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Ruth King

FOREIGN POLICY Comments turned off

Keep It Steady and Cool with Iran, America By Victor Davis Hanson

By on October 2nd, 2019

https://www.nationalreview.com/2019/10/us-foreign-policy-iran-keep-it-steady-and-cool/

And keep pumping that American oil and gas.

Expect more desperate Iranian efforts to prompt a U.S. military response in the Persian Gulf. Trump’s sanctions have cut off 90 percent of Iran’s oil revenues. Soon Tehran’s shattered economy will be followed by more pent-up domestic unrest of the sort that Barack Obama ignored in 2009, when he felt that the continued viability of the murderous theocracy fed his bizarre dreams of enhancing a new Shiite, Persian hegemony to counterbalance the Sunni Arabs.

In contrast, America’s newfound role as the largest gas and oil producer in the world has not only lessened the importance of imported oil, whether from enemies such as Iran and Venezuela, or purported friends like Saudi Arabia and the Gulf monarchies. In a weird way, it has also turned the last half-century of oil politics upside down.

Tensions in the Gulf now help as much as hurt the United States. America is soon slated also to become the world’s largest exporter of gas and oil. Any increased costs for importing overseas oil will be offset by greater profits from American exports.

There are five general principles that should guide Trump in isolating Iran.

First, Iran desperately needs a military confrontation of some sort — preferably short of an all-out war. Their rationale behind missile and drone attacks is to get Trump out of office by 2021, to unite a factionalizing Iranian public around heroic resistance to the Great Satan or a lesser Satan in Tel Aviv, and to create enough chaos that some outside party might step in to save Iran from what otherwise would probably be an inevitable death spiral. They yearn for a return of Kerry-ism, or the chance that America’s naïve coastal elites will return to power and virtue-signal away whatever Tehran wants.

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NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

The Problem with Impeachment By Rich Lowry

By on October 2nd, 2019

https://www.nationalreview.com/2019/10/democrats-impeachment-inquiry-will-make-everything-worse/

For Democrats, Ukraine is the release valve for nearly three years of fear and loathing.

Impeachment is about to make everything worse.

If our politics seems overheated, our institutions beleaguered, and our public debate degraded, just wait until we are in the midst of the impeachment debate.

Democrats have had an impeachment itch that they’ve been desperate to scratch ever since Donald Trump took office. For them, Ukraine is equal parts a genuine outrage and an excuse, the release valve for nearly three years of fear and loathing.

Rather than conducting himself as if he were aware that a hysterical opposition is eager to impeach him just as soon as it finds a reason, Trump has embraced constant provocation. He has shown little interest in distinguishing between himself and the high office that he holds. Although we need to learn more, there’s clearly an impropriety in his handling of Ukraine.

If he’d only urged Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy to cooperate with Attorney General Bill Barr on the probe related to the beginnings of the 2016 Russian investigation, it would have been completely appropriate (the president reportedly pushed other countries to cooperate as well). Or if the story only involved Rudy Giuliani poking around in Ukraine under his own power to find damaging information on the Bidens, it’d be standard hardball politics. It’s the intersection of the latter with Trump’s official capacity as president that’s inappropriate.

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NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Foreign Influence and Double Standards Democrats want to stop Barr from investigating what happened in 2016.

By on October 2nd, 2019

ttps://www.wsj.com/articles/foreign-influence-and-double-standards-11569971481

We hope the prosecutors won’t be deterred. When Washington is in impeachment heat, it pays to be skeptical and look for the other half of the story.

Washington is in an impeachment frenzy, which is a dangerous moment for facts and context. A classic example is the political and media overreaction to Monday’s stories concerning Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Attorney General William Barr and impeachment.

Mr. Pompeo’s alleged misdeed is that he was among those listening to Mr. Trump’s July 25 telephone call with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky. But why shouldn’t a Secretary of State be on a call to the new President of an important country? U.S. foreign policy is the secretary’s job. As far as we know, Mr. Pompeo isn’t responsible for Mr. Trump’s decision to mention Joe Biden in that conversation. This is not impeachable behavior, or even impeachment news.

As for Mr. Barr, he is supposedly implicated because he asked Mr. Trump to ask Prime Minister Scott Morrison for Australia’s cooperation with the Justice Department probe of illegal foreign influence in the 2016 election. Mr. Barr and prosecutors have also sought the cooperation of other foreign governments.

We certainly hope they have. Everyone has known for some time that Justice is investigating what happened in 2016, and Justice made that public last week in a statement when the transcript of Mr. Trump’s Ukraine phone call was released.

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WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

CHARLOTTE’S NEWS WEB- UNITED KINGDOM

By on October 2nd, 2019

UNITED KINGDOM

A rapist migrant who tied his victim up with a phone cable after forcing his way into a flat has been convicted of rape; Temesgen Desta, 32, grabbed his victim by the throat to stop her screaming for help and hit her causing her to fall, in Birmingham city centre, West Midlands; also wanted for attempted sexual assault of a 54-year-old woman at Crosby beach, Merseyside, the previous afternoon; both women who were unknown to Desta.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/rape-phone-cable-birmingham-liverpool-sex-attacks-temesgen-desta-a9124516.html

Two men in their 20’s in critical condition after shooting in Ilford, east London; No arrests have been made and a crime scene remains in place.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2019/sep/28/two-men-in-critical-condition-after-east-london-shooting

A gang member who stabbed his rival in an unprovoked attack in broad daylight in Luton, Bedfordshire, has been jailed; gang member ran up to his rival’s car at a set of traffic lights brandishing a knife; repeatedly stabbed him through the open passenger window

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/luton-stabbing-gang-violence-dashcam-video-police-tyriq-richards-tindle-a9124226.html

Police officer rushed to hospital after being injured in hit and run attack in Coventry, West Midlands; officer was attempting to stop a car; driver sped off after hitting officer

https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/1182671/Coventry-Police-officer-hit-and-run-injured-west-midlands-police-appeal

Man suffers serious burns after being soaked in flammable liquid and set alight in Skelmersdale, Lancashire; the man is in hospital in a critical but stable condition after suffering serious burns at his home; Officers have launched an attempted murder inquiry

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2019/sep/26/lancashire-man-set-on-fire-on-doorstep-in-dreadful-targeted-attack

Hillingdon, west London, stabbing: Man brutally knifed to death on platform of London tube station by a group of young men

https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/1182196/hillingdon-stabbing-london-knife-crime-london-underground-tube-metropolitan-line

A car was deliberately driven into pedestrians in north London, injuring one; the driver deliberately mounted the pavement after an argument earlier in the day, and hit “a number” of pedestrians; It took place outside Highbury and Islington Underground station.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/highbury-islington-station-car-crash-met-police-hit-run-a9117196.html

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) could and should have extradited a PAEDOPHILE music teacher suspected of grooming and sexually abusing a string of girls at a school in Manchester; was first investigated in 1990 after abuse allegations but case was dropped due to supposed lack of evidence

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2019/sep/30/cps-could-and-should-have-extradited-paedophile-music-teacher

Illegal skin lightening creams found on sale in England and Wales; Criminals exploiting boom in market, with products ‘acting like paint stripper’; skin-whitening cream market is predicted to almost double in the next 10 years; the highly toxic creams could increase the risk of cancer.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/sep/28/illegal-skin-lightening-creams-on-sale-england-wales

ISIS Shock: Families of British jihadis plot to smuggle them to UK as Johnson’s Cabinet sink his calls for children to be repatriated; ISIS members have already been smuggled out of camps where British citizens are held

https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/1184282/isis-news-shamima-begum-terrorism-boris-johnson-priti-patel-conservative-ben-wallace

Jihadi bride Shamima Begum begs to come home saying she was brainwashed about Islam; regrets her past and wants to come back to the UK for a “second chance to start my life over again” after being “brainwashed” before leaving Bethnal Green for the desert; “I came here believing everything that I had been told while knowing little about the truths of my religion.”

https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/1182885/isis-bride-shamima-begum-return-britain-bethnal-green-schoolgirl-syria

Dover BOMB SCARE: P&O ferry passengers evacuated after suspicious package found; army bomb squad have been ordered in to investigate

https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/1183786/dover-P-O-ferry-security-suspicious-package-evacuation

UK courts powerless to prevent deportation of girl, 10, at risk of FGM; Fear child may return to Sudan via Bahrain; A family court had ruled that the girl could be subjected to FGM if taken abroad. But Britain’s Home Office challenged the court’s power to prevent her deportation and on Wednesday the court accepted it did not have such powers; About 87% of Sudan’s women aged between 15 and 49 have been cut, and the majority have undergone the severest form, infibulation, according to the World Health Organization.

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2019/sep/25/girl-10-at-risk-of-fgm-faces-deportation-from-britain

Grooming gang members who targeted girls as young as 12 in Manchester park jailed; Two brothers and two cousins jailed after other members of Romanian gang flee UK; the men met victims in a park and then targeted them in the Levenshulme area and using social media between 2016 and 2018.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/grooming-gangs-manchester-jailed-rape-romanian-calin-baltatu-levenshulme-a9117391.html

Youth services ‘decimated by 69 per cent’ in less than a decade amid surge in knife crime, figures show; Campaigners warn austerity is pushing more children and young people into street violence; Knife crime has meanwhile surged, with 43,516 offences reported to police last year across England and Wales

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/knife-crime-youth-services-cuts-councils-austerity-ymca-a9118671.html

POLICE in Manchester have responding to reports of a suspicious package at Manchester Airport’s train station, with bomb disposal officers carrying out a controlled explosion after an incident apparently triggered by a naked man running amok.

https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/1181465/Manchester-Airport-latest-bomb-police-lockdown-terror-attack-Manchester-airport-flights

Moorgate, London, tube station evacuated: Police swoop in after ‘suspect package’ spotted

https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/1180605/moorgate-tube-station-security-alert-suspect-package-travel-delay-london-underground

Inspectors discover poor standards at 28 mental health units; Psychiatrists call for inquiry after report on private units, many occupied by NHS patients

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2019/sep/25/inspectors-discover-poor-standards-at-28-mental-health-units

PAEDOPHILES, killers and drug dealers were among 12,000 who applied to be carers for the vulnerable and elderly last year. It is unknown how many applicants with criminal pasts might have been hired by bosses desperate for staff.

https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/1181313/care-home-horror-crimes-vulnerable

Prisoners take over wing in disturbance at HMP Long Lartin; Staff retreat from wing after being attacked with pool balls at Worcestershire prison

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2019/sep/24/prisoners-take-over-wing-in-disturbance-at-hmp-long-lartin

MORE than 60 rapes and killings were carried out by suspects on bail for other crimes last year. They were among 13,456 offences committed by so-called “bail bandits”, according to Ministry of Justice figures.

https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/1181057/Crime-UK-rape-killing-murder-bail

Women’s rights group sues CPS over failure to pursue rape cases; New approach has led to collapse in number of defendants charged, say activists

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2019/sep/24/womens-rights-group-sues-cps-over-failure-to-pursue-rape-cases

The amount of money stolen by criminals through bank transfer scams has risen by 40% in a year and is running at more than £1m a day, according to official UK data; people were duped into authorising a payment to an account controlled by a criminal; scam is officially known as authorised push payment (APP) fraud and includes cases where criminals hack into email accounts of individuals or companies the individuals have employed, to dupe consumers into sending large sums to criminal accounts.

https://www.theguardian.com/money/2019/sep/26/number-of-bank-transfer-scams-in-uk-rise-by-40-in-a-year

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CHARLOTTE'S NEWS WEB, WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

CHARLOTTE’S NEWS WEB…NEWS FROM SWEDEN

By on October 2nd, 2019

Increasing numbers seeking hospital treatment for gunshot wounds; The number increased by 20 percent last year, and has more than doubled compared with 2012.
https://sverigesradio.se/sida/artikel.aspx?programid=2054&artikel=7310086
A new report circulating in Swedish media has revealed that the overwhelming majority of shooting suspects in the multicultural city of Malmö, Sweden have migrant backgrounds; Together, the men have been convicted of a total of 180 crimes – everything from traffic violations to robberies, beatings, and murders; a 2018 study revealed that foreign men committed the vast majority of rapes (around 85 percent) in Sweden.
https://voiceofeurope.com/2019/09/sweden-vast-majority-of-malmo-shooting-suspects-have-migrant-backgrounds/
In just 48 hours, several violent incidents – including a knife murder, multiple mass car fires, gunfire, and a bombing – all played out in Sweden.
The Swedish government has allowed an ISIS fighter to return to the country to receive medical treatment from the state for an injury he received in Syria. They then allowed him to return to Syria to continue fighting for the ISIS terrorist organization; Khaled Shahadeh, a former resident of Gothenburg and an ISIS terrorist, has reportedly bragged about receiving medical treatment from the Swedish state
https://voiceofeurope.com/2019/09/injured-isis-fighter-traveled-back-to-sweden-for-medical-care-before-returning-to-syria-to-continue-fighting/

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NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Intel Community Admission Of Whistleblower Changes Raises Explosive New Questions By Sean Davis

By on October 2nd, 2019

https://thefederalist.com/2019/10/01/intel-community-admission-of-whistleblower-changes-raises-explosive-new-questions/

In a press release issued late Monday, the intelligence community inspector general admitted it changed its policy and its whistleblower form after an anti-Trump complainant alleged that Trump broke the law during a phone call with the Ukrainian president.

On Monday, the intelligence community inspector general (ICIG) admitted that it did alter its forms and policies governing whistleblower complaints, and that it did so in response to the anti-Trump complaint filed on Aug. 12, 2019. The Federalist first reported the sudden changes last Friday. While many in the media falsely claimed the ICIG’s stunning admission debunked The Federalist’s report, the admission from the ICIG completely affirmed the reporting on the secretive change to whistleblower rules following the filing of an anti-Trump complaint in August.

The ICIG also disclosed for the first time that the anti-Trump complainant filed his complaint using the previously authorized form, the guidance for which explicitly stated the ICIG’s previous requirement for firsthand evidence for credible complaints. The Federalist reported last week that it was not known which form, if any, the complainant used, as the complaint that was declassified and released to the public last week was written as a letter to the two chairmen of the congressional intelligence committees.

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MEDIA Comments turned off

CNN Uses Andrew McCabe To Question Investigation Into Andrew McCabe By Chrissy Clark

By on October 2nd, 2019

https://thefederalist.com/2019/10/01/cnn-uses-andrew-mccabe-question-validity-investigation-into-himself/

During “CNN Newsroom” with Brooke Baldwin today, former acting FBI director Andrew McCabe questioned why anyone would investigate the beginnings of the Russia probe. Perhaps it’s because the available evidence suggests he might have been involved.

Baldwin asked McCabe why Attorney General William Barr is meeting with foreign counterparts to find out more about the hoax that duped the U.S. government into spending two years and millions of dollars unsuccessfully searching for Russian collusion with the Trump campaign to steal the 2016 election.

“The first question you have to ask is, ‘Why is he doing this at all?’ The circumstances behind the opening of the Russia case are not a mystery,” McCabe said. “I have testified under oath about them as early as December 2017, Jim Comey has made comments about them publicly, I have, we both wrote books that touched on the issues, so the circumstances behind the case are widely known.”

While being paid to talk on-air as a contracted CNN contributor, McCabe questioned the validity of an investigation into his and James Comey’s misconduct. McCabe is being investigated for repeatedly lying to the FBI’s inspector general about his decisions while at the FBI. Comey has been criticized by the Justice Department watchdog for violating FBI rules. Both are implicated in applications to a secret court to spy on the Trump campaign.

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NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Schiff aide’s trip to Ukraine 12 days after whistleblower filed complaint sponsored by Burisma-funded NGO By Thomas Lifson

By on October 2nd, 2019

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2019/10/schiff_aides_trip_to_ukraine_12_days_after_whistleblower_filed_complaint_sponsored_by_burismafunded_ngo.html

The cast of characters involved in the attempt to impeach President Trump over enlisting Ukrainian help in probing Joe Biden certainly have a lot of connections with each other.  A few days ago, I noticed quite a few seeming coincidences around Burisma, the Ukrainian gas company that employed Hunter Biden for at least $600,000 a year; Mitt Romney; and the CIA.  Now Aaron Klein of Breitbart has uncovered some more coincidences centering on an organization called The Atlantic Council, a nonprofit organization that receives funding from Burisma, Google Capital, George Soros’s Open Society Institute, and the U.S. State Department (i.e., U.S. taxpayers) among others.  The Atlantic Council reportedly was:

… established in 1961 by former Secretaries of State Dean Acheson and Christian Herter to bolster support for NATO. Atlantic Councils were set up in other member states for the same purpose, and at the present time they now number more than 40 in NATO and Partnership for Peace countries. The name is derivative of North Atlantic Council, the highest governing body of NATO.

Klein’s article is long and complex, and it provides a lot of information that needs to be kept in mind as we trace the genesis of the impeachment drive and ask who may (or may not) have had a hand in shaping the events that led to Nancy Pelosi doing a 180 and supporting impeachment and tasking six committees with investigating it.  Read the whole thing.  Some excerpts:

A staffer for Rep. Adam Schiff’s House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence took a trip to Ukraine last month sponsored and organized by the Atlantic Council think tank. (snip)

The Schiff staffer, Thomas Eager, is also currently one of 19 fellows at the Atlantic Council’s Eurasia Congressional Fellowship, a bipartisan program that says it “educates congressional staff on current events in the Eurasia region.”

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MEDIA Comments turned off

Social Media Platforms: Stop Blocking Us! By John Stossel

By on October 2nd, 2019

https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/social-media-platforms-stop-blocking-us/

I now make my living by releasing short videos on YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

I assumed you who subscribed to my feed or became Facebook “friends” would receive that video every Tuesday.

Wrong! Turns out social media companies send our posts to only some of our friends. (That’s why I ask for your email address. Then they can’t cut us off.)

Why might they cut us off?

One reason is that we’d drown in a fire hose of information if they showed us everything. The companies’ algorithms cleverly just send us what the computer determines we’ll like.

Another reason may be that the companies are biased against conservative ideas.

They deny that. But look at their actions. Social media companies say they forbid posts that “promote violence,” including ones that encourage violence offline.

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ISRAEL Comments turned off

Palestinians Steal Electricity, Then Blame Israel by Bassam Tawil

By on October 1st, 2019

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/14932/palestinians-electricity-theft

Apparently, the Palestinians believe that they have a “right” to free electricity — even if that leads to the collapse of their own electric company.

This conviction is in keeping with the longstanding Palestinian perception that someone else — preferably Israel and Western donors, but basically anyone else — should pay their way in the world, particularly their electricity bills.

Palestinian officials are using the electricity issue to incite not only the international community against Israel, but also their own people. These officials are telling Palestinians that Israel is seeking to punish Palestinians for no good reason, and that their anger should be directed against Israel, not against the electricity thieves or the Palestinian leadership.

The controversy surrounding the unpaid electricity debts is yet another example of the Palestinians’ unceasing search for ways to blame Israel for self-inflicted miseries. Instead of assuming responsibility for the electricity theft and unpaid bills and taking punitive measures against the offenders, the Palestinians are doing what they do best: trying their utmost to convince the world that it is all Israel’s fault.

For a long time now, many Palestinians have refused to pay their bills to the Arab-owned Jerusalem District Electricity Company (JDEC).

Many other Palestinians, taking a more direct line of theft, have been stealing electrical power from their company, a crime punishable by fines and/or incarceration in any country that respects law and order. The thieves do so by directly hooking to the power line (“cable hooking”) or tampering with electric meters.

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