In order to preserve the flow of conversation about various posted items, and also in order to make it easier for visitors to find the list of related links being shared by other readers, regulars and interested parties in one place, each day a post is automatically created at a minute past midnight ET.
This way, under the various posts of the day, conversation can take place without as much ‘noise’ on the various links and articles and ideas in the main posts and all the news links being submitted can be seen under these auto-posts by clicking on the comments-link right below these ones.
Thank you all for those that take the effort to assist this site in keeping the public informed. Below, typically people can find the latest enemy propaganda, news items of related materials from multiple countries and languages, op-eds from many excellent sites who write on our topics, geopolitics and immigration issues and so on.
Nigel Farage on the ‘red line’ Trump ‘ban’
President Trump is set to visit the U.K. next week, and one of the top priorities of her Majesty’s government could keeping Trump away from Brexit leader Nigel Farage.
According to the Daily Telegraph, British officials allegedly have told Trump that he cannot meet with Farage during his visit – a demand Downing Street denies
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/wp-content/uploads/khan-trump-2.jpg
Brilliant! Online Campaign to Raise Cash for ‘Baby Khan’ Blimp During Trump Visit Smashes £10k Target
Better yet….where’s the blimp/banner brigade for
“Free Tommy Robinson” during Trump’s UK visit?
“Better yet….where’s the blimp/banner brigade for
“Free Tommy Robinson” during Trump’s UK visit?”
Too right, mate!
Gowdy to Schiff: GOP doesn’t give a damn what you think
‘The West is built on racism’ – DISCUSSION – BBC Newsnight
( 7 min 28 )
“The principle of white supremacy is embedded into our political economy,” argues author Kehinde Andrews.
Here he sits down with Emily Maitlis who asks him if there can ever be adequate reparations for human history built on oppression and slavery?
Classical BBC ultra-leftist culture hatred, not to mention blatant racism at work. Perhaps if Africa actually achieved something by themselves without intellectual or financial aid there would be a reason to even fleetingly think this a possibility. I loved how he ignores the fact that the original slavers were ALWAYS African long before any western ships started to take on slaves as ballast. I am so sick to death of bleeding heart idiots listening to or creating rubbish sob stories like this. Africans or blacks have had as long as the rest of the world to improve themselves and yet will not or cannot. Pseudo-intellectualism that merely reinforces my POV.
The West is built on racism
And my @ss is built on türds.
Any questions?
“The principle of white supremacy is embedded into our political economy,” argues author Kehinde Andrews.”
Look, EVERYTHING’S waycist!!! Got it?!? All better now?!?
Nope? Please go away and cry into your beer in a less conspicuous manner. A few too many of us are fed up to our back teeth with your “racist” allegations against everything and anything that happens to offend your overly-sensitive snouts.
Candace Owens: There Will Be a ‘Major Black Exit’ From the Democratic Party
Candace Owens said Thursday she believes the Democratic Party will see a “major exit” by black voters leading up to the 2020 presidential election.
Norwegian Immigration Boss Blames Migrant Crisis on Europe’s Black Labor Market (sputniknews, Jul 6, 2018)
https://sputniknews.com/europe/201807061066099033-norway-migrants-refugees-labor-market/
“Distinguishing between refugees and migrants is a hard task, the director of the Norwegian Directorate of Immigration has argued, conceding that some of the migrants are drawn to Europe by vast opportunities within the shady part of the economy.
Some of the migrants arriving in Europe are refugees — but not everyone, and this poses one of the biggest challenges for the immigration system, Frode Forfang, director of the Norwegian Directorate of Immigration (UDI) has argued in an opinion piece in the daily newspaper Aftenposten.
According to Forfang, migrants coming to Europe in boatloads after a perilous journey across the Mediterranean Sea from North Africa are nothing new. While their number is currently somewhat lower compared with previous years, the political attention the problem of immigration to Europe is higher than ever before, he argued. Forfang ascribed this to the experience from the 2015 migrant crisis and the increased fear of losing control over immigration.
“Distinguishing between refugees and migrants upon arrival in Europe is demanding in every possible way. Enormous resources are used on the actual process, as well as on the passing-the-buck game between European countries to distribute the responsibility, as well as the next to impossible task of returning home all those who are not entitled to stay,” Forfang wrote.
According to Forfang, some of those trying to get into Europe are well aware of the fact that they don’t meet the requirements of asylum and have no immediate prospect of legal residence with work permits and other rights. For this, he provided an explanation that he called “less talked about.”
“In parts of Europe it is far too easy to live outside of the ‘formal’ economy. Opportunities existing for black labor are a factor that lures many migrants and which allows living a life in Europe without a residence permit,” Forfang argued, naming Italy among the most desired destinations for illegal immigrants.
According to the UDI director, there are many downsides to it, both for the countries affected and the immigrants themselves, who become vulnerable to exploitation, miserable working conditions, low wages and crime. Nevertheless, he pointed out, many still find such a life better than the options provided by their home countries.
While Forfang admitted that illegal immigrants often prefer to travel northward in Europe, he also stressed that opportunities for slipping into the informal economy are much greater in the South.
“There are also illegal immigrants in the Nordic region. Many of these have had their asylum applications rejected, but never returned back. Even though it is possible here to feed off of the black market, our society is still highly regulated. It’s hard to live a life here without social security numbers and valid identity papers. It limits the opportunities. Southern Europe looks different,” Forfang wrote.
In conclusion, Forfang argued that the efforts against uncontrolled migration across the Mediterranean Sea at present revolve around the immigration policy as such, whereas it would be “not unwise” to increase efforts in fighting black labor and the informal economy.
According to the UN Migration Agency (IOM), 171,635 migrants and refugees entered Europe by sea in 2017, with just under 70 percent arriving in Italy and the remainder divided between Greece, Cyprus and Spain. This compares with 363,504 arrivals across the region in 2016.”
Mr Forfang lays out a bunch of truisms, anybody who has travelled around Europe a bit knows this is true. Drive through Italy, you’ll see masses of african prostitutes lining the highways close to town, or working parking lots. Same in places like Athens’ parks, and not just women either. And some are minors.
You’ll see street vendors selling fake Armani bags etc in tourist squares. I’ve seen it in Florence, when police is spotted they roll up their carpets to hide their wares. Of course police knows, but they do little about it. Such sellers also walk up and down the Costas in Spain during tourist season.
The south of Italy is full of sweatshops, those are run by maffia and staffed with slaves, basically. When they can’t work for some reason they’re shot and dumped in a river.
Drug dealers from Africa, Turkey, Afghanistan etc hang around on streetcorners in literally every western european town. Or they go pickpocketing, mainly in public transport, but that trade is dominated by eastern-europeans (=code for Roma & Sinti). They also beg professionally and run all kinds of scams. Walk around the centre of Brussels for 10 mins, they’ll try to rip you off for sure.
By my estimation, kitchen staff in restaurants is around 50% illegals, esp dishwashers. They’re also exploited as domestic cleaners.
Italian police versus illegal street vendors in Naples :
Southern Italy – Bari –
Norwegian Immigration Boss Blames Migrant Crisis on Europe’s Black Labor Market
Ain’t gonna touch such a waycist headline…
WTF:
https://i.redd.it/htogylzbfb811.jpg
Muslims get a free pass no doubt.
TNB. Please purchase a clue.
Poundland STOPS selling kitchen knives in 59 West Midlands shops amid knife crime EPIDEMIC (express, Jul 6, 2018)
https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/984849/west-midlands-knife-crime-poundland-crackdown-stores-stop-selling-blades
“POUNDLAND has stopped selling kitchen knives in all of its 59 stores in the West Midlands. The retailer said it had made the decision because of the increase in knife crime in the region.
From Friday July 6, customers will no longer be able to buy knives in any of Poundland’s stores in the West Midlands.
It has become the first High Street retailer to enforce such a ban and others are now expected to follow suit.
Poundland took all knives off shelves in its London stores earlier this year, but chose the West Midlands as the next region because of soaring knife crime.
It said it aimed to take knives out of all its stores across the UK and Ireland by autumn.
A spokesman said it had made the decision “after thoughtful reflection about concerns raised by both communities and colleagues”.
He said the company had told the West Midlands Police and Crime Commissioner and Chief Constable of the move.
A recent report by the Home Office showed crimes involving a knife or sharp instrument had risen by more than 1,000 a year between September 2014 and September 2017.
Poundland retail director, Austin Cooke, said: “The decision to stop selling kitchen knives not only in the West Midlands, but nationwide, is a commitment that we know means a lot to both our colleagues and our customers…”
Dumbest thing I’ve read all year. No joke!
I agree, if you have a BBQ, an electric hair dryer to feed more oxy to the charcoal something to use for an anvil, a hammer and a piece of rebar you have a knife, Oops forgot the oil to temper it in. any convient piece of concrete will to to put sme type of an edge on the blade.
https://youtu.be/GOekor_QgvE
“It said it aimed to take knives out of all its stores across the UK and Ireland by autumn.”
What about the meat hammers, ice picks, and potato mashers … you idjits?!?
As if “knives” are the sole source of harm to our society. WHAT ABOUT GUNS?!?
Divorce on the rise in Iraq as wives cut ties to ISIS militants (nbcnews, Jul 6, 2018)
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/divorce-rise-iraq-wives-cut-ties-isis-militants-n888541
Yes just so they can move west and claim single mother benefits. None of this means anything as it is to organized to be spontaneous and genuine.
Thank you, Michelle.
It’s just Hejira written in a foreign language so us Kuffar can’t understand.
Bless You,
NR
#6 Standing Up to Authoritarian Regimes
In 99.9% of the world’s history he would have been squashed without a care from those responsible(Umm he would have been between the tracks M). I wonder what happened to him when the cameras were no longer running?
Totalitarian regimes never appreciate bravery and often make an example of those who show it and again this is 99.9% in history. Appreciating your enemy honourably is figment of a 19th romantic novel writer’s imagination, and while it has occasionally happened it was never part of any warrior ethos but a spur of the moment thing by those present not a few of whom were made to pay for so doing by their superiors. Taking of prisoners was confined to the nobility (and then not always) for most of history and even in the west. in the 18th century generally for the rank and file, it was not certain. For the rest of the world?? Do not surrender(keep the last bullet for yourself I kid you not…Asia and Africa especially. BTW I talked to an Afghan vet this week and his opinion was that ANY Taliban prisoner who survives long-term is almost certainly a turncoat as they simply kill all captured and often nastily.
That was my thought about the Allied POWs in Afghan and Iraq, I know that in Nam people made deals with their friends that if they saw them captured they would shoot them if the friend would return the favor. This is one reason the Viet Cong talked about the US fanatical bravry.
The taking of anyone besides the officers prisoners started in the 1700s but was not done very often. The officers were either exchanged for one of your of the same rank or would pay ransom to be turned loose. The exchange of prisoners was stopped in the late 1800s because the nations finally realized all you were doing was turning an enemy soldier loose to fight against you.
“… I know that in Nam people made deals with their friends that if they saw them captured they would shoot them if the friend would return the favor.”
For fü¢k’s sake, what does this tell you about an ideology?
Muslim women are committing suicide at rates well beyond the global norm. What does that tell you?
Thank you, Richard, for your resolute contributions.
Dear Richard, thank you so much for remembering, “Tank Man”.
There are few other recorded images in all of human history that will displace one of a single individual holding back FOUR ARMORED BATTLE TANKS just by standing in their way.
All of us in the West should be so fortunate as to have such courageous individuals sided with us as we enter this horridly uncertain future.
He lived for a while but the CCP brought in troops from a different region and turned them loose.
“He lived for a while but the CCP brought in troops from a different region and turned them loose.”
From my understanding, “Tank Man” (also known as the “Unknown Protester” or “Unknown Rebel”), was never properly identified and, just a quickly, snatched from the public eye and swept into the CCP’s capacious, corpse-laden, dustbin.
His death shall not be forgotten!
Trade War begins: US and China exchange $34 billion in tariffs
U.S. tariffs on $34 billion worth of Chinese goods kicked in on Friday, escalating a war of words between the world’s two largest economies into a full-blown trade conflict.
Washington’s 25 percent duties went into effect at midnight EDT and affected products such as water boilers, X-ray machine components, airplane tires and various other industrial parts. China immediately implemented retaliatory tariffs on its $34 billion list of goods issued last month, including soybeans, pork and electric vehicles. Beijing called it the “biggest trade war in economic history.”
It’s unlikely to stop there. In fact, there will be probably be “escalation upon escalation,” warned Geoff Raby, Australia’s former ambassador to China.
Ahead of the Friday implementation of American and Chinese tariffs, Raby told CNBC that “it looks like the first shots to the trade war are about to be fired.”
China, for its part, was already calling the tariff threats between Beijing and Washington a “trade war” in June.
https://www.cnbc.com/2018/07/06/trade-war-worries-us-china-tariffs-to-kick-in-on-friday.html
Trade Wars: Trump loads decisive volley against China
Washington (AFP) – Steep American tariffs on Chinese goods worth tens of billions of dollars are due to take effect at midnight Thursday, as US President Donald Trump fires the decisive salvo in a trade war between the world’s top two economies.
Beijing has vowed to retaliate dollar-for-dollar, “immediately” imposing counter-tariffs on American exports despite warnings the burgeoning conflict will send shockwaves around the global economy and strike at the heart of the world trading system.
En route to Montana aboard Air Force One on Thursday, President Donald Trump erased any hope of a last-minute change, confirming the China tariffs would indeed kick in at the stroke of midnight.
But in a fresh sign of industry’s unease, a business survey on Thursday again showed the US services sector already has experienced supply chain interruptions and rising costs due both to the looming tariffs and those already in place.
“We’re starting to see signs of inflation, not sharp inflation, but definitely
https://www.yahoo.com/news/trade-wars-trump-loads-first-volley-against-china-165021914.html
US and China exchange $34 billion in tariffs
Ya gotta be kidding me!!!
It’s more like a FEW HUNDRED BILLION DOLLARS in so-called “trade imbalance”. We’ll discuss later how this has massacred America’s Middle Class.
Solve this one deficit and Communist China goes away.
Don’t solve it and Communist China goes away…
Just not so nicely, eh?. Take your pick, just make it damned fast, emkay? Megamillions or megatons, your choice. Full Stop.
US trade deficit shrinks to lowest level in 19 months
(AP) — The U.S. trade deficit dropped in May to the lowest level in 19 months as U.S. exports rose to a record level. But the trade gap between the United States and China increased sharply, underscoring the economic tensions between the world’s two biggest economies.
The Commerce Department says the May trade deficit — the difference between what America sells and what it buys in foreign markets — fell 6.6 percent to $43.1 billion. It was the smallest imbalance since October 2016.
Exports climbed 1.9 percent to a record $215.3 billion. Imports were up a smaller 0.4 percent to $258.4 billion.
The United States imposed penalty tariffs on $34 billion in Chinese goods on Friday. China retaliated in kind, starting what Beijing called the “biggest trade war in economic history.”
http://www.businessinsider.com/us-trade-deficit-shrinks-to-19-month-low-2018-7
US trade deficit shrinks to lowest level in 19 months
TWO WORDS: Quelle surprise!
PS: Thank goodness for my high school French!
My junior high school French teach had a pet Ocelot that she brought to class!
China accuses US of launching the ‘largest trade war in history’; hits back with tariffs
China implemented retaliatory tariffs on some imports from the US on Friday, immediately after new US duties had taken effect.
The move signals the start of a full-blown trade war between the world’s two largest economies, after President Donald Trump’s administration had initially made good on threats to impose steep tariffs on Chinese goods.
http://www.asiaone.com/business/china-hits-back-tariffs-accusing-us-launching-largest-trade-war-history
China accuses US of launching the ‘largest trade war in history’…
Puhlease. Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, and, now, Red China? With all due courtesy (HAH!), just give everyone of us a brief, collective intake of breath or convulsive gasp, before we’re obliged to come out slugging against this new cadre of Commie thugs.
Emkay?
NR
Johns Hopkins Hospital buildings evacuated for possible tuberculosis contamination
Two cancer research buildings at Johns Hopkins Hospital were evacuated Thursday due to possible tuberculosis contamination, according to the hospital.
The Baltimore City Fire Department investigated the release of a small amount of frozen tuberculosis in a bridge between the two buildings in the 1500 block of Orleans Street, said Kim Hoppe, a spokeswoman for the hospital, in a statement.
There were employees in the area when the incident occurred, but hospital officials said they believe no one was exposed to the bacteria and they did not treat anyone after the sample was released.
“We have determined there is no risk involved,” said Dr. Landon King, executive vice dean of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.
King said the sample that leaked was “equivalent to a few drops.”
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/bs-md-ci-hazmat-20180705-story.html
US private citizen cites mystery illness symptoms after visiting China
A U.S. private citizen who visited China has reported symptoms like those of U.S. diplomats afflicted with a mysterious illness in Havana and Guangzhou, a U.S. State Department official said on Thursday.
The person, who was not named by the department official, is the first non-official American known to have experienced the symptoms following a trip to China. Nineteen private U.S. citizens have reported similar symptoms after traveling to Cuba.
Twenty-five U.S. officials in Havana and at least one working at the U.S. consulate in Guangzhou have been sent back to the United States after exhibiting symptoms consistent with a concussion or mild traumatic brain injury.
Many of them reported the mystery illness, whose cause is unknown, following an experience of abnormal sounds or pressure.
In a March 2 travel advisory, the State Department urged U.S. citizens to reconsider travel to Cuba, saying that “numerous U.S. Embassy Havana employees appear to have been targeted in specific attacks.”
“Affected individuals have exhibited a range of physical symptoms including ear complaints and hearing loss, dizziness, headaches, fatigue, cognitive issues, visual problems, and difficulty sleeping,” it added.
https://www.cnbc.com/2018/07/06/us-citizen-cites-mystery-illness-symptoms-after-visiting-china.html
US private citizen cites mystery illness symptoms after visiting China
Boy, howdy! This ain’t gonna be pretty. America does this so much more nastily than anyone else. Where’e the source of
well-chilled-speculumsspeculation?IDF deploys Iron Dome batteries in the south
“The IDF is prepared for several scenarios and ready to defend the citizens of the State of Israel and its sovereignty,” the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit said.
The IDF deployed several Iron Dome batteries in southern Israel Thursday following a situational assessment, the military told The Jerusalem Post.
“The IDF is prepared for several scenarios and ready to defend the citizens of the State of Israel and its sovereignty,” the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit said.
https://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Politics-And-Diplomacy/Defense-Ministry-carries-out-missile-test-from-central-Israel-airbase-561709
Vegans Are Rising in France
Angeline Benoit
(Bloomberg) — In the land of boeuf bourguignon and steak-frites, eating meat is turning controversial. Even selling it is becoming dangerous.
The vegan and animal welfare wave hasn’t spared France, where butchers and slaughterhouses are increasingly coming under attack. The French butchers’ lobby this week sought police protection after vegan activists stoned a butcher’s shop on Sunday. This followed incidents in April when some meat-selling shops were doused in fake blood.
“French consumers are finally waking up, decades after everybody else,” said Geoffroy Le Guilcher, author of a book on slaughterhouses and the publisher of another on animal rights activism. “A new generation of activists is making people realize that even in the land of meat, there is very little that makes the case for having it.”
https://www.bloombergquint.com/business/2018/07/06/vegans-are-rising-in-france
I always think it funny that the Animal welfare crowd seem all ok WRT halal slaughtering of animals seeing as they are part of the lunatic left like the feminists. I have seen not a little halal slaughtering and it was terrible compared to what we did back home as they enjoy torturing and terrifying the animals.
We always wanted to kill them quickly and cleanly so we didn’t have a hard time moving them to the area where we butchered them.
“The vegan and animal welfare wave hasn’t spared France, where butchers and slaughterhouses are increasingly coming under attack. ”
Perish the thought that COUNTLESS MILLIONS around the world would starve to death (and experience withering diseases) if forced over to a vegetarian or vegan diet.
China’s military reforms to ‘WIN A WAR’ and overtake the US revealed in leaked memo
CHINA’s military reforms have been revealed by leaked internal documents, which indicate Beijing intends to expand its military might offshore so that the country will be allowed to “manage a crisis, contain a conflict, win a war” and overtake the United States in military strength.
The leaked documents were published by the Central Military Commission in February for the purpose of spreading President Xi Jinping’s “thought on strengthening the armed forces”.
If the reforms go ahead, they will lead to heightened tensions with China’s neighbouring countries, including Japan, in the East and South China Seas and the US.
The documents read: “As we open up and expand our national interests beyond borders, we desperately need a comprehensive protection of our own security around the globe.”
The report adds a military expansion will allow China to “more effectively create a situation, manage a crisis, contain a conflict, win a war, defend the expansion of our country’s strategic interests in an all-round fashion and realise the goals set by the party and Chairman Xi”.
https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/984716/World-War-3-China-military-Trump-Xi-Jinping-US-win-a-war-in-leaked-memo-militarisation
Hardly a surprise but nice to see it on paper(??). As expected imperial china is lifting its head once again.
Yup, we are seeing the Ottoman Empire trying to reform, the Persian Empire trying to reform, Imperial China starting to make noises of conquest and Putin trying to reform the Russian Empire. Things are going to get very interesting before the world settles down into a new pattern.
I forgot Japan is rearming and India is building up their military.
The situation between India and China has calmed down but China is still making moves to be able to cut off India’s sea trade and India is still arming to fight back.
“The situation between India and China has calmed down but China is still making moves to be able to cut off India’s sea trade and India is still arming to fight back.”
Ain’t no way to put lipstick on that sow.
Two of this world’s largest populations are on a direct collision-course and no one seems overly concerned.
Is just another case of “Let’s you and him fight”?
Brute who stole teen’s MAGA hat, threw soda on him, arrested
By LU Staff July 6, 201
Yes, Trump haters, there is a price for assaulting people whose politics you disagree with. According to My San Antonio, Kino Jimenez, the 30-year-old thug who snatched the Make America Great Again hat word by a 16-year-old at a Whataburger, threw the teen’s drink at him, and haughtily announced, “This will burn good, bitch!” was arrested yesterday.
“You ain’t supportin’ sh*t, n*gger,” the man said while leaving.
According to Title 7, Chapter 31 of the Texas Penal Code, Jimenez is facing only a Class C misdemeanor, which applies to the theft of property, the value of which is less than $100. But if convicted, he will have a police record — if in fact he doesn’t already have one.
https://libertyunyielding.com/2018/07/06/goon-who-stole-teens-maga-hat-threw-soda-on-him-arrested/
Like I said, Kino ain’t playin’ Keno no-time-soon.
Emkay?
The one important detail liberals omit from every argument against Trump immigration policies
By Ben Bowles July 6, 2018
As CNN noted yesterday, the Trump administration is now performing DNA tests on adults and children separated at the border, reuniting families where there is match. CNN learned about the measure from an unnamed federal official, who explained:
While I wouldn’t expect liberals to applaud the move — partly because of their animus toward the president but also because CNN’s source was unable to confirm whether the samples were disposed of or retained — I might expect a measured reaction to it. The administration after all is moving expeditiously to reunite families while simultaneously ferreting out “non-families” for a closer look.
But the reaction from the Left has been anything but measured. Jennifer Falcon, a spokeswoman for Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services (RAICES), called the move deplorable, adding, “This is a further demonstration of administration’s incompetence and admission of guilt.”
Far-left Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) chimed in with an emotionally charged tweet:
https://libertyunyielding.com/2018/07/06/the-one-important-detail-liberals-omit-from-every-argument-against-trump-immigration-policies/
“… the Trump administration is now performing DNA tests on adults and children separated at the border… ”
Like that proverbial busload of lawyers on the lake’s bottom: It’s a good start.
Jim Jordan’s accusers have sketchy history, raising questions about their authenticity
By Daily Caller News Foundation July 6, 2018
Two former Ohio State University wrestlers accusing Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan of ignoring sexual misconduct by a university physician more than two decades ago have a history of failed business dealings, lawsuits, harassment allegations, and in the case of one accuser, an 18 month prison sentence for fraud.
One of the former wrestlers, Mike DiSabato, is also being accused by the widow of a Marine who was killed in combat in Iraq of intimidating and bullying her over a memorial fund set up in her husband’s name.
“I question the intent, the authenticity, the verity, that Mike DiSabato shares in any of his words or actions,” Karen Mendoza, the wife of Ray Mendoza — a former teammate of DiSabato’s who was killed in 2005 — said in a statement.
NBC News published an article on Tuesday, quoting DiSabato and Dunyasha Yetts, another former OSU wrestler, claiming that when Jordan worked as assistant wrestling coach at OSU, he ignored sexual abuse carried out by a university physician named Richard Strauss. (RELATED: Jim Jordan Accused Of Failing To Stop Team Doctor From Abusing Wrestlers)
https://libertyunyielding.com/2018/07/06/jim-jordans-accusers-have-sketchy-history-raising-questions-about-their-authenticity/
Fox News talks to Jim Jordan’s accuser
“One of the former wrestlers, Mike DiSabato, is also being accused by the widow of a Marine who was killed in combat in Iraq of intimidating and bullying her over a memorial fund set up in her husband’s name.”
Well, that certainly boosts all issues of DiSabato’s credibility. Eh?
Don’t get distracted: The Pruitt tenure is actually a lesson in how to win
By J.E. Dyer July 5, 2018
Scott Pruitt has resigned as EPA director, as Liberty Unyielding reported earlier today. After months of allegations against Pruitt, we know this about what he is actually guilty of:
Nothing.
About the motives, character, and misdirected credulity of a whole bunch of other people, on the other hand, we now know quite a lot.
We know a number of things Pruitt is not guilty of; e.g., for starters, this, and this. If everything he’s been accused of had to be aired and challenged in a courtroom, it’s a very good bet none of it would stand either the most basic evidentiary test, or a test of legal definition, as something the law even bothers with.
We’ll see if any of Pruitt’s opportunistic accusers cares to pursue the allegations any further and give him the day in court he has never had, to deal in actual evidence and proof.
https://libertyunyielding.com/2018/07/05/dont-get-distracted-the-pruitt-tenure-is-actually-a-lesson-in-how-to-win/
“Klayman Discusses Bill Shine Scandal on Savage Nation!”
Freedom Watch – July 5, 2018
fbicover-up.com
http://fbicover-up.com/
“Judge Brett Kavanaugh and the Murder of Vincent Foster”
USA Survival – Published on July 4, 2018
Who is Brett Kavanaugh?
Austria: ‘Preserving Iranian deal is in everyone’s security interest’ – Mogherini
The European Union’s Foreign Affairs Representative Federica Mogherini said the signatories of the Iran nuclear deal will work to preserve the agreement, in a statement following the ministerial meeting of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) commission, in Vienna on Friday.
Mogherini meets ministers for JCPOA talks on Iran nuclear deal
euronews – EU: ‘Political games blocking refugees’
As the EU focuses on curbing migration flows, one Afghan refugee in Belgium calls for more integration
euronews – Migration: EU and Austria ‘on same page’
euronews – French Constitutional Court sides with farmer who helps migrants
euronews – Give peace no chance Syrian talks doomed to fail in Geneva
The fourth round of UN-led peace talks on Syria are underway in Geneva with hopes for a political solution somewhere over the rainbow.
The UN special envoy for Syria, Staffan De Mistura, has been meeting with the Syrian government delegation, implacable as ever on the future of President Basher al-Assad, if not more so since events on the ground have shifted significantly back in his favour.
Spaniards divided over controversial Franco moment
BBC – Playing cards in Helmand under the Taliban’s nose –
Canadian PM Trudeau Addresses Groping Allegation
Pakistani Ex-PM Nawaz Sharif Sentenced to 10 Years in Prison – Reports (sputniknews, Jul 6, 2018)
https://sputniknews.com/middleeast/201807061066107969-pakistan-pm-sentence-prison/
“A Pakistani court sentenced the country’s former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to 10 years in jail and $10.5 million fine on corruption charges, Geo News broadcaster reported on Friday.
The ex-prime minister’s daughter, Maryam Sharif, was sentenced to seven years in jail and a $2.6 million fine, Geo News reported.
Nawaz Sharif and his family were sentenced over the acquisition of four apartments in London. The court reportedly ruled that the apartments should be seized by the government.
In 2017 Pakistan’s Supreme Court ruled to remove Sharif from office following a nearly year-long corruption investigation into his family, triggered by the publications of the Mossack Fonseca leaked tax haven schemes in the German Suddeutsche Zeitung newspaper. According to the outlet, Sharif’s two sons and daughter owned at least three offshore companies registered on the British Virgin Islands.
However, Sharif remained the head of the ruling party until February 2018, when the court ruled that politicians disqualified from holding public office also were not allowed to lead a party, forcing him to resign.”
Hungary Trolls Macron by Awarding Fired French Ambassador State Honour (breitbart, Jul 6. 2018)
https://www.breitbart.com/london/2018/07/06/hungary-trolls-macron-awarding-fired-french-ambassador-high-state-honour/
“Outgoing Ambassador of France to Hungary Éric Fournier has been awarded the Commander’s Cross of the Hungarian Order of Merit after he was removed from his position by Emmanuel Macron for praising Viktor Orbán’s migrant policies.
Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó handed the high state award to Ambassador Fournier at a ceremony on Friday for serving his post “in a period that was perhaps the most intensive in the global politics of recent decades”.
“Old alliances have been dissolved and new ones have been forged, and it is realistic to expect the processes of the upcoming years to be no less deep,” Mr Szijjártó stated.
The decoration was bestowed on Ambassador Fournier by President János Áder in acknowledgement of his activities relating to the development of Hungarian-French relations.
Breitbart London reported this week that France’s globalist President Macron replaced Fournier after a memo in which the diplomat praised the conservative Hungarian prime minister’s migration policy was leaked to the media…”
Hungary Trolls Macron by Awarding Fired French Ambassador State Honour
Too ridiculous for comment. OOPS!!!
French appeal of Hassan Diab release reportedly delayed
OTTAWA — A Paris court which was expected to issue a ruling Friday in the case of Ottawa academic Hassan Diab has delayed its decision until Sept. 28, according to a CBC News report.
Diab, 64, was suspected of being involved in the 1980 bombing of a Paris synagogue that killed four people, an accusation he has always denied.
France appealed a January decision to release Diab and send him home to Canada and three French magistrates at an appeals court in Paris were expected to rule on that appeal Friday. They said the case was pushed back to September because evidence supplied by Greek authorities had yet to be translated and handed to the parties involved in the case for review.
The RCMP arrested Diab, a Canadian of Lebanese descent, in November 2008 in response to a request by France.
In June 2011, Ontario Superior Court Justice Robert Maranger committed Diab for extradition despite acknowledging the case against him was weak. The following year, then-justice minister Rob Nicholson signed an extradition order surrendering Diab to France.
The Ontario Court of Appeal upheld both decisions and the Supreme Court of Canada declined to review the matter.
Diab’s supporters have long argued he was in Beirut — not Paris — when the attack took place and that his fingerprints, palm prints, physical description and age did not match those of the suspect identified in 1980.
In November 2014, Diab — who is back in Canada with his family — was sent to France, where he was held in solitary confinement for up to 22 hours a day. In January, French judges dismissed the allegations against Diab and ordered his immediate release.
Late Thursday, Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould said former Ontario chief prosecutor Murray Segal would lead an external review of Diab’s extradition.
Wilson-Raybould asked for an independent review of the extradition at the end of May to focus on whether the Extradition Act was followed in this case and if there are specific concerns that need to be addressed with regard to Canada’s extradition treaty with France.
The justice minister said Segal “will be given the tools, access and discretion necessary to conduct a thorough and independent review of the case.”
The sociology professor and his supporters have been urging the federal government to hold a full public inquiry into the case and to reform the Extradition Act to ensure individual rights are respected.
http://www.timescolonist.com/french-appeal-of-hassan-diab-release-reportedly-delayed-1.23359669
Hassan Diab extradition review to be led by Murray Segal, former Ontario deputy attorney general
Former Ontario deputy attorney general Murray Segal will lead an external probe into why Hassan Diab was extradited to France despite serious red flags raised repeatedly about the evidence presented by French prosecutors.
Diab, a former Canadian sociology professor, was released from a French prison in January 2018 after prosecutors there were forced by judges to drop terror charges against him because of a lack of evidence. He has since called for a public inquiry into the handling of his case.
In a press release Friday, officials with the Department of Justice announced plans to launch just that.
“The Minister has asked for this external review so that a thorough examination of the circumstances of Dr. Diab’s extradition to France can take place,” the press release said. “The review will focus on whether the Extradition Act was followed in this case and if there are specific concerns that need to be addressed with regard to our extradition treaty with France.”
Diab had been extradited in 2014 after France first claimed in 2008 it had evidence he was involved in a 1980 synagogue bombing in that country.
The former Conservative government agreed to extradite but Diab fought the order, claiming he would not receive a fair trial.
French courts, unlike in Canada, allow for the use of secret information which Diab’s lawyer argued would jeopardize procedural fairness.
But the Ontario Court of Appeal in 2014 upheld a ruling supporting the decision to extradite.
The Supreme Court declined to hear the case.
Diab was held without trial or bail for three years before a decision by French judges allowed him to be released and returned to Canada.
French police challenged that decision and according to a report by CBC News, a decision expected Friday on that matter has been delayed until September.
Since being released, Diab has repeatedly said he does not intend to seek a settlement from the Canadian government but called instead for a public inquiry.
It is not yet clear what the budget or timeline will be for the external review.
The press release said Segal “will be given the tools, access and discretion necessary to conduct a thorough and independent review of the case.”
In addition to serving as former deputy attorney general for Ontario, Segal was also the chief prosecutor for Ontario.
https://globalnews.ca/news/4316761/hassan-diab-extradition-review-murray-segal/
CBC – Decision in Hassan Diab appeal delayed after sudden appearance of new evidence
Delay comes as newly obtained court documents reveal holes in French case
The French court of appeal has delayed until at least September a key decision in the case of Hassan Diab — the Ottawa academic accused of a 1980 bombing in Paris — due to the sudden appearance of new evidence.
France had appealed a January decision to release Diab and send him home to Ottawa. Three French magistrates in Paris were expected to rule on the appeal Friday.
But instead of making a ruling, the judges said evidence supplied by Greek authorities had yet to be translated and turned over to parties involved in the case for review. They set the case over until Sept. 28.
It means another delay for the 64-year-old who’s been in legal limbo since he was arrested by the RCMP a decade ago at the request of French authorities.
“We waste time,” Diab’s lawyer William Bourdon said, voicing his frustration. He acknowledged there’s no guarantee Diab’s case will be settled this year.
The news reached Diab and his wife Rania Tfaily in their Ottawa apartment shortly after 3 a.m. today, when their phones starting pinging with text messages from their Paris lawyers.
“It’s really frustrating. What else can we do?” said Diab. “We did everything. ‘Frustrating’ is really a small word.”
Tfaily expressed deep distrust in the French legal process.
“They have had since 1980. Hassan has been arrested since 2008. So this is over ten years,” she said. “Should we wait for the next twenty years? Thirty years?”
Diab, a 64-year-old Ottawa university lecturer, was suspected by French authorities of involvement in the 1980 bombing of a Paris synagogue that killed four people and injured more than 40. Diab has consistently maintained his innocence.
He was arrested by RCMP in November 2008 and placed under strict bail conditions until he was extradited to France in 2014. Diab spent more than three years in prison in France before the terrorism case against him fell apart.
He was never formally charged.
‘A weak case’
This delay represents the newest twist in a case that has raised troubling questions about the standard of evidence required by Canadian law for extradition.
Robert Maranger, the Ontario Superior Court judge who ordered Diab’s extradition in 2011, wrote in his decision that France had presented “a weak case; the prospects of conviction in the context of a fair trial seem unlikely.”
Maranger ordered Diab’s extradition on the strength of handwriting analysis that allegedly linked Diab to the bomber. It was said to be the only piece of physical evidence linking Diab to the 1980 terrorist attack.
But in their January dismissal order — obtained by CBC News — the French investigative judges ultimately dismissed that evidence as unreliable.
The handwriting evidence was the subject of intense arguments between the prosecution and defence. Two French handwriting experts had compared writing on Diab’s university and immigration records to French documents thought to have been filled out by the suspected bomber.
Diab’s lawyer, Donald Bayne, successfully discredited those appraisals when defence experts questioned the methods and conclusions of the French experts. They also proved that some of the comparison samples used in the French analysis didn’t even belong to Diab but were actually samples of his ex-wife’s handwriting.
France — at the suggestion of a senior Canadian Department of Justice lawyer — then scrambled to commission a new handwriting analysis report — which also concluded Diab’s writing matched that of the suspected bomber. Department of Justice lawyers called this evidence a “smoking gun.”
‘Fatally flawed’
But defence experts argued the French expert behind this new handwriting analysis was “biased, unqualified, and based her conclusions on flawed methodology” and that her conclusions were “patently unreliable … wholly unreliable” and “fatally flawed.”
In January, the French investigative judges agreed, writing that the key evidence that led to Diab’s extradition “cannot be accepted as sufficient incriminating evidence.”
During the extradition hearings, Canadian courts were never allowed to consider key fingerprint evidence that could have tipped the odds in Diab’s favour. Under Canadian extradition law, the prosecution is under no obligation to present evidence that points to a suspect’s innocence.
But the French investigative judges did see that evidence. They noted that Diab’s fingerprints were compared to 16 different samples obtained from documents handled by the suspected bomber and a car he is believed to have rented. Not a single positive match was made.
The judges concluded that “the absence of Hassan Diab’s fingerprints among all those revealed … is unquestionably an essential element of discharge.”
Diab had an alibi
Another key factor in Diab’s release was the high probability that he wasn’t even in Paris on the day of the bombing. Using university records and interviews with Diab’s classmates, the investigative judges determined he was “probably in Lebanon” writing exams when the Rue Copernic attack happened.
“It is likely that Hassan Diab was in Lebanon during September and October 1980 … and it is therefore unlikely that he is the man … who then laid the bomb on Rue Copernic on October 3rd, 1980,” they wrote.
Some of the documents that outlined Diab’s university activities were in the hands of French investigators in 2008, but they weren’t translated until 2016 — eight years after France asked Canada to arrest Diab.
Diab was never allowed to present his alibi to Canadian courts because Canada’s extradition laws forbid the accused from calling evidence in their defence.
The French case against Diab also relied heavily on information obtained by French, German and Israeli intelligence services. Much of it came from unnamed sources, or was obtained through methods that were never shared with the court.
‘Contradictions and inaccuracies’
In their decision ordering Diab’s release, the French investigative judges described the intelligence information as “full of contradictions and inaccuracies” and concluded it could not “be considered as evidence to establish the guilt of Hassan Diab.”
The judges dismissed evidence that suggested Diab had links to a Palestinian extremist organization as uncorroborated. They also rejected Diab’s resemblance to police sketches of the bombing suspect, noting that another suspect — who was in Paris at the time — resembled the sketches “at least as much, if not more” than Diab did.
In the hours before this latest French court decision, Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould announced she had asked the former deputy attorney general of Ontario, Murray Segal, to conduct an external review of Diab’s extradition — a move Bayne called “fundamentally wrong and disappointing.”
Segal will be asked to assess whether Department of Justice officials followed the law and departmental procedures while conducting the extradition.
He also will assess whether government lawyers who handle extradition cases need to change their approach, and if Canada needs to address specific issues with France over that country’s treatment of Diab.
But Segal isn’t being tasked with a review Canada’s extradition laws — something that has been a key demand of Diab and his supporters. Segal’s authority also falls short of the judge-led public inquiry demanded by Diab, rights groups such as Amnesty International and some politicians.
“This is so fundamentally wrong and disappointing,” said Bayne. “As fine a fellow as Murray Segal is, he is not an independent judge. He’s a career prosecutor.”?
Bayne said the external review will not allow for a cross-examination of Justice Department officials in the way a public inquiry would.
“Where is Hassan Diab’s right to challenge what they did to him? Only a public inquiry can have credibility,” Bayne said.
Segal spent decades holding senior positions in the Ontario public service before leaving for the private sector, where he has worked as a lawyer, mediator and consultant.
He has led a number of high-profile reviews — notably the independent probe of the actions of Nova Scotia police and public prosecutors in the Rehtaeh Parsons case. He also has conducted reviews of CSIS and the Criminal Law Branch of British Columbia.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/diab-terror-verdict-france-1.4735097
SPAIN – Obama warns of ‘rise in nationalism’
MADRID, Spain (AFP) — Former US President Barack Obama warned in Madrid Friday of “a rise in nationalism” and the potential of new media to accelerate social divisions.
“We’re in a difficult time, politically, socially… people feel very anxious,” said Obama, who left office last year.
“Change is happening very quickly. People are wondering can I adapt to these changes? People are fearful,” the former president told an audience of 2,000 people at a conference in Madrid on technological innovation and the circular economy, which minimises waste.
“We see a rise in nationalism” Obama told his audience.
The world needs to consider how to use the new technology to improve lives and ensure that it “does not accelerate division”, he added.
“Today because of the internet and because of the multiplicity of media what we see more and more is that we don’t agree on the same reality.”
The former Democrat president highlighted in particular the US Fox News network. “If you watch Fox News you see a different reality than if you read the New York Times, he said.
“Climate change is not happening at all” in media like Fox.
This phenomenon “has been “exploited by some forces internationally”, which “feed their biases”.
The solution, according to Obama, is to train young people”to think differently”.
Obama, who was to travel on to Porto in Portugal on Friday to attend a climate change conference, has criticised his successor President Donald Trump for failing to consider scientific research on the subject.
http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/latestnews/Obama_warns_of_rise_in_nationalism?profile=1373
France: Emir praises ‘very very strong’ Franco-Qatari relationship
Emir of the State of Qatar Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani and French President Emmanuel Macron met in Paris on Friday as part of an official visit to the Republic.
The conference was held right before the quarter-final match between France and Uruguay and both heads of state were keen to mark the occasion.
“We spoke about a number of issues, but we have a problem about time, because we have only 30 minutes before the match and you have questions, but I only wanted to say that the relationship [between Qatar and France] is very very strong between the two countries and we are very proud of this relationship,” said Al Thani.
Al Thani is also the owner of PSG football and handball club and through his Qatar Investment Authority has invested heavily in sports at home and in France. Qatar already hosted the handball World Cup and the cycling World Championship, and will host the 2019 World Championships in Athletics, the 2022 FIFA World Cup and the 2023 World Aquatics Championships.
Macron was grateful of the investments made in France and said: “your commitment to French sport is a chance for France.”
Bergoglio to climate change experts: Need for systematic efforts toward integral ecology
Six sovereign wealth funds sign pledge to boost efforts to fight climate change
PARIS (AFP) – Six sovereign wealth funds including four Gulf states have pledged to boost efforts to fight climate change at a Paris meeting called by President Emmanuel Macron, the French presidential office announced on Friday (July 6).
The state funds of Kuwait, Norway, New Zealand, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates – global finance heavyweights mainly fuelled by domestic oil and gas revenue – promised to encourage the companies they invest in to tackle the rising threat of a warming planet.
The heads of the funds, which together are worth more than US$3 trillion (S$4 trillion), signed a charter to be unveiled on Friday evening at the Elysee palace.
In it, they agree to push companies to integrate the risk of climate change into their business plans and publish information on strategies to reduce carbon use.
“The transition to a low-carbon economy creates new investment opportunities,” the six funds said in the charter, adding that long-term investments could help finance the shift to greener energy sources.
They expressed hope that the agreement would help “tilt the trajectory of the world economy towards sustainable growth and avoid catastrophic risks for the planet”.
The funds first agreed to work together on environmental issues at the “One Planet Summit” in France in December, organised by President Macron after the United States pulled out of the Paris climate accord.
US President Donald Trump faced condemnation when he announced in June last year that the United States was abandoning the climate pact, painting the accord as a “bad deal” for the US economy.
https://www.straitstimes.com/world/europe/six-sovereign-wealth-funds-sign-pledge-to-boost-efforts-to-fight-climate-change
===============================================
Sovereign wealth funds gather in Paris to launch climate plan
At a summit today hosted by French President Emmanuel Macron and Norway Prime Minister Erna Solberg, sovereign wealth funds are set to embrace climate finance plans
Some of the world’s largest sovereign wealth funds (SWFs) are today expected to unveil a plan to integrate climate change into their investment process, at a green finance summit hosted by French President Emmanuel Macron.
The SWFs involved, which together manage $3tr, will lay out a pro-environment investment framework later today that is expected to have a major influence on the investment direction taken by other big asset managers.
Funds for Abu Dhabi, Kuwait, New Zealand, Norway, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar are all involved, and the Prime Minister of Norway Erna Solberg is also in attendance at the meeting of the One Planet SWF Working Group, which was formed last year at the One Planet Summit hosted by Macron.
The publication of the Working Group’s strategy document today will mark the first time SWFs have come together to develop a common framework for addressing climate risks through their decision making.
“By using the Framework, SWFs can reinforce their long-term value creation, improve their risk-return profile, and increase long-term portfolio resilience by factoring and integrating climate issues into their decision-making,” the founding members of the SWF said. “The One Planet SWF Group hopes that other long-term institutional investors will be able to make use of this Framework in the execution of their mandates and investment objectives.”
SWFs hold major sway in the global financial markets, with a few organisations controlling huge chunks of capital in comparison to the larger but more dispersed pension fund sector. They also work on longer term investment horizons compared to most insitutions.
“These are big institutions that can move markets,” notes Ben Caldecott, founding director of the Oxford Sustainable Finance Programme at the University of Oxford, in a piece for BusinessGreen today.
The framework is expected to advise that SWFs should report on their approach to tackling climate change, factor climate change-related risks and opportunities into their investment strategies to boost portfolio resilience, and encourage companies they invest in to address climate change.
It follows a wave of sovereign green bond issuances from a number of countries, including France, Hong Kong, and Fiji, as government’s seek to accelerate low carbon infrastructure investment.
https://www.businessgreen.com/bg/news/3035478/sovereign-wealth-funds-gather-in-paris-to-launch-climate-plan
Bwahahahahahahaha…
[gasp!]
Bwahahahahahahaha!!!
Bergoglio at Mass for Refugees: There is temptation today to build walls; poor are trampled
Controversial German author takes Random House to court after it axes his book on Islam
Publishing giant Random House has declined to release a new book by controversial German politician-turned-author Thilo Sarrazin over fears it could whip up anti-Muslim hatred.
The dispute, which will be heard before a court in Munich on Monday, revolves around Sarrazin’s new book “Hostile Takeover — How Islam Hampers Progress and Threatens Society”, Bild Zeitung reported on Friday.
In 2010 Sarrazin, a former central banker and Berlin state finance minister, published the incendiary book “Germany Does Away With Itself”, arguing that undereducated Muslim migrants were making the country “more stupid”.
The volume became a runaway bestseller and is now seen as having helped pave the way for the anti-Islam Alternative for Germany party which entered parliament last year with nearly 100 deputies.
The new book was to have hit shelves in late August and is billed as a critical close reading of the Koran.
Sarrazin, 73, told Bild that he had signed a contract with Random House in November 2016 on the basis of a 10-page expose and delivered the manuscript in February this year.
He did not discuss the size of his advance.
“After a lot of back and forth about the publishing date, the publisher said at the end of May that it would not put the book out at all,” he was quoted as saying.
Random House, which is owned by German media behemoth Bertelsmann, confirmed the dispute would be heard in court Monday but declined to comment on the specifics.
However Bild cited sources at the publisher as saying that the new book could “seize on and amplify anti-Islam sentiments”.
In a statement, Random House called the new Sarrazin book “unannounced” and said it had “neither the intention of stopping it nor blocking its publication”.
“The author is free to publish his book at any time with another house,” it said.
https://www.thelocal.de/20180706/random-house-axes-islam-book-by-controversial-german-author
==========================================
Random House axes Islam book by disputed German author
https://www.afp.com/en/news/2266/random-house-axes-islam-book-disputed-german-author-doc-1779822
WSJ – Will the FBI Come Clean?
Lawmakers demand the truth about the origin of the 2016 Trump investigation.
By Kimberley A. Strassel
In the trench war between congressional Republicans and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, we have arrived at a crucial battle. A House resolution sets Friday as the deadline for the Justice Department to come clean on the beginning of its investigation into the Trump campaign. We’ll find out if the FBI has been lying to the public.
That is, if the department complies. It has flouted so many subpoenas, and played so many games with redactions and deadlines, that the entire House GOP united last week to vote for the resolution demanding submission to Congress’s requests for documents. The vote was an order but also a warning—that this is the last chance to comply, and the next step will be to hold officials in contempt. It is a measure of the stakes that even that threat doesn’t guarantee cooperation.
At issue is the FBI’s “origin story,” in which it claims its full-fledged investigation into a presidential campaign was conducted, as it were, by the book. According to this narrative, the FBI did not launch its probe until July 31, 2016, only after Australia tipped it to a conversation junior Trump aide George Papadopoulos had with Australian diplomat Alexander Downer in the spring of 2016 in London. Only after this formal commencement of a counterintelligence probe—Crossfire Hurricane—did the FBI begin to target U.S. citizens with spying, wiretapping and other tools usually reserved for foreign infiltrators. Or so the story goes.
This account, relayed by the New York Times in December 2017, has proved highly convenient for the FBI. The Australian “government” connection allowed the bureau to infuse the meaningless Papadopoulos conversation with significance, justifying the probe. The origin story suggested the FBI had followed procedure. Mostly, it countered the growing suspicion that the bureau had been snooping on a presidential campaign on the basis of truly disreputable info—a dossier of salacious information compiled by an opposition research firm working for the rival campaign.
The story is full of holes, and they are widening. No one has explained why two months passed between the Papadopoulos-Downer conversation and the July 31 probe. We’ve learned that it wasn’t Australian intelligence that passed along the info, but Mr. Downer personally, to State Department personnel in violation of procedure. And a growing list of Trump officials now relate moments when they were approached by suspicious figures before July 31.
That’s why congressional investigators have come to suspect the real origin story is very different. They believe the FBI was investigating Trump officials well before July 31, on the basis of the dossier and dubious information from State Department officials. They think the bureau was employing a variety of counterintelligence tools before there was an official counterintelligence probe—and that this included deploying spies against political actors. They suspect that only when the FBI decided that it wanted to obtain a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act warrant against Trump aide Carter Page (which requires an official investigation) did it surface the Downer information (collected back in May) and make it the official pretext in July.
This theory is at the heart of the standoff with the Justice Department, which focuses on FBI actions prior to July 31. I’m told that multiple senior congressional members have repeatedly asked Justice Department leadership to affirm that the department had provided Congress everything relevant with regard to the Trump investigation. The department has said yes. Yet investigators have credible evidence pointing to the use of FBI informants against the Trump campaign earlier than July 31, and last week’s resolution requires the department to answer whether that is true, and if so, on what basis they were used.
The FBI and its media allies have waged a ceaseless campaign to lower the bar on what counts as appropriate.
We are told it is OK that the government opened a counterintelligence probe into a presidential campaign. OK that it obtained a warrant to spy on a U.S. citizen. OK that it based that warrant on an unverified dossier from the Democratic campaign, and then hid that true origin from the FISA court. OK that it paid a spy to target domestic political actors.
It’s not OK. Not so long ago, the FBI would have quailed at the idea of running an informant into any U.S. political operation—even into, say, a congressman under criminal investigation for bribery or corruption. These are the most sensitive of lines. But Mr. Trump’s opponents, in government and media, have a boundless capacity to justify any measures against the president.
If it turns out that the Justice Department and FBI lied about how and when this all started, that is scandalous. Worse if it comes out that senior officials lied to Congress about whether they had complied with its demands for information. And once again, it is a reason for Mr. Trump to step in and declassify everything.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/will-the-fbi-come-clean-1530833315
Is Tariq Ramadan a Victim of French Justice?
by Anne-Elisabeth Moutet
July 6, 2018 at 5:00 am
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/12647/tariq-ramadan-french-justice
French-bashing is one of the few pleasures still allowed in Europe nowadays, and it seems a bit unkind to deprive you of it. Sadly, a recent piece, by Peter Oborne, accuses the entire French justice system of treating Tariq Ramadan, the sometime academic, stealth Islamist, serial liar and alleged rapist, like a latter-day hero from Les Misérables, supposedly “rotting” in a French jail as a victim of the complete “abandonment of due process”. Not quite.
Ramadan, the grandson of Muslim Brotherhood founder Hassan Al-Banna, pretends to be “moderate”. Yet he has recently argued that FGM, for instance, is a cultural tradition of Muslims, or that corporal punishments including stoning of adulterous women in Islam ought to be the object of a “moratorium” to examine their implications (rather than banned). British Prime Minister Tony Blair apparently bought into the fiction that here was the kind of westernised Muslim he needed on an advisory board to his government; and Ramadan got a Qatar-financed chair of sorts at Oxford.
Early in 2018, Ramadan got caught in a #MeToo tsunami, with woman after woman coming forward to explain in strikingly similar terms how he used them for rough sex and threatened them afterwards should they dare to talk about it. (He denies the rough part; he has admitted to having sex with at least five of these women; and he has also admitted in judicial hearings that he has forked out €27,000 in hush money to his Belgian accuser.)
Not what the founders had in mind: Here’s where Maxine Waters lives. And here’s her congressional district
By LU Staff July 5, 2018
https://libertyunyielding.com/2018/07/05/heres-maxine-waterss-congressional-district-and-heres-where-she-lives-not-what-the-founders-envisioned/
Since yesterday was the Fourth of July, it is worth glimpsing back briefly at the founding of our nation and at what the founding fathers had in mind as a form of government that one of our greatest presidents would later describe as “of the people, by the people, for the people.”
One question that occurred to, but was dodged by, framers of the Constitution was how much members of Congress should earn for their service to the nation. According to the U.S. Senate archives, some founders believed that “because senators would probably come from the well-to-do classes, they should receive no salary at all.”
Who Died and Made the Supreme Court God?
To hear some liberals tell it, you would think that America is finished as a nation with the retirement of Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy. One such person tweeted: “Literally in tears. Haven’t felt this hopeless in a long time. With Justice Kennedy leaving, we now have two options as Americans: get fitted for your Nazi uniform or report directly to your death camp. How do you fight the darkness without light? My spark is going out.”
California Senator Kamala Harris said that Trump’s replacement for Kennedy (whoever that will be—unknown as of this writing) means the “destruction of the Constitution of the United States.”
These sentiments are terribly wrong on so many fronts. The founders created an experiment where “we the people” would govern ourselves. But in recent decades the high court has taken upon itself more power than King George III could possibly have lusted after. In fact, the swing voter on the Supreme Court—the now-retiring Anthony Kennedy—often experienced such power.
But the founders clearly felt that both a monarchy and an oligarchy (the rule by a few) were tyrannical. James Madison, a key architect to the Constitution, put it this way: “The accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive, and judiciary, in the same hands, whether of one, a few, or many, and whether hereditary, self-appointed, or elective, may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny.”
However, through the years, we have experienced the Supreme Court virtually governing our lives, and we assume that’s the way it is supposed to be.
https://eaglerising.com/60375/who-died-and-made-the-supreme-court-god/
“These sentiments are terribly wrong on so many fronts. The founders created an experiment where ‘we the people’ would govern ourselves.”
Full Stop. End of Line. One and Done.
That is why we fight.
“That is why we fight.”
Bless you, Richard. Please take that one all of the way home.
Out of context? Toulouse imam accused of inciting hatred against Jews
The imam of the mosque in the French city of Toulouse is being investigated for allegedly inciting hatred against Jews.
That’s after a video of one of his sermons sparked outrage and accusations of anti-Semitism.
Aldo Sterone – Mosquée de Toulouse : Appel à l’extermination des juifs
#WalkAway Campaign- WHY I LEFT LIBERALISM & THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY
Both John Wayne and Ronald Reagan started out as Democrats, they said that they didn’t leave the Democrats, the Democrats left them.
Henry Fonda(rampant democrat) and James Stewart (staid republican) made a movie together and over a cup of coffee had an argument about politics which Fonda (as expected) turned into a fist fight. It just shows how deep is the rot within such families. I find his RL char to be so “Once upon a Time in the West” as opposed to “the Fugitive”.
France in FLAMES: Second night of violence and riot chaos – Migrant youths BURN city with petrol bombs after Aboubakar incident
This is a pattern in France. When police act to enforce the law, violent riots (largely Muslim) break out. A similar incident took place in 2005, which set off an intense wave of violence and car burnings. This attrition and low grade civil war ebbs and flows, but it has remained a consistent terror of French life.
Police arrested at least 12 people during a second night of protests in the French city of Nantes. Demonstrators attacked riot police on Wednesday night, with the violence lasting through the night in the districts of Breil and Garges-les-Gonesse, among others.
Prime Minister Edouard Philippe, who was in Nantes on Thursday, condemned the violence. He also tweeted that “above all, it hurts the development of these districts and darkens the prospects of their residents.”
The protests followed the death of a 22-year-old man, identified by local media as Aboubakar F., who was fatally shot in Breil during a stop-and-search operation.
Democrats are fighting to bring this to our streets.
https://gellerreport.com/2018/07/france-youths-violence-burnings.html/
Mueller Expands The Witch Hunt
Time to put up or shut up — and shut down.
July 6, 2018
Joseph Klein
Special Counsel Robert Mueller is planning to expand his witch hunt. According to a Bloomberg News report, he is “tapping additional Justice Department resources for help with new legal battles as his year-old investigation of Russian interference with the 2016 election continues to expand.” He already has 17 prosecutors on his staff, many of whom have clear anti-Trump biases. From the investigation’s start in May 2017 through March of this year, Mr. Mueller’s own office has spent $7.7 million, on top of the $9 million spent by permanent Department of Justice units involved in the investigation. Mr. Mueller evidently wants to absorb some of the career prosecutors from the offices of U.S. attorneys and from Justice Department headquarters into his own operation or to outsource some of his work to them. Either way, instead of finishing his investigation “the hell up because this country is being torn apart,” as Republican Representative Trey Gowdy of South Carolina told Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein during a June 28 hearing, Mr. Mueller is busy growing his empire. The Justice Department has “reportedly budgeted $10 million for Mueller’s team to spend in the next fiscal year, which begins in October,” Time Magazine reported.
https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/270656/mueller-expands-witch-hunt-joseph-klein
Doxxing and Anti-Semitism Unprofitable as Univision Tries to Dump Gawker and Onion
July 6, 2018
Daniel Greenfield
Splinter has become more hysterical than ever. In a desperate bid for attention there has been doxxing and threats of violence. But the kinja is still going over the falls.
As I predicted, Univision wants to be out of the Gawker/Onion business. The reputational risk and economic hazard are not proving any more appealing.
https://www.frontpagemag.com/point/270659/doxxing-and-anti-semitism-unprofitable-univision-daniel-greenfield
“The reputational risk and economic hazard are not proving any more appealing.”
Boy, howdy! When will that become an industry watchword?!?
Will Our Current Political Conflicts Turn Violent?
Do today’s “woke” leftists really have the guts?
July 6, 2018
Bruce Thornton
President Trump’s recent string of wins ––especially the victories in the Supreme Court decisions and the retirement of Justice Anthony Kennedy–– has incited the Democrat “resistance” to even loonier excesses of rhetoric and rudeness. Celebrities indulging juvenile vulgarities, boorish protestors harassing cabinet members in public spaces, the twitterverse smoldering with calls for violence and a “summer of rage,” and the buffoonish Representative from California Maxine Waters calling for even more public harassment: all have some people worrying that we are on the track of escalating violence that will turn the “cold civil war” hot.
Count me as skeptical for now. As bad as today’s political discord may seem, American history from its beginnings has been filled with worse political conflict and violence, from Shays’ Rebellion to Bleeding Kansas, from the Wall Street bombing to the Haymarket Riot. And having spent more than forty years in the university, the nursery of leftism and today’s parlor pinks, I see few people with the gumption to actually back their blustering threats with risky action.
https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/270655/will-our-current-political-conflicts-turn-violent-bruce-thornton
He gives the reasons why he thinks the conflict won’t turn violent, the problem is he is leaving several things out of his calculations, probably because he hasn’t reached the point of believing them.
Yes we have had riots before but when those occurred we always (with the exception of the Civil War) knew that both of the major political parties were patri9otic and wanted to preserve the Union. We didn’t have the leaders of the Democrats (with the exception of the civil war) or the leaders of the Republicans (with no exceptions) call for the public harassment of their political opponents. We didn’t have politicians encouraging their followers to attack the supporters of their opponents. And back then we didn’t have a quiet coup in process, not even during the Nixon Watergate investigation (investigating a real crime) or the Clinton Investigation (investigating his perjury) no one was trying to frame a setting President of non existent crimes.
All off the above says that it is highly unlikely that a guerilla war won’t arise with supporters of the Republic being hunted by the left and the supporters of the Republic hunting the left. It is going to get ugly here and in Europe.
Italy Is Not Headed For Authoritarianism
… But chaos is thriving.
July 6, 2018
Michael Ledeen
Barbara and I are finishing up three weeks in Italy, and it’s not a happy place. But, for a long time, it hasn’t been nearly as happy as most Americans believed. It’s a deceptive place, where suffering is usually hidden by tough language, considerable charm, and extraordinary music. Italians are very dramatic, and those who spend time there (I’ve been at it for more than fifty years) often wonder if they are on stage or in the audience. Don’t forget that, just beneath the apparently cheerful exterior, there has long lurked one of the oldest traditions of political assassination in the world, from Caesar to the mafia.
It’s always been a tough place, remember that Italy invented fascism. And Hitler’s hero and inspiration was Mussolini. There are those who think that there is a fascist revival under way, but I don’t see it. I see chaos, populism, and all manner of social and economic programs, the outcome of which is unknowable. As usual, Italy is testing the political waters, as it always has. It’s Europe’s political laboratory.
There’s a new government, composed of big-talking leaders whose programs call for guaranteed minimum incomes,flat taxes, and much tougher border controls along the country’s ocean borders. The latter is highly contentious, and has produced a series of nasty meetings with EU leaders, notably the French. The Italians want other governments, from elsewhere in Europe to North Africa, to shoulder a greater share of the burden. So far, as you can well imagine, the various countries are far from agreement, although apparently on the 4th, a bilateral agreement with Libya to create a migrant center in that unhappy land was announced.
https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/270644/italy-not-headed-authoritarianism-michael-ledeen
The Chaos will increase and spread, this crisis is going to cause the EU to collapse and bring down the Global Economy (assuming other nations like China haven’t already done this). Once the chaos has become bad enough it will be called a series of civil wars as the patriotic Europeans try to save their nations and cultures.