The Glazov Gang- Daniel Greenfield Moment: No Room for Women in Muslim Paradise via YouTube, May 18, 2019
(It seems almost like a comedy show, but it isn’t. — DM)
Archive for May 2016
Israel, Gaza and “Proportionality”
May 19, 2016Israel, Gaza and “Proportionality,” Gatestone Institute, Louis René Beres, May 19, 2016
♦ It appears that several major Palestinian terror groups have begun to prepare for mega-terror attacks on Israel.
♦ The authoritative rules of war do not equate “proportionality” with how many people die in each side of a conflict. In war, no side is ever required to respond to aggression with only the equivalent measure of force. Rather, the obligations of proportionality require that no side employ any level of force that is greater than what is needed to achieve a legitimate political and operational objective.
♦ Under pertinent international law, the use of one’s own people as “human shields” — because such firing from populated areas is intended to deter Israeli reprisals, or to elicit injuries to Palestinian civilians — represents a codified war crime. More specifically, this crime is known as “perfidy.” This is plainly an attempt to make the IDF appear murderous when it is compelled to retaliate, but it is simply a Palestinian manipulation of legal responsibility. Under law, those Arab residents who suffer from Israeli retaliations are incurring the consequences of their own government’s war crimes.
♦ International law is not a suicide pact. Instead, it offers a universally binding body of rules and procedures that allows all states to act on behalf of their “inherent right of self-defense.”
Already, calls from various directions have begun to condemn Israel for its recent retaliatory strikes in self-defense at Gaza.[1] The carefully-rehearsed refrain is all-too familiar. Gazan terrorists fire rockets and mortars at Israel; then, the world calls upon the Israel Air Force (IAF) not to respond.
Although Israel is plainly the victim in these ritualistic cycles of Arab terror and required Israeli retaliations, the “civilized world” usually comes to the defense of the victimizers. Inexplicably, in the European Union, and even sometimes with the current U.S. president, the Israeli response is reflexively, without thought, described as “excessive” or “disproportionate.”
Leaving aside the irony of President Obama’s evident sympathies here — nothing that Israel has done in its own defense even comes close to the indiscriminacy of recent U.S. operations in Afghanistan[2] — the condemnations are always unfounded. Plainly, Hamas and allied Arab terror groups deliberately fire their rockets from populated areas in Gaza at Israeli civilians. Under pertinent international law, this use of one’s own people as “human shields” — because such firing from populated areas is intended to deter Israeli reprisals, or to elicit injuries to Palestinian civilians — represents a codified war crime. More specifically, this crime is known as “perfidy.”
“Perfidy” is plainly an attempt to make the IDF appear murderous when it is compelled to retaliate, but it is always simply a Palestinian manipulation of true legal responsibility. Hamas’s intent might be to incriminate the Israelis as murderers of Gaza’s civilians. Legally, however, the net effect of Arab perfidy in Gaza is to free Israel of all responsibility for Arab harm, even if it is Israeli retaliatory fire that actually injures or kills the Gazan victims. Under law, those Arab residents who suffer from Israeli retaliations are incurring the consequences of their own government’s war crimes. Palestinian suffering, which we are surely about to see again in stepped-up, choreographed Arab propaganda videos, remains the direct result of a relentlessly cruel, insensitive, and criminal Hamas leadership.
Significant, too, although never really mentioned, is that this Hamas leadership, similar to the PA and Fatah leadership, often sits safely away from Gaza, tucked away inconspicuously in Qatar. For these markedly unheroic figures, “martyrdom” is allegedly always welcomed and revered, but only as long as this singular honor is actually conferred upon someone else.
Moreover, the authoritative rules of war do not equate “proportionality” with how many people die in each side of a conflict. In war, no side is ever required to respond to aggression with only the equivalent measure of force. Rather, the obligations of proportionality require that no side employ any level of force that is greater than what is needed to achieve a legitimate political and operational objective.
If the rule of proportionality were genuinely about an equivalent number of dead, America’s use of atomic weapons against Japanese civilians in August 1945 would represent the greatest single expression of “disproportionality” in human history.
It appears that several major Palestinian terror groups have begun to prepare for mega-terror attacks on Israel. Such attacks, possibly in cooperation with certain allied jihadist factions, could include chemical and biological weapons of mass destruction. Over time, especially if Iran, undeterred by the July 2015 Vienna Pact, should agree to transfer portions of its residual nuclear materials to terror groups, Israel could then have to face Palestinian-directed nuclear terrorism.
One message is clear. If Israel, pressured by outside forces, allows Palestinian terror from Gaza to continue unopposed, the state could become increasingly vulnerable to even greater forms of Arab aggression.
Also important to keep in mind is that nuclear terror assaults against Israel could be launched from trucks or ships, not only from rockets and missiles.
What about Israel’s active defenses? In its most recent defensive operations, Protective Edge and Pillar of Defense, Israel accomplished an impressively high rate of “Iron Dome” interceptions against incoming rockets from Gaza. Still, it would be a mistake to extrapolate from any such relatively limited successes to the vastly more complex hazards of strategic danger from Iran. Should Iran “go nuclear” in ten years or sooner, that still recalcitrant Islamic regime could launch at Israel missiles armed with nuclear warheads.
In its most recent defensive operations, Israel accomplished an impressively high rate of “Iron Dome” interceptions against incoming rockets from Gaza. Still, it would be a mistake to extrapolate from any such relatively limited successes to the vastly more complex hazards of strategic danger from Iran. (Image source: IDF)
Sun Tzu, the ancient Chinese military thinker, already understood — long before the nuclear age — that too great a reliance on defense is always misconceived. Today, Arrow, Israel’s core ballistic missile defense (BMD) interception system, would require a 100% rate success against offensive nuclear missiles. At the same time, such a rate is impossible to achieve, even if enhanced by Rafael’s new laser-based defenses. Israel must therefore continue to rely primarily on deterrence for existential nuclear threats.
Although unacknowledged, Israel has always been willing to keep its essential counterterrorism operations in Gaza consistent with the established rules of humanitarian international law. Palestinian violence, however, has remained in persistent violation of all accepted rules of engagement — even after Israel painfully “disengaged” from Gaza in 2005.
Both Hamas and the Palestinian Authority still speak indignantly of “the Occupation?” But where, precisely, is this “occupation?” After all their agitated umbrage about Israeli “disproportionality,” shouldn’t the Palestinians and their allies finally be able to answer that core question? There are no Israelis in Gaza.
International law is not a suicide pact. Instead, it offers a universally binding body of rules and procedures that allows all states to act on behalf of their “inherent right of self-defense.”[3] When terrorists groups such as Hamas openly celebrate the “martyrdom” of Palestinian children, and when Hamas leaders unhesitatingly seek their own religious redemption through the mass-murder of Jewish children, unfortunately these terrorists retain no legal right to demand sanctuary.
In response to endless terror attacks from Gaza, Israel, with countless leaflets, phone calls, “knocks on the roof,” and other warnings to its attackers, has been acting with an operational restraint unequaled by any other nation and according to binding rules of war. In these obligatory acts of self-defense there has not yet been the slightest evidence of disproportionality.
____________________________________
[1] Speaking in Beirut on Channel 10 News, on May 7, 2016, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah accused Israel of “attacking Gaza,” continuing: “Unfortunately, the Arab world is silent about the situation in Gaza. … these actions must be condemned.” Cited in Israel National News, “Nasrallah calls for condemnation of Israeli ‘Attacks’ on Gaza,” May 7, 2016. Interesting, too, is that Nasrallah, a Shiite leader, is speaking here in strong support of Sunni Hamas.
[2] See Alissa J. Rubin, “Airstrike Hits Doctors Without Borders Hospital in Afghanistan,” The New York Times, October 3, 2015. This is an account of the October 2015, U.S. destruction of a crowded hospital in the embattled city of Kunduz. The Pentagon confirmed the strike, which it called “collateral damage,” and President Obama offered condolences to the victims in what he termed a “tragic incident.” Doctors Without Borders was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1999.
[3] See, especially, Article 51 of the United Nations Charter.
Syrian Opposition Official: West Responsible For Assad Remaining In Power; U.S. Enabled Russia To Become Main Player In Syria Crisis
May 19, 2016Khaled Khoja, who served as president of the National Coalition for Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces until March 2016, gave an interview to the London-based Saudi daily Al-Sharq Al-Awsat on April 17, 2016, in which he harshly attacked the international community and particularly the U.S. Khoja argued that the U.S. never desired regime change in Syria and therefore did not take a decisive stand against Bashar Al-Assad despite his many crimes, and did not significantly support the Syrian opposition. According to him, the Americans showed apathy regarding the crisis, enabling Russia to fill the vacuum that they had created in a way that suited Russian interests. He added that the purpose of American military aid to the Kurds was to create a Kurdish canton, which would effectively lead to the splintering of Syria. Khoja stressed that the Syrian High Negotiations Committee remains insistent that the first step is to establish a transitional governing body, and only then can a new constitution, elections, and other topics be addressed.
It should be mentioned that the interview was given prior to the April 19 announcement by the head of the Syrian High Negotiations Committee, Riyad Hijab, that its delegation was suspending its participation in the Geneva talks.
Following are excerpts from the interview:[1]
Khaled Khoja (image: Zamanalwsl.net)
We Insist On A Serious Transition Of Power And All Authority
Khoja started by mentioning the Syrian High Negotiations Committee’s expectations from the current round of the Geneva talks: “We are here to focus on forming the governing body for the transitional phase. U.S. Special Envoy Staffan de Mistura is continuing his relentless efforts to begin discussing the political transitional phase, which will be based on establishing the ‘governing body,’ as stated in the Geneva announcement, UN Security Council Resolution 2218, and other resolutions. We have been empowered by opposition forces to discuss realizing these goals and we cannot deviate from them. Negotiations today should pick up where Geneva II left off [in February 2014] under the supervision of [former UN Special Envoy to Syria] Lakhdar Brahimi. We must start by forming this [governing] body and then proceeding to discuss the issues of the constitution, the elections, and other matters that fall under the governing body’s authority. Naturally, we have clear views on all these issues, which we will reveal at the appropriate time. I wish to say that we reject the verbal slips replacing the phrase ‘transitional governing body’ with ‘transitional regime’ or ‘transitional government’ and adhere to ‘transitional phase governing body’ and all it implies – meaning a serious transition of power and all authority.”
International And American Support For The Opposition Is Feeble
According to Khoja, “the position of international, and especially American, support for the Syrian opposition is feeble. The sad thing is that the true positions [of the U.S. and international community] regarding Assad is still feeble and vague despite all the evidence marking Bashar Al-Assad as a ‘war criminal,’ and despite the many official American statements that hold him responsible for ongoing killing and acts of slaughter. The lack of international political desire to push for the start of the transitional political phase in Syria has provided Assad and the parties supporting him, whether Iranians or Russians, with room to maneuver, enabling him [Assad] to continue heading the regime and to remain a chaos-creating factor in the region, [a factor] which exacerbates the refugee crisis and uses it as a card for pressuring neighboring countries and Europe, and which exports ISIS and terrorism…”
U.S. Apathy Is A Main Factor In Russia Becoming The Main Player In The Crisis
Khoja said further: “There is clearly American apathy regarding the Middle East, which opens the door for Russia to fill the vacuum left by the Americans… When we speak of the mass extermination of the Syrian people, their expulsion, the use of chemical weapons against them, the documentation of regime crimes in detention centers, forced disappearances, preplanned acts of murder, and red lines that have become green lights – all this causes observers to lose faith in the American position… Had the Americans not created this vacuum, we would not have been in the state we are in today, and Russia would not have become the main player in the crisis, holding the reins of initiative… Politically speaking, I believe the American position has not changed much since the onset of the Syrian revolution… [From the start] there was no real American support for change… The military aid we received [from the U.S.] is no match for the [American] military aid received by the Kurdish [Democratic] Union Party and the Kurdish People’s Defense Unit militias [YPG]. We believe that this aid for the Kurds was meant to create a new Kurdish ‘canton’ and to enforce a new reality as a foregone conclusion. American apathy has turned Syria into a series of ‘cantons’. The ‘Southern Canton,’ which is apart from the ‘Northern Canton,’ the ‘Kurdish Canton,’ and the ‘Alawi Canton.’ We cannot discount the possibility that as part of the political process, we will see a strengthening of [the phenomenon] of these cantons, but we will absolutely not agree to this…”
Syria Cannot Remain A Group Of Cantons In The Medium And Long Term
Khoja said that during the second round of negotiations there was talk of a federal solution that was “marketed by the Americans, the Russians, and UN Special Envoy de Mistura, who spoke openly and explicitly in one press conference on the topic of federation. Except that he did not discuss this issue with us, but rather only with other parties. The Russians did not hide their support for the federal solution and in my opinion, there is a serious attempt to create facts on the ground in Syria in order to strengthen the ‘canton’ situation.
“Any international solution, regardless of which parties promote it, cannot impose a situation that the Syrian people do not agree to. It is possible that the current situation will continue in the near future, but not in the medium and long term. The proof of this is that in the 1920s, the French tried to establish four statelets in Syria, but they only lasted a few years.”
Endnotes:
[1] Al-Sharq Al-Awsat (London), April 17, 2016.
French intelligence warned of ISIS attacks before missing Egypt Air Flight MS804
May 19, 2016French intelligence warned the country was ‘clearly being targeted by ISIS’ and was at risk of ‘a new form of attack’ a week before Paris flight to Egypt.
Patrick Calvar, head of DGSI, warned of ‘new attacks’ on May
10 His warning to French MPs came a week before Flight MS804 went missing
Mr Calvar said ISIS and Al-Qaeda wanted to create a ‘climate of panic’
France will be hosting the Euro 2016 football tournament next month
By Chris Summers For Mailonline
Published: 02:51 EST, 19 May 2016 | Updated: 04:15 EST, 19 May 2016
Source: French intelligence warned of ISIS attacks before missing EgyptAir Flight MS804 | Daily Mail Online
The head of France’s internal intelligence agency had warned the country was being ‘clearly targeted’ by ISIS a week before the Paris to Cairo flight took off.
Egypt Air Flight MS804 has gone missing over the Mediterranean with 66 people on board amid reports of a merchant ship captain having seen a ‘flame in the sky’.
An Egyptian civil aviation authority spokesman has said the plane, with 15 French passengers and one Briton on board – most likely crashed into the sea.
Patrick Calvar (pictured), the head of French internal intelligence, warned last week that ISIS was planning new attacks and France was still their number one target
The cause of the disaster remains unknown but it comes seven months after a bomb blew up a Russian airliner over the Sinai desert, killing all 224 people on board.
ISIS later revealed images of a soda can bomb which they claimed to have used to bring the Metrojet plane down.
It has now emerged that Patrick Calvar, the head of France’s DGSI agency, told a parliamentary committee on national defence in Paris on May 10 that ISIS was planning ‘a new form of attack’.
France’s security forces have remained on high alert since the Paris attacks (pictured) in November, which killed 130 people
The DGSI (General Directorate for Internal Security) is France’s equivalent of the MI5 and is responsible for guarding against internal threats
France was targeted twice last year – with the Charlie Hebdo attack in January and the Paris attacks in November – and the French security forces are on a state of high alert.
Mr Calvar was quoted in The Local as saying: ‘We risk being confronted with a new form of attack: a terrorist campaign characterised by leaving explosive devices in places where big crowds gather, multiplying this type of action to create a climate of panic.’
He made no mention of attacks on aircraft but said he believed France was ‘the country most threatened’ by ISIS, which is often known as Daesh, and also warned that Al-Qaeda remained a threat and was champing at the bit to ‘restore its image’ as a major player, especially in the Maghreb and the Arabian peninsula.
Mr Calvar said while last November’s attacks in Paris that killed 130 people were conducted by suicide bombers and jihadists armed with Kalashnikovs, a new form of attack was possible.
We know that Daesh is planning new attacks…and that France is clearly targeted
Patrick Calvar
It may be several weeks or even months before it is known what brought down Flight MS804 but Mr Calvar’s comments will increase fears of spectators with less than a month to go before the start of the Euro 2016 football tournament in France.
Mr Calvar said: ‘We know that Daesh is planning new attacks using fighters in the area, taking routes which facilitate access to our territory and that France is clearly targeted.’
He said ISIS had suffered military setbacks in Syria and Iraq and wanted to take revenge on members of the coalition, including France, which were behind the air strikes on ISIS targets.
Mr Calvar said while last November’s attacks in Paris that killed 130 people were conducted by suicide bombers and jihadists armed with Kalashnikovs, a new form of attack was possible.
This is a so-called soda can bomb, published in the ISIS magazine, which they claimed to have used to destroy the Russian airliner in October, killing 224 people
PM: Terror Attack ‘Not Ruled Out’ in Egypt Air Disaster
May 19, 2016PM: Terror Attack ‘Not Ruled Out’ in Egypt Air Disaster
19 May 2016
Source: PM: Terror Attack ‘Not Ruled Out’ in Egypt Air Disaster
An EgyptAir flight carrying 66 people from Paris to Cairo went down into the Mediterranean Sea during the night in a mysterious crash that the Egyptian Prime Minister says may have been due to a terrorist attack.
No possibilities, including that of a terrorist attack, can be ruled out, according to Prime Minister Sherif Ismail, who stated that as yet very little information is available.
Sources from EgyptAir reported that at 2:26am, shortly before its disappearance from radar, the aircraft sent out an SOS signal, whereas another emergency signal was picked up two hours later at 4:26am. This later signal, according to the company, could have been sent by the automated location devices installed on the aircraft.
The captain of a mercantile ship claims to have witnessed flames on the sky during the night some 150 miles south of the Greek Island of Karpathos. His testimony led to the discovery of the plane’s wreckage in the area he described, just ten miles inside Egyptian territorial waters.
Flight MS804 left Charles de Gaulle airport at 11:09pm yesterday and disappeared from radar at 2:45am, just as it entered Egyptian airspace. The aircraft, an Airbus A320, was carrying 56 passengers, three security personnel and seven crew members. The majority of the passengers were Egyptians, as well as 15 French, a British, a Belgian, two Iraqis, a Kuwaiti, a Saudi, a Sudanese, a Portuguese, an Algerian, a Canadian and a citizen of Chad.
Experts have ruled out the use of portable surface-to-air missiles noting that the Airbus was out of the range of these weapons.
A possible scenario being advanced is that of a suicide bomber who could have placed a small explosive devise near one of the plane’s windows. The explosion at that altitude would cause a rapid decompression and easily result in the destruction of the aircraft.
Jean-Paul Troadec, former president of the French air accident investigation bureau (BEA), said there is “a strong possibility of an explosion on board from a bomb or a suicide bomber. The idea of a technical accident when weather conditions were good, seems also possible but not that likely.”
French Prime Minister Manuel Valls said that at this moment “no hypothesis” is excluded as to the possible causes of the crash.
French President, Francois Hollande, spoke Thursday morning by phone with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Sisi, and the two reportedly agreed on a “close cooperation” to ascertain the circumstances of the disaster.
Donald Trump Unveils Potential Supreme Court Justice Nominations
May 18, 2016Donald Trump Unveils Potential Supreme Court Justice Nominations
18 May 2016 Washington, DC
Source: Donald Trump Unveils Potential Supreme Court Justice Nominations – Breitbart
AP
Presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump unveiled 11 potential nominations to the Supreme Court if he were to become President of the United States.
Some of the names to replace Justice Antonin Scalia, who passed away in February, according to the Associated Press are:
Steven Colloton of Iowa, Allison Eid of Colorado, Raymond Gruender of Missouri, Thomas Hardiman of Pennsylvania, Raymond Kethledge of Michigan, Joan Larsen of Michigan, Thomas Lee of Utah, William Pryor of Alabama, David Stras of Minnesota, Diane Sykes of Wisconsin and Don Willett of Texas.
Trump previously said he would release the list to ease any concerns from Republican voters that he wouldn’t nominate a conservative judge.
Mitt Romney ends recruiting efforts for an independent candidate
May 18, 2016Mitt Romney ends recruiting efforts for an independent candidate, CNN Politics, Eric Bradner and Jim Acosta. May 18, 2016
Washington (CNN) Mitt Romney won’t launch a third-party presidential campaign of his own and has stopped trying to recruit somebody else to do it.
The 2012 Republican nominee had attempted to recruit a challenger to Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. But prospects like Nebraska Sen. Ben Sasse said no, and Romney is now dropping his efforts, a source familiar with Romney’s thinking told CNN. The news was first reported by Yahoo News.
It’s the latest blow to the “Never Trump” movement — a group of conservatives led by Romney, blogger Erick Erickson and The Weekly Standard editor Bill Kristol — to find an alternative to Trump.
Romney still hopes a candidate will emerge. But an adviser to the “Never Trump” efforts confirmed Tuesday night that the efforts are looking grim.
Part of the challenge, a key “Never Trump” official said, is that prospective candidates need to hear a campaign plan that involves money, staffing, viability, key states to target and a plan to get onto the presidential debate stages.
But the people making the pitches, the official said, “aren’t campaign managers. They’re writers, activists and politicians. You need someone to say, ‘this is how I’d make this real.’ The odds remain low.”
A list of prospects that include Sasse, Romney, former Marine Gen. James Mattis, Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban and Ohio Gov. John Kasich have all publicly said they’re not willing to launch campaigns at this stage.
Romney had been heavily involved in the recruiting efforts. He encouraged Sasse, the freshman Nebraska Republican, to run — but Sasse, who has three small children, said he’s not in a position to consider it.
Meanwhile, GOP officials are maneuvering to shut down talk of an independent candidate.
Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus said Sunday that a third-party bid would be a “suicide mission.”
“They can try to hijack another party and get on the ballot, but, look, it’s a suicide mission for our country because what it means is that you’re throwing down not just eight years of the White House but potentially 100 years on the Supreme Court and wrecking this country for many generations,” Priebus said on “Fox News Sunday,” anticipating that a conservative third-party candidate would split the Republican vote and ensure a Democrat wins the White House.
Dems Seek Quicker Admission of Syrian Refugees Despite Terrorism Concerns
May 18, 2016Dems Seek Quicker Admission of Syrian Refugees Despite Terrorism Concerns, Washington Free Beacon, Natalie Johnson, May 18, 2016
Syrian refugee family in eastern Lebanese town / AP
Senate Democrats sent a letter to President Obama Wednesday pressing the administration to accelerate the admission process for Syrian refugees to settle in the United States.
Obama vowed last year that the U.S. would resettle up to 10,000 individuals seeking haven from the Syrian civil before September, but according to Reuters only 1,736 refugees have been admitted.
27 senators, including the No. 2 Democrat Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I, Vt.), signed the letter urging the Obama administration to “devote the necessary resources to expeditiously and safely resettle Refugees from Syria.”
“We are deeply concerned about the slow pace of admissions for Syrian refugees in the first seven months of the fiscal year,” the senators wrote in the letter obtained by Reuters.
The letter arrived three weeks after Director of National Intelligence James Clapper said that the Islamic State terrorist group has “taken advantage” of the migrant crisis in Europe, advising E.U. nations to maintain awareness.
One of the suicide bombers who conspired in the November Paris attacks that killed 130 people entered Greece using a fake Syrian passport posing as a refugee. He then traveled the same route fleeing migrants use to make his way into Western Europe.
The revelations have ignited criticism from Republicans who contend that the president’s plan would lead to similar attacks in the U.S. without a stringent vetting process in place.
More than 30 governors have called on the U.S. to halt the refugee resettlement program and have tried implementing restrictions to prevent them from entering their states. Only one of those states was home to a Democratic governor.
The Democratic signatories demanded in their letter that the administration provide specific details as to how the nation would carry through on its vow to resettle the remaining 8,264 Syrians during the next five months.
“Other nations, including ours, can and should do much more,” the senators wrote.
The U.S. has so far resettled more than 6,000 refugees from Myanmar and more than 5,000 from Iraq.
Will Trump’s Supreme Court List Finish Off #NeverTrump?
May 18, 2016Will Trump’s Supreme Court List Finish Off #NeverTrump? PJ Media, Roger L. Simon, May 18, 2016
Donald Trump released his long-awaited list of possible Supreme Court nominees today. All eleven are conservatives, most originally appointed to appellate courts by George W. Bush. Compared to anyone Clinton or Sanders might conceivably appoint, they all could be regarded as “strict constructionist” in the Antonin Scalia mold.
One, Allison Eid of Colorado, clerked for the currently most conservative justice Clarence Thomas. She was also speechwriter for William Bennett. Who knew Reagan’s Secretary of Education needed writers – he’s a distinguished author himself – but Eid is clearly no slouch. Here’s Wikipedia’s description of the jurisprudence of another potential nominee, Missouri’s Richard Gruender:
In Planned Parenthood Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota v. Rounds, No. 05-3093, a panel of the Eighth Circuit upheld an injunction that struck down a South Dakota informed consent law that required abortion providers to inform patients, among other things, that an “abortion will terminate the life of a whole, separate, unique, living human being.” Gruender dissented, arguing that the law was constitutional and did not unduly burden women seeking abortions or infringe on the freedom of speech of physicians. The Eighth Circuit heard the case en banc and ruled in 2008 by a vote of 7–4, in an opinion authored by Gruender, that the law was, on its face, constitutional.[10][11]
Diane Sykes and William Pryor, both also on the list, have been bandied about for some years as possible Republican SCOTUS nominees.
I could go on, but the point is this – Trump, thus far, has delivered as promised. This list would build a Supreme Court that most, if not all, Republicans could more than live with for many years. I know there will be hold-outs who will claim Trump is prevaricating and will end up nominating, say, Gloria Allred (not very likely, I think). Or that he should have Ted Cruz on the list. Who knows? Over time that could change.
But I think I can confidently say the #NeverTrump movement just took a mortal blow.
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