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ollie Ahuattce The ADVANCE, January 3, 2024/Page 7A
A free press is not a privilege but
organic necessity in a great society.
-Walter Uppmann
COMMENTARY
out of
CONTEXT
A compilation of quotations on a variety of
issues by national, state and regional writers,
well-known personalities, just plain everyday
people and from various publications
collected by the editors of THE ADVANCE.
Quotes for our Times:
Byron York, chief political correspondent
for The Washington Examiner. Democratic
Lawfare vs. Donald Trump.
The story of the 2024 campaign so far is
the effort by Democrats and their appointees
to use criminal charges and lawsuits to force
former President Donald Trump out of the
race for a second term in the White House.
The name for such an effort is "lawfare" — that
is, "the strategic use of legal proceedings to
intimidate or hinder an opponent," to cite
one law dictionary. ...
It is as if anti-Trump leaders concluded
that elections did not succeed in getting rid
of him, and media attacks did not succeed in
getting rid of him, and investigations did not
succeed in getting rid of him, and now the
next step is lawfare. That's where we are now.
Rebecca Downs, Web Editor at Townhall.
com: David Axelrod makes bold prediction
about future of Ramaswamy campaign.
Ramswamy has also spoken out against
the weaponization against Trump with the
various indictments from progressive district
attorneys and Special Counsel Jack Smith,
promising to pardon Trump if he's elected.
Last week, Ramaswamy also said he'd with
draw from the ballot in Colorado, in solidar
ity with Trump after the Colorado Supreme
Court kicked Trump off of the ballot.
Gregg Jarrett, Fox News legal analyst and
commentator: With support for Biden fading,
and the corruption case building, will he quit
the presidential race?
There is a fair chance that Joe is still ca
pable of reading the writing on the wall. Or
willing to capitulate to the wishes of his family
and party elders. If he bows out, he won't cite
his pervasive unpopularity as the real reason.
Nor will he acknowledge any wrongdoing in
the corruption scandal that has enveloped
his presidency.
Instead, he will embrace the mantle of
victimhood by blaming those evil "MAGA Re
publicans" for engineering the criminal pros
ecutions of Hunter, demonizing the son he
remains "proud of," and citing general con
cerns over the welfare of his family for his de
cision to abandon re-election.
Chad Wolf, former acting secretary of the
Department of Homeland Security and ex
ecutive director and chair of the Center for
Homeland Security and Immigration at the
America First Policy Institute: Biden will talk
border if Republicans talk something else first.
Now is the time for real change, not half
measures. Conservatives should continue to
work toward passing real and proven border
security reforms that will secure the border,
defeat the cartels and end human traffick
ing.
The House of Representatives did just that
by passing H.R. 2, the Secure the Border Act,
earlier this year. That bill contains numerous
America First policies, including reforming
asylum to prevent fraud in the system and
mandating all the discretionary enforcement
authority this administration refuses to use. The
bill could pass the Senate and go to Biden's
desk to be signed into law, but Majority Lead
er Chuck Schumer controls the legislative cal
endar and refuses to schedule it for a vote.
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Trump’s opponents not
playing by the book
THE
RICH
LOWR
COLUMN
You might have heard that Don
ald Trump is going to be a dictator if
he wins the presidency next year.
Among other things, he’s threatening
to target his political opponents.
Let’s stipulate that Trump is a
provocateur who freaks out his oppo
nents even when he’s on relatively
good behavior. And his conduct after
the 2020 election was genuinely
alarming and deeply wrong. He
shouldn’t talk about going after his
political enemies, let alone actually do
it if he takes power again.
But the vapors over Trump’s
threatening statements are rich com
ing from people who have targeted
their enemy by any means necessary
for years now. The Russian-collusion
investigation, the Hunter Biden cover-
up and the ongoing, politically timed
legal onslaught against Donald Trump
are among the most shameful and
tawdry efforts to destroy a political
opponent in memory.
They all have involved the abuse
of power by national-security or law-
enforcement officials, with the con
nivance of a complicit press. This is
Watergate-break-in-level political sub
terfuge, or the something drawn from
fever dreams about Ronald Reagan’s
“October Surprise,” except it has all
happened in plain sight.
I’m not opposed to, or shocked
by, political hardball. Count me out
on all the saccharine cliches about
how Ronald Reagan and Tip O’Neill
were great friends despite some polite
political differences between 9 a.m.
and 5 p.m. The stakes in our debate
are enormous, and that debate should
be litigated robustly, even harshly
But that’s different from abusing
investigative processes and leveraging
the presumed professionalism and
moral authority of current and former
national-security and law-enforce
ment officials for a political campaign
against one man.
The press coverage of Trump
makes it sound as though we are start
ing on a fresh playing field, where ev
erything has been strictly by the book
since 2016.
You’d never know that back then,
top law-enforcement officials began a
poorly predicted investigation into
Trump-campaign officials, lied to the
FISA court, connived to win appoint
ment of a special counsel, and then,
that special counsel — puffed up by
the press with “walls are closing in,”
“only Mueller knows” coverage —
kept his investigation going well after
he knew there was nothing there.
It’s unmentioned that in 2020,
two weeks before Election Day, for
mer national-security officials, some
of whom were highly respected, put
their names to a letter meant to mis
lead about the Hunter laptop; Biden,
from the debate stage, lied about that
laptop and his son’s business dealing;
and Twitter censored the story and
much of the rest of the media treated
it as a non-event at best.
All of this was meant to keep the
laptop’s true importance under wraps
through Election Day, and — if Joe
Biden and compliant Justice depart
ment officials had had their way —
until this very day. If Hunter’s original
sweetheart plea deal hadn’t blown up
upon first contact with an indepen
dent-minded judge, he would have
escaped serious legal consequences.
The entire affair was a rank dis
tortion of the political and legal pro
cess. And, oh yeah, Biden Justice De
partment officials and Democratic
prosecutors are currently trying to put
the other side’s leading contender for
the White House in jail. As a warm-up
act, they are also attempting to knee
cap his business in a trial, or “trial,” in
which the verdict has already been
decided.
Almost all these charges are un
worthy, dubious or imprudent, but
that hasn’t stopped Trump’s pursuers,
most of whom have wanted their trials
to start, for some reason, in March
right after the Republican nomination
will probably be decided.
Trump’s critics would be on
firmer ground objecting to his de
clared campaign of vengeance if they
had been willing to forebear during
any of these episodes; if they had ever
insisted on neutrality or fair play; if
they’d been willing to look beyond
the man they loathe and make judg
ments based on truth and professional
standards.
Instead, they’ve lit a fuse while
pretending that they’re opposed to
pyrotechnics, with consequences as
yet unknown.
Rich Lowry is editor of the National
Review.
(c) 2024 by King Features Synd., Inc.
the Mazi Melesa Pilip: A
NITTY Fantastic Republican to
GRITTY Replace George Santos
By Star Parker
A special election will
be held in New York’s 3rd
Congressional District on
Feb. 13 to replace George
Santos, world-class con-
man, who Republicans re
cently expelled on ethics
charges.
Republicans have
picked a uniquely exciting
candidate to run for this
now open seat in Mazi Me
lesa Pilip.
Pilip is a Black Ortho
dox Jew and a mother of
seven children who arrived
to Israel at age 12 from Ethi
opia, grew up there, served
as a paratrooper in the Israel
Defense Forces and contin
ued on to earn a degree in
occupational therapy at
Haifa University, where she
met her husband, and then
earned a master’s in diplo
macy and security at Tel
Aviv University
Her husband immi
grated to Israel from
Ukraine, and subsequently
they moved to the U.S.
where he continued his
medical studies and now
works as a cardiologist.
With five children and
pregnant with twins, she
ran two years ago for a seat
in the Nassau County Leg
islature, won the seat — de
feating a Democrat incum
bent — and then was re
elected, winning 60% of the
vote.
Pilip effervesces her be
lief in the “American dream”
and the importance to keep
government limited, keep
taxes low and fight crime.
As an immigrant, she is par
ticularly passionate about
this issue and the impor
tance to control our border.
She will run against
Democrat Tom Suozzi, who
held the seat for three terms
before leaving in 2022 to
enter the race for New York
governor.
In an interview with Is
raeli newspaper Israel To
day, Pilip explained that she
became motivated to enter
American politics when
flare-ups with Hamas pro
duced antisemitism endan
gering her children to walk
freely and openly as Jews in
their neighborhood in New
York.
“My story is the story of
America and Israel together.
Israel is a diverse state, there
is not just one color, and in
the U.S., any dream can be
come reality. ... This is my
second immigration. I had
to learn culture and a new
language twice. It wasn’t
easy for me.”
Pilip is a poster child
who speaks forcefully, dis
abusing distortions and ig
norance about Israel being
spread, particularly on uni
versity campuses.
Recently, for instance, a
program was held at UCLA
labeled as an “Emergency
Teach-In on the Crisis in
Palestine.” One of the
UCLA professors depicted
Israel as a “colonial power
driven by an exclusionary
racial ideology.”
Just looking at this im
pressive Black Ethiopian
Jewish woman, who grew
up in Israel, who speaks
warmly about her love for
and the beauty of the coun
try where she grew up, says
everything about the absur
dity of such outrageous al
legations.
I recall on my own first
trip to Israel noting the full
spectrum of color in the
population - white, brown,
black.
Israel literally was
founded as an ingathering
of Jews dispersed in the four
corners of the globe.
The parents and grand
parents of today’s Israelis
came from Eastern and
Western Europe, the Mid
dle East, North America,
Latin America, North Af
rica and Asia.
Pilip arrived to Israel as
part of Operation Solomon
in 1991 in which, over the
course of 36 hours, Israel
airlifted over 14,000 Ethio
pian Jews to Israel out of
concern for their safety as
result of political instability
in Ethiopia.
There is now an esti
mated more than 160,000
Ethiopian Jews in Israel.
Around the same time,
1990-91, after considerable
pressure, the Soviet Union
released over 300,000 Jews
to leave for Israel.
How Jews who re
turned to their historic
homeland from all over the
globe, after so many years of
oppression, persecution
and murder, could be ac
cused of either racism or
colonialism should give ev
eryone great pause regard
ing what is happening on
our college campuses.
Meanwhile, Mazi Me
lesa Pilip is a presence Re
publicans and all Americans
need in the U.S. Congress.
Let’s hope and pray that
in February she will be add
ing her important voice to
those on Capitol Hill.
Star Parker is president of
the Center for Urban Renewal
and Education and host of the
weekly television show "Cure
America with Star Parker." Her
recent book, "What Is the
CURE for America?" is
available now. To find out
more about Star Parker and
read features by other
Creators Syndicate writers and
cartoonists, visit the Creators
Syndicate website at www.
creators.com.