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September 2019

The Invisible Thread by: Diana West

I’m posting the link to my May 15, 2019 Red Thread radio interview with Sean Hannity and Gregg Jarrett (with thanks to Vlad Tepes) because I suddenly realized that this 10-plus minute segment from the beginning of the summer makes a nice bookend to a short passage I find in Andy McCarthy’s late-summer release, Ball of Collusion.

As some may recall, my three-way conversation with Hannity and Jarrett demonstrated what I have found to be a perplexing dynamic in Trump-Russia narratives: namely, an ever-present force field against the notion, even the evidence (as laid out in The Red Thread) that the intellectual history of the anti-Trump conspirators, from Comey to Ohr, from Brennan to Steele, and on and on, reveals open affinities for Marxist ideology, clear connections to communist movements and activities, which bind them all together in a skein of “red threads.”  

The preferred consensus — ideology-free — is succinctly expressed in the Hannity interview by Jarrett, who, in answer to the question that guided my research (what motivated these top Washington officials to risk all in their lawless efforts to stop Trump?), stated that their motivation was personal, visceral, job-related. Had I one more soundbyte, I think I would have replied that none of these assuredly plausible motivations cuts the conspirators’ troubling ties with what old Soviet agit prop called “the socialist camp.”

I plan to read the McCarthy book. We are writing about the same events but it seems that we regard them with very different eyes. What I unravel in The Red Thread as an ideologically motivated conspiracy by subverters (if not “occupiers”) of our constiutional republic against a strongly (yea, vsicerally) anti-communist president, Andy McCarthy defines as a more conventional if “scandalous abuse of power” by the Obama administration.

Trump’s Total Culture War By Victor Davis Hanson

https://pjmedia.com/victordavishanson/trumps-total-culture-war/

Donald Trump is waging a nonstop, all-encompassing war against progressive culture, in magnitude analogous to what 19th-century Germans once called a Kulturkampf.

As a result, not even former President George W. Bush has incurred the degree of hatred from the left that is now directed at Trump. For most of his time in office, Trump, his family, his friends and his businesses have been investigated, probed, dissected and constantly attacked.

In 2016 and early 2017, Barack Obama appointees in the FBI, CIA and Department of Justice tried to subvert the Trump campaign, interfere with his transition and, ultimately, abort his presidency. Now, congressional Democrats promise impeachment before the 2020 election.

The usual reason for such hatred is said to be Trump’s unorthodox and combative take-no-prisoners style. Critics detest his crude and unfettered assertions, his lack of prior military or political experience, his attacks on the so-called bipartisan administrative state, and his intent to roll back the entire Obama-era effort of “fundamentally transforming” the country leftward.

Certainly, Trump’s agenda of closing the border, using tariffs to overturn a half-century of Chinese mercantilism, and pulling back from optional overseas military interventions variously offends both Democrats and establishment Republicans.

Trump periodically and mercurially fires his top officials. He apparently does not care whether the departed write damning memoirs or join his opposition. He will soon appoint his fourth national security adviser within just three years.

Lewandowski’s Contempt for a Contemptible Congress Julie Kelly

https://amgreatness.com/2019/09/18/lewandowskis-contempt-for-a-contemptible-congress/

Shortly after being sworn-in in January, freshman U.S. Representative  Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) promised to “impeach the motherfucker” during an inauguration celebration. The “motherfucker” to whom she was referring, of course, was President Donald Trump.

Tlaib’s outburst ushered in the profane, malevolent, and contemptible 115th Congress of the United States.

Former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski is under fire for his defiant performance during the House Judiciary Committee’s first impeachment hearing on Tuesday. Lawmakers and pundits are howling about Lewandowski’s refusal to answer questions and his mockery of the process. (Lewandowksi testified for more than 20 hours before the Senate and House Intelligence Committees and Robert Mueller’s office.)

Yet Jerold Nadler (D-N.Y.), the committee’s chairman, is reportedly considering whether to charge Lewandowski, who never actually worked for the Trump Administration, with contempt of Congress.

It is Nadler and his Democratic colleagues, however, who are defiling the halls of Congress.

Since taking control of the people’s house more than eight months ago, Democrats—individually and collectively—have acted contemptuously toward the president, his associates, his family, and his supporters. After failing to take down the president by means of fabricated Trump-Russia collusion, Democrats are leading dozens more investigations into Trump World.

CHARLOTTE’S NEWS WEB

FBI arrests man in Alabama after he says he’d kill Americans for ISIS

https://www.theblaze.com/news/fbi-arrests-man-in-alabama-after-he-says-hed-kill-americans-for-isis?utm_source=BlazeTV-capitol-hill-brief-

California lawmakers pass resolution calling on all ‘religious groups’ — including Christians — to ’embrace’ LGBTQ worldview

https://www.theblaze.com/news/california-lawmakers-resolution-religious-groups-embrace-lbgt-worldview?utm_source=BlazeTV-capitol-hill-brief-

 Senate Democrats blocked a government spending bill because of the southern border wall.

https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/461975-senate-democrats-block-government-sp

‘Only plausible candidate’: Never Trump Republicans plotting to back Biden
David M. Drucker, WashingtonExaminer.com

www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/campaigns/never-trump-republicans-quietly-preparing-to-back-biden

Bibi in Trouble? Netanyahu may have to master the art of the deal to stay in power. Matthew Vadum

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2019/09/bibi-triuble-matthew-vadum/

Unless he convinces Israeli lawmakers from outside his party to join him in a national unity government, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s 10-and-a-half-year run in office may soon end following inconclusive results inhis country’s parliamentary elections this week that appeared to deprive him of a governing majority in the Knesset.

President Donald Trump took a hands-off approach when asked about the elections in America’s foremost ally in the Middle East.

“Our relations are with Israel, so we’ll see what happens,” he told reporters while touring California.

In Israel, Netanyahu has leveraged his ideological affinity with Trump as a selling point in his reelection bid. Trump has described Netanyahu as a close friend. Trump won praise from Netanyahu and others for his bold decision to relocate the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem and his statement recognizing Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights.

Netanyahu encountered various political headwinds as he campaigned to stay in office.

Israel’s attorney general wants to indict him on corruption charges. Critics say he claimed the media and government officials were out to get him. He apparently turned off some segments of the voting public by promising to annex Jewish settlements in the West Bank and vowing to go after militants in Gaza.

At 69, “Bibi” Netanyahu is the longest-serving head of government in the Jewish state’s history and the first to be born in Israel after it was created in 1948.

Mechanic Accused of Sabotaging American Airlines jetliner Has Ties to ISIS Debra Heine

https://amgreatness.com/2019/09/18/mechanic-accused-of-sabotaging-american-airlines-jetliner-has-ties-to-isis/

The mechanic accused of sabotaging an American Airlines jetliner back in July was found to have had violent Islamic State videos on his cellphone, as well as desire for Allah to hurt non-Muslims, new evidence unveiled at his bail hearing revealed on Wednesday.

Abdul-Majeed Marouf Ahmed Alani, according to prosecutors, has ties to ISIS through his brother in Iraq.

The 60-year-old Alani was charged earlier this month with willfully damaging or disabling a plane. The Boeing 737, which had 150 passengers and crew aboard, did not take off and no one was injured.

The sabotage involved gluing a piece of Styrofoam inside the nose of the aircraft that effectively disabled a component pilots depend on to gauge such things as airspeed, the pitch of the plane, and so forth. Authorities say the problem was detected just before takeoff, when an error message appeared on a screen in the cockpit and the jet returned to a gate. It had been bound for Nassau, Bahamas.

Airport surveillance video showed Alani working on the aircraft’s nose compartment for seven minutes, even though there was no repair issue with the plane. He was later identified by co-workers from that video.

New York Times Ends its Spanish-Language Version Eric Lendrum

https://amgreatness.com/2019/09/18/new-york-times-ends-its-spanish-language-version/

The New York Times announced Tuesday that it would be shutting down its Spanish-language version, NYT en Espanol, according to The Hill.

A spokesperson for the Times confirmed to The Hill that the publication had “discontinued NYT en Espanol as a separate, standalone operation” after it had launched three years prior, admitting that “it did not prove financially successful.”

NYT en Espanol’s editor Paulina Chavira defended the work of the now-defunct branch of the Times, saying that it had “published over 900 opinion articles and 100 additional original articles,” and stated her belief that “writing in Spanish is always a good business decision…and time will prove it.”

The Times spokesperson additionally reiterated that the shutdown of NYT en Espanol would “not affect coverage of Latin America,” which will continue operation with staffers located in “Medellin, Mexico City, and Rio de Janeiro.”

Nadler’s House committee holds a faux hearing in search of a false crime By Andrew C. McCarthy

https://thehill.com/opinion/white-house/461914-nadlers-house-committee-holds-a-faux-hearing-in-search-of-a-false-crime

The House Judiciary Committee’s faux impeachment hearing on Tuesday was an exercise in legal obfuscation about obstruction. 

It is a curious exercise, because the House does not need a criminal obstruction offense in order to impeach the president. But it is a telling exercise, too: Democrats are pretending they have an actual crime, just as they are pretending to engage in an actual impeachment inquiry. Acknowledging the absence of a crime would demonstrate that Chairman Jerry Nadler’s hearings are nakedly political. 

As their first witness since Nadler (D-N.Y.) outlined his impeachment investigation without a House vote endorsing one, committee Democrats called Corey Lewandowski, the president’s confidant and one-time campaign manager. The purpose was not to plumb new ground. Congressional Democrats and the White House are arguing over executive privilege; the committee was on notice that Lewandowski — who already had cooperated with the special counsel and testified before Congress three times — would not answer questions about his communications with the president beyond what is laid out in the Mueller report. 

Consequently, the purpose of the hearing was to read, again and again, a portion of that report that Democrats deem terribly damaging. To wit, in June-July 2017, Trump instructed Lewandowski — who was not formally on the White House staff — to urge then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions to limit his recusal from the Russia investigation, so that Sessions then could narrow the scope of Mueller’s investigation. The idea was that Mueller would be permitted to continue investigating in order to prevent Russian interference in future elections, but drop the investigation of whether Trump’s campaign interfered in the 2016 election.

Lewandowski never carried out the president’s directive. Yet, by the Democrats’ lights, Trump’s actions amount to felony obstruction of justice. On these facts, however, there can be no such crime. 

US-Israel Defense Pact: By Ambassador (Ret.)Yoram Ettinger

A constructive US-Israel defense pact should be based on shared values and shared strategic interests, expanding the two-way-street, win-win US-Israel strategic cooperation.

An effective US-Israel defense pact should enhance Israel’s self-reliance and independence, rather than Israel’s dependence upon the US.

A useful US-Israel defense pact should bolster and leverage Israel’s posture of deterrence at the geographic junction of the Mediterranean-Europe-Africa-Asia, which is a focal point of global terrorism, the proliferation of ballistic and nuclear technologies and unpredictable tectonic military eruptions. Israel’s role is doubly critical at a time when Europe’s posture of deterrence is rapidly collapsing.

A beneficial US-Israel defense pact should further extend the strategic hand of the US – through Israel’s proven capabilities – without additional US aircraft carriers and troops in the Middle East.

A worthwhile US-Israel defense pact should underscore the role of Israel as the most cost-effective, battle-tested laboratory of US defense industries, upgrading US military performance, research and development, production, export and employment. The unique Israeli battle experience has benefitted US military operations by enhancing the formulation of US battle tactics and maneuverability.

France: Macron Sides with Iran’s Mullahs by Guy Millière

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/14899/france-macron-iran-mullahs

On September 14, just a few days after former National Security Advisor Ambassador John R. Bolton was comfortably disappeared from the administration, Iran inflicted major damage on a massive oil processing facility in Saudi Arabia,

Macron, in short, has done as much or more than any other European country to favor the Iranian regime — more than Germany, and even more than the European Union itself. He could have chosen to act as a reliable ally of the United States, but the choice he made was a different.

The French officials act and speak as if the Iranian regime was totally honorable, and as if they did not discern the obvious: that the Iranian regime has destructive goals. The nuclear deal did not divert the regime from its goal of building nuclear weapons. The deal, in fact, floated the regime toward precisely that end. The American strategy of applying maximum pressure through economic sanctions seems the only non-military way to pressure this regime to change course.

On August 25, in Biarritz, France, the leaders of the Group of Seven (G7) reunited to discuss world problems. The situation in the Middle East was not on the agenda. French President Emmanuel Macron, the organizer of the summit this year, was about to force it in.

He had decided to invite to the summit Iran’s foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif. Macron did not warn his guests of Zarif’s attendance until the last minute. His goal, it seems, was to bring about a meeting between the Iranian minister and US President Donald J. Trump. President Trump declined. Zarif had an informal conversation with Macron and some French ministers, then flew back to Tehran. But Macron did not give up. At a press conference the next day, he publicly asked President Trump to meet Iranian leaders as soon as possible.