This short film features unique guns, interesting characters and professional cinematography, but the star of the film is the location: a defunct nuclear missile silo.
EDITORS NOTE: For more information on the video: http://tinyurl.com/qfof2f8. For more information on Weapon Outfitters: http://tinyurl.com/oe9vk7w. See more at: http://www.recoilweb.com/
Listen to an extraordinarily informative Lisa Benson Show for National Security that aired Sunday December 20, 2015 on KKNT 960 The Patriot on ISIS CBW threat to EU, America, while Israel protects its citizen. The program also addresses the surprise quadrupling of US foreign worker visas in the Omnibus spending bill abused by leading U.S. companies. Lisa Benson and New English Review Senior Editor Jerry Gordon co-hosted this show with the assistance of Board of Advisors member, Richard Cutting.
Our Guests were:
Dr. S. Jill Bellamy, member of the UN Counterterrorism Task Force and noted international expert of biological warfare threat reduction made some stunning revelations. She spoke of ISIS Libyan-based units, comprised of Dutch and Belgian foreign fighters who may have accessed UN sealed Gaddafi era Chemical and Biological toxin caches and may have stolen large quantities of dangerous Sarin gas. She noted that the recent EU Parliamentary research report highlighted the possible deployment by ISIS foreign fighters of CBW toxic agents and nuclear material in the EU. Bellamy spoke of the lack of preparedness of EU and American airports to possible ISIS CBW attacks. EU counterterrorism echelons, she noted, have not prepared civilian defense programs against these threats as they don’t wish to upset their civilian populations. Israel, alone among Western countries, conducts annual exercises against CBRN threats actively involving its civilian population and even school children. Bellamy also disclosed that US intelligence declined to obtain a veritable treasure trove of information from an accredited NATO country defense source on both Syrian and Iranian bio-warfare offensive weapons programs.
Leo Hohmann, a senior editor at World Net Daily disclosed the quadrupling of H-2B Visas for guest foreign workers in seasonal business sectors to 250,000 buried in the 2,009 pages of the $1.1 trillion Omnibus spending bill signed off by President Obama before he left on his Christmas vacation in Hawaii. He noted that the expansion of the dramatic expansion of H-2B foreign workers Visas had the active support of the US Chamber of Commerce. Recipients of these H-2B Visas can stay in the US for up to two years. Hohmann also discussed the H-1B Visa program for foreign workers with “critical special skills” that has been abused by a number of major American companies, among them Disney, Northeastern Utilities, Hertz. In one graphic example Disney, Hohmann spoke of how Disney gave Florida workers pink slips on condition that they train their H-1B replacements who typically are paid less than half of salaries of these technical positions and can stay in the US for up to six years and in some instances ultimately acquiring green cards for permanent residency.
Note this comment from one of our European listeners:
Dr. Jill Bellamy is excellent. The leaks on Daesh (ISIS) having their members taken over the sealed and buried Libyan chemical weapons are being discussed in some EU countries. They are scared that suicide bombers with chemical bombs in their boats could ram a naval vessel or have it smuggled through containers from Tunisia or Algeria to Europe. For Daesh to hit at any western country would be a major means of propaganda for them, which is their main aim, as well as killing as many infidels.
The lawmakers in the EU are still skeptic of any biological attack and they do not want to spend money on it because their budget deficits are lousy. They all do not care of the dangers facing their populations. I also think that the same lack of clear thinking is missing from the US administration and law makers.
EDITORS NOTE: This podcast originally appeared in the New English Review.
On October 30, 2008, then-Senator Barack Obama stood on a platform in Carnahan Quadrangle at the University of Missouri. Speaking to a crowd of several thousand starry-eyed students and Democrat Party faithful, Obama said, “After decades of broken politics in Washington, and eight years of failed policies from George W. Bush, and 21 months of a campaign that’s taken us from the rocky coast of Maine to the sunshine of California (presumably, all 57 states), we are five days away from fundamentally transforming the United States of America.”
Then, with a straight face, he segued to a list of Republican talking points. He said, “In five days, you can put an end to the politics that would divide a nation just to win an election, that tries to pit region against region and city against town, and Republican against Democrat, that asks us to fear at a time when we need to hope… So, as president, I’m going to go through the federal budget line by line, ending programs we don’t need, making the ones we do need work better and cost less. We’ve got to make sure that we are not charging a credit card to the next generation, borrowing from China just to pay off our dependence on foreign oil.”
Now, after just over seven years of Obama’s leadership, we find a nation that is more divided along racial, religious, and economic lines than ever before; a nation in which elections are decided, not by what is best for the nation as a whole, but by votes purchased with money borrowed from China. When Obama took office on January 20, 2009, the national debt stood at $10.6 trillion. In just seven years in office, Obama has used the national credit card to increase the debt by an additional $8.2 trillion, to $18.8 trillion..
Clearly, the federal government caters to the demands of the cities, where Democrats rule, at the expense of our rural areas, which are predominately Republican. In spite of the fact that the 2012 electoral map of the United States appeared to be almost totally red, with an occasional splotch of blue indicating the major urban areas, Barack Obama was able to win reelection by an electoral vote of 365-173. In that election, of the 3,100 counties in the United States, Obama won a majority of the popular vote in only 653 counties (21.06%), while Mitt Romney won the popular vote in 2,447 counties (78.94%).
Some 239 years ago, another man, Thomas Jefferson, also promoted a historic transformation of government. He wrote, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness – that to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, that whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it, and to institute new government…”
Jefferson understood the necessity of creating a government “of the people, by the people, and for the people.” Yet, experience tells us that what Jefferson had in mind was the exact polar opposite of what Obama had in mind when he promised to “fundamentally transform” our nation. After nearly seven years of oppressive rule by the Obama regime, a lawless regime for which constitutional principles and the rule of law are seen as mere annoyances, it’s time we considered whether or not our republic can ever be restored to its former greatness.
There is evidence that liberals and Democrats are using the Immigration Reform Act of 1965 as a means of importing a ruling majority of the poor and uneducated from the Third World, whose allegiances are easily purchased by a corrupt and lawless political party with access to the public treasury. As Democratic strategist Patrick Reddy is quoted as saying, “The 1965 Immigration Reform Act promoted by President Kennedy, drafted by Attorney General Robert Kennedy, and pushed through the Senate by Ted Kennedy, has resulted in a wave of immigration from the Third World that should shift the nation in a more liberal direction within a decade. It will go down as the Kennedy family’s greatest gift to the Democratic Party.”
In other words, what Democrats have done, methodically, over the past 50 years is to import sufficient votes to offset those they are unable to attract among white professionals and blue-collar European-Americans. It causes one to wonder how many years we have left as the freest, most prosperous nation on Earth.
A retired United Airlines pilot compared what the passengers on Germanwings Flight 9525 must have felt to what it feels like living through the Obama era in American politics. He said, “It is hard to imagine the growing feelings of fear and helplessness (they) felt as the unforgiving landscape rushed up to meet them… We feel the descent in the pits of our stomachs. We don’t know where we’re going anymore, but we do know it isn’t good. And above all, we feel helpless because a man very few Americans had heard of ten years ago (Barack Obama) has locked us out (of the cockpit).”
So, if our constitutional republic has been savaged to the point where it is beyond repair, what are our alternatives? In a previous column I have suggest three alternatives with the order of preference being: a) massive civil disobedience, b) widespread 10th Amendment nullification by states and local communities, and finally, c) dissolution of the Union, otherwise known as secession… the most draconian of the three alternatives. However, upon further reflection I have concluded that our first reaction to the heavy-handedness of the Obama regime should not be civil disobedience. We have always been a nation of laws, and to suggest that we should resort to unlawful tactics such as street protests, marches, riots, and sit-ins is to suggest that we should become a nation of law breakers.
It is not the sort of undisciplined behavior that we should be teaching our children. Nor should we be agitating for dissolution of the union, although a new nation comprising the 26 most heavily Republican states of the Old South, the Far West, the Great Plains, the Southwest, and the Midwest would make a very fine country… the greatest nation on Earth.
In a December 6, 2015 column, titled, “Secession or War – America’s West Against the East,” the President of the National Association of Rural Landowners, Ron Ewart, described the problems created by federal government ownership of land in the western states. According to Ewart, of the 2.27 billion acres of landmass in the U.S., the federal government owns 28%, or
635.6 million acres. Of that 635.6 million acres, 572 million acres are in the 18 western states.
Ewart suggests that the 18 western states form an alliance, warning the federal government that “they are on thin ground,” and that the only solution to the unwarranted and unconstitutional federal power grab is capitulation by the federal government… including the release of all federal lands (other than national parks and national forests) to private ownership. He warns that, if the federal government fails to agree, the result might be an effort toward secession.
However, our first alternative should be the widespread use of nullification by states and local governments, as envisioned by the 10th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The 10th Amendment states, “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”
Liberals and Democrats might argue that the 180 American cities who have declared themselves to be “sanctuary” cities are examples of nullification. But nullification is not about systematic disobedience to federal law that is, constitutionally, the province of the federal government. Nullification represents a decision by state and local governments to refuse to yield to federal laws that are, under the 10th Amendment, solely the province of state and local governments.
In a December 16, 2015 report by the Tenth Amendment Center, we are told of a bill prefiled in the Missouri legislature, HB1791, which would require the Missouri General Assembly to “adopt and enact any and all measures as may be necessary to prevent the enforcement of regulations, rules, and memorandums issued by a presidential executive order.” The bill describes executive orders not justified by federal law, or the limited constitutional authority of the president of the United States, as “repugnant to the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of Missouri.” Language in the bill declares such executive orders to be “null, void, and of no effect” in Missouri.
The Tenth Amendment Center notes that “HB1791 rests on a well-established legal principle known as the anti-commandeering doctrine. The cornerstone of that doctrine is found in the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Printz v. United States, 521 U.S. 898 (1997). In that decision the court ruled, “We held in New York (v. United States) that Congress cannot compel the States to enact or enforce a federal regulatory program. Today we hold that Congress cannot circumvent that prohibition by conscripting the States’ officers directly. The Federal Government may neither issue directives requiring the States to address particular problems, nor command the States’ officers, or those of their political subdivisions, to administer or enforce a federal regulatory program. It matters not whether policy making is involved, and no case by case weighing of the burdens or benefits is necessary; such commands are fundamentally incompatible with our constitutional system of dual sovereignty.”
Republicans now control 32 governorships and both legislative bodies in 30 states. Armed with the words of the 10th Amendment and the anti-commandeering doctrine, those governors and those legislators are capable of reasserting their state sovereignty by engaging in massive acts of nullification. Since we cannot rely on Republican majorities in Congress to reverse the trend toward federal supremacy, the states represent our only hope for restoring our constitutional republic as the Founders conceived it. Nullification is the answer, secession is an alternative.
He was in the National Guard. He converted to Islam and plotted to massacre 150 non-Muslims and join the Islamic State. Authorities remain uncurious, however, about the process of converting to Islam and how Islamic texts and teachings may incite converts to commit acts of violence.
Hasan Edmonds
“National Guard soldier ‘who planned Paris-style attack on US soil’ to kill 150 people facing 30 years in prison and a $500,000 fine after pleading guilty to trying to join ISIS,” by Darren Boyle, Mail Online, December 15, 2015 (thanks to The Religion of Peace):
A National Guard soldier who conspired with is cousin to join ISIS and massacre up to 150 people at his military base is facing up to 30 years in prison after pleading guilty to providing support to a terrorist organisation.
Hasan Edmonds, 23, of Aurora, Illinois, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiring to provide material support to ISIS and one count of attempting to provide material support to the same organisation.
His cousin Jonas Edmonds, 30, also admitted the conspiracy charge as well as one count of making a false statement to authorities regarding international terrorism. He is facing a maximum jail term of 23 years when he reappears in court for sentence next year.
Hasan Edmonds, made contact with an undercover FBI agent whom he believed was an ISIS terrorist in Libya.
He requested advice on ‘how to fight and defeat the US military’. At the time, Hasan Edmonds was serving with the Illinois National Guard in Joliet. He told undercover agents were willing to attack the United States.
Both cousins later met with another undercover agent in March who pretended to help the younger Edmonds travel to Mosul in Iraq to join ISIS.
They also discussed a plan for Jonas Edmonds, 30, to use his cousin’s military uniforms to attack the base in Joliet, Illinois where Hasan Edmonds was assigned.
Jonas said he wanted the undercover agent to help him achieve a ‘body count’ of 100 to 150 people.
Hasan Edmonds took his cousin and the undercover agent to the base on March 24 to conduct surveillance and retrieve a training schedule in order to pick the best time to attack, the plea agreement said.
Hasan Edmonds and his cousin Jonas Edmonds spoke to undercover federal agents about their plan to attack the Illinois National Guard Armory in Joliet, pictured, where Hasan served as a soldier.
Jonas Edmonds drove his cousin to the airport the next day, but Hasan Edmonds was arrested before he could board the flight to Egypt. Jonas Edmonds drove from the airport to his cousin’s house but was arrested before he could retrieve the uniforms…
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EDITORS NOTE: The featured image is of Hasan Edmonds (left), a National Guard specialist, and his cousin, Jonas Edmonds who are charged with a conspiracy in which Hasan would travel overseas to join ISIS, while Jonas would coordinate an attack on the National Guard facility where Hasan had trained. Photos supplied to CBS News.
Florida comes in at #25 for property taxes with a rate of 1.06%. New Jersey has the highest rate at 2.38 percent. Hawaii has the lowest rate at 0.28 percent.
There have been efforts to eliminate Florida’s property taxes and rolling it into the state sales tax. The Florida legislature will be looking into doing just that during the 2016 session, which starts in January.
CBS News Miami reports:
A House committee is looking at ways to replace property taxes with a higher state sales tax.
The House Finance & Tax Committee on Wednesday started to explore different scenarios that would shift the tax burden to shoppers by eliminating or reducing the number of Floridians paying property taxes.
Committee Chairman Matt Gaetz, R-Fort Walton Beach, said any scenarios will need “many hours to fine tune,” with economists expected to address the committee before anything is advanced for the 2016 legislative session.
We will see who comes out in opposition of this effort.
What is the property tax rate in your state? A new map from the Tax Foundation has the answer:
Kate Scanlon from The Daily Signal reports:
The Tax Foundation, a non-partisan research think-tank based in Washington, D.C., notes that states tax property in a variety of ways and that the rates listed are the “effective rate” paid by the taxpayer.
Jared Walczak, a policy analyst with the Center for State Tax Policy at the Tax Foundation, writes that the map “cuts through this clutter, presenting effective tax rates on owner-occupied housing.”
“This is the average amount of residential property tax actually paid, expressed as a percentage of home value,” Walczak wrote.
New Jersey has the highest rate at 2.38 percent.
Illinois has the second highest rate at 2.32 percent, followed by New Hampshire at 2.15 percent and Connecticut at 1.98 percent.
Hawaii has the lowest rate at 0.28 percent. Alabama has the second lowest rate at 0.43 percent, then Louisiana at 0.51 percent and Delaware at 0.55 percent.
Dinesh D’Souza spoke to the Park Cities Women’s Republican Club about the progressive heist of America on December 1st in Dallas, and the conversation was broadcast nationwide on C-SPAN Book TV. During the talk, D’Souza shows that progressive politics is nothing but a series of scams and cons aimed at stealing the wealth of America.
Watch now:
In Stealing America, D’Souza shows that the biggest crooks in America are the progressives perpetrating this con. Andrew McCarthy’s review of the book in National Review shows that despite Obama’s best efforts, D’Souza is intent on exposing their crimes:
“America flourished because it was an anti-theft society: freedom inextricably linked to the protection of private property, unleashing creativity, entrepreneurship, and unprecedented prosperity. The progressive critique of that society is not advanced in good faith; it is, as D’Souza portrays it, a “con.” Its purpose — not its unintended consequence but its aim — is to seize the wealth and power of achievers. The con is systematized by the Democratic party now under Obama’s leadership, with Hillary waiting in the wings.
Dinesh D’Souza implores us to recognize the con for what it is, and work, as he works, to expose it, rather than dignify it as an alternative political philosophy. America, he contends, is well on the way to being stolen. We will lose our country if we fail to reaffirm our anti-theft roots.”
Great orators have a way of using a word to make a point that resonates with the masses. Some of these words later become part of a dialogue and perhaps even are added to Webster’s dictionary.
Donald Trump is a master at using simple words to explain complex issues. His latest is the use of the noun schlong as a verb when referring to Hillary Clinton.
Charles Hurt in his column “The Nuclear Option: Donald Trump Schools Rivals on ‘The Art of the Schlong” writes:
If you think “The Art of the Deal” was a yuuuuuuuuuuge success — and it was — just wait until Donald Trump comes out with his latest masterpiece, “The Art of the Schlong.”
[ … ]
“The Art of the Schlong” is a political treatise, like “The Art of War,” only more devastating and infinitely more entertaining. It is more psychologically sinister than Machiavelli’s “The Prince.” It is like Dale Carnegie’s “How to Win Friends and Influence People,” only the opposite. Except for the influence part.
The treatise is a tactical primer for anybody thinking of getting into politics, especially as a Republican these days. Tough world out there right now.
It is a schlong or get-schlonged world, so you’d better learn how to schlong. [Emphasis added]
Americans increasingly believe they are getting schlonged.
In September a Gallop poll confirmed that 75% in U.S. see widespread government corruption. Gallop reports:
Three in four Americans (75%) last year perceived corruption as widespread in the country’s government. This figure is up from two in three in 2007 (67%) and 2009 (66%).
While the numbers have fluctuated slightly since 2007, the trend has been largely stable since 2010. However, the percentage of U.S. adults who see corruption as pervasive has never been less than a majority in the past decade, which has had no shortage of controversies from the U.S. Justice Department’s firings of U.S. attorneys to the IRS scandal.
Add to this list: The Fast and Furious government gunwalking scandal, the Benghazi and Extortion 17 cover-ups, the revelation that Obamacare is unsustainable by Professor Jonathan Gruber and most recently Hillary Clinton’s email scandal.
Donald Trump in one word has captured the essence of all of these examples of government out of control. Will his use of schlonged, along with Grubered, be added to the political lexicon? Only time will tell.
If you feel you are being schlonged please take our confidential survey and leave a comment and tell us how government has schlonged you.
RELATED VIDEO: Who are the biggest crooks in America?
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To use Schlonged or not to use Schlonged, that is not the question!
If Bergdahl is telling the truth, it is unlikely in the land of bacha bazi that these Taliban members were objecting to sleeping with men. They were asking if Obama was gay, i.e., did he sleep onlywith men — which exclusivity they would equate with weakness.
Beyond lurid curiosity, they were most likely asking Bergdahl if the President was truly as weak as he appeared to be.
“Bergdahl: Taliban asked me if Obama is gay,” by Beckie Strum, New York Post, December 24, 2015 (thanks to all who sent this in):
Bowe Bergdahl compared his first year in Taliban captivity — starved, stinking and chained to a bed — to being tossed in a closet and forgotten.
“Picture someone taking a bag, throwing it into the closet, shutting the door and just forgetting about it. That was basically how they treated me,” he said.
In the third episode of the popular podcast “Serial,” which is focused on Bergdahl’s alleged desertion from the Army in 2009 and subsequent five-year captivity by the Taliban, he details the misery of his first year held hostage — ending in a dramatic escape attempt that lasted 8½ days.
The interview was conducted by filmmaker Mark Boal (“The Hurt Locker,” “Zero Dark Thirty”) as part of a project on Bergdahl’s life. He lent the recordings to “Serial,” which is hosted by Sarah Koenig.
Bergdahl said he saw his first chance at escape soon after his abduction in Afghanistan’s eastern Paktika province, when a water delivery temporarily distracted his captors. He managed to slip off the chains binding his hands and feet and unlatched the flimsy wire holding the door to his cell closed.
He was free for only 15 minutes, running barefoot over rocks and climbing onto a roof and covering himself in mud to hide, he said in audio used by the podcast. He was caught in moments and hauled back into his cell, where men beat him with a rubber hose. They then blindfolded him and moved him to a new home, in what he now believes was North Waziristan in Pakistan, he said.
His new living arrangements were filthy and painful.
“In the new place, they put me on an Afghan bed and they chained my feet to the ends of the bed and chained my hands to the tops of the bed so that basically I was spread-eagle on the bed and blindfolded. And that’s how I spent the majority of the next three months,” he said.
He was allowed to use the bathroom twice a day and could shower around once a month. He developed bedsores and chronic diarrhea as a result.
“The time deprivation, too much light or too much darkness and too much randomness, it just wears away at you and drives your nerves into the ground. The constant worry ‘Am I going to die today?’ or is something worse going to happen,” he said.
Although watching over Bergdahl was a high honor, the guards were often bored and would pass the time by making videos of him, interrogating him with ridiculous questions or shaving his beard into shapes they found amusing, he said.
“They ask you, is Obama gay and sleeps with men?” he recalled. His young guards were also curious about where US military bases got their prostitutes, alcohol and drugs, and were obsessed with American soft drinks, he added.
“They love Mountain Dew. If you want to piss people off in that country, all you do is cut off their sugar supply,” he said….
RELATED ARTICLE: Obama will veto counter-terror measures to save the Iran nuke deal
When even David Cameron, thoroughly compromised to Islamic supremacists and in near-total denial about the nature and magnitude of the jihad threat, is tougher than Obama on a stealth jihad group such as the Muslim Brotherhood, you know we’re in deep trouble.
Muslim Brotherhood logo.
“UK breaks with U.S. on Muslim Brotherhood,” by Steve Emerson and Pete Hoekstra, Washington Examiner, December 24, 2015:
The United Kingdom broke from the largely complacent U.S. position on radical Islamists in a startling indictment of the Muslim Brotherhood (MB).
“Aspects of the Muslim Brotherhood’s ideology and activities … run counter to British values of democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty, equality and the mutual respect and tolerance of different faiths and beliefs,” Prime Minister David Cameron said in a statement. Cameron further states that “association with, or influence by the Muslim Brotherhood should be considered as a possible indicator of extremism.”
As the West attempts to pinpoint potential terrorists, the Brits tell us where to look, and that is to the MB and its associates.
The new account — resulting from an 18-month-long exhaustive investigation by respected foreign policy experts — presents a brutally honest examination of the movement. In breaking from the U.S., the UK has shifted closer to Egypt, the UAE and Saudi Arabia in identifying it as a terrorist organization.
The UK position sharply contrasts with that of the Obama administration, which sought to strengthen ties to the Brotherhood. Just a few years ago Director of National Intelligence James Clapper described the MB as “largely secular…” and “which has eschewed violence.”
The Obama administration quickly condemned the UK report in an email to the IPT, citing the MB’s stated commitment to nonviolence and that pushing back against the organization would lead to the radicalization of a minority of its followers.
We’re not sure that they even read the report. Since founding the group in 1928, former schoolteacher Hassan al-Banna, “accepted the political utility of violence, and the Brotherhood conducted attacks, including political assassinations and attempted assassinations against Egypt state targets and both British and Jewish interests during his lifetime,” it says….
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How did the ancient mass media report the alleged birth of Christ?
The People’s Cube prepared the following compilation of quotes from the Roman and Judean sources, which should help our readers to form an unbiased opinion of what really happened in the days surrounding the so-called Christmas…
© 2007 Directorate of Historical Revisionism, Karl Marx Treatment Center.
Judea Today
Another Consumer of Nature’s Resources Born in BethlehemAn international scientific consensus has been reached, and it’s not in Mary and Joseph’s favor. Had the parents of Jesus been more proactive in raising their awareness, they may have considered such important factors as Judea’s fragile environment and air pollution that only increases with every newborn child. No matter how amusing a set of small carbon footprints around the house may seem initially, potential parents should always remember that the footprints will only become bigger as the child matures and turns into yet another indulgent consumer of nature’s limited resources.
The Daily Pharisee
Scrutiny Tightens On Three Magoi’s Lobbying Operation
BETHLEHEM, December 28 – House Ethics Committee Chair Stephanie Tubbs Jones (D-Judea) urges congressional ethics probe into gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh by three Magoi – who are the focus of criminal investigations by the Justice Department.
The ethics panel said in a statement that a special subcommittee would try to determine if two Nazoreans violated the law by accepting “gifts, travel benefits, contributions to religious committees and organizations, or any other items of value” from the three Magoi and their lobbying operation.
The Nazoreans who were identified by name as the focus of the committee’s investigations – Joseph and Mary – have said they are innocent of wrongdoing.
Samara Post Intelligencer
Suspected Religious Cultists Exposed in Bethlehem
A homeless couple claiming that an “angel” had declared their infant child “the son of God,” was caught red-handed while apparently trying to engage in some ritual involving animals behind a local inn. Despite his young age, the unplanned and undocumented child whom they referred to as “Jesus” had already acquired notoriety in the religious underworld, operating under several aliases including Immanuel, Wonderful, Counselor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, and The Prince of Peace. Authorities are investigating a possible link to the highly profitable smuggling of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.
The police arrived at the scene after a call made by a local PETA activist who complained that the couple and the mob that followed them had inconvenienced the resident animals and “displaced handfuls of hay” in order to make a bed for the infant. “What sort of people are these that would invade a peaceful manger, disturb the animals in their home, deprive them of sleep of nourishment, and do YHWH knows what else with them?”
Prosecutors are considering charging the couple as accessories to an unauthorized light show that terrorized area shepherds who happened to be tending their flocks at night. No charges are currently being considered against the infant, though authorities have made clear that he will require careful observation and possibly therapy as he grows up.
The Nazareth Post (Lifestyle Section)
Mary: A Pregnant Teen Failed By The Government
Despite the homeschooling, the abstinence-only education, and her determination to save herself for that special someone, Mary Davidian, 15, still found herself pregnant. Neither her former resolve to remain chaste, not the fact that she was known by all and sundry as “The Virgin Mary,” prevented her from becoming yet another statistic in the growing problem of unwed teen mothers throughout the Roman Empire, particularly in poorer provinces like Judea.
Mary’s been betrothed for some time to Joseph Nazareth, 18, who operates a struggling lumber fabrication business out of his own home. But Joseph – and Mary, too – both agree he’s not the father.
When asked about the father’s identity, Mary raves incoherently about angels and dreams, and someone whom she can only identify as God, a likely gang-related alias.
“We don’t know who this God is, his age, if perhaps he’s so much older than young Mary that he might be guilty of statutory rape,” said a spokesperson for Planned Parenthood of Nazareth. “Notwithstanding, the fact that Mary conceived even though she’s still a virgin is all the proof anyone needs, that teaching abstinence to our children is totally unrealistic and ineffective. Can’t the right-winged religious extremists see that even when they remain virgins, young people are still going to go out and have sex?”
Rome News and World Report
Senate Ratings At All-Time Low As Occupation of Judea Continues
ROME (Associated Papyrus) The Senate voted today to continue the funding of legions in the Middle East under the threat of a dictatorial veto if they passed a bill that would have denied the funds. The move further alienated the Senate’s base, which vented its anger with posts on The DailyStylus.
“We voted to put them in office with the promise that they’d bring the legions home before Saturnalia. Well, it’s Saturnalia and they’re not home. I’m never voting again!” wrote Alvamus Goldscroll, an unemployed lyre player from Woodaquaduct. “I’m so angry, I’m getting a mallet. Stop the illegal occupation of Judea!”
EDITORS NOTE: This political satire (a.k.a. politically correct) column originally appeared on The Peoples Cube.
At the year’s end there could hardly be a more resonant or tragic story than the loss of the Afghan town of Sangin to the Taliban. Contrary to the media’s many critics, the news cycle, like human nature, favours good news stories. It favours things getting steadily better, whether that is medical advances or political or social liberation.
Despite the gruesome reality on the ground the story of Afghanistan over fourteen long years has been one of wishful optimism and hopeful improvement. Western troops may not have made the country entirely safe and Afghanistan’s politicians may hardly have made the country an un-corrupt liberal democracy, but at least girls can go to school. The loss of Sangin reminds us that all this can go the other way too and raises deep questions about our whole involvement in Afghanistan.
In the years since 2006 more than 100 British soldiers died in fighting in Sangin. Indeed the deaths of British troops in Sangin comprise almost a quarter of the UK military deaths in Afghanistan. Last year the nearby base of Camp Bastion was handed over from British to Afghan troops with enormous fanfare. Today, as a meagre international coalition attempts to send too few people too late to stem the Taliban’s hold over the whole Helmand province it is clear that we might as well not have been there in the first place if this was to be the outcome.
The critics of the post-9/11 wars claim that these wars have exacerbated extremism and insecurity. In fact it is the failure to sustain these missions which has led to this situation. It was the pre-emptive withdrawal from Iraq ordered by President Obama that has led to the fracturing of both Iraq and Syria. The demonstration that we want out as soon as possible rather than whenever the job is done is the best possible incentive for any enemy. Internationally the same problem has been posed in Afghanistan. What is the point of scrambling for a dignified exit if the result within a year is the unravelling of everything that has been achieved over all the years before?
This has, it must be said, always been a problem for democracies. The exigencies of the democratic process do not favour sustained decision-making. The advantage of the terrorists and the autocrats is a grim-faced consistency. When President Obama came to office he promised an end to the wars. In reality all that happened was that he ended America’s leadership in these wars, making the conflicts infinitely worse in the meantime. But the President satisfied his base, as others will satisfy theirs.
Likewise the UK government realised that the British public was wearying of Afghanistan and that the mission had been justified on too many and too varied grounds. It was not an easy call to make. Retain a presence and tolerate a constant drip-stream of casualties? Or get out and accept that the problem is for the Afghans?
These are not easy questions and nor are there any easy answers. But the story of Sangin and Helmand as a whole should be kept at the forefront of our minds. To forget this sorry tale would be the surest way of repeating it.
FROM THE DIRECTOR’S DESK
We may be approaching the end of the year, but it appears to be business as usual for Russian President Vladimir Putin. Orthodox Christmas may be a little later than the Western variant, but Mr Putin this week served up an early present for democracy activist, philanthropist and former political prisoner Mikhail Khodorkovsky – who served ten years in jail on trumped up tax charges while his company Yukos was dismembered – with the news that he was wanted on murder charges for a contract killing in 1998.
As is well known, the Russian criminal justice system is absolutely under the control of the Kremlin. It has repeatedly served up obscure charges to discredit and lock up Mr Putin’s opponents, such as the jailing of opposition activist Alexei Navalny in 2013 for embezzling large amounts of timber. Mr Khodorkovsky himself has had previous experience of new charges coming to light, such as those that saw his original sentence extended when it looked likely he might be released too early for the Kremlin’s liking. The new allegations against him seem particularly farcical when considering that they did not come to light at a time when his personal and business activities were being combed through in great detail by those seeking to find excuses to lock him up.
So what has changed? Khodorkovsky himself believes the Kremlin has simply “gone mad”. In truth, as he knows, the madness started some years ago, when Mr Putin decided there was room for only one politician in Russia’s political system – himself. Since then, not only have all forms of political and media opposition been driven underground, out of business or even expunged – as in the recent mysterious murder of opposition leader Boris Nemtsov – but Russia has also embarked on an aggressive neighbourhood and foreign policy.
It seems Mr Khodorkovsky’s real crime is simply to have believed that even while out of Russia, his support for a restoration of Russian democracy would be tolerated by the increasingly paranoid Kremlin. Russia today is reeling from the economic effects of the global commodity price collapse, and with international sanctions beginning to bite, Mr Putin is well aware that the compact between the Russian people and him – where he delivered economic growth at the expense of political freedom – is breaking down.
Russians may not yet be demanding Mr Putin’s immediate ousting. But he is right to be worried, for revolutions come quickly in this part of the world. The next time Mr Khodorkovsky sees Moscow, it is more likely to be in the context of a newly democratised Russia than in a show trial staged by the ancien régime.
Dr Alan Mendoza is Executive Director of The Henry Jackson Society
Follow Alan on Twitter: @AlanMendoza
EDITORS NOTE: The featured image of British soldiers in Sangin, Afghanistan is courtesy of Ministry of Defense/Crown Copyright/PA.
CNN is reporting that the Islamic State has captured Santa Claus. As Santa was flying over Iraq delivering Christmas gifts, the Islamic State, using a U.S. produced anti-aircraft missile, shot down Santa’s sleigh. Santa survived but was immediately captured by the Islamic State’s soldiers of Allah.
Russian Spetsnaz forces.
The Russian Minister of Defense Sergei Shoigu said, “We saw this happen in the Sinai with our commercial jet airliner. President Putin has ordered that we immediately begin a search and rescue operation using our Spetsnaz forces in Syria. Santa must be freed.”
The Islamic State News Network (ISNN) via Al Jazeera released the following statement:
Merry Christmas you infidels! We have captured your Santa Claus as required by the prophet Mohammed, may peace be upon him.
We demand that President Obama pay tribute to our fighters for his release. We also demand Obama release our Muslim brothers from Guantanamo.
We will trade Santa, as did our Taliban brothers in Afghanistan with Bowe Bergdahl, for the release of five of our beloved leaders being illegally held in Gitmo, the infidel prison in Cuba.
The children of Democrats across America have sent Tweets to the President. Examples include: #CloseGitmoFreeSanta, #FreeSantaGitmoMustGo, and #GitmoNoSantaYes.
First Lady Michelle Obama tweeted #BringBackOurSanta.
Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid released the following joint statement:
It is clear that American intolerance toward Muslims has led to this tragedy. If Santa would embrace the fight against climate change and turn in his sleigh and reindeer for a Telsa automobile, this would not have happened. What do we need snow for?
Santa is a white male who loves a white Christmas. We believe his bigoted, racist, and Islamophobic attitude has directly led to his capture.
However, in the name of those children who embrace our socialist, a present in every pot, ideals we call upon the President to immediately negotiate with the Islamic State for Santa’s release.
President Obama was not immediately available for comment as he is golfing in Hawaii but the White House Press Secretary issued a statement saying, “It’s all George W. Bush’s fault. This would have never happened if Bush had not invaded Iraq, creating ISIL. Now Santa is paying the price for this unlawful neo-con invasion.”
The White House released a statement saying that Santa must “convert to Islam or face the wrath of Allah. We are all Muslim. We will invite delegates from the Islamic State to the White House Christmas Party in a gesture of good will.”
Michael More noted, “I told you so. #WeAreAllMuslim. Even Santa.”
Santa was shalonged by Obama.
The Donald Trump campaign issued the following statement:
We cannot negotiate with terrorists.
It is time ban all Islamic State operatives in the United States from Christmas parties until they release Santa.
President Obama must stand up for all children, regardless of political affiliation. Santa shalonged by Obama.
#ReleaseSantaNow!
The Republican National Campaign Committee noted that, “Santa is an establishment Republican because he wears a red suit. This is clearly an attack on the GOP establishment by the Islamic State because of Donald Trump’s intolerance toward Muslims.”
Hillary Clinton stated, “The Islamic State is using Donald Trump and Santa in videos to recruit fighters. Clearly, Trump and Santa are symbols of American decadence and wealth, charity and good will. All of which incites the global Muslim community. It’s the film stupid!”
Christmas reminds us of the Savior who died for mankind. But some would like to eliminate it!
After the Sunday, December 20, 2015 Lisa Benson show, we caught up with US Army Brig. Gen. (ret.) Ernie Audino. See our December 2015 NER Interview with him, “No War Against ISIS Without the Kurds”. There was a swirl of rumors and a buzz in the parliament of the Kurdish Regional Government in Erbil about the alleged death of Islamic State self-styled Caliph, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi at the hands of Peshmerga, the alleged death of Quds Force commander, Gen. Soliemani and Ayatollah Khamenei on his death bed. To which Audino said, this has to be confirmed. We would add in Hebrew, Alevai,” it should only be.”
US Army Brig. Gen. (ret.) Ernie Audino, kneeling center with Kurdish Peshmerga.
Audino, steadfast American supporter of the Kurds and various peshmerga forces in the KRG , adjacent Syria and Iran was in the process of finishing a Washington Times (WT) column on why the Kurds have Christmas trees.
However, of more compelling interest was the Tehran push-back against his previous WT column , last Tuesday, December 15, 2015, “Friends of US in Iran. ” Audino’s tag line was “Sons of the Kurdish Republic are ready to fight Islamic terrorism.”It was about arming the three Iranian Kurdish resistance groups in northwest Iran that continue to bedevil the Islamic Regime in Tehran. This despite the fall of the short-lived Kurdish Republic, formed with support of the then Soviet Union in 1946. It was headed by its President Qazi Muhammad, who was captured by Iranian troops, tried for treason and hanged by the last Shah of Iran in March 1947. Audino wrote:
“If the [Tehran] regime had more to worry about internally, it would have less appetite for external adventures,” said a senior source in one of the three major Kurdish opposition groups active in Iran and looking to the West for aid. He makes an important point — much of the Sunni-Arab support for the Islamic State, or ISIS, is motivated by the threat of an increasing, Iranian-Shia influence in Iraq, Syria, Yemen and portions of Saudi Arabia.
“Tehran has feared no international sanction,” the same source added, “That is why it felt free to violently crush the weeks-long demonstration in the city of Mahabad in May.” Those protests erupted in the Kurdish-populated city in northwestern Iran after a young, Kurdish woman leapt to her death while reportedly trying to escape an attempted rape by an Iranian intelligence officer. “And if we look back to the popular demonstrations in Tehran in 2009,” he continued, “they had potential to ignite a Persian Spring, but no one assisted them. The USA looked the other way while Tehran attacked protesters and shut down the social media the crowds were using to coordinate their actions.”
Still, the members of his group and those of the other two groups keep alive the famed, blood-deep, Kurdish refusal to submit. Case in point; the Kurdistan Freedom Party of Iran (PAK). Elements of it have recently entered Iraq to help in the fight against ISIS, and the PAK leader, Hussein Yazdanpana, is personally commanding their operations on the battlefield.
His group isn’t alone. The Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan (PDKI) bases 1,000 of its own peshmerga near Koya in the Kurdish north ofIraq. “They have helped fight ISIS. We can arm another 2,000 if needed,” asserted Arash Saleh, PDKI representative to the United States.
The Komala Party of Iranian Kurdistan is involved, too. “Our peshmerga are fighting alongside other Kurdish and coalition forces near Kirkuk,” said a proud Abdullah Mohtadi, the party’s secretary-general, “and we are doing so to defend Kurdistan and humanity against the evil force of Islamic terrorism.”
Iranian Kurdish Resistance Fighters Source: Rudaw Kurdish News Agency.
As if to deny Audino’s WT assessment about Iranian Kurdish resistance, the Kurdish news agency Rudaw reported on Saturday, December 19, 2015, alleged denials by the head of the Iranian parliament national security committee, “Iran says armed Kurdish groups are not ’serious’ security threat:”
The head of the Iranian parliament’s national security committee has said he does not see the armed Kurdish groups opposed to Tehran as a threat to the Islamic Republic.
“These groups are active in border regions and we do not view them as serious security threats,” said lawmaker Mohammad Reza Mohseni, who is also in charge of parliament’s foreign relations committee.
He told the Iranian media that the country is not “under any security threats.”
Referring to the Party of Free Life of Kurdistan (PJAK), the main remaining armed Kurdish opposition group, Mohseni said those fighters were operating sporadically in the border areas, which he dismissed as “nothing new.”
PJAK, which is believed to have close ties with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), said in August that its forces had killed 20 Iranian soldiers in an attack on a border military post.
Tehran dismissed the claim, but confirmed that remote military bases had been attacked. The assault effectively ended a unilateral cease-fire, which PJAK had declared in 2011.
Note this exchange with Gen. Audino from our interview with him about the demise of the Kurdish Republic of Mahabad:
Gordon: After WWII, the Russians established a short-lived Kurdish Republic in Mahabad, Iran, who among Kurdish leaders was involved and what caused its demise?
Audino: Tehran caused its demise.
So long as large numbers of Soviet troops remained on the ground in Iran at the time, 1946, the conditions were favorable for the realization of the Kurdish dream, an independent state of their own. When Iranian troops were pushed away from the Kurdish-populated city of Mahabad, the time was ripe. The well-educated and well-respected Qazi Muhammad was elected to serve as president of the Mahabad Republic, history’s first and only sovereign, Kurdish state. Knowing he needed a capable army to protect the state he requested help from the great Kurdish nationalist, Mustafa Barzani, who showed up with 5000 of his peshmerga. During this period, a son was born to Barzani who named him, Masud. That son is now Masud Barzani, the current President of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in northern Iraq.
The Soviets couldn’t stay forever, and when they pulled out the Iranian troops moved in. Qazi Muhammad stepped forward and offered his life to save the residents of the city. Iranian troops seized Mahabad on 15 December, 1946. The Republic had lasted exactly one year. A few months later on March 31, 1947 Qazi Muhammad was hanged above Mahabad’s central square, Chwar Chira.
Watch this You Tube video with English subtitles with the stirring call to Kurdish resistance in the final address by Maahbad Kurdish Republic President Qazi Muhammad:
We have written about PJAK Iranian women fighters in the battle of Sinjar Mountain. According to the CIA Fact Book, there are an estimated 8.1 million Iranian Kurds, mostly in the mountainous areas adjoining the Iraqi Kurdish Regional Government. Qazi Muhammad’s valiant ringing endorsement of Kurdish resistance in Iran as well as the adjacent areas in Turkey, Syria and Iraq have resounded through the generations since the fall of the Mahabad Republic and his death. It is captured in the legendary comments of an Iranian Kurdish resistance leader; “ they may control the day, but we control at night”.
EDITORS NOTE: This column originally appeared in the New English Review.
Iraq crowned its first beauty queen in 40 years, 20-year old Shayma Qassim on Saturday Dec. 19. Three days later Qassim received a threatening phone call from the Islamic State, telling her to join the terror group or they will kidnap her
According to the organizers of the contest, Qassim, who is originally from Kirkuk, vowed she will not be deterred, saying she would “continue forward despite any obstacles.” The beauty queen plans to represent Iraq in the next Miss Universe competition.
The Miss Iraq pageant was originally scheduled for October, but was moved to December after tribal leaders demanded no women from their families participate. Organizers reported two women bowed out after receiving death threats. In addition, the swimsuit competition was cancelled and a competition in a more modest outfit was substituted. Hijabs were banned for participants.
The final competition – the only part open to the media — was held in a hotel in Baghdad. Eight contestants in evening gowns vied for the title.
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EDITORS NOTE: The featured image is of Miss Iraq Shaima Qassem reacting during the Miss Iraq Pageant in Baghdad, December 19, 2015. © Ahmed Saad / Reuters