05/28/14

Jerusalem

Arlene from Israel

Today was Yom Yerushalayim – the day marking the reunification of Jerusalem 47 years ago, when, in the course of the Six Day War, we liberated the part of the holy city that had been occupied by the Jordanians.

It is well past sundown here now, so the day of celebration is over in Israel. A frustrating day for me today, because I was so involved in Legal Grounds work – work that could not wait – that I had not time to do the sort of writing I would have wanted to do. And yet, I could not let it pass without a mention.

Jerusalem. This golden city truly is at the center of the world.


Credit: KeepJerusalem

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Prime Minister Netanyahu, speaking at Mercaz HaRav Yeshiva today, said (emphasis added):

“Those who remember Jerusalem immediately after the Six Day War, it was not a small village nor a large city…and today Jerusalem is a huge city.

“Jerusalem is Yad Vashem, Jerusalem is Herzl’s burial place and the Mount of Olives, where my grandparents are buried, as is Menachem Begin.

“And Jerusalem is also Mount Zion and Mount Moriah [the Temple Mount] and the Western Wall. Jerusalem is Israel’s eternity, it is our heart, and we are guarding our heart – the heart of the nation. We will never divide our heart.”

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/181120#.U4Y8OptZrIU

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He spoke well.

Any one who loves Jerusalem, instinctively understands its spiritual importance and knows that it can never be divided. The city is a place of heightened energy. which cannot be described but only felt.

Anyone who grapples with the political and logistical and security issues impinging on this area comprehends as well, at a more pragmatic level, that it must remain ours. When the Arabs do battle, as they are for the Temple Mount, they seek to undercut the very essence of what we are.

We have much hard work to do yet, to truly claim it as ours. It will not be easy, but it is very necessary.

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The traditional celebration for Yom Yerushalayim is the Flag Dance Parade. Young people by the thousands wave their flags as they make their way through the designated streets of Jerusalem, ending up at the Kotel. It is a sight that lifts the spirits high. That makes one grateful and glad.


Credit: usatoday

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See Myths and Facts for old pictures and an explanation of Jerusalem’s historical/spiritual connection to the Jewish people.

http://www.mythsandfacts.org/Conflict/3/Jerusalem.pdf

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The song “If I forget you, O Jerusalem – Im Eshkachech.”

http://www.frumtube.com/video/53/Yaakov-Shwekey–Im%EF%BB%BF-Eshkachech-Yerushalayim#.U4ZLK2dZrIU

And I close, as I often do on Yom Yerushalayim, with the magnificent, late Ofra Haza singing Yerushalayim shel Zahav. Jerusalem of Gold.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L8Co7IzOyhw

05/28/14

Michiganders Searching for the Truth Welcome “Paul Revere on Steroids”

By: Dick Manasseri

Michiganders, like other Americans, are increasingly alarmed by the lightning speed with which their Constitutional Republic is losing ground to the Lyin’ ‘King’, given his Administration’s contempt for the truth.

Most low information voters are still in denial.

But, the reality of dead Americans, in Benghazi and in the “care” of the single-payer VA, is causing previously apathetic Michigan citizens to wonder how their own lives could be damaged by a “leader” suffering from a bad case of ED (“Excessive Dishonesty”).

It’s not a laughing matter. It’s as if we live inside our own “Iron Curtain of Lies” drawn tighter and tighter each day by the King, his media, his indoctrinators, his crony capitalists and the collaborating “opposition” (the RINOs), all willing to lie in order to further their AGENDA.

Paul Revere on Steroids

Precisely because Trevor names names and pulls no punches.
Armed only with his “weapons of mass documentation,” he has been fearlessly riding across America, meticulously proclaiming the truth to all who will listen.

Here in Michigan, the outpouring of interest in Trevor’s research is a testament to the growing alarm shared by veterans, union workers and moms regarding the blatant abuse of power by the Obama Administration.

Trevor will be exposing the sobering truth about Obama and the Enemies Within at venues across Michigan, June 5th- 13th:

St. Clair Shores, Petoskey, Gaylord, Bay City, Lapeer, Novi, Traverse City, Zeeland, Milford, Adrian, Ann Arbor

Trevor is reaching large Michigan audiences via the state’s best known talk show hosts including:

Frank Beckmann, Joshua’s Trail, Greg Marshall, Bob Dutko, Art Lewis, Thayrone X, Ron Edwards, Abolitionists Round Table, John McCulloch

Why this rock-star response to a humble patriot from New Zealand?

Trevor is the researcher who made the definitive link between Obama and his Communist mentor, Frank Marshall Davis. His new book, The Enemies Within: Communists, Socialists and Progressives in the U.S. Congress, names 80 members of Congress “who couldn’t pass a national security background check to clean the toilets in the Capitol.”

Gary Peters, candidate for U.S. Senate, targeted by recent AFP ads as a dangerous enemy of the middle class, is highlighted in Trevor’s book for his ties to the Democratic Socialists of America (as is Debbie Stabenow and John Conyers).

Trevor also explores the overwhelming role of Big Labor, which mandates that, in exchange for their generous funding, the Democrat Party promote policies explicitly defined by the Global Left and the Communist Party USA, e.g. Immigration Reform and Obamacare.

Michigan is the home of Big Labor and
the home of the Progressives’ model city for America.

Michiganders understand the power of Big Labor and the devastation caused by the Progressives’ corruption and lies.

Time will tell if the truth exposed by Trevor Loudon empowers Michiganders and their fellow citizens, to take the actions necessary to reign in the Lyin’ ‘King’ and his devastating regime.

05/28/14

Radio Interview with Trevor Loudon and Thayrone X on WAAM – June 4th at 4:30 PM EDT

Pacific Freedom Foundation

    Start: 4 June 2014 — 4:30 pm EDT
    Categories: Radio Interview

Catch acclaimed author and political activist, Trevor Loudon, On The Edge with Thayrone X on WAAM… Wednesday, June 4th at 4:30 pm EDT:

Thayrone sums up his views unapologetically, “I’m very conservative and always have been.” As friend and foe know full well, Thayrone is passionate in his beliefs. “When I start, I’ve got no brakes,” he said. He calls his detractors “background noise… it comes with the territory,” and he takes criticism in stride. “I’m deeply compassionate. I just keep it to myself.”

Thayrone is a man on a mission – several missions actually. One is to “drive a stake through the heart of sanitized, homogenized radio.” Another mission is to tackle controversial topics. On The Edge with Thayrone is a serious wake up call for his listeners concerning issues facing the country, not the least of which is “danger from within as well as without and the constant assault on our American culture always nipping at our heels. Many Americans are asleep at the wheel… like boiling frogs who don’t realize they’re being boiled to death one degree at a time until it’s too late. They just want to know what time the game is on and who got voted off ‘American Idol'”.

Don’t miss a minute of On The Edge with Thayrone… It’s talk radio you can’t turn off!

New Zealander, Trevor Loudon, is back in America. Like a modern-day Paul Revere, he is crossing the country to warn about “The Enemies Within: Communists, Socialists and Progressives in the U.S. Congress” and the continued threat to America’s liberties. Trevor is an internationally known blogger, writer and researcher, noted among other things for exposing the communist background of Obama’s “Green Jobs Czar” Van Jones, which led to his eventual resignation from his White House position. Loudon was also the first to publicize Barack Obama’s ties to Hawaiian Communist Party member Frank Marshall Davis.

Trevor Loudon’s research has been cited by Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, countless articles, blog posts and in books by well known authors such as Paul Kengor, Aaron Klein and Jerome Corsi. He has addressed more than 200 audiences in more than 30 states in his four tours of the United States.

He is also the author of the 2011 book: Barack Obama and the Enemies Within. Get ready to take a wild ride and discuss the enemies within and without with one of the most dynamic speakers you have ever heard!

WAAM Talk 1600
4:30 pm EDT
Wednesday, June 4th

If your TEA Party, 9.12 Project or patriotic group would like to have Trevor Loudon speak, please contact Regina Thomson.

Check Trevor’s TOUR MAP AND SCHEDULE, which is constantly being updated with new events and venues.

05/28/14

The New Populism — Fight Back, Go Forward — Right Off A Cliff

By: Terresa Monroe-Hamilton

The Progressive/Communist movement in the United States is doubling down in their efforts to catapult America into full-blown Marxism, led by such luminaries as these at The New Populism Conference:

The names read like a who’s who of the Progressive Leftist movement and they have big, big money supporting them, along with the likes of George Soros.

The New Populism Conference took place on May 22nd. The conference was organized by the Campaign for America’s Future and was supported by the Communications Workers of America (CWA).

The conference employed the same tired Marxist rhetoric that the majority of us have been “shafted,” “the rules are rigged” and the “oligarchs” are smoothing the path to a complete take-over. Really? You have been spouting this drivel against Conservatives for decades, when in fact, the Left is the moving force behind all of your allegations. You constantly utilize the meme of blaming anyone and everyone else for the things you are guilty of purporting. These are classic Alinsky tactics.

Your divisive politics never end… pitting poor against the wealthy, young against the old, black against white, in an effort to gin the masses into chaotic upheaval to further your agenda of “change” at any cost. Capitalism, in your warped view, will be defeated by unrest and a new Communist society will be born that benefits those who ‘deserve it.’

You use the convenient lie touting conspiracy theories to turn people against one another, very much in the manner that Lucifer is so well known for. Much of the wealth and power you rail against is the very same force that is behind the Democrat Party, the CPUSA, the DSA, People’s World and every other Socialist/Communist/Progressive group out there.

The unions you so proudly promote are no longer the protectors of the working class. They herd people into a controllable collective, rob them blind in enforced dues and no longer ensure that wages are fair and benefits are available. They are more into ensuring a level playing field that provides poverty and oppression for all, while guaranteeing success and opulence for a guaranteed few. It’s the Communist way.

Speakers also hid behind a faux religious facade, meant to entice the faithful into their Marxist theology. They used slick phrasing meant to proclaim kindness and equality, while in reality it promotes violence, upheaval and slavery.

The crux of the conference was wealth redistribution and government control. Education and employment for all were parroted throughout the event, all the while the speakers knew full well that in the end the masses under their control will have neither. Only under their watchful implementation of Agenda 21 and Common Core will the masses be allowed to move forward into a hellish future foreseen by many and desired by the elite few. With elections rigged to the point of being a futile exercise and the importation of millions of illegal immigrants, power for the Left can be ensured indefinitely. Using global warming as a strident call to doom, money can be made to make the wealthy Marxist, much wealthier while keeping the common man, well… common.

Behold The New Populism:

The New Populism arises from the stark truth about today’s America: Too few people control too much money and power, and they’re using that control to rig the rules to protect and extend their privileges.

This economy does not work for working people. This isn’t an accident. It isn’t an act of God. It isn’t due to forces of technology and globalization that can’t be changed. It isn’t a mistake. It is a power grab.

Decades of deregulation and top-end tax cuts, of soaring CEO pay and assaults on unions, of conservative myths and market fundamentalism have recreated Gilded Age extremes of wealth and power. Once more a new American plutocracy is emerging, doing what plutocrats always do – corrupting government to protect and expand their fortunes.

Notice how they blame everything they have wrought in the last eight years alone on Conservatives? The mess we are in is not from too much capitalism and freedom, but too little. It is brought on by too much regulation and government, not too little.

This is the Occupy movement — this is Marxism. If you think the Progressives have paused or doubted their agenda, as disastrous as it has been, think again:

Washington is gridlocked by Republican obstruction, so people are driving reforms from the bottom up. The minimum wage is being hiked from Hawaii to Maryland to Seattle, where it is headed to $15 an hour. Californians voted to tax the rich to invest in schools. Cleveland uses government procurement to support locally based, worker-owned cooperatives. Over a hundred cities have joined the call for a constitutional amendment to overturn Citizens United.

Pundits suggest that Republicans have the advantage in the low-turnout 2014 elections, with the Democratic base discouraged by the lousy economy. Elites in both parties warn against a new populism, as if the old politics held any answers for people.

But this isn’t about one election or one leader. The pressure for change is only beginning. People are waking up to the fact that the game is rigged. They won’t tolerate it for long. It will take muckraking, organizing, teaching, protests and demonstrations, new ideas and new allies. It will face fierce resistance. The wealthy and entrenched interests will spend lavishly to defend their privileges. Our system is designed to clog change, not facilitate it.

But when the people speak, politicians listen. And this new populist movement has only just begun. The stakes are fundamental – whether the democracy can in fact check the power of great wealth and entrenched interests. This is the challenge facing our democracy and for each one of us privileged to be its citizens.

These evil individuals put forked tongued demons to shame. They twist and entrap with their words and ideas, using religion as a honey trap and luring those who feel they have been slighted or wronged into proactive resistance against those who have more (because they earned it I might add). This is the Left… this is what we have leading us… Beware The New Populism being dangled in front of Americans as their saving grace, it is anything but and will lead to a new Dark Age. Fight back, go forward indeed… right off a cliff and onto the rocks. If I were writing a book on how to destroy America, this is exactly how I would do it. With the politics of division and the temptation of greed and equality. Justice in a death shroud.

05/28/14

How Democracies Perish

By: Cliff Kincaid
Accuracy in Media

If you thought it was strange that conservative columnist Pat Buchanan has become a passionate defender of Vladimir Putin, brace yourself for the fact that “far-right” French politician Marine Le Pen has also praised the former KGB officer. Putin’s posture as a “Christian” has made inroads in Europe, with Le Pen telling the Austrian daily Kurier that Putin defends “common values” and the “Christian heritage.”

Le Pen’s National Front party (FN), once considered a refuge for neo-Nazis, was the top vote-getter in France’s European elections, with 25.41 percent.

In Britain, the UK Independence Party (UKIP) came out on top, with 27.5 percent of the vote. Party leader Nigel Farage has also expressed his admiration for Putin and, to the surprise even of the left-wing Guardian, has been showing up regularly on Moscow-funded Russia Today (RT) television. Sounding like an agent of influence for Putin himself during one appearance favorably covered by RT, Farage claimed the European Union (EU) has “blood on its hands” for supporting Ukraine.

These extraordinary developments bring to mind the great book, How Democracies Perish, by French thinker Jean-Francois Revel. He participated in a 1984 U.S. Information Agency video on how the West is constantly fooled by “active measures,” including disinformation and influence operations, from Moscow.

A new report calls it “Russian information warfare,” as Putin confuses and misleads the West and its political leaders about his true intentions in Ukraine and elsewhere. The report, “The anatomy of Russian information warfare: The Crimean operation, a case study,” explains in detail how the disinformation campaign has been waged.

An article in The Kyiv [Ukraine] Post by William Schreiber, entitled “European Parliament election results bring no good news for Ukraine,” demonstrates how Putin’s influence has corrupted many different European political parties, on the right and left.

In fact, describing the results of the European elections, Schreiber reports, “In Greece, the left-wing Syriza led the vote, with over 26 percent. The far-right Golden Dawn placed third, with close to 10 percent, meaning Golden Dawn will enter the parliament for the first time ever. Despite their locations on the political spectrum, both Syriza and Golden Dawn rejected the legitimacy of Kyiv’s interim government and accused the EU of provoking Russia.”

So the right and left have come together on behalf of Moscow. This is true not only in Europe but America, where Communist Parties, leftist movements, and others sympathetic to Moscow have found themselves in bed with figures such as Pat Buchanan and Ron Paul in defending Russian aggression against Ukraine.

In Austria, Schreiber reports, the Freedom Party won 20 percent of Austrian voters, a significant leap in its representation. He says its head, Heinz-Christian Sache, opposes EU and U.S. sanctions against Russia over its invasion of Ukraine.

Putin is finding allies all across the globe.

Consider South African President Jacob Zuma, a “former” member of the Communist Party (like Vladimir Putin), whose regime is a “strategic partner” with the Russian government.

Domestically, in his own version of Obama’s “fundamental transformation” of a country, Zuma is promising “the implementation of radical socio-economic transformation policies and programs over the next five years.” These include (in his words):

  • Strengthening and expanding the role of the state in the economy
  • Making state-owned enterprises and development finance institutions “engines of development, complementing the State in promoting inclusive economic growth”
  • Changing the ownership and control of the economy
  • Land restitution and redistribution

Ironically, South Africa is being touted as one of three vibrant democracies in a new “Democracy Works” report from the Legatum Institute and the Center for Development and Enterprise, even though Zuma’s African National Congress (ANC) just won another election on racial grounds, this time with 62.2 percent of votes. The ANC is a Communist Party front and has never lost a national election in black-ruled South Africa.

At a National Press Club press conference, I asked Ann Bernstein of the Center for Development and Enterprise in South Africa why her country should be seen as a worthwhile model of democracy and development. “South Africa has yet to pass that test,” she said, referring to national elections for a political party other than the one that has been in power. “But democracy is about a lot more than elections.” She insists much progress is being made there.

She did claim that “The Communist Party is actually a small part of South Africa. They’ve become important because they latch on to the ANC. And then some of them get into government and become ministers who introduced the most market-friendly policies you can imagine.”

It’s true that capitalism has not been destroyed in South Africa. The ANC Marxists understand the need for capital, just as Putin opened the door to American corporations and got a Russian “re-set” and Permanent Normal Trade Relations (PNTR) status from President Obama and Congress.

But it was apparent that Bernstein hadn’t read “The South African Road to Socialism,” a document on the website of the South African Communist Party, covering the period from 2012 to 2017. The document talks about the “mobilization of private capital into an NDR [National Democratic Revolution] struggle” (page 48) and how “rolling back” and “transforming” the capitalist market (page 51) is essential to progress. That is precisely what Zuma is doing.

If the South African Communist Party is so small and insignificant, then why did Nelson Mandela conceal his membership in the Party? She had no explanation.

Bernstein and Anne Applebaum, director of the Legatum Institute’s Transitions Forum, made a number of appearances in Washington, D.C., including one hosted by the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), a federally funded organization. The NED has done some good work, but if this report becomes the basis for even more foreign aid to South Africa, the American taxpayers—and democracy—will not be served. South Africa functions like a one-party state, even though some private enterprise and freedom of the press are currently tolerated. The communists dominate the ANC government.

The list of funders for Bernstein’s group and her projects is quite impressive and includes the NED, along with some prominent U.S.-based conservative foundations. Yet, they have consistently failed to explain how a communist-ruled South Africa that is clearly on the road to socialism qualifies as a democracy in the sense that we understand the word.

To make matters worse, the South African government is a member of the BRICS alliance of nations, standing for Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa. Their foreign ministers issued a statement opposing sanctions against Russia over Ukraine.

Interestingly, India and Brazil were the other two countries included in the “Democracy Works” report. Brazil is ruled by a former communist terrorist, Dilma Rousseff. The regime tolerates some dissent but has been a solid ally over the years of dictatorships such as Castro’s Cuba.

India has been a functioning democracy, with power going back and forth between competing political parties. But the most recent winner of national elections, the “right-wing” Bharatiya Janata Party, issued a manifesto declaring it “will continue our dialogue, engagement and cooperation, with global forums like BRICS…” So its anti-American foreign policy will continue.

The two biggest members of BRICS, Russia and China, just signed a $400 billion gas deal, cementing what even the media recognize as a “strategic alliance” against the United States.

On every continent, it seems, the enemies of America are on the offensive.

But look at who the enemies are. In Afghanistan, where American troops continue to sacrifice their lives for some semblance of democracy, the Obama administration released the name of the CIA station chief in violation of the law that protects the identities of U.S. intelligence operatives. The White House called it a mistake.

So-called “mistakes” like this, in the face of determined enemies, make the survival of America and the Free World a matter of urgent debate.

Cliff Kincaid is the Director of the AIM Center for Investigative Journalism and can be contacted at [email protected]. View the complete archives from Cliff Kincaid.

05/28/14

Watcher’s Council Nominations – Politics Of Division Edition

The Watcher’s Council

Graphic courtesy of Chris Muir at the one and only, Day By Day

Welcome to the Watcher’s Council, a blogging group consisting of some of the most incisive blogs in the ‘sphere and the longest running group of its kind in existence. Every week, the members nominate two posts each, one written by themselves and one written by someone from outside the group for consideration by the whole Council. Then we vote on the best two posts, with the results appearing on Friday morning.

Council News:

The Council In Action!!

*The ever scintillating Bookworm Room was cited in a Forbes article on global warming.

*Debra Heine at Nice Deb has another great piece up at Breitbart: Democrats Propose Obama ‘Like A Boss’ Bumpersticker.

*Rob Miller at Joshuapundit has his latest piece up at the Times of Israel: Why Is The Israeli Media Not Reporting This Terrorist Attack?

This week, MidKnight Review, The Pirate’s Cove, Maggie’s Notebook and Right Truth earned honorable mention status with some great articles.

You can, too! Want to see your work appear on the Watcher’s Council homepage in our weekly contest listing? Didn’t get nominated by a Council member? No worries.

To bring something to my attention, simply head over to Joshuapundit and post the title and a link to the piece you want considered along with an e-mail address (which won’t be published) in the comments section no later than Monday 6 PM PST in order to be considered for our honorable mention category. Then return the favor by creating a post on your site linking to the Watcher’s Council nominations for the week when they come out on Wednesday morning.

Simple, no?

It’s a great way of exposing your best work to Watcher’s Council readers and Council members, while grabbing the increased traffic and notoriety. And how good is that, eh?

So, let’s see what we have this week…

Council Submissions

Honorable Mentions

Non-Council Submissions

Enjoy! And don’t forget to like us on Facebook and follow us Twitter… ’cause we’re cool like that!