The article I posted in the preceding memo by Rep. Louis Gohmert is exceedingly long, quite thorough and exposed Mueller based on a long history of his conduct. Regretfully few will read it but should you do so, as I urge, you will have a lot of questions raised as to his character,objectivity and trustworthiness. Trump would be a damn fool to testify other than in writing with his lawyer(s) present..
I do not much trust government as I should but it is acts on the part of Mueller types that have brought me to this sad point.
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Russian defense cuts take a toll:
"A new study shows Russia's defense budget has taken a big hit. In its annual report on global military spending, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute highlighted a 20 percent drop in Russian defense spending between 2016 and 2017. The report suggests that Russia's economic troubles have put a dent in Moscow's aspirations to continue with elevated defense spending, but the 20 percent figure does require some context to be fully understood."
| ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Bashing Israel un-truthful reporting - it is sporting time at MSNBC. The fact that you can get killed by an unarmed Palestinian seems to escape MSNBC. I suspect if 3,000 Palestinians decided to attack Britain, France and/or Germany they would invite them to a sit down dinner. What blatant hypocrisy. Hamas is showing its true color and Israel is making sure they get the clear message Israel will defend itself. Trump responds to reality and his policies reflect reality not some diplomatic wink and blink nonsense our State Department has employed for decades. (See 1, 1a and 1b below.) This from a dear friend and fellow memo reader: "So the UN Security Council is going to meet to condemn the Israeli response to a massive Palestinians attack to breach the Israeli border security and kill Jews, Christians, Druze, and, yes, probably even Palestinian Muslims living in Israel. Has anyone stopped to think that there will likely be no way for the frenzied Palestinians to choose only Jewish victims during their random rampage?
It is stunningly incomprehensible to contemplate the scale of anti-Semitism throughout the world. I’m not talking about the biases, prejudices, stereotypes, discriminations, and bigotries directed at the 14 million surviving Jewish people in the world. I’m talking about the REAL anti-Semitism ... GENOCIDE. What else could a rational person call the deliberate lies, disinformation , and complicit silence of so many global media organizations, religious leaders, and government officials from every corner of the world about the Hamas human assault on the innocent citizens of Israel? After decades of Palestinian brainwashing and indoctrination by their leaders, would we expect anything less of 40,000 Palestinians who are willing to risk their lives to break through the Israeli border security and fan out to indiscriminately kill as many Jewish men women and children as they can find to fulfill the GENOCIDAL Hamas charter?
Do rational people in Europe think that this mass assault tactic will be limited to the Israeli people? They know their threat could quickly escalate from the lone wolf tactic. Do the foolish anti-Semites really believe that they will be safe from mass assaults? They too have been brainwashed into believing that they will be safe once Israel has been eliminated .
As Verbal Kint, the character in The Usual Suspects played by Kevin Spacey said, “The greatest trick the devil pulled was to convince man he didn’t exist. R--” (See 1c below.)
++++++++++++++++++++++++Have been advised Montana shooting by young girl I posted may not be factual. +++++++++++++++++++ Finally, it seems the anti-Trump crowd is beginning to conclude they have overdone it with their attacks etc. and it is causing Trump's supporters to rally so the anti-Trumper's are having to rethink their strategy. An op ed writer for the NYT's discussed this in an article he wrote recently and now the late nighter TV personalities are beginning to back away as well. It might be too late because Trump continues to energize his base and they seem to be responding based on voter turnout. As I have written, time and again, Americans are slow to respond but they are also mostly fair minded and when they eventually become offended they rise up in wrath. Something they have no control over is Mueller's investigation which is looking more and more out of control and this is why I believe Gohmert's article I posted earlier is so worth while. Far too many innocent American citizens have been trapped by spurious actions on the part of our "In-Justice" Department and politically corrupted FBI. Time will tell but I suspect the attacks on Trump will not go away but may lessen, not in intensity, but in numbers. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ |
Dick
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1) MSNBC Reporter Calls Gaza Protesters ‘Unarmed,’ Then Immediately Says They Had ‘Some Light Weapons’
Matt Bradley: Palestinians 'not really peacefully demonstrating' but are peaceful compared to Israelis
By David Rutz
NBC News reporter Matt Bradley on Monday called Palestinian protesters in the Gaza Strip "unarmed" before immediately acknowledging they "had some light weapons," adding they were "not peacefully demonstrating" but were peaceful in comparison to the more heavily armed Israeli military.
Bradley reported on MSNBC about the bloodshed at the border fence separating Israel from the Gaza Strip. On the day of the U.S. embassy opening in Jerusalem, violent demonstrators urged on by Hamas, the terrorist group in control of Gaza, sought to breach the fence to penetrate Israeli territory. The Israeli military, which seeks to limit civilian casualties, fired on some of the demonstrators.
Bradley took a stridently pro-Palestinian tone in his coverage, saying the Israelis should not have felt threatened by the violent demonstrations. One Palestinian told the Washington Post that he would try to kill people if he got into Israel.
"You saw tens of thousands of young people crossing fields between the urban part of Gaza and the Israeli border, essentially trying to walk across this heavily militarized border unarmed," Bradley said.
Then, without skipping a beat, he said the demonstrators were in fact armed.
"It's easy to say they were completely unarmed," Bradley said. "They had some light weapons. A lot of them would be burning tires or rolling tires to try to melt the razor wire. They had slingshots. They had a new and crazy invention, incendiary kites, where they would try to loft kites and set them on fire to try to light up some of the agricultural fields beyond the border with Israel."
"But these were hardly the kind of weapons that could frighten any Israeli solder," he added.
Bradley went on to say the Israelis nearly hit him and his team with artillery.
"It's kind of hard to imagine how these Israeli troops could have been threatened by a lot of these young people, who were really not peacefully demonstrating, but peacefully by comparison to the Israeli soldiers, and indeed, no Israeli soldier has been killed and nearly 100 Palestinians have died in the past seven weeks of protesting," he said.
Over the past seven weeks, thousands of Palestinians have massed at the Gaza border in what organizers call the "March of Return." During the Hamas-led demonstrations, some Palestinians, including terrorist operatives, have attacked Israel and Israeli soldiers with explosives, rocks, and other weapons. There have been several attempts to breach Israel's border fence.
1a) US quashes Security Council call for probe of Gaza deaths
Body to hold emergency meeting Tuesday; UN statement would have expressed 'outrage at killing of Palestinian civilians exercising their right to peaceful protest'
The United States on Monday blocked the adoption of a UN Security Council statement that would have called for an independent probe of deadly violence on the Israel-Gaza border, which erupted as the new US embassy in Jerusalem was opened, diplomats said.
“The Security Council expresses its outrage and sorrow at the killing of Palestinian civilians exercising their right to peaceful protest,” read a draft of the statement, a copy of which was seen by AFP.
“The Security Council calls for an independent and transparent investigation into these actions to ensure accountability,” read the text.
In the bloodiest day in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict since a 2014 Gaza war, at least 58 Palestinians were killed in the clashes and more than 2,700 Palestinians wounded, according to figures from the Hamas-run Gazan health ministry.
They erupted before Israeli officials and a White House delegation including President Donald Trump’s daughter Ivanka formally opened the embassy in Jerusalem, and the bloodshed continued throughout the day.
The dead included eight children under the age of 16, according to the Palestinian envoy to the United Nations.
Palestinian protesters gathering along the border fence with Israel, May 14, 2018. (JACK GUEZ/AFP)
Israel blamed Hamas for the deadly violence, saying the terror group had encouraged and led the protests, which included attacks on Israeli troops and attempts to breach the border fence.
The IDF’s spokesman said Hamas deployed 12 separate terrorist “cells” to try to breach the border at different locations, and that all were rebuffed.
Citing Hamas sources, Israel’s Hadashot TV news said 10 of the terror group’s members were among those killed in the clashes, including a son of its co-founder Abdel Aziz al-Rantisi.
Several countries condemned the violence, including members of the Security Council.
British Prime Minister Theresa May’s spokesman urged “calm and restraint”.
French President Emmanuel Macron condemned the violence, emphasizing that “Palestinians have the right to peace and security” and reiterating his commitment to a two-state solution.
The Security Council is due to hold an emergency meeting on the violence Tuesday, called at the request of Kuwait.
The Palestinian UN envoy wants the Security Council to condemn the killings.
Meanwhile, Israeli ambassador Ddanny Danon called on the council to condemn Hamas, the Islamic militant group that rules the coastal Gaza Strip and led the protests.
It’s not immediately clear what will come out of the discussion. At an emergency meeting after similar protests in March, council members urged restraint on both sides but didn’t decide on any action or joint message.
The draft statement seen would expressed “grave concern regarding recent developments in the Palestinian territory occupied by Israel since 1967, including East Jerusalem, particularly in the context of the peaceful protests in the Gaza Strip and the tragic loss of civilian lives.”
“The Security Council calls upon all sides to exercise restraint with a view to averting further escalation and establishing calm,” it said.
“The Security Council calls on all States not to undertake any steps that further aggravate the situation, including any unilateral and unlawful measures undermining the prospects of peace.”
It also said that any decisions and actions “which purport to have altered the character, status or demographic composition of the Holy City of Jerusalem have no legal effect” — a reference to the US decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.
The Palestinians see East Jerusalem as the capital of their future state.
Times of Israel staff and AP contributed to this report.
1b) A new American-Israeli-Arab alliance in the Middle East
By JOSHUA S. BLOCK
Amidst all the noise, we must keep our eyes on what’s important and focus on a broader strategy which addresses Iran’s illicit nuclear and non-nuclear activities hand-in-hand with our allies.
May 8, 2018 – the day US President Donald Trump announced that he’s pulling America out of the nuclear deal with Iran – will mark the inauguration of a new American- Israeli-Arab alliance in the Middle East and a major realignment of US strategic interests.
The administration had extended waivers on Iran’s nuclear sanctions on multiple occasions to allow for the US, together with our partners, to fix the fatal flaws of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action. Unfortunately, European leaders failed to commit to sufficiently meaningful amendments, especially on the most important element – the sunset clauses of the accord – as well as verification mechanisms, ballistic missiles and development of advanced centrifuges, leaving the current Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (Iran deal) fatally flawed.
The IAEA director-general Yukiya Amano, himself – charged with implementing and monitoring the agreement – explained that the accord is unverifiable, and that the IAEA is unable to assure the world that Iran is not continuing to lie and work on nuclear weapons or warheads in secret, beyond the reach of inspectors.
The administration had extended waivers on Iran’s nuclear sanctions on multiple occasions to allow for the US, together with our partners, to fix the fatal flaws of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action. Unfortunately, European leaders failed to commit to sufficiently meaningful amendments, especially on the most important element – the sunset clauses of the accord – as well as verification mechanisms, ballistic missiles and development of advanced centrifuges, leaving the current Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (Iran deal) fatally flawed.
The IAEA director-general Yukiya Amano, himself – charged with implementing and monitoring the agreement – explained that the accord is unverifiable, and that the IAEA is unable to assure the world that Iran is not continuing to lie and work on nuclear weapons or warheads in secret, beyond the reach of inspectors.
The JCPOA was built on false premises and was riddled with flaws. It enabled Iran’s bad behavior across the region, enriched and empowered the Islamic Republic’s military and terrorist operations, and put them on a path to a massive, modern nuclear program with a nuclear breakout time of just weeks in less than eight years.
Yet, today, the daunting security challenges that we face remain the same. The White House announcement changed the tactics, but it didn’t change the fact that all of us must work together to prevent Iran from ever acquiring nuclear weapons.
We must confront the threat the Iranian regime poses to the region it seeks to dominate, as well as to the world through its sophisticated state-sponsored army of terror embedded on every continent.
We need a strategy that both isolates Iran and closes off Tehran’s nuclear pathway by giving the United States and our allies access to the tools of financial and diplomatic pressure needed to confront the totality of the threat posed by the Islamic Republic’s revolutionary military dictatorship.
For too long, those options were constrained by concerns that the pressure to confront Iran – to stop its support of Assad’s slaughter of millions, of the Houthis in Yemen, of the IRGC and Hezbollah’s terror – would undermine the nuclear accord.
A strong American-Israeli-Saudi-led Arab alliance working with our European allies, India and Japan will be pivotal for creating the pressure needed to arrive at a more prosperous, stable Middle East free of the threat of Iranian terror and aggression, and one in which Iran has made the moves to become a member of the international community in good standing once again.
Thanks to the Israeli intelligence coup, the US now has access to undeniable evidence of Iran’s clear effort and intent to build nuclear weapons and the means to deliver them – and their record of deceit to cover it all up.
The Islamic Republic remains the foremost sponsor of state terrorism. It threatens the existence of our closest ally, Israel. Tehran engages in cyber warfare, drug smuggling and money laundering.
The despotic regime holds hostage American citizens.
And it sponsors murderous regimes and brutal terrorist groups in Syria, Iraq, Lebanon and Gaza.
By re-imposing sanctions, America and our allies will regain the leverage needed to push Iran to make the choice it needs to make – relinquish its military nuclear capabilities, end its effort to export its revolutionary ideals through terrorism and support for proxy wars, and allow the people of Iran to live free from the yolk of this regime’s violent ideological repression.
Any agreed solution to the threat from Iran must include the following: Snap inspections of all Iranian suspected nuclear facilities, including military ones. No more taking them at their word; a verifiable end to Iran’s missile programs, whether long- or short-range; No sunset – a permanent and verifiable end to Iran’s nuclear ambitions.
Moreover, verifiable limitations on Iran’s research and development on advanced centrifuges; reinstatement of the UN arms and missile embargo on Iran; reinstatement of sanctions on Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps officials that were removed under the deal; and the withdrawal of all Iranian military personnel, militias, and equipment from regional states, starting with Syria.
Amidst all the noise, we must keep our eyes on what’s important and focus on a broader strategy which addresses Iran’s illicit nuclear and non-nuclear activities hand-in-hand with our European, Israeli and Arab allies. It’s the best way forward to guarantee what the JCPOA has failed to do: stop Iran from ever acquiring nuclear weapons and protect the American people and our allies from the world’s leading state sponsor of terror.
The author is the president and CEO of The Israel Project.
1c)Clashes Paused as Gaza Buries Dead, World Slams Israel
1. Palestinians in Gaza spent the day burying their dead for now. Hamas calls for further marches on the border petered out as a mere 400 Palestinians showed up. Nevertheless, the IDF remained braced for Naqba Day violence to spread to the West Bank.
Shortly before this roundup was published, the IDF announced that 24 of the 60 Palestinians killed were terrorists from Hamas or Islamic Jihad. The army also released details about how it prevented a mass border breach.
2. Israel threatens to resume targeted killings of Hamas leaders if riots continue.
3. Palestinians managed to trash their side of the Kerem Shalom border crossing. It’s the third time they destroyed equipment and infrastructure at the crossing where Israel transfers food, fuel, medicine and humanitarian aid to the Strip. (Who gains? Hamas.)
By the way, Palestinians refused to allow 14 trucks carrying food and diapers to enter Gaza today, the Times of Israel reports. (Medical supplies were allowed through.) The Times notes, “It was not immediately clear why the border officials, who are employed by the Palestinian Authority, would not accept the shipments.
4. Does the Media Really Understand the Gaza Violence? Thanks to the media, Gaza violence was always likely to be a win-win situation for Hamas. HonestReporting addressed a number of issues not raised in this roundup and the critique is must-read.
5. Your No-Hype Guide To The US Embassy Move To Jerusalem: Lost in the media hoopla over the US embassy move is a solid discussion of the law and history shaping this historic moment. HonestReporting’s Daniel Pomerantz explains in The Federalist.
6. Is the US Embassy Move Legal?: Israel must be treated according to the same legal standards as every other country on earth.
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