Archive for November 2017

BREAKING: Palestinians freeze ties with US

November 21, 2017

November 21, 2017

Latest News from Israel

Palestinian foreign minister Riad Malki (AP/Nasser Nasser)

The Palestinians are reportedly following through with their threat to sever ties with the US after Washington orders closure of the PLO mission in the American capital.

By: World Israel News Staff and AP

The Palestinian Authority (PA) has announced it is freezing all ties with the US as a result of the  State Department’s announcement on Friday that the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) can no longer operate its Washington office.  The US decision followed the Palestinian move to petition the  International Criminal Court (ICC) to prosecute Israelis for alleged crimes against Palestinians.  Washington says that the Palestinian action violated its legal mandate and resulted in the mission closure.

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson determined that the Palestinians crossed that line in September, when Palestinian Authority (PA) head Mahmoud Abbas called on the court to investigate and prosecute Israelis, according to State Department officials. They weren’t authorized to publicly discuss the situation and spoke on condition of anonymity.

Under the law, Trump now has 90 days to consider whether the Palestinians are in “direct and meaningful negotiations with Israel.” If Trump determines they are, then the mission can reopen.

Palestinian foreign minister Riyad al-Malki told AFP on Tuesday that “by closing the office they (The US) are freezing all meetings and we are making that official.”

A PLO spokesman confirmed that it had received instructions from PA head Mahmoud Abbas “regarding closing down all communication lines with the Americans.”

Cutting off ties carries great risks for the Palestinians. It  raises questions about the veracity of the anticipated US Middle East peace plan. It could also antagonize the Trump administration and result in cancellation of US aide to the Palestinians.

Following the initial US announcement about the closure of the PLO office in Washington, the Israeli prime minister’s office issued a statement saying, “we respect the decision and look forward to continuing to work with the US to advance peace and security in the region.”

 

A Familiar Judge Wastes More Of Our Time Over Sanctuary City Orders

November 21, 2017

A Familiar Judge Wastes More Of Our Time Over Sanctuary City Orders, Hot Air, Jazz Shaw, November 21, 2017

Judge William Orrick III is certainly making a name for himself and becoming a hero of the #RESIST movement, but if he continues to have his findings overruled upon review it may not do much for his career. It’s also worth noting that prior to taking the bench, Orrick had a long history as a generous political donor while he was working as an attorney in the private sector. A quick look at Open Secrets shows the lengthy list of politicians who have benefitted from his generosity.

Wouldn’t it be shocking to find out that they were all conservatives and Republicans? Naw… just kidding. He gave to Hillary Clinton (2006), Rahm Emanuel, the Democratic Party of Iowa, John Kerry, Dianne Feinstein, Bill Clinton (multiple times), Barack Obama in 2004… shall I go on? I think you get the idea.

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Here we go again.

A judge in northern California has stepped in to “permanently” block one of President Trump’s orders regarding Justice Department grant money for sanctuary cities which refuse to uphold the law. This action will obviously be appealed, as several other such rulings have been, but for the time being, District Court Judge William Orrick III scores himself another turn in the headlines. (Associated Press)

A federal judge on Monday permanently blocked President Donald Trump’s executive order to cut funding from cities that limit cooperation with U.S. immigration authorities.

U.S. District Court Judge William Orrick rejected the administration’s argument that the executive order applies only to a relatively small pot of money and said Trump cannot set new conditions on spending approved by Congress.

The judge had previously made the same arguments in a ruling that put a temporary hold on the executive order targeting so-called sanctuary cities. The Trump administration has appealed that decision to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

It’s a stretch of the imagination to declare it a coincidence that this is the same judge they found to block a different sanctuary city order back in April. And given the location where the case was heard, the first round of appeals will go to the 9th Circuit, which means the ruling will probably go to the Supreme Court eventually. Much like the travel ban, it’s clear that you can eventually find a judge to rule however you like, providing you’re willing to shop around.

The decision itself remains just as dubious as the previous ruling. Orrick is claiming that the President doesn’t have the authority to repurpose funds which Congress has already authorized. That’s vague at best and seems to ignore the fact that we’re talking about money given to the Executive Branch for the purpose of issuing grants. That means there’s an application process (which we’ve covered here before) and not everyone who applies for one will receive the funding. Further, it’s the Justice Department who determines the criteria for receiving such grants. Congress simply made the funding available to set up and maintain the program.

Judge William Orrick III is certainly making a name for himself and becoming a hero of the #RESIST movement, but if he continues to have his findings overruled upon review it may not do much for his career. It’s also worth noting that prior to taking the bench, Orrick had a long history as a generous political donor while he was working as an attorney in the private sector. A quick look at Open Secrets shows the lengthy list of politicians who have benefitted from his generosity.

Wouldn’t it be shocking to find out that they were all conservatives and Republicans? Naw… just kidding. He gave to Hillary Clinton (2006), Rahm Emanuel, the Democratic Party of Iowa, John Kerry, Dianne Feinstein, Bill Clinton (multiple times), Barack Obama in 2004… shall I go on? I think you get the idea.

So we’ll apparently put the brakes on any progress in enforcing immigration law for the time being. And the to-do list for the Supreme Court grows even longer.

Uranium One Noose is Tightening

November 21, 2017

Uranium One Noose is Tightening, American ThinkerThomas Lifson, November 21, 2017

This official reticence, whatever its origin, will be overcome as Sullivan’s cache of 50,000 documents leaks out bit by bit.  Attorney Toensing [counsel to the informant] knows exactly what she is doing here, and how outside pressure can affect the grinding of the gears of justice.

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Now that the FBI’s informant on the Uranium One deal has been outed and the nondisclosure agreement formerly muzzling him abrogated, it is possible to see the outlines of the devastating case to be made against not just Hillary Clinton, but the entire Obama administration. Two intrepid reports, John Solomon of The Hill and Sara Carter of Circa News and Sinclair Broadcasting, are gaining access to some of the reported 50,000 documents in the possession of William Campbell, the whistleblower who went to the FBI with the scary details of what appeared to him to be an illegal attempt by Russian entities to take over the world uranium market, including even the uranium resources in our ground.

Reporting in The Hill, Solomon calls our attention to what could be a key to understanding the magnitude of the scandal:

Campbell, who was paid $50,000 a month to consult for the firm, was solicited by Rosatom colleagues to help overcome political opposition to the Uranium One purchase while collecting FBI evidence that the sale was part of a larger effort by Moscow to make the U.S. more dependent on Russian uranium, contemporaneous emails and memos show.

“The attached article is of interest as I believe it highlights the ongoing resolve in Russia to gradually and systematically acquire and control global energy resources,” Rod Fisk, an American contractor working for the Russians, wrote in a June 24, 2010 email to Campbell.

The Russian plot to “control global energy resources” was reported by Campbell to the FBI a year prior to approval of the acquisition. There is every reason to expect – and the proof would be available to congressional investigators or (cough) a special counsel or US attorney – that this information was passed up the chain to AG Eric Holder and even President Obama. Yet, CFIUS – the group of agency head that must approve such transactions on which Holder and Hillary sat – went ahead and approved this sale that the US knew was part of a Russian plot to control the world uranium and energy markets.

Justice Department officials confirmed the emails and documents gathered by Campbell, saying they were in the possession of the FBI, the department’s national security division and its criminal division at various times over the last decade. They added that Campbell’s work was valuable enough that the FBI paid him nearly $200,000, mostly for reimbursements over six years, but that the money also included a check for more than $51,000 in compensation after the final convictions were secured.

The information he gathered on Uranium One was more significant to the counterintelligence aspect of the case that started in 2008 than the eventual criminal prosecutions that began in 2013, they added.

Solomon and Carter were interviewed last night on Hannity, along with Sullivan’s lawyer Victoria Toensing, and under questioning let us know that the money trail from Russia all the way to American political figures via cutouts will be exposed by documented evidence.

Now, contemplate the magnitude of a scandal that could demonstrate foreign money leading to the approval of a sale that harms national security and aids a hostile power (about whose danger the Democrats have been hyperventilating for the past year).  Here is a poor quality bootleg video of the segment, that may or may not last on YouTube. If a better copy becomes available, we will post that.

 

But only if the Sessions Justice Department is willing to press the case, or is forced to approve a special counsel:

The memos, reviewed by The Hill, conflict with statements made by Justice Department officials in recent days that informant William Campbell’s prior work won’t shed much light on the U.S. government’s controversial decision in 2010 to approve Russia’s purchase of the Uranium One mining company and its substantial U.S. assets.

Campbell documented for his FBI handlers the first illegal activity by Russians nuclear industry officials in fall 2009, nearly a entire year before the Russian state-owned Rosatom nuclear firm won Obama administration approval for the Uranium One deal, the memos show.

This official reticence, whatever its origin, will be overcome as Sullivan’s cache of 50,000 documents leaks out bit by bit.  Attorney Toensing knows exactly what she is doing here, and how outside pressure can affect the grinding of the gears of justice.

Palestinians: If You Do Not Give Us Everything, We Cannot Trust You

November 21, 2017

Arab League harshly criticizes Iran, brands Hezbollah a terror group

November 21, 2017

Latest News from Israel

The Arab League in session. (AP/Nariman El-Mofty)

The Arab League has stepped up its rhetoric against Iran’s belligerence in the region. But will they take action against the Shiite power?  

By: AP

In a resolution long on rhetoric but short on concrete steps, Arab foreign ministers who met in Cairo Sunday delivered a tirade of criticism against Iran and its Lebanese terror proxy Hezbollah, saying Tehran was destabilizing the region.

The Arab leaders said they planned to “brief” the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) on Iran’s destabilizing policies in the region, particularly its support for Shiite rebels in Yemen, with a view to submit at a later stage an anti-Iran Arab resolution.

In what is perhaps the only concrete measure, the ministers said Arab telecommunications satellites would ban Iranian-financed television stations for what they said was their fomenting of sectarian and ethnic tensions and because they posed a threat to Arab security. It gave no details.

“We are not declaring war on Iran at this stage,” Arab League chief Ahmed Aboul-Gheit said. “We have not taken a decision to ask the Security Council to meet, but we are just briefing the council and maybe the next stage would be for us to meet and call for a Security Council meeting and submit a draft Arab resolution (against Iran).”

Lebanon, where Hezbollah is a key member of a coalition government, and Iraq, a majority Shiite nation bound by close political and religious ties to Iran, stated their reservations about the harsher parts of the resolution, including one that branded Hezbollah a “terrorist” organization. The draft also blamed the Shiite group of supporting “terrorist groups” across the region and supplying them with weapons, including ballistic missiles.

The Lebanese envoy to the Arab League, Antoine Azzam, made carefully weighed comments at the meeting that reflected his country’s delicate religious and ethnic balance.

While not mentioning Iran by name, he said Lebanon condemned all attacks against Arab nations, but blamed exploitable inter-Arab divisions that allowed international and regional powers to promote their interests.

Saudi Arabia to Confront Iran’s ‘Blatant Aggression’

Saudi Arabia, a Sunni powerhouse, has significantly sharpened its anti-Iran rhetoric since its forces on Nov. 4 intercepted near its capital, Riyadh, a ballistic missile fired by Shiite rebels in Yemen who are allied with the Iranians. The Saudis said the missile was Iranian-made and declared the attack an act of war by the Iranians.

Iran denies arming the Yemeni rebels, known as the Houthis, who say they locally produced the missile

Saudi Arabia, through its foreign minister, asked fellow Arab nations to take a “serious and honest” stand against Iranian “aggression” and “meddling” in the internal affairs of Arab countries.

Addressing the Arab foreign ministers’ meeting, Foreign Minister Adel Al-Jubeir said: “Showing leniency toward Iran will not leave any Arab capital safe from those ballistic missiles.”

“We are obliged today to take a serious and honest stand… to counter these belligerent policies,” he added.

He said his country was targeted by a total of 80 ballistic missiles fired by Yemen’s Shiite rebels since the kingdom in 2015 formed and led a coalition to fight them alongside forces loyal to the internationally recognized government there.

Saudi Arabia, added Al-Jubeir, will not stand idly by in the face of Iran’s “blatant aggression.”

The ministers, according to the final statement, said they supported any action to be taken by Saudi Arabia to protect its national security, within the boundaries of international legitimacy.

Speaking before Al-Jubeir at the 20-minute session broadcast live, Aboul-Gheit, the Arab league chief, was just as critical of Iran as the Saudi minister. Alluding to the Nov. 4 attack, he said it delivered a message to Arab nations that their capitals were within the range of Iranian missiles.

“We say it in clear terms that Iranian threats have exceeded all boundaries and are pushing the region toward the abyss … (Iran’s) missile program poses a danger to the region,” said Aboul-Gheit.

Bahrain’s foreign minister, Sheikh Khalid Bin Ahmed Al Khalifa, urged strong action by the Arab League against Iran. In the absence of such support, he said, his country would have no choice but to rely on the protection of its Western allies, citing the US 5th Fleet headquartered in Bahrain and naval ships patrolling the Persian gulf.

 

US Congressmen Trying to Prevent Israel from Arresting Teen Terrorists

November 20, 2017

Nov 19, 2017

https://unitedwithisrael.org

A Palestinian “child” trains to kill Jews. (Abed Rahim Khatib/ Flash90)

The real abuse that American politicians should investigate is the Palestinian Authority’s constant incitement of minors to murder Jews, not Israel’s attempts to prevent such exploitation.

Nine members of Congress have introduced a bill to prevent US aid to Israel from being used to arrest Palestinian terrorists who are under the age of 18.

The bill, sponsored by Rep. Betty McCollum (D-Minn.), characterizes young terrorists merely as “Palestinian children” and contends that their arrest by the Israeli army constitutes “abuse.”

It’s worth recalling a few examples of the behavior for which Palestinian “children” have been detained by the Israeli military in recent years.

On Jan. 17, 2016, a Palestinian child named Morad Abdullah Adais broke into the home of Dafna Meir, in the town of Otniel, armed with an 8-inch knife. Adais, who was 16, later described proudly what he did next:

 “I plunged the knife into her so deeply that most of it was inside her body. She started screaming, the children saw me and also started screaming, then I stabbed her in her upper body another three or four times. She tried to fight me and tried to take the knife from me. The two children who were there were still screaming, but she continued to resist, so I pushed her, and overpowered her.”

Asked what he would have done if he was able to pull the knife from Meir’s body, the Palestinian teenager said, “I would have continued stabbing her, and if I saw another Jew I would stab and murder him.”

Meir left behind six children, ages 4-17. They’re also minors. But Rep. McCollum is not concerned about them. Her focus is on Palestinian minors such as Adais. According to the McCollum bill, the army’s arrest of Adais would be considered illegal and abusive.

Palestinian ‘Children’ in Action

Here’s another example of a Palestinian “child” in action. On June 30, 2016, a Palestinian teenager broke into the bedroom of a 13-year-old girl named Hallel Yaffa Ariel, in the town of Kiryat Arba. The attacker, Mohammed Nasser Tra’ayra, viciously stabbed Hallel again and again. Then he stabbed two other Israelis whom he encountered. Hallel’s father shot and killed Tra’ayra. Presumably, McCollum would regard the shooting as “settler violence” against a “Palestinian child.”

If Tra’ayra had not been killed, and Israeli soldiers arrested him, that would have constituted illegal and abusive detention, according to the McCollum bill.

One final example to illustrate the real-life consequences of what these nine radical Congress members are trying to accomplish.

On Dec. 25, 2014—as McCollum and her colleagues were no doubt enjoying the Christmas holiday with their families—two young Palestinians decided that they would try to burn some Jews to death. They positioned themselves on the road to the Israeli town of Ma’ale Shomron. Along came an automobile with an 11-year-old girl riding in the front passenger seat. The two attackers—one of them a 16-year-old “child”—threw rocks and firebombs at the car.

The car exploded in flames. Eleven-year-old Ayelet Shapiro jumped out, her entire body on fire. Her father’s quick action to smother the flames saved Ayelet’s life, but she suffered third-degree burns to her face and upper body, meaning years of painful surgery and skin grafts, and a lifetime of severe scars and emotional trauma.

How were the attackers caught? Israeli security personnel went into the nearby Palestinian Arab village of Azun, detained suspects, questioned them and eventually pinpointed the perpetrators. None of which would have been possible under the McCollum bill.

Significant Number of Palestinian Minors Engage in Terrorism

Yes, the Israeli army does arrest a significant number of Palestinian minors. That’s because a significant number of Palestinian minors engage in terrorism. In the past two years, there have been at least 79 terrorist attacks carried out by Palestinians from the ages of 8-17, according to the watchdog group Human Rights Voices.

 The real abuse that Betty McCollum and her Gang of Nine should be investigating is the constant effort by the Palestinian Authority (PA) to incite minors to engage in the murder of Jews. “We are so proud that in this popular uprising that has started almost two months ago, that the backbone of this uprising are the youth of Palestine,” the PA’s UN representative, Riyad Mansour, declared during the recent wave of Palestinian stabbing attacks.

But don’t take Mansour’s word for it. Morad Abdullah Adais, the 16-year-old who butchered Dafna Meir in front of her children, told investigators that he was inspired to murder her after watching a PA television program depicting Israelis as cruel oppressors of the Palestinians. How about some congressional action against the PA’s use of American aid to sponsor such vicious and deadly incitement?

By: Stephen M. Flatow/JNS.org

Stephen M. Flatow, an attorney in New Jersey, is the father of Alisa Flatow, who was murdered in an Iranian-sponsored Palestinian terrorist attack in 1995.

Trump designates North Korea as state sponsor of terrorism

November 20, 2017

Trump designates North Korea as state sponsor of terrorismBrooke Singman, November 20, 2017

With the president’s directive, North Korea will return to the State Department’s list of designated state sponsors of terrorism for the first time since its removal by the Bush administration in 2008. North Korea will be among Iran, Sudan, and Syria.

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President Trump announced Monday that the United States is designating North Korea as a state sponsor of terrorism, something he said “should have happened a long time ago.”

Trump announced the designation in a Cabinet meeting at the White House, clearing the way for more sanctions on the “murderous” rogue regime, just days after returning from his historic 13-day trip to Asia.

“We will be instituting a very critical step,” Trump said. “Today, the U.S. is designating North Korea as a state sponsor of terrorism. [This] should have happened a long time ago — should have happened years ago.”

With the president’s directive, North Korea will return to the State Department’s list of designated state sponsors of terrorism for the first time since its removal by the Bush administration in 2008. North Korea will be among Iran, Sudan, and Syria.

“North Korea has repeatedly supported acts of international terrorism including assassinations on foreign soil,” Trump said Monday. “… This designation will impose further sanctions and penalties on North Korea and related persons.”

Otto Warmbier (Copyright 2017 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)

Trump also cited the death of American college student Otto Warmbier, who was imprisoned in North Korea and died days after being returned to the U.S. in a coma.

Trump added that the designation supports a “maximum-pressure campaign” on the “murderous regime.”

Trump explained that the sanctions would be imposed over a two-week period and would constitute the “highest level of sanctions” on North Korea.

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson floated the idea of re-designating North Korea to the list in April.

According to the State Department, once designated, a country or nation state faces sanctions resulting in restrictions on U.S. foreign assistance; a ban on defense exports and sales; certain controls over exports of dual use items; and miscellaneous financial and other restrictions.

The president’s designation comes after months of fiery rhetoric toward North Korea’s rogue dictator Kim Jong Un, whom Trump has warned repeatedly to cease their nuclear activities.

Roy Moore, the Moms, and the Yearbook Signature

November 20, 2017

Roy Moore, the Moms, and the Yearbook SignatureJoy Overbeck, November 20, 2017

The attacks on Moore have nothing to do with sudden moral outrage, not when Majority Leader McConnell and his GOP cronies spent 30 million dollars to eviscerate this fellow Republican in the primaries even before any sex-related allegations surfaced. And why once he won the primary, did the Republican High Command – McConnell, House Speaker Paul Ryan, John McCain, even Mike Lee and Ted Cruz – condemn him as a predatory deviant, again with stunning lack of proof? And why did Colorado Senator Cory Gardner, the Republican Senate Campaign Committee Chair in charge of the money, cut off GOP funds for Moore, abandoning him to be outspent by his Democrat opponent 11 to 1. Then Gardner even threatened to “expel” Moore from the Senate if elected by Alabama voters.  How reprehensible.   

But why, when Moore would have easily defeated the Democrat in red-state Alabama and kept the Republican majority – why would they all circle round and tear bloody chunks off the man like a pack of snarling dingoes in a National Geographic special? Because Moore is a rebel who has proved he can’t be bought or controlled by the powers that be. And then there’s his radical God thing. 

What would Moore say to the leadership’s price tag on a committee assignment that demands a new Senator pay hundreds of thousands of dollars to the Republican (or Democrat) campaign war chest? As exposed in Colorado Congressman Ken Buck’s sobering book, Drain the Swamp, chairing an important committee can cost a member over a million dollars! Moore would doubtless raise holy Hades at the pay-to-play that infects Congress and the valuable time members must spend money-raising instead of doing the peoples’ business.

Senator Moore would refuse to play the Washington game. He would vote his conscience, not in lockstep with demands from on high. He might even start a revolt — and they can’t have that kind of insubordination in Congress! But the people of Alabama chose Moore as their nominee despite the GOP’s $30 million to defeat him, just as they twice elected him Chief Justice of the Alabama Supreme Court even after he had been kicked off the bench for standing up for his Ten Commandments monument and traditional, man/woman marriage. Side note to ACLU: a carved frieze of Moses holding the stone tablets of the Ten Commandments actually looks down on the Supreme Court Justices from the south wall of the courtroom as they dispense their verdicts.

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Three out of the four Moms of the teen daughters who now claim sexual harassment or worse by Roy Moore 40 years ago, trusted him implicitly with their daughters at the time in question. Shockeroo!

According to the Washington Post article that unleashed sexual predator zombie accusations against the Alabama Senate candidate, Debbie Gibson was 17 in 1981 when Moore asked her out. She asked her Mom what she’d say if she wanted to date a 34 year old man named Roy Moore. Gibson quotes her Mom: “I’d say you were the luckiest girl in the world.” The two dated a few times, says Ms. Gibson, and Moore kissed her once. Kissing while dating is now sexual assault doncha know.

Another Mom in the Post hit piece was “really, really strict” according to her then 19 year old daughter, Gloria Thacker Deason, but let her stay out past her 10:30 curfew with Moore because “she just felt like I would be safe with him… she thought he was good husband material.” She dated Moore a few times in 1979 and she told the paper their physical relationship “did not go further than kissing and hugging.” The man was a monster!

Deason’s Mom likely approved of her daughter dating Moore because he was a hometown hero; a much-admired West Point grad, and a Vietnam vet with a bright future as an assistant district attorney. Certainly neither Deason’s nor Gibson’s Mom had reason to think their daughters were in any danger from the town’s golden boy or they would never have enthusiastically welcomed his attentions to the young women.

Yet to read the volcanic spew of articles and horrified accusations from the High Foreheads of MediaWorld, Republicans and Democrats alike, you’d think that a man who dates a teenager when he’s in his 30’s is a raging pervert. Case closed. No discussion allowed.

Even in the sole case in which sexual misconduct is alleged against Moore involving 14 year old Leigh Corfman, her Mom showed enormous trust in the assistant district attorney from the moment they met. The girl and her Mom, Nancy Wells, were sitting outside a courtroom in Etowah County, Alabama, awaiting a custody hearing in Wells’ divorce case when Moore came up to them and offered to watch Leigh while her Mom was in the hearing. The Post quotes Wells, now 71, “He said, ‘Oh, you don’t want her to go in there and hear all that. I’ll stay out here with her.’” Wells wasn’t the least suspicious, but instead says, “I thought, how nice for him to want to take care of my little girl.” Had they met before – or had Moore introduced himself as an assistant d.a.? The Post doesn’t say.

If Wells left her 14-year-old daughter with a total stranger for a couple of hours, either she was a bad Mom or a bad Mom who put her own personal convenience before the safety of her young daughter. Corfman and Moore chatted; she found him “charming and smiley” and gave him her phone number. When he called, they made plans for him to pick her up around the corner from her house. “I was kind of giddy, excited, you know? An older guy, you know?”

She says he might have given her alcohol, and while they sat and talked, she told him she was 14. Moore kissed her, whereupon she felt nervous and asked him to take her home, which he did. Yet she met him again and they again went to his place “in the woods.”

Corfman seems to have been an adventurous girl eager to explore the unknown. “This was a new experience, and it was exciting and fun and scary,” Corfman told the Post, explaining why she saw him again. “It was just like this roller-coaster ride you’ve not been on.”

She said they went back to his house and says “before long she was lying on a blanket on the floor.” Moore left the room and according to her, returned wearing nothing but “tight white underwear” as he kissed her, removed her pants and shirt, and, she claims, touched her through her bra and panties while “he guided her hand to his underwear.” She thought, “I don’t want to do this – I’ve got to get out of here,” and she got dressed. Then she asked Moore to take her home, which he did.

And that’s it. No attempted rape, no violent sexual assault, not even any forced nudity. Of course, if it happened, it’s awfully icky and yes wrong and unlawful that a grown man would handle a 14 year old in such a manner. If it happened. And even if it did, is it worth 40 long years later, ruining a man’s reputation built over four decades of service to his state and nation, and destroying his hard-fought prospects to become a useful, productive U.S. Senator?

Plus, if Moore did this unsavory thing, for which there is no actual proof, only he said/she said, he was a Democrat at the time; he didn’t become a Republican until 1992.  Hmmm.

The attacks on Moore have nothing to do with sudden moral outrage, not when Majority Leader McConnell and his GOP cronies spent 30 million dollars to eviscerate this fellow Republican in the primaries even before any sex-related allegations surfaced. And why once he won the primary, did the Republican High Command – McConnell, House Speaker Paul Ryan, John McCain, even Mike Lee and Ted Cruz – condemn him as a predatory deviant, again with stunning lack of proof? And why did Colorado Senator Cory Gardner, the Republican Senate Campaign Committee Chair in charge of the money, cut off GOP funds for Moore, abandoning him to be outspent by his Democrat opponent 11 to 1. Then Gardner even threatened to “expel” Moore from the Senate if elected by Alabama voters.  How reprehensible.

But why, when Moore would have easily defeated the Democrat in red-state Alabama and kept the Republican majority – why would they all circle round and tear bloody chunks off the man like a pack of snarling dingoes in a National Geographic special? Because Moore is a rebel who has proved he can’t be bought or controlled by the powers that be. And then there’s his radical God thing.

What would Moore say to the leadership’s price tag on a committee assignment that demands a new Senator pay hundreds of thousands of dollars to the Republican (or Democrat) campaign war chest? As exposed in Colorado Congressman Ken Buck’s sobering book, Drain the Swamp, chairing an important committee can cost a member over a million dollars! Moore would doubtless raise holy Hades at the pay-to-play that infects Congress and the valuable time members must spend money-raising instead of doing the peoples’ business.

Senator Moore would refuse to play the Washington game. He would vote his conscience, not in lockstep with demands from on high. He might even start a revolt — and they can’t have that kind of insubordination in Congress! But the people of Alabama chose Moore as their nominee despite the GOP’s $30 million to defeat him, just as they twice elected him Chief Justice of the Alabama Supreme Court even after he had been kicked off the bench for standing up for his Ten Commandments monument and traditional, man/woman marriage. Side note to ACLU: a carved frieze of Moses holding the stone tablets of the Ten Commandments actually looks down on the Supreme Court Justices from the south wall of the courtroom as they dispense their verdicts.

So now comes professional outrage-monger Gloria Allred, Godmother of Victimhood. Having run out of Trump accusers (where did they all go anyway?) her “client” this time is one Beverly Young Nelson who dry-sobbed her way through her salacious accusations since to go all tearful would be to carve a Mississippi River into her elaborately troweled face. Nelson complains that when she was Moore offered to drive her home from the restaurant where she waitressed but instead took her behind the establishment and attacked her in his car.

She and Gloria offered the only “proof” in all the accusations that Moore and the woman even knew each other – Nelson’s 1977 high school yearbook allegedly signed “Love, Roy Moore, D.A.”  It’s come to light that “D.A.” were the initials of Judge Moore’s longtime assistant and secretary, Delbra Adams, who says she habitually added them to his official signature, as proved by a divorce document he signed years later with the identical D.A. initials   – coincidentally, a divorce decree in the case of none other than the very same Beverly Young Nelson.

That’s a big problem for Allred and Nelson since there’s no way that Moore would have added his assistant’s “D.A.” initials to a personal 1977 yearbook signature (also he was an Assistant D.A., then a judge, never a D.A.) AND especially since Ms. Adams didn’t startworking for Judge Moore until 1989, 12 years later.  And there are other  big doubts about the validity of the Moore signature.

But the most damning evidence of forgery comes from Allred herself. When CNN’s Wolf Blitzer asked her directly: “Can you say flatly to our viewers that the signature is not a forgery?” Allred refused to answer his persistent question. She told Blitzer she would only release the yearbook for examination by hand-writing experts if and when a Senate committee calls a special hearing. Which she knows perfectly well they will not do for a candidate — and time-wise it’s impossible prior to the December 12 Alabama election.

Allred and her client have exposed themselves as serial liars. The Republicans would rather have a Democrat in the Senate than a man who would help bolster their majority and President Trump’s agenda. And Roy Moore is being mercilessly savaged by political assassins on the basis of nothing more than 40-year-old she-said passing for proof. Oh, and the latest is some woman accusing him of grabbing her butt while her mother was present. Yeah, that happened.

All America awaits the December 12 election to see if Alabama citizens will stand up for their voting rights or bow the knee to the bullies of D.C.

Joy Overbeck is a Colorado journalist, author and Townhall columnist who has also contributed to The Washington Times, The Daily Caller, American Thinker, BarbWire and elsewhere.

What General Hyten really said

November 20, 2017

What General Hyten really said, American ThinkerJ.R. Dunn, November 20, 2017

To take them seriously, to respond to them as the media and the left would like, is to collaborate.  Rule of thumb is, simply put: anything – anything at all – coming from the legacy media must be examined under the presumption of dishonesty.  Don’t respond until after you’ve checked it out, not only down to the ground, but to the basement and subbasements as well.  To do anything less is to be a patsy for the left.

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Considerable uproar was generated this past weekend by legacy media reports that the commander of U.S. strategic forces would “resist ‘illegal’ nuke order from Trump,” as CBS, in a headline echoed by most media sources, put it.

In fact, nothing of the sort occurred.  The story, like many that have appeared since November 8, 2016, is an almost complete fabrication, intended to embarrass President Trump and cause turmoil within the federal government and among Trump’s own supporters.

What actually happened is this: USAF general John E. Hyten, the chief of Strategic Command (StratCom), which is the trans-service military command that controls nuclear weapons, was asked a hypothetical question about what his reaction would be if he were given an “illegal” order to carry out a nuclear strike.  Gen. Hyten answered hypothetically, not mentioning President Trump or any current international situation (e.g., North Korea) or implying that he would disobey orders.  At no point did the general give any indication that he was going from the theoretical to the particular.

I provide advice to the president, he will tell me what to do. And if it’s illegal, guess what’s going to happen? I’m going to say, ‘Mr. President, that’s illegal.’ And guess what he’s going to do? He’s going to say, ‘What would be legal?’ And we’ll come up with options, with a mix of capabilities to respond to whatever the situation is, and that’s the way it works. It’s not that complicated.

The legacy media, speaking effectively as one voice, immediately portrayed this as being a direct rebuke to the president.  There is no sign that Hyten’s remarks were intended as anything of the kind.  The media simply put words in his mouth.

Of course, it’s possible that the question was deliberately asked to put the cat among the pigeons.  Hyten’s impatient, if not disdainful, response suggests that he, at least, may have suspected as much: “I think some people think we’re stupid.  We’re not stupid people.  We think about these things a lot.  When you have this responsibility, how do you not think about it?”

So – all calls for Hyten’s firing, jailing, or beheading should simply cease.  Hyten is a patriot and a warrior with a proud record, having served in both the Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom campaigns.  Let’s turn the fire where it belongs: on the media.

The fact that this comment appeared this weekend is no coincidence, comrades.  At the same time, the news was infested by comments from boob ex-jock LaVar Ball, who claimed that the president had nothing to do with his son’s release from shoplifting charges by the Chinese, alongside twisted interpretations of State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert’s discussion of departmental morale to make it seem as if the organization were in a state of collapse under Rex Tillerson.

The aim of these reports is transparent: to undercut President Trump and his administration in order to create dismay among his supporters and to destroy his support across the country.

To take them seriously, to respond to them as the media and the left would like, is to collaborate.  Rule of thumb is, simply put: anything – anything at all – coming from the legacy media must be examined under the presumption of dishonesty.  Don’t respond until after you’ve checked it out, not only down to the ground, but to the basement and subbasements as well.  To do anything less is to be a patsy for the left.

 

TRUMP ADMINISTRATION orders shutdown of Palestinian diplomatic office in Washington DC

November 19, 2017

by

http://barenakedislam.com/2017/11/18/trump-administration-orders-shutdown-of-palestinian-diplomatic-office-in-washington-dc/

A U.S. State Department official announced that the Palestinian diplomatic mission in Washington, D.C., must shut down, saying the Palestinians violated U.S. law by calling on the International Criminal Court to prosecute Israel authorities for building homes for Jews on Israeli land and evicting Muslims illegally squatting on Israeli land. Palestine leaders warn it will cut off relations with the U.S. if its DC office is shut down. (Good!)

NBC  Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has determined that the Palestinians have run afoul of a U.S. law that allows their mission to the U.S. to function, a State Department official confirmed to NBC News. Although the U.S. does not recognize Palestinian statehood, the organization maintains a “general delegation” office in Washington that facilitates Palestinian officials’ interactions with the U.S. government.

A condition in the law which allows support funds to be granted to the Palestinian Liberation Organization, or PLO, and for their Washington office to operate is that they do not request the International Criminal Court, or ICC, prosecute Israelis for crimes against Palestinians.

Tillerson has judged that the Palestinians violated this provision due to “certain statements made by Palestinian leaders about the ICC,” the official said. A State Department official told The Associated Press that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas crossed the line in September by calling on the ICC to investigate and prosecute Israelis.

Speaking at the United Nations General Assembly, Abbas called for the ICC to “open an investigation and to prosecute Israeli officials for their involvement in settlement activities and aggressions against our people.”

Nabil Abu Rudeina, spokesman for the Palestinian presidency, said Saturday that the move represented an unprecedented step in the history of U.S.-Palestinian relations, with serious consequences for the peace process and for U.S.-Arab relations, the Palestine News Agency reported.

US President Donald Trump is said to have shouted at Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas during their meeting in Bethlehem, saying, “You lied to me in Washington when you talked about commitment to peace, but the Israelis showed me you were personally responsible for incitement.”

The Palestinian foreign minister warned earlier Saturday that the Palestinians would not give in to “extortion.” Having called the reported decision “unprecedented in the history of US-Palestinian relations,” Mahmoud Abbas’ spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeineh said it “could have serious consequences on the peace process and US-Arab relations,” Palestine News Agency WAFA reported Saturday.

If after 90 days, Trump determines that the Palestinians have entered into “direct, meaningful negotiations with Israel,” then they can keep their office and all restrictions placed on the PLO in the U.S. will be waived, the State Department official told NBC News.