https://youtu.be/PFxFRqNmXKg
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I suspect tectonic political and social change is occurring beneath our feet and if you listen/read/follow the elites in the press and media and the experts you will be led astray and miss what is taking place. Why? Because they are too idideologically hidebound and out of touch with us commoners.
There are times in history that, in retrospect, were there for all to see and were out in the open but were too subtle and, therefore, missed.
I suspect we are living through such a period. Why now? Probably because, specific to Americans, we are fed up with the trends and truly want to take our country back and an unlikely person came from no where and seized the opportunity he saw that no one else did.
As for the Brits, Brexit was a similar event. Those who voted to leave the EU realized their nation was no longer in their hands.
Coming back to America, I believe we have finally begun to see the end of PC'ism and its social destructiveness. We are finally beginning to realize progressive policies have failed to live up to their promise and the nation's economic fat that protected us is gone. Mistakes take a long time to die and seldom go quietly.
This does not mean Trump is a shoe in and could lose for a variety of reasons. Should Hillary win, however, she will not have the same nation to govern that her party's elite believe is still there. Their destructive and failed policies have resulted in an accumulation that has left us weakened and Hillary will preside over a body politic barren of any fat reserve. We are down to bone, and Mother Hillary will find the cupboard bare thus, limiting her options.
Everyone is obsessing over what Sen. Cruz is going to say this evening. I suspect he will be rational and may even extend his hand and, if that be the case, I suspect Trump will also be gracious. Healing any divide that exists between them is far more important than maintaining petulance. This is what Americans expect and are entitled to see. Meanwhile those offended and turned off by Trump remain on the sideline licking their wounds and showing themselves for who they really are - sore losers at best and at worst seeking to hide behind new found self-righteousness..
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More from Cliff May. (See 1 below.)
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Walter Williams challenges his own by telling them only they can solve their problems.. Some will listen, most will not. Therein lies their problem because they do not believe their own lives matter.(See 2 below.)
(Call and make an appointment to visit The Savannah Classical Academy and see, first hand , that discipline can be achieved among inner city black kids and yes, many come from single parent families.)
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Are we backing child beheaders in Syria? (Was unable to post the graphic video.) (See 3 below.)
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Coming together over gas. (See 4 below.)
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Ryan has proposed a budget that cuts or eliminates $2.5 trillion in Federal Spending over a ten year period but these proposals will never pass until there is a Republican President sitting in The Oval Office.
Maybe this is why Democrats are attacking Ryan for suggesting the goring of so many precious bulls. No doubt Republicans also contributed votes to this largess as well.
Meanwhile, Is GOOGLE in Hillary's camp? See link above.
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Dick
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1)The jihadis in France, the Islamists in Turkey
While Western leaders dither, others are shaping the 21st century
Streets ran red with blood in both France and Turkey last week. A terrorist atrocity and an attempted coup are quite different events. But underlying both is this question: How are the most dynamic forces within the Islamic world shaping the 21st century?
Jihadism is, as should be obvious, one of those forces. Those fighting what they call a holy war –al Qaeda, the Islamic State and the Islamic Republic of Iran among them – regard “others” as enemies who must submit or be conquered or be killed. Their goal, and they’re candid about this, is to establish Islamic domination anywhere they can and, eventually, everywhere they can.
To call such behavior radical or extreme is an historical. They are doing what tribes, nations and empires have done since time immemorial. It is we in the West who have deviated from the norm by insisting that it has somehow suddenly become natural for peoples to peacefully coexist, to celebrate their differences, and to accept compromises rather than pursue victories.
To make matters worse, moral relativists have undermined what should have been unshakeable Western values. After the attacks of 9/11/01 we had an opportunity to make a persuasive case that no cause or grievance justifies intentionally killing other people’s children. Instead, prominent voices (e.g. Stephen Jukes, then global news editor of Reuters, today a professor of journalism) insisted that “one man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter.”
Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel -- the 31-year-old Tunisian man who used a 19-ton refrigerator truck as a lethal weapon during Bastille Day in Nice last week – no doubt saw himself in that heroic light. The Islamic State called him their “soldier.”
Mr. Bouhlel succeeded in murdering 84 people and injuring more than 200. The victims were of various nationalities and religious backgrounds and included 10 children. Did he have accomplices? A half hour before the attack he texted a message to someone saying: “Bring more weapons.” Seven people linked to the assailant have reportedly been taken into police custody for questioning.
As for Turkey, once it was the model: a Muslim-majority state that embraced secularism, modernity, tolerance and democracy. No longer.
Two paragraphs of history: The Republic of Turkey arose in the 1920s from the ashes of the Ottoman Empire – the last great Islamic empire and caliphate. To be more exact, Turkey was pulled from those ashes by Mustafa Kemal Pasha, a dashing army officer who became the founding father of the Turkish nation-state – that’s the meaning of “Atatürk,” the surname later bestowed on him.
President Atatürk saw Europe as the bright future and the Muslim world as the benighted past. He separated mosque and state, diminished the authority of Islamic religious law, and, in general, attempted to modernize and Europeanize his country. After World War II, Turkey would become a multi-party democracy.
Since 2013, however, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has dominated Turkish politics. He has become increasingly authoritarian and illiberal, for example closing newspapers and imprisoning journalists who criticize him.
Never a Kemalist, it may be no exaggeration to call him a neo-Ottoman and a wannabe sultan who envisions himself leading not just Turkey but the wider Islamic (or at least Sunni) world. He has been known to receive foreign dignitaries accompanied by actors dressed in costumes representing the 16 great Turkic Empires of the past.
President Erdoğan has likened democracy to a streetcar: When you reach your stop, you get off. And it appears his stop is the Muslim Brotherhood station. An unreliable ally in the fight against the terrorist groups in Syria and Iraq, he also conspired with Iran’s rulers to undercut American economic pressure. Turkey’s value as a NATO ally has increasingly come into question.
Friday’s coup attempt left at least 290 people dead and more than 1,400 injured. The military officers who attempted to topple Mr. Erdoğan may have been hoping to save Atatürk’s legacy and steer Turkey away from Islamism. That was the purpose of four successful military coups in the past (in 1960, 1971, 1980 and 1997).
Or, as Mr. Erdoğan claims, the coup may have been engineered by Fethullah Gulen, a wealthy cleric, once an ally, now a rival-in-exile (living in the Poconos of all places). Mr. Erdoğan is angrily demanding his extradition. Absent hard evidence, the U.S. government will be reluctant to comply. Should Mr. Erdoğan use Incirlik, NATO’s airbase in Turkey, as a bargaining chip, a crisis in US-Turkish relations would likely result.
Here’s what to expect now: Mr. Erdoğan’s top priority will be to eliminate his enemies -- as well, no doubt, as his opponents and critics. He has announced: “This uprising is a gift from God to us because this will be a reason to cleanse our army.” More than 20,000 officers, soldiers, police, prosecutors, judges, civil servants and others already have been dismissed or detained. What’s the chance all of them are coup plotters?
So long as Mr. Erdoğan is in power Turkey is not likely to become more secular, more democratic or pro-Western. His agenda is Islamist which means he agrees with jihadis on the imperative of Islamic supremacy and the need to re-establish a global Islamic state – he just doesn’t think the sword – or the 19-ton truck -- is the only means to that glorious end.
American leaders have repeatedly emphasized that the West is not at war with Islam. But powerful forces within the Islamic world are at war with the West. That’s an uncomfortable truth but one that must be acknowledged before a serious strategy can be forged to defend the U.S. and its allies. This was always going to be a long war. The more we dither, the longer – and costlier – it will be.
Clifford D. May is president of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD) and a columnist for the Washington Times
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2)
Challenges For Black People: Part II
The prospects for a better future are nearly hopeless for roughly 20 percent of black people -- those who reside in big-city crime-infested and dysfunctional neighborhoods. There is virtually nothing that can be done about it without a major rebuilding of the black community from within. Let's examine some of the aspects of the problem and the dismal prognosis, given the status quo.
The most important social unit is the family. Many talk about the "breakdown" in the black family when a far more accurate description is that the family doesn't form in the first place. About 73 percent of black babies are born to unwed mothers. By the way, that percentage was 25 in 1963 and 11 in 1938. The absence of fathers is crucial. Even President Barack Obama recognized this when he said that "children who grow up without a father are five times more likely to live in poverty and commit crime, nine times more likely to drop out of schools and 20 times more likely to end up in prison." Female-headed households are a devastating problem, but the solution lies almost exclusively within the black community. It's a massive job for black churches and social organizations. If there is a role for government to play, it's to stop subsidizing such behavior with handouts.
Education and skills acquisition are vital to upward mobility. But what goes on in many predominantly black schools is no less than a betrayal to those blacks and whites who sacrificed their blood, sweat and tears during the civil rights struggle of the 1940s, '50s and '60s in an effort to secure better educational opportunities. Nationally, an average of 1,175 teachers and staff were physically attacked each day of the 2011-12 school year. Most of this occurred at predominantly black schools. In Baltimore, each school day in 2010, an average of four teachers and staff were assaulted. Some Chicago teachers are treated for post-traumatic stress. Given this climate of fear, intimidation and disorderliness, one should not be surprised by an outcome that shows that the average black student who manages to graduate from high school has an academic achievement level of a white seventh- or eighth-grader.
I do not believe that the disgraceful academic performance by black students is preordained. In other words, it just doesn't have to be that way. The first order of business for education to occur is the provision of an orderly, safe teaching and learning environment. The education establishment and civil authorities have ignored their responsibility -- or have been thwarted in their efforts -- to create such an environment. Rather than watch future generations of black people have their educational opportunities destroyed, black people who really care need to act. They can readily discover the miscreants and use whatever methods at their disposal to stop them from making education impossible for others. The bottom line is that if civil authorities will not act to ensure a safe and orderly learning environment, there is no reason for black people to accept such inability and its results.
Here's an experiment. Meet with black people such as Reps. John Conyers (age 87), Charles Rangel (86), Eddie Bernice Johnson (80), Alcee Hastings (79) and Maxine Waters (77). Ask them whether their parents would have tolerated their assaulting and cursing teachers or any other adult. I bet you the rent money that their parents -- or any other parents they knew when they were growing up -- would not have accepted the grossly disrespectful behavior seen today among many black youngsters, using foul language and racial epithets. Older blacks will tell you that had they behaved that way, they would have felt serious pain in their hind parts. If blacks of past generations would not accept such self-destructive behavior, why should today's blacks accept it?
The bottom line is that only black people can solve our problems.
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3)
US-Backed Syrian Rebel Group Beheads Child
US-backed Syrian rebels, screaming "Allahu Akbar," brutally beheaded a child named Abdullah Issa. The shocking clip shows fighters from Nour-al-din el-Zanki telling the camera, "These are the prisoners from Liwa al-Quds (Jerusalem Brigade – a Palestinian militia group). He [Assad] can't stoop any lower. He sent us children today, are you sending us children?"
America funds Nour-al-din el-Zanki, which fights against the Assad regime.
Liwa al-Quds (The Jerusalem Brigade) is a pro-Assad Palestinian paramilitary group. The rebel group accused the boy of being a spy.
Referring to the prisoner, one jihadi says, "These are the dogs of Assad. These are your people Bashar." Another says, "We shall not leave anyone in Handarat," the Palestinian refugee camp where a battle between regime and rebel forces is currently taking place.
To shouts of "Takbir" and "Allahu Akbar," a fighter from the group saws through the neck of Abdullah Issa. In a grisly scene, he then holds the head aloft and exclaims "Allahu Akbar" several more times.
Reports of Issa's age vary between 11 and 13. Some say he was an 11-year old Palestinian from Handarat; others say he is a Syrian from the city of Homs.
Syrian Observatory for Human Rights manager Rami Abdel Rahman told France Press, "The child is no more than 13-years old. He was arrested today in the area of Handarat, but the slaughtering happened in el-Mashab neighborhood.
"This is one of the most terrible execution acts that I have seen since the revolution began in Syria," he added.
Activists affiliated with the group which killed the boy claimed he was actually 19, and that the video makes him look a lot younger than he really is.
The beheading video was published in the early hours of Tuesday morning on social media networks, according to BBC Arabic.
The rebel group condemned the beheading and said it was perpetrated by individuals who do not represent the group. "All of the people who carried out this violation have been arrested and brought before a disciplinary tribunal," the group said in a statement.
"The movement of Nour al-Din el-Zanki condemns the inhuman violation, since they believe in the principles and the targets of the revolution and the principle of human rights and the international agreements and the sharia. This violation doesn't reflect us and a one-time mistake does not reflect the general policy of the movement," the statement read.
The group also used the statement to blame international actors, saying the group "holds the international community fully responsible for keeping silent about the crimes regime forces are perpetrating which represent the lowest level of barbaric crimes committed under the ears and the eyes of the world and are represented by a killing machine which slaughters thousands of citizens."
Liwa al-Quds denied any connection with the child. A spokesman for the group said, "We don't recruit children, and all of our fighters wear military uniforms not civilian clothes. We are trying to locate the family of the child and find out his story and the place where he was kidnapped from."
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4) Old Mideast foes unite over gas deals, struggle against jihadists
When Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi turned a standard speech on electricity supplies into an unexpected appeal for peace between Israel and the Palestinians, one man who wasn't surprised was Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Returning as a key power broker in the region would help burnish Egypt's international image as it struggles to revive its economy. Potential rewards would mitigate any increased risk of attack by militants because of closer ties to Israel. The affinity between el-Sisi, 61, and Netanyahu, 66, is also remarkable given that antipathy toward Israel still runs deep in Egypt.
4) Old Mideast foes unite over gas deals, struggle against jihadists
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By David Wainer, Jonathan Ferziger & Ahmed Feteha B
When Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi turned a standard speech on electricity supplies into an unexpected appeal for peace between Israel and the Palestinians, one man who wasn't surprised was Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The televised address in May capped months of backstage diplomacy by a group including former British premier Tony Blair. With Netanyahu wary of a separate French-led proposal that could impose a solution to the Palestinian conflict, almost every step was coordinated with his veteran negotiator, Yitzhak Molcho, according to people familiar with the secret talks.
Nearly four decades after their peace accord changed the face of the Middle East, Israel and Egypt are slowly turning a cool relationship into an alliance. They have tightened security cooperation to unprecedented levels and have been laying the legal groundwork for a multi-billion dollar energy contract, as gas discoveries in the Mediterranean and the persistent threat from Islamist militants shift the political dynamics across the region.
"In this time of turmoil and instability all around the Middle East, it's very important for reasonable countries to keep some kind of cooperation," Israeli Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz said in an interview in his office in Jerusalem.
In the latest sign of the warming relations, Egypt's Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry visited Israel on Sunday to discuss efforts to renew stalled Israeli-Palestinian peacemaking, the first public visit by an Egyptian foreign minister in nine years. Blair met Netanyahu on Monday to follow up on the Shoukry visit and help lay the groundwork for a summit with el-Sisi, according to an Israeli official who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the diplomatic sensitivity.
"My visit to Israel today is a continuation of Egypt's longstanding sense of responsibility towards peace for itself and all the peoples of the region, particularly the Palestinian-Israeli peoples,"
Shoukry said, standing beside Netanyahu at a press conference. Netanyahu said it "illustrates the change that has taken place in Israeli-Egyptian ties, including President el-Sisi's important call to advance peacemaking, with the Palestinians as well as Arab states."
Arrangements are being made for Netanyahu to travel to Egypt by the end of the year for a meeting with el-Sisi, Channel 2 television said, without saying where it got the information. The aim would be to promote the Saudi-initiated regional approach to brokering an Arab-Israeli peace and preempt the French proposal for resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which the Israeli leader opposes, Channel 2 said.
In his speech at a new power plant in Assiut, 400 kilometers (250 miles) south of Cairo, el-Sisi said he saw "a great chance for a better future," between Israel and the Palestinians. An ensuing statement by Netanyahu championing Egypt's involvement was coordinated, the people familiar with the talks said, speaking on condition of anonymity. French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said it was "complementary" to his country's effort.
Returning as a key power broker in the region would help burnish Egypt's international image as it struggles to revive its economy. Potential rewards would mitigate any increased risk of attack by militants because of closer ties to Israel. The affinity between el-Sisi, 61, and Netanyahu, 66, is also remarkable given that antipathy toward Israel still runs deep in Egypt.
The government in Cairo and civil society groups typically have sought to keep dealings with Israelis to a minimum, and official contact is frequently kept secret. Tawfik Okasha, a lawmaker, was attacked with a shoe in February by a colleague then expelled from parliament for meeting with Israel's ambassador to Cairo. Dozens of militant attacks by an Islamic State affiliate on Egyptian security personnel have allowed el-Sisi to pull closer to the Jewish state. Israel, also targeted by militants operating in Egypt's Sinai peninsula and the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip, has let him boost military operations along their shared border beyond what the 1979 treaty permits.
"There is definitely a high level of cooperation that could be unprecedented, especially in the field of combating terrorism," said Mohamed Kamal, a former lawmaker and a political science professor at Cairo University. "Egypt will handle this issue in a rational way, based on national interest."
El-Sisi has acted with a fervor his predecessors lacked against armed groups and weapons moving between Sinai and Gaza, destroying and flooding hundreds of cross-border tunnels. Israel has responded to el-Sisi with financial gestures and, according to the Israeli military's deputy chief of staff, increased intelligence-sharing.
"The level of cooperation is something we've never experienced before," Major-General Yair Golan said. "It's not about love, it's not about common values. I wouldn't describe it as the relationship we have with the United States of America, but I think it's a good starting point."
A former senior Israel official said his country has conducted numerous drone attacks on militants in Sinai in recent years with Egypt's blessing. He spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss confidential military activity.
Israel's closeness to el-Sisi precedes his presidency. When he was defense minister, Israel lobbied the U.S. to release military aid to Cairo suspended over Egypt's deadly crackdown on Islamists. They argued it was needed to address security threats in Sinai, the former senior Israeli official said.
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