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Angela Crashes Jed Babbin

Posted By on June 25th, 2018

https://spectator.org/angela-crashes/
If she’s remembered beyond this fall’s elections, it’ll be as the anti-Charlemagne.

ince 2005, sitting atop Europe’s strongest economy, German Chancellor Angela Merkel has led her nation and the European Union. Upon the advent of President Trump’s term in office, the media quickly proclaimed her the new leader of the free world.

Mrs. Merkel’s power is not just derivative of Germany’s but also of her dedication to and support for the European Union, of which many member countries grant her near total support.

In 2008, Merkel was awarded the Charlemagne Prize, given each year by the German city of Aachen, Charlemagne’s ancient capital, to the person whose actions most greatly support European unity.

Charlemagne, in the Eighth and Ninth Century, conquered most of Europe, uniting it by force. He tried to expel the Muslims from Spain in the year 778 and was defeated. He later succeeded in reaching as far as Barcelona, but could not drive the Muslims from Europe.

Merkel is now in the political fight of her life, her chancellorship in jeopardy as a result of her immigration policies and their rejection in large parts of Germany and a growing number of EU members. For all her efforts to promote unity among European Union members, her immigration policy has made her the anti-Charlemagne.

This week, Merkel faces what could be her final political crisis, brought about by German and European rebellion against her open-door immigration policy. In 2015, when she proclaimed an open door to “Syrian” (really all Middle Eastern and African) immigrants, more than a million flocked to Germany and the rest of Europe. Almost half as many came in 2016, and the flow continues.

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Islamic Migratory Onslaught in the Balkans By:Srdja Trifkovic

Posted By on June 25th, 2018

https://www.chroniclesmagazine.org/islamic-migratory-onslaught-in-the-balkans/

On June 20 Serbia’s foreign minister Ivica Dacic made an interesting remark in connection with the ongoing political and territorial dispute over the status of Kosovo. We are witnessing a new reflection of the desire to create the “green transverse” in the Balkans, which is a “dangerous fantasy” motivated by ambitious Islamic extremism. “This is nothing new,” Dacic went on, “this is an aspiration which has been present for centuries.

The Green Transverse (aka “Green Corridor,” Zelena transverzala, Grüne Transversale, Dorsale verde) is a key geopolitical concept which denotes the long-term goal of Islamist activists, both in the Balkans and in the wider Muslim world, to create a geographically contiguous chain of majority-Muslim or Muslim-dominated polities that will extend from Turkey in the southeast to the northwestern-most point of Bosnia (a mere hundred miles as the crow flies from Austria’s southeastern border). Over the past quarter-century it has resulted in the strengthening of traditionally Muslim communities in the Balkans, expanding the geographic area of their demographic dominance and enhancing their Islamic character.

Political, cultural, religious and demographic trends among Muslim communities in the Balkans demonstrate that the Green Corridor is taking shape, either deliberately or spontaneously. Nevertheless, many Western academic experts and media commentators have been dismissive of any suggestion that a long-term Islamic geopolitical design exists in the Balkans, let alone that it is being deliberately and systematically pursued.

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Maxine Waters: Harass Trump Admin. Staff Everywhere, Give Them ‘No Peace,’ ‘God Is on Our Side!’ By Tyler O’Neil

Posted By on June 25th, 2018

https://pjmedia.com/trending/maxine-waters-harass-trump-admin-staff-everywhere-give-them-no-peace-god-is-on-our-side/

Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) urged liberal protesters to harass members of the Trump administration, calling upon the name of God to encourage liberal activists that He is on “our side.”

“Already, you have members of this cabinet that are being booed out of restaurants, who have protesters taking up at their house,” Waters declared. She praised these protesters for chanting, “No peace! No sleep!”

The congresswoman went on to attack Attorney General Jeff Sessions for quoting the Bible to defend enforcing immigration law. “While you try and quote the Bible, Jeff Sessions, and others, you really don’t know the Bible,” Waters declared.

“God is on our side!”

She then went on to specifically advocate for continually harassing Trump administration officials, particularly members of the cabinet. CONTINUE AT SITE

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Social Justice Warriors By Herbert London

Posted By on June 25th, 2018

http://dailycaller.com/2018/04/09/social-justice-warriors-are-a-big-problem-for-theology/

In a new book that provides a powerful theological basis for something now ritualistically called “the social justice movement,” Jewish reformers among others seized on the concept of “healing the world.” Leftists in the Jewish community call it tikkun olam or “healing of the world.” Believers assert that Jews must endeavor to make the world a place better than what we now experience. As a consequence, an overwhelming number of Jews embrace this movement and the actions that result from it as biblically mandated. However, there is one problem as Jonathan Newmann in his book To Heal The World? points out, the bible says no such thing.

Tikkun Olam is an invention of the Jewish left, diluted from practice and vague sentiments of “doing good.” According to Newmann, religious history has been twisted by liberals to support a left wing agenda partly upheld with Marxist ideology: Frankfurt School post modernism, SDS fervor and Gramsci logic. It would be one thing if tikkun olam actually produced a virtuous society or adherence to a common culture despite its misrepresentation, but there isn’t any evidence to suggest that is true.

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The Power of the Phrase: SPLC, ACLU, and ‘Hidden Persuaders’ By David Solway

Posted By on June 25th, 2018

https://pjmedia.com/trending/the-power-of-the-phrase-splc-aclu-and-hidden-persuaders/

As a poet and essayist, I have always been interested in the power of the phrase: the epithet, the slogan, the aphorism, the idiom, the cliché, the qualifier, the tag, the label, the title and the name. Of course, such locutions often carry neutral implications as mere designators, or may generate what Vance Packard called “hidden persuaders,” some of which can be quite clever and even impressive. For example, the FedEx logo. The company acronym contains a hidden symbol which one can glimpse with a little attention, namely, the white-space arrow implying forward motion between the concluding “E” and the lower case “x.”

The problem is, as we should all be aware, that phrases may also be used for nefarious purposes, insinuating themselves into the mind as signifiers for non-existent “realities” or as de facto claims that are wholly fraudulent. The names of many totalitarian dictatorships bear misnomers like “Democratic” or “Republic” or “Free,” which fool only the credulous and the partisan. Does an area of the Pacific Ocean belong to China because it is called the South China Sea?

But it is astonishing how many people fall for the appellative shell game, accepting without skepticism or critical thought the radiant energy of such — let’s call them — deceptors. They must mean what they say, especially by dint of incessant repetition. This, according to Goebbels, is how the “Big Lie” operates. I have conversed, much to my chagrin, with many otherwise sensible people who have swallowed the phrasal and lexical subterfuge hook, line and sinker.

In an article for PJ Media, “The Semantic Whoredom of the Left,” Sarah Hoyt unpacks such words for us — words, she explains, “that are in common use voided of their signification and filled with meanings they were never meant to have, meanings that can only be understood if you share the basic assumptions of leftist liberals.” We may regard them as semiotic false flags where connotations substitute for denotations, or as Hoyt writes, the Left is “holding perfectly good words captive and making them commit acts against their nature.” Regrettably, the gullible are routinely taken in.

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Supreme Court Lets Brendan Dassey Conviction Stand in Declining ‘Making a Murderer’ Case By Tyler O’Neil

Posted By on June 25th, 2018

https://pjmedia.com/trending/supreme-court-lets-brendan-dassey-conviction-stand-in-declining-making-a-murderer-case/

On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear the case of Wisconsin man Brendan Dassey, whose lawyers argued that his confession to a 2007 murder was coerced. His confession played a large role in the controversial case of Steven Avery, the focus of the Netflix true crime show “Making a Murderer” (2015-).

“Making a Murderer” show suggests that Avery — who was convicted of sexual assault and attempted murder in 1985 but released after 18 years when DNA evidence exonerated him — was then set up by local law enforcement and convicted of a murder in 2007. In 2003, Avery had filed a $36 million civil lawsuit against Manitowoc County, its former sheriff, and its former district attorney for wrongful conviction and imprisonment. These officials, the story goes, then attempted to frame him for the 2005 murder of Teresa Halbach.

Dassey, whose case the Supreme Court rejected, was convicted of being party to Halbach’s murder. At age 16, he was convicted of being party to first-degree murder, mutilation of a corpse, and second-degree sexual assault. He was sentenced to life in prison, with the earliest possibility of parole in 2048.

Dassey recanted his videotaped interrogation and confession at trial, and parts of the footage were shown in the Netflix show, which echoes his lawyers in claiming police coerced a confession from the teen. Dassey and Avery appear as themselves in the show.

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Decapitated Animal Carcass Placed on DHS Official’s Porch By Jack Crowe

Posted By on June 25th, 2018

https://www.nationalreview.com/news/dhs-official-animal-carcass-burned-decapitated-porch/

A decapitated and burned animal carcass was recently discovered on the front porch of a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) official’s Washington, D.C. home, ABC Radio reported Monday.

The incident came amid an increase in threats against DHS employees, with some two dozen reported in the past few days. DHS sent a letter Saturday to all employees apprising them of the “heightened threat,” which appears to have been exacerbated by a broader national backlash against the Trump administration’s “zero tolerance” immigration-enforcement policy.

“This assessment is based on specific and credible threats that have been levied against certain DHS employees and a sharp increase in the overall number of general threats against DHS employees,” Claire Grady, acting deputy secretary of Homeland Security, wrote to employees on Saturday in a letter obtained by ABC.

Roughly 2,300 children had been separated from their parents since the Trump administration announced in May that it would prosecute everyone who crossed the border illegally. President Trump ostensibly ended family separations via executive order Wednesday and more than 500 children have reportedly been reunited with their parents since.

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The Asylum Crisis Is a Security Challenge, Not a Legal Problem By Andrew C. McCarthy

Posted By on June 25th, 2018

https://www.nationalreview.com/2018/06/asylum-immigration-crisis-security-challenge-not-legal-problem/

Our government’s first duty is to secure the border.

This weekend, Washington mourned the iconic Charles Krauthammer’s passing. It seemed a pause in the bedlam on the border, about which he would surely have had something wise to say. As someone who knew Dr. K mainly through his scintillating columns and television commentary, I suspect his thoughts on the refugee tide would be shorn of hubris about what Washington’s laws can accomplish.

The futility of dictating to the tide, rather than shoring up against it, was an occasional Krauthammer theme. He was wont to invoke an apocryphal tale about Canute the Great (see, e.g., here), who ruled a North Sea empire a millennium ago. In this, as in innumerable other ways, Charles was singular among commentators because he got the story right. His throne moved to the coastline, Canute audaciously orders the incoming tide to halt. But this is not a cautionary tale about the delusional arrogance of power. It is about humility: The king was showing his sycophantic courtiers that the law — in this instance, the writ of a purportedly omnipotent monarch — is limited, sometimes impotent, against such phenomena as the forces of nature.

The “rule of law” is not a magic wand. It is possible only in a community that has agreed to live under its provisions. Even within such a community, it must enforced by the power of the state. Law enforcement is manageable as long its resources are commensurate with the reasonably expected degree of law-breaking.

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Nuclear Deterrence: Adopting the Reagan Approach by Mark B. Schneider and Peter Huessy

Posted By on June 25th, 2018

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/12571/nuclear-deterrence-reagan

President Reagan’s successful policies involved not the elimination of all nuclear weapons, but the simultaneous modernization of all legs of America’s nuclear Triad, while significantly reducing the size of the strategic nuclear arsenals of both the U.S. and the Soviet Union.

The 2018 Nuclear Posture Review confirms reports going back to 2004 that, “Russia is in violation of its… political commitments that directly affect the security of others, including… the 1991 Presidential Nuclear Initiatives.” These eliminated America’s battlefield nuclear weapons and many other nuclear capabilities, while Russia violated its reciprocal pledge to do the same.

Today, Russia and China not only have massive nuclear modernization programs, but also precision nuclear missiles, while the U.S. does not. Let it be a cautionary tale for the current administration in Washington.

Ronald Reagan, one of the most important presidents in American history, advanced a defense policy based on “peace through strength,” and “reducing nuclear dangers.” In so doing, he dramatically altered the United States’ approach to dealing with the Soviet nuclear threat.

President Reagan’s successful policies involved not the elimination of all nuclear weapons, but the simultaneous modernization of all legs of America’s nuclear Triad in a manner that enhanced national security and strategic stability, while significantly reducing the size of the strategic nuclear arsenals of both the U.S. and the Soviet Union. He further enhanced America’s deterrent by deploying nuclear cruise missiles (SLCMs) on naval ships, and medium-range nuclear missiles and new nuclear artillery in Europe.

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Palestinians: The Only Acceptable Peace Plan by Bassam Tawil

Posted By on June 25th, 2018

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/12586/palestinians-peace-plan

“If Kushner and Greenblatt wish to learn more about the true ambitions of the Palestinians, they would do well to take in a sermon at a mosque on some Friday or stop into a school in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Perhaps then they would see for themselves that no peace plan in the world can, at the moment, counter the poison that is injected daily into the hearts and minds of the Palestinians and their children.”

The Palestinians want nothing to do with President Trump’s plan: they know it will never satisfy their demands. The Palestinians are not opposed to the peace plan because of a dispute over a border or a settlement or a checkpoint or the status of Jerusalem. They are against Trump’s plan — and any other peace initiative — because the Palestinians have something else in mind.

The two Palestinian parties, the Palestinian Authority and Hamas, may disagree on everything — except the elimination of Israel. The only peace plan acceptable to current Palestinian leaders would be one that facilitated their mission of pursuing jihad against Israel to obliterate it.

If Jared Kushner and Jason Greenblatt wish to learn more about the true ambitions of the Palestinians, they would do well to take in a sermon at a mosque on some Friday or stop into a school in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Perhaps then they would see for themselves that no peace plan in the world can, at the moment, counter the poison that is injected daily into the hearts and minds of the Palestinians and their children.

The Palestinians have never laid eyes on US President Donald Trump’s plan for peace in the Middle East. The Palestinians know nothing about the plan, which still has not been made public.

That fact, however, has not stopped them from categorically rejecting the yet-to-be-announced plan — a stance the Palestinians repeated this week as US Middle East envoys Jared Kushner and Jason Greenblatt visited Israel and a number of Arab countries to discuss the plan.

The Trump plan has not even been finalized and, as such, has not officially been presented to any of the parties to the Israeli-Arab conflict. Kushner and Greenblatt have been working on the plan for several months; their current tour of the region comes in the context of Jordan and Egypt.