Right From Wrong: Alt-left delete

Posted November 21, 2016 by danmillerinpanama
Categories: 2016 elections, Alt-Left, Alt-Right, Antisemitism, Immigration, Israel
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Right From Wrong: Alt-left delete, Jerusalem Post, Ruthie Blum, November 20, 2016

trumpandbannonThe millions of voters who elected Trump do not deserve the mud-slinging.

The term “alt-right”, which nobody had heard of until the unexpected emergence and rise of Donald Trump in the US presidential election campaign, has become all the rage, literally and figuratively. Indeed, it is now the angry go-to explanation in every analysis of the Republican candidate’s ostensibly miraculous victory on November 8. And it is the key buzzword of the fever-pitched brouhaha surrounding Trump’s appointment of Breitbart publisher Steve Bannon as his chief strategist.

One the main arguments against Bannon – at times a self-described promoter of the alt-right message – is that he, like the neo-Nazi Trump-supporting trolls on Twitter, is an antisemite. Though this is patent nonsense, as the evidence raised to prove it is flimsy at best, it is one of those labels that enables both liberals and anti-Trump conservatives to kill two birds with one stone: Bannon and the man who elevated him to a highly important and coveted post.

The intellectual pitfall for mainstream conservatives here is plain. Whatever their position on Bannon, they are aware that Trump’s stunning victory not only in the race for the Oval Office, but in that of both houses of Congress cannot be attributed to a fringe group of right-wingers with no formal homogeneous ideology. Within this loose category are white supremacists who hate Jews, blacks and gays, and any member of the Right who has a nuanced view of everything from immigration to abortion. But these are a tiny minority in America as a whole, and played less of a role in the election of Trump than they and their detractors would love to imagine.

Others who are lumped into that label are people – like myself – who consider the decline of American power to be a danger both domestically and internationally, and desperately wanted the new style of Democrats – those who radicalized the party of Scoop Jackson into oblivion – out of office. We are right-wingers who believe in individual enterprise and ideological freedom. We believe that the federal government should not be dictating the rules of personal moral engagement or funding our choices. We want academia to be a place for the advanced study of humankind in all its facets and history – a space for the education and maturation of each new generation of young adults who will be faced with the often unpleasant task of making their way in the world with nothing but a set of tools in their satchel to give them a sense of their otherwise good fortune to be doing this in the United States, and not in Iran, North Korea, Syria, Venezuela or Mexico, to name but a few examples.

But mainly we want to preserve all of the things that make America great, while repairing those that prevent it from becoming even better – and not by having politicians tell us what’s good for us. It is we who are charged with spelling out for them what is required when we hire them to represent us. The majority of Americans who feel this way opted to give Trump a chance to make good on his promise to reinvigorate the economy and prevent evil forces from corroding the fiber of a country that causes people from around the globe to want to live in what European Jews fleeing eastern Europe prior to, during and after World War II, used to call the “golden medinah” – a nation where the streets are paved in gold.

It thus seemed like the height of irony that a billionaire who actually gilds his buildings was selected to represent those people whose roads are barely paved at all, let alone in gold. Nevertheless they did, because his message to them was that it’s honorable, not shameful, to strive for the gold medal.

WHERE IMMIGRATION is concerned, the so-called alt-right – whoever comprises it – may believe in sealed borders against the influx of “undesirables,” but neither Trump nor most of his backers hold this view. What we do believe, especially those of us American Jews who moved to Israel for Zionist reasons, is that immigrants should have to go through legal channels and a vetting process. Just as citizens of America and Israel must adhere to the law of the land, so must those who want to become members of those societies. Forcing wannabes to undergo a process of examination and a trial period does not constitute racism, it is simply a necessary procedure. This is particularly true today, as radical Islamists have been infiltrating every country in the world to try and spread a pernicious ideology through the use of mayhem and murder.

Nor is the proposed policy of putting a stop to illegal immigration from Mexico a question of discrimination. On the contrary, it is an assertion that Mexicans, like all other immigrants, Latinos included, who applied for visas, green cards and citizenship, are welcome under certain conditions.

Even Canadians are not allowed simply to cross the border and work in America without going through such channels.

One may not agree with the above, but it is a valid position that has nothing to do with white supremacism. And the millions of voters who elected Trump do not deserve the mud-slinging.

Furthermore, what all anti-Trump conservatives must know in their hearts is that even if Trump had not ended up winning the Republican primary race, the Left would have gone after any of the others in the same fashion. Had Ted Cruz been left standing against Hillary Clinton, he would have received the very same treatment, and had similar, if not identical, epithets hurled at him and his supporters. In addition, the only antisemitic diatribes to which I personally have been exposed on social media are from left-wing radicals, calling me a “dirty Jewess” and “Israeli killer of Palestinian children.” But somehow, when such slurs come from the Left, they are considered expressions of a political viewpoint, rather than what they really are.

In Israel, too, the settler movement and anyone who believes in Jewish rights to the land – as well as those warning against the true aim of the Palestinian leadership – are vilified and likened to the fringe members of the Right who violate laws on behalf of an extreme position held by very few people. As is the case in America, the alt-left in America has a prominent place in the mainstream media and ivory tower, where thought-policing and debate-stifling is the norm. And we right-wingers on both sides of the ocean have had enough.

It is time to acknowledge that it was the alt-left the American voter was responding to when he or she cast a ballot for Trump, not the alt-right.

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Ottawa Muslim Outreach Includes Islamists Only

Posted November 21, 2016 by danmillerinpanama
Categories: CAIR, Canada, Diversity, Islamic reformation, Islamists in Canada, Islamophobia
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Ottawa Muslim Outreach Includes Islamists Only, Investigative Project on Terrorism, November 21, 2016

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“There is a serious problem of a global jihadist insurgency and we have to name radical Islam as the main culprit. They are not going to get this conversation going with NCCM types because they are on the defensive,” he said. “If these institutions are going to reach out to the likes of NCCM (which obviously they are free to do) they should also have progressive and reform minded Muslims at the table so they get a balanced perspective.”

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After including an official from the Council on American-Islamic Relations’ (CAIR) Canadian branch in an outreach program last April, the chief of the Durham Regional Police Service conveyed regret and pledged to be more careful. According to Sohail Raza, director of the anti-Islamist group Muslims Facing Tomorrow, the chief acknowledged more due diligence was necessary “so that inappropriate interests would not be inadvertently legitimized.”

That message has not reached Ottawa, where a city/community partnership called Crime Prevention Ottawa (CPO) appears intent on repeating Durham’s error.

A program set for this Friday, “Addressing Hate Crimes: Creating A Safe City for All,” features the same CAIR official who prompted Durham’s introspection. Amira Elghawaby is a spokeswoman for the National Council of Canadian Muslims, which changed its name from CAIR-Canada in 2013, openly admitting it was a cosmetic change: “We remain the same organization,” a news release said.

The Ottawa Police Service is among the CPO’s member organizations.

In the United States, FBI policy since 2008 has prohibited this kind of outreach with CAIR because of evidence its agents uncovered linking CAIR to a Muslim Brotherhood-created Hamas support network in the United States. “[U]ntil we can resolve whether there continues to be a connection between CAIR or its executives and HAMAS, the FBI does not view CAIR as an appropriate liaison partner,” then-Assistant FBI Assistant Director Richard Powers wrote.

That policy remains in effect. Its wisdom was reinforced by a federal judge in Dallas, who found that the “government has produced ample evidence to establish the associations of CAIR” to Hamas. CAIR has had only one leader since its 1994 creation, executive director Nihad Awad.

In a 2003 affidavit, CAIR-Canada’s chairman acknowledged that the U.S. CAIR “has direct control” over the Canadian branch.

None of those documented connections – between CAIR and a Hamas support network, and between CAIR and the NCCM – has proven sufficient to get the Ottawa Police Service’s attention. In 2005 testimony before a Senate committee, then-Chief Vince Bevin said CAIR conducted training sessions “about cultural issues” for his officers multiple times a year.

It is unclear whether those sessions ever stopped.

The problem with Friday’s CPO program, and with the Ottawa police attitude in general, Raza told the Investigative Project on Terrorism in an email, is that participants will get a skewed perspective.

Raza is a member of several Muslim organizations that do not share CAIR’s Islamist ideology. Among them, Muslims Facing Tomorrow advocates for “the views of Muslims who believe Islam is open to reform and to new ideas in the advancement of human knowledge, and who oppose extremism in all forms in the name of Islam or any other faith-tradition.” He also is part of the Muslim Reform Movement, which includes Canadians and Americans who fight for “a respectful, merciful and inclusive interpretation of Islam” and reject “interpretations of Islam that call for any violence, social injustice and politicized Islam.”

In contrast, CAIR and the NCCM do not address reform and Islamism in any direct fashion, so if the only Muslims consulted by government agencies are from such groups, Raza said, the message is limited.

“We find their activities at best shady and mis-leading for the Muslim population of Canada,” he said.

As is the case in the United States, Jews are targeted more often by hate crimes – most recently, three incidents in one week. But in Ottawa, a variety of religious institutions have been defaced by graffiti, including swastikas and racist slurs since the hate crimes program was announced. That includes the city’s largest mosque, and a church whose pastor is among Friday’s panelists.

Thus far, the CPO and the Ottawa police have exhibited little interest in opening their outreach to hear more varied opinions, Raza said.

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Social media sites operated by the Ottawa Police’s Diversity Unit exemplify this point. It re-posts Twitter comments by the NCCM and Elghawaby, including a Nov. 10 link to an article about the murder of three Muslims in North Carolina that is cast as an act of Islamophobia. Local police say they have found no evidence to substantiate that claim.

In October, the diversity unit promoted a partisan political ad for Hillary Clinton featuring Khizr Khan, whose son, U.S. Army Capt. Humayun Khan, died protecting his comrades from a 2004 car bombing in Iraq. It’s one thing to promote the Khan family’s story, and examples are easily found, but the Ottawa police chose to take sides in the election cycle of its neighboring country.

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The OPS has a three-person staff, one of whom touts his work with the NCCM in his biography. Given that, and the NCCM’s desire to maintain a monopoly on the public discourse about Muslims in Canada, it is clear that dissenting voices like Raza’s would have difficulty gaining traction.

That, Raza argued, is not in the public’s interest. He is not trying to silence anyone else. But in programs which value diversity, he believes diversity of opinion is lacking.

“There is a serious problem of a global jihadist insurgency and we have to name radical Islam as the main culprit. They are not going to get this conversation going with NCCM types because they are on the defensive,” he said. “If these institutions are going to reach out to the likes of NCCM (which obviously they are free to do) they should also have progressive and reform minded Muslims at the table so they get a balanced perspective.”

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Crying and Lying: Hysteria and repeated false claims showered upon us by the Left

Posted November 21, 2016 by danmillerinpanama
Categories: "Fake news", Facts Don't Matter, Hate crimes, Media and Democrats, Media and Donald Trump, Victimology
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Crying and Lying: Hysteria and repeated false claims showered upon us by the Left, American Thinker, James Longstreet, November 21, 2016

(Please see also, The ‘Hate-Crime’ Victims Of Trump Who Weren’t. — DM)

Greg Gutfeld brutally calls out the Left and the fake cable news shows that push out the false narratives and refuse to investigate the veracity of the claims that pass over their air waves.

Remarkable is the stream of claims that America is now tainted by the Trump supporters and their hateful antics. Case after case is blurted across the left leaning cable shows.  But is seems there is never a corroboration or proof of the incidents so claimed.

“It doesn’t matter if it is false because it is bound to be true somewhere.”

“Do the fakers go to jail for wasting our time?”

Is this not akin to pulling the fire alarm switch in the high school hallway?

In this video, Greg gives a monologue that calls out these fabricators and their enablers.

The real punishment must come to the cable shows that push out these falsehoods.  Turn them off.  Hit them on the bottom line, and tell them why.

When they have to make it up, it must be near the end.  When they must castigate the Vice President elect when he has a night out with the family, it must be near the end.

 

 

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The ‘Hate-Crime’ Victims Of Trump Who Weren’t

Posted November 21, 2016 by danmillerinpanama
Categories: CNN, Hate crimes, Islamic hoax, Islamists in America, Islamophobia, Media and Donald Trump, Media and Islam, Victimology
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The ‘Hate-Crime’ Victims Of Trump Who Weren’t, Jihad Watch, , November 21, 2016

trump-islamophobia

To gain power, totalitarian movements always portray themselves as victims. And while they are in the process of abusing, they cry in front of the world posing as the abused. They stage “hate-crime” attacks against themselves because hate crimes are their political and cultural capital. When those hate-crimes  don’t exist, they must be invented.

We are witnessing precisely this phenomenon at this very moment in regards to the myriad hoax “hate-crimes” that anti-Trump forces are manufacturing out of thin air and blaming on Trump supporters. The media are bolstering the entire hallucination process, with CNN leading the way.

Central to the whole narrative is the supposed “Islamophobic” anti-Muslim crime-wave sweeping the nation. The rumors spread and the media regurgitates the lies without any evidence to back them up. And then, after the hoaxes are debunked one by one, the media is, by that time, bored and no longer interested.

The latest “Islamophobia” counterfeit involves a Muslim student at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette (ULL). The Muslima alleged that her hijab and wallet were stolen by two white Trump supporters who were shouting racial slurs. The woman’s accusation incensed leftists and Muslims across the nation and the world, prompting the ACLU of Louisiana to issue a statement denouncing both the incident and, of course, Donald Trump. The investigation into the incident involved several law enforcement agencies, including the FBI. The Washington Post, New York Times and CNN, meanwhile, ate the story up.

But what happened to this Muslima’s story under tough police questioning? Well, the ULL student eventually broke down and admitted to police that she had fabricated the entire thing. By that time, of course, the media wasn’t too interested in such an innocuous little detail.

Recently, The Huffington Post reported on an incident of “Islamophobia” under the headline “Islamophobia Just Drove This Boy And His Family Out Of America.” It was all so heartbreaking and unjust. The one little problem with the story, however, was that it never happened.

Trump supporters, meanwhile, are supposedly involved in a lot of other evil than just attacking Muslim women on campuses and driving little Muslim boys out of America:

A gay Canadian filmmaker, Chris Ball, was alleged to have been beaten up by Trump supporters on election night in Santa Monica. It was upsetting, but it turned out the incident never really happened at all.

An image also recently went viral online that purported to show KKK members in North Carolina celebrating Donald Trump’s victory. It was really awful. And it was also confirmed to be a hoax. The proof of the hoax, however, didn’t go viral.

Many other hoaxes of Trump-induced terror are being debunked as we speak.

All of these “hate-crime” fabrications made up by the anti-Trump forces are nothing new. They are a completely natural ingredient of how totalitarians operate and, hence, how the Unholy Alliance of the Left and Islam operates. Shillman Fellow Daniel Greenfield explains this phenomenon in the context of the Left:

“The left is a victimhood cult. It feeds off pain and fetishizes suffering as a moral commodity to be sold and resold in exchange for political power.”

Greenfield calls this leftist charade “victimocracy” and labels its foot soldier the “cry-bully” who is, in reality, the “abuser-victim.” This monster, Greenfield writes, is

“the abuser who pretends to be a victim. His arguments are his feelings. He comes armored in identity politics entitlement and is always yelling about social justice or crying social justice tears. If you don’t fight back, the cry-bully bullies you. If you fight back, the cry-bully cries and demands a safe space because you made him feel unsafe.”

Thus, because now the Unholy Alliance maniacs feel “unsafe” because they didn’t get their way in the election, it becomes very clear why it’s crucial for them to play the victim – and, most importantly, to fabricate “hate-crimes” being perpetrated against themselves. Greenfield explains:

“If cry-bullies can’t safe-bait you, they will manufacture threats by faking hate crimes against themselves or phoning in bomb threats to validate their need for a safe space in which no one is allowed to disagree with them. Surviving their own fake crimes turns cry-bullies into social justice heroes.”

Islamic supremacists play a key part in this story. And since the Left controls our culture and boundaries of discourse, it makes complete sense that the media, instead of focusing on how the Muslim community should make Americans feel safe by repudiating Islamic texts that inspire and sanction violence against unbelievers, instead amplify the narrative that it is Muslims who are afraid and that it is non-Muslim Americans who need to make Muslims feel safe. Leading scholar of Islam Robert Spencer explains this charade, unveiling why Muslim Brotherhood front groups such as the CAIR need there to be hate crimes against Muslims so badly:

“The Hamas-linked Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) wants and needs hate crimes against Muslims, because they’re the currency they use to buy power and influence in our victimhood-oriented society, and to deflect attention away from jihad terror and onto Muslims as putative victims.”

This is why the Muslima at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette fabricated the “hate-crime” against herself. And it is also why her lie is only the latest example in a long list of so many other Muslim counterfeit stories.

Just to list a few of the typical and notorious incidents:

In February 2016, a Michigan Muslima, Said Chatti, was arraigned in Dearborn’s 18th District Court for making a false police report about an “Islamophobic” plot to bomb Dearborn FordsonHigh School, a majority-Muslim high school. She contacted the Dearborn Police Department and claimed that an “anonymous” friend of hers overheard a group of individuals plotting to blow up the school to retaliate against the November 2015 terrorist attacks in Paris. When the police presented her with the evidence of the holes in her story, she admitted it was a false report.

In December 2015, a 37-year-old Muslim man, Gary Nathaniel Moore of Houston, was charged with first-degree arson for setting a Houston mosque on fire on Christmas day – a mosque where he himself was a regular, having attended it for five years, coming five times per day to pray seven days per week. Using surveillance video from multiple businesses nearby, investigators were able to identify Moore and a search warrant of his home recovered a backpack and clothing similar to that which was seen in surveillance footage, as well as half of a two-pack of charcoal lighter-fluid bottles that seemed to match another lighter fluid bottle found inside the mosque.

In March 2012, we beheld the murder of Muslima Shaima Alawadi. At first reported as a “hate-crime,” it then turned out to be an honor murder. The media and Unholy Alliance were extremely vocal and indignant while the murder was a hate-crime, even staging a campaign, “One Million Hijabs for Shaima Alawadi.” But once the murder turned out to be an Islamic crime, Shaima turned out not to matter to even one of the activists who had, at one point, made so much noise and howled so many cries of indignation.

The list goes on and on: a Muslim woman in England was proven to have lied to police about claiming to have been punched in the face for wearing a hijab; a Muslim woman in Dearborn dropped a lawsuit against police after video proved she was lying when claiming they forced her to remove her hijab; a supposed “hit-and-run” on a Muslim woman in Brussels blamed on “far right” anti-Islam demonstrators turned out to be perpetrated by a Muslim named “Mohamed.”

Many more of these Muslim victimization fantasies and lies have been documented by Robert Spencer in his special report, “The Top Anti-Muslim Hate Crime Hoaxes of 2014,” and in his recent video, Yet Another “Islamophobic Hate Crime” Hoax.

And so, we come to see that faking hate-crimes is a long and standard tradition of the cry-bully, and the Unholy Alliance is the premier cry-bully of our modern age. With Trump’s victory now a reality, the Left/Islam forces are foaming at the mouth and gnashing their teeth.

And while they set fires and break windows, brutally beat young girls for liking Trump, break the faces of those they think look like Trump and injure police officers, they cry and whine because they are the real victims of real hate-crimes. But, as the evidence reveals, these are the hate-crimes perpetrated by the Trump supporters who might have been — and inflicted on the victims who weren’t.

Reprinted from Daily Caller.

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Donald Trump and the Return of European Anti-Americanism

Posted November 21, 2016 by danmillerinpanama
Categories: Britain, Contempt for America, Europe and President Elect Trump, Europe and President Reject Obama, European establishment, Globalism, NATO
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Donald Trump and the Return of European Anti-Americanism, Gatestone Institute, Soeren Kern, November 21, 2016

European criticism of Trump goes far beyond a simple displeasure with the man who will be the next president. The condemnation reveals a deep-seated contempt for the United States, and for American voters who democratically elected a candidate committed to restoring American economic and military strength.

The primary cause of the global disorder is the lack of American leadership at home and abroad. A series of feckless decisions by Obama to reduce American military influence abroad have created geopolitical power vacuums that are being filled by countries and ideologies that are innately hostile to Western interests and values.

For the past seven decades, the U.S. has spent millions of dollars annually to guarantee German security, although Germany steadfastly refuses to honor a NATO pledge to spend 2% of GDP on defense spending. Germans are now offended that Trump is asking them to pay their fair share for their own defense.

Although President Obama’s foreign policy missteps have made Europe much less safe than it was eight years ago, European elites have overlooked Obama’s mistakes because he is a “globalist” who seems to favor recreating the U.S. in the European image. Trump, by contrast, is a nationalist who wants to rebuild the U.S. in the American, not the European, image.

European anti-Americanism is certain to escalate in the years ahead, not because of Trump or his policies, but because “globalists” appear desperate to save the failing European Union, an untransparent, unaccountable, anti-democratic, sovereignty-grabbing alternative to the nation state.

 

European anti-Americanism — which was on the wane during the presidency of Barack Obama, who steered the United States on a course of globalism rather than nationalism — is back with a vengeance.

Europe’s media establishment has greeted Donald Trump’s election victory with a vitriol not seen since the George W. Bush presidency, when anti-Americanism in Europe was at fever pitch.

Since the American election on November 9, European television, radio and print media have produced an avalanche of negative stories, editorials and commentary that seethe with rage over the outcome of the vote.

European criticism of Trump goes far beyond a simple displeasure with the man who will be the next president. The condemnation reveals a deep-seated contempt for the United States, and for American voters who democratically elected a candidate committed to restoring American economic and military strength.

If the past is any indication of the future, European anti-Americanism will be a pervasive feature of transatlantic relations during the Trump presidency.

Although European opinion-shapers have focused much of their indignation on the threat Trump allegedly poses to global order, the president-elect will inherit a world that is significantly more chaotic and insecure than it was when Obama became president in January 2009.

The primary cause of the global disorder is the lack of American leadership — leading from behind — at home and abroad.

A series of feckless decisions by Obama to reduce American military influence abroad have created geopolitical power vacuums that are being filled by countries and ideologies that are innately hostile to Western interests and values. China, Russia, Iran, North Korea and radical Islam — among many others — have all been emboldened to challenge the United States and its allies with impunity.

European elites have been mostly silent about Obama’s foreign policy failures, but are now lashing out at Trump for pledging to restore order by “making America great again.”

As during the Bush administration, anti-Americanism in Europe is once again being driven by Germany, a country that was effectively rebuilt by the United States after the Second World War. The Marshall Plan granted West Germany some $1.5 billion ($15 billion in 2016 dollars) in reconstruction aid between 1948 and 1951.

For the past seven decades, the United States has spent millions of dollars annually to guarantee German security, although Germany steadfastly refuses to honor a NATO pledge to spend a minimum of 2% of GDP on defense spending. Germany spent only 1.16% of GDP on its own defense in 2015 and 1.15% in 2016. German officials are now offended that Trump is asking them to pay their fair share for their own defense.

Following is a small sampling of recent European commentary on Donald Trump and the United States:

In Germany, the Hamburg-based newsmagazine Der Spiegel, one of the largest-circulation publications in Europe, published a cover with an image of a giant meteor in the shape of Trump’s head hurtling towards the earth. The headline reads: “The End of the World (As We Know It). The issue includes more than 50 pages of related content, including an article by Dirk Kurbjuweit entitled, “One-Hundred Years of Fear: America Has Abdicated Its Leadership of the West.” He wrote:

“For 100 years, the United States was the leader of the free world. With the election of Donald Trump, America has now abdicated that role. It is time for Europe, and Angela Merkel, to step into the void….

“Trump, who wants nothing to do with globalization; Trump, who preaches American nationalism, isolation, partial withdrawal from world trade and zero responsibility for a global problem like climate change….

“We now face emptiness — fear of the void. What will happen to the West, to Europe, to Germany without the United States as its leading power?

2062In Germany, Der Spiegel, one of the largest-circulation publications in Europe, published a cover, after Donald Trump’s election victory, with an image of a giant meteor in the shape of Trump’s head hurtling towards the earth. The headline reads: “The End of the World (As We Know It)”.

In an article, “Trump’s Victory Ushers in Dangerous Instability,” Spiegel commentator Roland Nelles wrote:

“It really happened. He did it. Donald Trump proved all experts wrong…. A man who… preaches hate and snubs America’s most important partners will run the most powerful country on Earth. It is a political catastrophe.

“Crude populism has triumphed over reason. Trump’s success is a shock for all those who had counted on the political wisdom of American voters….

“The world, and America, is now threatened by a dangerous phase of instability: Donald Trump wants to make America ‘great’ again. If one believes his pronouncements, he will proceed ruthlessly: He wants to throw 11 million migrants out of the country, renegotiate all major trade agreements and make important allies such as Germany pay for US military protection. That will trigger significant conflict, incite new rivalries and spur new crises.”

In an opinion article, “An Absurd and Dangerous President,” Spiegel commentator Klaus Brinkbäumer wrote:

“The United States has voted for a dangerously inexperienced and racist man — one who was swept into the White House by an army of disenfranchised white working- and middle-class Americans. It is a movement that now threatens democracy around the world….

“In other words, 60 million Americans acted stupidly. They cast their votes for xenophobia, racism and nationalism, the end of equal rights and social conscience, for the end of climate treaties and health insurance. Sixty million people followed a demagogue who will do little for them.

“Those who have lived in New York or experienced dinner conversations in Georgetown and debates at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government, know how brilliantly intelligent and worldly Americans can be…. Once you get outside such circles, such cosmopolitan thinking isn’t nearly as widespread.”

The Munich-based Süddeutsche Zeitung, in an article, “Trump’s Foreign Policy: What This Election Means for the World,” stated:

“The man who politicians around the world called ‘scary,’ ‘ignorant’ or ‘irrational’ will move into the White House. The uncertainty around the world is great. If cartoonists are to be believed, Donald Trump’s idea of the world is very simplistic. Africa is the birthplace of Barack Obama. Russia is a country that was made great again. Great Britain is a no-go area.”

The Hamburg-based Die Zeit, in an article, “Trump and How He Sees the World,” wrote:

“Wow. The West crumbles before our eyes. What is going on here can be explained by two data points: On November 9, 1989, the wall fell in Berlin…. On November 9, 2016, exactly 27 years later, a man has been elected to the White House whose central election pledge was the construction of a wall.

“The ideas of the new president are neither contradictory nor confused. His demands can be easily summarized on the cap of a beer bottle: integrate Putin, keep Mexicans out and treat American allies as the customers of a security service. There is only protection if one pays cash, even in NATO.

In a commentary, “The End of the Enlightenment,” Zeit essayist Adrian Daub wrote:

“Donald Trump is a remnant of a dying America…. He has turned the country from a multicultural lighthouse into an isolated island of white people who are afraid of their own shadow.

“The idea of American exceptionalism, the lighthouse, was already present at the foundation of the nation…. The idea of American radiance is one with the ideas of the Enlightenment that came from Europe to the colonies. Ideas like universal values or the human striving for truth.

“Trump’s election means the end of this project. The United States is no longer a lighthouse, but a flaming fire of tired shadows armed to the teeth. No trace remains of its prototypical character, its imitability. It is defiant, closed to the world. The nationalism of isolationism… the tumultuous tribalism… are shaking the foundations of the Enlightenment.

“The US upheld the values of the Enlightenment — humanism, an optimistic image of man, human dignity and civil rights — when Europe deviated from them in the thirties. It used humanism as a weapon in the struggle against fascism, its universality as a counterpart to nationalism, and with its re-importation after the Second World War has contributed to the reestablishment of the European project. Today, these values are once more in trouble in Europe, but the view across the Atlantic will not be reassuring as of January.”

Other German headlines include: “Trump has the Charisma of a Drunken Elephant,” “Donald Trump: A Horror Clown as a Security Risk,” “Trump: How Could this Happen?,” “Plans of the New US President: How Trump Wants to Poison the Air,” “Donald Trump: A Blow to Open Society,” “America Chooses the Great Divider,” “Donald Trump: A King Without a Plan,” “Donald is not Ronald,” “Donald is not Churchill,” “Can Trump also Happen in Germany?,” “How to Prevent a German Trump,” “Who Can Stop Trump Now?,” and “Will Berlin Have to Pay More for Defense?”

In Britain, the Guardian published an editorial, “The Guardian View on Trump’s Foreign Policy: A Threat to Peace,” which stated:

“The victory of Donald Trump shatters the notion that the US can be counted on by its allies not just for defense guarantees and economic cooperation, but even as a defender of liberal democracy, rather than a threat to it. It calls into question the traditional US role as a protector of a UN-based global architecture of multilateralism….

“For Donald Trump, politics — like business — is about deal making. He thinks man-to-man talk with dictators can instantly dissolve problems, and approaches foreign affairs as zero sum game in which making America great can mean demeaning its traditional friends. His election makes the world a more dangerous place and also a more uncertain place, for it is too early to say precisely how those dangers will materialize — or how the next US president will face up to them.”

The Guardian, in an essay, “A Win for Trump was a Win for Bigotry,” columnist Owen Jones wrote:

“Hang on a minute: who am I as a Briton to interfere in the internal affairs of a foreign country? The problem is the entire world is now subject to the writ of the leader of the last superpower. We are all, to a degree, under his dominion….

“Trumpism is, by nature, an authoritarian movement that regards democratic norms as dispensable if they fail to serve political ends. The aspiration — whether realizable or not — is clear: authoritarian societies such as Putin’s Russia, Erdoğan’s Turkey and Orbán’s Hungary that maintain certain democratic trappings as a convenient front.

“If the American people simply accept the legitimacy of this president, and they normalize this would-be tyrant, it will only embolden him…. Civil disobedience should be employed where necessary. Don’t just do it for yourself, America. The fate of the rest of the world will be determined by your choices.”

Other British headlines include: “Will Donald Trump Destroy America?,” “Why President Donald Trump is an Even Bigger Disaster than You Thought,” “Donald Trump’s Victory is a Disaster for Liberal Values,” “Donald Trump’s Victory is a Disaster for Modern Masculinity,” “Privacy Experts Fear Donald Trump Running Global Surveillance Network,” “Terrifying Trump Will Turn into Tamed Trump? It’s an Illusion,” “The Magnetic Pull of Trump, King Narcissist,” “Will Donald Trump Make School Lunches Unhealthy? Doctors Warn the President-elect’s Penchant for Burgers and Fried Chicken Could Hit Meal Trays,” “In the Age of Trump, Why Bother Teaching Students to Argue Logically?,” and “Donald Trump Believed to be Direct Descendant of Rurik the Viking who Established Russian State.”

In Spain, where anti-Americanism has held sway for many decades, the newspaper El Paíspublished an essay, “Declaration of War against Stupidity,” which showcases the contempt many Europeans have for ordinary Americans. The newspaper’s long-time essayist, John Carlin, wrote:

“The victory of Trump represents a rebellion against reason and decency. It is the triumph of racism, or misogyny, or stupidity — or all three things at once. It is the expression of the poor judgment and bad taste of 60 million Americans, the vast majority of them men and women of white skin who own homes, cars, firearms and eat more than citizens of any other country on earth.

“This is where you see with perfect clarity the stupidity, frivolity and irresponsibility of those who voted for Trump. For all of Clinton’s defects, they are trivial compared to those of Trump, whose ignorance, zero principles and zero experience in governance are joined by all forms of personal vices that every person in their right mind at any latitude of the world considers deplorable.

“I know the kind who voted for Trump. I met them when I made reports in Texas, Montana, Arizona, Oklahoma, Alabama and other typically Republican states. They tend to be kind, religious and honest people, decent in their reduced social orbit. But after sitting down to talk with them for a while I always reacted with the same perplexity: how is it possible that we speak the same language? Their words are familiar to me but their brain circuits operate differently. They are people of simple faith, oblivious to the irony; people who choose their truths not based on facts but on their beliefs or prejudices; people who live far from the ocean and the rest of planet Earth, of which they are afraid. I’ve never experienced a similar sense of disconnection in Europe, Africa or Latin America. Just inside the United States.”

In Austria, Kronen Zeitung published a headline entitled, “Nuclear Suitcase: In 72 Days Trump Could Annihilate Civilization.” Also in Austria, Kurier published a story entitled, “Trump Victory: Boon for Suicide Hotlines.” In France, the newspaper Libération featured a cover with Trump and the words “American Psycho.” Another headline read: “United States: The Empire of the Worst.” L’Obs asked, “With Trump, the Beginning of De-Globalization?” Le Figaro wrote: “Donald Trump: From Clown to President,” and “Europe Paralyzed by the Trump Shock.” Le Monde wrote, “Donald Trump’s Victory: A Brexit for America.” In the Netherlands, Telegraaf declared, “Trump is a Nightmare for Europe.”

How is one to interpret the resurgence of anti-American sentiment in Europe?

Although President Obama’s foreign policy missteps, especially those in the Middle East, have made Europe much less safe than it was eight years ago, European elites have overlooked Obama’s mistakes because he is a “globalist” who seems to favor recreating the United States in the European image. Trump, by contrast, is a nationalist who wants to rebuild the United States in the American, not the European, image.

European anti-Americanism is certain to escalate in the years ahead, not because of Trump or his policies, but because “globalists” appear desperate to save the failing European Union, an untransparent, unaccountable, anti-democratic, sovereignty-grabbing alternative to the nation state.

Europeans have time and again overestimated their ability to make a fragmented Europe act like a single unified actor. As it turns out, anti-Americanism is a powerful ideology that has wide appeal across Europe — not just among the elites.

In the past, European federalists have tried to make anti-Americanism the basis of a new pan-European identity. This artificial post-modern European “citizenship,” which demands allegiance to a faceless bureaucratic superstate based in Brussels, has been presented as a globalist alternative to the nationalism of the United States. In essence, to be “European” means to not be American.

As the European Union comes apart at the seams, Europe’s political establishment can be expected to try to exploit anti-Americanism in a desperate attempt to use it as a glue to hold a fractured Europe together.

Whether or not that succeed depends, ironically, on U.S. President-elect Donald Trump. If he can demonstrate that he is able to govern the United States and produce tangible results, especially by growing the economy and curbing illegal immigration, Trump is certain to energize support for anti-establishment politicians in Europe, many of whom are already polling well in a number of upcoming general elections.

Commenting on Trump’s victory, Dutch Parliamentarian Geert Wilders, wrote: “America has just liberated itself from political correctness. The American people expressed their desire to remain a free and democratic people. Now it is time for Europe. We can and will do the same!”

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Secret Israel-Jordanian-Syrian border talks begin

Posted November 21, 2016 by danmillerinpanama
Categories: Golan, Israel and Jordan, Israel borders, President Elect Trump, Putin, Syria, United Nations
Tags: , , , , , ,

Secret Israel-Jordanian-Syrian border talks begin, DEBKAfile, November 21, 2016

fawwar-camp480

Israel, Jordan and Syria have embarked on secret discussions for the stabilization of their borders in southern Syria by restoring the status quo ante that reigned on the Golan prior to the outbreak of the Syrian civil war in 2011.

This is reported exclusively by DEBKAfile from intelligence, Washington and Moscow sources.

The incoming Trump administration in Washington and Russian President Vladimir Putin are in the picture; so is the United Arab Emirates ruler, Sheikh Mohamed Bin Zayed Al Nahyan.

Although still at a preliminary stage, the talks have produced their first tangible result: A vanguard of the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF) has arrived on the Syrian side of the Golan. It has taken up position at its former Fawwar Camp base 4km east of Quneitra, which it evacuated during the Syrian fighting. The main body of the force, around 1,000 UN soldiers and 70 observers, is expected soon, to take up the task of reconstituting the former demilitarized zone that separated Israel and Syria under the 1974 armistice agreement.

This DMZ runs 80km along the Hermon range up to the Lebanese border in the north and down to the Israel-Syrian-Jordanian triangle in southern Syria up to the Jordanian border. In the 25km long Golan strip, between half a kilometer and 10 deep, the IDF and Syrian army were originally limited as to the number of soldiers and types of weaponry they are allowed to maintain. The strip will revert to Syrian civil administration under UNDOF control, and the Israeli-Syrian border crossing point will be reopened in the Quneitra area under the joint supervision of UN, Israeli and Syrian officers.

The military arrangements are still in discussion and changes may be introduced to this format.

The main obstacle to the return of pre-Syrian war conditions to this sensitive border region is the presence of radical Syrian rebel forces in southern Syria, mainly the Khalid bin Walid Army, whose leaders have sworn allegiance to Islamic State commander Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

These forces will face the option of accepting the authority of the Syrian army or fighting a win-or-die battle.

Israel has an additional, compelling interest in restoring the disengagement zone with Syria in that it leaves no room for the grab for a military presence opposite Israeli Golan and Galilee that was made in recent months by Iran and its Lebanese proxy, Hizballah, for the purpose of opening a new front for terrorist attacks against Israel – as DEBKAfile was first to reveal. .

An indirect clue to the secret diplomatic talks ongoing came from the Syrian ruler Bashar Assad in an interview he gave on Nov. 16 to a Portuguese radio station, when he said: “If –if – he [Trump] fights the terrorists, it is clear that we will be a natural ally, together with the Russians, Iranians and many other countries who want to defeat the terrorists.”

The parties with varying degrees of involvement in the restoration of the UN-controlled DMZ on the Golan border are, therefore, the incoming Trump administration, Moscow, Damascus, Amman, Abu Dhabi and Jerusalem. Russia, Jordan and the Emirates have gained relevance for the first time as a result of changes in the strategic balance engendered by the Syrian war.

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Only 18 out of 57 Muslim Nations Sign UN Coalition to Fight ISIS

Posted November 21, 2016 by Peter Hofman
Categories: Uncategorized
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,

Only 18 out of 57 Muslim Nations Sign UN Coalition to Fight ISIS

By Pamela Geller – on November 20, 2016

Source: Only 18 out of 57 Muslim Nations Sign UN Coalition to Fight ISIS – The Geller Report

Clearly a majority of Muslim nations do not want to fight against terror. On the contrary, they support jihad armies — in accordance with the jihadiic doctrine. “Soon shall we cast terror Into the hearts Of the unbelievers..”

The lip service that Muslim countries pay to Western elites is merely taqiya.
The Quran’s Verses of Violence – The Religion of Peace

Anger as less than A THIRD of Muslim nations sign up to coalition against ISIS
A TOP British official has taken aim at some Muslim nations during a meeting at the United Nations this week, slamming them for not clamping down on extremism.

By Siobhan McFadyen, Express UK, Nov 18, 2016  (thanks to Muslim Statistics)

Matthew Rycroft delivered a strongly worded speech at the UN this week

Matthew Rycroft delivered a strongly worded speech at the UN this week

It comes as it can be revealed just 18 out of 57 Muslim majority world states have signed up to a coalition against ISIS.

The UK’s permanent representative to the UN, Matthew Rycroft, delivered a strongly worded speech blasting what he called “evil groups” and saying not enough is being done.

The comments came as the UN general assembly supported a plan by the Islamic Development Bank to invest £7.2bn to tackle the cause of terror.

Suicide bombings are a daily issue around the globe
Suicide bombings are a daily issue around the globe.

The fact that these evil groups claim to represent Islam only makes this reality even more sickening.
– UN representative Matthew Rycroft

Britain is using its muscle at the UN to encourage more cooperation and has also pledged to invest £20m of taxpayers’ money to the Arab Women’s Enterprise Fund.

Mr Rycroft said: “One issue facing the OIC’s (Organisation of Islamic Cooperation) members, indeed all members of the UN, is the growing threat of extremist ideologies and violent extremism.

Just 18 out of 57 Muslim majority world states have signed up to a coalition against ISIS
Just 18 out of 57 Muslim majority world states have signed up to a coalition against ISIS

“Sadly, as we in this Council know only too well, this threat affects Muslim majority states in a truly disproportionate way – in Iraq, in Syria, in Libya, in so many places.

“Put simply and starkly, far more Muslim men, women and children have lost their lives at the hands of groups like Al Shabaab and Da’esh than any other faith or religion.

“The fact that these evil groups claim to represent Islam only makes this reality even more sickening.

“The United Kingdom is clear that we must tackle violent extremism in all its forms, whether radical Islam or neo-Nazism.”

An ISIS fighter is help by an Iraqi army official

An ISIS fighter is held by an Iraqi army official.
Worryingly, Mr Rycroft pointed out that just 18 of the 57 member states, with a collective population of over 1.6 billion – that makes up the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation which was founded in 1969 – are members of the Global Coalition against Da’esh.

It comes after the UK set up a Strategic Communications Cell to tackle terrorists in London last year, handing over an initial £10million.

He added: “It’s no coincidence that 18 members of the OIC are also members of the Global Coalition against Da’esh.

“Among them are of course our colleagues from Egypt and I want to pay tribute to the work of those two great Egyptian institutions, Al-Azhar and Dar Al-Ifta.

“These beacons of Islamic thinking help provide a narrative of tolerance that counters the hate preached by the likes of Da’esh.

A man takes a selfie in front of a fire from oil that has been set ablaze in the Qayyarah area
A man takes a selfie in front of a fire from oil that has been set ablaze in the Qayyarah area.

Iraqi soldiers look on as smoke rises fr

Video still of militants patrolling the streets of Mosul

Militants patrolling the streets of Mosul.
“The UK is committed to help spread that narrative, to showing the reality of Da’esh’s lies.

“That’s why we’re hosting the Coalition’s Communications Cell in London.

“It draws on the expertise of Coalition members, including our partners from the United Arab Emirates, to help counter the misrepresentation of Islam and its values by Da’esh.

“Countering an ideology is part about offering a competing narrative.

“But it’s also about delivering consequences for those who join Da’esh and it’s about supporting survivors of their crimes by giving them a voice and ending impunity.

“Da’esh accountability is a top priority for the UK and we are seeking UN action to preserve evidence of Da’esh’s crimes as a first step.”

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Turkey: Lies, Cheap Lies and Cheaper Lies

Posted November 21, 2016 by Peter Hofman
Categories: Uncategorized
Tags: , , , , ,

Turkey: Lies, Cheap Lies and Cheaper Lies

by Burak Bekdil

November 21, 2016 at 4:30 am

Source: Turkey: Lies, Cheap Lies and Cheaper Lies

  • In President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s view, Belarus is decent and peaceful, but Western Europe is not. Merely because Belarus’s dictator, Alexander Lukashenko, agreed to open a mosque to lure some Turkish investment.
  • Back in Turkey, things look very Belarusian — even worse — rather than Western European, a culture Erdogan despises.
  • President Erdogan’s crackdown on dissent goes at full speed. Asli Erdogan, a peace activist and novelist, worked for Ozgur Gundem, a pro-Kurdish newspaper. She has remained in prison since her August arrest. The prosecutors demand an aggravated life sentence plus 17.5 years in jail for her. How did Asli Erdogan, the novelist, “support terror”? This is from the indictment: “… in an understanding of a novelist [the accused] portrayed terrorists as citizens in her columns.”
  • “In the history of the program, there has never been such an extraordinary situation where I think we can say that a democracy is threatening to turn itself into a dictatorship.” — Frank Schwabe, German Social Democratic lawmaker and human rights expert.
  • Europe’s unpleasant game with Turkey should end at once, with Brussels and Ankara admitting that the planned marriage was an awfully bad idea from the beginning.

Reading his public speeches, one may think that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan must be joking; that he is a celebrity stand-up comedian, the best in his profession. In reality, he is not joking. He believes in what he says. And he does not want to make people laugh. He is just an Islamist strongman.

Visiting Minsk, the capital of Belarus, in the first week of November for the opening of a mosque in a dictatorial country where there are 100,000 Muslims, Erdogan accused Western Europe for “intolerance that spreads like the plague.”

Erdogan described Belarus, which Western countries describe as a dictatorship, as “a country in which people with different roots live in peace.” In Erdogan’s view Belarus is decent and peaceful, but Western Europe is not. Merely because Belarus’s dictator, Alexander Lukashenko, agreed to open a mosque to lure some Turkish investment.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan meets with Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko in Minsk on November 11, 2016. (Image source: TRT Haber video screenshot)

Back in Turkey, things look very Belarusian — even worse — rather than Western European, a culture Erdogan despises.

In August, an Istanbul court ordered Asli Erdogan, a prominent author and journalist, arrested on charges of membership in an armed terror organization. Asli Erdogan, a peace activist and novelist, worked for Ozgur Gundem, a pro-Kurdish newspaper. She has remained in prison since her arrest. The prosecutors demand an aggravated life sentence plus 17.5 years in jail for her.

How did Asli Erdogan the novelist “support terror”? This is from the indictment: “… in an understanding of a novelist [the accused] portrayed terrorists as citizens in her columns.” The prosecutor’s “evidence” is four columns by Asli Erdogan. Mehmet Yilmaz, a columnist, suggested that Turkish law faculties, after this indictment, should be closed down and converted into imam schools.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s crackdown on dissent goes at full speed. An opposition, pro-Kurdish party, the Peoples’ Democratic Party, announced that it would suspend its legislative activity after a dozen of its lawmakers, including its co-chairpersons, were arrested on terror charges. Meanwhile Erdogan accuses Europe of abetting terrorism by supporting Kurdish militants as the Turkish government tries to suppress them. He said: “Europe, as a whole, is abetting terrorism.”

German lawmakers, including leading representatives of the Social Democrats, the Greens and the Left Party, announced an initiative to “adopt” their Turkish colleagues after Erdogan’s government rescinded the legal immunity of 53 of 59 Kurdish members of parliament and arrested dozens of lawmakers, party employees and journalists.

“In the history of the program, there has never been such an extraordinary situation where I think we can say that a democracy is threatening to turn itself into a dictatorship,” said German Social Democratic lawmaker and human rights expert Frank Schwabe. “We have a lot of Turkish opposition parliamentarians under threat, so we had to apply the parliamentary sponsorship program in an extraordinary way.”

In another speech, Erdogan said that Turkey was ready to abandon its EU candidacy if “Europe told us they do not want us.” He said he would put EU membership to referendum. It may look amusing if an applicant threatens to withdraw his application to a club he knows and declares he does not belong to. But the incompatibility between the democratic cultures of Western Europe and Turkey are now too visible to ignore or tone down in diplomatic language.

There are signs, albeit weak, in Europe that Islamist Turkey does not belong to the Old Continent. Austria’s defense minister, Hans Peter Doskozil, told the German daily, Bild, that “Turkey is on its way to becoming a dictatorship.” Past perfect tense instead of present may have described Turkey’s case better, but there is a European “awakening” on Turkish affairs.

Austria’s foreign minister, Sebastian Kurz, said: “Over recent years Turkey has moved farther and farther away from the EU, but our policy has remained the same. That can’t work. What we need are clear consequences.” He is right: “That” cannot work.

A tiny EU state was bolder in calling a cat a cat. Speaking of Erdogan’s increasingly savage crackdown on dissidents, particularly after the failed coup of July 15, Luxembourg’s foreign minister, Jean Asselborn, said: “These are methods, one must say this bluntly, that were used during Nazi rule … And there has been a really, really bad evolution in Turkey since July that we as the European Union cannot simply accept.”

Europe’s unpleasant game of pretension with Turkey should end at once, with Brussels and Ankara admitting that the planned marriage was an awfully bad idea from the beginning; that Turkey does not belong to Europe, as its leader proudly says, and that there are better formats to frame diplomatic relationships than lies, cheap lies and cheaper lies. Let Turkey go on its voyage to become another peaceful Belarus.

Burak Bekdil, based in Ankara, is a Turkish columnist for the Hürriyet Daily and a Fellow at the Middle East Forum.

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Is All News Fake News?

Posted November 21, 2016 by danmillerinpanama
Categories: "Fake news", Facebook, Media
Tags: ,

Is All News Fake News? PJ Media, Roger L Simon, November 20, 2016

“Fake news” is very much in the news these days.

Barack Obama was off in Lima complaining that “fake news” was responsible for the defeat of Hillary Clinton.  I guess that depends on what your definition of “fake” is.

Meanwhile, cranky libertarian Ron Paul has given us a handy list of the forty-eight mainstream media “journalists” (scare quotes Ron’s, but how could you argue?) who were caught, largely through WikiLeaks, colluding with the Hillary Clinton campaign during the election.

Which company was the worst? Three worked for Politico and The Guardian, five for ABC, six each for MSNBC and the New York Times, and nine for CNN.  (We have a winner!)

“Fake news,” anyone? Or is that restricted to Breitbart.com and InfoWars?

But far more important than the increasingly unpopular MSM or a president nine-tenths out the door is a purveyor of news with exponentially more power and reach than all of them put together, squared — Facebook. That company’s founder and maximum leader Mark Zuckerberg has been taking heat about “fake news” as well and is making his special attempt to solve it. From the WSJ:

The first and most important step is to rely on technology to better classify misinformation and “detect what people will flag as false before they do it themselves,” Mr. Zuckerberg said.

Oh, good. “Garbage in, garbage out.” I think we’ve heard that before.

Another step is to make it easier for users to report fake stories, he said. Facebook has long relied on users to flag objectionable content, including fake news.

And who will they report the “fake” stories to? Who will then determine if they are fake or not?

Facebook is turning to outside groups for help in fact-checking, Mr. Zuckerberg wrote.

Groups chosen by Facebook, of course. (Conservatives picked by Facebook will be self-promotional goofballs like Glenn Beck — at least they were in the past.)

 It is also exploring a product that would label stories as false if they have been flagged as such by third-parties or users, and then show warnings to users who read or share the articles.

Just what we need — trigger warnings. They work so well on campus.

Facebook earlier this week announced it would bar fake-news sites from using the company’s ad-selling tools. Mr. Zuckerberg said he is looking into “disrupting the economics” of sites that traffic in fake information.

I wonder who those “fake-news sites” are. Not the New York Times, of course, for whom Jayson Blair fabricated umpteen front page stories and Walter Duranty flat-out lied about Stalin’s mass starvation of the Ukrainians.

Mr. Zuckerberg reiterated that Facebook doesn’t want to become an arbiter of truth itself.

But that’s just what it is.  They determine the fake sites.

“The problems here are complex, both technically and philosophically,” he wrote. “We believe in giving people a voice, which means erring on the side of letting people share what they want whenever possible.”

Well, that’s good, if it’s true, which I doubt. The problem with Facebook is that it has far too much power.  You could easily write a corollary to Lord Action: “Media power tends to corrupt and absolute media power corrupts absolutely.” In fact, media are ultimately more powerful than our leaders. (Hillary Clinton is probably gone forever. George Stephanopoulos, her faithful lapdog, could be with us for the next thirty years.)

Facebook, through our own sloth and compliance, is approaching absolute media power, if it hasn’t achieved it already.

This news monopoly is truly dangerous for obvious reasons, even if the monopolist feigns or actually believes he has an attitude of openness, as Zuckerberg does.

The problem is that it’s all about humans — they are the ones, at least until AI takes over, making the determinations. And I haven’t met a human yet who isn’t biased. That includes Zuckerberg, the New York Times, National Review, PJ Media or anybody I know or have known.

Have you?

Ergo, on a certain level, all news is fake. Reading or watching the news is the ultimate version of caveat emptor. 

One of the great positives of election 2016 was that the media was almost totally distrusted. They told the electorate repeatedly that Donald Trump was horrible and that Hillary Clinton was the infinitely better choice and we all know what happened.

Power to the people.  That’s the point. Trust yourself. All news is fake, I repeat, at some point. It’s just somebody’s narrative, including this.

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Obama Hands Out Medals of Freedom to Major Democratic Donors, Supporters

Posted November 21, 2016 by danmillerinpanama
Categories: Democrats, Medal of Freedom, Obama
Tags: , ,

Obama Hands Out Medals of Freedom to Major Democratic Donors, Supporters, Washington Free Beacon, , November 21, 2016

(Well gosh. Supporting Democrats, financially and otherwise, obviously constitutes  “especially meritorious contributions to the security or national interests of the United States.” Any fool knows that. — DM)

US president Barack Obama waves as he departs from Tegel airport in Berlin Friday Nov. 18, 2016. Obama met the leaders of key European countries to discuss an array of security and economic challenges facing the trans-Atlantic partners as the U.S. prepares for President-elect Donald Trump to take office in January. (Rainer Jensen/dpa via AP)

US president Barack Obama waves as he departs from Tegel airport in Berlin Friday Nov. 18, 2016.  (Rainer Jensen/dpa via AP)

Barack Obama will deliver his final round of Presidential Medals of Freedom this week to a group largely comprised of Democratic donors and individuals who have supported him politically.

The White House on Wednesday unveiled the 2016 list of honorees, who will on Tuesday receive the nation’s highest civilian award for making “especially meritorious contributions to the security or national interests of the United States.”

Eleven of the honorees have made contributions to Democratic committees or campaigns, including some that directly supported Obama, according to an analysis of Federal Election Commission records by the Washington Free Beacon. Twelve of the individuals have publicly backed Obama or his policies.

A handful of the individuals are Hollywood celebrities who have used their stature to advocate for Obama or Hillary Clinton.

Obama underlined the significance of the award on Wednesday, characterizing the winners as individuals who have “helped push America forward.”

“The Presidential Medal of Freedom is not just our nation’s highest civilian honor–it’s a tribute to the idea that all of us, no matter where we come from, have the opportunity to change this country for the better,” Obama said in a statement. “From scientists, philanthropists, and public servants to activists, athletes, and artists, these 21 individuals have helped push America forward, inspiring millions of people around the world along the way.”

The list includes talk show host and comedian Ellen DeGeneres, who has contributed hundreds of thousands of dollars to Democratic committees and campaigns over the years. For example, DeGeneres contributed $35,800 to the Obama Victory Fund in 2012 and $100,000 to the Hillary Victory Fund this year.

DeGeneres, who endorsed Clinton in an interview with the former secretary of state on her show, also contributed the maximum $2,700 to Clinton’s primary campaign against Sen. Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.). DeGeneres vocally praised Obama for coming out in favor of same-sex marriage ahead of his reelection in 2012.

Actor Robert De Niro, a supporter of both Obama and Clinton, will also receive a Presidential Medal of Freedom on Tuesday. De Niro has given thousands of dollars to the Democratic National Committee and contributed $10,000 to the Obama Victory Fund in 2012 and $2,500 to Obama’s general election campaign the same year.

Another celebrity who will receive the honor is Tom Hanks, who endorsed Obama during his first campaign for president in 2008. Hanks donated $2,300 and $2,500 to Obama’s 2008 and 2012 election campaigns, respectively, and has given thousands to the DNC and other Democrats, such as newly-elected Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.).

Hanks also backed Clinton in her most recent presidential bid, contributing the maximum $2,700 to her primary campaign.

Famed retired basketball player Michael Jordan will also receive a medal. While Jordan made headlines two years ago for calling Obama a “hack” golfer during an interview, the former pro basketball star has been a supporter of the president. Jordan hosted a $3 million fundraiser for Obama during his reelection bid that collected $20,000 per guest.

Obama will hand a Presidential Medal of Freedom to Lorne Michaels, famous for creating and producing Saturday Night Live. Michaels has contributed more than $81,000 to political committees and campaigns, the wide majority of which support Democratic causes. Michaels sent $4,600 to the Obama Victory Fund in 2008.

The producer also donated to Sen. John McCain’s (R., Ariz.) presidential primary campaign in 2008 and Ralph Nader’s 2000 presidential campaign.

At least one fierce critic of Trump will be honored on Tuesday: singer-songwriter Bruce Springsteen, who described Trump as a “moron” and a “toxic narcissist” during the 2016 campaign season. Springsteen endorsed Obama in 2008 and rallied for Hillary Clinton alongside Jon Bon Jovi on the evening before Election Day.

Springsteen has donated thousands to committees supporting Democrats, including outgoing Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D., Nev.) and Russ Feingold, who unsuccessfully challenged incumbent Sen. Ron Johnson (R., Wis.) this election cycle.

The ceremony will also honor actor, director, producer, and outspoken environmentalist Robert Redford, who endorsed Obama in 2012 and met informally with the president at the White House in May. In August, Redford fundraised for Feingold, of whom the film star has been a longtime supporter.

The entertainers’ careers, as well as those of the non-Hollywood recipients, were outlined by the White House in its announcement of the awards.

The list also includes prominent individuals in the fields of business and the arts. Business magnate and philanthropist Bill Gates along with his wife, Melinda, will receive medals, after having together donated thousands to Obama and tens of thousands to Democratic groups such as the DNC and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. The couple has given to both Democratic and Republican committees over the years, though the contributions favor Democrats.

Bill donated $17,900 to the Obama Victory Fund in 2012, while his wife also gifted $35,800 to the joint fundraising committee. Melinda Gates contributed $5,000 to Obama’s 2012 primary and general election campaigns.

The two also each gave $50,000 to Obama’s inauguration in 2009. Obama and Bill Gates partneredon a multi-billion-dollar clean energy initiative, a project that was announced in timing with the Paris climate talks one year ago.

In the announcement Wednesday, the White House singled out the Gates family for their charity, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which has provided over $36 billion in grants to improve the lives of people in the United States and developing countries. The charity is also a major supporter of the Bill, Hillary, and Chelsea Clinton Foundation, giving more than $25 million to the cause.

Obama will also recognize architect Frank Gehry, the designer behind the controversial Dwight D. Eisenhower memorial who has given well over $250,000 to Democratic committees and campaigns since 1999. Gehry is a financial supporter of campaigns supporting Obama, to whom he donated $4,600 in 2008, and Hillary Clinton. Gehry sent nearly $80,000 to the Obama Victory Fund in 2012 and more than $60,000 to the Hillary Victory Fund this year.

Artist and designer Maya Lin, who has donated tens of thousands to Democratic committees and campaigns, including those of Obama and Clinton, was also named by the White House as a Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient.

Newt Minow, the former chairman of the Federal Communications Commission who hired Obama as a summer associate at his law firm in the 1980s, will also be honored. Minow is a supporter of Obama and urged him to run for president, according to a 2008 Vanity Fair interview.

Minow has contributed nearly $18,000 to both Democratic and Republican political campaigns and committees, though the contributions have leaned Democrat. He donated $7,500 to committees supporting Obama in the early 2000s.

Also among the honorees are NBA all-time leading scorer Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, an Obama supporter; physicist Richard Garwin, who was among several scientists who praised the Iran nuclear deal in a letter to Obama last August; Miami Dade College president Eduardo Padron, a proponent of Obama’s free college plan; and actress and Hillary Clinton supporter Cicely Tyson.

Not all those to be honored Tuesday are Obama supporters or major donors to Democratic causes. Mathematician and computer scientist Margaret Hamilton, singer Diana Ross, U.S. Navy Real Admiral Grace Hopper, and Blackfeet tribal leader Elouise Cobell will all be honored, the latter two posthumously, without having made substantial political contributions or stumped for Democrats.

 The only clear Republican of the group is baseball broadcaster Vin Scully, who spurred a flurry of media coverage when he criticized socialism during a live broadcast in June. Though his political contributions pale in comparison to some others on the list, Scully donated $2,300 to McCain’s presidential campaign in 2008 and $1,500 to retired House Speaker John Boehner’s congressional campaign over 2010 and 2o11. Scully also wrote a check for $2,500 to the Romney Victory Fund in 2012.

The White House did not respond to a request for information about what the president took into account when selecting the latest round of Presidential Medal of Freedom recipients.

Obama will award the last round of medals two days before Thanksgiving and two months before he will leave the White House as the Trump administration takes over.

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