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Michelle Obama comes to the stadiums By Monica Showalter

Posted By on September 13th, 2018

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2018/09/michelle_obama_comes_to_the_stadiums_.html
Michelle’s book tour is little more than P.R., self-promotion, politics, and a healthy dose of “racially charged vengeance,” all rolled into one.

Former first lady Michelle Obama is coming to the stadiums. Lots of stadiums, the kind of stadiums leftist NFL football players could take a knee in. Supposedly, it’s to sell her new book, the product of her glitzy multi-million-dollar post-White House book deal, dreamily titled Becoming: An Intimate Conversation with Michelle Obama. Get a load of that glamorous photo with the one-shoulder look, carefully styled to show a white T-shirt sexily and insouciantly sliding off one of Michelle’s shoulders. Intimate, you know? And pure Hollywood.

According to the Associated Press:

NEW YORK (AP) – Michelle Obama will visit 10 cities to promote her memoir “Becoming,” a tour featuring arenas and other performing centers to accommodate crowds far too big for any bookstore.

The former first lady will begin at the United Center in her native Chicago on Nov. 13, the book’s release date. She will finish at the American Airlines Center in Dallas on Dec. 17, Live Nation and the Crown Publishing Group announced Wednesday. In between, appearances will include Barclays Center in New York City, the Pepsi Center Arena in Denver and The Forum in Los Angeles.

So don’t look to see her sitting at a desk at some book shop, signing autographs and pretending to be pleasant to book-buyers, something that mere mortals, such as Hillary Clinton on her 2014 Hard Choices tour once did.

Nope, Michelle’s royalty, and she’s gonna do it like Beyoncé.

But like Hillary, Michelle’s actually on a mission to campaign for the midterms. She, after all, is one of the Democrats’ most seasoned and effective weapons, at least among Democrats.

This is why you see her making racially charged tweets such as this, noted by the Washington Times columnist Cheryl Chumley:

The former first lady tossed down both race and gender cards as a means of imploring her fellow lefties to get out and vote.

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Moshe Phillips Has J Street lost its war for a Palestinian state?

Posted By on September 13th, 2018

ttps://www.jns.org/opinion/has-j-street-lost-its-war-for-a-palestinian-state/

In a feverish 800-word email appeal for donations sent days before the Labor Day weekend, Jeremy Ben-Ami, the president of J Street, made some of the group’s wildest claims yet about both current events related to Israel, as well as the history of the conflict.

Has the leading pro-Palestinian state Jewish advocacy group in the United States completely lost its way? It seems that the combination of activities and statements by both Israel’s government and the Trump administration towards the Palestinians has done just that. In a feverish 800-word email appeal for donations sent days before the Labor Day weekend, Jeremy Ben-Ami, the president of J Street, made some of the group’s wildest claims yet about both current events related to Israel, as well as the history of the conflict.

The email shows just how out of step with reality J Street is. What’s worse, J Street misinterprets and misrepresents Israeli public opinion, the views of the Israeli government and U.S. history.

Space does not allow for a complete review of all of the fabrications in Ben-Ami’s letter, but here are three of the clearest examples of J Street’s extremism. J Street, if you don’t know, is the controversial Washington, D.C., based Jewish pressure group that was created specifically, and almost exclusively, to lobby for an independent Palestinian state.

Ben-Ami seems to have missed the fact that for many years, Israeli Jews have sobered up and abandoned the idea that the formation of an independent Palestinian nation would be in the best interest of Israel. The Times of Israel website reported that 43 percent of Jewish Israelis are in favor of the so-called “two-state solution.” The same poll found that 39 percent of Israeli Jews would now approve of a peace settlement based on what has been discussed in past negotiations. (See the full news article about the poll here: https://www.timesofisrael.com/support-for-two-state-solution-at-lowest-in-nearly-20-years-poll/.) When Ben-Ami writes that “the Trump administration has adopted the agenda of Israel’s far right,” is he claiming that 57 percent of Israelis are now “far right”? And just what does he mean by the label? If Likud is “far right,” then how do you define political parties to its right?

ISRAEL, WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

If Britain Opts for Corbyn, Then the New Prime Minister Will Clash with Trump Over Israel BY Lawrence J. Haas

Posted By on September 13th, 2018

https://nationalinterest.org/feature/if-britain-opts-corbyn-then-new-prime-minister-will-clash-trump-over-israel-31132

The signs of breakdown in the liberal international order are mounting, and they’re coming from disparate directions: Washington battles its closest allies on trade, Beijing and Moscow come together more closely militarily in an anti-U.S. alliance, and Beijing seeks to make its territorial expansion a fait accompli in the Pacific.

But the liberal order is as much about values as about alliances and power plays. In that sense, the most striking recent manifestation of its breakdown involves Washington and London – the long-standing partners in the “special relationship” – and their point of contention is, of all things, Israel.

At the moment, the United States is upending decades of conventional wisdom about how to approach the “Middle East peace process” by aligning itself more tightly with its ally in Jerusalem. Great Britain, meanwhile, faces the prospect that, under Jeremy Corbyn, its Labour Party will seize power and bring an ugly anti-Zionism – rooted in an undeniable anti-Semitism – to 10 Downing Street and the halls of Parliament.

That would put Washington and London, which (with a few notable exceptions) have cooperated for decades on global matters, on a collision course over the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and larger Arab-Israeli peace – reflecting a clash of values and a decline in esprit de corps across the Western alliance.

The Trump administration announced this week that it will close the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) office in Washington, and administration officials tied the move to the Palestinian Authority’s refusal to negotiate seriously with Israel and to its threats to take the Jewish state to the International Criminal Court over its settlement policy and recent violent clashes along its border with Gaza.

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When Vienna Stood Against Jihad on 9/11/1683 By Raymond Ibrahim

Posted By on September 13th, 2018

https://pjmedia.com/homeland-security/when-vienna-stood-against-jihad-on-9-11-1683/

(This article is adapted from the author’s new book, Sword and Scimitar: Fourteen Centuries of War between Islam and the West. All quotes are sourced therein.)

On September 11, 1683 — 335 years to the day before the Twin Towers of New York came crumbling down — another Western city, Vienna, stood between life and death, also against the jihad.

Two months earlier, the largest Islamic army ever to invade Europe — 200,000 combatants under Ottoman leadership — had come desiring “to fight generously for the Mahometan faith … for the extirpation of infidels, and the increase of Muslemen,” as quoted by a contemporary.

Having surrounded the walls of Vienna on July 14, Ottoman grand vizier Kara Mustafa followed protocol. In 628, his prophet Muhammad had sent an ultimatum to Emperor Heraclius: “Aslam taslam” — “submit [to Islam] and have peace.” Heraclius rejected the summons, jihad was declared against Christendom (as enshrined in Koran 9:29), and in a few decades, two-thirds of the then Christian world — including Spain, all of North Africa, Egypt, and Greater Syria — were conquered.

Over a thousand years later, the same ultimatum of submission to Islam or death had reached the heart of Europe. Although Starhemberg, the Viennese commander in charge, did not bother to respond to the summons, graffiti inside the city — including “Muhammad, you dog, go home!” — captured its mood.

On the next day, Mustafa unleashed all hell against the city’s walls. For two months, the holed-up and vastly outnumbered Viennese suffered plague, dysentery, starvation, and many casualties.

Then, sometime around September 11, as the Muslims were about to burst through, the desperate commander fired distress rockets into the night sky to give “notice to the Christian army” — that is, the relief force Vienna had beyond all hope been counting on — “of the extremity whereto the city was reduced.” Understanding exactly what these rockets signified, cries of “Allahu Akbar!” followed them, as the Ottomans implored their deity to “obliterate the infidels utterly from the face of the earth!”

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Damning New Strzok Text to Page: “The Times is Angry With Us About the WP Scoop” By Sara Carter

Posted By on September 13th, 2018

https://saraacarter.com/damning-new-strzok-text-to-page-the-times-is-angry-with-us-about-the-wp-scoop/

A series of text messages released Wednesday reveal that former FBI Special Agent Peter Strzok was in contact with reporters at the New York Times and Washington Post regarding stories they published about the FBI’s investigation into alleged collusion between Russia and President Trump’s campaign during the spring of 2017, according to a series of texts obtained by SaraACarter.com.

The text messages suggest that Strzok, along with his paramour, former FBI Attorney Lisa Page, had been in contact with reporters from both newspapers. Strzok specifically mentioned two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times writer Michael Schmidt his text message to Page.

Strzok wrote, “Also, apparently Times is angry with us about the WP (Washington Post) scoop and earlier discussion we had about the Schmidt piece that had so many inaccuracies. Too much to detail here, but I told Mike (redacted) and Andy they need to understand we were absolutely dealing in good faith with them,” Strzok texted to Page on April 14, 2017. “The FISA one, coupled with the Guardian piece from yesterday.” (The New York Times did not respond immediately for comment. The Washington Post also did not respond immediately for comment.)

According to several U.S. officials who spoke to this news outlet, “Mike” mentioned in Strzok’s text message is Mike Kortan, the former FBI assistant director for public affairs who retired in February. “Andy” was in reference to former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe. McCabe was fired earlier this year after it was revealed in DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz’s report that said he lied to investigators and leaked information to the media.

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Chutzpah in Strasbourg By David P. Goldman

Posted By on September 13th, 2018

https://pjmedia.com/spengler/chutzpah-in-strasbourg/

ORBAN IS THE MOST POPULAR LEADER IN EUROPE

Chutzpah, an Aramaic word for unbridled effrontery, came to America via Yiddish. It’s the man who enters a revolving door after you and comes out first. It’s the fellow who murdered his parents and asks for clemency because he’s an orphan. And now it’s the backers of an unelected supranational European government casting a vote of censure against Hungary. The European parliament in Strasbourg said this week that it

Regrets that the developments in Hungary have led to a serious deterioration of the rule of law, democracy and fundamental rights over the past few years, inter alia, freedom of expression, academic freedom, the human rights of migrants, asylum seekers and refugees, freedom of assembly and association, restrictions and obstructions to the activities of civil society organisations, the right to equal treatment, the rights of people belonging to minorities, including Roma, Jews and LGBTI people, social rights, the functioning of the constitutional system, the independence of the judiciary and of other institutions and many worrying allegations of corruption and conflicts of interest, which, taken together, could represent an emerging systemic threat to the rule of law in this Member State.

The notion that minorities, religious, sexual or otherwise, are under threat in Hungary is at variance with the facts; in the case of the Jews, as I reported in this space some months ago, it is diametrically opposite to the facts. Jewish life flourishes in Budapest as in no other European capital.

Prime Minister Orban’s crime in the eyes of the European Parliament may be just the opposite: He was elected for a third term last April 8 by a two-thirds majority, which makes him the most popular leader in Europe. In fact, he may be the only popular leader in Europe; I cannot think off-hand of another European head of government with a popularity rating of more than 40%. Germany’s two ruling parties, the Christian Democrats and Social Democrats, together poll at just 46%. France’s Emmanuel Macron stands at 31%. The two Italian populist parties, who have mutually incompatible agendas and entirely different constituencies, poll at around 30% each. Spain is ruled by a minority party. Britain’s Theresa May polls around 25%.

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Rage, Rage, Against the Dying of the Dream By Michael Walsh

Posted By on September 13th, 2018

https://amgreatness.com/2018/09/12/rage-rage-

Homer’s Muse sings of the rage of Achilles, brought forth from his tent by the death of his friend Patroclus to engage the Trojan hero, Hector, in mortal combat. But Achilles’ anger solves nothing; although he kills Hector, he then desecrates the body by dragging it around the walls of Troy, thus violating the laws of warfare and sealing his own fate. His determination to avenge his friend thus becomes “the accursed rage that brought great suffering to the Achaeans.” In the end, it’s not the rage of Achilles that wins the war for the Greeks, but the trickery of Odysseus that finagles the wooden horse inside the impregnable gates of Ilium.

We are witnessing a similar self-destructive rage today: the rage of the American Left against the Trump Administration in general and the president in particular, an explosion of frustrated, impotent (but still dangerous) anger that has given up all pretense of genuine protest—against the results of a duly constituted American election, let us remember—and has devolved instead into a toddler’s extended tantrum. It bears the hallmarks of one of the most unseemly displays in American political history.

It’s being conducted in the halls of Congress, where the Democrats have at last dropped all pretense of civility and shown the voters their true, foam-flecked faces. It’s being waged in the media, where the ladies and gentlemen of the press, such as they are, have thrown over journalistic practices that served the profession well over the past century or so, and now regard malicious gossip and news as one and the same thing.

Most ominously, it is taking place in the streets where, over the past year, Republican congressmen and Trump supporters have been shot, attacked with a switchblade knife, clubbed with a bicycle lock, had their vehicles and offices vandalized and set on fire; even the president’s star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame was destroyed.

The masked fascist thugs who ludicrously call themselves “Antifa,” routinely attack public gatherings, and Left wingers sporting “Say No to Hate” t-shirts scream at the sky at the very thought of Trump and his policies. Not since the 1960s have we witnessed such a public breakdown in moral and psychological order.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Demonization of Nunes Is a Window into Our Times By Victor Davis Hanson

Posted By on September 13th, 2018

https://amgreatness.com/2018/09/13/demonization-of-nunes

Much of what we now know about the unethical and often illegal behavior of the FBI, CIA, National Security Agency, and Department of Justice emerged due to the efforts of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. Its chairman during its stunning disclosures has been Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.), who in turn has been constantly demonized for his efforts.

Yet without the committee’s digging, Americans would not have known that Hillary Clinton’s campaign and the Democratic National Committee paid for an unsubstantiated 2016 dossier on Donald Trump compiled by former British intelligence officer Christopher Steele.

Prior to the committee’s work, we did not know that the FBI and Justice Department used unverified information from the Steele dossier to obtain a warrant from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court allowing for the surveillance of former Trump campaign aide Carter Page.

Without the committee’s disclosures, Americans would not have had any idea that Bruce Ohr, who once ranked fourth in the Department of Justice hierarchy, coordinated opposition research on Trump with Steele, the FBI and Fusion GPS. Ohr took this unethical step because his wife was working for Fusion GPS—a fact that was withheld on federal disclosure forms.

The Nunes-led committee also uncovered the names of prominent FBI and Justice Department officials—including James Comey, Andrew McCabe, Rod Rosenstein, and Sally Yates—who had approved FISA court warrant applications that were based on the largely discredited Steele dossier.

Most dramatically, we learned that members of the Obama Administration had unmasked the names of U.S. citizens swept up in government surveillance. Many of those names were illegally leaked to the press. This disclosure forced former U.N. Ambassador Samantha Power and former National Security Adviser Susan Rice to confess that they had requested most of the unmaskings. Rice had previously denied it.

The House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence also confirmed that FBI agents had interviewed former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn and did not think he had lied to them concerning his contact with a top Russian diplomat.

FOREIGN POLICY, WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

The Failure to Help Taiwan Trump bows to Beijing when it protests U.S. help for Taipei.

Posted By on September 13th, 2018

https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-failure-to-help-taiwan-1536707341

The U.S. recalled its ambassadors to El Salvador, the Dominican Republic and Panama on Friday, which prompted a cryptic warning from Beijing of all places not to “gesticulate” or make “thoughtless remarks.” So why are American and Chinese diplomats jousting in Latin America?

The answer is Taiwan. In the last 15 months Beijing has convinced the three countries to drop diplomatic recognition of the island and establish relations with mainland China. The U.S. recalled its ambassadors to signal that it will downgrade ties with countries that switch. Only 17 nations now recognize Taiwan, and several of those are wavering.

China’s diplomatic campaign is part of a larger effort to force Taiwan to accept reunification. Chinese leaders have threatened war if there is no progress toward this goal, and Chinese military forces are conducting maneuvers around the island. Taiwanese understandably refuse to give up their de facto independence or their hard-won democracy.

The U.S. show of solidarity with Taiwan is welcome, and perhaps the démarches will deter more diplomatic defections. But the Trump Administration could do much more to help the island. For example, in June the U.S. opened a new de facto embassy in Taipei. Taiwan’s friends in Congress requested that a cabinet-level official attend the ceremony. But after China threw a tantrum, the U.S. was represented by the assistant secretary of state for educational and cultural affairs.

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U.N. Is Called to Recognize Christian Genocide By Marlo Safi

Posted By on September 13th, 2018

https://www.nationalreview.com/2018/09/united-nations-must-recognize-christian-genocide-iraq-syria/

The designation of ‘genocide’ would free up the flow of much-needed aid to some of the world’s most persecuted people.

This week, the United Nations Human Rights Council began its third (and last) regular session of the year, where a major ally of persecuted Middle Eastern Christians will again implore the U.N. to recognize the genocide of Syrian and Iraqi Christians.

At the 39th UNHRC session, which runs from September 10 to September 28, the European Centre for Law and Justice will be presenting an appeal to the Council to recognize ISIS’s ongoing, rampant persecution of Christians in Iraq and Syria as a “genocide,” as it’s enshrined in the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.

The European Centre for Law and Justice (ECLJ) is the American Center for Law and Justice’s European affiliate, and it has been a consistent advocate for persecuted minorities in the Middle East. Their testimony at this session will be their seventh declaring that ISIS is committing genocide against Christians and other religious and ethnic minorities. Before this, their most recent testimony was May 25, when they requested that the U.N. appoint a special adviser to lead an investigative team to collect and preserve evidence of the genocide.