Displaying posts published in

January 2020

HOMELAND SECURITY Comments turned off

Trump to Iran: Say Hello to My Little Friends By Rick Moran

By on January 7th, 2020

https://pjmedia.com/trending/trump-to-iran-say-hello-to-my-little-friends/

When relations are as bad as they are between the U.S. and Iran, other ways must be found to communicate. During the Cuban Missile Crisis, Kennedy deployed overwhelming military strength off the coast of Cuba to signal to Khrushchev that the U.S. was ready for war if the Soviets made those missiles operational.

Donald Trump is also using non-verbal communication to talk to Iran. At Hill Air Force Base in Utah, 52 of the most awesome, the most advanced, the most deadly warplanes ever created — the F-35AII Lightning —  lined up and took off in what they refer to as an “elephant walk.”  It was the largest elephant walk in history.

What an awesome sight.

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WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Xi’s China Ends 2019 With The Worst Religious Persecution In The Country’s History By Helen Raleigh

By on January 7th, 2020

https://thefederalist.com/2020/01/07/xis-china-ends-2019-with-the-worst-religious-persecution-in-the-countrys-history/

Increased religious persecution in China has failed to curtail the growing number of Christians, which has reached more than 100 million today — more than the 90 million members of the Chinese Communist Party.

Dec. 30, 2019, was a day when people who live in the free world were busy planning ahead and getting ready for New Year’s Eve celebrations. But for China’s outspoken Wang Yi, the founding pastor of China’s most famous house church, the Early Rain Covenant Church, there was no such celebration. After being detained by Chinese authorities for more than a year without an actual charge, in a closed-door legal proceeding Wang was sentenced to nine years in prison for trumped up convictions of “inciting subversion of state power” and “illegal business activities.”

Throughout the proceeding, Wang’s lawyer wasn’t allowed to defend him. In addition to jail time, Wang will be stripped of his political rights for four years, and the Chinese government will confiscate about $7,000 worth of his personal assets. According to Bob Fu, president of China Aid, a U.S.-based nonprofit organization advocating for basic rights of Chinese Christians, Wang’s sentence is the harshest of any house church leaders in China.

Why Pastor Wang Engaged in ‘Faithful Disobedience’

I had first written about the injustice Wang and his church faced in early December 2019, which marked the one-year anniversary of his detainment. Wang and more than 100 of his church members were arrested during a raid just before Christmas, which the government initiated to “root out” a number of prominent Christians and house churches back in 2018.

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POLITICS Comments turned off

Sense of foreboding darkens Democratic primary Many early-state Democrats are gripped by dread over recent headlines. The candidates are making it worse. By David Siders

By on January 7th, 2020

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/01/07/democratic-primary-2020-095090

DAVENPORT, Iowa — The new year is taking the presidential primary to a dark place in the nation’s first caucus state.

President Donald Trump’s impending impeachment trial and fear of war with Iran — as well as the Australia wildfires and their implications for climate change — quickly cast a pall over a contest in which Democrats are already wracked with uncertainty about which candidate has the best chance of defeating Trump.

All across Iowa hangs an air of heightened distress, which the candidates are readily leaning into.

“I tell you all these things not to get you nervous, but to get you depressed,” Sen. Bernie Sanders, speaking about climate change, said at a town hall meeting in Grundy Center, Iowa, over the weekend.

Hours later in Des Moines, it was Joe Biden describing the state of Trump’s presidency more broadly as “extremely, extremely worrisome.” Sen. Elizabeth Warren admonished supporters in Davenport that “this is a time of crisis in this country.”

Democrats have fretted for more than a year about how to choose a nominee. And for those who loathe Trump, the imperative to remove him from office has remained high since the minute he won election in 2016.

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NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Republicans Help Democrats Drain The U.S. Treasury From The Left Adam Andrzejewski

By on January 7th, 2020

https://www.forbes.com/sites/adamandrzejewski/2020/12/31/republicans-help-democrats-drain-the-us-treasury-from-the-left/#3bdf62766529

Consensus and bipartisanship are rare in Washington, D.C. – except when it comes to spending taxpayer money. Since the end of the Obama era in 2016, the national debt has grown from $19.6 trillion to $23.2 trillion.

This year, in the days before Christmas during the bitter House impeachment battle, Republicans and Democrats quietly found common ground to pass a pair of omnibus spending bills totaling $1.4 trillion.

Once again, guns were paired with butter. Republicans received huge increases in defense spending and the Democrats got a massive domestic budget. The lobbyists rejoiced.

On December 21, House Democrats dropped the 2,313-page spending bill on the floor and passed it within 24-hours. Quickly, the bill was passed by the Republican Senate and signed by the President.

The legislation was loaded with pork, waste, and taxpayer giveaways. Here are some top line examples:

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WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Stampede kills 56 at funeral for Iranian general slain by US Iranian state TV says a stampede at the funeral for a top general slain in a U.S. airstrike has killed 56 people and injured 213 others

By on January 7th, 2020

https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/thousands-prepare-bury-iranian-general-killed-us-68109548?cid=clicksource_4380645_null_headlines_hed

By NASSER KARIMI, AMIR VAHDAT and JON GAMBRELL

TEHRAN, Iran — A stampede broke out Tuesday at the funeral for a top Iranian general slain in a U.S. airstrike, and at least 56 people were killed and more than 200 were injured as thousands thronged the procession, Iranian news reports said.

The stampede took place in Kerman, the hometown of Revolutionary Guard Gen. Qassem Soleimani, as the procession began, said Pirhossein Koulivand, head of Iran’s emergency medical services.

There was no information about what set off the crush. Online videos showed people lying apparently lifeless, their faces covered by clothing. Emergency crews performed CPR on others as people wailed and cried out to God.

“Unfortunately as a result of the stampede, some of our compatriots have been injured and some have been killed during the funeral processions,” Koulivand said.

State TV reported the death toll of 56, with 213 injured, citing Koulivand.

Soleimani’s burial was delayed, with no new time given, because of concerns about the massive crowd that had gathered, the semi-official ISNA news agency said.

A procession in Tehran on Monday drew over 1 million people in the Iranian capital, crowding both main avenues and side streets in Tehran. Such mass crowds can prove dangerous. A smaller stampede at the 1989 funeral for Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini killed at least eight people and injured hundreds.

Soleimani’s death in a drone strike Friday has sparked calls across Iran for revenge against America, drastically raising tensions in the Middle East. The U.S. government warned ships of an unspecified threat from Iran across the region’s waterways, crucial routes for global energy supplies. Meanwhile, the U.S. Air Force launched a drill with 52 fighter jets in Utah, just days after President Donald Trump threatened to hit 52 sites in Iran.

Earlier in the day, Hossein Salami, the new leader of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, vowed to avenge Soleimani’s death as he addressed a crowd of supporters gathered at the coffin in a central square in Kernan.

“We tell our enemies that we will retaliate but if they take another action we will set ablaze the places that they like and are passionate about,” Salami said.

“Death to Israel!” the crowd shouted in response. Israel is a longtime regional foe of Iran.

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NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Enemy Combatant Terror Commanders Are Fair Game, Regardless of Whether Their Attacks Are ‘Imminent’ By Andrew C. McCarthy

By on January 7th, 2020

https://www.nationalreview.com/2020/01/qasem-soleimani-strike-enemy-combatant-terror-commanders-fair-game/

Last week, Iranian General Qasem Soleimani was killed in a targeted strike by U.S. forces authorized by President Trump. This preemptive attack has spawned a curious debate over whether Soleimani posed an imminent threat at the time he was taken out. The suggestion, mainly by partisan Democrats, is that it was illegitimate for the president to use lethal force without congressional authorization absent proof that Soleimani was on the cusp of killing Americans — or, better, killing even more Americans.

The debate puts me in mind of the early-to-mid 1990s, when our counterterrorism laws were dangerously flawed. Back then, sensible Democrats — as most of them were — knew that these defects had to be addressed. Rather than sound like apologists for anti-American jihadists, they took admirably expeditious action.

The problem emerged in the investigation of the proto-Qaeda terror network guided by the so-called Blind Sheikh, Omar Abdel Rahman. I was then a federal prosecutor and took over that investigation in Spring 1993. At the time, having just bombed the World Trade Center, the jihadists were actively plotting something even more monstrous: simultaneous attacks on the Lincoln and Holland Tunnels and the United Nations complex on Manhattan’s east side. The jihadists were also scouting additional landmarks in the city, including U.S. military facilities and the FBI’s downtown headquarters.

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ISRAEL Comments turned off

Tel Aviv’s mayor should be drowning in tears Ruthie Blum

By on January 7th, 2020

https://www.jns.org/opinion/tel-avivs-mayor-should-be-drowning-in-tears/

An unfathomable tragedy struck a young couple, and what followed were statements of self-defense and partisan squabbling, instead of proper sorrow for two families.

The response of Tel Aviv Mayor Ron Huldai to the unfathomable death of a young couple in his city over the weekend is nothing short of a disgrace. When details emerged of the way in which 25-year-old childhood sweethearts Din Shoshani and Stav Harari lost their lives on Saturday, Israelis across the nation were shocked, horrified and in tears. All except for Huldai, that is, who was too busy defending himself to express any remorse.

The unfathomable tragedy struck when Shoshani and Harari left their apartment in Shchunat Hatikva—a poor neighborhood in the southern part of the city that has become increasingly attractive to students and struggling artists—and took the elevator to the underground garage, where their car was parked. They had moved into the brand-new building only a couple of months earlier, renting the “penthouse” on the top floor.

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WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Europe Under Siege from People-Smuggling Gangs by Soeren Kern

By on January 7th, 2020

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/15270/europe-people-smuggling-gangs

Current conditions in Hungary are ripe for a repeat of the migration crisis in 2015 and… the country is now in a “state of crisis”…. More than 100,000 migrants are now gathered in the Western Balkans and although “the situation is still under control,” it is “beginning to look like the big crisis in 2015.” — Szilárd Németh, a senior official at Hungary’s Defense Ministry, December 1, 2019.
Illegal immigration throughout Europe continues unabated. In France, for instance, nearly 20,000 migrants have been arrested so far in 2019, according to the police website France Bleu, which also reported that 189 people smugglers have been arrested since January 1.
In Britain, The Telegraph newspaper reported that Albanian people smugglers were posting advertisements on social media platforms, including Facebook, promoting their ability to get people into Europe. The ads are accompanied by TripAdvisor-style feedback comments from “satisfied” customers…. people smuggling gangs generate profits of up to £6 billion (€7 billion; $8 billion) a year…
The light sentences reflect the leniency of the Spanish justice system, which appears to encourage, rather than deter, people smuggling gangs.

Hungarian police recently discovered two tunnels used to smuggle migrants into Hungary from Serbia. The tunnels were found at the same time that Hungarian police reported a five-fold increase in the number of migrants attempting to enter Hungary.

Hungary is not alone: Border authorities in countries across the European Union are struggling to stanch renewed flows of illegal migration. More than 126,500 migrants from Africa, Asia and the Middle East illegally entered the EU during 2019, according to the International Organization for Migration.

On November 29, Hungarian police detained 44 migrants who were found walking along a highway near Ásotthalom, a village in southern Hungary. Police later learned that the migrants had crossed into Hungary from Serbia by crawling through a 34-meter (112-foot) hand-dug tunnel.

The oval tunnel, only 50 cm (20 inches) wide and 60 cm (24 inches) high, had been dug as deep as six meters (20 feet) underground. It had gone undetected because of thick foliage in the area and because the soil that was dug out of the tunnel was dumped into a nearby canal.

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MY SAY: Comments turned off

MY SAY: ON ANTISEMITISM

By on January 7th, 2020

Antisemitism is rearing its evil head throughout the world. Rallies and parades are welcome expressions, but so often, like the linked arms solidarity marches that follow atrocities, they don’t accomplish anything powerful and lasting.

When Zeev Jabotinsky , the greatest Zionist leader in history,  organized self-defense units in Jewish communities across Europe, his slogan was:

“Better to have a gun and not need it than to need it and not have it!”

His pithy advice reverberates now. rsk

P.S. If guns “trigger” goosebumps at least consider classes in self defense.  That beats dialoguing endlessly anytime.   rsk

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ENVIRONMENT AND JUNK SCIENCE Comments turned off

Climate Hysteria Is A Backdoor For Imposing Personal Interests On The Public

By on January 7th, 2020

https://issuesinsights.com/2020/01/07/climate-hysteria-is-a-backdoor-for-imposing-personal-interests-on-the-public/

The “fight” against global warming is not a selfless movement wholly focused on saving our world but a means for activists to impose their personal desires on the rest of us. They want to shut down farms, stop homebuilding, dictate what we can eat, and are eager to financially reward politically favored groups.

Our first stop on this tour of private crusades is in the United Kingdom, where Ian Boyd, a former chief scientific adviser for the government, is claiming, according to a recent British Guardian report, that “half of the nation’s farmland needs to be transformed into woodlands and natural habitat to fight the climate crisis and restore wildlife.”

“We need a large, radical transformation and we need to do it quickly, in the next decade” said the good professor.

Continued Boyd: “If anybody asked me: ‘If there is one thing I can do to help save the planet, what would it be?’ I would say just eat a lot less meat. It’s the easiest thing to do. I’ve done it.”

And we are therefore supposed to be impressed by his commitment and inspired to follow the great man.

Of course he’s not making the sacrifice alone. Others have chosen to cut back or eliminate their meat intake in the name of saving us from global warming. None were easily found at the last United Nations climate conference in Madrid, where “U.N. bureaucrats chow(ed) down on burgers – while attacking meat.”

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