FOREIGN POLICY Comments turned off

Pompeo Pounces on the International Criminal Court U.S. Sec of State confronts the globalist agenda. Joseph Klein

Posted By on March 19th, 2019

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/273190/pompeo-pounces-international-criminal-court-joseph-klein

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced on Friday new U.S. visa restrictions on those individuals directly responsible for any International Criminal Court (ICC) investigation of U.S. personnel in connection with U.S. and allied military and intelligence activities in Afghanistan. The ICC prosecutor had previously requested approval from the ICC’s judges to launch a formal investigation into what the prosecutor called the “situation in Afghanistan.” That request is still pending.

Secretary Pompeo warned all those working for the ICC that “if you’re responsible for the proposed ICC investigation of U.S. personnel in connection with the situation in Afghanistan, you should not assume that you will still have or will get a visa, or that you will be permitted to enter the United States.”

Secretary Pompeo added that the “visa restrictions will not be the end of our efforts. We are prepared to take additional steps, including economic sanctions if the ICC does not change its course.” Secretary Pompeo said that the Trump administration, which has already begun to implement the visa restrictions, would also use such visa restrictions “to deter ICC efforts to pursue allied personnel, including Israelis, without allies’ consent.”

The president of the Assembly of States Parties, the management oversight and legislative body of the ICC established by the Rome Statute treaty, responded that “the States Parties reconfirmed their unwavering support for the Court as an independent and impartial judicial institution, and reiterated their commitment to uphold and defend the principles and values enshrined in the Rome Statute and to preserve its integrity undeterred by any threats against the Court, its officials and those cooperating with it. This unwavering support continues today.”

The 123 or so State Parties to the Rome Statute decided, as was their sovereign right, to delegate their own domestic authority to adjudicate specific criminal atrocities involving genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity, and aggression to the ICC. If they want to indulge in the fiction that the ICC is an impartial and non-political judicial body, they have the right to wear blinders when it comes to ceding jurisdiction over their own citizens to the ICC. However, they do not have the legal or moral right to use the ICC they have embraced to assert jurisdiction over countries such as the United States and Israel, which exercised their sovereign right to decline joining the ICC Rome Statute treaty. The United States and Israel do not need any help from the ICC and have steadfastly refused to recognize its jurisdiction.

ISRAEL Comments turned off

Palestinian Jihad Attack Claims Life of Father of 12 and Teenager Palestinian Authority refuses to condemn terror – while Hamas passes out sweets. Ari Lieberman

Posted By on March 19th, 2019

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/273203/palestinian-jihad-attack-claims-life-father-12-and-ari-lieberman

Sunday began as any other for Sgt. Gal Keidan but the 19-year-old soldier didn’t have a chance. He had no reason to suspect that the Palestinian approaching him as he waited at the Ariel junction in the Samaria District (northern West Bank) was going to produce a large knife and begin stabbing. Normal people don’t go on stabbing sprees. But Omar Abu Laila, the Palestinian stabber, was anything but normal. He was a product of a depraved culture steeped in gore, religious zealotry and vitriolic Jew-hatred.

From the day he was born, Omar Abu Laila was exposed to base hate where the Jew was compared to monkeys and pigs; where the Jew was reduced to a cowardly land grabber and usurper; where the Jew was deemed to be the consummate infidel. Abu Laila was exposed to this hate in the mosque, at school, on social media and through official Palestinian media outlets.

Faced with this incessant, Goebbels-like propaganda, that Abu Laila would turn out to be a blood-thirsty, Jew-hating murderer was a forgone conclusion. And the responsibility rests squarely with Mahmoud Abbas, aka Abu Mazen, and his so-called Palestinian Authority for encouraging and stoking this type of aberrant behavior.

Not satiated with the murder of Gal Kaidan, Abu Laila continued his blood lust. He grabbed Kaidan’s automatic assault rifle and began shooting at cars nearing the junction hitting 47-year-old Rabbi Achiad Ettinger, a resident of the community of Eli and father of twelve children.

ANTI-SEMITISM Comments turned off

SOMALIA 1992

Posted By on March 19th, 2019

https://iconicphotos.wordpress.com/2010/03/10/u-s-marine-dragged-through-mogadishu/
The photos taken by Canadian photographer Paul Watson, of a dead American soldier being dragged through the streets of Mogadishu spelled the beginning of the end for U.S.-U.N. peacekeeping force. Domestic opinion turned hostile as horrified TV viewers watched images of the bloodshed—-including this Pulitzer-prize winning footage of Somali warlord Mohammed Aideed’s supporters dragging the body of U.S. Staff Sgt. William David Cleveland through the streets of Mogadishu, cheering.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

The Jew Who Died for Ilhan Omar Lawrence Freedman went to Somalia in 1992 as part of the U.S.-led relief effort. By Gary Palmer

Posted By on March 19th, 2019

https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-jew-who-died-for-ilhan-omar-11552950199?mod=mhp

Rep. Ilhan Omar, a freshman Democrat from Minnesota, has become widely known for her attacks on supporters of Israel. Ms. Omar is a naturalized citizen whose Somali refugee family settled in the U.S. when she was a teenager. Tens of thousands of Somali refugees relocated to the U.S.—some 25,000 in the Minneapolis area—to escape the starvation, famine and civil war that turned Somalia into a lawless, failed state in the early 1990s.

Another name is worth recognition and remembrance, especially among Somali refugees: Lawrence Freedman. In 1992, the year after Ms. Omar’s family left Somalia, the U.S. sent troops there as part of a joint United Nations humanitarian effort. The U.S. intervention, Operation Restore Hope, began with the landing of U.S. troops near Mogadishu on Dec. 9.

Freedman was a U.S. Army veteran who earned two Bronze Stars in Vietnam. He was an original member of the Green Berets, reached the rank of sergeant major, and eventually became an instructor. He retired from the Army in 1990 and joined the Central Intelligence Agency. In 1992 the U.S. sent Freedman as part of an advance team to prepare the way for American troops in Somalia. On Dec. 23, two weeks after the troops had arrived, Freedman became the first American killed as part of the relief effort in Somalia.

Any American casualty is noteworthy, but Freedman’s sacrifice stands out because he was Jewish.

Thousands of Somali refugees who now live in Ms. Omar’s district had their freedom and security paid for with the blood of American soldiers—22 of them, including Freedman.

ISRAEL Comments turned off

Hamas Targeted Tel Aviv And Israelis Murdered By Palestinian Terrorists Garner Little Attention By Lori Lowenthal Marcus

Posted By on March 19th, 2019

https://saraacarter.com/hamas-targeted-tel-aviv-but-israelis-murdered-by-palestinian

In the six short days I’ve been back in Israel following a month-long absence, there have been several attempts – one successful – to murder Israeli Jews by Arab Palestinian terrorists.

Israelis live their lives pretty much the way most Americans live theirs. One distinction, however, is that all Israelis’ telephones do more than just connect them to friends and family. They are, in fact, a source of immediate information about the terror attacks. These attacks disrupt everyone’s consciousness on a regular basis.

My friend with whom I’m traveling is a terror attack survivor; she has myriad sources from which she receives updates on a continuous basis. I also have many news sources from which I receive near-immediate news.

So, no surprise, we learned immediately that Sunday’s attack at the Ariel Junction was successful. At least one Israeli had been murdered, along with several wounded.

A 19 year-old soldier, Gal Keidan, was guarding the entrance to the community of Ariel. Ariel is a Jewish community, but its university has hundreds of Arab students as well.

At about 9:45 a.m. a 20 year-old Arab Palestinian, later identified as Omar Abu Lila who is from a nearby village, approached Keidan and stabbed him. As soon as Keidan was wounded, the terrorist wrestled away the soldier’s M-16 rifle and shot Keidan at point blank range, killing him.

The terrorist then used the stolen rifle to fire at three vehicles passing by.

BOOKS Comments turned off

EDWARD CLINE: THE RED THREAD BY DIANA WEST

Posted By on March 19th, 2019

https://edwardcline.blogspot.com/2019/03/the-red-thread.html

There is more blatant corruption, sniveling conspiracy, and underhanded intrigue revealed in Diana West’s new book, The Red Thread, than in the Kevin Spacey version of The House of Cards, which ran on Netflix from 2013 to 2018. The actors behind the attempted coup against Donald Trump, however, are bland, nondescript nonentities and mediocrities — James Comey, John Brennan, Christopher Steele, Nellie and Bruce Ohr, Reinhold Niebuhr (Who!?!!), the Kramer brothers, Bill Browder and his family, and a passel of others, none of them engaging actors, able to credibly project the immorality and villainy of their characters.

None of them is a Frank or Claire Underwood, though their insatiable hunger for power and control is not fictional and their appetite for power nearly cost this country the 2016 election. And the one character in the series I detested the most in House of Cards was Doug Stamper, Frank’s loyal assistant, “researcher,” gofer, arranger, blackmailer, and Mafia-like enforcer.
They don’t exude or broadcast evil or show any tell-tale signs of duplicity, malice, or a drooling unquenchable appetite for power or a penchant for lying and deceit. They’re about as average-looking as anyone you’d have to wait in line behind at a Wal-Mart check-out. We’re not dealing here with Jack-and-the Beanstock monsters, nor with Leviathans or Behemoths. But rather with a swarm of human termites.

The full title of West’s book is The Red Thread: A Search for Ideological Drivers Inside the Anti-Trump Conspiracy. Red Threads could be said to be an overture to West’s other knock-em-flat title, American Betrayal (reviewed by me twice (https://ruleofreason.blogspot.com/2013/06/our-enemy-inside-gates.html
https://edwardcline.blogspot.com/2017/04/our-enemy-inside-gates-revisited.html), is a much longer work that details the rise of Communist influence in the U.S. in the 1930s and during the FDR years.

POLITICS Comments turned off

Beto’s Apology Tour The identity left is carving him up like a Texas steak before he gets to Donald Trump.

Posted By on March 19th, 2019

https://www.wsj.com/articles/betos-apology-tour-11552951261
Beto O’Rourke’s presidential campaign is off to a gangbusters financial start, raising $6 million in just 24 hours, more than even Bernie Sanders. As for Mr. O’Rourke’s reputation as a strong leader—on that presidential characteristic he needs work.

The former Texas Congressman’s first few days as a candidate have been one long apology tour. At several stops he used a stock campaign line that his wife, Amy, raised their three children, “sometimes with my help.” He meant it to be a self-deprecating joke and a note of gratitude to his wife, but in today’s identity-politics hothouse he was quickly denounced for his male privilege.

“Not only will I not say that again,” Mr. O’Rourke soon responded in Iowa, “but I’ll be more thoughtful going forward in the way that I talk about our marriage.”

Then there was his record as a teenage hacker when he stole long-distance phone service and downloaded “cracked” or pirated software—this according to a lengthy Reuters report published on Friday. Evidently the former Congressman has known the report was coming for months (he spoke on the record to the reporter). That he still chose to run for President suggests he’s confident the story won’t kill his chances.

MOVIES AND TELEVISION Comments turned off

Trans ballet dancer Nora Monsecour on Girl: ‘There was always a fascination with what was between my legs’ Eleanor Halls

Posted By on March 18th, 2019

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/films/0/trans-ballet-dancer-nora-monsecour-girl-always-fascination-legs/

When Nora Monsecour was 15 and training as a transgender ballerina in Belgium, she decided to join the womens’ pointe class. But her school wouldn’t let her.

Monsecour was transitioning. Having taken puberty blockers at the age of 11, she was halfway through her female hormone replacements, with her sights set on gender reassignment surgery.

And yet, her school principal told Monsecour that she was “going through a phase”. Worse still, the principal blamed Monsecour’s mother, saying she was giving her daughter medication because she’d always wanted a daughter over a son.

Later that year, in 2009, Monsecour left the school. Her story made headlines, prompting aspiring Flemish film director Lukas Dhont, who was only 18, to send her a Facebook message. He wanted to make a documentary about Monsecour’s life. She said no.

A few years later, Dhont asked again, and this time Monsecour reconsidered. If the film was a fictionalised account of her life, rather than a documentary, she would do it. The result was Girl, out now in cinemas, starring 27-year-old breakout actor Victor Polster, a student at the Royal Ballet School of Antwerp, as 15-year-old transgender ballerina Lara.

WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

KIA ORA GAZA-AN ANTI-ISRAEL GROUP IN NEW ZEALAND BY DAPHNE ANSON

Posted By on March 18th, 2019

http://daphneanson.blogspot.com/2019/03/kia-ora-gaza-z-word.html

Kia Ora Gaza Mission is an anti-Israel group in New Zealand led, for want of a better word, by veteran leftwing activist Roger Fowler, an Auckland resident and ‘Freedom Flotilla’ alumnus.

Last year, Dr David Cumin, director of the Israel Institute of New Zealand, reportedly criticised Mr Fowler thus:

‘In April an article about Roger Fowler sought volunteers to violate international law by joining a “flotilla… to break the siege and blockade of Gaza”.

The article failed to mention the United Nations report authored by Sir Geoffrey Palmer that determined the Israeli and Egyptian blockades on Gaza are a “legitimate security measure” due to security threats Israel faces from Gaza and recommended “All humanitarian missions… should do so through established procedures and the designated land crossings”.

Aid is easily distributed to Gaza — there are thousands of truckloads of goods that move from Israel to Gaza each week. Yet a “veteran human rights campaigner” is actively encouraging the exact activity Palmer recommended against.

Hamas has ruled Gaza since just after Israel unilaterally withdrew and forcibly removed all Jews in 2005.

Hamas executes homosexuals and political dissidents, doesn’t allow a free press, and misuses aid for terror.

Yet in a Māori TV interview, Mr Fowler compared Israel — where women and minorities have equal rights and political representation, there is a free press, and world-leading innovation — to Islamic State. He has not condemned Hamas.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Poll: 50 Percent Say Mueller Investigation Is ‘Witch Hunt’ By Mairead McArdle

Posted By on March 18th, 2019

https://www.nationalreview.com/news/poll-50-percent-say-mueller-investigation-is-witch-hunt/

50 percent of adults surveyed in an astonishing new USA Today/Suffolk University poll say that Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation is a “witch hunt” and believe that President Trump has been the target of more investigative scrutiny than other presidents because of his politics.

The poll shows that trust in the president has increased as well. A majority of 52 percent still say they have little or no trust in Trump’s insistence that his campaign did not collude with Russia during the 2016 campaign season, but that number is down from 59 percent in December.
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Support for impeachment has faltered as well, with 62 percent saying the House should not impeach Trump compared to just 28 percent who want the lower chamber to seriously consider doing so. Democratic speaker Nancy Pelosi came out against the idea last week, telling the Washington Post, “Impeachment is so divisive to the country that unless there’s something so compelling and overwhelming and bipartisan, I don’t think we should go down that path, because it divides the country.”