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Strzok: ‘We’ll Stop It’ Text Was Response to Trump Going After Khizr Khan By Bridget Johnson

Posted By on July 13th, 2018

https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/strzok-well-stop-it-text-was-response-to-trump-going-after-khizr-khan/

WASHINGTON — FBI Deputy Assistant Director Peter Strzok told a joint hearing of the House Judiciary and Oversight committees today that a text to his then-lover, FBI attorney Lisa Page, about stopping candidate Donald Trump was anger expressed in response to Trump verbally going after Gold Star parents Khizr and Ghazala Khan.

The Khans spoke at the 2016 Democratic National Convention to challenge Trump on comments he made on the campaign trail about restricting the entrance of Muslims into the country. Their son, Army Capt. Humayun Khan, was killed in Baqubah, Iraq, on June 8, 2004, as he stopped a suicide bomber from driving into a compound.

In August 2016, Page texted Strzok, “[Trump’s] not ever going to become president, right? Right?!” Strzok responded, “No. No he won’t. We’ll stop it.” The Justice Department’s inspector general determined that while texts between the two were inappropriate, investigators “did not find documentary or testimonial evidence that improper considerations, including political bias, directly affected the specific investigative actions we reviewed.”

“I think it’s important when you look at those texts that you understand the context in which they were made and the things that were going on across America,” Strzok told the committee. “In terms of the text ‘we will stop it,’ you need to understand that was written late at night, off the cuff and it was in response to a series of events that included then-candidate Trump insulting the immigrant family of a fallen war hero, and my presumption based on that horrible, disgusting behavior that the American population would not elect someone demonstrating that behavior to be president of the United States.”

“It was in no way, unequivocally, any suggestion that me, the FBI, would take any action whatsoever to improperly impact the electoral process, for any candidate.”

Strzok said he took “great offense” at suggestions to the contrary.

The agent also called Trump an “idiot” in an August 2015 message and texted “God Hillary should win 100,000,000 – 0” after a March 2016 GOP debate. CONTINUE AT SITE

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The Smears Begin on Kavanaugh The left tries some #MeToo guilt by association.

Posted By on July 13th, 2018

https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-smears-begin-on-kavanaugh-1531438269

The political left is going to do whatever it can to defeat Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination to the Supreme Court, and the smears have begun even earlier than usual. This week’s mud on the wall includes a claim of guilt by association when Mr. Kavanaugh was a law clerk 27 years ago.

In 1990-1991 Mr. Kavanaugh clerked for federal Judge Alex Kozinski on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. Mr. Kozinski retired in December after he was accused by several women, including a former federal judge, of harassing behavior such as groping and showing them pornography.

The McClatchy news service reported Wednesday that a left-wing outfit called Ultraviolet is circulating a six-page memo demanding that Senate Democrats investigate whether Mr. Kavanaugh knew about Mr. Kozinski’s behavior a quarter-century ago. Think of this as the claims in the Christopher Steele Russia dossier without the evidence.

The Ultraviolet sleaze-slingers have no evidence that Mr. Kavanaugh knew about Judge Kozinski’s behavior and no witnesses to anything of the sort. They merely have insinuations that in the age of social media can spread around the world before the truth can even get a hearing. We’re told that journalists from several news organizations are also trolling former Kozinski clerks to see if they can find someone who will say that Judge Kavanaugh knew something, or should have known, about Judge Kozinski’s behavior.

All of which caused the White House to issue a statement Thursday addressing the smears by ancient association that are by now circulating widely on the internet and in the press corps. “Prior to the public reports late last year [about Judge Kozinski], Judge Kavanaugh had never heard any allegations of sexual misconduct or sexual harassment by Judge Kozinski,” White House spokeswoman Kerri Kupec said in a statement.

The White House also released a letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee signed by 18 of Judge Kavanaugh’s former female clerks attesting to “our uniformly positive experiences with the Judge as a boss on issues of gender and equality in the workplace.” Amy Chua of Yale writes nearby of her rewarding experience placing law clerks with Judge Kavanaugh.

It used to be that the press required at least some evidence to report a story, but now a politically motivated group can write a memo without incriminating facts and get it reported as news. Fair-minded Americans should treat it as the drive-by innuendo it is.

POLITICS Comments turned off

Political Intermarriage and the Birth of the New Democrat Party by Linda Goudsmit

Posted By on July 13th, 2018

http://goudsmit.pundicity.com/21383/political-intermarriage-and-the-birth-of-the-newhttp://goudsmit.pundicity.com/21383
http://lindagoudsmit.com http://goudsmit.pundicity.com

Intermarriage is not always a matter of race or religion – sometimes it is a matter of politics. In 2008 Barack Hussein Obama officiated at the wedding of the Democrat party and Socialism. In this case the bride and groom came from very different family backgrounds with diametrically opposed world views and political perspectives.

The bride’s family, Constitution, was 242 years old and deeply committed to individualism, equality, liberty, and limited powers of government. The groom’s family, Socialism, came to America in 1877 deeply committed to collectivism and centralized government powers. The young lovers ignored the differences and their families’ objections to the marriage in their determination to make their union work for themselves and their children. What happened?

The marriage enjoyed the sweetness of honeymoon oblivion for awhile but soon it became apparent to both bride and groom that the Constitution and Socialism families were divided along foundational lines and compromise was not an option. As with so many racial and religious intermarriages the problems did not become apparent until the children were born. The husband and wife began to argue about what to teach the children.

The husband argued the superiority of his Socialism family tradition of collectivism to govern their family publicly and privately. He extolled the values of dependence, eternal childhood, and cradle-to-grave government control. The wife insisted that her Constitution family values of individual liberty, equality, and personal responsibility were better suited to govern their family. The arguments grew more heated and the husband and wife decided to seek professional counseling. They went back to the spiritual advisor who married them – Barack Hussein Obama (BHO).

The husband and wife entered the counseling office with optimism and confidence that their officiant could help them sort it out. After all, they had chosen BHO to marry them because Obama said he taught Constitutional law and also studied the great socialist Saul Alinsky, author of Rules for Radicals. Obama listened to the husband and wife patiently.

WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Toxic Legacy of 1968 By:Srdja Trifkovic

Posted By on July 13th, 2018

https://www.chroniclesmagazine.org/toxic-legacy-of-1968

In the spring and summer of 1968 a wave of student protests erupted on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean. Their immediate causes were different, but they had two significant common features: contagious denial of the legitimacy of authority and a distaste for established norms of behavior and thought. The process was spiritually comparable to previous orgies of insanity (1793, 1917) but less focused or violent: the soixante-huitards “sought to change the world before they had begun to understand it.”

Defeated in the short term, as signified by Charles de Gaulle’s electoral comeback in June and Richard Nixon’s victory in November, the Left’s long march proved ultimately triumphant. For the future neoliberal ruling class, Paris 1968 was the cultural, social and political turning point where post-structuralism finally merged with young Karl Marx.

The wave of demonstrations in France was triggered off by the ostensibly banal demand of male students at the University of Paris at Nantierre to be free to visit girls’ dormitories at will. This was seen as a liberating demand at the time. (Little did they suspect that, half a century later, progressive students would demand campus authorities to strictly regulate relations between men and women.) The ensuing mayhem released a genie which was already chewing on the bit. Roger Scruton later wrote that his switch to conservatism started when he saw the Parisian barricades first-hand. He was in the Latin Quarter when students tore up the cobblestones to hurl at the riot police, overturned cars and uprooted lamp-posts to erect the barricades. “I suddenly realised that I was on the other side,” he wrote years later.

“What I saw was an unruly mob of self-indulgent middle-class hooligans. When I asked my friends what they wanted, what were they trying to achieve, all I got back was this ludicrous Marxist gobbledegook. I was disgusted by it, and thought there must be a way back to the defence of western civilisation against these things. That’s when I became a conservative. I knew I wanted to conserve things rather than pull them down.”

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Facing intense GOP criticism, FBI’s Strzok says personal views didn’t affect decisions House Republicans threaten contempt charge after FBI agent says he won’t answer questions related to ongoing Russia probe. by Mike Memoli

Posted By on July 13th, 2018

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/facing-intense-gop-criticism-fbi-s-strzok-says-personal-views-n890876

Deepening tension between congressional Republicans and the Justice Department erupted in full public view Thursday, as a senior FBI agent sparred with lawmakers who suggested his bias against President Trump tainted the department’s Russia investigation.

Peter Strzok, the senior FBI official who oversaw the Hillary Clinton email investigation and helped lead the initial probe of ties between Russia and the Trump campaign strongly rejected claims that personal political views he shared with a colleague affected his official actions, while accusing Republicans of furthering Vladimir Putin’s goal of sowing discord in the U.S.

Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., noted that in August of 2016, within one week of the Justice Department’s decision to open the Russia probe, Page and Strzok exchanged messages that included “F Trump,” and Strzok saying: “I can protect our country at so many levels.”

“We’re not even a week into an investigation that you originated, approved, were the contact for, you hadn’t interviewed a single solitary soul until August the 11th, and you’re already promising to protect the country from that menace Donald Trump,” Gowdy said.

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Jihadist Prisoners: The Fear of Recidivism

Posted By on July 13th, 2018

https://www.realclearworld.com/articles/2018/07/12/jihadi_prisoners_the_fear_of_recidivism_112842.html

On July 16, Djamel Beghal is expected to be released from the Rennes-Vezin prison in the west of France. Beghal is a well-known figure in the European jihadist sphere. Born in Algeria in 1965, he settled in France in 1987. Ten years later, he moved to the United Kingdom with his French wife and their children. In November 2000, the family left for Afghanistan, a country then governed by the Taliban. In July 2001, Beghal was arrested in the United Arab Emirates and later deported to France: He was suspected of plotting a terrorist attack against the Embassy of the United States in Paris. In 2005, he received a 10-year sentence. He was released in 2009 but returned to prison a year later for his involvement in another case.

In prison, Beghal met other inmates, some of them incarcerated on terrorism charges. He allegedly became a mentor for some of them, like Cherif Kouachi and Amedy Coulibaly, who perpetrated terrorist attacks in Paris in January 2015. A few months ago, Algerian authorities warned that they would refuse Beghal’s deportation to Algeria after his release. Following diplomatic negotiations, Algiers’ position seems to have changed. This turnaround is a relief for Paris. Without it, Beghal would have had to stay on French soil under house arrest.

The puzzle of radicalization

Beghal is only the tip of the iceberg. Approximately 500 inmates in French prisons have been condemned or are awaiting trial on terrorism charges. One should also add 1,200 inmates incarcerated for other offenses but who are considered to be radicals. Before the end of 2019, around 50 persons convicted of terrorism and 450 radicals will be released. Most of them are French citizens and cannot be expelled to another country. A recent study published by the French Institute for International Relations focused on a sample of 137 jihadists. Ninety-one percent of them were French, and only 22 percent hold dual citizenship. Homegrown terrorism has become the norm.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Donald Trump is the president I didn’t want, but now I know we need: Gary Varvel

Posted By on July 13th, 2018

https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/nation-now/2018/07/11/how-went-donald-trump-critic-president-trump-supporter-column/774925002/
I admit that I was wrong about Trump. He’s not a clown, and he is delivering on his promises.

Over the years, my caricatures of Donald Trump have evolved but not as much as my opinion of him.

When Trump announced he was running for president, I admit that I didn’t take this millionaire, hotel magnate, reality TV show celebrity as a serious candidate. I doubted his ability to do the job. So I drew him as a clown. In fact, my cartoons were as critical of him as many of my liberal cartoonist friends.

Then Trump started a war with the news media, tagging major news outlets as “fake news.” Ahem, I’m in the media.

And while Trump promised to pursue conservative policies, this conservative cartoonist doubted his sincerity. After all, it wasn’t that long ago that he was on the left.

In the crowded primary field, Trump got the most attention by being the loudest. His tweets could not be ignored by the media and resulted in Trump dominating news coverage.

I found his personal attacks sophomoric. I mean, calling his opponents “Low-energy Jeb,” “Lyin’ Ted,” “Little Marco,” “Crazy Bernie” and “Crooked Hillary” was not presidential. It was childish, but it worked. He won and they lost.

In this braggadocios “I’m the greatest” culture, Trump became the Muhammad Ali of politicians. His claims of, “I will be the greatest jobs president that God ever created,” “I’m really rich,” “I’m very highly educated,” “I’m the best (fill in the blank)” stretched credulity but was certainly entertaining.

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Why Do Palestinian Leaders Oppose Helping Their People? by Bassam Tawil

Posted By on July 12th, 2018

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/12663/palestinian-leaders-gaza-crisis

Mahmoud Abbas and his West Bank-based government seek to prolong the suffering of the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. They want the international community to continue to believe that Israel is responsible for the ongoing, intense suffering of the Palestinians. They are hoping to use the crisis there to pursue their campaign to delegitimize Israel.

Palestinian leaders would prefer to see their people starve than make any form of concessions for peace with Israel. Yet Al-Aloul and Abbas are not the ones who are facing starvation. There is nothing more comfortable than sitting in your fashionable house in Ramallah or Nablus and talking about starvation and humanitarian aid.

The Palestinians of the Gaza Strip, who are desperate for jobs and a better life, do not really care about Trump’s upcoming peace plan. They also do not really care about a settlement or a checkpoint in the West Bank.

This is the essence of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict: The Palestinians’ number one priority — the Palestinian leadership and the Palestinians in general — is destroying Israel. They would rather die than give up their dream of destroying Israel.

For years, Palestinian leaders have been complaining that the Gaza Strip was “on the verge of a humanitarian catastrophe.” Time and again, they have warned that unless the world helps the Palestinians living there, the Gaza Strip will “erupt like a volcano.”

WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Ethiopia-Eritrea: A New Hope for Peace by Ahmed Charai

Posted By on July 12th, 2018

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/12694/ethiopia-eritrea-a-new-hope-for-peace

By renegotiating the U.S. African Growth and Opportunity Act, [US President Donald J. Trump] can strengthen American exports, create new export-related jobs and foster development-oriented investment on the continent. By reforming U.S. humanitarian aid to Africa, he can cut considerable bureaucratic waste, and effectively increase assistance without increasing the cost.

Washington can also take advantage of the close relationships between them and one of its biggest allies, Sheikh Mohammed Bin Zayed, Crown Prince of UAE, who has a strong ties with many African leaders and who has played an important role during the different negotiations between Ethiopia and Eritrea.

UAE’s Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, has welcomed the reestablishment of cordial relations between Ethiopia and Eritrea. He has stressed that such an agreement will positively reflect on boosting security and stability in both countries, the Horn of Africa and the MENA region.

Making America great again, as Trump’s campaign slogan goes, means helping Africa rise and stabilize.

The leaders of Ethiopia and Eritrea signed a declaration on July 9, ending a state of war between the two countries. It was a major step toward resolving one of post-colonial Africa’s bloodiest and most protracted conflicts.

The U.N. Security Council said the peace declaration signed by Ethiopia and Eritrea after 20 years as enemies “represents a historic and significant development with far-reaching positive consequences for the Horn of Africa and beyond.”

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Reciprocity Is the Method to Trump’s Madness By Victor Davis Hanson

Posted By on July 12th, 2018

https://amgreatness.com/2018/07/12/reciprocity-is-the-method-to-trump

Critics of Donald Trump claim there is no rhyme or reason to his foreign policy. But if there is a consistency, it might be called reciprocity.

Trump tries to force other countries to treat the United States as it treats them. In “don’t tread on me” style, he also warns enemies that any aggressive act will be replied to in kind.

The underlying principle of Trump commercial reciprocity it that the United States is no longer powerful or wealthy enough to alone underwrite the security of the West. It can no longer assume sole enforcement of the rules and protocols of the postwar global order.

This year there have been none of the usual Iranian provocations—frequent during the Obama Administration—of harassing American ships in the Persian Gulf. Apparently, the Iranians now realize that anything they do to an American ship will be replied to with overwhelming force.

Ditto North Korea. After lots of threats from Kim Jong Un about using his new ballistic missiles against the United States, Trump warned that he would use America’s far greater arsenal to eliminate North Korea’s arsenal for good.

Trump is said to be undermining NATO by questioning its usefulness some 69 years after its founding. Yet unlike 1948, Germany is no longer down. The United States is always in. And Russia is hardly out, but instead cutting energy deals with the Europeans.

More importantly, most NATO countries have failed to keep their promises to spend 2 percent of their GDP on defense.