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September 2016

Posted by David Gerstman on September 15, 2016 0 Comments
The stroke suffered Tuesday by former Israeli president Shimon Peres offers an opportunity to look at his legacy to the State of Israel. Tuesday, was September 13, 23 years to the day that he stood on the White House lawn with Yitzchak Rabin and Yasser Arafat, overseen by President Bill Clinton, to sign the Oslo Accords, the peace treaty between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization. Anyone who is familiar Peres, Israel's ninth president (who retired from that post in 2014) and two-time prime minister, since then would think of him chiefly as the architect of peace with the Palestinians. Peres took his vision of peace and became an international celebrity in the process, even as the peace he pushed for never quite materialized. But to remember Peres simply for his never quite realized dream of peace with the Palestinians, is to overlook the essential role he  played in shaping Israel's military in the 1950's.

Posted by Mary Chastain on September 14, 2016 13 Comments
Members of the Virginia Citizens Defense League (VCDL) have sued producer Katie Couric and director Stephanie Soechtig for $12 million after an edit in their movie Under the Gun showed members could not answer a question. From Fox News:
"Katie Couric has publicly admitted that the film, which was presented to VCDL as a 'documentary,' was misleading and misrepresented VCDL," Phillip Van Cleave, President of the VCDL, tod FOXNews.com. "However, Couric and the other filmmakers have refused to fix the film or to even stop promoting and distributing it. The only way to hold Couric accountable was to file a lawsuit."
Here is the clip:

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on September 14, 2016 42 Comments
If there's anything good to come out of the 2016 dumpster fire, it's that charlatans, opportunists, and other sillies and n'er do wellers have been exposed. Such is the case of Sean Hannity, Fox News host and talk radio personality. Last month, Hannity had one fantastic Twitter meltdown, and prematurely blamed Republicans for a potential Trump loss. Hannity's unwavering fanboy loyalty to The Donald has turned his cable and radio shows into a Trump lovefest, complete with rebukes and threats to anyone who looks disapprovingly at his precious. The reader may remember when Hannity yelled at Senator Cruz (who was still in the presidential race at the time), for actually understanding how the whole primary delegate thing works. In any case, what's left of his integrity inched a little closer to the cliff Tuesday when Hannity threatened Never Trumpers with his karate skills.

Posted by Mark Finkelstein on September 14, 2016 3 Comments
Can you imagine the absolute outrage on the left if a conservative pundit suggested that a male Democrat candidate was a "pansy?" The cries of "homophobia" would echo through the land, amidst demands that the offending pundit be defenestrated. But on today's Morning Joe, Mika Brzezinski wondered out loud if Mike Pence is a "pansy." And you can just hear the liberal crickets gathering to say . . . absolutely nothing about it. Brzezinski's beef is that Pence, while denouncing David Duke, has declined to use Hillary's word—deplorable—to describe him, and has failed to be sufficiently critical of Putin. Mika claimed that Pence is "scared of his boss"--Donald Trump. So Mika, care to expand on your use of the word "pansy?"

Posted by William A. Jacobson on September 14, 2016 16 Comments
Gallup has released its survey of public trust in the media. The findings are confirmation of what we already knew: Democrats still mostly love the media, Republicans despise the media more than ever. First the top line number. Overall trust in the media is at a historical low and has fallen off a cliff: http://www.gallup.com/poll/195542/americans-trust-mass-media-sinks-new-low.aspx?utm_source=alert&utm_medium=email&utm_content=morelink&utm_campaign=syndication

Posted by Leslie Eastman on September 14, 2016 27 Comments
I will straight-up admit I am no fan of sports. Therefore, I have been mostly oblivious to the latest social justice drama playing out across the country involving San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick refusing to stand during the national anthem. The kabuki theater of #BlackLivesMater America-hate is now spreading beyond the San Francisco team.
...Kansas City Chiefs cornerback Marcus Peters raised his fist, four Miami Dolphins players knelt, and players from several other teams interlocked arms or raised their fists as an apparent sign of unity with Kaepernick, who began his protest last month during the NFL's preseason over what he said was the oppression of "black people and people of color."

Posted by Fuzzy Slippers on September 14, 2016 11 Comments
Despite France's recent acknowledgement that it fights Islamic terrorism on a daily basis and last year's warning that ISIS has targeted our refugee program, the Obama administration has announced that it is has raised the refugee target for 2017 to "at least 110,000." The Washington Post reports:
The Obama administration will seek to accept 110,000 refugees from around the world in fiscal 2017, according to Secretary of State John F. Kerry. Kerry briefed lawmakers Tuesday on the new goal, which is an increase from 85,000 in fiscal 2016 and 70,000 in the previous three years. It represents a 57 percent increase in refugee arrivals since 2015, as ongoing conflicts in Syria, Iraq and elsewhere have spurred an exodus of migrants seeking asylum in Europe, Canada and other regions.

Posted by Mary Chastain on September 14, 2016 20 Comments
The hacker Guccifer 2.0 released more documents from the DNC through a person at The Future of Cyber Security Europe conference in London. The documents show evidence of pay to play with donors in order to become ambassadors and staging TV protests. Guccifer also wanted to use this information to show the vulnerabilities within the system. Guccifer shot to fame over the summer when he released documents that showed the DNC conspiring against presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT). Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz resigned as chairwoman right before the DNC convention.

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on September 14, 2016 2 Comments

After Hillary's frightening health episode Sunday, Donald Trump announced plans to release his own detailed medical records. Of all places, Trump chose the "Dr. Oz Show" to unveil his portrait of health. The awkward plan as it was original explained, was for Dr. Oz would reveal...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on September 14, 2016 3 Comments
Recently I have started making the point that BDS is a Settler Colonial Ideology that invades, conquers and subjugates other causes. Addressing the destruction of the American Indian Studies Department at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign after its leadership aligned itself with BDS and intersectionality theory, I recently wrote:
But as with the Black Lives Matters, LGBT, environmental and other movements, BDS proved damaging. BDS was capable of taking over the intellectual territory of other peoples, but it was not for the benefit of any movement other than BDS. It’s time for a reboot of terminology. Israel is not a settler colonial nation, but BDS is a settler colonial ideology.
[caption id="attachment_182766" align="alignnone" width="600"]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ff3d0E_PG-Y [Co-founder of BDS, Omar Barghouti, objecting to 'normalization' between Arabs and Jews][click image for video][/caption]While a new way of looking at the BDS movement, and turning around its false accusation that Israel is a Settler Colonial nation, the facts of BDS taking over other movements is something I have been documenting for years.

Posted by New Neo on September 14, 2016 60 Comments
Hillary Clinton's wobble Sunday at the 9/11 ceremony has been the talk of the news cycle, and once her camp put out the word that she had been diagnosed with pneumonia there's been a great deal of speculation about the likelihood of that. Here's a summary of the medical announcement Clinton's doctor made:
Clinton has had an allergy-related cough for some time, and during an examination on Friday, the Democratic nominee was diagnosed with pneumonia, put on antibiotics, and told to take time out to rest. She became overheated and dehydrated during Sunday morning's event, which led her to collapse. She's now home in Chappaqua and on the road to recovery.
We have no way of knowing if this is true or another lie. Only a doctor who has examined Hillary Clinton and done the appropriate tests could answer that question. But let's take a look at some possibilities.

Posted by Mark Finkelstein on September 14, 2016 15 Comments
How deeply has Joe Scarborough dived into Hillary's tank? On today's Morning Joe, Scarborough offered Hillary a script of how she should attack "right-wing Republicans." Howard Dean was so impressed by Scarborough's work on Hillary's behalf that he exclaimed "I actually think you could actually be her speechwriter. That's exactly what she should be saying. I'm sure you don't want that job, but I'm just saying, you know?" Howard, don't be so sure Scarborough doesn't want that job. Sure looked this morning like Joe was auditioning for a spot in Hillary's West Wing.

Posted by Mike LaChance on September 14, 2016 34 Comments
Last fall at Yale University, an administrator and professor named Nicholas Christakis, Master of Silliman College at Yale was confronted by a mob of angry students over a nontroversy regarding Halloween costumes and cultural appropriation. Christakis and his wife, who also worked at the school, ultimately resigned over this. We covered the story, see here and here. New videos of the confrontation have been posted online by Tablet Magazine which shed new light on the situation. It was much worse than anyone knew.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on September 13, 2016 6 Comments
I reported yesterday how one of the most extreme BDS groups, the U.S. Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation, was scheduled to hold an event on Capitol Hill on Friday. The U.S. Campaign is behind a lot of anti-Israel efforts, such as the demonstrations at the Democratic National Convention this summer. https://www.facebook.com/endthe0ccupation/videos/10154068584854442/ The event was first disclosed in an article in The Free Beacon, which noted that no Congressman would admit to sanctioning the event, which would have been necessary for the room to be reserved.
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