Displaying posts published in

February 2019

Turkey: The Case of the Missing Priests by Uzay Bulut

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/13800/turkey-missing-priests

“Prior to the kidnapping, the bishops were on their way to Aleppo to secure the release of two other abducted priests…. When Paolo Dall’Oglio, an Italian Jesuit priest, went to Raqqa to secure their release, he too was kidnapped, and is still missing. I believe he was murdered.” — Erkan Metin, an Istanbul-based Assyrian human-rights lawyer.

Metin noted that the Assyrian and other Christian peoples indigenous to the region are still awaiting justice for the kidnapped priests and other Christian victims of persecution in Syria.

“Unlike Turkey, which has failed to investigate the crimes committed against the clergymen, there is an ongoing investigation in the U.S. on their kidnappings and another is being conducted by Russia… and the U.N. is investigating the financing of terrorism in Syria.” — Erkan Metin, an Istanbul-based Assyrian human-rights lawyer.

It has been six years since two archbishops and other members of the Christian clergy went missing in Syria; their whereabouts still are unknown. Yohanna Ibrahim, head of the Syriac Orthodox Church of Aleppo, and Boulos Yazigi, head of the Greek Orthodox Church, also in Aleppo, were abducted from their car in 2013. Their driver was later found killed.

Must We Really Be Careful What We Do Lest We Offend Extremists? by Douglas Murray

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/13803/offend-extremists

What is striking and controversial are the repeated interventions into the debate made by the government’s own ‘extremism commissioner’, Sara Khan. Over recent years Khan has been a hugely admirable figure. The founder and leader of the women’s group ‘Inspire’, Khan has shown a generation of British people – including, most importantly, young Muslim women – that it is possible to be resilient against the fanatics in their faith and also to argue for the rights of women. She has been an unarguable force for good, and has had to withstand appalling pressure from Islamist groups in the UK.

“It is, I think, completely misconceived to suggest that we should change our foreign policy because it might cause some people to take up arms against us. That’s a form of blackmail….” — Michael Howard, former Conservative party leader

In 2006 a small group of peers, MPs and Islamist groups sent an open letter to the then-Labour government. The signatories included the subsequently jailed Lord Ahmed of Rotherham, the subsequently disgraced (over expenses fraud) Baroness Uddin and the then-MP, now Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan. This letter suggested to the UK government of the day that British foreign policy “risks putting civilians at increased risk both in the UK and abroad.” This is a commonly heard argument of course, and is especially commonly heard from various extremist groups.

Britain, in recent days, has had a rare distraction from its seemingly endless Brexit debate. The distraction, however, has not been an altogether welcome one. It involves the case of Shamima Begum, one of a number of girls who left their school in Bethnal Green in London in 2015 to go and join ISIS.

The Proud Queen of Identity Politics Kamala Harris says it’s vital that we hate the proper villains. John Perazzo

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/272992/proud-queen-identity-politics-john-perazzo

During the MSNBC program AM Joy this past Sunday, host Joy Reid asked Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris if, during her campaign, it would “be difficult … to advocate race-based policy” without becoming vulnerable to the charge that she was engaging in identity politics. In her response, Harris said:

“I want to talk about the issue of identity politics, Joy. This term identity politics, people will use that term — it’s like people used to talk about the race card. They bring this term up when you talk about issues that are about race, about sexual orientation, about religion. They’ll bring it up when we are talking about civil rights issues as a way to marginalize the issue, as a way to frankly try to silence you or shut you up. We need to call it what it is, which is to try and divert away from a conversation that needs to happen in America. Why? One, because we must speak truth. Racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, anti-Semitism are all real in this country, so we need to have that conversation and address it. Two, and this is equally important, how America deals with the issues and the disparities, and also the hate that can be — that causes these issues to become lethal in proportion — how America deals with these issues is a matter of American identity. This is not about identity politics, and if it is, it’s about the identity of the United States of America. How we handle the issues will be about our collective identity.”

If we distill Harris’s meandering reply down to its essence, she is saying that there is nothing whatsoever wrong with identity politics, because identity politics is ultimately a vehicle for helping more Americans understand that the very “identity of the United States of America” has always been — and continues to be — thoroughly infested with the ineradicable sins of “racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, [and] anti-Semitism.”

Radical #RedForEd Gears Up To Take on Trump in 2020 Egged on by an actual Red, the fledgling movement is developing into a threat to Republicans. Matthew Vadum

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/272986/radical-redfored-gears-take-trump-2020-matthew-vadum

A 24-year-old Marxist schoolteacher in Arizona has become the public face of a new political movement launched last year that is organizing to defeat President Trump in 2020 and reclaim the U.S. Senate for Democrats.

The teacher’s name is Noah Karvelis and the movement is called #RedForEd, Michael Patrick Leahy reports at Breitbart News.

Karvelis, a Bernie Sanders donor and campaign volunteer, is one leader in a new wave of radical teacher activists.

How radical is he?

Karvelis gave a speech to the Socialism 2018 conference held in Chicago in July 2018. The confab was put on by a Trotskyist group called the International Socialist Organization.

“We’ve created an organization now. We have a network of 2,000 leaders who are experienced. They’ve been out on a job action. They’ve organized their campuses. They’ve collected signatures for a ballot initiative,” Karvelis told 1,800 socialists from across the fruited plain.

“We’ve built a new political power in Arizona and it’s taking control right now of the future of the state,” Karvelis said.

Is she running? Hillary and Bernie now attacking each otherBy J. Marsolo

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2019/02/is_she_running_hillary_and_bernie_now_attacking_each_other.html

What is more entertaining and revealing than a fight between Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton over money and the use of private jets? Even better, both will likely run for the 2020 Democratic nomination for president for the chance to be beaten by President Trump.

Bernie Sanders, the socialist who like private jets, and Hillary Clinton, the pretend socialist who is a multi-millionaire, are arguing over Bernie’s use of a private Gulfstream jet that cost Hillary over $100,000 during the 2016 campaign. Hillary is upset about the cost of Bernie’s travels even though Bernie was using the private jet to campaign for Hillary.

Hillary spokesperson Zac Petkanas, in full Hillary mode, said:

I’m not shocked that while thousands of volunteers braved the heat and cold to knock on doors until their fingers bled in a desperate effort to stop Donald Trump, his Royal Majesty King Bernie Sanders would only deign to leave his plush D.C. office or his brand new second home on the lake if he was flown around on a cushy private jet like a billionaire master of the universe.

Kamala Harris Calls Trump Racist By Mairead McArdle

https://www.nationalreview.com/news/kamala-harris-calls-trump-racist/

Senator Kamala Harris, one of the top contenders for the Democratic nomination for president, called President Trump a racist in an interview published Tuesday.

“When you talk about him calling African countries sh**hole countries. When you talk about him referring to immigrants as rapists and murderers, I don’t think you can reach any other conclusion,” the California senator told The Root.

Trump reportedly complained about the U.S. accepting immigrants from “s***hole countries,” like Haiti, El Salvador, and African countries in a meeting with lawmakers a year ago. The president later issued a denial, saying he had been “tough, but this was not the language used” in the meeting.

Harris also referenced Trump’s comments on the deadly 2017 violence in Charlottesville, Va., where a white supremacist purposefully drove a car into a crowd of people, killing a woman, amid clashes between white-nationalist activists and counter-protesters.

“I think there is blame on both sides,” Trump said at the time. “What about the ‘alt-left’ that came charging at, as you say, the ‘alt-right.’ Do they have any semblance of guilt?”

The president later condemned the white supremacists and said the driver of the car was a “murderer and what he did was a horrible, horrible, inexcusable thing.”

Trump has frequently been panned for comments seen as discriminatory toward immigrants, especially those from Latin American countries, as well.

“I do, yes. Yes,” Harris, who is Indian and Jamaican, responded when pressed afterwards on whether she would “definitely agree that he’s a racist.”

Anti-Zionism Is Koranic Jew-Hatred: Sunni Islam’s Pope Has Proudly Affirmed This Andrew Bostom

https://pjmedia.com/trending/anti-zionism-is-koranic-jew-hatred-sunni-islams-pope-has-proudly-affirmed-this/

Perusing the Conservative Political Action Committee (CPAC) conference schedule for this week, I noticed a session entitled, “Why Anti-Zionism is a Form of Anti-Semitism and a Threat to National Security.” Unfortunately, this rather glaring truth remains obfuscated by many as a socially and politically acceptable form of Jew-hatred, hence the panel.

Ironically, purveyor of the most virulent and widespread global Jew-hatred—authoritative, institutional Islam—is quite candid that Zionists/Zionism, are to be equated with Jews/Judaism. None other than the Papal equivalent of Sunni Islam’s Vatican, Ahmed al-Tayeb, Grand Imam of Al-Azhar University, has made these connections explicit, and moreover, rooted in the Koran’s central verse defining “Muslim-Jewish relations.”

During an interview which aired on Channel 1, Egyptian TV, October 25, 2013, al-Tayeb publicly reiterated Islam’s sacralized, Jew-hating bigotry, with deliberate and equal reference of Zionists/Zionism, and Jews/Judaism, to Koran 5:82. He gave a brief analysis of the ongoing relevance of Koran 5:82, which as the good Grand Imam put it, “explains Muslims’ relations with Jews,” and has been invoked—successfully—to inspire Muslim hatred of Jews since the advent of Islam.

A verse in the Koran explains the Muslims relations with Jews…This is an historical perspective, which has not changed to this day. See how we suffer today from global Zionism and Judaism…Since the inception of Islam 1400 years ago, we have been suffering from Jews and Zionistinterference in Muslim affairs. This is a cause of great distress for the Muslims. The Koran said it, and history has proven it: “You shall find the strongest among men in enmity to the believers {Muslims] to be the Jews…”

14 Recent Anti-Trump Hate Crimes That the Media Ignored By Matt Margolis

https://pjmedia.com/trending/14-recent-anti-trump-hate-crimes-that-the-media-have-ignored/

In the wake of the Jussie Smollett hate crime hoax, there’s been a lot of discussion in the media about hate crimes. As the truth about what happened became impossible for the media to deny, the message shifted from “this is America under Trump” to “even though this was fake, don’t forget hate crimes are on the rise under Trump.” Keep in mind, when Obama was elected, the media alleged that hate crimes rose because of that, too.

What the media is trying desperately to hide from us is another form of hate crime—those motivated by political prejudice. Jussie Smollett’s hate crime hoax got enormous attention, not just because of Smollett’s celebrity status, but because it fit the narrative: gay black man assaulted by Trump supporters.

Below is a selection of recent examples of anti-Trump hate crimes that the media barely covered. But make no mistake, there are many more examples of anti-Trump /anti-conservative prejudice not covered in this list, such as incidents of vandalism, refusal of service, etc. The important thing to realize here is that these aren’t simply a bunch of isolated incidents. The left has become so consumed with hatred that they will attack anyone who supports Trump, be it children or the elderly, and often without provocation.

Ocasio-Cortez Is an All-American Socialist She’s gone from bartender to international political star in a year. Land of opportunity, indeed! By Grace-Marie Turner

https://www.wsj.com/articles/ocasio-cortez-is-an-all-american-socialist-11551225829

As much as conservatives are aghast at the over-the-top collectivist ideas of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, we cannot ignore the oversize intrigue with this young woman, who has gained instant influence and celebrity. Perhaps it is because people see her as so all-American.

We are fascinated by her personal success—the way she transformed herself almost instantly from a bartender to an international political star. Yes, this self-identified Democratic Socialist is ignorant of the ways of government. She thought she would be headed to Washington in January to get “inaugurated” and that she’d “start signing” bills immediately, in a Congress with three chambers. And her policy proposals are outrageously unrealistic and expensive—$100 trillion at least—and would destroy our economy.

Yet many people see the 29-year-old Ms. Ocasio-Cortez and think: If she can do this, so could I. She doesn’t come from a rich and powerful family. Her degree is from Boston University, not the Ivy League. Her Puerto Rican heritage and Bronx constituency convey cultural diversity.

Standing with the Venezuelan Revolution Shoshana Bryen

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2019/feb/25/standi

The Russian- and Cuban-supported Maduro regime is getting bolder in attempts to crush the people of Venezuela — now working blocking aid coming across the border to the starving citizens and shooting at the truck drivers.Some of that aid is American, to the irritation of Sen. Bernie Sanders, who doesn’t believe in revolution to remove a socialist. Agreeing that Nicolas Maduro is not a nice man, Mr. Sanders called for a “free and fair election” instead. “That is a decision of the Venezuelan people.”Actually, revolution appears to be the decision of the people — and support for the revolution is the appropriate American position.

The Monroe Doctrine defined America’s interests in the hemisphere, including recognizing and not interfering with existing colonies in the Western Hemisphere but closing the hemisphere to future colonization. And laying down the marker that any attempt to oppress or control any nation in the hemisphere would be viewed as a hostile act against the United States. The doctrine lived 190 years, mostly for better and sometimes for worse, until 2013 when Secretary of State John Kerry announced, “The era of the Monroe Doctrine is over.”But power permits no vacuum. Venezuela is what happens when the United States withdraws and others — in this case Russia, Cuba and Iran — enter to stake their claims.