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January 2020

POLITICS Comments turned off

Bernie Sanders: Killing a Terrorist Is Like Putting Muslims in Concentration Camps Daniel Greenfield

By on January 8th, 2020

https://www.frontpagemag.com/point/2020/01/bernie-sanders-killing-terrorist-putting-muslims-daniel-greenfield/

With Beto O’Rourke out of the race, it’s up to Bernie Sanders to come up with the best hot take on the killing of Soleimani. And he delivers exactly the sort of rambling senile socialist rant you would expect from Jeremy Corbyn. All he leaves out is throwing around “empire”, “endless war”, and “neo-liberalism”. And then blaming the whole thing on corporations. But at least he manages to compare Trump to Putin and Xi.

SANDERS: No, I think it was an assassination. I think it was in violation of international law. This guy was (INAUDIBLE) — was a bad news guy, but he was a ranking official of the Iranian government.

And Baghdadi was the ranking head of the Islamic State.

So what?

If a foreign government official decides to engage in terrorist operations, he’s a terrorist. The silly argument that Soleimani can’t be killed because he has an official title is nonsense. Terrorists don’t stop being terrorists because they have titles.

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HOMELAND SECURITY Comments turned off

Treason? Ilhan Omar Gives Iran Military Advice, Suggests It Could Target Trump Hotels By Robert Spencer

By on January 8th, 2020

https://pjmedia.com/trending/treason-ilhan-omar-gives-iran-military-advice-suggests-it-target-trump-hotels/

The inspiringly patriotic Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Tehran, no, check that, I’m hearing she’s from Minnesota) tweeted Monday offering some unsolicited military advice to the Islamic Republic of Iran: “Trump needs to immediately divest from his businesses and comply with the emoluments clause. Iran could threaten Trump hotels *worldwide* and he could provoke war over the loss of revenue from skittish guests. His business interests should not be driving military decisions.” She also tweeted a video in which the late comedian George Carlin asserts that the U.S. is “not very good at anything” besides war. And so once again we have to ask the by-now-familiar question: Is Ilhan Omar a traitor who hates America?

Omar’s warning that Trump’s “business interests should not be driving military decisions” makes no sense, because clearly the fact that Trump owns hotels that Iran could target didn’t stop him from going after Qasem Soleimani. But as far as Omar and her ideological allies are concerned, it doesn’t matter how much they have to twist their logic into pretzels to get Trump, as long as they make the president look bad. That imperative has now driven Omar even to give a military suggestion to a hostile foreign power. The mullahs and their henchmen haven’t said anything about targeting Trump hotels, so here is a United States congresswoman to give them a marvelous new idea about how they could murder Americans and others, and further menace the United States.

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WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Iran fires ballistic missiles at U.S. troops — beginning or end? By Andrea Widburg

By on January 8th, 2020

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2020/01/iran_fires_ballistic_missiles_at_us_troops__beginning_or_end.html

With reports rapidly emerging from Iran and Iraq, there are a few concrete facts:

The Pentagon confirmed Tuesday night that Iran launched “more than a dozen ballistic missiles” into Iraq. Iran targeted Iraqi military bases in Al-Assad and Erbil that are known to host U.S. and coalition troops. The Pentagon further said that there are no U.S. casualties.

This last is an interesting point because Iran has proven in the past that it can direct its ballistic missiles accurately. This may indicate, as is discussed at greater length below, that these missiles are a feint to hide Iran’s ultimate revenge for Soleimani’s death.

White House Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham said President Trump has been briefed and is monitoring the situation but has not yet formally announced a plan of action. Trump himself tweeted out late Tuesday night that he would issue a statement Wednesday morning, as well as saying that all is well:

In an official statement, the Pentagon offered assurance that it would safeguard American personnel and their partners:

These bases have been on high alert due to indications that the Iranian regime planned to attack our forces and interests in the region. As we evaluate the situation and our response, we will take all necessary measures to protect and defend U.S. personnel, partners, and allies in the region.

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NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

The Steele Dossier Bacillus By Victor Davis Hanson

By on January 8th, 2020

https://www.nationalreview.com/2020/01/the-steele-dossier-bacillus/

Those who trafficked in the dossier’s concocted mess were infected, and their reputations are now declining.

In 2016, Hillary Clinton presidential candidate hired an ex-intelligence officer and foreign national, British subject Christopher Steele, to use Russian sources to find dirt (“opposition research”) on her then political opponent Donald Trump. So much for the worry about “foreign interference” in U.S. elections.

The public would take years to learn of the funding sources of Steele, because Clinton camouflaged her role through three firewalls: the Democratic National Committee; the Perkins-Coie legal firm; and Glenn Simpson’s Fusion GPS opposition-research firm.

Steele had collected rumor and gossip from mostly Russian sources in an effort to tar Trump as a Russian colluder and asset. We know now that his sources were either bogus or deliberately warped by Steele himself.

Almost everything in the dossier was unverified and later was proved fanciful. Yet with the help of high Obama administration and elected officials, the dossier’s gossip and rumor were leaked throughout the top echelons of Washington politics and the media. Its lies spread because its chief message — Donald J. Trump was a fool, dangerous, should never be elected, and once elected had no business as president — was exactly what the establishment wished to hear. In other words, the dossier was infectious because it was deemed both welcome and useful.

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ANTI-SEMITISM Comments turned off

Five Years Later, We Still Haven’t Learned from the Charlie Hebdo Massacre By David Harsanyi

By on January 8th, 2020

https://www.nationalreview.com/2020/01/five-years-later-we-still-havent-learned-from-the-charlie-hebdo-massacre/

Giving a bunch of religious extremists or government bureaucrats veto power over our speech doesn’t make us safer. It just makes us less free.

Five years ago today, two French Islamists forced their way into the Paris editorial offices of the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo and began shooting. The journal’s offices had been moved to an unmarked building after they were hit by a 2011 firebombing in response to the publication of a satirical cartoon of the Prophet Mohammed. The shooters managed to kill twelve people. A related attack soon followed in a kosher supermarket, where four Jews were murdered by a friend of the shooters.

Even today, the paper’s editor, who’s published offensive caricatures of popes and rabbis, lives under police protection for the crime of slandering Mohammed. Charlie Hebdo, whose circulation has dropped precipitously after an initial post-attack spike, is an ill-mannered slayer of sacred cows of a kind that, sadly, doesn’t exist in the United States. The only American enterprise I can think of that has a comparable openness to skewering all faiths is South Park, but even its excellent brand of satire is staid by comparison.

For a brief moment after attack, the free world rallied around Charlie Hebdo. “Je suis Charlie” became a global rallying cry. The massive march through the streets of Paris that followed included virtually every major world leader, including those hypocrites who are happy to clamp down on free expression in their own nations. One leader conspicuously, and embarrassingly, absent from the proceedings was the president of the United States, Barack Obama. He sent the U.S. ambassador to France instead.

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