ISRAEL Comments turned off

Palestinian state and track record: impact on US interests Yoram Ettinger

Posted By on May 31st, 2020

https://bit.ly/2ZTG08Y

Western foreign policy and national security establishments – government, media and academia – have been overwhelmingly preoccupied with assessments of future track record of the proposed Palestinian state. They have sidestepped the Palestinian past track record.

While a future track record is subjective, intangible, precarious and speculative, a past track record is objective, tangible, proven, and certain. 

Major decisions – such as medical reports, investing, hiring, recruiting, buying and job application – are based, primarily, on well-documented past track records. They are not centered around hypothetical future track records.

A confirmed past track record – rather than a conjectural future track record – is critical to making well-grounded, trust-worthy decisions. This is certainly pivotal to responsible foreign policy-making, which attempts to enhance future national security by avoiding past mistakes.

Dr. Albert Ellis, one of the world’s top psychologists, considered the study of past track records as an essential undertaking for an improved future: “The best predictor of future behavior is past behavior.”  This is as applicable to foreign policy and national security policy-making as it is to psychology.

CHARLOTTE'S NEWS WEB Comments turned off

Antifa’s American insurgency -The far-left has perfected the art of rioting Andy Ngo

Posted By on May 31st, 2020

https://spectator.us/andy-ngo-antifa-american-insurgency/

We are witnessing glimmers of the full insurrection the far-left has been working toward for decades. The killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis was merely a pre-text for radicals to push their ambitious insurgency. In a matter of hours, after the video of Floyd began circulating the internet, militant antifa cells across the country mobilized to Minnesota to aid Black Lives Matter rioters. Law enforcement and even the state National Guard have struggled to respond in Minnesota.

Portland, Oakland, Los Angeles, Dallas and Atlanta are just some of the other cities waking up and finding smoldering ruins where businesses once operated. Nearly 30 other cities experienced some form of mass protest or violent rioting. At least three people have been killed so far.

Antifa, the extreme anarchist-communist movement, has rioting down to an art.

ANTI-SEMITISM Comments turned off

Kneelers and Submitters Take away the power of one man to ride another while “booted and spurred,” and perhaps we might find a slice of real justice and liberty for all. By Adam Selene

Posted By on May 31st, 2020

https://amgreatness.com/2020/05/30/kneelers-and-submitters/

The country is burning, thanks largely to those who uncritically have swallowed whole the neo-Marxist propaganda of the neo-liberal order.

As brutal as the death of George Floyd appears to have been—and it does appear brutal—nothing that has followed from it will lead to justice for Floyd or more justice generally. It’s all just rage for gratification’s sake—a distraction. Our problem isn’t one of racism; our problem is that we demand rulers and protectors, and then we are surprised when they turn around and kneel on our necks. 

Here is the bitter truth: those now-fired cops in Minnesota almost assuredly will get off. One has been charged with third degree murder and manslaughter, but the odds are still good that he will walk in the end. Cops kill innocent people from time to time, and it rarely has anything to do with race. It is usually incompetence or general thuggery on the part of those police. And when they do it, they dance the dance: get charged with murder, get acquitted, and return to work. 

In this case, the lawyer will probably portray the killer as stupid but not guilty to avoid the worse image of being malicious. His defense almost assuredly will be connected to bureaucratic jargon about police training and police protocol. There is a fine line between making an honest mistake and being negligent, we’ll be told, and his lawyer only needs to convince a jury that there is a reasonable possibility he tried to follow his training to protect his fellow officers.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Dem governors should start following the science for a change on COVID-19 By Jack Hellner

Posted By on May 31st, 2020

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2020/05/dem_governors_should_start_following_the_science_for_a_change_on_covid19.html

The Illinois governor and many others have said they follow the science, so why the masks?  Where is the scientific data that show that children have spread the virus?  I bet there are few, so why are they required to wear masks, especially two-year-olds? 

Do these governors want more healthy people to get sick?

In early March, the CDC, Fauci and other experts said we shouldn’t wear masks.  So for the first 244 years in America, while we have gone through annual flus, pandemics, pneumonia, respiratory illnesses, etc., we never had to wear oppressive masks until now, yet we thrived, and life expectancy and quality of life improved greatly.  We also didn’t have to social distance or gather in groups smaller than ten.

We could go to church, restaurants, bars, sporting events, concerts, dentists, hairdressers, department stores, gyms, casinos, work, and we were fine until now, when we have to obey the dictatorial edicts of power-hungry politicians.

When will journalists ask why the governors in Illinois and elsewhere aren’t following the science?

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Who is recruiting, moving and paying the professional anarcho-rioters? By Patricia McCarthy

Posted By on May 31st, 2020

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2020/05/who_is_recruiting_moving_and_paying_the_professional_anarchorioters.html

The death by cop of George Floyd in Minneapolis was grotesque, a clearer example of police brutality that has otherwise rarely been filmed for all to see.  Even if, as has been reported, Floyd did not die of asphyxiation or strangulation as it appeared, his death was without a doubt caused by that officer’s cruel and unnecessary action and the inaction of his fellow officers who stood by and watched.  That officer has been charged with third degree murder and the other officers have been fired.  Judicial due process will ensue, both state and federal.  In the meantime, that the people of Minneapolis have turned out to protest is understandable.  

What is not comprehensible is the destructive actions of so many.  Is it really the citizens of Minneapolis who have set the city on fire, burning down small businesses as well as the police precinct building, libraries, etc.?  Who are those masked men in black with secret-service quality ear-pieces, military grade gas masks and backpacks full of Molotov cocktails?  They are very likely professional rioters, recruited, transported and paid by the likes of some George Soros front group or other anonymous Cloward-Piven devotees who share Soros’ hatred of America and want to see this nation bought to its knees.  Panic over the virus was waning. These orchestrated riots across the country are the next ploy.  Someone is organizing this madness.  Someone is supplying the most lethal rioters with all the accoutrements of conflagration and moving them into place to all the affected cities.  That all costs a great deal of money.  Antifa owes its funding to Soros as do the more violent branches of Black Lives Matter.  These players seem strangely secure that they will not be arrested or that if they are, they will be quickly released.

ANTI-SEMITISM Comments turned off

Attorney General Barr: Peaceful protests over George Floyd ‘hijacked’ by ‘far left extremist groups’ Nicholas Wu

Posted By on May 31st, 2020

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2020/05/30/george-floyd-protests-ag-barr-blames-anarchic-and-leftist-groups/5291926002/

WASHINGTON — Attorney General William Barr said violent protests that have erupted after the death of George Floyd appear to be organized by “anarchic” and “far left extremist groups” pursuing their own aims. 

Addressing “rioting” in many cities, Barr said, “the voices of peaceful protest are being hijacked by violent radical elements.”

“Groups of outside radicals and agitators are exploiting the situation to pursue their own separate and violent agenda,” he said. “In many places, it appears the violence is planned, organized and driven by anarchic and…far left extremist groups using Antifa-like tactics.”

Barr said many are traveling from outside states to join protests.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Minnesota governor fully mobilizes state’s National Guard By Audrey McNamara

Posted By on May 31st, 2020

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/tim-walz-minnesota-governor-fully-mobilizes-national-guard-first-time-in-history-george-floyd-death-protests/

Minnesota Governor Tim Walz announced Saturday that he is fully mobilizing the state’s National Guard in response to the ongoing unrest in Minneapolis. 

The Minnesota National Guard said this marks the first time it’s been fully mobilized since World War II, after Walz said this was the first full mobilization in the state’s history. 

“We are ‘all-in’ to restore order and maintain and keep the peace in Minnesota.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Declassified transcripts add to evidence that FBI had no legal basis to interview Michael Flynn In call with Russian ambassador, Flynn urged ‘we need cool heads to prevail’ on sanctions. That’s a policy dispute, not a crime, FBI expert says. John Solomon

Posted By on May 31st, 2020

https://justthenews.com/accountability/russia-and-ukraine-scandals/declassified-transcripts-add-evidence-fbi-had-no-legal

In the end, the words that Michael Flynn uttered to Russia’s ambassador that landed the former Trump national security in a three-year legal nightmare were simply this: “We need cool heads to prevail.”

That was the message Flynn delivered to Sergey Kislyak on Dec. 29, 2016, the day outgoing President Barack Obama imposed sanctions on Russia for meddling in the U.S. election, according to newly declassified transcripts of the conversation.

Yes, Flynn talked sanctions. But his message not to escalate a sanctions war was similar to what his future boss, Donald Trump, presented the next day and what many other experts recommended. And it was hardly words worthy of a crime or a counterintelligence threat, a fact that the career agents who worked the Flynn case concluded on their own before their bosses meddled in the matter.

The long-awaited release of the transcripts by new Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe adds to a growing body of evidence that shows the FBI had no basis to interview Flynn, a retired general, in January 2014 or to continue investigating him at the start of the Trump presidency, experts told Just the News.

“Bottom line: the phone call was a foreign policy discussion on behalf of an incoming president. It is of zero counter intelligence interest or any legitimate concern for the FBI,” former FBI assistant director for intelligence Kevin Brock said.

WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

“Such Things Should Not Happen”: Persecution of Christians, by Raymond Ibrahim

Posted By on May 31st, 2020

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/16080/persecution-of-christians-april

“What is the crime of these innocent people against Fulani herdsmen?… For how long shall we continue to beg the government and the security agencies to come to the aid of our people?” — Local resident of one of the villages that was ravaged, Morningstar News, April 9, 2020, Nigeria.

“The insurgents have so far mainly targeted isolated villages, killing more than 900 people… The unrest has forced hundreds of thousands of locals to flee….” — The Guardian, April 22, 2020, Mozambique.

On April 21, Christian convert and human rights activist Mary Mohammadi was sentenced to three months in prison and flogging [10 lashes] — above and beyond what she had already experienced — due to her criticism of the regime’s violations against human rights…. During her hearing, the judge harassed her about her conversion to Christianity even though charges against her had nothing to do with religion. — The Christian Post, April 22, 2020, Iran.

As occurred during the height of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, “jihadist rebels” continue to confiscate Christian properties in the name of “sharia.” — Al Masdar News, April 25, 2020, Syria.

The following are among the abuses Muslims inflicted on Christians throughout the month of April 2020:

The Slaughter of Christians

Nigeria: The first two days of April opened with machete-wielding Muslim Fulani herdsmen murdered at least 13 Christians. “[W]e woke up to bury seven people burnt to death … from an overnight attack,” one source said. Those killed “are mostly elderly Christians who were unable to escape as members of the community ran into surrounding bushes during the attack.”

Then, on April 7, Muslim Fulani herdsmen slaughtered a pastor and three members of his congregation, including a 10-year-old boy. The pastor, Matthew Tagwai, who was murdered in his home, is survived by a pregnant wife and two small children.

On April 10, Muslim Fulani herdsmen murdered pastor Stephen Akpor, 55. “Two herdsmen came to a branch of our church, Celestial Church … where they shot him as he was praying and counseling five members in the church,” his colleagues said. “The herdsmen shot the pastor several times and then stabbed him to death.” He is survived by his wife and five children.

WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

China is Sending Mixed Signals by Amir Taheri

Posted By on May 31st, 2020

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/16077/china-mixed-signals

[I]t is clear that Beijing is frightened of the contagion of democracy not only from Hong Kong but also from Taiwan, which has shown that a highly prosperous and reasonably democratic “China” need not remain a pipedream.

Trouble is that the US does not have a coherent, strategically meaningful, policy towards China…. Imposing largely symbolic sanctions is like parking your car because you don’t know where you want to go.

Is China frightening or is it frightened?

An examination of decisions made in last week’s annual session of the National People’s Congress (NPC), reveals that she may be both. Or to put it another way, as on occasions in the past decades of Communist rule, China could become frightening because it is frightened.

Billed as a parliament in the Western media, the NPC is a strange beast.

It is certainly meant to approve draft laws submitted by the leadership and, in theory at least, could weigh on policy debates and act as watchdog over the general state of things in the People’s Republic.

However, equally certainly, it cannot be regarded as a parliament in the generally accepted sense of the term. Yet, it is not as some Sinpohobes assert, a mere rubber-stamp either. It may be a small aquarium compared to the huge ocean that is China, but it does provide an opportunity to see the fish allowed to swim in it, and to assert the size of each.

So what did the aquarium put on show this time?