Rudy Tirre's Posts (5090)

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Wednesday AM ~ TheFrontPageCover

The Front Page Cover
 The Events of the Week -- Featuring: 
 
The Bad, Bad and the Ugly – liar-Clinton,
liar-nObama and Soros United Against America
by Rick Wells
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 Changing the Presumption of Immigration 
 Enforcement 
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By Lewis Morris: President Donald Trump's promise to take on illegal immigration went from rhetoric to reality this week when Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly released two memos outlining directives that aim to get a handle on the problem. Here's the primary difference from the last eight years: Under Barack liar-nObama, the presumption was against deportation; now it's in favor of removing illegals. That's a sea change in emphasis that's critical to restoring Rule of Law.
          Kelly was one of the first of Trump's cabinet nominees to clear the Senate, and by a largely bipartisan vote of 88-11. The widely respected retired Marine Corps general has a great deal of experience working in Latin America, and he also served as a homeland security advisor during the liar-nObama administration. His bona fides were recognized and respected during his confirmation hearing and Senate vote. Now that he is making good on the promise of his appointment, we'll have to see how bipartisan the support truly is for his actions.
          Kelly's memorandums lay out the DHS plan to tackle illegal immigration in unmistakable detail. First, DHS is going back to pursuing criminal offenses committed by illegal immigrants. This is once again an unequivocally deportable offense. And that will include defrauding public welfare programs.
          Additionally, local law enforcement will be allowed to act as immigration agents in these criminal cases, a power that was greatly reduced during the liar-nObama years.
          DHS will also call for the hiring of 10,000 new Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agents, and an additional 5,000 Border Patrol agents. You may recall during the liar-nObama years that ICE and the Border Patrol were forced to get creative about meeting their mandate with reduced funds and smaller hiring quotas.
          As Andrew McCarthy put it, "liar-nObama did not so much openly push for the repeal or relaxation of immigration laws; his method was to pretend to enforce them (i.e., pretend that they were a 'priority') while implementing a process that quietly immunized most aliens."
 Thankfully, Kelly's order will also end one of those "priorities" — the so-called "catch-and-release" policy. It's misguided and ultimately dangerous to allow arrested illegal immigrant felons to leave incarceration and rejoin the citizen population while awaiting trial — essentially allowing them to disappear into the country until they're picked up again for another crime. Many of them were never found again.
          And, yes, the DHS memo also calls for concrete plans to design and build a border wall between the United States and Mexico, starting at key points such as El Paso, Texas; Tucson, Arizona; and Southern California. Trump maintains that Mexico will pay for the wall. Mexico says that will never happen, but in reality, it can happen very simply by reducing Mexican aid by the amount of money needed to pay for the wall's construction. But that's a topic for another conversation.
          What's important right now is stemming the tide of illegals coming into this country and staying without consequence.
          "The surge of illegal immigration at the southern border has overwhelmed federal agencies and resources and crated a significant national security vulnerability to the United States," Kelly wrote in the memos.
          The Left wants everyone to think that these actions are based on Trump-era xenophobia and racism. But it's a well-documented fact that international drug cartels, human traffickers, and international terrorist groups have flocked to our porous southern border because it's so ridiculously easy to cross. Making our border secure from threats is simple logic. One of the most fundamental rules of national security is to secure a nation's borders.
          liar-nObama claimed to be concerned about the border and the plight of illegal immigrants, but only to the extent that these newcomers — legal or otherwise — could help the leftist cause. Trump has made it a priority to reverse this lawlessness in favor of secure borders. ~The Patriot Post
 
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Trump Should “Drain the Swamp”
at the FBI Before Terror Strikes Again
by Cliff Kincaid
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{aim.org} ~ Bill Gates was recently quoted as saying that bioterrorism could kill more people than nuclear war, but that Western governments are not ready to deal with it. The situation may be worse than he thinks... What stories about his remarks at the Munich Security Conference did not explain is that the FBI has still failed to resolve the question of who carried out the post-9/11 anthrax attacks on America. Some of the evidence points to al Qaeda, and there are reports that other Islamic terrorist groups, such as ISIS, are now developing biological weapons. For his part, President Donald Trump is currently engaged in a feud with the FBI over “illegal leaks” that he wants investigated and stopped...  http://www.aim.org/aim-column/trump-should-drain-the-swamp-at-the-fbi-before-terror-strikes-again/?utm_source=AIM+-+Daily+Email&utm_campaign=Daily%20Email%20Feb-27-2017&utm_medium=email
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Ramos Claims USA Conquered – Rallies Invaders US Belongs To Them Now
by Rick Wells
{rickwells.us} ~ Finally, in what was an apparent attempt to unify the invasion forces and convince them that they have reached critical mass, a leader of the effort by Mexico to conquer the United States has publicly acknowledged what they are doing... Univision senior anchor Jorge Ramos did what few in the American mainstream press ever do, he told the truth about the his component of the hostile action against our republic. Ramos verified that what is taking place is exactly what we have long recognized and feared was happening, the reason the border wall is such a hot issue. On Friday Univision senior anchor Jorge Ramos declared that the United States belongs to Latino invaders, stating to a Spanish-speaking audience in no uncertain terms that “it is our country, not theirs.”...  http://rickwells.us/ramos-claims-usa-conquered-rallies-invaders-us-belongs-now/
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House Intel Chair On Trump-Russia Evidence:
‘There’s Nothing There’
by Chuck Ross
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{dailycaller.com} ~ The chairman of the House Intelligence Committee said Monday that he will not subpoena President Trump’s tax returns as part of his investigation into links to the Russian government... California Rep. Devin Nunes also said during a press gaggle on Capitol Hill that he’s been told by federal officials that “there’s nothing there” regarding allegations that Trump campaign advisers made improper contacts with Russian agents prior to the election. Trump’s tax returns have received new attention amid the ongoing probes into any links between his advisers and the Russian government. But Nunes, who served on the Trump transition team, told reporters that a subpoena is not on the table...
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Donna Brazile’s New Excuse About Hacked E-Mails:
They Didn’t Tell ‘Complete Story’
by Trey Sanchez
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{truthrevolt.org ~ Former Democratic National Convention interim chair Donna Brazile is providing a new excuse about the e-mail evidence that proved she tipped the liar-Hillary Clinton campaign the exact wording of questions for a CNN debate... saying it doesn’t tell the “complete story.” According to Mediaite’s Josh Feldman, Brazile said, “The e-mails that were allegedly sent to me, or sent from me, you know, told a story, but it didn’t tell the complete story.” This is a brand new excuse by Brazile over the controversy. Before, she claimed the e-mails were doctored by the hackers even though they were authenticated. Now, they just don’t tell the “complete story” — or at least the one she wants us to know.
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Europe: Laughing at the Messenger
by Douglas Murray
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{gatestoneinstitute.org} ~ How can one excavate the minds of so many European officials and the extraordinary mental gymnastics of denial to which they have become prone?... One of the finest demonstrations of this trend occurred in January 2015, after France was assailed by Islamist gunmen in the offices of the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo and then in a Jewish supermarket. In the days after those attacks, Fox News in the U.S. ran an interview with a guest who said that Paris, and France, as a whole, had "no-go zones" where the authorities -- including emergency services -- did not dare to go. In the wake of these comments, the Mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, chose to make a stand. She announced that she was suing Fox News because the "honour of Paris" was at stake. It appeared that Mayor Hidalgo was rightly concerned about the image of her city around the world, presumably worrying in particular about the potential effects on tourism...They still have not woken up.  https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/9988/sweden-trump   
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The Bad, Bad and the Ugly – liar-Clinton,
liar-nObama and Soros United Against America
by Rick Wells
{rickwells.us} ~The first minute of the video is typical liar-Clinton and Democrat patronizing BS for their base and unless you’ve got a strong stomach and a high tolerance for hypocrisy you’ll probably want to skip forward to the 1:00 minute mark. That’s where liar-Clinton starts getting into the meat of her message, their coordinated attacks on the American people and our President.

It’s important to remember that these remarks come as Hussein liar-nObama is ramping up his OFA agitation organization, and as her sponsor, George Soros, is continuing in his efforts to obstruct and invalidate the Trump Presidency through his spider web of various leftist front organizations. Apparently now is the time they’ve identified to bring the old blister out to do her part.

liar-Clinton says, “After the primaries we came together as a party to write the most progressive platform in history. Ideas we championed are now inspiring leaders and activists across our country. She reminds the viewers of her supposed popular vote edge, saying, “Nearly 66 million votes are fueling grassroots energy and activism. And everywhere people are marching, protesting, tweeting, speaking out and working for an America that’s hopeful, inclusive and big hearted.”

Of course she implies that those marches and protests and the rest of the dissension and disruption is occurring organically, which it isn’t. It’s a coordinated effort between liar-nObama and Soros utilizing his network of agitators and the same Soros thugs that liar-nObama and liar-Clinton directed to attack Trump supporters during the campaign. None of the unrest is happening without their filthy fingerprints all over it.

She singles out some of the specific areas where liar-nObama and Soros have deployed their anti-Trump thugs and agitators, the “women’s” Planned Parenthood march, airports, and GOP Town Halls. She throws the totally meaningless statement into the mix that people are speaking up for health care, the environment and good jobs, all the things the Democrats were promising over the past 8 years as they led our nation to the brink of collapse. We’re still standing, that’s why they’re re-emerging at this time, to finish us off.

She urges Democrats to stay engaged, to reach out to new voters and everyone who wants a better, stronger, fairer America. She’s basically talking about better than what liar-nObama left us, stronger than the collapsing military that he engineered us into, and fairer in the sense of communist “equal everything” that the globalists mission is to force us into.

She uses the “forward” code word of regimes of the past, including liar-nObama’s, saying, “We must move forward with confidence and optimism and stay focused on the elections we must win this year and next. Let resistance plus persistence equal progress for our party and our country.”

She thanks the liar-nObamas and DNC leaders as she pledges to all Democrats to “be right there with you every step of the way.” That’s similar to the announcement liar-nObama made in the closing days of his pretend ‘presidency,’ that he was going to start his own communist agitation movement, which turned out to be OFA. Now, with her coming out video, the three headed fascist/communist monster that we are facing has taken form.

She’s awful cocky for a woman facing potential espionage, treason and other felony charges. liar-nObama is similarly quite brazen in his attacks on America considering the fraud he perpetrated over the last eight years. Soros is likewise guilty of innumerable felonies against this nation. Let’s, as a nation, stop kidding ourselves and stop pretending these people aren’t the enemy we all know them to be.

It’s time for Attorney General Sessions to convene some grand juries, and to take a serious look into prosecuting all three of these criminals and their enterprises. The FBI has an active, ongoing investigation into the criminal liar-Clinton Foundation’s racketeering, slush fund and money laundering operations. That’s just the kind of investigation that could wipe that stupid and phony smug grin right off of her hideous mug.

That’s a great place to start and now is clearly the time. She’s begging for it.
Read more…

Tuesday PM ~ TheFrontPageCover

The Front Page Cover
 The Events of the Week -- Featuring: 
 
Would You Want Your Vaccine
Produced by Supporters of Jihad?
by Judith Bergman
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 Top Headlines 
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Conservatives in the Trump era: 15 takeaways from CPAC. (The Daily Signal)
 
Trump signs executive order to help remove "job-killing regulations." (ABC News)
 
New EPA administrator emphasizes federalism, Rule of Law. (The Daily Signal)
 
Trump address to Congress will focus on tax cuts, health plan. (MarketWatch)
 
Despite the hysteria, Trump is trending less authoritarian than liar-nObama. (National Review)
 
Audit: Social Security admin redistributed $1 BILLION of your taxes to Individuals with no SSI number. (Social Security Administration)
 
More deep state trouble: liar-nObama loyalists suspected of "sabotage" with leak of travel ban report. (The Washington Times)
 
Trump declines to attend White House Correspondent Dinner. (The Hollywood Reporter)
 
Convicted felon Jesse Jackson Jr., former congressman, collects $138K annually from government. (Washington Free Beacon)
 
A gender-confused female wrestler, using testosterone to transition to male, wins Texas girls state championship. (Reuters)
 
Policy: The immigration number that ignores citizens' interests. (Bloomberg View)
 
Policy: The future of the two-state solution. (Capital Research Center~The Patriot Post
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Vets Slam Elizabeth Warren For Prioritizing
Illegal Aliens Over U.S. Veterans
by TK Whiteman
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{lidblog.com} ~ The internet-based vets advocacy group Veterans Assisting Veterans have taken aim at a number of Massachusetts politicians and the senior senator from Arizona, but specifically Sen. Elizabeth Warren for what they see as her... “‘selfish political theater’ and demanding they put veterans’ services at the top of their list — or feel the heat.” According to John MacDonald of Veterans Assisting Veterans (VAV), “We’d like to see our leaders re-examine their priorities, put this at the forefront — if we have to, we’ll knock on some doors in D.C.” MacDonald added, “We need to take care of veterans first before we decide to take care of people who are illegally here.” As reported by Dan Atkinson of the Boston Herald, VAV has issued a two-page open letter to “all Americans,” but specifically asking Massachusetts politicos U.S. Sen. Edward Markey, U.S. Reps. Michael Capuano and Seth Moulton — himself an Iraq war veteran — and Mayor Martin J. Walsh why are they “failing to speak out about veteran homelessness and health care problems.”...
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Palestinians: Why a
"Regional Peace Process" Will Fail
by Khaled Abu Toameh
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Palestinian leaders would rather have France, Sweden, Norway
and Belgium oversee a peace process with Israel
than any of the Arab countries
{gatestoneinstitute.org| ~ Here is a fundamental misapprehension: Arab countries can help achieve peace in the Middle East by persuading, or rather pressuring, the Palestinians to make concessions to Israel... This misapprehension is both misleading and baseless. Recently, officials in Israel and Washington started talking about a "regional approach" to solving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. In this view, as many Arab countries as possible would be directly involved in the effort to achieve a lasting and comprehensive peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians. Advocates of the "regional approach" believe that Arab countries such as Jordan, Egypt, Lebanon, Qatar and Saudi Arabia have enough leverage with the Palestinians to compel them accept a peace agreement with Israel. The Palestinians, however, were quick to dismiss the idea as yet another American-Israeli-Arab "conspiracy to "liquidate" their cause and force them to make unacceptable concessions. Chief among these "unacceptable concessions" are recognizing Israel as a Jewish state and giving up the demand for a "right of return" for millions of Palestinian refugees into Israel...  https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/9983/regional-peace-process
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Entire Administration Turns Down
J Street Anti-Israel Group
by Daniel Greenfield
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{frontpagemag.com} ~ Anti-Israel hate group J Street tried to get someone, anyone, from the current administration to come to its Israel-bashing fest... While in the past the Soros-funded hate group had been able to count on a star roster of liar-nObama people, this time they've been turned down by everyone at the White House. Even the janitor. Instead the star of the hatefest will be Bernie Sanders, who backed Jesse Jackson despite his anti-Semitic slurs, and who lied and claimed that Israel had killed 10,000 people. Joining the senile Socialist will be fresh blood like Nancy Pulosi and Jan Schakowsky. Also assorted representatives of the PLO terror state.  http://www.frontpagemag.com/point/265938/entire-administration-turns-down-j-street-anti-daniel-greenfield
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Supports Abolishing Second Amendment –
DNC Deputy Ellison Caught Lying
by Rick Wells
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{rickwells.us} ~ The automatic default for black racists like Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson and Rep Keith Ellison (D-MN) when they’re caught in a lie is to first deny and then claim that they were taken out of context... That’s the technique that was utilized by Ellison, now the DNC deputy chairman, in their Wednesday night debate. Ellison is asked by a friendly CNN moderator, Dana Bash, about comments he made on the topic of gun control. She reads, “In 2014 you told Bill Maher that you wished the Democrat Party would come out against the Second Amendment. How do you reach out to Americans who support gun rights when you don’t support the Second Amendment?” For some unknown reason Ellison gets a goofy grin on his face before she even completes the question and attempts to start his false answer early. He says, “First of all let me tell you, and I remember that show very well and that is not what I said at all.” Pay attention folks, this is what Ellison looks like when he’s telling a bald-faced lie. He continues, “What I talked about is my grandfather’s shotgun, the fact that I am a turkey hunter, and I didn’t say that. That was not an accurate statement.”...  http://rickwells.us/supports-abolishing-second-amendment-dnc-deputy-ellison-caught-lying/
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Trump To Target Huge Cuts At EPA, State Dept,
Climate Hoax To Fund Military Revival
by Rick Wells
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{rickwells.us} ~ Since the whole climate change scam was a global government hoax to insert the UN into a controlling position over the domestic affairs of every nation on the planet and we now have a President who isn’t in cahoots with the UN in trying to destroy our country... it’s only logical to cut the waste there as a means of funding the resuscitation of our military. What was used as a tool to siphon off cash to cripple our military capabilities can now be cut as a means of rehabilitation. President Trump is expected to demand major cuts to one of the two most hated and abusive agencies in the federal government, the Environmental Protection Agency as well as one of the most chronically corrupt, wasteful and opulent, the Department of State. The planet is not really attacking us, as the scammer who used to reside in the White House and his accomplices Gina McCarthy and John hanoi-Kerry used to claim. Those were just scare tactics to manipulate their hands into the treasury so they could throw money away on climate crap and in the direction of their cronies...  http://rickwells.us/trump-target-huge-cuts-epa-state-dept-climate-hoax-fund-military-revival/
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Would You Want Your Vaccine
Produced by Supporters of Jihad?
by Judith Bergman
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Denmark's Statens Serum Institut (State Serum Institute)
{gatestoneinstitute.org} ~ Would you want your vaccines produced by a Saudi company that supports jihad? Danes, it seems, may have no choice.
 
Denmark recently sold its state-owned vaccine manufacturing facility to a conglomerate owned by the Aljomaih Group, a Saudi family dynasty led by Sheikh AbdulAziz Hamad Aljomaih. The sheikh is also the largest single stockholder and chairman of Arcapita Bank, formerly First Islamic Investment Bank headquartered in Bahrain. As an Islamic bank, it has a so-called Sharia Supervisory Board comprised of Islamic scholars, who ensure that the bank's activities comply with sharia (Islamic law).
 
Former Islamic judge and leading Islamic scholar Taqi Usmani, who sits on the bank's Sharia Board, in his book, "Islam and Modernism", writes ruminations such as: "Aggressive Jihad is lawful even today... Its justification cannot be veiled..."
 
Usami had also, after Danish newspapers reprinted the Mohammad cartoons in 2008, co-signed an appeal to the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC), urging it to boycott Denmark:
"If the Danish government does not declare the publication of shameful and blasphemous cartoons as a criminal act, the OIC should appeal to all Islamic nations for a trade boycott of that bigoted country".
Equally noteworthy is that the spiritual leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, Yussuf al-Qaradawi, used to sit on Arcapita's sharia board, until he eventually resigned. Qaradawi, already in 1995, told a Muslim Arab Youth Association convention in Toledo, Ohio, "We will conquer Europe, we will conquer America!" According to Qaradawi, sharia law should be introduced gradually, over a five-year period in a new country. Presumably, this gradually-introduced sharia legal system would include the end of free speech under "blasphemy laws", the denigration and oppression of women, such as women worth half as much as men in court, polygamy, the persecution of Jews (Qaradawi advocates killing all of them), beating wives as a way of "disciplining" them and so on. Only after this transition phase, sharia laws such as killing apostates and homosexuals, as well as chopping off hands for theft, would be introduced.
 
Given Qaradawi's former prominence in Arcapita, it hardly comes as a surprise that the bank has given financial support to the Muslim Brotherhood in Bahrain, known there as the Al Islah Society. According to a leaked report by former US Ambassador to Bahrain, Ambassador William T. Monroe:
"Arcapita reported giving a total $591,000 in 2003 and $583,000 in 2002 to a variety of charitable organizations... the Islamic Education Society (Al Tarbiya Al Islamiya - Sunni Salafi) and the Al Islah Society (Sunni Muslim Brotherhood) are the largest beneficiaries of Arcapita's charitable giving... We are aware of concerns linking Arcapita advisors and staff to questionable organizations."
In August 2016, the Danish government announced that it "...rejects any organization representing antidemocratic and radicalized environments" and considers the Muslim Brotherhood to be "deeply problematic" and something they "strongly reject".
 
Clearly not strongly enough.
 
"Selling the crucial manufacture of vaccines to an ideologically hostile country, which might -- for whatever reason -- suddenly decide to shut down production, does not sound like a good idea. Those who say that the Saudis are merely interested in profit, just like everybody else, should know better", Rachel Ehrenfeld, an expert on the financing of terrorism, told Ekstra Bladet.
 
Virtually all political parties supported the Danish government's sale of its vaccine manufacturing facility to the Saudi conglomerate. This is strange, given the recent history of Danish-Saudi relations.
 
After the publication of the Danish Mohammad cartoons in 2006, Saudis boycotted Danish goods. Saudi Arabia's religious leader, Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdul Aziz al-Sheik, demanded that the Danish government hold Jyllands-Posten, the newspaper that printed the Mohammad cartoons, to account and force the newspaper to give an apology: "The government should give the newspaper a fine as a deterrence. This is the least that Muslims should demand", he said.
 
Do Danish politicians really have such short memories?
 
Vaccines are not an easy commodity to come by. It takes minimum of six months for an order of vaccines to be delivered, but, according to the World Health Organization, delivery can also easily take up to two years.
 
Astonishingly, the Danish state has given the Aljomaih group an incredible start by promising to buy all its children's vaccines from the sheikh for the first 30 months. Only after that will Danish authorities be able to buy their children's vaccines elsewhere. The Danish government has also promised the Aljomaih group not to create new Danish state vaccine production for the first three years.
 
Should consumers not be able to trust a producer of something as critical as vaccines? How much trust are Danish consumers supposed to have in a Saudi owned conglomerate, which employs jihadists such as Usmani, which donates heavily to jihadist organizations such as the Muslim Brotherhood, which in turn wants to bring about a caliphate? The potential for political exploitation is too evident to reject. Ekstra Bladet ran a poll on its website asking whether Danes were in favor or against the sale: 95% were against it.
 
Even more remarkable is that the government claims not to have known about the connection between the Muslim Brotherhood and Aljomaih; all the information is easily accessible on the internet.
 
Health Minister Ellen Trane Nørby has defended the sale: "We did not have several buyers to choose from. We have the buyer we have and it has saved 600 Danish jobs, which would otherwise have been lost".
 
Is she saying that the safety of Danish citizens is worth 600 jobs?
 
The sale of the Danish vaccine production facility to the Saudi conglomerate captures perfectly everything that is wrong with European politicians today: their apparent gullibility, their carelessness and their desire to sell out to places such as Saudi Arabia, seemingly without giving much thought to the long-term consequences. 
 
Read more…

Tues/Noon ~ TheFrontPageCover

The Front Page Cover
 The Events of the Week -- Featuring: 
 
Trump and the ‘Madman Theory’
by Charles Krauthammer

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 Venezuela's Socialist Diet 
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Is this what Bernie Sanders and his ilk envision for America when they fervently promote pure socialism? Via Fox News: "In a new sign that Venezuela's financial crisis is morphing dangerously into a humanitarian one, a new nationwide survey shows that in the past year nearly 75 percent of the population lost an average of 19 pounds for lack of food. The extreme poor said they dropped even more weight than that. The 2016 Living Conditions Survey (Encovi, for its name in Spanish), conducted among 6,500 families, also found that as many as 32.5 percent eat only once or twice a day — the figure was 11.3 just a year ago. In all, 82 percent of the nation's households live in poverty, the study found."
          Way back in 1985, Sanders lectured, "Sometimes American journalists talk about how bad a country is because people are lining up for food. That's a good thing." By that logic, the millions upon millions of undernourished Venezuelans, some of whom now lie in mass graves because they can't find enough food, can somehow be construed as "a good thing." Sanders wrongly believes that his version of socialism would evolve differently. But the reality is that socialist "equality" for everyone means misery for all. And for those who think Sanders can somehow turn statism into a utopia, it's worth reflecting on what Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro's said last year in support of Sanders: "He is an emerging candidate with a renovating and revolutionary message." Unlike America's leftists, Maduro understands the end result is always the same.
          Consider also this 2011 excerpt that appears on Sanders' senate.gov website: "These days, the American dream is more apt to be realized in South America, in places such as Ecuador, Venezuela and Argentina, where incomes are actually more equal today than they are in the land of Horatio Alger." That may be true. But as Venezuela demonstrates, they also share hunger equally. It's becoming increasingly obvious that nothing can change the minds of statist supporters — even widespread malnutrition that results in 20 lbs. of weight loss. Instead, as Sanders' might say, they're more apt to perceive it as an effective dieting regime.  ~The Patriot Post
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France: Deradicalization of Jihadists
a "Total Fiasco"
by Soeren Kern
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The Château de Pontourny "Center for Prevention, Integration
and Citizenship," in France
{gatestoneinstitute.org} ~ The French government's flagship program to deradicalize jihadists is a "total failure" and must be "completely reconceptualized," according to the initial conclusions of a parliamentary fact-finding commission on deradicalization... The preliminary report reveals that the government has nothing to show for the tens of millions of taxpayer euros it has spent over the past several years to combat Islamic radicalization in France, where 238 people have been killed in jihadist attacks since January 2015. The report implies that deradicalization, either in specialized centers or in prisons, does not work because most Islamic radicals do not want to be deradicalized. The report, "Deindoctrination, Derecruitment and Reintegration of Jihadists in France and Europe"  (Désendoctrinement, désembrigadement et réinsertion des djihadistes en France et en Europe) — the title avoids using the word "deradicalization" because it is considered by some to be politically incorrect — was presented to the Senate Committee on Constitutional and Legal Affairs on February 22...  https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/9982/france-deradicalization
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Tom Perez elected to chair DNC,
names defeated Keith Ellison as his deputy
by Eric Cortellessa
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{timesofisrael.com} ~ Former labor secretary Tom Perez was elected as the Democratic National Committee’s new chairman Saturday, narrowly defeating his chief rival, Minnesota Rep. Keith Ellison, after a contentious campaign... Perez immediately named Ellison his deputy. The four-month race drew controversy over the Minnesota legislator’s past record of associations with known anti-Semitic figures and critical stances on Israel. His alliance with much of the progressive wing of the party threatened to divide the Democrats as they seek to revitalize themselves after tough losses in the 2016 election. In his first act as DNC leader, Perez appointed Ellison his deputy chair, a move that sought to unify the party and prevent — or, at the least, alleviate — continued infighting. “I look forward to helping the Democratic Party in any way that I can,” Ellison said in a statement...  http://www.http://www.timesofisrael.com/tom-perez-elected-to-chair-dnc-defeats-keith-ellison/?utm_source=The+Times+of+Israel+Daily+Edition&utm_campaign=85d49be472-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2017_02_26&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_adb46cec92-85d49be472-54638825/tom-perez-elected-to-chair-dnc-defeats-keith-ellison/?utm_source=The+Times+of+Israel+Daily+Edition&utm_campaign=85d49be472-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2017_02_26&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_adb46cec92-85d49be472-54638825
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ICE confirms Bridgeport murder and
Amber Alert suspect was previously deported
by Katie Carolan
{fox61.com} ~ The Bridgeport man accused of killing his girlfriend and sparking an Amber Alert when he took off with their 6-year-old daughter, was previously deported, immigration officials said... "Oscar Obedio Hernandez, a citizen of El Salvador, was issued a Final Order of Removal by an immigration judge on Oct. 29, 2013," said spokesman Shawn Neudauer. "He was removed from the United States by ICE officers in Hartford, CT on Nov. 27, 2013. He has prior felony convictions from 2002 for assault and threatening, as well as several misdemeanor convictions. ICE has placed an immigration detainer with the Bridgeport (Connecticut) Police Department.” Gov. Dan Malloy's spokeswoman, Kelly Donnelly, issued a statement today regarding the incident between Hernandez and the ICE...
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liar-nObama, liar-Clinton, Soros Thugs
Shout Down Prayer, Pledge In Senator’s Town Hall
by Rick Wells
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{rickwells.us} ~ It’s admirable that in spite of the threats by George Soros and Hussein liar-nObama’s partnership in anti-American agitation and thuggery, OFA, that they would be swamping town halls with their trained national army of paid disrupters... Sen Bill Cassidy (R-LA) attempted to meet with and gain input from his constituents anyway. It’s unfortunate that, due to a failure on the part of the fake news media to properly identify the problem and assign the blame where it belongs, with liar-nObama and Soros, this is happening. The former pretend ‘president,’ his financier and now the criminal candidate who tried to become the second consecutive person to steal the presidency liar-Hillary Clinton, have acknowledged with pride that they are behind the disruptions, and they’re just getting started. Barring action by law enforcement to forcibly remove their thugs, these things are only going to continue and get progressively worse. It’s just like when the same criminal Democrats, liar-nObama, liar-Clinton and Soros sent their thugs into the Trump rallies to do exactly the same thing...
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At CPAC, Panelists Discuss Role Vetting,
Assimilation Play in National Security
by Fred Lucas
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{dailysignal.com} ~ Extreme vetting and a border wall are the key issues facing the country under President Donald Trump’s administration—but aren’t the silver bullet solution to immigration, experts and members of Congress said Saturday... “Extreme vetting is something that applies to the refugee side of this debate,” said Rep. Ken Buck, R-Colo., during a panel at the Conservative Political Action Conference, or CPAC. The forum was titled “If Heaven Has a Gate, a Wall, and Extreme Vetting, Why Can’t America?” and covered a number of illegal immigration issues, from the national security impact to the economy...
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Trump and the ‘Madman Theory’
by Charles Krauthammer
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{freedomsback.com} ~ At the heart of President Trump’s foreign policy team lies a glaring contradiction. On the one hand, it is composed of men of experience, judgment and traditionalism. Meaning, they are all very much within the parameters of mainstream American internationalism as practiced since 1945. Practically every member of the team — the heads of State, Homeland Security, the CIA, and most especially Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and national security adviser H.R. McMaster — could fit in a Cabinet put together by, say, liar-Hillary Clinton.

The commander in chief, on the other hand, is quite the opposite — inexperienced, untraditional, unbounded. His pronouncements on everything from the one-China policy to the two-state Arab-Israeli solution, from NATO obsolescence to the ravages of free trade, continue to confound and, as we say today, disrupt.

The obvious question is: Can this arrangement possibly work? The answer thus far, surprisingly, is: perhaps.

The sample size is tiny but take, for example, the German excursion. Trump dispatched his grown-ups — Vice President Pence, Defense Secretary Mattis, Secretary of Homeland Security John Kelly and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson — to various international confabs in Germany to reassure allies with the usual pieties about America’s commitment to European security. They did drop a few hints to Trump’s loud complaints about allied parasitism, in particular shirking their share of the defense burden.

Within days, Germany announced a 20,000-troop expansion of its military. Smaller European countries are likely to take note of the new setup. It’s classic good-cop, bad-cop: The secretaries represent foreign policy continuity but their boss preaches America First. Message: Shape up.

John Hannah of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies suggests that the push-pull effect might work on foes as well as friends. On Saturday, China announced a cutoff of all coal imports from North Korea for the rest of 2017. Constituting more than one-third of all North Korean exports, this is a major blow to its economy.

True, part of the reason could be Chinese ire at the brazen assassination of Kim Jong Un’s half brother, who had been under Chinese protection. Nonetheless, the boycott was declared just days after a provocative North Korean missile launch — and shortly into the term of a new American president who has shown that he can be erratic and quite disdainful of Chinese sensibilities.

His wavering on the one-China policy took Beijing by surprise. Trump also strongly denounced Chinese expansion in the South China Sea and conducted an ostentatious love-in with Japan’s prime minister, something guaranteed to rankle the Chinese. Beijing’s boycott of Pyongyang is many things, among them a nod to Washington.

This suggests that the peculiar and discordant makeup of the U.S. national security team — traditionalist lieutenants, disruptive boss — might reproduce the old Nixonian “madman theory.” That’s when adversaries tread carefully because they suspect the U.S. president of being unpredictable, occasionally reckless and potentially crazy dangerous. Henry Kissinger, with Nixon’s collaboration, tried more than once to exploit this perception to pressure adversaries.

Trump’s people have already shown a delicate touch in dealing with his bouts of loopiness. Trump has gone on for years about how we should have taken Iraq’s oil for ourselves. Sunday in Baghdad, Mattis wryly backed off, telling his hosts that “All of us in America have generally paid for our gas and oil all along, and I am sure we will continue to do so in the future.”

Yet sometimes an off-center comment can have its uses. Take Trump’s casual dismissal of a U.S. commitment to a two-state solution in the Middle East. The next day, U.S. policy was brought back in line by his own U.N. ambassador. But this diversion might prove salutary. It’s a message to the Palestinians that their decades of rejectionism may not continue to pay off with an inexorable march toward statehood — that there may actually be a price to pay for making no concessions and simply waiting for the U.S. to deliver them a Palestinian state.

To be sure, a two-track, two-policy, two-reality foreign policy is risky, unsettling and has the potential to go totally off the rails. This is not how you would draw it up in advance. It’s unstable and confusing. But the experience of the first month suggests that, with prudence and luck, it can yield the occasional benefit — that the combination of radical rhetoric and conventional policy may induce better behavior both in friend and foe.

Alas, there is also a worst-case scenario. It needs no elaboration.
 
Read more…

Tuesday AM ~ TheFrontPageCover

The Front Page Cover
 The Events of the Week -- Featuring: 
 
Breitbart To Bannon
by Tom McLaughlin
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 Trump's No on Sweden 
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In a campaign-style rally speech Saturday, Donald Trump said, "We've got to keep our country safe. You look at what's happening in Germany, you look at what's happening last night in Sweden. Sweden, who would believe this? Sweden. They took in large numbers [of immigrants]. They're having problems like they never thought possible. You look at what's happening in Brussels. You look at what's happening all over the world. Take a look at Nice [France]. Take a look at Paris." The Leftmedia once again pounced. Sweden hasn't had a terror attack. What's Trump talking about?!
          By now the media, with its obsession of covering everything Trump, should be well aware of Trump's unvarnished rhetorical style. As many have stated, listen for what he means not what he says. Admittedly, Trump was rather vague with his "last night" reference, not elaborating until later that he was referring to a Fox News story. However, given the larger context of Trump defending his recent immigration orders against Leftmedia pushback it seemed rather obvious that he was pointing out the problems Europe's mass immigration policies have created.
          But the Leftmedia had fun mocking Trump for disseminating more "fake news" — and then Monday happened. Reports of rioting in an immigrant-heavy suburb of Stockholm proved Trump's point. Sweden's liberal policy on accepting refugee immigrants in such mass numbers has become increasingly untenable. Sweden is now spending 1.5% of it GDP on asylum-seekers, more than it spends on defense. Among the immigrant population, there is 43% unemployment, much of this due to lack of cultural assimilation, language abilities and low labor skills. While Sweden has seen an overall decrease in crime since 2005, it has seen an alarming rise in the number of violent crimes like rape in the last couple of years.
          Trump has tapped into the zeitgeist of the moment regarding unfettered and unvetted immigration. What spurred the nationalist/populist movements both here in the U.S. and in Europe is the reality of the clashing of significant cultural values. When the generosity of one culture is met with scorn and violence from the other, it's little wonder that the dominant culture then pulls back and demands protection. Trump's manner may be easy to mock, but ignoring the message because of the messenger is a recipe for disaster.  ~The Patriot Post
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Congressman Protests Trump by Standing
Next to Convicted Terrorist and Murderer
by M.J. Randolph
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{truthrevolt.org} ~ The media is ignoring a growing and disturbing trend amongst left-leaning Americans as they form unholy alliances with anti-Semites. According to the Observer's Paul Miller... even lazy reporters wouldn't have to look too far to find evidence of such partnerships. After all, the leftists obviously don't try to hide it; in fact, they do it right out there in plain sight. First, meet Rasmea Odeh, a convicted terrorist who spent ten years in prison after masterminding a terror plot that killed Hebrew University students Edward Joffe and Leon Kanner in Jerusalem. After spending ten years in prison, she was released in a prisoner swap and later convicted of trying blow up the British consulate. But that didn't stop these things from happening. Representative Jan Schakowsky (D-Illinois) stood next to this convicted terrorist while discussing President Donald Trumps travel ban in Chicago...  http://www.truthrevolt.org/news/congressman-protests-trump-standing-next-convicted-terrorist-and-murderer
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The Left’s Trying To Make You Freak Out
About Trump: Calm Down & Relax
by J.E. Dyer
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{lidblog.com} ~ This won’t take very long. The mainstream media and the leftosphere – to the extent they are two different things – aren’t going to stop telling you everything is in chaos and everyone hates Trump... Meanwhile, everything is not in chaos, and everyone doesn’t hate Trump. Some in the right do have reservations and concerns about Trump. But unlike the people who seem to be unable to control themselves, we don’t find it either necessary or desirable to preface everything we say with “Trump is horrible!” We had reservations and concerns about liar-nObama, some of them greater than the ones about Trump. I just read through another column from Peggy Noonan, conveying her weekly point that everyone she runs into, in the politospace of the New York-D.C. axis, looks concussed by the earthquake of 2016.  I confess, my sympathy for this ran out after week one. What does she think the rest of the country has been going through for the last eight years? Join the crowd, dear...  http://lidblog.com/left-trying-make-freak-trump-calm-relax/
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North Korea Used Deadly
VX Nerve Agent In Airport...
by Rick Wells
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{rickwells.us} ~ It has now been determined that VX nerve agent was the toxic substance used to murder the half-brother of North Korea leader Kim Jong-un, Kim Jong-nam inside busy Kuala Lumpur Airport... That would indicate the perpetrator was a state, a terrorist state. The only terrorist state known to have any connection to the deceased Kin Jong-nam is that of his brother, North Korea. According to Jeffrey Lewis, an expert on WMD, VX nerve agent shuts down the enzyme that regulates the nervous system, causing the victim’s nervous system to “go crazy.” He said that’s why convulsions are common, with death occurring when its victims, “just stop breathing.” Dr. Bruce Goldberg states that exposure to a trace, a drop of VX is fatal. Malaysian police are still hunting for four North Korea nationals in relation to the attack. They believe these are the individuals who trained the women and provided them with the VX...  http://rickwells.us/north-korea-used-deadly-vx-nerve-agent-airport-chemical-weapons-hit/
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George Soros’ Reign as the Left’s
Financier is About to End
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{patrioticviralnews.com} ~ George Soros has masqueraded as a liberal donor for far too long. However, the true fact of the matter is George Soros is not who he pretends to be... Under that thin veil he is a staunch anarchist, who tosses his money towards opposition parties in order to not only help fund turmoil, but to also shut down governments. The nation of Hungary no longer allows him to donate money to political parties in their nation, and Russia has issued a warrant for his arrest if he ever steps foot in their country again. Other countries throughout Europe are starting to do the same. When an entire country blocks someone’s ability to donate money, there is usually a very just cause behind it. Now the United States is looking at doing the exact same thing. Congress has started to snoop directly into his secret life and his secret donations, both in the United States and abroad. The video below details what exactly the government has found so far on Soros. About time.  http://patrioticviralnews.com/articles/george-soros-reign-as-the-lefts-financier-is-about-to-end/
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Sage Steele Claims the Worst Racism Toward Her
Was From Fellow African-Americans
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{conservativetribune.com} ~ Speaking at a panel discussion in Florida, biracial ESPN anchor Sage Steele created controversy when she said that the “worst racism” she had ever received was “from black people,” according to The Daily Wire... Steele, a SportsCenter anchor, was appearing this week at a conference on race at The Crossing Church in Tampa, along with Super Bowl-winning former NFL coach Tony Dungy and former NFL star Benjamin Watson. She said her experience as being biracial, as well as being married to a white man, had opened her up to bigotry from the black community. “There are times that I believe that we, as African-Americans, can be hypocritical, and that is to not look ourselves in the mirror when we are saying certain things and blaming other groups for one thing when we are doing the exact same thing,” Steele said...That is true.
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Breitbart To Bannon
by Tom McLaughlin
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{tommclaughlin.blogspot.com} ~ “That’s my ADHD,” said Andrew Breitbart from the podium at CPAC as he was drawn off topic by something in the crowd. With my press pass, I was free to get near to him on the dais for close-up photographs and I had recognized his ADHD symptoms earlier in the conference when he was part of a panel. Breitbart was squirrelly as he sat waiting his turn to speak, but full of passionate intensity when he finally got up there.
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Breitbart waiting -- David Horowitz at Podium
 
The panel included former leftist David Horowitz and David Bossie, who later became Deputy Campaign Manager for President Donald Trump. He had been on still another CPAC panel I attended, introducing Irish film makers Ann McElhinney and Phelim McAleer, who had just released Fracknation, a documentary debunking mainstream media hype against the hydro-fracking process to produce oil and natural gas.
Breitbart%2Bdetermined%2B%25C2%25A9Tom%2BMcLaughlin%2B2017.jpg
One theme ran through all his panels and talks: circumventing mainstream media control of what Americans knew and didn’t know. He had a visceral hatred of their monopoly and made it his mission in life to smash it. He encouraged CPAC attendees to use a camera and laptop and become guerrilla journalists.
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People like James O’Keefe took him up on that when he went on to single-handedly destroy ACORN by exposing its incestuous relationship with both the Democrat Party and mainstream media. Another is Steve Bannon, who took over breitbart.com after Breitbart’s premature death in 2012. Bannon then took over Donald Trump’s presidential campaign and engineered a political earthquake. Andrew Breitbart is dead, but his mission continues.
 
It’s all-out war now. Bannon was at CPAC himself last week on a panel with Trump Chief-of-Staff Reince Preibus who has an adjoining office in the White House. He usually stays behind the scenes, so this was a rare, out-front appearance. He told his audience that President Trump will not moderate his positions, and will push them even harder. When Preibus predicted the administration’s relationship with mainstream media would improve, Bannon disagreed: “Not only is it not going to get better, it’s going to get worse every day… There are corporatist, globalist media that are adamantly opposed to an economic nationalist agenda like Donald Trump has… If you think they are going to give you your country back without a fight, you are sadly mistaken. Every day, every day, it is going to be a fight.”
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Shortly before his death, Andrew Breitbart said: “My goal is to destroy the New York Times and CNN… and not just them. I’m committed to the destruction of the old media guard... and it’s a very good business model. I believe that from that something better will come… The media class is the wall that we have to climb over in order for our voices to be heard. Once our voices are heard, then democracy will happen.”
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Steve Bannon is bringing that mission closer to fruition and he’s paying the price. Bannon has become enemy number one for the left. Democrats and their mainstream media mouthpieces routinely refer to him as a racist, fascist, misognynist, bigoted, anti-Semitic, white nationalist — and that’s on a good day. But then, their candidate, liar-Hillary Clinton, called half of Trump supporters racist, homophobic, Islamophobic, irredeemables — over 25 million Americans. Is it any wonder Bannon called mainstream media the “Opposition Party”?
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I voted for Donald Trump, but I cannot say I ever liked him, reminding me as he does of narcissists I’ve met and tried to avoid over the years. Nonetheless, I like very much what he’s doing — his cabinet appointments, his nomination of Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court, and his executive orders. I did, however, like Andrew Breitbart. He was unpretentious and approachable. I photographed him over three CPAC conferences and he asked me once if I could understand his friends and fellow panelists Ann McElhinney and Phelim McAleer through their strong Irish Brogues. I told him I could because I’d just returned from a vacation there and was forced to learn. I cannot say I knew Breitbart personally but I quite strongly identified with his mission.
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Saturday Night Live Bannon controlling Trump
 
His successor, Steve Bannon, was born to an Irish-Catholic-Democrat, blue collar family in Virginia. Bannon’s world view has been influenced by that heritage, just as my own has. The epithets thrown at him by the left have also been hurled at me and are just as groundless. That’s what the left does when they want to avoid discussing issues and they don’t know it doesn’t work anymore. They see us as deplorable because we don’t view the world as they do and we accept that. They think their defeat was a fluke and they’re digging in for a long battle to re-take control, so buckle your seatbelt.
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Somewhere, Andrew Breitbart is smiling.
 
Read more…

Monday PM ~ TheFrontPageCover

The Front Page Cover
 The Events of the Week -- Featuring: 
 
Toward A True US-Israel Partnership
by Caroline Glick
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 Carbon Dioxide Not A Pollutant, A Benefit –
300 Scientists Write To President Trump
by Rick Wells
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{rickwells.us} ~ The group is disputing the erroneous claims of a supposed “ninety-seven percent of scientists” concurring with the climate fraud of the left... It’s a base of support that, whatever their real numbers, are far less than the near unanimous opinion that the world government, tax on all life crowd is pushing. The endorsement of the hoax was procured through the misuse of taxpayer-funded grants for fake research that was nothing more than the documentation of a predetermined outcome in support of the hoaxsters’ premise. Dr. Mark Lindzen, a climate researcher with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), heads the group of 300 scientists who sent a letter to President Trump on Thursday. Among other things, they urge him to remove the United States from the United Nations Convention on Climate Change, an act that would immediately pay dividends by obstructing our participation in the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement...  http://rickwells.us/carbon-dioxide-not-pollutant-benefit-300-scientists-write-president-trump/
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liar-nObama Exposed For Allowing Muslim Brotherhood
To Infiltrate US Gov’t with Plan To Destroy America
by William Smith
{gopthedailydose.com} ~ According to consjournal The Muslim Brotherhood has one main goal: to infiltrate and take over the United States of America and make Islam the dominant religion of the country... This is made abundantly clear in the “Muslim Brotherhood Plan for America” document that you are about to hear from. Brigitte Gabriel, President of ACT for America, absolutely destroys Barack liar-nObama and exposes a little know fact about one particular Islamic organization operating right here inside the United States. ISNA (Islamic Society of North America) acts as advisors to Barack liar-nObama about Middle Eastern policy, but there is a secret liar-nObama doesn’t want you to know about. Don’t worry though, Brigitte doesn’t hold back…  https://gopthedailydose.com/2017/02/24/obama-exposed-allowing-muslim-brotherhood-infiltrate-us-govt-plan-destroy-america/
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Islamic State 2021
by Daveed Gartenstein-Ross, Jacob Zenn & Nathaniel Barr
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{defenddemocracy.org} ~ The Islamic State (referred to in this report as ISIL) has seen its prospects in North and West Africa grow increasingly dim since early 2015. ISIL has experienced significant losses in North Africa in the past year, especially in Libya... which was once ISIL’s most valuable territory outside of Syria and Iraq, and was home to the group’s unofficial African capital. Meanwhile, the Nigerian militant group popularly known as Boko Haram, which is ISIL’s West Africa Province (ISWAP), has experienced major internal schisms, as different factions vie for resources, compete for the attention of ISIL’s senior leadership, and renew longstanding personal, ideological and strategic disputes. But despite these setbacks, ISIL continues to pose a threat to North and West Africa, and is capable of mounting high-profile terrorist attacks in the region and beyond. Additionally, continued political instability and conflict in countries like Mali and Libya could undermine counter- ISIL efforts, and provide the group an opportunity to rebuild its networks and mount a resurgence. Indeed, two recent occurrences –the reemergence of ISIL in northern Mali and the group’s temporary takeover of the town of Qandala in Puntland (a region in northeastern Somalia)–illustrate ISIL’s ability to exploit ungoverned spaces and fragile states. It is possible that ISIL’s global decline could also paradoxically help the group in North and West Africa, as state and non-state actors shift resources from combatting ISIL to other seemingly more urgent issues, giving ISIL the breathing room it needs to regenerate. Several factors will have a fundamental impact on ISIL’s future trajectory in North and West Africa:... http://www.defenddemocracy.org/content/uploads/documents/022017_DGR_ISIL_Report
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Carlson Twists Twisted Dem Supporting
Sexual Identity On Demand Into Knots
by Rick Wells
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{rickwells.us} ~ Zac Petkanas is a DNC Senior Advisor and supporter of the nonsensical notion that one can decide their sex based upon how they feel or any variety of other factors... He accepted an invitation to go on Tucker Carlson’s program to defend and perhaps expand support of those views among his audience, pressing the Democrat agenda away from what was always seen as being normal and wholesome. Now the most bizarre concepts are the very notions Democrats attempt to force upon us. As for Petkanas making believers out of the Carlson audience, he failed miserably on both counts. Petkanas gives the standard line of safety as the pretext for these gender on demand policies, that it’s not safe for boys who feel like girls to be using the rest rooms that they match up with biologically. The safer route, according to these geniuses, is to put a lone male in with females or a lone female in with males, in order to avoid any conflict or uncomfortable feelings on behalf of that lone individual...
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Rep. Maxine Waters Once Defrauded the Federal Government to Get a Job
by Trey Sanchez
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{truthrevolt.org} ~ California Rep. Maxine Waters barely knows about some of the details involved in her current job, but she vividly recalls them from her first one 65 years ago... During her appearance on The Real, Waters recalled lying about her age to get a Social Security card so she could gain employment at a restaurant. To take away from the whole “I defrauded the federal government” thing, Waters mentioned the racism she experienced:... She is so full of it and a liar and an idiot.  http://www.truthrevolt.org/news/rep-maxine-waters-once-defrauded-federal-government-get-job
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Toward A True US-Israel Partnership
by Caroline Glick
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{frontpagemag.com} ~ In his speech before the members of the Conference of Presidents of Major Jewish American Organizations in Jerusalem this week, President Reuven Rivlin said that Israel has three overriding foreign policy concerns: “Number 1: Relations with America. Number 2: Relations with America. Number 3: Relations with America.”

There is a lot of truth in Rivlin’s hyperbolic statement.

Israel’s security depends on its relationship with the US. After all, the Russians and the Chinese won’t sell Israel fighter planes. Russia couldn’t develop strategic ties with Israel even if it wanted to. Its Iranian ally wouldn’t let it.

As for China, its mercantilist view of the Middle East makes it indifferent to the power balances in the region. Beijing may not harbor hostile intentions toward Israel, but it will act in a hostile fashion if it views China’s interests as advanced by such hostility.

While Israel rightly is working to diversify its foreign ties to move beyond the narrow scope of its alliance with the US, the fact is that with or without Australia and sub-Saharan Africa, the US remains Israel’s irreplaceable ally.

Unfortunately, today even the friendliest US administration cannot be relied on to secure Israel’s long-term capacity to defend itself. Israel faces enemy forces equipped with Russian and Chinese technologies – including Russian forces in Syria – that are rapidly challenging American systems in key areas. So long as the US remains behind the technological eight ball, Israel’s long-term reliance on its military ties to the US is a dangerous proposition.

Things didn’t use to be this way. At the start of the 21st century, America’s military power was unrivaled. From the end of the Cold War until the turn of the century, neither Russia nor China could challenge the US and its status as the sole global superpower.

That is no longer the case.

In a distressing article published this week in the American Affairs Journal, David Goldman details the technological crisis the US is steeped in today.

Goldman notes that the US is lagging behind the Russians and the Chinese in air defense systems and technologies, missile technology, particularly hypersonic missile technologies, submarine warfare, cyber warfare technologies and satellite interdiction capabilities.

To bridge the gap and outpace the Chinese and the Russians, Goldman argues that the US needs to initiate massive government-funded research and development programs.

In the post-Cold War era, Goldman notes ruefully, Americans have forgotten that they were ever vulnerable, that their victory against the USSR was anything but preordained.

The actual history, Goldman reminds us, was quite different. The US victory in the Cold War was the result of conscious decisions by US leaders to outstrip Soviet technology after American technology was shown to be lagging behind.

In 1957, the Americans reacted to the Soviet Union’s launch of Sputnik with a crash program in space exploration. That program, which benefited from lavish federal funding, ended the Soviets’ advantage in aerospace technology inside of a decade.

During the 1973 Yom Kippur War, the Americans realized that the Egyptian success in downing Israeli jets over Sinai in the early days of the war meant that the Soviet surface-to-air missiles Egypt fielded had neutralized US air superiority. The Americans realized that the Soviets’ technological advantage meant that they would win a land war in Europe.

Consequently, Goldman explains, the US initiated détente to avert a war in Europe. At the same time, the Americans began to develop the technologies to defeat the Soviets. Massive public investments in defense R&D followed. A decade later, Ronald Reagan announced the Strategic Defense Initiative; the Soviets realized they couldn’t compete, and eight years later, the USSR collapsed.

The Americans weren’t the only ones to respond to Israel’s air losses in 1973 with a massive investment in defense R&D aimed at destroying Russia’s technological advantage with its surface-to-air missiles.

Israel responded to its exposed vulnerabilities by developing the electronic warfare capabilities to neutralize Soviet SAM batteries. As Goldman recalls, in 1982, Israel matched US air platforms – the F-16 and F-15 – used in combat for the first time in the Lebanon War – with its own homegrown computer- based electronic warfare systems. So equipped, Israel eliminated Syria’s Soviet-built surface-to-air batteries and its Soviet-supplied air force, in a stunning air victory.

Whereas in the 1950s and the 1970s, the US had the domestic scientific capacity to quickly regroup in the face of Soviet technological advances, today the US’s path to rebuilding its technological advantage is less clear. Since the Cold War, the US government slashed its investment in military R&D.

According to Goldman, as a percentage of GDP, today US government investment in R&D is barely half of what it was in 1978.

Goldman bemoans the self-imposed evisceration of America’s capacity to develop the knowledge it requires to regain the technological advantage over the Chinese and the Russians.

In his words, “The national laboratories are hollowed out, and the major corporate laboratories (at IBM, the Bell System, General Electric, and RCA among others) that contributed significantly to defense R&D during the Cold War no longer exist. Within the shrinking defense R&D budget, a disproportionate share has been squandered on the F-35, a poorly conceived and executed weapons system with the highest price tag in defense history.”

And it won’t be easy to rebuild them. For 25 years, the US has not only shut down its own laboratories, it has done little to encourage its citizens to acquire the knowledge they need to rebuild that capacity.

Goldman notes for instance that currently, China graduates twice the number of STEM PhDs from its universities as the US.

This brings us back to Israel. In the 1980s, the US regarded the stunning technological advances Israel had made with suspicion. America feared that Israel’s growing technological capabilities would diminish its dependence on the US, at a time when the US was most concerned with keeping the Arab states inside the anti-Soviet bloc and keeping the Soviets out of the Middle East.

Last year, then-president Barack liar-nObama forced Israel to agree to a multi-year military assistance package that if implemented will diminish Israel’s independent technological capabilities while expanding Israel’s technological dependence on the US.

While the aid package increases the amount of US funds Israel is permitted to spend on US systems from $3.1 billion to $3.3b. per year, the deal phases out Israel’s right to use a quarter of the funds on its domestically built systems.

liar-nObama’s aid package also denies Israel and Congress the ability to initiate joint projects to meet new challenges as they arise.

In short, liar-nObama’s deal ensures Israel will be incapable of acting on its own and will remain dependent on US goodwill and technologies for the foreseeable future.

This then brings us back to the US’s swiftly vanishing technology advantage.

Unlike the US, Israel has used the past generation to develop cutting edge technological capabilities in almost all of the areas where the Americans are lagging behind their competitors. Under these circumstances, liar-nObama’s military assistance is exposed not merely as bad for Israel. It is bad for the US as well.

Israel can help the US compensate for its current scientific disadvantages. Israeli technological innovations can help the US to rebuild its independent capabilities and leapfrog its competitors far more rapidly than it can do on its own today.

An R&D partnership with Israel is also aligned with Trump’s vision for a renewed role for the US in global affairs. As Defense Secretary James Mattis told the US’s NATO allies this week, the US will not continue carrying the load of protecting the West on its own. It wants its allies to be its partners, not its dependents.

In Mattis’s words, “America will meet its responsibilities, but if your nations do not want to see America moderate its commitment to the alliance, each of your capitals needs to show support for our common defense.”

Earlier this month, Prof. Hillel Frisch published a short paper for Bar-Ilan University’s BESA Center showing the utter dishonesty of the claim that Israel is the largest recipient of US military aid. Frisch noted that US military assistance to Japan, Germany, Italy and South Korea far outstrips its assistance to Israel. All of those states receive US military assistance in the form of US forces permanently deployed to their territory to protect them. Israel, on the other hand, receives aid in military equipment only. No US assets are endangered, no US forces are required to defend Israel. And the financial burden of the former is far great than that of the latter.

Trump is interested in states like Japan and Germany transforming their strategic relations with the US from relationships based on dependency to partnerships by increasing their military spending.

What Israel’s technological and innovation prowess shows is that as far as Israeli defense assistance is concerned, the US should base its relations with Jerusalem on each sides’ complementary capabilities.

America and Israel should abrogate liar-nObama’s military assistance package and replace it with a partnership based on US finance of Israeli R&D projects geared toward developing weapons systems and technologies that both the US and Israel require.

The deal should stipulate the modalities for both sides sharing the technologies with third parties, and their rights to use the technologies developed by Israel with US capital for civilian commercial purposes. Israel should be permitted to purchase US platforms based on Israeli-developed technologies.

Such a partnership would enable Israel to ensure that its continued dependence on the US won’t place it at a disadvantage vis-à-vis its enemies such as Iran, which are able to purchase advanced weapons systems from Russia and China. Such a partnership would ensure that both the US and Israel have the systems they need to outpace Chinese and Russian technological advances and develop the weapons systems they need to win tomorrow’s wars.

In his remarks before the Conference of Presidents, Rivlin voiced concern at the fact that Israel has become a partisan football in US politics. His concern is well placed.

Assuming that Israel’s dependence on the US will be a fixed variable for the foreseeable future, Israel needs to consider the best way of ensuring that the alliance will persevere regardless of the partisan attachments of future presidents.

The best way to ensure the resilience of the US-Israel alliance over time is for Israel to transform its military dependence into a mutually beneficial alliance with the US. A new military relationship based on joint technology development rather than Israeli purchase of US platforms is the best way to accomplish that goal, for the benefit of both countries.
Read more…

Mon/Noon ~ TheFrontPageCover

The Front Page Cover
 The Events of the Week -- Featuring: 
 
How Radical Islam Penetrated
The U.S. House of Representatives
by George Rasley
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 Top Headlines 
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Pence vows to end "liar-nObamaCare nightmare." (The Daily Signal)
 
American Conservative Union executive strongly condemns the alt-right movement. (Washington Examiner)
 
"Impeachment" talk dominates DNC chair candidate debate. (Washington Examiner)
 
New York Times' new ad theme is, "The Truth Is..." because you know NYT is the arbiter of truth. (The Washington Free Beacon)
 
AFL-CIO cutting staff as union membership declines. (Hot Air)
 
Many Texas Republicans prefer a mix of fencing and more personnel to Trump's solid wall along the Rio Grande. (The Wall Street Journal)
 
European welfare benefits help fund Islamic State fighters. (USA Today)
 
Kim Jong Un kills Kim Jong Nam with UN-banned VX nerve agent. Korean dictator runs afoul of Chinese... (The Washington Post)
 
Hundreds of scientists urge Trump to withdraw from UN climate change agency. (The Washington Times)
 
Most scientists "can't replicate studies by their peers." But climate science is settled! (BBC News)
 
Policy: Missing the Medicare forest for the liar-nObamaCare trees. (Real Clear Health)
 
Policy: Take back Al Gore's Nobel and give it to the fracking industry. (Investor's Business Daily~The Patriot Post
 
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Russia Says War In Syria Is Over
and Russia Won
by Mikhail Klikushin
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Russian President Vladimir Putin (R)
and Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu (L)
{observer.com} ~ During his speech to the Russian Parliament on February 22, Russia’s Defense Minister General Sergei Shoigu made victorious announcement that the days of the Syrian war conflict were numbered, INTERFAX reported... The Russian military dealt a deathblow to the forces of international terrorists in Syria and prevented the collapse of the country, he said. “The collapse of the Syrian state has been prevented, the civil war virtually has been stopped, as well as the attempts to change the legal government in Syria, directed from abroad,” Mr. Shoigu stated. “The Russian military solved the geopolitical tasks, caused substantial damage to the international terrorist organizations in Syria, disrupted their financial support and the system of their recourses supply,” he declared...
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Environmental Protesters Burn 7-Year-Old
Boy, Cause $1.2 Mil in Damage
by Daniel Greenfield
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{frontpagemag.com} ~ Stand with the non-indigenous lefties protesting for the environment by starting fires. The Standing Rock anti-energy protesters are finally being shown the door after everyone, and I mean everyone... was tired of them from the local Indian tribes to the Federal government, which was no longer being run by radical lefties. Hundreds left peacefully on Wednesday after the 2 p.m. deadline, and 10 were arrested hours later after they taunted cops. But hours later, 18 National Guardsmen and dozens of law officers entered the camp from two directions, along with several law enforcement and military vehicles. A helicopter and airplane flew overhead... http://www.frontpagemag.com/point/265915/environmental-protesters-burn-7-year-old-boy-cause-daniel-greenfield
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Israel Prepares As Iran and
Hezbollah Ratchet Up the Rhetoric
by Ari Lieberman
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{frontpagemag.com} ~ According to Arab media sources, the Israeli Air Force launched a series of strikes against military targets within Syria in the early morning hours of Wednesday... The attacks, which reportedly targeted a Hezbollah weapons convoy, occurred near Damascus. According to at least one report, a busload of Hezbollah terrorists was hit, though this was not confirmed. Israel has neither confirmed nor denied its involvement. The muted Israeli response is consistent with Israel’s policy of acting resolutely to preserve its interests while keeping unnecessary rhetoric and gratuitous bravado under wraps. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for Israel’s enemies who have struck an extremely belligerent tone in recent weeks, even more so than usual. On Tuesday, Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei referred to Israel as a “cancerous tumor” and encouraged Palestinians to revolt until achieving the goal of “complete liberation of Palestine.” Earlier in the week, an unnamed but high-level Syrian official told a Kuwaiti media outlet that Syria “will be partners with Hezbollah in any future war against Israel.”... http://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/265903/israel-prepares-iran-and-hezbollah-ratchet-ari-Lieberman
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Bill to Eliminate Environmental Protection
Agency Introduced in Congress
by Christian Gomez
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{thenewamerican.com} ~ On February 3, 2017, freshman Congressman Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) introduced H.R. 861, a bill to abolish the Environmental Protection Agency (also known as the EPA)... Representative Gaetz's bill, which is only one sentence long, states, "The Environmental Protection Agency shall terminate on December 31, 2018." On a video posted on his Facebook page, Congressman Gaetz explained, "For six years in the Florida state legislature, I had a front row seat to the failures of the federal government in protecting the environment." Gaetz continued, "The question isn't whether to protect the environment. The question is who is better equipped to actually do that?" Gaetz further explained that his bill wouldn't affect the 1963 Clean Air Act or the 1972 Clean Water Act. Instead, such responsibilities would return to the states and local communities to address...  https://www.thenewamerican.com/usnews/congress/item/25468-bill-to-eliminate-environmental-protection-agency-introduced-in-congress?utm_source=iContactPro&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=TNA+Top+Daily+Headlines&utm_content=TNA+Top+Daily+Headlines+Feb+24+17
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Texas County Sues State Attorney General
Over Election Records
by Kelly Holt
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{thenewamerican.com} ~ In the latest election kerfuffle in the Lone Star State, Travis County, Texas, is suing Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton in order to avoid releasing documents sought in a public information request... Election activists are viewing the case as another argument for paper ballots. Readers of The New American will remember our article last fall detailing the lawsuit of Austinite Dr. Laura Pressley against Travis County after her unsuccessful run for a city council seat in 2014. Dr. Pressley’s simple pursuit of a vote recount led to the revelation of widespread election irregularities in many Texas counties. Now Travis County, in an unrelated case, is suing the Texas attorney general after being ordered to release documents requested in the case. As an election integrity activist, and based on her experience in pursuing a recount after her City Council bid, Dr. Pressley wanted to know in advance of the November election if Texas elections would be administered according to law. So, in August of 2016, she submitted a Public Information Request (PIR — similar to a FOIA request, only at the state level) hoping to determine if other irregularities existed in Texas... https://www.thenewamerican.com/usnews/politics/item/25459-texas-county-sues-state-attorney-general-over-election-records?utm_source=iContactPro&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=TNA+Top+Daily+Headlines&utm
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How Radical Islam Penetrated
The U.S. House of Representatives
by George Rasley
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{conservativehq.com} ~ Our friend Luke Rosiak, Investigative Reporter for the Daily Caller News Foundation, should receive a Pulitzer Prize for his investigative reporting of the vast national security breach of the House of Representatives perpetrated by five Pakistani Muslims who were employed as information technology staff by dozens of House Democrats.

In his latest report on a story that, we might add, has been completely ignored by the establishment media Rosiak documents how the five Pakistanis have been connected to the Iranian-backed terror organization Hezbollah, that has killed hundreds of Americans and Israelis.

Brothers Imran, Abid and Jamal Awan, as well as their wives Natalia Sova and Hina Alvi, were all on the congressional payroll serving as IT administrators for House Democrats.

Rosiak has reported that while working for Congress, the Pakistani brothers controlled a limited liability corporation called Cars International A (CIA), a car dealership with odd finances, which took–and did not repay–a $100,000 loan from Dr. Ali Al-Attar.

Laundering money through used car dealerships is a known Hezbollah tactic. In 2011 the government filed a civil asset forfeiture action in New York against 30 car dealerships from Michigan to Florida.

To launder the terrorist money, vehicles were moved from the US to West Africa and resold, and cash from the sales was mixed with profits from illegal drug distribution and funneled back to Lebanon to fund Hezbollah terrorist activities.

The government, which was trying to seize $400 million in assets in the case, lists Hezbollah as the most technically capable terrorist group in the world, with strong ties in Syria and Iran.

One of our intelligence community friends said calling their car dealership CIA was a tell and “a big middle finger to the US intelligence community.”

And it is very interesting how the car dealership’s finances were strangely interwoven with those of the U.S. House of Representatives. A car-dealing associate who was owed money by the brothers, Rao Abbas, also a Muslim, was placed on the congressional payroll.

Abbas is listed as the IT professional for former Democratic Representative Patrick Murphy, a then-member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence and its Subcommittee on Department of Defense, Intelligence and Overhead Architecture and irony alert Subcommittee on the NSA and Cybersecurity.

Philip Giraldi, a former Central Intelligence Agency officer, wrote that Dr. Ali Al-Attar “was observed in Beirut, Lebanon conversing with a Hezbollah official” in 2012–shortly after the loan was made.  

Luke Rosiak reports that Giraldi, the former Central Intelligence Agency officer, wrote in the American Conservative in 2013 that Attar advised President George W. Bush’s key Iraq policy advisors that U.S. forces would be “greeted as liberators.”

“In late 2002 and early 2003, then-Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz regularly met secretly with a group of Iraqi expatriates, consisting mostly of Shias but also including several Sunnis, who resided in the Washington area,” Giraldi wrote. “The Iraqis were headed by one Dr. Ali A. al-Attar.”

Attar’s prediction was wrong, and his qualifications for making it — supposedly based on what the D.C.-area Iraqis were hearing from relatives — were questionable because, although Attar was born in Iraq, his parents were Iranian.

But the U.S.-backed regime change served Attar well says Rosiak. In 2003 he told The New York Times that “he was one of four people chosen by General Garner to re-establish the Iraq Ministry of Health, and that he expected to be called to Baghdad next week.”

And scamming the gullible George W. Bush administration into doing what it really wanted to do in Iraq wasn’t Dr. Ali Al-Attar’s only con.

Rosiak reports that in 2009, his medical license was suspended by Maryland for separate instances of billing patients and insurance companies for unneeded services.

While practicing medicine in Maryland and Virginia he allegedly defrauded Medicare, Medicaid and insurance companies by billing for non-existent medical procedures. The FBI raided his offices in 2009 and the Department of Health and Human Services sued his business partner in 2011.

In November 2010, the Maryland State Board of Physicians brought charges of “unprofessional conduct in the practice of medicine and failure to cooperate in a lawful investigation.”

Attar was indicted in March 2012 on separate tax fraud charges after the IRS and FBI found he used multiple bank accounts to hide income. He fled back to Iraq to avoid prison reports Luke Rosiak.

Why has none of this made the front page of The Washington Post, New York Times or the lead segment of the ABC, CBS, NBC or CNN evening news?

According to Politico, as of February 6, Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz and Rep. Gregory Meeks, two Democratic lawmakers, still had not cut ties with the Awan cell. “At this time we are continuing to gather information from House officials and will determine the best approach to move forward once we have reviewed that information,” David Damron, communications director for Wasserman Schultz, said in an email when asked by POLITICO if Imran Awan was still working for the Florida Democrat.

Jack Langer, spokesman for the intelligence committee, said the committee office has its own IT staff and security measures and classified information from the panel is not allowed to be sent to members’ personal offices.

That policy was also in place for State Department computer networks, yet classified material still found its way onto liar-Hillary Clinton’s private email server and Huma Abedin’s personal laptop.

The House of Representatives, and especially the Capitol Police, cannot be trusted to conduct a full and politics-free investigation of this national security disaster.

It is time this investigation became a national security investigation and the FBI and counterintelligence agencies replaced the politics-tainted Capitol Police as the lead agency investigating how House Democrats handed over the backdoor to the House computer network to a Hezbollah cell laundering its money through a car dealership and a crooked Iranian doctor.
Read more…

Monday AM ~ TheFrontPageCover

The Front Page Cover
 The Events of the Week -- Featuring: 
 
The Madness Must Stop
by Minister Michael Brown
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 Sea Level Rise: A Reason to Drown in Fear? 
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By Jordan Candler: The quibbling over how much warming the world has actually seen is back in the news thanks to new allegations from Dr. John Bates, a former NOAA scientist who says the agency used bogus techniques to discredit the recent global warming pause. Given the long history of accusations against the agency — including longstanding charges of rewriting logbook data — these assertions should be investigated, regardless of what may or may not turn up. Perhaps the agency is guilty, or perhaps not.
          But let's set aside for a moment the wrangling over the magnitude of warming and lay out what everyone can agree on. We know unequivocally that global temperatures have gradually warmed for more than a century now. (This acknowledgement, by the way, reveals the Left's slandering of conservatives as "climate deniers" to be all the more vindictive). We also know that periods of cooling or static measurements have occasionally interrupted this gradual warming, but it hasn't been enough to reduce the overall upward trend. And finally, we know that global carbon dioxide emissions have risen to slightly more than 400 parts per million (ppm), an increase from 340 ppm in the early 1980s.
          It's what to extract from this information that results in harsh disagreement and even indignation. How much of the warming is natural? How much is cyclical? How much (if any) is driven by CO2? If it's a mix of man-made and cyclical effects, which one is disproportionately to blame for meteorological changes? The Left, in addition to blaming climate change for what it says are worsening droughts and burgeoning heat waves, worries that sea levels, aided by the acceleration in ice loss, will wreak havoc on coastlines and nearby lowlands.
          In truth, it's admittedly a bad time for sea ice concentration. A few years ago, Antarctica was almost routinely, it seemed, breaking records in ice coverage. So it might come as a surprise today to learn that it's now at a record low. In fact, both the North and South Poles are measuring historically low percentages. According to a large number of scientists, the continuation of global warming means coastal areas are in for a nightmare scenario. What does the data say?
          Last June, NOAA reported, "Sea level has been rising over the past century, and the rate has increased in recent decades. In 2014, global sea level was 2.6 inches (67 mm) above the 1993 average — the highest annual average in the satellite record (1993-present). Sea level continues to rise at a rate of about one-eighth of an inch (3.2 mm) per year, due to a combination of melting glaciers and ice sheets, and thermal expansion of seawater as it warms." And according to a February 2016 USA Today report, ocean levels overall increased by 5.5 inches during the 20th century.
          Think about that. The rate at last check was one-eighth of an inch per year and mere inches when all added up. Assuming this is true — not to mention even accurate, considering these are such minuscule measurements for a vast swath of geography — that's hardly what we would call a crisis, and it's worth noting too that the way this stuff is measured has been revolutionized over time. That said, both poles are experiencing higher-than-average ice melt today, which presumably will affect this rate. But just how much?
          In the same report, NOAA went on to estimate "that there is very high confidence (greater than 90% chance) that global mean sea level will rise at least 8 inches (0.2 meter) but no more than 6.6 feet (2.0 meters) by 2100." And that's taking into account rather extreme scenarios. Some people, particularly those along the coast, understandably worry about this (though a significant number of Americans actually enjoy the more pleasant effects of global warming, like milder winters). The question isn't so much that global temperatures — and to a smaller degree the oceans — are rising, but why. Furthermore, how do we respond?
          This is where policy disagreements come in. The bottom line is that this debate could come down to whether we want to adapt to climate change or instead attempt to mitigate its effects. NOAA says the rate at which seas are expected to rise "depends mostly on the rate of future carbon dioxide emissions and future global warming." We contend there are very legitimate reasons to embrace CO2. Though for the most part temperatures and carbon dioxide emissions have risen in tandem, emissions alone can't explain the periodic temperature drops and stagnations. And completely eliminating those emissions would be futile — and immensely expensive. But economic control, after all, is the real climate agenda.
          As The Daily Signal's Katie Tubb observes, "[C]limate sensitivity modeling used by the EPA shows that totally eliminating all carbon dioxide emissions in the U.S. would reduce warming by only 0.137 degree Celsius by the end of the century, and only 0.278 degree Celsius if the entire industrialized world totally eliminated all carbon dioxide emissions." Moreover, the greening of deserts and an abundance of food for trees and vegetation are surely welcome benefits.
          Whether the globe is warming or cooling, there are benefits and setbacks to both, as history demonstrates. And humans who expect to have the ability to balance the climate are significantly less realistic than those who advocate adapting, like we always have, to what comes next. Americans didn't abandon certain areas altogether because of earthquakes; they figured out how to create stronger and more flexible structures. The same goes for places prone to tornadoes and hurricanes. Remember, temperatures have not risen at the rate at which they were projected, and the future of sea levels are equally uncertain.
          Game-changing global cooling didn't happen like the CIA and Time magazine and others warned in 1974, nor will an ice age happen by 2021, as The Washington Post forecast in 1971. On the flip side, the New York Times' 1969 warning "that the ocean at the North Pole may become an open sea within a decade or two" didn't happen either. So take predictions with a grain of salt.
          In any case, even if the threat is real, adaption creates far more economic opportunities than forcing hundreds of millions into destitution through costly taxation and regulation. So go ahead and build your beachfront home. We'll figure out, through innovation, how to protect it if we ever reach that point. Or maybe we could just get Barack liar-nObama to finally cash in on his 2008 promise about the "moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow..."  ~The Patriot Post
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'The ugliest anti-Semitism is rearing its head'
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{israelnationalnews.com} ~ Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely reacted to the brutal attack this week of Parisian Jews... “The winds of hate are blowing against Jews around the world, the ugliest anti-Semitism is rearing its head," she said. "We must act forcefully in order to fight Jew-hatred. The government of France created an important program for the struggle against anti-Semitism which led to a decrease in the violent attacks, but despite this we must act with a strong hand against those seeking to cause harm, and strengthen the Jewish community,” Hotovely said...  http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/225608
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Tensions rise as China defends missile
sites in South China Sea
by Joel Gehrke
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{washingtonexaminer.com} ~ China is defending the construction of surface-to-air missile sites in the South China Sea, a move opposed by the U.S. but one that could help consolidate its hold over one of the most important shipping lanes in the world... "China has the right to deploy necessary defensive facilities on its territory in accordance with security requirement," Colonel Ren Guoqiang, spokesman for the regime's Ministry of National Defense, said Thursday. "It is the legitimate right of a sovereign state." China has claimed sovereignty over approximately 90 percent of the South China Sea, a subject of hot dispute given that the waters flow between several neighboring countries carrying "half the world's annual merchant fleet tonnage," according to the National Interest. The increased military capabilities could give China an edge when negotiating with its smaller neighbors, even as they try to cut the United States out of the talks...  http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/tensions-rise-as-china-defends-missile-sites-in-south-china-sea/article/2615639#.WK-n8oGcX-8.twitter/?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Examiner%20Today&utm_source=StructureCMS
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How the Market Can Fix Health Care
by J. Kenneth Blackwell
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{theacru.org} ~ Republicans agree that liar-nObamacare has failed and must be repealed. But they can’t agree on the replacement “plan.”... The one thing they shouldn’t do is devise another grand scheme like the liar-nObama “plan.” The answer is not a new and better Big Government “plan.” Instead, the president and Congress should take specific actions to free the market so patients and providers can create a health care system that serves everyone. When President Barack liar-nObama proposed his federal takeover of the health care system, he was right about one thing: American medical care was a mess. While care cost more than it should for many, some people didn’t have access to the treatment they needed. But instead of seeking to empower patients by giving them greater control over their own futures and more opportunities to find the best care possible in the marketplace, the president and Democrats in Congress took medical decisions away from the public and transferred them to Washington...  http://www.theacru.org/how-the-market-can-fix-health-care/
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Another Major Democratic Email Scandal
the News Media is Ignoring
by FRED FLEITZ
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{familysecuritymatters.org} ~ In the midst of allegations of Russian ties to the Trump administration and in the aftermath of the hacking of liar-Clinton campaign and Democratic National Committee emails... there is a new scandal email involving Democratic House members that could amount to a covert effort by foreign actors to penetrate the House of Representatives computer system. According to the Daily Caller, three brothers who managed information technology (IT) for Democratic House members - Abid, Imran, and Jamal Awan - were suspended on February 2, 2017 for serious misconduct, including accessing the computer accounts of House members without their knowledge and stealing equipment from Congress. Two other House IT staff - Imran Awan's wife, Hina Alvi, and a fifth unnamed person - also reportedly are under investigation. This story suggests congressional Democrats learned nothing from last year's hacking of Democratic computers. It also raises serious questions about the security of the House computer system...  http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/publications/detail/another-major-democratic-email-scandal-the-news-media-is-ignoring?f=must_reads
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How Pakistani Law Enshrines Extremism
and Weakens Counter-Terror Efforts
by Ammar Anwer
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{investigativeproject.org} ~ Pakistani extremists have killed nearly 50,000 people since 9/11. But government ineffectiveness has stymied efforts to contain terrorist violence. The government and military often are not on the same page... or have chosen a narrow and selective approach towards extremism, fighting one outfit and at the same time supporting the other. For instance, former President Pervez Musharraf acknowledged that Pakistan cultivated and possessed a soft spot for the Afghan Taliban. In addition, Pakistan has failed to take a firm stand against Lashkar-e-Tayyiba, a radical outfit famous for its hateful rhetoric against India. The U.S. designated the organization as a Foreign Terrorist Organization in 2001, and the United Nations designated it as a terrorist outfit in 2005. Lately, signs of hope have started to emerge. Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and Army Chief of Staff General Raheel Sharif seem to agree about extremism and also seem to lack the selective approach that their predecessors had often adopted...  http://www.investigativeproject.org/5804/how-pakistani-law-enshrines-extremism-and-weakens
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The Madness Must Stop
by Minister Michael Brown
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{townhall.com} ~ Have you ever watched a movie where the good guy got framed for what the bad guy did and you felt morally indignant, desperate to see justice done and the horrible wrongs made right? That’s how I feel when I see social madness in our country, wondering to myself, “How can this go on in front of our eyes? What kind of craziness is this?”

Let me give you several cases in point.

In Texas, a 17-year-old girl who identifies as a boy is taking testosterone supplements as she begins to “transition” to being male. She currently identifies as a boy named “Mack” Beggs and is referred to as “he” in a relevant article about her. She is in the news because she wrestles on the girls’ team and just won a tournament when her opponent in the finals forfeited because the other girl’s parents protested the match.

And they had every reason to protest.

Beggs is taking performance enhancing drugs, and in a physically-taxing sport like wrestling, the differences are all the more tangible. That’s why the lawsuit brought by the parents’ of another female wrestler urged the governing body to suspend Beggs “because of the use of the steroid.” The suit claims that allowing the wrestler to compete while using testosterone exposes other athletes to ‘imminent threat of bodily harm.’”

This is not rocket science, and Beggs would not be allowed to compete in a college-level, Olympic, or professional match while on steroids. Is this why Beggs is undefeated this season?

Steroids and other performance enhancing drugs are banned for logical, obvious reasons, yet logic seems to stop at the door when it comes to transgender activism.

Accordingly, Beggs grandmother and guardian, rather than recognizing how unfair this all was to the other girls who worked so hard to be there, could only say, “Today was not about their students winning. Today was about bias, hatred and ignorance.”

This is absolute nonsense, and while my heart goes out to young “Mack,” and I truly want to see her find wholeness without sex-change surgery and a lifetime of hormones, I reject the notion that her struggles should now be imposed on the other female athletes.

Shame on the school system for letting this happen.

To give another example from the sports world, we are constantly reminded of the struggles experienced by gay athletes, to the point that Michael Sam, the first openly gay player drafted by the NBA, blamed the NFL’s alleged homophobia on his failure to make it at the highest level of the sport.

Of course, it makes perfect sense that other players would be uncomfortable around him once he announced he was homosexual. After all, they are strong young men in the prime of life who work out together and play together and shower and undress next to each other and who horse around in manly ways. Why should they be expected to feel perfectly at home with an openly gay player, even if they did their best to ignore it and behave as professionals?

Today, however, we’re hearing about something very different.

An article about former WNBA player Candice Wiggins states, “There is a ‘very, very harmful’ culture running throughout the WNBA,” the article states, “which saw her get bullied during her eight-year career because she is heterosexual.”

She claims that, “Me being heterosexual and straight, and being vocal in my identity as a straight woman was huge. I would say 98 percent of the women in the WNBA are gay women. It was a conformist type of place. There was a whole different set of rules they the other players could apply.”

And, she alleges, “People were deliberately trying to hurt me all of the time. I had never been called the B-word so many times in my life than I was in my rookie season. I’d never been thrown to the ground so much. The message was: ‘We want you to know we don’t like you.’”

Could this be true?

If it is, even if her estimate about the percentage of lesbian players is too high, don’t expect her story to get much traction in the news. After all, straights are never the victims, only gays are the victims, and because Wiggins is straight and therefore part of the dominant culture, she can’t be the victim. Straights are the bullies, so suck it up, lady, and stop complaining.

As this story gets more responses, we’ll see if my theory holds true.

How about one more from the sports world before I get to the most egregious example of all?

Back in Texas, the NFL and NBA have warned the state that if they pass a bill similar to North Carolina, which, among other things, forbids boys who believe they are girls from playing on girls’ sports teams or using the girls’ bathrooms, locker rooms, and showers, the state will be severely punished by the leagues.

Responding to the NFL, which was the first to threaten Texas, Gov. Greg Abbott said, “The last thing the NFL needs to do is to get into the business of telling states how to operate their own political operations.” Indeed.

And what will the NFL and NBA and NCAA and others do if state after state does the right thing and protects the privacy and rights of its citizens? Hopefully, we’ll find out in the years ahead as the pushback against radical LGBT activism continues.

Finally, in Michigan, a Christian business owner experienced an absolutely outrageous example of government overreach. As explained by Tony Perkins, “Donald Vander Boon has been operating a meatpacking center in Michigan for almost 15 years — but thanks to the federal government, it’s his freedom that’s getting butchered.”

What happened is truly shocking and should send shockwaves across the country.

When USDA officials were touring the plant for an inspection, “they noticed a handful of brochures on the breakroom table about natural marriage. As Don tells it, the article was mixed in with the stacks of newspapers celebrating the recent Supreme Court decision redefining marriage. Even so, the on-site officers took offense to the literature, walked into Don’s office, closed both doors, and told him they’d call off the inspection if the material wasn’t removed.”

So, the Christian owner of a meatpacking center employing 45 workers was given an ultimatum by USDA officials – who were there to inspect the meat operation, not the beliefs, of Vander Boon – telling him that if he didn’t remove the material on marriage, there would be no inspection, as a result of which the center would be shut down.

Yes, “According to inspectors, Don’s article was ‘offensive’ and had violated a new rule from the liar-nObama administration that gave government officials including these inspectors the right to take ‘immediate and appropriate corrective action’ when dealing with anything they considered ‘harassment.’ Vander Boon’s position on marriage, he was told, qualified.”

In his own words, “It’s made me realize how quickly we can lose our religious liberty. I never dreamed that I would have this experience, and that I would have USDA personnel telling me that I had to choose between putting an article on the breakroom table or my business.”

Today, more than 18 months after this event took place, despite ongoing legal efforts by the ADF, the Department of Agriculture has not changed its policy or responded to Vander Boon’s rightful concerns. Perhaps this is coming to your business next?

There’s a reason I and others have been sounding the alarm for years now, seeking to wake up a slumbering church and a complacent society.

If these latest examples don’t jolt readers into reality, I wonder what will.

Honestly, I hate to imagine.

So, let’s pray and act today lest tomorrow’s news makes today’s news look relatively mundane.

God have mercy on America.
Read more…

Sunday ~ TheFrontPageCover

The Front Page Cover
 The Events of the Week -- Featuring: 
 
Our Broken American Covenant
by Erick Erickson

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 Top Headlines 
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White House punts new travel order to next week. (The Hill)
 
Demos protest Trump enforcing liar-Clinton and liar-nObama immigration policies. (Investor's Business Daily)
 
Mexico says it will not help stop illegal immigration. (The Washington Times)
 
Canada's Trudeau: No, we won't be stopping illegal border crossings, either. (Hot Air)
 
Demo Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand says Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch will be confirmed. (Fox News)
 
Bernie Sanders minions are taking over the Democrat Party. (The Wall Street Journal)
 
F/A-18 Super Hornet pulls out of a sales stall thanks to Trump. (Bloomberg)
 
Democrat governor: Cut taxpayer funding for public broadcasting to zero. (The Daily Signal)
 
O'Keefe drops "bombshell" undercover footage from within CNN. (Zero Hedge)
 
MSNBC's Mike Brzezinski: Media's job is to "control exactly what people think." Houston, we have a problem. (Washington Free Beacon)
 
New Hampshire enacts constitutional carry. (Washington Free Beacon)
 
Policy: Federal court of appeals goes to war against the Second Amendment. (National Review)
 
Policy: The real nuclear news. (Real Clear Defense
~The Patriot Post
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Trial Beginning For Thug Who Called For
The Murder Of All White Cops
by Rick Wells
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{rickwells.us} ~ Making racist and life threatening statements against cops is not a good idea, not even from the relative safety of a computer screen and a Facebook account... One hate-filled Detroit man is in the process of learning that lesson the hard way. Nheru Gowan Littleton, presumably a black man from the content of his rant, is headed to court, charged with making a terroristic threat and using a computer to commit a crime. In a July 9, 2016 post that appeared on Littleton’s Facebook page, he is alleged to have written, “F them racist a** cops!!! Kill them ALL. Black Lives Matter. Black people should start killing all white cops just like they are killing us!!! Then and only then will this s*** stop. Why you ask? Because white people will be dropping like flies!!!” His reason for making the posts is believed to be in response to the shooting of Alton Sterling in Baton Rouge, LA, four days earlier. The same day as his post went up five Dallas Police Officers were killed by a lone gunman as they worked a racist anti-cop street protest in the city...This guy is sick and should be put away.  http://rickwells.us/trial-beginning-thug-called-murder-white-cops/
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Chris Cuomo of CNN Shows Just How
Bigoted the American Left Can Be
by Erick Erickson
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{theresurgent.com} ~ Chris Cuomo of CNN is objectively a liberal. I have friends who work at CNN who tell me they dread going on his morning program because they think he brings a liberal bias that forces them into awkward positions... His entire world view is liberal. He cannot relate to people outside his liberal worldview and he is indicative of the larger community of leftwing group think that cannot fathom anyone but bigots can disagree with them. I remember when I first joined CNN, several reporters told me they were glad to be rid of Lou Dobbs because they felt like they could finally be a straight news organization. Now they have Chris Cuomo engaged in leftist group think where Christians and conservatives are the backwoods enemies against enlightened Manhattan values. Chris Cuomo is, in fact, a bigot. Yesterday, a Twitter user asked Chris Cuomo a very succinct question. He asked “What do you tell a 12 year old girl who doesn’t want to see a penis in the locker room?”...
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'Chinagate' fundraiser feared
liar-Clintons would murder him
LEVLq_RULODuCXYsyg0H72Ebl9GBpvesxWP4BwbtQpOdBnAeViX5TDImGTSuLhu3BwSLiolkBmpl5lRFfMkDgtIch8VEY7Ck9w=s0-d-e1-ft#%3Ca%20rel%3Dnofollow%20href=
Chinese-American businessman Johnny Chung (left)
with Bill and liar-Hillary Clinton
{wnd.com} ~ Stories of a liar-Clinton death list have circulated online for years, but a Chinese-American businessman at the center of the infamous “Chinagate” scandal truly believed the liar-Clintons would send a squad of assassins after him... Johnny Chung, a liar-Clinton fundraiser who was convicted of illegally funneling money from Chinese officials to the 1996 re-election campaign of Bill liar-Clinton, filmed a secret, tell-all video in 2000 as an “insurance policy”in the event of his assassination, according to London’s Daily Mail. He gave the secret footage to his friends and family, telling them to give it to the media if he turned up dead...  http://www.wnd.com/2017/02/chinagate-fundraiser-feared-clintons-would-murder-him/
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Extremist Muslims' One-Way Street
by Burak Bekdil
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{gatestoneinstitute.org} ~ President Donald Trump's executive order of January 27, 2017, temporarily limiting entry from seven majority-Muslim countries – Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen -- for 90 days, until vetting procedures can be put in place... has caused international controversy, sparking protests both in the Western and Islamic worlds, including in increasingly Islamist Turkey. This article does not intend to discuss whether Trump's ban is a racist, illegal order, or a perfectly justified action in light of threatened American interests. The ban, right or wrong, has once again unveiled the hypocrisy of extremist Muslims on civil liberties and on what is and what is NOT racist. Extremist Muslims' understanding of freedom is a one-way street: Freedoms, such as religious rights, are "good" and must be defended if they are intended for Muslims -- often where Muslims are in minority. But they can simply be ignored if they are intended for non-Muslims -- often in lands where Muslims make up the majority. A government statement in Tehran said that the U.S. travel restrictions were an insult to the Muslim world, and threatened U.S. citizens with "reciprocal measures." Many Muslim countries, apparently, already have travel bans against other Muslims, in addition to banning Israelis...  https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/9935/extremist-muslims
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Our Broken American Covenant
by Erick Erickson
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{theresurgent.com} ~ The story of the Old Testament is of a people chosen by God who continually reject him. Again and again, the Lord calls His people back and sends messengers calling His people to repent. Finally, the Lord sends them into exile. Their temple is destroyed, and they are scattered. Still, God remains faithful to His people even then. God keeps His promises. God keeps his covenant.

There is a civic, religious strand that runs through American culture that suggests we have some divinely intended covenant. Our nation is on the planet for something great. It was once a manifest destiny to stretch from sea to sea. Then it was that we were set apart as the torch bearers of liberty in the world, bringing light to darkness.

What set our nation apart was that we were not tied to blood and soil, but to an idea and truth. “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

The United States had always been a nation of many different people working together to advance liberty and reveal those self-evident truths. Our two-fold motto is “In God We Trust” and also “E Pluribus Unum,” or “out of many, one.” Anyone could come here, and so long as they committed themselves to the idea of America, they could become American. Our demand on them was then to contribute to advancing American society.

We, as a nation not tied to blood and soil, could chart new paths through history. We had no aristocracy. The merit of men raised them up in society. The poor man with a good idea could best the rich man with a bad idea. The immigrant who came from nothing could die a wealthy American. Each generation then committed itself to our American covenant.

Something though has gone wrong. No longer are we a nation that looks to America the idea, but to America the blood and soil. If you don’t sound like us, don’t have the right skin tone, don’t have the right religion, or are from the wrong part of the world, some would say you cannot take part in our American covenant. The American dream is to be restricted.

Beyond that, those who would restrict this covenant to those already here would then build up protectionist walls to stop competition, capital, and merit from freely flowing. That protectionism breeds aristocracy. The United States becomes like Europe. The irony here is that many of the people embracing a blood and soil nationalism do so to preserve our unique American identity. But in doing so, they become exactly like the European nations they are trying to avoid us becoming.

As the nation moves forward through the present turmoil, we should recommit ourselves to policies that embrace our American covenant of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. We should open our shores to any who come here through legal processes and make plain those processes, ending long bureaucratic delays in obtaining citizenship. We should secure our border, but we should also encourage the best and brightest throughout the world to not just come to America but to become Americans and commit themselves to our great experiment in individual liberty.

More importantly, we should again embrace the idea that we are better than other nations because we are not a nation rooted in blood and soil, but a nation rooted in an idea, a meritocracy, and an experiment in the advancement of individuals. When we make this nation about what it was and not what it can be, we break our founding covenant. When we make America about the collective or the mob and not the right of the individual to succeed or fail on his own in freedom, we break our covenant.

“A republic, if you can keep it,” said Mr. Franklin. We fail him and our founders when we uproot our flag from America as an idea and plant it among blood and soil, anchored to visions of former glory.
Read more…

Sat/Noon ~ TheFrontPageCover

The Front Page Cover
 The Events of the Week -- Featuring: 
 
Islamic State readies for fall of 'caliphate'
by Joby Warrick & Souad Mekhennet
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 Who Is More Obstructionist? 
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"It is a disgrace that my full Cabinet is still not in place, the longest such delay in the history of our country," Donald Trump tweeted earlier this month. "Obstruction by Democrats!" Is this typical Trumpian hyperbole, or are Democrats really blocking his nominees? Well, a month after his inauguration, there are still several cabinet picks awaiting confirmation. And by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer's own admission, Democrats are "using everything we can to stop these awful nominees."
          Remember in 2014 when the Demo Congressional Campaign was complaining, "No president in U.S. history has faced the level of obstruction that Barack liar-nObama has"? Good times. Here's a rundown of confirmation times compared to those of the previous cabinet:
  State: Rex Tillerson (13 days) vs. liar-Hillary Clinton (2 days)
  Treasury: Steve Mnuchin (25 days) vs. Timothy Geithner (7 days)
  Justice: Jeff Sessions (20 days) vs. Eric Holder (14 days)
  Education: Betsy DeVos (19 days) vs. Arne Duncan (1 day)
  Veterans Affairs: David Shulkin (25 days) vs. Eric Shinseki (1 day)
  HUD: Ben Carson (still waiting) vs. Shaun Donovan (3 days)
  Energy: Rick Perry (still waiting) vs. Steven Chu (1 day)
  Agriculture: Sonny Perdue (still waiting) vs. Tom Vilsack (1 day)
  Interior: Ryan Zinke (still waiting) vs. Ken Salazar (1 day)
          Mark Alexander called Trump's nominees even better than Ronald Reagan's, and it's past time to get them confirmed. 
~The Patriot Post
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Iran's Bluster Is Just Fear of Trump --
and Revolution
by DR. MICHAEL LEDEEN
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{familysecuritymatters.org} ~ They're chanting "Death to America" in Tehran again, on the anniversary of the Iranian revolution of 1979. And they are stomping on big posters of The Donald... Iranian leaders are warning the United States that tough talk and threats are pointless; that Iran is so powerful they will pursue their revolutionary mission no matter what we do or say, that their efforts are blessed by Allah. But it's all bluster -- and the Iranian people know it. The rent-a-crowds, which have a high proportion of military men, are not really prepared to directly challenge the United States. The marches, chants, and posters are not so much for our consumption as for that of their own citizens, most of whom are disgusted with the failed regime and yearn for a return to the Western world. The regime fears that, sooner or later, the tens of millions who detest Khamenei, Rouhani, et al., will flood the streets as they recently did on the occasion of the funeral of Hashemi Rafsanjani, chanting anti-regime and anti-Russian slogans...  http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/publications/detail/irans-bluster-is-just-fear-of-trump-and-revolution?f=must_reads
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Vetting Immigrants and Refugees
by DR. LAINA FARHAT-HOLZMAN
{familysecuritymatters.org} ~ Our country has every right to vet the flood of immigrants trying to come to this land. But one size does not fit all. This is why a blanket Muslim ban is without nuance, to say the least!... President Trump is not going about this process with subtlety, unlike our current vetting process, one that is the result of continued refining. It does make sense to sort through the refugees, first admitting those least likely to be a danger to us, and then vetting the rest. The Trump administration has recognized that refugees fleeing religious persecution should be admitted first. This is our tradition as a correction over our earlier rejection of Jewish immigrants fleeing Nazi Germany. The excuse then was that Nazis could slip in among the Jews. This unlikely excuse hid the real reason: anti-Semitism. The consequences of that vetting shamed us. If refugees are fleeing because they are persecuted for their religion in their home country, the vetting should include all those persecuted, not just one favored group. The lack of subtlety of President Trump's changes makes him favor Christians in the Middle East and South Asia...
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How Radical Islam Penetrated
The U.S. House of Representatives
by George Rasley
{conservativehq.com} ~ Our friend Luke Rosiak, Investigative Reporter for the Daily Caller News Foundation, should receive a Pulitzer Prize for his investigative reporting of the vast national security breach of the House of Representatives... perpetrated by five Pakistani Muslims who were employed as information technology staff by dozens of House Democrats. In his latest report on a story that, we might add, has been completely ignored by the establishment media Rosiak documents how the five Pakistanis have been connected to the Iranian-backed terror organization Hezbollah, that has killed hundreds of Americans and Israelis. Brothers Imran, Abid and Jamal Awan, as well as their wives Natalia Sova and Hina Alvi, were all on the congressional payroll serving as IT administrators for House Democrats... http://www.conservativehq.com/node/25153
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U.S. Military Releases
Clip of Fiery Missile Interception
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{conservativetribune.com} ~ “The crew of the John Paul Jones detected and tracked the target missile with its onboard radar using the Aegis Baseline 9.C2 weapon system,” the report continued...Upon acquiring and tracking the target, the ship launched an SM-3 Block IIA guided missile, which intercepted the target.” The successful test was a massive step in the right direction in terms of dealing with the threat that is an increasingly-aggressive Iran, and Missile Defense Agency director Vice Admiral Jim Syring is elated. “Today’s test demonstrates a critical milestone in the cooperative development of the SM-3 Block IIA missile,” he said in a statement. “The missile, developed jointly by a Japanese and U.S. government and industry team, is vitally important to both our nations and will ultimately improve our ability to defend against increasing ballistic missile threats around the world.”...  http://conservativetribune.com/iran-flaunts-new-missiles-so-u-s/?utm_source=email&utm_medium=C50ConservativeBrief&utm_content
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liar-Hillary Clinton Identified
as ‘Insider Threat’ by U.S. Army!
by Jim Kouri
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{ipatriot.com} ~ Arguably the nation’s most prolific and successful non-government organization that investigates and exposes government and political corruption on Tuesday released what amounts to another stain on the reputations... of former Democratic presidential candidate liar-Hillary Rodham Clinton and General David Petraeus (U.S. Army Ret.). Judicial Watch released a United States Department of the Army OpSec (Operational Security) PowerPoint presentation that depicts liar-Hillary Clinton and others as examples of “insider threats.” The graphic was part of a presentation on the current cybersecurity threats and solutions to enemy infiltration of government cyber assets. Those included with liar-Clinton and Petraeus are terrorist and former U.S. Army Major Nidal Hassan; military-intelligence leaker Bradley Manning (a/k/a Chelsea Manning); intelligence “hijacker” Edward Snowden; and the Washington Navy Yard shooter Aaron Alexis...  http://ipatriot.com/hillary-clinton-identified-insider-threat-u-s-army/
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Islamic State readies for fall of 'caliphate'
by Joby Warrick & Souad Mekhennet
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{jewishworldreview.com} ~ Late last month, a pair of Islamic State fighters in desert camouflage climbed to the top of a river bluff in northern Iraq to demonstrate an important new weapon: a small drone, about six feet wide with swept wings and a small bomb tucked in its fuselage.

The two men launched the slender machine and took videos from a second, smaller drone that shadowed its movements. The aircraft glided over the besieged city of Mosul, swooped close to an Iraqi army outpost and dropped its bomb, scattering Iraqi troops with a small blast that left one figure sprawled on the ground, apparently dead or wounded.

The incident was among dozens in recent weeks in a rapidly accelerating campaign of armed drone strikes by the Islamic State in northern Iraq. The terrorist group last month formally announced the establishment of a new "Unmanned Aircraft of the Mujahideen" unit, a fleet of modified drones equipped with bombs, and claimed that its drones had killed or wounded 39 Iraqi soldiers in a single week.

"A new source of horror for the apostates!" the group's official al-Naba newsletter declared.

While the casualty claim is almost certainly exaggerated, U.S. officials confirm that the terrorist group appears to have crossed a threshold with its use of unmanned aircraft. Two years after the Islamic State first used commercially purchased drones to conduct surveillance, the militants are showing a growing ambition to use the technology to kill enemies, U.S. officials and terrorism experts say.

The threat to troops is serious enough to prompt U.S. and Iraqi commanders to issue warnings to soldiers near the front lines. But a far bigger worry, U.S. officials say, is the potential for future attacks against civilians. Islamic militants have long discussed the possibility of using drones as remote-control missiles that can deliver explosives or even unconventional weapons such as deadly nerve agents. In recent weeks, the notion of terrorist drones has moved a step closer to reality, terrorism experts say.

"They're now showing that these devices can be effective on the battlefield," said Steven Stalinsky, executive director of the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), a Washington nonprofit that analyzed dozens of incidents for a new report on Islamic militant groups' use of drones. "With the way these groups use social media, my worry is that they're also putting the idea into people's heads that this is something you can now do."

To be sure, the lightweight, relatively inexpensive drones in the jihadists' fleet are nowhere close to matching the sophistication and lethal power of the Predators and Reapers used by the U.S. military. The drones displayed by the Islamic State are too small to carry heavy bombs and rockets, and they lack the guidance systems used by U.S. pilots to steer missiles toward their targets. Still, even a small bomb, such as the three-pound mortar shells typically used against Iraqi government troops, can have an effective blast radius of 30 to 45 feet, enough to kill or injure dozens of people if dropped in a crowded area.

Pentagon officials say the drones have scant military significance and will not affect the Iraqi government's timetable for recapturing Mosul, the northern Iraqi city that fell to the Islamic State in 2014.

"Although dangerous, and effective as a propaganda tactic, it has limited operational effect on the battlefield and will not change the outcome," Air Force Col. John L. Dorrian, spokesman for the U.S.-led coalition opposing the Islamic State, said at a press briefing last week.

But a second Pentagon official acknowledged that coalition troops had been forced to take countermeasures against drones - steps that include early-detection systems and electronic jamming - while also stepping up the search for factories and staging areas where the aircraft are being readied for use on the battlefield.

"The coalition takes this threat seriously," said the official, who insisted on anonymity in discussing the military's response to the new threat.

SMALL START, BIG AMBITIONS

As recently as a decade ago, drones were the province of a few advanced industrialized countries, especially the United States, the pioneer and lead practitioner in the use of unmanned aerial vehicles to target and kill suspected terrorists overseas. But today, dozens of countries, including Israel, China and Iran, manufacture and operate military-grade UAVs.

At the same time, a rapidly growing commercial drone industry has made the technology available to private consumers almost anywhere in the world. Online shoppers can pick from hundreds of models, from sparrow-sized "nano" drones that can be controlled from a smartphone to larger aircraft that cost thousands of dollars and can carry small payloads.

The sudden availability of cheap, remote-controlled flying machines did not escape the notice of terrorists groups. The Islamic State is only the latest in a long line of militant organizations that have acquired drones and attempted to modify them for their own purposes. The Iranian-backed group Hezbollah has repeatedly used drones to probe Israel's air defenses, and the group released video last summer that appeared to show a drone dropping Chinese-made bomblets on Syrian rebels.

Al-Qaida operatives in Pakistan commissioned an avionics engineer to build small attack drones and conducted at least one successful test flight before the program was discovered by police in 2013.

There have also been plots involving drones by lone-wolf actors in the United States. In 2011, a physics graduate and model hobbyist from Massachusetts was accused of planning to launch small drones with bombs against the Pentagon and the Capitol, according to an FBI affidavit.

The Islamic State's efforts so far have been comparatively crude. Beginning in August 2014, the terrorist group began using drones to gather battlefield intelligence and to document the effects of suicide bombings, often broadcasting the videos online to bolster morale, according to the report by MEMRI. Occasionally the group would strap an explosive onto a small drone and try to land it near a military outpost, as happened in October when a booby-trapped toy aircraft exploded as Kurdish fighters were examining it near the northern city of Irbil.

Terrorist leaders last year put out appeals for scientists and engineers to travel to Iraq and Syria to work on weapons programs, including drones. In March, a group of pro-Islamic State technicians used the social-media platform Telegram to discuss how common engine parts might be adapted for use in missiles or in military-style attack drones, according to transcript of the discussion provided by MEMRI.

"What does success look like?" asked one of the participants, using a nickname but describing himself as an American with a microelectronics background. "Are we talking about an actual guided missile or a drone which can drop payload?"

COMING SOON: 'A LOT MORE SURPRISES'

At least a few technical experts appear to have responded to the call. When government troops recaptured the Iraqi provincial capital of Ramadi last year, they discovered a small workshop where workers were attempting to manufacture drone parts from scratch. Photographs from inside the facility show homemade wings and fuselage parts as well as electronics, camera controllers and gyro sensors used to control flight, according to an analysis by Conflict Armament Research, a London-based nonprofit that investigates weapons trafficking.

Similar factories built to modify commercial UAVs have been found in liberated parts of Mosul in the past few weeks, all pointing to an "increasing use by ISIS of weaponized drones," said James Bevan, Conflict Armament Research's executive director, using an acronym for the Islamic State.

Bevan's analysts found that the group initially favored small helicopter-like drones with four rotors and sufficient heft to carry a small bomb - usually a mortar shell or similar device with stabilizing fins and a point-detonating fuse built to explode on impact. But some of the more recent attacks involved fixed-wing drones of uncertain origin, U.S. officials said.

When Iraqi troops captured drone facilities in Mosul earlier this year, they discovered scores of documents detailing an elaborate procurement system for purchasing the aircraft and parts, as well as extensive procedures for altering and testing the equipment. The records "speak to the group's efforts to secure, modify and enhance the range and performance of its drones," said a report by the Combating Terrorism Center at West Point, N.Y., which published some of the documents.

When the siege of Mosul began in the fall, Islamic State fighters stepped up their use of small surveillance drones to gather intelligence and showcase their efforts to defend the city, producing mini-documentaries with aerial footage of successful suicide attacks on Iraqi troops.

The shift to weaponized drone attacks began late last year and was ramping up dramatically at the time of the group's formal announcement of the program Jan. 24.

"The army of the Islamic State has revealed its use of the unmanned aircraft weapon for the first time," the group's al-Naba newsletter said. It described an "aerial bombardment" of Iraqi forces around Mosul and said "most of the hits were precise, and inflicted losses in the ranks of the apostates."

Since then, the group's social-media pages have carried dozens of videos showing strikes using small bombs and rockets. Not all the bombs find their targets, but the drone attacks have become a daily threat for residents in some parts of liberated eastern Mosul, Iraqi news accounts show.

Iraqi troops also have been forced to scan the skies for tiny aircraft and to take cover when they appear. Videos released by the Islamic State show multiple instances in which bombs were dropped close enough to Iraqi troop positions to cause injuries. Some of the footage appears to show wounded figures on the ground following the attacks, although there has been no official confirmation from Iraq of the terrorists' claim of dozens killed and wounded.

Regardless of the actual numbers, the campaign appears to have raised the spirits of some of the group's supporters. The Jan. 24 announcement triggered euphoric discussions on social-media platforms used by Islamic militant groups, as well as predictions that armed drones would soon be deployed elsewhere. One February 3 post on the Telegram messaging site called the early attacks "a drop in the sea."

"The coming days will reveal a lot more, Allah permitting," the post said, according to a translation provided by the SITE Intelligence Group, a private company that monitors jihadist websites. "After the planes, there are still a lot more surprises." 

 
Read more…

Saturday AM ~ TheFrontPageCover

The Front Page Cover
 The Events of the Week -- Featuring: 
 
Planned Parenthood's Pandering Press
by Brent Bozell
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 Roe v. Wade Plaintiff Dies of Broken Heart 
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By Mark Alexander: Over the years, our family has had the opportunity to host many interesting guests in our home. In 1995, Norma McCorvey (Roe v. Wade) and Sandra Cano (Doe v. Bolton) spent a Sunday afternoon with us.
          That year, my wife and I were engaged in the reconstruction of a former abortion clinic into a national memorial site for aborted children — a place where mothers and fathers of those children could tangibly memorialize the loss of their child. Our mission was not a political crusade but motivated out of a desire to provide the parents of aborted children, who in retrospect more fully understood the loss of life involved in their choice, a place to memorialize and grieve that loss.
          Norma McCorvey was the anonymous plaintiff "Jane Roe" in a case filed in 1970, and ruled on by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1973, opening the door for abortion in every state. Justice Harry A. Blackmun, who wrote the opinion for the court, noted, "The word 'person,' as used in the 14th Amendment, does not include the unborn." Sandra Cano was the anonymous plaintiff Mary Doe in Doe v. Bolton, a companion case decided the same day as Roe v. Wade, giving mothers of unborn children a very broad range of reasons to declare a need for an abortion — in essence, abortion on demand.
          Both McCorvey and Cano would later protest having been used as "pawns" in these cases. For her part, Norma McCorvey, once she understood the larger context for her Creator and that of all unborn children, became an outspoken pro-life advocate for these children, as noted in her 2005 Senate testimony.
          McCorvey concluded, "Upon knowing God, I realized that my case, which legalized abortion on demand, was the biggest mistake of my life. You see, abortion has eliminated 50 million innocent babies in the U.S. alone since 1973. Abortion scars an untold number of post-abortive mothers and fathers and families, too. I believe that I was used and abused by the court system in America. Instead of helping women in Roe v. Wade, I brought destruction to me and millions of women throughout the nation."
          In a later interview, she made clear her life mission: "I am dedicated to spreading the truth about preserving the dignity of all human life from natural conception to natural death."
          Both McCorvey and Cano delivered statements at the dedication of the National Memorial for the Unborn in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Those statements, cast in bronze on the wall of the Memorial, read as follows:
          "Roe v. Wade — I am Norma McCorvey. I became known as Jane Roe on January 22, 1973, when the U.S. Supreme Court released the Roe v. Wade decision which created a woman's 'right to abortion.' I am now a Child of God, a new creature in Christ. I am forgiven and redeemed. Today, I publicly recant my involvement in the tragedy of abortion. I humbly ask forgiveness of the millions of women and unborn babies who have experienced the violence of abortion. In this place of healing, the National Memorial for the Unborn, I stand with those who honor the worth of every unborn child as created in the image of God. I will strive in the name of Jesus, to end this holocaust. NORMA McCORVEY March 23, 1997"
          "Doe v. Bolton — I am Sandra Cano. I became known as Mary Doe when the U.S. Supreme Court released Roe v. Wade's companion decision, Doe v. Bolton, which allowed abortion for virtually any reason. I am against abortion; I never sought an abortion; I have never had an abortion. Abortion is murder. For over twenty years, and against my will, my name has been synonymous with abortion. The Doe V. Bolton case is based on deceit and fraud. I stand today in this place of healing, the National Memorial for the Unborn, and pledge to the memory of these innocent children, that as long as I have breath, I will strive to see abortion ended in America. SANDRA CANO March 23, 1997"
          Meanwhile, Planned Parenthood, the nation's largest abortion provider, is lobbying Democrats in Congress to ensure continuation of its $540 million in annual taxpayer grants for "women's health."
          On Saturday, Norma McCorvey died of heart failure. Rest in peace. While her walk in defense of the most innocent among us has come to an end, our mission in their defense remains steadfast. ~The Patriot Post
 
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A Month of Islam and Multiculturalism
in France: January 2017
by Soeren Kern
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A van burns during a recent riot in a Paris suburb.
Car burnings, commonplace in France
{gatestoneinstitute.org} ~ January 1. The Interior Ministry announced the most anticipated statistic of the year: a total of 945 cars and trucks were torched across France on New Year's Eve... a 17.5% increase from the 804 vehicles burned during the annual ritual on the same holiday in 2015. Car burnings, commonplace in France, are often attributed to rival Muslim gangs that compete with each other for the media spotlight over which can cause the most destruction. An estimated 40,000 cars are torched in France every year. January 2. Approximately 3.7 million crimes were reported in France in 2016, a 4% increase over 2015, according to Le Figaro. Seine-Saint-Denis, a Paris suburb which has one of the highest concentrations of Muslims in France, ranks as the most dangerous part of the country, with 18.2 attacks per 1,000 inhabitants. It is followed by Paris, with 15.7 attacks per 1,000 inhabitants and Bouches-du-Rhône with 11.5 attacks per 1,000 inhabitants...Do we really need this in America?  https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/9978/islam-france-january
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America's Most Forgotten: The Victims of Illegal
Alien Crime – Carl Epley & Amanda Thomas
by CAROLYN COOKE
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{familysecuritymatters.org} ~ Hannibal is the essence of “small town U.S.A.,” has a population of 17,000 and is located on the banks of the Mississippi River. Death at the hands of illegal aliens does not spare America’s heartland... The residents of this small American community were shaken by the slaying of two young adults on February 28, 2009. Manuel G. Cazares, an illegal alien from Mexico, confessed to the murders. He was charged with second degree murder and armed criminal action in the double homicide. Cazares said jealousy was his motivation. The bodies of 27-year-old Amanda R. Thomas and 25-year-old Carl Patrick Epley were found Saturday morning in Amanda’s apartment. A large kitchen knife was discovered in a wastebasket. Patrick was viciously stabbed seven times before Cazares unleashed his anger on Amanda, slicing her arms twice with the knife before delivering the fatal blow to her chest. There was no evidence of forced entry. A blood stained Cazeras turned himself into police hours afterward. He had been driving around in Amanda’s car and using her cell phone...  http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/publications/detail/americas-most-forgotten-the-victims-of-illegal-alien-crime-carl-epley-amanda-thomas?f=must_reads
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Multiculturalism Run Amuck at Georgetown:
What's Wrong with Slavery and Rape?
by BILL DONOHUE
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{familysecuritymatters.org} ~ Two weeks ago, a professor from Georgetown University publicly rose to the defense of slavery and rape, and not a single major media outlet-with the exception of a blogger on the Washington Post website and a brief posting on FoxNews-has said a word about it... The absence of outrage is not hard to figure out: Jonathan Brown's defense was limited to Islam. Brown, a convert to Islam, holds an endowed chair in Islamic studies at Georgetown. The Jesuit-run institution has a wealthy benefactor in Saudi Arabia, a nation which bans Christianity. How sweet. What did Georgetown get from this arrangement? Money, and a lot of it. Twelve years ago, Saudi Arabia wrote a check to the Jesuit-run institution for $20 million; it went to support the school's Center for Muslim Christian Understanding, run by Brown. And what did Saudi Arabia get from this peculiar "understanding"? Legitimacy. The fruit from this decayed tree is now apparent. Georgetown now employs a tenured professor who defends slavery and rape, provided the slavemasters and rapists are Muslims...
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A Muslim Woman's Fight Against Radical Islam
by Abigail R. Esman
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{investigativeproject.org} ~ If one were to find a single question that defines the geo-politics of our age, it might well be the question Farhana Qazi has been asking herself for almost 20 years: why do so many Muslims kill in the name of their religion?... If she has not found all the answers, Qazi has done much to facilitate our understanding of the issues, primarily as they relate to Muslim women and the rise in women extremists. A Muslim herself, she has worked largely behind the scenes: at the Counter-Terrorism Center in Washington, D.C.; at the Rand Corporation think tank; as an instructor on terrorism for the U.S. military; and as an author. Her work has taken her back to her native Pakistan, where she has immersed herself in the lives of Muslim extremist women, met with the mothers of suicide bombers, come to know women who have endured imprisonment, and shared stories with women who, in her words, "have tried to break the barriers of patriarchy and patrilineal traditions."...
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Household Brand Nestle Leaves California
Due to Oppressive State Laws, Taxes
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 by Kosar
{thepoliticalinsider.com} ~ Nestle, a large company known for its food and drink products, is tired of doing business in far-left California. They are packing their bags and heading thousands of miles away to Virginia... Nestle USA made the official announcement that their headquarters will move from a Los Angeles suburb to Rosslyn, Virginia and is taking more than 1,200 jobs with it. California is just an awful place to do business, and the Republican-led state legislature in Virginia put together an incentive package that would make President Trump proud:...
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Planned Parenthood's Pandering Press
by Brent Bozell
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{townhall.com} ~ Every time you hear the network anchors and reporters act outraged about President Trump calling on "friendly" reporters and the fact that there's something desperately wrong about trying to avoid negative publicity and hostile questions, think of Planned Parenthood.

As with virtually anyone on the left, journalists treat Planned Parenthood as the most sacred of cows. In the last few weeks, from the women's marches through the March for Life and other protests of Planned Parenthood, none of the networks will investigate or even cover the activities of these merchants of death.

They will say that those who are anti-abortion want to defund Planned Parenthood. But they routinely repeat the liberal argument that federal funds don't pay for abortions (never mind the taxpayer-funded abortions under liar-nObamacare). They don't point out the fact that Planned Parenthood is hard-wired into the Democratic Party coalition, and that it reportedly spent about $14 million in PAC money for Democrats in the last cycle.

A recent Quinnipiac University poll asked plainly whether people supported defunding Planned Parenthood. Only 31 percent said yes, and 62 percent said no. Another recent Quinnipiac poll asked about banning abortion at 20 weeks. Forty-six percent said yes, and 46 percent said no.

Planned Parenthood has performed tens of thousands of abortions after 20 weeks. The Guttmacher Institute, previously a Planned Parenthood affiliate, reportedly released data showing that about 18,000 third-trimester abortions are performed ever year. According to this survey, roughly a third of those who believe this ghastly practice should be banned also believe Planned Parenthood should be funded so they can commit these atrocities.

That gap illustrates that Planned Parenthood (through a very cooperative media) effectively brands itself as a generic women's health care provider, not as the McDonald's of abortion. Take its claim that abortion services only account for 3 percent of its procedures. Even liberal fact-checkers like Glenn Kessler of the Washington Post slammed that as misleading. He said: "The organization treats each service -- pregnancy test, STD test, abortion, birth control -- equally. Yet there are obvious differences between a surgical (or even medical) abortion, and offering a urine (or even blood) pregnancy test. These services are not all comparable in how much they cost or how extensive the service or procedure is."

But the networks just parrot the propaganda line. Take NPR anchor Ari Shapiro, who said, "Nationally, Planned Parenthood says it treats 2.5 million patients a year, and abortions make up 3 percent of the services." ABC's "Good Morning America" let a spokeswoman claim that "Ninety-seven percent of the services that Planned Parenthood provides are preventive health services."

The networks also give us celebrities reading the sales pamphlet. Actress Scarlett Johansson was quoted by CBS as saying, "For millions of Americans, Planned Parenthood is often the only trustworthy and affordable clinic." Baloney. She might be excused as a fool, but CBS knows better.

These networks are deliberately ignoring what the anti-abortion group Live Action keeps proving: Planned Parenthood is not a hospital. Most of its centers don't offer prenatal care. You don't go there for a mammogram. It is a "sexual health" clinic. Women go there for contraceptives, pregnancy tests and STD tests, and to kill their babies.

On Jan. 24, Live Action posted a video documenting how it contacted 97 Planned Parenthood clinics across 41 of the organization's affiliates where undercover recording is legal under state law, and only five said they offered any form of prenatal care. They don't insure a healthy pregnancy. They terminate pregnancies. And the network coverage? Nonexistent.

In a video posted on Feb. 6, Sue Thayer, a former director of two Planned Parenthood clinics in Iowa, said she encouraged an abortion quota that, if met, would result in staff pizza parties. And the network coverage? Nonexistent.

These are just two of six videos that Live Action has posted in the last few weeks, and they've drawn more than 33 million views. The networks simply won't touch them. They are rigidly doctrinaire in maintaining their Happy News narrative. Nothing that anti-abortion people produce, no matter how solid the reporting, can break through. It's all somehow "alternative facts" and "fake news." And they wonder why the public doesn't trust them.

https://townhall.com/columnists/brentbozell/2017/02/22/planned-parenthoods-pandering-press-n2288909?utm_source=thdaily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl&newsletterad=

Read more…

Friday PM ~ TheFrontPageCover

The Front Page Cover
 The Events of the Week -- Featuring: 
 
Fighting for the Falsely Accused
by Michelle Malkin
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 Trump's Travel Ban 2.0 
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A week ago, we asked if Donald Trump could win by losing. The issue was his temporary travel ban, first blocked by a federal judge and then stifled by the Ninth Circuit Court. Trump was perfectly correct legally, but he could have executed better, and we hoped he'd skip the next appeal and craft a better order. At his press conference Thursday, Trump still insisted he's going to appeal, but also noted that he'll issue a new order next week: "The new order is going to be very much tailored to what I consider to be a very bad decision."
          The Washington Examiner's Daniel Allott explains the problem with the original order: "Trump's initial executive order, issued in late January, raised constitutional and humanitarian questions as nobody seemed to know exactly who was barred from the county. The poorly written order created confusion, as travelers from affected countries who were in transit were detained at airports. The order was enforced against people who already had visas, including permanent U.S. residents."
          Trump's objective with a temporary ban is to implement better vetting for incoming refugees — clearly, that's desirable. The seven nations subject to a temporary ban (Iran, Iraq, Syria, Libya, Yemen, Somalia and Sudan) are particularly troublesome in this regard. Bleeding heart liberals fuss that we should welcome all refugees with open arms, but how are we to tell the difference between a person genuinely displaced by regional violence and a person — maybe even genuinely displaced — who is bent on causing havoc or death here in the U.S.? It's not as if people always tell the truth about their intentions. Democrats should know this better than anyone, given their expertise in deception.  ~The Patriot Post
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‘3rd Fleet Forward’ One of Several Tools to Deter North Korean Aggression
by Megan Eckstein
{news.usni.org} ~ Navy forces are preparing for a conflict on the Korean Peninsula – the most likely “fight tonight” scenario they face – by shifting U.S. 3rd Fleet forces as well as the most advanced platforms into the Western Pacific... Vice Adm. Joseph Aucoin, commander of U.S. 7th Fleet, said North Korea is the only country in his area of operations which is not seeing an improved relationship with the United States, and “if there’s a fight tonight, it’s probably going to happen on the Korean Peninsula.” Aucoin, speaking at the WEST 2017 conference, said that “we hope that North Korea abides by the United Nations Security Council resolution to stop development of nuclear weapons, but I’m not holding my breath on that regard.” He then described a three-pronged approach for naval forces dealing with that North Korean threat: “technology, our partnerships, and training.”...  https://news.usni.org/2017/02/22/3rd-fleet-forward-one-of-several-tools-to-deter-north-korean-aggression?utm_source=USNI+News&utm_campaign=1773268d77-USNI_NEWS_DAILY&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_0dd4a1450b-1773268d77-231491269&mc_cid=1773268d77&mc_eid=3999f18767
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Snatching Defeat From Jaws of Victory:
GOP Is Losing The liar-nObamacare Repeal Battle
by Jay Caruso
{redstate.com} ~ The GOP knows how to campaign effectively enough to win elections. However, when they win, their strategic initiatives are like boys throwing wet tissue paper against the ceiling in the school bathroom... Sometimes it sticks but other times it comes falling to the ground with a splat. The GOP promised since the passage of liar-nObamacare, that given the reigns of government, they would repeal what most people would agree is a garbage law. It was never intended to provide “coverage” as the revisionists would have people believe. It was passed to make coverage more “affordable.” It’s not. Premiums have risen. If you’re not lucky enough to qualify for subsidies, you’re likely paying out of your rear and that’s for a garbage plan with a super high deductible. It should have been easy for the GOP to repeal it but they’re blowing it. Allowing Democrats to control the narrative is making liar-nObamacare more popular:...This is making me mad and sick. http://www.redstate.com/jaycaruso/2017/02/22/snatching-defeat-jaws-victory-gop-losing-obamacare-repeal-battle/?utm_source=rsmorningbriefing&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl
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Trump Wants Justice Department to Investigate Leakers...
by Josh Siegel
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{dailysignal.com} ~ Frustrated by a proliferation of leaks early in his administration, President Donald Trump last week said he directed the Department of Justice to open a criminal investigation... “I’ve actually called the Justice Department to look into the leaks,” Trump said during a 75-minute news conference at the White House. “Those are criminal leaks.” Leaks—an intentional disclosure of secret information, often by an anonymous source. That changed in the recent administrations of George W. Bush, and more prominently, Barack liar-nObama, as electronic communications trails have made it easier for investigators to determine the source of leaks. liar-nObama prosecuted more whistleblowers than all of his predecessors combined, including high-profile charges against Edward Snowden, who leaked information from the National Security Agency, and Chelsea Manning, who disclosed files stolen from the Army to WikiLeaks...
Trump’s EPA Chief Releases More Than
7,000 Emails To Soros-Funded Group
by Chris White
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{dailycaller.com} ~ A liberal watchdog group released thousands of emails Wednesday showing President Donald Trump’s EPA chief shared communications with energy groups during his time as Oklahoma’s attorney general... The Center for Media and Democracy (CMD), a liberal watchdog group with financial ties to billionaire George Soros, released emails showing Scott Pruitt’s office communicated on several occasions with fossil fuel companies like Devon Energy earlier in February. CMD sued to have the emails released after it claimed the Oklahoma Republican stonewalled information requests for two years. “The newly released emails reveal a close and friendly relationship between Scott Pruitt’s office and the fossil fuel industry,” Nick Surgey, a director at CMD, wrote in a statement Wednesday...  http://dailycaller.com/2017/02/22/trumps-epa-chief-releases-more-than-7000-emails-to-soros-funded-group/
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Criminal Illegal Alien Released
From Jail Weeks Before Committing Murder
by Onan Coca and Jeff Dunetz
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{lidblog.com} ~ There’s a major story brewing in Denver where one of the suspects accused of robbing and then murdering a man in a Denver, Colorado light rail station should have never been able to commit the crime... But the Denver Sheriff’s office didn’t honor an ICE detainer and released a criminal illegal alien into the public to take a life. Ever Valles and Nathan Valdez have been charged with the murder of 32-year-old Tim Cruz. In and of itself, the crime is horrible. An innocent, law abiding man’s life was taken from him and his friends and family will have to suffer with that loss for the rest of their lives. However, the pain is compounded by the fact that Valles should have never been loose on the streets to commit this terrible act. Just a few weeks before the murder, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) had placed a detainer on Valles after he’d been arrested by the Denver P.D for car thefts and other charges...  http://lidblog.com/criminal-illegal-alien-ever-valles/
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Fighting for the Falsely Accused
by Michelle Malkin
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{townhall.com} ~ Former Fort Worth, Texas, police officer Brian Franklin is finally free. But he is still fighting to clear his name.

"I've been vindicated," he told me in an interview last week, "but not yet exonerated." Franklin served 21 years in prison -- a harrowing 7,700 days -- of a life sentence after he was convicted of sexually assaulting a 13-year-old girl in 1995. But he steadfastly maintained his innocence, studied law in the prison library and won a reversal of his conviction last spring. In December, a jury acquitted him after a second criminal trial.

"It's been a roller coaster ride up and down," Franklin reflected. Hellish doesn't begin to describe the journey. His accuser had lied that she was a virgin before Franklin allegedly raped her. Prosecutors produced physical exam results of damage to her genitals as proof of his crime. In fact, she had been the victim of molestation by her stepfather for years.

Moreover, the young accuser's story of when she was allegedly raped changed to fit a timeline developed by prosecutors. That timeline was debunked when Franklin's employment time records and time-stamped and dated store receipts showed he was nowhere near the alleged rape location -- the backyard of her biological father, who was a friend of Franklin's.

There were no witnesses. There was no DNA. Yet, the cop with "law enforcement in my blood" lost his job, reputation and freedom.

"It's the easiest crime to be falsely accused of," Franklin told me. Prosecutors "used my position as a police officer against me." His family and church stood by him. But as soon as he was arrested, he had already been branded a "RAPIST" in the court of public opinion. His original jury "prejudged me," Franklin recalled. Given the reckless witch hunts in cases like his and the Duke Lacrosse case, he observed, "I'm surprised anybody gets acquitted these days."

After Franklin's conviction, lead prosecutor Rose Salinas learned that his accuser had signed an affidavit detailing the daily sexual abuse by her stepfather from the ages of 6-16. Those claims, Salinas concluded, "render irrelevant any medical evidence introduced at Brian Franklin's trial to show guilt," "clearly show she that she testified falsely" and "cast serious doubts on the integrity of his conviction." Had she known of the accuser's withheld evidence, Salinas acknowledged, she "would have immediately dismissed the charges" against Franklin.

But he was still years away from winning his release as his various writs and petitions worked through the laborious criminal justice system. "There were times when a court would rule against me and I felt hit it in the stomach and down in the dumps," Franklin recounted over the phone from Kerrville, Texas, where he now lives with his mother. He leaned on his faith and family to get through the darkest times.

"I did not become hardened and I did not become institutionalized. I would not let myself become one of them."

Though he and his resilient family celebrated what they call a "Merry Acquitmas" in December, Franklin must still win a declaration of actual innocence from the state of Texas before he can be eligible for financial reparations for the falsely accused. He took a job at a grocery story and is trying to raise money on GoFundMe --
https://www.gofundme.com/Brian-Franklin -- for his legal bills.

Someday, Franklin told me, he would like to work full-time again in law enforcement and help others who have been wrongfully charged, convicted and imprisoned. He has already weighed in to support former Oklahoma City police officer Daniel Holtzclaw, who was railroaded by the social justice mob and accused of sexual assaults during the racially charged summer of Ferguson, Missouri, in 2014.

After reporting on the junk science, prosecutorial misconduct, police incompetence and due process violations run amok in his case over the past year, I've heard from several DNA experts, private investigators and former LEOs across the country disturbed by the gross miscarriage of justice against Holtzclaw. He filed his appellate brief with the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals on Feb. 1.

"I've studied this case from both sides and have come to the conclusion that he really is innocent," Franklin wrote on Facebook. "I know about innocence. I was a cop wrongfully convicted of rape...For those of you who jump to conclusions when you don't know what you're talking about, shame on you. Learn the facts first."

Brian Franklin is a beacon not only for law enforcement officers fighting the tyranny of "guilty until proven innocent," but for every falsely accused citizen. His vow:

"I will not give up. I will persevere. I am right. I'm not gonna give up."

https://townhall.com/columnists/michellemalkin/2017/02/22/fighting-for-the-falsely-accused-n2288893?utm_source=thdaily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl&newsletterad=

Read more…

Fri/Noon ~ TheFrontPageCover

The Front Page Cover
 The Events of the Week -- Featuring: 
 
Lawmakers probe US funding
for Soros groups, left-wing causes in Europe
by Adam Shaw
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 Defining Deportation Criteria Down 
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By Arnold Ahlert: "Drunk driving that does not lead to any other negative outcome, I could define as that." —NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio explaining why illegals who commit "minor" crimes will be shielded from deportation.
          "Rather than tracking down violent criminals and drug dealers, ICE is spending its energy deporting a woman with two American children who has lived here for more than two decades and poses a threat to nobody." —Phoenix Mayor Greg Stanton expressing his outrage over the deportation of Garcia de Rayos, an illegal alien convicted of felony criminal impersonation.
          Remember when the American Left used to insist that deporting illegals whose only offense was being in the United States illegally was an affront to decency? As two Democrat mayors indicate, the bar has been lowered substantially. In fact, de Blasio studiously avoided the other component of reporter Jake Tapper's question, namely whether or not grand larceny was sufficient grounds for deportation. Perhaps that's because a 2014 sanctuary city law passed by the City Council and signed by de Blasio prevents the transfer of an illegal to ICE without a warrant, unless the suspect is on a terrorism watch list or has committed a violent felony.
          NYPD Lt. Chris Czark, who insisted the city was "acting within guidelines and the scope of the law," nonetheless revealed the utter lunacy of such a policy, noting that while "you could be detained for any felony" prior to the law's implementation, now it's only "certain felonies" that precipitate cooperation with federal immigration officials.
          Not on that list? Crimes like sexual abuse, money-laundering, bribery, grand larceny and drunk driving. City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito's response to critics who challenge the assertion that the law makes the city safe? "Any suggestion that our common-sense law does otherwise is nothing more than cheap political posturing," huffed spokeswoman Amy Varghese.
          New York progressives are hardly outliers. Alisa Wellek, executive director of the Immigrant Defense Project, reveals the mindset that animates the Left's casual relationship with the Rule of Law regarding illegal aliens. "We see a ton of people deported for misdemeanors, probation violations, petty theft, shoplifting," she states. "The federal government has these really overreaching laws on the books, laws that are very unforgiving for anyone who's had any contact with the criminal justice system — even if you've never served a day in jail."
          The headline of a Denver Post editorial is equally absurd. "Trump should deport criminals, but let's be reasonable," it states. The editorial board offers up the boilerplate progressive rationale that crime thrives "in an environment where the threat of deportation prevents victims and witnesses from contacting law enforcement or even from seeking emergency medical attention." So the paper concludes that Trump, who has "demonized immigrants in his climb to the White House," should "reconsider his inexorable march to mass deportation."
          The Atlantic's J. Weston Phippen is another hand-wringer upset with Trump's executive order regarding illegals. "There is no priority anymore," he laments. "The language in the order says that any unauthorized immigrant convicted of any crime can be deported."
          In other words, no illegal convicted of a crime should be deported if that deportation offends progressive sensibilities.
          This sentiment is shared by "Monarca," a group of Mexican legislators, governors and public figures whose name is the Mexican word for a butterfly that migrates throughout North America. Their strategy is straight out of Cloward-Piven: overwhelm the immigration court system until it breaks down. "The backlog in the immigration system is tremendous," said former Foreign Minister Jorge Castañeda. Monarca intends to double or triple the backlog, "until Trump desists in this stupid idea," Castañeda adds.
          The courts are already in chaos with a backlog of more than 500,000 cases. That number that has steadily increased over the last eight years, due to a shortage of immigration judges. The current number of judges is 296, and Human Rights First (HRF) estimates the Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR), the DOJ agency that adjudicates immigration cases, needs to hire 524 immigration judges to eliminate the backlog by 2023.
          That's not soon enough. The Trump administration needs to make the hiring of judges a top priority to counter Monarca's contemptible strategy, as well as the reality expressed in 2011 by former Miami immigration jurist Mark H. Metcalf. He explained that the current system is "built to fail" because deportation orders "are rarely enforced," illegals don't show up for court dates and immigration judges "can't enforce their own orders."
          The message is clear: Progressives and their media enablers embrace orchestrated anarchy. Orchestrated anarchy that essentially defines criminal deviancy down to the point where leftists demand that people already here illegally be allowed to stay, even if they have committed additional crimes — including "acceptable" felonies. And if these would-be anarchists don't get their way, they will attempt to crash the court system.
          It remains to be seen if the GOP will abide the Left's "by any means necessary" approach, or stand up for "deplorable" Americans tired of being told they are bigoted or xenophobic because they reject a de facto invasion — and the bastardization of the law necessary to facilitate it.
          How this plays out is America's ultimate litmus test. There is either national sovereignty and the Rule of Law — or there isn't. 
~The Patriot Post
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7 new Earth-like exoplanets
discovered, NASA announces
by Rob Verger
{foxnews.com} ~ Talk about lucky number seven. Astronomers have discovered not one, not two, but seven Earth-sized planets orbiting a star called TRAPPIST-1... What’s more, three of them are in the habitable zone— the happy place where liquid water can exist on the surface of rocky planets, as it’s not too hot or cold. (Although liquid water could potentially exist on any of the seven, NASA said, it likes the odds on those three best.) The space agency calls the discovery of the fascinating solar system record-breaking. “The discovery gives us a hint that finding a second Earth is not just a matter of if, but when,” Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator of the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters, said at a news conference announcing the discovery... http://www.foxnews.com/science/2017/02/22/7-new-earth-like-exoplanets-discovered-nasa-announces.html?cmpid=NL_fntop    
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Trump administration revokes liar-nObama-era
transgender bathroom guidance for schools
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{foxnews.com} ~ The Trump administration Wednesday revoked federal guidelines issued by former President Barack liar-nObama that allowed public school students to use restrooms and other facilities corresponding to their gender identity... A document submitted to the Supreme Court by the Solicitor General's office said that the liar-nObama-era directive issued this past May did not "undergo any formal public process" or explain how the directive was "consistent with the express language of Title IX," the federal law outlawing sex discrimination in education and activities. "This is an issue best solved at the state and local level," Education Secretary Betsy DeVos said. "Schools, communities, and families can find -- and in many cases have found -- solutions that protect all students."... 
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The Terrorists Among Us: Rarely Mentioned
Not-so-peaceful Refugees and Immigrants
by William F. Jasper
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{thenewamerican.com} ~ Judge Robart asked Justice Department lawyer Michelle Bennett, “Have there been terrorist attacks in the United States by refugees or other immigrants from the seven countries listed, since 9/11?”... When Bennett was unable to give Robart a response, he rephrased the question again, then stated, “Let me tell you. The answer to that is none, as best I can tell.” Like many other public officials, journalists, and commentators, Judge Robart was repeating a false talking point that, having been endlessly repeated in the media, has become dogma with defenders of unrestricted migration and open borders. Many have erroneously taken Judge Robart’s claim to even more ridiculous heights, asserting the same claim not only for refugees and immigrants from the seven countries referred to in President Trump’s order, but claiming there have been no cases of terrorism committed by any refugees. We have listed below a fraction of the cases of terrorism and mass murder by Muslim immigrants from various countries, including those referred to in the executive order. In addition, there are many more Muslim refugees and immigrants who have been arrested and convicted of terrorism-related crimes, but who were apprehended and their plots foiled before they were carried out...The city of Seattle is in serious harm by this judge. https://www.thenewamerican.com/usnews/immigration/item/25429-the-terrorists-among-us-rarely-mentioned-not-so-peaceful-refugees-and-immigrants?utm_source=iContactPro&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=TNA+Top+Daily+Headlines
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Dallas Pension Plan Solution:
Everyone Shares the Pain
by Bob Adelmann
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{thenewamerican.com} ~ Following the pension plan board meeting on Monday, Presidents’ Day, a decision was made to accept the rough outlines of a proposal by Texas House Pensions Committee Chairman Dan Flynn to keep the Dallas police and firefighters pension plan from going bankrupt... Said city council member Philip Kingston, “Flynn’s plan is the best of the bad options.” Everyone involved will share the pain: some by having their benefits cut back, and some by having the contributions increased... https://www.thenewamerican.com/usnews/politics/item/25448-dallas-pension-plan-solution-everyone-shares-the-pain?utm_source=iContactPro&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=TNA+Top+Daily+Headlines
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UCLA Professor Accuses University of
Hypocrisy on Anti-Hamas Posters
by Truth Revolt
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{truthrevolt.org} ~ UCLA communications professor Keith Fink—a rare conservative lecturer on the radical, left-wing campus... bravely took the university’s top administrators to task for immediately tearing down posters exposing the connections between the anti-Israel hate group Students for Justice in Palestine and the terror group Hamas while allowing a brazenly anti-Semitic cartoon in the campus paper to pass without comment. Fink, who does not have tenure, appeared Tuesday night on Tucker Carlson’s program on the Fox News channel to accuse UCLA administrators of blocking students from enrolling in his course, “Sex, Politics, and Race: Free Speech on Campus,” because his views deviate from the standard leftist fare typically served up on campus...  http://www.truthrevolt.org/news/ucla-professor-accuses-university-hypocrisy-anti-hamas-posters
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Lawmakers probe US funding
for Soros groups, left-wing causes in Europe
by Adam Shaw
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{foxnews.com} ~ George Soros' alleged meddling in European politics has caught the attention of Congress.

Concerns about Soros' involvement most recently were raised by the Hungarian prime minister, who last week lashed out at the Soros "empire" and accused it of deploying "tons of money and international heavy artillery."

But days earlier, Republican lawmakers in Washington started asking questions about whether U.S. tax dollars also were being used to fund Soros projects in the small, conservative-led country of Macedonia.

Rep. Christopher Smith, R-N.J., led a group of House lawmakers in writing to Ambassador Jess Baily -- an liar-nObama appointee -- demanding answers. Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, also expressed concerns about USAID money going to Soros' Open Society Foundations as part of a broader concern that the U.S. Embassy has been taking sides in party politics.

“I have received credible reports that, over the past few years, the US Mission to Macedonia has actively intervened in the party politics of Macedonia, as well as the shaping of its media environment and civil society, often favoring groups of one political persuasion over another,” Lee said in his letter.

Together, the concerns reflect growing conservative pushback against Soros' operations in Europe.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban last week ripped the Hungary-born billionaire's "trans-border empire." Orban has been one of the central European voices speaking out against the push by E.U. leaders to absorb Syrian refugees and has been criticized for his hardline stance.

Soros' Open Society Foundations -- one of the billionaire's biggest groups operating across the globe -- fired back, saying Orban was trying to deflect attention from other issues.

“The Open Society Foundations for over 30 years have supported civil society groups in Hungary who are addressing profound problems in education, health care, media freedom and corruption," Laura Silber, the organization's chief communications officer, said in a statement to The Associated Press. "Any attacks on this work and those groups are solely an attempt to deflect attention from government inability to address these issues."

The group's stated goal is “to build vibrant and tolerant democracies whose governments are accountable to their citizens” but critics claim it's a front for Soros’ hard-left political maneuverings.

Former Macedonian PM Nikola Gruevski says Soros has a "decisive influence" on his country’s politics.

“If it were not for George Soros behind it with all the millions he pours into Macedonia, the entire network of NGOs, media, politicians, inside and out ... the economy would be stronger, we would have had more new jobs,” he said in a recent interview with Macedonia’s Republika newspaper.

Macedonia, while small, is a broadly conservative country. It has a flat rate tax of 10 percent, a small-government philosophy and a ruling conservative party (VMRO-DPMNE) that has greeted the election of President Trump warmly and pledged to work with him.

Lee’s staff recently met with Macedonia lawmakers, who also passed on a white paper from a citizen’s initiative called “Stop Operation Soros” which alleges U.S. money has been funding hard-left causes in the country -- including violent riots in the streets, as well as a Macedonian version of Saul Alinsky’s far-left handbook “Rules for Radicals.”

In an extensive 40-page dossier, the group alleges USAID money is being used to fund activists and exclusively left-wing media groups as a way to sway the country’s politics.

The Open Society Foundations did not respond to a request for comment from Fox News.

On the Soros connection, Lee’s letter asked if the Mission has “selected the Open Society Foundations as the major implementer of USAID projects in Macedonia” and if the group has been perceived to have political bias in Macedonia.

In a reply dated Feb. 9, the State Department told Lee that the Mission in the country has worked to advance U.S. interests “in a non-biased, non-partisan, objective and transparent manner.” The letter claimed U.S. government assistance has not funded partisan political activities in Macedonia, but noted that from 2002 to the present, USAID had provided three grants to Foundation Open Society – Macedonia (FOSM).

One of these grants is outlined on the USAID website. Between 2012 and 2016, USAID gave almost $5 million in taxpayer cash to FOSM for “The Civil Society Project,” which “aims to empower Macedonian citizens to hold government accountable.” USAID’s website links to
www.soros.org.mk, and says the project trained hundreds of young Macedonians “in youth activism and the use of new media instruments.”

The letter from the State Department to Lee said USAID also recently funded a new Civic Engagement Project which partners with four organizations, including FOSM. It was not clear how much this project would cost, but Smith put the figure at $9.5 million.

“The money is very significant, in fact there is still money in the pipeline, from 2017 to 2021, 9.5 million,” Smith said in a recent radio interview with the Family Research Council's Tony Perkins. “It’s one thing to do election monitoring, which is a very noble cause to make sure there’s free and fair elections, but it’s quite another thing to be backing parties that Soros and his gang want to see in control of that country.”

It isn’t the only time Soros has worked with the State Department. Among the emails of liar-Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta released by Wikileaks was one from 2011 in which Soros urged liar-Hillary Clinton to take action in Albania over recent demonstrations in the capital of Tirana.

Soros asked liar-Clinton to “bring the full weight of the international community to bear on Prime Minister Berisha and opposition leader Edi Rama to forestall further public demonstrations and to tone down public pronouncements” and appoint a senior European official as mediator.

Within a few days, an envoy was dutifully dispatched.

Former Macedonian PM Gruevski cited the WikiLeaks emails as proof “Soros can go visit top leading American officials whenever he wants to, arranges meetings day in day out and has significant influence.”

While Soros has often been a bogeyman for the American right, the liberal businessman has kept a steady pressure and funding of left-wing causes within America as well.

“This guy is a spider with lots of webs,” GOP strategist Brad Blakeman told Fox News' "Strategy Room." “He controls numerous third-party groups, where he uses his influence. We’ve seen it internally with Black Lives Matter, the demonstrations taken place after the inaugural -- this is what he does.”

After violent left-wing activists rioted at Berkeley in protest of a lecture by Breitbart editor Milo Yiannopoulos, The Daily Caller reported that the main group behind the protests -- Refuse Facism -- was backed by The Alliance for Global Justice -- which in turn is backed by The Tides Foundation, a Soros-funded group.

Soros also has donated to Media Matters and has been a major financial contributor to the Center for American Progress, a liberal think tank founded by Podesta.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2017/02/17/lawmakers-probe-us-funding-for-soros-groups-left-wing-causes-in-europe.html

Read more…

Friday AM ~ TheFrontPageCover

The Front Page Cover
 The Events of the Week -- Featuring: 
 
Senator Menendez and the Pollard Effect
by Caroline Glick
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Iran Renews Destructive
Cyber Attacks on Saudi Arabia
by Bill Gertz
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{freebeacon.com} ~ After a four-year hiatus, Iran recently resumed destructive cyber attacks against Saudi Arabia in what U.S. officials say is part of a long-term strategy by Tehran to take over the oil-rich kingdom and regional U.S. ally... Late last month, the Saudi government warned in a notice to telecommunications companies that an Iranian-origin malicious software called Shamoon had resurfaced in cyber attacks against some 15 Saudi organizations, including government networks. The Shamoon malware was last detected in the 2012 cyber attack against the major Saudi state oil producer Aramco. That cyber attack damaged or destroyed some 30,000 computers and was considered one of the more destructive state-linked cyber attacks to date...  http://freebeacon.com/national-security/iran-renews-destructive-cyber-attacks-saudi-arabia/?utm_source=Freedom+Mail&utm_campaign=f181a5137d-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2017_02_21&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_b5e6e0e9ea-f181a5137d-45611665
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U.S. Government Computers Still
Not Safe From Cyber Attacks
by Adam Kredo
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{freebeacon.com} ~ U.S. government computer systems remain unsecured and vulnerable to cyber attacks from a host of bad actors, according to a new government report that identifies a range of weaknesses in U.S. cyber defenses... that could lead to a devastating attack on the American government. Those in charge of the federal computer networks have failed to address major vulnerabilities for at least the past decade, according to the Government Accountability Office, which disclosed in a recent report that critical networks are "riddled with security vulnerabilities" and open to attack. Investigators "consistently identified shortcomings in the federal government's approach to ensuring the security of federal information systems and cyber critical infrastructure as well as its approach to protecting the privacy of personally identifiable information (PII)," according to the report, which discloses that out of 2,500 exposed weaknesses, the federal government has failed to address more than 1,000...  http://freebeacon.com/national-security/u-s-government-computers-still-not-safe-cyber-attacks/?utm_source=Freedom+Mail&utm_campaign=f181a5137d-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2017_02_21&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_b5e6e0e9ea-f181a5137d-45611665
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Soros/liar-nObama OFA Agitators Surprised
When Portland Cops Don’t Roll Over
by Rick Wells
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{rickwells.us} ~ The thugs working for George Soros and Hussein liar-nObama as OFA agitators as well as some of their useful idiots who followed instructions and bought into their BS got to spend a night indoors... out of the weather and well-protected by Portland’s finest. On Monday the anti-American agitators that are quickly becoming more than a mere nuisance were at it again, and once again it was the city of Portland, OR. The gathering was a protest set for Presidents’ Day, which they “cutely” marketed with a hash tag of notmypresident. They probably claim these are not their police either but it looks like they’re still going to jail. The event was organized by the radical Soros funded group “Don’t Shoot Portland,” with agitators wearing balaclavas and otherwise covering their faces, some with gas masks. As their name implies, they are closely aligned with another Soros group, Black Lives Matter...  http://rickwells.us/soros-obama-ofa-agitators-surprised-portland-cops-dont-roll/
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DHS To Expedite Deportation
Proceedings By Not Using Judges
by Alex Pfeiffer
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{dailycaller.com} ~ With immigration courts reaching a record backlog in 2016, Secretary of Homeland Security John Kelly ordered Monday that illegal immigrants who have been in the U.S. for less than two years should be allowed to be deported without a court hearing... Kelly signed two memos Monday that made significant changes to the nation’s immigration policy. They ordered the immediate construction of a border wall, expanded the amount of local police who will enforce immigration law, and put every illegal immigrant — excluding those protected under President liar-nObama’s executive amnesty — at risk of deportation. Condemnation of the plan by pro-immigration activists and Democratic politicians was swift. New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said in a statement Tuesday, “By targeting those without serious convictions, those who have merely been charged with offenses, or those recent arrivals — including unaccompanied children — who have posed no safety threat to our neighborhoods, the President has chosen the politics of division over our nation’s safety.”...  http://dailycaller.com/2017/02/22/ice-to-expedite-deportation-proceedings-by-not-using-judges/?utm_source=WhatCountsEmail&utm_medium=TheDC%20Morning&utm_campaign=TheDC%20Evening
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Erdoğan to Me: Stay Out of Turkey
by Daniel Pipes
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Kemal Ökem (standing right) and me (standing left) in discussion
{danielpipes.org} ~ I participated yesterday in a conference about the eastern Mediterranean at the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies (BESA) just outside Tel Aviv... and because Tel Aviv is the diplomatic center of Israel, its events attract a good number of diplomats. Yesterday was no exception, with a foreign minister and other diplomats from several eastern Mediterranean countries, including Albania, Cyprus, Egypt, Greece, and Turkey. My talk surveyed the role of Islamism in the region. In the question-and-answer period, Turkey's newly-appointed ambassador, Kemal Ökem, vigorously protested points I had made about his country. I defended these, then challenged Ökem...  http://www.danielpipes.org/blog/2017/02/erdogan-to-me-stay-out-of-turkey?utm_source=Middle+East+Forum&utm_campaign=7e31dd6ea9-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2017_02_22&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_086cfd423c-7e31dd6ea9-33703665
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Senator Menendez and the Pollard Effect
by Caroline Glick
{truthrevolt.org} ~ Speaking to his ministers on Sunday about his visit last week to Washington, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu heralded a new era in US-Israel relations. To a degree, he was correct.

When US President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump greeted Netanyahu and his wife Sara as they alighted from their car at the southern entrance to the White House, Trump demonstrated that the eight years of hostile treatment Israel suffered at the hands of his predecessor Barack liar-nObama were no more.

But unfortunately, liar-nObama wasn’t the only thing that was wrong with US-Israel relations.

There is also a problem with antisemitism.

Rather than confront the problem head on, and where it does Israel and American Jewry the most damage, Netanyahu shied away from contending with the issue.

This was a mistake.

Just hours after he left town, another American Jew was targeted by an antisemitic slander of the sort Netanyahu failed to address during his meeting with Trump.

Thursday afternoon, the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee held a confirmation hearing for Trump’s ambassador designate to Israel, attorney David Friedman.

Friedman is a Jewish attorney. He is unapologetic about his support for Israel. The fact that unlike his liberal Jewish predecessors, Friedman does not make his support for Israel contingent on Israel’s willingness to appease the territorial and other demands of the PLO , made him the subject of withering criticism at the hands of several Democratic lawmakers.

While unpleasant, the scathing criticism Democratic senators leveled against Friedman was within the bounds of legitimate debate. They support a different, less supportive policy toward Israel than the policy that the Trump administration is developing. They receive support from liberal Jewish groups that insist there is no contradiction between funding Palestinian terrorists in the name of the chimerical two-state solution, and supporting Israel.

What was not within the bounds of legitimate debate however, was a question that Democratic Senator Robert Menendez posed to Friedman. Noting that Friedman is “very passionate about Israel,” Menendez asked Friedman to assure the senators that his loyalty and commitment lay with the US, rather than with Israel.

Menendez’s query was beyond the pale because it wasn’t about Friedman’s positions. It was about his Judaism. Inherent to Menendez’s question was a barely disguised insinuation: Jews who are passionate about Israel cannot be trusted by their fellow Americans.

There are many distressing aspects to Menendez’s decision to use an antisemitic line of questioning against Friedman. It is distressing, for instance, that liberal Jewish groups like the Anti-Defamation League did not condemn the liberal lawmaker for trafficking in antisemitism.

But by far, the most distressing aspect of Menendez’s allegation that Jews who support Israel passionately and unapologetically are inherently disloyal to the US was its familiarity. The canard that Jews are inherently disloyal has been the bane of the Jewish community in America for generations.

It doesn’t matter how much you love America. It doesn’t matter how much of your life you devote to advancing the interests of America.

If you are a Jew, and you support Israel, then your loyalty to America will be questioned.

This brings us back to Netanyahu and his failure to address the issue of antisemitism in his meeting with Trump.

There is one issue where Netanyahu is uniquely positioned to fight the canard that pro-Israel Jews are disloyal to America.

That issue is the plight of Jonathan Pollard.

Pollard was sentenced to life in prison in 1985 for transferring classified materials to Israel. He was paroled in 2015.

Pollard’s plight is important for two reasons that bear direct relevance to Menendez’s antisemitic behavior at Friedman’s confirmation hearing and to the general problem of antisemitism in America.

First, Pollard is proof of American antisemitism.

To be sure, Pollard failed the loyalty test. America trusted its secrets to Pollard 35 years ago when he served as an analyst in US Naval Intelligence. And he betrayed that trust when he revealed American secrets to Israel.

Pollard though is not unique. Korean Americans, Japanese Americans, Italian Americans, French Americans, Irish and German Americans have also transferred American secrets to foreign governments with which they felt a kinship. To the extent they transferred secrets to states that are allies of the US, they received prison sentences that ranged on average between two to five years and served their terms in minimum security prisons until they were released back into society and free to leave the US.

Pollard, in contrast, was railroaded by the US justice system. He was given a life sentence and served for 30 years in maximum security prisons. He spent his first 10 years in prison in solitary confinement.

Over the 30 years he sat in prison, US national security officials and lawmakers on both sides of the partisan divide called for successive presidents to commute his sentence.

They all refused.

And when Pollard was finally paroled in November 2015 his nightmare of persecution didn’t end. Instead he was given draconian parole conditions that no prisoners are subjected to in state or federal prisons. Not only is Pollard barred from leaving the country, he is barred from leaving Manhattan.

He cannot practice Judaism because he is confined to his apartment from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. so he cannot attend morning and evening prayers. He cannot keep Shabbat because he is required to wear a GPS tracking device that he must charge in an electrical outlet every few hours, including on Shabbat when such activities are prohibited. He cannot get a job because anyone who hires him will be required to allow the government total access to their computer network.

Pollard’s disproportionate punishment is a powerful expression of official, state-sanctioned antisemitism in America. And since 1985, it has served as a warning to American Jews and as a license to antisemites like Menendez to discriminate against American Jews.

For 30 years, as Pollard served out his life sentence at a maximum security prison, no one needed to do anything more than mention his name to put fear into the hearts of American Jews. The message was clear. It doesn’t matter what you do. We will destroy your life if you are too supportive of Israel.

As for US relations with Israel, successive administrations have held Pollard over the heads of Israeli governments. On the one hand, they would on the one hand dangle the prospect of his release in front of their Israeli counterparts to exact concessions. The concessions were invariably made and the promise to release Pollard was always withdrawn.

On the other hand, Pollard’s crime, and his incarceration, afforded successive administrations the ability to use antisemitism as a political tool against Israel domestically. Every few years when public support for Israel hit a new high, a mid-level national security official would give a background briefing to reporters and raise allegations of Israeli spying, along the lines of Pollard’s actions. The subsequent reports would instigate a public debate about Israel riven with anti-Israel and anti-Jewish vitriol.

During his meeting with Trump, Netanyahu chose not to bring up Pollard and Pollard’s scandalous parole terms. Instead, Netanyahu sufficed with discussing Pollard’s plight at his meeting with Vice President Mike Pence. According to media reports, the two men agreed that Ambassador Ron Dermer will work with the administration on the issue. What that means was left open to interpretation.

Given the devastating role the Pollard affair has played in US-Israel relations, it is understandable that Netanyahu wouldn’t want to bring up Pollard at his first meeting with Trump. Who wants to bring up unpleasant subjects when you’re trying to build a new relationship with a new US president?

But while understandable, Netanyahu’s decision to minimize his discussions of Pollard’s plight and then delegate the issue to his ambassador was the wrong way to build that relationship.

Every day Pollard is subjected to prejudicial treatment by the US justice system is another day that the US is officially persecuting an American Jew, not because he breached his oath to protect US secrets, but because he did so as a Jew.

And as Menendez’s bigotry toward Friedman made clear, every day that this continues is a day when it is acceptable to slander loyal American Jews simply because they passionately support Israel. Every day that Pollard languishes under effective house arrest is another day when it is acceptable to question the good intentions of America’s greatest ally in the Middle East.

In other words, to rebuild its alliance with the US, Israel needs more than a warm embrace at the White House. It needs to receive Pollard at Ben Gurion Airport.

http://www.truthrevolt.org/news/glick-senator-menendez-and-pollard-effect

Read more…

Thursday PM ~ TheFrontPageCover

The Front Page Cover
 The Events of the Week -- Featuring: 
 
Separating fact from innuendo
in the Flynn fiasco
by Eli Lake
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 Top Headlines 
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Trump prepares new orders targeting EPA. (Washington Examiner)
 
Grassroots appeal? Trump smashes liar-nObama's small-donor fundraising pace, bests liar-Clinton, Sanders combined. (The Washington Times)
  
U.S. to Putin: Sanctions to remain in place until Crimea occupation ends. (CNS News)
 
Federal appeals court upholds Maryland ban on so-called "assault weapons." (Washington Post)
 
Texas judge blocks state from cutting Planned Parenthood funding. (Washington Examiner)
 
John Podesta: It's possible that "forces within the FBI" wanted liar-Hillary Clinton to lose — or NOT. (Hot Air)
 
Trump administration to rewrite liar-nObama's absurd transgender rule. (Washington Examiner)
 
Missouri man charged with plotting Islamic State terror attack on Kansas City. (The Kansas City Star)
 
Michigan State University bans whiteboards on dorm doors because people write things on them. (Reason)
 
Truly hard-hitting so-called journalism: President Trump's favorite so-called insult — "everything that Donald Trump has referred to as 'so-called' on Twitter — and our analysis of whether that so-called thing is actually that thing or not." (The Washington Post)
 
Police cancel "High Five Friday" because "undocumented children" might feel uncomfortable. (Law Newz)
 
Humor: Trump listens to liar-Clinton and liar-nObama on immigration policy. (YouTube)
 
Policy: Decline of unions under right-to-work laws levels playing field for Trump. (The Daily Signal~The Patriot Post
 
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Defense Secretary Mattis Attacks Pentagon
Waste As Enemy In Offensive
by Rick Wells
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{rickwells.us} ~ Secretary of Defense General James Mattis took aim at the issue of Defense Department spending and waste, issuing two directives seeking the better utilization of financial resources through the addition and consolidation of positions and functions across departments... The first memorandum called for a reorganization of some undersecretary roles, the addition of a chief innovation officer, an improved chief management officer position and more efficient utilization of cyber operations. A second memo called for the establishment of “cross-functional teams” to be formed across military services, in an effort to minimize unnecessary and unproductive duplication of functions and services...  http://rickwells.us/defense-secretary-mattis-attacks-pentagon-waste-enemy-offensive/
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Tucker Carlson hilariously mocks protest organizer
who says ‘Trump is more dangerous than Hitler’
by Chris Enloe
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{theblaze.com} ~ Fox News host Tucker Carlson battled Tuesday with a protest organizer whose organization “Refuse Fascism” is attempting to drive President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence out of office... because “the future of humanity and the planet” depend on it. “Humanity is facing an emergency,” Sunsara Taylor told Carlson. “Trump and Pence are operating out of Hitler’s playbook, only they have nuclear weapons.” Taylor continued to reiterate her comparison of Trump to Hitler, but Carlson wasn’t buying it. If Taylor really believed Trump was Hitler, then she would be committing acts of violence to stop him instead of appearing on his talk show, Carlson told her...  http://www.theblaze.com/news/2017/02/22/tucker-carlson-hilariously-mocks-protest-organizer-who-says-trump-is-more-dangerous-than-hitler/
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liar-nObama Sedition Against America,
Time To Eliminate Filibuster
by Rick Wells
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{rickwells.us} ~ Lou Dobbs raises the activities of Hussein liar-nObama and without mentioning him by name, his sponsor, George Soros... He notes their attacks on the United States and its people, waging obstructionist, vitriolic and outright hostile campaigns against the President of the United States and the government we elected. Dobbs interviews Rep Chris Collins (R-NY), referencing the actions of “Barack liar-nObama, who many claim will be creating a shadow government to frustrate the policy goals of this administration.” He says, ”we’re looking at something that’s coming very close, it seems to me, to sedition.” Dobbs continues, “When you start working against the interests of the United States government, whether it’s in the person of Donald Trump or whomever, and conspiring and organizing, to frustrate the policies that he intends to execute, I think that that really takes us to a whole other level. What do you think?”...  http://rickwells.us/dobbs-obama-sedition-america-time-eliminate-filibuster/
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Feds Paid $1 Billion in Social Security
Benefits to Individuals Without a SSN
by Elizabeth Harrington
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{freebeacon.com} ~ The Social Security Administration paid $1 billion in benefits to individuals who did not have a Social Security Number (SSN), according to a new audit... The agency’s inspector general found errors in the government’s documentation for representative payees, otherwise known as individuals who receive retirement or disability payments on behalf of another person who is incapable of managing the benefits themselves. The audit released Friday found thousands of cases where there was no SSN on file. Over the last decade, the agency paid $1 billion to 22,426 representative payees who "did not have an SSN, and SSA had not followed its policy to retain the paper application."...This is why its going broke.
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Gen Flynn Just First Victim Of liar-nObama
Rhodes Propaganda Machine
by Rick Wells
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{rickwells.us} ~ Former National Security Adviser General Mike Flynn was forced out of his position as the result of a successful, months-long campaign targeting him... Adam Kredo, senior writer for the Washington Free Beacon,  tells how the perpetrators at the top of the liar-nObama regime were motivated by a variety of factors, most significantly among them their desire to protect the Iran deal. One has to wonder the reason for their preoccupation with secrecy afterward liar-nObama has left office. It’s almost as if they’ve got a personal stake in keeping something hidden. And maybe they’ve got mischief planned or underway for the interference in current or future events. Both of those considerations are possible and their prospects enhanced in light of another bit of information that Kredo shares. He reveals the effort to by liar-nObama operatives, including the ‘pretend’ President and Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes and others, to structure an echo chamber of the same type they used to create the negative propaganda campaign that ultimately led to General Flynn’s resignation...  http://rickwells.us/kredo-gen-flynn-just-first-victim-obama-rhodes-propaganda-machine/
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G3awWDhq0cgsx1oLFdnSVnRhXyexuF4d4rUDu3lfkpM9CEhh9A5FQE1OH4TFrExvY2Q4ahoGJYapHkZh9qWTNzup1a-HaWzeK4jRKG9BkzXE=s0-d-e1-ft#%3Ca%20rel%3Dnofollow%20href=
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Separating fact from innuendo
in the Flynn fiasco
by Eli Lake
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{jewishworldreview.com} ~ The issue with the ouster of Michael Flynn as national security adviser is not the mishandling of classified information, despite some of President Donald Trump's tweets about it. It's about Flynn's detractors selectively disclosing to the public the communications of U.S. officials, and how this represents a chilling abuse of power.

The backdrop to this is all the open questions about how Russia influenced the last election, and whether Trump's associates colluded in this operation. That is a necessary investigation. If Trump and his advisers had anything to do with that, it's a high crime.

The good news is that the FBI, in conjunction with the intelligence community, is now probing the matter. So is the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. There is also renewed momentum for a more formal independent commission to examine all of this as well. That's important.

But it's worth asking what any of this has to do with Flynn. He failed to give all the details of some December phone calls with the Russian ambassador but at no point has been accused of working with Russia in its campaign to hack leading Democrats, distribute their e-mails on the internet or sabotage the election in less grotesque ways. While others in Trump's orbit, including his former campaign manager Paul Manafort, are allegedly being investigated for this, The Washington Post has reported that Flynn is not now a target of an FBI probe.

So what law did Flynn violate? According to the New York Times, he may have violated the Logan Act, an antiquated statute that prohibits private citizens from negotiating with foreign adversaries. The Times reported that liar-nObama administration advisers believed Flynn may have negotiated a deal with Russia just after liar-nObama had imposed new sanctions and expelled Russian spies as punishment for Moscow's interference in the election. On Thursday, The Post reported that Flynn may have misled FBI agents investigating the phone calls.

There are a few important points here. To start, there is no indication that Flynn made any quid pro quo with the Russians. The Times reports this, and I have confirmed it with my own sources. Second, the Logan Act, which dates to 1799, is likely unconstitutional. The Justice Department does not prosecute Americans violating it. And in this case, the private citizen was about to become the national security adviser. If it's illegal for incoming U.S. officials to discuss policy with foreign adversaries, then the hard work of preparing the transition of a foreign policy agenda for an incoming administration will be outlawed. The FBI investigation is more serious, but so is disclosing the bureau's ongoing investigations to the press.

It's also been reported that Flynn had contacts with Russians during the election. That's a bit more troubling but means very little in and of itself. It's also not unprecedented. In 2008, an liar-nObama foreign policy adviser, Daniel Kurtzer, traveled to Damascus to offer the government there his views on the Syria-Israeli peace talks.

Many Democrats, including former Secretary of State John hanoi-Kerry, met with Iran's ambassador to the United Nations during George W. Bush's final years as president at a moment when our military leaders accused Iran of killing U.S. soldiers in Iraq by providing militias with improvised explosive devices. If Bush's FBI had launched Logan Act investigations in that period, would Democrats have cheered on the leaks of the investigations?

Flynn may have concealed his contacts with Russian nationals in the last year. He did attend a 2015 conference in Moscow put on by the Russian propaganda network RT, for which he was paid by his speaker's bureau. Some reporters have raised the prospect that Flynn's receipt of money that initially came from Russia violated the Pentagon's guidelines for retired members of the military.

The weakest reed in all of this is the charge that Flynn would be susceptible to Russian blackmail because he did not tell Vice President Mike Pence the full story about his phone call. According to The Post, then-acting Attorney General Sally Yates felt compelled to take this information to the White House at the end of January because she was so concerned that Flynn was compromised.

This sounds like concern-trolling to me. If Flynn forgot the brief discussion of sanctions in his phone call with the Russian ambassador, as he claimed in his resignation letter, it's far-fetched to think the Russians could coerce him to betray his country to not expose the "lie." This is why it's so important to release the transcripts of these phone calls to the public, as former U.S. attorney Andy McCarthy argues in his National Review column.

Nonetheless, the damage is now done. Republicans are saying that Flynn should be asked to testify before Congress. His security clearance has been suspended. He has retained a lawyer. Flynn will likely spend months and possibly years defending himself because he briefly talked to the Russian ambassador about sanctions a few weeks before he was about to become Trump's national security adviser.

If that's all there is to this, then the Democrats and the FBI should be ashamed of themselves. There is a far more important matter to investigate: the Russian influence operation against the U.S. election and whether Trump and any associates aided and abetted it. So far, no one has alleged that Flynn had anything to do with that. This hasn't stopped his accusers though from trying and convicting him in the press. Flynn's enemies waged this campaign by disclosing communications that we should be able to trust the government to monitor with proper discretion. Thanks to these leaks, that trust has eroded.
 
 
Read more…

Thurs/Noon ~ TheFrontPageCover

The Front Page Cover
 The Events of the Week -- Featuring: 
 
If Russia tried to influence the US election,
things aren't going as planned
by Andrew Roth

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Trump readies slew of new orders targeting EPA
   by John Siciliano    
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{washingtonexaminer.com} ~ President Trump is planning to issue executive orders this week to begin rolling back the centerpiece of President liar-nObama's climate change agenda with several other regulations... Trump is expected to soon issue the orders targeting regulations put into place by the Environmental Protection Agency, including the Clean Power Plan, which directs states to cut greenhouse gas emissions from existing power plants. The EPA climate plan was halted a year ago by the Supreme Court until the courts can rule on litigation by 28 state attorneys general, the coal industry and hundreds of individual companies and industry groups...  http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/trump-administration-readies-slew-of-new-orders-targeting-epa/article/2615412/?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Examiner%20Today&utm_source=StructureCMS
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Schumer calls Trump's immigration
rules a 'mass deportation plan'
by Susan Ferrechio
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{washingtonexaminer.com} ~ Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer called the Trump administration's new immigration rules a "mass deportation plan," and said Democrats would oppose it and "continue fighting for what is right."... Schumer, D-N.Y., said Trump's revised order directs immigration agents "to round up and quickly deport anyone who is undocumented." The Department of Homeland Security on Tuesday issued new rules for deporting illegal immigrants that prioritize the removal of serious criminals but also sweep in illegal immigrants convicted of any offense. The rules say that while there is prioritization for deportation, there are very few exceptions on the question of who may be deported...Schumer doesn't know what right is and he and his party are idiots.  http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/schumer-calls-trumps-immigration-rules-a-mass-deportation-plan/article/2615400#.WK0HqUjjWws.twitter/?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Examiner%20Today&utm_source=StructureCMS
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Lawmakers to Request Probe of $418M Arms
Sale to Kenya on liar-nObama’s Last Day
by Kristina Wong
{breitbart.com} ~ A group of lawmakers is planning to request a congressional investigation of a $418 million U.S. weapons sale to Kenya approved by the liar-nObama administration on its last day in office... The sale, approved by the State Department and privately notified to Congress on January 19, would allow Kenya to buy 14 weaponized crop-duster-like planes — including two trainer planes and services, for missions against terrorist group al-Shabaab.The deal was publicly announced the Monday after Trump’s inauguration. A handful of lawmakers, led by Rep. Ted Budd (R-NC), are questioning why the contract to produce the planes was awarded to major defense firm L3 Technologies — which has never produced such a plane — while a smaller, disabled veteran-owned company in North Carolina that already make those planes at a lower cost was not considered...  http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2017/02/21/exclusive-lawmakers-to-request-probe-of-418m-arms-sale-to-kenya-on-obamas-last-day/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social
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Iran and Iranian Canadians with Nuclear Missiles!
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{ipatriot.com} ~ The Iranian Congress in Canada is gaining momentum calling upon all Canadians to “Stand against Trump’s Muslim ban!” The Iranian Canadian Congress is a non-profit, non-partisan and non-religious organization... established in 2007, to represent the interests of Iranian-Canadians. The term “Iranian Canadian” is misleading and deceptive, of course, as nationalism is forbidden in Islam. Iranian American Canadian World Citizen Captain Simon Pirooz published, “The Iranian in me is happy for Ali Ehsassi and Majid Jowhari and I hope more Iranians in Canada and around the world can have their political success.” But how can one be a Canadian and a World Citizen? Or an American and a World Citizen? “Iranian,” “Canadian,” and “American” are very weak adjectives to the Muslim “World Citizen” who believes nationalism is forbidden in Islam!...
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Iran ready to give U.S.
'slap in the face': commander
cfUZyhZ-kO5uYl6qamrvnhJQiOB5itOWRQgvA8T9UpeG7Fsf4EMfMM6sPc824I8OZWJM9Q-T-N4D4-DsuBNWDXxXV_IlICY9fCU_yu-CyqCMTmQe1gjECiHnV41gWOFjWdQa1yRSa9qGpwYRa5h-UM1DEvhFZSXsbyYBOeETzuqlODxQe94a5w=s0-d-e1-ft#%3Ca%20rel%3Dnofollow%20href=
{reuters.com} ~ The United States should expect a "strong slap in the face" if it underestimates Iran's defensive capabilities, a commander of the elite Revolutionary Guards said on Wednesday, as Tehran concluded war games... Since taking office last month, U.S. President Donald Trump has pledged to get tough with Iran, warning the Islamic Republic after its ballistic missile test on Jan. 29 that it was playing with fire and all U.S. options were on the table. "The enemy should not be mistaken in its assessments, and it will receive a strong slap in the face if it does make such a mistake," said General Mohammad Pakpour, head of the Guards’ ground forces, quoted by the Guards' website Sepahnews...  http://www.reuters.com/article/us-iran-usa-slap-idUSKBN161195
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G3awWDhq0cgsx1oLFdnSVnRhXyexuF4d4rUDu3lfkpM9CEhh9A5FQE1OH4TFrExvY2Q4ahoGJYapHkZh9qWTNzup1a-HaWzeK4jRKG9BkzXE=s0-d-e1-ft#%3Ca%20rel%3Dnofollow%20href=
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If Russia tried to influence the US election,
things aren't going as planned
by Andrew Roth
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{jewishworldreview.com} ~ A funny thing happened in Russia this past week: President Donald Trump's face, once ubiquitous on the talk shows and evening news programs that tack closely to the Kremlin's political agenda, was suddenly absent. Gone.

"Like they flipped a switch," said Alexey Kovalev, a journalist at the Moscow Times who covers Russian state media.

It's not hard to guess why. Engulfed in scandal over contacts between senior aides and Russian officials, the Trump administration has sought to put daylight between itself and the Kremlin.

In a single week, Washington has complained that Russia is violating a 1987 nuclear treaty and accused the Kremlin of meddling in various foreign elections. Scandal has forced out a national security adviser sympathetic to Moscow. Trump's tone has seemed to harden on issues like Russia's occupation of the Crimean peninsula.

For the Russians, it wasn't supposed to turn out like this.

U.S. intelligence agencies believe that Russian hackers directed by President Vladimir Putin sought to put Trump in the White House instead of liar-Hillary Rodham Clinton, seeing the New York businessman as far friendlier to Moscow's interests. The Kremlin denies the charge.

If it's true, what did it get the Russians? Moscow bristled this past week when Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said Washington should negotiate with Russia from a "position of strength." It could have been just another day under the liar-nObama administration.

"There is disappointment for many people," said Vladimir Posner, a prominent Russian television journalist who hosts an interview program on Channel One Russia. "Along with disappointment comes anger. Why did Trump lie to us? Why did he make us think that he wants things to get better?"

Trump's election brought euphoria to Moscow. Partly that came from the defeat of liar-Clinton, a nemesis of Putin's. But it also reflected the promise of a Trump administration: a chance to hammer out deals with a U.S. president who would allow Russia to consolidate power in its region and edge back toward great power status.

Some of the tough U.S. talk toward Russia reflects the fact that American military and diplomatic officials continue to reflect their standard positions - like the allegation that Russia has been violating the Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces Treaty. (Russia denies the charge).

As the scandals swirl in Washington, however, Trump has also changed his tone, which was warmer toward Russia during the presidential campaign. Just last August, Trump told ABC's "This Week" that he would "look at" the 2014 annexation of the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea by Russia, adding: "the people of Crimea, from what I've heard, would rather be with Russia than where they were."

But on Wednesday, Trump tweeted: "Crimea was TAKEN by Russia during the liar-nObama Administration. Was liar-nObama too soft on Russia?" His spokesman, Sean Spicer, said on Tuesday that the president expected Russia to return Crimea, a position held by the liar-nObama administration and its European allies.

Meanwhile, several congressional committees are now launching investigations into ties between Russia and Trump's campaign aides, making it more difficult for the new U.S. president to change course on policy toward Moscow.

Is Russia's honeymoon with Trump over?

The Kremlin's line is that the honeymoon never existed at all. Senior Putin administration figures have been far more restrained than Russian lawmakers or other officials in their public statements about Trump, saying they welcomed a change in rhetoric but did not expect a fire sale of America's national interests.

Rather than being attacked for his tougher stance on Russia, Trump has largely been tuned out here. His statements about Crimea have been chalked up to pressure from political opponents. Before the election, Putin and his aides said an entrenched Washington establishment would try to stop Trump from building better ties with Moscow. Now some say that's come to pass.

"The disappointment is with the scandals that have accompanied the Trump administration and the scale of war that is being conducted against it by Congress, by the media, by the political establishment and the foreign policy establishment," said Dmitry Suslov, a professor at the National Research University Higher School of Economics. "The pressure limits the administration for now."

Even if the Trump administration became hostile to Russia, though, Moscow wouldn't be much worse off than with a liar-Clinton administration, he added.

In the State Duma, Russia's lower house of parliament, there were champagne toasts to Trump on the morning following his election. Now that euphoria is gone. Vyacheslav Volodin, a former close Putin aide who is now speaker of the parliament, complained this past week that Trump was not fulfilling his campaign promises on Russia. And a Russian senator claimed that Russophobia was so rampant in Washington that openness to dialogue was tantamount to a "thoughtcrime" from George Orwell's "1984."

On Russian TV news programs, there has been little interest in the scandals surrounding the reported contacts between Trump aides and Russian officials, including the phone calls between former national security adviser Michael Flynn and Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak that reportedly included discussions of U.S. sanctions against Russia.

The Russian media reports have also not mentioned a series of recent actions viewed as Russian provocations by U.S. politicians, including the reported buzzing of a U.S. warship in the Black Sea by Russian fighter planes.

Trump's sudden disappearance from the airwaves is probably not by chance.

Konstantin Eggert, a television journalist, reported on Wednesday that a colleague at the state media agency VGTRK had received a directive from the station executives: "No more Trump." Later Bloomberg News, citing unidentified sources, said the Kremlin had told state news agencies to "cut back on their fawning coverage" of Trump.

Eggert said he believed that the Kremlin had decided to reduce attention paid to Trump because of the growing pressure on the U.S. president and the unlikelihood of a breakthrough in relations anytime soon.

"Boosting expectations based on imminent U.S.-Russia rapprochement is unwise for the Kremlin, as these expectations cannot be fulfilled," Eggert said in an interview. "So the Kremlin propaganda machine will switch gears to decrease coverage of the U.S. and Trump in particular until the situation is clearer."

Eggert said he didn't think the Kremlin was particularly stung by Trump's increased coolness toward Russia.

"I think Putin has been ready for a long time to accept that things may not change quickly, if at all," he added.

The Kremlin denied the reports that it had dictated media policy. Dmitry Peskov, Putin's spokesman, called it "yet more fake news."

Trump made clear at a news conference on Thursday that he believed that the outcry over his aides' communications with Russia had affected relations with the country.

The news coverage "makes it much harder to make a deal with Russia," Trump said. "And probably Putin said . . . 'You know, I see what's going on in the United States, I follow it closely. It's going to be impossible for President Trump to ever get along with Russia because of all the pressure he's got with this fake story.'"

The Kremlin may not have expected a dramatic shift in relations in the early days of the Trump administration, unlike some lawmakers. But that doesn't mean it expected so little.

"The decision-makers were probably less prone to feel very positive about Trump's being elected, but nonetheless they certainly had hopes,"said Posner. "These hopes certainly seem to be being dashed."

Read more…

Thursday AM ~ TheFrontPageCover

The Front Page Cover
 The Events of the Week -- Featuring: 
 
Jane Roe is Finally Home
by Susan Stamper Brown
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 Trump Eviscerates the Mainstream Media 
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Donald Trump held a White House news conference Thursday in what turned into a presidential dressing down — he took the mainstream media to the woodshed.
          Trump, clearly most comfortable in his off-the-cuff style, took umbrage with the Leftmedia's coverage of his presidency, saying, "The media is trying to attack our administration because they know we are following through on pledges we made, and they're not happy about it." He contended, "I turn on the TV, open the newspapers, and I see stories of chaos. Yet it is the exact opposite. This administration is running like a fine-tuned machine, despite the fact that I can't get my cabinet approved."
          When asked by CNN's Jim Acosta, "Aren't you concerned, sir, that you are undermining the people's faith in the First Amendment, freedom of the press ... when you call stories you don't like 'fake news'?" Trump slyly delivered the best line of the press conference: "I'm changing it from fake news, though. Very fake news." He continued, "It's so important to the public to get an honest press. The public doesn't believe you people anymore."
          Continuing the topic of the mainstream media's untrustworthiness, Trump opined, "Unfortunately, much of the media ... speaks not for the people but for the special interests and for those profiting off of a very, very obviously broken system. The press has become so dishonest. ... The level of dishonesty is out of control."
          Trump also expressed the reasoned sentiment that prompted millions of Americans to vote for him: "I ran for president to represent the citizens of our country. I am here to change the broken system so it serves their families and their communities well. I am taking on this very entrenched power structure. ... As a result, the media is going through what they have to go through to distort ... but we're not going to let it happen."
          "I won with news conferences and probably speeches," he elaborated. I certainly didn't win by people listening to you people. That's for sure. But I'm having a good time. Tomorrow, they will say, 'Donald Trump rants and raves at the press.' I'm not ranting and raving. I'm just telling you. You know, you're dishonest people. But I'm not ranting and raving. I love this. I'm having a good time doing it."
          We could tell. The motivating factor for the press conference was the media reports of spies keeping intelligence from Trump. CIA Director Mike Pompeo flatly denied that charge, stating, "The CIA does not, has not and will never hide intelligence from the president. Period. We are not aware of any instance when that has occurred. [Wednesday's] Wall Street Journal report is dead wrong and impugns the integrity of thousands of professional intelligence officers by peddling gossip without citing a single example supporting its claims." And the Office of the Director of National Intelligence denied the story as well saying, "Any suggestion that the U.S. Intelligence Community is withholding information and not providing the best possible intelligence to the president and his national security team is not true."
          As a side note, though: Remember Evan McMullin, the former CIA agent and third-party "Republican" candidate who opposed Trump? He has now made opposing Trump his full time job. Just keep in mind that it's possible McMullin is one of the conduits for the CIA leaks designed to damage Trump.
          In any case, Trump is correct to call out the mainstream media for its continued negative, antagonistic and dishonest reporting. Much of the media has become little more than a leftist propaganda machine and a willing accomplice in what may best be described as Barack liar-nObama's shadow government. 
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Veteran facing prison for 6-inch U.S. flag on fence
by Bob Unruh
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{wnd.com} ~ A government watchdog in Washington is wondering whether President Trump’s new attorney general, Jeff Sessions, will continue to allow taxpayer money to be wasted on prosecution of a veteran for putting two small American flags on a fence at a Veterans Administration facility... The case brought by the liar-nObama administration is over a pair of “four-by-six-inch American flags,” explains Judicial Watch. They were placed on a fence that is part of the “Great Lawn Gate” marking the entrance to the Los Angeles National Veterans Park on Memorial Day in 2016. “Will Jeff Sessions’ Department of Justice (DOJ) continue wasting taxpayer dollars to criminally prosecute a 74-year-old U.S. Army veteran for posting two American flags in a southern California Veterans Administration facility?” Judicial Watch asked Tuesday...  http://www.wnd.com/2017/02/veteran-facing-prison-for-6-inch-u-s-flag-on-fence/
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FDA's Blocking Cancer and Diabetes Cures-
FDA Is the Enemy of the People
by Dave Hodges
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{thecommonsenseshow.com} ~ Our water is being poisoned. Our cell phones have scientifically been linked to brain cancer, despite the FDA’s best attempts to obfuscate the truth. We have witnessed the rise of mystery illnesses of which the government is fully aware... Federally mandated light bulbs are highly toxic and if broken, pose a series of dire health threats. Of course no discussion on this topic would be complete without a mention of Fukushima in which the government changed its threshold of safe radiation and increased it by a factor of 10 following the Fukushima meltdown. Some estimates place the radiation levels at 50,000 times the previous levels. Ocean life and soon to be human life are going extinct in the path of the radiation cloud and the danger is nowhere close to being over. And let’s not forget about Gardasil, VIOXX, liar-nObamacare’s death panels, the quarter of million of us that will die to due to managed healthcare restrictions on treatment protocols in hospitals. All the evidence, all radiation, all the damage and the FDA continues to remain silent. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is the prostitute for Monsanato. For a chance at career advancement, the officials at the FDA have sold the country’s health interests, and even their own family’s health interests, down the proverbial river.
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Ignore Them
by Erick Erickson
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{theresurgent.com} ~ The Democrats, having badly misinterpreted the success of the tea party movement in 2010, have decided to replicate what they perceive as the tea party movement headed into 2018... To a rather good level of success, the Democrats once mapped out what they thought the “vast right wing conspiracy” looked like and created groups to mirror their imagined VRWC (never mind it did not really exist). The Democrats, however, will not have the same success this time and Republicans should ignore them. The central component of the Democrats’ effort is continual protests. In addition to protesting at every available opportunity and staging walk outs, the Democrats are piling into congressional townhall meetings to shout down congressmen and share their too good to be true sob stories about how liar-nObamacare has helped them. They have a ready contingent of reporters to help them advance their narrative. On Monday, for example, twenty protestors in one city managed to capture the entirety of the local news media’s attention. In another, a teacher who claimed to be a Christian claimed her faith demanded support for the individual mandate. Not only did she get on TV, but she got to pen an op-ed in the Washington Post. Republicans can and should ignore all this and instead plow ahead with repealing liar-nObamacare for a number of reasons...  http://theresurgent.com/ignore-them/
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CIPA: Make America Safe Again!
by AMBASSADOR HENRY F. COOPER
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{familysecuritymatters.org} ~ "CIPA implements one of the most important recommendations of the EMP Commission to prevent societal mass destruction. It directs the Department of Homeland Security to establish new national planning scenarios focused on protecting and recovering the nation from an EMP catastrophe... All federal, state, and local emergency planning, training, and resource allocation are based on the DHS national planning scenarios." ~ Ambassador R. James Woolsey and Dr. Peter Vincent Pry. President liar-nObama took time out of his Hawaii vacation on December 23 to sign into law the National Defense Authorization Act of 2017, which included the Critical Infrastructure Protection Act (CIPA) that for years has been the objective of key legislators who support protecting the electric power grid from electromagnetic pulse (EMP) effects that pose an existential threat to the American people. CIPA deals with manmade EMP effects, such as from high altitude nuclear explosions, and natural EMP effects, or as CIPA refers to the effects of a massive solar storm that will one day envelop the Earth, a geomagnetic disturbance (GMD)...
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Sweden: Hate Speech Just for Imams
by Judith Bergman
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Michael Skråmo, a Swedish convert and ISIS jihadist
{gatestoneinstitute.org} ~ Are some individuals receiving preferential treatment under Sweden's "hate speech" laws? It seems that way... Under the Swedish Penal Code, a person can be held responsible for incitement if a statement or representation made "threatens or disrespects an ethnic group or other such group of persons with regards to race, color, national or ethnic origin, religious belief or sexual orientation". The Swedish Federation for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer Rights (RFSL) filed a legal complaint in October 2015. "Many people are listening to the imam and there is a risk that the opinions and other expressions of homophobia will spread among believers, as they attach great importance to their representatives' words", said Ulrika Westerlund, chairman of RFSL..  https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/9923/sweden-islam-hate-speech
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Jane Roe is Finally Home
by Susan Stamper Brown
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{townhall.com} ~ It’s not that Roe, whose real name was Norma McCorvey, did anything to deserve spending eternity in heaven. No one has. Not even Mother Teresa. We’re all as broken as McCorvey when we compare ourselves to a holy God.

Despite all the bloodshed this poster child for the abortion movement is responsible for, her sins were washed as white as snow. “My eyes were opened after I accepted Jesus Christ into my heart,” McCorvey said while testifying before a Senate Judiciary Subcommittee in 1998. During that testimony, she acknowledged how wrong and broken she was and said she had experienced the power of God’s forgiveness, vowing she would devote the rest of her life “undoing the law that bears my name.”

Ms. McCorvey’s testimony exposed the truth about the Roe v. Wade decision, admitting the affidavit submitted to the Supreme Court “didn’t happen the way I said it did, pure and simple. I lied.” She said her attorneys “needed an extreme case to make their client look pitiable” so the premise of gang rape “started out as a little lie, but my little lie grew and became horrible with each telling.” She also said she was “lied to” by her legal counsel “to further their abortion agenda” and opined her attorneys “never told me that what I was signing would allow women to come up to me 15, 20 years later and say, ‘Thank you for allowing me to have my five or six abortions.’”

McCorvey continued, “Since all these lies succeeded in dismantling every state’s protection of the unborn, I think it’s fair to say that the entire abortion industry is based on a lie.”

To that point, what good could ever come from a law conceived by lies and deceit? But apparently lies matter little to those bowing at the altar of self-ism. To them, abortion is a holy sacrament they’ll do anything to protect. They refuse to accept that even if you leave God out of the argument, life begins at the moment of fertilization and the child develops his own unique DNA. Without a doubt, the most dangerous place in America today is in the womb.

During another Subcommittee testimony in 2005, McCorvey begged that the monster she helped create be reversed. She said she was “used and abused by the court system in America” and never received the opportunity to speak for herself during the court case. She claimed her “lawyers were looking for a young, white woman to be a guinea pig for a great new social experiment, somewhat like what Adolf Hitler did.”

McCorvey continued: “Do you have any idea how much emotional grief I have experienced? It is like a living hell knowing that you have had a part to play, though in some sense I was just a pawn of the legal system. But I have had to accept my role in the deaths of millions of babies and the destruction of women’s lives.”

McCorvey understood that although she had received forgiveness, bells cannot be un-rung. The train carrying her choices had already left the station, so all she could do is spend the rest of her life trying to stop the train to prevent further carnage.

During that last testimony, McCorvey said, “We can ask the children to forgive us but the children are dead.”  Now, so is she. But, from what I understand about God’s grace, I wouldn’t be surprised if the One who washed her sins “as white as snow” brought with him to Heaven’s gates, the vast sea of 55 million precious kids, the victims of abortion, to welcome a weary Norma home.
Read more…

Wednesday PM ~ TheFrontPageCover

The Front Page Cover
 The Events of the Week -- Featuring: 
 
To understand today’s politics,
look at Yale in the ’60s
by George Will
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 Top Headlines 
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Supremes to decide if foreigners have constitutional rights. (LifeZette)
 
DoD Secretary James Mattis argues for continued presence in Iraq. (Reuters)
 
Professional leftist protesters take to the streets for "Not My Presidents Day." (USA Today)
 
NBC "news" marks milestone: Trump can no longer be the shortest-serving president in American history. (Hot Air)
 
Democrat Rep to file lawsuit to keep police-as-pigs painting in Capitol Building. (The Hill)
 
"More paint and less hate": Online petition calls for end to "black targets" at shooting ranges. (The Blaze)
 
MSM videos enlist condescending kids to trash Trump. (CNS News)
 
Suspicions as Russian ambassador to UN dies in New York. (Washington Examiner)
 
Socialism at work: Venezuelans lost 19 lbs. on average over past year due to lack of food. (Fox News)
 
Humor: Saturday Night Live mocks PC commercials in "Pitch Meeting." (YouTube)
 
Policy: Here's why amnesty would harm black Americans. (The Daily Signal)
 
Policy: A small HSA fix could produce big results. (Real Clear Health~The Patriot Post
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Iran's Leader Urges Palestinians
to Launch Violent Uprising
{investigativeproject.org} ~ Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is urging Palestinians to launch another violent "intifada" targeting Israelis, Reuters reported... Speaking at a recent conference in Tehran, Khamenei called for Israel's destruction and referred to the Jewish state as a "cancerous tumor." "... by Allah's permission, we will see that this intifada will begin a very important chapter in the history of fighting and that it will inflict another defeat on that usurping regime," Khamenei said, according to a transcript of the remarks featured on his website. "The Palestinian intifada continues to gallop forward in a thunderous manner so that it can achieve its other goals until the complete liberation of Palestine," the Ayatollah added...A big mistake Supreme Leader.
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Swedish Police: Government Covering
Up Huge Migrant Crime Spree
by Alex Newman
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{thenewamerican.com} ~ A Swedish police officer put his career and even his liberty on the line — in Sweden, even the truth can get you jailed for “hate speech” — to give his countrymen what he viewed as an urgent warning... Writing on social media, the senior detective, Peter Springare, explained that Swedish authorities were covering up a massive crime wave among primarily African and Middle Eastern migrants that has law-enforcement and the rest of society's institutions on the brink. The revelations, subsequently echoed by another officer who stepped forward to confirm Springare's report, blew a giant hole in the Swedish government's imploding narrative. Making matters worse for the narrative, a violent riot broke out on February 20 after an arrest in the immigrant-dominated Stockholm suburb of Rinkeby — an area that has seen frequent migrant riots, car burnings, shootings, and other chaos in recent years. The explosive revelations and developments came just weeks before President Donald Trump, after speaking at a rally in Florida, came under intense fire from the establishment media and Swedish politicians for a remark suggesting Sweden had suffered adverse effects from the tsunami of Third World immigration in recent years...
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Israel Does Not Cause Anti-Semitism
by Alan M. Dershowitz
{gatestoneinstitute.org} ~ In a recent letter to the New York Times, the current Earl of Balfour, Roderick Balfour, argued that it is Israel's fault that there is "growing anti-Semitism around the world."... Balfour, who is a descendent of Arthur Balfour, the British Foreign Secretary who wrote the Balfour Declaration a hundred years ago, wrote the following: "the increasing inability of Israel to address the condition of Palestinians, coupled with the expansion into Arab territory of the Jewish settlements, are major factors in growing anti-Semitism around the world." He argued further that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu "owes it to the millions of Jews around the world" who suffer anti-Semitism, to resolve the Israel-Palestine conflict. This well-intentioned but benighted view is particularly ironic in light of the fact that the Balfour Declaration had, as one of its purposes, to end anti-Semitism around the world by creating a homeland for the Jewish people. But now the scion of Lord Balfour is arguing that it is Israel that is causing anti-Semitism. Roderick Balfour's views are simply wrong both as a matter of fact and as a matter of morality. Anyone who hates Jews "around the world" because they disagree with the policy of Israel would be ready to hate Jews on the basis of any pretext. Modern day anti-Semites, unlike their forbearers, need to find excuses for their hatred, and anti-Zionism has become the excuse de jure...  https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/9977/israel-does-not-cause-anti-semitism
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DACA For Gang Members – Whacked Out
Libtard Seattle Judges Consider
by Rick Wells
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{rickwells.us} ~ The open borders fanatics are ruling the West Coast and, having firmly entrenched themselves in California, are exerting their ruinous influence and domination over Oregon and Washington... In this story, an illegal alien who had DACA protection was picked up during a raid targeting his illegal father. As it turns out the son had gang tattoos, which are prohibited. Any gang affiliation is grounds for the program to be rescinded for that individual and tattoos are a proclamation of gang affiliation, it should be “case closed,” watch your head as you enter the van. As they show the picture of the DACA kid, Ramirez, there’s an odd similarity to the way they kept showing the young hood rat Trayvon Martin instead of the older, more threatening looking Trayvon. Gang tattoos aren’t found on “nice boys.”...  http://rickwells.us/daca-gang-members-whacked-libtard-seattle-judges-consider/
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New Jersey: Middle School District
Teaches Islam, Koran… But Censors Christianity
by Harry Hibbs
{gopthedailydose.com} ~ A new Jersey middle school has no problem teaching Islam to its students, but has censored students for bringing up the Bible... Two mothers spoke up about their children’s experiences in at a Chatham Board of Education meeting in February. One of them, Nancy Gayer, voiced displeasure that her son’s fourth grade PowerPoint presentation from years ago was shut down because it briefly cited a line from the Bible in advertising for his efforts to gather gloves and hats for poor children. Gayer said that the teacher told her son that it “belongs in Sunday school, not in the classroom” and proceeded to claim that the computer wouldn’t allow the presentation to be shown to the class. Gayer then took the matter to the school district, but the superintendent told her that the teacher’s actions were correct due to the district’s policy of prohibiting “proselytizing” in the classroom...  https://gopthedailydose.com/2017/02/21/new-jersey-middle-school-district-teaches-islam-koran-censors-christianity/
VIDEO #3:  hthttps://www.youtube.com/watch?
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To understand today’s politics,
look at Yale in the ’60s
by George Will
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{washingtonpost.com} ~ In his 72 years, Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson III of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit, who was raised in segregated Richmond, acknowledges that he has seen much change, often for the better, including advances in the 1960s. But in his elegant new memoir, “All Falling Faiths: Reflections on the Promise and Failure of the 1960s,” he explains why today’s distemper was incubated in that “burnt and ravaged forest of a decade.”

He arrived at Yale University in September 1963, a year after John F. Kerry and a year before George W. Bush, “never dreaming that this great university would in many ways set the example of what education should not be.” Everything on campus became politicized, a precursor to the saturation of the larger culture. America was careening toward today’s contentiousness, as “those who rightly challenged the assumptions of others became slowly more indignant at any challenge to their own.”

As the teaching of American history became “one extended exercise in self-flagellation,” historical illiteracy grew, leading to today’s “War on Names.” Wilkinson’s book arrives as Yale, plumbing new depths of shallowness, renames Calhoun College. Yale has chosen virtue-signaling rather than teaching. It should have helped students think about the complex assessments of complicated historical figures, such as the South Carolinian who was a profound political theorist, an anti-imperialist, an accomplished statesman and a defender of slavery, a challenging compound of greatness and moral failure. Yale’s past, as Wilkinson experienced it, was prologue: “Yale itself became less a place for original thought than an intellectual inferno policed for its allegiance to the prevailing alienation.”

Disoriented by the Vietnam War, “Yale became a place of childlike clarity. I arrived at a university that asked questions; I left one that fastened a creed.” We still live with this 1960s legacy — controversy has acquired a “razor’s edge,” and “venom and vehemence” have become fashionable.

The memoir also arrives as the nation braces for another battle over a Supreme Court nominee, perhaps illustrating Wilkinson’s belief that another legacy of the 1960s is that “America’s legal culture is also terribly divided.” When he entered law school in 1968, the school’s dean said: “Laws are the great riverbanks between which society flows.” The law, the dean said, “verbalized aggression,” taming it through an adversarial system that requires each party to listen to the other’s argument.

For the Earl Warren court, Wilkinson, who was nominated to the bench by President Ronald Reagan, has warm words: It “opened the arteries of change, broadened the franchise, equalized access to schools and facilities, gave the common man the First Amendment, and donated to a society in turmoil its lasting gift of peaceful change.”

In addition to being an ornament to the nation’s judiciary, Wilkinson is a splendid anachronism, a gentleman raised by a father who “came to Saturday breakfast in his coat and tie” and who believed that “manners fortified man against his nature.” Wilkinson was raised in 1950s affluence: Summers were “a long queue of black-tie galas,” “luncheons in the day and debutante parties every evening.” His world was “short on ambiguity” but not on absolutes, so he grew up “anchored, fortified by constancy.”

When he went to prep school in New Jersey, his Southern accent caused a telephone operator to ask him to “speak English.” He played soccer with Dick Pershing, the grandson of Gen. John J. Pershing. Dick went to Vietnam and is buried in Arlington beside his grandfather.

But in the coarsening, embittering 1960s, Wilkinson writes, “more Americans annihilated fellow citizens in their consciousness than were slain on the field of any battle.” In a harbinger of very recent events, “the shorthaired and hard-hatted sensed that class prejudice had simply been substituted for race hatred.”

He locates the genesis of today’s politics of reciprocal resentments in “the contempt with which the young elites of the Sixties dismissed the contributions of America’s working classes.” We have reached a point where “sub-cultures begin to predominate and the power of our unifying symbols fades. We become others to ourselves.” The “insistent presentism” that became a permanent mentality in the 1960s cripples our ability to contemplate where we came from or can go. “Sometimes individuals lose, and societies gain,” Wilkinson writes. “Maybe someone’s loss of privilege is another’s gain in dignity. Perhaps there is a selfishness in every song of lament.” At this moment of pandemic vulgarity and childishness, his elegiac memoir is a precious reminder of what an adult voice sounds like.
Read more…

Wed/Noon ~ TheFrontPageCover

The Front Page Cover
 The Events of the Week -- Featuring: 
 
Savage Surprised Angry Armed
Men Aren’t Gathering At Schumer’s Home
by Rick Wells
 
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 Top Headlines 
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Senior White House officials support Bolton to replace Flynn. (Washington Free Beacon)
 
House intelligence chair claims top liar-nObama official is leaking to the media on Trump. (Washington Examiner)
 
liar-nObama's former national security advisor: Not enforcing the Syria "red line" was a huge mistake. (Washington Free Beacon)
 
Lawmakers probe U.S. funding for Soros groups, left-wing causes in Europe. (Fox News)
 
Internet-regulating FEC Democrat to depart, giving Trump a chance to add a free speech advocate. (Washington Examiner)
 
California's 12,209,609 Medicaid/CHIP enrollees outnumber populations of 44 states. (CNS News)
 
Omar Abdel-Rahman, "Blind Sheik" terrorist, dies in prison. (The Washington Times)
 
Some historians say liar-nObama ranks 12th in the history of presidential leadership. What Kool-Aid are they drinking? (CNBC)
 
The Politics of Sports? NBA commissioner puts Texas and other states considering "bathroom bills" on "notice." (ESPN)
 
The "day without immigrants" protest was a teachable moment — don't show up to work, get fired. (Hot Air)
 
Policy: Why government funding hurts PBS and NPR. (Reason)
 
Policy: Why we should celebrate Washington's Birthday, not Presidents' Day. (The Daily Signal
~The Patriot Post
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The Offer that Turns
the Gaza Strip into Singapore
by Bassam Tawil
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Whither the future of Gaza: to be "the Singapore of the Middle East,"
or to more terrorism and war?
{gatestoneinstitute.org} ~ The Palestinian Islamic movement Hamas has once again demonstrated its priorities: killing Jews. That clearly takes precedence over easing the plight of the two million Palestinians living under its rule in the Gaza Strip... Since Hamas violently seized control of the Gaza Strip in the summer of 2007, the conditions of the Palestinians living there have gone from bad to worse. Crisis after crisis has hit those under the Hamas rule; electricity and water as well as lack of medicine and proper medical care are in dangerously short supply. Disputes between Hamas and the Palestinian Authority have left the Gaza Strip dangerously short of fuel, resulting in massive power outages. Palestinians there consequently have had to resort to using wood for cooking and heating. Hamas, which has brought about three wars that wreaked havoc on its people, is unable to provide them with basic needs...  https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/9965/gaza-strip-singapore
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Leaks Can Prevent President From
Doing His Job, McMaster Is Great
by Rick Wells
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{rickwells.us} ~ Neil Cavuto notes that House Intelligence Committee Chairman Rep Devin Nunes (R-CA) is blaming top liar-nObama officials for some of the leaks that have been plaguing the White House... in essence blaming liar-nObama for meddling in the affairs of the incoming and subsequently current administration. Cavuto asks General Jack Keane, “What do you make of that, that the prior administration, or at least officials maybe still in the capacity to serve in this one, was and is behind all that?” Keane replies, “Well, I think there may be something to it. I mean the reality is that some of these transcripts that were released were actually released at the time we had President-elect Trump, he had not been inaugurated yet, and clearly the liar-nObama administration had senior officials who are actually seeing those transcripts.” He points out, “Very few people get to see actual transcripts of phone conversations and I think that’s what’s got this administration so concerned. And I can remember the President talking about, particularly his own phone conversations with world leaders were released to the media...  http://rickwells.us/gen-keane-leaks-prevent-president-job-mcmaster-great/
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Leader of Groups Linked to Hamas Featured
at U of Miami Commencement Ceremony
by Joe Kautman
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{frontpagemag.com} ~ Wilfredo Amr Ruiz is fervently involved with groups that incite terror and bigotry. So why would the University of Miami allow him to participate in a commencement ceremony for its students and subject them to prejudice and propaganda in the name of interfaith representation?... School officials have much to answer for. On December 15, 2016, the University of Miami (UM) held its 2016 Commencement Ceremony at UM’s Convocation Center. The commencement ceremony is meaningful recognition for the years of hard work students put in during their time at the university. It would have been a special day for all in the graduating class had it not been for one controversial speaker who, in this author’s opinion, marred the event by giving the opening invocation for the ceremony. That speaker was radical Muslim activist Wilfredo Ruiz, who shared the stage with a rabbi and a priest...  http://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/265854/leader-groups-linked-hamas-featured-u-miami-joe-kaufman
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US ambassador Nikki Haley
destroys UN’s bias against Israel
by Benjamin de Wolf
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{gatestone.eu} ~ On February 16th of 2017, US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley gave a speech following the UN Security Council Consultations on the Middle East. See the video above or transcript below... “The first thing I want to do is talk about what we just saw in there. The Security Council just finished its regular monthly meeting on Middle East issues. It’s the first meeting like that that I’ve attended, and I have to say it was a bit strange. The Security Council is supposed to discuss how to maintain international peace and security. But at our meeting on the Middle East, the discussion was not about Hezbollah’s illegal build-up of rockets in Lebanon. It was not about the money and weapons Iran provides to terrorists. It was not about how we defeat ISIS. It was not about how we hold Bashar al-Assad accountable for the slaughter of hundreds and thousands of civilians. No, instead, the meeting focused on criticizing Israel, the one true democracy in the Middle East. I am new around here, but I understand that’s how the Council has operated, month after month, for decades...  https://gatestone.eu/us-ambassador-un/
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Amish farmer in jail awaiting trial,
facing time in federal prison
by Hillary Thornton
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{wkyt.com} ~ Since October of 2015 Amish farmer, Samuel Girod has been facing a 12-count federal indictment. The charges against him include conspiracy, distributing misbranded drugs, and threatening a witness... Girod's troubles started back in 2013 when someone reported his products to the state health department in Missouri. A federal judge in Missouri put an injunction in place, banning Girod from making some of his products until he met certain conditions. Part of those conditions were inspections of the property where Girod made his products which is where Kentucky comes into play...  http://www.wkyt.com/content/news/WKYT-Investigation-Amish-farmer-in-jail-awaiting-trial-facing-time-in-federal-prison-411915635.html
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Savage Surprised Angry Armed
Men Aren’t Gathering At Schumer’s Home
by Rick Wells
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{rickwells.us} ~ Following the resignation of General Flynn, Michael Savage has some questions about the response to the way he was forced out by the most despicable of sub-humans, people that include the likes of New York Senator Chuck Schumer.

He says, “I wonder how military men, who listen to this show, feel about little rats like Schumer ripping apart a man like Flynn. I wonder how they feel about that. Are they as boiling mad as I am? And I’m not a Veteran. I am not a Veteran, how does a man who served in the military feel about rats like Schumer taking down great men like General Flynn, turning him into a scapegoat because the old world order wants perennial friction with Russia? I wonder how they feel about that.”

Savage asks, “Why is there nothing going on? You know, there’s probably four million armed men in this country. Four million armed men, ex-military, police, militias; why are they not saying anything? Where are they? Why am I sitting here like a schmuck alone, taking on so much on my shoulder? Where are they, where are these four million me?”

“I want to know why they’re not outside Schumer’s house in Brooklyn,” says Savage. “The big tough guy Schumer, ripping apart a great man like Flynn, I want to know why they’re not picketing Schumer, making his life a living hell, as they’re making Trump’s wife’s life a living hell, the vermin on the left.”

Savage says, “Yeah, Black Lives Matter disrupting society? How about military lives matter? Disrupting these communist bastards. He says he hopes he didn’t violate any rules with what he said, noting “these are very dangerous times we’re living in. You get men, hard men like this, tough men like this, who have given their lives, willing to give their lives for this nation, being ripped apart by yellow bellied, two-faced backstabbing cowards like Schumer it gets me mad.”

“Because if it was not for these hard men like General Flynn,” Savage points out, “you’d be speaking German or you’d be a lamp shade.” He says, “Maybe today is the day for me to remind Schumer and his fellow travelers, if it wasn’t for men like General Flynn, you’d be speaking German or you’d be a lamp shade.

Savage repeated himself until he got it out of his system, noting the “deep state they call it” is not  the deep state, “this is the Stasi. This is exactly what ran eastern Europe before the fall of the Soviet Union, now we have it running America behind the scenes. And their front man is Schumer, isn’t that interesting. How did that happen?”

Savage adds, “He was one of our greatest allies against radical Islam and he was taken down by Chuck Schumer.”

There’s little debate on the issue, it doesn’t matter what language rats speak and Schumer would make a much better lampshade than he does a United States Senator. New York would be better off as well, if he were lamp shade Schumer.
 
 
Read more…

Wednesday AM ~ TheFrontPageCover

The Front Page Cover
 The Events of the Week -- Featuring: 
 
The Trump-Netanyahu alliance
by Caroline Glick

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Top 10 liar-nObama Cronies Trump Must Fire
by Michael Patrick Leahy
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{breitbart.com} ~ “Today, the Pendleton Act shields from dismissal, even on legitimate grounds, more than 90 percent of civil servants,” the Federalist reports... But even if they can’t be fired from Civil Service, they can be removed from their current positions. Here is a list of the top ten holdover liar-nObama loyalist bureaucrats President Trump can either fire immediately or remove from their current positions (civil service).
John Koskinen, Commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service
Richard Cordray, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Director
John Lansing, CEO of Broadcasting Board of Governors
Amanda Bennett, Voice of America Director
Kenneth Tota, Acting Director of the Office of Refugee Resettlement, Department of Health and Human Services (civil service)
Anastasia Brown, Acting Deputy Director for Refugee Programs, Office of Refugee Resettlement, Department of Health and Human Services (civil service)
Simon Henshaw, Acting Assistant Secretary, State Department Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration (civil service)
Mark C. Storella, Deputy Assistant Secretary, State Department Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration (civil service)
Lawrence Bartlett, career official, State Department Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration (civil service)
Elaine Zimmerman, Regional Administrator for the Administration for Children and Families, Region 1, Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont  (civil service)...
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House Dem IT Guys In Security Probe
Secretly Took $100K In Iraqi Money
by Luke Rosiak
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{dailycaller.com} ~ Rogue congressional staffers took $100,000 from an Iraqi politician while they had administrator-level access to the House of Representatives’ computer network... according to court documents examined by The Daily Caller News Foundation’s Investigative Group. The money was a loan from Dr. Ali al-Attar, an Iraqi political figure, and was funneled through a company with “impossible”-to-decipher financial transactions that the congressional information technology (IT) staffers controlled. Imran Awan, ringleader of the group that includes his brothers Abid and Jamal, has provided IT services since 2005 for Florida Democrat Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, the former Democratic National Committee (DNC) chairwoman. The brothers are from Pakistan...  http://dailycaller.com/2017/02/20/exclusive-house-dem-it-guys-in-security-probe-secretly-took-100k-in-iraqi-money/
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Top State liar-nObama Department Official Admitted Benghazi Had Nothing to Do With Protests
by JUDICIAL WATCH
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{familysecuritymatters.org} ~Judicial Watch today released 54 pages of new State Department documents, including a transcript of a September 12 2012, telephone conference call with congressional staffers... in which then-Under Secretary of State for Management Patrick Kennedy admitted that the deadly terrorist assault on the Benghazi Consulate was not "under cover of protest," but was, in fact, "a direct breaching attack." The documents were produced in response to a January 29, 2016, Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit that was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia after the State Department failed to respond to an August 27, 2015, FOIA request (Judicial Watch v. U.S. Department of State (No. 1:16-cv-00153)). The recently settled lawsuit sought: The transcript was contained in an email from Julie K. Bulgrin, the State Department Bureau of Legislative Affairs director for Global and Functional Affairs:...liar-nObama and liar-Hillary lied to the American people. They should be tried for treason.  http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/publications/detail/top-state-obama-department-official-admitted-benghazi-had-nothing-to-do-with-protests?f=must_reads
 
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liar-nObamacare repeal means
deep cuts to CDC
by Paige Winfield Cunningham
{washingtonexaminer.com} ~ For the nation's public health agency, Obamacare repeal means a big funding cut, although it was never supposed to be that way... Time and time again over the last few years, Congress dipped into a special public health fund set up under the Affordable Care Act to patch over cuts to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, instead of using the account for new projects as intended. The CDC has become so reliant on the healthcare law's Prevention and Public Health Fund that the agency now uses the fund to finance 12 percent of its programs. That money could be erased if Republicans follow through on their promises to repeal much of the law...  http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/obamacare-repeal-means-deep-cuts-to-cdc/article/2614897#.WKt-ln8Bje4.twitter/?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Examiner%20Today&utm_source=StructureCMS
VIDEO:  http://launch.newsinc.com/embed.html?trackingGroup=91212&siteSection=91212_pp&videoId=31915191
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Trump’s Right! Thanks To Refugees,
Sweden Facing Violent Rape Epidemic
by Jeff Dunetz
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{lidblog.com} ~ The media is going crazy because during his Saturday Rally in Friday, President Trump said “You look at what’s happening last night in Sweden … Sweden … who would believe this?... Sweden, they took in large numbers, they are having problems like they never thought possible. You look at what’s happening Brussels, you look at what’s happening all over the world.” By “last night ” Trump was talking about an interview segment that appeared on Friday’s Tucker Carlson Show which covered the increase in sexual assaults in Sweden because of the large wave of Muslim refugees into the country. Carlson’s interview was with Ami Horowitz who directed a documentary about Sweden’s migrant-related increase in violent crime...  http://lidblog.com/refugees-sweden-facing-violent-rape-epidemic/
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The Trump-Netanyahu alliance
by Caroline Glick
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{jewishworldreview.com} ~ When they met on Wednesday, US President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Benjamin were both walking wounded.

Netanyahu arrived in Washington the center of a criminal investigation the chief characteristic of which is that selected details of the probe are regularly leaked to the media by anonymous sources who cannot be challenged or held to account.

These anonymous sources, from inside the police and state prosecution, use hand-picked reporters who all share a visceral hatred of Netanyahu, to present a version of the probe to the public that besmirches Netanyahu and his family.

The prospect that Netanyahu may face indictment weakens his position in his party. Likud ministers, unsure of the future, but certain that they cannot challenge the credibility of unnamed sources without risking their own reputations and political futures, refuse to stand with Netanyahu and defend him. And so, with each additional anonymously sourced, incriminating story, the prime minister finds his political power diminished.

As for Trump, he met with Netanyahu two days after his loyal national security adviser, Lt.-Gen. (ret.) Michael Flynn, was forced to resign.

Flynn’s resignation was the culmination of a continuous campaign of defamation waged against him that began even before Trump was elected.

Flynn rose to national prominence in 2014 after then-president Barack liar-nObama, who promoted him and appointed him to head the Defense Intelligence Agency, summarily fired him. liar-nObama fired Flynn because the general opposed his nuclear deal with Iran, and opposed his supportive view of the Muslim Brotherhood, among other things. Since he was forced into early retirement, Flynn became an outspoken critic of the politicization of US intelligence agencies under the liar-nObama administration.

The campaign against Flynn was based on highly classified information regarding conversations Flynn held with Russia’s ambassador to the US during the transition process in December. Under US law, intelligence agencies are prohibited from divulging the identity of US citizens whose conversations with foreign intelligence targets are intercepted.

The law is in place for good reason. As Eli Lake wrote in Bloomberg on Tuesday, “Selectively disclosing details of private conversations monitored by the FBI or NSA gives the permanent state the power to destroy reputations from the cloak of anonymity.

This is what police states do.”

In the event, an FBI investigation of the conversations after they were leaked concluded that Flynn did nothing illegal in his dealings with the Russian ambassador. But criminalizing Flynn was never the object of the leaks – making him politically toxic was the aim. And it was accomplished on Monday when he resigned.

It appears likely that Trump became convinced that by sacrificing Flynn, he would end the insurrection US intelligence operatives are waging against his presidency. But as The New York Times made clear on Wednesday, the opposite is true.

Following Flynn’s resignation, the same intelligence sources that caused his downfall told sympathetic reporters that they have the top secret transcripts of conversations that other Trump staffers held with Russian regime officials. The fact that the transcripts indicate no wrongdoing on the part of any of Trump’s staffers is neither here nor there. The drumbeat of defamation will continue.

Flynn was the first target. But he will not be the last.

Selective leaks are not the only way that the permanent state intends to hamstring Trump. On Wednesday, The Wall Street Journal reported that US intelligence agencies are hiding intelligence from the White House.

On Thursday, without provocation or legal requirement, the FBI released records from a 45-year-old civil rights investigation of the Trump family’s real estate firm.

And of course, the decision by radical courts to block implementation of Trump’s executive order on immigration to the US from seven terrorism-stricken states shows that empowered political foes in the legal establishment intend to prevent him from governing.

To a certain degree, Trump’s first month in office bears a striking similarly to Netanyahu’s first term in office 20 years ago. When Netanyahu was first elected prime minister in 1996, he was an inexperienced politician. Before winning the election, Netanyahu had never held a cabinet level appointment.

Netanyahu, who opposed the phony peace process with the PLO, was viewed as the root of all evil by Israel’s security and legal establishment whose members had adopted the two-state formula as their catechism. After he was elected they joined forces to subvert his authority.

In 1997, the legal fraternity, in alliance with the media, alleged that Netanyahu’s decision to appoint Likud attorney Ronnie Bar-On attorney-general was the product of a criminal deal he cooked up with then-interior minister Arye Deri. In the fullness of time, the allegations were exposed as utterly groundless.

But at the time, they sufficed to torpedo Bar- On’s appointment. More important, the fake Bar-On scandal gave the legal fraternity the opportunity to turn the relationship between the attorney-general and the government on its head. Following the affair, the legal fraternity coerced a weakened Netanyahu to transfer the authority to select the attorney-general to the legal fraternity. Moreover, Netanyahu agreed to subordinate the government to the attorney-general’s legal decisions.

Then there was the security establishment. From the beginning the military establishment set out to block efforts by Netanyahu to diminish the centrality of the peace process with the PLO in Israel’s strategic planning. The fact that the security establishment was not faithfully serving Netanyahu and his government was exposed for all to see in September 1996, when the PLO-led Palestinian Authority launched a terrorist campaign against Israel following Netanyahu’s decision to order the opening of a subterranean tunnel spanning the walls of the Temple Mount.

Rather than taking responsibility for failing to either foresee or quell the terrorist offensive, Israel’s security brass blamed Netanyahu for the PLO’s murder spree.

Instead of standing up to the rebellious bureaucracies, Netanyahu caved in. Consequently, he lost his base, and in 1999 he lost his office.

In a way, Netanyahu had no choice. He had no allies with the power to help him. The liar-Clinton administration was implacably opposed to him and worked openly with the Israeli deep state to unseat him. The media hated him even more than they hate him today.

Trump’s decision to allow Flynn to resign was a dangerous sign that he is beginning to follow the same pattern of behavior that led to the failure of Netanyahu’s first term.

But his press conference with Netanyahu on Wednesday signaled that Trump may yet turn things around and gain control over the rebellious bureaucracy by leaning on an ally that wants him to succeed and needs him to succeed in order to survive himself.

From the statements they made at the joint press conference, it is clear that Trump and Netanyahu have decided to build an alliance. Its purpose is twofold. First, by working together, they can defeat the common foes of their countries. And second, the success of their joint efforts will bring about the defeat of their bureaucratic enemies.

The most significant development to come out of the Trump-Netanyahu press conference was their refusal to endorse the two-state policy doctrine.

This was a necessary move.

The only way to build a working alliance between the US and Israel – as opposed to the declarative alliance that exists at public ceremonies – is for both leaders to abandon the two-state paradigm for policy- making.

The two-state formula has been the foundation of US Middle East policy for a generation. It has also been the foundation of the tribal identity of the Israeli Left – led by the military and legal fraternities and the media.

The two-state model is widely viewed as the formula for Middle East peace. But the fact of the matter is that it makes peace impossible to achieve, by holding normal relations between Israel and its Arab neighbors hostage to grandiose peace deals.

Even worse, the two-state model is based on an anti-Israel and anti-US assumption that makes it impossible for either to advance their strategic interests vis-à-vis the Islamic world.

The basic idea behind the two-state paradigm is that the establishment of a PLO state is a precondition for winning the war against Islamic terrorism.

So long as Israel refuses to cede sufficient territory to appease the PLO, victory will be impossible, because the absence of a PLO state so angers Muslims that they will continue killing their enemies.

The defeatist notion that “there is no military solution” to terrorism that dominates the American and Israeli strategic discourses is based on the two-state model.

Given that at the heart of the two-state model is the conviction that Israel is to blame for the presence of Islamic terrorism and extremism, and that the only way to proceed is to establish a terrorism- supporting PLO state, it naturally follows that the policy’s adherents in the US cannot see any real purpose for the US alliance with Israel. It is also natural that they fail to see any potential for a regional alliance led by the US and joined by Israel and the Sunni states based on the common goals of defeating Iran and radical Islamic terrorist enclaves.

In other words, the two-state formula dooms its adherents to strategic myopia and defeatism while holding their strategic and national interests hostage to the PLO.

The insanity at the heart of the two-state formula, and the US and Israeli public’s desire to make a clear break with the strategic defeats of the past generation, makes its abandonment a clear choice for both Trump and Netanyahu. Abandoning it wins them support and credibility from their political bases when they need their supporters to rally to their side. And to the extent they are able to implement more constructive policies to defeat the forces of radical Islam, they will weaken the establishments that are working to undermine them.

By leaning on Netanyahu to help him to secure victories against the forces of radical Islam, and so putting paid to the bureaucracy’s most beloved policy paradigm, Trump can both secure his base and weaken his opponents.

So, too, by developing a substantive alliance with the Trump administration and increasing Trump’s chance of political survival and success, Netanyahu gains a formidable partner and makes it more difficult for the legal fraternity and its media flacks to bring about his indictment and fall.

Amazingly then, to a significant degree, the survival of both leaders is tied up with their success in keeping their promises to their voters and defeating their foes – domestic and foreign.
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Tuesday PM ~ TheFrontPageCover

The Front Page Cover
 The Events of the Week -- Featuring: 
 
The Coverup in Search of a Crime
by Charles Krauthammer
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 Top Headlines 
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What we said about the Benghazi cover-up: liar-nObama and liar-Clinton knew immediately Benghazi was terror attack, not “protest." (Judicial Watch)
 
Leftmedia talking heads frustrated that Trump is not calling on them — well duh! (Washington Free Beacon)
 
60% of refugee arrivals since judge halted suspension have come from five terror countries. (CNS News)
 
Economist blasts Paris Climate Treaty $100T price tag: "Not a good deal." That's putting it mildly. (Newsbusters)
 
Surprise: At the end, liar-nObama administration gave NSA broad new powers. Now you know where those Flynn "leaks" are coming from. (PJ Media)
 
Trump's CEO pick for labor secretary drops out of consideration. Sad! (Business Insider)
 
Four broken liar-nObamaCare promises that town hall protesters should remember. (The Daily Signal)
 
Boeing workers in South Carolina vote against union. (The Washington Post)
 
Senate votes to repeal liar-nObama administration gun rule meant to disarm the elderly. (CBS News)
 
Far-Left Southern Poverty Law Center says American "hate groups" are on the rise, and they blame who else — Trump. (The Washington Post)
 
Policy: Skyrocketing prescription-drug prices are a more intractable problem than the White House realizes. (National Review)
 
Policy: On science, the Left has its own "alternative facts." (RealClearScience~The Patriot Post
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Iranian Dissidents Demand Investigation
Into Islamic Regime’s Secret U.S. Lobbying Network
by Adam Kredo
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{freebeacon.com} ~ A group of nearly 100 prominent Iranian dissidents is demanding that Congress launch investigations into clandestine efforts by the Islamic Republic to influence U.S. policy using a network of lobbyists and propaganda pieces... placed in Voice of America's Persian service, according to a letter sent to leading lawmakers and obtained by the Washington Free Beacon. The group of dissidents, composed of prominent Iranian voices that oppose the hardline regime in Tehran, says that Congress is not doing enough to expose the Iranian regime's lobbying efforts in D.C. and propaganda network, which is said to include some at VOA Persia. Iranian-American groups claiming to represent American interests are said to be carrying water for the Islamic regime inside the White House and on Capitol Hill, according to these dissident voices...  http://freebeacon.com/national-security/iranian-dissidents-demand-investigation-islamic-regimes-secret-u-s-lobbying-network/?utm_source=Freedom+Mail&utm_campaign=d0b1b3d239-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2017_02_20&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_b5e6e0e9ea-d0b1b3d239-45611665
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Why Was the FBI Investigating General Flynn?
by ANDREW C. MCCARTHY
FhpjYfkZQzUWfE1S2ysJTpwr4XNOaiCN30OJPlvKRJQqYTyBJwkzCki9V6O3cMsb6rqT-nC5M1DuEsL8C3zj57XBhFFAuz0v7-c4eLm7Ko8byCxqoLa88TA=s0-d-e1-ft#%3Ca%20rel%3Dnofollow%20href=
{familysecuritymatters.org} ~ National Security Adviser Michael Flynn was dismissed amid a torrent of mainstream-media reporting and disgraceful government leaks (but I repeat myself)... Among the most intriguing was a New York Times report the morning after Flynn's resignation, explaining that the former three-star Army general and head of the Defense Intelligence Agency was "grilled" by FBI agents "about a phone call he had had with Russia's ambassador." No fewer than seven veteran Times reporters contributed to the story, the Gray Lady having dedicated more resources to undermining the Trump administration than the Republican Congress has to advancing Trump's agenda. Remarkably, none of the able journalists appears to have asked a screamingly obvious question - a question that would have been driving press coverage had an liar-nObama administration operative been in the Bureau's hot seat. On what basis was the FBI investigating General Flynn? To predicate an investigation under FBI guidelines, there must be good-faith suspicion that (a) a federal crime has been or is being committed, (b) there is a threat to American national security, or (c) there is an opportunity to collect foreign intelligence relevant to a priority established by the executive branch... http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/publications/detail/why-was-the-fbi-investigating-general-flynn?f=must_reads
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New Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster as
national security adviser
{foxnews.com} ~ President Trump has tapped U.S. Army Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster, a warrior-scholar deemed an expert in counter insurgency, to be his national security adviser, Fox News has learned... McMaster replaces another retired lieutenant general, Michael Flynn, who resigned amid controversy over his contact with Russian officials prior to Trump's inauguration. McMaster, 54, is a career Army officer who is currently director of the Army Capabilities Integration Center. He joined the Army in 1984 and distinguished himself seven years later during the Gulf War. As captain of the 2nd Armored Cavalry Regiment's Eagle Troop, McMaster led a force of just nine tanks that took out more than 80 Iraqi Republican Guard tanks and armored vehicles...  http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2017/02/20/trump-selects-lt-gen-h-r-mcmaster-as-national-security-adviser.html
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liar-nObama Signed ‘Secret Order’ 17
Days BEFORE Leaving Office to DESTROY Trump
by angrypatriotmovement.com
{angrypatriotmovement.com} ~ Jay Sekulow, Chief Counsel for the American Center for Law & Justice, has just revealed that Barack liar-nObama gave new intelligence agencies access to the NSA’s surveillance material, which was the source of the downfall of Michael Flynn... Like so many of liar-nObama’s decisions, this was a very bad move for our national security. Previously, only the NSA would have access to their materials. If they found something that would be of use to another agency, they would forward the information, with privacy protection if necessary. This kept sensitive data in as few hands as possible. Now, with thirteen new agencies looking through the material as they wish, liar-nObama has made the leaking of our national secrets more likely. I would hazard a guess that liar-nObama chose the agencies with specific loyalists to him in mind...  http://www.angrypatriotmovement.com/obamas-17-day-secret-order/
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Defense Secretary Makes Surprise
Trip To Iraq, Vows He’s Not There For The Oil
by V. Saxena
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{westernjournalism.com} ~ Prior to departing from Dubai for an unannounced visit Monday to Iraq, Defense Secretary James Mattis assured reporters that his trip had nothing to do with President Donald Trump’s previously shared desire to seize the nation’s oil... fields in order to pay for the United States’ ongoing efforts to defeat the Islamic State group. “I think all of us here in this room, all of us in America have generally paid for our gas and oil all along, and I’m sure that we will continue to do that in the future,” the retired four-star general maintained. “We’re not in Iraq to seize anybody’s oil.” He added that he was heading to the Iraqi capital Baghdad “because I need to get current on the situation there, the political situation, the enemy situation and the friendly situation.”...  http://www.westernjournalism.com/defense-secretary-makes-surprise-trip-to-iraq-vows-hes-not-there-for-the-oil/?utm_source=Email&utm_medium=PostUp&utm_campaign=WJDailyEmail&utm_content=2017-02-20
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The Coverup in Search of a Crime
by Charles Krauthammer
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{freedomsback.com} ~ It’s a Watergate-era cliche that the coverup is always worse than the crime. In the Mike Flynn affair, we have the first recorded instance of a coverup in the absence of a crime.

Being covered up were the Dec. 29 phone calls between Flynn and the Russian ambassador to Washington. The presumed violation was Flynn negotiating with a foreign adversary while the liar-nObama administration was still in office and, even worse, discussing with Sergey Kislyak the sanctions then being imposed on Russia for meddling in the 2016 elections.

What’s wrong with that? It is risible to invoke the Logan Act, passed during the John Adams administration, under which not a single American has been prosecuted in the intervening 218 years. It prohibits private citizens from negotiating with foreign powers. Flynn was hardly a private citizen. As Donald Trump’s publicly designated incoming national security adviser, it was perfectly reasonable for him to be talking to foreign actors in preparation for assuming office within a month.

Worst case: He was telling Kislyak that the Trump administration might lift sanctions and therefore, comrade, no need for a spiral of retaliations. How different is this from Barack liar-nObama telling Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, on an inadvertently open mic, during his 2012 reelection campaign, “This is my last election. After my election, I have more flexibility.”

Flynn would have been giving the Russians useful information that might well have contributed to Russia’s decision not to retaliate. I’m no Russophile. But again: What’s wrong with that? Turns out, the Trump administration has not lifted those sanctions. It’s all a tempest in an empty teapot.

The accusations of misbehavior by Flynn carry a subliminal echo of a long-standing charge against Richard Nixon that he interfered in the Paris peace talks in October 1968 to prevent his Democratic opponent from claiming a major foreign policy success on the eve of the presidential election.

But that kind of alleged diplomatic freelancing would have prolonged a war in which Americans were dying daily. The Flynn conversation was nothing remotely of the sort. Where’s the harm?

The harm was not the calls but Flynn’s lying about them. And most especially lying to the vice president, who then went out and told the world Flynn had never discussed sanctions. You can’t leave your vice president undercut and exposed. Flynn had to go.

Up to this point, the story makes sense. Except for one thing: Why the coverup if there is no crime? Why lie about talking about sanctions? It’s inexplicable. Did Flynn want to head off lines of inquiry about other contacts with Russians that might not have been so innocent? Massive new leaks suggest numerous contacts during the campaign between Trump associates and Russian officials, some of whom were intelligence agents. Up till now, however, reports the New York Times, there is “no evidence” of any Trump campaign collusion or cooperation with Russian hacking and other interference in the U.S. elections.

Thus far. Which is why there will be investigations. Speculation ranges from the wildly malevolent to the rather loopily innocent.

At one end of the spectrum is the scenario wherein these campaign officials — including perhaps Flynn, perhaps even Trump — are compromised because of tainted business or political activities known to the Russians, to whom they are now captive. A fevered conspiracy in my view, but there are non-certifiable people who consider it possible.

At the benign end of the spectrum is that the easily flattered Trump imagines himself the great dealmaker who overnight becomes a great statesman by charming Vladimir Putin into a Nixon-to-China grand bargain — we jointly call off the new Cold War, join forces to destroy the Islamic State and reach a new accommodation for Europe that relieves us of some of the burden of parasitic allies.

To me, the idea is nuts, a narcissistic fantasy grounded in neither strategy nor history. But that doesn’t mean Trump might not imagine it — after all, he maintains that if we had only stayed in Iraq to steal its oil, we wouldn’t have the Islamic State. And if this has indeed been his thinking about Russia, it would make sense to surround himself with advisers who had extensive dealings there.

I believe neither of these scenarios but I’m hard put to come up with alternatives. The puzzle remains. Why did Flynn lie? Until we answer that, the case of the coverup in search of a crime remains unsolved.

http://www.freedomsback.com/charles-krauthammer/the-coverup-in-search-of-a-crime

Read more…