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Immigrants make Belgian welfare benefits costs to spiral out of control
The number of people living on social benefits handed out by the state of Belgium has last year multiplied rapidly. In the Flanders region, the increase was the largest since the introduction of the current system 14 years ago. Recently arrived asylum seekers account for some 1 in 3 new cases of people receiving the so-called leefloon, which is a monthly social security allowance at the minimum subsistence level aiming to integrate people in society.
Flanders witnessed an upsurge in the number of leefloon recipients of 12.9 percent over the first 8 months of 2016, the Gazet van Antwerpen reports, whereas Wallonia saw an 8.3 percent rise and Brussels 8 percent. About 125,000 people in Belgium are now receiving the benefit, according to the Programmatorische Overheidsdienst Maatschappelijke Integratie (POD), a Flanders government organisation. POD official Julien Van Geertsom explains:
https://gatestone.eu/migrants-welfare-belgium/
EU
53% of Brits support May’s Brexit strategy
Posted on February 9, 2017 18:10
UK Prime Minister May’s strategy to trigger Article 50, the formal process of leaving the EU, by the end of March, is gaining in popularity. According to an opinion poll published on Monday, the number of British citizens who support May’s Brexit strategy has risen sharply in the past month.
More than 2.000 people were involved in the online poll, and over 53 percent voted in favour of May’s strategy, which is significantly higher than the 38 percent the month before. Also, the Brits’ confidence that May will make a good deal for them has risen; 47 percent in favour versus 29 percent who think she would fail. And the good news doesn’t end there for May; 39 per cent said May was doing a good job, and with that, she is performing better in the public eye than any of her predecessors for the last 20 years.
Based on these figures, it seems the hollow threats by Guy Verhofstadt last week, had little effect on the Brits, and if they did, it probably wasn’t the effect he was hoping for.
https://gatestone.eu/brexit-support-rise/
EU taking action on terrorism with meetings and a vote. Feel safe yet?
Posted on February 9, 2017 18:00
For its plenary session in February, the EU has published a Directive on Combating Terrorism, sharing some background information on the discussions in EU parliament this month. It is a testament, as much to the glacial pace of European politics, even in the face of what it itself describes as “a threat to security“.
Estimates cited (PDF) by the Directive conclude that by the end of 2015, more than 30.000 individuals had travelled to conflict zones in order to join jihadi groups. Of over 4000 Europeans, 30% have returned to Europe. The report, called Foreign Fighters by the Soufan Group, speculates that whereas the flow of foreign fighters to countries like Syria and Iraq is now drying up, the number of those returning is likely to go up. As the Directive says:
https://gatestone.eu/eu-watches-over-you/
Swedish Minister strongly condemns violence against women… in Russia
Posted on February 9, 2017 16:00
Rich. Margot Wallström, Foreign Minister of the country which allows migrants to rape its women on a near daily basis and where Female Genital Mutilation is rampant, saw fit to lecture its neighbour on “violence against women”.
Commenting on a new (indeed condemnable) Russian law relaxing the sentences for domestic violence, she stated:
Whilst perhaps true, it’s somewhat of an uncomfortable sensation to hear a government Minister of “The rape Capital of the West” lecture other countries on the safety of women, while a migrant got away with a two-month sentence after vaginally and anally raping two underage Swedish girls.
Wallström used to be the UN’s Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict. Maybe it’s time she realises that weaponised sexual violence is being committed on a daily basis by migrants in Sweden who are seeking to subvert Sweden’s social fabric.
https://gatestone.eu/swedish-minister-russia/
EU threatens to sue countries refusing migrants
Posted on February 9, 2017 14:30
Euractiv reports:
These ‘infringement proceedings’ are part of the European Commission’s instruments to enforce its will on rebellious member states, this time being Austria, Denmark, Poland and Hungary.
In 2015, the EU agreed that by September 2017, 160.000 migrants would be resettled from Greece and Italy to other member states. With only seven months to go, only 8,162 people have actually been resettled, leaving a gap of over 150.000 people.
Timmermans threats were implicit, but should nonetheless be taken since the Commission hasn’t shied away from using it before. He said he hoped member state “peer pressure” would move the four countries to conformity, but that he would consider penalties if there was no progress by the end of March when the next report is due:
https://gatestone.eu/eu-threatening-again/
Counter-terror chief warns against extremist groups uprising in east Germany
Posted on February 9, 2017 13:00
According to a senior counterterrorism chief Stephan Kramer, official Islamic radicals and far-right terror groups are becoming an increasing problem in east German provinces. The information obtained stated that Islamic radicalism is spread all over Germany. Kramer, chief of state protection and counter-terrorism in Thuringa (East Germany) claimed to receive terrorism-related intelligence on a daily basis. He also said that many Islamic extremists came to the region during the summer of 2015, when Merkel caused a massive influx of Muslim immigration to Western Europe.
Kramer claimed that:
BREAKING NEWS: Brussels is plunged into darkness as EU capital is hit by massive power cut
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4209714/Brussels-plunged-darkness-massive-power-cut.html#ixzz4YEPYb2Vn
Brussels has been plunged into darkness ‘in all directions’ tonight following a ‘massive power cut’.
It is believed the northern part of the EU capital has been affected the worst with the cause still to be identified.
The power outage is understood to have happened at around 10.45pm local time and it is currently unknown how many people are without power.
An early power cut is understood to have hit a smaller part of the city earlier in the evening but was ‘resolved by 8.30pm’.
Lights are still on in some EU buildings, including the European Council and European Commission headquarters.
Brussels has been plunged into darkness after a massive power cut.
The loss of electricity across the Belgian capital has reportedly sparked terror attack fears, although the cause of the outage has not been confirmed.
Belgium and other European countries are on high alert following several devastating terrorist incidents over the past 12 months.
Brussels is home to a number of key EU bodies, including the European Commission and European Council, both of which are situated in the centre of the city.
The sounds of police sirens can be heard coming from the centre of the city in footage posted online by people tonight…..
(photos of blackout)
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/eu-capital-brussels-plunged-darkness-9789580
The company reported that the power outage in Brussels was exclusively a technical error on a high voltage substation and pointed out that the incident was not related to a terrorist attack. The manager intends to investigate “precise technical causes” to avoid any repetition of this large-scale failure, and “apologizes for the inconvenience caused”. (google translate)
http://www.lalibre.be/dernieres-depeches/belga/situation-retablie-a-plus-de-90-dans-les-communes-bruxelloises-privees-d-electricite-589d0d5acd703b98151f9fe8
Swedish school received ‘Peace Prize’ for accepting most migrants, now turned into warzone
Posted on February 9, 2017 11:00
Criminals trying to recruit students. Brawls between different ethnic groups. Drug dealing. Welcome to the prestigious Värnhem School in central Mälmo, which won the 2015 ‘Peace Prize’ for taking in the most “newly arrived pupils” (immigrants).
Swedish newspaper Expressen paints a stark picture of the school confronted with so many trouble and problems, it had to install fences and hire security personnel. Still the situation got so out of hand the school had to close down for two days after large, running battles within the school, a week before its students were to serve dinner at the annual Nobel Prize banquet.
Friday, 18 November 2016. A young man gets irritated when some guys of different nationalities looked at his girl the wrong way. He confronts them and a fight erupts between newly arrived students from the Middle East and Afghanistan. Their relationship with the school has long been tense, and now, from all corners of the school, more rush up the stairs, into the cafeteria to take part in the fighting.
The fighting spreads, spilling out into the streets around the school. There, a student is beaten up so severely by multiple people, an ambulance has to take him to hospital. Three times the fighting flairs up again. At the end of the afternoon, the school’s administration, after consultation with the police, decides to close the school completely. Almost two thousand students are sent home. The Board of Education takes it a step further. Värnhem will be closed on Monday as well and the teachers have to regain control in order to ensure the students safety. A decision is made to hire guards.
https://gatestone.eu/sweden-scandal-school/
Enough Iraqi Refugee Terrorists and Rapists
An immigration policy that puts America first.
February 9, 2017
Daniel Greenfield
52
There are more Iraqis living in the United States than there are in some major cities in Iraq. 156,000 Iraqi refugees have entered this country in just the last decade. 30,000 of those have ended up in California.
In Obama’s first year in office, the United States resettled three-quarters of Iraqi refugees.
71% of Iraqi refugees are receiving cash assistance. 82% are on Medicaid and 87% are on food stamps. Compare those atrocious numbers to only 17% of Cubans on cash assistance and 16% on Medicaid.
It should be obvious why Obama shut the door on Cuban refugees while holding it wide open for Syrian Muslims (but closing it tightly on Syrian Christians), Iraqis and Somalis (77.4% food stamp use).
President Trump’s migration pause was met with lectures about how much immigrants contribute to the economy. But the immigrants that the left likes are a drain. If the left finds immigrants who actually contribute to the economy, it fights tooth and nail to keep them out of the country.
Notable Iraqi refugees include Waad Ramadan Alwan and Mohanad Shareef Hammadi.
http://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/265742/enough-iraqi-refugee-terrorists-and-rapists-daniel-greenfield
The Myth That Designating the Muslim Brotherhood as Terrorist is Illegal
February 9, 2017
Daniel Greenfield
7
Reported plans by the Trump administration to designate the Muslim Brotherhood and Iran’s IRGC as terrorists has set off a panic among the media and the usual “anonymous career officials”.
Obama had opposed designating the IRGC as terrorists even when they were actively involved in murdering American soldiers. The Muslim Brotherhood was a non-issue. Aside from Cruz, Bachmann and a handful of others, the subject simply wasn’t even discussed. Not when McCain and Graham actively backed the Brotherhood.
But there’s a new sheriff in town.
Human Rights Watch has an impassioned defense of the Muslim Brotherhood. A terror designation would impede the Brotherhood’s participation in democracy, criminalize associations in this country and really the Brotherhood isn’t violent at all.
The Washington Post, which has somehow turned into the new Huffington Post as a collection of screeds posted by radical left-wing cranks, has the expected warnings and pleas.
None of these represent much of an argument. Defenses of the Brotherhood usually stop with the lie that it’s a moderate organization. Once there’s a debate, that argument is childishly easy to dispose of. And the left isn’t used to having to debate the issue. SOP is to dismiss it as a crazy conspiracy theory. That doesn’t work once there’s an executive order.
http://www.frontpagemag.com/point/265748/myth-designating-muslim-brotherhood-terrorist-daniel-greenfield
Dear Media: Spicer’s Atlanta Terror Attack? It Happened in 2002
After the media huffily rejected President Trump’s accusation that they ignore Islamic terror attacks, it began chanting that Press Secretary Sean Spicer made up a terror attack that never happened.
That’s from CNN. When the media puts on its fake voice of authority, remember that it’s hard to tell if it is really this ignorant or dishonest.
A terror attack in Atlanta? It never happened. Sean Spicer made it up. The Saturday Night Live routine writes itself. But… but wait…
http://www.frontpagemag.com/point/265751/dear-media-spicers-atlanta-terror-attack-it-daniel-greenfield
Over 200 Inauguration Day Rioters Indicted
NBC News has reported that 209 people have thus far been indicted over felony rioting charges, meaning they face a fine of up to $25,000 and a maximum of 10 years in prison.
The Washington Post reported that 230 people were arrested during President Donald Trump’s inauguration on January 20, with several cases being subsequently dismissed.
http://www.dailywire.com/news/13334/over-200-inauguration-day-rioters-indicted-robert-kraychik?utm_source=dwemail&utm_medium=email&utm_content=020717-news&utm_campaign=position1
Woman Tied to Terror Shooter Changes Plea in Marriage Case (abcnews, Feb 9, 2017)
http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/woman-tied-terror-shooter-plea-marriage-case-45384687
“The sister-in-law of the couple responsible for the San Bernardino terror attack changed her plea to guilty Thursday in a case involving a sham marriage, federal prosecutors said.
Tatiana Farook, 32, pleaded guilty in Riverside, California, to one felony count of conspiracy to commit immigration fraud that included lying to federal agents and in legal documents, according the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
She faces a maximum of five years in prison…”
Britain Limits Lone Child Refugees to 300, Sees Criticism (abcnews, Feb 9, 2017)
http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/britain-limits-lone-child-refugees-300-sees-criticism-45371128
“Britain’s Conservative government has placed a limit on the number of lone child refugees it will accept into the country, citing fears that people traffickers were exploiting the system.
About 350 children will be allowed in — far fewer than the 3,000 originally expected under the law that had been aimed at helping some of the tens of thousands of migrant children across Europe. Around 200 children have been brought in thus far.
Home Secretary Amber Rudd said Thursday that the decision was made after France raised concerns that U.K. government actions were acting as a draw to encourage children to make the perilous journey to the continent.
“We are not saying we are closing the door, we are putting up the drawbridge,” she said. “We are not saying that.”
The move is controversial because Britain has taken in so few of the hundreds of thousands of refugees that have flowed into Europe in recent years, many fleeing the war in Syria…”
‘Terror threats EVERY DAY’ Radical Islam is growing threat in Germany, top expert warns (express, Feb 9, 2017)
http://www.express.co.uk/news/world/765451/Islam-terror-radical-Germany-threat-police-ISIS-attack
“TERRORISTS and radical Islamists have become a massive threat to German security, a counterterrorism chief has warned.
The European country saw mass migration in 2015 at the height of the migrant crisis, accepting an excess of one million people.
The ‘open door’ policy, championed by Chancellor Angela Merkel, was criticised at the time with opponents pointing to sex and terror attacks committed by migrants.
Berlin, Ansbach, Cologne, Reutlingen, Munich, Wurzburg and Grafing have all witnessed attacks in the past 12 months.
Stephan Kramer, the regional chief of state protection and counterterrorism in Thuringia, a state in east-central Germany, said radical Islam was rife and represented a growing threat to Germany.
He said: “We receive information on terror suspects every day.”…”
MIGRANT SCANDAL: 200 illegals a DAY caught sneaking into UK – and that’s in just ONE month (express, Feb 9, 2017)
http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/765431/migrant-crisis-uk-border-home-office-illegal-immigration-figures-calais-france
“MIGRANTS were caught trying to smuggle themselves into Britain at a rate of 200 every day in the run-up to the Brexit referendum, the Daily Express can today reveal.
New figures show 24,800 were seized attempting to enter the UK illegally during the first six months of last year.
But as the historic vote on June 23 approached, the rate of detection increased and 5,900 were caught at the border in June – one every eight minutes.
The vast scale of illegal immigration through northern France can be revealed for the first time after the Daily Express won a lengthy battle with the Home Office to reveal the figures.
The previously unseen Border Force data relates to entry attempts at British border controls in Calais, Coquelles, Dunkirk, Lille, Paris and Brussels…”
Gad Saad Interview: Free Speech, Social Justice & Islam
Teen troublemaker arrested after death threats against foreign minister (thelocal, Feb 9, 2017)
http://www.thelocal.at/20170209/teenage-troublemaker-arrested-after-death-threats-against-foreign-minister
“A Chechen teenager has been arrested by special forces police in Vienna after making death threats on social media sites against the Austrian Foreign Minister Sebastian Kurz…”
Two arrested in Göttingen suspected of ‘imminent terror plot’ (thelocal, Feb 9, 2017)
https://www.thelocal.de/20170209/two-arrested-in-gttingen-suspected-of-planning-concrete-terror-plot
“Police in the Lower Saxon university town of Göttingen arrested two men suspected of plotting a terror attack, officials reported on Thursday.
The Lower Saxon interior ministry said on Thursday that one of the men was a 27-year-old from Algeria, while the other was 23 and from Nigeria.
Police would not comment on the exact alleged plans by the two suspects, but they had reportedly been long active in the Islamist scene. Both had lived for years with their families in Göttingen. Police also said that the alleged plot was not exclusively related to Göttingen.
Around 450 police officers were deployed in raids to search 11 buildings around Göttingen and one house in northern Hesse late on Wednesday night. The two were then arrested during the raids…”
Berlin court rules in favor of hijab-wearing teacher (DW, Feb 9, 2017)
http://www.dw.com/en/berlin-court-rules-in-favor-of-hijab-wearing-teacher/a-37477936
“Berlin’s Labor Court has ruled that the city violated a teacher’s rights by denying her a job.
The woman had been told that she could not wear her headscarf while working because of an ideological neutrality law.
Berlin may not deny candidates for teaching positions at public schools because they wear a Muslim headscarf, a court ruled on Thursday. The decision came after a woman was told she could not teach at an elementary school because her hijab violated the state of Berlin’s neutrality law.
The defendant, who had worked in Berlin as an Islamic religious studies teacher for several years, had appealed a January 2015 decision in favor of the state government. Now, she has been awarded two months salary and part of her legal costs as restitution from the government.
“We are very satisfied and relieved,” said her attorney, Maryam Hashemi…”
France’s first centre for deradicalization stands empty five months after opening (thelocal, Feb 9, 2017)
http://www.thelocal.fr/20170209/frances-first-centre-for-deradicalisation-stands-empty-five-months-after-opening
“Despite thousands of French nationals having been radicalized, the country’s controversial first centre for deradicalization stands empty, just five months after opening. But the French government refuses to close it.
The centre at Beaumont-sur-Vernon in the Indre-et-Loire department of central France opened in September, despite much opposition from local residents and politicians.
Its aim was to free those who have been convinced by the ideology of jihadism and help them reintegrate into society.
The centre was to be a kind of boarding school for people aged 18 to 30 who may have tried and failed to travel to the Middle East, but not for anyone with existing terror convictions.
But while it was meant to house 25 voluntary participants by the end of December, the centre now stands empty after its last resident was sent to prison this week after being convicted of violence, Le Figaro reports.
France plans to roll out 12 more similar centres by the end of next year.
According to Europe1 radio and Le Figaro part of the problem seems to be that may of the participants who were sent to the centre were simply not appropriate.
Another reason given by staff was that all the controversy and media attention around the centre made it hard for both them and the participants, who returned home.
However in late January France’s interior minister Bruno Le Roux insisted the centre would not close.
In February last year figures were released that said over 8,000 individuals had been converted to extremist Islam.
Around 70 percent of the suspected Islamist radicals were male and 80 percent of the cases were deemed to be “serious”.
The figures also showed that there was a hike in the number of women and youths being radicalized.
Hundreds of radicalized French nationals have travelled to the Middle East to fight jihad. Many have and will return, causing a huge concern to French authorities.”
Dershowitz: 9th Circuit Ruling ‘Not a Solid Decision’ – ‘Looks Like It’s Based More On Policy Than on Constitutionality’ (breitbart, Feb 9, 2017)
http://www.breitbart.com/video/2017/02/09/dershowitz-9th-circuit-ruling-not-a-solid-decision-looks-like-its-based-more-on-policy-than-on-constitutionality/
“On Thursday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “Hardball,” Harvard Law Professor Emeritus Alan Dershowitz stated that the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals’ ruling against President Trump’s immigration order is “not a solid decision.” And “looks like it’s based more on policy than on constitutionality.”
Dershowitz said, “Look, this is not a solid decision. This is a decision that looks like it’s based more on policy than on constitutionality. There are many, many flaws.”
He added, “I think this court opinion will not ultimately be sustained by the Supreme Court. Take, for example, the argument that it’s an establishment of religion, because it favors Christians or other religious minorities. In 1944 we passed the War Refugee Act, which specifically was designed to rescue a hundred thousand Jews, and everybody knew the purpose was to rescue jews. That didn’t establish Judaism as the state religion of the United States. I think the establishment argument will fail in the Supreme Court. I think the standing arguments may fail in the Supreme Court.”
U.S. appeals court upholds suspension of Trump travel ban
Feb 9 (Reuters) – A U.S. federal appeals court on Thursday unanimously upheld a temporary suspension of President Donald Trump’s order that restricted travel from seven Muslim-majority countries.
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling came in a challenge to Trump’s order filed by the states of Washington and Minnesota. The U.S. Supreme Court will likely determine the case’s final outcome.
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/u-appeals-court-upholds-suspension-231301262.html
Appeals court keeps block on Trump’s immigration ban
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A federal appeals court decided to keep in place the temporary restraining order halting President Trump’s immigration ban as other proceedings move through the lower courts.
“We hold that the government has not shown a likelihood of success on the merits of its appeal, nor has it shown that failure to enter a stay would cause irreparable injury, and we therefore deny its emergency motion for a stay,” the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Thursday.
The appeals court ripped the Justice Department for arguing that Trump’s immigration action was not subject to judicial review. The court said, “There is no precedent to support this claimed unreviewability, which runs contrary to the fundamental structure of our constitutional democracy.”
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/article/2614442/
0:02 / 3:41
Shocking new Muslim immigration poll
judicial watch – $8.5 Billion U.S. Counter Narcotics Effort in Afghanistan Boosts Opium Production
The U.S. government’s multi-billion-dollar effort to counter narcotics in Afghanistan is a humiliating failure that’s resulted in a huge increase in poppy cultivation and opium production. Despite the free-flow of American tax dollars to combat the crisis, opium production rose 43% in the Islamic nation, to an estimated 4,800 tons, and approximately 201,000 hectares of land are under poppy cultivation, representing a 10% increase in one year alone.
Uncle Sam’s embarrassing counter narcotics effort is part of a broader and costly failure involving the reconstruction of Afghanistan. More than $100 billion have been dedicated to help rebuild the war-torn country and much of it has been lost to waste, fraud and abuse not to mention corruption. The drug initiative is a recent example, documented by the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) in a quarterly report to Congress. The document is painful to read because it goes on for 269 pages, but Judicial Watch created a link for the counter narcotics section, which is around 19 pages and includes informative charts, graphs and the latest available statistics.
As of December 31, 2016, the United States has spent an astounding $8.5 billion for counter narcotics efforts in Afghanistan since 2002, the report reveals, making it clear that the cash will continue flowing. “Nonetheless, Afghanistan remains the world’s leading producer of opium, providing 80% of the global output over the past decade, according to the United Nations,” SIGAR writes. The watchdog includes statistics from the United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime (UNODC) confirming a 10% increase in the amount of Afghan land that was under poppy cultivation between 2015 and 2016. Despite Uncle Sam’s generosity, poppy eradiation results were the lowest this decade, the watchdog states. “No eradication took place in the biggest opium-growing provinces because of the grave security situation,” the report reveals, noting a steady rise in production and cultivation in the past decade. “Eradication efforts have had minimal impact on the rise in illicit opium cultivation.”
This, of course, translates into a large increase in opium production—43% in a year—the watchdog reveals, to an estimated 4,800 tons. “The reported production increase reflected the larger area under cultivation, higher yields, and lower eradication results.” Part of the problem, U.S. authorities say, is that between 2.5 and 3 million Afghans are drug users and the country lacks sufficient treatment centers to address the growing drug-abuse problem, particularly for women and children. American cash hasn’t put a dent on that problem either. A State Department branch known as the Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL) doled out $12.9 million in 2015 for drug treatment and education programs in Afghanistan and has allocated millions more despite past failures. INL also funds a scandalous, multi-million-dollar program called Governor-Led Eradication (GLE) that pays provinces for the cost of eradicating poppies. Between 2008 and 2016 INL disbursed $4.6 million, according to the SIGAR.
Afghanistan reconstruction has been a huge debacle that continues fleecing American taxpayers. Judicial Watch has reported on the various boondoggles over the years, most of them documented in tremendous detail by the SIGAR. Highlights include the mysterious disappearance of nearly half a billion dollars in oil destined for the Afghan National Army, a $335 million Afghan power plant that’s seldom used and an $18.5 million renovation for a prison that remains unfinished and unused years after the U.S.-funded work began. Among the more outrageous expenditures are U.S. Army contracts with dozens of companies tied to Al Qaeda and the Taliban. The reconstruction watchdog recommended that the Army immediately cut business ties to the terrorists but the deals continued. Another big waste reported by Judicial Watch a few years ago, involves a $65 million initiative to help Afghan women escape repression. The government admits that, because there’s no accountability, record-keeping or follow-up, it has no clue if the program was effective.
http://www.judicialwatch.org/blog/2017/02/8-5-billion-u-s-counter-narcotics-effort-afghanistan-boosts-opium-production/
Dobbs: Judge Gorsuch should withdraw his name
WND – Trump must break judicial power
Pat Buchanan: ‘A clipping of the court’s wings is long overdue’
“Disheartening and demoralizing,” wailed Judge Neil Gorsuch of President Trump’s comments about the judges seeking to overturn his 90-day ban on travel to the U.S. from the Greater Middle East war zones.
What a wimp. Did our future justice break down crying like Sen. Chuck Schumer? Sorry, this is not Antonin Scalia. And just what horrible thing had our president said?
A “so-called judge” blocked the travel ban, said Trump. And the arguments in court, where 9th Circuit appellate judges were hearing the government’s appeal, were “disgraceful.” “A bad student in high school would have understood the arguments better.”
Did the president disparage a couple of judges? Yep.
Yet compare his remarks to the tweeted screeds of Elizabeth Warren after her Senate colleague, Jeff Sessions, was confirmed as attorney general.
Sessions, said Warren, represents “radical hatred.” And if he makes “the tiniest attempt to bring his racism, sexism & bigotry” into the Department of Justice, “all of us” will pile on.
Now this is hate speech. And it validates Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s decision to use Senate rules to shut her down.
These episodes reveal much about America 2017.
They reflect, first, the poisoned character of our politics. The language of Warren – that Sessions is steeped in “racism, sexism & bigotry” – echoes the ugliest slander of the Hillary Clinton campaign, where she used similar words to describe Trump’s “deplorables.”
Such language, reflecting as it does the beliefs of one-half of America about the other, rules out any rapprochement in America’s social or political life. This is pre-civil war language.
For how do you sit down and work alongside people you believe to be crypto-Nazis, Klansmen and fascists? Apparently, you don’t. Rather, you vilify them, riot against them, deny them the right to speak or to be heard.
And such conduct is becoming common on campuses today.
As for Trump’s disparagement of the judges, only someone ignorant of history can view that as frightening.
Thomas Jefferson not only refused to enforce the Alien & Sedition Acts of President John Adams, his party impeached Supreme Court Justice Samuel Chase, who had presided over one of the trials.
Jackson defied Chief Justice John Marshall’s prohibition against moving the Cherokees out of Georgia to west of the Mississippi, where, according to the Harvard resume of Sen. Warren, one of them bundled fruitfully with one of her ancestors, making her part Cherokee.
When Chief Justice Roger Taney declared that President Abraham Lincoln’s suspension of the writ of habeas corpus violated the Constitution, Lincoln considered sending U.S. troops to arrest the chief justice.
FDR proposed adding six justices to emasculate a Supreme Court of the “nine old men” he reviled for having declared some New Deal schemes unconstitutional.
President Eisenhower called his Supreme Court choices Earl Warren and William Brennan two of the “worst mistakes” he made as president. History bears Ike out. And here we come to the heart of the matter.
Whether the roll-out of the president’s temporary travel ban was ill-prepared or not, and whether one agrees or not about which nations or people should be subjected to extreme vetting, the president’s authority in the matter of protecting the borders and keeping out those he sees as potentially dangerous is universally conceded.
That a district judge would overrule the president of the United States on a matter of border security in wartime is absurd.
When politicians don black robes and seize powers they do not have, they should be called out for what they are – usurpers and petty tyrants. And if there is a cause upon which the populist right should unite, it is that elected representatives and executives make the laws and rule the nation. Not judges, and not justices.
Indeed, one of the mightiest forces that has birthed the new populism that imperils the establishment is that unelected justices like Warren and Brennan, and their progeny on the bench, have remade our country without the consent of the governed – and with never having been smacked down by Congress or the president.
Consider. Secularist justices de-Christianized our country. They invented new rights for vicious criminals as though criminal justice were a game. They tore our country apart with idiotic busing orders to achieve racial balance in public schools. They turned over centuries of tradition and hundreds of state, local and federal laws to discover that the rights to an abortion and same-sex marriage were there in Madison’s Constitution all along. We just couldn’t see them.
Trump has warned the judges that if they block his travel ban, and this results in preventable acts of terror on American soil, they will be held accountable. As rightly they should.
Meanwhile, Trump’s White House should use the arrogant and incompetent conduct of these federal judges to make the case not only for creating a new Supreme Court, but for Congress to start using Article III, Section 2, of the Constitution – to restrict the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court, and to reclaim its stolen powers.
A clipping of the court’s wings is long overdue.
http://www.wnd.com/2017/02/trump-must-break-judicial-power/
Dear White People – The Truth About the Film
Cultural enrichment in Yorkshire – ugly mugshots galore!
http://www.thetelegraphandargus.co.uk/news/15085615.Cab_driver_repeatedly_banged_wife_s_head_on_a_kitchen_door_then_sat_watching_television_while_paramedics_helped_her/?ref=mac
http://www.thetelegraphandargus.co.uk/news/15082567._Sophisticated__drugs_network_jailed_for_almost_200_years/?ref=ar
http://www.thetelegraphandargus.co.uk/news/15060452.Mouse_droppings_found_at_takeaway_after_rodents_get_in_through_holes_near_back_door_and_cellar/?ref=ar
http://www.thetelegraphandargus.co.uk/news/15058192.MURDER_VERDICT__Brothers_face_life_in_prison_after_family_feud_over_mop_and_bucket_at_ice_cream_business_ends_in_extreme_violence/?ref=ar
http://www.thetelegraphandargus.co.uk/news/15068574.UPDATE___SENTENCE_AND_VIDEO__Brothers_jailed_for_killing_cousin_in__trivial__row_over_mop_and_bucket/?ref=ar
http://www.thetelegraphandargus.co.uk/news/15072876.Drug_dealer_jailed_after_being_caught_twice_in_a_month/?ref=ar
Blooming ‘eck!