Chicago's Blacks Turn against Rahmbo - Daniel John Sobieski

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by Daniel John Sobieski

Is Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel destroying the decades-old black-Democrat alliance?

When President Trump announced that the unconstitutional DACA program, put in place by President Obama after Congress refused to pass it into law, would be allowed to expire unless Congress took action on border security, former White House chief of staff and current Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel (aka “Rahmbo”) announced that Chicago would become a “Trump-free zone,” a sanctuary city welcoming and protecting any and all illegal aliens.

"To all the Dreamers that are here in this room and the city of Chicago: you are welcome in the city of Chicago. This is your home and you have nothing to worry about."
He added: “Chicago, our schools, our neighborhoods, our city, as it relates to what President Trump said, will be a Trump-free zone. You have nothing to worry about. And I want you to know this, and I want your families to know this. And rest assured, I want you to come to school… and pursue your dreams.”

The problem is that he forgot the beleaguered African-Americans in his city burdened by debt and high taxes as its citizens fight poverty, joblessness, and high crime rates. They have dreams too, such as getting to school alive or being able to do their homework with a bullet piercing their bedroom window. On Thursday, this key and long-taken-for-granted part of the Democrat constituency, took to Chicago’s streets, and one expressway, to ask where they must flee to find the sanctuary Rahm Emanuel promises for illegal aliens:

An anti-violence march in Chicago briefly closed Lake Shore Drive on Thursday afternoon, as protesters demonstrated against the city's spiraling crime crisis and called for Mayor Rahm Emanuel to step down.
A spokesman for Chicago police said Lake Shore Drive was closed for about 35 minutes on Thursday afternoon, as demonstrators marched toward Wrigley Field, where the Cubs were scheduled to play later in the evening…
The demonstrators waved signs demanding Emanuel's resignation and chanted "one city, one Chicago" and "Rahm has to go," as fans watched from inside the park…
Ahead of the march, protesters made clear they didn't want the Democratic mayor's support or blessing -- they were urging him to resign over what they called his inability to get gun crime under control.

Demonstrators said they took that route because if they had protested in their neighborhoods the city’s cultural and political elites and the national liberal media would have paid little heed to what was really a protest of Rahm Emanuel’s indifference to his citizen constituents as he embraces illegal aliens. Certainly the media would have ignored the calls for Trump’s help and demands for Emanuel to resign:

"Rahm Emanuel is a con man. His whole job is to keep black folks divided," one man told Fox News' Gianno Caldwell, who covered the march.
More than 1,600 people have been shot in Chicago this year, including three children who were recently wounded while playing basketball. Residents said after the shooting that the situation is so bad, children are being kept indoors for their safety.
One woman said Thursday that Emanuel "doesn't care about anybody" except his own neighborhood and his own family, while another woman said Emanuel seems to care more about illegal immigrants in the city.
“African-Americans, we're citizens, and our ancestors built this country," she told Caldwell, whose younger brother survived a shooting last year that killed his best friend.
State Rep. La Shawn Ford, a Democrat who represents the West Side of Chicago, called on President Trump to help the city.
"Not everyone believes Chicago is a Trump-free zone. If he's serious about helping the people... I accept his help. We can't turn any help away," said Ford, adding that seniors and children need to have safe streets and federal authorities need to help the local police.

As noted, Caldwell has personal knowledge of Chicago’s murder and crime spree from which its citizens can find no sanctuary. As he wrote at the end of July on Fox News Opinion:

During Memorial Day weekend last year, my younger brother and two of his friends were sitting in a car on the south side of Chicago when two men walked up to the window and fired 25 times. With his bloodied best friend dead in his arms, it was only through God's grace and mercy that my younger brother made it out alive…
Right now, Chicago is going through another bloody summer of gun violence. In fact, at the beginning of this month more than 23 people were shot in one weekend -- including three who were killed. The wounded included girls ages 5, 14 and 15.
The next weekend things were even worse, as the local CBS affiliate headlined on its website: “4 Killed, 24 Wounded in Weekend Shootings Across Chicago.” And just last Monday, reporting on the shootings of the weekend, the local ABC affiliate headlined: “Chicago weekend violence: 7 killed, 38 shot.”

Much of Chicago’s violence stems from gang bangers, particularly those imported from south of the border, and from the steady supply of illegal drugs that are a consequence of the open borders and sanctuary city policies Rahm Emanuel supports. It is called “gun violence” when it is in fact gang violence fueled by drug trafficking. As Katie Pavlich writes at TownHall:

As the violence in Chicago's gang plagued neighborhoods rages on, the underlying cause of the Windy City's murder rampages can be found thousands of miles away along a porous border. According to a report from Breitbart's Jeremy Segal, Mexican drug cartels are "allowed" to run Chicago's streets and young African-American men are killing each other as a result.
Harold “Noonie” Ward, a former high-ranking member of the Gangster Disciples, one of America’s largest street gangs, claims the deadly violence that is plaguing Rahm Emanuel’s “world class city” of Chicago is because Mexican drug cartels are being allowed by “the powers that be” to operate freely and “run” Chicago’s streets.
In an interview with Breitbart News outside of his childhood home, a now-condemned apartment in Altgeld Gardens, one of Chicago’s most well known housing projects, Ward explained that there are a number of issues leading to the bloodshed in the city. The greatest reason, Ward says, is drugs and how they are being brought into the city. “Where the drugs are coming from is Mexican cartels,” Ward said. “From Mexico to Chicago, they make $3.5 billion dollars a year. And the majority of violence in Chicago, comes from the Mexican cartels.”

Rahm Emanuel faces another tough reelection bid in 2019. He and other mayors not only believe we should have open borders but that those who cross them to enter sanctuary cities such as his should be allowed to vote. Coincidence? I think not. He and his ilk are willing to trade American lives for votes. If you can’t find enough voters, you import them in the form of undocumented Democrats.

Meanwhile, blacks in Chicago are getting wise. It may be time for regime change in Chicago. As President Trump said in the campaign as he actively called for black votes, what do you have to lose?


Daniel John Sobieski is a free lance writer whose pieces have appeared in Investor’s Business Daily, Human Events, Reason Magazine and the Chicago Sun-Times among other publications.

Source: https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2018/08/chicagos_blacks_turn_against_rahmbo.html

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Cory Booker claims he didn't read the anti-Israel sign he allowed himself to be photographed holding - Thomas Lifson

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by Thomas Lifson

Senator Cory Booker, who is one of the Democrats contending for his party's 2020 nomination for president, is pleading political negligence.

Senator Cory Booker, who is one of the Democrats contending for his party's 2020 nomination for president, is pleading political negligence, claiming that he didn't bother to read a sign that he allowed himself to be photographed holding. Booker, who has raised considerable money from pro-Israel Jewish groups, apparently got carried away with intersectional enthusiasm at the Netroots Nation confab and was unable to get a clue from the t-shirt on the woman standing next to him that proclaimed Palestine's virtue in the realm of "feminist/queer refugee racial justice" that he might be endorsing a radical point of view.

The professionally printed sign reads, "From Palestine to Mexico all the walls have got to go."

As Aaron Bandler points out at Jewish Journal, that slogan was crafted by the US Campaign for Palestinian Rights, and "standing next to Booker on his left is Leah Muskin-Pirret, the U.S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights' government associate."

The U.S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights, according to a Tablet exposé, is the "American umbrella group of the BDS [Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions] movement" and has funneled its money toward Islamic terror groups like Hamas, Islamic Jihad and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP).
The U.S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights has also celebrated convicted terrorist Rasmea Odeh[.]

Legal Insurrection noticed, too:

Senator Booker has a long record of phoniness, going back to the start of his political career, when he pretended to live in public housing. Now he is trying to cultivate the far left of the Democratic Party, which hates Israel, while maintaining his ability to raise money from Jewish donors to the party, some of whom still are attached to the notion of the survival of Israel. Even morons realize that without walls to protect it, Israel would suffer wave upon wave of terror from its neighbors Hamas and Hezb'allah, not to mention the ISIS troops operating in Syria.

Thomas Lifson

Source: https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2018/08/cory_booker_claims_he_didnt_read_the_antiisrael_sign_that_he_allowed_himself_to_be_photographed_holding.html

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Rasmussen: Black approval rating of Trump now at 29% - Thomas Lifson

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by Thomas Lifson

Opportunity is calling, and many people of any race who previously despaired of bettering themselves through work are finding out that a rising tide does indeed lift all boats.

If this figure reported in Rasmussen's daily presidential tracking poll Friday is anywhere close to accurate, Democrats are closing in on a crisis. While to [the] poll results available to the general public reported on the Rasmussen Reports website do not contain the racial breakdown (Rasmussen pays its bills by selling detailed breakdowns of its polling results to political pros), so notable was the figure that Rasmussen tweeted out a notice:

Given the booming economy, many African-Americans are experiencing opportunities for employment the likes of which were completely unavailable during the eight years of America's First Black President. Opportunity is calling, and many people of any race who previously despaired of bettering themselves through work are finding out that a rising tide does indeed lift all boats.

With approval nearing one third of American blacks, it is no longer viable for Democrats to insist that Trump is such a vile racist that any favorable views of him should be censured by all right-thinking African-Americans.

The Democrats heavily depend on 90-plus-percent turnout and 90-plus-percent support for Democrats among African-Americans. If that level of support falls to 71%, the game is more or less over. Of course, support voiced to an automated poll in a phone call is different from pulling lever to vote, but it is the start of a process that has another two years to playout before Trump's name faces voters again.

You can bet that Bill Maher is far from the only leftist hoping that America experiences an economic crash.


Thomas Lifson

Source: https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2018/08/rasmussen_black_approval_rating_of_trump_now_at_29.html

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IDF evacuates Israeli-run humanitarian clinic in Syria - Arutz Sheva Staff

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by Arutz Sheva Staff

'Mazor Ladach' field clinic, established in Syrian border area in cooperation with US, closes.

Recently, the activity of the "Mazor Ladach" field clinic, a unique humanitarian project located in an Israeli enclave near the Syrian border and secured by IDF troops, has been discontinued, an IDF spokesman said.

Forces have begun evacuating and folding the clinic's compound.

The "Mazor Ladach" field clinic was established on August 2017 in cooperation with an American humanitarian organization as part of Operation Good Neighbor. The day clinic provided medical assistance to locals in the Syrian Golan Heights.

It has treated approximately 6,800 Syrians since its establishment.

Ever since the Syrian conflict began, a significant shortage of medical infrastructure, doctors and medical supplies has persisted on the Syrian side of the border. In response to the lack of proper medical options in Syria, the IDF has provided life-saving humanitarian aid as part of operation "Good Neighbor," while maintaining a non-intervention policy in the conflict.

The IDF is monitoring the ongoing events in the area and is prepared for a range of scenarios.

Mazor Ladach

IDF spokesperson

Mazor Ladach

IDF spokesperson

Mazor Ladach

IDF spokesperson

Mazor Ladach

IDF spokesperson

Bags of equipment at Mazor Ladach

IDF spokesperson

Bags of food and other items at Mazor Ladach

IDF spokesperson

Children's tent at Mazor LadachIDF spokesperson


Arutz Sheva Staff

Source: http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/249988

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Trump Slaps Sanctions on Turkish Officials - Matthew Vadum

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by Matthew Vadum

Standing up for an imprisoned American pastor.

The Trump administration imposed economic sanctions on two senior officials in Turkey’s increasingly despotic regime Wednesday as retaliation for the "unfair and unjust detention" of American pastor Andrew Brunson who has been in Turkish custody since October 2016.

The repressive pro-Islamist government of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan accuses Brunson, 50, an evangelical Presbyterian minister from North Carolina who has lived in Turkey for more than 20 years, of espionage and helping terrorists, NPR reports. Specifically, Erdogan’s government has accused Brunson of aiding the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), a long-running separatist insurgency. Brunson, who was in jail but is currently under house arrest, could be given a 35-year prison term if convicted on all charges. A relative who visited him said he had lost 50 pounds in jail.

"Pastor Brunson's unjust detention and continued prosecution by Turkish officials is simply unacceptable," Secretary of the U.S. Treasury Steven Mnuchin said. "President Trump has made it abundantly clear that the United States expects Turkey to release him immediately."

The sanctions are aimed specifically at Turkey’s justice minister, Abdulhamit Gul, and its interior minister, Suleyman Soylu. The sanctions forbid U.S. citizens from doing business with both individuals and block any of their assets that are under U.S. jurisdiction. 

Turkey is an ally of the United States through the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) but relations between the two countries have been strained in recent years as Erdogan strives to transmogrify his nation into a full-blown Islamist state. Erdogan has infamously justified his drive away from secularism and toward authoritarianism by saying, “Democracy is like a streetcar. When you come to your stop, you get off.”

The imposition of sanctions prompted Turkish opposition party Iyi to demand the Turkish government seize the sprawling Trump Towers complex in Istanbul. (“Iyi” means good in Turkish.) But it turns out the property isn’t owned by Trump or his company. The owner is reportedly Turkish conglomerate Dogan Holding, which paid as much as $5 million to put Trump’s name on the facility.

Iyi spokesman Aytun Ciray later retracted the call after speaking to the hotel’s owners, but Trump’s name could still be removed from the property. Outraged by Trump’s claimed Islamophobia, President Erdogan previously said Trump’s name should be taken off the Trump Towers.

Meanwhile, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has had several conversations with Turkey’s foreign affairs minister, Mevlut Cavusoglu, about freeing Brunson and others swept up in a security dragnet after a failed coup attempt in 2016, according to State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert. The effort to oust the Turkish autocrat is widely believed to have been staged by Erdogan himself as a means of consolidating his power.

"Turkey knows our position well," Nauert said Wednesday. "This has gone on far too long."
Cavusoglu’s ministry quickly promised to retaliate against the United States with "an equivalent response" if the Trump administration failed to reverse "this wrong decision."

"There is no doubt that the decision, which disrespectfully intervenes with our judicial system, stands in contrast to the essence of our relations and will seriously damage the constructive efforts made in order to resolve problems between the two countries," the ministry stated.

Erdogan suggested last year that his country would be willing to swap Brunson for Fethullah Gulen, an elderly Sunni imam from Turkey who lives in a guarded compound in Pennsylvania and whom Erdogan claims organized the failed 2016 coup. Gulen denies any involvement. Turkey accuses Brunson of working with Gulen’s supporters.

“You have a pastor, too,” Erdogan said in 2017. "You give us that one and we'll work with our judiciary and give back yours."

Gulen is often described by the mainstream media as a moderate Muslim, but Center for Security Policy Vice President for Research and Analysis Clare Lopez disputes that characterization. 

Although Erdogan and Gulen have had a falling out, “they were on the same page for a long, long time, along with President Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party, which is in power now in Turkey, the AKP for short, and they’ve shared the agenda for the destruction for Ataturk’s modernization program in Turkey and a turn in Turkey back to neo-Ottoman days, and an Islamist agenda.”

The two men are “at odds because they both can’t be in power,” Lopez said in 2016 on Frank Gaffney’s “Secure Freedom Radio” program. “They both can’t be on top. They’re bitter rivals for power inside of Turkey right now.”

U.S. officials aren’t keen on Erdogan’s pastor-exchange proposal and American lawmakers have joined with Trump to demand Brunson’s release.

"Our fellow citizens aren't bargaining chips," Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Neb.) said Wednesday.

"Pastor Brunson is an innocent man. Turkey's charges are completely unjust and these new sanctions are absolutely warranted. President Erdogan ought to know that the United States expects more from a member of NATO. Free Pastor Brunson now."

The newly unveiled sanctions were not unexpected.

On July 26, Trump took to Twitter to warn that sanctions were coming:

The United States will impose large sanctions on Turkey for their long time detainment of Pastor Andrew Brunson, a great Christian, family man and wonderful human being. He is suffering greatly. This innocent man of faith should be released immediately!

Trump has been using Twitter for months to demand Brunson’s release. On April 17 he tweeted that Brunson was “a fine gentleman” who was “on trial and being persecuted in Turkey for no reason.” On July 18 Trump again demanded Brunson’s release, saying it was a “total disgrace” that Turkey would not release this “respected U.S. Pastor” who “has been held hostage far too long.”

Give them time: Trump’s sanctions may actually succeed in bringing Brunson home.

Matthew Vadum, senior vice president at the investigative think tank Capital Research Center, is an award-winning investigative reporter and author of the book, "Subversion Inc.: How Obama’s ACORN Red Shirts Are Still Terrorizing and Ripping Off American Taxpayers."

Source: https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/270930/trump-slaps-sanctions-turkish-officials-matthew-vadum

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The DACA Sword of Damocles - Michael Cutler

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by Michael Cutler

A solution worse than the problem is hanging over America's head.

On Sunday morning, July 22, 2018, Congressman Steve Scalice, the Republican Whip in the House of Representatives was interviewed on Fox News about the Republican agenda, particularly in light of the upcoming midterm elections.  He understandably touted the booming economy, plans to create more jobs and then, in response to the question of “protecting the DACA recipients” he expressed determination to secure the border and “protect DACA recipients.”  He bemoaned the refusal of the House Democrats to join with the Republicans to protect those supposedly “young” illegal aliens.

 

My immediate thought, “Not again!”

 

The original effort of the “Gang of Eight” to pass Comprehensive Immigration Reform, employed the scam that since we cannot deport the millions of illegal aliens who are present in the United States America should first secure the border (with Mexico) and then get the millions of illegal aliens “out of the shadows.”

 

On May 5, 2005 I testified at a hearing conducted by the House Immigration Subcommittee on the topic, New "Dual Missions" Of The Immigration Enforcement Agencies.

 

Republican Congressman Lamar Smith, a former Chairman of that subcommittee, participated in that hearing. His prepared testimony laid to waste the argument that there were too many illegal aliens to deport them all.  Here is the relevant segment:

 

In other words, we make it very, very easy in many, many ways for individuals to stay here who are here illegally. That is not the right signal to send if we are, in fact, serious about reducing illegal immigration in America.

 

To the question that we hear asked so frequently, well, we have ten million people in the country illegally. What are we going to do, deport them all? No. There's an alternative to that and there's an alternative to gradual amnesty or immediate amnesty, depending on who is proposing it, and that is enforcing immigration laws. And if we enforced immigration laws alone, that would discourage many people from coming and would discourage those who are here from staying.

 

All that would lead to a reduction in the number of people who are in the country illegally, which, by the way, is far more than ten million. Ten million refers to the number of people who are here permanently. If you today took a head count of the number of people in the country illegally, it would probably be closer to 20 million because there's a lot of people who are here only for a month or two or three.

 

That's how serious the problem is, and if the Administration were serious, we wouldn't be sending these mixed signals, in my judgment.

 

There are two additional points to be made about creating a massive legalization program.  First of all, only aliens willing to come out of the “shadows” would do so.  There were no resources to hunt down illegal aliens who had outstanding criminal warrants.  Consequently the bad guys would remain in the shadows.

 

Additionally, on June 22, 2007 I wrote an Op-Ed for the Washington Times, Immigration bill a 'No Go' in which I suggested renaming Comprehensive Immigration Reform the “Terrorist Assistance and Facilitation Act.”

 

I was concerned that should such legislation be enacted, the huge number of illegal aliens would preclude in-person interviews and/or field investigations.  This would create an open invitation to immigration fraud.

 

Let’s remember, when aliens run our nation’s borders, and enter without inspection and without vetting, no record of their entry is created. 

 

There would be no way to verify the dates of entry for those aliens or even verify their true identities.  This would make determining their possible criminal or terrorist backgrounds and affiliations nearly impossible to determine.

 

The report, 9/11 and  Terrorist Travel focused on immigration-related vulnerabilities that the terrorists had exploited.  Immigration fraud was of extreme importance.

 

Here are two significant quotes from the report:

 

Once terrorists had entered the United States, their next challenge was to find a way to remain here. Their primary method was immigration fraud. For example, Yousef and Ajaj concocted bogus political asylum stories when they arrived in the United States. Mahmoud Abouhalima, involved in both the World Trade Center and landmarks plots, received temporary residence under the Seasonal Agricultural Workers (SAW) program, after falsely claiming that he picked beans in Florida.”

 

*     *     *

 

Terrorists in the 1990s, as well as the September 11 hijackers, needed to find a way to stay in or embed themselves in the United States if their operational plans were to come to fruition. As already discussed, this could be accomplished legally by marrying an American citizen, achieving temporary worker status, or applying for asylum after entering. In many cases, the act of filing for an immigration benefit sufficed to permit the alien to remain in the country until the petition was adjudicated. Terrorists were free to conduct surveillance, coordinate operations, obtain and receive funding, go to school and learn English, make contacts in the United States, acquire necessary materials, and execute an attack. 

 

Further, as more aliens succeeded in gaming this program, more illegal aliens would be encouraged and emboldened to follow suit.  The already overwhelmed Adjudications Officers of USCIS (United States Citizenship and Immigration Services) would have little choice but to approve virtually all of the applications that would be flooding the USCIS inbox.

 

USCIS would implode and with it, shred whatever integrity the immigration system might still have, thus dealing a mortal blow to national security. 

 

Then-Senator Jeff Sessions liked my commentary so much that he quoted me, with attribution, from the floor of the U.S. on three separate days during the highly contentious floor debate, urging his Senate colleagues to take my warning to heart. 

 

Senator Sessions subsequently credited my Op-Ed and his ability to quote it during the debate, as critical in helping to defeat Comprehensive Immigration Reform.

 

In Congress, however, defeated bills may be given CPR.  New life was breathed into that terrible bill by essentially renaming it the DREAM Act, (DREAM Act is an acronym for Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors Act).  

 

The obvious hypocrisy of the immigration anarchists who bristle at the term “Alien” concocted the acronym DREAM which contains the word “Alien.”  Apparently the desire to link this bill to the American Dream was that strong.

 

The biggest difference with this “new and improved” DREAM Act was that it was marketed as a means of providing lawful status to illegal alien children who were brought to the U.S. prior to their 16th birthdays, so that they would not be punished for their parents’ crimes.  (The sort of crimes that today the Trump administration was trying to combat through the “Zero tolerance” policy.)

 

The DREAM Act scam was designed to sound reasonable.  All scams are designed to sound reasonable.  The compliant media dutifully reported that aliens under the age of 16 would be protected from deportation.  

 

What has been rarely, if ever reported, however, is that aliens as old as 35 years of age could apply to participate in the program if they claimed to have been present in the U.S. since before they turned 16.

Once again, fortunately, enough members of Congress saw through the scam and voted it down.

 

On June 15, 2012 President Obama stood in the White House Rose Garden and said that “since Congress failed to act” by not passing the DREAM Act he was going to Act and thus created DACA (Deferred Action- Childhood Arrivals). 

 

I addressed the Obama con job in my Op-Ed for Fox News on June 17, 2012, Obama Invokes Prosecutorial Discretion to Circumvent Constitution and Congress.  I stated that what President Obama claimed was his use of “prosecutorial discretion” should actually be referred to as “prosecutorial deception.”

 

DACA was essentially the DREAM Act which itself was a reworked version of Comprehensive Immigration Reform or, as I have to come to refer to it, “The Terrorist Assistance and Facilitation Act.”

 

And now, the House Republican Whip, Steve Scalice is now determined to turn a succession of con jobs, and one that was most recently foisted on Americans by President Obama, into law! 

 

As for the notion of “securing our border” without question the U.S./Mexican border must absolutely be secured.

 

However, our nation has 50 “border states” not just the four states along the U.S./Mexico border.  Any state that lies along our northern border is also a border state as are those states that have international airports or have access to America’s 95,000 miles of meandering coastline.

 

To underscore this fact consider that on January 16, 2018 the DOJ and DHS jointly issued a press release, DOJ, DHS Report: Three Out of Four Individuals Convicted of International Terrorism and Terrorism-Related Offenses were Foreign-Born.

 

This report included this paragraph which supports my concerns about the many ways that international terrorists and criminals may access the United States:

 

As mentioned above, in FY 2017, DHS encountered 2,554 individuals on the terrorist watchlist (also known as the FBI’s Terrorist Screening Database) traveling to the United States. Of those individuals, 335 were attempting to enter by land, 2,170 were attempting to enter by air, and 49 were attempting to enter by sea. Where consistent with the law, such individuals are denied entry into the United States, while in some cases law enforcement authorities are notified and can take appropriate action.

 

The time for playing politics with national security is over.

 

Photo: Slowking4

Michael Cutler

Source: https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/270929/daca-sword-damocles-michael-cutler

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U.S., Not Paris Participants, Cuts Carbon Dioxide - Dr. H. Sterling Burnett

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by Dr. H. Sterling Burnett

One year after the US pulled out of the Paris Climate Accord, Earth is still here, and new evidence shows, alarmists’ claims to the contrary, the United States continues to lead the world in reducing carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions.

When President Donald Trump announced he was pulling the United States out of the Paris Climate Accord in June 2017, left-wing environmentalists around the globe were apoplectic. From Canada to China and throughout Europe, Asia, and Brazil, the world denounced Trump’s decision as recklessly contradicting “settled science.” Without the Paris Agreement, they argued, Earth would soon find itself cascading off the global warming cliff.

One year later, Earth is still here, and new evidence shows, alarmists’ claims to the contrary, the United States continues to lead the world in reducing carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions.

According to a June report by BP measuring global CO2 emissions from the use of oil, gas, and coal, the United States reduced its CO2 emissions by 41.8 million tons, marking the third consecutive year Americans’ CO2 emissions fell. From 2006 to 2016, the United States slashed its CO2 emissions by about 12 percent, BP reports.

The decade-long decline in U.S. CO2 emissions is attributable primarily to the increased consumption of natural gas relative to other forms of energy.

In the wake of America’s declining CO2 emissions, dire predictions of Armageddon are just another example of global warming alarmists’ fearmongering. Leaders of countries big and small criticized Trump for keeping his campaign promise and withdrawing the United States from the Paris Climate Accord. Yet in 2017, just a year after Paris, many of these leaders presided over countries that emitted millions of tons of additional carbon dioxide emissions, illustrating clearly the hypocrisy and utter impotency of the accord.

China, for example, increased its CO2 emissions in 2017 by 119 million tons—the most in the world—despite its alleged commitment to the Paris Accord.

French President Emmanuel Macron previously castigated Trump for pulling out of the Paris Agreement, stating, “I tell you firmly tonight: we will not renegotiate a less ambitious accord. There is no way. Don’t be mistaken on climate: there is no plan B because there is no planet B.” Apparently, however, there was a plan B: a plan in which France jacked up its CO2 emissions by 5.5 million tons.

According to The Guardian, Izabella Teixeira, who led Brazil’s negotiating team in Paris, described Trump’s decision to pull out of the Paris Agreement as a “heart attack.” Perhaps a heart attack is in the offing, but it won’t happen because of the United States’ CO2 emissions. On the other hand, Brazil’s record, where the largest carbon dioxide emitter on the South American continent raised its CO2 emissions by 4.7 million tons in 2017 alone and by approximately 32 percent over the past decade, would bear some responsibility for the “heart attack” Teixeira predicted.

The Canadian government might deserve the crown for being the world’s biggest CO2 charlatan. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau criticized the Trump administration’s decision to leave the Paris Accord, saying he was “deeply disappointed” while crowing for the world to hear, “Canada is unwavering in our commitment to fight climate change and support clean economic growth.” Canada then proceeded to emit 17 million additional tons of CO2 in 2017 compared to 2016. Is the definition of “unwavering” that different north of the U.S. border?

Sadly, hypocrisy is more the rule rather than the exception in politics. All too often, “leaders” pontificate on positive reform while hesitating to take the substantial actions necessary to fix big problems. Consider immigration or the social safety net for retirees, for example. In this instance, however, the fact the Paris climate cabal leaders’ actions don’t match their words is a blessing, because the world is much better with the affordable energy generated by fossil fuels and the tremendous economic, social, and public health benefits they have delivered for more than two centuries. Cutting carbon dioxide emissions by the amount necessary under the Paris Agreement would take developed countries back to the economic standards of the nineteenth century and blunt the economic and social progress in several developing countries. Nothing could be more foolish or misguided than that.

• Guest essayist Justin Haskins and H. Sterling Burnett. Haskins is an executive editor and research fellow with The Heartland Institute.

SOURCES: BP; The Guardian; Fox News

Dr. H. Sterling Burnett

Source: https://www.heartland.org/publications-resources/newsletters/climate-change-weekly?utm_source=iContact&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=memo-environment&utm_content=CCW

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Unconditional loyalty to the country - Ata Farhat

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by Ata Farhat

I call on my Druze brethren and the leaders of the Druze protest not to take us down a slippery slope and leave us in the abyss.

Even before the framework agreement Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu struck with the Druze, I was in favor of the nation-state law, because loyalty to the country shouldn't be conditional on anything. Loyalty to the country must come from the heart, 100%.

Someone whose soul isn't loyal can't belong to the state.

Israel is democratic only because it is a Jewish state. If it isn't Jewish, it simply won't exist. The nation-state law is one of 14 Basic Laws that define Israel's identity – what and who the country is, what its flag looks like, what its national anthem is, what its capital is. The law does not focus on human rights or individual rights or the rights of ethnic groups. These are all spelled out in the Basic Law: Human Dignity and Liberty.

The Basic Law: Israel as the Nation-State of the Jewish People does not contradict the other basic laws; it complements them by discussing the aspect of identity in the existing basic laws.

Only the Jewish people have national rights in the Land of Israel. All other peoples can enjoy full civil rights such as self-determination. The nation-state law seeks to block the Arabs' nationalist aspirations and their demands in the Land of Israel.

I call on my Druze brethren and the leaders of the Druze protest not to take us down a slippery slope and leave us in the abyss. Between us and the Jewish people, there is a long-standing alliance, and we want this alliance to continue to exist. I say that the leaders of the anti-nation-state law protests will be responsible for everything that befalls the Druze. Because we, unfortunately, are losing the support of the Jewish public as a result of the protests.

We must not do what some of the Druze protesters are doing by echoing the lying Palestinian narrative. We must stick to historical facts.

Ata Farhat is Chairman of the Druze Zionist Council for Israel.

Source: http://www.israelhayom.com/opinions/unconditional-loyalty-to-the-country/

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The Jews deserve justice, too - Dror Eydar

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by Dror Eydar

The much-debated nation-state law, which defines Israel's status as the homeland of the Jewish people, is the answer to the constitutional revolution that took away the Jews' national identity in Israel

1.

"What are you afraid of?" The opponents of the recently passed nation-state law, which enshrines Israel's status as the nation-state of the Jewish people, keep asking. They callously dismiss the fears of the Jewish majority in Israel. After all, we, the Jews, have a long history of devastation – two national destructions, hundreds of wars against foreign invaders, two exiles (one of them lasting hundreds of years and including the expulsion of Jews from almost every place they sought to settle) and one Holocaust. Does that not justify a healthy dose of fear?

Even after the establishment of the State of Israel, the persecution didn't end. I'll put it another way: People who aren't afraid may not have the best grasp on reality.

2.

Regardless, fear is not the motivation behind the nation-state law. The chief motivation driving this legislation is the understanding that over the last 25 years, the balance between the legislature and the judiciary in Israel has been upset.

Until today, we naively went to the polls and believed that our vote would decide our future. We believed that our vote would be deciding factor. Societies are made up of so many different groups with so many different beliefs, how do people decide a society's future? We get together in one place, agree on the rules of the game and take a vote. Majority rules. Once upon a time, this was done in the marketplace or the agora, but today, it is the Knesset or parliament.

But one day, we discovered that someone had changed the rules. It's not the public that decides, by way of elected representatives, but rather a small unauthorized group that simply seized the power to decide our future based on their values. The letter of the law has long ceased to guide our Supreme Court. The court interprets the law and adapts it to its own views, or, more accurately, to what the court believes the law should be, even if the legislature legislated otherwise.

3.

How did this happen? It became possible thanks to former Chief Justice Aharon Barak's constitutional revolution. He turned Israel's Basic Laws into a constitution-to-be, and with years of legal interpretation, destroyed the equal footing shared by Israel's Jewish identity and its democracy. Within the confines of the court, Israel's Jewish identity became nothing more than declarative, a thin idea that mainly adapts itself to universal values, as understood by the Supreme Court justices, and only them.

4.

For many years, we have been disappointed by the court. The nation-state law is an attempt at redemption. Ironically, the forefathers of this law are in fact Aharon Barak and his faction. The citizens of Israel, by way of their elected representatives, are trying to restore some of the freedom they once had, before the court decided to educate us. I have reiterated this point many times: The Supreme Court justices, including Aharon Barak, are no better than we are at understanding values. Their job description does not include telling us what is good and what is bad, or defining for us what is true. All we've ever asked of them is to rule according to the law – to decide whether one act or another complies with or violates the existing, written law.

But they, in turn, adopted Plato's Republic, in which the philosopher king rules over the ignorant masses. They found a clever way to impose a tyranny of the minority over the majority. The nation-state law was designed to slightly rectify this gross imbalance. Judicial activism is guided by hubris and aggression – the belief that you understand better than others what is worthy and the aggressive tendency to dismiss the will of the voters. Basic Law: Israel as the Nation-State of the Jewish People, as it is known by its official name, offers the tools to restore some of the eroded Jewish identity.

5.

One proposal, to make the Declaration of Independence a law that would replace the nation-state law, is a joke. It is about as laughable as the nondescript, toothless nation-state bills submitted by Likud MK Benny Begin and by Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid after him. It would be impotent and ineffectual. Neither here nor there, just like the general image that Yesh Atid is trying to sell the voters. Behind this proposal lies the strong will to perpetuate Barak's constitutional revolution, preserve the Supreme Court's power, dictate the public's values and keep the Knesset weak. The desired equality already exists – in individual and civil rights. Everyone is equal before the law.

6.

But when it comes to defining the State of Israel as the nation state of the Jewish people (or the state of the nation of Israel, but in this instance they are one and the same) – there is no equality. As a rule, equality is a relative matter, and it lends itself to interpretation. Each person has his own idea of equality. If the world "equality" were to be inserted into the nation-state law, gradually, like in the case of the constitutional revolution, the Aharon Barak school of thought might very well use it to strike down the Law of Return as failing to comply with the criteria of equality. Watch how leftists like Meretz and parts of the Labor party already have trouble talking proudly about Zionism – just think what would happen if we were trying to legislate the Law of Return today.

For the hundredth time, I repeat my call: Please read the nation-state law as it is written. It will be the best antidote for the propaganda that has been mounted against it.

7.

The exaggerated overuse of the words "racist," "fascist," "apartheid" and worse to describe the nation-state law hasn't convinced its supporters to reconsider. On the contrary, the public knows it isn't racist. The more the Left waves these accusations around, the more it will distance itself from the general public. The public, in turn, increasingly despises the accusatory Left. Thus, the Left perpetuates its political defeat. A healthy public will never vote for the camp that scorns it. Moreover, now that the nation-state law has drawn a clear line between its supporters and detractors, it is plain to see who has jumped on the anti-Zionist bandwagon, be it willingly or unwittingly, and denies the Jews' exclusive right to their land.

These deniers not only reject our right to the land, but they also deny our national identity. For years, the Arabs have argued that the Jews are part of a religion, not a nation. The global Left and its radical supporters in Israel claim that the Jewish national identity is a modern invention from the 19th century. The truth is that the European national identity was actually inspired by the national identity of the Israelites in the Bible.

8.

It is clear to anyone with a sound mind that the issue here is not race. The Jewish people have a right to self-determination in their only historical homeland. People who despise their enemy – an enemy who seeks to kill them and remove them from their home – are not racists. They are normal human beings. We were here long before Arab MKs Jamal Zahalka and Ahmad Tibi and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.

In the 7th century, the Islamic conqueror arrived in the land of Israel. But even after the conquest, no other national entity existed here. Zionism achieved true justice and restored the Jewish people to Zion. In court, when human rights activists file anti-national petitions against the Jews’ right to live as a nation in their land, the human rights activists usually win. This suggests that it is not "human" rights that the petitioners seek, but rather the erosion of Jewish rights to their land and to self defense. The nation-state law seeks to restore some of the justice to the Jews.

9.

When the Druze community became involved in the debate, arguing that the nation-state law ignores their enormous contribution to the state and brands them second class citizens as non-Jews, they did themselves a grave disservice. There is no correlation between the law, which speaks to the nationality issue, and the ethnic and religious groups living in Israel, whose issue is individual and civil rights. Riyad Ali, the prominent Druze journalist, gave a moving, emotional speech on television, but it had nothing to do with the law. By the same token he could have been a Mizrahi Jew accusing the Ashkenazi Jews of mistreatment. That, too, would have nothing to do with the nation-state law. Had there been a single supporter of the law in that television studio, they could have handed Ali a copy of the law and asked him: where are all these terrible things you are accusing us of?

10.

The conversation about the nation-state law is vital to our existence and to our future, because it touches on deeply rooted issues that we have been repressing for years. For the sake of the debate, it would be worthwhile to discuss the original intent of the forefathers of Zionism, but not just. The fact is that we have never been satisfied with just a limited vision of a "state for the Jews." We have argued about the vision of the Jewish state for generations.

Dror Eydar

Source: http://www.israelhayom.com/2018/08/03/the-jews-deserve-justice-too/

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