FOREIGN POLICY Comments turned off

The Monroe Doctrine for Venezuela by Jiri Valenta

Posted By on May 3rd, 2019

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/14178/venezuela-monroe-doctrine

“It is impossible that the allied powers should extend their political system to any portion of either continent without endangering our peace and happiness; nor can anyone believe that our southern brethren, if left to themselves, would adopt it of their own accord.” — President James Monroe, 1823.

“The destinies of our nations will not be dictated by foreign powers; they will be shaped by the people who call this hemisphere home. Today, we proudly proclaim for all to hear: the Monroe Doctrine is alive and well.” — National Security Adviser John R. Bolton, Miami, Florida April 17, 2019.

“The movement for freedom in Venezuela reveals that the twilight hour of socialism has arrived in our hemisphere…” — President Donald Trump, Feb. 19, 2019, Florida International University.

At the same time, it is probably a good idea to keep an eye on the Ukraine, where Putin has been offering around fast-tracked Russian passports, as he did prior to his invasions of Georgia’s South Ossetia and Abkhazia in 2008, and Crimea in 2014. It is probably advisable for the US to help the Ukrainians reinforce their defenses there, especially around the city of Mariupol.

It might also help to explain to the American people what is at stake for the Western Hemisphere in Venezuela….

In his speech to Bay of Pigs veterans in Miami, Florida on April 17, U.S. National Security Adviser John Bolton explained the Trump administration’s measures against Venezuela, which he said should serve as a warning to Russia and others offering military assistance to the regime of the dictator Nicolás Maduro:

“This incredible region [Latin America] must remain free from internal despotism and external domination… The destinies of our nations will not be dictated by foreign powers; they will be shaped by the people who call this hemisphere home. Today, we proudly proclaim for all to hear: the Monroe Doctrine is alive and well.”

HOMELAND SECURITY Comments turned off

Muslim Federation Facebook Manager Calls Jews ‘Demonic’ and US ‘World’s #1 Terrorist’ Abdur Rahman al-Ghani posts that Democracy is evil and Islam will overtake the world.

Posted By on May 3rd, 2019

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/273634/muslim-federation-facebook-manager-calls-jews-joe-kaufman

The South Florida Muslim Federation (SFMF), the umbrella organization for South Florida’s many Islamic extremist groups, like most organizations, has a presence on social media. But unlike most organizations, this one’s Facebook page is managed by an individual who has previously used this same outlet to publicly degrade Jews, homosexuals and America and to call for violence. This piece is not meant to change this organization, SFMF, but to expose it.

SFMF was founded in April 2017 and incorporated in December 2017. Among its founding organizations were groups with significant ties to international terrorism, including Islamic Relief (IR), the Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA), and the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR). Currently, the group is headed by a former executive leader of CAIR, Nezar Hamze. As well, the SFMF Public Relations Director, Wilfredo Ruiz, is from CAIR.

The Manager of SFMF’s Facebook page is Abdur Rahman al-Ghani. Al-Ghani is well known to the South Florida radical Muslim community, as he has previously held the positions of Youth Director and Events Coordinator for the Islamic Foundation of South Florida (IFSF), one of SFMF’s member organizations.

HOMELAND SECURITY Comments turned off

Trump Considers Designating Muslim Brotherhood a Terrorist Org Finally, a U.S. president who understands the threat. Matthew Vadum

Posted By on May 3rd, 2019

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/273662/trump-considers-designating-muslim-brotherhood-matthew-vadum

The Trump administration is considering officially designating the Islamist group known as the Muslim Brotherhood as a Foreign Terrorist Organization, a policy unimaginable during the terrorist-friendly Obama administration which championed the group as an ally.

“The president has consulted with his national security team and leaders in the region who share his concern, and this designation is working its way through the internal process,” White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in a statement April 30.

The Trump administration’s deliberations over the prospective designation come weeks after President Trump designated Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as an FTO to combat that theocratic dictatorship’s global campaign of terrorism. The designation gives the government more tools to fight terrorism.

“This unprecedented step, led by the Department of State, recognizes the reality that Iran is not only a State Sponsor of Terrorism, but that the IRGC actively participates in, finances, and promotes terrorism as a tool of statecraft,” Trump said in a statement. This designation, which took effect April 15, was “the first time that the United States has ever named a part of another government as a FTO.”

As Joseph Klein previously wrote at FrontPage, the mullahs’ regime “lives and breathes Islamic extremism, which it seeks to export through its global jihad terrorist network,” adding that the “IRGC sits at the center of that terrorist network,” providing “funding, equipment, training, and logistical support to terrorist proxy groups, including most notably Hezbollah in Lebanon and Syria.” The IRGC has also participated in attacks on Americans.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Democratic Socialists And Communists Rally On International Workers’ Day By Madeline Osburn

Posted By on May 3rd, 2019

https://thefederalist.com/2019/05/02/democratic-socialists-communists-rally-international-workers-day/

While activists and 2020 Democratic candidates celebrate May Day, Venezuelans face starvation and violence under the consequences of socialism.

May 1st, also known as May Day or International Workers’ Day, brings the labor movement—socialists, communists, union people, and others—together in solidarity for the plight of workers everywhere. This informal and unrecognized international celebration has something for everyone on the Left. In South Carolina on Wednesday, 10,000 public educators marched on the state’s capital on Wednesday, while in Washington D.C., about 50 activists gathered at a local park.

May Day’s origins harken back to the 1886 Haymarket riots in Chicago, where police officers and civilians were killed during a labor rally. Decades later, European socialists and communists adopted May 1st as the day for workers’ struggle, but also as a propaganda tool to prop up their totalitarian rule.

Now, every year, demonstrations are held around the world to advocate for various workers’ rights, which can include anything from raising the minimum wage to calling for a radical overhaul of the economy and means of production. While teachers in South Carolina were demanding smaller class sizes and higher pay, D.C. organizations at plastic tables in Meridian Hill Park discussed abolishing Immigration and Customs Enforcement (I.C.E.) and Marxism.

EDUCATION, HISTORY Comments turned off

If You Want To Be Multicultural, Learn Real History, Not Identity Politicized Garbage By Elizabeth Bauer

Posted By on May 3rd, 2019

https://thefederalist.com/2019/05/02/want-multicultural-learn-real-history-

All this I might well expect from a pundit or a columnist in a college newspaper. But it’s a particular disappointment for this to have been authored by a professor of history.

This is not a joke: John Broich, a history professor at Case Western Reserve University, published an opinion article in The Washington Post on Tuesday titled, “Allied leaders were anti-Nazi, but not anti-racist. We’re now paying the price for their failure.”

Broich writes: “While Allied countries opposed the Nazis and Allied troops defeated them, the leaders of the United States and Britain rarely attacked the core tenet of Nazism: the belief in a master race.” He continues:

The Allied leadership did not fight the war over fascist race-nationalism. That was the historical path not taken. As it’s once again on the ascent across the globe, this historian imagines where we might be today had the Allies fought on the basis of eliminating the racial supremacy of the Germans (and, in their variation, the Japanese). What if that principle had been, through the greatest global struggle of humankind, woven into our social DNA? And how can we make that principle central to our societies today?

All this I might well expect from a pundit or a columnist in a college newspaper. But it’s a particular disappointment for this to have been authored by a professor of history.

ENVIRONMENT AND JUNK SCIENCE Comments turned off

Global cooling: California snowpack at 188%By Chriss Street

Posted By on May 3rd, 2019

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2019/05/global_cooling_california_snowpack_at_188.html

This is what comes of believing global warming predictions.

The California Department of Water Resources (DWR) reported on May 2 that its Northern Sierra snowpack and water equivalent levels were 188 percent of average.

DWR conducted its fifth and final manual survey at Phillips Station near Sierra-Tahoe, recording a snow depth of 47 inches and a snow water equivalent (SWE) of 27.5 inches. The statewide average snowpack sits at 31 inches of SWE, which is 144 percent of average for this time of year.

The 2019 snowpack peaked on about March 31 and is the fifth largest on record, based on more than 250 manual snow surveys conducted each month. But there is a high probability for new snowfalls over the weekend and later next week.

California’s four northern reservoirs that include Trinity Lake, Lake Shasta, Lake Oroville, and Folsom Lake are already at about 93 percent of capacity and rising fast. Hydrologists estimate the April through July snowpack melt and river runoff will be at 158 percent of normal this year.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

For Fear of William Barr The attorney general gets attacked because his probe endangers many powerful people. By Kimberley A. Strassel

Posted By on May 3rd, 2019

https://www.wsj.com/articles/for-fear-of-william-barr-11556837637?mod=trending_now_5

The only thing uglier than an angry Washington is a fearful Washington. And fear is what’s driving this week’s blitzkrieg of Attorney General William Barr.

Mr. Barr tolerantly sat through hours of Democratic insults at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing Wednesday. His reward for his patience was to be labeled, in the space of a news cycle, a lawbreaking, dishonest, obstructing hack. Speaker Nancy Pelosi publicly accused Mr. Barr of lying to Congress, which, she added, is “considered a crime.” House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler said he will move to hold Mr. Barr in contempt unless the attorney general acquiesces to the unprecedented demand that he submit to cross-examination by committee staff attorneys. James Comey, former director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, lamented that Donald Trump had “eaten” Mr. Barr’s “soul.” Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren demands the attorney general resign. California Rep. Eric Swalwell wants him impeached.

These attacks aren’t about special counsel Robert Mueller, his report or even the surreal debate over Mr. Barr’s first letter describing the report. The attorney general delivered the transparency Democrats demanded: He quickly released a lightly redacted report, which portrayed the president in a negative light. What do Democrats have to object to?Some of this is frustration. Democrats foolishly invested two years of political capital in the idea that Mr. Mueller would prove President Trump had colluded with Russia, and Mr. Mueller left them empty-handed. Some of it is personal. Democrats resent that Mr. Barr won’t cower or apologize for doing his job. Some is bitterness that Mr. Barr is performing like a real attorney general, making the call against obstruction-of-justice charges rather than sitting back and letting Democrats have their fun with Mr. Mueller’s obstruction innuendo.  CONTINUE AT SITE

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Pelosi’s Pre-Emptive Smear The Speaker is worried about what Bill Barr might reveal about 2016.

Posted By on May 3rd, 2019

https://www.wsj.com/articles/pelosis-pre-emptive-smear-11556838611

Doing her best to raise the level of civility in Washington, Nancy Pelosi called William Barr a liar on Thursday. The House Speaker even accused the Attorney General of committing a “crime” when he testified to Congress about a memo he issued outlining the main conclusions of special counsel Robert Mueller’s report.

The Speaker says the AG lied last month when he said he didn’t know what members of the special counsel’s team were referencing when they complained his memo didn’t accurately portray their findings. Mr. Barr said he didn’t know but that “they probably wanted more put out.” At most this is a small evasion. Mr. Barr had talked to Mr. Mueller, who had told him nothing in the AG’s summary was inaccurate and was unspecific in his objections beyond wanting more of his report released. The AG should have anticipated that Mr. Mueller’s March 27 letter to him would leak, but he didn’t lie about its contents.

The real reason for Mrs. Pelosi’s slander is what else Mr. Barr said the last time he was before Congress. He said that spying on a political campaign was a “big deal,” that he thought the FBI did spy on the Trump campaign in 2016, and that he intends to find out what happened and why. Democrats want to intimidate him to drop this or discredit him before he can release his findings.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

WHAT AMAZON KNOWS ABOUT YOU

Posted By on May 3rd, 2019

https://www.axios.com/what-amazon-knows-about-you-2df28404-b975-4bc8-b2da-ac702e601cf8.html

Depending on how much you shop, watch and read with Amazon, the e-commerce behemoth may know more about you than any other company on earth.

The big picture: Naturally, they know what you’ve browsed or bought on their main service. They also know what you’ve asked Alexa, watched on Prime, and read on your Kindle. They know even more thanks to their ownership of Whole Foods, Ring, Eero, Twitch, Goodreads, IMDB and Audible.

Details: As with Google or Facebook, what Amazon knows depend on how much you rely on its services. That said, these days Amazon’s services are all around us. Here are some of the different types of information gathered by various Amazon services.

Amazon.com: Everything you have bought, plus the things you have just put in your cart, or searched for, or added to a wish list, or just browsed on Amazon (and Amazon-owned sites like Zappos and Diapers.com). And they know all of your addresses and the names and addresses of anyone you’ve ever sent stuff to.
Kindle (digital books) and Audible (audio books): All the books you’ve read, plus how far into the book you got. Amazon also knows which books you have browsed or sampled, and what passages you’ve highlighted in Kindle.
Fire tablets: Amazon’s tablets run a custom version of Android, providing the company with lots of data since it, not Google, powers the browsing and app store on the devices. For search, users have a choice of Bing, Yahoo, Google or DuckDuckGo.
Prime Video (streaming video): What you’ve watched, browsed and search for.

POLITICS Comments turned off

Obama-Era Spying Is Now a Political Risk for Biden . By Charles Lipson

Posted By on May 3rd, 2019

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2019/05/02/obama-era_spying_is_now_a_political_risk_for_biden_140226.html

It’s been a very good week for Joe Biden. The former senator and vice president is the clear frontrunner in a crowded Democratic field for 2020. His poll ratings and campaign fundraising surged after he announced his presidential run last week.

One of Biden’s biggest assets is his close association with Barack Obama. He may not have the former president’s endorsement yet (Biden says, unconvincingly, that he didn’t want it), but Joe knows how popular Obama still is and how much his candidacy benefits from that reflected glow. Expect him to talk a lot about the Obama-Biden years.

Anything that undermines the 44th president’s legacy hurts all Democrats, and Biden most of all. That’s the danger posed by Attorney General Bill Barr’s commitment to investigate how the massive, prolonged investigation into “Trump-Russia collusion” began, whether it was conducted properly, and how information from it was illegally leaked to the media.