RUTHFULLY YOURS

President Erdogan builds an opulent palace for himself, part of a 20-year mess that is American Middle East policy

It’s after Thanksgiving, and so it bears mentioning that Turkey, under the direction of Recep Tayyip Erdogan, formerly that country’s prime minister and now its president, has apparently lost its mind. Erdogan, a proudly demagogic Islamist, thinks Muslims discovered America, centuries before Columbus got there. Further, he’s built a presidential palace four times the size of Versailles and 30 times the size of the White House.

Erdogan’s wildly inflated sense of his own importance underscores both the extent and the source of America’s Turkey problem: The Obama Administration, as well as the Bush White House before it, has failed to cut him down to size. The effects of treating Erdogan like a reasonable actor when he is clearly crazy are not only being felt by the people of Turkey, who have seen their democracy curdle into authoritarian one-man rule and their economic miracle turn into an oligarchical prison-house built on enormous mountains of debt.

One familiar target of Erdogan’s public abuse is Israel. And as things head south in Turkey, it is not surprising that the Turkish leader has moved from words to actions. Last week, Israeli authorities rolled up a Hamas cell on the West Bank that was plotting several major operations, including an attack on Teddy Kollek Stadium in Jerusalem. The Hamas cell takes its orders from Hamas commander Saleh al-Arouri, who lives openly in Turkey under Erdogan’s apparent protection.

Israeli officials are furious with Ankara. They’re complaining to both the United States and NATO about Turkey’s hosting Arouri, who proudly claimed responsibility for the kidnapping and murder of the three Israeli students this summer that led to 40-day-long war with Hamas in Gaza.

Ankara has formally denied the Israeli allegations: “Turkey holds dialog with Hamas,” said one Turkish official, perhaps referring to Arouri’s open presence in Turkey’s capital, “but would not under any circumstances allow a terror group to operate from its territory.” But that’s not true, say U.S. officials, who are less concerned with Hamas than with foreign terrorist organizations fighting in Syria. The White House has accused the Turks of giving safe passage to terrorists from both the Islamic State and Jabhat al-Nusra. So, why not Hamas, too?

If you are mystified as to why the left strives so hard to make martyrs out of such unlikely role models as Michael Brown and Trayvon Martin, both killed in self-defense, just keep in mind Rahm Emanuel’s credo: “Never let a serious crisis go to waste.”

Within days of the shooting of Brown in August, a “Professor of Science and Education” named Christopher Emdin posted (and then updated in October) a piece for Huffington Post entitled “5 Ways to Teach About Michael Brown and Ferguson in the New School Year.” That article was given new life when a link to it was tweeted by the White House Am-Af Ed just after Thanksgiving. It included the acronym for “in case you missed it” – indicating that the administration thought the article’s content important and valid enough to bring to people’s attention once again.

What is Am-Af Ed? It is the U.S. Department of Education’s Initiative on Educational Excellence for African Americans, an Obama creation designed to improve educational opportunities for blacks in America. But of course, educational excellence doesn’t mean the same thing to the Alinsky protégés in the White House as it does to most Americans. To the radical left, education is about mobilizing, galvanizing, and deploying armies of social justice warriors.

The Am-Af Ed tweet also included Twitter links to: left-leaning PBS; Teaching for Change, whose motto is “Building Social Justice Starting in the Classroom”; and Rethinking Schools, whose mission is “social justice teaching and education activism… to build broad democratic movements for social and environmental justice.” See a pattern developing there?

Teaching for Change devotes an entire page to “Teaching About Ferguson” to help indoctrinators – I mean, educators – enable students to “be proactive in their own communities” – because apparently it’s less important to give students of color an education than it is to pump them up for community action. The page is replete with items about the history of racism in America, along with positive references to Malcolm X, radical historian Howard Zinn, and the Black Panthers. That would be the same Black Panthers whose recent plot to bomb the Gateway Arch and murder the Ferguson police chief and a St. Louis prosecutor was stalled because the racist thugs ran out of EBT credit. What a standard for academic excellence they set.

Israel’s 19th governing coalition collapsed this week after less than two years in office. It included two right-of-center parties totaling 43 seats (the Knesset has 120) and two ostensibly “centrist” (actually leftist) parties totaling 25.

In recent weeks the respective leaders of the two leftist parties, Yair Lapid and Tzipi Livni, had been staging a palace revolt. They lashed out at the government and its leader, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, in ways only befitting a vituperative opposition. Lapid, the finance minister, refused to implement government policy and insisted on his own misguided, destructive plans.

It left the exasperated Netanyahu with no choice but to fire these two and, in effect, dissolve the government. New elections have been set for March 17.

Meanwhile three polls (summarized at the end of this analysis by Times of Israel editor David Horovitz) have indicated that, since the previous elections in January 2013, a lot has changed in Israel.

It was those elections’ right-leaning but equivocal results that gave rise to the dubious, rickety coalition that fell this week. But now all three polls tell the same story: the right will do much better in the new elections and be able to form a coalition without the “center” (or left), possibly with the ballast of ultra-Orthodox parties that are also right-leaning politically.

What changed?

Back in January 2013 things looked relatively quiet to Israelis. Successful terror attacks were down to very low levels. The November 2012 Gaza war had lasted only eight days with very few Israeli casualties. Iran was still under tough sanctions, creating hopes—illusions—that the West was serious about stopping its march to the bomb.

What a difference—at least, in perceptions—two years make.

While Israel won the 2014 Gaza war decisively, it had most of the country scurrying to bomb shelters for seven weeks and cost Israel 64 soldiers’ and seven civilians’ lives. In its aftermath, a wave of Palestinian terror attacks that started in September has killed 12.

Three days after Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and leader of the Yesh Atid party and now former finance minister Yair Lapid failed to resolve their differences and so thrust Israel into an electoral season less than two years after the last election, the Left’s narrative is already clear. Netanyahu has forced unnecessary, costly elections on the country.

He did so because his reactionary nature, overweening ego and thin skin made it impossible for him to handle a true reformer like Lapid, who was trying to push the country forward.

The actual situation is quite different. These elections are necessary. The up to NIS 1.2 billion that taxpayers will have to pay to finance the vote scheduled for March 17 is money well spent. And if the current polls are even close to what the election results will be three months from now, then the public understands that they are necessary and intends to elect a government that will serve it better than the one that just dissolved.

To be sure, Netanyahu is the one who decided to call elections. But the person responsible for making it impossible for the existing government to function is Lapid. Over the past few months Lapid has had the political equivalent of a nervous breakdown.

In 2013, Lapid ran as a centrist. The television celebrity’s new party, Yesh Atid, presented itself as the voice of the hard-working middle class whose members love this country and are tired of electing governments that trample their economic interests and take them for granted in favor of special interests, especially the haredim.

In other words, Lapid ran as his father’s son.

The late Yosef “Tommy” Lapid’s Shinui party also claimed to be the voice of the middle class and the ideological Center, fighting the special interests, especially the haredim.

But as economic commentator Rotem Sella explained Thursday on the NRG website, aside from boycotting the haredim, Lapid Jr. did not follow in his father’s footsteps after taking office.

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“Counter Jihad Coalition” Takes to the Streets to Warn People About Islam By Ann-Marie Murrell

Visit The Counter Jihad Coalition here and contact them at: CounterJihadCoalition@gmail.com.

While Islam is waging a bloody battle across the entire world, instead of calling out their atrocities most of the media chooses to punish the people trying to warn the world about Islam. Freedom Fighters like Robert Spencer, Pamela Geller, Frank Gaffney, and Brigitte Gabriel are continuously denigrated for simply telling the truth.

Regardless of 9/11/01 and 9/11/12, and despite the fact that Americans are being beheaded by ISIS, if you dare suggest that the Islamic State is getting their killing orders directly from the Quran you are called ‘intolerant’ and ‘Islamophobic’. Meanwhile, ISIS is becoming more and more popular on social media and posters saying ‘ISIS is Here’ were seen in the original Ferguson riots.

So if no one is allowed to warn people about the violence of Islam, how will we be prepared when they try to accomplish their goal of taking over America? You take it to the streets–and that is exactly what a group called the Counter Jihad Coalition is doing, evangelizing at a popular outdoor mall known as the 3rd Street Promenade in Santa Monica, California.

According to Samira Tamir of the LA chapter of ACT for America, the Promenade has become a very popular shopping area for Muslims in the area with bearded men and women wearing full hijabs–so each weekend, the CJC sets up a table with pamphlets and they tell people about Islam using direct quotes from the Quran.

Of course, their presence isn’t welcome with many 3rd Street Muslims.

Dr. Jamie Glazov, who spends many weekends at the Promenade, has been instrumental in bringing attention to the Counter Jihad Coalition’s work. This episode of The Glazov Gang below features Louis Lionheart of TruthDefenders.com, who works alongside the CJC on 3rd to tell the truth about Islam. As can be seen in the video, he was physically attacked by a Muslim woman at the Promenade after telling a crowd about the true nature of Mohammed’s marriage to 9-year-old Aisha:

The slogan of the wave of Ferguson protests is “Black Lives Matter.” But progressives are far more interested in toting around the corpse of Michael Brown to their protests than in the living man he was.

Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown and countless others like them grew up in broken families, their lives haunted by fathers and stepfathers with gang ties. The only masculine culture they had was that of the thug and that culture eventually killed them.

Criminal culture is even more fatal to criminals than it is to their victims. If you attack enough people, eventually one of them will fight back. Eventually one of them will kill you.

It wasn’t Darren Wilson who decided that black lives don’t matter. Michael Brown did. He did not grow up with a sense that his life was worth anything more than violent posturing could make of it. Just like Martin, that violent posturing eventually killed him.

Rappers recorded a tribute song to Michael Brown titled, “Don’t Shoot.” But Brown’s own songs had a different theme with lyrics like “My favorite part of killing people is when they hit the ground.”

Black criminals victimize other black people first. The Ferguson looters went after businesses serving the black community and businesses owned by black people. That’s the way it always is.

Which black lives really matter in Missouri; the lives of criminals shot by police officers or the black lives taken by criminals?

Missouri has a black homicide rate that is nearly double the nationwide homicide rate for black people. And it’s nearly six times higher than the overall murder rate in Missouri.

If the media were really outraged by lost black lives, they would be outraged by those numbers. If the protesters really wanted to say that black lives matter, they would fight those murder rates instead of contributing to them with their protests.

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This week’s Glazov Gang was joined by Ernie White, a Civil Rights Activist, Morgan Brittany, a Conservative TV and Movie Star, and Mell Flynn, the President of Hollywood Congress of Republicans.

The Gang gathered to discuss Iran Laughs at America’s “Surrender,” analyzing how the Mullahs are inching toward the Bomb, while mocking a Radical-in-Chief (starts at 29:15 mark). The guests also focused on Ferguson and Islamic Holy War Against America, Obama and the Ferguson Lynch Mob, Bye Bye Hagel, and much, much more.

Don’t miss it!

More proof has emerged that President Obama is using the IRS as a weapon against his perceived enemies as the administration abruptly canceled the release of 2,500 damning documents reportedly showing that the IRS illegally shared taxpayer files with the White House.

The existence of the documents is yet more proof that Obama maintains an extensive enemies’ list and that he treats the IRS as his personal plaything while he closely collaborates with senior IRS officials who have practically taken up residence with him in the White House. To Obama, the IRS is an instrument of political repression and taxpayer terror. Although it isn’t exactly breaking news that Obama is doing Machiavellian things with the IRS that the nearly-impeached President Nixon only fantasized about doing, hard documentary evidence of wrongdoing has been slow in coming.

The abortive document dump comes as former IRS mandarin Lois Lerner remains at liberty. Instead of becoming a long-term guest of the Bureau of Prisons, the unrepentant left-wing Democratic activist continues to live a life of luxury in Bethesda, Md., a fancy suburb of Washington, D.C. Despite the severity of her crimes, she doesn’t even have to wear a monitoring anklet. She hasn’t even been charged with breaking the law, an oversight that may be corrected by the incoming Republican-dominated Congress.

With Lerner taking the lead, Obama’s IRS targeted conservative “social welfare” nonprofits seeking tax-exempt status under section 501c4 of the Internal Revenue Code. Evidence establishes that hundreds of groups affiliated with the Tea Party movement were bullied and intimidated from engaging in constitutionally protected political activism. The IRS also subjected conservative groups seeking tax-exempt status to heightened scrutiny, harassment, and extended processing delays that may have hindered their activities during previous election cycles.

But now the Obama administration, which barely acknowledges the historic electoral whooping it received last month, has placed the 2,500 documents that are apparently not related to Lerner’s escapades in limbo as it hides behind privacy laws that are supposed to protect taxpayers, as opposed to corrupt government officials.

In speeches before the European Parliament and the Council of Europe a week ago, the Pope (the first non-European Pope) struck a chord among many when he spoke of feelings of angst that have descended on Europe. A sense of decline is what many seem to feel – that the world is no longer Eurocentric, that the future is Asia, Africa and the Americas. The Pope spoke of the negative aspects of secularization and the lack of spirituality. Nevertheless, he was not negative on the prospects for Europe. He criticized what he called the aloofness of the elites and the institutions they have created that are perceived as insensitive to individuals. He asked for a return to those values of faith, human dignity and fundamental rights that have historically characterized Europe, but which now seem to be waning.

The ghosts of the first half of the 20th Century pervade the thinking of some in Europe today. As well, Europe is experiencing an unwelcome infusion of Islamists and the segregation they bring, and the continuing consequences of the deepest recession since the Great Depression. The ghosts cause one to recall the nationalistic competitiveness in arms, goods and empires that led to the Great War that killed almost 30 million people between 1914 and 1918, of the unrealistic reparations made on Germany that were in part responsible for that country’s hyperinflation in the 1920s, rearmament in the 1930s and their desire for revenge. Those, along with the Depression, were factors leading to the Second World War. The recent increase in Islamists has given rise to xenophobia, while the effect of the slow recovery has provided a sense of unfairness captured by Thomas Piketty.

In emerging from the destruction of World War II, Europe embarked on the idea of a unified Europe, with democracies embedded in social welfare programs, while leaving the cost and burden for defense to NATO, which meant that Europe’s defense became the responsibility of the United States. Social welfare meant reduced work hours and increased benefits, which functioned as long as the numbers of young expanded at a rate greater than the elderly. However, self-centeredness, later marriages, smaller families and better healthcare gave rise to an aging population, with the elderly becoming the fastest growing sector. A shrinking population has meant higher costs on fewer people, which could only be paid for with more debt and/or higher taxes. In turn, that has meant the private economy has become a smaller part of the continent’s GDP, ergo slower economic growth – a noose that gradually cuts off circulation.

Several news organizations have reported that a New York grand jury in Staten Island has voted against indicting Daniel Pantaleo, a New York City police officer, in the choking death of Eric Garner. The decision is to be announced officially on Thursday. Clearly, this No True Bill is more difficult to justify than the St. Louis grand jury’s vote against filing homicide charges against Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson in the shooting death of Michael Brown.

Officer Pantaleo, who is white, is being investigated for killing Mr. Garner, a 43-year-old black man who was physically imposing but unarmed, and who was resisting arrest (for a nonviolent crime, the illegal sale of untaxed cigarettes) but not overtly threatening the safety of the police. As National Review Online reported on Wednesday, the confrontation between Garner and the police was captured on videotape.

NYPD guidelines ban a form of chokehold. Contrary to some reporting, however, even that technique is not illegal per se. In fact, it used to be part of police training before concerns about accidental death convinced the NYPD to prohibit its use. Much of the coverage I have heard assumes that the chokehold Pantaleo applied is one that the guidelines ban (and, so the narrative goes, is illegal). This is hotly disputed by some police advocates, who claim that what Pantaleo did was more in the nature of a headlock or a wrestler’s swift takedown. Obviously, we do not yet know what, if any, testimony the grand jury heard on this point.

In any event, others counter that Garner could be heard repeatedly telling the police he could not breathe. While this actually undercuts the claim that a banned chokehold was used (since, if it had been, Garner would have had great difficulty speaking so audibly), Garner’s pleas suggest that the police used excessive force — a problem that makes the chokehold debate nearly irrelevant. In the absence of any apparent threat to the police, critics forcefully ask, shouldn’t Pantaleo have stopped whatever hold was being applied?

There is no doubt that Pantaleo aggressively handled Garner around the neck and then pressed his head to the ground. Soon after, Garner died. On top of that, the state medical examiner (ME) concluded that a homicide occurred. Sounds cut and dried, especially given that grand juries need merely find probable cause in order to return an indictment.