Displaying the most recent of 91396 posts written by

Ruth King

‘Israel’s Enemies Are Our Enemies’: Guatemala’s New President Sends Strong Message to Israel

https://www1.cbn.com/cbnnews/israel/2019/december/lsquo-israel-rsquo-s-enemies-

JERUSALEM, Israel – Guatemalan President-elect Alejandro Giammattei affirmed his unwavering support for Israel while he met with President Reuven Rivlin in Jerusalem on Sunday during his first trip to the Jewish state.

Rivlin welcomed Giammattei as a “dear friend” and said, “the friendship between our countries runs deep.”

Giammmattei promised that Guatemala will stand with those who stand with Israel, and oppose those who attack Israel. 

Guatemala has had a strong relationship with Israel before the modern state even existed. Guatemala is one of several countries to vote in favor of Israel’s creation at the UN in 1947. It is a vote Rivlin said Israel “will never forget.”

Guatemala has shown its self to be a faithful ally to Israel throughout its existence. 

The Central American country became the second nation behind the United States to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and move its embassy to the Holy City. 

CBN News sat down with Guatemalan Vice President Jafeth Cabrera last year to ask him what inspired his country to follow in America’s footsteps. He said the move was long overdue and even prophetic.

“Yes, we do share that idea, that prophecy is coming to pass and we are pleased that Guatemala is contributing to having that happen and we hope that it will soon be a reality,” Cabrera said.

Cabrera explained that the decision to move the embassy did not come without plenty of prayer first.

“This was key to us making the decision to express our Christ likeness and to express our faith. We did pray,” he said.

VICTOR SHARPE: THE WILL TO FIGHT FOR AMERICA

http://www.renewamerica.com/columns/sharpe/191210

As Hitler’s aggression grew ever more threatening prior to World War 2, Winston Churchill once said the following in Britain’s wavering Parliament:

“If you will not fight for right when you can easily win without blood-shed; if you will not fight when your victory is sure and not too costly; you may come to the moment when you will have to fight with all the odds against you and only a precarious chance of survival. There may even be a worse case. You may have to fight when there is no hope of victory, because it is better to perish than to live as slaves.”

Whenever you hear the gruesome shriek in Arabic, “Allahu Akbar”preceding yet another Muslim atrocity, be it in Europe, the UK, here in America or worldwide, it is worth remembering those words of Churchill and what it will mean to live as slaves.

Allahu Akbar does not mean “God is Great” as the liberal talking heads, multiculturalists, diversity merchants and the politicallycorrect ‘progressive’ praetorian guard never fail to tell us. No, it means Allah is Greater. In other words, Islam claims that it is infinitely superior to our Judeo-Christian faith and heritage and to all other non-Muslim beliefs in the world.

So when we hear the predictable and breathtakingly ignorant ‘progressive’ elites lecture us that the latest slaughter of Americans by Muslims here in America is just the result of a “mental health issue” or an incident of “workplace violence,” remember they are warning us that we must never put two and two together lest we come to the obvious conclusion that the evil act is simple Islamic terrorism. Evil will always win if good doesn’t fight back.

America blows past the world in oil and natural gas

https://www.axios.com/america-blows-past-the-world-in-oil-and-natural-gas-72a3fd6

Data: Oil Change International and the Global Gas and Oil Network, with data from Rystad Energy; Chart: Danielle Alberti/Axios

America is poised to produce far more oil and natural gas over the next five years than any other country in the world, according to a new report.

Why it matters: It shows how America, already the world’s largest oil and gas producer, is poised to cement that position, with pivotal implications for geopolitics and climate change.

By the numbers: The United States could produce just over 24 billion barrels of oil equivalent over the next five years, according to a report by two advocacy groups, the Global Gas and Oil Network and Oil Change International, which analyzed projection data from research firm Rystad Energy.

This works out to be roughly 13.2 million barrels of oil equivalent per day, a figure that includes both oil and natural gas.
For context: The U.S. currently producing about 12 million barrels of oil a day.
Much of this growth is coming from the Permian Basin across West Texas and southeastern New Mexico, which the report says would account for nearly 40% of new U.S. oil and gas production in the next 30 years.

How it works: The accompanying chart, adapted from the groups’ report, is looking at projected production over this five-year time period from currently undeveloped reserves. This includes industry data, such as projects expected to receive final investment decisions.

NYC Muslim Patrol: Bullying, Gangster Tactics Reported

https://clarionproject.org/nyc-muslim-patrol-bullying-reported/?utm_source=Clarion+Project+Newsletter&utm_campaign=ab684208b5-

“Bullying” and “gangster-like” tactics have been reported by locals in New York areas where the Muslim Community Patrol & Services operates.

These tactics are beginning to create a backlash against the self-described “civilian patrol organization” among local residents.

The Muslim patrol gained international attention in the fall of 2018 after several of its patrol cars — which look like New York Police Department (NYPD) cars –were spotted in Brooklyn and Staten Island.

The patrol originally said its purpose was to serve as a liaison between Muslims and the NYPD.  But after two consecutive mosque shootings in New Zealand last March, where a gunman live-streamed his murder of 51 Muslims on Facebook, the patrol publicly altered its purpose.

It now describes itself as a law enforcement organization, claiming its goal is to “protect members of the local community from escalating quality-of-life nuisance crimes.”

It’s precisely that “law enforcement” definition that is now landing the Muslim patrol into hot water with New York City residents, particularly those living in the Brooklyn area of Bedford-Stuyvesant.

“They are bullying people and getting out of their patrol cars looking like gangsters,” said one resident, who asked to remain anonymous. “The people in Bed-Stuy don’t want them there.”

What About the FISA Court? Judicial pre-authorization for our national security bureaucracies’ actions has taught them dysfunctional practices and created a secret body of law that has undermined Americans’ civil liberties. Angelo Codevilla

https://amgreatness.com/2019/12/10/what-about-the-fisa-court/

The Justice Department’s inspector general has concluded that, although officials of the FBI, the Justice Department, and the CIA made copious “mistakes” in their four requests to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to spy on Donald Trump’s campaign and presidency, those officials did nothing that warrants punishment. They mostly followed procedures and, after all, the court considered their motions good enough to grant them.

In so concluding, Inspector General Michael Horowitz rejected the charge that those “mistakes,” including silence about the known falsehood of the supporting evidence and the omission of exculpatory evidence, had been intentional, and hence a fraud on the court. Horowitz stated that looking at these officials’ intentions—i.e., noticing the variance between their claim and the facts behind it—was not his job.

Given that such scrutiny is quintessentially the inspector general’s job, his retreat into what we must now call the Comey-Clinton crouch—detail the misdeeds, relabel them, and decline to do anything about them—means that the deep state has closed ranks.

Hence, any remedy must come from above, and must inflict rough Roman justice.

Alas, such a remedy must now include eliminating the judiciary’s role in intelligence gathering. That means recognizing that the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 (FISA) was a bad idea all along, an irresistible temptation to cover abusive surveillance with the cloak of pretend-legality.

San Fran Loses $64 Mil After Convention Moves Due to “Street Conditions” Daniel Greenfield

https://www.frontpagemag.com/point/2019/12/san-fran-loses-64-mil-after-convention-moves-due-daniel-greenfield/

I’m not up on corporate speak, but is “poor street conditions” a euphemism for wallowing in human waste while being assaulted by crazy people?

Oracle’s OpenWorld conference, one of the biggest annual technology events in San Francisco, is moving to Las Vegas in 2020 and will remain in Sin City for at least three years.

According to an email that the San Francisco Travel Association (SFTA) sent to its members on Monday, Oracle has signed a three-year agreement to bring its flagship event to the Caesars Forum in Las Vegas.

“Oracle stated that their attendee feedback was that San Francisco hotel rates are too high,” the email, which was viewed by CNBC, said. “Poor street conditions was another reason why they made this difficult decision.”

Antifa Home Invasions: ‘Can It Happen Here?’ The hazard of progressive propaganda. Mary Grabar

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2019/12/antifa-home-invasions-can-it-happen-here-mary-grabar/

Recently, in Germany, a gang of Antifa punks broke into the home of a 34-year-old female real estate agent and beat her up for the simple reason that she was a real estate agent, i.e., selling property. In her case it was luxury property. Antifa does not approve of private property, especially expensive private property. So they beat her up.

Here in the good ole’ USA, Mike Adams wrote a column titled “Three Essential Firearms for Civil Unrest,” the ‘civil unrest’ likely being a “mob of Antifa ‘anti-fascists’” coming into your neighborhood and crossing your property line, Molotov cocktails in hand.

This may seem farfetched, but I’ve seen things progress at an alarming rate since 2011, when I observed and wrote about the Occupy Wall Street movement from which our present-day Antifa movement has evolved.

I was living in the Atlanta area so I went to the “occupation” of Woodruff Park downtown. In my article I noted the “hippie art festival” atmosphere among the tents, but also wondered, as my title indicated, whether the “occupations” were “anarchy waiting for crisis.” Occupiers protested the sale of a building used as a homeless shelter to Emory University for a medical facility. Back then I saw George Soros-supported “Cop Watch” punks in orange t-shirts putting their video cameras in the faces of police simply trying to stop protestors from blocking a hospital emergency entrance or an ambulance going down a downtown street. Today we have masked protestors with weapons calling for the death of police and attacking reporters and attendees of public events, like campus speeches and political rallies.

Back then, in response to the lag in police response to a 300-strong, rush hour march up Peachtree Street, and then the mayor’s revocation of his order to end the “occupation” of the park, I asked, “Is it endangering public safety to allow an anarchic group of young people, the homeless (often with mental and substance abuse issues), and ne’er do wells to take to the streets on their own?”  Noting the chants against private property and sales of socialist newspapers, I detected “unfocused, but revolutionary” aims of protestors. The young man selling the Socialist Worker told me that he had learned about its publisher, the International Socialist Organization, from his professors at nearby Georgia State University.

Divesting Endowments From Fossil Fuels or Common Sense? Students debate the politicization of universities’ investments.

What Divestment Misses

Calls for university endowments to divest from fossil fuels are constant on American college campuses, but are they wise? Divestment is too blunt an instrument for complicated questions. The inconvenient truth is that affordable energy and petrochemicals are the foundation of countless everyday consumer items that improve the quality of life for people across the world. The oil and gas companies that student activists want to punish are the same ones that have powered social and economic progress.

Even more inconvenient, oil and gas companies are among the largest investors in renewable energy and technology. Companies such as Shell, Exxon Mobil and Chevron are all key sponsors of the MIT Energy Initiative. It’s not obvious that shaming these companies will help advance green energy. Nor will it secure “climate justice,” the social-justice-infused environmentalism that typically dominates campus divestment campaigns. Getting rid of oil and gas would disproportionately hurt the poor and working class.

Educational institutions should debate, discuss and forge solutions to complex problems. With the benefit of multiple perspectives from different disciplines, as well as the intellectual authority and prestige of academic professionalism, universities can make a difference through ideas and research, not partisan endowment politics.

— Shantanu Jakhete, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, mechanical engineering

The IG, Nunes and Schiff The Horowitz report reveals the Democrat’s many distortions.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-ig-nunes-and-schiff-11576022741?mod=opinion_lead_pos3

Monday’s Justice Department Inspector General report on the FBI’s Trump -Russia probe is illuminating in many ways, not least the light it casts on the previous claims by politicians when they were telling the public about what they saw in classified documents. House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff in particular has been exposed for distortions and falsehoods.

Americans first learned about the FBI’s abuse of the FISA process in a February 2018 memo from then House Intelligence Chair Devin Nunes. The memo disclosed that the FBI had obtained surveillance warrants from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court against former Trump aide Carter Page ; that the dossier written by ex-British spook Christopher Steele and financed by the Clinton campaign had formed an “essential” part of that application; and that the FBI failed to tell the FISA court about Mr. Steele’s political and media ties.

Democrats’ latest impeachment line: Investigating corruption is ‘election interference’ By Andrew C. McCarthy

https://nypost.com/2019/12/09/democrats-latest-impeachment-line-investigating-corruption-is-election-interference/

Here is what you need to understand the House Judiciary Committee’s impeachment hearings on Monday: According to Democrats, any investigation of possible Democratic corruption, or of Democratic collusion with foreign officials to interfere in our elections, is itself impeachable interference in our elections.

Seriously.

Numerous problems mar the impeachment process — not least the rush to judgment. Democrats have been rushing congressional proceedings until they catch up with the judgment that the president must be impeached, a judgment House Democrats have already drawn. The haste rubs many Americans the wrong way.

Democrats have also had trouble identifying a crime. That’s why they appear to have settled on a vague “abuse of power” standard that would make every future president impeachable. Without being able to articulate egregious executive misbehavior, they are nevertheless racing ahead.

The public wonders: What’s the rush? After all, Democrats apparently didn’t think the “crisis” was so dire that their Thanksgiving holiday should be postponed. In 11 months, the American people will be able to boot President Trump from office if they believe he is unfit. So why should the political class be permitted to pre-empt voters?