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October 2019

Iran Opens a Second Front Along Israel’s Border The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and its proxies control Syrian land near the Golan Heights. By Jonathan Spyer

https://www.wsj.com/articles/iran-opens-a-second-front-along-israels-border-11570056375

Israel is fighting off Iranian expansion across the Middle East, but danger for the Jewish state lurks near its own borders. Painstaking work by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and their loyal proxies has succeeded in laying the groundwork for a second Iranian front with Israel in the Golan Heights.

The first front is to Israel’s north in South Lebanon. The Golan, which Israel won from Syria in 1967, lies further east. Though Israel rules the skies, the Syrian land adjoining Israel’s border appears increasingly to belong to Iran. Reports from both Israelis and Syrian opposition groups have revealed glimpses of the methods the Iranians and their allies have employed to build a military infrastructure on the Syrian side of the Golan.

One is “The Iranian Conquest of Syria,” a report published last month by the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs. The authors are two retired senior Israeli military intelligence officers, Brig. Gen. Shimon Shapira and Col. Jacques Neriah. They explain how Iranian and Hezbollah fighters have crept methodically westward from the Syrian lava field of Lajat, 40 miles from the Golan Heights in Syria’s southwest, to the broken nation’s Quneitra province, which is even closer.

The Iranian element, made up of the Revolutionary Guard, Lebanese Hezbollah and the local Syrians they have recruited, is tightly woven into the border villages and the official Syrian security forces. That much is clear from the locations of the four permanent bases used by Lebanese Hezbollah in southwest Syria. One is at Al Haraq, within an area controlled and maintained by the Syrian army’s 52nd Brigade. Two others are in the Lajat area. These are used to train locally recruited fighters and store short- and medium-range missiles.

The fourth base is in Quneitra, outside Al Hadr, about 3 miles from the Israeli border. According to the Israeli researchers, the base is protected by the Quneitra Hawks Brigade, which is part of the Syrian National Defense Forces, a reserve army established by Iranian commander Qasem Soleimani. The base is situated within a position of the Syrian army’s 90th Brigade and used mainly for intelligence gathering and eavesdropping. CONTINUE AT SITE

Portland Bans Urinals In $195M ‘Gender-Neutral’ Remodel of Government Building By Tyler O’Neil

https://pjmedia.com/trending/portland-bans-urinals-in-195m-gender-neutral-remodel-of-government-building/

The City of Portland has banned urinals in the $195 million remodel of the Portland Building, which houses administrative offices for the city. While urinals use less water than toilets, they are a relic of a bygone era when men and women were recognized as biologically different.

A spokeswoman told NBC affiliate KGW News that she could not estimate how much it will cost to remove the urinals, which have been a feature of the building since its construction in 1982.

Chief Administrative Officer Tom Rinehart explained the urinal ban in an email to employees last February.

“We will continue to have gender-specific (male and female) multi-stall restrooms that are readily available to any employee that prefers to use one. But, there will be no urinals in any restroom in the building. This will give us the flexibility we need for any future changes in signage,” he wrote.

According to KGW, the building will have gender-neutral multi-stall bathrooms intended to be used by men and women together. These free-for-all restrooms — a dream come true for perverts — will be on the first, third, and fifteenth floors.

Every floor will have at least one bathroom open to “any gender,” in most cases a single-stall restroom. Throughout the building, there will be 42 “all-user stalls” and 104 sex-specific stalls.

Rinehart framed the urinal ban as a way to “remove arbitrary barriers.” In his email to employees, he wrote, “I am convinced that this is the right way to ensure success as your employer, remove arbitrary barriers in our community, and provide leadership that is reflective of our shared values.”

Trump’s Real Liability Isn’t Impeachment: It’s China and the Economy By David P. Goldman

https://pjmedia.com/spengler/forget-the-impeachment-circus-republicans-need-to-worry-about-the-economy/

Below is an open letter to Larry Kudlow I posted here on July 19, 2018. I warned that Trump’s trade war would backfire. Today we heard that the National Association of Purchasing Managers’ industrial production index had fallen to the lowest level since June of 2009. We are in a manufacturing recession, according to the Federal Reserve. Factory output is contracting. Trump won in 2016 by carrying key manufacturing states like Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, and Wisconson. This blunder could lose him the election. This is MUCH more dangerous than the impeachment masquerade. Americans really don’t care about Ukraine but they do care about their jobs. The president is trying to deflect blame onto the Federal Reserve, but he’s not fooling anybody.

Otherwise, we’re getting our heads handed to us by the Chinese. After a year of twisting the arms of our allies to boycott Huawei’s rollout of 5G broadband, the Chinese national champion will ship 600,000 5G base stations this year, and the latest batch has zero U.S. components. All of our attempts to jawbone their customers and cut off their access to U.S. technology have failed.

I hate being right about this sort of thing, because I want to see Trump re-elected, and I’m horrified at what a Democratic victory in 2020 would do to this country. Nonetheless, I’m going to tell you I told you so. Tariffs don’t work. We need a JFK- or Reagan-style mobilization of our technological and human resources to force the advancement of U.S. technology and maintain our preeminent position before the Chinese pull past us. That’s what won the Cold War. It’s what we’re good at. And it’s the only policy that will work.

SURPRISE! ICIG Michael Atkinson — Who Turned in the Partisan CIA ‘Whistleblower’ Complaint — Was Top Mueller Hoax Operative Jim Hoft

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2019/10/revealed-icig-michael-atkinson-who-turn

“On Monday Intelligence Community Inspector General Michael Atkinson released a statement defending the recent changes on the whistle blower form to include hearsay and rumors.

In the letter Atkinson admits the changes to the form were made at the time of the partisan CIA leaker’s complaint.

It’s all starting to fall into place now in the Democrat Deep State’s latest attempt to take down President Trump.”

The Deep State ICIG released a statement on Monday on why they found it necessary to change their rules LAST MONTH to include watercooler talk, rumors, hearsay and cafeteria conversations.

Intelligence Community Inspector General Michael Atkinson turned in the partisan CIA operative’s ‘whistleblower’ complaint to start the latest impeachment probe against President Donald Trump

Of course, the liberal mainstream media has ignored this crucial player in their latest impeachment quest.
They don’t want you to delve to deep into Michael Atkinson’s background.

That is because Michael Atkinson played a major role in the Trump-Russia Mueller hoax.

Corbyn slammed for Rosh Hashanah video with Hamas backer

https://www.jns.org/corbyn-sparks-controversy-for-rosh-hashanah-video-featuring-ha

Jeremy Corbyn sparked outrage for releasing a Rosh Hashanah video that features an activist who last year led a public Jewish mourning prayer for dead members of Hamas.It features Rob Abrams, a Jewish anti-Zionist activist who in May 2018 led the Kaddish prayer in Parliament Square for 62 Palestinians killed on the Israel-Gaza border, at least 50 of whom were Hamas operatives.

In the clip posted on Twitter ahead of the Jewish holiday, Corbyn visits a grocery store with Jewish Labour Party members to discuss the symbolism of honey and apples for the Jewish new year and promote Labour’s “Green Industrial Revolution” program.

Alongside him is Rob Abrams, a Jewish anti-Zionist activist who in May 2018 led the Kaddish prayer in Parliament Square for 62 Palestinians killed on the Israel-Gaza border, at least 50 of whom were Hamas operatives, according to the Jewish Chronicle.

Israel activist David Collier wrote in response to the clip, “There is no way you are not aware much of the Jewish community were outraged when this person explicitly led a prayer service for dead Hamas terrorists. Which makes your actions here deliberate. Your spiteful nature highlights you are a real danger.”

Also in the video is Labour counselor Sue Lukes, who tweeted an article titled the “Jewish ‘War against Corbyn’ risks bringing real antisemitism to Britain” and wrote a piece to “honor” Malia Bouattia, the former National Union of Students president who was accused of anti-Semitism.

Berlin: Capital of European Antisemitism By Dr. Manfred Gerstenfeld

https://besacenter.org/perspectives-papers/berlin-antisemitism/

Berlin has surpassed Malmö as Europe’s antisemitism capital, with a wide variety of anti-Jewish and anti-Israel attitudes on display. They include dozens of cases of physical aggression against Jews, including rabbis. Jewish pupils have had to leave public schools. Thirty-five percent of Berliners view Israelis as analogous to Nazis. An Al-Quds Day march takes place annually that calls for the destruction of Israel. Both the municipality and the federal government are two-faced  about the problem of antisemitism.

For years, experts viewed Malmö, Sweden’s third-largest city, as the capital of antisemitism in Europe. Incidents of anti-Jewish hatred occurred there on a regular basis. Mayor Ilmar Reepalu, a former socialist, was an antisemite. A bomb was thrown at a local synagogue. Complaints filed by Jews were ignored by judges. The Simon Wiesenthal Center (SWC) put out a travel warning concerning the town.

Antisemitism in Malmö has not weakened significantly, but even a superficial look at the scale of classic antisemitism and anti-Israelism in Berlin shows that it by far surpasses Malmö. There are so many facets to antisemitism in the German capital that any summary remains incomplete.

On Brexit, Boris Johnson and the U.K. Attorney General Refuse to Surrender By John O’Sullivan

https://www.nationalreview.com/2019/09/brexit-boris-johnson-geoffrey-cox-refuse-to-surrender/

On the afternoon of this past Wednesday — following the U.K. supreme court’s ruling that the prorogation of Parliament by Her Majesty’s Government was unlawful, null, and void, had never happened at all legally, and would have to be reversed — the U.K’s chief legal officer, Attorney General Geoffrey Cox, rose to speak to a largely hostile House of Commons. In addition to feeling the government’s general travails, Cox seemed to be in a sticky position personally because it was he who had advised the cabinet that prorogation was indisputably legal — to the point that anyone who denied it could have only political motives for so doing.

Cox was therefore defending himself as much as the government.

When he sat down a short time later, the Tory benches were buoyant, cheering for the first time in weeks. Cox had knocked Labour MPs, ex-Tory dissidents, Liberal Democrat scolds, and the entire anti-Brexit Coalition of Incompatibles around the Commons chamber with the kind of robust theatrical performance that only a top Queen’s counsel (a kind of super-lawyer) can put across with easy conviction.

While respecting the supreme court’s judgment, he said he did not agree with it. He refused to apologize for the legal advice he had given the cabinet, which reflected what the law was before the supreme court’s judgment. He responded forcefully and even dismissively to successive critics on the Opposition benches, telling one Labour MP that he ought to beg the forgiveness of his voters for betraying them over Brexit. And overall, he denounced the opposition parties for cowardice and obstructionism:

Five Observations on the Politics of Impeachment By Sean Trende

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2019/10/02/five_observations_on_the_politics_of_impeachment.html

As the House initiates an official impeachment inquiry and moves toward a likely vote to impeach, here are five observations on the politics of the moment:

Our previous impeachments shed little light on this one. It’s generally unwise to make confident predictions without a relatively large data set to draw upon. Here, we have only had four examples of serious impeachment proceedings.

The first two – John Tyler and Andrew Johnson – do not help us understand our present politics. Both involved presidents who had weak relationships with their respective parties and who had succeeded to the office after presidents of the opposing party had died while serving. Perhaps more importantly, both took place in the mid-1800s, long before the arrival of reliable public opinion polling.

The other two examples are more relevant, but in both cases it is nearly impossible to isolate the specifics of impeachment from the broader political context. Richard Nixon’s case would seem to offer a good example for Democrats, as his job approval suffered an astonishing decline from 67% at his second inauguration to a mere 24% as he left office after being told by GOP leaders that he would not survive a Senate trial. Republicans were crushed in the ensuing midterm elections, and Nixon’s successor, Gerald Ford, lost to an inexperienced Southern Democrat named Jimmy Carter two years later.

It is not, however, clear how much of this is attributable to impeachment itself. Nixon had the advantage of running for reelection amid 5% economic growth, which doubtless juiced his job approval numbers. But the economy began turning against Nixon at the beginning of his second term. The easy money policies pursued by the Federal Reserve began to catch up with the country, as the monthly inflation rate brushed up against 1% in March 1973 and almost hit 2% in August. Overall inflation for the year was almost 9%, and the federal funds rate hit 11%. In 1974, inflation surged to over 12%.

At the same time, in October of 1973, OPEC instituted an embargo of oil to the United States, causing widespread gas shortages. The country entered a serious recession, which lasted until 1975 – the longest recession the country had experienced since the Great Depression.

Hillary Clinton Labels Trump an ‘Illegitimate President’ By Zachary Evans

https://www.nationalreview.com/news/hillary-clinton-labels-trump-an-illegitimate-president/

Hillary Clinton said that Donald Trump is an “illegitimate president” during a Wednesday appearance on ABC’s “The View.”

The former presidential candidate made the comment after host Joy Behar asked what she made of Trump leading “lock her up!” chants at campaign rallies.

“I do think that [Trump] knows that he’s an illegitimate president,” said Clinton to applause from the studio audience. “Because of that, he’s very insecure about it.”

Washington Examiner
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“He knows that he’s an illegitimate president and because of that — he’s very insecure about it.”

Clinton’s campaign met with harsh public backlash after she was accused of using a private home server to receive classified emails from the State Department in violation of federal laws governing the handling of classified information. After an F.B.I. investigation, then director James Comey announced that the agency would not press charges against Clinton, but referred to her actions as “extremely careless.”

The investigation into her use of a private server for classified emails became a key issue in the 2016 elections, with Trump and supporters shouting “lock her up!” at rallies and alleging that Clinton had overstepped the bounds of the law.The State Department is continuing its own investigation into the matter.

During the 2016 election season, Trump hinted that he would not accept the election results if he were to lose. Clinton herself went on to question the legitimacy of the results in a 2017 interview with in Mother Jones.

Later in the Wednesday interview, Clinton accused Trump of “being helped a lot” in the 2016 elections, presumably referring to the Kremlin’s efforts to sway the election in his favor.

Do Republicans See the Strategy to Discredit the Barr Investigation? By Andrew C. McCarthy

https://www.nationalreview.com/2019/10/do-republicans-see-the-strategy-to-discredit-the-barr-investigation/

Democrats and their media friends are attempting to paint the Barr investigation, in the public mind, as a corrupt extension of a down-and-dirty Trump 2020 political campaign.

In the weekend column, I observed the media-Democrat complex’s politicized reporting of the July 25 conversation between President Trump and his Ukrainian counterpart:

Trump detractors hyper-focus on the president’s request that President Zelensky provide Attorney General Barr with any information Ukraine might have about Biden twisting arms to quash an investigation involving his son’s cashing in on dad’s influence. I say “hyper-focus” because there was a lot more to it than that. Long before the conversation came around to the Biden topic, the “favor” that Trump asked for was Zelensky’s assistance in Barr’s ongoing investigation of the genesis of the Trump-Russia investigation. 

Virtually all mainstream-media reporting and Democratic commentary on the conversation now fits this pattern. It is noted that Trump, immediately after the “quid pro quo” set-up — “I would like you to do us a favor though” — invoked the attorney general, the nation’s top federal law-enforcement official. Studiously omitted is the context of this invocation: a wholly appropriate request by the president, to the head of state of a country in possession of relevant evidence, for cooperation with a legitimate investigation being conducted by our country’s Justice Department.

Instead, the coverage skips a few hundred words. It cuts directly to Trump’s suggestion that Zelensky look into whether there was any impropriety in former vice president Biden’s having purportedly “stopped the prosecution” that might have arisen out of a Ukrainian investigation involving his son.