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~ Featuring ~
Climate Alarmism of the Last 120 Years
Political Editors
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Turkish bank charged in $20B scheme
to skirt US sanctions on Iran
By Morgan Phillips
{ foxnews.com } ~ Federal prosecutors in New York charged Turkish bank Halkbank Tuesday with participating in a multibillion-dollar scheme to evade U.S. sanctions against Iran... Manhattan U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman said senior bank officials at the state-owned bank helped to move billions of dollars of Iranian oil revenue illegally. Prosecutors said that between 2012 and 2016, Halkbank helped run a scheme allowing Iran to spend proceeds from oil sales on international markets, directly violating U.S. sanctions, using a web of front companies. Berman said the crimes were propped up by high-ranking Turkish government officials, some of whom received millions of dollars in bribes to support and protect the scheme. Halkbank was charged with one count of bank fraud, one count of money laundering, and four counts of conspiracy -- including conspiracy to commit bank fraud, commit money laundering, and defraud the United States, according to a Department of Justice statement. Assistant Attorney General John Demers called the scheme “one of the most serious Iran sanctions violations we have seen.” The types of illicit transactions Halkbank participated in would have exposed the bank itself to U.S. sanctions, if discovered. According to prosecutors, Halkbank allowed Iranian oil proceeds to be used by the Tehran government to buy gold, violated a “bilateral trade” rule and disguised fraudulent transactions as purchases of food and medicine to be categorized under the “humanitarian exception” to sanctions against Iran’s government. In total, Halkbank transferred approximately $20 billion of otherwise restricted Iranian funds. In January of last year, one of Halkbank's former executives, Mehmet Hakan Atilla, was convicted by a federal jury of conspiring to conduct secret transactions on behalf of Iran and Iran-related entities that were barred by U.S. sanctions. In May 2018, Atilla was sentenced to 32 months in federal prison. https://www.foxnews.com/politics/turkish-bank-charged-in-multibillion-dollar-scheme-to-skirt-us-iran-sanctions .
Last night's Democrat debate
A cluster of tyrannical fantasists
By Patricia McCarthy
{ americanthinker.com } ~ For conservatives who watched the Democrat debate, it was like visiting Earth-2, as Drunkblogger Stephen Green so cleverly put it. Conservatives probably could not endure these debates without Stephen Green's infusion of both facts and humor... Each of those candidates on the stage seemed oblivious to the reality of the last three years — the fabulous economy, lowest unemployment in decades, international trade renegotiated to our benefit, millions no longer on food stamps. Our military, eviscerated by scumbag/liar-nObama, is being repaired. Manufacturing has been revitalized, and the border, despite the intransigence of the Democrats, is slowly being better controlled. The wall is being built. Everything Trump has done since being elected has been effective; he has tried to keep his campaign promises despite the Democrats' vow to see him impeached from day one. And no matter how vicious the Left is, those candidates on stage last night continue to opt for mindless delusion that he can be removed from office in order to prevent his re-election. Meanwhile, the rest of us are grateful for a president willing to fight back against both parties, who have nothing but contempt for Trump-supporters, for the man who means to drain the swamp. We must be thankful for the distinguished few in the House the Republicans in the Senate are abject cowards who have the courage to defend the president. The swamp was certainly on display throughout the debate. The Democrats are losing. Trump and his supporters are winning — on every issue, even Turkey and Syria. As others have observed, the Left plays checkers while Trump plays 4-D chess. He is way ahead of his opponents on every level, every issue. Most Americans like having jobs and like their friends and family members having jobs. They don't mind the fact that some people are fabulously wealthy. Those are the people who fund the countless attractions we take for granted: museums, medical research, hospitals that specialize, university buildings, public television, and a host of other things the rest of us enjoy and take for granted. Where would we be without the largesse of all the American billionaires and millionaires who have funded so many projects that have enriched us all? However they attained their wealth is of no interest, nor is how they live their lives. They have contributed to the public good beyond what any of us can adequately appreciate. But each and every one of the Democrat presidential candidates loathes and envies the rich. They mean to punish them. They want them to pay for all that free college tuition and health care for illegal aliens. They want to punish all the corporations that produce all the things we take for granted: our vast choices in any grocery store and our freedom to choose our own doctors, cars, where we live, what we watch on television, etc. Like the true totalitarians they are, they want to tell us what we can have, do, eat, drive, and think. They want to transform us into communist China. Nothing would make them happier. They would all still be rich; the rest of us would be under their thumbs, surveilled as the citizens of China are. Not one of the Democrat candidates ever mentions the word "freedom" or "liberty." This missing link should be the biggest wake-up call of all: they want to control how we live rather than let us live according to the principles of the Founders...Turkey Throws Wrenches Into the War on Terror
by LIAM DUFFY
{ spectator.org } ~ Since the start of the Bush administration’s War on Terror, much has rightly been made of the need to defeat the jihadist ideology behind terror attacks using more than simply guns and bombs... But terrorism is only one battleground of the broader ideological fight, and we will ultimately fail to defeat the jihadist threat unless we pull the Islamist rug from beneath their feet — a rug to which, at present, Turkey is adding its considerable weight. As evidenced by the latest incursion into Syria, President Erdoğan’s Turkey is at best hindering the fight against jihadism; at worst our NATO ally is inadvertently or not aiding and abetting the enemy. If we consider jihadism to be the tip of the Islamist spear, it becomes even clearer how problematic the role of Erdoğan and his Justice and Development Party (AKP) really is. Erdoğan himself is a disciple of Necmettin Erbakan, founder of Milli Gorus (National Vision), the Turkish cousin of the globally and disproportionately influential Muslim Brotherhood movement. The Muslim Brotherhood and Milli Gorus share the same ultimate objective as al-Qaeda and the Islamic State, although their strategy differs and they are less promiscuous with their understanding of jihad. Muslim Brotherhood ideologues were key in the formation of the al-Qaeda worldview, and the barrier between the “nonviolent” Islamist groups and jihadist groups is porous to say the least, with a number of senior jihadists emerging from the intellectual Islamist movement. Although at one time Erdoğan’s Islamist days appeared to be behind him, he has embarked on a campaign of “re-Islamization” in Turkey— formerly a bastion of secularism. This mirrors the activities of Milli Gorus and the Muslim Brotherhood in the West, which seek to implant an ultra-orthodox and politicized Muslim identity into Western Muslim communities. Milli Gorus is heavily supported and influenced by Erdogan’s AKP, particularly in Europe. In Germany alone, Milli Gorus is estimated to control 300 mosques and can count some 30,000 members 87,000 in Europe in total. Aside from the risk of creating parallel societies that would prove dangerous to social cohesion and integration, Germany’s own assessment concludes that there is a “risk that such milieus could also form the breeding ground for further radicalization.” Alongside the re-Islamization campaign at home and abroad, Erdogan has slowly pressed down on the throat of democratic freedoms in Turkey, with thousands of alleged coup plotters still imprisoned after a brutal crackdown that left hundreds dead. Thousands of websites, including Wikipedia, are banned alongside occasional blockages of social media, and Turkey has tumbled down the ranks of both Freedom House’s democracy rankings and the World Justice Project’s Rule of Law index... https://spectator.org/turkey-throws-wrenches-into-the-war-on-terror/?utm_source=American%20Spectator%20Emails&utm_campaign=3ae5350a14-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2019_10_16_12_22&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_797a38d487-3ae5350a14-104608113 .
How Erdogan Planned This
Ethnic Cleansing All Along
by Malcolm Lowe
{ gatestoneinstitute.org } ~ It is now clear that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan intended the annihilation of the Syrian Kurds already two years ago... Moreover, his plans became evident to the US military by the beginning of 2019 and were conveyed to President Trump at that time. In order to disguise his plans, Erdogan revealed them stage by stage, by making first lesser and then greater demands on the US military, to which Trump agreed -- sometimes in the course of telephone conversations with Erdogan. So Erdogan was able to hoodwink the US military up to January 2019 and to hoodwink Trump up to the current invasion: Trump resolutely defied contrary advice from the military and from everyone else. At first, Erdogan demanded the removal of Kurdish militias only west of the Euphrates river. This was the proclaimed aim of his so-called Operations Euphrates Shield and Olive Branch the expulsion of hundreds of thousands of Kurds from the Afrin area. With that accomplished, he began demanding a Turkish-controlled "security zone" east of the river, to be 32 kilometers deep. The US responded by agreeing to joint US-Turkish patrols in the area. Erdogan demanded that the Kurdish towns in the area should dismantle the fortifications that they had raised to defend themselves from the Islamic State (ISIS). The Kurds agreed, reassured by the US military that this step would remove any excuse for a Turkish invasion. Finally, in October 2019, Erdogan asked Trump in a further telephone call to remove US troops from the patrols and Trump agreed, believing that by threatening Turkey on Twitter, he could deter a Turkish invasion. The invasion started forthwith. It has been stalled, maybe, now that the Kurds have invited the army of the Assad regime to deploy throughout northeastern Syria up to the Iraqi frontier. If so, the beneficiaries will include Iran, America's arch enemy, which can now see its yearned-for highway all the way from Tehran to Quneitra on Israel's border. In this timetable, there is no need document with links information that has been reported many times in many media. To be recommended, however, are especially the articles of Seth Frantzman, who personally knows well both the area and the leading Kurdish partisans... https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/15036/erdogan-plan-annihilation-kurds .
In Effort to Deter Iran, DOD Deploys
Additional Forces to Saudi Arabia
by Bradley Bowman and Mikhael Smits
{ fdd.org } ~ In response to continued threats from Iran and a request from Riyadh, the Pentagon announced Friday the deployment of additional U.S. forces to Saudi Arabia... Washington is seeking to strengthen U.S. combat power in the Middle East as a means to deter additional Iranian aggression and avoid a wider conflict. The deployment represents the latest U.S. response to the September 14 attacks on Saudi Arabia’s Khurais oil field and Abqaiq oil-processing facility. The attack featured a swarm of cruise missiles and low-flying drones. Abqaiq represents the world’s largest such facility, and the attack temporarily knocked-out nearly 6 percent of global crude oil production. Shortly after the September 14 attacks, the Department of Defense deployed an additional Patriot missile defense battery, four Sentinel radars, and 200 support personnel to Saudi Arabia. Friday’s announcement adds two additional fighter squadrons, two more Patriot batteries, one Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system, and one air expeditionary wing. The September 14 attack is part of what Secretary of Defense Mark Esper called Iran’s “larger campaign to destabilize the Middle East and impose costs on the international economy.” During a press conference, Esper hinted that U.S. partners and allies continue to express concerns to the administration regarding additional Iranian aggression – concerns Esper suggested were confirmed by U.S. intelligence. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley said the deployment was necessary to “reestablish deterrence with respect to Iran.” The need to deter Iran is clear. Since May, Tehran’s actions have escalated from surreptitious attacks on foreign vessels, to the downing of a U.S. drone in international airspace, to a major cross-border attack on Saudi Arabia that many would consider a clear act of war. Unfortunately, President Trump’s short-sighted decision to greenlight a Turkish military intervention into northeast Syria and withdraw U.S. troops from the area will only reinforce Tehran’s suspicions that Washington’s commitment to the region’s security is hesitant and brittle. In response to Iran’s actions, the U.S. has deployed 14,000 additional troops to the region since May. In addition to the most recent deployments, as Esper noted, this includes airborne early warning aircraft squadrons, maritime patrol aircraft squadrons, B-52 bombers, an amphibious transport dock, unmanned aircraft, engineering personnel, and the Lincoln Carrier Strike Group (CSG)... https://www.fdd.org/analysis/2019/10/15/in-effort-to-deter-iran-dod-deploys-additional-forces-to-saudi-arabia/ .
About the CNN Debate
by MELISSA MACKENZIE
{ spectator.org } ~ My goodness, these people are boring. What a snoozefest. What was most interesting, though, is what wasn’t talked about... No loose lips liar-Biden corruption. No China. No answer from Elizabeth dinky/liar-Warren, the ostensible front-runner, about where the money comes from for her pie-in-the-sky schemes. Hint: It’s the middle class paying higher taxes. If Democrats refuse to answer, the middle class paying higher taxes is always the answer. Here’s some overall impressions, and then I’ll get into the candidates themselves. First, this crew has driven past commie-Bernie the Squad endorsed him!!! and gone off into the weeds and rusting buildings of commieland. Trillions of spending was waved off as no big deal. Gun confiscation was enthusiastically embraced. The Democrats are now the party of perpetual war and foreign adventurism, but there was zero mention of one Barack H. scumbag/liar-nObama. Also notably absent: Code Pink. Where are those ardent, true believers screaming out, “BUSH McHALLIBURTON!!!”? Second, let’s be honest, though. Who really was paying attention to their insanely extreme domestic and foreign policy plans? Mostly, they were boring. Leaden, even. Nothing quotable. Nothing interesting. This is in stark contrast to the Republicans in 2016. That field was strong. Nearly anyone on that stage could be president and America would be fine. Forget who they were? Let’s just look at the candidates who withdrew before the primary: Rick Perry governor, Texas — economic miracle, Scott Walker governor, Wisconsin — economic turnaround, Bobby Jindal governor, Louisiana — growth, Lindsey Graham senator, South Carolina — Years of experience, foreign policy and judicial expert, George Pataki Yuck, but governor, New York. Any of them could lead the nation better than the doofuses on the stage as the premiere Democrats. President scumbag/liar-nObama decimated the party for a generation. Not only did Democrats across the country get destroyed but the bench to build future leaders also sat empty. Hopefully, the Republicans are watching and learning. Just kidding. They never learn. Anyway, the lack on the Democrat side is so complete and sad, it’s a little unnerving. None of these people deserve to lead this nation. Let’s discuss why, one by one... https://spectator.org/about-the-cnn-debate/?utm_source=American%20Spectator%20Emails&utm_campaign=3ae5350a14-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2019_10_16_12_22&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_797a38d487-3ae5350a14-104608113 .
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Climate Alarmism of the Last 120 Years
Political Editors: To error is human. And if science is only as good as the scientist, then, since scientists are human … any reasonable person would be foolish not to hold a healthy amount of skepticism toward any declarations of the science being “settled.” This is especially the case when it comes to the politically charged topic of global warming or climate change or whatever it will be called in the near future. A few years ago, Anthony Watts of Watts Up With That? put together a list of the last 120 years of climate alarmism. Given that the list is still relevant because alarmists never quit issuing new dire predictions, here are a few examples of just how wrong they’ve been over the years:
1895 — Geologists Think the World May Be Frozen Up Again —The New York Times
1902 — “Disappearing Glaciers … deteriorating slowly, with a persistency that means their final annihilation … scientific fact … surely disappearing.” —Los Angeles Times
1923 — “Scientist says Arctic ice will wipe out Canada” —Professor Gregory of Yale University, American representative to the Pan-Pacific Science Congress, in the Chicago Tribune
1933 — America in Longest Warm Spell Since 1776; Temperature Line Records a 25-Year Rise —The New York Times
1954 — Climate — the Heat May Be Off —Fortune Magazine
1969 — “The Arctic pack ice is thinning and … the ocean at the North Pole may become an open sea within a decade or two” —The New York Times
1969 — “If I were a gambler, I would take even money that England will not exist in the year 2000” —Paul Ehrlich (while he now predicts doom from global warming, this quote only gets honorable mention, as he was talking about his crazy fear of overpopulation)
1974 — Global cooling for the past forty years —Time Magazine
1974 — “Climatological Cassandras are becoming increasingly apprehensive, for the weather aberrations they are studying may be the harbinger of another ice age” —The Washington Post
1974 — “The facts of the present climate change are such that the most optimistic experts would assign near certainty to major crop failure … mass deaths by starvation, and probably anarchy and violence.” —The New York Times
1975 — “The threat of a new ice age must now stand alongside nuclear war as a likely source of wholesale death and misery for mankind” Nigel Calder, editor, New Scientist magazine, in an article in International Wildlife Magazine
1990 — “We’ve got to ride the global warming issue. Even if the theory of global warming is wrong, we will be doing the right thing — in terms of economic policy and environmental policy.” —Senator Timothy Wirth
1998 — No matter if the science [of global warming] is all phony … climate change [provides] the greatest opportunity to bring about justice and equality in the world.“ —Christine Stewart, Canadian Minister of the Environment, Calgary Herald
2006 — "I believe it is appropriate to have an over-representation of factual presentations on how dangerous it is, as a predicate for opening up the audience to listen to what the solutions are, and how hopeful it is that we are going to solve this crisis.” —scumbag-Al Gore, Grist magazine
2014 — Climate change: It’s even worse than we thought. Five years ago, the last report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change painted a gloomy picture of our planet’s future. As climate scientists gather evidence for the next report, due in 2014, Michael Le Page gives seven reasons why things are looking even grimmer. —New Scientist (undated in 2014)
Again, these are but a few of the climate headlines over the last century. What is telling is how in more recent years the climate alarmism has become increasingly tied to leftist politics, to the detriment of science. ~The Patriot Post
by Phil Muncaster
Cal Thomas
Hans von Spakovsky
Byron York
