Hawaii Poll: Clinton, Trump Lead Races for Nomination by Andrew Walden

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This is what democracy looks like?

The Star-Advertiser/Ward Poll released Sunday January 17, 2016 gives Hawaii a glimpse of what the presidential horse-race might look like if Hawaii conducted a State-run Presidential Primary as many other states do.

But Hawaii doesn’t.  Instead voters are invited to cast their ballots in the caucuses organized by the Republican and Democratic parties.  Party-organized caucuses normally attract only about 1-2% of the registered electorate—1/20th of the turnout for Hawaii’s State-run August, 2014 Primary which attracted 41.5% of registered voters.

The Hawaii Republican Presidential Caucus is to be held at 44 locations statewide Tuesday, March 8 from 6pm to 8pm.  The result will determine the allocation of 16 of Hawaii’s 19 delegates to the Republican National Convention to be held July 18-21 in Cleveland, Ohio.

Hawaii Democrats are set to caucus Saturday March 26 (locations not yet announced) and vote in a ‘Presidential Preference Poll’ which will determine the mandate of a few of Hawaii’s 34 delegates to the July 25-28 Democrat National Convention in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Hawaii lacks party-identification of registered voters, a circumstance which aids the maintenance of the one-party Democrat-controlled status quo.  If they were participating in the caucuses—which most respondents will not–self-described Democrats would vote:

  • 52%  — Clinton
  • 18% – Sanders
  • 6% – Trump
  • 8% — Other Republicans
  • 1% – Will not vote
  • 15% — Other/refused

Self-identified Republicans would vote:

  • 22% — Trump
  • 11% – Cruz
  • 11% — Clinton
  • 9% – Bush
  • 9% – Carson
  • 8% – Rubio
  • 4% – Christie
  • 4% — Sanders
  • 1% — Will not vote
  • 19% – Refused/Other

Because Caucus turnout is such a small percentage of the electorate—comprised of more highly motivated and partisan voters–refined numbers can be attained by stripping out party-crossing results and refusals.

The result among Democrats:

  • 74% – Clinton
  • 26% – Sanders

The result among Republicans:

  • 34% – Trump
  • 17% – Cruz
  • 14% – Bush
  • 14% – Carson
  • 13% – Rubio
  • 6% – Christie
  • 2% – Fiorina

Of course all of these numbers will shift dramatically as the results come in from Iowa, New Hampshire and other early states.

SA: Clinton enjoys large lead in Hawaii presidential poll

PDF: Hawaii Poll — Presidential Race

Hillary’s Middle East Legacy: 6 Failed States, 7 Autocracies and one Democracy

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Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton served as the 67th United States Secretary of State under President Barack Obama from 2009 to 2013. The below map is a graphic representation of what occurred during her time as Secretary of State. Not shown on the map are the failed states of Syria and Iraq and the failing state of Afghanistan.

arab spring graphic

Some may argue that former Secretary Clinton was doing the bidding of President Obama. Others may argue that she had no control over events in the Middle East. However, we must recall what former Secretary Clinton said about the “Arab Spring”. Andrew Quinn, Reuters correspondent in Washington, D.C., in an October 2012 column titled “Clinton Says U.S. must embrace Arab Spring despite dangers” reported:

The United States must look past the violence and extremism that has erupted after the “Arab Spring” revolutions and boost support for the region’s young democracies to forge long-term security, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Friday.

Clinton, seeking to reinforce the Obama administration’s Middle East policy following a wave of anti-American violence and last month’s deadly attack on the U.S. mission in Benghazi, Libya, said Washington cannot be deterred by “the violent acts of a small number of extremists.”

“We recognize that these transitions are not America’s to manage, and certainly not ours to win or lose,” Clinton said in a speech to the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington think tank.

[ … ]

Clinton acknowledged that political turmoil in Libya and Yemen, the rise of Islamist parties to power in Egypt and Tunisia and the expanding crisis in Syria were all tests for U.S. leadership – but said more engagement, not less, was the only way forward.

The violence and extremism continues today in-spite of engagement by the United States. A growing number of Muslim armies under the banner of the Islamic State, the newest caliphate, among others are creating havoc in Europe. During former Secretary Clinton’s watch was the Iranian “Green Revolution”. Debra Heine from PJ Media wrote:

If you’ll recall, millions of people had poured out into the streets to protest the sham election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. One of the leaders of the Green Revolution, the widely revered Hussein-Ali Montazeri, had issued a fatwa against nuclear weapons, but without a regime change, there was no real hope that Iran would abandon its nuclear weapons program. The country was at a tipping point, and with a little encouragement and logistical support, the murderous Iranian regime could have been overthrown. Hillary Clinton was the secretary of State at the time.

I recall a 2008 campaign ad that the Hillary for President campaign ran. It talked about who was best prepared to take a White House call at 3:00 a.m. Here is the ad:

Well the call came to the White House and the U.S. State Department on September 11th, 2012. Only the call wasn’t at 3:00 a.m. Rather the call came at 4:00 p.m. The call came from Ambassador Christ Stevens from Benghazi, Libya.

No one took the call.

American Muslima: ‘Finally got my Suicide Belt today … to kill non-Muslims’

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Alhamdulilah = thanks be to Allah. Kuffars = unbelievers. But don’t be concerned. John Kerry and Marie Harf are going to visit her and offer her a job at Walmart, and she will give up the jihad forthwith, and hey, Richard Chartres has a beard, which should calm her down considerably.

Hizam

“EXCLUSIVE: American Female ISIS Member Brags: ‘Finally Got My Hizam [Suicide Belt] Today,’”MEMRI, January 19, 2016 (thanks to Bob):

On January 19, 2016, an American woman who posted a photo and message on her Telegram channel about possessing a suicide belt. Expressing her desire to use it in a suicide operation, she wrote: “Alhamdulilah finally got my Hizam [belt, i.e. suicide belt] today. May Allah Subhana wa ta’ala grant me the opportunity to use it soon, to grant me the honor to sacrifice myself for Him, for His deen [religion] (To kill the kuffars) [infidels]. May Allah subhana wa ta’ala grant us all shahadah [martyrdom] Ameen.” At the time of this writing, her Telegram channel has 451 members

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Female Suicide Bombers

Biden: US & Turkey prepared for “military solution” to take out the Islamic State

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EDITORS NOTE: The featured image is of Hiba, a 28-year old, mother of five, Suicide Bomber Trainee. Photo: Keith Pounds.

Iowa Poll: Trump and Clinton Surge 10 Days Before the Caucus — Cruz & Sanders Faltering

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trump clintonBOSTON, MA /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — In a new, statewide Iowa poll, Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump have surged to 9 and 10 point leads in Iowa with just 10 days before the first in the nation voting begins. Clinton receives 52% of the vote and Sanders at 43%. Trump leads his Republican rivals with 33%, followed byTed Cruz at 23%, Marco Rubio (14%), and Ben Carson (9%) round out the top four with the rest of field under 6%; Rick Santorum — who won the 2012 Iowa GOP Caucus with 25% of the vote — has less than 1% of Iowans this time around, and Mike Huckabee who won the 2008 Iowa Caucus is at 2%.

The survey began January 18, the day after the latest Democrat debate, and concluded January 20, the day following Sarah Palin’s endorsement of Donald Trump.

“At this point, while both Trump and Clinton have significant leads in their own primaries the electorate appears volatile, and it is still up in the air as to who will win,” said Henry Krause, a Senior Political Communication major at Emerson College, who helped oversee the project. The data fluctuated on the three days of polling on both sides with Clinton holding a 14 point lead on Monday, dropping to 9 points on Tuesday and was at 1 point, 48% to 47% on Wednesday. Trump also sees variability over the three days watching a 13 point lead on Monday drop to 4 points on Tuesday and rebounding on Wednesday to 12 points 35% to 22% over Cruz.

Iowa voters, however, are not thrilled with their 2016 Presidential options. The top three GOP candidates all have negative favorability numbers with Trump at 37% favorable to 55% unfavorable, Rubio at 37% favorable to 47% unfavorable and Cruz is worse at 34% favorable to 54% favorable. Clinton has the highest favorable rating at 42% but also carries a high unfavorable rating of 53%.

In the Democrat Primary, Clinton holds the support of registered Democrats 54% to 42% over Sanders, while Sanders holds a 44% to 36% lead among registered Independents. On the Republican side Trump holds a 34% to 24% over Cruz among registered Republicans and extends his lead to 15 points among Independents 30% to 15% over Cruz.

The survey also found that 66% of Iowan voters did not know a person of Muslim faith and that 28% said they did not have a Hispanic friend of acquaintance.

Caller ID

The ECPS poll was conducted from Monday, January 18 at 6:00 p.m., through Wednesday evening January 20. The polling sample was a random selection of registered voters purchased through Aristotle Inc. Likely primary voters were classified through a screening question. For non-completes with a working residential phone line, at least five callbacks were attempted. The Democratic and GOP Presidential primaries consisted of 258 and 271 adult registered likely primary voters in Iowa, with a margin of error of +/-6.1% and +/-5.9% respectively at a 95 percent confidence level, was used for the additional statewide questions. Data was collected using an Interactive Voice Response system and weighted based on 2012 General Election voting to reflect likely voter populations in Iowa. The full methodology and results can be found at www.theecps.com

RELATED ARTICLE: One Week Out: The Problem With Polling Iowa

VIDEO: 50 Trump Campaign Promises in under 2 Minutes

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Here are some of the most memorable campaign promises Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has made since he declared his candidacy in June 2015. Video by Sarah Parnass from The Washington Post.

Jenna Johnson in a column titled “Here are 76 of Donald Trump’s many campaign promises” writes:

Most presidential candidates are careful to not promise too much on the campaign trail. That’s not at all the case for Republican front-runner Donald Trump. Listed below are 76 things that Trump has said he would do if elected, or has predicted would occur as a result of his election. If he were to win the White House, Trump has promised to:

1. Build a wall along the southern border that’s taller than the arenas where Trump holds his rallies, taller than any ladder and one foot taller than the Great Wall of China. This “artistically beautiful” wall will be constructed out of hardened concrete, rebar and steel, and it will be “the greatest wall that you’ve ever seen” — so great that the nation will likely one day name it “The Trump Wall.”

2. Make Mexico pay for the wall. If Mexico refuses, then the United States will impound all remittance payments taken from the wages of illegal immigrants, cut foreign aid, institute tariffs, cancel visas for Mexican business leaders and diplomats, and increase fees for visas, border-crossing cards and port use.

At a campaign event at Liberty University in Lunchburg, Va., Donald Trump compared his proposed border wall to the Great Wall of China. (Reuters)

3. “If I become president, we’re all going to be saying ‘Merry Christmas’ again.”

Read more.

The Islamic State Issues Dabiq Magazine #13: Gitmo, Trump Not Mentioned

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The Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) has released the 13th issue of its English-language magazine, Dabiq. Here are six points that stand out:

There is not a single mention of Guantanamo Bay, which President Obama says is a recruiting poster for ISIS, or of Donald Trump, who Hillary Clinton says is the biggest recruiter for ISIS.

The terrorist group seems to disagree because  the 56-page magazine is almost entirely about complex theological arguments.

The contents of Dabiq exposes the error of assuming that the extremism of Islamists is a byproduct of anger over perceived mistreatment of Muslims by the U.S. The Islamic State does see anti-Muslim sentiment as suiting its purposes and it does cite actions by the U.S. to justify its views, but the foundation of their ideology is an Islamic interpretation. The worldview, including its political grievances, are shaped by those detailed interpretations presented inDabiq.

Jihad against the Shiites got the most focus.

 ISIS spent more time justifying the killing Shiites than any other enemy, by far. The biggest point of emphasis was that Shiites qualify as apostates and not as fellow Muslims, and therefore any and all of them can be killed. The emphasis suggests that ISIS does not agree with the many Sunnis who consider average Shiites to be Muslims or, at least, not deserving of being murdered.

Taking aim at Afghanistan, Pakistan and Kashmir.

 This issue of Dabiq goes the extra mile to make the case that ISIS is setting up a functional state in Afghanistan and western Pakistan. A significant amount of space is dedicated to presenting the area as ISIS’ biggest opportunity for growth. A minor mention was made of “pleasant news” coming from Kashmir soon. It appears that ISIS is hoping to present itself as the Sunni shield against the Indian Hindus, much like it presents itself as the Sunni shield against the Shiites in Iraq and Syria.

ISIS repeatedly refers to the Taliban as the “nationalist Taliban” (ISIS holds that nationalism is incompatible with Islam). It also accuses the Taliban of not implementing sharia, betraying the faith by getting too cozy with Iran and being puppets of Pakistani intelligence.

This issue of Dabiq is also dismissive of Al-Qaeda’s presence in Afghanistan, saying it has only a few members there.

Assassination plots against Saudi imams. 

One of the first declarations in this issue of Dabiq is a call to assassinate Saudi clerics. the Islamic State is hoping to win over followers of the Saudi brand of Islam (often referred to as Wahhabism) by claiming that the Saudi Royal Family and its supporting religious establishment are disregarding the guidance of Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab.

ISIS feels threatened by the argument that jihad is not permissible because it is counterproductive. This issue spends a noticeable amount of time deriding scholars who argue that Muslims should only wage jihad against its enemies when the time is right. The Islamic State argues for perpetual jihad against its enemies, saying that Allah will bring victory over any militarily superior enemy if the jihad is justified.

“Jewish” Shiites and the mahdi-messiah.

As it almost always does, ISIS ties its jihad to the fulfillment of End Times prophecy. A major portion of this issue claims that Shiite Islam was created by Jews pretending to be Muslims as part of a plot to corrupt the faith and divide the Muslim world. It says that Christianity was corrupted the same way.

It then goes further. Not only is Shiite Islam a plot of the Jews, ISIS claims, but the Jewish messiah and Shiite Islam’s version of themahdi (the “Hidden Imam“) are the same person. This mahdi-messiah is actually the “Antichrist,” or the Dajjal.

In other words, in the minds of ISIS, never mind Israel’s worry about Iran’s pledges to wipe Israel off the face of the earth. Iran and Israel—Shiites and Jews—are one. And so the Taliban and other Muslims who play nice with Shiites are complicit with the Antichrist’s agenda.

ISIS doesn’t just make this up out of thin air. They argue their points theologically and devote a significant space doing so. The magazine even ends with a map of Iran and a hadith quoting the Prophet Mohammed as saying that the Antichrist (Dajjal) will be followed by 70,000 Jews from Isfahan, a city in Iran.

In sum, the key takeaway is that jihadists like ISIS will always believe the U.S. and others are at war with Islam no matter what we do because that “fact” is considered an inarguable part of doctrine and prophecy.

Clarion Project documents the Islamic State propaganda magazine in order to expose their hateful ideology. Read every issue of Dabiq here.

ABOUT RYAN MAURO

Ryan Mauro is ClarionProject.org’s national security analyst, a fellow with Clarion Project and an adjunct professor of homeland security. Mauro is frequently interviewed on top-tier television and radio. Read more, contact or arrange a speaking engagement.

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EDITORS NOTE: The featured image is taken from a graphic from the Islamic State’s Dabiq magazine issue #13.

Trump Surges to 48 Percent in Florida

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fau poll logoBOCA RATON, Florida /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — Donald Trump has surged nearly 12 points in the last two months and is closing on half of the GOP vote in Florida, where Hillary Clinton has improved in all head-to-head match-ups against GOP front runners, according to a new poll by the Florida Atlantic UniversityBusiness and Economics Polling Initiative (FAU BEPI).

The survey began Jan. 15, the day after the latest GOP debate, and concluded Jan. 18, the day following the most recent Democratic debate.

Trump leads the GOP field in Florida with 47.6 percent; followed by Ted Cruz at 16.3 percent; Marco Rubio at 11.1 percent; and Jeb Bush at 9.5 percent. Ben Carson fell from third to fifth as his support dropped from 14.5 percent in November 2015 to just 3.3 percent in this latest poll. Cruz gained more than six points from the November 2015 poll, while Rubio lost more than seven points, and Bush gained six-tenths of a point.

With his support growing in each of the polls BEPI has conducted since September 2015, Trump has clearly seized momentum in Florida, where he enjoys a 70 percent favorability rating among GOP voters.

“At this point, Donald Trump is simply crushing the opposition in the Florida Republican primary,” said Kevin Wagner, Ph.D., associate professor of political science at FAU and a research fellow of the Initiative.

On the Democratic side, Clinton has strengthened her position in head-to-head match-ups with the GOP front runners. Clinton has turned a three-point deficit against Cruz in November into a five-point lead, while pulling even with Rubio after trailing him by seven points two months earlier. Clinton also closed the gap on Trump by six points and now trails the GOP frontrunner 47 to 44.3 percent. However, Bush leads Clinton in Florida 45 to 41.5 percent.

Clinton also maintains a 36-point lead over Bernie Sanders (62.2 to 25.9 percent), despite losing seven points from her 43-point margin in November.

“Clinton continues to hold a solid lead on the Democratic side in Florida,” said Monica Escaleras, Ph.D., director of the BEPI. “She’s also performing much better against all the GOP front runners, including Trump.”

Europeans Paying Close Attention to U.S. Election

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SHELTON, Conn. /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — The United States presidential campaigns are having a bigger effect on world opinion than one might think, based on the results of a recent SSI QuickPoll™.  In fact, there’s great interest in Europe in the presidential election even at this early stage.  Two-thirds of Europeans are paying attention, with over a third saying they are paying “a great deal” or “quite a lot” of attention.

SSI QuickPoll Says Europeans Pay Close Attention to US Election (PRNewsFoto/SSI)

SSI QuickPoll Says Europeans Pay Close Attention to U.S. Election (PRNewsFoto/SSI)

According to SSI’s U.S. Presidential Pulse, the majority of respondents (56%) across France, Germany, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom paid “quite a lot of attention” or “some attention” to the U.S. presidential election campaign.  Only 11% of respondents across the four countries indicated they have paid “a great deal of attention” to the election campaign.

The SSI Presidential Pulse QuickPoll was conducted amongst 3199 individuals aged 18 and older between Jan. 12-13, 2016.  To coincide with this year’s presidential election, SSI will conduct ongoing surveys under its SSI Presidential Pulse program to provide real-time checks on the opinions of the voting public on candidate favorability.

“When SSI reviewed the results on a country level respondents in the Netherlands (48%) were more likely to state they had not paid ‘very much attention’ or ‘no attention at all’ to the U.S. presidential election campaign than respondents in France (25%), Germany (28%), and the U.K. (31%),” said Jackie Lorch, vice president of knowledge management at SSI.

When asked which of the following candidates for U.S. president have they heard of, respondents were very aware of Hillary Clinton (90%) and Donald Trump (85%).  Almost half (48%) of respondents had heard of Jeb Bush.  No other candidate reaches 20% name recognition (SSI only asked about the top two Democrats and the top six Republicans).

Across all four countries, 69% of respondents who have heard of Hillary Clinton indicated they have a favorable opinion of her.  France (71%) and Germany (75%) were more likely to indicate they have a favorable opinion of Clinton than respondents in the Netherlands (66%) and the U.K. (64%).

Conversely, among respondents who have heard of Donald Trump, 71% indicated they had an unfavorable opinion of him.  Germany (76%) and U.K. (72%) respondents were more likely to state they had an unfavorable opinion of Trump than respondents in France (68%) and the Netherlands (67%).

In fact, yesterday, the British Parliament held a debate over a petition calling for Donald Trump to be banned from the country.  The debate did not produce any binding decisions.

“SSI asked our respondents, ‘Do you think Donald Trump should be banned from entering the U.K.?’  Overall, 38% of respondents did not think Donald Trump should be banned from entering the U.K.,” explained Lorch.  Respondents in the U.K. (46%), were more likely than respondents in France (34%), Germany (33%) and the Netherlands (39%) to state they did not think Trump should be banned from the UK.

“In spite of the unfavorable opinion, only a quarter to a third of Europeans polled think Trump should be banned from the U.K. or from their own countries,” concluded Lorch.  The majority of respondents in France (41%),Germany (41%), and the Netherlands (46%) stated they did not think Trump should be banned from their country.

SSI is the premier global provider of data solutions and technology for consumer and business-to-business survey research, reaching respondents in 100+ countries via Internet, telephone, mobile/wireless and mixed-access offerings. SSI staff operates from 30 offices in 21 countries, offering sample, data collection, CATI, questionnaire design consultation, programming and hosting, online custom reporting and data processing. SSI?s 3,600 employees serve more than 2,500 clients worldwide. Visit SSI at www.surveysampling.com. (PRNewsFoto/Survey Sampling International)

ABOUT SSI

SSI is the premier global provider of data solutions and technology for consumer and business-to-business survey research, reaching respondents in 100+ countries via Internet, telephone, mobile/wireless and mixed-access offerings.  SSI staff operates from 30 offices in 21 countries, offering sample, data collection, CATI, questionnaire design consultation, programming and hosting, online custom reporting and data processing.  SSI’s 3,600 employees serve more than 2,500 clients worldwide.  Visit SSI at www.surveysampling.com.

SSI QuickPoll is a trademark of Survey Sampling International LLC

Court: NYPD must purge documents on how Islamic terrorists operate

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The NYPD is now bound to pretend that the Muslim community is no more likely to produce terrorists than the Amish community or the Jain community. Here again, what could possibly go wrong?

The Leftist ideologues who have joined with Islamic supremacists such as Linda Sarsour to bring this about seem to think that there will be no consequences to enforcing upon the NYPD ignorance about the jihad threat.

Either they don’t realize that there will be more Islamic jihad murder in New York City because of this ruling, or they don’t care — and given that this is 2016, after 9/11, after Fort Hood, after the Boston Marathon, after Garland, after Chattanooga, after San Bernardino, after hundreds of thwarted jihad plots and more, it is apparently the latter.

SarsourdeBlasio

New York City Mayor de Blasio (right) with Linda Sarsour.

“Court Requires NYPD to Purge Docs on Terrorists Inside U.S.,” by Adam Kredo, Washington Free Beacon, January 18, 2016:

The New York Police Department has been directed by a U.S. court to remove from its online records an investigation pertaining to the rise of Islamic extremists in the West and the threats these individuals pose to American safety, according to legal documents.

As part of a settlement agreement reached earlier this month with Muslim community advocates in U.S. District Court, the NYPD will purge from its website an extensive report that experts say has been critical to the department’s understanding of radical Islam and its efforts to police the threat.

The court settlement also stipulates that the NYPD make a concerted effort to mitigate the impact of future terror investigations on certain religious and political groups, according to a copy of the court documents published by the American Civil Liberties Union, which has spearheaded the case since June 2013.

Legal experts and critics of the settlement maintain that it could hamper future terrorism investigations and view it as part of a larger campaign by Muslim advocacy organizations in the United States to dismantle surveillance programs encompassing that community.

Critics expressed particular concern about the case in light of a recent surge in attacks on U.S. citizens committed by individuals pledging allegiance to terror groups such as ISIS.

A key portion of the settlement focuses on the NYPD’s purported use of a document produced by the department’s intelligence division to examine how radicalized individuals make their way to the United States and carry out terror attacks.

The document, “Radicalization in the West: The Homegrown Threat,” aimed to provide local law enforcement and policy makers with information about domestic terrorists and their operations.

As part of the settlement agreement, the NYPD will be forced to remove the publication from its database and vow not to rely on it in the future.

The NYPD and New York state government agencies included in the case “represent that they do not, have not, and will not rely upon the Radicalization in the West report to open or extend investigations,” according to the settlement. “Defendants will remove the Radicalization in the West report from the NYPD website.”

The settlement further affirms that the NYPD will be “committed to mitigating the potential impact” of future investigations on political and religious groups, such as those in the Muslim-American community.

While NYPD officials would not comment Thursday when contacted by the Washington Free Beacon, a spokesperson directed a reporter to a recent press release affirming the department’s commitment to upholding the court settlement.

The NYPD and relevant New York state agencies will “provide additional guidance to police officers as part of a settlement of lawsuits accusing the NYPD of improperly investigating Muslim groups,” according to the Jan. 7 press release. “While the City did not admit to engaging in any improper practices, the changes represent an effort to provide more detailed guidance to NYPD personnel within the existing Handschu Guidelines,” which govern how authorities investigate political activities.

The NYPD confirmed that it would remove from its website the 2007 radicalization report.

RELATED ARTICLES:

UK: Muslims plotted to murder police and soldiers in drive-by London shootings for the Islamic State

Number of Muslims from UK who have joined the Islamic State now up to 1,500

Obama Sells Hope over Reality, One Last Time by Antony Davies & James R. Harrigan

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With roughly a year left to his presidency, President Obama chose to speak to America’s next five to ten years rather than report on the state of the union, which is his constitutional charge. In many ways, he brought his presidency full circle on Tuesday evening, offering language more reminiscent of candidate Obama than the churlish President Obama of the past seven years.

“Let’s talk about the future,” he said. But the president had demonstrable difficulty with the present. Throughout his speech, he steadfastly ignored the biggest problem facing the nation: our runaway $19 trillion federal debt.

He did, of course, offer the usual batch of goodies to the American people: free or more affordable college tuition, an increased minimum wage, enhanced Medicare and Social Security, better and cheaper healthcare, and “wage insurance,” whatever that is. Never once did he indicate where the money would come from to pay for these things.

He even offered homage to industry, saying that “a thriving private sector is the lifeblood of our economy.”  But as the speech wore on, it became painfully clear that the President has little to no idea what a thriving economy is, and his ultimate conclusion that “the state of the union is strong,” is simply incorrect, and demonstrably so.

The president claimed that unemployment has been cut in half. Going by the official numbers, the unemployment rate today is 5% versus over 8% when he took office. But the jobs numbers tell a different story. The economy has created 8 million jobs since the President first took office. But there are now 17 million more working-age Americans. The government routinely excludes from its unemployment numbers people who have been unemployed for so long that they’ve given up looking for work. And their numbers have been growing since 2008. Add those people back in and the actual unemployment rate today is closer to 10%.

The president also claimed that he cut the deficit by three-quarters. It’s true that the deficit today is less than half of what it was at its historic peak in 2008, but sadly that’s a recent development. The deficit has averaged $900 billion per year over the past seven years, compared to $440 billion over the seven years prior to the President’s terms — and those figures assign to Bush the 2009 transition year when the deficit was at a whopping $1.4 trillion.

When President Obama took office, the federal debt stood at $10.7 trillion. Today, the debt is $18.9 trillion. But that’s small potatoes, comparatively speaking. In addition to its debt, the government owes unfunded obligations. These are future Social Security and Medicare payments the government has promised to retirees but which it does not and, under current law, will not have the money to pay. According to the Social Security and Medicare boards of trustees, unfunded obligations are about $70 trillion. That brings the total amount of money the government owes or has promised almost to $90 trillion — or 10% more than the annual economic output of the entire planet.

This is the last time the president will give a State of the Union Address. Did he take this opportunity to talk about how he plans to make Social Security and Medicare solvent? Or how he plans to pay for the $70 trillion the government owes retirees? No, he called for the programs to be strengthened. And by “strengthened” he means expanded.

The president asked, “How do we get everyone a fair shot at opportunity?” The answer, first and foremost, is by creating a condition in which the government’s long-term solvency is assured. As it now stands, the state of the union can only be described as precarious.

Antony Davies
Antony Davies

Antony Davies is associate professor of economics at Duquesne University, Mercatus Affiliated Senior Scholar, and Strata Research Fellow.

He is a member of the FEE Faculty Network.

 

James R. Harrigan
James R. Harrigan

James R. Harrigan is the Director of Academic Programs at Strata, in Logan, Utah.

VIDEOS: South Carolina Tea Party Coalition Convention

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Watch The United West live stream of the South Carolina TEA Party Coalition Convention:

Trump speech at SC TEA Party Coalition Convention:

VIDEO: Muslim ‘Rape Culture’ Threatens European Women

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New Year’s Eve in Cologne, Germany saw an unprecedented number of sexual assaults against German women.  This, of course, is just one example of a trend occurring across Europe after an influx of Middle Eastern and North African refugees.

Vienna Police Chief Gerhard Purstl warned, “Women should in general not go out on the streets at night alone, they should avoid suspicious looking areas and also when in pubs and clubs should only accept drinks from people they know.”

While Purstl’s advice has been met with backlash, mainly from feminists who reject the initial stance that women should need to be more careful, the question remains, why is this happening?

The origin of these exceedingly violent sexual attacks, known as taharrush–gang gropings and rapes–can be traced back to the Egyptian Revolution, which followed the fall of then Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak.

Angie Abdelmonem, a doctoral candidate at Arizona State University, who recently published a study regarding instances of taharrush during the Egyptian Revolution, stated, “Between 2011 and 2013, sexual harassment became common at protests in Tahrir Square, exemplified by a number of highly publicized violent attacks that demonstrate how women’s bodies became objectified and dehumanized during the uprising.”

Egypt has been a hotbed of sexual harassment, usually verbal, for a long time, but something about the uprising and forced resignation of Mubarak sparked the physical and more violent taharrush.

Some analysts believe taharrush to be a product of North-African men, not necessarily Middle-Eastern or Muslim men.  It is unclear why this is the case, except for the fact that North Africa, especially Egypt, is home to a patriarchal society that permits or at least to some extent turns a blind eye to sexual harassment against women.

Since Egyptian society refuses to give women independence from men, it presumably makes it easier for women to be viewed as objects instead of people. This, coupled with the destabilization of the Egyptian government, seem to be the most plausible factors that created the type of environment necessary for this particularly violent kind of sexual assault to manifest.

This is just one filmed example of recent sexual harassment of women in Europe:

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1959: Martin Luther King, Jr. Salutes Hawaii Statehood

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The following remarks were made by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. on Thursday, September 17, 1959 at the Hawaii House of Representatives 1959 First Special Session:

“Mr. Speaker, distinguished members of the House of Representatives of this great new state in our Union, ladies and gentlemen:

It is certainly a delightful privilege and pleasure for me to have this great opportunity and, I shall say, it is a great honor to come before you today and to have the privilege of saying just a few words to you about some of the pressing problems confronting our nation and our world.

I come to you with a great deal of appreciation and great feeling of appreciation, I should say, for what has been accomplished in this beautiful setting and in this beautiful state of our Union. As I think of the struggle that we are engaged in in the South land, we look to you for inspiration and as a noble example, where you have already accomplished in the area of racial harmony and racial justice, what we are struggling to accomplish in other sections of the country, and you can never know what it means to those of us caught for the moment in the tragic and often dark midnight of man’s inhumanity to man, to come to a place where we see the glowing daybreak of freedom and dignity and racial justice.

People ask me from time to time as I travel across the country and over the world whether there has been any real progress in the area of race relations, and I always answer it by saying that there are three basic attitudes that one can take toward the question of progress in the area of race relations. One can take the attitude of extreme optimism. The extreme optimist would contend that we have come a long, long way in the area of race relations, and he would point proudly to the strides that have been made in the area of civil rights in the last few decades. And, from this, he would conclude that the problem is just about solved now and that we can sit down comfortably by the wayside and wait on the coming of the inevitable.

And then segregation is still with us. Although we have seen the walls gradually crumble, it is still with us. I imply that figuratively speaking, that Old Man Segregation is on his death bed, but you know history has proven that social systems have a great last-minute breathing power, and the guardians of the status quo are always on hand with their oxygen tents to keep the old order alive, and this is exactly what we see today. So segregation is still with us. We are confronted in the South in its glaring and conspicuous forms, and we are confronted in almost every other section of the nation in its hidden and subtle forms. But if democracy is to live, segregation must die. Segregation is a cancer in the body politic which must be removed before our democratic health can be realized. In a real sense, the shape of the world today does not permit us the luxury of an anemic democracy. If we are to survive, if we are to stand as a force in the world, if we are to maintain our prestige, we must solve this problem because people are looking over to America.

MLK and other civil rights leaders wear lei on 1965 march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama.

Just two years ago I traveled all over Africa and talked with leaders from that great continent. One of the things they said to me was this: No amount of extensive handouts and beautiful words would be substitutes for treating our brothers in the United States as first-class citizens and human beings. This came to me from mouth of Prime Minister Nkrumah of Ghana.

Just four months ago, I traveled throughout India and the Middle East and talked with many of the people and leaders of that great country and other people in the Middle East, and these are the things they talked about: That we must solve this problem if we are to stand and to maintain our prestige. And I can remember very vividly meeting people all over Europe and in the Middle East and in the Far East, and even though many of them could not speak English, they knew how to say ‘Little Rock.’

And these are the things that we must be concerned about – we must be concerned about because we love America and we are out to free not only the Negro. This is not our struggle today to free 17,000,000 Negroes. It’s bigger than that. We are seeking to free the soul of America. Segregation debilitates the white man as well as the Negro. We are to free all men, all races and all groups. This is our responsibility and this is our challenge, and we look to this great new state in our Union as the example and as the inspiration. As we move on in this realm, let us move on with the faith that this problem can be solved, and that it will be solved, believing firmly that all reality hinges on moral foundations, and we are struggling for what is right, and we are destined to win.

While on the 1965 march from Selma to Montgomery, marchers wore leis to symbolize their peaceful intentions.

We have come a long, long way. We have a long, long way to go. I close, if you will permit me, by quoting the words of an old Negro slave preacher. He didn’t quite have his grammar right, but he uttered some words in the form of a prayer with great symbolic profundity and these are the works he said: ‘Lord, we ain’t what we want to be; we ain’t what we ought to be; we ain’t what we gonna be, but thank God, we ain’t what we was.’ Thank you.”

At the conclusion of his address, there was much applause.

Photos: MLK in Hawaii 1959

PDF: Hawaii House Blog

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Will the Farsi Island incident turn out to be a Cover-up like Benghazi?

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By Wallace Bruschweiler and William Palumbo — 

Since Tuesday’s capture of U.S. Navy sailors by the Iranians, many questions have emerged that call into question the official story of events.  Knowing the history of the Obama administration, including the Arab Spring and the infamous attack and cover-up Benghazi “incident,” is it fair to assume that the White House is again deceiving the American public?

arab spring graphic

After five years. This graphic details the results of the Arab Spring. An increase in failed states and autocracies.

In light of yet another disgraceful situation that humiliated our country and military, below are some vital and important questions to ponder (forget political correctness!):

  • Was this event coordinated to coincide with Obama’s final State of the Union, which conspicuously did not mention the sailors in Iranian custody?
  • Did John Kerry foresee that when the Iranians released the sailors it would provide good publicity for the Iranian nuclear deal that he negotiated with his Iranian family-related “buddy,” Javad Zarif? Wasn’t it, like John Kerry said, “a good story for both of us”?
  • Did, as Rep. Louis Gohmert mentioned, the White House indicate to the Iranians where to find the two boats and apprehend (“help”) the sailors? Did they have “mechanical problems,” or was it sophisticated jamming of their GPS?
  • Were the boats truly navigating in Iranian-controlled waters? If so, how did all of their various navigational systems fail simultaneously?
  • Is the entire chain-of-command, leading up to Defense Secretary Carter’s insistence that the sailors were faced with a “navigational error” and/or mechanical failure, part of a Machiavellian cover-up?
  • Could those ten sailors have been regarded as hostages and collateral for the frozen Iranian funds?
  • Was the subsequent strangely-timed prisoner swap between the Obama administration and Iran a further diversion designed to change the attention and conversation away from the highly suspicious related facts of the Farsi Island incident?

At first, on the surface, this sordid affair is not unlike another major scandal of the Obama administration: Benghazi.  Again, consider some important questions:

  • Isn’t one leading theory of what the terrorists were hoping to achieve in Benghazi the kidnapping of Ambassador Chris Stevens, so that he could later be swapped for the so-called Blind Sheikh, a well-known Egyptian terrorist?
  • Wasn’t the terrorist mob in Benghazi recorded screaming “Don’t shoot! Morsi sent us!” as they approached the compound?
  • Didn’t Ansar al-Sharia, an Iranian-backed terror group, claim responsibility for the Benghazi attack?
  • Wasn’t then U.S. Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, trumpeting that a video caused of the attack?
  • Didn’t all these facts point to the manipulation performed by the genius puppet master, Iranian-born Valerie Jarrett?

Now that the Farsi Island incident is over and with the focus shifting to the latest prisoner swap, who will be the “schmuck” that throws their hands up and screams “What difference, at this point, does it make?”

EXPOSED: Big Business is Driving Muslim Refugee Resettlement in America

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Update:  Be sure to learn more about what you should do about this during Election 2016 at American Resistance 2016!

The so-called ‘religious’ charities that resettle refugees in America and those in the UN/US State Department administering the refugee admissions program that is bringing tens of thousands of Muslim (and other) refugees to your towns want you to think this is all about ‘humanitarianism.’  It is not!

The do-gooders bringing refugees to America are shills for big business whether they know it or not!

It is about globalization and multi-national corporations’ need for cheap migrant laborers!

Did you read our post about BIG MEAT and Amarillo, TX just this week? It went viral and has brought thousands upon thousands of readers to RRW!  The business model is that companies, often times companies in the food industry, encourage (lobby for!) more refugees to be admitted to the US (or for amnesty for illegal aliens).

They get the slave laborers, your town gets the social/cultural tension, and taxpayers at all levels of government supplement the meager wages with WELFARE!  

Chobani Twin Falls Idaho

Cobani Twin Falls plant. As a driver of refugee resettlement, Chobani Yogurt is changing Idaho by changing the people.

Dems get reliable Leftwing voters!

(See also our post on foreign operatives changing America with refugee labor, here.)

Rich people going to Davos to make plans for your town!

This is what got me started this morning.  The Financial Times tells us that the founder of Chobani Yogurt will be making a pitch at Davos this week at the World Economic Forum for more companies to adopt that ‘business model’ and hire (read IMPORT) more refugees to small and medium-sized American cities!

Financial Times:

Last year Hamdi Ulukaya, a Kurdish entrepreneur who created the billion-dollar US-based Chobani yoghurt empire, travelled to Greece to see the swelling refugee crisis with his own eyes. Unsurprisingly, he was horrified by the human suffering that he witnessed, particularly as he shares a cultural affinity with many of the refugees — he grew up near the Syrian border in Turkey, before moving to the US as a student.

But Ulukaya was also appalled by something else: the hopelessly bureaucratic and old-fashioned nature of the organisations running the aid efforts. “The refugee issue is being dealt with using [methods from] the 1940s and it’s in the hands of the UN and mostly government and you don’t see a lot of private sector and entrepreneurs involved,” he told me last week. “I decided we have got to hack this — we have got to bring another perspective into this issue, there are technologies that can be used.”

So Ulukaya decided to act. Last year he established a foundation, Tent, to channel financial aid and innovation efforts into refugee work.

[….]

And he has stepped up efforts to hire as many refugees as he can at his yoghurt plants, where they currently account for 30 per cent of the total workforce, or 600 people. “There are 11 or 12 languages spoken in our factories,” says Ulukaya. “We have translators 24 hours a day.”

[….]

At next week’s World Economic Forum (WEF) meeting in Davos, he will call on other CEOs to join a campaign to channel corporate money, lobbying initiatives, services and jobs to refugees. Five companies have already signed up: Ikea, MasterCard, Airbnb, LinkedIn and UPS — and Ulukaya says more are poised to join.

Continue reading!  Reporter Gillian Tett quotes me, and mentions protests in Idaho and New York where Chobani is bringing in the refugee laborers.

See our complete archive on Twin Falls, Idaho and the ‘pocket of resistance’ that has formed there.

P.S. When I first learned about what Chobani Yogurt was doing to rural America (here), I never again bought any Chobani Yogurt!  I go down that dairy aisle and give them a mental finger (sorry to our more proper and polite readers).

Nine major federal contractors which like to call themselves VOLAGs (Voluntary agencies) which is such a joke considering how much federal money they receive:

RELATED ARTICLE: Muslim Immigration is What ISIS Wants

EDITORS NOTE: Chobani Yogurt CEO pursuing Syrian immigrants for employment in the United States. If you disagree readers may click here to send an email urging Chobani, Inc. officials to make national security, public safety and jobs for Americans the priority in Chobani hiring practices.