Media hatred for Dr. Ben Carson

The curious case of black advocates and MSM hatred for Dr. Ben Carson from Lloyd Marcus

Dr. Ben Carson - Presidential Candidate - 2016

To you remaining black members of my family who take issue with me being an outspoken black conservative Republican, I ask you ponder the following. Comedian Arsenio Hall was known for his comedic bit, "Things That Make You Go Hmmm..."

Well, here are a few facts regarding self proclaimed black advocates and the mainstream media's disdain for Dr Ben Carson that make you go hmmm.

Summarizing, Dr Carson's life is remarkable and inspirational. He grew up fatherless in the hood with his hardworking single mom. She turned off the TV and ord. ered Ben to read and give her written book reports. Though illiterate, Carson's mom pretended to read his book reports.

This troubled black kid from the hood overcame his demons and grew up to become a world renowned neurosurgeon. A movie was made about Dr Carson's life titled, "Gifted Hands: The Ben Carson Story" starring Oscar winner Cuba Gooding Jr as Dr Carson.

If Dr Martin Luther King, Jr were alive today, Dr Carson would epitomize his dream of blacks (Negros) being proud dignified contributors to society in America. So why does Black Lives Matter, the mainstream media, the NAACP and the Democratic Party despise and seek to destroy Dr Carson? Since entering the race for the White House, self-proclaimed black advocates and media launched an all-out no-tactic-or-lie-is-too-low campaign to knock Dr Carson out of the race for president.

But guess who supposed advocates for black empowerment rallied behind and transformed into heroic icons of civil rights? The answer is black criminals; Treyvon Martin, Michael Brown and Freddie Gray. Keep in mind that the supposed advocates for blacks that I mentioned hate Dr Carson. Shouldn't that make a thinking black person go hmmm?

The Black Lives Matter movement was founded on the lie that a white cop shot Michael Brown while surrendering with his hands up. Based on the evidence, Brown robbed a convenience store, assaulted the clerk and was shot attacking a cop inside his police car. Brown was trying to take the officer's gun.

And yet, the mainstream media and Democrats ignored the grand jury's report and continues to promote the lie that Brown was gunned down by a racist white cop while on his way to his grandma's house.

Black Lives Matter, mainstream media and other so-called black advocates persist in ignoring facts; such as in only 35 years 324,000 blacks have been killed by fellow blacks. As a matter of fact, 93% of blacks are killed by other blacks. Racist white cops "ain't" the problem y'all.

Drug dealer Freddie Gray had a record as long as your arm. Treyvon Martin was also a prolific thug. So again I ask, why would so-called advocates for black empowerment make saints of black criminals while relentlessly attempting to demonize Dr Carson?

Dr Carson's path of education, hard work, Christian faith and right choices led him to extraordinary success and possibly even the Oval Office. Martin, Brown and Gray's criminal choices made them menaces to society and led to their early deaths.

Wouldn't true black advocates encourage black youths to mimic Dr Carson rather that elevating criminals Martin, Brown and Gray to black superstar status?

Common sense tells us that self proclaimed black advocates and the mainstream media obviously have another agenda other than their stated justice/empowerment for blacks.

The truth is these slime-ball so-called black advocates and media hacks do not give a rats' derriere about blacks. If they did, they would honestly deal with the self-induced issues plaguing the black community; epidemic school dropouts, drug abuse, black on black crime and out-of-wedlock births. But no, black advocates and media would rather blame conservatives, Republicans and white America.

Black Lives Matter, mainstream media and Democrats want blacks to conclude that Martin, Brown and Gray were the products of being victimized by racist white America; particularly conservatives and Republicans. That is a lie. Life is about choices. Circumstances tend to reveal who you are inside.

My 87 year old black dad also grew up poor and fatherless in the Baltimore hood. As a little boy, Dad chose to earn money shining shoes on weekends at the Greyhound Bus Station. One of his buddies chose crime; two kids in similar circumstances making different choices. Dad was taught responsibility at an early age.

I could hear the pride in dad's voice as he told me how he spent his first earnings. Out of $1.25 he made one weekend, dad paid rent to Aunt Nee, took in a movie with candy and popcorn and purchased a t-shirt. Dad bragged to a friend, "Yeah man, I'm buyin' my own clothes now."

I heard through the family grapevine that some relatives are embarrassed by me publicly proclaiming that blacks are not victims of racist America. To them I say, "Sorry guys, but we are not." My goodness, all one has to do is look around.

Racism along with every other sin will exist until Jesus returns. However, the notion that blacks are suffering, held back, routinely murdered by cops and victimized by "white privilege" is absurd. These narratives are manipulative tools to keep blacks voting for Democrats.

Suckered blacks believe voting for Democrats will keep racist white America and Republicans at bay. After 50 years of voting for Democrats, black life continues to spiral downward in cites controlled by Democrats.

Blacks from the hood like my dad and Dr Carson who achieve their American dreams contradict the Democrats' and mainstream media's it-sucks-to-be-black-in-America story line. The undeniable truth is the American dream is alive and well for all who choose to go for it. The only real stumbling block for blacks is Obama's economy.

So why has the mainstream media sacrificed its journalistic principles to help Democrats win black votes? The answer is the media and Democrats are on the same page; socialist/progressive – both desire an America in which the majority is dependent upon and controlled by a tyrannical big government.

Oh and both have a bug up their derriere about Christians. Democrats and mainstream media will vehemently deny it, but it is true.

In essence, elitist mainstream media and Democrats want George Orwell's novel "1984" – a nation of supplicants subservient to Big Brother. These truths should make logical thinkers go hmmm.

Lloyd Marcus, The Unhyphenated American
Chairman, Conservative Campaign Committee

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Syrians NOT welcome in Gulf Muslim States

From the files of Richard Pollock at Freedom Force

Syrians - KEEP OUT

While the United States and Europe argue over how many Syrian refugees to allow in, the richest Persian Gulf states have accepted exactly zero.

The Muslim countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council that include Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and United Arab Emirates steadfastly refuse to accept any Syrian refugees.

Amnesty International, USA (AIUSA) tells The Daily Caller News Foundation they have not accepted a single refugee since the armed Syrian conflict erupted years ago.

“The Gulf States have accepted zero refugees registered with the United Nations and administered through the U.N. resettlement program. They have accepted zero,” Geoffrey Mock, the Syrian country coordinator for AIUSA, tells TheDCNF.

Nadim Houry, the Human Rights Watch deputy director for the Middle East and North Africa, calls it “shameful.”

The reluctance of Muslim countries to accept Syrians also may make it much harder for Americans to accept President Barack Obama’s proposal to resettle 10,000 refugees throughout the United States.

The Gulf states can be a natural new home for many of the Syrians. The Persian Gulf countries are fabulously wealthy from oil revenues, have strong economies, speak the same Arabic language and offer a familiar culture for the displaced Syrians.

A Fox News poll taken after the Paris attacks reports 67 percent oppose taking in any of the 10,000 Syrian refugees Obama wishes to resettle in the United States. Seventy-seven percent replied that “at least one of those coming through this process will be a terrorist who will succeed in carrying out an attack on U.S. soil.”

A Harris poll taken about a week after the Paris attacks shows that six out of 10 (61 percent) oppose the president’s plan to accept 10,000 refugees. Going deeper, it shows that 63 percent fear any Syrian refugee admitted to the U.S. could be connected to terrorism.

Read the comments of Presidential candidate, Rand Paul here

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Vanderbilt Professor tells students "Grow Up"

From the files of Kelsey Harkneness @kelseyjharkness at the Daily Signal

Meet Professor Carol M. Swain

A black conservative professor who found herself the latest target of student protests nationwide has one thing to say to those calling for her to be suspended from the university where she teaches: “Grow up.”

Among other allegations, students accused Carol Swain, a professor of law and political science at Vanderbilt University for nearly 27 years, of “unprofessional intimidation on social media” and “discriminatory practices in the classroom.”

Swain actively posts her Christian conservative view points on her public Facebook page and website called BeThePeopleTV. She has authored numerous award-winning books and has been cited by the Supreme Court, according to her résumé.

But recently, her conservative values left her at odds with students on campus who started a petition demanding she be removed from the university.

Swain told The Daily Signal in a phone interview on Friday the petition, posted on Change.org, originally demanded that she be fired but has since been amended to read in part:

We are petitioning that Carol Swain be temporarily suspended from her position as professor of political science and law at Vanderbilt University pending an investigation into student allegations of unprofessional intimidation on social media, discriminatory practices in the classroom, and unclear representation as a Public Figure with invocations of the Vanderbilt name on her Facebook page.

Over the past few years, Professor Carol Swain has become synonymous with bigotry, intolerance, and unprofessionalism. While Swain first and foremost has a right to her personal beliefs and the right to freedom of speech within and outside of the classroom, it recently came to the attention of the Vanderbilt community that Carol Swain has let her hate-filled prejudices negatively impact her work, our student body, and Vanderbilt’s reputation.

Swain said the students behind the protests never took any of her classes, all of which are elective.

“My classes are elective, so no one has to take any of my classes, and no one has to go to my blog page or go to my Facebook,” she said. “I feel that I have been defamed by the students and the petition has been filled with lies, and they ought to be held accountable for what they’ve done.”

Those students, she said, “don’t get to decide whose speech is more valuable than someone else’s.”

Since its release, the petition garnered more than 1,500 signatures. A petition in support of Swain has gained more than 1,000 signatures.

In response to the protests, Nicholas S. Zeppos, the chancellor of Vanderbilt University, released a statement that in part read:

Professor Swain’s opinions are her own. They do not reflect the opinions of the university in any way. They are not my opinions, the opinions of the provost, or the opinions of university leadership.

Vanderbilt University is committed to diversity, inclusion, and freedom from discrimination. Ensuring that our campus is a safe, welcoming, and supportive environment for every member of the Vanderbilt community has been, and will always be, our top priority.

Zeppos did not address whether or not the university planned to investigate allegations of discrimination made against Swain. According to the petition, those allegations include:

• Firstly, Professor Carol Swain has failed to clearly separate her role on her Facebook page as a “Public Figure” from the Vanderbilt name, creating a situation in which the public may misconstrue her as speaking on behalf of the University. We want to make it clear that Carol Swain in no way represents our alma mater, regardless of the fact that she teaches here.
• Secondly, there have been several instances in which students have contacted Professor Swain to hold an intellectual debate with her, and in return, she has resorted to name-calling and posting their personal contact information on her public page. In many cases, students claimed this led to public shaming, intimidation, and/or harassment by her followers.
• Additionally, several students who claim to have taken Professor Swain’s class(es) have expressed concerns that minority students enrolled in her class(es) – especially those who are LGBTQIA+ and/or non-Christians – expose themselves to unfair assessment in-class and may receive lower grades than their peers simply because of their identities. At a University that prides itself on fairness, diversity and inclusion, these allegations are entirely unacceptable if true.

Swain, who is currently on sabbatical, called those allegations “lies” and said she “earned the right” to call herself a professor on Facebook.

“They don’t own the word professor,” she said. “Professor is a word, and I’ve earned the right to call myself a professor.”

Swain did admit to paraphrasing a “threat” she received from a student via Facebook and said she shared a link to that student’s public Facebook on her own page. Swain has since deleted that post.

“Maybe I shouldn’t have done that, but the student contacted me,” Swain said. “My point in showing it was to show the level of disrespect and what I have to put up with at Vanderbilt University with this person saying I was a disgrace.”

“It’s something that has changed in the student body, that they think they can control what people do, not just inside the classroom, but outside the classroom,” Swain said.

While she’s strong in her views, Swain said the situation has taken a personal toll.

“It hurts more to be attacked because the students have been my life. That’s, to me, the sole reason why it’s been so distressing on a personal level.”

But if it causes people to look at the “attacks” on freedom of speech and freedom of religion, Swain says she’s “not sorry about it.”

“I’m very concerned about what’s happening across the nation, and I believe university administrators have lost control and that they’re making a serious mistake when they give into students using those 1960s, 1970s protest strategies,” she said.

After the University of Missouri president was forced to resign earlier this week over his handling of cases involving discrimination, protests have spread nationwide. Vanderbilt University is among a group of colleges and universities facing student protests over alleged incidents of racism and other types of discrimination.

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The Refugee Vetting Process Will Fail

From the files of Dan Bongino at The Conservative Review

Dan Bongino at The Conservative Review

In a recent interview I did on the Sean Hannity radio show, I challenged liberal talk-radio show host Leslie Marshall on her position supporting the intake of more refugees from Syria, despite the recognized flaws in the U.S. government's screening process.

While I respect Ms. Marshall's willingness to take a position on the issue, what I find perplexing is the tendency for Ms. Marshall, and others on her side, to confidently defend that position while having little to no inside knowledge of how the Syrian "vetting" process works.

Their overconfidence in the government databases used to screen the Syrian refugees for potential terrorism ties may stem from an ideological blindness to government shortcomings, or it may stem from a misguided belief that opposition to the plan is being guided by xenophobia, rather than common sense.

Throughout my twelve years as a Secret Service agent I conducted a number of financial crimes investigations, one specifically which intersected with an ongoing FBI terror-group investigation. As my fellow agents and I worked these cases, I learned a lot about the investigative capabilities of the U.S. government, as well as its many limitations.

As the lengthy and complex financial crimes case with a terror-nexus revealed, the U.S. government's databases are limited by the information inputs. This may seem obvious to those without ideological blinders on but this simple fact has evaded many supporters of the Syrian refugee intake program.

Many of us living in the United States have grown accustomed to our personal information being stored in both private and government databases, but this information infrastructure is not indicative of how information finds its way into public and privately searchable databases in a country such as Syria.

As FBI Director James Comey stated in an October congressional hearing, "We can only query against that which we have collected... And so if someone has never made a ripple in the pond in Syria in a way that would get their identity or their interest reflected in our database, we can query our database until the cows come home, but there will be nothing show up because we have no record of them."

Read the entire article at The Conservative Review

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Dan Bongino is the bestselling author of the book Life Inside the Bubble and is a Contributing Editor at Conservative Review. He was the 2012 and 2014 Republican nominee for the United States Senate and 6th congressional district in Maryland. He served for over a decade as a special agent in the United States Secret Service, and currently owns a security consulting business. 

You can follow Dan Bongino on his website, at Facebook or on Twitter.

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Hope for our water woes found in fracking

From the files of Marita Noon at Energy Makes America Great, Inc.

Marita Noon at Energy Makes America Great

For years, water, or, more accurately, its scarcity, has been predicted to be the next doomsday scenario.

In 1994, the American Philosophical Society published a book bearing the title: Is water our next crisis? In 2007, NBC featured: Crisis feared as U.S. water supplies dry up. More recently, in 2011, NPR did a story on Water: The Epic Struggle for Wealth, Power and Civilization—a new book in which the author posits: “water is surpassing oil as the world's scarcest critical resource.”

This year, a Business Insider (BI) report called “water scarcity problems” a “looming national issue.” In September, the Associated Press declared: “The water crisis is already here.”

Hydraulic fracturing is often blamed for exacerbating water concerns. The BI states: “In Colorado … they’re keeping an eye on the effects of fracking on the state’s water supply. Using water for fracking could contribute to local shortages in the drought-prone state.”

Addressing the water problem, NBC offers hope: “Technology holds promise.” While not specifically referencing fracking, the 2007 feature couldn’t have predicted how integrally linked ever-improving fracking technologies and hope for our water woes could be.

Instead of being the perceived problem, the oil-and-gas industry could just be the solution.

Water is important to the hydraulic fracturing process. Fresh water is used to help transport the tiny grains of sand deep underground where they are used to hold open the fissures in the fracked rock—allowing the oil or natural gas to flow at economic rates.

When the resource is extracted, it comes out of the ground with not only the water that was pumped in, but also with “produced water” from deep in the earth. This water mixture—that contains both the chemicals used to reduce friction in the frack job, and very high concentrations of salt, other minerals and metals—needs to be disposed of.

Historically, the waste water—which can have as high a ratio as 10 barrels of water for every barrel of oil—has been trucked off-site and then injected thousands of feet underground into “disposal wells.” The disposal process is expensive and could potentially be the source of the spate of small earthquakes being experienced in Oklahoma.

The industry has been in search of a solution that would improve both safety and the bottom line.

Two years ago, I wrote about water reprocessing technologies that were able to clean the water at the well site so that it could be used again, and again, for hydraulic fracturing—virtually eliminating waste water for many scenarios.

As technology does, it is continuing to improve.

What was “waste water,” can now have new life irrigating crops in the arid southwest—or, at least, that is the apparent result of a research project conducted by the Texas A&M AgriLife Research team, the Texas Railroad Commission (RRC), and a coalition of oil-and-gas companies. The initial results look very promising.

Bill Weathersby, Chairman and CEO at Energy Water Solutions—a company that uses a patented technology to successfully recycle more than 8 million barrels, so far, of waste water—spearheaded the effort. Katie Lewis, PhD, designed the experiment at the AgriLife Experimentation Station near Pecos, TX.

Anadarko Petroleum brought the waste water from a nearby well and Gibsons provided the tanks to store the water on site. The RRC permitted the use of the recycled water for the noncommercial cotton crop, which was planted on June 2, 2015. The size of the project was designed around the amount of water permitted.

Portions of the controlled field were watered with well water, while others received a blend of 1 part recycled water and 4 parts well water. About 30,000 barrels of recycled water were used for the project.

I had the opportunity to see the field, feel the cotton, and talk with Lewis—who told me the cotton grown with the blended water is doing as well as the cotton irrigated with well water. Soil analyses have demonstrated that there should not be adverse effects when irrigating with the blended water.

The cotton will be tested for quality and strength. The soil will be sampled to be sure there is no contamination. Full reports on the economic and agricultural aspects will be produced.

Everyone involved is extremely optimistic and enthusiastic about the results.

Commissioner David Porter, RRC Chairman, describes the project as: “An important first step,” and said it was “a perfect example of the collaboration we need” and “evidence that free markets do work.”

Assuming the test results are as expected and the project expands next year, Porter told me the RRC will likely permit more recycled water. Weathersby hopes more companies will participate in additional testing to expand the project. Lewis would like to have a test field with differing ratios of recycled and well water: 4:1, 3:1, 2:1 and 1:1.

Ultimately, participants hope the Texas legislature will use the results to change the law to allow the use of recycled water for agriculture.

While this project and collaboration are unique, there are many other companies with water recycling technologies and numerous other tests being conducted.

One of the new technologies being tested is developed by Kaizen Fluid Systems and uses an electromechanical process that can break down the molecular bonding agents to produce clean water with commercially viable by-products and no toxic waste stream.

Kaizen’s system, which is scalable to meet the client’s needs or volume requirements, is especially effective in North Dakota’s Bakken Field where the waste water disposal costs are very high and produced water is too salty to be recycled cost effectively by evaporation or reverse osmosis systems.

The type of hydraulic fracturing frequently used in the Bakken, cross link gel, requires exceptionally clean water with no salt or metals, and tests found that the Kaizen technology was able to deliver.

The model is currently being scaled up and soon will be available for wide-scale wellsite use—with the mobile system processing 50 gallons a minute and the fixed base: 300 gallons per minute or 10,000 barrels (420,000 gallons) per day. Additionally, Sandy McDonald, Kaizen’s CEO, told me their system removes present and future environmental liabilities for the producers.

Recycling produced water and reusing it for hydraulic fracturing and/or agricultural use provides more water for everyone’s use, while eliminating the need for disposal wells.

The oil-and-gas industry’s search to do things better and more cost effectively, could provide the answer to America’s water woes.

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The author of Energy Freedom, Marita Noon serves as the executive director for Energy Makes America Great Inc. and the companion educational organization, the Citizens’ Alliance for Responsible Energy. 

Marita hosts a weekly radio program: America’s Voice for Energy - which expands on the content of her weekly column. Follow her @EnergyRabbit.

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If Obama Had a Son

From the files of Judson Phillips at The Tea Party Nation

Judson Phillips

If Obama had a son, anyone want to bet he would end up like Jabari Dean?

 Dean is not a household name. In fact, most of the media is trying to bury this story.

The story is not even on CNN’s front page this morning.

However, CNN thought it was important enough to put a story up about a US Marine who killed a transgendered individual in the Philippines.

Who is Jabari Dean?

From Fox News:

Authorities said a college student responsible for a mass shooting threat that forced the University of Chicago to cancel classes Monday posted that he would kill 16 white male students or staffers at the prestigious college to avenge the shooting death of a black teenager at the hands of a Chicago police officer last year.

Jabari R. Dean, 21, a student at the University of Illinois-Chicago, appeared in court Monday afternoon and did not issue a plea on a charge of transmitting a threat in interstate commerce. A federal criminal complaint said that Dean admitted to FBI agents that he had posted the threat Saturday, but took it down shortly after posting it.

The criminal complaint said that someone tipped off the FBI Sunday to a threat that was posted on a social media website. The FBI was unable to find the threat online, and was provided a screenshot by the person who reported the threat.

The Chicago Sun-Times reported that the posting on worldstarhiphop.com read as follows: "This is my only warning. At 10 a.m. on Monday mourning (sic) I am going to the campus quad of the University of Chicago.

I will be armed with a M-4 Carbine and 2 Desert Eagles all fully loaded. I will execute aproximately (sic) 16 white male students and or staff, which is the same number of time (sic) Mcdonald (sic) was killed. I then will die killing any number of white policemen that I can in the process. This is not a joke. I am to do my part to rid the world of the white devils. I expect you to do the same….”

Imagine if the rolls had been reversed. If it had been a white guy announcing he was going to go to a college campus and start killing black students.

We would never hear the end of it. Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton would be all over the news. Obama would issue a statement reminding America how racist this nation really is.

But this story does not fit the politically correct narrative so it will soon be swept down the memory hole.

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Syrian Orphan-o-Phobia

From the art studios of A.F. (Tony) Branco at Comically Incorrect.com

Start Your Day With a Laugh From Branco

"Move over Rembrandt, Picasso, Stan Lee, here comes Branco. Okay, I'm hyperventilating. Tony combines beautiful drawings with biting politically incorrect wit and laugh out loud humor." - Larry Elder - TV and Radio personality at at Fox News and KRLM AM 870

Lighten things up! Political discussions and debates don't always have to be deep and long-winded arguments with points and counter points. Sometimes we just need to take a step back from it all and have a good laugh.

With so many discouraging things happening in our country lately, that's the only thing we can do to keep from crying. Conservative artist Antonio Branco is a master at encapsulating deep and complex issues in a simple comic.

Antonio isn't afraid to say what he thinks.

• Editorial cartoonist
• Net Right Daily
• Legal Insurrection
• Liberty Alliance
• ConservativeDailyNews.com

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Russia hits Turkish convoy with ISIS weapons

Russian airstrikes hit Turkish convoy delivering weapons to ISIS in Syria and the Turkish news editor is prosecuted for blowing whistle on Turkey's alliance with ISIS from the files of Jim Kouri at COP Magazine

The incident involving the shooting down of a Russian warplane by the Turkish military may have had to do with Turkey's cooperation with the radical Islamic fighters in Syria and Russia's decision to help the Arab dictator Bashar al-Assad fight both the Islamists and the secular rebel fighters attempting to over-throw Assad.

In the aftermath of the Turkish military shooting down a Russian air force plane, the killing of its pilot, and the attack on a Russian rescue helicopter, the violence between those two nations is becoming more intensified, according to an American expert on radical Islam, Walter Anasara, a former police counter terrorism unit leader.

On Thanksgiving Day, Russian airstrikes blasted trucks which were allegedly transporting weapons and equipment from NATO member Turkey to the Muslim terrorists fighting in the war-torn city of Aleppo, Syria. News media in the Middle East indicate that this is not the first time such a scenario occurred, with Turkish intelligence officer assisting ISIS and Al Nusra Front, al-Qaida's Syrian offshoot.

"The shooting down of a Russian aircraft near the Syrian border was in line with Ankara’s struggle to establish itself as a dominant” power," retired US Army Major General Paul Vallely was quoted as saying by Iran's Press TV on Thursday.

General Vallely warned the United States and other NATO member nations that Turkey must be removed from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization because "it poses a big and important issue in many ways for other members."

Besides the Turkish convoy attack, the Syrian government air force and Russian warplanes also intensified their attacks on positions held by terrorists from the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) throughout Aleppo province.

"The Russian and Syrian airstrikes hit the Takfiri [Sunni] militants' positions in the Southern countryside of Aleppo. However, there were no immediate reports of... casualties among the terrorists," Lebanon's al-Mayadeen television reported.

Earlier on Wednesday, media reports suggested that the President Assad's Syrian Army and its Iranian military allies have made great strides in combating ISIS jihadists in the eastern section of Aleppo and managed to force ISIS fighters to retreat from the strategic Humaymah hilltop.

The media reports also claimed that the Syrian army, the country's National Defense Forces (NDF) and Lebanese-based Hezbollah fighters -- who are funded by and allied with Shiite Iran -- continued their joint anti-terrorism operation during fierce clashes with the Takfiri terrorists.

Takfiri is an Arabic term for a Sunni Muslim who accuses another Muslim from a different sect of apostasy. For example, Sunni Muslims believe Shiite Muslims are heretics.

Turkish news editor prosecuted for reporting on Turkey and ISIS dealings

A Turkish prosecutor asked a criminal court judge to jail the editor-in-chief of Turkey's Cumhuriyet newspaper while the editor awaits his trial for treason. The newspaper had published photographs of military weapons that were allegedly transported to Syria by agents of Turkey’s intelligence service.

In addition to editor-in-chief Can Dündar, the prosecutors are seeking the same pre-trial restrictions for Cumhuriyet’s correspondent in the city of Ankara.

The correspondent, Erdem Gül, according to Fars News Agency, and his boss arrived at an Istanbul court on Thursday, saying that they have come "to defend journalism.”

The articles published on Cumhuriyet's front page in May 2015, accused officers from Turkey’s National Intelligence Organization (MİT) of smuggling weapons -- hidden in convoys of trucks -- into Syria and that the smugglers were caught twice by President Bashar al-Assad's secret police.

The trucks were allegedly pulled over and searched by police officers, which was photographed and videotaped by person or persons unknown and turned over to Cumhuriyet.

According to the news story, the trucks were loaded with six steel containers containing 1,000 artillery shells, 50,000 machine gun rounds, 30,000 heavy machine gun rounds and 1,000 mortar shells.

The arms were reportedly delivered to extremist groups fighting against the Syrian government of President Assad, whom the Turkish government would like to see ousted from power.

The Turkish government denied the allegations and labeled the entire news story as being an act of “treasonous espionage.” During President Barack Obama's visit to Turkey on November 16, he either chose to ignore the intelligence regarding the alleged activities by the Turkish government or he continues to be unaware of what is occurring on the world stage.

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Jim Kouri, CPP, is founder and CEO of Kouri Associates, a homeland security, public safety and political consulting firm. Kouri appears regularly as on-air commentator for over 100 TV and radio news and talk shows,

To subscribe to Kouri's newsletter write to COPmagazine@aol.com and write "Subscription" on the subject line.

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Are Syrian Refugees Present-Day Pilgrims?

From the writings of Jeannie DeAngelis at The American Thinker

A Message from the Population of the Country of Turkey

This year, rather than allow Americans to enjoy turkey and stuffing without being badgered, President Obama chose to dumb down his Thanksgiving message by suggesting that Syrian refugees are present-day pilgrims.

Here's what historically inaccurate Barack had to say about the droves of Muslim refugees he plans to inject into a population the president deems no longer Judeo-Christian:

Nearly four centuries after the Mayflower set sail, the world is still full of pilgrims – men and women who want nothing more than the chance for a safer, better future for themselves and their families. What makes America America is that we offer that chance.

What Obama chose not to mention was that in 1620, when the Mayflower pilgrims fled England, they were escaping religious oppression similar to that being imposed on America by a president who acts like King Charles I of England.

Moreover, isn't this the same Barack Obama who normally condemns the Mayflower pilgrims for the sin of visiting "unseen disease, devastation, and violence" upon indigenous peoples?

Just last month, as part of a Columbus Day history lesson, the president reiterated what murderous refugee pilgrims from England did to the peace-loving natives by introducing "[p]reviously unseen disease, devastation and violence … [into] their lives."

In his Columbus Day 2015 presidential proclamation, Obama said that "as we pay tribute to the ways in which Columbus pursued ambitious goals – we also recognize the suffering inflicted upon Native Americans and we recommit to strengthening tribal sovereignty and maintaining our strong ties."

Determined to advance unity and forgiveness, the president took the opportunity presented on Columbus Day to point out that "[t]hough these early travels expanded the realm of European exploration, to many they also marked a time that forever changed the world for the indigenous peoples of North America."

So which is it, Mr. President? Did pilgrims wreak havoc on native peoples, or were they just persecuted refugees seeking a better life?

If Obama really believes that the Mayflower pilgrims were the bad guys, rather than learn from history, why is he chancing exposing Americans, via a new group of refugees, to devastating levels of modern-day "disease, devastation and violence"?

Rather than treat refugees with caution, instead, Barack Obama threatens and bullies the wary into welcoming millions of migrants he knows can't possibly be properly scrutinized. Not only that, but the president never mentions that there are already 1,000 soldiers of Allah on a U.S. watch list, and the FBI is "using elite surveillance teams to track at least 48 high-risk ISIS suspects."

This raises the following question: unless the president's goal is to level the playing field by ensuring that America reaps the sort of justice he thinks we've managed to evade since the pilgrims conquered Plymouth Rock – why deliver ISIS a similar opportunity to conquer the West?

As for "sharing the wealth," let's remember that although the president lives in a mansion with 132 rooms – 35 of which are bathrooms – Obama shares nothing. Yet in his Thanksgiving message, the president commended those who offer to house and feed refugees he knows full well cannot be vetted by a federal government busy sending Social Security checks to dead people.

In an attempt to shame those with extra bedrooms and full pantries, Obama shared a heartwarming Thanksgiving story about "[o]ne woman from Pennsylvania [who] wrote to [him] to say, 'Money is tight for us in my household. … But I have a guest room. I have a pantry full of food. We can do this.'"

Then, after citing one of the "57 states" he visited during his 2008 national tour, the president, who either disparages or redefines what it means to be an American, added that "[a]nother woman from Florida told [him that] her family's history dates back to the Mayflower – and she said that welcoming others is part of 'what it means to be an American.'"

Wait! The president saw fit to praise a descendant of the pilgrims he usually blames for delivering "unseen disease, devastation and violence" to Native Americans?

So in other words, according to Barack Obama, being generous toward what could develop into a future sleeper cell is now what it "means to be an American."

And while all this warm cultural correction and camaraderie is indeed charming, maybe someone should inform Mr. Obama that according to the National Geographic Kids politically correct account of the first Thanksgiving:

The peace between the Native Americans and settlers lasted for only a generation. The Wampanoag people do not share in the popular reverence for the traditional New England Thanksgiving. For them, the holiday is a reminder of betrayal and bloodshed.

With that in mind, and notwithstanding the potential for "betrayal and bloodshed," Obama implied that, whether they realize it or not, agreeable citizens will play a "small part" in helping to write a chapter in America's fundamentally transformative history that will inspire our enemies to celebrate.

Then, after politically exhausting his Thanksgiving Day message, Obama headed home to stuff his gullet with turkey, ham, and six different types of pie, none of which he shared with the guy who jumped the White House fence or with a family of resettled refugees.

Jeannie hosts a blog at www.jeannie-ology.com.

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The two wolves in our hearts

From the files of Ken LaRive's Facets

Read LaRive's Facets

I love my wife and yet at times we are at odds.

Even after almost 44 years together, and dating since she was 14.

How can it be that we could find anything at all to argue about?

Could it be that we know too much about each other? That there are unresolved differences that go so far back it is now subconscious?

And why have we had so many of our friends divorce?

From my 1988 diary...

We were discussing this matter a few days ago, and I mentioned something I had recently saw on a movie about having two wolves inside, one good and one evil. I told her that the stronger one is the one we feed... Well, it stopped us both cold.

It was such a profound thought, the conversation ended on a very positive note... Suddenly, all of the bottled up anger just melted away... It was gone, and I felt better... We both did... And we talked about that again this morning, reinforcing it once more...and I think we are closer, far closer, as we grasped this most amazing and simple concept...

It is attributed to the Nanticoke Indians...

One evening, an elderly Cherokee brave told his grandson about a battle that goes on inside of all people.

He said "My son, the battle inside our hearts and minds are like having two wolves inside of us...One wolf is evil...

It is anger, envy, jealousy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, uncontrolled superiority and ego.

The other is a good wolf...

It is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion and hard won faith."

The grandson thought about it for a minute, and then asked his grandfather:

"Which wolf wins grandpa?..."

The old Cherokee simply replied, "The one that you feed, my son."

I immediately saw that happiness was not mentioned. I suppose happiness, as compared to joy, is of a selfish kind, where true joy is selfless. I also saw that it was mentioned that inferiority and superiority are considered to both be in the bad wolf...

Perhaps this indicates that we should think of ourselves as having strength and weakness at the same time, as those two ideals might be considered absolutes.

And seeing "truth" there, just warmed my heart... "Hard won faith." too, is a concept that means we have to study with our intellect, and have faith in both our ability, and for what we can not see.

But it got me to thinking...

Isn't everything in this word the same? For instance, if we do not like the violence and immorality in the movies, or find that truth is not shown on the news, or that elected officials are lying... do not go to see the movie, turn off your television, and see to it they are not reelected...

It is the wolf you feed, and that determines your life from every aspect. If you do not pay that wolf, feed him, he will starve to death...

If you look at your children, and react to the bad wolf inside of them, that wolf will grow to be more valid. That wolf will be the one to react in their reality, and if left unchecked, for the rest of their lives... sounds too simple? Isn't our reality what we feed it to be?

I want that bad wolf to die inside of me. And I will work for that for the rest of my days...

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China is desperate to stifle a beauty queen

From the files of Jeff Jacoby at The Boston Globe

Resistance to Tyranny comes in many forms, but Anastasia Lin may be first activist to take the fight against dictatorship to the glittery ranks of a beauty pageant.

Lin, a 25-year-old actress and model, was crowned Miss World Canada in May. By rights, she should have been in the Chinese resort city of Sanya for the welcoming ceremony of the 2015 Miss World competition last Monday.

But Lin, who was born in China, is an outspoken advocate for freedom of conscience in her native land. She has used every platform available to her to raise public awareness of China's harrowing human-rights record — portraying victims of Chinese corruption and repression in award-winning films, describing in broadcast interviews and newspaper essays what China does to its dissenters, and even testifying on the subject before a congressional committee.

Competing in beauty pageants was another way Lin sought to draw attention to the plight of the persecuted. When she first pursued the Miss World Canada title in 2013, notes The Toronto Star, she performed a piano composition dedicated to "those who lost their life for their faith and the millions of people still fighting for their faith today."

She launched her bid for the 2015 crown with a video underscoring her wish to extend "light and courage to those who still find themselves in the dark."

Beijing's communist rulers have no intention of giving Lin an even bigger platform from which to speak out. She is the only Miss World contestant who didn't receive a visa application from the host country in time to take her place for the 2015 pageant's opening rounds.

It would be heartening to report that the Miss World brass went ballistic when it became clear that Lin was being excluded, and raised holy hell with Chinese authorities to get her admitted.

Alas, the pageant's attitude toward the strong-willed Canadian beauty has been rather less supportive. When London-based Miss World Ltd. was asked whether it would consider moving the 2015 program if China insisted on blackballing Lin, a spokesperson sniffed:

"If we cancel or move the show each time a visa was not granted for a contestant, then it would be impossible to plan the event."

Though the official Miss World website still lists Lin as a contestant, her photo was removed days ago. On Wednesday, Canada's Globe and Mail newspaper reported that the Chinese government considered Lin "persona non grata," putting an end to any realistic hopes she had of competing for this year's crown.

Lin doesn't come from a dissident background. As a little girl in China's Hunan province, she yearned to wear the red scarf of the Young Pioneers, the nationalistic youth league whose elementary-school members take an oath "to study hard, work hard, and be ready to devote all my strength to the Communist cause."

At 11, she became president of her school's student council, and readily organized viewings of pro-government propaganda. She recalls screening a video that demonized adherents of Falun Gong — a humble discipline of meditation, breathing exercises, and Buddhist-inspired spiritual readings — and encouraging students afterward to publicly declare their hatred for those who practice it.

Two years later Lin emigrated from China, moving with her mother to Canada. Only then did she come to understand the enormity of the regime she had left behind, and especially its implacable and cruel hostility toward Falun Gong practitioners.

Tens of thousands of victims, guilty of nothing more than controlled breathing and mindful contemplation, have been arrested, tortured, and even killed. The more Lin learned, the more passionate she became about advocating for China's oppressed citizens.

China persecutes peaceful practitioners of Falun Gong — a
humble discipline of meditation, breathing exercises, and
spiritual readins — with mind-numbing savagery. Tens
of thousands of victims have been arrested,
tortured, and even killed.

She wanted to speak for those who are "beaten, burned, and electrocuted for holding to their beliefs," she said in July. "These are some of China's most noble people, people of moral fortitude."

Shortly after winning the Miss Canada crown last spring, she learned that her father, who still lives in China, was visited at his home by government security officials warning him to stifle his daughter — or else.

He had overflowed with pride when Lin won the Canadian pageant, but days later he sent an urgent plea: Stop talking about human rights.

A survivor of the Cultural Revolution, he was terrified by thoughts of what the government might to do him if his daughter's activism continued. When she told him she couldn't keep silent, that letting Beijing intimidate her into muteness would only intensify its ruthlessness, he broke off all contact.

Totalitarian regimes scruple at nothing — not the political manipulation of international beauty contests, not the criminalizing of quiet meditation, not even the blackmail of a father to break his daughter's spirit. The courage to resist such regimes isn't easy to come by.

Canada's beauty queen has it in such gallant measure that China fears to let her speak from a Chinese stage. Some other young woman may be crowned Miss World, but it is Anastasia Lin who has been ennobled.

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Follow Jeff Jacob on Twitter and "Like" Jeff's columns on Facebook

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Turkeys we should not be thankful for

Tasty birds are affordable but government turkeys enrich crony corporatists and cost us dearly from the files of Paul Driessen at CFACT.org

What Should Be On the Chopping Block

To commemorate Thanksgiving – and garner First Family photo ops – presidents often host Rose Garden ceremonies, where they “pardon” a turkey, before sitting down to dine on one of its cousins.

In fact, Americans ate close to 50 million of these tasty birds this year. We roasted our family bird in a Big Green Egg, with bourbon and barbecue sauce on and under the skin. Lip-smacking!

Unlike their wild cousins, today’s domesticated turkeys are bred for hefty portions of white and dark meat, atop legs that barely support their bodyweight. You might say they are big, bloated and unsustainable – like too many government programs that should have gotten the axe long ago.

Washington turkeys are fed by crony capitalism, far-left economic and social engineering, smarter-than-thou top-down initiatives, and a belief that Washington should determine winners and losers. They attack unsuspecting taxpayers, consumers and businesses, pilfering billions of dollars that could be spent on things that really matter – including job creation and preservation, terrorism and national security. Only the few are thankful for them.

The Obama Administration has unleashed some hugely destructive turkeys. Some, like ObamaCare and Dodd-Frank, required mostly Democrat congressional connivance. But one of the most foul of fowls, the Clean Power Plan, was devised by the White House and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), in league with radical environmental groups, to eradicate coal mining and burning, and ensure that electricity rates would “necessarily skyrocket,” just as President Obama promised in 2009.

The CPP is justified by the absurd claim that eliminating U.S. coal will save the Earth from “runaway” global warming and climate change. But there has been no measurable warming for 19 years – the opposite of what computer models and White House press releases have claimed – and NOAA appears to have been cooking the books on its temperature data, to find manmade warming where there isn’t any.

Moreover, far from being a “pollutant,” carbon dioxide is vital plant food – essential for all life on Earth – and developing countries continue to increase coal-burning to power their growing economies, bring electricity to 1.3 billion people who still don’t have it, and lift billions out of abject poverty. In fact, China alone has been burning 17% more coal per year than previously reported; just that unreported wedge is 70% of what the United States uses in a year, and more than Germany’s annual coal consumption!

Add what India, Africa, Poland, Southeast Asia, Indonesia and other countries plan to use in the next 30 years, and U.S. coal consumption and CO2 emissions are almost undetectable globally. In Asia alone this year, power companies are building more than 500 coal-fired plants, with 1,000 more on planning boards.

Of course, none of that is relevant to climate ideologues in and out of the Obama Administration. Nor are the CPP’s adverse impacts on jobs, families, businesses, communities, or people’s health and welfare.

But when the states drag the CPP turkey into court, the EPA might stop its strutting. Obama mentor and legal scholar Lawrence Tribe says the CPP likely violates the Constitution, by illegally commandeering state government functions and “treating states more like marionettes, dancing to the tune of the federal puppeteer,” in violation of the Tenth Amendment, which reserves important powers to the states.

Thus far, the rule of law has been merely a minor burr under the Administration’s saddle, as it rides roughshod over Congress, the will of the people, and the overall public interest. Executive orders, influence-peddling, and campaign contributions for subsidies and preferential treatment are standard operating procedure for a president determined to build a legacy – not on Benghazi, ObamaCare and terrorism failures, but on climate change, which he insists is the “greatest threat to future generations.”

Many world leaders have embraced Obama’s vision of looming climatic cataclysms, but are fast regretting their decisions. European Union air quality measures are forcing the closure of numerous older coal-fired power plants. But the supposed replacements, mostly wind and solar, are heavily subsidized, intermittent producers of electricity that is so unreliable and expensive that it kills industries, jobs and people. They are already hastening the demise of Britain’s entire steel industry and 6,000 more UK jobs.

Early this November, well before winter cold set in, the United Kingdom’s National Grid already had to use an emergency order to prevent widespread blackouts. Unexpected power plant shutdowns and a near absence of bird-butchering wind power forced the government to offer up to 40 times normal electricity rates (up to $3765 per kilowatt-hour!) to get factories and other major power consumers to switch off their electricity. The UK is now rolling back many of its “green” energy programs.

In Germany, power companies have been ordered to buy wind, solar and other “green” energy, regardless of the price. Its biggest electric power provider lost €7.8 billion ($8.3 billion) just in the third quarter of 2015. Even worse, Ms. Merkel’s market meddling has created an oversupply of expensive green electricity, when it’s least needed, and German electricity rates are expected to hit record highs next year. By the end of 2016, average European households will have to pay some €540 ($575) more per year for electricity.

By forcing power companies to buy green energy, EU countries also encourage fraud. Companies actually made money by connecting diesel-powered generators to their solar arrays or shining coal- or nuclear-powered arc lights on their solar panels, to generate electricity on cloudy days or in the dead of night.

All this is where the U.S. is heading under Obama dictates, which distort the marketplace to benefit favored industries or groups. The Renewable Fuel Standard requires blending ethanol into motor fuels, which among many other failings creates an ethanol credit trading system that crooks use to steal millions of dollars. No wonder even ultra-green California voters increasingly oppose costly ethanol mandates.

Unfortunately, the RFS, CPP and other Washington turkeys are as hard to kill as Freddy Krueger. Congress lacks the will to chase them down with a hatchet, and the administration feeds them for its own political reasons. Having corn farmer and ethanol producer support during the Iowa caucuses is also a winning political strategy – unprincipled but effective, costly to the majority but beneficial to the few.

Indeed, every taxpayer and consumer pays for these turkeys, not just those in Iowa or California. A new study shows that the RFS will cost the New England economy some $20 billion between 2005 and 2024, reduce labor income by $7.3 billion, and destroy 7,050 jobs per year.

The CPP and broader War on Coal are hammering Midwest red states far harder than New England and West Coast blue states. By the end of 2023, 600,000 jobs will be lost and average American households will lose $1,200 in income per year, as electricity rates and the cost of goods and services continue to rise.

Obama’s War on Coal is most devastating to families in coal-producing states, where nearly 50,000 coal miners have lost their jobs and incomes – as have tens of thousands in power plants, restaurants, shops and other businesses. Hillary Clinton’s “solution” (and strategy to increase her odds of winning the Democrat presidential nomination) is spending $30 billion in OPM (other people’s money) to “retrain” coal miners and other workers for life in her new utopian-energy economy. Now President Obama is leading an ideological entourage to Paris, to rope the United States into a draconian climate treaty.

Once again, government will get to decide which industries, companies, workers and families win – and which one lose. We just get to pay. Wasting good money on bad projects – and on unaccountable, unelected, overpaid ruling elite bureaucrats – is enough to ruin a Thanksgiving tryptophan-induced nap.

Benjamin Franklin may have preferred the turkey over the eagle as America’s national symbol, because it is “more respectable.” Brave and wily wild turkeys truly are a challenge for experienced hunters.

But wily government turkeys, which preen in public and exist only to feather the nests of bureaucrats and campaign donors, have no redeeming qualities. It’s time to put them on the chopping block.

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Paul Driessen is senior policy analyst for the Committee For A Constructive Tomorrow, author of Eco-Imperialism: Green power - Black death, and coauthor of Cracking Big Green: Saving the world from the Save-the-Earth money machine.

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Turkey should be booted out of NATO

The downing of a Russian jet in Syria by Turkish fighters has shocked both Russia and NATO.

And though the motives for the action are unclear, the incident is bound to have significant geopolitical consequences.

What was the reasoning behind the Turkish decision to shoot down the jet, and is it likely to jeopardize the fragile diplomatic effort to reach a peaceful settlement in Syria.

Oksana is joined by Paul Vallely, a retired US Army Major General, to sift through these issues.

RT (Russia Today) is a global news network broadcasting from Moscow and Washington studios. RT is the first news channel to break the 1 billion YouTube views benchmark.

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