IMMIGRATION Comments turned off

The Wall: Moral and Good Srdja Trifkovic 

Posted By on March 19th, 2019

https://www.chroniclesmagazine.org/2019/April/44/4/magazine/article/10846300/

President Donald Trump’s predecessors have circumvented Congress before on issues the legislative branch had tried to stop.  They have redirected resources appropriated by lawmakers.  They have resorted to the same National Emergencies Act that Trump is invoking in order to build the Wall along the country’s southern border.  None of their actions triggered a reaction as immediate and as virulent, however, as Trump’s announcement on February 15.

The declaration was immediately attacked by Democrats and in the media as an abuse of presidential power that violated both the Constitution and the authority of Congress, a cynical move not warranted by events.  On February 22 House Democrats introduced a joint resolution, just one page long, which declares that the national emergency “is hereby terminated.”  Even if four Republicans subsequently support the resolution in the Senate, Trump will kill it with his first veto.

The courts present a more serious challenge.  Trump acknowledged that the administration expected to be sued, that it was prepared for “a bad ruling . . . and then we’ll end up in the Supreme Court.”  Indeed, by the last week of February his decision had already drawn five lawsuits, including one from a coalition of 16 Democratic states led by California and another from the Sierra Club and ACLU.  All of them made the same key points: There is no real border emergency, immigrants are not disproportionately responsible for crime, and no barrier will stop the influx of drugs.  Regardless of the reality of an emergency, they claim that Congress, not the President, should decide how to spend federal dollars.
 

ENVIRONMENT AND JUNK SCIENCE Comments turned off

This Opinion Just In… Baby It’s Cold Outside Deroy Murdock

Posted By on March 19th, 2019

https://spectator.org/this-opinion-just-in-baby-its-cold-outside/

New York

I might be slightly less hostile to the Green New Deal, had I not walked home the other Sunday in a hail storm. Even before the BB-sized bits of ice came shooting down from the heavens that morning, this winter has been brutal, from Gotham to the Golden Gate.

Our Lady of Perpetual Limelight, Saint Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, demands that America battle so-called “deadly, manmade global warming” as if it were Nazi Germany. Ten-year cost: $93 trillion. But this supposed threat somehow seems less menacing than Adolf Hitler and the Wehrmacht.

Any given winter does not equal “climate.” Still, if mounting concentrations of carbon dioxide are the broth in which we homo sapiens are poaching ourselves like so many salmon cutlets, then we should not be enduring the entirely contrary scenarios that have unfolded so vividly from coast to coast:

• A “bomb cyclone” last week slammed the Rockies and Midwest with hurricane-speed winds and abundant snowfall. As 97-MPH gusts struck Colorado Springs, marooned passengers huddled in horror inside a shuttered Denver International Airport.

• At this point in 2017, Lake Superior was just 7.3 percent covered in ice; 2018’s figure: 49 percent. Lake Superior was 94 percent iced over on March 8. This was the first time in four years that the largest Great Lake’s ice coverage exceeded 90 percent, the Detroit Free Press reported. Not so far away, Lake Erie was 20 percent ice a year ago. Today: 94.1 percent. Overall, the Great Lakes have gone from 27.8 percent ice in 2018 to 74.6 percent in 2019.

• Lake Erie recently experienced a sort of frozen tsunami, as huge chunks of wind-blown ice washed onto the shore at Hamburg,New York. Footage of this phenomenon is fascinating and terrifying, especially as the solid water violates homes, marinas, and other structures in and around the lake.

• Several polar vortexes pumped Arctic air into the Midwest and parked it there for days. This drove air temperatures to 22 degrees below zero in Chicago and minus-28 Fahrenheit in Minneapolis on January 30.

• Snow hit Las Vegas on February 17 and 19, with some 5.5 inches of the white stuff fluffing the peaks of Sin City’s western suburbs. Some 100 flights were canceled at McCarran Airport on only the second day in two decades that it received measurable snow.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

How a Former McCain Associate Obtained the Steele Dossier and Helped Advance the Russian-Collusion Narrative By Julie Kelly

Posted By on March 19th, 2019

https://amgreatness.com/2019/03/18/how-a-former-mccain-associate-obtained-the-steele-dossier-and-helped-advance-the-russian-collusion-narrative/

After receiving a subpoena to appear before the House Intelligence Committee last year, David Kramer, a close associate of the late Senator John McCain (R-Ariz.), invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination. The committee had additional questions to ask Kramer about his handling of the infamous Steele dossier, which he helped circulate on Capitol Hill and in the news media after the 2016 presidential election.

Now, we may know why.

Kramer’s recently unsealed court deposition in a lawsuit related to the dossier contains bombshell revelations that not only directly contradict media reporting about how McCain came into possession of the dossier, but Kramer’s December 2017 testimony also undercut claims made by McCain himself in his 2018 book. This might explain why Kramer refused to appear before the committee for a second time.

It’s important to revisit the history of the dossier. While the term is meant to confer seriousness (it sounds more official than “file”), the dossier is nothing more than unverified political opposition research produced by Christopher Steele, a former British intelligence officer who now runs a consulting firm in London. Steele was hired in mid-2016 by Glenn Simpson, the head of Fusion GPS, also a political consulting firm, to dig up Russia-related dirt on then-candidate Trump. Simpson, in turn, was being paid by the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign.

(Steele and Simpson have collaborated since 2009 on behalf of “oligarchs litigating against other oligarchs,” according to a 2017 article in The Guardian.)

Steele confessed that he never traveled to Russia, and instead relied on distant sources and hearsay for the dossier, which is a poorly formatted and in some places, ridiculous, collection of allegations about Trump and some associates. It’s nothing close to hard evidence—but that did not stop former FBI Director James Comey from presenting the dossier to a secret court in order to obtain a warrant to spy on a Trump campaign volunteer.

WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Britain’s War on Christianity: Part I by Soeren Kern

Posted By on March 19th, 2019

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/13913/britain-war-on-christianity

“Christian street preachers should be free to share the gospel, even where it means challenging the beliefs of others.” — Christian Concern, in a petition to UK Home Secretary Sajid Javid.

In recent years, dozens of Christians — clergy and non-clergy — in Britain have been arrested or fired from their jobs due to their faith. Much of the harassment is based on three sections of two British laws that are vague and open to subjective interpretations.

At an appeal hearing at Bristol Crown Court, attorney Michael Phillips emphasized the importance of freedom of speech, even in cases where the speaker does not necessarily hold the views being expressed. Another attorney, Paul Diamond, argued that there is no right not to be exposed to contrary ideas. He added that should passers-by not wish to hear the preaching, they are able to walk away.

“Christian street preachers should be free to share the gospel, even where it means challenging the beliefs of others.” — Christian Concern, in a petition to UK Home Secretary Sajid Javid.

In recent years, dozens of Christians — clergy and non-clergy — in Britain have been arrested or fired from their jobs due to their faith. Much of the harassment is based on three sections of two British laws that are vague and open to subjective interpretations.

At an appeal hearing at Bristol Crown Court, attorney Michael Phillips emphasized the importance of freedom of speech, even in cases where the speaker does not necessarily hold the views being expressed. Another attorney, Paul Diamond, argued that there is no right not to be exposed to contrary ideas. He added that should passers-by not wish to hear the preaching, they are able to walk away.

The unlawful arrest of a Christian street preacher in London has drawn attention to the continuing use of hate speech laws to silence Christians in multicultural Britain — even as incendiary speech by Muslim extremists is routinely ignored.

On February 23, Oluwole Ilesanmi, a 64-year-old Nigerian evangelist known as Preacher Olu, was arrested at Southgate Station in North London after complaints that his message about Jesus was “Islamophobic.” A video of the arrest, viewed more than two million times, shows how two police officers ordered the man to stop preaching because “nobody wants to listen to that,” confiscated his Bible and then arrested him for “a breach of peace.”

The video was filmed by Ambrosine Shitrit, co-founder of Eye on Antisemitism, a London-based organization that tracks anti-Semitism on social media. Shortly before Ilesanmi’s arrest, Shitrit had seen him interacting with another man, who turned out to be a Muslim. She thought the Muslim was about to assault Ilesanmi when she went over and started filming with her phone. When the police arrived in response to an emergency call, the Muslim man left the scene.

WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Turkey: Putin’s Ally in NATO? by Burak Bekdil

Posted By on March 19th, 2019

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/13882/turkey-putin-ally-nato

On March 7, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said Turkey would never turn back from the S-400 missile deal with Russia. He even added that Ankara may subsequently look into buying the more advanced S-500 systems now under construction in Russia.

With the S-400 deal, Turkey is simply telling its theoretical Western allies that it views “them,” and “not Russia,” as a security threat. Given that Russia is widely considered a security threat to NATO, Turkey’s odd-one-out position inevitably calls for questioning its official NATO identity.

Turkey has NATO’s second biggest army, and its military love affair with Russia may be in its infancy now, but it undermines NATO’s military deterrence against Russia.

On September 17, 1950, more than 68 years ago, the first Turkish brigade left the port of Mersin on the Mediterranean coast, arriving, 26 days later, at Busan in Korea. Turkey was the first country, after the United States, to answer the United Nations’ call for military aid to South Korea after the North attacked that year. Turkey sent four brigades (a total of 21,212 soldiers) to a country that is 7,785 km away. By the end of the Korean War, Turkey had lost 741 soldiers killed in action. The U.N. Memorial Cemetery in Busan embraces 462 Turkish soldiers.

HOMELAND SECURITY Comments turned off

Muslim Terrorists Indicted in New Mexico Accused militants have Democrat ties.

Posted By on March 19th, 2019

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/273187/muslim-terrorists-indicted-new-mexico-matthew-vadum

A federal grand jury in New Mexico has indicted five Muslims who, among other things, allegedly trained children to carry out spree killings, formally charging them with terrorism-related offenses, conspiracy to commit murder, and kidnapping.

The defendants are Jany Leveille, 36, Siraj Ibn Wahhaj, 40, Hujrah Wahhaj, 38, Subhanah Wahhaj, 36, and Lucas Morton, 41.

The quintet was arrested after authorities found 11 hungry, filthy children living in squalid conditions in a makeshift militant training compound in Amalia, Taos County, a remote part of New Mexico, during a raid by local police on Aug. 3, 2018. The children were being trained to commit school shootings, according to court documents. The remains of a three-year-old disabled boy, since identified as the son of defendant Siraj Ibn Wahhaj, were discovered on the property which was filled with weapons. The indictment accused the defendants of kidnapping the boy and transporting him from Georgia to New Mexico. The defendants were previously indicted on weapons and conspiracy charges on Aug. 31, 2018.

“The indictment alleges that the defendants conspired to provide material support in preparation for violent attacks against federal law enforcement officers and members of the military,” said Assistant Attorney General John C. Demers. “Advancing beliefs through terror and violence has no place in America, and the National Security Division continues to make protecting against terrorism its top priority.”

Specifically, the new indictment lists seven counts: conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists; providing material support to terrorists; conspiracy to murder an officer or employee of the United States; conspiracy to commit an offense against the United States; possessing a firearm while unlawfully in the United States; conspiracy to commit kidnapping; and kidnapping. (Read the indictment here.)

The terrorist cell’s religious inspiration has been identified as Leveille, who is Siraj Ibn Wahhaj’s wife and an illegal alien from Haiti.

FOREIGN POLICY Comments turned off

Pompeo Pounces on the International Criminal Court U.S. Sec of State confronts the globalist agenda. Joseph Klein

Posted By on March 19th, 2019

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/273190/pompeo-pounces-international-criminal-court-joseph-klein

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced on Friday new U.S. visa restrictions on those individuals directly responsible for any International Criminal Court (ICC) investigation of U.S. personnel in connection with U.S. and allied military and intelligence activities in Afghanistan. The ICC prosecutor had previously requested approval from the ICC’s judges to launch a formal investigation into what the prosecutor called the “situation in Afghanistan.” That request is still pending.

Secretary Pompeo warned all those working for the ICC that “if you’re responsible for the proposed ICC investigation of U.S. personnel in connection with the situation in Afghanistan, you should not assume that you will still have or will get a visa, or that you will be permitted to enter the United States.”

Secretary Pompeo added that the “visa restrictions will not be the end of our efforts. We are prepared to take additional steps, including economic sanctions if the ICC does not change its course.” Secretary Pompeo said that the Trump administration, which has already begun to implement the visa restrictions, would also use such visa restrictions “to deter ICC efforts to pursue allied personnel, including Israelis, without allies’ consent.”

The president of the Assembly of States Parties, the management oversight and legislative body of the ICC established by the Rome Statute treaty, responded that “the States Parties reconfirmed their unwavering support for the Court as an independent and impartial judicial institution, and reiterated their commitment to uphold and defend the principles and values enshrined in the Rome Statute and to preserve its integrity undeterred by any threats against the Court, its officials and those cooperating with it. This unwavering support continues today.”

The 123 or so State Parties to the Rome Statute decided, as was their sovereign right, to delegate their own domestic authority to adjudicate specific criminal atrocities involving genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity, and aggression to the ICC. If they want to indulge in the fiction that the ICC is an impartial and non-political judicial body, they have the right to wear blinders when it comes to ceding jurisdiction over their own citizens to the ICC. However, they do not have the legal or moral right to use the ICC they have embraced to assert jurisdiction over countries such as the United States and Israel, which exercised their sovereign right to decline joining the ICC Rome Statute treaty. The United States and Israel do not need any help from the ICC and have steadfastly refused to recognize its jurisdiction.

ISRAEL Comments turned off

Palestinian Jihad Attack Claims Life of Father of 12 and Teenager Palestinian Authority refuses to condemn terror – while Hamas passes out sweets. Ari Lieberman

Posted By on March 19th, 2019

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/273203/palestinian-jihad-attack-claims-life-father-12-and-ari-lieberman

Sunday began as any other for Sgt. Gal Keidan but the 19-year-old soldier didn’t have a chance. He had no reason to suspect that the Palestinian approaching him as he waited at the Ariel junction in the Samaria District (northern West Bank) was going to produce a large knife and begin stabbing. Normal people don’t go on stabbing sprees. But Omar Abu Laila, the Palestinian stabber, was anything but normal. He was a product of a depraved culture steeped in gore, religious zealotry and vitriolic Jew-hatred.

From the day he was born, Omar Abu Laila was exposed to base hate where the Jew was compared to monkeys and pigs; where the Jew was reduced to a cowardly land grabber and usurper; where the Jew was deemed to be the consummate infidel. Abu Laila was exposed to this hate in the mosque, at school, on social media and through official Palestinian media outlets.

Faced with this incessant, Goebbels-like propaganda, that Abu Laila would turn out to be a blood-thirsty, Jew-hating murderer was a forgone conclusion. And the responsibility rests squarely with Mahmoud Abbas, aka Abu Mazen, and his so-called Palestinian Authority for encouraging and stoking this type of aberrant behavior.

Not satiated with the murder of Gal Kaidan, Abu Laila continued his blood lust. He grabbed Kaidan’s automatic assault rifle and began shooting at cars nearing the junction hitting 47-year-old Rabbi Achiad Ettinger, a resident of the community of Eli and father of twelve children.

ANTI-SEMITISM Comments turned off

SOMALIA 1992

Posted By on March 19th, 2019

https://iconicphotos.wordpress.com/2010/03/10/u-s-marine-dragged-through-mogadishu/
The photos taken by Canadian photographer Paul Watson, of a dead American soldier being dragged through the streets of Mogadishu spelled the beginning of the end for U.S.-U.N. peacekeeping force. Domestic opinion turned hostile as horrified TV viewers watched images of the bloodshed—-including this Pulitzer-prize winning footage of Somali warlord Mohammed Aideed’s supporters dragging the body of U.S. Staff Sgt. William David Cleveland through the streets of Mogadishu, cheering.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

The Jew Who Died for Ilhan Omar Lawrence Freedman went to Somalia in 1992 as part of the U.S.-led relief effort. By Gary Palmer

Posted By on March 19th, 2019

https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-jew-who-died-for-ilhan-omar-11552950199?mod=mhp

Rep. Ilhan Omar, a freshman Democrat from Minnesota, has become widely known for her attacks on supporters of Israel. Ms. Omar is a naturalized citizen whose Somali refugee family settled in the U.S. when she was a teenager. Tens of thousands of Somali refugees relocated to the U.S.—some 25,000 in the Minneapolis area—to escape the starvation, famine and civil war that turned Somalia into a lawless, failed state in the early 1990s.

Another name is worth recognition and remembrance, especially among Somali refugees: Lawrence Freedman. In 1992, the year after Ms. Omar’s family left Somalia, the U.S. sent troops there as part of a joint United Nations humanitarian effort. The U.S. intervention, Operation Restore Hope, began with the landing of U.S. troops near Mogadishu on Dec. 9.

Freedman was a U.S. Army veteran who earned two Bronze Stars in Vietnam. He was an original member of the Green Berets, reached the rank of sergeant major, and eventually became an instructor. He retired from the Army in 1990 and joined the Central Intelligence Agency. In 1992 the U.S. sent Freedman as part of an advance team to prepare the way for American troops in Somalia. On Dec. 23, two weeks after the troops had arrived, Freedman became the first American killed as part of the relief effort in Somalia.

Any American casualty is noteworthy, but Freedman’s sacrifice stands out because he was Jewish.

Thousands of Somali refugees who now live in Ms. Omar’s district had their freedom and security paid for with the blood of American soldiers—22 of them, including Freedman.