ISRAEL Comments turned off

Israel Moves To Thwart Growing Hamas Maritime Threat A series of offensive and defensive Israeli actions are keeping Hamas off balance. Ari Lieberman

Posted By on June 15th, 2018

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/270470/israel-moves-thwart-growing-hamas-maritime-threat-ari-lieberman

When it comes to military firsts, Israel can probably take credit for the lion’s share. Israel was the first nation to capture an intact Soviet MiG-21, the first to capture a complete intact Soviet P-12 radar station, the first to employ militarized drones in the context of a large-scale, Wild Weasel, anti-SAM operation, and the first to destroy not one but two atom bomb facilities.

On June 2, 2018 the Israel Defense Forces executed another operational first. The Israeli Air Force bombed and destroyed a Hamas underwater terror tunnel. The tunnel, which was located approximately three kilometers from the Israeli border, was constructed for the purpose of concealing Hamas movements and allowing Hamas frogmen to enter the sea from an adjacent Hamas naval base undetected.

Hamas has been trying to improve its militarized maritime program and has invested substantial resources into improving and expanding its sea assault capabilities. On July 8, 2014 a cell of five heavily armed Hamas frogmen infiltrated Israel from the sea at Zikim Beach, which is located just north of the Gaza Strip. They were quickly detected and Israeli ground and naval units were dispatched to confront them. After a running battle, all five were liquidated. An IDF soldier was lightly wounded in the exchange.

While the attack was thwarted, it highlighted another danger and underscored the need to address the growing Hamas maritime threat. The frogmen were well trained and demonstrated considerable bravery. Though the cell was wiped out, the confrontation could have just as easily ended in disaster.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

FBI IG Report: A Slap On The Wrist Highly anticipated report lets Hillary’s protectors off easy. Joseph Klein

Posted By on June 15th, 2018

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/270466/fbi-ig-report-slap-wrist-joseph-klein

Department of Justice Inspector General Michael E. Horowitz has released his 500 plus-page report, which purports to shine a light on the mishandling at top levels of the Department of Justice and Federal Bureau of Investigation of the 2016 investigation into Hillary Clinton’s use of a private e-mail server while she served as Secretary of State under former President Obama. Such mishandling included violations of Department of Justice standards and FBI protocols. The report from the Department of Justice’s Office of the Inspector General (“OIG”) criticized certain actions and decisions of former FBI Director James Comey, together with those of other senior FBI officials who were involved in the probe, including former Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe. Mr. McCabe is already the subject of an earlier criminal referral from the OIG for his alleged unauthorized leaks to the media and lying to federal investigators about his media contacts. Special FBI agent Peter Stzrok and Lisa Page, an attorney who has since left the FBI, were targeted in this report for their blatantly anti-Trump text messages. Former Attorney General Loretta Lynch was also criticized for exercising bad judgment in connection with her infamous tarmac meeting with Bill Clinton.

Mr. Horowitz’s report focused on process and procedures. The inspector general made clear when he launched his investigation in January 2017 that “his review will not substitute the OIG’s judgment for the judgments made by the FBI or the Department regarding the substantive merits of investigative or prosecutive decisions.” Moreover, this report did not address whether the Department of Justice or FBI abused the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act to obtain a surveillance order against former Trump campaign advisor Carter Page, or the government’s reliance on former British intelligence agent Christopher Steele’s salacious and unverified “dossier” in its FISA court application, which the OIG is investigating separately.

WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Tommy Robinson Receiving Death Threats in New UK Prison – Imam Orders Hit on Tommy Robinson

Posted By on June 15th, 2018

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2018/06/update-tommy-robinson-receiving-death-threats-in-new-uk-prison-imam-places-hit-on-tommy-robinson-

As TGP’s Cassandra Fairbanks previously reported, UK activist Tommy Robinson was arrested on May 25th for suspicion of breaching the peace while livestreaming to report on the trial of a child grooming gang and will now have to serve a prior 13 month suspended sentence.

Friends and supporters of Robinson, 35, are asserting that his notoriety and stance on Islam places his life in great danger in prison.

Articles about the arrest and subsequent imprisonment of Tommy Robinson were rapidly scrubbed from the internet after the British government put restrictions in place banning any reporting on the matter.
Now this…

Paul Joseph Watson reported earlier today that Tommy Robinson has been moved to a maximum security prison with a 71% Muslim population.

ISRAEL Comments turned off

Dealing With Hamas Terror Kites… by Gerald A. Honigman

Posted By on June 15th, 2018

www.geraldahonigman.com

Imagine for one moment tens of thousands of acres of French, Russian, American, Egyptian, or whoever’s farmland, forests, nature preserves, property, and lives deliberately being destroyed or targeted by neighbors sworn to their destruction by any-and-all means possible. Next, imagine that those neighbors, when not firing rockets, mortars, and missiles across the border, refuse to cease this new type of terror activity using often explosive, flaming terror kites as well. The only solution they will accept is your (and in Israel’s case, yet again) final solution.

Now, what might an acceptable response to such murderous intent be–especially when world bodies such as the United Nations basically ignore it (as happened again in the latest June13, 2018 UN condemnation of Israel for its defensive actions in Gaza) and wind up blaming the victim instead?

Predictably, taking cues from such hypocrisy, Hamas and its allies have next promised to launch thousands of additional incendiary kites into Israel as they attempt to storm the border to mark the end of Ramadan’s Eid al-Fitr’s celebration the following day–June 15th this year.

I wish it had not come to this, but the Hamas zebra does not change its stripes (and not that Fatah’s does).

WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

The Ultimate Démarche: France Wants to Oust English From the EU Prompted by Brexit, French President Emmanuel Macron wants to restore his language, the way it was before Britain joined by Valentina Pop

Posted By on June 15th, 2018

https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-ultimate-demarche-france-want-to-oust-english-from-the-eu-1528986165?cx_testId=16&cx_testVariant=cx&cx_artPos=0&cx_tag=pop&cx_navSource=newsReel#cxrecs_s

BRUSSELS—As if the European Union didn’t have enough to worry about, now it’s at odds over what should be its dominant language.

The French president, Emmanuel Macron, wants to make French grand again and replace English as the default language in EU institutions, the way it was before Britain joined the bloc in 1973. With the U.K. negotiating to leave the EU next spring, he is eager to restore the linguistic ancien regime.

“English has probably never been so present in Brussels as when we’re talking about Brexit,” Mr. Macron said in March on the Day of Francophonie—a celebration of French language and culture observed in more than 70 countries. “This domination is not inevitable,” he declared.

Dethroning the Queen’s English looks nearly impossible for the soon-to-be 27-country bloc. Its 24 official languages produce 552 translating combinations—an impractically large number that demands a shortcut.

English is by far the leading foreign language taught in the EU, according to official statistics. Over 80% of primary-school children and over 95% of secondary-school students across the bloc learn English before any other foreign language.

Still, Brexit means a downgrading for English. Today it’s the official language for 12.8% of the EU’s 511 million people but after Britain leaves it will be just the second official language in just two countries: Ireland and Malta. Combined they represent 1.2% of the EU’s post-Brexit population.

Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite, known for her pithy tweets during EU leaders’ meetings, said any decision regarding the bloc’s linguistic regime “cannot be divorced from reality.” CONTINUE AT SITE

WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

U.S. Protectionist Stance Spooks Germany’s Economy Uncertainty over Trump’s tariffs and trade threats contribute to cooling of country’s export-driven growth By Nina Adam

Posted By on June 15th, 2018

https://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-protectionist-stance-spooks-germanys-economy-1528977600

FRANKFURT—President Donald Trump’s trade threats aren’t only hurting feelings in Germany. They are beginning to weigh on the country’s economy.

The European Union’s largest economy, whose export-oriented vigor has kept the continent afloat for more than a decade, is cooling more rapidly than expected in what economists see as the early fallout from protectionist moves by the U.S.

The slowdown comes just as Europe has been gradually emerging from the economic hangover caused by the continent’s debt crisis in 2010.

After years of robust growth fueled by foreign demand for premium cars and engineering goods, Germany saw its annualized growth rate roughly fall by half in the first quarter of 2018. Exports have fallen in three of the first four months of the year, manufacturing orders are down and sentiment indicators are in free fall.

The weakness can’t be blamed on the U.S. president’s “America First” policies alone. A cold winter and a bad flu epidemic appear to have slackened growth earlier this year. But the bad news has been so persistent since then that economists are now looking for other explanations.

“It’s clear that concerns over protectionism and the more assertive foreign-policy stance of the U.S. have begun to have real economic implications,” said Oliver Rakau, a Frankfurt-based economist with Oxford Economics. CONTINUE AT SITE

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

America’s Progressive Slumlord New York City’s mayor presides over a public housing disaster.

Posted By on June 14th, 2018

https://www.wsj.com/articles/americas-progressive-slumlord-1529019608

Affordable housing is a progressive mantra these days, and taxpayers are exhorted to put more money into public housing. But then we learn that America’s great progressive political hope, New York Mayor Bill de Blasio, is essentially the nation’s pre-eminent slumlord.

That’s the sorry truth exposed this week in a scathing civil complaint and consent decree released by U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman over the New York City Housing Authority (Nycha). The complaint exposes how the authority neglected basic repairs and upkeep while taking active steps to deceive inspectors and cover up its ineptitude and wrongdoing.

This is no small agency. Nycha runs 176,066 public housing apartments in 2,462 buildings in 326 developments across the city. One of every 14 New Yorkers—400,000 people—calls Nycha home. Nycha is the largest public housing agency in America, larger than the next 11 agencies combined.

The federal complaint reads like something out of Upton Sinclair. On lead paint, for example, it finds that “since at least 2011, Nycha senior managers have known that Nycha was violating [federal Housing and Urban Development] lead paint requirements.” Nineteen children have been found to have lead poisoning, and in 2016 alone Nycha logged more than 38,000 complaints related to paint and plaster issues.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

The Disgrace of Comey’s FBI The damning IG report shows the urgent need to restore public trust.

Posted By on June 14th, 2018

https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-disgrace-of-comeys-fbi-1529019418

The long-awaited Inspector General’s report on the FBI’s handling of the Hillary Clinton investigation makes for depressing reading for anyone who cares about American democracy. Self-government depends on public trust in its institutions, especially law enforcement. The IG’s 568-page report makes clear that the FBI under former director James Comey betrayed that public trust in a way not seen since J. Edgar Hoover.

We use the Hoover analogy advisedly, realizing that the problem in this case was not rampant illegal spying. Though IG Michael Horowitz’s conclusions are measured, his facts are damning. They show that Mr. Comey abused his authority, broke with long-established Justice Department norms, and deceived his superiors and the public.

While the IG says Mr. Comey’s decisions were not the result of “political bias,” he presided over an investigating team that included agents who clearly were biased against Donald Trump. The damage to the bureau’s reputation—and to thousands of honest agents—will take years to repair.

The issue of political bias is almost beside the point. The IG scores Mr. Comey for “ad hoc decisionmaking based on his personal views.” Like Hoover, Mr. Comey believed that he alone could protect the public trust. And like Hoover, this hubris led him to make egregious mistakes of judgment that the IG says “negatively impacted the perception of the FBI and the department as fair administrators of justice.”

ENVIRONMENT AND JUNK SCIENCE Comments turned off

Peter O’Brien :The Climateers’ Latest Little Earner

Posted By on June 14th, 2018

https://quadrant.org.au/opinion/doomed-planet/2018/06/climateers-latest-little-earner/

Rising CO2 levels haven’t produced the soaring temperatures warmists so confidently predicted, but not to worry. In their latest grant-snaffling gambit, catastropharian careerists are saying greenhouse gases produce ‘extreme weather’ even without the missing heat. Yes, really.

Readers may remember a CAGW paper, co-authored by Professor David Karoly, that professed to demonstrate recent climate extremes in south-east Australia were unprecedented in the paleoclimate record. This paper was announced with suitably hysterical headlines as you might expect. Then sceptic Steve McIntyre identified a fatal flaw within hours of publication and it was withdrawn for “revision”. This took all of four years to publish and, when resubmitted, produced markedly less alarming conclusions. To no-one’s surprise this farce was conveniently overlooked by the mainstream media.

Anyway, the redoubtable Dr Karoly is back in the news today having co-authored a new paper which can only strike those without a seat on the warmist gravy train as plumbing the depths of desperation. They can see the writing on the wall. As CO2 concentrations inexorably rise and global temperatures disobligingly refuse to rocket upwards, the warmist establishment sees the need for a new and foolproof narrative. They have done it often enough before, so it is not as if switching stories is a great challenge. Remember those dams that would never fill again and, when they did, how the narrative switched tacks and proclaimed torrential downpours and flooding as the “genuine” consequences of electricity bills that just aren’t high enough?

The latest line appears to be that, even if CO2 doesn’t cause warming per se it can still cause “extreme weather” through some other, unspecified and malign influence. Thanks to Eric Worrall at WUWT for spotting the latest meme switch.

Now I haven’t read the paper, it being paywalled, and even if I did I’m sure it would dazzle baffle me with ‘science’. However, I have read the abstract, which pretty much tells you all you need to know. Here is how it begins (emphasis added):

WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Peter Smith Dim, Dimmer, Dhimmitude

Posted By on June 14th, 2018

https://quadrant.org.au/opinion/qed/2018/06/dim-dimmer-dhimmitude/

Overwhelmingly, in my view, only those whose self-esteem, character or, perhaps, intellectual capacity is well below par convert to Islam. It can’t be explained any other way. Human nature has its dark side and, for folks such these, Islam’s dogma of innate superiority has a chilling appeal.

“Death is the sentence…There’s nothing to be embarrassed about…Out of compassion, let’s get rid of them [homosexuals] now.” – Islamic scholar Sheikh Farrokh Sekaleshfar in April 2017 in Orlando

“Oh, Allah, count them [Jews] one by one and annihilate them down to the very last one.”
— Imam Ammar Shahin in July 2017 in California

Two examples, of many, of (real) hate speech inspired by the religion of peace.

__________________________________

No peace for these English white girls in Oxford (an estimated fifty-plus of them), ages from 11 to 15 years when the abuse started. As reported in The Guardian on January 16, 2013,

“They were subjected to humiliating and degrading conduct, including biting, suffocation, burning and scratching. Weapons, including knives, baseball bats, and meat cleavers were used during the torture, the court heard. The jury was told that sometimes men [all told, five Muslims of Pakistani and two of East African heritage] had urinated on the girls, who were raped vaginally, orally and anally.”

And this is just one, just one, of many Muslim grooming horrors staining the green and pleasant land.

It isn’t just Muslim men who are in the tank for a vengeful Allah. Safaa Boular, 18 years old and of Moroccan descent, sister Rizlaine, 22, and their mother, Mina Dich, 44, were found guilty earlier this month of plotting a deadly terrorist offence in London. “All three women were filled with hate and toxic ideology,” according to Britain’s top counter-terrorism cop. Toxic is the word. Please note, it is no accident: it comes instructionally and authentically from Islamic scripture.