MOVIES AND TELEVISION Comments turned off

Supreme Court Lets Brendan Dassey Conviction Stand in Declining ‘Making a Murderer’ Case By Tyler O’Neil

Posted By on June 25th, 2018

https://pjmedia.com/trending/supreme-court-lets-brendan-dassey-conviction-stand-in-declining-making-a-murderer-case/

On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear the case of Wisconsin man Brendan Dassey, whose lawyers argued that his confession to a 2007 murder was coerced. His confession played a large role in the controversial case of Steven Avery, the focus of the Netflix true crime show “Making a Murderer” (2015-).

“Making a Murderer” show suggests that Avery — who was convicted of sexual assault and attempted murder in 1985 but released after 18 years when DNA evidence exonerated him — was then set up by local law enforcement and convicted of a murder in 2007. In 2003, Avery had filed a $36 million civil lawsuit against Manitowoc County, its former sheriff, and its former district attorney for wrongful conviction and imprisonment. These officials, the story goes, then attempted to frame him for the 2005 murder of Teresa Halbach.

Dassey, whose case the Supreme Court rejected, was convicted of being party to Halbach’s murder. At age 16, he was convicted of being party to first-degree murder, mutilation of a corpse, and second-degree sexual assault. He was sentenced to life in prison, with the earliest possibility of parole in 2048.

Dassey recanted his videotaped interrogation and confession at trial, and parts of the footage were shown in the Netflix show, which echoes his lawyers in claiming police coerced a confession from the teen. Dassey and Avery appear as themselves in the show.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Decapitated Animal Carcass Placed on DHS Official’s Porch By Jack Crowe

Posted By on June 25th, 2018

https://www.nationalreview.com/news/dhs-official-animal-carcass-burned-decapitated-porch/

A decapitated and burned animal carcass was recently discovered on the front porch of a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) official’s Washington, D.C. home, ABC Radio reported Monday.

The incident came amid an increase in threats against DHS employees, with some two dozen reported in the past few days. DHS sent a letter Saturday to all employees apprising them of the “heightened threat,” which appears to have been exacerbated by a broader national backlash against the Trump administration’s “zero tolerance” immigration-enforcement policy.

“This assessment is based on specific and credible threats that have been levied against certain DHS employees and a sharp increase in the overall number of general threats against DHS employees,” Claire Grady, acting deputy secretary of Homeland Security, wrote to employees on Saturday in a letter obtained by ABC.

Roughly 2,300 children had been separated from their parents since the Trump administration announced in May that it would prosecute everyone who crossed the border illegally. President Trump ostensibly ended family separations via executive order Wednesday and more than 500 children have reportedly been reunited with their parents since.

IMMIGRATION, NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

The Asylum Crisis Is a Security Challenge, Not a Legal Problem By Andrew C. McCarthy

Posted By on June 25th, 2018

https://www.nationalreview.com/2018/06/asylum-immigration-crisis-security-challenge-not-legal-problem/

Our government’s first duty is to secure the border.

This weekend, Washington mourned the iconic Charles Krauthammer’s passing. It seemed a pause in the bedlam on the border, about which he would surely have had something wise to say. As someone who knew Dr. K mainly through his scintillating columns and television commentary, I suspect his thoughts on the refugee tide would be shorn of hubris about what Washington’s laws can accomplish.

The futility of dictating to the tide, rather than shoring up against it, was an occasional Krauthammer theme. He was wont to invoke an apocryphal tale about Canute the Great (see, e.g., here), who ruled a North Sea empire a millennium ago. In this, as in innumerable other ways, Charles was singular among commentators because he got the story right. His throne moved to the coastline, Canute audaciously orders the incoming tide to halt. But this is not a cautionary tale about the delusional arrogance of power. It is about humility: The king was showing his sycophantic courtiers that the law — in this instance, the writ of a purportedly omnipotent monarch — is limited, sometimes impotent, against such phenomena as the forces of nature.

The “rule of law” is not a magic wand. It is possible only in a community that has agreed to live under its provisions. Even within such a community, it must enforced by the power of the state. Law enforcement is manageable as long its resources are commensurate with the reasonably expected degree of law-breaking.

HOMELAND SECURITY Comments turned off

Nuclear Deterrence: Adopting the Reagan Approach by Mark B. Schneider and Peter Huessy

Posted By on June 25th, 2018

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/12571/nuclear-deterrence-reagan

President Reagan’s successful policies involved not the elimination of all nuclear weapons, but the simultaneous modernization of all legs of America’s nuclear Triad, while significantly reducing the size of the strategic nuclear arsenals of both the U.S. and the Soviet Union.

The 2018 Nuclear Posture Review confirms reports going back to 2004 that, “Russia is in violation of its… political commitments that directly affect the security of others, including… the 1991 Presidential Nuclear Initiatives.” These eliminated America’s battlefield nuclear weapons and many other nuclear capabilities, while Russia violated its reciprocal pledge to do the same.

Today, Russia and China not only have massive nuclear modernization programs, but also precision nuclear missiles, while the U.S. does not. Let it be a cautionary tale for the current administration in Washington.

Ronald Reagan, one of the most important presidents in American history, advanced a defense policy based on “peace through strength,” and “reducing nuclear dangers.” In so doing, he dramatically altered the United States’ approach to dealing with the Soviet nuclear threat.

President Reagan’s successful policies involved not the elimination of all nuclear weapons, but the simultaneous modernization of all legs of America’s nuclear Triad in a manner that enhanced national security and strategic stability, while significantly reducing the size of the strategic nuclear arsenals of both the U.S. and the Soviet Union. He further enhanced America’s deterrent by deploying nuclear cruise missiles (SLCMs) on naval ships, and medium-range nuclear missiles and new nuclear artillery in Europe.

ISRAEL Comments turned off

Palestinians: The Only Acceptable Peace Plan by Bassam Tawil

Posted By on June 25th, 2018

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/12586/palestinians-peace-plan

“If Kushner and Greenblatt wish to learn more about the true ambitions of the Palestinians, they would do well to take in a sermon at a mosque on some Friday or stop into a school in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Perhaps then they would see for themselves that no peace plan in the world can, at the moment, counter the poison that is injected daily into the hearts and minds of the Palestinians and their children.”

The Palestinians want nothing to do with President Trump’s plan: they know it will never satisfy their demands. The Palestinians are not opposed to the peace plan because of a dispute over a border or a settlement or a checkpoint or the status of Jerusalem. They are against Trump’s plan — and any other peace initiative — because the Palestinians have something else in mind.

The two Palestinian parties, the Palestinian Authority and Hamas, may disagree on everything — except the elimination of Israel. The only peace plan acceptable to current Palestinian leaders would be one that facilitated their mission of pursuing jihad against Israel to obliterate it.

If Jared Kushner and Jason Greenblatt wish to learn more about the true ambitions of the Palestinians, they would do well to take in a sermon at a mosque on some Friday or stop into a school in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Perhaps then they would see for themselves that no peace plan in the world can, at the moment, counter the poison that is injected daily into the hearts and minds of the Palestinians and their children.

The Palestinians have never laid eyes on US President Donald Trump’s plan for peace in the Middle East. The Palestinians know nothing about the plan, which still has not been made public.

That fact, however, has not stopped them from categorically rejecting the yet-to-be-announced plan — a stance the Palestinians repeated this week as US Middle East envoys Jared Kushner and Jason Greenblatt visited Israel and a number of Arab countries to discuss the plan.

The Trump plan has not even been finalized and, as such, has not officially been presented to any of the parties to the Israeli-Arab conflict. Kushner and Greenblatt have been working on the plan for several months; their current tour of the region comes in the context of Jordan and Egypt.

WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Anti-American Propaganda Disappearing from North Korea By Rick Moran

Posted By on June 25th, 2018

https://pjmedia.com/trending/anti-american-propaganda-disappearing-from-north-korea/

One unexpected benefit from the recent thaw in relations with North Korea has been the Hermit Kingdom’s removal of most anti-U.S. propaganda from cities and towns.

The vulgar anti-American posters have been replaced with largely positive messages praising the new relationship with South Korea.

New York Post:

In their place are cheery messages touting praising the prospects for Korean reunification and the declaration Kim signed in April with South Korean President Moon Jae-in promising “lasting peace,” according to reports.

Still the most isolated country in the world, very few North Koreans have access to news and information from the outside world. So state propaganda plays a huge role in shaping their views.

Murals, banners and posters displayed throughout the capital, Pyongyang, have for decades depicted the U.S. as a brutal, imperialist aggressor hell-bent on destroying the North Korean regime. South Korea and Japan were also frequently targeted as willing allies of the U.S.

But things started to take an Orwellian turn in the run-up to Kim’s June 12 summit with President Donald Trump, with the old posters vanishing since then.

“All the anti-American posters I usually see around Kim Il-sung Square and at shops, they’ve all just gone,” Rowan Beard, a tour manager at Young Pioneer Tours, told Reuters. “In five years working in North Korea, I’ve never seen them completely disappear before.”

Infamous posters and postcards showing North Korean missiles on their way to Washington are a thing of the past. Also removed are the anti-American trinkets that used to be sold to tourists as souvenirs. In their place are items showing themes of Korean reunification.

The change extends to the country’s government-controlled media. News reports that once depicted the U.S. as hostile, and its involvement in places like Syria as proof of imperialism, are no longer critical. The Financial Times said the main newspaper, Rodong Sinmun, hasn’t featured a direct attack on Trump since March, when he agreed to meet with Kim.

The paper was filled with pictures of the two together at the summit, and is no longer reporting anti-U.S. news. Other international events, like Kim’s visit last week to China, are being reported right away, rather than after a waiting period, and in more neutral language.

“This is fascinating,” Peter Ward, North Korea expert and writer for NKNews, told the BBC. “Generally speaking, neutral or positive coverage is normally reserved for countries that Pyongyang has friendly relations with.” CONTINUE AT SITE

POLITICS Comments turned off

#WalkAway Campaign Urges Fed-Up Democrats to Leave the Party By Debra Heine

Posted By on June 25th, 2018

https://pjmedia.com/trending/walkaway-campaign-urges-fed-up-democrats-to-leave-the-party/

A new grassroots movement is urging Democrats who are fed up with the ugly direction the party has taken in recent years — especially since President Trump was elected — to “walk away.” The #WalkAway campaign is “dedicated to sharing the stories of people who can no longer accept the current ideology of liberalism and what the Democratic Party has become,” the group’s Facebook page states.

Some left long ago. Many of us have recently been “red-pilled”. Some here have wanted to leave for some time, but have feared the consequences they might suffer from friends or family if they walk away.

This group is here to encourage and support those on the left to walk away from the divisive tenets by allowing people to share their stories, or watch the video testimonies and read the posts of others who have walked away.

Brandon Straka aka “The Unsilent Majority” kicked off the campaign with a video on May 26.

“It is my sincere hope that you will join me in this campaign and that we may start a movement in this country — which not only encourages others to walk away from the divisive left, but also takes back the narrative from the liberal media about what it means to be a conservative in America,” Straka says in the video.

It is up to all of us to make our voices heard and reclaim the truth. The Democratic Party has taken for granted that it owns racial, sexual, and religious minorities in America. It has encouraged groupthink, hypocrisy, division, stereotyping, resentment, and the acceptance of victimhood mentality. And all the while, they have discouraged minorities from having independent thought, open dialogue, measured and informed opinion, and a motivation to succeed.

“For years now, I have watched as the left has devolved into intolerance, inflexible, illogical, hateful, misguided, ill-informed, un-American, hypocritical, menacing, callous, ignorant, narrow-minded, and at times blatantly fascistic behavior and rhetoric,” Straka says in the video below.

The video has 1,156,248 views on Facebook and over 61,000 views on YouTube. The #WalkAway Facebook page has over 20,000 likes and over 6,000 members.

Straka, a gay man from Nebraska, says that he is one of the liberals who melted down in November of 2016 after Trump was elected. “It’s funny now, but at the time it was completely tragic,” he told conservative podcaster David J. Harris in a recent interview. “I was heartbeat away from being that ‘Leave Britney alone!’ guy … just crying hysterically,” he said. Straka told Harris that a string of emotional videos he made after the election are still up on his Facebook page. He said the reason he was so devastated was because he believed all of the media lies about Trump being a “racist, sexist, bigot, homophobe, sexual predator.” CONTINUE AT SITE

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Why Obama Wanted the Russians to Hack the Election How the two deep state intel operations fit together.

Posted By on June 25th, 2018

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/270544/why-obama-wanted-russians-hack-election-daniel-greenfield

“Why the hell are we standing down?”

That was the question that the White House’s cybersecurity coordinator was asked after Susan Rice, Obama’s national security adviser, issued a stand down order on Russia.

Testimony at the Senate Intelligence Committee hearings on Russian interference in the election once again raised the central paradox of the Russia conspiracy theory. If Russian interference in the election represented the crisis that we are told it did, why did Obama fail to take any meaningful action?

The White House’s own cybersecurity people wanted an aggressive response before being told to stand down. Obama issued a bloodless warning to Russia while his people deliberately crippled our offense.

Democrats and the media blamed the Russian hacking on Trump. But it was Susan Rice who had told the cybersecurity team to “knock it off” and Obama’s people who hadn’t wanted him to be “boxed in” and forced to respond to Russian actions. Was this just the usual appeasement or was there more to it?

Why didn’t Obama and his team want to stop Russian hacking? Because they needed the Russians.

IMMIGRATION Comments turned off

Neither “Reform” Bill Would Solve Immigration Crisis Why they’re doomed to fail — by design. Michael Cutler

Posted By on June 25th, 2018

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/270516/neither-reform-bill-would-solve-immigration-crisis-michael-cutler

Two well-known and powerful members of the House of Representatives, Speaker Paul Ryan and Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte have proposed legislation to address the DACA aliens and a many other issues that all comprise failures of the immigration system.

The Goodlatte bill is seen as the “tougher” of the two bills.

It would fund the hiring of 10,000 additional employees for Customs and Border Protection including 5,000 additional Border Patrol Agents but no additional ICE agents.

Today, ICE has 6,000 agents, but half of them are enforcing customs or other non-immigration related laws.

Before we go further, consider this hypothetical question:

If President Trump was able to build the wall along the southern border that was 50 feet tall and topped with ultra high-voltage electrified concertina wire, what would a determined alien need to defeat that wall?

Some pundits would say that such an alien would simply need a 55 foot ladder. So to make things interesting, let me add that the device that could defeat President Trump’s wall could fit in the alien’s pocket.

We will consider the solution to the problem a bit further on, but first, on June 18, 2018 the Washington Times Examiner article, Paul Ryan’s immigration bill gains traction ahead of House votes provided an extremely limited comparison of the two competing bills as noted in this excerpt:

Goodlatte has acknowledged his own measure lacked the votes to pass, leaving the Ryan bill as the sole Republican option with any chance of becoming law.

The Ryan legislation includes four immigration reform requirements outlined by President Trump in January. That includes providing a special pathway to citizenship for 1.8 million Dreamers who came here as children, a reduction in chain migration, an end to the visa lottery system, and money for a wall along the southern border.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Why This Immigration Psychodrama Will Also Pass By Victor Davis Hanson

Posted By on June 25th, 2018

https://amgreatness.com/2018/06/25/why-this-immigration-psychodrama-will-also-pass/
A month from now there will be a new manufactured news story that Donald Trump is savage, represents an existential danger, or is unhinged. We will hear of another Trump official cornered and driven out from a liberal-owned Beltway or New York City restaurant. An unhinged Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) will rant some more about impeachment.

And then the current hysteria over the border detainments will be filed, and go the way of the “s—hole countries” frenzy or Melania’s jacket melodrama.

We’ve already been through the dizzying odyssey of legal suits in three states over supposedly fraudulent voting machines, the nullification of the Electoral College effort, the meltdown on Inauguration Day, the Emoluments Clause tizzy, the 25th Amendment con, the various Russian collusion hysterias, the leaked phone call to the Australian prime minister, the Michael Wolff Fire and Furyfantasies, the Dudley Do-Right James Comey pre-indictment book tour, and all the surreal assassination chic stories, from Kathy Griffin’s beheading photo to the Shakespearean troupe’s ritual stabbing of Trump.

One day the president is supposedly going to blow up the world by calling Kim Jong-un “little rocket man,” and the next he is a partner in genocide for not blowing up the world but reaching out to Kim.

One moment Trump will tank the economy and wreck the stock market, the next the undeniable Trump boom is not really his own but Obama’s. Give the media credit: it found a way to explain why 3.8 official unemployment and greater than 3 percent GDP growth is a bad thing (it will heat up the planet, lead to a crash, mask Trump’s crudity and make impossible impeachment, etc.)