Posts

Trump’s Jerusalem Declaration Sparks Talk of 3rd Temple

/0 Comments/in , /by

While Muslims jeer, Israelis cheer President Trump’s Jerusalem declaration, prompting Jewish religious activists to suggest building the Third Temple is closer to reality than ever before.

“What he did … was an enormous step in bringing the Temple,” said Asaf Fried, official spokesman for the United Temple Movement, an association of organizations working towards making the Third Temple a reality . . .

Fried sees Trump’s role similar to the one played by Cyrus, the Persian king who ended the Babylonian exile and helped build the Second Jewish Temple.

“There have been amazing advances towards bringing the Temple this year. It was clear that Trump was part of that process, guided by Hashem (God),” Fried declared . . .

“One year ago, the Sanhedrin called on Trump to build the Temple as Cyrus did 2,000 years ago,” [Rabbi Hillel Weiss] said. “He has clearly moved in this direction but there is still a long way to go and many pitfalls that could prevent that from happening. Trump is facing enormous political pressures. The borders of Jerusalem are still open to negotiation. The Temple Mount is still not a settled issue and the United Nations is working hard at trying to convince the world the Jews have no place there. If Trump is to succeed, the Jews have to come together in unity in order for him to remain strong.” (Read more from “Trump’s Jerusalem Declaration Sparks Talk of 3rd Temple” HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

Fusion GPS Tried to Tie Trump to Clinton Pedophile Pal as Part of Smear Campaign

/0 Comments/in , /by

Fusion GPS, the opposition research firm whose Democrat-financed Russia dossier fueled an FBI investigation into Donald Trump, pitched other stories about the Republican presidential candidate to Washington reporters, including an attempt to tie him to a convicted pedophile who was once buddies with former President Bill Clinton.

Journalist sources told The Washington Times that Fusion founder Glenn Simpson pushed the idea of a close relationship between Mr. Trump and Jeffrey Epstein, who pleaded guilty in 2008 to soliciting sex from an underage girl.

The Trump-Epstein link appears purely social, far short of Mr. Clinton’s 20-plus plane rides on Epstein’s “Lolita Express” private jet around the globe in the early 2000s.

Ken Silverstein, the reporter who ultimately wrote an Epstein-Trump report, confirmed to The Times that Fusion had sourced the story. Mr. Silverstein, founder and editor of WashingtonBabylon.com who wrote the story for Vice.com, defended Mr. Simpson as a solid source of information that must first be confirmed.

For years, Fusion GPS has been an influential hidden hand in Washington, with entree into the city’s most powerful news bureaus. (Read more from “Fusion GPS Tried to Tie Trump to Clinton Pedophile Pal as Part of Smear Campaign” HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

Trump, Mattis Turn Military Loose on ISIS, Leaving Terror Caliphate in Tatters

/0 Comments/in , /by

Hundreds of ISIS fighters had just been chased out of a northern Syrian city and were fleeing through the desert in long convoys, presenting an easy target to U.S. A-10 “warthogs.”

But the orders to bomb the black-clad jihadists never came, and the terrorists melted into their caliphate — living to fight another day. The events came in August 2016, even as then-Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump was vowing on the campaign trail to let generals in his administration crush the organization that, under President Obama, had grown from the “jayvee team” to the world’s most feared terrorist organization.

“I will…quickly and decisively bomb the hell out of ISIS,” Trump, who would name legendary Marine Corps Gen. James Mattis as secretary of defense, promised. “We will not have to listen to the politicians who are losing the war on terrorism.”

Just over a year later, ISIS has been routed from Iraq and Syria with an ease and speed that’s surprised even the men and women who carried out the mission. Experts say it’s a prime example of a campaign promise kept. President Trump scrapped his predecessor’s rules of engagement, which critics say hamstrung the military, and let battlefield decisions be made by the generals in the theater, and not bureaucrats in Washington.

At its peak, ISIS held land in Iraq and Syria that equaled the size of West Virginia, ruled over as many as 8 million people, controlled oilfields and refineries, agriculture, smuggling routes and vast arsenals. It ran a brutal, oppressive government, even printing its own currency. (Read more from “Trump, Mattis Turn Military Loose on ISIS, Leaving Terror Caliphate in Tatters” HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

David Brock May Be Illegally Funding an Effort to Impeach Trump

/0 Comments/in , /by

David Brock’s Media Matters for America appears to be granting hundreds of thousands of dollars in charitable funds to political groups that are trying to impeach the president and unseat Republicans across the nation.

Brock’s Media Matters for America is a registered 501(c)3 non-profit organization that has tax-exempt status. That tax-exempt status comes with an important caveat: the non-profit is barred from participating in political activity–funding or otherwise–that is in support or opposition to a candidate for office.

Media Matters for America granted $200,000 in 2016 to a Brock organization, though it is unclear if it was American Bridge 21st Century Foundation or a super PAC sharing its name, American Bridge 21st Century PAC, according to the non-profit’s 2016 financial statements and filings with the IRS obtained by The Daily Caller News Foundation.

Both organizations have a history of engaging in political behavior, as TheDCNF exclusively reported in October. Brock’s organizations face a Federal Election Commission complaint detailing an alleged scheme to hide donor identities involving both the foundation and super PAC that allowed for the funneling of untraceable millions that can not be publicly traced to their donors toward initiatives against conservative and GOP causes around the nation.

Under the IRS code, all 501(c)3 non-profit organizations “are absolutely prohibited from directly or indirectly participating in, or intervening in, any political campaign on behalf of (or in opposition to) any candidate for elective public office.” (Read more from “David Brock May Be Illegally Funding an Effort to Impeach Trump” HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

Spread the Swamp? Trump Administration Wants to Move Government Offices out of Washington

/0 Comments/in , /by

Amid the talk of draining swamps, restoring political might to blue-collar America and turning off the spigot of taxpayer cash that showers Washington, a familiar battle cry is ricocheting through this city: Move the bureaucrats out.

It has the ring of a Trumpian fantasy. Dislodge arms of the federal government from Washington and reattach them in faraway places, spreading the wealth generated by these well-paid agency workforces and forcing senior bureaucrats to face the people they affect.

But the idea has established populist roots that spread across party lines, and they are reemerging at this unique political moment.

The swaggering Interior secretary from Montana is putting the finishing touches on his plan to move the headquarters of three large public lands agencies to the West. The Stanford economist representing Silicon Valley in Congress sees opportunity to strategically seed regions of the country with pieces of the federal bureaucracy that can benefit them — and that they can benefit. The unlikely prospect of locating the Department of Transportation in Los Angeles is dangled by Republicans eager to show this crusade has bipartisan cred. (Read more from “Spread the Swamp? Trump Administration Wants to Move Government Offices out of Washington” HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

Trump’s ‘Extreme Vetting’ Sparks Dramatic Refugee Shift

/0 Comments/in , /by

President Donald Trump has radically changed the U.S. refugee program, as a lower admissions cap and tighter vetting procedures have led to a sharp decline in both the number of people admitted and the share of Muslims in the refugee population.

The Trump administration restarted refugee admissions in late October after the end of a 120-day suspension that was part of the revised travel ban. In the five weeks since the suspension was lifted, the U.S. admitted 40 percent fewer people than it did in the final five weeks the ban was in effect, reports Reuters, citing State Department data.

The figures show how the administration’s new vetting procedures have slowed refugee admissions to a relative trickle compared to the situation under former President Barack Obama’s administration.

U.S. immigration officials are collecting more biographical data, in addition to running applicants through law enforcement and intelligence databases, according to new guidelines laid out in October. Officials also comb through applicants’ social media posts to look for discrepancies between what they have said publicly and what they reveal during their personal interviews.

The new process includes a 90-day review period for 11 countries — Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Libya, Mali, North Korea, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Syria and Yemen. During that period, which began Oct. 25, refugee admissions from those countries are allowed on a case-by-case basis only, a slowdown that has contributed to the decline in overall admissions. (Read more from “Trump’s ‘Extreme Vetting’ Sparks Dramatic Refugee Shift” HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

Mueller’s Investigation Just Got Some Insurance

/0 Comments/in , /by

The Dec. 1 plea deal struck with President Trump’s former national security adviser, Michael Flynn, marked a big step forward in Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation. It may also have provided some protection for Mueller against being fired by the president—and helped ensure that his probe will continue, even if one day he’s not leading it.

Flynn pleaded guilty to one count of lying to federal agents about his communications with the Russian ambassador last December. Given the other potential crimes that Flynn may have committed, including his failure to disclose that he was being paid millions of dollars by a Turkish company while serving as a top official in the White House, the relatively light charge signaled to many that Flynn had something significant worth sharing.

As Mueller’s probe has gotten closer to Trump’s inner orbit, speculation has risen over whether Trump might find a way to shut it down. The Flynn deal may make that harder. For one thing, it shows that Mueller is making progress. “Any rational prosecutor would realize that in this political environment, laying down a few markers would be a good way of fending off criticism that the prosecutors are burning through money and not accomplishing anything,” says Samuel Buell, a former federal prosecutor now at Duke Law School.

The Flynn plea also makes it difficult for Trump to fire Mueller without inviting accusations of a cover-up and sparking a constitutional crisis, says Michael Weinstein, a former Department of Justice prosecutor now at the law firm Cole Schotz. “There would be a groundswell, it would look so objectionable, like the Saturday Night Massacre with Nixon,” Weinstein says, referring to President Richard Nixon’s attempt to derail the Watergate investigation in 1973 by firing special prosecutor Archibald Cox. (Read more from “Mueller’s Investigation Just Got Some Insurance” HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

Trump to Undergo Physical Exam After Slurred Speech

/0 Comments/in , , /by

The day after President Trump slurred through part of a speech, the White House announced that he will undergo a physical exam.

Trump will take the exam at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Washington, D.C., early next year and the results will be made public, press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Thursday.

Questions about the President’s well-being were raised on Wednesday after he garbled the tail-end of a speech about moving the U.S. embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Trump’s cap-off — “God bless the United States” — was barely audible because of the speech flub . . .

“The President’s throat was dry, nothing more than that,” [Sanders] told reporters. (Read more from “Trump to Undergo Physical Exam After Slurred Speech” HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

Israeli PM Netanyahu Praises ‘Historic’ Decision by Trump

/0 Comments/in , /by

On Wednesday, President Donald Trump formally recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and directed the State Department to begin the process of relocating the U.S. embassy in Tel Aviv to the holy city.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu responded to Trump’s decision, expressing profound gratitude on behalf of the people of Israel.

Israeli ambassador to the U.S. Ron Dermer also thanked President Trump, tweeting an image of an Israeli flag and a U.S. flag displayed proudly next to each other on the old city wall of Jerusalem.

Other countries have expressed an interest in following the United States’ lead and recognizing Jerusalem as the eternal capital of the sovereign nation of Israel.

This is a historic day for the sovereign nations of the United States and Israel. (For more from the author of “Israeli PM Netanyahu Praises ‘Historic’ Decision by Trump” please click HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

Trump Impeachment Vote Fails Miserably

/0 Comments/in , /by

House Democrats overwhelmingly joined Republicans on Wednesday to defeat an attempt to impeach President Donald Trump. But 58 Democrats supported the bid to consider impeachment over the objections of House Democratic leaders, who viewed the measure as a distraction in a Republican-controlled Congress.

The motion to sideline the measure — killing the effort — was approved 364-58, with four Democrats voting present.

The vote was forced by Rep. Al Green (D-Texas), who introduced articles of impeachment describing Trump as a bigot who incites hate and has demeaned the presidency.

“Donald John Trump, by causing such harm to the society of the United States is unfit to be president and warrants impeachment, trial and removal from office,” Green said on the House floor as he introduced the articles.

But Green, a seven-term, Houston-area lawmaker, said his conscience compelled him to push forward with the measure, even though he acknowledged he was unlikely to succeed. (Read more from “Trump Impeachment Vote Fails Miserably” HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.