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Ruth King

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Palestinians: When the Mountain of Fire Erupts by Khaled Abu Toameh

By on August 26th, 2016

The Palestinian Authority is now paying the price for harboring, funding and inciting gang members and militiamen who until recently were hailed by many Palestinians as “heroes” and “resistance fighters.”

Hamas’s dream of extending its control to the West Bank now seems more realistic than ever — unless Mahmoud Abbas wakes up and realizes that he made a big mistake by authorizing local and municipal elections.

The blood pouring out in Nablus and other Palestinian towns is proof that Abbas is on his way to losing control over the West Bank, just as he lost Gaza to Hamas in 2007. In an emergency meeting held on August 25 in Nablus, several Palestinian factions and figures reached agreement that it would be impossible to hold the vote under the current circumstances.

Hours after his security officers lynched a detainee, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas urged Palestinian businessmen living abroad to support the Palestinian economy by investing in the Palestinian territories. The Palestinian Authority (PA), he asserted, was “working to provide security and safety to encourage investment.”

According to Abbas, “The Palestinian territories are living in a state of security stability, which we are working to provide for residents and investors alike by enforcing the rule of law and enhancing transparency and accountability.”

It must be nice to create your own reality, especially if your true reality is that of the 81-year-old Abbas.

In his speech before the businessmen, Abbas neglected any reference to the latest wave of “security chaos” in PA-controlled areas in the West Bank, specifically Nablus, the largest Palestinian city.

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Germany devises quick fix to thwart sexual assault By Carol Brown

By on August 26th, 2016

Germany’s a mess thanks to Angela Merkel and others who breathlessly embrace those who wish to destroy the country – killing, raping, and wreaking all manner of havoc as they go. No matter how much violence Muslim imports heap upon the populace, immigration policy does not shift. The policy seems to be founded on the idea that the sooner the country can be destroyed, the better.

Go figure.

Among countless issues along the path to hell is that of rising sexual assault perpetuated by Muslim barbarians against German women and girls.

But not to worry. Germany has devised an answer to nip this escalating problem in the bud: temporary tattoos.

Yes, that’s right. Temporary tattoos are being placed on the arms of young girls in public swimming polls to fend off would-be attackers. The terrifying tattoo says: “No!” The potentially life-saving message (/s) is bracketed by an image of angel wings.

If only Germans would realize that their new Muslim friends are more concerned with 72 virgins than angels, but that’s beside the point.

Is this insane? (Answer: yes.)

As a quick aside, Muslim colonizers in Germany are referred to as the “new citizens.” Gee, that was quick. They went from being “migrants” to “immigrants” to “citizens” in a heartbeat. Then again, as noted at the outset of this blog, Germany is in a rush to get her demise over and done with, so I guess it makes sense to get these barbarians on the citizen fast track.

But I digress.

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Hillary and the culture of impunity By James G. Wiles

By on August 26th, 2016

Pay to play, anyone?

So far, Team Hillary’s defense of what the New York Post on Wednesday called the “Dough Nation” scandal reminds me of Mark Twain’s joke about the girl back in Missouri who sought to excuse her illegitimate child on the ground that it was “so small.”

“Only 3%,” Hillary’s spokesman told Politico on Wednesday, of Mrs. Clinton’s total visitors while she was Secretary of State fall into the category of “nongovernmental visitors.” But half of those, it turns out, had previously made generous donations to the Clinton Foundation.

Yes, he said, but the Associated Press’ investigation only dealt with the first half of Mrs. Clinton’s tenure at Foggy Bottom.

So, you know, the AP’s story is ‘flawed”. Nothing to see here. Keep moving.

Malarkey.

This one’s got legs, folks. And there’s at least another 15,000 emails coming by mid-September.

Furthermore, NPR reported Thursday morning, the 750 emails released this week are heavily redacted. That means that the quid pro quo which Team Clinton, so far, is loudly proclaiming is not there may, in fact, be there. We just can’t see it yet.

In short, this truly is a presidential election without precedent. Even a leading Democratic columnist has had enough.

Mr. Trump’s call for a special prosecutor now puts the stakes in this year’s presidential race in sharp focus. No one believes, of course, that this attorney general will seek the appointment of a special prosecutor. But for Mrs. Clinton, Trump’s demand means that she will almost certainly face new federal investigation and, quite likely, prosecution if she loses the election.

This takes the 2016 race out of anything before seen in American history. It’s Hillary’s own fault, of course. But it still makes this contest uncomfortably like an election in a Third World country.

“You lose, you die.” Or at least end up in jail or have to flee the country.

Are we becoming Nigeria?

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The Foreign Policy Establishment’s War on Trump By G. Murphy Donovan

By on August 26th, 2016

You probably never heard of Max Boot, not that you missed much.

Like Ash Carter, Mister Boot is one of those defense intellectuals who makes a living from all things vicarious; consulting, “scholarship,” partisan journalism, political appointments, and think tank sinecures. The shorthand for the Boot stereotype in Washington is “Beltway bandit.”

Boot was born in Moscow and has served as one of Senator John McCain’s foreign policy advisors. You could do worse than think of Boot as a Russophobic wing nut. He also is a rabid advocate of regime change, global intervention, Russia-baiting, small wars for Islam, and other crackpot schemes such as “no-fly” zones in the Levant. Sound familiar? As a so-called “conservative” supporter of the Clintons, Max is now an official inductee into the no-fault school of foreign policy.

At the moment, Boot has a chair at the Council on Foreign Relations table. The CFR, when not thumping the globalist drum, is that venerable “non-profit,” icon that publishes the journal Foreign Affairs. By charter, the Council claims to be independent and “non-partisan.”

Most Beltway bandits cultivate a low political profile in Washington lest they offend one party or the other that might dispense contract or study monies. Boot has thrown the CFR “non-partisan” shibboleth under the bus and now squanders his personal gravitas and CFR reputation for the dump Trump movement. So much for “independence and non-partisanship” at the Council on Foreign Relations.

Voters may have chosen Trump, but guys like Max Boot and the CFR know better than to trust democracy, or the nation, to the wisdom of crowds.

Flying under a CFR banner, Boot has taken to the airways, notably Public Radio and print Media to trash Donald Trump in 2016.

Conservative and Neo-Con critiques of Trump are a hollow mix of adolescent speculations, ad vericundiam and ad hominem rants. Unlike Mrs. Clinton, Trump doesn’t have any military or foreign policy failures in his resume. Trump is damned for what he says while Hillary gets a pass from conservatives for the policy disasters she has wrought.

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A Soldier’s Soldier: In Memoriam Two Columns on General John Vessey Jr.

By on August 26th, 2016

http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/publications/detail/a-soldiers-soldier
A Soldier’s Soldier by Colonel Kenneth Allard (U.S. Army, Ret.)

http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/publications/detail/soldier-down-general-vessey-rest-in-peace?f=commentary
Soldier Down . . . General Vessey, Rest in Peace. by Ambassador Henry F. Cooper

Not quite seventeen, this “soldier’s soldier” volunteered to become a Minnesota National Guardsman and received an Anzio battlefield commission in World War II and the Army’s second highest medal for valor, the Distinguished Service Cross, in Viet Nam. He led the U.S. and U.N. Forces in Korea and opposed withdrawing U.S. Forces which cost him the Army Chief of Staff post under President Jimmie Carter-an implicit rebuke cast aside when President Ronald Reagan appointed him as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs and after his retirement and return to Minnesota into other important posts. President George H.W. Bush awarded Gen. Vessey the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor. A life of service with unquestionable integrity.

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Maine “Refugees” Who Died Fighting For ISIS Tom McLaughlin

By on August 26th, 2016

Two Muslim immigrants who lived in Maine were killed fighting for ISIS and each left a wife and children here on welfare. The second, Adnan Fazeli, was revealed last week by the Portland Press Herald, but how many people realize there was at least one other? And, are there any more? If so, that information would be kept under wraps as long as possible.

The first was Abdirahmaan Muhumed, aka Abdifatah Ahmed, about whom I wrote in January, 2015. He was born in Somalia, raised in Minnesota, lived in Lewiston, and became a US citizen in South Portland, Maine. His Maine wife divorced him because he wanted multiple wives. He was killed in Syria in 2014 and it’s worth mentioning that he also worked at the Minneapolis/St. Paul airport. Think about that next time you board a plane.

Last week’s Press Herald headline on Fazeli read: “Documents: Freeport man died fighting for Islamic State in Lebanon.” Was he a “Freeport man”? By whose definition? He was an Iranian who professed, at one time at least, a desire to become American. To be a “Freeport man” one must be an American. Nowhere in the article does it say Fazeli was a citizen. It said he became radicalized in Maine by watching ISIS videos and converting to Wahhabism, which the PPH called an “austere” version of Islam. That’s like calling the KKK an austere version of Christianity. Wahhabism is radical Islam. It’s jihadism calling for the destruction of the west. Maine State Police Detective George Loder said: “Fazeli’s change in behavior alienated him from many of his Shia and moderate Sunni friends in the area. However, there were a few local Sunnis who supported his [radical Islamist] fervor and treated him with a great deal of respect.”

The article said Fazeli was a “refugee” brought to Portland by Catholic Charities in 2009. He was born in Iran and raised a Shia Muslim, but “self-identified” as Arab and not “Iranian.” What a suspicious phrase that is. Was he born Persian, which is a different, majority-ethnic group in Iran? Faze also identified as a Sunni Muslim, a branch of Islam which comprises about 9% of Iran’s population, but he was afraid of being arrested so he “fled” to Syria, a puppet state of Iran where a civil war was raging between Sunnis and Shiites. How does that make sense? Syria would be the last place to go for “refuge.” Was he perhaps interested in joining Sunni terrorists like ISIS and al Qaida which were fighting the Shia in Syria?

Then he “fled” Syria, arriving as a “refugee” in Philadelphia in 2009, and “came to the Portland area through Catholic Charities Refugee and Immigration Services,” according to the Press Herald. The article goes on to say: “Catholic Charities in Portland said Fazeli tried to receive social services [welfare] from the organization but was told that because he had come to Maine from another U.S. city after he’d immigrated to the U.S., he was not eligible…”

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The 19th Amendment and the 2016 Election Dr. Robin McFee

By on August 26th, 2016

“Those who ignore history are condemned to repeat it”

George Santayana

One of my favorite quotations – it underscores why we endure many of the unnecessary political follies of contemporary society. We as a society don’t know a lot about our history, and/or don’t see the significance of trying to remedy that.

Here is a good “history” example – what is the significance of August 26th, 1920?

Clearly anyone knowing the answer likely indicates an individual who understands something about the Constitution, how the division of labor between the states and federal government come together concerning amendments, and perhaps a bit about our history as a society.

Sadly most people I have asked about the 19th Amendment, if they have any clue at all about the purpose of an Amendment in terms of the Constitution, think it was the law that overturned Prohibition, granting college students the right to play beer pong on campus.

History is poorly taught in the US, as multiple studies by various groups have revealed in the last 10 years. The Nation’s Report Card (1) 2014 study on 8th grader knowledge of US history, geography and civics revealed 29% of the students possessed below basic knowledge in US History. Only 18% were proficient. Let me repeat that….only 18% of 8th graders in the study were proficient about the history of their own country. This isn’t quantum physics talking about the building blocks of the universe, but US history is the building block of our foundation as good citizens. Geography and Civics did somewhat better, but not by much. The increase from 2010 wasn’t inspiring either. In addition, when history is taught, not surprisingly it is increasingly revisionist, and leaning more towards indoctrination than education.

After reading the study results, I became convinced Watter’s World was real, and that is a scary place. The folks he interviews get to vote. OMGosh maybe the Framers were right to be afraid, very afraid of the masses, especially the uneducated. Moreover, Dickens, not missing a beat warned Scrooge about the danger of ignorance.

Against this backdrop, sometimes I am surprised books about history, and great historic figures continue to make the NY Times bestseller list – examples include Thomas Jefferson and the Tripoli Pirates, Hamilton, The Bully Pulpit, Killing Lincoln, George Washington’s Secret Six, The Quartet, and others.

However, before we take comfort that book sales translate to a knowledgeable public, prepared to spend judiciously and wisely the most precious resource at our disposal – the vote, walk with me through a quick civics experience.

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Stop letting political correctness interfere with the anti-Zika fight Betsy McCaughey

By on August 26th, 2016

Health officials are bowing to political correctness instead of taking obvious steps to protect New York residents from the Zika virus.

New York has more Zika cases – 579 so far – than any other state. Officials warn pregnant women and their sexual partners not to travel to Zika-infested regions, because the virus causes horrific birth defects. But babies aren’t the only ones in danger. New research suggests adults may also suffer permanent brain damage after being bitten by a mosquito carrying Zika.

That’s reason enough to avoid travel to and from the Dominican Republic, the source of more than half the cases, or Puerto Rico, which is also Zika-infested.

So can New Yorkers feel safe by staying home and avoiding sex with a partner who’s been to a Zika-troubled region? For the moment, yes – but that could change with a single mosquito bite. The danger is that a tiger mosquito – local to the New York area – bites one infected person and then spreads the virus by biting other people.

That hasn’t happened yet, as far as we know. But more people coming to New York infected with Zika increase the risk local tiger mosquitoes will bite them and begin spreading the infection.

Epidemiologists say that risk is “considerable,” meaning 50-50. So why aren’t city health officials trying to slow the pace of Zika-infected arrivals?

Political correctness. “It won’t serve New Yorkers well if we create the impression that Zika is a Dominican problem or a Puerto Rico problem or a Guyana problem,” says Health Commissioner Mary Bassett.

Oh really? The goal should be to keep it from becoming a New York City problem.

Just to be clear, race and ethnicity have nothing to do with it. It’s geography. American citizens who travel to Zika hot spots as tourists put us in as much danger on their return as immigrants bringing it in. About 5 percent of those entering the United States who get tested for Zika test positive.

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Car Bomb Kills 8 Police Officers in Turkish Border Town of Cizre Explosion hit a checkpoint 50 meters from a police station

By on August 26th, 2016

Kurdish militants attacked a police checkpoint in southeast Turkey with an explosives-laden truck on Friday, killing at least eight police officers and wounding 70 other people, the state-run news agency and Turkish officials said.

The attack struck the checkpoint some 50 meters from a main police station near the town of Cizre, in the mainly-Kurdish Sirnak province that borders Syria, the Anadolu Agency reported.

Turkey’s Health Minister Recep Akdag didn’t confirm the death toll, but said 70 people were injured, four seriously.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack which was the latest in a string of bombings that have targeted police or military vehicles and installations. Authorities have blamed the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, for previous attacks.

Television footage showed black smoke rising from the mangled truck. The three-story police station was gutted from the powerful explosion.

The Health Ministry said it had sent 12 ambulances and two helicopters to the site.

Violence between the PKK and the security forces resumed last year, after a fragile two-year peace process between the government and the militant group collapsed. Hundreds of security force members have been killed since.

Turkey has also seen a rise of deadly attacks that have been blamed on Islamic State militants, including a suicide bombing at a Kurdish wedding in southeast Turkey last week that killed 54 people and an attack on Istanbul’s main airport in June, which killed 44.

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Robot Babies Not Effective Birth Control, Australian Study Finds Lifelike ‘Baby Think it Over’ dolls appear to encourage teen pregnancy rather than discouraging it (HUH? NUTS?)

By on August 26th, 2016

CANBERRA, Australia—A weekend spent mothering a robot baby to mirror the “real experience” of parenting is meant to discourage teenage girls from getting pregnant. But so-called Baby Think it Over dolls don’t cut teen pregnancy rates and in fact increase the risk, Australian research has found.

In a study published in The Lancet medical journal Friday, researchers found teenage girls who used the lifelike computerized dolls as part of a pregnancy-prevention program were more likely to become pregnant compared with girls receiving a less high-tech sex education.

“The program was supposed to put students off and then they would take extra steps not to get pregnant,” said study author Sally Brinkman, of the Telethon Kids Institute in Western Australia. “Unfortunately, and surprisingly for us, the intervention we can say definitely didn’t work and it actually seemed to increase the pregnancy rates. It just didn’t really work in putting the students off.”

The robo-babies, known properly as infant simulators, were developed 20 years ago by former NASA engineer Rick Jurmain, who with his wife founded U.S.-based manufacturer Realityworks. The company didn’t immediately respond to emailed inquiries from The Wall Street Journal.

Costing several hundred dollars, they have become a key part of pregnancy prevention programs in schools, churches and community groups in 89 nations, mimicking six-week-old infant behavior including crying when hungry or needing changing, or gurgling when rocked and burped. CONTINUE AT SITE

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