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Saving Tommy Robinson (and English civilization) By Thomas Lifson

Posted By on May 30th, 2018

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2018/05/saving_tommy_robinson_and_english_civilization.html

Tommy Robinson faces the near certainty of assassination while being held in the general prison population at Hull Prison, following his arrest outside the courthouse in Leeds, where he was making a video about the trial of a Muslim grooming gang underway inside. (For background, see this and this.) Thanks to the gag order preventing the British press from reporting on his case, only help from overseas can bring pressure and raise funds for his defense.

Make no mistake: the entire U.K. government and establishment are committed to cultural suicide, by surrender to jihad, allowing no criticism of the spread of sharia law in Britain, and suppressing those who dare expose the costs. Recall that talk show host Michael Savage has been banned from Britain for supposedly causing “unrest” by remarks critical of jihad. He cannot be jailed, but Tommy Robinson can.

An American Thinker contributor currently visiting London emails this morning:

I am staying in London and saw a small protest on Monday near 10 Downing Street. I have seen nothing on TV or in the papers.

FWIW, SKYNews has been running a story on Rotherham on multiple shows. Same story, same reporter but edited differently to create a different package. It’s not like I am sitting in my hotel watching TV, but I have seen this three times. I am sure the most Brits know about Rotherham.

Sadly, my guess is most Brits (or at least Londoners) probably support his arrest. These people seem to value order over freedom. And the PC tone of their news broadcasts, even supposedly right-wing SKYNews, makes our MSM look right of center.

I like London. But the older I get the more I think that culturally these folks would be OK with a benign dictator running the show. It’s probably no accident that some [of the] best fiction ever written about living under soft or semi-hard tyranny or dystopia – Huxley, Orwell, maybe Wells – was written by people who called London home.

At The Rebel Media, for which Robinson wrote, Ezra Levant has established a legal defense fund for Tommy and makes the case for his innocence.

You can watch the entire incident of Tommy approaching the courthouse and getting arrested below. It is complete – an hour and 15 minutes long:

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The Long March: Reckoning With 1968’s ‘Cultural Revolution,’ 50 Years On By Roger Kimball

Posted By on May 30th, 2018

https://pjmedia.com/rogerkimball/the-long-march-reckoning-with-1968s-cultural-revolution-50-years-on/

What William Faulkner said about the past — it isn’t dead: it isn’t even past — seems especially true about that convulsive decade, the 1960s. For many observers, 1968 was the annus mirabilis (or perhaps “horribilis” would be more accurate) and the month of May, with its many protests, student demonstrations, acts of violence, and drug-related spectacles, was the epicenter of the year. Now that the fiftieth anniversary of May 1968 is upon us, what does the wisdom of hindsight tell us about that curious moment?

I took a crack at conjuring with the meaning of the Sixties nearly two decades ago in my book The Long March: How the Cultural Revolution of the 1960s Changed America. May 2018 seemed to offer an opportune moment to revisit the issue by reprising and updating some thoughts. As with previous anniversaries of the Purple Decade and the Magic Month, there have everywhere been nostalgic backward glances: Youth! Freedom! Sex! Were not the Sixties the Last Good Time, an era of hope, idealism, the promise of emancipation from — well, from everything? Some think so. “Only a few periods in American history,” the New York Times intoned in an editorial called “In Praise of the Counterculture”:

… have seen such a rich fulfillment of the informing ideals of personal freedom and creativity that lie at the heart of the American intellectual tradition. … The 60’s spawned a new morality-based politics that emphasized the individual’s responsibility to speak out against injustice and corruption.

A “new morality-based politics,” eh? It seems so long ago, shrouded in a Day-Glo glaze of grateful recollection. But when it comes to the Sixties, and especially the fulcrum year of 1968, Time magazine is right: “50 Years After 1968, We Are Still Living In Its Shadow.” Indeed, paroxysms of the 1960s, which trembled with gathering force through North America and Western Europe from the mid-1950s through the early 1970s, continue to reverberate throughout our culture. The Age of Aquarius did not end when the last electric guitar was unplugged at Woodstock. It lives on in our values and habits, in our tastes, pleasures, and aspirations. It lives on especially in our educational and cultural institutions, and in the degraded pop culture that permeates our lives like a corrosive fog.

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The Safest Country for European Jews? Try Hungary By David P. Goldman

Posted By on May 30th, 2018

https://pjmedia.com/spengler/the-safest-country-for-european-jews-try-hungary/

Last Friday evening I put on a kippah and walked half an hour across Budapest to the Keren Or synagogue maintained by the Budapest Chabad. After violent attacks on Jews in German streets, the leaders of Germany’s Jewish community warned Jews last month not to wear a kippah or any other visible sign of Jewish identification in public. The French community issued such warnings years ago. Belgian TV could not find a single Jew in Brussels willing to wear a kippah in public. I walked across Budapest four times (for Friday evening and Saturday daytime services), and no-one looked at my kippah twice. At services I met Hasidim who had walked to synagogue with kaftan and shtreimel, the traditional round fur hat. Whatever residual anti-Semitism remains among Hungarians, it doesn’t interfere with the open embrace of Jewish life. There are no risks to Jews because there are very few Muslim migrants.

On any given Friday evening, the Keren Or synagogue—one of several Chabad houses in Budapest—hosts two hundred people for dinner. Jewish life isn’t just flourishing in Budapest. It’s roaring with ruach, and livened by a growing Israeli presence. About 100,000 Israelis have dual Hungarian citizenship; many own property in the country and vote in Hungarian elections.

Prime Minister Orban has been a close friend of Israeli leader Binyamin Netanyahu for twenty years. When Orban first was elected prime minister in 1998 in the thick of an economic crisis, he asked then-Finance Minister Netanyahu for help, and Netanyahu lent him some of his staff to shape Hungary’s economic program. I asked everyone at Keren Or who spoke English what they thought of Orban. In that gathering the prime minister would have polled 100%.

Orban, in turn, is one of Israel’s few staunch supporters overseas. Earlier this month Hungary, along with Rumania and the Czech Republic, vetoed a European Community resolution condemning the U.S. for moving its embassy to Jerusalem. Cynics dismiss this as an instance of “the enemy of my enemy is my friend.” That isn’t the case. Hungary is in the middle of a nasty fight with the European Community over migration, and stands to lose up to $4 billion in EC subsidies—roughly 3% of the country’s GDP. It doesn’t help Hungary to provoke Brussels by sabotaging its diplomatic efforts, as in the case of the Jerusalem embassy vote. On the contrary, Hungary is spending precious political capital in defense of the Jewish state, to its own possible disadvantage.

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U.S. Walks Out as Syria Assumes Presidency of UN Disarmament Panel By Bridget Johnson

Posted By on May 30th, 2018

https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/u-s-walks-out-as-syria-assumes-presidency-of-un-disarmament-panel/

The U.S. delegation staged a walkout today in protest of Syria assuming the rotating presidency of the Conference on Disarmament at the United Nations in Geneva.

The U.S. Mission to the United Nations said in a statement today that they would have tried to block Syria from holding the leadership role but were unable to do so because of the conference rules requiring unanimous consent. Instead, over the next four weeks of Syria’s presidency, the U.S. delegation “will limit participation in informal sessions convened by the presidency and will continue to highlight the hypocrisy of Syria holding this position in spite of its continued use of chemical weapons and disregard for its other disarmament obligations.”

Tweeted Robert Wood, a career State Department official who serves as U.S. ambassador to the conference: “I informed CD members that throughout Syria’s four-week presidency, the US would not attend any subsidiary body mtgs. or any informal sessions convened by the presidency. Syria’s presidency cannot be business as usual. I will, however, call out the regime’s crimes in plenaries.”

“It is shameful that a regime that continues to use chemical weapons to murder its own people has the audacity to accept the presidency of the very organization that established the Chemical Weapons Convention,” Ambassador Nikki Haley said. “The Assad regime does not have the moral authority to chair an organization that helped establish the global norms for ending the use of these heinous weapons.”

“It should immediately relinquish the presidency, and every country that supports accountability for the use of weapons of mass destruction should share our outrage and join us in opposing Syria’s presidency,” she added.

The monthlong presidency rotates alphabetically among the 65 conference members. Last up was Switzerland; next up will be Tunisia.

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Clapper Disinformation Campaign Why does a former intelligence chief make claims he can’t back up?By Holman W. Jenkins, Jr.

Posted By on May 30th, 2018

https://www.wsj.com/articles/clapper-disinformation-campaign-1527636194?cx_testId=16&cx_testVariant=cx&cx_artPos=0&cx_tag=collabctx&cx_navSource=newsReel#cxrecs_s

James Clapper, President Obama’s director of national intelligence, gained a reputation among liberals as a liar for covering up the existence of secret data-collection programs.

Since becoming a private citizen, he has claimed that President Trump is a Russian “asset” and that Vladimir Putin is his “case officer,” then when pressed said he was speaking “figuratively.”

His latest assertion, in a book and interviews, that Mr. Putin elected Mr. Trump is based on non-reasoning that effectively puts defenders of U.S. democracy in a position of having to prove a negative. “It just exceeds logic and credulity that they didn’t affect the election,” he told PBS.

Mr. Clapper not only exaggerates Russia’s efforts, he crucially overlooks the fact that it’s the net effect that matters. Allegations and insinuations of Russian meddling clearly cost Mr. Trump some sizeable number of votes. Hillary Clinton made good use of this mallet, as would be clearer now if she had also made good use of her other assets to contest those states where the election would actually be decided.

Mr. Clapper misleads you (and possibly himself) by appealing to the hindsight fallacy: Because Mr. Trump’s victory was unexpected, Russia must have caused it. But why does he want you to believe that he believes what he can’t possibly know?

There’s been much talk about origins. Let’s understand how all this really began. James Comey knew it was unrealistic that Mrs. Clinton would be prosecuted for email mishandling but also knew it was the Obama Justice Department’s decision to make, own and defend. Why did he insert himself?

The first answer is that he expected Mrs. Clinton to win—and likely believed it was necessary that she win. Secondly he had a pretext for violating the normal and proper protocol for criminal investigations. He did so by turning it into a counterintelligence matter, seizing on a Democratic email supposedly in Russian hands that dubiously referred to a compromising conversation of Attorney General Loretta Lynch regarding the Hillary investigation.

Put aside whether this information really necessitated his intervention. (It didn’t. This is the great non sequitur of the Comey story.) Now adopted, Russia became the rationale for actions that should trouble Americans simply on account of their foolishness.

Think about it: The FBI’s original intervention in the Hillary matter was premised on apparent false information from the Russians. Its actions against the Trump campaign flowed from an implausible, unsupported document attributed to Russian sources and paid for by Mr. Trump’s political opponents. CONTINUE AT SITE

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Assad’s Disarmament Chair Syria now leads a U.N.-related body opposed to chemical weapons.

Posted By on May 30th, 2018

https://www.wsj.com/articles/assads-disarmament-chair-1527633758

Anyone who still thinks that world peace and order can be enforced from something called the United Nations might want to consider that Syria this week assumed the rotating presidency of the U.N.-backed Conference on Disarmament. That’s Syria as in Bashar Assad, as in sarin gas, as in barrel bombs dropped on innocent civilians.

The Conference is a multinational body based in Geneva that was established in 1979 to promote reductions in armaments, especially weapons of mass destruction. Though independent from the U.N., it reports annually to Turtle Bay, and the director-general of the U.N. office in Geneva is secretary-general of the Conference. Syria is now leading the group because it follows Switzerland in the alphabetical list of member nations.
Photo: istock/getty images

The appointment is best understood in light of the Conference’s proudest achievement: The 1993 Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production, Stockpiling and Use of Chemical Weapons and on their Destruction. Apparently no one at the Conference sees any contradiction with having at its helm a regime that has used such weapons on its own people.

In 2012 Barack Obama declared the use of chemical weapons by Syria a “red line” that would trigger U.S. intervention. Assad used sarin gas anyway. In 2017 Syria used gas again, and President Trump responded with a missile strike on a Syrian airbase. Assad used chemical bombs again in April, which provoked another U.S. strike on Syria joined by Britain and France. On Friday U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley said Assad has used chemical weapons at least 50 times.

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Israeli Jets Hit Gaza Targets After Militants Fire Projectiles Over Border Military compounds, munitions warehouses and a tunnel are struck, officials say, as tensions escalate By Felicia Schwartz and Dov Lieber

Posted By on May 30th, 2018

https://www.wsj.com/articles/gaza-militants-fire-mortars-into-israel-1527591761

TEL AVIV—Israeli jets launched airstrikes against targets in Gaza in response to militants firing mortar shells and rockets into the country, ramping up tensions after weeks of deadly clashes at the border fence.

More than 60 targets were hit in total in two waves of airstrikes, including a munitions manufacturing site, military compounds, munitions warehouses and a tunnel that extended into its territory, which belonged to Gaza ruler Hamas and militant group Palestinian Islamic Jihad, the Israeli military said.

The Israeli strikes came as militants in Gaza fired mortar shells and rockets into Israel through the day, setting off sirens in several border towns that continued late into the night, in what Israel’s military called the largest such attacks from the Palestinian territory since the 50-day war known as Operation Protective Edge in 2014.

“We are the closest to war we have been since Operation Protective Edge.…If a war breaks out that we are not interested in and that they aren’t interested in—it depends solely on them,” Israeli Intelligence Minister Yisrael Katz told Army Radio.

The Israeli military said late Tuesday that militants in Gaza launched a total of about 70 mortars and rockets into Israel in several barrages by 8 p.m. local time, including some that were Iranian made.

Three Israeli soldiers were injured and were receiving medical treatment, but the Iron Dome defense system intercepted most of the projectiles, the Israeli military said. One of the mortar shells from the morning volley landed in the playground of a kindergarten before children arrived and no one was injured, it said.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu blamed Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, which Israel says is backed by Iran, for the attacks.

Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad’s armed wings issued a joint statement claiming responsibility for the attacks on Israel. They said the attacks were a response to Israel’s recent attacks that have killed Hamas and Islamic Jihad militants as well as for violent clashes during recent protests.

The groups faulted Israel for this week’s violence, citing events “48 hours ago.” and said they won’t “not let the enemy impose a new equation killing our people for free.”

Nikki Haley, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, on Tuesday called for an emergency Security Council meeting to respond to attacks on Israel from Gaza. CONTINUE AT SITE

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An Israeli Maritime Strategy Benefits the U.S. By Seth Cropsey

Posted By on May 30th, 2018

https://www.realcleardefense.com/articles/2018/05/29/an_israeli_maritime_strategy_benefits_the_us_113485.html

As the opening of the American embassy in Jerusalem plainly shows, the U.S. is going to be more closely linked to Israel including especially its security. Since the 1960s, Israel has concentrated its attention on ground and air forces. Because of new technology, Iran’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs, and Russia’s increased naval presence in the region to name a few, Israel—today and in the future—will have to look to the seas to defend itself.

Israel’s maritime strategy is not fully formed, nor is its outline detailed. This matters not only to Israel but to the U.S. which retains a vital interest in free navigation in the Mediterranean and the stability that powerful naval forces in the region help assure. The U.S. shares an interest with Israel in denying use of the seas to terrorists; and preventing the hegemonic power that Iran and Turkey seek. A robust Israeli navy and maritime strategy benefit the U.S. whose permanent presence in the Med is based in Spain and has been reduced to four ballistic missile defense destroyers where once two aircraft carrier groups and a large Marine amphibious ready group patrolled.

The Med has reverted to its historic template: the tensions and conflict that have characterized the area from the Trojan War to the Cold War are back. In the Eastern Mediterranean Russian naval presence is growing, the Lebanese state has become increasingly enthralled to the Iranian-backed Hezbollah terror organization while Iran regards Syria as another instrument to threaten the Jewish state. Turkey recently signed an agreement to build a naval base in the Iran-friendly Persian Gulf state of Qatar and continues to distance itself from NATO, and Chinese investments in the region are accelerating, as are the naval deployments of Iran.

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George Neumayr: The Three Stooges of Spygate

Posted By on May 30th, 2018

Bret Baier, in his April interview with Jim Comey on Fox News, asked him if he had seen John Brennan and Jim Clapper together since his firing. “No, no,” Comey replied at first, then said, “Actually, I had dinner with the two of them together with our spouses.” Baier asked him if they discussed “Trump cases” on the triple date. “No, we did not,” he answered.

Add that to Comey’s voluminous record of whoppers. The idea that the three stooges of Spygate, whose red-hot antipathy for Trump is nothing if not all-consuming, went out to dinner without discussing the investigation of him strains all credulity. No doubt one of their anxieties at the dinner was: When will the American public find out about the spy we sent to infiltrate the Trump campaign’s ranks?

Beneath all of their flailing attacks on Congressman Devin Nunes lay the fear that his oversight would kick loose scandalous nuggets buried within their probe: a FISA warrant cribbed from Hillary’s campaign smears, national security letters based on insanely thin justifications, an embarrassing reliance on sketchy foreign intelligence (which consisted largely of Russian disinformation and re-circulated nonsense from Hillary’s hired gun, Christopher Steele), and an infiltration plot involving a swampy old CIA asset.

The three stooges have yet to utter the name of Stefan Halper, the spy at the center of the Obama administration’s farcical plot. Rubbing his bald pate as usual, Clapper claimed total ignorance of Halper. He apparently was at the children’s table at Brennan’s interagency gatherings. “I didn’t know about this informant,” Clapper said.

Of course, his I-know-nothing routine didn’t stop him from serving as an authority on the knowledge levels of others: “No one in the White House knew. Certainly the president didn’t know.” But amidst all this defensiveness, Clapper worked up a sweat defending the spying as a “good thing,” which raises the obvious question: If it was all so normal and praiseworthy, why not tell Obama?

Just as Clapper’s denial of FISA warrants on the Trump campaign disintegrated, so too will that one. Sooner or later it will come out that Obama knew damn well that the Trump campaign was under surveillance and signed off on it. How could he not have? After all, we’ve been told repeatedly that spying on the Trump campaign was a national security matter of unspeakable gravity. How could such a matter be withheld from the person most responsible for national security?

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The Obama Administration’s Hypocritical Pretext for Spying on the Trump Campaign By Andrew C. McCarthy

Posted By on May 29th, 2018

www.nationalreview.com/2018/05/trump-russia-investigation-obama-administra Where was its concern about Russia during its eight years in power? As I argued in my weekend column, it is hard to imagine a more idle question than whether the Obama administration spied on the Trump campaign. Of course it did. If you want to argue the point, imagine what the professors, pundits, and […]