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December 2017

Europe’s Migrant Crisis: Millions Still to Come “African exodus of biblical proportions impossible to stop” by Soeren Kern

More than six million migrants are waiting in countries around the Mediterranean to cross into Europe, according to a classified German government report leaked to Bild.

“Young people all have cellphones and they can see what’s happening in other parts of the world, and that acts as a magnet.” — Michael Møller, Director of the United Nations office in Geneva.

“The biggest migration movements are still ahead: Africa’s population will double in the next decades… Nigeria [will grow] to 400 million. In our digital age with the internet and mobile phones, everyone knows about our prosperity and lifestyle…. Eight to ten million migrants are still on the way.” — Gerd Müller, Germany’s Development Minister.

The African Union-European Union (AU-EU) summit, held in in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, on November 29-30, 2017, has ended in abject failure after the 55 African and 28 European leaders attending the event were unable to agree on even basic measures to prevent potentially tens of millions of African migrants from flooding Europe.

Despite high expectations and grand statements, the only concrete decision to come out of Abidjan was the promise to evacuate 3,800 African migrants stranded in Libya.

More than six million migrants are waiting in countries around the Mediterranean to cross into Europe, according to a classified German government report leaked to Bild. The report said that one million people are waiting in Libya; another one million are waiting in Egypt, 720,000 in Jordan, 430,000 in Algeria, 160,000 in Tunisia, and 50,000 in Morocco. More than three million others who are waiting in Turkey are currently prevented from crossing into Europe by the EU’s migrant deal with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

The SPLC’s Impoverished Mind: Edward Cline

The SPLC is Antifa without hoods, masks, or bicycle locks. It has issued its own fatwas on any one or any organization it has subjectively deemed “hateful,’ that is, its primary target is to scuttle freedom of speech and to silence anyone’s freedom of speech, especially about Islam.

The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) is a kind of honorary member of the “Swamp,” and of the “Deep State.” Its board of directors is comprised of Progressivebobbleheads. While it purports to identify “hate speech” (see my recent column, “A Lexicon for Our Time,” for a discussion of the invalidity of the term hate speech) and “hate groups,” it is itself a promulgator of the former thus making it automatically a member of the latter.

“Hate speech is free speech that hurts people’s feelings.”Pat Condell agrees and describes what’s happening in Britain, which is the government’s totalitarian yen for Sharia. “Hate crime” depends on a subjective perception of what is said or written or done. It could be anything from a virulent defamation of Islam on a soapbox or the Internet, to the twirly shape of the top of a Burger King ice cream cone. If the twirl is “offensive” and resembles an Islamic symbol, you’re guilty of “hate speech” and, depending on a prosecutor’s fervor, you will be charged with a “hate crime.” Evidence of “hate speech” or a “hate crime” depends solely on someone’s “feelings” or claim of hurt feelings.

The SPLC has all the credibility of Robert Mueller, Special Counsel, whose mandate is to remove Donald Trump from office by hook, crook, or impeachment. His purpose is to find prosecutable dirt on Trump. However, he is sweeping madly for Russian dust bunnies in a spotless hospital operating room.

The SPLC is Antifa without hoods, masks, or bicycle locks. It has issued its own fatwas on any one or any organization it has subjectively deemed “hateful,” that is, its primary target is to scuttle freedom of speech and to silence anyone’s freedom of speech, especially about Islam. It commits slander, libel, or smears in conjunction with a willing and copasetic Mainstream Media (MSM), which is lured by its often ludicrous designations to fresh meat like a “Walker” or zombie in The Walking Dead. (Walker: “The reanimated corpse of a human being that has regained limited function and mobility, as well as developed an insatiable hunger for flesh.” An apt description which fits the MSM, as well! Walkers, or the MSM, have demonstrated a hunger for humans, pigs, dogs, horses, and even tigers. Tigresses like Pamela Geller, who, though surrounded by the baying and growling MSM, will not be brought down. Read FATWA, and learn why not.)

The MSM has confirmed by consensus and by a kneejerk reference to the discredited SPLC that Geller, together with everyone else on its “anti-Muslim hit list is “anti-Muslim,” even though she has said numerous times that she is not “anti-Muslim.”

Like Frankenstein’s monster, the SPLC has become a malevolent agent for “change” and social
“transformation.”

U.K. Reverend Sparks Outrage After Telling Christians to Pray for Prince George, 4, to be Gay By Billy Perrigo ????!!!!!

An Anglican minister has sparked outrage after calling for Christians to pray for Prince George, who is four years old, to grow up to be gay, in order to advance the cause of gay rights in the Church.

The minister, Rev. Kelvin Holdsworth, is known for making controversial statements, however speculating about the sexuality of a child to make a political point proved too much for many people.

“To use prayer as a mechanism for wishing this on Prince George is an unkind and destructive thing to do,” Gavin Ashenden, a Christian Episcopal Church missionary bishop, told the BBC. “It doesn’t have the prince’s best interests at heart, but uses him as a gender-political football.”

“Prince George is four years old,” wrote Twitter user MadWorldOfSam. “Praying for someone to be gay is just as bad as praying for them to be straight. Whoever he is sexually attracted to when he grows up shouldn’t matter. Damaging this kid by putting pressure on him to be gay will do more harm than good.”

Critical lessons of the 1947 Partition Plan Ambassador (Ret.) Yoram Ettinger

Past experience tends to repeat itself, creating the most glittering writing on the wall. However, too often it is overlooked by Western policy-makers, who frequently sacrifice long-term interests, strategic complexity and reality-based hope on the altar of short-term convenience, oversimplification and wishful-thinking.

The November 29, 1947 Partition Plan produced a series of long-term geo-strategic lessons – relevant to the 2017 national security of Israel and the US – which have been largely ignored, although they have recurred and have been reaffirmed, systematically, throughout the last 70 years.

Lesson #1. The foundations of the special ties between the US and Israel were not laid down by policy-makers, but – since the 1620 “Mayflower – by the American people. In 1947, the State Department opposed, aggressively, the establishment of the Jewish State, but the US public overwhelmingly supported the Partition Plan, equally among Democrats and Republicans, college-educated and non-college-educated. According to the October, 1947 Gallup poll, support of the Partition Plan was 65%:10% with 25% “no opinion.” Lowell Thomas, a US radio icon, told his listeners on May 14, 1948: “Today, as the Jewish State is established, Americans read through the Bible as a historical reference book.”

Lesson #2. The pugnacious rejection of the 1947 Partition Plan by the Arabs – including the Arabs west of the Jordan River – reflects the crux of the Arab-Israeli conflict, which has never been the Palestinian issue, Jewish settlements, the reunification of Jerusalem, or the size of the Jewish State. It has always been the existence of the “infidel” Jewish State in the Abode of Islam, a land which is, ostensibly, divinely-ordained only to “believers.”

According to the October 11, 1947 issue of the Egyptian daily, Akhbar al-Yom, the Arab League Secretary General, Azzam Pasha warned of “a war of extermination and momentous massacre, which will be spoken of like the Tartar Massacre, or the Crusader wars… to win the honor of martyrdom for the sake of Palestine… the shortest road to paradise….” In 2017, hate-education dominates the Palestinian curriculum, Friday sermons and public discourse.

Lesson #3. The secondary-to-marginal role played by the Palestinian issue in shaping Arab policy has been demonstrated, repeatedly, since 1947. While Arab leaders have talked passionately about their support of an Arab state west of the Jordan River, they have never walked the walk.

GOOD NEWS FROM AMAZING ISRAEL: MICHAEL ORDMAN

ISRAEL’S MEDICAL ACHIEVEMENTS

Protein switch helps immune system fight cancer. Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Massachusetts Institute of Technology researchers have developed a protein “switch” that activates the immune system to attack cancer cells. They were able to distinguish cancer cells from healthy tissue by their DNA sequences.
http://www.jpost.com/HEALTH-SCIENCE/Joint-Israeli-US-research-distinguishes-cancerous-cells-from-healthy-ones-508738 https://www.youtube.com/embed/vbWDuAev7Oo?rel=0

Injection melts fat. Israeli startup Raziel Therapeutics has developed an injectable molecule that apparently melts away fat cells. The new synthetic small molecule was discovered by Professor Shmuel Ben-Sasson of Hebrew University almost by accident. Raziel is conducting phase 2a clinical testing on 32 US patients.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/israeli-fat-busting-shot-seeks-to-help-battle-obesity/

GE imaging to use Israeli technology. I reported previously (twice) on the Artificial Intelligence (AI) platform of Israel’s MedyMatch for diagnosing head trauma and strokes from CT-scans. MedyMatch is now partnering with GE Healthcare to integrate its products with the US giant’s imaging solutions.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/ge-healthcare-to-use-israeli-tech-to-help-doctors-assess-stroke-embargo/

Prostate device gets European approval. Israeli biotech Butterfly Medical has received the CE Mark for its novel medical device for non-surgical treatment of Benign Prostate Hyperplasia (BPH) or enlarged prostate that affects 105 million men globally. The device is inserted in a 10-minute procedure under local anesthetic.
https://www.globes.co.il/en/article-butterfly-medical-awarded-ce-mark-for-prostate-device-1001213492

Autism and the smell of fear. Scientists at Israel’s Weizmann Institute have discovered that people with Autism react differently to certain odors produced by the human body. Experiments using sweat collected from people taking skydiving classes and from those undertaking normal exercise had remarkably different results.
https://wis-wander.weizmann.ac.il/life-sciences/autism-and-smell-fear
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41593-017-0024-x

Cancer patients win golf tournament. I reported previously (twice) on the annual fund-raising “Hole in One” golf tournament of Israeli cancer charity Ezer Mizion. For the first time, a team of cancer patients also competed. The team not only won one of the top awards, but the patients benefited from a wonderful day out.
http://www.ezermizion.org/blog/why-is-this-tournament-different-from-all-other-tournaments/

United Hatzalah founder saves a life. Eli Beer, founder and President of United Hatzalah was flying El Al from New York to Israel when he rushed to save the life of a passenger who was having a hypoglycemia attack. Using a borrowed glucometer, honey and jam he stabilized the patient so the flight could continue to Tel Aviv.
https://israelrescue.org/blog/dramatic-rescue-eli-beer-saved-a-mans-life-mid-flight-this-morning/
http://www.jpost.com/HEALTH-SCIENCE/Mans-life-saved-on-El-Al-flight-by-United-Hatzlah-president-Eli-Beer-514962

MY SAY: BOO HOO FEMINISTS

First:I think rapists and pedophiles should get the Lorena Bobbit surgery. I think physical force with threats of job loss is criminal. I think sexual innuendo and harassment is vulgar and discrediting. So is deliberate and targeted seduction by women vulgar and discrediting.

Last week Carly Fiorina spoke to Chris Wallace about the recent sex-scandals taking down celebrities, media personalities and legislators….all falling like dominoes. She described a vulgar suggestion many years ago that she use sex in order to get a contract. Her reaction then was to run out to her car and cry.

But the weeping gets to me. Fiorina wanted to be the leader of the free world? Would she run to her limo and cry if some banana dictator made a sexual suggestion threatening to withhold a treaty if she did not succumb to sex?

I would vote tomorrow for a woman who slapped or told off a sexual predator employer. Rep. Martha McSally a Republican in District 2 of Arizona is a retired United States Colonel and pilot. This is what she wrote about American female soldiers forced to wear headscarves in Moslem nations.

“To me, the abaya directive, with its different rules for male and female troops and the requirement that I don the garb of a faith not my own, violated the the U.S. constitutional values I pledged to defend and degraded military order and cohesion.”

“Our male and female troops are risking their lives every day in Afghanistan while proudly representing and defending the United States. They are there to disrupt and defeat al-Qaeda while assisting Afghans in securing their future from extremist oppression. With our Afghan partners, trust can be built on a foundation of mutual respect, where no one is expected to submit to others’ cultural and religious guidelines.”

I bet she wouldn’t cry. rsk

The New York Times: Voice of the swamp By David Zukerman

The Times, in its lead editorial, December 1, 2017, “Help Wanted: Top Diplomat,” is troubled about rumors that CIA director Mike Pompeo may succeed Rex W. Tillerson as secretary of state. For the Times, Pompeo “may be too chummy” with President Trump. To boot, he is “a Tea Party conservative and a climate change skeptic.” And more, he is accused of “mixing politics with intelligence”!

Of course, the Times has no difficulty with mixing politics and intelligence when the mix involves former Obama intelligence figures like John Brennan and James Clapper. After all, isn’t “Dossiergate” all about mixing up intelligence with politics for the purpose of forcing President Trump from office?

The Times editorial also expresses difficulty with the rumored appointment of Sen. Tom Cotton to replace Mr. Pompeo as CIA director. Among Cotton’s faults, as perceived by the Times, he “has mocked the idea that the Trump campaign colluded with Russia in the presidential election.” Perhaps even worse for the Times, Cotton “has also been Congress’s most aggressive opponents of the Iran nuclear deal….” That is to say that we have a president who intends to staff his administration with officials who reflect America’s legacy of liberty, in foreign as well as domestic, policy.

And consider this added criticism: the appointments of Pompeo and Cotton “would add two more white men to a cabinet dominated by them…” (It would be more precise, arguably, to note that “white men” would replace, not add to, other white men.)

Behold the desperation of the Swamp in its frenzy to retain dominance in U.S. politics: play the Russia card; add innuendo of right-wing extremism — and, never forget to hurl the race card, as well. Congressional Republicans should stand with the Trump Administration in its commitment to drain the Swamp, and, thereby, restore to the people our legacy of liberty — and the idea of American greatness.

NOVEMBER 2017- THE MONTH THAT WAS SYDNEY WILLIAMS

November is a month for memories. We think of the Pilgrims who celebrated their first year in the New World, in 1621 – and try to make sense of the hardships they endured, all for the cause of freedom to worship as they chose. We give thanks they succeeded. On the 11th of November, we remember the 18 million soldiers and civilians who died in World War I – a day commemorated as Armistice, Poppy, Remembrance and Veterans Day. Sadly, it was a war that did not “end all wars,” but served as prelude to a bigger conflict. But, in the end, freedom prevailed. On November 22nd, 1963 at 12:30PM President John F. Kennedy was assassinated – catapulting the nation into a struggle to understand, why? For us who were young and free, it was as though we also had been struck down. And, that most iconic of American films, Casablanca, premiered in New York City on November 26, 1942 – Thanksgiving Day. It was a movie with relevance today – a story of refugees trapped by events beyond their control, with a majority of the actors and actresses, either foreign born or refugees themselves – all seeking freedom.

The beacon of freedom, more than anything else, defines the world’s conflicts. That was so this month. Some who live in democracies are unappreciative of freedom’s rarity and fragility; for others, it is a distant siren, a promise. Islamic extremists, who despise the concept of freedom – individual, religious, political and economic – were relentless during the month. According to Wikipedia, more than 600 died at Islamists’ hands. Sayfullo Habibullaevic Saipov, a native of Uzbekistan now living in New York, drove a truck down a bike lane in lower Manhattan, killing eight cyclists. Before being caught, he shouted Allahu Akbar! God is the greatest! He had left a note pledging allegiance to ISIS. In a mosque on Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula, ISIS gunmen murdered 305 Sufi Muslims, a sect they consider heretical. On the Korean Peninsula, a North Korean soldier, identified only by his surname, Oh, escaped to the South, carrying with him five bullet wounds from North Korean soldiers, who shot him as he slipped across the border. What motivated Oh? Perhaps he had heard President Trump speak in Seoul of the “dazzling light” of South Korea versus the “impenetrable darkness” of the North – “the glories of freedom versus the toll of tyranny.”

Freedom, or the lack thereof, was at the center of the decision to elevate Xi Jinping last month. It is the crux of the debate between Brussels and London over Brexit – between the vision of Europe articulated by Margaret Thatcher almost forty years ago of a region based on nation-states that cooperate in trade and defense, versus the bureaucratic and liberty-challenged monolith preferred by those like Jean Claude Junker – an unaccountable and under-representative government that serves the needs of bureaucrats, not the wishes of the people – the populous. (Populism has been redefined by European politicians and media, and has assumed a pejorative connotation, to include all those – from nationalists to lovers of liberty – who threaten the comfortable lives led by arrogant elites in Brussels.) In the U.S., freedom lurks behind the debate raging between those who want government to do more, and those who would have it do less – to determine where on the spectrum, between anarchy and tyranny, one would prefer our politics to lie. Freedom is at risk in universities and colleges where conservatives are banned and debate is stifled.

Mueller Investigation: Politics, Not Law Enforcement or Counterintelligence The end game is the removal of Trump, either by impeachment or by publicly discrediting him and making his reelection politically impossible. By Andrew C. McCarthy

Here’s what I’d be tempted to do if I were President Trump: I’d direct the Justice Department to appoint a special counsel to investigate Iran’s efforts to acquire nuclear weapons, including any Obama-administration collusion in that enterprise.

I would make sure to call it a “counterintelligence investigation,” putting no limitations on the special counsel — just as with the investigation that Special Counsel Robert Mueller has been unleashed to conduct into Trump “collusion” with Russia. That is, I would not restrict the prosecutor and investigators to digging for specified criminal violations. Or, indeed, any criminal violations. I’d just tell the special counsel, “Have at it” — with unbound authority to scrutinize the negotiations surrounding the eventual Iran nuclear deal (the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action).

Would I really expect the special counsel to find that Obama officials conspired with the mullahs to obtain nukes for Tehran? No . . . but hey, as the “Trump collusion with Russia” crowd says, “You never know.” Meantime, under the guise of investigating this highly unlikely “collusion,” I’d want the special counsel to scrutinize closely any variances between what Obama-administration officials were telling Congress and the public about the negotiations and what they were telling the Iranians; to probe any side deals the administration agreed to but failed to disclose to Congress; and to consider whether any laws or policies were violated in such matters as President Obama’s payment of a cash ransom in exchange for American hostages held by Iran.

Why would I do this? Well, because I disagree with Obama-administration foreign policy, of course. Under the Mueller “collusion” precedent, it is evidently now American practice to criminalize foreign-policy disputes under the pretext of conducting a counterintelligence investigation.

It is difficult to come to any other conclusion based on the guilty plea that Mueller just pried out of Michael Flynn.

Let’s think about what has happened here.

The Justice Department did not, as the pertinent special-counsel regulations require, identify specific crimes it suspected had been committed by Trump-campaign officials. Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein disclosed no factual predicate calling for a criminal investigation from which Trump’s Justice Department would be ethically required to recuse itself.

Nancy Pelosi–Roy Moore’s Accidental Wingman by Charles Lipson

After all the credible allegations against Roy Moore, after his initial, fumbling denials, you would think he’d be down for the count. But no. The polls show a tight race in Alabama, and the political betting markets actually make him a heavy favorite.

Why?

Partly because Alabama is such a deep-red state. And partly because the Democrats’ own sexual scandals have helped Moore. It’s not obvious they would. If the Democrats had condemned their own members promptly and forthrightly, when the evidence against them was compelling, then the party could stand on solid ground condemning Republicans. The cascade of scandals would highlight the seriousness of the problem and give Alabama voters a clear-cut opportunity to rebuke Moore’s alleged predatory behavior and, with it, the atrocious conduct of many others.

That’s not what Democratic congressional leaders did. Instead of standing on moral ground and condemning sexual misconduct, regardless of party, they dug a bunker to protect their own. They adopted a familiar public-relations strategy: look troubled, condemn the general problem, avoid specifics, and call for an inquiry (behind closed doors, of course). No transparency. No public shaming. Most of all, wait and see. Don’t call for one of your own to resign unless the public pressure becomes unbearable.

That’s exactly how Nancy Pelosi responded to multiple, credible allegations of sexual misconduct against senior Michigan Congressman John Conyers. On Sunday, Pelosi went on NBC’s “Meet the Press” and genuflected to Conyers, calling him an “icon.” When she asked, rhetorically, “Who knows these women?” she made clear what really matters to her: partisan advantage.

By Thursday, she finally decided where that advantage lay. She called for Conyers to resign. Why so slow? Because the political choice was between two key Democratic constituencies, compounded by her party’s bedrock commitment to identity politics. Pelosi and other Democratic leaders know they gain with women voters (and many men) by condemning sexual harassment and assault. But they lose with many African-Americans when the accused is a prominent black legislator and the resignation call comes from a white one. That was the choice facing Pelosi. Which alternative would cost them more votes and more donations?

In these awkward circumstances, Nancy moved slowly, watching the allegations and evidence pile up, and watching resentment among women grow. Her best solution would have been for Conyers to resign because theCongressional Black Caucus asked him to. No dice. The CBC talked with him but told reporters they would wait for the Ethics Committee to do its work. That would be complete within the decade.