Gavin Newsom, California governor, plays both sides in forest management fight as wildfires rage

Daily Truth report  "California Gov. Gavin Newsom has pointed out that the state’s wildfires are located primarily on federal land — and he’s right — but now he and other Democratic governors seek to block the Trump administration’s effort to speed up the clearing of overgrown, tinder-dry forests.

"Twenty-three states including California, Oregon and Washington sued last month to stop the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) modernization, which would thin the regulatory thicket and red tape blamed for bogging down federal projects, including forest management on the government’s extensive Western lands.

"The NEPA lawsuit came as no surprise, given that California Attorney General Xavier Becerra has sued the Trump administration 100 times, but it also frustrated critics who accused California Democrats of putting their loyalty to the environmental movement and focus on climate change ahead of proven forest-health strategies.

"Trending: Twitter Users Question Bizarre Pelosi Moment: “Did She Just Have a Stroke On TV?”

“ 'It’s not just saying, on one hand you want to manage your forest, and then suing the government to stop the management of . . .Continue reading 

California: The Golden State in Utter Decay  . . . "The current crisis in California that is getting the most national attention is the plague of wildfires throughout much of the northern part of the state.  Such fires have ravaged the area for millennia, long before the presence of any European settlers, but that has not stopped California leftists and their media from pointing fingers at climate change and President Trump.  Avoiding responsibility for a crisis by blaming anyone and anything with even a remote chance of culpability is the California way — which leads to a failure to develop real solutions." . . .

 . . . "California, the bluest of blue states, has rising crime and homelessness.  California has fearsome wildfires and rolling electrical blackouts due to government mismanagement of its forests and energy systems.  California has an ever-increasing budget deficit with no end in sight.  Yet California's tone-deaf politicians continue to enjoy immense support from their oblivious electorate.  Many residents cherish the song lyric that laments, "Going to California with an aching in my heart."  Unfortunately, the time has come for many to recognize reality, and to leave California with a similar aching.  California is decaying before our eyes, and it is not going to get better." . . .

DOJ snubs Nadler’s request for testimony from top officials, cites reprehensible treatment of Barr

DOJ snubs Nadler’s request for testimony from top officials, cites reprehensible treatment of Barr  "The request by the New York Democrat and House Judiciary Committee chairman was met with a stinging rebuke and refusal by Assistant Attorney General Stephen E. Boyd who called out committee members for using a July hearing to “air grievances” when they had the opportunity to question Attorney General William Barr in person."

Rep. Jerrold Nadler got snubbed by the Department of Justice, which refused his request for top officials to testify in upcoming hearings. The request by the New York Democrat and House Judiciary Committee chairman was met with a stinging rebuke and refusal by Assistant Attorney General Stephen E. Boyd who called out committee members for using a July hearing to “air grievances” when they had the opportunity to question Attorney General William Barr in person. Nadler called for appearances by Assistant Attorney General Eric Dreiband, Bureau of Prisons Director Michael Carvajal and U.S. Marshals Service Director Donald Washington. 

You can analyze history and precedents. Or you can point out blatant Republican hypocrisy. Or you can point to Republicans’ mistreatment of Garland. 

But if you want to know why Republicans *will* confirm a nominee this year, watch this video. pic.twitter.com/zwYTJyqAbi

— Andy Grewal (@AndyGrewal) September 21, 2020

Newsweek Forced To Issue Major Retraction After It Smears Amy Coney Barrett, Claims She Belongs To Sect That Inspired ‘The Handmaids Tale’

Daily Wire  "Initially, Newsweek claimed that “People of Praise,” a charismatic Catholic group to which Barrett reportedly belongs, “served as inspiration for Margaret Atwood’s dystopian novel, The Handmaid’s Tale,” adding that female members are forced to report to spiritual superiors known as “handmaids” and that the group stresses that “men have authority over their wives.”  . . . 

. . . "I think there’s a lot of mental revisionist history going on there, unless what they are hoping for is that Harris gets another opportunity to remind everyone what a shrill shrew she is.

 And so it begins...

Barrett has fallen under scrutiny because she’s likely a judicial conservative, something the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, whom Barrett could replace, was not. Her feelings on key political issues are under wraps, as is the case with most high-level judges, and experts have been left to speculate that Barrett is religious and right-wing based on her biography alone.

"The problem? People of Praise’s “handmaids” are little more than spiritual advisors, according to sources familiar with the 1,700-member group that spoke to The Daily Wire. And as National Review Online’s David Harsanyi points out, Barrett’s partner’s “authority” must be severely limited, given that her “knuckle-dragging misogynistic religious fanatic husband has only let the poor woman out of the house twice. Once, to serve a 15-year stint as a law professor at a highly prestigious university,” and the other to serve on the 7th Circuit.

"Deeper than that, though, it turns out Newsweek’s story is actually completely wrong based on information from Atwood herself, which Newsweek points out in its “correction.”

“Correction: This article’s headline originally stated that People of Praise inspired ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’. The book’s author, Margaret Atwood, has never specifically mentioned the group as being the inspiration for her work,” the note read. “A New Yorker profile of the author from 2017 mentions a newspaper clipping as part of her research for the book of a different charismatic Catholic group, People of Hope. Newsweek regrets the error.”

Don't Let Democrats Hijack Trump's Next Supreme Court Pick  "RBG's parting message that her "most fervent wish is that [she] will not be replaced until a new president is installed," while dramatic, is meaningless.  This "jurist of historic stature" might have had complete control over her courtroom, but she has no authority — alive or from beyond the grave — to hand down rulings about her successor or the process by which her replacement is selected.  Calls by Democrats to "honor her dying wishes" are disingenuous, and no one should be goaded into thinking otherwise. " . . .

. . . "If we do not confirm because too many Republican senators side with the Democrats, and we get clobbered on election day, their legacy will be a Republic held hostage by one-party rule as Democrats expand and stack the Supreme Court, destroy the filibuster, and gain four more Democrat senators by making D.C. and Puerto Rico states.  They will be responsible for relegating conservatives, the religiously observant, and those with a traditional outlook on life to new levels of oppression at the hands of our Democrat overlords, who will not be as indulgent of us as we have been of them." 

Kamala Harris Will Remind Everyone How Awful She Is During Confirmation Hearing

"As we have noted many times before, Kamala Harris is so off-putting that her own party decided she was the first of the “top tier” candidates in the Democratic primary race who needed to go. Increased exposure to the public doesn’t really go well for Harris." . . .

. . .  "The optics of Harris teeing off on a Roman Catholic mother with a shrieking progressive “gender traitor” rant won’t really help Team Harris-Biden win over any hearts and minds in swing states where the polls are tight." . . .

The Media Handles Amy Coney Barrett’s Faith With All the Care of a Paranoid Drunk   "Watching the media jump to the conclusion that Judge Amy Coney Barrett is guaranteed to be Donald Trump’s next pick has been a real treat. Much like Ash Wednesday and the Lenten season, Barrett’s faith is something the media can’t help but attack with all the accuracy of an archer strung out on meth." . . .

Harris — not Biden — is the real candidate

The intention of those who control the Democratic Party—influential individuals on the left such as George Soros and Soros equivalents, whoever they may be—is to jettison Biden after the election and substitute the real candidate, Senator Harris. 

 BPR   "One of the big questions on my mind has been, “Why in hell did the Democrats pick Biden?” It has been obvious for some time that Biden’s cognitive state is on a level with the spider monkey. He can’t remember where he is or what he is running for. He can’t put together a coherent sentence. His condition has become a running joke. At his age, he would at best be a one-term president. So why would a major party pin its hopes on such a man?

"To appreciate the Democratic Party’s election strategy it is necessary to recognize the migration of the party in the direction of Marxism. Today’s Democrat has fallen under the spell of oppressor ideology. Minorities and women are oppressed by Christian white males. Poor people are oppressed by the one percent. Traditional politicians like Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer are giving way to left-wing extremists—Bernie Sanders, AOC, Ilhan Omar. The public is not ready for them yet so the party is forced to pull a fast one.

"The intention of those who control the Democratic Party—influential individuals on the left such as George Soros and Soros equivalents, whoever they may be—is to jettison Biden after the election and substitute the real candidate, Senator Harris. Make no mistake about it, Harris is the real presidential candidate. Even now sly references are being made to the “Harris/Biden administration.” The Biden campaign chose Harris, says Marc Thiessen, because—in spite of her appalling record in politics—she is “ideologically flexible.” She is a complete opportunist with no moral center. She will do as she is told. Harris will play ball with the leftist gang that wants to continue what Obama began by fundamentally changing America into a leftist state." . . .

Knowing what's at stake, Trump-supporters increasingly refuse to hide in the shadows

 William Sullivan

Certainly, not everyone is happy about the trend.  One neighbor in our community proudly posted his Trump sign to the fence on his property, only to have it defaced with BLM propaganda.  In a particularly clever response, he chose to use that act of vandalism to accentuate his reason for supporting President Trump for re-election, and to appropriately frame the nature of America's choice in November:

. . . "Back in May, I and my family attended the Liberty Fest rally held in Sacramento.  Not being a person who's attended many such rallies, it struck me as an awesome spectacle.  The Sacramento Bee reported that a "massive throng gathered along 10th Street, facing the west steps of the Capitol, with hundreds arriving hours before the official noon start."  We were among them, and upon arrival, I captured a short video of the waiting crowd as "America the Beautiful," performed by Ray Charles, played over the loudspeaker.

"That event wasn't really about Trump; it was about opposition to the California COVID lockdown.  But as you can see in the video, President Trump was prominently presented by many who were there as the yin to Gavin Newsom's dictatorial yang. 

"Shortly after that event, cities erupted across America in orgies of violence, thievery, arson, and mayhem to protest racial injustice, even though the circumstances of George Floyd's arrest and death, the event that ostensibly launched the riots, provide no convincing link whatsoever to racism in policing.  Most of this energy was spearheaded by Black Lives Matter, an admittedly Marxist organization with openly violent adherents, and was nurtured with winks and approving nods by Democratic politicians.

"After all of this had occurred throughout the summer, it was less of a surprise to see a massive pro-Trump rally and boat parade in Sacramento on Labor Day.  Trump was no longer just the opposite of Newsom when it came to COVID lockdowns; it had become clear that he is the only opposing force against much broader attacks on American liberty.  The Democratic Party, Hollywood, professional sports, and corporate leviathans had all hitched their wagons to Black Lives Matter's star, where "fiery but mostly peaceful" protesting is the manifestation of an orchestrated effort to undermine and destroy the traditional institutions and values of America, such as freedom of speech, property rights, and the rule of law. " . . .

FLASHBACK: Ginsburg on Kaepernick Protests: ‘I Think It’s Dumb and Disrespectful’

Breitbart

"As America continues to reflect on the life of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, it is notable to remember that she was not a supporter of former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick’s protests during the national anthem.

"In 2016, when the former San Francisco 49ers second-string quarterback first began taking a knee in protest against the country during the playing of the national anthem, Ginsburg said that she felt the player’s protest was “dumb.”

“ 'I think it’s really dumb of them,” Ginsburg said of Kaepernick’s protests during an interview with Katie Couric in October of 2016.

“ 'Would I arrest them for doing it? No,” Ginsburg continued. “I think it’s dumb and disrespectful. I would have the same answer if you asked me about flag burning. I think it’s a terrible thing to do, but I wouldn’t lock a person up for doing it. I would point out how ridiculous it seems to me to do such an act.”

Couric pressed the justice on the matter, reminding Ginsburg that the players were within their rights to make such protests.

"But Ginsburg was undeterred. In fact, she upped the ante from “dumb” to “stupid” to describe Kaepernick and the other players who protest by taking a knee during the anthem.

“ 'Yes,” said Ginsburg said of such protests. “If they want to be stupid, there’s no law that should be preventive. If they want to be arrogant, there’s no law that prevents them from that. What I would do is strongly take issue with the point of view that they are expressing when they do that.”

"As the liberal press waxes eloquent over the life of Justice Ginsburg, this comment is probably one they will conveniently forget to include in their hagiographies."

How environmentalists destroyed California’s forests

I live in Kansas now, where people are generally saner. But my heart still calls those mountains home. And they were killed by the Sierra Club and its allies. God may forgive you, but it’s gonna take me a while.

Spectator USA   "This article was published under a pseudonym as the author didn’t want to risk his job."

. . . "Those mountains will never be the same. An entire community is being destroyed and, no matter how hard those amazing people work to rebuild, it will be decades before the land they live on recovers.

"Why? Because loggers weren’t allowed to thin overcrowded stands of trees. Because grazing animals weren’t there to thin out the undergrowth. Because anytime the Forest Service or large landowners tried to start a project to manage the land, they got tied up in court and buried under years of environmental impact ‘studies.’ Because any fire, regardless of cause or location, was put out as quickly as possible for decades. Because any controlled burns were restricted by overzealous and shortsighted pollution thresholds set by the California’s Air Resources Board.  Because politicians and bureaucrats stopped listening to the people that actually lived in the forest. 

"And all of those things happened because well-meaning morons at organizations such the Sierra Club and the National Resources Defense Council managed to get a stranglehold on state politics and the courts. It’s because of ‘concern for natural conditions’ that we’re in this mess; because of a myopic focus on certain species, entire ecosystems are being overtaken by flames. But they’ll never accept responsibility.

"They persist in blaming fire conditions in today’s West solely on climate change. Even if every single thing that they claim about climate change were to be true, it wouldn’t undo the consequences of decades of mismanagement driven by their ‘advocacy.’ 

"You like hugging trees? They’re gone now. You love the spotted owl? Here’s some for ya, extra extra crispy. Concerned about erosion? Get ready for some serious mudslides this winter with all of the grass and smaller plants burned off. Worried about particulates from a controlled burn? Wildfires generate orders of magnitude more. " . . .

Soros? Say it ain't so, Fox News; that was so CNN-ish

Tucker Carlson broke seeming Fox News taboo last night, discussed Soros-funded DAs "The status of news related to George Soros on Fox News gets curiouser and curiouser. On September 16, Newt Gingrich was unceremoniously interrupted and silenced  he began mentioning Soros’s funding the campaigns of radical district attorneys on the daytime show Outnumbered, sparking outrage on the part of many viewers." . . .

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán says George Soros is Dividing Society to Take Power Away from Citizens  "Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has slammed George Soros, accusing the far-left billionaire of actively working to divide and "dismantle" nations to take power from citizens and hand it over to the "global elite."

"In a long and scathing exposé, PM Orbán writes in Magyar Nemzet that Hungarian-born Soros seeks to destroy nationalism by promoting nationwide unrest and pushing mass-migration to dissolve the structural unity of society to create a more controllable populous.

"The greatest threat to national self-determination today is the global network of open society advocates which seek to abolish national governance," Orbán says.

" 'The goals of George Soros's network with unlimited financial and human resources are clear. 

" 'By accelerating migration, they will create mixed-ethnicity, open societies in order to dismantle national decision-making and put it in the hands of the global elite," Orbán writes." . . .

Tucker is not backing down. Takes on Soros and his Prosecutors nicely… as they purposely increase crime everywhere

Glenn Beck Exposes George Soros' Far-Reaching Influence at Fox News  "Beck went on to explain Soros’ strategy of financing the campaigns of leftist district attorneys and prosecutors who, under the guise of criminal justice reform, adopt policies like eliminating cash bail and refusing to prosecute certain crimes, all of the objective of creating unrest.

“ 'What he does, he gobbles up the law enforcement, he gobbles up the attorney generals, he gobbles up district attorneys,” Beck said.

“If he can’t change it in Washington or the capital of [a] country, he changes it by going in and controlling who’s prosecuted and who’s not. . . . 

"Gingrich was essentially shut down by co-hosts Melissa Francis and Marie Harf after he began discussing Soros’ attempts to fund the elections of left-wing prosecutors.

“ 'The number one problem in almost all these cities is George Soros’ elected, left-wing, anti-police, pro-criminal district attorneys who refuse to keep people locked up,” Gingrich said Wednesday.

“ 'Progressive district attorneys are anti-police, pro-criminal and overwhelmingly elected with George Soros’ money, and they’re a major cause of the violence we’re seeing because they keep putting the violent criminals back on to the streets,” the former GOP Speaker from Georgia added.

“I’m not sure we need to bring George Soros into this,” co-host Melissa Francis interjected. " . . .

Trump Called On to Investigate George Soros for 'Funding Domestic Terrorism' Tens of thousands of patriotic citizens have joined forces in a viral campaign calling on President Donald Trump to finally take down far-left billionaire George Soros.

"Over 60,000 people have signed a petition addressed to "President Trump, Attorney General Barr, FBI Director Wray and governors of all 50 states."

"The campaign requests that the president instructs America's top law enforcement agencies to launch an investigation into "George Soros and his Open Society Foundation."

"It accuses Soros of "funding the radical leftist organizations attempting to violently destabilize our beloved nation."

"The radical left is now holding the rest of society hostage – violently rioting, attacking police, and scaring away law-abiding citizens from parts of their own cities," the petition states.

"They are, in fact, cynically using George Floyd’s killing as an excuse to destabilize society and push for a Marxist revolution.". . . 

. . . "They are, in fact, cynically using George Floyd’s killing as an excuse to destabilize society and push for a Marxist revolution."

. . . "While America burns under the leftist violence and rioting, Hungarian-born financier Soros announced he is donating another $220 million to the “Black Lives Matter movement.”

"Much of Soros' money is going into efforts to defund the police and control 2020 voting systems, his foundation revealed.

“This is the time for urgent and bold action to address racial injustice in America,” Alex Soros, George Soros’ son and deputy chair of the Soros family’s “Open Society Foundations,” said in a statement."

The Soros Cover-Up/ Americans can’t let Twitter noise overwhelm political reality.

        

                        11 Dark Evil Secrets of George Soros                                   

 Newt Gingrich

I think the heart of this mass denial is that Democrats and the Left are watching the terrible human cost of their misguided, pro-criminal, anti-police justice policies, and they are beginning to worry that the American people will realize who is responsible for them.

"I have been watching a truly curious phenomenon over the past few days.

"It seems there is suddenly a movement in media to silence anyone who speaks out against George Soros—and, specifically, his funding of radical prosecutors seeking to change the criminal justice system by simply ignoring certain crimes.

"This happened to me personally this week while I was being interviewed on Fox’s Outnumbered. When I brought up Soros’s plan to get pro-criminal, anti-police prosecutors elected across the country, two of the show’s participants interrupted me and forcefully asserted that Soros was not involved.

"Host Harris Faulkner, it seemed, was stunned by the interruptions, and did her part to move the show forward after some awkward silence. The next day, she addressed the strange moment during the show and condemned censorship.

"Immediately after the show, Twitter and other social media went crazy. People were alleging that any criticism of Soros’s political involvement is automatically false, anti-Semitic, or both.

"This is ludicrous. Soros’s plan to elect these prosecutors has been well documented already—and it has nothing to do with his spiritual or ethnic background. The Los Angeles Times, the New York Times, Politico, USA Today, the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, the Associated Press, CBS, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel—even Fox News itself, among others, have all thoroughly reported on it.

"There are plenty of specific examples of Soros’s work in action." . . .

WOW! ABC Hack Floats Impeaching President Trump to Speaker Pelosi in Order to Block SCOTUS Nomination

 The Gateway Pundit

This tells you EVERYTHING you need to know about your liberal mainstream media.

"They’re not just biased — They’re leading the charge!

"Speaker Pelosi went on ABC’s This Week this morning for former Clinton aide George Stephanopoulos.

"On Sunday morning Stephanopoulos floated the idea of impeaching President Donald Trump or Attorney General Bill Barr to Nancy Pelosi in order to prevent Trump from filling the vacancy on the Supreme Court.

"Pelosi responded, “We have our options. We have arrows in our quiver that I’m not about to discuss…”

                                                                                        http://www.terrellaftermath.com/

Bizarre moment Nancy Pelosi blurts out 'Good Morning, Sunday morning' after being asked about impeaching Trump over Supreme Court vote during ABC interview " Nancy Pelosi appeared to lose her train of thought and randomly blurted out 'Good morning, Sunday morning' during an interview on ABC's This Week.

"Host George Stephanopoulos had asked the House Speaker about possibility of a second attempt at impeaching Trump in the coming months.

"But instead of responding to the anchor's question, Pelosi came out with the random phrase, before laughing and then continuing, while avoiding answering the question." . . .

Ocasio-Cortez: ‘We Must Consider’ Impeaching Trump, Barr To Stop SCOTUS Nomination   . . . “Congresswoman, you mentioned being open to all ideas to buy time,” a reporter said to Ocasio-Cortez. “Would you be in support of potentially reviewing talks of impeachment hearings either against the attorney general or the president?” . . .

Dem’s Fury Over Next SCOTUS Pick Mainly BETRAYS Tremendous Historical IGNORANCE  . . . "If President Trump and Senate Republicans go ahead and fill this seat — after the GOP refused to even give Garland a hearing in 2016 — Democrats say they’ll respect no limits if they win control of the White House and Congress in November. “Nothing is off the table next year,” thunders Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer.

"Problem is, Democrats were already talking about “packing” the high court by expanding it with up to six new justices of their choosing. More, they’ve been looking at packing the Senate itself — by admitting new states (DC, Puerto Rico, even Samoa) to the union to create a permanent Democratic majority.

"Are Democrats willing to swear off such moves if the GOP opts not to fill this vacancy? How about their talk of ending the Senate filibuster completely? Do any of them even care to apologize for how they treated now-Justice Brett Kavanaugh in his confirmation?

"Keep all that in mind when you hear the media claim that “norms are being violated.”

"As far as the talk that any of this is unprecedented, the reverse is true, as National Review’s Dan McLaughlin notes: Presidents going all the way back to George Washington have sent high-court nominees to the Senate in the last year of a term a total of 29 times." . . .

Last Orders at the Hive

Ann Coulter summarizes the last four months of Jake Gardner's life thus: Jake Gardner killed protester while defending his bar during BLM riots.  D.A. & police find shooting was in self-defense. Under pressure, D.A. appoints black prosecutor to indict Gardner. Gardner's GoFundMe page taken down. Gardner commits suicide.

 Mark Steyn  "The passing of Ruth Bader Ginsburg dominated the weekend headlines, and will further destabilize an already whacky election campaign in its last six weeks. But the death of an all but unknown American may be more telling about the pitiful state of the country:

Nebraska bar owner Jake Gardner, charged in fatal shooting of unarmed Black protester, dies by suicide, attorney says

"Way back on May 30th, in that hinge moment of the year when spring turned to summer and lockdown turned to looting, Jake Gardner found a mob of "mostly peaceful protesters" being mostly peaceful about the death of George Floyd outside his bar, the Hive & Gatsby's, in downtown Omaha. His windows were broken, and his dad was getting shoved around. Douglas County Attorney Don Kleine, using the surveillance footage, walked his audience through the critical moments:

Gardner came up, asking, "Who did that? Who pushed my dad?" Someone was heard in the video saying, "he has a gun on him," referring to Gardner. Kleine draws attention to the fact that windows are seen broken out of the bar.

Kleine said the video shows a group of people surrounding Gardner, tackling him and Gardner firing two warning shots. Kleine said Scurlock jumps on Gardner and and the bar owner fires another shot, fatally wounding Scurlock.

Kleine said Gardner is heard saying, "Get off me, get off me, please get off me," before the final shot is fired.

 "The County Attorney's conclusion:"

Kleine said the determination has been made that the shooting was in self-defense. . . .

Bar Owner Commits Suicide After DA Caves and Charges Him for Killing Rioter Who Attacked Him  That story "will make your blood boil. It’s one of many where law-abiding citizens end up charged for a crime after they were just trying to defend themselves against the violent rioters. Remember the McCloskey couple in St. Louis who were charged with a felony for brandishing their weapons on their property?

"Does a charge of self-defense now depend on who the local DA is and if he caves to the mob? 

"After a Nebraska bar owner was given a self-defense verdict by the local DA, local pressure changed the verdict to much stronger charges that would lead to the suicide of the bar owner. This devastating story is one that could happen to any American who lives where the DA caves to the mob.

"Omaha bar owner Jake Gardner was just trying to defend himself from rioters when he shot and killed a man in self-defense. The video below shows Gardner getting into a tussle with a man and then shooting in self-defense when he’s thrown to the ground after a group charges him." . . .

According to the Gateway Pundit, the rioter had been vandalizing businesses including Gardner’s bar by breaking windows.Yahoo reports that with protests and outside pressure, the local DA caved: “A week later, Kleine said in a statement that after hearing from local residents and elected officials he would welcome an outside review ‘in this rare instance.’ He added, ‘I made a decision and I would not change that decision based on everything I know today,’”

 On Sunday, he was found dead outside a medical clinic near Portland, Oregon, from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Is the Palestinian Veto Alive or Dead?

 Caroline Glick

"Since Israel was established, the Palestinian veto doomed all efforts to forge peace between the Arab world and the Jewish state.

"The Palestinian veto rests on a toxic proposition that Israel’s right to exist is contingent on its satisfaction of Palestinian claims against it. So long as the Palestinians say they are unappeased, Israel cannot expect the Arab world to either recognize or live at peace with it.

"The very existence of the veto has ensured that the Palestinians will never be satisfied with any Israeli concession and will never agree to peaceful coexistence with the Jewish state. After all, their global and regional importance is a product of the veto. The Arabs, and much of the rest of the world support the Palestinians because they wield the veto. As holders of the veto, the Palestinians are viewed as the key — or the key obstacle — to Middle East peace. If they give up, or lose the veto, they will lose their position and power to enable or block peace and foment war and instability.

"As for the Arab leaders, for generations the Palestinian veto was the key to their own power and stability. It enabled them to deflect the attention of their peoples and of the governments of the world away from their corruption, extremism and failure at home and abroad. It enabled them to scapegoat Israel blaming the Jewish state for the suffering and stagnation of their people.

"Given its toxic power, abrogating the Palestinian veto has always been Israel’s highest goal. And given its centrality for both the Palestinians and the wider Arab world, for most Israelis, it seemed like a dream so impossible that it wasn’t even worth dreaming.

"The peace treaties Israel signed with Egypt and Jordan were concluded while genuflecting to the Palestinian veto. Egyptian president Anwar Sadat signed Egypt’s peace deal with Israel only after he concluded a framework deal for Palestinian autonomy with then Israeli prime minister Menachem Begin.

"King Hussein of Jordan only agreed to sign a peace deal with the Israeli prime minister Yitzchak Rabin after Rabin signed the Oslo peace deal with PLO chief Yassir Arafat on the White House lawn." . . .

"Caroline B. Glick is a senior columnist at Breitbart News and the senior contributing and chief columnist for The Jerusalem Post. She is also a senior columnist for Maariv. She is the author of The Israeli Solution: A One State Plan for Peace in the Middle East, (Crown 2014) and of Shackled Warrior: Israel and the Global Jihad (Gefen 2008). The Israeli Solution was endorsed by leading US policymakers including Vice President Mike Pence, Senator Ted Cruz and National Security Advisor John Bolton. Shackled Warrior was endorsed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former CIA director James Woolsey." . . .