Posts
The Budget Crisis In The Land Of Lincoln
http://www.hoover.org/research/budget-crisis-land-lincoln?utm_source=hdr&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=2017-06-26
Michele Kearney's Snuffysmith's Blog Major Foreign Policy, Economics, Energy, and Irrelevancies of the Day
Monday, June 26, 2017
The Budget Crisis In The Land Of Lincoln
http://www.hoover.org/research/budget-crisis-land-lincoln?utm_source=hdr&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=2017-06-26
China’s All-Seeing Surveillance State Is Reading Its Citizens’ Faces
China’s All-Seeing Surveillance State Is Reading Its Citizens’ Faces
In vast social-engineering experiment, facial-recognition systems crunch data from ubiquitous cameras to monitor citizens
https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-all-seeing-surveillance-state-feared-in-the-west-is-a-reality-in-china-1498493020
Corker: I will hold up GCC arms sales until Qatar dispute is resolved
Corker: I will hold up GCC arms sales until Qatar dispute is resolved
"I will withhold consent on future arms sales to GCC until a path to resolve the dispute is established. My letter: http://bit.ly/2tMJBmH ."
How Trump is empowering the military -- and raising some eyebrows
How Trump is empowering the military -- and raising some eyebrows
http://www.cnn.com/2017/06/24/politics/trump-pentagon-shift-war-power-military/index.html?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=New%20Campaign&utm_term=*Situation%20Report
Top 10 Emerging Technologies of 2017
Top 10 Emerging Technologies of 2017
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/top-10-emerging-technologies-of-2017/
Sunday, June 25, 2017
A Wide World of Winless War Globe-Trotting U.S. Special Ops Forces Already Deployed to 137 Nations in 2017
A Wide World of Winless War
Globe-Trotting U.S. Special Ops Forces Already Deployed to 137 Nations in 2017
By Nick Turse
The tabs on their shoulders read “Special Forces,” “Ranger,” “Airborne.” And soon their guidon -- the “colors” of Company B, 3rd Battalion of the U.S. Army’s 7th Special Forces Group -- would be adorned with the “Bandera de Guerra,” a Colombian combat decoration.
“Today we commemorate sixteen years of a permanent fight against drugs in a ceremony where all Colombians can recognize the special counternarcotic brigade’s hard work against drug trafficking,” said Army Colonel Walther Jimenez, the commander of the Colombian military’s Special Anti-Drug Brigade, last December. America’s most elite troops, the Special Operations forces (SOF), have worked with that Colombian unit since its creation in December 2000. Since 2014, four teams of Special Forces soldiers have intensely monitored the brigade. Now, they were being honored for it.
Click here to read more of this dispatch.http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/176300/tomgram%3A_nick_turse%2C_the_commandos_of_everywhere/#more
Trump Derangement Syndrome Has Become the New Plague
Trump Derangement Syndrome Has Become the New Plague
https://pjmedia.com/rogerlsimon/2017/06/23/trump-derangement-syndrome-has-become-the-new-plague/
More Than Memory: Coping With The Other Ills Of Alzheimer's
More Than Memory: Coping With The Other Ills Of Alzheimer's
http://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2017/06/24/525887392/more-than-memory-coping-with-the-other-ills-of-alzheimers?utm_campaign=storyshare&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=social
Most Want Person Terror List
Most Want Person Terror List
by Hakim Haider • June 25, 2017 at 4:00 am
- One of these World Banned Terrorist Organization Head was just elected Member for Parliament.
- If world add my name Thousand Time on Most Want Person Terror List, than am not for care: the Love that You are gives me are Bigger! This list are nothing infront of me, it equal to the piece of Paper.
Osama Bin Laden (Photo by Getty Images)
Editors' note: To those of you who have enquired, the author is a real man living in the Middle East who sent us these pieces because he is unable to share them with anyone where he lives. At first we tried to tidy up the English, but that seemed to knock much of the soul out of his work. So we made the editorial choice to present his work basically as he sent it; what you are seeing is the result of that choice. It is the way he sees the world from his point of view, unobstructed by editors. Perhaps think of it more as a different kind of article, more as folk art but in words. It is not meant to offend anyone or any religion. It always seemed, living among people from different nations, as if wrongnesses in English were often "righter" than rightnesses. The painter Paul Gauguin reportedly said: "If you see a tree as blue, then make it blue." We apologize to anyone who may not like these postings. "Those who understand, understand."
Continue Reading Articlehttps://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/10551/most-want-person-terror-list
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/10551/most-want-person-terror-listTrump Has Set U.S.-Cuba Relations Back Decades
Trump Has Set U.S.-Cuba Relations Back Decades
This isn’t a strong statement on human rights. It’s a political sop to voters in Miami.
Trump’s Escalations of War in Syria
Trump’s Escalations of War in Syria
http://lobelog.com/trumps-escalations-of-war-in-syria/#more-39900Saturday, June 24, 2017
Europe Surrenders to Radical Islam
by Guy Millière • June 24, 2017 at 5:00 am
- In spite of three attacks in three months, Britain does not seem to be choosing the path of vigilance and determination. June is not even over but the media barely talk about terrorism any more.
- Then, in the early hours of June 19, a man who acted alone drove a van into a crowd of Muslims leaving Finsbury Park Mosque in London: the main "threat" to the British right now was soon presented in several newspapers as "Islamophobia".
- Decolonization added the idea that the Europeans had oppressed other peoples and were guilty of crimes they now had to redeem. There was no mention of how, throughout history, recruits to Islam had colonized the great Christian Byzantine Empire, Greece, Sicily, Corsica, North Africa and the Middle East, most of the Balkans and eastern Europe, Hungary, northern Cyprus and Spain.
- While most jihadist movements were banned by the British government, more discreet organizations have emerged and demurely sent the same message. The Islamic Forum for Europe, for example, depicts itself as "peaceful", but many of those it invites to speak are anything but that. The Islamic Human Rights Commission uses the language of defending human rights to disseminate violent statements against the Jews and the West.
The
most famous of Britain's radical Islamic preachers, Anjem Choudary
(pictured holding the microphone), was recently sentenced to five years
and six months in prison for his open support of the Islamic State, but
hundreds of imams throughout the country continue similar work. (Photo
by Oli Scarff/Getty Images)
London, June 5, 2017. A
minute of silence is held at Potters Field Park, next to the City Hall,
to pay tribute to the victims of the London Bridge jihadist attack three
days before. Those who came have brought flowers, candles and signs
bearing the usual words: "unity", "peace" and "love". Faces are sad but
no trace of anger is visible. The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, a Muslim,
gives a speech emphasizing against all evidence that the killers' ideas
have nothing to do with Islam.
Continue Reading Articlehttps://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/10574/europe-radical-islam
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/10574/europe-radical-islamCompanies Get Creative to Save a Dwindling Resource: Water
Companies Get Creative to Save a Dwindling Resource: Water
At Ford, climate change is one of the factors behind a push to reduce water use.
https://www.technologyreview.com/s/601430/companies-get-creative-to-save-a-dwindling-resource-water/?utm_source=MIT+Technology+Review&utm_campaign=b044a9d0aa-Weekend_Reads&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_997ed6f472-b044a9d0aa-153856085&mc_cid=b044a9d0aa&mc_eid=e25735476a
Life Below Sea Level in the New Age of Climate-Change Engineering
Life Below Sea Level in the New Age of Climate-Change Engineering
For the Dutch masters of water management, climate change is a boon.
https://www.technologyreview.com/s/601477/life-below-sea-level-in-the-new-age-of-climate-change-engineering/?utm_source=MIT+Technology+Review&utm_campaign=b044a9d0aa-Weekend_Reads&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_997ed6f472-b044a9d0aa-153856085&mc_cid=b044a9d0aa&mc_eid=e25735476a
The Friendships That Hold Us Safely in Their Keep
The Friendships That Hold Us Safely in Their Keep
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/23/well/family/the-friendships-that-hold-us-safely-in-their-keep.html?smid=fb-nytimes&smtyp=cur&_r=0
Friday, June 23, 2017
THE COLOR OF LAW A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America
THE COLOR OF LAW
A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America
By Richard Rothstein
Illustrated. 345 pp. Liveright P
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/20/books/review/richard-rothstein-color-of-law-forgotten-history.html?&moduleDetail=section-news-2&action=click&contentCollection=Book%20Review®ion=Footer&module=MoreInSection&version=WhatsNext&contentID=WhatsNext&pgtype=article
A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America
By Richard Rothstein
Illustrated. 345 pp. Liveright P
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/20/books/review/richard-rothstein-color-of-law-forgotten-history.html?&moduleDetail=section-news-2&action=click&contentCollection=Book%20Review®ion=Footer&module=MoreInSection&version=WhatsNext&contentID=WhatsNext&pgtype=article
This Is How Great-Power Wars Get Started
This Is How Great-Power Wars Get Started
Not with a bang, but basic strategic confusion in Washington about the links between Syria, Qatar, Iran, and Russia.
http://foreignpolicy.com/2017/06/21/this-is-how-great-power-wars-get-started/
Two-And-a-Half Minutes to Midnight: Our Fear of Nukes and How We Got Here
Illustration by Kjell Reigstad
Our fear of nuclear conflict has more to do with Iron Man and Godzilla than it does Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un.
Read Nowhttps://longreads.com/2017/06/21/two-and-a-half-minutes-to-midnight-our-fear-of-nukes-and-how-we-got-here/?mc_cid=59f2cc039a&mc_eid=9528811089
Read Nowhttps://longreads.com/2017/06/21/two-and-a-half-minutes-to-midnight-our-fear-of-nukes-and-how-we-got-here/?mc_cid=59f2cc039a&mc_eid=9528811089
Matt Bruenig: How Many People Will Obamacare and AHCA Kill?
Saudi Palace Politics And The U.S. Relationship
By By Simon Henderson, / Thursday, June 22, 2017 10:00 AM
Washington should avoid the appearance
of taking sides in the rivalry between the Saudi crown prince and his
younger cousin, the deputy crown prince. A profusion of royal decrees on
June 17 appears to have further marginalized Crown Prince Muhammad bin
Nayef and confirms the political ascendancy of King Salman’s son Deputy
Crown Prince Muhammad
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Prevent nuclear catastrophe: Finally end the Korean War
Prevent nuclear catastrophe: Finally end the Korean War
http://thebulletin.org/prevent-nuclear-catastrophe-finally-end-korean-war10844The ban treaty: A big nuclear-weapon-free zone?
The ban treaty: A big nuclear-weapon-free zone?
http://thebulletin.org/ban-treaty-big-nuclear-weapon-free-zone10852
Google's YouTube - Soap Box for Terrorists
Google's YouTube - Soap Box for Terrorists
by Ruthie Blum • June 23, 2017 at 5:00 am
A
screenshot from one of the terror-supporting jihadi videos on YouTube
that was flagged by MEMRI. The video remains on YouTube to this day.
In mid-March this year,
major companies began withdrawing or reducing advertising from Google
Inc., the owner of YouTube, for allowing their brand names to pop up
alongside videos promoting jihad, a new report released on June 15 by
the Middle East Research Media Institute (MEMRI) reveals.
According
to the report -- which documents the failure of Google to remove jihadi
content that MEMRI volunteered to assist in flagging -- thus far,
AT&T, Verizon, Johnson & Johnson, Enterprise Holdings and GSK
are among the companies pulling their ads from the platform. Google
responded by promising to be more aggressive in ensuring brand safety of
ad placements.
Then came the
Westminster attack. On March 22, 2017, Khalid Masood rammed his car into
pedestrians -- killing four people and wounding dozens of others – then
stabbed an unarmed police officer to death.https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?tab=wm#inbox/15cd4fd8f3ac016a
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Thursday, June 22, 2017
Fr. Bob Warren's Week Reflection: Corpus Christi
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| Corpus Christi | |||||
| Sixteen hundred years ago, the Bishop of Jerusalem addressed some converts on the Holy Communion that they were to receive for the first time. He said, "When you come up to receive, make your left hand a throne for the right for it is about to receive a King, cup your palm and so receive the Body of Christ. Then answer ‑ Amen. Take care not to lose any part of it. Such a loss would be like a mutilation of your own body. If you had been given gold dust, would you not take the utmost care to hold it fast? How much more carefully then will you guard against losing so much as a crumb of that which is more precious than gold or precious stones?" | |||||
| Sixteen centuries later, do what the Christians of Jerusalem and the apostles did in the upper room three centuries before that on this special feast called Corpus Christi, the Body of Christ. We shall do what the Lord commanded, "Take and eat" and "Take and drink." In churches all over the world the first century, the fourth and the twenty‑first come together. The details differ from the supper room to the church of the Bishop of Jerusalem to your church, but the reality is the same. The basic truth that was expressed simply and profoundly by Jesus, "This is My Body, this is My Blood." Incredible words that not all could accept. | |||||
| Jesus once told His followers, "Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of God and drink His Blood, you have no life in you". For many of His disciples, this was too much. They drew back and no longer walked with Him. "How can this man give us His flesh to eat?" Down through the ages great minds have asked this question and have responded with more bad arguments than good. Again, we turn to that Bishop of Jerusalem in his sermon on the Eucharist. He said, "Do not judge the reality by what you see, touch and taste. Judge by your unwavering faith for when the Master Himself has explicitly said ‑ This is My Body, This is My Blood." Will anyone still dare to doubt? | |||||
| This is the Eucharistic truth that the bread and wine are really the Body and Blood of Christ and that this Eucharist gives life. I am not saying that you can not receive divine life without receiving Holy Communion. Jesus also said, "If you love me, my Father will love you and we will come to you and make our home with you." The point is that here is a food which in its potential for giving life is unparalleled. When you assimilate the food of the body, you change it into your own substance. The food becomes part of you. Quite the opposite happens in the Eucharist. When the Eucharistic Christ gives Himself to you as food, you are transformed into Him. | |||||
| St. Paul would echo this when he said, "It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. We become what we receive. Christ and I become one". What should that say to us in our daily lives? What does this mean? With the wonderful knowledge that Christ is in me, can self pity be possible? Can you leave church? Can you continue to moan and groan, to mope and sulk because your little world passes you by? The world will not always recognize how beautiful or brilliant you are. But, in spite of this, in spite of what life brings, you are not alone. The one who suffered and died is in you and part of you. He will help you live with disappointment, with that illness that saps your strength and spirit and with the hard knocks that life gives you. | |||||
| We are what we receive ‑ the Body of Christ. That means that the bread of life is not an individualistic thing, a solitary supper. It is not my private party or something between me and Jesus. Yes, there must be prayer when I receive the Lord, but its main function is to form community. St. Paul phrased it beautifully, "Because the bread is one, we though many, are one body for we all partake of the one bread." The Lord who locks Himself in the Tabernacle of my body is none other than the Lord who nourishes my next door neighbor. The same Christ feeds the Lebanese, the Japanese, the African and the Cuban. Christ is not divided. Christ is not multiplied. He came for all people. There is one and the same body, one and the same Christ for all. In His flesh, we are one. | |||||
| We who feed on the Eucharistic Christ must realize that we do not keep His presence to ourselves, we spread it. We take that presence from church to the world. We take that presence to a world that is hungry not only for food, but hungry for freedom, for peace and for God. The presence of Christ in me should at least make me think about my attitude towards the rest of the Body of Christ. Do I ever think about that person who lives alone? The neighbor who is sick or elderly? Do I ever shop for them? Call them? Do I take time to listen when others need to talk? Does the presence of Christ in me make any difference to the way I live? Do I spread scandal and gossip ruining people’s reputations while I receive the One who said, "Judge not and you shall not be judged"? Do I use and abuse others while I receive the One who said "Love others as you would yourselves"? | |||||
| In other words, does the Eucharist make a difference in our lives? Or is it something that has become common place? Something we do every Sunday whether we want to or not. Jesus is a gift to be received but how do we receive Him? When we come forward to Holy Communion do we come because everyone else does? Or, do we come forward because we want to receive God and want Him to be part of our lives? Do you ever think to prepare for receiving Holy Communion by prayer or confession? | |||||
| Jesus wants to be part of you and for you to be part of Him. He invites you to receive Him at every Mass. When we realize that, we begin to understand what He meant when He said, "I am with you always, even until the end of the world". We begin to understand what the palmist meant when hundreds of years before Jesus he said, "Taste and see the goodness of the Lord". | |||||
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U.S.: Strategic Objectives in the Middle East
by Peter Huessy • June 22, 2017 at 4:00 am
- The new "test" of our alliance will be whether the assembled nations will join in removing the hateful parts of such a doctrine from their communities.
- What still has to be considered is the U.S. approach to stopping Iran from filling the vacuum created by ridding the region of the Islamic State (ISIS), as well as Iran's push for extending its path straight through to the Mediterranean.
Secretary of Defense James Mattis. (Dept. of Defense/Brigitte N. Brantley)
The tectonic plates in the
Middle East have shifted markedly with President Trump's trip to Saudi
Arabia and Israel, and his announced new regional policy.
The trip represented the beginning of a major but necessary shift in US security policy.
For
much of the last nearly half-century, American Middle East policy has
been centered on the "peace process" and how to bring Israel and the
Palestinians to agreement on a "two-state" solution for two peoples -- a phrase that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas refuses to say.
Continue Reading Articlehttps://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/10559/strategic-objectives-middle-east
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/10559/strategic-objectives-middle-eastThe Ongoing Drama of Palestinian Lies
The Ongoing Drama of Palestinian Lies
by Bassam Tawil • June 22, 2017 at 5:00 am
- The current policy of the PA leadership is to avoid alienating the Trump administration by continuing to pretend that Abbas and his cronies are serious about achieving peace with Israel. This is why Abbas's representatives are careful not to criticize Trump or his envoys.
- When Israel does not comply with their list of demands, the Palestinians will accuse it of "destroying" the peace process. Worse still, the Palestinians will use this charge as an excuse to redouble their terror against Israelis. The Palestinian claim, as always, will be that they are being forced to resort to terrorism in light of the failure of yet another US-sponsored peace process.
- No doubt, Abbas cannot find it within himself to clarify to the American envoys that he lacks a mandate from his people to make any step toward peace with Israel. Abbas knows, even if the American representatives do not, that any move in that direction would end his career, and very possibly his life. Abbas also does not wish to go down in Palestinian history as the treacherous leader who "sold out to the Jews." Moreover, someone can come along later and say, quite correctly, that as Abbas has exceeded his legitimate term in office, any deal he makes is illegal and illegitimate.
Jared
Kushner (left), Senior Advisor to U.S. President Donald Trump, meets
with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas on June 21, 2017 in
Ramallah. (Photo by Thaer Ghanaim/PPO via Getty Images)
US envoys Jason Greenblatt
and Jared Kushner, who met this week in Jerusalem and Ramallah with
Israeli and Palestinian Authority (PA) officials to discuss reviving the
peace process, have discovered what previous US Middle East envoys
learned in the past two decades -- that the PA has not, cannot, and will
not change.
During their
meeting in Ramallah with PA President Mahmoud Abbas, the two US
emissaries were told that the Palestinians will not accept anything less
than an independent state along on the pre-1967 lines with East
Jerusalem as its capital.
Abbas
also made it clear that he has no intention to make concessions on the
"right of return" for Palestinian "refugees." This means he wants a
Palestinian state next to Israel while flooding Israel with millions of
Palestinian "refugees" and turning it, too, into another Palestinian
state.
Wait, Why Does Trump Want to Change America’s Air Traffic Control System?
Wait, Why Does Trump Want to Change America’s Air Traffic Control System?
The president is right when he says that the nation’s air traffic control system is old and is taking a long time to modernize.https://www.technologyreview.com/s/608118/wait-why-does-trump-want-to-change-americas-air-traffic-control-system/?utm_source=MIT+Technology+Review&utm_campaign=c5a46ef8c4-weekly_roundup_2017-06-22_edit&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_997ed6f472-c5a46ef8c4-153856085&goal=0_997ed6f472-c5a46ef8c4-153856085&mc_cid=c5a46ef8c4&mc_eid=e25735476a
The Unaffordable Urban Paradise
The Unaffordable Urban Paradise
Tech startups helped turn a handful of metro areas into megastars. Now they’re tearing those cities apart.
https://www.technologyreview.com/s/607957/the-unaffordable-urban-paradise/?utm_source=MIT+Technology+Review&utm_campaign=c5a46ef8c4-weekly_roundup_2017-06-22_edit&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_997ed6f472-c5a46ef8c4-153856085&goal=0_997ed6f472-c5a46ef8c4-153856085&mc_cid=c5a46ef8c4&mc_eid=e25735476a
Are China and the United States Headed for War?
The New Yorker
http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/06/19/are-china-and-the-united-states-headed-for-war?mbid=social_twitter
Are China and the United States Headed for War?
Professors, pundits, and journalists weigh in on a heated topic.
http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/06/19/are-china-and-the-united-states-headed-for-war?mbid=social_twitter
Wednesday, June 21, 2017
Editor's Note
Dear Readers:
I will be on travel on Thursday, June 22. Will resume posting when I reach my destination.
Thank you.
Michele Kearney
I will be on travel on Thursday, June 22. Will resume posting when I reach my destination.
Thank you.
Michele Kearney
Israel's New Settlement Policy: Evaluated and Explained
Israel's New Settlement Policy: Evaluated and Explained
by Malcolm Lowe • June 21, 2017 at 4:00 am
- A definite gain of Israel's new settlement policy is that it seems to have taken the settlement issue off the boil not just with the Trump administration but also with other friendly foreign governments. Among the losses, thanks to the Judea and Samaria Settlement Regulation Law, is UN Security Council Resolution 2334 of December 23, 2016, which vehemently denounced all Israeli settlement activity.
The
Israeli settlement of Amona, pictured on January 16, 2017, before its
residents were expelled and it was destroyed. (Photo by Chris
McGrath/Getty Images)
During March 2017, a
delegation appointed by Israel's Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu held
lengthy discussions in Washington with the Trump administration over
construction in the Israeli settlements in Judea and Samaria (aka the
"West Bank"). No summary of those discussions was published, but on March 30
the security cabinet of the Israeli government informed the media that
it had drawn up guidelines limiting further construction. Now, however,
Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman -- who has direct
responsibility for approving all such construction plans -- has
confirmed that "Israel is coordinating its settlement construction with
the White House."
Continue Reading Articlehttps://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/10558/israel-new-settlement-policy
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/10558/israel-new-settlement-policyISIS Losing the Battle but Winning the War
ISIS Losing the Battle but Winning the War
by Giulio Meotti • June 21, 2017 at 5:00 am
- If ISIS is retreating in Mosul, it is rapidly advancing in Manchester. The Caliphate is winning its war in Europe. Six months ago in Britain, the rise of Jeremy Corbyn, the ultra-pacifist Labour party leader who blamed the "war on terror" for the recent attacks in Manchester and London, would have been unthinkable.
- As the Caliphate razed to the ground everything in its path, Europe reacted as if that were just the result of regrettable manners that should not concern her. The Islamists, however, had other plans.
- "Why, in August 2015, did ISIS need to blow up and destroy that temple of Baalshamin? Because it was a temple where pagans before Islam came to adore mendacious idols? No, it was because that monument was venerated by contemporary Westerners, whose culture includes an educated love for 'historical monuments' and a great curiosity for the beliefs of other people and other times. And Islamists want to show that Muslims have a culture that is different from ours, a culture that is unique to them". — Paul Veyne, archeologist.
(Image source: Islamic State)
The Islamic State is
crumbling -- if too slowly. More than two years have passed since French
President François Hollande promised, "We will bomb Raqqa". Sooner or
later, ISIS will probably be reduced to a small enclave with no
territorial continuity, and its chief, Abu Bakr al Baghdadi, will be
eliminated. It would, nevertheless, be most dangerous to dismiss these
three years as a short parenthesis: Nazism did not last as long: "just"
12 years in power and five at war with the rest of Europe. The physical
and cultural consequences of the Nazi tyranny are, unfortunately, still
visible in Europe. The same will be said of the Islamic State. Three
years of terror and conquests are not bad in for a war between the
Caliphate vs. everyone else.
Continue Reading Articlehttps://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/10535/isis-winning-war
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/10535/isis-winning-warMohammed bin Salman's rise marks climax of leadership revolution
Mohammed bin Salman's rise marks climax of leadership revolution
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-40351927?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=new_crown_prince_us_lashes_out_at_gulf_countries_over_qatar_embargo&utm_term=2017-06-21
Tuesday, June 20, 2017
OLC: A Sitting President's Amenability to Indictment and Criminal Prosecution
OLC: A Sitting President's Amenability to Indictment and Criminal Prosecution
The indictment or criminal prosecution of a sitting President would unconstitutionally undermine the capacity of the executive branch to perform its constitutionally assigned functions.
The indictment or criminal prosecution of a sitting President would unconstitutionally undermine the capacity of the executive branch to perform its constitutionally assigned functions.
Trump’s Business Ties in the Gulf Raise Questions About His Allegiances
Trump’s Business Ties in the Gulf Raise Questions About His Allegiances
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/17/world/middleeast/trumps-business-ties-in-persian-gulf-raise-questions-about-his-allegiances.html?_r=0Bangladesh Turning More Radical
Bangladesh Turning More Radical
by Mohshin Habib • June 20, 2017 at 4:00 am
- "Bangladesh is a Muslim country, no culture of statue establishment would be allowed by the people here... all of them must be removed." — Nur Hossain Quashemi, president, Dhaka branch of Hefazat-e-Islam.
- "The Quran says: You [women] should stay at your home... Your duty is to stay at the husband's house and safeguard property. Your primary duty is to stay home and look after your family and children only. Do not go out even for shopping." — Shah Ahmed Shafi, chief of Hefazat-e-Islam.
- Millions of Bangladeshi youths are increasingly wearing Islamic attire; and freedom of speech and freedom of movement are fast becoming a luxury -- if not a threat to the safety -- of Bangladesh's more secular-minded people, already feeling themselves a minority of sorts.
The Supreme Court of Bangladesh, in Dhaka. (Image source: F2416/Wikimedia Commons)
The government of
Bangladesh, led by historically known secular political party Awami
League, has completely surrendered to the country's radical forces
regarding the demands, made by Hefazat-e-Islam and some other Islamic
political and religious organizations, including the removal of the
sculpture that was designed with the theme of the Greek goddess of
justice. The statue was installed in last December following a decision
taken by the Chief Justice. On May 26, at night, Bangladeshi
authorities, in the name of the "consent of the chief justice", removed
the sculpture from the front side of the Supreme Court. The current
chief justice, incidentally, is the ever first non-Muslim to hold the
constitutional post.
Continue Reading Articlehttps://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/10528/bangladesh-radicalization
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/10528/bangladesh-radicalizationWatch Out: U.S. Trying to Criminalize Free Speech - Again
Watch Out: U.S. Trying to Criminalize Free Speech - Again
by Judith Bergman • June 20, 2017 at 5:00 am
- The law already prohibits violence and threats of violence, and law enforcement authorities are supposed to prosecute those -- intimidation, destruction, damage, vandalism, simple and aggravated assault. What "hate crimes" are not already covered by the law?
- Why would the House of Representatives find it necessary to make such redundant statements, if not in order to redefine the concept of a hate crime? Perhaps by including "hate speech"? The current resolution includes most of the major ethnic and religious minorities in the United States, so it will have a far better chance of passing, as it will more easily fool Representatives into thinking that the contents of the resolution are harmless.
- Would it not be appropriate for the politicians sponsoring and voting for these resolutions first of all to find out what drives the organizations responsible for drafting them? The Investigative Project on Terrorism has authored a damning 88-page report about the Muslim Public Affairs Council. American politicians do not seem to have taken much interest in it.
The United States Capitol building. (Image source: aoc.gov)
On April 4, 2017, the US
Senate passed Senate Resolution 118, "Condemning hate crime and any
other form of racism, religious or ethnic bias, discrimination,
incitement to violence, or animus targeting a minority in the United
States". The resolution was drafted by a Muslim organization, EmgageUSA
(formerly EmergeUSA) and the Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC). On
April 6, 2017, EmgageUSA wrote the following on their Facebook page:
"Thanks to the hard work of Senator Marco Rubio, Senator Dianne Feinstein, Senator Susan Collins and Senator Kamala Harris we have achieved the approval of Senate Resolution 118, an anti-hate crimes bill drafted by Emerge-USA. It is days like this that Americans are reminded of this country's founding principles: equal opportunity, freedom, justice. We are proud to help support the protection of these rights #amoreperfectunion #theamericandream".
Senate Resolution 118 calls on
Continue Reading Articlehttps://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/10544/criminalize-free-speech
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/10544/criminalize-free-speech
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