she's about to become a member:
Donald Trump Jr., whom Ocasio-Cortez is unhappy with after he
published a meme to Instagramfeaturing Ocasio-Cortez asking why people are so afraid of socialism and Trump responding “because Americans want to walk their dogs, not eat them.”
Ocasio-Cortez, being the kind of person who takes herself too seriously, didn’t take Trump Jr.’s strike at her very well, and took to Twitter where she literally threatened to subpoena him.
“I have noticed that Junior here has a habit of posting nonsense about me whenever the Mueller investigation heats up,” tweeted the New York Democrat.
“Please, keep it coming Jr – it’s definitely a “very, very large brain” idea to troll a member of a body that will have subpoena power in a month,” she continued. “Have fun!”
From the because-nothing-is-more-important-to-the-Very-Stable-Genius-than-whether-he-looks-like-a-winner file.
He's been keeping a constant eye on the stock market, because to him it's one of the main indicators of whether he's a good president or not:
The president still sees the Dow Jones Industrial Average as a significant benchmark for his performance, the report said, citing sources close to Trump. The blue chip index is up about 23 percent since Trump's inauguration but turned negative for the year during another rough market session Friday.
One person close to the White House told the WSJ that the president is "glued" to the stock market.
And
his over-sensitivity to barbs - and tendency to display it for all the world to see on Twitter - is way out there in Ocasio-Cortez territory:
President Trump fired back at
Rex Tillerson after his former secretary of State called the president undisciplined, unread and willing to break the law.
"
Mike Pompeo is doing a great job, I am very proud of him. His predecessor, Rex Tillerson, didn’t have the mental capacity needed. He was dumb as a rock and I couldn’t get rid of him fast enough. He was lazy as hell. Now it is a whole new ballgame, great spirit at State!" Trump tweeted.
I'd say to the VSG regarding Tillerson the same thing I'd say regarding the personal lawyer upon whom he has turned, Michael Cohen: Um, you hired the dude.
Important Noah Rothman piece at Commentary entitled "France's Yellow Vests Are Not Your Friends":
American conservatives might be tempted to sing this movement’s praises, but that would be ill-considered.
The Yellow Vests are many things, but they are not anti-tax. They’re certainly not for the kind of smaller government
championed by Macron’s government. Following the announcement that the Yellow Vests had forced the French president to suspend the implementation of his gas tax for six months, Yellow Vest spokesmen Benjamin Cauchy sounded a note of defiance. “Our demands are much bigger than this moratorium,” he said. “We want a better distribution of wealth, salary increases.” Indeed, one of the Yellow Vests’ central grievances is one of Macron’s first acts as president: a substantial reduction of the tax burden on
France’s high earners. Among the “
people’s directives” the Yellow Vests endorsed are an increase in the minimum wage, a “maximum wage” that caps income at €15,000 per month, the repeal of tax credits for employers, rent controls, dramatic increases in public spending on schools, post offices, and railroads, a ban on outsourcing, and a lower retirement age.
Most of the hundreds of thousands who turned out to protest Macron’s green initiatives were peaceful, but those who weren’t were
terrifyingly violent. Over the last two weeks, Paris experienced the worst street violence and rioting since 1968. Protesters torched over 100 hundreds of cars, set historic buildings on fire, looted stores, and assaulted police, who were forced to deploy tear gas and water cannons against the rioters. They built barricades in the streets,
vandalized monuments, blocked access to fuel depots and petrol stations, and fought running battles both with police and the French gendarmes. At least 133 people were injured in the violence. Four
died. And as of Monday, over 400 were arrested.
The first real crisis of this beau monde, center-left presidency may seem a welcome development for anyone eager to see the aloof and Olympian Macron brought back down to earth. But being humbled into governing as a populist means something very different in France than it does in the United States, and it would yield policy that few American conservatives would welcome. What’s more, it does not follow that the spoils of this fight will accrue to a responsible center-right party. The responsible center-right in France is nowhere to be found.
Andrew McCarthy digs the new AG nominee:
Bill Barr will restore order.
Barr brings much-needed experience and instant credibility to the task. After all, he has already been the nation’s chief federal law-enforcement officer, serving as attorney general in the last years of President George H. W. Bush’s term. He is a lawyer’s lawyer, having led the Department’s Office of Legal Counsel before being elevated by Bush 41 to deputy AG and, ultimately, the top job. He has rightly been adamant that, while an attorney general is a consequential administration official, the AG’s first allegiance is to the Constitution and the laws.
Some specific areas that impress McCarthy:
Barr has been one of the country’s best thinkers on counterterrorism for the post-9/11 era. This has come naturally to him: Upon graduating from Columbia in 1973 with degrees in government and Chinese studies, Barr went to work for the CIA as an intelligence analyst and assistant legislative counsel. At the same time, he attended law school at night at George Washington University (later accepting a clerkship on the prestigious U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit). His range of legal and intelligence studies led him to see the need for a comprehensive government approach to the international terrorist threat — a strategy in which, rather than addressing the jihad as a mere crime problem, the Justice Department plays a critical support role alongside the government’s intelligence, military, Treasury, and diplomatic components.
And
As Congress continues its bipartisan push to reform sentencing law and practice, Barr is an ideal law-enforcement pro to have at the helm. I believe he will be open to reasonable proposals to reduce prison terms for actual non-violent, non-recidivist offenders, while simultaneously recognizing that most federal prisoners serving lengthy sentences do not fit that bill. Barr’s deep experience in the system will provide valuable insight about which anti-recidivism programs show promise and which would more likely imperil communities by releasing unreformed criminals.
And
In his stint in the Bush 41 administration, Barr also dealt with the savings-and-loan crisis, and he engineered policies to protect financial institutions. In addition, he brought federal resources to bear against violent crime, worked cooperatively with state and local law-enforcement agencies, and enforced civil-rights laws.
And
In the private realm, Barr is a highly experienced and successful corporate executive. For many years, he was general counsel at Verizon, the international communications giant. Indeed, Barr helped steer the merger of GTE and Bell Atlantic that formed Verizon. (As a board member of Time Warner, Barr has been on the opposite side of the Trump Justice Department’s effort to block the company’s merger with AT&T. A federal district judge ultimately approved the merger, and, earlier this week, a federal appeals court heard arguments in the Justice Department’s appeal.) He has been in the forefront of the telecom industry’s challenges to stifling government regulation. As the Trump Justice Department deals with big antitrust questions and the administration continues to pursue the president’s deregulation agenda, Barr’s knowledge of these legally complex issues will be a boon.
WSJ piece entitled "American Entrepreneurs Who Flocked to China Are Heading Home, Disillusioned."
