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Ruth King

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Would You Like Some Strife With Your Meal? Portland, Ore., was a foodie paradise. Then the social-justice warriors ruined it. By Andy Ngo

By on June 1st, 2018

https://www.wsj.com/articles/would-you-like-some-strife-with-your-meal-1527807733

My hometown became a foodie paradise starting a decade or so ago, when I lived in California. At first it was beautiful. With each visit home, I noticed new food carts selling everything from Korean tacos and Thai-Hainanese chicken and rice to Texas-style pulled pork. Later came breweries, exotic doughnut shops and haute-hipster ice-cream parlors.

But these days politics is ruining the scene. One of the first victims, Sally Krantz, in 2016 opened a bistro, Saffron Colonial, featuring historical recipes from the British Empire. Furious social-justice warriors accused her of racism and glorifying colonialism. Mobs gathered outside the establishment, and detractors swamped its Yelp page with negative reviews and insults. Suppliers boycotted her. Eventually Ms. Krantz gave in and changed the name to British Overseas Restaurant Corporation.

Blood was in the water. In the spring of 2017, Kali Wilgus and Liz Connelly were accused of “stealing” Mexican culture—by selling burritos from a truck. They received death threats and shut down their business and their social-media presence.

Then an anonymous Google spreadsheet began circulating warning about restaurants that served ethnic cuisine: “These white-owned businesses hamper the ability for POC”—people of color—“to run successful businesses of their own . . . by either consuming market share with their attempt at authenticity or by modifying foods to market to white palates.”

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POLITICS Comments turned off

“That Is What Power Looks Like”: As Trump Prepares for 2020, Democrats Are Losing the Only Fight That Matters by Peter Hamby…see note please

By on June 1st, 2018

From an uber liberal magazine…this is very instructive because it shows the Dems in breast beating panic mode…rsk

https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2018/05/democrats-are-losing-the-only-fight-that-matters
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2018/05/democrats-are-losing-the-only-fight-that-matters

Even in an era of historic media fragmentation, Donald Trump dominates our attention universe to the point where he blocks out the sun. Is it any wonder that people don’t have any idea what Democrats stand for?

On the same day this week that President Donald Trump was tweeting about the F.B.I.’s fictional #SPYGATE “scandal” and the special counsel’s “WITCH HUNT” into the Trump campaign’s relationship with Russia—lies that were splashed across the country’s television and mobile screens in short order—Senate Democrats held a photo-op at the most expensive Exxon station on Capitol Hill. Chuck Schumer, the Senate minority leader, was joined by three other suit-wearing Democrats to make the case that Trump’s decision to pull out of the Iran nuclear deal would drive up gas prices. It was a definitional middle-class “pocketbook” argument, one that Democrats hope to make part of their 2018 economic message. Schumer, waving a sheaf of paper, stood behind a sign that proclaimed, rather impotently, “Senate Democrats Demand Lower Gas Prices.”

“Senate Democrats look for traction on gas prices,” was the headline of The Hill’s perfunctory write-up of the event. Did you hear anything about it? Most likely you didn’t. Traction, in the Trump era, is a mighty difficult thing to obtain.This is always true for the party out of power, forced to reckon with its ideological cleavages, personality conflicts, and the lack of a singular leader who can compete head-to-head with the bully pulpit of a president. But Trump, our first celebrity president, has made the challenge even more difficult for his foes. We are supposed to be living in a time of historic media fragmentation, when the competition for fickle eyeballs is the chief priority for businesses, media companies, and politicians. Only Trump, an old-school media hound who still cares about things like magazine covers and leathery-faced, 90s-era TV personalities, has figured it out. He dominates our attention universe to the point where he blocks out the sun. It is as depressing as it is remarkable. And it’s no wonder people don’t quite know what Democrats stand for.We inhabit a world of niche interests and platforms and distractions, where everyone is supposedly paying attention to their own thing. Unlike the mass-audience days of I Love Lucy—a show that commanded a remarkable 71 percent of television eyeballs in 1953—today you can happily silo yourself from signals that you don’t care about. Our attention spans are shrinking. Axios reported this week that more than 70 percent of the American population regularly uses another digital device while watching TV. It’s incredibly hard to seize attention in 2018; there’s too much to read and watch, too much to look at. CONTINUE AT SITE

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WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

EDWARD CLINE: THE ISLAMIC PRIME DIRECTIVE

By on June 1st, 2018

One of the plot devices of the Star Trek series is that the captain and crew of the Enterprise, if they encounter a backward society, they must not “interfere” and preserve the society’s “natural” progress to civilization, or the state in which the Enterprise has reached. This is called “The Prime Directive.” It is akin to the “prime directive” of the U.K., by which citizens can be punished for “derogating” or “defaming,” Islam. Tommy Robinson and many other British citizens have been so punished. It is a Kantian moral imperative.

What has this to do with Tommy Robinson? Well, he violated Theresa May’s Prime Directive: Thou shall not call Muslim rapists and groomers scum. Or cast aspersions on their character.

I left this comment on Gatestone and many other sites.

I’ve yet to see anyone touch on the subject of Bills of Attainder, a subject I raise in my column “Magna Carta in the Dustbin.” A bill of attainder allows the authorities to snatch anyone off the street or from his home to be tried, convicted, and imprisoned in secret (with or without a politician’s or legislature’s endorsement). I have seen nothing about it in any blogsite commentary about such a bill. It isn’t rocket science. Two clauses in the MC specifically do not grant the government, or King John, the power of a bill of attainder, Nos. 38 and 39, publicly or otherwise.

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ISRAEL Comments turned off

The Danger to Jordan of a Palestinian State By Abe Haak

By on June 1st, 2018

The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan stands to lose more than any other party from the establishment of a State of Palestine. While the potential dangers and complications for Israel of such a state could be significant, Jordan would face threats to both its social stability and its foundational idea: that it governs the Arab population on both banks of its eponymous river. In addition to the substantial political and security difficulties such a state would create for Jordan, it could also jeopardize its continued viability by shifting the locus of political leadership for a majority of Jordanians away from Amman and towards Ramallah.

It is becoming increasingly clear that Palestinian statehood is a moribund idea. Despite official pronouncements, none of the principal parties seem very keen on achieving it, least of all the PA.

However, if, through some unilateral action, a State of Palestine were to be declared in the territory comprising Areas A & B, the repercussions (mostly negative) would affect the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan more than any other party, including Israel.

The dangers to the Kingdom would manifest themselves on three levels: the political threat, the security threat, and the existential threat.

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WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

UK “Justice”: “Silencing the Silencing” by Bruce Bawer

By on June 1st, 2018

The charge against Robinson declared by the police at the time of arrest, “breach of peace,” was changed to “contempt of court.” Apparently, the former offense would not constitute a violation of the terms of Robinson’s suspended sentence from last year and thereby justify immediate imprisonment. But by declaring Robinson guilty of “contempt of court,” the judge was able to ship him straightaway to prison.

In fact, it is clear to people all over Britain what is really going on here. Their country is being steadily Islamized, and their government is abetting this process. Muslims commit outrageous crimes, and police treat them respectfully — then turn around and arrest ordinary British citizens for daring to complain.

“Judicial power never been used before to silence a journalist in Britain and then to silence the silencing…. This lie came directly from Theresa May’s government…. and it was planned to the last detail. A courtroom and a judge were waiting to immediately sentence him. A prison cell was booked in his name…. This combined is the action of a totalitarian state, in all its brutal horror.” — Paul Weston, Pegida UK.

First the good news: on Wednesday, at about noon London time, Tommy Robinson’s former lawyer, Helen Gower, reported on Twitter that “Tommy has just rung me and is well.” He had been receiving e-mails of support and was humbled by them. “He did inform me of some of the things that happened on Friday,” Gower wrote, “but I don’t want to put anything out and I will leave that to his Solicitor.”

Well, there it stands: the media gag order on the Tommy Robinson case has been lifted, but Robinson himself remains in Hull Prison, having been arrested on the street in Leeds, hauled into a kangaroo court, and then sent off to jail. Incidentally, in a YouTube video, Canadian activist Lauren Southern and a member of Robinson’s team have provided a plausible explanation of why the charge against Robinson declared by the police at the time of arrest, “breach of peace,” was changed to “contempt of court.” Apparently, the former offense would not constitute a violation of the terms of Robinson’s suspended sentence from last year and thereby justify immediate imprisonment. But by declaring Robinson guilty of “contempt of court,” the judge was able to ship him straightaway to prison.

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ANTI-SEMITISM Comments turned off

NO POSTINGS TODAY

By on May 31st, 2018

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MEDIA Comments turned off

Bay of Pics Media fakery targets Trump with photos of Obama-era child trafficking. Lloyd Billingsley

By on May 30th, 2018

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/270299/bay-pics-lloyd-billingsley

Over the Memorial Day weekend, photos of Central American children at a U.S. holding facility began to appear online. Democrats and their media allies quickly hailed the pics as the latest exhibit of anti-Trump hysteria.

“Look at these photos,” Linda Sarsour tweeted.

“Speechless,” tweeted Antonio Villaraigosa, former Los Angeles mayor and candidate for governor of California. “This is not who we are as a nation.”

“All of these photos are disturbing, but the first two are especially awful,” tweeted New York Times Magazine editor-in-chief Jake Silverstein, linking to headline hailing “First glimpse of immigrant children at holding facility.” And so on.

For the breathless tweeters, the photos were prima facie evidence that, as CNN’s April Ryan wondered, “is the Trump administration involved in a child sex-trafficking ring?”

Antonio Arellano, who claims to work for ABC in Houston, circulated a story about an ICE detention center in Texas with “a prison bus just for babies.” CNN’s Ana Navarro responded, “America, this cannot be who we are” and those who picked up Arrellano’s story included Kasie Hunt of NBC, Sharon Waxman of TheWrap, actor Alyssa Milano, and POTUS 44 staffer Michael Simon and Democrat Party strategist Zac Petkanas.

Trouble was, the story was from 2014, long before the Trump administration. Likewise, As Saagar Enjeti noted in the Daily Caller, the detention center photos “stem from a 2014 Arizona Central story showing migrant children in steel cages. The cages were implemented at the height of the Central American migrant crisis under the Obama administration.”

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ISRAEL Comments turned off

Golan Heights Recognition Thwarted By The Swamp A move that would send a clear message to Iran. Ari Lieberman

By on May 30th, 2018

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/270300/golan-heights-recognition-thwarted-swamp-ari-lieberman

Last week, House Foreign Affairs Committee Member, Congressman Ron DeSantis (R.,-Fla.), proposed an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act recognizing the Golan Heights as an integral part of Israel thereby validating Israel’s 1981 annexation of the territory. Though non-binding, the declarative resolution, which would have likely passed if brought to the House floor for a full vote, would have sent a strong message to the world, but chiefly Israel’s enemies, that after eight years of relentless hostility from the previous American administration, the US-Israel alliance is back on track and stronger than ever.

But for inexplicable reasons, the amendment didn’t pass muster with the House Rules Committee and consequently, never made it do the House floor for a full up or down vote. Sources close to the matter stated that the White House put pressure on Speaker Paul Ryan to kill the resolution and render it dead on arrival. The White House for its part denied playing any role in the shelving of the resolution claiming to have only recently become aware of its existence. When contacted by the Washington Free Beacon for comment on the matter, Speaker Ryan’s office remained uncharacteristically mute.

On the heels of President Donald Trump’s historic decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital city and transfer the United States embassy there in compliance with U.S. law, a congressional resolution recognizing Israeli sovereignty over the Golan would have represented a powerful one-two combination. It would have signaled an end to past anachronistic foreign policies dictated by the swamp.

Up until June 1967, the Golan Heights, a rocky volcanic plateau overlooking Galilee, served as a platform for Syrian artillery strikes against Israeli Galilean villages and collectives. It is roughly 45 miles long and 17 miles wide at its widest point. From 1948 until 1967, Syrian artillery harried and harassed Israeli farmers tilling their fields and fishermen tending to their business in the Sea of Galilee, also known as the Kinneret. In addition to artillery strikes, the Syrians also tried to divert the Golan’s waters from flowing into the Jordan River in an effort to deprive Israel of water resources. In sum, rather than using the Golan for productive purposes, the Syrians used the plateau to rain death and destruction and make life for Israelis miserable.

On June 5th 1967, Israel, rather than waiting for its enemies to hit first, acted resolutely and launched a preemptive strike against its belligerent Arab neighbors. While Israel was engaged in battling Egyptians to the south and Jordanians to the east, Syria decided to take advantage of the situation to indiscriminately shell Israeli towns, villages and farming collectives in Galilee.

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ISRAEL, WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Palestinian “Treason” by Bassam Tawil

By on May 30th, 2018

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/12392/palestinian-treason

Ahmed Majdalani is now being accused by his own people of promoting “normalization” between Palestinians and Israel.

It is worth noting that those who took the decision to ban the PLO official Majdalani from entering Palestinian universities are living under the “moderate” Palestinian Authority in the West Bank, not under Hamas rule.

This is the same Palestinian Authority that receives funds from the US and EU. In other words, Americans and Europeans are funding Palestinians who are opposed to any form of “normalization” with Israel. If a PLO official’s visit to a conference in Israel is labelled treason, what would happen to a Palestinian who signed a peace agreement with Israel?

The Palestinians’ problem is not with a settlement or a checkpoint or a fence. They have a problem with the existence of Israel in any borders. Palestinians have still not come to terms with Israel’s right to exist, period; this is the essence of the Israeli-Arab conflict. They see Israel as one big settlement that needs to be ripped out.

Palestinian leaders have spent the past few months calling for boycotts of Israel and the US. The most recent call came just a few weeks ago, when Palestinian Authority leaders and officials called on all countries to boycott the inauguration ceremony of the US embassy in Jerusalem.

One of the officials who called for boycotting the ceremony was Ahmed Majdalani, a member of the PLO Executive Committee, and a top advisor to President Mahmoud Abbas. Majdalani is also famous for his repeated calls in the past few years for boycotting Israel in all fields.

Now, it seems that Majdalani is being forced to taste the same medicine he has been prescribing for Israel and the US. His efforts to promote boycotts of Israel and the US have backfired. Ironically, the boycotter Majdalani is now being boycotted by his own people. This is what happens when all you preach to your people day and night is hatred, incitement and boycotts. Eventually, you yourself become affected by the same messages of hate and brainwashing.

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HOMELAND SECURITY, MEDIA Comments turned off

Is Facebook Violating U.S. Counterterrorism Laws? by Ruthie Blum

By on May 30th, 2018

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/12294/facebook-terrorism

Nearly a year has passed since the establishment of the Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism, announced by Facebook, Microsoft, Twitter and YouTube, but groups such as Hezbollah and Hamas — among the 64 organizations currently designated by the State Department as Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTOs) — still have Facebook pages, Twitter accounts and YouTube videos.

The more important question, then, is whether Facebook, Twitter and other social media platforms are providing “material support or resources” — in the form of a “tangible or intangible” property or service — to FTOs and Specially Designated Global Terrorists. The Counter Extremism Project appears to think that the answer is yes.

“[G]iven the volume of content uploaded to Facebook by the platform’s estimated 2.2. billion active users on a daily basis, the one percent of terrorist content that is not removed is a significant amount that needs to be addressed.” — Counter Extremism Project Executive Director David Ibsen.

During his Congressional hearings in April, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg was interrogated by members of the House and Senate. Because it was evident from their questions that many of the lawmakers were actually clueless about how Facebook works, much time was wasted on Zuckerberg’s having to explain the basics of its tools and business model. A select few – among them Senator Ted Cruz — challenged Zuckerberg about the political slant of his platform, which has led to discrimination against conservative groups and individuals.

Zuckerberg acknowledged that:

“…Facebook and the tech industry are located in Silicon Valley, which is an extremely left-leaning place. And this is actually a concern that I have and that I try to root out in the company is making sure that we don’t have any bias in the work that we do, and I think it is a fair concern that people would at least wonder about.”

When asked about what Facebook is doing to prevent terrorists from using the platform to recruit and coordinate, Zuckerberg said that 200 of his (25,000) employees monitor such content and activity in 30 languages.

The question that Zuckerberg should have been asked is why organizations and individuals that are designated by the State Department as terrorists are able to open pages on his platform in the first place, let alone continue to maintain those pages, or block their content temporarily, before allowing it to be re-posted. It would have been a particularly relevant query, given the launch in July 2017 of the Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism, announced by Facebook, Microsoft, Twitter and YouTube. The stated goal of the Forum was to:

“help us continue to make our hosted consumer services hostile to terrorists and violent extremists.

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