ISRAEL Comments turned off

The EU-PA/PLO strategy to destroy Israel The European Union and the Palestinian Authority have developed a plan to destroy Israel.

Posted By on January 13th, 2020

https://www.jpost.com/Opinion/The-EU-PAPLO-strategy-to-destroy-Israel-613862

The European Union and the Palestinian Authority have developed a plan to destroy Israel; it’s called, “European Joint Strategy in support of Palestine (EJS),” and the “Palestinian Authority National Policy Agenda (PANPA).”

According to the PANPA, their mission is to “reassert full Palestinian sovereignty over the whole of its territory on the 1967 borders; to end Israel’s illegal, methodical and continuing expropriation of Palestinian land, resources and water; to lift the protracted siege of Gaza while ensuring a geographical link with the West Bank; to cease and reverse Israel’s calculated attempts to dismember east Jerusalem from the rest of Palestine; and to dismantle the illegal separation wall that entraps tens of thousands of Palestinians.“Mobilizing national and international support… will be accomplished through the following measures: Reassert sovereignty over the whole territory of the State of Palestine on the 1967 borders including east Jerusalem; establish and develop east Jerusalem as the capital of the State of Palestine; internationalize the conflict and mobilize international support for the Palestinian people’s inalienable rights, including the right to self-determination and right of return, and the release of prisoners; increase political, legal, economic and grassroots pressure to end the occupation; lift the siege of Gaza and establish a geographic link with the West Bank; prepare independence transition plans that chart the steps toward asserting full Palestinian authority over all of Palestine in all sectors of a sovereign state.”

By “east Jerusalem” they mean not only the Old City, but all areas which the Jordanian Legion captured in 1948, including the Temple Mount, Mount of Olives (the Jewish cemetery which was desecrated) and the City of David/Silwan. It includes all the Jewish neighborhoods of Jerusalem which were built after the 1967 Six Day War (Ramot, Gilo, Pisgat and Givat Ze’ev, Har Homa, and Ma’aleh Adumim), the Jewish communities that were wiped out by the Jordanian Legion in 1947-48 (Neve Yaakov and the Etzion bloc, which were rebuilt after 1967), and the strategic Jordan Valley, which terrorists from around the world would use to enter “the West Bank” and attack Israel.

WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Of Causation and Emojis : Roger Kimball

Posted By on January 12th, 2020

amgreatness.com/2020/01/11/of-causation-and-emojis/

My favorite literary expostulation from the last couple of days came from Javad Zarif, foreign minister of the Islamic Republic of Iran.

It entered the world in the form of a tweet, that contemporary answer to the haiku, and concerned the fate of Ukrainian flight 752, which met its end shortly after taking off from the Tehran International Airport last week. Everyone on board was killed, all 176 people, including 82 Iranians, 63 Canadians, 11 Ukrainians, and a handful of Swedes, Afghans, Germans, and Brits.

When the news of the disaster was first flashed, there was some speculation that a fault in the plane—a Boeing aircraft, much in the news of late because of problems with its 737 Max—might have been responsible. Iran itself initially insisted that the plane had crashed because of a technical fault.

But it soon transpired that the plane (a Boeing 737-800) did not simply crash. On the contrary, it had been shot down.

Iran initially denied any involvement. Suggestions to the contrary were part of a “big lie.” “No one will assume responsibility for such a big lie once it is known that the claim had been fraudulent,” said one Iranian spokesman on Friday.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Christopher Wray Isn’t the Right Man to Fix the FBI Trump needs to find someone else to reform this ailing law enforcement agency. Julie Kelly

Posted By on January 12th, 2020

https://amgreatness.com/2020/01/11/christopher-wray-isnt-the-right-man-to-fix-the-fbi/

The nation’s most powerful law enforcement agency is in shambles. Following a series of internal investigations, in addition to extensive reporting on the misconduct of former top officials, the Federal Bureau of Investigation is suffering a crisis in confidence from the very people it has a sworn duty to protect: the American public.

Considering its behavior over the past four years, one could be forgiven for thinking that the FBI exists only to serve the interests of the political aristocracy. From the Clinton email server cover-up to the unfounded counterintelligence probe into four Americans working for the Trump presidential campaign and the corruption of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, the FBI has exploited its power to defend partisan allies and punish foes. 

Texts revealed contempt for voters who make up roughly half the country. Rather than working to keep the country safe, the top tier of the FBI spent most of its time massaging their press contacts, accompanying reporters to baseball games and golf outings (in clear violation of company policy), and illegally leaking sensitive information then lying about it all when caught. The FBI’s former chief, James Comey, stole his own classified memos from the agency and hid them at home before he was busted.

WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Turkey’s No Longer Best-Kept Secret: Islamized Christians by Vasileios Meichanetsidis

Posted By on January 12th, 2020

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/15321/turkey-islamized-christians

“The Turkish persecution of Pontian Greeks and other Christian peoples began after the fall of Trabzon, starting slowly at first and gradually becoming more widespread and terrifying… Many Christians reluctantly converted to Islam to avoid oppression… and merely to survive. During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, approximately 250,000 Pontian Greeks were forced to convert…. and speak Turkish.” — The Asia Minor and Pontos Hellenic Research Center, 2014.

The conquests by Turks resulted in the violent and destructive Islamization of the Byzantine civilization.

The Turkish people need to learn the truth about the history of both the Ottoman Empire and Turkey. Only the truth can liberate the people of Turkey from the past that haunts them to this day.

A recent statement by a Turkish mayor belonging to President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) was particularly noteworthy in the wake of the US Senate’s December 12 resolution to “commemorate the Armenian Genocide through official recognition and remembrance.”

Mayor Hayrettin Güngör of Kahramanmaraş was caught on camera telling a woman from Trabzon, “We made you Muslim.”

WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

The General’s Death Upsets Iran’s Plan by Amir Taheri

Posted By on January 12th, 2020

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/15423/soleimani-death-iran-plan

Soleimani had his own network of lobbyists in many Arab countries and some Western democracies. Hundreds of Iranian and Arab militants have enrolled in Western universities with scholarships from the Quds Force.

Soleimani, who loved making and publishing “selfies” showing himself close to battlegrounds in the Middle East, was never present anywhere near a battle but was always to come after the dust had settled, to take “selfies” and claim the credit.

Some analysts in Tehran believe that Khamenei was planning to promote Soleimani further by making him President of the Islamic Republic in 2021. An image-building campaign started last year as Soleimani was marketed as “the Sufi commander”…. A committee of exiled Iranians in Florida also started campaigning to draft Soleimani as president. If that was Khamenei’s game plan, there is no doubt that Soleimani’s demise will lead to more uncertainty regarding the future course of Iranian politics.

While analysts and policymakers are busy speculating on ways that Tehran’s ruling mullahs might avenge the killing of their most hyped general, the real question that needs considering may be elsewhere.

The question is: what effect Soleimani’s death might have on the power struggle that, though currently put on hold, is certain to resume with greater vigor in Tehran.

MOVIES AND TELEVISION Comments turned off

Do the Right Thing in Paris By Kyle Smith

Posted By on January 12th, 2020

https://www.nationalreview.com/2020/01/movie-review-les-miserables-superb-french-crime-drama/

An African-French first-time director has made a superb police drama.

I f I favorably compare a movie to Fort Apache, The Bronx, you ought to pay attention, because I don’t do it very often. That 1981 Paul Newman drama was a chaotic swirl of wrongdoing in and around a besieged Bronx police precinct that made earlier police dramas look like Disney movies. A first-time filmmaker named Ladj Ly — born in Mali, raised in Paris — has devised a devastating successor set among the graffiti-scarred housing projects in Montfermeil, outside Paris. Audaciously, ambitiously, and a bit waspishly, Ly has entitled his film Les Misérables: A scene from Victor Hugo’s novel is set there, and a school in town is named for Hugo. In its narrative power, in its appreciation of detail, and in its moral complexity, Les Misérables is clearly superior to Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing, to which it bears a resemblance. Yet it’d be unfair to Ly to characterize the film as simply a serious dramatization of social issues; it’s also fast-paced entertainment, with a plot that has so many crazy twists it reminded me of the 2017 Queens odyssey Good Time, one of the finest crime dramas of recent years.

French-language cinema these days has become clouded with miserabilism (the films of the Belgian brothers Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardenne, in particular, scintillatingly evoke the experience of watching fungus grow). Despite its title, Les Misérables isn’t like that; it’s a punchy and exciting day-on-the-beat story of a newbie cop, Stéphane (Damien Bonnard), who joins two other plainclothes officers as they drive around the projects, known as “Les Bosquets,” which are filled with African immigrants and their children, many of them Muslim. As Stéphane rides in the back of an unmarked car, the driver is Gwada (Djebril Zonga), a black man who we will learn is himself a Muslim and a son of at least one African immigrant. In the passenger seat is Chris (Alexis Manenti), one of those seen-it-all white cops, who takes a dim view of humanity in general and relentlessly goads his new partner Stéphane in a tone that’s meant to be jokey but is really just nasty.

  

POLITICS Comments turned off

Bernie Sanders soars over Iowa — and Democrats cringe below By Monica Showalter

Posted By on January 12th, 2020

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2020/01/bernie_sanders_soars_over_iowa__and_democrats_cringe_below.html

Democrats are shuddering at a new poll showing that Bernie Sanders is soaring over Iowa.

According to the Des Moines Register:

U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders leads the Democratic field three weeks ahead of Caucus Day in Iowa — narrowly overtaking his closest competitors, who remain locked in a tight contest just behind him.

A new Des Moines Register/CNN/Mediacom Iowa Poll shows 20% of likely Democratic caucusgoers name Sanders as their first choice for president.

After a surge of enthusiasm that pushed Pete Buttigieg to the top of the field in November, the former South Bend, Indiana, mayor has faded, falling 9 percentage points to land behind both Sanders and U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren. Warren is at 17%; Buttigieg, 16%; and former Vice President Joe Biden, 15%.

 After all that hard slogging over the last 12 months, from Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, Pete Buttigieg, Elizabeth Warren, Julian Castro and the rest of the Democrat clown car to win the state, it looks like Bernie of all people, is going to walk away with it.

Which is bad news for Democrats.

POLITICS Comments turned off

Leading Democrat presidential contenders struggle with being white and boring. By Andrea Widburg

Posted By on January 12th, 2020

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2020/01/leading_democrat_presidential_contenders_struggle_with_being_white_and_boring.html

With another Democrat debate coming next week, it’s impossible for a conservative not to enjoy watching Democrats agonize over their candidates’ whiteness, ignore their affluence, and pretend that there’s a groundswell of support for any of them. The excitement surrounding Trump is completely absent.

At the Washington Post, Annie Linskey, shares Democrat worries that their primary debate next week will have only white faces on the stage:

Only white candidates have qualified for next week’s Democratic presidential debate, the first time in this election cycle that no minority contender will make the stage. It’s a dynamic that critics say threatens to undercut the party’s rhetoric of inclusivity.

The race for the 2020 Democratic nomination kicked off last year with a historically diverse pool of candidates, including two black senators, a black mayor, a Hispanic former Cabinet secretary and an Asian businessman. Since then, all have either dropped out or failed to qualify for a spot on the stage, determined by poll numbers and donations.

Now the specter of an all-white debate in the mostly white state of Iowa is prompting concern among party activists.

 Live by identity politics, die by identity politics. The irony, of course, is that the politically incorrect people who refuse to give their votes to minority candidates are Democrats.

WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Iran publishes film portraying jihad attack on the White House and Capitol, killing Trump, Pompeo and Netanyahu By Robert Spencer

Posted By on January 12th, 2020

https://www.jihadwatch.org/2020/01/iran-publishes-film-portraying-jihad-attack-on-th

Heshmat Alavi@HeshmatAlavi

You know the regime in #Iran is utterly weakened & desperate when their propaganda machine produces short films literally portraying an attack on the White House & Congress, and killing Trump & Netanyahu.

Me:
While we must be alert about Tehran’s threats, the mullahs are weak.

Heshmat Alavi@HeshmatAlavi

You know the regime in #Iran is utterly weakened & desperate when their propaganda machine produces short films literally portraying an attack on the White House & Congress, and killing Trump & Netanyahu.

Me:
While we must be alert about Tehran’s threats, the mullahs are weak.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

The rule of law, the abuse of power, and justice denied By Patricia McCarthy

Posted By on January 12th, 2020

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2020/01/the_rule_of_law_the_abuse_of_power_and_justice_denied.html

The film Just Mercy opened this week.  It is the story of a man, Walter McMillan, who was convicted of murder in Alabama,1987. The trial was a sham, all exculpatory evidence hidden, the one witness a felon who traded his false testimony for a shorter sentence.  This gross miscarriage of justice happened because the power in the town — the sheriff, the police and the DA — all conspired to convict McMillan in order to bring closure to the community for the murder of a young girl.  

Enter Bryan Stevenson,  a young Harvard-trained lawyer who founds the Equal Justice Initiative to help those on death row, most of them having had little or no legitimate representation.  Without totally revealing the most important details of the story, suffice it to say that those most guilty of illegality, those who were complicit in the railroading of an innocent man, suffer no consequences for their participation in their crimes that sent that man to prison; he was sent to death row a year before his trial!

Watching the story unfold, it is hard not to see the parallels between the McMillan case and the Russia collusion hoax to destroy Donald Trump.  None of the many persons involved in the coup attempt have yet to suffer any consequences for their treasonous actions.