William M. Finley's Posts (2815)

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The Left Seeks to Silence Pro-Life/Pro-Family Voices

Silencing your opponent. That is now the main response of the political left in America.

You have seen the footage of speakers on college campuses being shouted down. You have heard about the liberal professor attacked by students for defending a conservative professor. You have watched black-masked rioters smashing the windows of stores and burning cars.

We are told that views that may conflict with the liberal world-view are no more than violence and hate and therefore may be silenced.

In recent days, C-Fam has come under that kind of attack and I am deeply worried. (C-Fam is a New York and Washington DC-based research institute accredited with the UN Economic and Social Council and the Organization of American States.)

C-Fam’s Lisa Correnti was chosen as a public-sector delegate for the Trump Administration to the just-concluded UN Commission on the Status of Women. Almost immediately the left attacked us. They harassed the US State Department for choosing us. The campaign to silence our voice went global. It was covered by the New York Times and Reuters, along with various LGBT blogs and news-sites. (For more from the author of “The Left Seeks to Silence Pro-Life/Pro-Family Voices” please click HERE) http://joemiller.us/2017/04/left-seeks-silence-pro-lifepro-family-voices/

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The Troubling Relationship Between Soros and US’ Biggest Foreign Aid Agency

Foreign aid can help advance U.S. national interests, for example, by promoting our values globally or by demonstrating to the world the goodwill of the American people. Calls to eliminate funding outright often fail to weigh this important function.

But our lead aid agency has itself been jeopardizing this effort, and risking all-important public support, by irresponsibly funding leftist agitprop around the world—and enlisting the help of billionaire progressive activist George Soros in the process.

Trying to persuade Colombians, Macedonians, Kenyans, and the Irish to accept violations of traditional norms that are still being debated here was surely not what Congress had in mind when it passed the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 and thereby created the U.S. Agency for International Development, or USAID.

Support for wooly leftist causes around the globe, and teaming up with the vast network of Soros organizations trying to transform the world, isn’t new for USAID.

But for the past eight years, President Barack Obama politicized the agency to such a degree that six Republican senators in mid-March rightly called on Secretary of State Rex Tillerson to launch an investigation into how the agency spends billions of taxpayer dollars.

The response from a mid-level career official at the Bureau of Legislative Affairs, Executive Secretary Joseph E. Macmanus, offered a pro-forma defense of USAID with sentences like, “The Department of State’s foreign assistance programs are rigorously designed, implemented, and monitored to ensure that they are based on core American values.”

Soros supporters are naturally pleased. But was the letter reflective of the administration’s political leadership? The slow pace of political appointments at the State Department—and throughout the executive branch—has created a situation where career bureaucrats and caretakers put in place by the previous administration retain an outsized influence.

In this instance, sources tell us that the letter the senators sent Tillerson never reached him. As I explained in the New York Post last Saturday, the Macmanus letter didn’t even acknowledge the senators’ request for a probe. Telling six senators, in essence, to take a hike is not wise at the best of times.

But it is especially unwise when the senators are raising legitimate concerns that resonate with Trump voters. What core American values were served in Colombia when USAID funds a Soros-owned media portal that attacks President Donald Trump, capitalism, and “patriarchal society”?

And what American values are served when USAID and Soros’ Open Society Foundations team up to teach Macedonians Alinskyite tactics, continuing a lamentable trend here in the states to redefine civics as street mobilization and representative democracy as “participative democracy”?

And what core American values, indeed, are served when we support same-sex marriage in countries like Ireland? The Supreme Court only read this right into the Constitution two years ago, in a hotly contested 5-4 decision that is far from settled even here.

Indeed, many of these ideas continue to be hotly debated between one part of the population that wants to retain traditional norms and another that wants to transform society.

As the senators’ letter asked, what do these things have to do with our national interests?

By refusing to heed the senators’ call, the career civil servants who have taken over our agencies were doing exactly what the Open Society Foundations requested. In an op-ed in Foreign Policy magazine two weeks ago, the head of the Open Society Initiative for Europe, Goran Buldioski, wrote that “Tillerson should ignore the letter, because there’s nothing to investigate.”

Buldioski smeared the U.S. senators, saying that their letter was “littered with inaccuracies about the foundations’ work,” and he trotted out the most tired trope in the Soros arsenal, that the “senators echo Kremlin talking points.” As I have argued here and here, it is precisely our promotion of tendentious radical ideas overseas that often drive conservatives who would ordinarily side with us into the arms of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

But the most important part of the piece came not in these clichés, but in the argument Buldioski made when he said that the senators were asking Tillerson “to shut down democracy promotion that is ‘disrespecting national sovereignty.’ Such an interpretation assumes that governments are sacrosanct and sovereign, not the voters who elect them.” (Emphasis added).

That is a tempting argument. The individual certainly is ultimately sovereign in that his own conscience is the ultimate arbiter.

This separation between “national sovereignty” and “individual sovereignty” is not new, however, but has been emphasized by those who argue for transnational governance.

In a speech in Stockholm in 2009 in which he expounded on the subject, former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said, for example: “We are now living in a true global age. We are interconnected as never before. Frontiers are increasingly irrelevant. Nation-states are increasingly powerless to act alone in the face of global forces.”

But as my friends and colleagues David Azerrad and Arthur Milikh reminded me in an email exchange on this subject, classical liberalism views countries as sovereign in the international realm.

The opening lines of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution—“When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another” and “We the people”—make this amply clear.

When a government stops securing the unalienable rights of people, it is their right “to alter or abolish it, and to institute new government.” But individuals form a sovereign “people,” and we can remain sovereign only if we remember the common good and the social contract.

Let’s debate these things some more here at home before we spend billions trying to persuade our friends to buy into them. (For more from the author of “The Troubling Relationship Between Soros and US’ Biggest Foreign Aid Agency” please click HERE) http://joemiller.us/2017/04/troubling-relationship-soros-us-biggest-foreign-aid-agency/

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How Free Trade and Economic Freedom Help the Poor

Today, many people argue that trade disproportionately hurts poor Americans.

They say free trade creates a wage gap between low- and high-income earners, and constructs barriers that make it increasingly difficult for the less fortunate to climb the economic ladder.

But recent data from The Heritage Foundation shows that this simply is not true.

The Heritage Foundation’s 2017 Index of Economic Freedom shows that removing tariffs and other trade barriers leads to a number of tremendous benefits.

The creation of freer trading conditions establishes a mutually beneficial relationship between both parties—people voluntarily trade with each other only if it is in their own interest.

As a result, those who have greater opportunity to participate in the global exchange of goods and services find themselves with increased prosperity and diminished poverty.

According to the Pew Research Center, from 2001 to 2011, the number of “poor” individuals—those living on less than $2 a day—decreased by 14 percent globally.

During the same period, world trade (as a percentage of gross domestic product) increased by over 9 percent, from 51.5 percent up to 60.7 percent.

This strong correlation between trade freedom and reductions in poverty seems to refute the narrative we often hear. Rather than hurting the poor, the removal of international trade barriers allows millions of impoverished people to escape poverty.

A recent report from the World Bank Group gives further support to this correlation. Based on the most recent estimates, while 35 percent of the world’s population lived on less than $1.90 a day in the year 1990, that percentage had dropped to 12.4 percent in 2012.

The percentage dropped even further in the year 2013 to 10.7 percent.

For a practical example of how trade barriers hurt the American poor, consider U.S. import restraints on food and clothing.

These inflict substantial financial burdens on the poor because they drive up the price of these goods, which make up a larger proportion of poor people’s incomes than of wealthy people’s incomes.

The Heritage Foundation’s Patrick Tyrrell and Daren Bakst show the effects of these restraints in their recent special report: Americans paid a 20 percent import tariff on some dairy products in 2016, a whopping 132 percent import tariff on certain peanut products, and up to a 35 percent import tariff on canned tuna.

Reducing or getting rid of tariffs will clearly reduce these prices for consumers, and will relieve a disproportionate amount of pressure from the poor.

But the benefits of economic freedom extend well beyond aiding the poor. The data show a strong correlation between economic freedom and other positive outcomes.

As James M. Roberts and Ryan Olson of The Heritage Foundation report, countries with higher levels of economic freedom have citizens who enjoy a longer life expectancy, take better care of the environment, and spend more time in school—an important factor for poverty reduction.

On trade and economic freedom, the data speak loud and clear. In order to further reduce global poverty, governments should promote economic freedom and allow their citizens to participate in and enjoy the benefits of free trade. (For more from the author of “How Free Trade and Economic Freedom Help the Poor” please click HERE) http://joemiller.us/2017/04/free-trade-economic-freedom-help-poor/

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3 Reasons Democrats Just Made a Dumb Mistake

Now that the judicial filibuster in the U.S. Senate has been nuked, it’s time to look at the political fallout going forward. And for Democrats, the news is all bad. Here are three reasons why Democrats just made a dumb mistake by filibustering Neil Gorsuch.

1. The GOP is now free to put real Scalia-Thomas types throughout the judiciary

The argument for years as to why Republicans needed stealth Supreme Court candidates like David Souter, Anthony Kennedy, and John Roberts (who have all gone on to be disappointments to varying degrees) was the filibuster.


However, now that it’s no longer necessary to get 60 votes for confirmation, there’s no need to appoint another Gorsuch-type whose record on Roe v. Wade is a gaping void. Nor is there anymore need to “play the game” during confirmation hearings, either, by having the “conservative” appointee approvingly repeat progressive talking points back to Democrats in an effort to gain their support.

Since it only requires a simple majority now, the GOP can freely confirm real heirs to Antonin Scalia. Where this could be a real benefit is throughout the federal circuit and district courts, which need an overhaul after decades of stockpiling progressives.

2. Let’s face it: Republicans were never gonna have the stones to partisan filibuster Democrat judicial nominees anyway

There’s literally no tradeoff here for Democrats, because we all know Republicans weren’t gonna have the stones to partisan filibuster in the future anyway. The GOP is the party that actually nominates for president the people who support — and vote for — the Democrats’ most progressive judicial nominees after all (see John McCain).

So this isn’t a case of “what goes around comes around” that benefits Democrats in the future; this is being too smart by half, and negotiating against yourself. In other words, this is a case of Democrats tactically acting like Republicans for once. They needlessly cornered the GOP into a position that forced them to actually draw a line in the sand, which isn’t exactly the GOP’s thing. (They ain’t called the “surrender caucus” for nothing.)

By doing so, Democrats helped set a precedent that will only benefit Republicans from here. For they gave Republicans leverage they never would’ve asserted on their own, while at the same time Democrats gave away leverage they’ve had all along.

3. This literally did nothing to elevate any Democrats politically

Even if you think the “Stand with Rand” and “Make DC Listen” filibusters by Sens. Rand Paul, R-Ky., and Ted Cruz, R-Texas, respectively, were publicity stunts doomed to fail, at the very least both of those events inspired the GOP grassroots and elevated the national profiles of two of the party’s emerging stars.

Unfortunately for Democrats, the Gorsuch filibuster didn’t even do that. For example, the lackluster attempt by Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., at filibustering this week didn’t generate nearly the attention Paul and Cruz’s did, even from a more-than-sympathetic media.

At the very least, if you’re going to contrive political theater, have someone who excites your base and could be your future standard-bearer as the face of it. Instead, Democrats came out of a fake fight without any real stars to rally behind. A missed opportunity, especially with the country already seeming to start to tire of President Trump.

In short, the Democrats’ Gorsuch filibuster accomplished more for Republicans than it did for Democrats, because it accomplished nothing for the latter. If this is what the “resistance” looks like, it’s going to have to try a lot harder. (For more from the author of “3 Reasons Democrats Just Made a Dumb Mistake” please click HERE) http://joemiller.us/2017/04/3-reasons-democrats-just-made-dumb-mistake/

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EGYPT TWO COPTIC CHRISTIAN CHURCHES BOMBED: dozens dead, more injured, ISIS takes credit

( Muslims do not assimilate, they infiltrate! )

As Christians in Egypt were observing Palm Sunday, the Islamic State allegedly used suicide bombers to attack two churches.

Video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-FjJWYpCpFM

DEVELOPING…

At least 37 people were killed and more than 100 wounded in two Palm Sunday bombings at Coptic Christian churches in Egypt, authorities say.

HEAVY  ISIS has claimed responsibility for the deadly attacks on worshipers in Alexandria and Tanta as the Christian Holy Week begins, the Associated Press reports.

The first bombing occurred at Saint George Church in the Nile Delta city of Tanta, where at least 25 people were killed and more than 70 wounded, officials said. The second blast killed 11 people and wounded at least 35 others at Saint Mark’s Coptic Orthodox Cathedral in the coastal city of Alexandria, just after Pope Tawadros II finished services, the Associated Press reports.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi condemned the attacks, calling them an “outrageous” action that “targets both the Copts and Muslims of the homeland.” He said he investigaors would “hunt down the perpetrators and “take all measures to offer the necessary care for the wounded.”

The Bombings Came After ISIS Threatened It Would Step Up Attacks on Christians in Egypt in the Lead Up to Easter

The bombings at two Coptic Christian churches on Palm Sunday, the day of observation that begins Holy Week, came after ISIS claimed it would be stepping up attacks on Christians in Egypt during the lead up to Easter, the Associated Press reports. The so-called Islamic State released a video through its Aamaq news agency threatening the attacks.

ISIS said Sunday on its Aamaq news agency that the deadly bombings were carried out by a Sinai Peninsula-based affiliate. The same group claimed responsibility for a December 2016 suicide bombing at a church in Cairo that killed 30 people and killings of Christians intended to drive them out of the northern Sinai area, the Associated Press reports.

The terror group said Egyptian Christians are “infidels” who are empowering the West against Muslims, Fox News reports.

The Bomb at Saint George Church in Tanta Was Placed Under a Seat in the Main Prayer Hall

The blast at Saint George Church in Tanta killed at least 25 people and wounded more than 70 others, CNN reports. Authorities said an explosive device was planted under a seat in the main prayer hall of the church, officials said.

“Everything is destroyed inside the church and blood can be seen on marble pillars,” a witness, Peter Kamel, told CNN.

A Suicide Bomber Killed At Least 11 People in the Attack Outside Saint Mark’s Coptic Orthodox Cathedral in Alexandria

The attack in Alexandria, which killed at least 11 people, was a suicide bombing, NBC News reports. It occurred outside the Saint Mark’s Coptic Orthodox Cathedral in the coastal city, which is historically the seat of Christianity in Egypt.

Pope Tawadros II had just finished services at the cathedral, but was not injured, NBC News reports. It is not clear if he was inside the church when the blast occurred or if he had already left the area.

Egypt’s Interior Minister said police guarding Saint Mark’s stopped the ISIS terrorist wearing an explosive belt from entering the church and he detonated the explosive outside the building, CNN reports.

The watchman on the wall sounding the ALARM

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Londonistan: 423 New Mosques; 500 Closed Churches

( Muslims do not assimilate, they infiltrate! )

Source: Londonistan: 423 New Mosques; 500 Closed Churches

by Giulio Meotti

“London is more Islamic than many Muslim countries put together”, according to Maulana Syed Raza Rizvi, one of the Islamic preachers who now lead “Londonistan“, as the journalist Melanie Phillips has called the English capital. No, Rizvi is not a right-wing extremist. Wole Soyinka, a Nobel Laureate for Literature, was less generous; he called the UK “a cesspit for Islamists”.

“Terrorists can not stand London multiculturalism”, London’s mayor Sadiq Khan said after the recent deadly terror attack at Westminster. The opposite is true: British multiculturalists are feeding Islamic fundamentalism. Above all, Londonistan, with its new 423 mosques, is built on the sad ruins of English Christianity.

The Hyatt United Church was bought by the Egyptian community to be converted to a mosque. St Peter’s Church has been converted into the Madina Mosque. The Brick Lane Mosque was built on a former Methodist church. Not only buildings are converted, but also people. The number of converts to Islam has doubled; often they embrace radical Islam, as with Khalid Masood, the terrorist who struck Westminster.

The Daily Mail published photographs of a church and a mosque a few meters from each other in the heart of London. At the Church of San Giorgio, designed to accommodate 1,230 worshipers, only 12 people gathered to celebrate Mass. At the Church of Santa Maria, there were 20.

The nearby Brune Street Estate mosque has a different problem: overcrowding. Its small room and can contain only 100. On Friday, the faithful must pour into the street to pray. Given the current trends, Christianity in England is becoming a relic, while Islam will be the religion of the future.

In Birmingham, the second-largest British city, where many jihadists live and orchestrate their attacks, an Islamic minaret dominates the sky. There are petitions to allow British mosques to call the Islamic faithful to prayer on loudspeakers three times a day.

By 2020, estimates are that the number of Muslims attending prayers will reach at least 683,000, while the number of Christians attending weekly Mass will drop to 679,000. “The new cultural landscape of English cities has arrived; the homogenised, Christian landscape of state religion is in retreat”, said Ceri Peach of Oxford University. While nearly half of British Muslims are under the age of 25, a quarter of Christians are over 65. “In another 20 years there are going to be more active Muslims than there are churchgoers,” said Keith Porteous Wood, director of the National Secular Society.

Since 2001, 500 London churches of all denominations have been turned into private homes. During the same period, British mosques have been proliferating. Between 2012 and 2014, the proportion of Britons who identify themselves as Anglicans fell from 21% to 17%, a decrease of 1.7 million people, while, according to a survey conducted by the respected NatCen Social Research Institute, the number of Muslims has grown by almost a million. Churchgoers are declining at a rate that within a generation, their number will be three times lower than that of Muslims who go regularly to mosque on Friday.

Demographically, Britain has been acquiring an increasingly an Islamic face, in places such as Birmingham, Bradford, Derby, Dewsbury, Leeds, Leicester, Liverpool, Luton, Manchester, Sheffield, Waltham Forest and Tower Hamlets. In 2015, an analysis of the most common name in England showed it was Mohammed, including spelling variations such as Muhammad and Mohammad.

Most important cities have huge Muslim populations: Manchester (15.8%), Birmingham (21.8%) and Bradford (24.7%). In Birmingham, the police just dismantled a terrorist cell; there is also a greater probability that a child will be born into a Muslim family than into a Christian one. In Bradford and Leicester, half the children are Muslim. Muslims do not need to become the majority in the UK; they just need gradually to Islamize the most important cities. The change is already taking place. “Londonistan” is not a Muslim majority nightmare; it is a cultural, demographic and religious hybrid in which Christianity declines and Islam advances.

The watchman on the wall sounding the ALARM

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Idaho: Muslim migrant boys plead guilty to sexual assault of five-year-old, but will victim ever get justice?

(  Muslims do not assimilate, they infiltrate! )

The politically correct travesty of justice continues.

“Will victim of ‘refugee’ rapists ever get real justice?,” by Pamela Geller, WND, April 7, 2017:

In the summer of 2016, a 5-year-old girl was raped and urinated upon by three Muslim refugee boys in Twin Falls, Idaho. Since then, instead of getting justice, the victim’s family has been abused by law enforcement and governing authorities as if they were the criminals – because what happened to their little girl contradicts the politically correct narrative about Muslim migrants. On Tuesday, it got even worse.

Idaho’s KMVT reported Wednesday that “the case has been resolved” as the three juvenile perpetrators “pleaded guilty in the sexually [sic] assault case of a 5-year-old Twin Falls girl.” The article says that “the family and attorney of the family of the 5-year-old victim approved the settlements reached in each of the three cases.” It quotes prosecuting attorney Grant Loebs: “I am pleased we resolved this case and received a result which was approved and agreed upon by the victim’s family and attorney. This continues to be a serious and sad case, but this is a proper resolution.”

Reality is different. Lacy Peterson, the victim’s mother, told me: “It isn’t a done deal. They’re trying to play it out to be, but it’s not over at all. When we go to sentencing they can get more charges. And we are allowed to speak as victims, and so I am praying that they get a huge sentencing.” That will be in about three weeks.

Lacy continued: “Our lawyer talked to the prosecutor, and we did not say that we were OK with it. … We will be able to speak at the next hearing, and they will be showing the video to the judge.” One of the perpetrators filmed the rape and gleefully showed part of the video to Levi, the poor girl’s father.

In the courtroom on Tuesday, however, one of the perpetrators’ fathers was energetically claiming victim status. Lacy told me: “What happened today was a huge mess. The father fainted, and we had to stop court for a bit so the ambulance can come get him. It was so crazy and hectic.” He should have fainted when he heard what his son did. Instead, he gave him a high five. Tuesday, however, his attempt to garner pity failed. Said Lacy: “But we continued on without him. Supposedly he has medical problems.”

All this happened against the backdrop of still more favoritism toward the perpetrators. Lacy stated: “It makes me so angry because my mom and Levi’s mom aren’t even allowed in the courtroom, but they can have family and friends there. That is so unjust. I still can’t believe there were so many different women at every hearing who claimed to be the mom one time, and then she’s a family friend the next time.”

At the hearing, the three older rapists were charged with double felonies, and the youngest boy with one felony. They were charged with “sexual lewd conduct” (SLC), which is essentially the same as rape. Loebs explained that this newly invented charge “fits better than rape.” They didn’t want to call what the boys did rape, even though it was according to Idaho law. Why not? Did someone tell them not to allow these Muslim migrants to be guilty of rape? Who is protecting them, and why?

The KMVT article quotes the family’s attorney, Mark Guerry: “For the record we did in fact approve the resolution of the criminal juvenile plea agreements. That should not be construed to mean the parents of the little 5-year-old victim are completely and fully satisfied with the outcome of the cases. The parents did, however, wish to finally see some kind of resolution of these cases, which have languished in the courts since June 2016. Furthermore, the truth of the matter is nothing will ever restore the lost innocence and vanished happiness of this little 5-year-old girl who was viciously sexually assaulted.”

Several weeks ago, Guerry told me: “As you know, Levi and Lacy’s supporters, and Levi and Lacy by association, have been treated like the wrongdoers and liars, having been repeatedly been referred to as ‘not constrained by the truth’ by Grant Loebs.”

At the beginning of this case, prosecutor Loebs lied outright when he said, “There was no knife involved; there was no gang rape.” In fact, there was a knife involved, and there was gang rape. Why are Loebs and other law enforcement and government officials so desperate to cover up the facts of this case?

Guerry went on to explain how the victim’s family and their supporters are being pressured in part because the Chobani yogurt company operates locally:

In January, a former Idaho Supreme Court justice, Jim Jones, yet another mainstream Idaho Republican, browbeat the locals who have stood up to the officials at the Crime Scene Investigation (CSI) bureau, Grant Loebs, Twin Falls Police Chief Craig Kingsbury, etc., for hurting businesses like Chobani with their activism. The Twin Falls Times-News gleefully reported that Jones’ remarks at the Rotary Club meeting where this happened “were met with nods of approval from club members.”

There was not one single word in the story about the little girl, or the horrific sexual assault she endured. Absolutely disgusting. These people are proving the suspicions of many Democrats and Independents around here, that is, that Republicans don’t seem to care about anything but business profits, i.e., money.

Lacy commented: “We have been treated horribly. The way I feel, our case has been pushed under the rug and soon to be forgotten about. Since June we moved into a house that we can hardly even afford. We were totally fine in the apartments until now.”

They had to move because of ongoing harassment from the perpetrators’ families. In July 2016, according to a family member of the victim, at 11:30 at night, the mother of the Iraqi attacker was outside her house, in earnest conversation with an unidentified man. The attacker’s mother frequently pointed to the victim’s house. Thoroughly unnerved, the victim’s family fled to a hotel to sleep.

Lacy added: “I don’t think it’s fair that us Americans get to struggle and work hard and live paycheck-to-paycheck and pray to make bills. And the refugees get to have everything handed to them.”

That’s what this is all about: making sure that Americans don’t start to realize what is happening and oppose the refugee influx. Idaho officials seem willing to sacrifice this girl’s well-being for that goal – to their everlasting shame.

The watchman on the wall sounding the ALARM

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Trump’s Response to Syria a Bold First Step in Rebuilding US Credibility

On Thursday, President Donald Trump ordered the launch of 59 Tomahawk cruise missiles against an airfield in Syria.

The strike came in response to Tuesday’s chemical weapons attack ordered by Bashar Assad against the rebel-held town of Khan Sheikhoun in northwestern Syria.

Trump immediately condemned that attack, which reportedly killed 80 people, including men, woman, and infant children. The target he selected for last night’s strike was the airfield used to launch that very attack.

The strategic impact of this tactical move is hard to overstate.

The deterrent effect of this attack for Assad’s use of chemical weapons is clear, but the bigger message is global. This was Trump’s first big step in re-establishing the meaning of American presence, America’s word, and the general respect for American power in the eyes of nations, friend and foe.

Many here in the United States are worried about the escalation in tensions this attack might bring about in the world. But whether you are confronting a playground bully or a rogue nation, you have to be willing to accept risk to protect the things you hold dear.

Bullies may fight back when they are confronted because they won’t willingly give up their power. But refusing to stand up to them simply means you are choosing to live under their rules.

It doesn’t matter what your name is, or whether you have a powerfully protective family or network of friends that will shield you from such confrontations. You have to be willing to step into the breech and accept the associated risk if you want to chart your own destiny.

Elect to run, and you’ll be running for the rest of your life. Choose to hold your ground, and you’ll establish a level of confidence and strength that will make even the worst of actors think twice about challenging the lines you draw in the sand.

Trump’s decision last night drew a line in the sand. It changed the atmosphere across the entire globe and affected the conversations taking place right now in cities like Pyongyang, Moscow, and Beijing—and of course, at Mar-a-Lago.

It put the world on notice that the repercussions for challenging the word or the wherewithal of the United States is no longer limited to stern rhetoric, and that a debilitating, kinetic response can come swiftly and often without warning. (For more from the author of “Trump’s Response to Syria a Bold First Step in Rebuilding US Credibility” please click HERE) http://joemiller.us/2017/04/trumps-response-syria-bold-first-step-rebuilding-us-credibility/

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Trump’s First Big Foreign Policy Move a Departure From Stump Speeches

In what will almost certainly be the defining foreign policy decision of President Donald Trump’s first 100 days seems to be a significant shift from his noninterventionist rhetoric on the campaign trail in facing down Syrian dictator Bashar Assad.

Republican Sens. John McCain of Arizona and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, longtime critics of the president, praised Trump’s decision to launch 59 Tomahawk missiles at the Syrian government’s Shayrat airfield, where a chemical weapons attack was launched that killed more than 70 Syrian civilians, including children.

Conversely, Republican Sens. Rand Paul of Kentucky and Mike Lee of Utah stressed that Trump should have sought congressional approval before the strikes. Meanwhile, conservative talk radio host Laura Ingraham noted the major policy shift.


While some Trump supporters on the pundit side might have been surprised by the strikes, it’s not likely to hurt the president with his supporters throughout the country, said Richard Benedetto, an adjunct professor of government at American University.

“Some Trump folks will be disappointed,” Benedetto told The Daily Signal. “Many of the so-called blue-collar Trump supporters backed him because they did not like to see America get pushed around.”

As a candidate, Trump heavily criticized George W. Bush, a former president of his own party, for launching the Iraq War, while in 2013, he tweeted that President Barack Obama shouldn’t intervene in Syria.

This doesn’t necessarily mean Trump has shifted away from a cautious attitude toward foreign entanglements, said Benedetto, a former White House correspondent for USA Today.

“He could still be a noninterventionist compared to Bush, but at the same time, wants to make it clear he is not Obama,” Benedetto said. “It doesn’t mean he will be an interventionist in other things. But this means he takes chemical weapons seriously and he believes he had to do something.”

During a Rose Garden press conference Wednesday, the president telegraphed a shift before the strike, stating he is flexible.

I don’t have to have one specific way, and if the world changes, I go the same way … I do change and I am flexible and I’m proud of that flexibility, and I will tell you that attack on children yesterday had a big impact on me, big impact. That was a horrible, horrible thing and I’ve been watching it and seeing it, and it doesn’t get any worse than that. And I have that flexibility and it’s very, very possible, and I will tell you it’s already happened that my attitude toward Syria and Assad has changed very much.

The New York Times ran a story with the headline “Trump’s Far-Right Supporters Turn on Him Over Syria Strike.” However, the story focused mostly on more extreme elements rather than the general Trump supporter or conservatives.

The expectations of Trump as a “restrictionist, realist, or isolationist” during the presidential campaign were miscalculated from the beginning, said Emma Ashford, a research fellow for defense and foreign policy at the libertarian Cato Institute.

“He talked in the campaign about staying out of stupid Middle East wars, but he also talked about Iraq and how we should have taken their oil, and how he would bomb the hell out of ISIS,” Ashford told The Daily Signal. “People tend to focus on whether he is a neocon or like Ron or Rand Paul. They ignore the third way, which is being a restrictionist on humanitarian matters but interventionist in other areas.”

Ashford noted that military presence in the Middle East has increased since Trump became president.

Ashford said that Obama’s decision not to strike Syria in 2013 was sound.

“It worked in that Assad did not use chemical weapons again while Obama was president,” Ashford said.

The change between campaign rhetoric and international affairs isn’t unusual for presidents. Woodrow Wilson campaigned on staying out of World War I. Franklin Roosevelt campaigned on staying out of World War II. Richard Nixon campaigned on exiting the Vietnam War, and George W. Bush shunned nation building, experts said.

“Campaign rhetoric is just designed to get votes,” James Carafano, a national security expert at The Heritage Foundation, told The Daily Signal. “Look at John McCain and Barack Obama in 2008, and they sounded almost identical. There was no way anyone could have predicted Barack Obama’s foreign policy over the next eight years.”

He continued that this is what one should expect from Trump as a businessman.

“This is who Trump is. He deals with what he is dealt,” Carafano said. “If profits are down, he doesn’t hold a press conference to pretend they are not. He deals with it.” (For more from the author of “Trump’s First Big Foreign Policy Move a Departure From Stump Speeches” please click HERE) http://joemiller.us/2017/04/trumps-first-big-foreign-policy-move-departure-stump-speeches-2/

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Breaking: Trump Restores Marine Corps’ Pearl Harbor Memorial Flags Removed by Obama!

Donald Trump has ordered restoring Marine Corps’ Pearl Harbor Memorial Flags which were Removed by Obama administration!

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Marine Corps’ Pearl Harbor Memorial Flags were Removed Due To POOR National Park Service Maintenance
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How can you Not love our president? He is True American patriot!
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People who actually read the news are more likely to be anti-Islam

( Muslims do not assimilate, they infiltrate )

For years, the Left has insisted that so-called “Islamophobia” is caused by ignorance. But a recent study suggests that the opposite is true. Research finds that people – who are generally ‘highly tolerant’ – show increased anger and reduced warmth towards Muslims if they are more avid news consumers.

As you’ll see in the photos added below, Christians and especially Jews (they aren’t all smart or well-read), not to mention gays and feminazis, are the biggest supporters of the people who want to kill them the most: MUSLIMS

Independent  Whether liberal or conservative, researchers found more avid news consumers showed both increased anger and reduced warmth towards members of the Islamic faith. The findings, based on responses from 16,584 New Zealanders from the New Zealand Attitudes and Values Study (NZAVS), were published in leading international science journal PLOS ONE.

The authors said it showed widespread representations of Muslims in the news were contributing to lower acceptance. 

The fact that the study was was based on New Zealanders, who are generally “highly tolerant”, made it particularly poignant, the authors said. 

 “People tend to interpret the news in ways that fit with their pre-existing biases, seeking affirmation of their beliefs while discounting conflicting information,” said lead author Dr John Shaver, a lecturer at the University of Otago.

”New Zealand is a good test for speculation about media-induced Muslim prejudice because of its overall highly tolerant people. If anything, tolerant Kiwis might tend to reject intolerant stereotypes, reducing the effect of the media.

“However we find that the association of prejudice towards Muslims with more media exposure holds across the political spectrum, and is specific to Muslims.

“This indicates that it is widespread representations of Muslims in the news that is contributing to lower Muslim acceptance, rather than any partisan media bias. The media, regardless of politics, tend to publish violent stories because violence sells.”

The reports co-author, Professor Joseph Bulbulia of Victoria University of Wellington, added: “Sadly, there may be real-world consequences for Muslims in this country, people who encounter prejudice across their daily routines, at the workplace, and in their children’s schools.

“Though un-making prejudice is difficult, we hope these results challenge the media to present fairer representations of Muslims.”

To read more People who actually read the news are more likely to be anti-Islam

The watchman on the wall sounding the ALARM

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Egypt: Muslims Bomb Two Christian Churches on Palm Sunday, at Least 36 killed, 100+ Wounded

( Muslims do not assimilate, they infiltrate )

via Blasts at Christian churches in Egypt kill dozens on Palm Sunday

(CNN) – Bombs targeted two Coptic churches in Egypt as the Christian faithful observed Palm Sunday, one of the most important days on the religion’s calendar.

A powerful blast rippled through a Palm Sunday service at a Coptic Christian church in the northern Egypian city of Tanta, killing 25 people and wounding 60 others, state TV reported. The explosive device at St. George Coptic church in Tanta was planted under a seat in the church, where it detonated in the main prayer hall, it said.

At least 11 have been killed and 35 others wounded in a suicide bomb attack outside the Saint Mark Coptic Orthodox Cathedral in Alexandria according to two state-news outlets. Egyptian state media also reports that the head of Egypt’s Coptic Church Pope Tawadros II was inside the Church when the blast happened.


More via: Authorities: Dozens Killed After Deadly Blasts At 2 Churches In Egypt « CBS New York

Egypt’s Health Ministry says an explosion at a church in the coastal city of Alexandria has killed 11 people, and wounded at least 35 others.

It appeared to be the second attack targeting Egypt’s Coptic Christians, after a bomb in a church in the Nile Delta town of Tanta killed 26 people and wounded more than 70.

The ministry said the explosion went off at Saint Mark’s Church in Alexandria, where Pope Tawadros II had earlier celebrated Palm Sunday.

An Islamic State affiliate based in the Sinai Peninsula claimed an attack on a Cairo church in December that killed around 30 people, and vowed more attacks on Christians.

The bomb ripped through a church in the town of Tanta that was packed with Palm Sunday worshippers. Coptic Christians make up 10 percent of Egypt’s population, and have been repeatedly targeted by Islamic extremists.


Video of the aftermath in the links below (click the date):


and here: (click the date)

 

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Creeping Sharia

To read more https://creepingsharia.wordpress.com/

The watchman on the wall sounding the ALARM

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Sweden: Muslims throw stones at police officers arresting Stockholm jihad attack suspects

( Muslims do not assimilate, they infiltrate )

Assimilation? Why, it’s just around the corner!

“Swedish anti-terror police – including a Muslim officer praised by colleagues – are pelted with STONES while arresting Stockholm attack suspects near migrant district Trump called a ‘no-go zone,'” by Jake Wallis Simons and Paul Thompson, Mailonline, April 8, 2017:

Police officers responding to the Stockholm terror atrocity were attacked by a gang of youths who pelted them with stones last night, Swedish policemen have said.

The attack happened last night near Rinkeby, part of the ‘immigrant no-go zone’ that gained notoriety when President Trump referred to it in a controversial speech in February.

It is thought that the officers were taking part in an operation to arrest a 17-year-old and his mother at an address linked to the 39-year-old prime suspect.

Both have since been released without charge.

‘During the night my colleagues were exposed to stone throwing in [the suburb of] Tensta, in the middle of an ongoing terror operation.

‘Some people will never learn,’ Abdallah Ahmed, a police officer, said in a social media post.

‘To terror I want to say one thing, in pure Swedish: go to hell. My thoughts go to those affected in every way.’

Earlier today, at the address near Tensta that was raided last night, the 17-year-old who had been arrested denied any connection to the 39-year-old terrorist….

Jihad Watch

To read more go to https://www.jihadwatch.org/

The watchman on the wall sounding the ALARM

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California State University Fresno Professor: ‘Trump Must Hang,’ Republicans Should Be Executed For Each Immigrant Deported

This maniac shouldn’t be teaching anywhere. He should be locked up. Would California State University, Fresno ever hire a critic of jihad terrorism? Not on your life. But this savage will probably get tenure.

“Professor: ‘Trump Must Hang,’ Republicans Should Be Executed For Each Immigrant Deported,” by Rob Shimshock, Daily Caller, April 7, 2017:

A history professor at California State University, Fresno, appears to have advocated for the death of President Donald Trump on Twitter.

Tweets from an account purportedly operated by Professor Lars Maischak call for Trump to “hang” in order to “save American democracy,” and say the only “cure” for racist people is a bullet to their head. The account is not verified, although the bio and interactions between the user and other Twitter users indicate it belongs to the professor.

“To save American democracy, Trump must hang,” Professor Lars Maischak appears to have tweeted in February. “The sooner and the higher, the better. #TheResistance #DeathToFascism.”

“Has anyone started soliciting money and design drafts for a monument honoring the Trump assassin, yet?” the user wrote in another tweet a few days later, along with the hashtag “TheResistance.”

And in another: “#TheResistance #ethniccleansing Justice = The execution of two Republicans for each deported immigrant.”

The user has also said “mercy towards racists” is a “fatal weakness” of Americans.

“#TheResistance Mercy towards racists was always the fatal weakness of good Americans,” he tweeted. “1865, 1965, they left too many of them alive.”

Other tweets include thoughts on “fascist” Trump supporters and the GOP.

“#WhenCaliforniaSecedes, You Fascist Trump-voting white trash scum can wallow in your filthy hell-holes of flyover states,” he tweeted. “Enjoy.”

“#TheResistance A democracy must not be tolerant of those who want to abolish democracy. It must vigorously defend itself. Ban the @GOP.”

The user also compared Trump to Hitler in other tweets.

Pamela Geller is the President of the American Freedom Defense Initiative (AFDI), publisher of PamelaGeller.com and author of The Post-American Presidency: The Obama Administration’s War on America and Stop the Islamization of America: A Practical Guide to the Resistance.

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New Jersey: Muslim group harassing and intimidating private citizens for opposing mosque

(Muslim do not assimilate, they infiltrate )

The Justice Department should put a stop to this. But it’s anybody’s guess which side the Trump Justice Department is on at this point.

“Outrageous Unconstitutional Intimidation of Private Citizens Who Opposed Mosque Project; Thomas More Law Center Steps In,” Thomas More Law Center, March 28, 2017:

ANN ARBOR, MI – If you speak out against building a mosque in your community, you may be slapped with a subpoena demanding all your personal documents, including emails, voicemails, text messages, and social media posts concerning Muslims, Islam, mosques, the Quran, Muslim worship or prayer services, wudu, imams, burkas, hijabs, Sharia, jihad, or anything else associated with or related to Muslims or Islam.

This was part of the harassment and intimidation experienced by scores of private citizens of the small New Jersey town, Bernards Township (also known as Basking Ridge), who spoke out at public hearings against a plan to build a disproportionately-sized mosque on a small piece of residential property. The mosque project, sponsored by the Islamic Society of Basking Ridge (“ISBR”) and its president, Mohammad Ali Chaudry, was denied by Township officials for not complying with local building ordinances.

On March 10, 2016, ISBR and Mohammad Ali Chaudry sued Bernards Township in federal court, claiming various violations of the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act. Shortly after, ISBR had coercive subpoenas served on private citizens whose only involvement was voicing concerns at public planning board meetings about whether the proposed mosque complied with local building ordinances.

The United States District Court for the District of New Jersey recently granted the Thomas More Law Center, a national public interest law firm based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, permission to represent, without charge, several of these citizens who desired to quash the coercive and abusive subpoenas. Westfield, New Jersey attorney Michael P. Hrycak is assisting the Law Center.

Richard Thompson, President and Chief Counsel of the Thomas More Law Center, commented: “ISBR is setting a dangerous unconstitutional precedent by abusing a court process to chill and trample on the First Amendment Rights of private citizens whose only involvement was to speak out against the mosque at public hearings. Because the U.S. Supreme Court has held that speech at a public place on a matter of public concern is entitled to special protection, we will ask the Federal District Court to quash the subpoenas served on our clients as a misuse and abuse of the Court’s process.”

Lori Caratzola, described in the ISBR Complaint as a fervent and frequent objector to the mosque, was a prime target for ISBR’s personal attacks. She was personally mentioned over a dozen times in their Complaint. Yet she has remained steadfast in her opposition. Ms. Caratzola commented:

“Being served with a Federal Court Subpoena to turn over all my personal communications including voicemails, social media, emails, notes wherein I make any mention of anything having to do with Islam is an absolute violation of my First Amendment rights. I was a citizen exercising my right to attend public planning board meetings about a land use application that affected my community.”

She continued:

“Dr. Chaudry’s clear intent was to embarrass, strike fear, silence and cause financial harm to any citizen who dared oppose his nonconforming project. And if these subpoenas are allowed to stand, it will set a chilling precedent for all citizens who wish to exercise their Constitutionally protected right to free speech and to petition their government.

“I was named numerous times in the Complaint, yet as a non-party, I had no standing to challenge the lies and half-truths told about me. After the Complaint was filed, mainstream media picked up and repeated these lies and half-truths.”

Caratzola concluded:

“I have lost days, probably weeks, devoting time to trying to find counsel – only to find most attorneys are afraid of challenging an Islamic group in today’s political climate.”…

Cody Smith, another subpoenaed resident who opposed the Mosque, stated:

“The planning board did exactly what it should have done—set emotions aside and judge ISBR’s application solely on its merits and whether it complied with our local regulations. It’s unfortunate that Dr. Chaudry, the Township’s former mayor, has resorted to an all-out smear campaign and retaliation against residents who exercised their fundamental Constitutional rights of Free Speech in a public forum.”

Soon after ISBR’s lawsuit, DOJ investigators opened another coercive front by attempting to interview the private citizens who opposed the mosque. Eight months later, the DOJ filed its own lawsuit against the Township.

Astonishingly, the DOJ was dismissive of an apparent conflict of interest between Mohammad Ali Chaudry and the DOJ’s chief investigator, Caroline Sadlowski, both of whom were serving together on the Center for Religious and Cultural Conflicts board at Drew University.

So now it begins! Violence against Americans to get their way
it never changes time to stand up to them before it get worst just look at what is going on in Europe it tells it all!!!!
The watchman on the wall sounding the ALARM
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Claremont University Students Shut Down Conservative Speaker

Protesters at the Claremont Colleges successfully prevented conservative commentator Heather Mac Donald from speaking on their campus.

Students at the Claremont Colleges, a consortium of undergraduate and graduate liberal arts colleges in Claremont, California, blocked entrances to the building that Mac Donald was scheduled to speak in.

Mac Donald, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, a conservative think tank, was giving a speech titled “The War on Police,” a reference to her 2016 book about how political rhetoric against police makes America less safe.


Mac Donald was forced to livestream her speech after protesters blocked students and professors from entering the building.

According to the school’s newspaper, The Forum, 250 students watched Mac Donald speak. Students had to submit questions via email.

“Among other chants, protesters yelled ‘Black Lives Matter’ and ‘How do you spell fascism? CMC!’ while banging on windows of the [Athenaeum],” according to The Forum.

Mac Donald was a guest of the Rose Institute of State and Local Government, a research institute on the campus of Claremont McKenna College, a member of the Claremont Consortium.

Peter Uvin, vice president of academic affairs for Claremont McKenna College, said in an email to students after the incident: “I fully understand that people have strong opinions and different—often painful—experiences with the issues Heather Mac Donald discusses. I also understand that words can hurt.”

Uvin went on to condemn the students’ behavior, saying, “What we face here is not an attempt to demonstrate, or to ask tough questions of our speaker, all of which are both protected and cherished on this campus, but rather to make it impossible for her to speak, for you to listen, and for all of us to debate. This we could not accept.”

Many conservative speakers have been protested on college campuses in recent months.

In March, students protested Charles Murray, a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, while he was giving a speech at Middlebury College. Milo Yiannopoulos, a former editor at Breitbart, was also violently protested when he attempted to speak at Berkeley this past February.

Murray was able to give his speech, talking over screaming demonstrators, while Yiannopoulos was forced to cancel his speech and leave campus, thanks to a police escort.

Mary Clare Reim, an education policy analyst at The Heritage Foundation, cited a pattern, telling The Daily Signal in an email:

We can now add Heather Mac Donald to the long list of experts whose voices have been shut down on college campuses. From Middlebury to Berkeley, college students and administrators continue to treat conservative viewpoints with hostility and sometimes violence.

Reim went on to encourage institutions to re-evaluate their purpose, writing, “Universities have an obligation to protect First Amendment rights on campus. Unfortunately, recent events suggest that many universities no longer take that obligation seriously.” (For more from the author of “Claremont University Students Shut Down Conservative Speaker” please click HERE) http://joemiller.us/2017/04/claremont-university-students-shut-conservative-speaker/

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After Missile Attack, the Challenges Facing Trump in Syria

After President Donald Trump was mostly cheered by the international community for his missile strikes targeted at the Syrian government, he must now grapple with how to pair his first use of decisive military force with a strategy to contest a six-year-old war that has challenged the world.

U.S. officials described Trump’s sudden decision to launch 59 Tomahawk cruise missiles against a Syrian air base as a targeted retaliation on the source of a suspected deadly attack on civilians that occurred two days before—and a symbolic show of American power.

But foreign policy experts say that Trump, by inserting himself squarely into a complex battlefield, will have to deal with the aftermath, and decide how he wants to handle the dual challenges of fighting ISIS, and responding to Syria’s dictator leader Bashar al-Assad, whose brutality many blame for inflaming terrorism in the region.


“Last night’s strikes were an act of war. We need to be clear about that,” said Jonathan Schanzer, a scholar in Middle Eastern studies and vice president at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, in an interview with The Daily Signal. “The intent here and messaging has been, this was a contained, commensurate response and that’s where this ends.”

“But the question is whether the Russians, Iranians, and Syrians continue to test America’s patience,” he added. “I don’t put it past that axis to continue the atrocities in Syria. The Syrian war certainly has now grabbed the attention of the president, so I wouldn’t rule out future strikes.”

‘Mobilize a Common Strategy’

During the campaign, Trump emphasized his focus in Syria would be on defeating ISIS, the terrorist group that maintains its base in that country, and in the early weeks of his administration, the White House articulated that facilitating the removal of Assad from power was not a priority.

Video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IAYZMBS0yH0

This week, Trump’s calculus seemed to change when the president said the chemical weapons attack had “crossed a lot of lines for me” and that his attitude toward “Syria and Assad has changed very much.”

H.R. McMaster, Trump’s national security adviser, said Thursday night that he hoped the U.S. strikes on the Syrian government’s infrastructure would “shift Assad’s calculus,” because this was the first time America had taken direct military action against the dictator’s regime.

President Barack Obama had feared being dragged deeper into a civil war that has killed nearly 400,000 people and displaced half the country. He refused to strike Assad’s government after a similar chemical weapons attack in 2013 despite issuing a “red line” that created expectations for military force.

Trump’s action, some experts say, could provide leverage against Assad that the previous administration never had.

“The cruise missile strike sends a strong signal that Assad cannot act with impunity and use chemical weapons,” said Jim Phillips, a Middle East expert at The Heritage Foundation. “It undermines his perceived power and is a powerful warning shot that will constrain his future options. It is crucial to follow up the strike with aggressive and focused diplomacy to mobilize allies behind a common strategy in Syria.”

Yet the the situation on the ground in Syria has changed dramatically since 2013, with Russian troops intermingled among Syrian forces as part of Moscow’s push to keep Assad in power.

“This strike comes four years from when we should have taken another strike in a similar way,” said Brian Katulis, a senior fellow for national security at the Center for American Progress, in an interview with The Daily Signal. “Now, there is more uncertainty and instability. You don’t want to escalate things and inadvertently kill Russian troops. The chances of retaliation or blowback today are much greater.”

Dealing With Russia

Next week, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson will meet with President Vladimir Putin of Russia, who, along with Iran and Hezbollah, the U.S.-declared Shia terrorist group, has propped up Assad’s government and provided military support to it.

“We have not really seen the affect of U.S. power on the Russian calculus for the last six years or longer,” Schanzer said. “The previous administration was very circumspect with applying power. The Russians took that as a green light to engage in destabilizing activities in Syria and Ukraine. Whether Trump’s new action has a deterrent effect will be interesting to see.”

Russia’s immediate reaction to Trump’s decision has been to not back down. Dmitry Peskov, a Putin spokesman, told reporters the Russian president “considers the American strikes against Syria an aggression against a sovereign government in violations of the norms of international law, and under a far-fetched pretext.”

The Russian government said it was pulling out of an agreement to minimize the risk of in-flight incidents between U.S. and Russian aircraft operating in Syria.

U.S. military officials later insisted Russia was continuing to comply with the agreement.

Russia’s early rhetoric concerns experts about the possibility of a direct military confrontation with Moscow, which has air defense systems in Syria that can shoot down U.S. aircraft. This could complicate the fight against ISIS, since the U.S.-led coalition until now has been conducting airstrikes mostly without interference from Russia and the Assad government.

“Trump’s decision to strike in Syria only improves the U.S. leverage against Assad and Russia to a limited extent,” said Michael O’Hanlon, director of research for the foreign policy program at the Brookings Institution, in an interview with The Daily Signal. “Russia will call our bluff. If we really want them to believe we will dramatically increase our military role in Syria, they know we aren’t serious. I don’t think that’s something Trump wants to do, and I wouldn’t advise it either. As much as I want the war to end, I am not sure I want to risk a U.S.-Russia conflict to do it.”

But James Jeffrey, a deputy national security adviser to President George W. Bush, predicts Russia will increasingly feel isolated because of Trump’s action. Peskov, the Putin spokesman, recently said Moscow’s support for Assad “is not unconditional” and Jeffrey says the international condemnation of the chemical attack could frustrate Russia enough to change its calculus.

“We amassed support from around world for these strikes,” Jeffrey told The Daily Signal in an interview. “That’s something the Russians have to consider. They want to isolate the U.S. and Western world, and that’s not something Russia has now. Putin is outgunned against the U.S. coalition, and isolated internationally. If Trump gives him some way out of Syria through a diplomatic process, why wouldn’t Putin take that?”

‘Has to Stop’

Still, the experts say the Trump administration should proceed cautiously in how aggressively it presses Assad, who remains determined and capable.

Phillips notes that Trump’s strikes only targeted one airfield, not Syria’s air force or chemical weapons capabilities, and he warns there is little the U.S. can do to stop Assad’s security forces from continuing the war, short of taking more military action.

“It would be a mistake to expand the military effort to include the goal of removing Assad,” Phillips said. “That would be a costly and risky mission creep that would entail military clashes with Russia and Iran. And it would bog down the U.S. military in an open-ended effort to stand up and stabilize a post-Assad government. Pressing Assad to step down as part of a political settlement should be a long-term diplomatic goal pursued through sanctions, but ISIS and al-Qaeda should remain the chief targets for U.S. military action in Syria.”

Max Abrahms, a terrorism expert at Northeastern University, is concerned that pushing for the removal of Assad could leave a power gap and make the country even more of a haven for Islamic extremists.

“I worry by weakening the Syrian government’s position, this will help to breathe new life into the al-Qaeda-allied rebels,” Abrahms told The Daily Signal in an interview. “I don’t think Trump wants to get involved into the domestic politics of this country. It will absolutely consume his presidency.”

Even if the Trump administration keeps its word about the limited intent of its missile attack, the experts agree the president has sent a political message that the U.S. can use to its advantage by demonstrating the use of force is on the table.

“This is not George W. Bush going to Iraq in 2003,” Jeffrey said. “There is no doubt in my mind Trump won’t use force to drive Assad out. But he can use military force as part of a diplomatic strategy to get an agreement between Assad and the Sunni majority of his population who he is trying to bomb out of existence. That has to stop and it started stopping yesterday.” (For more from thhttp://joemiller.us/2017/04/missile-attack-challenges-facing-trump-syria/e author of “After Missile Attack, the Challenges Facing Trump in Syria” please click HERE) http://joemiller.us/2017/04/missile-attack-challenges-facing-trump-syria/

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The US Missile Strike Against Syria: What You Need to Know

For the past five years, Syrian dictator Bashar Assad has been given a free pass to murder hundreds of thousands of his own people with impunity. During his tenure, former President Obama used strong language, even implementing a supposed “red-line,” to try and deter the genocidal Syrian leader from further action, but it didn’t work. Assad has continued to push the boundaries of the free world, utilizing weapons of mass destruction to continue his reign of terror over much of Syria. His massive chemical weapons bombardment on innocent women and children this week appears to be the straw that broke the camel’s back for President Trump.

In launching some 59 Tomahawk missiles at a Syrian regime air base Thursday night, President Trump made clear that the use of chemical weapons as an instrument of warfare would not be tolerated. Allowing for such a precedent to be established, one in which tyrants are allowed to use WMDs without consequences, threatens both the security of the American people and the global community.

The Tomahawks were launched from the USS Porter and USS Ross, which were situated in the Eastern Mediterranean at the time of the assault. The Pentagon made clear the missile raid was a “proportional response,” and not part of a larger engagement. The U.S. launch targeted Shayrat Airfield, which was reportedly used as a base for Syrian fighter jets and chemical weapons.

A Pentagon statement said that the strikes have “severely damaged or destroyed Syrian aircraft and support infrastructure and equipment, adding that the Tomahawks reduced Assad’s “ability to deliver chemical weapons.”

Moreover, the launch sent a signal to the Syrian dictator’s enablers — the Iranian regime and Russia under autocrat Vladimir Putin — that America would no longer “lead from behind” or take a back seat on global security issues.

President Trump’s strike against Assad was praised by American allies in Israel, the United Kingdom, Japan, Australia, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and others.

“Tonight, I ordered a targeted military strike on the air base in Syria from where the chemical attack was launched,” President Trump said from his Mar-a-Lago property in Palm Beach, Florida Thursday night. “It is in this vital national security interest of the United States to prevent and deter the spread and use of deadly chemical weapons.”

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson slammed Russia for failing “in its responsibility” to move chemical weapons out of the nation. “Either Russia has been complicit or Russia has been simply incompetent in its ability to deliver on its end,” Tillerson said of Russia’s failures.

Syrian state-media is claiming that the U.S. attack killed nine civilians, but provided no proof for its claims. “The United States of America committed a blatant act of aggression targeting one of the Syrian air bases in the Central Region with a number of missiles, leaving 6 people martyred and a number of others injured and causing huge material damage,” Syria’s government-run SANA news agency commented. (For more from the author of “The US Missile Strike Against Syria: What You Need to Know” please click HERE) http://joemiller.us/2017/04/us-missile-strike-syria-need-know/

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San Diego public school district will create ‘safe spaces’ for Muslims while forcing non-Muslim students to learn about Islam

( Muslims do not assimilate, they infiltrate! )

 In the San Diego Unified School District, public schools now will have to offer ‘safe spaces’ for Muslim snowflakes and indoctrinate all students with whitewashed (violence and hatred-free) lessons on Islam, provided by designated terrorist group CAIR.

Oh, lookie! CAIR has even gotten some liberal useful idiots to stand with “diversity” signs behind Muslims on the ground praying…oblivious to the fact that women and non-muslims are always relegated to the back when muslims are lifting their asses to allah

San Diego Union Tribune  CAIR (Council on American Islamic Relations) and the San Diego Unified School District collaborated on a “holistic” approach to anti-Muslim bullying that will likely be implemented this fall.

Administrators and teachers will have calendars showing Islamic holidays, students will learn more about the religion in social studies classes and safe spaces will be created on campuses for Muslim students as part of a multi-tiered approach to combat so-called “Islamophobia.”

Trustees on Tuesday voted 4-0, with board member Michael McQuary absent, to approve a plan to confront Islamophobia and bullying against Muslim students.

One of the first steps in the plan will be to distribute letters to staff members and parents addressing Islamophobia and identifying resources to learn about the religion and fight discrimination.  

District calendars will be reviewed to ensure Islam holidays are recognized, which Anjan said is important so schools will schedule campus events that also can be attended by Muslim families.

Schools also will review and vet materials related to Muslim culture and history in media centers and provide resources and material for teachers. Anjan said social studies lessons may include more information on prominent Muslims and their impact on history and other steps to promote a more ‘positive’ image of Islam.

You mean images like this?

Last July, the board directed the district staff to work with CAIR in developing a plan to address the issue.

Looking back to November 2015, Superintendent Cindy Marten said Tuesday that the issue of Islamophobia is even more important today. The district doesn’t have data on how many students are Muslim, but Anjan’s report to the board Tuesday included a breakdown of incidents of bullying for various reasons from July 1 to Dec. 31, 2016.

Counselors and teachers in schools and colleges throughout the county have said Muslim students are feeling anxious these days, but Anjan said he’s also seen more students wanting to work to create more peaceful campuses.

Trustee John Lee Evans said the issue of Islamophobia and bullying against Muslim is greater today than when the board first called for a plan to address the issue. “Now we have on a national stage where people openly discuss hatred and discrimination against various groups,” he said. We really need to redouble our efforts at a time like this.”

Tuesday’s meeting was attended by about 150 members of San Diego’s Muslim community, including Hanif Mohebia, executive director of the San Diego office of CAIR, who called the Tuesday night vote an important first step.

“If we do this right, San Diego Unified School District would be the leading school district in the nation to come up with a robust and beautiful anti-bully and anti-Islamophobic program,” he said. “I’m really happy we’re going toward the right direction. I am excited, but also careful and cautious because the work ahead is something we will all be responsible for.”

Video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7UBfpphaT3Y

Bear Naked Islam

To read more http://www.barenakedislam.com/

The watchman on the wall sounding the ALARM

 

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