Women Defend Yourselves – YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PbXZ6uWEsAQ&feature=youtu.be
BRUSSELS—The European Union’s parliament on Thursday asked for the bloc to scrap visa-free travel for U.S. citizens within two months in retaliation for the U.S. continuing to exclude five EU countries from its no-visa regime.
While the request is nonbinding and unlikely to change EU policy, it reflects hostility among some European politicians to the Trump administration.
Under EU visa-reciprocity rules, countries allowed visa-free travel to the EU must replicate the no-visa regime to all EU countries.
However, the U.S. Visa Waiver program allowing visa-free travel to citizens from 38 countries is based on a country-by-country analysis of how many of their citizens overstay or are declined visas.
In the EU, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Poland and Romania continue to be outside the Visa Waiver program, years after joining the EU. Cyprus and Poland became members of the EU in 2004, Romania and Bulgaria 10 years ago, and Croatia in 2013.
A two-year deadline that lapsed in April 2016 obliging the EU executive to scrap visa-free travel for U.S. citizens has been pushed back last year, as the outgoing Obama administration didn’t commit on the issue before the presidential elections that took place in November.
European home-affairs commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos, who traveled to Washington last month, spoke to U.S. Secretary for Homeland Security John Kelly and explained the time constraints and the pressure from the European Parliament to resolve the issue. But with the new administration still defining its policies, EU officials don’t expect the matter to be advanced soon. CONTINUE AT SITE
The story about the connection between Russia and the Donald Trump presidential campaign is either the most elaborate cover-up of all time, or the dumbest. More evidence for the dumb theory arrives with the news that during his confirmation hearings Attorney General Jeff Sessions didn’t tell Senators about two 2016 meetings with Russia’s ambassador to the U.S.
The Washington Post reported late Wednesday that Mr. Sessions had two conversations with Sergei Kislyak last year, one a brief chat amid a gaggle of other ambassadors at a public event at the GOP convention in July, another in September at the then-Senator’s office.
Yet at his Jan. 10 confirmation hearing, Democrat Al Franken asked Mr. Sessions what he would do if he learned that anyone affiliated with the Trump campaign had communicated with the Russian government. “I’m not aware of any of those activities,” Mr. Sessions replied, adding that “I have been called a surrogate at a time or two in that campaign and I did not have communications with the Russians.”
In a written question, Democrat Pat Leahy asked, “Have you been in contact with anyone connected to any part of the Russian government about the 2016 election, either before or after election day?” Mr. Sessions replied: “No.”
Democrats are calling this perjury and demanding that Mr. Sessions resign, but his only certain offense is ineptitude. A spokesman for Mr. Sessions late Wednesday defended the AG by saying, “He was asked during the hearing about communications between Russia and the Trump campaign—not about meetings he took as a senator and a member of the Armed Services Committee.”
Mr. Sessions added at a press conference Thursday that he would recuse himself from any FBI investigation of the Trump campaign or Russian interference in 2016, adding that his answers in the Senate were “honest and correct as I understood the questions at the time.”
This may be technically true, but it won’t wash politically amid a Beltway feeding frenzy. Mr. Sessions knew Democrats were hunting for any Russian-Trump campaign ties, and meeting with the Russian ambassador is no offense for a Senator or campaign adviser. So why not admit the meetings up front? Give Democrats and the media nowhere to go.
If Mr. Sessions was trying to cover up some dark Russian secret, he’s the Jim Carrey of cover-up artists. Surely he knew someone would discover a meeting in his Senate office, which isn’t exactly a drop-site in the Virginia suburbs, and the meeting in Cleveland had multiple witnesses. Like former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn not telling Vice President Mike Pence about his meeting with the ambassador, this is a case of dumb and dumber.
The most important fact so far about the larger Trump-Russia collusion story is that there are so few salient facts. The Russian hacks of the Democratic National Committee and Clinton campaign chair John Podesta were embarrassing but had little bearing on the election. The dossier of supposed contacts between Trumpians and Russians published by BuzzFeed has never been corroborated.
Democrats on the House and Senate intelligence committees investigating the ties have reported nothing of substance. What we have on the evidence so far is a hapless cover-up without an underlying scandal.
Meanwhile, news emerged Thursday that Obama Administration officials ran a government intel operation on the Trump campaign. The New York Times reports that political appointees signed off on surveillance of “associates” of the Trump campaign, though “the nature of these contacts remains unknown.” The officials then spread this raw intelligence throughout the government and to foreign counterparts, ensuring they’d be widely read and supposedly to prevent their Trump successors from covering up the truth.
George W. Bush gave Democrats a gift this week—which should be a reminder of the perils of demonizing political opponents. But don’t bank on the left accepting his gracious offering.
Promoting his new book about veterans on NBC’s “Today” show, Mr. Bush was asked to weigh in on the fight between Donald Trump and the media. “We need an independent media to hold people like me to account,” he told Matt Lauer. “Power can be very addictive and it can be corrosive, and it’s important for the media to call to account people who abuse their power.”
The press and liberal groups gushed, and hundreds of headlines approvingly quoted the former president. “Why you should listen when George W. Bush defends the media,” declared a headline at the Washington Post. “George W Bush: a welcome return,” raved the Guardian, which went so far as to call him a “paragon of virtue.” The leftist site ThinkProgress ran a blog post titled “George W. Bush defends the Constitution to rebuke Trump.”
Miss me yet?
Suddenly, they do—though only in the most self-serving way. President Bush would have made the exact same defense of the First Amendment while he was in office (and indeed, he later explicitly said that his words were not meant as a criticism of Mr. Trump).
Mr. Bush is a straight-up guy. While president, he treated the press and his political opponents with general courtesy—attending their events, living with their bias. He ran as a uniter and was far more genuine in his outreach than his grandiose successor. He didn’t lie, or bully, or sic his IRS on his opponents, or spy on reporters. He took responsibility for his actions, notably big decisions like going to war.
Not one bit of that earned him any credit. Go back and read the headlines from the Bush administration. They vary in substance from today’s coverage, but not the least in tone. Bush Derangement Syndrome entailed a vicious, daily assault by a media contemptuous of Mr. Bush’s intelligence, intentions and integrity. He was compared to Hitler and terrorists, accused of racism, homophobia and sexism. He was a plutocrat, out to rip off the nation’s old and poor. He orchestrated conspiracies ranging from 9/11 to the spread of avian flu. He lied, people died. CONTINUE AT SITE
Speaking to governors at the White House on Monday, U.S. President Donald Trump announced a sharp increase in the military budget. According to some assessments, the allocation in question could reach wartime levels.
If so, rightly so.
Americans may not feel it on a day-to-day basis, but their country is the target of global jihadists, some of whom have been committing small-scale killing sprees on U.S. soil, while others are training in the Middle East and honing their skills to execute operations on a grander, more 9/11-type scale.
Still, although Trump, like many other leaders and lay people, seems to consider the group Islamic State to be the world’s bogey man, as al-Qaida used to be viewed, the greater danger is posed by the regime in Tehran and its proxies.
For one thing, unlike the Sunni rogues who like to decapitate people on YouTube, Shiite Iran is an actual country with all that this entails, including a place at the proverbial and literal table. What should have been its lowly station in the overall hierarchy of things was lifted to great prominence when the Obama administration and five other governments — those of Britain, France, Russia, China and Germany — groveled before its leaders, begging them to agree to a deal to retard their race to a nuclear weapon.
The disastrous end result of this mass genuflection was the acceleration of Iran’s nuclear program through the infusion of billions of dollars into its coffers. Even more unfathomable was what the ultimate agreement — called, oddly, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action — included: a clause handing over the responsibility for monitoring activity at Iran’s nuclear facilities to members of its parliament. It would be funny if it weren’t so horrifying. Indeed, the Iranian regime was chuckling, while Israel and others in the West who opposed the JCPOA winced and braced for fallout.
When Trump won the U.S. presidential election in November, however, the ayatollahs suddenly stopped laughing. Touted by all Democrats and many Republicans as crazy, unpredictable and a loose cannon, the real estate mogul and reality TV star who took to Twitter and other platforms to bash his detractors made Tehran extremely nervous. The shift from a White House and State Department characterized by appeasement to America’s enemies — refusing even to name them as Islamists — to an administration headed by someone who declared that it would be necessary to perform extreme vetting of Muslims entering the United States could not have been sharper.
President Trump addressed a Joint Session of Congress on March 1st. Rather it was a Disjointed Congress, with the Democrats ensconced on one side of the House and the Republicans on the other. The Democrats largely remained literally unmoved by Trump in a peevish demonstration of their small-mindedness and malice.
In fact, why limit the characterization of Democratic behavior to mere malice? Why not call it unbridled hatred and hatred of the good for being the good? For their hatred’s target is not just President Trump, but the American people for having made President Trump possible. One doesn’t have the frequent opportunity to observe so many grown men in effect drop their pants and moon a whole country besides the President. This is what they are doing, for all to see, practically a whole political party behaving like petulant brats who’d rather see the country’s continued destruction by Barack Obama’s policies instead of renewing the country by the grace of Trump’s policies.
President Trump addressed a Joint Session of Congress on March 1st. Rather it was a Disjointed Congress, with the Democrats ensconced on one side of the House and the Republicans on the other. The Democrats largely remained literally unmoved by Trump in a peevish demonstration of their small-mindedness and malice.
Daniel Greenfield on FrontPage published a gallery of telling photos of Democrats reacting to Trump’s Congressional address. I wondered: Who were all the women in a back row in white? At first I thought it was a school choir that had been invited to hear Trump’s address to the Joint Session of Congress. But no, they were distaff Democrats led by Nancy Paleo-Pelosi, the House Minority Leader, who now resembles a melted Madam Tussuad wax mannequin, her puffy Botox lips acting like a tongue sticking out at Trump and everything he had to say or show. Some of the “white dress privileged” women rose and applauded. Some of the Dems in the immobile side of the House rose and applauded and got dirty looks from their colleagues. I watched the whole address to Congress, and saw the glances and dirty looks
Democrats, led by Paleo-Pelosi, who resembles a
a melted Madam Tussuad wax mannequin, were
advised to not stand or applaud Trump.
.
Daniel Henninger in his Wall Street Journal article revealed that:
There is one other relevant image from the moments after the speech ended: Democratic West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin standing—alone—to shake Mr. Trump’s hand.
Last week, progressive activists petitioned [Senate] Minority Leader Schumer to expel Sen. Manchin from the leadership team as retribution for his vote in favor of Scott Pruitt’s nomination to run the Environmental Protection Agency.
Apparently, Senator Schumer would rather retain the costly swamps created by the EPA, rather than see them drained.
The Dems also refused to applaud or even look at the victims of immigrant crime as Trump pointed them out; instead boos and hisses emanated from that side of the House. The Free Beacon wrote that during the two-minute tribute and standing ovation given to the widow of Navy Seal Ryan Owens,
The audience stood and gave Carryn Owens a standing ovation and applauded for over two minutes for her strength.
Headstones at a local Jewish cemetery were recently knocked over.
The headstones were knocked over at the Stone Road Cemetery, located on Stonewood Avenue.
The manager of the cemetery says they’re not considering the vandalism a hate crime, but they’re also not ruling it out. Whatever happened there, they say it’s unconscionable.
“There’s no evidence of desecration, which leads us to believe that it was just a random act of violence, random act of vandalism,” says Michael Phillips, president of Britton Road Association. “The only thing we saw was someone’s glove on the ground that may have been one of the perpetrators that lost a glove.”
Sixteen headstones were toppled over at the Stone Road cemetery. The manager of the property says it happened sometime Tuesday night and was discovered on Wednesday.
“It’s almost not even a hate crime,” says Phillips. “It’s almost just an act that’s unconscionable when you’re a younger person and you think about your parents, and would you like them doing that to you, I don’t even think that goes through their mind.”
Governor Cuomo however announced Thursday he’s launching a full investigation into what happened: “New York has zero tolerance for bias or discrimination of any kind, and we will always stand united in the face of anti-Semitism and divisiveness. It is repugnant to everything we believe as New Yorkers, and we will continue to do everything in our power to bring to justice those responsible for these cowardly attacks on the values we hold dear.”
Some interesting number crunching from Seth Franzman on anti-Semitic attacks. And some of the results are striking.
When we tally the total number of incidents between 2009 and 2015, the overall number of attacks reaches more than 7,000. However, the number of assaults increased, almost doubling during the Obama administration.
Overall, there was an average of 84 incidents a month under the Obama administration. Let’s step back for a moment and compare that to the 95 incidents between January and February 2017. That’s a 10% increase. It could be more once all the data comes in. But the media haven’t been telling us there is a slight increase; the narrative has been that there is an antisemitic wave sweeping the US. In Berlin, there was a 16% increase in antisemitic incidents by comparison. …
One of the key indicators of rising antisemitism during the Obama years was the number of physical assaults. From a low of 17 in 2012 they rose to 56 in 2015. The ADL noted a “dramatic rise” in assaults that year.
Where was the media in 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015 to highlight thousands of incidents of antisemitism? 210 physical assaults on Jews. 3,900 threats against Jews and Jewish institutions. 2,900 incidents of vandalism. 180 incidents of antisemitism on campus. Every six days, a Jewish person in America was being attacked in 2015 and it went largely ignored. On average, there were threats every day against Jews and Jewish institutions over the last eight years and most of them did not receive headlines.
There were also incidents of vandalism every day on average. Why did 7,034 incidents of antisemitism not get major headlines for so long? Was it because of an agenda to protect the Obama administration from criticism, or due to complacency and people becoming inured to the phenomenon?
The obvious answer is that there was no interest in discussing the issue. Jews are low down on the intersectional privilege caste system. And anti-Semitism is widespread on the left.
Furthermore quite a few plots against synagogues came from Muslims. And their perpetrators were defended and whitewashed by the left as victims of law enforcement.
The rash of bomb threats were picked up because they played into a larger media narrative about a rise in bigotry under Trump. Not because the media actually cares. Their perpetrators are unknown, but if they turn out to be Muslims, the story will be dropped like a hot potato.
Editor’s note: Below is the fourth installment in a series of articles highlighting the network of major hate groups in America that are supported and funded by the Left. Click the following for the previous profiles on the Souther Poverty Law Center, Students for Justice in Palestine and the New Black Panther Party.
A number of major Democrats have cultivated highly significant ties to the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA). For example: Congressman Keith Ellison (Minnesota), who narrowly lost in his bid to become DNC chairman a few days ago, has spoken at ISNA’s massive national conferences on a number of occasions. Congressman Andre Carson (Indiana) has received thousands of dollars in campaign contributions from ISNA-affiliated donors, as have Keith Ellison, Hillary Clinton, and Barack Obama. And ISNA president Mohamed Magid was a key figure in Barack Obama’s Department of Homeland Security, where he was authorized to train and advise personnel affiliated with the FBI and other federal agencies.
Yet most Americans are entirely unaware of just how subversive and anti-American the Islamic Society of North America is.
ISNA was established in July 1981 by U.S-based members of the Muslim Brotherhood who also had been leaders of the Muslim Students Association (MSA). Muslim Brothers would dominate ISNA’s leadership throughout the Society’s early years, when it was highly dependent upon Saudi funding. ISNA’s founding mission was “to advance the cause of Islam and serve Muslims in North America so as to enable them to adopt Islam as a complete way of life.” Today ISNA is the largest Muslim organization on the continent. Its annual conferences routinely draw 30,000 to 40,000 attendees.
When ISNA was incorporated on July 14, 1981, its headquarters were located at the same address as those of the MSA. Eventually, the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development (HLF)—the U.S.-based financing wing of Hamas—would share the address as well.
One of ISNA’s key founders in 1981 was Sami Al-Arian, who subsequently became the North American leader of the terrorist organization Palestinian Islamic Jihad. He was indicted by the Justice Department in 2003, was held under house arrest for several years, and finally was deported in 2015.
Another ISNA co-founder was Muzammil Siddiqi, who went on to serve two terms (1997-2001) as ISNA president and continues to sit on the organization’s governing board. Siddiqi has praised Islamic suicide bombers as “those who die on the part of justice” and consequently reside “with the Lord” in a place of “the highest honor.” Moreover, he has defined jihad as “the path” and “the way [for Muslims] to receive the honor.”
Yet another prominent founding member of ISNA was Mahboob Khan, who in 1983 helped establish the California-based Muslim Community Association, which at least twice hosted and raised money for Ayman al-Zawahiri, who would later go on to become al Qaeda’s second-in-command.
In November 1987, ISNA established its own Political Awareness Committee headed by Abdurahman Alamoudi, a Muslim Brotherhood operative who in 2004 would be convicted on terrorism-related charges and sentenced to 23 years in prison.
Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN), the new deputy chairman of the Democratic National Committee, and the first Muslim elected to Congress, has a plan to recruit additional Muslim lawmakers like him — including possible candidates sponsored by a terror-tied Islamist group for which he helped raise millions of dollars, according to a source who once prayed alongside him in the basement of the Capitol.
Ellison has held Friday, or jummah, prayers with other Muslims, including staffers from the Congressional Muslim Staff Association and officials from the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), in a prayer room, or musallah, in the lower level of the Capitol building.
CAIR has been declared a terrorist organization by the United Arab Emirates and was named by federal prosecutors as an unindicted co-conspirator in a Hamas terrorist-funding operation.
A former CAIR intern who prayed with Ellison says Ellison once boasted that his breaking of the Muslim barrier on the Hill would usher in dozens of other Muslim lawmakers like him, and that he had an election-by-election vision for increasing their ranks.
“In the summer of 2008, I was working as an intern at CAIR,” Chris Gaubatz recalled in an exclusive interview with FrontPageMagazine.com. “During a Friday prayer at the Capitol Building, Ellison was talking about the second Muslim congressman being elected (Andre Carson) and said, “Insha’allah (Allah willing), next election we will have four Muslim congressman, and insha’allah, after that eight, and insha’allah, after that 16.’ ”
He said he also envisioned a Congressional Muslim Caucus that would rival the Black Caucus in size and influence, and push for “Muslim-friendly public policies,” such as gutting the Patriot Act, criminalizing the profiling of Muslims in terrorism investigations, and preventing the surveillance of mosques.
Ellison’s vision did not play out, as Democrats lost control of Congress to Republicans.
But at Saturday’s DNC elections, Tom Perez, who edged out Ellison as chairman of the committee, broke with party rules and named Ellison deputy chairman, creating a new position at the DNC. The DNC leadership controls spending priorities, organization and messaging for Democrats, as well as influences the recruitment and training of candidates.
“We have to recruit the right kind of candidates,” Ellison asserted in a recent DNC candidate forum.
His new key role in bringing more Muslims into Congress concerns security experts, because Ellison has made anti-Semitic remarks to Muslim groups and aligned himself with known radical Islamists, and would likely recruit more Islamists with help from terrorist front groups like CAIR.
