NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

The Political Logic of Trump’s Executive Order on Policing Charles Lipson

Posted By on June 18th, 2020

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2020/06/17/the_political_logic_of_trumps_

n the White House Rose Garden on Tuesday, President Donald Trump laid out an executive order addressing police misconduct and the ensuing national protests. Until now, his main response has been to voice strong support for “law and order” while condemning the excessive use of force, specifically in the case of George Floyd and generally across the country. His main theme has been: stop the mob rule, restore order, and get rid of a few bad apples. The executive order goes further, adding real substance to those vague pronouncements.

What does the executive order do?

The president’s executive order establishes a national credentialing process for police, making it harder for bad cops to transfer quietly to another city or county. It bans chokeholds — the kind that killed Mr. Floyd — except when the officer’s life is in danger. It provides training to de-escalate conflicts and funds social workers to assist police with endemic problems, such as homelessness, mental illness, alcoholism, and drug abuse. It will pay for non-lethal equipment, an indirect recognition that our policing relies too heavily on military equipment bought cheaply after the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Police sometimes need that firepower and protection, but over-reliance puts officers in the wrong frame of mind and endangers suspects’ lives. De-escalate, if possible, and leave punishment up to the courts. The executive order moves in that direction, without saying so directly.

How does this executive order play out politically?

First, it allows Trump to tell swing voters, “See, I’m not a hardline law-and-order president. I want to restore order, of course, but I want enforcement to be fair and applied in a race-neutral way. Policing is a difficult and dangerous job, but a necessary one. Whenever possible, it should be done with the least violence possible.” Who could object to that message? It is especially important for the president to deliver it after the harsh police confrontation around Lafayette Park last week and Trump’s support for it.

HISTORY Comments turned off

The Myth of Jews and Slavery     By Alex Grobman, PhD |

Posted By on June 18th, 2020

https://www.jewishlinkbwc.com/index.php/op-eds/8308-the-myth-of-jews-and-slavery

One of the enduring myths against the Jews is that they played a key role in the slave trade. The British newspaper Independent recently reported that Jackie Walker, the vice-chair of the left-wing Labor Party–linked movement, wrote on her Facebook page: “I’m sure you know, millions more Africans were killed in the African Holocaust and their oppression continues today on a global scale in a way it doesn’t for Jews…and many Jews (my ancestors too) were the chief financiers of the sugar and slave trade which is of course why there were so many early synagogues in the Caribbean.”

Her attack now appears on the website of Jews For Justice For Palestinians whose demands include “ending Israel’s illegal occupation and settlement of Palestinian land, including its illegal blockade of Gaza; and [demanding Israel] acknowledge its responsibility in the creation of the P Arab refugees, and its obligation to negotiate a just, fair and practical resolution of the issue.”

In addition to being accused of having been part of the trans-Atlantic slave trade, and of owning slaves, Jews are also charged with being involved in creating the Jim Crow laws that mandated racial segregation, sharecropping, the labor movement, unions and general mistreatment of black people in the U.S.

ISRAEL Comments turned off

The Palestinian issue: the crux of the Arab-Israeli conflict? Yoram Ettinger

Posted By on June 18th, 2020

 https://bit.ly/3dglLFC

In 2020, Morocco, Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and other pro-US Arab countries base their national security policy on issues which substantially transcend the Palestinian issue. These issues include lethal threats posed by Iran’s Ayatollahs, the Muslim Brotherhood, ISIS, Turkey’s Erdogan, the spillover of the civil wars in Libya, Syria, Iraq and Yemen, the potential implosion of all Arab countries, etc.  

In 2020, these countries view Israel’s posture of deterrence as a most valuable asset in the face of the aforementioned lethal threats. They value Israel as a most productive resource to diversify their economy and enhance their standard of living. 

At the same time, they consider the proposed Palestinian state a potential rogue regime, which would add fuel to the Middle East fire.  Therefore, they are expanding their defense and commercial ties with Israel in an unprecedented manner, in defiance of Palestinian protests and irrespective of the paralysis of the Palestinian issue.

In 1979 and 1994, Egypt and Jordan concluded peace accords with Israel, in order to advance their national security – not as a gesture toward Israel – regardless of Palestinian threats and protests. Notwithstanding occasional anti-Israel Jordanian talk, the Hashemite Kingdom’s walk (militarily and commercially) reflects a realization that Israel makes an irreplaceable and critical contribution to the survival of the Kingdom in the face of domestic and external clear and present threats. Against the backdrop of these threats, the establishment of the proposed Palestinian state would be the straw that breaks the Hashemite camel’s back. 

MY SAY: Comments turned off

MY SAY :RUSSIA, CHINA AND VENEZUELA RECOGNIZE THE INDEPENDENT REPUBLIC OF CHAZ!!!!

Posted By on June 17th, 2020

Three nations gave official recognition to the Democratic autonomous nation of Chaz, in respectful recognition of their “honorable fight against the systemic racism and human rights violations of capitalism.”

Although they will appoint ambassadors, finding anyone willing to go there is an ongoing problem…rsk

WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Danger: Iran’s Arms Embargo About to Expire by Majid Rafizadeh

Posted By on June 17th, 2020

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/16119/iran-arms-embargo

Who will benefit from lifting the arms embargo? Russia and China. They would most likely be the preferred weapons exporters to Iran. With prospects for multi-billion dollar deals, Moscow and Beijing would doubtless be delighted to sell weapons to Iran.

Tehran will likely utilize the sophisticated weaponry to advance its hegemonic ambitions in the region, increase its military adventurism in the Middle East, and ship arms to its proxies and militia groups to destabilize the region and trigger an arms race across the Middle East.

Among the many concessions that the Obama-Biden administration gave to the ruling mullahs of Iran, was one setting a date when Iran’s arms embargo would be lifted. The Obama administration agreed to add a provision in the nuclear deal — which, by the way, Iran never got around to signing — allowing the lifting of an arms embargo.

Now, again thanks to the Obama-Biden administration, the arms embargo is set to expire in October 2020.

It is important to point out that the Obama administration erased years of efforts and significant political capital that the international community had invested to impose the arms embargo in the first place.

From December 2006 to 2010, the five members of the United Nations Security Council finally agreed to pass series of resolutions (Resolution 1737, Resolution 1747, and Resolution 1929) imposing significant restrictions on Iran’s arms activities.

The UN Security Council resolution 1929 stated:

“Iran shall not undertake any activity related to ballistic missiles capable of delivering nuclear weapons, including launches using ballistic missile technology, and that States shall take all necessary measures to prevent the transfer of technology or technical assistance to Iran related to such activities”.

The ban encompassed a wide range of weapons, including large-caliber artillery, combat aircraft, battle tanks, armored combat vehicles, attack helicopters, some missiles and missile launchers, and warships.

The mullahs, in addition, scored a major political victory when the US administration in 2015 added a section to the nuclear deal permitting the lifting of the arms embargo through two sunset clauses.

It was mind-boggling that the Obama-Biden administration decided to include such an appeasing and dangerous provision in the nuclear deal. Both Democrats and Republicans were, in fact, stunned by the move. At the time, speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives and the leading Republican in Congress, John Boehner, pointed out : “It blows my mind that the administration would agree to lift the arms and missile bans.”

ISRAEL, WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Travesty of Justice at the International Criminal Court? Prosecutor Bensouda Should Be Disqualified. by Michel Calvo

Posted By on June 17th, 2020

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/16120/icc-travesty-of-justice

The Prosecutor’s Response seems to create new international law where non-binding resolutions can change legally binding agreements in order to prosecute Israeli leaders and Israeli Jews for war crimes….

The limitations of the Palestinian Authority’s jurisdiction in the Oslo Accords do not permit transferring jurisdiction to the ICC. Those limitations cannot be changed or disregarded.

There is no crime and no case for the Prosecutor to investigate those who returned to their ancestral land, who are the indigenous people. Judea and Samaria are not occupied territories.

“Palestine”, according to the International Court of Justice (ICL), is not a state.

There is no occupation by Israel of the territory of another state. There was no “Palestinian” state before 1967. Israel liberated Judea Samaria from Jordan after a war of aggression, in which Jordan attacked Israel in 1967 – for the second time (the first time being in 1948). Jordan finally abandoned all claims to the territory in 1988.

The Jews were expelled or killed during Jordan’s 1948 aggression. Their houses were taken by Arabs….”Palestine” is the Jewish Home as codified in international law. It is not a terra nullius [“nobody’s land”]. It belongs to the Jewish people. The “Arabs” of Judea and Samaria are the settlers, colonizers, who invaded the land.

The Jews hold the right to that land from the Bible, the Qur’an, and from several international instruments: the Balfour Declaration (1917), the Treaty of Lausanne (1923), the British Mandate (1922), the San Remo Resolution (1920), and the Treaty of Sèvres (1920) created International law, recognized and re-established the historical indigenous rights of the Jews to their Land…. Moreover, the Jewish people is entitled to its land under the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples….

Contrary to the Jewish people being the indigenous people, the “Palestinian people” has been invented to oppose the Jewish people.

The ICC cannot be a forum for the diversion of international law and for a travesty of justice…. The Response of the Prosecutor follows a political agenda and is based on law created by the Prosecutor to enable the prosecution of Israeli Jews/leaders for crimes they never committed. Ms. Fatou Bensouda’s impartiality can reasonably be doubted and she should be disqualified pursuant to article 42-7 of the Rome Statute and Rule 34 (d) of the Rules of Procedure and Evidence.

The International Criminal Court (ICC) Prosecutor’s Response to observations of more than 50 amici curiae, legal representatives of victims and States, is 60 pages long.[1] It makes an abstraction of history; misleadingly refers to Judea and Samaria as the “West Bank” of the Jordan River (which includes Israel), and falsely called “Occupied Palestinian Territories” that were liberated in 1967 from the Jordanian occupation.

ANTI-SEMITISM Comments turned off

Seattle’s Summer of Love written by Andrew Gleeson

Posted By on June 17th, 2020

https://quillette.com/2020/06/16/seattles-summer-of-love/

The bluest skies you’ve ever seen in Seattle ,And the hills the greenest green in Seattle, Like a beautiful child growing up free and wild, Full of hopes and full of fears, Full of laughter full of tears,Full of dreams to last the years in Seattle, In Seattle

So Perry Como sang in the late ’60s. Now it seems the days of beautiful children growing up free and wild are returning to Seattle. Like other American cities over the last three weeks, Seattle saw protests rapidly become violent clashes with police. This ugliness waxed and waned for a fortnight until police withdrew from their East Precinct Building, effectively ceding the surrounding area to the protestors. Barriers were erected around it by activists who initially christened the new territory the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone (CHAZ), and later renamed it the Capitol Hill Occupied Protest (CHOP). As their quasi-manifesto of June 9th put it, they had “liberated Free Capitol Hill in the name of the people of Seattle.”

Now a tense and potentially dangerous stand-off has developed. What does the city administration intend to do? On June 11th, the Democratic mayor of the city, Jennifer Durkan, was interviewed on CNN by a sympathetic Chris Cuomo. Cuomo began by asking if Durkan had lost control of her own city’s streets.

Durkan: We’ve got four blocks in Seattle that you just saw pictures of that is more like a block party atmosphere. It’s not an armed takeover, it’s not a military junta. We will make sure that we can restore this. But we have block parties and the like in this part of Seattle all the time… There is no threat right now to the public and we’re looking, we’re taking that very seriously, we’re meeting with businesses and residents…

HOMELAND SECURITY Comments turned off

Radical Muslim Group ICNA Honored by US Congressman, Governor Democrats Lou Correa and Gretchen Whitmer laud those linked to South Asian terror. Joe Kaufman

Posted By on June 17th, 2020

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2020/06/radical-muslim-group-icna-honored-us-congressman-joe-kaufman/

The Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA) has a long history rooted in terror. However, recently the group has been giving out food, in response to the coronavirus pandemic. Can a few bags of fruits and vegetables remove ICNA’s horrors of the past and threat to the present? Two lawmakers, US Congressman Lou Correa and Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, seem to think so, as they have showered ICNA with praise and commendations, while ignoring the organization’s extremism and bigotry. Correa and Whitmer should rescind their unwarranted words and awards immediately.

ICNA was established, in September 1968, as the American arm of Jamaat-e-Islami (JI), the largest Islamist group in South Asia. Not long after ICNA’s founding, JI’s then-paramilitary wing, al-Badr, was helping to massacre people in East Pakistan, what is now called Bangladesh, in a genocide that took the lives of up to three million individuals. One of al-Badr’s commanders, Ashrafuz Zaman Khan, who was sentenced to death (in absentia), in November 2013, for multiple murders, held the positions of Vice President of ICNA National and President of ICNA-New York and, according to his LinkedIn page, is still involved with ICNA.

In August 2006, JI announced on its website that its charitable apparatus, the Al-Khidmat Foundation (AKF), had taken a delegation to the Damascus, Syria home of then-global head of Hamas, Khaled Mashal, presenting Mashal with a check for $100 thousand. Mashal thanked the delegation and said that Hamas would continue terrorist activities against Israel. At the time of the transaction, ICNA was a partner to AKF and topped the list of donors on AKF’s website. AKF’s current President, Muhammad Abdus Shakoor, is a former Secretary General of ICNA; ICNA continues to be a partner to AKF; and JI continues to openly support Hamas.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

President Trump Signs Historic Executive Order on Police Reform Says “reducing crime and raising standards are not opposite goals.” Joseph Klein ****

Posted By on June 17th, 2020

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2020/06/president-trump-signs-historic-executive-order-joseph-klein/

President Trump signed an executive order Tuesday on police reform after addressing police officers and other invited guests in the White House Rose Garden. The executive order is entitled “Safe Policing for Safe Communities.” It provides a sensible approach to police reform that rejects the left’s attempt to portray support for strong law enforcement and police accountability for misconduct as mutually exclusive. “Americans believe we must support the brave men and women in blue who police our streets and keep us safe,” President Trump said in the remarks he delivered in the Rose Garden before signing the executive order.  “Americans also believe we must improve accountability, increase transparency, and invest more resources in police training, recruiting, and community engagement. Reducing crime and raising standards are not opposite goals. They are not mutually exclusive. They work together. They all work together.”

The executive order acknowledges the instances where police officers have misused their authority, and the effect of such misconduct on African-American communities in particular. The order states that “we must redouble our efforts as a Nation to swiftly address instances of misconduct.” But it also recognizes the vital work of law enforcement officers who “provide the essential protection that all Americans require to raise their families and lead productive lives.”

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Remembering William Sessions Tried to prevent politicization of FBI, fired by President Clinton. Lloyd Billingsley

Posted By on June 17th, 2020

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2020/06/remembering-william-sessions-lloyd-billingsley/

William Sessions, former director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, died on June 12 in San Antonio, Texas, at the age of 90. Appointed by President Ronald Reagan in 1987, Sessions served until 1993, when President Clinton fired him, charging poor leadership and use of his position to leverage perks. The more likely cause was Sessions’ effort to prevent the politicization of the FBI, then gearing up under the new administration.

President Clinton fired Sessions on July 19, 1993. The next day at approximately 1 p.m. Deputy White House Counsel Vincent Foster came out of his office with his suit jacket in hand. He told Linda Tripp, an aide to White House Counsel Bernard Nussbaum, that he left some M&Ms on a tray if she happened to want any. Foster didn’t say where he was going, but as he headed out the door, he told Tripp “I’ll be back.” As it turned out, he wouldn’t be back.

At approximately 6 p.m. that day, Foster’s body was found in Fort Marcy Park in Virginia, on the George Washington Parkway. Foster had suffered a gunshot wound to the head, but in one account he was found on a berm near a Civil War cannon in a straight coffin-like position, with the gun still in his hand. That seldom if ever happens in a suicide, the default explanation for Foster’s fate.

Accounts also differed on where, exactly Foster’s body had been found, which raised the possibility that it may have been moved. A point-blank gunshot wound to the head leaves an enormous amount of blood, bone and tissue but accounts of the body, and photos of the scene, do not reflect that reality.  The bullet was never found, and accounts also differed on the type of gun found in Foster’s hand.