Monthly Archives: April 2018

04/26/18

Voters Overwhelmingly Support Draining The Swamp

By: Jim Simpson | The Daily Caller

A majority of Americans have concerns about what has come to be known as the DC “Swamp,” and these concerns are shared by both Democrats and Republicans, according to a poll released Wednesday.

The poll was commissioned by the Ear to the Ground Listening Project and was conducted by McLaughlin Associates, which surveyed 1,000 likely voters.

A second McLaughlin poll published at Breitbart on Wednesday found that most believe the Mueller investigation is bogus and would like to see it ended. Democrats appear to already know this, and are toning down their rhetoric on “Trump/Russia collusion” because voters aren’t buying it.

A man holds up a “Drain the Swamp in Washington DC” sign as Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump attends a campaign event on the tarmac of the airport in Kinston, North Carolina, October 26 2016. REUTERS/Carlo Allegri

According to the Listening Project poll, 60 percent of all voters and 74 percent of Republicans believe it is important to drain “the Swamp.” Only 6 percent of voters and 5 percent of Republicans believe draining the Swamp is unimportant.

According to the poll, almost half of Americans (46 percent) blame the GOP for allowing the Swamp to survive. This includes 41 percent of conservatives, 44 percent of moderates and 50 percent of independents. Only 17 percent believe the GOP is helping to drain the Swamp. Fifty-three percent also believe that DC politicians are not worried about the loss of freedoms average voters fear, according to the poll.

Most people, including moderates and liberals, believe lobbyists, GOP members and bureaucrats are the ones most to blame for keeping the Swamp alive. Trump voters and conservatives place the most blame with the media, Democrat leadership and lobbyists.

On Trump campaign promises, however, results are somewhat different. A small plurality, 34 percent, believe Democrats are to blame for Trump not meeting his campaign promises, 33 percent blame Trump, 27 percent blame the GOP and only 17 percent blame the Swamp. Meanwhile, only 9 percent of conservatives trust GOP candidates to keep their word once elected, while 52 percent of liberals trust their Democratic candidate.

The poll gauged other views on current issues as well. For example, 55 percent of Americans frown upon jurisdictions implementing so-called “sanctuary” policies that defy federal efforts to arrest criminal aliens. Thirty-seven percent strongly oppose such policies. In total, only 37 percent support sanctuary polices, and only 21 percent strongly.

Most notably, 80 percent of all voters believe, “…that the American traditions of freedom and individual rights are being threatened by growing social movements, public bullying and increasing political violence.” Only 14 percent disagree.

The Breitbart poll focused on American attitudes regarding the investigation into Trump/Russia collusion being carried out by former FBI Director Robert Mueller. The poll found that a majority of Americans, by a margin of 51 to 33 percent, believe that Mueller has not found any “real evidence of corruption by the president.” Americans also believe the investigation has “overstepped its purpose” and are losing their patience with it.

In discussing this poll on Wednesday’s radio show, Rush Limbaugh zeroed in on that 51 to 33 percent statistic. He observed that Democrats were starting to realize that voter patience was running out with Mueller.

“I think it dovetails with the internal polling by the Democrat Party,” Limbaugh said. “We’ve been chronicling with you for the past week how Democrats are urging candidates to get off of this, to stop talking about it, and it had to be because their internal polling numbers on this are so bad.”

The news cycle continues to report each step in the probe blow-by-blow. But despite widespread Democrat boasting of an anticipated “blue wave” in the midterm election, according to this poll, Democrats only enjoy a 0.3 percent advantage over Republicans in a generic ballot, which is within the margin of error.

Polling “likely voters” is the least biased and most accurate method of polling, but because it requires more work than a “random sample” of adults. A disproportionate number of women and young people respond when a poll is conducted by random sample, and those groups tend to be more liberal, even among independents. Because it is random, the sample could also include illegal aliens.

Sometimes that bias is significant. For example, an Economist poll cited in my study queried 570 Democrats and only 360 Republicans, a 58 percent difference. Overall, the 7 polls cited in that study contained an average of 29 percent more Democrats than Republicans. It is thus not surprising that so many presidential polls were so far off in their predictions of the 2016 election. This latest Ear to the Ground poll suffers no such sampling bias.

The Ear to the Ground Listening Project describes itself as “a collaboration between individuals in the academic, market research, and public policy arenas seeking to understand and reflect the voice of the American people through the tools of market research.”

04/26/18

N. Korea Shuts Down Nuclear Site Because It Collapsed

By: Denise Simon | Founders Code

And not because of some talks going on with South Korea. Much has been televised and written with regard to the talks going on with North Korea, the nuclear and missile program, normalizing relations with the South and introducing a peace agreement. Further, as we learned Mike Pompeo, the CIA Director met with the North Korean regime over Easter in an effort to determine some real truths and to gauge Kim Jung un with just how real all the reports are.

So, while we are told that missile tests and nuclear tests have been suspended, perhaps we know the reason why. Nuclear fallout.

About 200 people are feared dead in North Korea after underground tunnels at a nuclear test site that was feared to be unstable reportedly collapsed, crushing 100 people in the initial cave-in and 100 others when the tunnels again gave way on top of rescuers.

The collapse at the Punggye-ri test site on Oct. 10 occurred while people were doing construction on the underground tunnel, Japan’s Asahi TV reported, citing a source in North Korea. The television station also said North Korea’s sixth nuclear test on Sept. 3 most likely caused the tunnel to crumble and created serious damage in the region.

Mike Pompeo is a master with his poker face and his classified report on the meeting must be a doozy.

North Korea’s mountain nuclear test site has collapsed, putting China and other nearby nations at unprecedented risk of radioactive exposure, two separate groups of Chinese scientists studying the issue have confirmed.

The collapse after five nuclear blasts may be why North Korean leader Kim Jong-un declared on Friday that he would freeze the hermit state’s nuclear and missile tests and shut down the site, one researcher said.

The last five of Pyongyang’s six nuclear tests have all been carried out under Mount Mantap at the Punggye-ri nuclear test site in North Korea’s northwest.

Chinese scientists warn North Korea about disaster threat at nuclear test site

One group of researchers found that the most recent blast tore open a hole in the mountain, which then collapsed upon itself. A second group concluded that the breakdown created a “chimney” that could allow radioactive fallout from the blast zone below to rise into the air.

A research team led by Wen Lianxing, a geologist with the University of Science and Technology of China in Hefei, concluded that the collapse occurred following the detonation last autumn of North Korea’s most powerful thermal nuclear warhead in a tunnel about 700 metres (2,296 feet) below the mountain’s peak.

The test turned the mountain into fragile fragments, the researchers found.

The mountain’s collapse, and the prospect of radioactive exposure in the aftermath, confirms a series of exclusive reports by the South China Morning Post on China’s fears that Pyongyang’s latest nuclear test had caused a fallout leak.

Radioactive dust could escape through holes or cracks in the damaged mountain, the scientists said.

“It is necessary to continue monitoring possible leaks of radioactive materials caused by the collapse incident,” Wen’s team said in the statement.

The findings will be published on the website of the peer-reviewed journal, Geophysical Research Letters, likely next month.

North Korea saw the mountain as an ideal location for underground nuclear experiments because of its elevation – it stood more than 2,100 metres (6,888 feet) above sea level – and its terrain of thick, gentle slopes that seemed capable of resisting structural damage.

North Korea suspends nuclear and missile tests

The mountain’s surface had shown no visible damage after four underground nuclear tests before 2017.

But the 100-kilotonne bomb that went off on September 3 vaporised surrounding rocks with unprecedented heat and opened a space that was up to 200 metres (656 feet) in diameter, according to a statement posted on the Wen team’s website on Monday.

As shock waves tore through and loosened more rocks, a large section of the mountain’s ridge, less than half a kilometre (0.3 mile) from the peak, slipped down into the empty pocket created by the blast, leaving a scar visible in satellite images.

Wen concluded that the mountain had collapsed after analysing data collected from nearly 2,000 seismic stations.

Three small earthquakes that hit nearby regions in the wake of the collapse added credence to his conclusion, suggesting the test site had lost its geological stability.

Another research team led by Liu Junqing at the Jilin Earthquake Agency with the China Earthquake Administration in Changchun reached similar conclusions to the Wen team.

The “rock collapse … was for the first time documented in North Korea’s test site,” Liu’s team wrote in a paper published last month in Geophysical Research Letters.

The breakdown not only took off part of the mountain’s summit but also created a “chimney” that could allow fallout to rise from the blast centre into the air, they said.

North Korea nuclear test site has signs of ‘Tired Mountain Syndrome’ after five blasts

Zhao Lianfeng, a researcher with the Institute of Earth Science at the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing, said the two studies supported a consensus among scientists that “the site was wrecked” beyond repair.

“Their findings are in agreement to our observations,” he said.

“Different teams using different data have come up with similar conclusions,” Zhao said. “The only difference was in some technical details. This is the best guess that can be made by the world outside.”

Speculation grew that North Korea’s site was in trouble when Lee Doh-sik, the top North Korean geologist, visited Zhao’s institute about two weeks after the test and met privately with senior Chinese government geologists.

US reveals how its forces would secure North Korea’s nuclear sites

Although the purpose of Lee’s visit was not disclosed, two days later Pyongyang announced it would no longer conduct land-based nuclear tests.

Hu Xingdou, a Beijing-based scholar who follows North Korea’s nuclear programme, said it was highly likely that Pyongyang had received a stark warning from Beijing.

Are North Korean quakes signs of instability at nuclear test site?

“The test was not only destabilising the site but increasing the risk of eruption of the Changbai Mountain,” a large, active volcano at China-Korean border, said Hu, who asked that his university affiliation not be disclosed for this article because of the topic’s sensitivity.

The mountain’s collapse has likely dealt a huge blow to North Korea’s nuclear programme, Hu said.

Hit by crippling international economic sanctions over its nuclear ambitions, the country might lack sufficient resources to soon resume testing at a new site, he said.

North Korea told its people Kim Jong-un visited China, but didn’t mention denuclearisation

“But there are other sites suitable for testing,” Hu said. “They must be closely monitored.”

Guo Qiuju, a Peking University professor who has belonged to a panel that has advised the Chinese government on emergency responses to radioactive hazards, said that if fallout escaped through cracks, it could be carried by wind over the Chinese border.

“So far we have not detected an abnormal increase of radioactivity levels,” Guo said. “But we will continue to monitor the surrounding region with a large [amount] of highly sensitive equipment and analyse the data in state-of-the-art laboratories.” More details here.

04/25/18

A Rebuttal to CAIR’s Dawud Walid and His Article “Take A Stand Against Anti-Muslim Fearmongering”

By: Philip Haney | Jihad Watch

Introduction

This article includes 27 questions and a point-by-point rebuttal to an editorial written by Dawud Walid, Executive Director of CAIR-MI, entitled Take A Stand Against Anti-Muslim Fearmongering, which was published on April 14, 2018, in Volume 34, Issue 1679(13) of the Arab American News.

Background of CAIR

Before addressing the comments you made in your editorial, Mr. Walid, as Executive Director of CAIR-Michigan, it should be fair and reasonable to ask you about the background of the organization you represent.

As proven in extensive Federal District Court records (affidavits, documents and testimony), the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) was founded in 1994 as a “nonprofit, grassroots civil rights and advocacy organization” by several individuals with direct ties to Hamas (aka the Islamic Resistance Movement), a Designated Foreign Terrorist Organization since October 08, 1997. In 2014 CAIR was designated as a terrorist group by the United Arab Emirates.

The close affiliations between CAIR and Hamas were further proven during the Holy Land Foundation trial (still the largest counter terrorism trial in American history), which concluded on November 24, 2008 with the convictions of five individuals on 108 counts of providing at least $12 million in material support to Hamas in Palestine.

Despite nearly ten years of legal efforts and PR by CAIR to deny these irrefutable facts, it remains true to this very day that the goals of CAIR remain inextricably entwined with the goals of Hamas, which is still part of the Muslim Brotherhood’s “intellectual school,” while supposedly operating as “an independent Palestinian organization.”

Continue reading →

04/25/18

Communist Party USA Reaffirms Loyalty To China

By: Trevor Loudon | New Zeal

While still aligned to Putin’s Russia, the Communist Party USA has re-affirmed its loyalty to the world’s most populous communist power – China.

                                            John Bachtell, CPUSA

CPUSA leader John Bachtell recently gave an interview to Chinese news agency Xinhua.

Speaking of China, Bechtell said the CPUSA and the Communist Party of China (CPC) have forged “fraternal” ties.

“And we try to find time to get together and to have bilateral meetings. We also have cooperated on the academic level. But it’s not enough,” Bachtell said, adding that his party would like to see “a higher and closer relationship” with the CPC, including mutual visits…

Bachtell further noted that the CPC’s performance in governance and leadership will continue to be an important example of what can be done…

“I’m sure that there will be plenty of opportunities in the future for us to work together, absolutely,” he said.

Bachtell is confirming here that the Communist Party USA’s loyalty is not to America, but to the world communist movement, still led from Moscow and Beijing.

This has serious implications, because both these countries are currently at war with the United States, in every way short of direct military confrontation. Both are tyrannies. Both support America’s more open enemies such as Iran, North Korea and Islamic terror.

The Communist Party USA was always the party of treason. It still is.

Ponder that thought Senators Murray and Murphy.

04/25/18

Oliver Stone Compares President Trump To A Demon At Iranian Film Festival

By: Terresa Monroe-Hamilton

Oliver Stone just went to the Islamic Republic of Iran for the Fajr International Film Festival. While he was in the country where his son converted to Shiite Islam in 2012, he referred to President Trump as the demon “Beezlebub,” more commonly known as “Baal.” He not only pictured Trump as Satan, he also basically called America the Great Satan. The Iranians must have been elated over this.

It’s ironic he would label the US and our President in those terms in a country that is the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism. A hellish Islamic theocracy that is looking to bring back the Mahdi and bring on an apocalypse. The Mahdi, to many Christians, is the Anti-Christ.

Stone told Iranian reporters at a press conference on Wednesday that while he once compared George W. Bush to John Wayne, a more apt comparison for Trump is “Beelzebub,” another name for Satan. He got that almost right… “Beelzebub” is a demon and guess what? His origins are in the Middle East, right about where Palestine is.

The media of course is praising Stone for his honesty. The Hollywood Reporter said that the radical leftist director is “demonstrating a solid knowledge of regional politics as well as Persian history.” Stone didn’t seem concerned about Iran’s history of promoting terrorism in the region. Instead, he was more than willing to trash American foreign policy in the Middle East and threw in some disparaging comments about France’s Emmanuel Macron, who recently met with Trump, just for the hell of it.

Stone referred to the war in Iraq as a “proxy war.” He also said that US foreign policy since 9/11 is a form of “creative destruction” with the reckless goal of regime change, “no matter how disastrous the invasion of Iraq was.” Perhaps Mr. Stone should move to Tehran and be one with his terrorist buds. He won’t be missed. “We made a mess out of Iraq, Syria, Libya, but it doesn’t matter to the American public,” said Stone. “It’s okay to wreck the Middle East. … It doesn’t matter who is president — Bush, Obama or Trump, the US will break any treaty” to promote its own interests. That is very close to treason in my book.

Stone whined about Trump and Macron wanting to revise the catastrophic Obama-era Iran nuclear deal. He said it shows Macron is a man “without much sense of history or memory of the great traditions of France,” and one who clearly wants to revert back to French colonialism. Stone, a vocal critic of US foreign policy over many decades, accused President Macron of mimicking one of his predecessors Nicolas Sarkozy, who “wants to stand alongside the Americans as a sign of French power.” “This is a return to the colonialism and imperialism of the old France. This is what President De Gaulle swore off with the Algerian War in 1958-9 when he called it quits,” he said.

“Mr. Macron has to learn that he cannot be an imperialist.” He didn’t say Macron should kneel before his Islamic overlords, but he might as well have. President Trump and Macron disagree on the Iranian nuke deal and it looks at present as if Trump will pull us out of it entirely. Good. They did mention a new deal, which I hope and pray does not materialize.

Asked if he would consider producing a film focused on the Islamic State, Stone said that while it’s a “very good idea,” he cited political “blocking forces and controversies” that would try to prevent him from telling the story of ISIS “honestly.” You have got to be freaking kidding me. That’s out there for even Stone. Of course, he has a lot in common with John Kerry, whose daughter married an Iranian as well. And remember, this is the guy who made a movie that tried to lionize the traitor, Edward Snowden.

Stone also addressed the “ridiculous story” that he wanted to make a film in 2007 about then-president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, but was rejected because the president considered the director a representative of the “Great Satan,” which is how Iranian leaders generally refer to the US.

I wonder if Stone himself has converted? It sure sounds like it. His allegiance seems to be with Iran and not the US these days, that’s for certain. He is now not only a communist, but an Islamist as well. It’s a twofer.

04/25/18

An Ugly Day

By: Kent Engelke | Capitol Securities

Many are stating there is no place to hide. At casual glance, it appears all sectors are crumbling. Yesterday, the must owned technology stocks were again routed at the same time the industrials took a pounding. Last week, the consumer non-durables had great difficulty.

The catalysts are many, but I would focus on two. The first is rising interest rates. The 10-year Treasury is now at the highest level in four years, the result of greater economic activity and perhaps the commencement of QT. The second potential catalyst is earnings. Results have generally met lofty expectations, but as noted last week more is required.

Technology based trading dominates the markets, trading based upon momentum, earnings and interest rates. In many regards, liquidity is virtually absent as speed and cost of execution are viewed as more paramount than market stability mechanisms; mechanisms that are absent because of regulatory fiat.

I reiterate, long held thesis money is now gravitating back to Main Street from Wall Street. In my view, this nascent trend will become more pronounced.

In my view, passive investing has reached its apex. I still cannot comprehend that there are more indices than listed securities. Wow!

What will happen today?

Last night the foreign markets were down. London was down 0.81%, Paris was down 0.86% and Frankfurt was down 1.69%. China was down 0.35%, Japan was down 0.28% and Hang Sang was down 1.01%.

The Dow should open moderately lower as the 10-year is clearly over the psychological barrier of 3.0%. The dollar is also strengthening to a three-month high which may suggest American goods may not be as competitive abroad. The 10-year is off 6/32 to yield 3.03%.

04/24/18

A New Deal With Iran Will Fail And Pave The Way For War Between Iran And Israel

By: Terresa Monroe-Hamilton

President Trump is meeting with France’s leader Macron. Though ostensibly a socialist, he seems to have at least some spine and I have watched their interactions hopefully. My primary focus is the deal with Iran. Of course the media’s focus is on stupid questions about Michael Cohen. I actually enjoyed seeing Trump smack the reporter from ABC for asking such an irrelevant question while we are hosting a major ally. It’s rude and just moronic. Jonathan Karl asked Trump whether he was considering a pardon for his personal lawyer Michael Cohen, after he was raided by the FBI. “Stupid. Stupid question,” Trump replied at Karl, glaring at him. Macron was surprised and amused and I don’t blame him.

The topic should be Iran, who is poised to get missiles from the Trump administration in a new Iranian nuclear deal. I’m watching both sides here. The joint press conference with Presidents Trump and Macron just finished and I think its safe to say that unless a lot more is being offered up by Iran than we know about, the Iran deal is probably dead. Both Macron of France and Merkel of Germany are pressing Trump to stay in the deal. Asked whether he would be willing to stay in the Iran deal, Trump said: “We’ll see. People know my views on the Iran deal. It was a terrible deal. It should have never ever been made. It’s insane. It’s ridiculous. It should never have been made. But we will be talking about it.” He’s right of course, but what Trump says and what is going on behind the scenes may be two different things here.

From Red State:

POTUS then added: “It just seems that no matter where you go especially in the Middle East, Iran is behind it, wherever there’s trouble, Yemen, Syria, no matter where you have it, Iran is behind it. And now unfortunately, Russia is getting more and more involved. But Iran seems behind everything where there’s a problem. And we just have to take a look.”

He added: “We’re not going to allow certain things to happen that are happening. The Iran deal is a disaster. The’re testing missiles. What’s that all about?”

“What kind of a deal is it when you don’t talk about Yemen and you don’t talk about all the other problems that we have with respect to Iran?”

He noted that Secretary Kerry said he didn’ t want to deal with issues beyond the nuclear program as part of the deal because it would be too complicated.

“He didn’t want to discuss it because it was too complicated. That’s not the way to do it because it’s too complicated. So we made this terrible deal.”

Asked about the prospect that Iran might restart its nuclear program if the deal is ripped up, POTUS said: “It won’t be so easy for them to restart it. They’re not going to be restarting anything. If they restart it, they’re going to have big problems, bigger than they ever had before. And you can mark it down. If they restart their nuclear program they will have bigger problems than they ever had before.”

What you are seeing here is probably the strong influence of John Bolton who staunchly stands against the Islamic regime who is the biggest purveyor of terrorism in the world. It’s time to bang heads with Iran and stand up to them. We can’t do that if we are encumbered by some alleged agreement with Tehran and with our major allies, particularly Germany, whoring themselves after Iranian petro-dollars. Pulling from the agreement and reimposing sanctions will cut off Western assistance to Iran. If war comes, it would have happened anyway. We should approach from a position of strength, not kneeling before the ayatollahs.

Behind the scenes, sources say the Trump administration is getting ready to legitimize Iran’s ballistic missile program, granting the Islamic Republic the ability to produce and test a series of missiles capable of striking Israel, according to those familiar with US concessions during ongoing talks over the future of the landmark Iran nuclear deal. I’m equally sure that Bolton will try to intervene.

The concession is said to have happened after weeks of pressure from France and Germany. The demand would only restrict ballistic missile activity to Iran’s longer range missiles, leaving untouched their mammoth arsenal of short-range and medium-range missiles that could easily hit Israel and other Middle Eastern nations. This would be beyond foolish and would surely lead to war with Israel, who Iran has vowed to wipe off the map.

This is what Syria is about. If we pull out, a vacuum ensues that Russia and Iran will fill. Once the Kurds are handed over to Turkey to be slaughtered, there will be nothing in Iran’s way of having a straight path to Israel and war. Sure, the Russians want the sea ports, but that’s not what interests the mullahs. This is part of the return of the Mahdi and their end times prophecy.

Sen. Ted Cruz has been a constant voice in the wilderness against Iran and the nuclear deal. He has been advocating in favor of tough new restrictions on Iran and is saying that the fixes proposed by the Europeans and supposedly endorsed by the Trump administration do not go nearly far enough in addressing Iran’s contested missile program. “Obama’s Iran nuclear deal was fatally flawed from the beginning,” Cruz said.”The deal required reckless international concessions and incentivized the international community to turn a blind eye to Iranian bad behavior. These proposed European ‘fixes’ don’t address the missiles Iran would actually build, the inspection problems that would actually arise, or the eventual sunsets as they would actually occur. They would only constrain the Iranians from doing things they never would have done. President Trump should reject these empty promises and withdraw America from this disastrous deal.”

President Trump is also being urged to accept a basket of so-called fixes to the deal that Iran deal experts and administration insiders say falls far short of President Trump’s original demands. This reversal in the negotiating position of the United States could result in Trump deciding to wholly abandon the nuclear deal. Which I pray he does.

And Obama’s minions are meeting in secret with the Europeans over this. European officials, on a recent trip to Washington, DC, are said to have attended a dinner party where they met with former Obama administration officials and Iran deal supporters to figure out ways to preserve the accord and not give in to Trump’s demands, according to sources familiar with the ongoing talks. “When political directors [from European allied countries] came to town, they huddled with the deal’s supporters, another sign they’re just looking to preserve the JCPOA,” said one veteran foreign policy adviser apprised of the situation.

Since former secretary of state Rex Tillerson, who was in favor of the Iran deal, was fired, there has been little change in the US negotiating team on Iran. I would bet that if Bolton gets his way, it would be gutted as it should be. Tillerson was ostensibly fired for refusing to get tough with Iran. “The Tillerson-McMaster negotiating team is carrying water for the Europeans,” said one administration insider with knowledge of the nuclear talks, referring to H.R. McMaster, the recently fired national security adviser who also was viewed as going along with European concessions on Iran’s nuclear program. “They have nothing real to show after months of negotiations,” the source said. “The idea that they are even close to ‘fixing’ the JCPOA is farcical.”

One of the primary stumbling blocks in the talks are fforts to fully restrict Iran’s ballistic missile program, which has been endorsed by many in Congress, as well as by Trump. US and European officials are choosing to focus only on Iran’s long-range stockpile, which is a fatal mistake. Officials are pushing for a cap on Iran’s missiles that would keep them below a range of around 1,240 miles. This distance is the same one embraced by Iranian supreme leader Ali Khamenei when he issued a 2017 edict on the country’s missile program.

President Trump has flatly stated that this is Iran’s last chance. If a deal is not reached by May, the US will walk away from it. “This is a last chance,” the official said. “In the absence of a commitment from our European allies to work with us to fix the deal’s flaws, the United States will not again waive sanctions in order to stay in the Iran nuclear deal. And if at any time the President judges that agreement is not within reach, the United States will withdraw from the deal immediately.”

Israel is not happy with the way this is going and I don’t blame them. “I honestly don’t know how the President can sell Israel down the river like that,” said one Jewish official who routinely engaged with the White House on Iran issues. “It’s bad enough they’re trying to deal with missile threats to their north alone. Now Iran gets a green light to perfect missiles that will one day constitute an existential threat to Israel’s existence?” The only acceptable solution here is a complete ban and even then, the Iranians will not honor it. “A true fix on missiles should align with the Roskam-Cheney bill in the House—total snapback of all sanctions if Iran develops or tests any nuclear capable ballistic missile, period,” Goldberg said, referring to current legislation that would fully outlaw Iran’s missile program. “That’s the gold standard. That’s what the Security Council calls for. Otherwise you’re just negotiating a bad missile deal to supplement a bad nuclear deal.”

Josh Block, a longtime foreign policy professional who serves as the CEO and president of The Israel Project, says that by only focusing on Iran’s long-range missile capability, the Trump administration is leaving Israel open to attack. “We know that the mullah regime already has the capability to strike targets up to 1,240 miles from Iran’s borders—a range sufficient to hit the State of Israel, our Arab allies across the region, every US military installation and American soldier in the region, and even parts of Europe,” said Block, a former Clinton administration official. “Iran’s new ballistic missile cap offer is a total sham—one cooked-up by Iran’s allies in Russia, who are already supporting Tehran and Assad’s violent war to dominate the Middle East—designed to fool President Trump, with the support of greedy Europeans who care more about making money,” Block said.

Iran knows this is probably going south. Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on Tuesday issued a stark warning to President Trump, saying the US would face severe consequences if Trump pulled out of the multination Iran nuclear deal. “I am telling those in the White House that if they do not live up to their commitments … the Iranian government will firmly react,” Rouhani said in a speech in the city of Tabriz, according to Reuters. “If anyone betrays the deal, they should know that they would face severe consequences,” he continued. “Iran is prepared for all possible situations.” Scrap the Iranian nuke deal and bring it then.

04/23/18

A Pastor Brave Enough to Stand Against Sharia

The United West

“The single biggest threat to America today is Islam”

Dr. Don McKay, the Senior Pastor of a Baptist Church in Michigan, known within the Metro Detroit area for having strong biblical preaching and dynamic worship.   Previous to his Pastoral leadership in Michigan, Pastor McKay served as the senior pastor of a Baptist church in Windsor, ON Canada for 15 years where he gained national recognition for his stand against Islam.

Pastor Don McKay is once again taking a stand, to speak out against Sharia!  He is BRAVE ENOUGH to take that STAND, because of what he sees happening within the Christian community and within his local community:

The Interfaith Movement in Michigan is powerful and diligently working to elect as the next Governor of Michigan, the Muslim Brotherhood manufactured candidate, Abdul El-Sayed.  The effects of the Interfaith Movement are huge, and Pastors are being manipulated into believing that the Koran & Bible are from the same “Abrahamic Faith”.  They are NOT, and any Pastor teaching this is going against Christian Scripture.  http://www.tilproject.com/chrislam-exposed

Will Michigan Christians wake up to Pastor McKay’s dire warning prior to the August 7th Primary, which is coming closer every day?

TIME IS NOW!  BE AN EDUCATED VOTER!

04/23/18

Former New Black Panther Chairman Demands Trump Hand Over Florida For Reparations For Slavery

By: Terresa Monroe-Hamilton

Former New Black Panther Chairman and Nation of Islam acolyte, Malik Shabazz, is back in the news. He’s the president of the Black Lawyers for Justice and a community organizer as well. He’s also a stone cold racist black nationalist with a long, well-documented history of violently anti-Semitic remarks and accusations about the inherent evil of white people. This time he is demanding that President Trump fork over reparations for slavery or designate territory solely for African-Americans – specifically, the state of Florida.

“We must have reparations, full compensation for the theft of our land, the theft of our bodies, the theft of our people from Africa, the theft of our dignity; the desecration of our souls decade after decade after decade after decade. As I said, we don’t want your food stamps. We don’t want no government handout. We don’t want to be trying to fix up some paperwork so I can get Social Security. We want our own. Donald Trump, you don’t want us? You don’t want to be around us? Hot dammit, I don’t want to be around you,” Shabazz said during a “Save Our Sons: Stop the Killing” and “Condemn Donald Trump” National Black Men’s Convention march and rally outside of the White House on Saturday organized by the National Black Men’s Movement.

He went on: “We want land. We want our own. You don’t like us, Mr. Trump? Break us off some of this territory. You don’t like us, Mr. Trump? You don’t want to be around us? Then hand over the state of Florida,” he added. “You don’t want to be around us – make a trade. Give me Georgia. Give me Alabama. Give me South Carolina.” Hate to break it to this moron, but he’s not getting a state where he can set up a fascist, racist black power stronghold. He’s delusional. There are a ton of American’s that are willing to exercise their right to bear arms to protect their individual states.

Speakers at this hateful event included representatives from the New Black Panther Party and other organizations such as city-level Black Lives Matter groups and the National Action Network. That pretty much spells it out for you right there. They hate whites, Jews and cops. And they especially hate President Trump. Shabazz, who organized the rally, has his panties in a wad because Trump called NFL has been Colin Kaepernick a son-of-a-bitch for kneeling during the National Anthem. Hey, if the moniker fits jackass.

“If you’re a son of a bitch, as Donald Trump says, who is your mama? Where I come from, you talk about my mama that’s some fighting words. Where I come from, a man don’t let nobody talk about his mama like that; he’s ready to throw down. Where is your toughness, black man? Where is your hard-nosedness, black man? Where is your anger, black man? Where is your militancy, black man? Donald Trump says black men are sons of bitches and thereby he calls, pardon me, but I have to say it, he calls the black woman a bitch as well,” he decried to chants of “Black Power” from the crowd. “The black woman is the mother of all living things on the planet… Your women didn’t take care of your babies. It was black women on the plantation that took care of your little nasty babies.” These are radicals and communists. They are terrorists and since they are clinically insane with hate, they are very, very dangerous.

Shabazz was far from done going after Trump: “Donald Trump, the black man is not a son of a bitch. He is the original man. He’s the maker. He’s the owner. He’s the cream of the planet Earth, father of civilization and he’s the God of the universe. He is your father, cracker. Donald Trump, I’m your daddy. I’m your daddy and you’re a child that’s out of line. This is a child in the White House throwing a temper tantrum every five minutes – what kind of fool is this, unable to control his emotions?” Talk about a God complex and a power freak.

John Cheeks, head of the United States Citizens Recovery Initiative Alliance, also called for reparations or “recovery benefits for black Americans.” This is now an on-going theme with the Black Lives Matter crowd. They want to be paid for something that has nothing to do with them and that they haven’t earned in the least. They want to take from others and oppress everyone who does not look and think the way they do. “We need our unpaid due. We need it now. We cannot live in this country without money. How many can live without money? Raise your hand. I thought so. We have a President who’s in the house that our ancestors built for free. We have a congressional seat who is at the Capitol that our ancestors built for free,” he said. There was nothing ‘free’ about it and you had no hand in it, so spare us.

“We have the senators at that Capitol who enjoy the dome for free. It is time for all industries, all institutions, all associations and yes, we have public utility companies who have benefitted from slavery, such as your water company and your gas company,” he added. “How do you think water was purified? Who did it? How do you think the gas lines were buried in the street? Who do you think did it?” The people who did that, were paid wages for their work. None of these people have experienced slavery… many have never held a real job. They sit on welfare and refuse to work. You earn what you are paid for and no one owes you a damn thing. Again, they want what is not theirs and they want to take it by force if need be. Cheeks said African-Americans should attach a note to their utility bill payments that reads, “My ancestors are still looking for their unpaid wages.” Bull crap.

Dr. Cornel West, who described himself as a “revolutionary Christian,” explained why he decided to join the rally and spend time with the New Black Panther Party. “This is very important because we need to be able to come together across political, ideological and religious lines. People ask me all the time, why is it that you spend time with the New Black Panther Party, with brother [chairman] Hashim [Nzinga]?” West said at the rally. “Why do you spend time with brother Malik Shabazz? I say, ya’ll don’t understand that when you’re a love warrior you love black folk in all the different forms and all the different embodiment. Why? Because I am who I am because somebody loved me, beginning with my mama and my father.” That’s REALLY funny! West is a communist and a racist, not a Christian by any definition I recognize. Per KeyWiki: Cornel West is a leading U.S. Marxist academic and activist. He is an honorary chair of Democratic Socialists of America. He is also the author of “The Ethical Dimensions of Marxism” (1991, Monthly Review Press).

The Southern Poverty Law Center designates the New Black Panther Party as a hate group, calling it “a virulently racist and anti-Semitic organization whose leaders have encouraged violence against whites, Jews and law enforcement officers.” When you’ve lost the SPLC, you know you are a radical’s radical.

Arthur Reed, a community activist from Baton Rouge, urged the crowd not to “sit back” while police kill innocent African-Americans such as Alton Sterling. “Sometimes the only thing that this man understands is hand-to-hand combat and we cannot continue to sit back and play the coward role and pray for a better day, dammit,” Reed said at the rally. “We’re going to make it a better day because a better day has already come with what you see before you.” Violence is always the answer for these instigators.

Frankly, I don’t care what color people are. To use your race as a means to take from others and put your boot heel on their face and keep them down is reprehensible. And I’m not talking about slavery here. That was long before our time and has no relevance here anymore. I’m talking about communists, fascists and those evil individuals that belong to groups such as the Nation of Islam, the New Black Panthers and yes, Black Lives Matter.

Shabazz’s activism and calls for militant response have continued over the last several years with organized rallies and attendance at numerous events following the deaths of Freddie Gray in Baltimore and Michael Brown in Ferguson, MO. He calls for violence constantly and the murder of white people, Jews and police. He can stuff his racism and hate.

04/23/18

The DNC Sues, Counter Suits in the Making

By: Denise Simon | Founders Code

Tom Perez, Chairman of the Democrat National Committee has filed a lawsuit against 15 entities/people including John Does (which could be 10 or more people). The question is who is funding this lawsuit as the DNC is at least $6.1 million in debt. Oh wait, the DNC is also fundraising off this lawsuit…okay…moving on. The DNC has also requested a jury trial.

Lawsuits require something called discovery which would be a long process and you can bet the Russian Federation will not even bother with any kind of compliance. Ah yes, we cannot overlook that Julian Assange of WikiLeaks fame is also fundraising to file a counter suit against the DNC. Will any of this go anywhere even if a judge accepts the case? Likely no…it is a collective fundraising gesture and a matter of dragging out the hacking scandals for years to come.

Meanwhile, TechDirt has an interesting summary of this legal warfare.

Most of the time when we see these laws used, they’re indications of pretty weak lawsuits, and going through this one, that definitely seems to be the case here. Indeed, some of the claims made by the DNC here are so outrageous that they would effectively make some fairly basic reporting illegal. One would have hoped that the DNC wouldn’t seek to set a precedent that reporting on leaked documents is against the law — especially given how reliant the DNC now is on leaks being reported on in their effort to bring down the existing president. I’m not going to go through the whole lawsuit, but let’s touch on a few of the more nutty claims here.

The crux of the complaint is that these groups / individuals worked together in a conspiracy to leak DNC emails and documents. And, there’s little doubt at this point that the Russians were behind the hack and leak of the documents, and that Wikileaks published them. Similarly there’s little doubt that the Trump campaign was happy about these things, and that a few Trump-connected people had some contacts with some Russians. Does that add up to a conspiracy? My gut reaction is to always rely on Ken “Popehat” White’s IT’S NOT RICO, DAMMIT line, but I’ll leave that analysis to folks who are more familiar with RICO.

But let’s look at parts we are familiar with, starting with the DMCA claim, since that’s the one that caught my eye first. A DMCA claim? What the hell does copyright have to do with any of this? Well…

Plaintiff’s computer networks and files contained information subject to protection under the copyright laws of the United States, including campaign strategy documents and opposition research that were illegally accessed without authorization by Russia and the GRU.

Access to copyrighted material contained on Plaintiff’s computer networks and email was controlled by technological measures, including measures restricting remote access, firewalls, and measures restricting acess to users with valid credentials and passwords.

In violation of 17 U.S.C. § 1201(a), Russia, the GRU, and GRU Operative #1 circumvented these technological protection measures by stealing credentials from authorized users, condcting a “password dump” to unlawfully obtain passwords to the system controlling access to the DNC’s domain, and installing malware on Plaintiff’s computer systems.

Holy shit. This is the DNC trying to use DMCA 1201 as a mini-CFAA. They’re not supposed to do that. 1201 is the anti-circumvention part of the DMCA and is supposed to be about stopping people from hacking around DRM to free copyright-covered material. Of course, 1201 has been used in all sorts of other ways — like trying to stop the sale of printer cartridges and garage door openers — but this seems like a real stretch. Russia hacking into the DNC had literally nothing to do with copyright or DRM. Squeezing a copyright claim in here is just silly and could set an awful precedent about using 1201 as an alternate CFAA (we’ll get to the CFAA claims in a moment). If this holds, nearly any computer break-in to copy content would also lead to DMCA claims. That’s just silly.

Onto the CFAA part. As we’ve noted over the years, the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act is quite frequently abused. Written in response to the movie War Games to target “hacking,” the law has been used for basically any “this person did something we dislike on a computer” type issues. It’s been dubbed “the law that sticks” because in absence of any other claims that one always sticks because of how broad it is.

At least this case does involve actual hacking. I mean, someone hacked into the DNC’s network, so it actually feels (amazingly) that this may be one case where the CFAA claims are legit. Those claims are just targeting the Russians, who were the only ones who actually hacked the DNC. So, I’m actually fine with those claims. Other than the fact that they’re useless. It’s not like the Russian Federation or the GRU is going to show up in court to defend this. And they’re certainly not going to agree to discovery. I doubt they’ll acknowledge the lawsuit at all, frankly. So… reasonable claims, impossible target.

Then there’s the Stored Communications Act (SCA), which is a part of ECPA, the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, which we’ve written about a ton and it does have lots of its own problems. These claims are also just against Russia, the GRU and Guccifer 2.0, and like the DMCA claims appear to be highly repetitive with the CFAA claims. Instead of just unauthorized access, it’s now unauthorized access… to communications.

It’s then when we get into the trade secrets part where things get… much more problematic. These claims are brought against not just the Russians, but also Wikileaks and Julian Assange. Even if you absolutely hate and / or distrust Assange, these claims are incredibly problematic against Wikileaks.

Defendants Russia, the GRU, GRU Operative #1, WikiLeaks, and Assange disclosed Plaintiff’s trade secrets without consent, on multiple dates, discussed herein, knowing or having reason to know that trade secrets were acquired by improper means.

If that violates the law, then the law is unconstitutional. The press regularly publishes trade secrets that may have been acquired by improper means by others and handed to the press (as is the case with this content being handed to Wikileaks). Saying that merely disclosing the information is a violation of the law raises serious First Amendment issues for the press.

I mean, what’s to stop President Trump from using the very same argument against the press for revealing, say, his tax returns? Or reports about business deals gone bad, or the details of secretive contracts? These could all be considered “trade secrets” and if the press can’t publish them that would be a huge, huge problem.

In a later claim (under DC’s specific trade secrets laws), the claims are extended to all defendants, which again raises serious First Amendment issues. Donald Trump Jr. may be a jerk, but it’s not a violation of trade secrets if someone handed him secret DNC docs and he tweeted them or emailed them around.

There are also claims under Virginia’s version of the CFAA. The claims against the Russians may make sense, but the complaint also makes claims against everyone else by claiming they “knowingly aided, abetted, encouraged, induced, instigated, contributed to and assisted Russia.” Those seem like fairly extreme claims for many of the defendants, and again feel like the DNC very, very broadly interpreting a law to go way beyond what it should cover.

As noted above, there are some potentially legit claims in here around Russia hacking into the DNC’s network (though, again, it’s a useless defendant). But some of these other claims seem like incredible stretches, twisting laws like the DMCA for ridiculous purposes. And the trade secret claims against the non-Russians is highly suspect and almost certainly not a reasonable interpretation of the law under the First Amendment.

DNC Lawsuit by Zerohedge on Scribd