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Ruth King

UK: Can Javid Stop the Boats? by David Brown

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/13512/english-channel-migrant-crossings

“A question has to be asked: if you are a genuine asylum seeker, why have you not sought asylum in the first safe country that you arrived in? Because France is not a country where anyone would argue it is not safe in any way whatsoever, and if you are genuine then why not seek asylum in your first safe country?” – British Home Secretary Savid Javid.

Migrants are entitled to free accommodation, cash support at £37.75 per person per week, free healthcare, free dental care, free eyesight tests, free glasses, maternity grants and free schooling — much to the chagrin of many British nationals and former service personnel who do not have access to many of these benefits.

Another tragedy of Aylun Kurdi proportions is only a matter of time… The media are poised and salivating at the prospect of capturing this impending disaster for their front pages; the hackles of a hundred migrant and refugee charities are raised in anticipation of the PR opportunities ahead of them.

Sajid Javid is a rising star in the British Conservative party…. If [he] can stop the boats across the Channel, he will be perfectly positioned to take control of the British Conservative Party as well as the rising migrant crisis.

The British Home Secretary, Sajid Javid, has called in the Royal Navy to help deal with the migrant crisis in the Channel.

Since November, 239 migrants successfully made the crossing from Calais, France to Dover, England in small inflatable boats. A total of 539 migrants tried to make the crossing in 2018.

According to the Daily Mail, “Most of those held by police crossing the world’s busiest shipping lane from France since November have claimed to be Iranian.” Whether this is factually correct, or a line given to them by the people smugglers they pay for their journey, is a reasonable question.

According to UK immigration lawyer Colin Yeo, “The latest asylum statistics show that around three-quarters of Iranian asylum claims succeed,” — a fact the people-smugglers presumably know well and capitalise on for profit.

The legitimacy of these migrant stories is a concern to the Home Secretary, who has been speculating as to what extent these migrants in the Channel are ‘genuine’ asylum seekers. During a visit to Dover he said:

“A question has to be asked: if you are a genuine asylum seeker, why have you not sought asylum in the first safe country that you arrived in?… Because France is not a country where anyone would argue it is not safe in any way whatsoever, and if you are genuine then why not seek asylum in your first safe country?”

Peter Schweizer’s “The Creepy Line” Takes Tech Giants to Task by Ruthie Blum

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/13491/the-creepy-line

As if this were not “creepy” enough, there is another process going on that is far less transparent: “listing” — the order in which information appears on Google. The “list effect” on our cognitive functioning, Epstein explains, is that we believe that the items appearing at the top of a set of search results — whether the category is dog food or political candidates — are the most relevant, valuable or true. Google and Facebook are able, thus, to prioritize the information we receive, while pretending to be neutral platforms, rather than content producers exercising editorial control. It is this pretense that exempts them from being subject to the laws governing publishers.

“If they have this kind of power, then democracy is an illusion… There have to be in place numerous safeguards to make sure not only that they don’t exercise these powers, but that they can’t exercise these powers. The Internet belongs to all of us. It does not belong to Google or Facebook.” — Dr. Robert Epstein, American psychology professor; “The Creepy Line”.

“Today, we essentially have a totalitarian force in the world, and that is these large tech companies. But guess what? They didn’t use storm troopers…. We all opted in… We volunteered for this arrangement. And we live in a world today in which these tech giants have a level of control and an ability to manipulate us that Stalin, Mao, Hitler and Mussolini could only have dreamed of.” — Peter Schweitzer, producer of “The Creepy Line”.

A new documentary, revealing the way in which the major technology companies Google and Facebook manipulate consumers through the collection of users’ data, sheds light on current controversies surrounding privacy and political bias. Called “The Creepy Line,” the film argues that even the most intelligent people among us are serving as unwitting pawns in a power grab, enabled by mathematical algorithms, without our being aware of it.

The title of the 80-minute movie is taken from a phrase used by the former CEO of Google, Eric Schmidt, who in a 2010 interview said:

“There’s what I call the ‘creepy line,’ and the Google policy about a lot of these things is to get right up to the ‘creepy line’ but not cross it.”

Produced by investigative journalist Peter Schweizer and directed by M.A. Taylor, the film both claims and illustrates that Google and Facebook not only crossed that line long ago, but continue to push it further away. Schweizer, author of the New York Times best-seller Clinton Cash: The Untold Story of How and Why Foreign Governments and Businesses Helped Make Bill and Hillary Rich, is among the prominent interviewees in the film. Others include Canadian clinical psychologist Jordan B. Peterson and American psychology professor and researcher Dr. Robert Epstein.

New California Governor Doubles Down on Sanctuary State Status Gavin Newsom rolls out the red carpet for illegal aliens. Matthew Vadum

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/272505/new-california-governor-doubles-down-sanctuary-matthew-vadum

Newly inaugurated Gov. Gavin Newsom has pledged to make his home state of California “a sanctuary to all who seek it” in direct defiance of President Trump’s drive to secure the nation’s border with Mexico and enforce U.S. immigration laws.

California’s grossly unconstitutional obstruction of federal immigration laws is about to get ramped up, Newsom’s speech suggests. The state already has unprecedented sanctuary laws on its books that shield its 2.4 million illegal aliens from U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement (ICE). Federal prosecutors are considering filing criminal charges against elected officials harboring illegal aliens in sanctuary jurisdictions, Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen told the Senate Judiciary Committee a year ago.

The Trump administration is suing California over its “sanctuary state” laws that punish compliance with federal immigration laws and provide legal cover for corrupt officials to continue brazenly flouting immigration laws and interfering with federal agents trying to enforce them.

The federal lawsuit targets three statutes curbing the power of California’s state and local law enforcement to hold, question, and transfer detainees at the request of immigration authorities, and punish employers for cooperating with those authorities. The laws also impose draconian restrictions on communication between local police and federal immigration enforcement, including information regarding when criminal aliens are scheduled to be released from local jails.

NY Times: Manafort Sent Campaign Data to Russians, Oops, No He Didn’t Daniel Greenfield

https://www.frontpagemag.com/point/272512/ny-times-manafort-sent-campaign-data-russians-oops-daniel-greenfield

I’ll give the New York Times some credit. It may be a mostly worthless Democrat messaging machine that promotes racism and anti-Semitism, but at least, unlike the Washington Post, it still maintains some of its traditional habit of correcting errors after they appear.

A properly woke paper would embrace the errors, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez style, as being morally right, even if factually wrong.

A previous version of this article misidentified the people to whom Paul Manafort wanted a Russian associate to send polling data. Mr. Manafort wanted the data sent to two Ukrainian oligarchs, Serhiy Lyovochkin and Rinat Akhmetov, not Oleg V. Deripaska, a Russian oligarch close to the Kremlin.

But this sort of thing happens when you keep spinning conspiracy theories.

The Democrats’ Seismic Shift on Immigration Erasing boundaries, embracing chaos.Jules Gomes

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/272466/democrats-seismic-shift-immigration-jules-gomes

The Apostle James might not have thought much of Chuck Schumer or Nancy Pelosi or Dianne Feinstein or Bill Clinton or even Barack “He-Who-Can-Do-No-Wrong” Obama. They are just some of the political prodigies who change their policies as often as Lady Gaga changes her clothes—about five times a day.

James has a juicy jibe for such political pendulums. He calls them “double-minded,” warning his readers that “a double-minded man is unstable in all his ways.” If you are going to swing from policy to policy like Tarzan the Ape Man, at least clarify and justify your political flip-flopping.

A little over a decade ago, the Democrats were singing in four-part harmony to President Trump’s “we need another brick in the wall” anthem. “We simply cannot allow people to pour into the United States undetected, undocumented, unchecked, and circumventing the line of people who are waiting patiently, diligently and lawfully to become immigrants into this country,” belted out Barack Obama.

Cue prima donna Pelosi, 2008: “Do we have a commitment to secure the border? Yes.” Why? “Because we do need to address the issue of immigration and the challenge we have of undocumented people in our country. We certainly do not want any more coming in.” Solo from Chuck Schumer, Georgetown, 2009: “Illegal immigration is wrong. A primary goal of comprehensive immigration reform must be to dramatically curtail future illegal immigration.”

In 2013, each of the 54 Democrats in the Senate voted for $46 billion in border security, which included 700 miles in border fencing. Blaring through their Marxist megaphones they pleaded the plight of low-skilled American workers whose wages were hit by cheap immigrant labor. The burden on America’s welfare state would be intolerable, they wailed.

So what are the sirens luring the Democrats to the perilous shores of open borders? Why now? Why so radically? Why display this double-mindedness in such a short span of time?

Commentators from conservative Dan Bongino to leftwing The Atlantic posit two political explanations. First, more illegals means more votes for the Democrats. Second, given the contagion of the Trump Derangement Syndrome, “Democrats hate the wall because Trump loves it” as the National Review puts it bluntly.

How No Border Wall Caused a Homeless Crisis 2,500 Miles Away in Maine Building a wall won’t just protect states that share a border with Mexico, but even states that share a border with Canada. Daniel Greenfield

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/272446/how-no-border-wall-caused-homeless-crisis-2500-daniel-greenfield

When Americans think about border security, they usually imagine the floods of migrants crossing the border and showing up in Texas and Arizona. The illegal migrant crisis is at its worst in places like El Paso where gang members released by a broken immigration system swarm the streets. Limited border fencing had previously helped sharply cut crime rates in El Paso, but it doesn’t end in El Paso.

2,500 miles away, Portland, Maine is experiencing a crisis that redefines the nature of the problem and whom it impacts. Illegal border invaders aren’t just from this continent. Anyone who can fly into South America and make their way up to Mexico has a shot at crossing the border and invading America.

Portland shelters, 2,500 miles away, are overloaded by illegal migrants from sub-Saharan Africa who crossed the border and then kept right on going to one of the coldest, but most profitable parts of the country. Portland, like many areas in Maine, attracted migrants because of the generous social safety net that had been set up to help the local population deal with turbulent economic times.

Hundreds of African migrants who illegally crossed the border are now crowding Portland’s homeless shelters which are meant to protect local residents from the cold, but have instead been overrun by foreign migrants who have taken over the system and pushed the progressive city to the edge.

Portland, Maine, a city where the temperature this April had hit a balmy 28 degrees, is not a natural homeless hotspot. But refugee resettlement had diverted resources away from helping Maine’s poor, putting more people on the street, and the migrants began crowding into homeless shelters. Not only were Maine’s poor having trouble finding housing, but they were even being pushed out of homeless shelters by aggressive foreign migrants coming out of Africa through Mexico and Texas to Maine.

FRENCH PRISONS: INCUBATORS OF TERROR “Gangster-Jihadiste” – the newest word in French. Stephen Brown

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/272487/french-prisons-incubators-terror-stephen-brown

“Yes, radical Islam is rampant in prison. No one is ignoring it, but the situation continues even though, slowly but surely, [the situation] is rotting.”
–Guillame Jeanson, Parisian lawyer and spokesman for the Institute for Justice (#16).

Leave it to radical Islam to disfigure the beautiful French language with the ugly term “gangster-jihadiste.” Its murderous connotations concern former Muslims convicts who have committed terrorist attacks after being radicalized in French prisons.

And Cherif Chekatt is the latest former, French Muslim prisoner to earn this lovely title. Chekatt, who had pledged allegiance to the Islamic State in a video, carried out a terrorist attack on the Christmas market in the eastern French city of Strasbourg last December 11, leaving five people dead.

“[H]e was the subject of a search the morning of his terrorist attack for an attempted homicide in the course of an armed robbery that went bad,” stated the newspaper Figaro.

Before his murderous rampage, Chekatt already had 27 convictions in three different countries – France, Germany and Switzerland – for crimes including armed robbery. But while in prison in France in 2015, French intelligence believes he was radicalized.

“During a stay in prison, he was noticed as much for his violence as for his religious proselytism,” noted one report. As a result, he was carded “Fiche S” by French intelligence concerning potential dangerousness.

But after the December terrorist attack, France’s future concerning “gangster-jihadistes” continues to appear bleak.

Tulsi Gabbard calls out the anti-Catholic religious bigotry of Senator Feinstein By Thomas Lifson

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2019/01/tulsi_gabbard_calls_out_the_anticatholic_religious_bigotry_of_senator_feinstein.html

Hawaii Democrat Representative Tulsi Gabbard has what looks like a monopoly on common sense among the national Democrats. Writing an op-ed in The Hill yesterday, she offered a warning about the emergence of religious bigotry in her party (although she left aside any specifics about the Jew-hatred currently metastasizing there).

The Democrats are too crazed with hatred to realize that their strongest potential nominee for 2020 would be Tulsi Gabbard. As Ruth King presciently points out today, Gabbard is well positioned for the Democrats to turn to if the circular firing squad of their huge presidential field should leave nobody standing undamaged. Not only is she more sensible than the party’s mainstream (a left-handed compliment if ever there were one), she is a combat zone veteran (as a medic), a racial minority (virtually a requirement today among the Democrats), and a female. She is also good-looking, which matters a lot in politics.
Waiting on Stage Left Again By Ruth King
Read more: https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2019/01/waiting_on_stage_left_again.html#ixzz5cCNpI5gz

Former Israeli Minister Admits to Spying for Iran Gonen Segev served in cabinet in the mid-1990s; Israel accused him of being an active agent for Iran Dov Lieber

https://www.wsj.com/articles/former-israeli-minister-admits-spying-for-iran-11547049367?mod=cx_picks&cx_navSource=cx_picks&cx_tag=contextual&cx_artPos=2#cxrecs_s

TEL AVIV—A former Israeli minister pleaded guilty to spying for the country’s bitter enemy Iran and faces an 11-year prison sentence, in a case that has gripped the public as Israel tries to thwart Tehran’s attempts to entrench on its border.

Gonen Segev, a former energy and infrastructure minister, admitted to espionage and passing sensitive information to Iran, Israel’s Ministry of Justice said Wednesday. A plea deal was reached after a monthslong closed-door trial and Mr. Segev’s sentencing has been set for Feb. 11.

In May, Israeli authorities arrested Mr. Segev—who served in Yitzhak Rabin’s Labor-led government during the mid-1990s—and accused him of being an active agent for Iranian intelligence.

Israeli said Mr. Segev made contact with the Iranians through their embassy in Nigeria in 2012, and since then twice visited Iran. He was arrested after he attempted to enter Equatorial Guinea and was transferred to the Israeli police at their request.

Return of the Nominations Blockade Democrats lost Senate seats, but they’re still blocking appointees.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/return-of-the-nominations-blockade-11547079323

The U.S. Senate is back in session, and therefore so is the Democratic nominations blockade. Minority Leader Chuck Schumer demanded Wednesday that President Trump withdraw his nomination of Bill Barr as Attorney General, even though Mr. Barr served with distinction as President George H.W. Bush’s AG. The question is whether Senate Republicans are going to do anything more to overcome this deliberate political obstruction than they did in the last two years.

The Senate confirmed 77 stalled nominees—a collection of ambassadors, U.S. attorneys or other non-controversial picks—by voice vote on Jan. 2. But thanks mostly to Democratic objections, the upper chamber returned to the White House 384 nominees it failed to confirm in the 115th Congress. That includes some 70 judicial nominees.

The White House will now have to renominate these men and women, assuming they haven’t given up in frustration. Mark Greenblatt was nominated to be inspector general of the Ex-Im Bank in September 2017, 16 months ago. The Banking Committee approved him three months later; he’s still waiting for a floor vote. Burlington Stores exec Janet Dhillon, the nominee to lead the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, has been waiting 18 months.

The Partnership for Public Service reports that 543 of President Trump’s 934 nominations had been confirmed by Dec. 19, 2018. At the same point in Barack Obama’s presidency, 809 of his 1,003 picks had Senate approval.

The White House was rightly criticized for its slow start with executive-branch nominations, but the main problem long ago became the systematic Democratic effort to prevent President Trump from filling out the government. First, Democrats take as much time as possible tying up nominees in committee. Once even non-controversial nominees get to the floor, Democrats then object to a quick voice-vote confirmation and demand a cloture vote that requires 30 hours of floor debate.