Commentary Archives - Page 434 of 518

Bonjour Tristesse [Hello Sadness]!

November 23, 2015/in Commentary, National Security, Policy, Politics, Religion/by Nidra Poller

black flag of jihad stalks la republique

Now available on Amazon.com in book and Kindle versions. See Editors Note [below] for link to order.

Paris 20-21 November 2015

Friday: Steady cold rain is falling as the truth starts to sink in. Rain extinguishes the memorial candles and flattens the bouquets in front of the grieving restaurants and the horrified Bataclan and piled in terraces around the Marianne at Place de la République. The streets of Paris are forlorn, the boutiques are empty, there’s no line waiting for a seat at the falafel joints, Christmas merchandise lies on the shelves, dumbstruck.

There was a brief moment of satisfaction at the news that the “mastermind” of last week’s attacks was indeed dead several times over and beyond recognition after the 7-hour siege of his last hideout. DNA or some other tracer was matched to some shreds or drippings of Abdelhamid Abaaoud, junior Daesh executive in charge of planning jihad attacks in France and the Benelux countries. The so-called mastermind was caught by CCTV at the Croix de Chavaux métro station in Montreuil last Friday night at around 10 PM. The black Seat used by the easy riders who had finished executing people on restaurant and café terraces had been abandoned less than two blocks away. And the Big Chief ducked into the metro and jumped the turnstile. Punk!

I coined the term “punk jihadis” in November of 2005 when the banlieues went on a three-week torching spree. The pretext back then was the death of two youths running from the police; the boys took refuge in an electric power station, and got electrocuted. Last Friday night punk jihadis killed 130 people in Paris, to punish them for being depraved Crusaders who listen to music, eat, drink, and make merry…

…for tomorrow we shall die? The truth sinks in and you assimilate it. In the immediate aftermath people light memorial candles…to forget the dread that has befallen them. They leave bouquets of flowers, hand scrawled notes, ribbons and flags and badges and other signs of life that will not die. After checking to make sure immediate family members are alive and intact, Parisians enlarged the scope and quickly touched the grief of bereaved friends and acquaintances. The media publish unbearable photos and accounts of first responders and survivors. The savagery screams in your ears like the sirens that wailed all night long.

Those columns of intruders marching into Europe on the tails of the Aylan Shenu photo are a living metaphor of our current situation. Savage killers were in fact embedded in the mass. Only a minority, you were reassured, as if that were an acceptable risk to take for the sake of not losing your humanitarian label. And now, and for decades, only a minority of ruthless mass murderers are hiding like squiggles in the wallpaper of Muslim communities in Europe. TV cameras pan the streets of Molenbek, base camp of the recent assault—all the women are in hijab. I am not the kind of journalist who pushes a microphone under someone’s chin and asks a pointed question. What do you think about what happened? Who do you think did it? There is a different way of gathering and processing information. My memories of hundreds of man-in-the-street interviews play back today. I only have to look at the faces. The punks who actually grab the Kalashnikov and go on a killing spree, the punks that cheer them on, the nobodies with garbled minds that deplore the killing but deny its origins… Decent, perceptive, articulate Muslim intellectuals speak out too. These days they are more welcome than usual in the media. They are the real tiny Muslim minority. And most of them say, in measured voices: that’s not the real Islam.

Writing close to the bone, I am overwhelmed by a flood of anecdotes and impressions. Reading distractedly the words of people commenting from a distance, I am close to infuriated by their flippancy. Some are so eager to latch on to a euphemism here, a sidestep there, and declare that the stupid French still haven’t caught on that Islam is what’s going on. Don’t gloat. I happened to be in the United States on 9/11. When I returned to France a week later I was, yes, infuriated by their flippancy.

Countless hours of attention yield a full range of attitudes and analyses that can, however, be summarized. French people specifically and Europeans in general are on a learning curve. It is the difference that is notable, not the hangovers from an opaque recent past. Regional elections are coming up in December. Even though the issues are not technically international or even national, citizens will be voting on the question of Islamic jihad, for or against. That is, resist or fudge. And I still think that Marine Le Pen will not be the one to cash in the chips.

Saturday: The story line last night was: Parisians will not be terrorized. Here they are at Place de la République, lighting new candles to replace the ones that were rained out. Someone brought a piano to the improvised memorial near the Bataclan. People are singing and dancing, they went to the bistrots and had a drink. From screen to screen and one makeshift memorial to the other, correspondents served the plat du jour. “Hundreds are gathered” they said, confident that no one would notice the pitiful irony of it all. “Hundreds” means hardly anyone. So be it. People have to process this reality in their own way. Today a cold wind blowing directly from the North Pole (where there is apparently enough ice to chill us to the bone) is battering the memorial flowers as icy rain smothers the candles.

Last Sunday it was sunny and mild. I decided to jump at an exceptional opportunity to go face to face with CNN. First, I walked around the square twice to get the feel of things. My eye was caught by a small graffiti in the plaque marked 21 septembre 1792. Flics, hors de nos vies[cops, bug out of our lives]. Probably a remnant of the pro-Hamas rallies of the summer of 2014.

At the CNN tent, Hala Gorani said to a colleague, as she munched on a sandwich, “I’ve got to stop eating.” Nice opening. I encouraged her to keep enjoying the best of the Paris… “Like you said this morning in your tribute to our city.” She tells me she grew up here. And I show her a photo of pro-Hamas caliphators waving the black jihad flag right here in the Place de la République, right there on the pedestal of the Marianne, now decorated with flowers, candles, and même pas peur declarations. “Do you know what this is?” She doesn’t know, but aha, she’s no pushover. “This is photoshopped,” she says with a wink of cleverness. “No, it’s a collage. But this Palestinian flag, this Gaza Mon Amour poster, and this black jihad flag are at the same place at the same time. It was a banned demonstration. July 19^th 2014. Israel was defending itself against attacks from Gaza.” She looks uncomfortable. I give her a black & white photo of the cover of my book, The Black Flag of Jihad Stalks la République. And my visiting card. “I’m available if you’d like to talk to me.” The next day and ever since, Hala Gorani and her colleagues, all CNN BigShots, have been serving generous portions of Islamophilia. For example, an interview with someone from the Collectif Contre l’Islamophobie, who deplored the wave of house arrests as if it were worse than Guantanamo.

Radio Communauté Juive, one of several Jewish radio stations that share an FM band, could be fairly designated as “leftist, with highbrow aspirations.” On a midday newscast last week, journalist Paule-Henriette Levy, interviewing high ranking military man, apparently wanted to query him on the real impact of air strikes against Daesh positions. “Thirty-three dead,” she remarked, clearly swallowing the word “only” that gave meaning to her question. Then, her humanitarian reflexes kicking in, she blurted: “Of course every life matters…33 dead is 33 too many…”

I-télé aired an excerpt from an interview with the sister and brother of one of the Bataclan killers. They are horrified, simply horrified by what he did. He’s not our brother, he’s a monster, they sob. They repeat their horror, their sorrow, their distress, their stupefaction. And to think it was happening a few blocks away from the théâtre de la Main d’Or where they were watching Dieudonné perform. The interviewer is a bit stupefied himself. “You went to see Dieudonné’s show? He’s very controversial. Are you anti-Semitic?” And they reply, hidden behind the thickest biggest most checkerboard face blur I’ve ever seen, “No, we were just having fun, it’s a comedy show.”

I suppose most readers will have seen footage of the bespectacled guy who lent the apartment in St. Denis where Abaaoud made his last stand. Interviewed by BFM TV during the standoff, he could barely contain his arrogance and contempt for the journalist who dared to ask him how he came to give refuge to the notorious terrorist. “A copain asked me lend the place to some of his potes for a few days. I said ok. I helped him out, monsieur, that’s all, a helping hand.” Of course he didn’t know they came from Belgium, he didn’t know they were terrorists. And perhaps he didn’t see the policemen standing nearby that gently took him by the arm and led him to the paddy wagon. He’s still in custody. According to an article in Libération* the snooty chap subsequently identified as Jawad Bendaoud, is the goon of slum landlords that were renting apartments in the building, officially declared unfit for habitation. Bendaoud reportedly was sentenced to an 8-year term in 2008 for manslaughter. The victim was a friend. So I guess this wasn’t the first time he helped out a copain. The downstairs neighbor of the hideout also told her story to TV cameras. The building was shaking, plaster was raining down from the ceiling. She didn’t need to be blurred. She was in niqab. A cute young flirty looking friend of Bendaoud gives a different version. She says the apartment was abandoned. Her copain just broke in and expropriated it. He lent it to people who needed a place to crash. Is that so? Then how does she explain the fact that the armored door was so strong it resisted the explosive charge used by the SWAT team to break in and surprise the occupants?

Bendaoud was curiously precise in the pre-arrest interview: “I told the copain that there’s nothing in the apartment, no mattresses, he said it’s okay, all they need is water and a place to do their prayers.” A few hours later, pieces of Hasna Aitboulahcen, identified as Abaaoud’s cousin, were blasted out of the apartment, along with a bloody mattress [sic] that fell to the ground for all the eyes of the world to see. Just before Hasna was blasted by the suicide belt of the third fugitive, a policeman shouted up to her “Where is your boyfriend” and she replied “He’s not my boyfriend.” The confused young woman, who was a party girl until a few months ago, revealed in that brief exchange the juvenile stupidity of these mass murderers. She sounds like an 8 year-old girl with a ribbon in her hair meowing at recess. “Gna gna gna, Alhamid likes Hasna,” chant les copines and Hasna stamps her foot and says, “He’s not my boyfriend.”

The enemy says we are racists, but when the savages shoot into the crowd, they murder people of all colors, creeds, and origins. The names of the dead are an international repertoire of contemporary French history. But they, the crazed killers, are all the same.

If going to cafés and bistrots is an act of résistance against the savage murderers, there are still some distinctions to be made. Go into any Muslim neighborhood anywhere in France and you will find men sitting in cafés and bistrots for hours on end.

EDITORS NOTE: Readers may now order Nidra Poller’s new book “The Black Flag of Jihad Stalks la République” on Amazon.com.

What’s wrong with this picture?

November 22, 2015/in Commentary, Culture War, National Security, Policy, Politics, Religion/by Reverend Bob Armstrong

Over the past five years of the Saudi-sponsored war in Syria, the United States has admitted a grand total of only 53 Syrian Christian refugees and just one lone Yazidi, despite all the media attention on the Yazidi situation last year.

What’s wrong with this picture?

What shall I tell the Yazidi sheiks when I meet with them in early December?

I will never forget the religious leaders in Lebanon last December saying to me, “We cannot trust the United States government. You are now bombing ISIS, when two or three years ago, you were arming what is now ISIS?!”

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Now our president, while at the G20 Summit in Turkey, in reaction to the Paris multiple-terrorist bombings and carnage, tells the world that we will “stay the course” for victory. What???

Obama held a press conference in which he said the terror attacks in Paris that left 130, including one American dead, will not change his policy in regards to ISIS, and that he still will not consider American boots on the ground in Syria or Iraq.

Although the Joint Chiefs of Staff would recommend many boots on the ground, seemingly, they are afraid to contradict the “Commander-in-Chief”.

Reverend Armstrong with Iraqi Christians. Photo by Bob Armstrong.

However, former New York City Mayor Rudy Guliani, weighed in on the outrage where every country is against ISIS even more. Guliani said, “I don’t care about public opinion. I care about the national security of the United States. We should have 30,000 or 40,000 troops in Iraq. If we had had them there consistently, ISIS would never have emerged.”

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The French military has bombed more of ISIS strongholds in two days, than the United States has bombed in almost six months! Hello??

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According to the United Nations High Commissioner on Refugees (UNHCR) 19,000 Syrians have been picked straight from “refugee camps in Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan” and given U.N. approval for resettlement in the United States. However, most Christians are NOT in the United Nations refugee camps because of assaults and rapes by Muslims. Most Christians are “urban refugees” living in basements of rundown buildings – and worse – in cities. Virtually all of the 19,000 Syrian “refugees” will be Sunni Muslims who have a hatred for free Western governments.

What’s wrong with this picture?

Former Iraqi General Georges Sada (right) with Reverend Bob Armstrong. Photo courtesy of Bob Armstrong.

According to former Iraqi General Georges Sada, head of Saddam’s Air Force and then a consultant to former President George W. Bush (and even now a consultant to the current Iraqi government on a daily basis) he knew a month ago that President Obama would send a few troops in to fight ISIS, “ONLY because Russia has taken the lead in the region!” I had the privilege of having a private lunch with him.

Although he does not speak to many American audiences, except the United States War College, he reveals that Americans really do not want to hear the truth! He states, “America’s best supposed ‘allies’ in the Middle East are: Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Turkey. Yet these three countries provide over three-fourths of the money to fund worldwide terrorism!”

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The United States is giving BILLIONS of dollars to bonafide terrorists in Iran as a part of the supposed “Iran Nuclear Deal” even while Iran gathers and chants “DEATH TO AMERICA!”

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Then there are the arguments for and against immigration. Yes, I am for legal immigration. Yes, I am for protecting our borders with a wall or whatever is required. Our 21,444 U. S. Border Patrol agents need our support and backing, regardless of the inaction by our government in reference to enforcement.

I am against illegal immigrants who disobey our laws to gain access to America, regardless of their color or creed or culture. How can I teach my child to obey laws, if the United States government turns a blind eye to people who are disobeying the laws. (Of course we cannot deport 12 million people. How ludicrous!) But something must be done to STOP the illegal flow!

What about a future attack on the United States? A new Islamic State video is pointing toward New York City as a terrorist target. The New York Post reports: “The images of New York City are spliced between disturbing clips of suicide bombers preparing for attacks. A fighter also holds a grenade, pulling the trigger as the camera cuts to black. French President Francois Hollande then appears on screen, giving an address just after the Paris attacks. At the end of his speech, he says, “It’s horrible!” Then words flash on the screen, saying, “And what’s coming next will be far worse and more bitter.”

Obviously, the United States of America is in the “crosshairs” of a future attack by ISIS.

Breitbart News reports: “Two federal agents operating under the umbrella of U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) are claiming that eight Syrian illegal aliens attempted to enter Texas from Mexico in the Laredo Sector.

A local president of the National Border Patrol Council (NBPC) confirmed that Laredo Border Patrol agents have been officially contacting the organization with concerns over reports from other federal agents about Syrians illegally enter the country in the Laredo Sector. The sources claimed that eight Syrians were apprehended on Monday, November 16, 2015.

Honduran officials have arrested five Syrians who intended to go to the United States with stolen Greek passports.

On and on, the stories continued to multiply.

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Our current administration is like a “Trojan Horse” in assisting Terrorism and radical Islam to make it to the shores of the United States of America. Islam is on the verge of accomplishing in half a dozen years what the Ottoman Empire could not do in 600 years – conquer Europe! Our own U. S. President supports the Muslim Brotherhood!

“But Muslims are peace-loving!” contends many people, even former President George W. Bush. I understand there are those who do love peace and their peaceful way of life in America, but if one were to thoroughly read the Qur’an, and act upon every part, there is really no such thing as a “peace-loving” Muslim.

Most Islamists do not understand that their “cult” is disguised as a religion as they “worship” this false god called “Allah” who directs them to torture and kill anyone who does not submit. They even convince many that Allah and God are one in the same!

President Obama and “wanna-be president” Hillary Clinton both continue to defend radical Muslims. But Islam is for sure tied to every ISIS attack.

Just in the last few hours, in Mali, Islamic Jihadists released a number of the hostages unharmed after they proved that they were Muslims by reciting, for the jihadis, verses of the Qur’an.

In the 2008 Mumbai, India terror attacks, the Islamic terrorists from Pakistan released a number of hostages from the hotel. They did this when the hostages in question proved that they were Muslims by reciting passages from the Qur’an.

A little-known fact is during the Mumbai attacks, a Muslim Labour MP who was in the hotel at the time of the attack was allowed to leave unharmed by the Islamic Pakistani terrorists. He never gave any interviews about his experiences but seems to have withdrawn to the margins of obscurity in British politics. Maybe one day France and Great Britain will have a Muslim majority electorate. Dear Lord, help us! A well-known Muslim told me: “We do not need to fire a shot to win control. France and England allow Muslims to practice their religion of having four wives. Considering all the children, one day we will be in the majority in France and England.” Wow.

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Much has been said on social media about the refugees who drowned in the Mediterranean, but no one is forcing these people onto unsafe boats. They all do so willingly. President Obama wants to bring 10,000 Syrian refuges (how many are terrorists?) into the United States. However, the number of refugees welcomed by Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Libya, Egypt, Qatar, Kuwait, United Arab Emirates, Pakistan, etc. is ABSOLUTELY ZERO!!

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With the backdrop of the Paris terrorist attacks, which left 130 dead including one American, President Obama wants to continue our no-win policy against ISIS. Former GOP House Majority Leader Tom DeLay urges: “The president in his press conference, what I saw was he all but surrendered. He has surrendered to ISIS! We have a president that’s feckless, that’s incompetent, that has no idea what he is doing. His worldview is the wrong worldview for a war president and Congress has to say it. Congress has to stand up.”

The recent anti-Immigration of Syrians bill voted on this past week had nearly 50 Democrats joining the Republicans, but it falls far short of solving the problem. After this past week’s vote, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid vowed to kill the bill even though it received overwhelming bipartisan support in the House.

In another immigration bill, President Obama is vowing to veto the bill which would increase the screening for Syrian and Iraqi refugees before they enter the United States. The bill would add FBI background checks. Despite the European terror attacks, President Obama simply does not “get it.”

This invasion of America, which is called immigration, is the biggest threat to your personal safety of our generation. In fact, even before the immigration crisis of the last four months, we faced the biggest immigration crisis since World War II. But this could lead to the “Trojan Horse” of terrorism in the USA!

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Most Americans understand there may be a major terrorist attack in the United States.

The Washington Post – ABC News survey, finds an unbelievable 83 percent of registered voters believe a terrorist attack in the United States resulting in large casualties is likely in the near future. Forty percent say a major attack is “very likely,” matching the level of concern after the 2005 subway bombings in Britain.

Get this, in spite of what our President says, the survey shows that 59 percent think “The United States is at war with radical Islam.” YET, President Obama and presidential candidate Clinton refuse to use that term as the enemy!

In spite of all the worldwide carnage and the terrorism finger pointed directly at the United States of America, our “Commander in Chief” is hell-bent on making “Gun Control” his legacy in his last year in office. I am reminded of Ronald Reagan’s advice: “Self-defense is not only our right; it is our duty.”

Please don’t be sucked into the potent videos children being killed by guns. Bad people will always somehow have access to weapons. Americans must cling to their Second Amendment rights: To defend themselves and their families.

It is against this dismal backdrop that I plan on meeting the enemy head-on in December for three weeks.

If you will recall the daily news last August, 2014 about the Iraqi people who were surrounded by ISIS on a mountaintop, the Yazidis. One-half of the men women and children were slaughtered by ISIS (5,000). The USA dropped from the air food, water and blankets, while the Kurds finally rescued the other half. Genocide, on a smaller scale, still continues in that region. I plan to spend one week in December with them: giving them food, encouraging them, and showing them the love of Christ. Yes, it is still considered a “war zone.”

In fact a Kurd offensive was begun earlier this week, as first reported by CNN to rid Sinjar of the 300 ISIS fighters. U. S. Coalition forces bombed strategic regions near there this past week! But my “insiders” tell me they will be rid of by the time I get there! Pray the Kurds eliminate ALL the IEDs! I will be a couple of miles from ISIS territories and within six miles where Turkey last month – and yesterday – bombed the PKK of the Kurds.

Even though God nudged me to do this, and I will be safe because of Him, for three days I will have five armed bodyguards of the Assyrian Christian “Special Forces”. Confidentially, the Nineveh Plains Protection Unit!

In addition, I will spend the day at a special home for 30 Yazidi women where they have been brutally raped by ISIS (and their husbands killed by ISIS)! I need divine guidance on how to encourage these dear women who have sacrificed ALL. It is like a Rehab Center “on steroids.”

Then the second and third week I will be in Iraq, Jordan, and near the Syrian border in Lebanon, partnering with my good friend, Bill Murray, in the Religious Freedom Coalition’s program “Christmas for Refugees.” Thousands of refugee children will be fed, and their parents will receive food for a week for the entire family, as well as a Bible in their own language.

Last year, I was within 100 yards of ISIS tents; and several Muslims came to know Christ. An ISIS sympathizer infiltrated the church. As a result, according to General Georges Sada, former Iraqi general and present consultant with the Iraqi government on a daily basis, he informed me that I have a $300,000 kidnapping bounty on my head by ISIS, if I came to Baghdad region of Iraq!!

I am not “crying wolf” now. This trip is extremely serious…even one of a kind. NO ONE is reaching the Yazidis except a couple of my new friends! I will be within a few miles where the United States just this weekend sent Special Forces into Syria. Russia’s presence is already enormous in Syria!

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EDITOR’S NOTE: Bob Armstrong needs to raise $10,000 before December 3rd for his security-conscience Middle East trip to feed Yazidis and refugee children. If you can assist, financially, thank you. All gifts to Lovelink Ministries are tax-deductible.

Readers who wish may give by check. Please email Bob Armstrong at: bobkimandb@gmail.com. To give online, go to www.LovelinkMinistries.com

Victim or Activist? The Choice is Yours!

November 21, 2015/in Commentary, Culture War, Policy, Politics, Regulation/by Karen Schoen

Time is like a river. You cannot touch the water twice, because the flow that has passed will never pass again. Prayers go out to the citizens of Paris, Lebanon and Mali. Again, this ISIS activity is being allowed to continue because DEPOPULATION is a GOAL of Sustainability. Throughout history the Muslims were always the initial gladiators used for the first round of cleansing. I am borrowing a few words from Franklin Graham.

Franklin Graham was speaking at the First Baptist Church in Jacksonville, Florida in January, 2015, when he said America will not come back. He wrote:

“The American dream ended on November 6th, 2012 in Ohio. The second term of Barack Obama has been the final nail in the coffin for the legacy of the white Christian males who discovered, explored, pioneered, settled and developed the greatest republic in the history of mankind.”

There is nothing for whites to be ashamed of in America; it is just history. It is the way it was. The sad part is that the blacks who built America along with the European whites – have had the American Black history replaced with victimhood and hatred.

Will we let a small coalition of blacks, Latinos, feminists, gays, government workers, union members, environmental extremists, the media, Hollywood, uninformed young people, the “forever needy,” the chronically-unemployed, illegal aliens, and miscellaneous fellow-travelers…End the Constitutional Republic of America?

I listened to the Democratic debate. All these candidates did was spew MORE HATRED, aimed to make victims of every minority group imaginable…except for whites, of course. I can not imagine why any white person would vote for a candidate who LIES, calls them names, pushing White Guilt Complex; and all the while telling them that all that is needed is MORE MONEY to fix things. I am embarrassed that I once was a Democrat.

To the children of America: You do NOT have a RIGHT to tangible objects or material things. GOD gave you the ability to succeed. No one but you is standing in the way of your success. BUT it is not up to ME to pay for YOUR STUFF. That is YOUR job. How come I don’t hear anyone saying that??

You don’t hear much mentioned on the lame-stream media, either – about the 60%+ people that are sucking off the 40% of the population that IS WORKING.

In America, God grants our Rights. (Our Founders recognized this!)

The Constitution protects those Rights. If you think life will be better somewhere else, please leave!

As we prepare for Thanksgiving, read the Bill of Rights to your children.

Rights are not different for different people under the Constitution.

The opening states: “We The People.” It does not say WE the White people, Black people, Christian people, Jewish people!!!

There are NO divisions in America’s Constitution. The only divisions comes from those who wish to destroy American headed by Obama and a regime of globalists, seeking to force on us – their New World Order.

Just listen to GWH Bush 41. Google his speeches. He is very CLEAR!!

He is calling for a World Government – headed by the UN!!

So did Clinton, and Bush 43…

So did many of their PREDECESSORS!

Click on this link for Roscoe Drummond, Herald Tribune, on an article regarding the U.S., Governors’ visit to the Soviet Union after President Eisenhower signed the initial agreement with Soviet Union (Khrushchev) in 1958:

The Eisenhower-Khrushchev agreement covered planned U.S.-USSR activities in ALL areas. President Reagan followed up in 1985, with the USA-USSR cultural exchange agreement which also contained agreement to merge U.S. and Soviet education systems, currently implemented today under EDUCATION RESTRUCTURING aka NCLB, Common Core, ESEA.

Massive documentation regarding the Reagan-Gorbachev agreement can be found here and at the deliberate dumbing down of america (FREE) download.

And of course, who can forget Obama?

HE TOLD US: “We will fundamentally transform American.” In order to transform, you must first DESTROY. Michelle said: ‘we’ll change History.” And so they have. They have set out to DESTROY America, and that destruction is well on its way:

‘You will never again out-vote these people. It will take individual acts of defiance and massive displays of civil disobedience to get back the Rights we have allowed them to take away. It will take zealots, not moderates and shy, not reach-across-the-aisle RINOs to right this ship and restore our beloved country to its former status.” – written by a USMC Vet.

The TPP will ensure the collapse of America. Just like NAFTA and GATT. These treaties call for the merging of America, Canada and Mexico. Any candidate supporting the TPP agreement is a closet amnesty-seeker, never read the agreement, and is listening to their donor base. Their main goal is MONEY! Not America.

We need a candidate who will redo all trade agreements.

Most of us never ask, where is the hatred coming from? Why is it happening? We see the man in the street asking simple questions that Americans cannot answer, and we do not ask WHY? Perhaps because we are afraid of the answer – which is under our nose.

Before the early 60’s America was always in the top 10 in the world for education. Now we are mediocre. Why did America not keep its sovereignty, and strive for excellence as in the past? The answer to that is CONTROL. People who think freely are hard to control.

Being an American comes with a JOB. The Founders intended it that way! Being an AMERICAN comes with RESPONSIBILITY. If taught properly in school, students would know the way their government works, understand the Rule of Law, and realize the law does not change for different GROUPS of people. All GROUPS have the same rights under the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. This is the framework that our Founders

put in place. That is why in America, we have EQUAL JUSTICE under the Law.

Social Justice was created by the communists, in order to rally the groups around victimhood while collecting donations. Social Justice creates justice for a specific group, a protected group status. THINK: Would it not follow that if YOU are not part of that SPECIFIC group, you do NOT HAVE PROTECTION under the LAW? Break up into groups is necessary to divide the people.

Think ABOUT it!! So, we are no longer EQUAL in the eyes of the LAW – unless we are part of that SOCIAL JUSTICE GROUP. That is why so much effort is being put into dividing the American people, divided people are easier to CONTROL.

When today’s immigrants come HERE, they are not required to learn our language, or assimilate into our culture! They are used by the left to create a sub culture voting block. They are separated from the existing population and culture. Coming from countries giving minimal free stuff, they can not believe the amount of free stuff they now get from America. They will vote for the group giving the most free stuff. By continuing multi-culturalism, dare I say it? DIVERSITY! – We continue to promote the GROUP or HERD mentality insuring the demise of America.

The concept of being AMERICAN, of being ALL different peoples together in the same land, in the same country, disappears!

Our individualism, our culture…LOST FOREVER.

Our IDENTITY AS AMERICANS…GONE FOREVER!

We MORPH into…THE BORG!!

Comply, Resistance is Futile

Education is the one thing that affects all Americans. We call it the lowest common denominator. When you declare common-ality in education, you must teach to the lowest and slowest. It is now the job of the school to dumb the population by training not educating while they REPLACE:

FAMILIES…WITH SCHOOLS: Cradle-to-grave education, all MEALS (breakfast, lunch dinner) in school, assignments not going home for parental input, and intrusive, constant testing, parents demonized, break morality, children guided to drugs.
GOD…WITH GOVERNMENT: teach NIHILISM (life has no meaning – live for only today), and Secular Humanism (God is Dead) Children are taught in Pre-K that the Government grants rights to have housing, a job, food, medicine. Of course – whatever the government grants, the government can take away, lie, and remove. Freedoms are lost. Children are trained that they can talk, as long as the GOVERNMENT APPROVES what they say.
AMERICAN CITIZENS…with GLOBAL CITIZENS. It now is the job of every able bodied world citizen to work for menial funds unless sanctioned by the government, to never use any resources for fear they will be used up, to forgo dreams of success and to be happy living in an overpriced shipping container to save ??? space, food, the environment? Once you buy into the sustainability program, you will be a slave who has been fooled into giving their POWER to the government. The government will place more controls on you in the name of FAIRNESS to get more Power. Power over you, can only be granted by you. You give your power to the government when you accept the unconstitutional controls.

Eventually, people lose their ability to legally comment on their opposing view and will surrender America’s culture, heritage and traditions – without a shot being fired!

Our children will no longer know FREEDOM, LIBERTY and the PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS. Instead, they will be told by the government, what makes them happy and to be happy with the crumbs the government provides. The pattern of working all your life to strive for something to pass on to your family, to allow your children to have better opportunities than you did – will die with the NEW WORLD ORDER. Sustainability means you will not better any future as resources can not be used for fear they will be used up. They will be no future innovation, creation, invention unless sanctioned by the government.

The world chaos was created by design. Just watch as riots break out and Martial Law is called for. The American Constitution has been replaced with Saul Alinsky’s “Rules for Radicals” and the writing and money of the bullies in the Chicago mobs, the international socialists cartels, Bush, Soros, Gates, and members of the various commissions, NGO’s, Aspen Institute, Trilateral and CFR to name a few. They have been pulling the strings with Agenda 21/2030, the New World Order for a long time with the final goal ending in WWIII in order to depopulate the planet. Stalin: “No people, no problems.”

Realize, the sad story of America in DECLINE is at its final chapter. But the chapter has an open ending left for us to complete. Realize, the ending will only be THE END…IF YOU ALLOW IT! If you do NOTHING, nothing changes!

The curtain WILL come down. The damage has been done. But a solid leader still has a short time to rewrite the ending. (Remember this too: EVERY American is a leader!) You can either be a VICTIM…OR AN ACTIVIST. You can’t be both. The choice is yours.

If not you, who? If not now when?

The Muslim Invasion of Europe and Obama’s Muslim Appreciation Month

November 21, 2015/in Commentary, Policy, Politics, Religion/by Dr. Richard Ruhling, MD

When asked about the end of the age, the Great Teacher whose life divided BC from AD said to understand the book of Daniel. That book was “sealed until the time of the end,” but the 8th chapter has a vision “at the time of the end” with a candid view to convince skeptics that what Daniel saw is happening now.

Historians say Alexander the Great’s victory over the Medes and Persians was verse 20, but they overlook verse 17 that says it’s “at the time of the end.” Those nations are now Iraq and Iran, represented by the ram with two horns, and “the higher horn came up last.” Iran will be more trouble than Iraq.

The ram pushes “north” (Russia is north—ISIS just downed a Russian plane), and west (into Europe). But it angers a goat (Global Organization Against Terrorism) that flies from the west and stomps the ram, breaking both horns, presumably bringing an end to militant Muslims in the Middle East. (verses 4-7)

Clues fit this “end-time” application with the goat “coming from the west on the face of the whole earth” (US coalition v Saddam had troops from S. America, Canada, Bosnia, Australia, Korean, “the whole earth”) and “it touched not the ground.” Our fight against Iraq was the first historic air war. Daniel was by the River Ulai when he saw the vision. The modern name is Karun River by Kuwait where US troops deployed.

It’s interesting that the pope calls for Europe to open its arms to receive millions of Muslims but the Vatican is only accepting two families—one for each Vatican church. President Reagan established diplomatic ties with the Vatican, and he was persuaded to open the doors to Catholic immigrants on our southern border.

All of this fits the Bible description of Babylon, a word meaning confusion. In the 17th chapter of Revelation, Babylon is shown as a harlot involved with kings (governments), decked in gold and the color of cardinals, drunk with the blood of saints and a “mother of harlots” (unfaithful churches who accept her teachings) sitting on seven hills (Rome).

But it’s more than religion. Chapter 18 calls God’s people out of the false systems of society to avoid plagues. This includes government, education and health care that’s not based on the Bible. Health care with drugs is translated as “sorcery” in the 23^rd verse–pharmakeia is the Greek word in the text. Prescription drugs for chronic problems generally do not address the cause and are known by many as a leading cause of illness and death, Journal of American Medical Assoc, 4-15-1998.

The bottom line? The pope is king of Babylon (confusion) and Vatican encouragement from the days of Reagan has been filling America with confused ideologies that will need UN “peace-keepers” that we wouldn’t need if we stopped the “overflow” from coming here.

Why should non-Muslim nations take Muslims when Saudi Arabia has 100,000 empty tents and other bordering nations could and should do so? Why is this White House so hellbent on proving we are not a Christian nation and now declaring December a “Muslim Appreciation Month”? Does he think we are crazy? Irreparable harm is done daily as he throws Christians and Israel under the bus. Call/email your congressman with a clear message of NO and ask why this insanity is continuing.

Is the United States REALLY going to do this even though history says we should not?

November 20, 2015/in Commentary, Immigration, Policy, Politics/by Rod Eccles

There is a great amount of rhetoric floating around over the Syrian Refugees due to the terrorist attacks in Paris last week. The questions being asked are should the United States take them in? Should we block them? Should we pay to keep them where they currently are? Should we make sure our European allies keep taking them in?

The people of the nation’s of Europe already knew the trouble that they were in because they understood the danger that was around them. German citizens have been marching and protesting about the continued open border policy of Merkel. The Swedish people are demanding that their government begin sending many of the Middle Eastern Refugees and Immigrants back to where they came from. Hungary along with other Eastern European nations are building border fencing to keep the migrants, immigrants and refugees at bay.

But still most European politicians as well as the politicians here in the United States, seem to think that they need, no, they must accept these refugees as a show of good will and to extend the hand of friendship to the Middle East. Paris proved to us that there is no extending a hand of friendship. There is no way to convince the Islamist to lay down their weapons and live in peace because they are not taught or raised in such a fashion.

The Islamist hates the West and the East and everything we stand for and believe in. They have sworn to destroy and defeat everything we hold dear in the name of their god, Allah. The French government has begun to see this issue in its true light because French President Hollande closed his countries open borders after the recent Paris terror attack. But, alas, it may be too late.

Unfortunately, the United States is following the same road that France and much of Europe has already taken. For example, The Boston Marathon Bombers were just two of many such refugees that have been caught committing or planning to commit such violence against Americans on American soil yet The United States still wants to welcome The Syrian Refugees.

Only a nation that has a death wish would allow their arrogance to supersede their wisdom because the greatest of nations often are not defeated by their enemies from the outside. A nation is often defeated or doomed when they let the enemy inside in the guise of friendship.

The Trojan horse is more than a historical fact because it is a warning that time and time again, men have failed to remember. Do we really wish to go down that road of self-destruction or will be wise and learn from the mistakes of the pass and set aside our feelings for logic and fact?

If we as a people choose unwisely, then you cannot blame those of us who have been shouting from the mountain top that letting in the enemy is not a wise thing to do. It is not un-American nor is it anti-Christian to refuse to take in those who you believe will someday turn on you and kill you or your fellow citizens.

Frankly, I will not be remembered by history as one of those who destroyed the United States simply because he was ignorant and foolish.

How about you?

RELATED VIDEO: Syrians in Greece Using Fake Passports to get to Europe and U.S. In this Project Veritas video three Syrian refugees in Greece are caught on hidden camera talking about using fake passports to get to Europe and the U.S. They talk about using the same route as one of the terrorists who perpetrated the attack in Paris last week. When asked how to obtain a fake passport one of the Syrian refugees responded: “You need a person who the made the fake passport. And you need to pay for it. Maybe about three thousand Euro. ($3,189).” He also added that that is how a lot of Syrians come to the U.S. and that there are a lot of Syrians in France.

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What a Responsible Syrian Refugee Policy Looks Like for US After Paris Attacks

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After Paris Attacks, It’s Clear France Has Paid High Price for Abandoning Assimilation

Do You Really Believe there are Moderate Muslims?

November 20, 2015/in Commentary, Culture War, Policy, Politics, Religion/by Ron Edwards

If I have said it once, I have stated it a thousand times even on my syndicated radio commentary The Edwards Notebook that there is no such thing as a moderate Muslim. For a number of years Muslims have been portrayed by well-meaning or politically motivated progressives as either Muslim moderates or radical Muslim terrorists. Unfortunately, such classifications have helped to dupe so-many into believing that most Muslims are simply the same as everyone else. That they simply want to live a good and decent life without any thoughts of killing non-Muslims per instructions in the quran.’

The world manufactured the silly notion of two Islams. One that is radical and impossible to live with, and the other moderate and not much different from fellow Americans like you and I. The false narrative distinguishing a difference between “radical” and “moderate” is what facilitated the stupid rumor that Islam had been “hijacked” by the radicals. The implication is that the real Islam is moderate and that the radicalized version of today is a fake.

This is one of the reasons why American & European school students are consistently indoctrinated in the traditions of various aspects of Islam, including sharia law. It has been noted that what is taught to one generation dictates the direction that nation takes in the next. Thus the explanation for the insane for the irrational government decisions throughout both the United States and Europe.

The United States is saddled with a president who is more inclined to aid dedicated murdering Muslims than protect American interests. European nations like Great Britain and France are besieged daily with brutish Islamic bullies who are zeroed in on a mission of fundamentally changing their nations into typical uncivilized Muslim societies. The horrific murders of unarmed Parisians by Muslims who are emboldened by the west’s silly penchant for trying to make nice with the Islamists who long ago declared war on non-Muslim nations, particularly, the United States.

Despite the fact that back in January of 2014, ISIS leader Abu Bakr ‘al Baghdidi flatly stated his groups intention to march on Baghdad and into direct confrontation with the Americans. “Our last message to the) Americans, soon we will be in direct confrontation, and the sons of Islam have prepared for such a day.” Baghdadi said. “So watch, for we are with you, watching.”

But instead of acting on behalf of U.S. interests, the White House Occupier continues to govern on behalf of Muslim interests and remains keen on the idea of allowing hundreds of thousands of Syrian Muslim so-called refugees to move into our republic, all expenses paid by United States taxpayers. Obama’s willingness to endanger our nation by flooding her with Muslim enemies is jaw dropping. Also, the cruel similarities between Islam and Nazism are startling. The Nazis believed they were a master race. Islam (also a political movement) is considered by Islamists to be a master religion. When one considers so-called moderate Muslims, just remember, things are not always what they seem.

Most people known as moderate Muslims are those simply waiting until the overall Muslim population is at least around eight percent of the overall population of the country, or city they migrate to. After that they start getting involved politically via the Muslim Brotherhood and other Islamic organizations and use the judicial system of their chosen nation or city to further the political clout of Muslims at the expense of the native citizens where the immigrated to. Soon after, violent acts begin to occur. Numerous cities in Great Britain, France and even Televiv Israel are peppered with Muslim stabbings of non-Muslims and boisterous calls for the collapse of the nation, or city they have invaded.

The results of foolishly opening up borders to Islamic invaders are playing out all over the world. Hopefully, before it’s much too late, the wisdom of God will be pursued and utilized so that civilization may prevail so that sovereign nations like the United States will awaken from their stupor and properly seal their borders.

To place the interests of enemies who have warned us about their plans to destroy our republic above our own by letting them stream through our porous border is both dishonorable and traitorous. America is divided between those who desire to stay the course of open borders and endless streams of American hating refugees being let in on one side. On the other is a slightly larger majority who are praying for the restoration of an appreciation for and protection of our beloved republic. It can start with the sealing of our borders against illegal immigration. It is also imperative that the government or even Americans in general realize that we do not have the time and it is not our responsibility to sort through legions of illegal immigrants who are streaming across our borders to see who is naughty or nice.

The wise and most prudent approach is to not allow then in American in the first place. The reason is because most of us do not desire to witness a wholesale fundamental change of America. Unless of course it is a dramatic change into living up to the marvelous ideals that the founding fathers so eloquently wrote and then fought to establish. Together, “We the People” of the United States of America can reestablish our beloved republic as One Nation under God. Or settle for being the generation that let her become one nation gone under. The choice is up to us. I pray we make the right one.

Why Muslim Migrants Always = Terrorism

November 19, 2015/in Commentary, Culture War, Immigration, Policy, Politics/by Selwyn Duke

What’s the point in the West sending troops to the Middle East if we bring the Middle East to the West? The preceding is a money line, one that should be used by Islam realists from Germany to Georgia.

The Paris terror attack has inspired much debate, from conservatives saying we need to confront ISIS aggressively overseas to liberals wringing their hands over rising anti-Islam sentiment that they claim will exacerbate the jihadist problem. And while I’m more sympathetic to the former sentiment than the latter, nothing should distract us from what must be our number-one priority: stopping the Muslim influx into the West cold.

Many say this is a cold position. And, unfortunately, their prescription for (misguided) compassion is seldom sufficiently refuted.

In an attempt to salvage a failing multicultural model and strategy for importing left-leaning voters, we hear that the Muslim migrants must be “vetted” better. A practical problem with this notion is that Syria’s and other Middle Eastern countries’ databases are woefully inadequate, making accurate information on many migrants impossible to obtain. This confronts us with a simple matter of probability: if 1 million migrants enter a nation over time and just 1/10^th of 1 percent are terrorists, that’s 1000 dangerous jihadists. Is this acceptable? Note that my estimate may be conservative.

Yet there’s also a fundamental problem with vetting that goes unmentioned: even with complete information, it only tells you about the past.

It cannot tell you about the future.

In other words, even if those one million migrants have “clean records,” how many will become terrorists in the future? Again, 1/10th of 1 percent is 1000.

And what of their children? How many of them will become terrorists? No point repeating best-case-scenario percentages.

One response here is that the children will be more integrated and thus the problem should diminish over time. This is logical, but, unfortunately, also apparently untrue.

Studies have shown that young Muslims in Europe are actually more radical than their elders. This certainly is counterintuitive, but only because the average Westerner’s cranial database also doesn’t contain accurate information. For example and related to this, moderns take as a given that religion is declining in our “enlightened times.” Yet religious belief is actually increasing worldwide, a phenomenon poised to continue. Islam’s adherents are growing in number, and Catholicism’s are, too, slightly in excess of the increase in world population. Religious belief is only declining in the West — and, most significantly, among Westerners in the West.

Another common argument was expressed by Charles Grant, director of pro-E.U. think-tank Centre for European Reform. He said that ratcheting up the anti-Islamic rhetoric would serve ISIS’ ends and that “Europe’s game must be to resist that and not repeat the mistakes we made after September 11 which played right into al-Qaeda’s hands. We must hold our nerve and embrace our values of tolerance of faith and religions which we share in common and against the Islamic State,” reported the Telegraph. Many leftists echo this, the idea being that we must not further “alienate” Muslim communities. This overlooks that you can only alienate those who aren’t already alien.

Note again that the pattern evident is for younger Muslim generations to become more alienated from the West, not less. Some would blame this on the West itself, saying that — despite indulging multiculturalism, outlawing anti-Muslim rhetoric and offering generous government benefits — we still aren’t opening our arms and hearts to these newcomers. Kill ‘em with kindness, the thinking (feeling?) goes.

Of such people ask a simple question: can you cite one time in history in which large numbers of Muslims have willingly assimilated into a non-Muslim culture?

Just one?

While there may be some exception, I can’t think of any. Note here a recent poll showing that a slim majority of U.S. Muslims prefer living under Sharia law to American civil law (and how many wouldn’t admit such a thing to pollsters?). The best predictor of future behavior is past behavior, and the historical record informs that “Muslim assimilation” is a contradiction in terms.

In fact, I don’t know of even one instance in which large numbers of Muslims were ever shaken from Islam other than by the sword, and that wasn’t done very much, if at all. There was an attempt by a group of medieval Christian missionaries to peacefully convert Middle Eastern Muslims, but the effort was found futile and abandoned after a short time.

Then there’s the myth of “assimilation.” The term is thrown around thoughtlessly much as is “diversity,” and seldom mentioned is that assimilation is often never complete. For while large groups who immigrate to a nation often do change, they also are agents of change. Did the large waves of Irish, Italian and German immigrants not alter America somewhat? This might have been a good, bad or neutral thing, but it’s assuredly a real thing.

There are also those who don’t assimilate markedly, if at all. Have the Amish or Hasidic Jews assimilated noticeably into the wider culture? Again, I’m not here making a value judgment on their particular different-drummer walk. The point is merely that assimilation is, foolishly and dangerously, taken as a given when there’s great precedent proving it’s not.

And this also is a numbers game. The rare Muslim who contemplated going to the West many years ago had to be a different kind of Muslim, one who understood he was entering a Christian culture that wouldn’t cater to his desires. He and his co-religionists would be so few and far between there’d be no prospect for “Halal” groceries, Islamic interest-free financing or Muslim schools for his children. So he’d be forced to assimilate by having to work within the established institutions of the host nation. But great numbers of Muslims form their own enclaves and their own institutions; this reality not only makes the journey west more inviting to pious Muslims, but also enables them to reinforce each other’s beliefs.

There’s another problem with assimilation: a prerequisite for it is providing something attractive to assimilate into. The communist political activist Willi Munzenberg once reportedly said, “We will make the West so corrupt that it stinks.” This has been accomplished. Decadence is everywhere, and we no longer even know what marriage is or what boys and girls are. French president Francois Hollande recently canceled a dinner meeting with the Iranian president because he refused to bow to a demand to serve Halal meat and no wine. It’s good he took at least that stand, but one could just imagine his hurling accusations of “intolerance” at Christians who refused to refrain from saying the Lord’s Prayer before a meal with Muslims. It’s an example of how Western Europe has been hollowed out, how it has the superficialities of its culture but not the substance. What are foreigners today supposed to assimilate into in today’s France, Italy, Germany and U.S.? Bread and wine; pasta fagioli; Wiener schnitzel; and baseball, hot dogs and reality TV, all lathered in moral relativism? Are they really going to follow the lead of a dying anomaly in a world of growing religiosity? Heck, I’m a Westerner, and as a believing Christian I refuse to assimilate into my country’s wider culture (although I save my cutting off of heads for broccoli). Thus, with assimilation, even if Muslim migrants were buyin’, they wouldn’t be buyin’ what we’re sellin’.

Of course, none of this means we should toss the post-Christian West from the frying pan into the fire. If you want to destroy liberalism, though — both the suicidal modern ideology and the extant remnants of the classical variety — Islamization is a sure way to do it.

Contact Selwyn Duke, follow him on Twitter or log on to SelwynDuke.com

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Why France?

November 18, 2015/in Commentary, Immigration, National Security, Policy, Politics, Religion/by Clarion Project

In the wake of the terrorist attacks which killed at least 129 in Paris on Friday, people are asking why France in particular was targeted by the Islamic State. The Islamic State detests the entire Western world and seeks to destroy it and replace it with a global Islamist caliphate. Yet it prioritizes which countries to attack and when.

The reasons listed here are by way of explanation from the Islamic State’s point of view, to help our readers understand. They are not to be taken as a justification of the Islamic State’s actions, which ultimately are caused by their hateful extremist ideology.

Here are the top five reasons why the Islamic State attacked France and Paris in particular.

France has been fighting the Islamic State and other Islamists.

French President Francois Hollande led his country into airstrikes against the Islamic State, bombing targets in Syria for the past two months. It was the first country in Europe to join America in bombing ISIS targets in Iraq and has so far been the only European country to join airstrikes against ISIS in Syria.

France also led the fight against Islamists in North Africa, it was French soldiers that liberated Timbuktu from Islamist insurgents belonging to al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb in Mali.

The Islamic State is therefore fighting those who fight it the most, in an effort to persuade the civilian population of France that the war is about French foreign policy and not about a global Islamist Caliphate and to cow them into submission through terror.

France has specifically named the Islamist ideology as the problem.

French Prime Minister Manuel Valls said after the Charlie Hebdo attacks France is at war with radical Islam. The French Ambassador to America clarified afterwards, saying, “We are at war with radical Islam. It means that right now… Islam is breeding radicalism which is quite dangerous for everybody.” Not only has France named the problem but they are taking active steps against the Islamist ideology within France, not just against groups like Al-Qaeda and ISIS, but also against groups like the Muslim Brotherhood, which promote the ideology of Islamism that leads to violent extremism.

France is standing up for its values and seeking to integrate Muslims

Prime Minister Manuel Valls explicitly stated, “We seek to establish a model of Islam that is fully integrated, fully compatible with the values of the Republic.” This is anathema to ISIS as they cannot countenance an integrated Islam which operates peacefully within a broader society. France is proactively attempting to integrate Muslims, which, if successful, would destroy the “Islam vs the world” narrative peddled by the Islamic State.

Paris represents the Enlightenment values of Western civilization.

The Islamic State decried the city as “the capital of prostitution and vice, the lead carrier of the cross in Europe — Paris.” Paris is at the center of European and Western fashion, culture and literature and one of the great historical cities of European civilization.

France is where much of the enlightenment took place and where modern ideas about citizenship, human rights and the separation between religion and state were first articulated and formed.

For an Islamic State obsessed with symbolism, an attack on Paris is an attack on European/Western enlightenment values.

The Islamic State is obsessed with history and honor.

France is an old country with a long history. The Islamic State has a laundry list of grievances against France going back a thousand years. ISIS also hates Europe in general for its colonial past.

It blames France, in particular, for the break-up of the Ottoman Empire and the abolition of the Caliphate following the First World War. France was one of the leading countries involved in the crusades in the 11th century, and it is where the early Islamic Caliphate’s advance into Europe was halted by French ruler Charles Martel at the Battle of Tours in 732.

The Islamic State is obsessed with seeing itself as the revived Muslim Caliphate. It is therefore essential to its worldview that Europe’s old colonial powers are defeated. For similar reasons, ISIS has long threatened to conquer Rome, which would represent a symbolic victory over the long defunct Roman Empire.

Without that, the Islamic State cannot claim to avenge the centuries old grievances with which it is obsessed and thus cannot fulfil its claims to restore the ‘lost honor’ of the immah.

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Poster of the Week: Can’t Be Bought Trump

November 18, 2015/in Commentary, Elections, Immigration, Policy, Politics/by Ann Corcoran

I feel sure our friends at VDARE won’t mind if I post Maryland grassroots warrior Ed Hunter’s letter to VDARE about what happened on Friday evening when the indefatigable Hunter unfurled one of his highway overpass banners for French TV.

Here is Hunter’s banner for this week, but you can see others of his novel campaigns to circumvent the mainstream media and get his message directly to American citizens, at Blue Ridge Forum.

This is what happened on Friday evening as a French TV crew filmed him (from VDARE where you should go for links). In Ed’s words, but emphasis is mine:

Last week the Washington desk of the French TV station “France 2” contacted us at the Maryland Tea Party and said they wanted to go up on the overpass and conduct an interview on the Donald Trump phenomenon***. About 2 PM we arrive at the bridge over I-95 Northbound, and we set up the banners and are waving to people on the interstate below.

Ed Hunter shows how to get his message directly to citizens and around the MSM.

The rush hours is beginning and the traffic is starting to slow down as it passed under us. The French TV crew arrives about an hour later around 3 PM. They get out their big expensive TV camera, and the French reporter Valerie begins asking questions.

Some of them were hard to answer such as “What does Donald Trump mean?” or “Is this a popular provocation?” (The usual French stuff. How can you answer those types of questions?) Anyway, they get around to the subject of immigration and I can sense I am up against the usual PC wall as they try to get “racist” stuff out of me. So she says “Okay just try to summarize Trump in a way that makes sense to people in France.” So I said “Donald Trump is an American version of Marine Le Pen.” Then she asked if I supported Le Pen and I said, “Absolutely”.

I told her that Muslim immigration will be the end of France and Europe.

Then I asked them (off camera) if they felt that way, and they replied “Oh no…it is all a stunt, we do not have a immigration problem in France. These Muslims are French. They came to France to help us rebuild France. I said. ”French built France. Why can’t you rebuild it yourself?”

They looked at me as the typical redneck American. So as we are talking the noise from the honking from the interstate is rising to a crescendo. The honking and cheers for the Trump banners are getting so loud we can’t continue the conversation. The French say goodbye and get into their car and leave. I am asking myself “What is going on? Why is everyone reacting to the banners, which read ‘CANT BE BOUGHT…VOTE TRUMP’?” The whole Interstate has erupted. Everyone below as far as I can see is going nuts and cheering and leaning on their horn and screaming out the windows “Donald! Donald!” And we are waving back and this is going on for about an hour. And we can’t figure it all out. So it’s 5:30 PM and getting dark and cold. We take down the banners and drive to Starbucks for coffee when someone calls with the news about the Paris attacks.

The very moment that the French media elites were repeating the PC leftist party line… “We do not have an immigration problem. We are multicultural” etc., the news of the Paris attacks is hitting the car radios of the people on the highway below and they are going nuts in support of Trump and his defiance of the political, media and academic elites.

I called Valerie the French reporter and she had just heard the news. All she could say is “I am so shocked…so shocked!!” I said ”Why? You had to know this was coming, you were told a million times—”. At which point she hung up. The next morning I read Ann Coulter in Mediaite: “Donald Trump Was Elected President Tonight.” And I believe he was.

I saw it happen. I watched an almost physical wave of noise and cheering and honking roll up I-95 from as far as I could see south towards DC, to where it disappeared over the horizon to the north, up towards Baltimore, New York and points beyond.

All of this only confirms again for me—for middle class Americans, immigration is THE issue of 2016. And, I urge all of you to find your place in the battle to save us—to save America. You might not have Ed’s guts to get up on a highway overpass, but find your talent and put it to work to save us from becoming Europe!

***One last thing….when we attended the Georgetown Law School pro-open borders gathering in DC a couple of weeks ago, attendees were in complete shock over what they described as the “Trump phenomenon” here.

This post is filed in a category we hope to use more often—-called ‘creating a movement.’

Addendum! Angry about Paris? READ THIS POST and do it! Tell Congress to stop the funding for the Refugee Admissions Program NOW!

War on Paris

November 17, 2015/in Commentary, Immigration, National Security, Policy, Politics/by Nidra Poller

It is like the death of a loved one. The death of our city that we love despite its failings, misdeeds, and particular misbehavior that I have been chronicling over the past fifteen years. A city is more than its current events. And today the heart of our city is broken. We do not have the fibre of Israelis who live with miraculous vitality in a permanent state of war & peace, but Parisians are not entirely devoid of courage and sharp instincts in the face of utmost danger. Anecdotes and eyewitness testimony are slowly emerging. The hard facts are at a minimum.

A soft spoken young man in an elegant overcoat describes the scene at the café on Rue de Charonne. He was present, he saw people picked off like sitting ducks. “They didn’t have a chance.” And yet he himself cannot believe what he saw. The Public Prosecutor delivers official information in an appropriately neutral tone. A hundred shell casings are left at each of the cafés attacked. No one was spared. Those who are not dead are in desperate condition.

It was to be expected, but it is shocking, unreal. Friday night it seemed that the whole city was screaming with sirens. As you followed events on television you could hear the broadcast sirens echoing the wails that came from the streets and boulevards. Who doesn’t have a friend who was in the Bataclan music hall or looking down from his apartment at dead bodies that only a short while before had been eating, drinking, laughing, enjoying life?

In the global village, grieving families just a few days ago witnessed the massacre in Beirut or sobbed with the bereaved of the Sharm el Sheik-St. Petersburg flight. And now it is on their doorstep and has ripped apart their lives forever. We don’t have to tell Israelis how it feels. But Europeans must wake up to the kinship they so earnestly tried to ignore. Last week a French jihadi was arrested before going into action. He had ordered an army knife and two face masks from a firm in China. I suppose, in his infinite intelligence, he thought an order from a Chinese company would be undetectable. Or maybe he was attracted by the discount price? Well, the cheap packaging fell apart in transit, or so we are told, and a postal employee informed the police of the delivery of the killer knife. The young man intended to slaughter sailors at the Toulon naval base. A smartass TV commentator, implying that the police had over-reacted, shrugged it off. He said it was la guerre des boutons which, freely translated, means kids playing cops and robbers. “Like what’s happening in Israel right now,” he added.

The knifings, firebombings, car rammings, and rock bashings… child’s play to this snide observer. I honestly can’t remember which anchor or expert it was, there are so many of the same stripe. Plentiful as the punk jihadis that poison our lives. The widespread consistent errors of appreciation on all that touches Israel and the Jews did not cause the November 14^th Paris massacre; it was waiting to happen and nothing could have prevented it or another, similar one. But the massacre may well lead to the long awaited recognition that jihad strikes in Israel and in Europe with same genocidal hatred from the same source. The cold indifference to the wave of knife attacks in Israel this fall, the perverse reverse chronology that made Israeli forces guilty of gunning down Palestinians that (admitted in a whisper) had in fact tried or perhaps in some cases succeeded in stabbing…well, you know, a colon, or ultra-religious deserving victim… The tally of dead Palestinians was brandished with the righteous indignation that has been digging into our souls since the dawn of the 21^st century. No gory details of the suffering inflicted on Jews in Israel were ever given in French media. Nothing that could make you taste the blood and feel the blade digging into your spine, your heart, your guts.

Now blood has been spilled in the streets of Paris. Except for the misfired explosive vests outside the soccer stadium, all the other attacks took place in the 10^th and 11^th arrondissements, on streets and boulevards that converge at Place de la République. Sébastien Selam was slaughtered and mutilated in the 10th arrdt, Ilan Halimi worked in a cell phone shop on boulevard Voltaire in the 11^th arrdt. The first recorded public cries of Death to the Jews were heard in October 2000 at Place de la République in a pro-Palestinian demonstration focused on the “death” of Mohamed al Dura. Last week a small clutch of Salafists shimmied one of those huge parallel-to-the-ground Palestinian flags and chanted “Arms for Hamas, Arms for Jihad.” In the summer of 2014 pro-Hamas caliphators brandishing the black flag of jihad massed around the statue of Marianne in the Place de la République, screaming for Jewish blood and.

Marianne, the symbol of the French Republic, was defiled. The way Swedish women and forlorn British girls are defiled. Now, French people doing what French people do on a Friday night were mowed down. The way Jews in the Hyper Cacher were executed. Daesh has proudly signed the massacre of the “Crusaders,” and promised more of the same if France does not cease and desist from meddling in Iraq and Syria. Ha! Sounds familiar. Muslims would stop stabbing Jews to death in Israel if the Zionists ended the Occupation. Don’t bet on it. Cease and desist is the first in a long line of orders that will be barked at us in the coming months. Or years. Until we decide to go on the offensive.

The otherwise ineffectual President Hollande has promised a no holds barred fight against Daesh at home and abroad. French media, as far as I could see, have not dared to dissociate the massacre from the Islam that inspires it. The same media that were gushing over the refugees a few weeks ago are now reporting that one of the shahids who jumped the gun outside the Stade de France was carrying a Syrian passport stamped with a passage through Leros in Greece on October 3rd. Exactly what we expected.

A walk through the Marais early Saturday afternoon. Most of the shops were closed. Shabat, for some, the bloody events for others. So few cars in the streets, so few people strolling where on a normal Saturday afternoon the sidewalks would be overflowing. We had taken to joking about it: looking down the rue des Francs Bourgeois at the never-ending crowd, we would say “the refugees are coming.” It looked so much like the human chain snaking through Slovenian fields. No soldiers, no police in the Marais this Saturday. So strange. Is it ominous? Does it mean there’s no one left to protect the Jews now that the “Crusaders” are targeted?

Sunday morning shopping in an open market is almost a religion in France. This morning, heartbroken television cameras panned the dark empty alleys of the Marché Richard Lenoir where the ordinary cheerful bustle always impresses me as a model of peaceful coexistence. People of all origins and classes mingle and brush up against each other in the narrow aisles, all with the same goal of filling baskets and carts with good things to eat. Whether selling their own produce or stock that comes from the giant wholesale market at Rungis, salt-of-the-earth vendors, up since the break of dawn, exposed to the elements, lugging crates and arranging the merchandise with loving care, sell at a fast clip without a pause and never a complaint. The Richard Lenoir market is located in what we could call the massacre neighborhood, not far from theCharlie Hebdo offices, now vacated, and the modest restaurants targeted Friday night.

Eagles of death Metal, the American band that was playing at the Bataclan, has performed in Israel. The Bataclan was owned by Jews who sold it only two months ago. But let us take the mass murderers at their word: this time they were aiming at the Crusaders, the Christians. Most of the victims will turn out to be young people. Quite a few journalists enjoying a night out found themselves in “civilian garb” at the center of the action. It will change their world view and their discourse.

Though many French journalists (or is it coming directly from the infamous Agence France Presse?) have taken out of mothballs their al Aqsa Intifada misnomer, kamikazes, they are fostering no illusions about the legitimate aspirations of the shahids who have wreaked havoc in Paris. What a pity that it has taken so much bloodshed to ignite the spark that could bring together the decent citizens of the free world. Prime Minister Manuel Valls promises to annihilate, here and abroad, the forces that are attacking us. Public gatherings are prohibited at the moment, because of the security risk, but people come to city squares to light candles, shed tears, leave bouquets and messages of grief and defiance. Handmade signs declare Même pas peur (not even afraid), adding “We are Paris” to the “Je suis Charlie” stickers pasted to the base of the Marianne in January. “Pray for Paris” signs with the same funereal Je suis Charlie graphics are posted on the gates of churches.

The facts, as I said, are still at a minimum. The media have finally pronounced the name of the French shahid identified at the Bataclan by his severed finger: Ismael Omar Mostefai. A petty criminal convicted eight times but never sent to prison. Flagged but obviously not followed by security services. He went to Turkey in 2014 and, presumably, from there to Syria. Three alleged accomplices have been arrested in Molenbek (near Brussels), headquarters of some of our famous Islamic killers, platform of the weapons trade, cornucopia of Kalachnikovs. The thwarted Thalys train shahid set out on his mission with a suitcase full of weapons from his sister’s apartment in Molenbek.

Flagged radicals, networks, cells, Daesh nomads, hate preachers, and manifestos of jihad conquest…it’s all out there, all so familiar, so hotly active, toying with the soft underbelly of our democracies. Barbarians. And why are they getting away with it? We are not a decadent empire that deserves to be destroyed. They are not a daunting invulnerable gigantic monster gobbling us up like peanuts. Much is made today, by experts and commentators, of the military prowess of the three teams that shot up Paris Friday night. They’re not bumbling amateurs like the Thalys jerk whose Kalachnikov jammed (but he managed to do quite a bit of damage with his handgun and box cutter). They’re not clumsy fumblers like Glam who shot himself in the leg and only managed to kill one young woman but never made it to shoot up the Crusaders in the church at Villejuif. These guys were organized! It took planning. Nerves of steel to mow down people having a drink at a sidewalk café and pick off one by one almost a hundred in a concert hall. And the courage to blow themselves up for an encore.

I submit that there is hardly any difference between the bungling fools, the successful mass killers of Friday night in Paris, the Daesh savages spreading their caliphate like an oil spill in the Middle East, and the hordes that followed the enraged medieval prophet of Islam. When this light dawns on Europe the spirit of la résistance will speak its mind. Instead of labeling products from the “colonies” like a snippety schoolteacher giving zeroes, Europe could begin to mobilize its resources and face the challenge intelligently. An enlightened Europe, battered by bitter experience, could draw the United States back into the concert of free nations where its indispensable military resources would finally weigh in the balance.

No, this is not the Third World War. This is the ongoing jihad conquest. And every magnificent European square is the gates of Vienna.

EDITORS NOTE: This column originally appeared in the New English Review.

Black Businessmen Are Open to the Republican Party

November 17, 2015/in Commentary, Culture War, Elections, Policy, Politics/by Raynard Jackson

I am sick and tired of Republicans constantly telling me that they “can’t find Black Republicans” to hire for their presidential campaigns or they “don’t know where to find Black entrepreneurs to engage with.”

Well, you find them the same place you find Biff and Buffy to hire for your campaigns; and you find Black entrepreneurs the same way you find Chuck and Shane.

Most people call their friends for recommendations when looking to hire someone. They call people they know and trust. I’ll let you decide what that says about all these Republicans who constantly tell me they don’t know where these Black Republicans are.

This frustration has led me to create Black Americans for a Better Future (BAFABF), the first and only Super PAC established to get more Blacks involved in the Republican Party. Our focus is strictly on the Black entrepreneur.

Far too many Republicans think they know more about the Black community than a Black person; consequently, they think the gateway to the our community is the preacher or issues like criminal justice reform, abortion, or crack/cocaine disparities.

As I tell these Republicans, “I have been Black most of my life” and I know what issues are most important to my community; and the issues above are not it.

In the Black community, the businessman is the gateway to us. He is typically the chairman of the board of trustees at our church and in many cases the head of the deacon board. If you get the entrepreneur on your side, he will bring you the pastor and the pastor will bring you the congregation.

It’s that simple!

If Republicans understood this, they would gain more traction within the Black community. Not one presidential candidate has met with any Black Republican businessmen. Our congressional leadership has never convened a meeting of Black Republican businessmen.

Why?

These businessmen have the wherewithal to write political checks, but they see no value in doing so because they believe they are not welcomed in the Republican Party.

BAFABF will have several major announcements in regards to solving these issues very soon.

I have met with several presidential candidates and they have indicated a serious willingness to engage with us to address some of these concerns.

BAFABF has hosted a series of dinners across the country with some of the top Black businessmen in the country—Democrat, Republican, and Independent; none are opposed to engaging with the Republican Party. The question is, “is the Republican Party ready to engage with them?”

Is the Republican Party ready to deal with the devastation Obama has wreaked on the small and minority business community? Under Bush, Blacks received 8% of all loans coming from the Small Business Administration (SBA); under Obama, that number is now only 1.8%. What are Republicans willing to do to address this issue?

Obama has totally destroyed the Historically Black Colleges and University (HBCU) community. This directly impacts an entrepreneur’s ability to grow his business if he can’t find people with the right skill set to hire. What are Republicans willing to do to address this issue?

Obama’s excessive regulations are smothering the small business community. What solutions will Republicans offer to remedy this situation?

If Republicans are willing to engage with the Black business community based on solving real problems; you won’t have to worry about how they will vote or where they will give their money. They are problem solvers and enthusiastic supporters of capitalism and the American Dream.

BAFABF will be a conduit that will bring together the brightest and the best businessmen to engage with our party’s leadership; and if they would only make them feel welcomed into this party, they will be pleasantly surprised at the many things they both have in common.

Our PAC will serve not only as their PR firm; but also their booking agent when groups are looking for speakers. This will include placing them in the media and all the talking head TV shows.

Unfortunately, there is no surrogate program in place anywhere within the Republican Party to showcase this phenomenal talent that is sitting on the sidelines. We already have surrogates in New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Missouri, Alabama, Georgia, Virginal, and Florida, just to name a few.

We have already begun to roll them out into both local and national media.

I find it astonishing that there is no surrogate program by the party to push back on all the liberal orthodoxy being propagated by all the liberal groups into the Black community. There are no credible Black Republicans on MSNBC, CNN, FOX NEWS, etc. A lie that is repeated enough becomes the truth.

Our surrogates are not seeking to make the party feel “comfortable” with them, but rather people who will tell the truth. Our surrogates are Blacks who actually have personal ties and relationships within their own community; not the Blacks Republicans typically get to do media who have absolutely no connection or credibility within the Black community.

These Black media whores that certain Republicans constantly promote do more damage to the cause than anything liberal Democratic policies could ever dream of.

Our goal at BAFABF is to make America’s future brighter by uplifting and showcasing the true leaders in the Black community—the entrepreneur.

Cinderella’s Radical Message of Hope by Jeffrey A. Tucker

November 17, 2015/in Commentary, Culture War/by Foundation for Economic Education (FEE)

Please allow me to gush about Disney’s live-action Cinderella (2015) directed by Kenneth Branagh. Beautiful doesn’t quite describe it. It is heart-stoppingly gorgeous in every frame, and emotionally challenging in a way that the animated version, which I love, never really was.

It seems like an implausible undertaking to take a classic like this and produce it with real, live people. I expected it would lose some magic, some element of fantasy. On the contrary, it gains power. Perhaps that is due to the direction, the acting, the technology, or the tweaks in the plot, or some combination. It’s hard to say, but I will admit that I teared up fully three times.

A Massive Improvement

To write this article, I re-read the Brothers Grimm version. There are some significant differences.

In Grimm, the father of Cinderella is not dead, just neglectful, and he seems to take the side of the stepmother. There is no carriage made of pumpkins and no cute mice that keep Cinderella company in her darkest hours. The evil sisters have their eyes plucked out by birds at the end, and so on.

The Disney version is vastly more coherent. We find out why the stepmother is so wicked, for example. She suspects that her new husband sees in Cinderella something of the looks and character of his dead wife, who remains the true love of his life. When he dies, the stepmother takes the opportunity for full revenge. It’s unfair, but such is the nature of human motivation: It takes strange twists and turns that result in injustice. Cinderella is knocked from her status as bourgeois beauty to working-class peasant.

An Exploration of Class Mobility

The new film also introduces a chance meeting between the prince, who admits nothing about his royal status, and Cinderella. He is on a deer hunt, and she is on a pony ride in the forest. In their meeting, their structural class differences are not evident to either of them. They meet each other as human beings and discover certain feelings for each other. These feelings are blind to social status, and possess both of them. They meet again at the royal ball, at which point the prince becomes determined to find her and marry her, despite the king’s wishes that he only marry into royalty.

And here is where we get to the core drama of Cinderella, which is all about class mobility. Recall that this story, which might date from antiquity in its broadest outlines, gained massive popular traction in the 19th century. It deals with people, scenes and events that affect what we call the middle class today. Yes, the stories feature kings, queens, princes and princesses — this was not yet the age of democracy — but most often our sympathies as readers rest with the plain people and their triumphs, which the stories feature most poignantly.

The middle class was a new creation in the history of the world, and it was brought about by the rise of capitalism beginning in the late middles ages and culminating in the age of laissez faire between end of the Napoleonic Wars and World War I. The caste chasms that once persisted between the peasants and the lords, between those privileged by title and land grants and those fated to serve them, were melted away by the advent of commercial society.

Under capitalism, universal possession of property and money replaced servitude and barter, and exchange relationships of people’s own choosing gradually replaced the required lifetime associations of birth and happenstance. Society’s productive resources turned from serving the elites to serving the common person.

The distinguishing mark of this new middle class was the prospect of social advance through rising prosperity. Fluid classes replaced fixed castes. For the first time, an individual could triumph over poverty and class through hard work, goodness of heart, personal ambition, and steadfastness in the pursuit of a dream. The common person could become anything he or she was determined to become.

This was the world that serves as the backdrop to the modern telling of the Cinderella story.

Realizing Her Dreams

Cinderella was born into a world of hope, and cast down by circumstances that were beyond her ability to control. Instead of complaining about her plight, she got to work and did the best she could, maintaining her dreams and keeping her character intact. She never sought revenge, never plotted against her sisters, never gave up her ideals of truth and beauty. Instead, she persisted in her dreams.

As a result, fate shined on her once again. She was visited by a fairy godmother who gave her the chance to meet the prince once again. The chance meeting in the forest — a meeting without the trappings of life station and status, a meeting where love was born in a setting of equal freedom — was permitted to flower into a beautiful, non-arranged, romantic love.

The stepmother and her daughters tried every trick to keep Cinderella from meeting her true love again. But the prince had her slipper and was determined to find its owner. Not even hiding her in the attic would keep them from meeting again.

Cinderella’s mice friends fling open the window as she is singing, and the song reaches the prince’s ear. He rushes up the stairs, overcoming even the king’s aid, who is part of a palace conspiracy to keep them apart. The shoe fits and true love is permitted to take its own course.

The Theme Is Freedom

The generations before us took such class mobility for granted as a human right. This is a feature brought to the world by the free economy. The power of states and life stations gradually lost their ability to contain or determine the social position of anyone. Whether people are rich or poor, beloved by others or forgotten, came down to matters of personal character, which expressed itself in terms of one’s goodness, creativeness, discipline, and willingness to persist despite every barrier.

One of the tragedies of an economic life regimented by the state has been the stifling of this kind of mobility. To get into a profession you need a license. To start a business, you must comply with a thousand regulations. To own a house or car requires vast compliance with taxes, forms, insurance, and every manner of state mandate. If your business succeeds, you are threatened with closure unless you contribute to the right politicians and send the right lobbyists to the centers of power.

State control creates a world of privilege: those who are in and those who are out. We’ve created our own modern form of royal privilege made up of those who are closest to those in power.

And this is where Cinderella offers lessons to us today. She would not give up despite every barrier. Her own family plotted to keep her down, and the royal family had forbid the prince from marrying into a lowly station. But nothing could stop the magic of true love from writing the course of history in a manner in which powerful people never intended or permissioned.

The story of Cinderella is the story of every entrepreneur whose dreams were put down by those in power, every business condemned to fail, every technology that no one thought could (or should) work. Our times give us thousands of examples, from Amazon to Tesla to AirBnB, with regulators, monopolists, politicians, and media naysayers playing the role of the evil sisters, the stepmother, and the plotting advisers to the king.

What can we do but cheer these live action tributes to the old idea that no power on earth can stop the realization of a dream, and that history is written by individuals and their passion to live the best possible life? This is what Disney is all about, and the new Cinderella presents that message as beautifully as I’ve ever seen it presented.

Jeffrey A. Tucker

Jeffrey Tucker is Director of Digital Development at FEE, CLO of the startup Liberty.me, and editor at Laissez Faire Books. Author of five books, he speaks at FEE summer seminars and other events. His latest book is Bit by Bit: How P2P Is Freeing the World. Follow on Twitter and Like on Facebook.

The Rise of ‘Reality Capitalism’ by Wendy McElroy

November 17, 2015/in Commentary, Culture War, Economy, Policy/by Foundation for Economic Education (FEE)

If pop culture is a leading indicator of social change, one emerging TV genre should be applauded. It is a flood of reality shows that focus on the daily dynamics by which self-made people conduct business: Pawn Stars, Ice Road Truckers, American Pickers, Deadliest Catch, Hardcore Pawn, Yukon Gold, Storage Wars, and others.

I call it “reality capitalism,” and it is the polar opposite of crony capitalism.

They display people taking risks and prospering (or not) through hard work and good judgment. They embody the opposite of cronyism because government privilege is nowhere to be seen.

Some aspects of the programs feel contrived, but what matters is that small businessmen and working people are elevated to a status that used to be reserved for those featured on Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous.

Fans tune in to see whether Mike and Frank (American Pickers) will find a “honey hole” as they travel America. Perhaps a barn in Rhode Island will contain a rare Harley or one of the old metal gasoline signs that sells in a flash in their Iowa shop. Viewers groan in amused exasperation as Rick (Pawn Stars) flaunts arcane facts about the antiques people bring in. The items and negotiation are fascinating, and the businessmen are thoroughly likable because of the honesty, humor, and respect with which they treat sellers.

The shows also explain the simple mechanisms of the free market. Mike and Frank discuss the end-price they will put on items and tell the seller why they need to buy at approximately 50% of that figure. The words “gas money” come up frequently. Rick’s favorite phrase is, “I’m taking all the risk.” Then he comments on overhead and how long an item might take up room in his store. In both programs, the buyer sometimes pays more than the asking price because he knows the true value of a good and does not want to cheat the seller. The fairness is not only a matter of ethics but also good business: it establishes trust.

The reality capitalism genre can be roughly broken into two categories: entrepreneurs who are business owners, and working people who struggle to prosper against the odds.

Yukon Gold features small mining crews who search for gold in the Yukon during its four-month window of opportunity. Machinery breaks, nature strikes, and crew members fight against their own discouragement. Ice Road Truckersfollows truck drivers who confront frozen lakes and treacherous situations as they haul loads across Arctic areas of Alaska and Canada. Both shows focus on why the people assume work in such terrible conditions: money. Most of them are after a better life for their families.

They are entrepreneurs who gamble with their own time, money, and energy to establish businesses through which everyone profits. They are people who overcome obstacles for a chance for their families to prosper. It is heartening to see society’s true heroes receive the acknowledgement they deserve.

Wendy McElroy

Contributing editor Wendy McElroy (wendy@wendymcelroy.com) is an author, editor of ifeminists.com, and Research Fellow at The Independent Institute (independent.org).

France bombs the Islamic State — so what did that accomplish?

November 16, 2015/in Commentary, National Security, Policy, Politics, Religion/by Geoff Ross

The French, in response to the 132 plus slaughtered French and foreign nationals killed by Muslims in Paris on Friday loaded up very expensive bombs under their beautifully washed and waxed fighter jets for retaliation today. Time for a feel good raid with no planning or mission objective. Just drop some bombs.

The French in their infinite wisdom have been bombing Islamic State positions in Iraq and Syria for months as part of a U.S.-led operation. Why? Which side do we pick in a civil war? The side of the moderate or the side of the extreme Muslim?

I say we let them kill each other and offer sanctuary to the Christians. We can watch the great battle from Google earth.

Unlike westerners, Muslims embrace death and are honored to die as a martyr. So these attacks on Muslims solve nothing. They blow themselves up and they don’t care if a French bomb kills them. For every Muslim killed two dozen more are ready to fill in the hole. When you stomp on an ant pile the ants remove their dead and build another mound.

Using $150,000 bombs to blow up $50 tents is not the long term strategic answer to solving this problem in Syria or the Middle East. Besides, the U.S. Constitution does not permit a U.S. led operation in Syria….zero authority.

Obama is using the Patriot Act to put boots on the ground in Syria. The Secretary of the Air Force let it slip that a ground invasion is the only solution. A total by-pass of our irrelevant and impotent Congress. Why are we still paying these people a salary anyway? They do nothing.

Following Friday’s mass slaughter by Muslims using weapons banned in some U.S. cities, the disarmed French citizens, unable to defend themselves, where totally helpless and totally dependent on the French government for protection and were thus massacred. The blood still wet on the streets. You can’t shoot back with iPhones and BIC lighters.

Not to be left with their pants down around their ankles the liberal, weak spineless French- Paris powder puff leadership vowed to destroy the Islamic State. The question is what group is the Islamic State?

Underlining its resolve, French jets on Sunday launched their biggest raids in Syria to date, hitting its stronghold in Raqqa. How sweet is that? Muslims don’t have factories to produce weapons so what was bombed?

“The raid … including 10 fighter jets, was launched simultaneously from the United Arab Emirates and Jordan. Twenty bombs were dropped,” the Defense Ministry said. Among the targets were a munitions depot and training camp, it said. Yippe, 20 bombs at a cost to the French tax payer of how much money 3 million plus Euros not including the fuel and pilots hazardous duty pay ?

Who was killed ? What was achieved ? Nothing.

Why are the Saudi’s and the UAE not sending in fighter jets to fight this Muslim problem? The Syrian civil war is not a French problem….these Muslims are not our problem. This is a Muslim problem. We must focus inward. The problems we face in this nation are roosting in the White House coordinating the downfall and destruction of capitalism and freedom from within our own borders.

We have no business in Syria or the Middle East fighting anyone. Syria is a sovereign nation and Assad is a capitalist and secular leader who has reformed his country. His efforts over the years have changed things especially in the regulatory environment and in the financial sectors, including the introduction of private banks and the opening of the Damascus Securities Exchange in March 2009. He wants his people to prosper.

He wants to do business with the United States.

When I was in the U.S. Navy we ensured all sea lanes where kept open in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea. I served in this neck of the woods. Syria is the only significant crude oil producing country in the Eastern Mediterranean region. We should be doing business with Syria not bombing it. Obama is more interested in insuring chaos in the region continues and the French follow along.

Syria has its civil war and they will solve it. When we stick our nose into the camels tent we will receive Muslim reprisals. We should be securing our own borders not Syria’s.

The Russians are more than capable of offering aid to its Syrian ally. If we wish to defeat the Islamic State we must start by cutting off all trade with Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia is an oil-based economy with oppressive government controls over major economic activities and its people. They behead and stone people to death in public. Not a nice country.

Saudi Arabia controls about 16% of the world’s proven petroleum reserves, ranks as the largest exporter of petroleum, and plays a leading role in OPEC. OPEC controls the price of a gallon of gas in downtown Meridian Mississippi, think about that. Iran gets it refined petroleum from whom? Saudi Arabia.

The petroleum sector in Saudi Arabia accounts for 80% of budget revenues, 45% of GDP, and 90% of export earnings. So lets CUT OFF the trade and starve them of capital. Saudi Arabia has the 19th largest economy in the world by nominal gross domestic product (GDP) at $745.273 billion and 11th by purchasing power parity (PPP) at $906.8 billion.

Saudi Arabia publicly does not support ISIS and the Sheiks consider it a threat to their security but social media fundraising campaigns in this nation are sending hard cash and capital from Saudi Arabia to Syria.

To ensure that their contributions actually reach Syria, Saudi donors are encouraged to send their money first to Kuwait, which has long been considered one of the most easy going laid back friendly terrorism financing environments in the Persian Gulf.

Ladies and gentleman. We liberated Kuwait in 1991 now they repay us by funding ISIS in Syria with donations from Saudi Arabia. Kuwait still owe us billions of dollars from tax payer incurred costs in Operation Desert Shield and Desert Storm in 1990 – 1991. Saudi Arabia is the root of the problem. Who flew planes into the World Trade Center ? Saudi’s. Who funded 9/11 ? Saudi Arabia.

Twenty-five years ago we booted Saddam Hussein out of Kuwait when in fact this job should have been left to Saudi Arabia. We did not interfere with the Iraq – Iran 8 year war.

Today, Saudi citizens continue to represent a significant funding source for Sunni groups operating in Syria. Arab Gulf donors as a whole — of which Saudis are believed to be the most charitable — they have funneled hundreds of millions of dollars to Syria in recent years, including to the Islamic State and other groups.

Although Saudi donors and other private contributors were believed to be the most significant funding source for the original forerunner to ISIS, the importance of such donations has been marginalized by the group’s independent sources of income.

Dropping 20 French bombs on a $400 training camp in Syria will not defeat the Islamic State it will only ensure more attacks on weak soft western targets in countries open borders like in Europe and our southern flank bordering Mexico.

The long term strategic, operational and tactical way to defeat the Islamic State is to stop buying oil from Saudi Arabia, reinforce Israel’s military, shut down the flow of oil from Iran out of the Persian Gulf and to secure our borders.

We have enough oil in the United States to sustain our energy needs. We must stop bombing and start thinking. Our nation cannot continue to borrow money from Communist China to buy bombs to drop on Syria and hope to win anything. Our military must be rebuilt with our next President and this will cost money. Stop wasting it.

We must dig deeper and think further ahead. How does the Islamic State operate? How can Muslims travel so freely across Europe? Why do they have an endless supply of cash? Who is funding them? Sort through it without firing a shot. All eyes on Saudi Arabia and Iran.

Do something useful get involved with Act For America (Brigitte Gabrielle) and help set up a chapter in your town to educate and assist in the issues affecting the current issues facing us. Get involved locally.

The only bombs needed to end world terrorism would be a tactical nuke on Mecca during the Haj and on Tehran any time. But that would take a leader. Iran got only one thing right in its history… In 546 BC, Croesus of Lydia was defeated and captured by the Persians (Iranians), who then adopted gold as the main metal for their coins.

Hang in there Patriots I can see November 2016 from my back porch.

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Forget About Mass Deportation of Illegals – Immediately Deport All Muslims

November 15, 2015/in Commentary, Policy, Politics, Regulation, Religion/by Dave Gaubatz

Before I get the illiterate and naïve supporters of Islam sending me a thousand emails, let’s go over again my definition of a Muslim.

‘ A Muslim is one who follows all aspects of Sharia law to the best of his/her ability, an Apostate is one who follows only a few self serving aspects of Sharia law’

America is so focused on deporting Mexican illegal immigrants that it has forgotten the worst threat to America are the followers of the Quran. There is no nice way of saying the Quran is evil, dangerous, and the world’s number one threat.

Of course the illegal Mexican immigrants need to be deported, but right now Americans must make every effort to deport any person who follows the teachings of their Prophet Mohammed. Mohammed was the world’s top hater, racist, and child molester ever known to the world. One can’t follow Mohammed and be a good person. Simply absolutely no way.

The tragic events of what happened in Paris yesterday should be an eye opener to all. The murders were not carried out by Jews, Christians, Buddhists, or even Satanists. They were carried out by people who love and follow the exact teachings of Mohammed and the Quran. There is nothing that happened in Paris on 13 Nov 2015 that has not been advocated in the name of Islam for over 1400 years.

Do you think your children are safe in their schools, at the shopping malls, or sporting events? They are not. There are over 2300 Islamic Centers and mosques scattered strategically across our great country. Hate and violence is being spread in these mosques every day and I have for years reported on what is being taught to the Muslim adults and children of the mosque. Evil atrocities worse than what happened in Paris will soon come our way and by the hands of followers of Islam. America will suffer much worse than any of us can imagine. Be prepared.

America seems to be on a self destruction course and in reality there is little any common American can do about it except to be prepared to fight the enemy known as Islam and it’s followers. This means that not only will you be fighting faithful Muslims who desire to kill you and your families, but you will be fighting the millions of liberals who will support Islam even when the certain death from Islam is at their doorsteps.

Do not allow your rights to be taken from you. This includes the 1st and 2nd Amendments of the Constitution specifically. Never stop voicing your opinions and disgust of the Satan known as Islam. never surrender your weapons to the supporters of Islam. once you give up your Constitutional rights you have surrendered yourself the the depravities of Islam.

The self proclaimed Prophet of America (Obama) is not on the side of free loving and peaceful Americans. He is the Commander and Chief of the greatest military force the world has ever known and he will use this force to suppress the rights of the American people and to support Islamic values.

Many of you are likely thinking that many Muslims are Americans, and we can’t possibly deport Americans. You must keep in mind that Muslims can not and do not hold any allegiance to America and our Constitution. They hold allegiance only to Mohammed, Islam, and the same values of Al Qaeda, the Muslim Brotherhood, and ISIS. Anyone who holds allegiance to Islam can never be an American.