Displaying posts published in

August 2019

ISRAEL Comments turned off

Polls, attempted putsches and ayatollahs By Ruthie Blum

By on August 29th, 2019

https://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Right-from-Wrong-Polls-attempted-putsches-and-ayatollahs-600127

With less than three weeks left before the September 17 Knesset elections, the only two issues on which the Right and Left seem to agree is that neither bloc will be able to form a coalition, and that voter turnout is going to be lower than ever. This sad consensus was born of, and continues to be bred by, polls.

The question of whether surveys reflect or shape public sentiment is not new. Nor is the discussion about their accuracy, particularly in the mass-communication age, when reaching voters can no longer be done by calling random numbers in what have become obsolete phone books. Furthermore, as post-election analysts around the world point out when faced with unexpected ballot-box outcomes, people lie to pollsters, or change their minds at the last minute.

The April 9 elections that ended in an impasse, with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin (Bibi) Netanyahu ultimately unable to form a government, deserve to be relegated to a different category, however.

The surprise there was that Yisrael Beytenu leader Avigdor Liberman refused to join the right-wing camp to which he had previously belonged. Had he not pulled a stunt to thwart Netanyahu, his measly five mandates would have enabled the ruling Likud Party to lead a clear majority. This was not something that pollsters – whose pie charts had put Yisrael Beytenu on the same side as Likud – could have predicted.

At least this time around, they don’t need to guess. Liberman has made it clear since April 10 that he will only join a coalition that excludes the haredi (ultra-Orthodox) parties.

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CHARLOTTE'S NEWS WEB Comments turned off

CHARLOTTE’S NEWS WEB

By on August 29th, 2019

https://thehill.com/opinion/white-house/459197-trump-can-change-history-by-declassifying-three-obama-era-documents

Trump can change history by declassifying three Obama-era documents John Solomon, TheHill.com

My sources tell me President Trump is putting the finishing touches on a White House initiative to declassify documents that have remained hidden from the public for far too long.

This welcome effort to provide more public transparency and accountability almost certainly will focus early on the failings of the now-debunked Russia collusion probe. And I’m sure it will spread quickly toward other high-profile issues, such as the government’s UFO files that have been a focus of clamoring for decades.

But my reporting indicates three sets of documents from the Obama years should be declassified immediately, too, because they will fundamentally change the public’s understanding of history and identify ways to improve governance.

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www.thegatewaypundit.com/2019/08/must-see-trump-supporter-creates-interactive-trump-border-wall-map-on/?

Trump Supporter Builds INTERACTIVE Border Wall showing progress and details about the project

 

89 Miles Completed and Counting!

A new website “TrumpWallconstrution” went live last week with information on the current progress of the Trump Border Wall. The website includes an interactive map that has information on planning and current work in progress of the prominent sectors of the border wall:

SAN DIEGO
EL CENTRO
YUMA
TUCSON
EL PASO
BIG BEND
DEL RIO
LAREDO
RIO GRANDE VALLEY

 

www.americanthinker.com/blog/2019/08/even_axios_gets_the_willies_about_bernie_sanderss_plan_to_restructure_your_life.html

Even Axios gets the willies about Bernie Sanders’s plan to ‘restructure your life’

Monica Showalter, AmericanThinker.com/blog

In a startling Axios summary list called “Bernie Sanders’ 2020 plan to restructure your life,” Axios publisher Jim Vanderhei (and Juliet Bartz) is sounding the alarm about the nightmare scenario of a potential Bernie Sanders presidency.

The piece was featured in Mike Allen’s widely read Top 10 — at the top.  It’s a piece that looks as if it belongs more at Issues & Insights than center-left Axios.  Axios warns that Sanders is surging in the polls and influencing other Democratic candidates with his ideas and they don’t sound happy.  Has a light switch finally been flipped on?  Vanderhei and Bartz write:

A Sanders government would take control of …

Your energy choices: His Green New Deal would spend $16 trillion to force you to stop using the energy mostly used today — oil, gas and nuclear. He promises cleaner power and air in return.
Your house and car: The Sanders government would pay to weatherize homes and small businesses, and to upgrade gas-powered cars for electric ones. He would mandate the end of conventional gas car manufacturing in a decade.

https://townhall.com/columnists/kurtschlichter/2019/08/29/savor-the-medias-outrage-at-being-held-to-the-same-standard-as-the-rest-of-us-n2552241?

Savor The Media’s Outrage At Being Held To The Same Standard As The Rest of Us

Kurt Schlichter, TownHall.com

You must have a heart of stone not to burst into uncontrollable, hysterical laughter at the agony of the failing New York Times and the rest of the media over how conservative activists are going to apply the same internet colonoscopy to lib journalistas as they apply to us.

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NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION, POLITICS Comments turned off

A Centrist Debate Shutout The next Democratic debate is going to list hard to the left.

By on August 29th, 2019

https://www.wsj.com/articles/a-centrist-debate-shutout-11567033452

Democrats on Thursday will announce the lineup for their next presidential debate, and the good news is that New Yorkers Kirsten Gillibrand (who dropped out Wednesday) and Bill de Blasio won’t be on stage to afflict viewers. The bad news: Neither will the centrists who dared in the first two debates to raise questions about the party’s leftward lunge.

By Wednesday 10 candidates had met the Democratic National Committee criteria of at least 2% support in four polls and donations from 130,000 people. That means no appearance in Houston on Sept. 12 for Colorado Sen. Michael Bennet, Ohio Congressman Tim Ryan, former Maryland Rep. John Delaney and Montana Gov. Steve Bullock.

These candidates were truth-tellers on Medicare for All, the Green New Deal, free health care for undocumented immigrants from everywhere, slavery reparations and more. Massachusetts Rep. Seth Moulton and former Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper have ended their campaigns, so Americans are likely to hear an unrelieved bidding war of spending promises and higher taxes. The centrist dearth will put more pressure on former Vice President Joe Biden to defend what is left of his moderate policy positions. But it might open running room for Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar, a liberal who understands the need for a private economy.

By the way, billionaire Tom Steyer might not make the stage despite having spent more than $325,000 a day on campaign advertising since entering the race. This would prove again that Democrats are wrong about money dominating politics.

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ISRAEL, WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Israel Faces a Serious Escalation in its Proxy War with Iran by Con Coughlin

By on August 29th, 2019

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/14784/israel-proxy-war-iran

The fact that Israel has found it necessary to attack targets so far from its traditional area of military operations close to its immediate borders is indicative of the alarming escalation that has taken place in recent months in the threat Iran poses to Israeli security.

Earlier this week, in Lebanon, an Israeli drone was reported to have bombed a Palestinian base that is said to be funded by Iran. Israeli warplanes were also reported to have bombed Iranian military bases on the outskirts of the Syrian capital Damascus.

The very idea of Washington sitting down with the Iranians at a time when it is continuing to threaten the security of its closest Middle Eastern ally would be unconscionable.

The reality is that there can be no meaningful dialogue between Washington and Tehran on a future deal so long as Iran remains committed to its long-standing policy of seeking the wholesale destruction of the Jewish state.

The recent confirmation by US military officials that Israeli warplanes were responsible for the recent attack on an Iranian military base in Iraq demonstrates the alarming extent to which the so-called proxy war between Tehran and Jerusalem has escalated in recent weeks.

According to senior Israeli security sources, spoken to on an off-the-record basis, the base in the northern Iraqi province of Salaheddin was targeted because they believed it was being used to assemble Iranian-made medium-range missiles with the capability to hit targets in Israel.

The threat was deemed so important that senior Israeli officers decided to launch a daring bombing raid that required F-35 stealth warplanes to penetrate Saudi airspace to achieve their objective. It is unclear whether the Saudis, who oppose Iranian meddling in Iraq but do not have diplomatic relations with Israel, gave permission for the Israeli warplanes to enter their airspace.

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WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Iranian Women Fight for Freedom by Uzay Bulut

By on August 29th, 2019

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/14773/iranian-women-freedom

“The Islamic Republic authorities say ‘compulsory hijab’ is the law and must be obeyed. However, bad laws must be challenged and changed.” — Masih Alinejad, Iranian-American journalist and award-winning activist.

“The basis of this tyranny is the religious law that the government has been enforcing since the 1979 revolution. Women are second-class citizens, and essentially slaves in Iran. The international community needs to have the courage to delegitimize religious law and call it out for its tyrannical nature. Just as the free world delegitimized communism during the Cold War, it should do the same to religious law.” — Nasrin Mohammadi, author of Ideas and Lashes: The Prison Diary of Akbar Mohammadi, about the torture and death in prison of her late brother; to Gatestone Institute.

“The international community should also focus on Iran, struggle to end that regime and other similar governments across the world. With Iran, it should also point out the corruption, where religion is used as an excuse to steal money and power from the people.” — Nasrin Mohammadi.

“But we need support of the international community to raise this issue with Iranian authorities and take action.” — Masih Alinejad.

Three Iranian women held in Tehran’s notorious Qarchak prison were sentenced recently to what could amount to more than 10 years in prison. Their “crime”? Failing to wear headscarves, thereby defying the country’s Islamic dress code.

The women were apprehended after a video they posted online during International Women’s Day went viral. In the clip, they are seen walking bear-headed on a Tehran metro and distributing flowers to female passengers.

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NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

U.S. Intel Gatekeeper Dragging Feet on Trump-Russia Files, Insiders Say Paul Sperry

By on August 29th, 2019

https://www.realclearinvestigations.com/articles/2019/08/28/top_us_intel_office_dragging_feet_on_russiagate_files_for_trump_insiders_say_120135.html

More than three months after President Trump granted his attorney general unprecedented power to declassify intelligence files, key U.S. intelligence agencies are still withholding documents related to the Trump-Russia affair, say people with direct knowledge of White House discussions on the subject.

The source of the logjam: the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, which Trump is in the process of shaking up after the resignations last month of its director, Dan Coats, and principal deputy, Sue Gordon. “Establishment” officials in that agency are still dragging their feet, say the sources, who spoke on condition that they not be further identified.

Sources who have seen the documents generally described their contents to RealClearInvestigations. They said the material still under wraps includes: 

Evidence that President Obama’s CIA, FBI, and Justice Department illegally eavesdropped on the Trump campaign — cases separate from the FBI’s disputed FISA court-approved surveillance of Trump campaign adviser Carter Page.

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POLITICS Comments turned off

Why Doesn’t Stacey Abrams Want to Run for Senate? By Jim Geraghty see note please

By on August 29th, 2019

https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/why-doesnt-stacey-abrams-want-to-run-for-senate/

Something ‘s afoot here….Stacey Abrams a sore loser without any national prominence was chosen to give the opposing  party’s rebuttal to the president’s State of the Union speech in 2019. Until 2019, all previous responses were delivered by contemporary senators, representatives, or governors. She is being groomed and aiming for a place on the National ticket…..rsk

Life just got a little more complicated for the National Republican Senatorial Committee. The 2020 elections looked challenging but manageable, needing to defend Colorado’s Cory Gardner, Maine’s Susan Collins, North Carolina’s Thom Tillis, and Arizona’s appointed senator Martha McSally. The risk of losses were somewhat offset by some low-hanging fruit in Alabama Democrat Doug Jones, an open seat in New Mexico, and maybe some chances for an upset in New Hampshire or Michigan.

But now Republicans have to worry about an open seat Senate race in Georgia, as Senator Johnny Isakson said today that he will step down from office at the end of this year due to complications with Parkinson’s disease.

Yes, Georgia is a Republican-leaning state. When Stacey Abrams calls herself the legitimately elected governor of her state and refuses to concede the race, Republicans can point out that the official final vote count in 2018 put her down by 54,723 votes, not exactly a small margin. But Abrams did do better than almost any Georgia Democrat running statewide in a generation, with 48.8 percent, and came within 1.4 percentage points of winning.

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HOMELAND SECURITY Comments turned off

ISIS Beheading Plotter’s Conviction Overturned by Obama-Appointed Judge By Pamela Geller

By on August 29th, 2019

https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2019/08/isis_beheading_plotters_conviction_overturned_by_obamaappointed_judge.html

Daoud Wright is a former Islamic State (ISIS) operative in Boston who was the ringleader of a plot to behead me. In December 2017, he was found guilty on five counts in this terrorist plot against me, which involved Wright maintaining close contact with and even financing a major American ISIS leader, Zulfi Hoxha. Yet late Wednesday afternoon, one of those convictions was overturned. Federal Appeals Court Justice David J. Barron said Wright “could have been simply been ‘role-playing’ with respect to following ISIS’s direction.”

Back when Wright was convicted, the jury didn’t think Wright was just “role-playing.” They brought the verdict in swiftly: according to WBUR, they “reached five verdicts in six hours.” Acting U.S. Attorney William Weinreb said: “Mr. Wright is a terrorist, an ISIS supporter and recruiter who intended to wage war against the United States by beheading people and killing Americans.”

Barron, in contrast, clearly has embraced the claim of the defense during the trial, that Wright was just a fat fantasist sitting in his mother’s basement playing video games and dreaming of glory. But in an extraordinary article that appeared in the left-wing Atlantic in January 2018 entitled “A New American Leader Rises in ISIS,” Seamus Hughes, Alexander Meleagrou-Hitchens, and Bennett Clifford revealed that a “shared interest in video games may have been one of the first things that brought Hoxha together with David Wright.” The video games were not an idle pastime:

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NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

This is what energy independence looks like By Silvio Canto, Jr. (Finally!!!!rsk)

By on August 29th, 2019

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2019/08/this_is_what_energy_independence_looks_like.html

The U.S. is now the world’s largest producer of both oil and natural gas.

Let me reveal my age and remember that I watched President Richard M. Nixon call for “energy independence” many years ago.   His successors have more or less said the same thing.

It appears that President Nixon’s call may soon be reality.  In fact, it looks like we may be “drowning the world” with oil, according to Nick Cunningham:   

The U.S. is still expected to account of the bulk of new drilling and the vast majority of new production, with much of that coming from shale. 

Already, the U.S. is the world’s largest producer of both oil and natural gas. 

And the pace has accelerated in recent years. 

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ANTI-SEMITISM Comments turned off

Why Socialism, and Why Now? By Victor Davis Hanson

By on August 29th, 2019

https://pjmedia.com/victordavishanson/why-socialism-and-why-now/

“Socialist! is no longer a McCarthyite slur.

Rather, the fresh celebrity “Squad” of newly elected identity-politics congresswomen — Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) and Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) — often either claim to be socialists or embrace socialist ideas. A recent Harris poll showed that about half of so-called millennials would like to live in a socialist country.

Five years ago, septuagenarian Sen. Bernie Sanders (D-Vt.) was considered an irrelevant lone socialist in the U.S. Senate — Vermont’s trademark contribution to cranky quirkiness. But in 2016, Sanders’ improbable Democratic primary run almost knocked off front-runner Hillary Clinton, even as socialist governments were either imploding or stagnating the world over.

After Clinton’s loss to Donald Trump in the 2016 general election, Sanders is back, running as a socialist warhorse, promising endless amounts of free stuff, with those promises suddenly being taken seriously.

Sanders, like the members of the Squad, has limited political power. But the celebrity and social media influence of these new and retread socialists has been on the upswing — especially in the current 21st-century climate of radical transformations in economic and political life.

Note the shock over Clinton’s 2016 defeat, the furor directed at a take-no-prisoners Trump, and sudden progressive criticism of the Obama presidency as too temporizing, weak and ineffectual. And there are still other undercurrents that explain why currently socialism polls so well among young Americans.

College-educated Americans collectively owe an estimated $1.5 trillion in unpaid student loans. Many of these debtors despair of ever paying back the huge sums.

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