Archive for June 2016

Exclusive — Donald Trump Plans To Continue GOP Legacy Of Leading On Women’s, Civil Rights Against Racist, Sexist Democrats

June 10, 2016

Exclusive — Donald Trump Plans To Continue GOP Legacy Of Leading On Women’s, Civil Rights Against Racist, Sexist Democrats, BreitbartMatthew Boyle, June 10, 2016

donald-trump-supporters-rally-associated-press-640x480AP Photo/Jae C. Hong

Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee for president of the United States, tells Breitbart News he plans to continue the rich GOP tradition of standing up for women’s and civil rights in the face of opposition from Democrats.

He also says he plans to help the Republican Party, which led the way on ending slavery, the Civil Rights movement and women’s suffrage and women’s rights—among other big picture moral leadership causes in American history—take more credit for its victories for women’s and civil rights while fighting Democrats who opposed those measures.

“You’re right—100 percent,” Trump told Breitbart News when asked about how the Republican Party led the way on ending slavery, the Civil Rights movement and women’s suffrage.

On Tuesday night, when now presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton assumed the leadership of that party, she whitewashed the Democratic Party’s history of racism, sexism, support for slavery and long history of standing against civil rights for all in America. In fact, as the first woman to win the presidential nomination of a major political party in America, Clinton attempted to align herself with the Seneca Falls convention of 1848, the first ever women’s rights convention organized in large part by Elizabeth Cady Stanton.

“Tonight’s victory is not about one person,” Clinton said in her speech accepting her role as the Democratic Party’s presumptive presidential nominee.

It belongs to generations of women and men who struggled and sacrificed and made this moment possible. In our country, it started right here in New York, a place called Seneca Falls, in 1848. When a small but determined group of women, and men, came together with the idea that women deserved equal rights, and they set it forth in something called the Declaration of Sentiments, and it was the first time in human history that that kind of declaration occurred.

Clinton did not mention Cady Stanton, or the fact that the women’s rights leader went on to become one of the nation’s first Republicans. In fact, Stanton’s husband Henry Brewster Stanton—a journalist and a New York State senator—was one of the nation’s leading voices for the abolition of slavery and helped found the Republican Party in New York back in 1856.

Later in the speech, Clinton took a shot at Trump, arguing that he wanted to send America backward—that his trademark campaign phrase “Make America Great Again” was code for taking the country back before all people had civil rights.

“Donald Trump is temperamentally unfit to be president and commander-in-chief,” Clinton said. “And he’s not just trying to build a wall between America and Mexico – he’s trying to wall off Americans from each other. When he says, ‘Let’s make America great again,’ that is code for, ‘Let’s take America backwards.’ Back to a time when opportunity and dignity were reserved for some, not all, promising his supporters an economy he cannot recreate.”

Never mind the fact that her own husband, former President Bill Clinton, used the phrase“Make America Great Again” multiple times back in the 1990s—a phrase first popularized by former President Ronald Reagan, who used the campaign slogan in his own successful 1980 White House bid—but Clinton is forgetting the history of her own political party. Clinton’s success is built out of a Democratic Party that rose to and clutched onto power by actively suppressing equal rights of not just women, but minorities as well.

Abraham Lincoln, the president who signed the Emancipation Proclamation abolishing slavery then led the country through the Civil War preserving the Union until his assassination, was a Republican. The general public often forgets how influential the Republican Party was in ending slavery—Democrats wanted to continue slavery, while Lincoln’s Republicans wanted to end it—and if it weren’t for the GOP, slavery would not have ended and the Union itself may have fallen apart.

“Some may not realize that the modern Republican Party owes its origin to the fight over slavery nearly two centuries ago,” CNN’s Tom Foreman wrote back in 2012.

In the tumultuous mid-1800s, right before the Civil War, some political activists were concerned about keeping slavery from spreading into new western territories, and they saw no way to stop it through existing political powers: the Democrats and the Whigs (the pro-Congress party of the mid 1800s that largely destroyed itself in the 1852 elections in a battle over slavery). So they formed a new party, taking the name ‘Republicans’ in a salute to earlier American politicians.

As Republicans led the battle against slavery, in 1861 the party’s first U.S. president—Abraham Lincoln—was elected.

“Soon after, slavery fell,” Foreman wrote.

The Whig party disappeared. And the Republicans began a long steady rise in power. Even back then, the party liked to talk about fiscal responsibility — immigration, religion — and the need for a strong business climate. All of this spurred a sympathetic Chicago newspaper to call the Republicans the Grand Old Party, or the GOP.

Republicans have led the way on every major civil rights movement in American history—ending slavery was hardly the only one. What is now the Party of Trump also led the way in granting women the right to vote. Elizabeth Cady Stanton, a leader in the women’s rights movement in the 19th Century, was a Republican, as was Susan B. Anthony. So were many of the others involved in the effort. In fact, it was Republicans who led the effort for decades that eventually saw passage of the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution—which granted women the right vote.

“Most educated Americans vaguely remember that the amendment granting women the right to vote was passed by Congress in 1919 and ratified by the states in 1920,” the American Spectator’s David Catron wrote back in 2012.

But the number of people who know anything about the forty-year legislative war that preceded that victory is smaller than the audience of MSNBC. That war began in 1878, when a California Republican named A.A. Sargent introduced the 19th Amendment only to see it voted down by a Democrat-controlled Congress. It finally ended four decades later, when the Republicans won landslide victories in the House and the Senate, giving them the power to pass the amendment despite continued opposition from most elected Democrats — including President Woodrow Wilson, to whom the suffragettes frequently referred as “Kaiser Wilson.”

Catron continued by noting that Republicans in Utah—Mormons—granted women the right to vote back in 1870. Then, for years afterwards, Republicans—facing objections from Democrats—over and over again introduced the 19th Amendment for ratification in Congress. Meanwhile, Republican states granted women the right to vote in many other places.

“Meanwhile, the Republicans continued to introduce the 19th Amendment in Congress every year, but the Democrats were able to keep it bottled up in various committees for another decade before allowing either chamber to vote on it,” Catron wrote.

In 1887 it finally reached the floor of the Senate. Once again, however, it was defeated by a vote of 34 to 16. After this setback, advocates of women’s suffrage opted to put pressure on Congress by convincing various state legislatures to pass bills giving women the vote. This met with some success. By the turn of the century a variety of Republican-controlled states, including Wyoming, Colorado, and Idaho, had granted women suffrage. During the first ten years of the new century, several other states gave women the vote, including Washington and California.

Eventually, Democrats relented and Republicans succeeded in granting women’s suffrage nationally.

“Congress, however, didn’t deign to vote on the issue again until 1914, when it was once again defeated by Senate Democrats,” Catron added.

It was subsequently brought up for a vote in January of 1915 in the House, where it went down by a vote of 204 to 174. Nonetheless, the Republicans continued to push even after it was defeated yet again in early 1918. The big break for 19th Amendment came when President Wilson, a true Democrat, violated his most solemn campaign promise. Having pledged to keep the United States out of the European conflict that had been raging since 1914, he decided to enter the war anyway. This set the stage for the 1918 midterm elections in which voter outrage swept the Republicans into power in both the House and the Senate. This finally placed the GOP in a position to pass the amendment despite Democrat opposition.

Later in the 20th Century of course, during the Civil Rights Movement, Democrats again stood against equal rights for all Americans regardless of race or gender. Writing in the Guardian of the landmark 1964 Civil Rights Act back in 2013, Harry Enten detailed how the Democratic Party opposed civil rights efforts while Republicans backed them.

“80% of Republicans in the House and Senate voted for the bill. Less than 70% of Democrats did,” Enten wrote. “Indeed, Minority Leader Republican Everett Dirksen led the fight to end the filibuster. Meanwhile, Democrats such as Richard Russell of Georgia and Strom Thurmond of South Carolina tried as hard as they could to sustain a filibuster.”

In fact, a PBS special on “The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow” detailed how systemic racism was embedded into the very fabric of what has now become Hillary Clinton’s Democratic Party.

“The Democratic Party identified itself as the ‘white man’s party’ and demonized the Republican Party as being ‘Negro dominated,’ even though whites were in control,” the PBS special writes on its website of the post-Civil War Democrats. “Determined to re-capture the South, Southern Democrats ‘redeemed’ state after state — sometimes peacefully, other times by fraud and violence. By 1877, when Reconstruction was officially over, the Democratic Party controlled every Southern state.”

The PBS special goes on even further to detail how even Northern Democrats tolerated the overt discrimination and racism from their Southern brethren so as to keep their coalition of power together. “The South remained a one-party region until the Civil Rights movement began in the 1960s. Northern Democrats, most of whom had prejudicial attitudes towards blacks, offered no challenge to the discriminatory policies of the Southern Democrats,” PBS writes.

A deeper more than 30-page report from the American Civil Rights Union (ACRU)—called “The Truth About Jim Crow”—details how the Democratic Party was integral to the development of such laws.

“Jim Crow’s political purpose was to keep the white population in power, and the Democratic Party thought of itself as the white man’s party,” one part of the more than 10-page-long section on how the Democratic Party pushed Jim Crow laws reads. “A chronological look at the Jim Crow era will illustrate how Democrats created and exploited Jim Crow.”

The report goes on to detail how it was Republicans who ended Jim Crow laws.

Trump, in his latest exclusive interview with Breitbart News, said that Clinton’s rewriting of her Democratic Party’s sordid history on these important narratives is more proof that she is just playing the woman card and the race card for pure political gain—and in opposition of the facts. He also believes that Republicans need to do more to take credit for the party’s leading role in the women’s rights, Civil Rights and slavery abolition movements—all movements the Democrats, the party of Clinton, originally fought against intensely.

“The Democrats have always played that card,” Trump said. “The Republicans have not taken enough credit for what’s taken place. They’ve never taken enough credit for what’s taken place.”

Trump told Breitbart News that he plans to win support across the country despite anyone’s particular race, and aims to seek support from Hispanics and African Americans and white voters alike—and men and women—using the same message delivered to each of them the same way, equally: Jobs and economic opportunity for all. Meanwhile, Clinton, of course, is going to use these race and gender issues to divide Americans into separate classes based on gender and skin color.

“I plan to help Hispanics and African Americans because I’m going to bring jobs back to the country,” Trump said.

She doesn’t know how. I’m going to rebuild the infrastructure of the country, she wouldn’t know where to start. That’s why a lot of the unions, the head people, they routinely endorse the Democrats. Routinely. And they’re having a hard time. Because while they’re dying to endorse the Democrats because that’s where their head people have their lunch and dinner, their membership wants to endorse Trump. Look at the Teamsters. The people within the Teamsters want Trump. They haven’t endorsed yet, and the reason they haven’t endorsed yet is because everybody in the Teamsters wants Trump. The reason they want Trump is because I’m going to rebuild the infrastructure of the country and that’s good for them. It appeals across the lines to people that have small businesses and contracting companies that are not unionized.

When asked about how—when those self-appointed leaders in the African American and Hispanic communities will certainly further the Democratic Party’s agenda and undermine the GOP’s efforts, facts be damned—he plans to get his message out to the actual voters, Trump said it is simple.

“I think that’s been my whole message up to this point,” Trump said. “I’m going to continue to hit it very hard. But I think it’s been very much my own message up to this point, jobs, good trade deals. Last night I talked about it. Great trade deals.”

There are some early signs that Trump—using his unique style of mixing interesting campaigning with his celebrity appeal—might be able to cut through the clutter and reach voters in African American and Hispanic communities that have for years now been outside the GOP’s grasp, despite the Democratic Party’s dark history on civil and women’s rights matters.

As noted by Fox News Latino, Trump’s support among Hispanics is spiking fast according to new data from analytics firm CulturIntel. In fact, he is almost equal with Clinton.

“Based on big data analysis over the last 30 days as of June 1st, Trump reports 37 percent of Hispanic positive sentiment versus 41 percent for Clinton,” CulturIntel writes in the report. “Surprisingly, the candidates tie in negative sentiment across Hispanics at 38 percent; discounting the fact that Latinos default as Democrats or are completely turned off by Trump’s off-color comments. After all, over 50 percent of Latinos identify as political independents.”

Meanwhile, as Gateway Pundit notes in a new report as well based off this and other data, Trump could be on par to win 25 percent of the black vote. It would, the report detailed, lead to a landslide victory for Trump in November. It would also be the first time since 1960, when Richard Nixon failed to beat John F. Kennedy for the presidency before coming back eight years later to win in 1968, that a Republican won such a big percentage of the non-white vote. With black unemployment rates double what they are for whites, according to the latest data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, if Trump hammers his jobs message—and corrects the record on Democrats versus Republicans when it comes to civil rights—maybe he could cut into a significant portion of the black electorate.

On top of all of this, as Breitbart News previously reported in an earlier part of this interview, Trump is also zoning in one place where failed 2012 GOP presidential former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney did not succeed: proving to voters he cares about them.

He said in this interview that he believes that to run the country, a president must “manage with heart”—a sign that he is appealing to the significant portion of the electorate that looks for a president who cares about people like them, qualifications be damned.

While Trump paints Clinton as “Heartless Hillary,” his second nickname for who he also calls “Crooked Hillary,” he could be growing the GOP tent and expanding the electorate based off key analytics that establishment Republicans in Washington, D.C., hellbent on amnesty for illegal aliens and jailbreak style “criminal justice reform” crime bills have completely missed.

First ever Israeli-Russian war game is coming

June 10, 2016

First ever Israeli-Russian war game is coming, DEBKAfile, June 10, 2016

Levyatan480

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu decided at their June 7 meeting in Moscow to deepen the military ties between the Russian and Israeli armed forces, DEBKAfile reports exclusively from is military and intelligence sources. It was a historic decision that spells the end of the IDF’s unique relationship with the US military.

The head of the IDF’s military intelligence branch, Maj. Gen. Hertzi Halevi, and Mossad chief Yossi Cohen also participated in the meeting.

Our sources report that Putin and Netanyahu decided that a joint exercise by the Israeli and Russian naval and air forces will be held this summer as part of the first stage of expanded ties.

It will mark the first time in modern Middle East military history that Russian military planes take off from an Arab country, Syria’s Hmeymim airbase, and Russian warships sail out of their bases in Tartus and Latakia, for joint maneuvers with the Israeli air force and navy.

DEBKAfile’s military sources add that, ahead of the exercise, the joint mechanism that coordinates Russian and Israeli air flights in Syrian airspace will be expanded.

According to those sources, the bilateral decision for the joint war game was tied to an agreement to allow Russian gas companies to compete for contracts to develop Israel’s Leviathan and Tamar offshore gas fields.

Netanyahu said June 7 in Moscow, “Our doors are open now to all companies from all countries that have substantial experience in developing gas fields, including Russia of course.”

Putin had tried repeatedly to win a foothold for Russian companies, especially energy giant Gazprom, in the development of Israel’s offshore gas fields and export industry. The Russian leader tried to convince Netanyahu by saying that the presence of the Russian navy and air force in the area would guarantee that no Arab or Muslim military force, such as those of Iran, Syria and Hizballah, would attack the gas fields.

DEBKAfile’s military sources point out that increased cooperation between the navies of the two countries could serve as a basis for regional and economic cooperation and for the defense of any future Gazprom energy infrastructure in the Mediterranean.

In the long term, the combination of Russia’s massive warships and Israel’s smaller and faster vessels built for rapid response to any attack along its coast, may provide an effective defense of energy assets in the Mediterranean basin, especially in the region of Cyprus, Greece, Turkey and Israel.

These assets would include shipping routes, drilling platforms, gas pipelines and undersea optic cables, among others.

Alongside the advantages, cooperation with a world military power like Russia holds operational, intelligence, tactical and strategic risks.

Although the joint exercise will be of limited scope, it needs advance preparation, a careful division of tasks, missions and resources, assignment of flight paths and sea routes, and goals preset as benchmarks for measuring the joint drill success. Radio and other communication networks must be set up and the degree of intelligence sharing determined. Both the Russian military and the IDF appreciate that this shared maneuver may result in mutual exposure of some of their military secrets.

To play it as safe as possible, Putin and Netanyahu decided to hold their joint exercise high in the sky and far out at sea, in an effort by both to guard their military secrets as far as possible.

ABC: Major Clinton Donor Placed on Sensitive Intelligence Board Despite No Experience

June 10, 2016

ABC: Major Clinton Donor Placed on Sensitive Intelligence Board Despite No Experience, ABC News via YouTube, June 10,  2016

The Death of Free Speech in Europe

June 10, 2016

The Death of Free Speech in Europe, Gatestone Institute via YouTube, June 9, 2016

Cartoons of the Day

June 10, 2016

H/t Freedom is Just Another Word

Bernie and Hillary

 

H/t Vermont Loon Watch

red-lines

 

H/t Vermont Loon Watch

wedding

Liberal Esquire writer visits the border, comes back supporting the wall

June 10, 2016

Liberal Esquire writer visits the border, comes back supporting the wall, American ThinkerThomas Lifson, June 10, 2016

A little knowledge and experience go a long way.  Let’s hope the Trump campaign notices.  Truth Revolt reports:

This week on MSNBC’s Morning JoeEsquire Editor-in-Chief Jay Fielden describes sending one of his liberal journalists to the U.S.-Mexico border to find out what the locals are saying about illegal immigration. The journalist came back agreeing with Donald Trump saying, “Build that wall.”

Fielden went into detail about this accidental journalism:

“You gotta go down there with no preconceived notions, right, just an empty notebook. Go to my former home state and walk the border, drive the border 800 miles and talk to whoever you see and let them tell us what they think about what’s really going on — whether we need a wall, in fact. Instead of hearing it from the debate stage, let’s hear it from the people who are down there everyday.”

The locals’ conclusion? “They said, ‘Build the wall,'” according to Fielden. “They said two things — whether Hispanic, Anglo, Democrat, Republican, uncommitted, clueless, whatever — they said, ‘We want a wall and yet, we want it to be married with some compassion for the people we’re trying to keep from jumping over the wall.'”

The Esquire article explains that Hispanics are the ones who are less sympathetic about illegals crossing the border, far more so than whites. Fielden said they view the situation as unfair because many first generation immigrants came over the legal way and are now having to compete for jobs with those doing it illegally on a daily basis.

“Let ’em get in line,” he said, quoting one local legal immigrant.

Here’s the segment:

The notion that Hispanics who came here legally are disadvantaged by illegal immigration is a powerful one that should resonate among all Americans, including African-Americans.  It turns Donald Trump from a racist into a defender of poor people who play by the rules.

 

Moscow warns of response after US sends destroyer to Black Sea

June 10, 2016

American warships entering the Black Sea will prompt “response measures” from Moscow, a top Russian diplomat has warned, adding that another US aircraft carrier in the Mediterranean is clearly an attempt to show force ahead of an upcoming NATO summit.

Source: Moscow warns of response after US sends destroyer to Black Sea — RT News

© Maritime Staff Office of the Defense Ministry of Japan / Reuters

American warships entering the Black Sea will prompt “response measures” from Moscow, a top Russian diplomat has warned, adding that another US aircraft carrier in the Mediterranean is clearly an attempt to show force ahead of an upcoming NATO summit.

The USS Porter (DDG-78), armed with assault cruise missiles and an Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense System (primary weapon: Standard Missile 3), entered the Black Sea this week.

American warships do enter the Black Sea now and then. Certainly, this does not meet with [Russia’s] approval and will undoubtedly lead to planning response measures,” Andrey Kelin, the head of the Russian Foreign Ministry’s European Cooperation Department, told RIA Novosti on Friday.

He also disapproved of the deployment of the USS Harry S. Truman in the Mediterranean ahead of the NATO summit in Warsaw in July as muscle-flexing.

“There is nothing special about the movement of US vessels in this case. We know that aircraft carriers are moving in the Mediterranean Sea and elsewhere, they have a right to do so, this is freedom of navigation,” he said.

“But in general, this is a definite increase in [Russia-US] relations and all this is done ahead of the NATO summit in Warsaw – this is a demonstration of force,” he added.

The NATO summit will be held in Polish capital Warsaw on July 8-9, preceded by a series of large-scale war games in Eastern Europe and the Baltic states. The largest training exercise is taking place in Poland, where over 31,000 troops from 24 countries are taking part in NATO’s Anaconda 2016 war drills – the largest war games in Eastern Europe since the Cold War.

The Anaconda 2016 NATO military exercise involves 24 NATO and “partner nations,” including the US, the UK, Germany, Canada, Spain, Sweden, Turkey and others.

NATO has been signaling Moscow to hold another meeting ahead of the Warsaw gathering, although Russia is still considering the proposal and a final decision has not been made yet, Kelin said.

US-led NATO has been in more frequent contact with the Russian military following the disruption of relations that resulted from the reunification of the Crimea Peninsula with Russia in March 2014.

NATO decided to break off all contact with Russia in 2014, when Viktor Yanukovych was ousted as Ukraine’s president during the so-called Euromaidan riots. A NATO-Russia Council meeting was held in June 2014, but the council was then subject to a lengthy break and meetings have only recently restarted.

“We will see how things move forward. But overall, we can absolutely not give up on the most important channel of cooperation and dialogue,” RIA Novosti quoted Kelin as saying.

Hamas tests dozens of rockets

June 10, 2016

Hamas test-fires 32 rockets in attempt to improve capabilities The terrorist organization continues its attempts to improve the accuracy of its rocket technology, as it test-fired dozens rockets today.

Jun 10, 2016, 1:00PM

Becca Noy

Source: Hamas tests dozens of rockets | JerusalemOnline

Archives Photo Credit: Reuters/Channel 2 News

Today (Friday), Hamas tested 32 rockets by launching them into the sea. These tests further prove that the terrorist organization is still attempting to improve its rocket capabilities, despite the fact that Egypt has increased its efforts to thwart attempts to smuggle weapons from the country into Gaza.

Due to Egypt’s measures, Hamas has been forced to establish a local military industry by using dual-use materials and chemicals that can still be smuggled into Gaza. Just last month, it was reported that the Crossings Authority and Shin Bet foiled an attempt to smuggle supplies and weapons for creating rockets and building tunnels into Gaza. The shipment that was seized at the Tarkumiya Crossing near Hebron was intended for terrorist organizations in Gaza, according to suspicions.

The last time a rocket was fired from Gaza into Israel was in May, when a rocket fell in an open field in Sha’ar HaNegev Regional Council. No injuries or damages were caused by this rocket.

WATCH: US urges Israel to avoid ‘escalating tensions’ after attack

June 10, 2016

US urges Israel to avoid ‘escalating tensions’ after attack After Jerusalem announces slew of measures, State Department says it should also consider ‘the impact on Palestinian civilians’

By Sue Surkes

June 10, 2016, 12:03 am

Source: WATCH: US urges Israel to avoid ‘escalating tensions’ after attack | The Times of Israel

 

The US State Department called on Israel on Thursday to take into account “the impact on Palestinian civilians” in its response to Wednesday’s terror attack at Tel Aviv’s Sarona Market, in which four people were killed and 16 injured, three of them seriously.

Spokesman Mark Toner was responding to questions about a slew of measures announced by the Israeli security cabinet in the wake of the attack.

 The measures agreed upon at the cabinet meeting included revoking work permits from family members of the terrorists and canceling all permits for West Bank and Gaza Palestinians to visit Israel during the month of Ramadan. Meanwhile, Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman announced that Israel would stop returning the bodies of Palestinian attackers to their families for burial.

Toner called on Israel to respond to the shooting “would be designed to not escalate tensions any further, but we certainly respect their desire to express outrage and to protect the safety of their people.”

Pressed about the decision to withhold the bodies of attackers, he said that Israel “obviously should weigh” whether the steps it takes will exacerbate the conflict. Still, he said, “we understand” why Israel would adopt measures such as revoking entry permits and beefing up its presence in Palestinian areas.

“We understand the Israeli government’s desire to protect its citizens after this kind of terrorist attack and we strongly support that right, but we would hope that any measures it takes would also take into consideration the impact on Palestinian civilians who are just trying to go about their daily lives,” he said.

Earlier in his briefing, Toner said he condemned the terrorist attack “in the strongest possible terms,” adding, “These kinds of attacks can never be justified.”

International condemnations poured in in the hours following the attack.

The European Union said in a statement that “Wednesday night’s terror attack in the Sarona complex in Tel Aviv exposed scores of innocent civilians and families to indiscriminate fire. Four people were killed and more seriously injured. Our thoughts are with the families of the dead and injured.”

“Those responsible for these murders must be brought to justice,” the EU continued. “Those who praise this attack must be condemned.”

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in a statement denouncing the shooting that “there is no justification for terrorism nor for the glorification of those who commit such heinous acts.”

“The Secretary-General is shocked that the leaders of Hamas have chosen to welcome this attack and some have chosen to celebrate it,” Ban’s office said in a statement. “He calls upon the Palestinian leadership to live up to their responsibility to stand firmly against violence and the incitement that fuels it.”

GOP Advocates for Strong NATO, More Active America

June 10, 2016

GOP Advocates for Strong NATO, More Active America Internationally

BY:
June 9, 2016 4:40 pm

Source: GOP Advocates for Strong NATO, More Active America

Paul Ryan / AP

Fresh policy agenda nudges Trump on foreign policy

Republican lawmakers led by House Speaker Paul Ryan (R., Wis.) unveiled a foreign policy agenda that makes the case for a more active America abroad and a strong NATO, running counter to some of the proposals of presumptive nominee Donald Trump.

Leading Republicans offered a strong rebuke of President Obama’s “lead from behind” foreign policy agenda in a 23-page policy document rolled out Thursday that argues for a strong NATO presence in Europe and underscores the importance of transatlantic alliances to defend freedom and advance American interests around the globe. The agenda calls for the reassertion of America’s presence internationally to ensure that “power vacuums” aren’t created and then filled by terrorists and other adversaries.

“In the past seven years, our friendships have frayed, our rivalries have intensified. It’s not too much to say that our enemies no longer fear us and too many of our allies no long trust us. And I think this is the direct result of the president’s foreign policy,” Ryan said Thursday during the rollout event at the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington, D.C.

“All he did was create a void, or really, he created many voids around the world and now our enemies are stepping in to fill those voids. This is what happens when America does not lead.”

The agenda was developed by the GOP’s Task Force on National Security, a group of committee chairs convened this year to develop proposals to influence the foreign policy of the next commander in chief, particularly if a Republican wins the White House.

The rollout comes as Trump receives scrutiny for his foreign policy positions. Trump has said that NATO is “obsolete,” that he would not have intervened in the Syrian civil war, and that he would make other countries pay for defense aid. Critics have described Trump’s foreign policy as isolationist.

The agenda unveiled by Ryan, House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R., Calif.), and others on Thursday makes the case for an America more engaged in the world’s challenges. It addresses a number of national security issues including terrorism, border security, and the need to strengthen the U.S. military, and particularly emphasizes the need for firm ties with America’s closest allies in Europe.

“U.S. forces should maintain a strong NATO presence in Europe, particularly by providing training and assistance to East European member states to strengthen the alliance’s deterrent on its frontier,” the document states. “We must also press our allies to increase defense spending and military readiness, recognizing that NATO cannot be held together by a few main contributors and depended upon by a wider group of free-riders. States should meet their commitments so the alliance remains credible and effective. We also will seek to modernize NATO to ensure it keeps pace with the evolving threat landscape.”

The agenda also underscores the need for organizations such as NATO to “be more actively brought into the fight” against terrorist groups such as ISIS in the Middle East.

Trump has criticized NATO on a number of occasions, accusing member countries of “not paying their fair share” during an April rally in Wisconsin.

“That means we are protecting them, giving them military protection and other things, and they’re ripping off the United States. And you know what we do? Nothing,” Trump said then. “Either they have to pay up for past deficiencies or they have to get out.”

“And if it breaks up NATO, it breaks up NATO,” he added.

Trump has drawn criticism for complimenting Russian President Vladimir Putin, indicating that he would be open to talks with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, and advocating for outlawed interrogation techniques such as waterboarding.

Republican Reps. Robert Goodlatte (Va.), Michael McCaul (Texas), Jeff Miller (Fla.), Ed Royce (Calif.), Mac Thornberry (Texas), and Devin Nunes (Calif.), all of whom are committee chairs, joined Ryan and McCarthy on Thursday.

The lawmakers sidestepped opportunities to criticize Trump’s foreign policy during discussion of their proposed agenda, emphasizing that the document can serve as a guide for the next administration to better enforce national security and advance American interests internationally.

“I can’t comment on his world view or anybody else’s,” Thornberry said when asked by MSNBC reporter Andrea Mitchell, the moderator, about Trump’s suggestion that we leave alliances such as NATO. “What we lay out today talks about the importance of alliances. As frustrating as it can be to work with allies—and we encourage, for example, our European allies to do more, to contribute more to our joint defense efforts—but whether you’re talking about the Pacific, the Middle East, Africa, or Europe, alliances are essential. We’ve got to be a good ally.”

“There are more questions than ever about how reliable we are as an ally,” Thornberry continued.

McCaul took a harder line responding to Trump’s proposal to temporarily ban Muslims from entering the United States in an effort to stop Islamic extremists from entering the country.

“You can’t ban an entire race or a religion from coming into the country. What you need is a proper vetting system,” McCaul said. “This is a document that we hope the nominee will read and take attention to. There are ways to properly vet and protect threats from coming into the United States without just a swath of a ban against any race or religion.”

“I’ve always said that we have to be careful in our rhetoric because that can inflame the Muslim community and it can, in fact, help their recruiting efforts in some respects,” McCaul later said.

Trump is expected to be officially named the GOP nominee for president at the party’s convention in Cleveland next month. However, the business mogul’s recent comments about a judge being biased because of his Mexican heritage have stirred speculation about efforts to deny Trump the nomination.