NC Renegades

We have long contended that you may be at greater risk from the health issues related to refugee resettlement than you would be from a catastrophic terrorist attack by a refugee.  See our health issues category with 290! previous posts to see what I mean!

[That said, I do believe that in the long term, the very greatest threat we face from the resettlement of tens of thousands of refugees each year is the more gradual, but ultimately more devastating, demographic change (the Hijra) that is necessary for the expansion of Islamic shariah law.]

But, nothing frightens people more in the short term than thinking about their children being exposed to potentially deadly diseases.

The first reported case of a person with measles in the recent Memphis outbreak, which now numbers seven confirmed cases, was at a local mosque on April 15, according to the Shelby County Health Department.

More…

We have seen this story before, and it never ends well.  From mid-March until early May 2008, a vigorous stock market rally convinced many investors that the market turmoil of late 2007 and early 2008 was over and that happy days were ahead for the U.S. economy.  But of course we all know what happened.  It turned out that the market downturns of late 2007 and early 2008 were just “foreshocks” of a much greater crash in late 2008.  The market surge in the spring of 2008 was just a mirage, and it masked rapidly declining economic fundamentals.  Well, the exact same thing is happening right now.  The Dow rose another 222 points on Tuesday, but meanwhile virtually every number that we are getting is just screaming that the overall U.S. economy is steadily falling apart.  So don’t be fooled by a rising stock market.  Just like in the spring of 2008, all of the signs are pointing to an avalanche of bad economic news in the months ahead.  The following are 11 signs that the U.S. economy is rapidly deteriorating…

#1 Total business sales have been declining for nearly two years, and they are now about 15 percent lower than they were in late 2014.

#2 The inventory to sales ratio is now back to near where it was during the depths of the last recession.  This means that there is lots and lots of unsold stuff just sitting around out there, and that is a sign of a very unhealthy economy.

#3 Corporate earnings have declined for four consecutive quarters.  This never happens outside of a recession.

#4 Profits for companies listed on the S&P 500 were down 7.1 percent during the first quarter of 2016 when compared to the same time period a year ago.

More…

With the FBI’s noose closing around Hillary and her closest State Department cohorts as the Federal agency nears the end of its criminal probe, some are getting increasingly concerned about what they will and will not say on the record. One such person is Hillary’s former State Department Chief of Staff, Cheryl Mills, who according to the WaPo walked out of an interview with federal investigators when an FBI official began to discuss a topic considered off-limits.

The off-limits questions reportedly concerned the way in which emails were given to the State Department to be distributed to the public. According to the Post, Mills worried that the questions would violate the attorney-client privilege, and investigators had previously agreed not to broach the subject. It is unclear when the interview occurred.

The Post adds that Mills and her lawyer left the room,  though both returned a short time later. It is not completely uncommon for FBI agents and prosecutors to diverge on interview tactics and approach, and the people familiar with the matter said Mills answered investigators’ questions. Mills and her lawyer, Beth Wilkinson, also asked for breaks more than once to confer, the people said.

Investigators consider Mills  to be a cooperative witness but the episode demonstrates the tension surrounding the criminal probe into possible mishandling of classified information involving the leading Democratic presidential candidate. In the coming weeks, prosecutors and FBI agents hope to be able to interview Clinton herself as they work to bring the case to a close.Cheryl Mills, Clinton’s former State Department chief of staff, and her lawyer both returned to the interview room a short time later, according to the newspaper, citing several unidentified people.

More…

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Does everyone understand the penalty for treason?

David DeGerolamo

Is the Obama administration keeping tabs on “right-wing extremists”?

This question comes up because I’ve been informed that someone certainly is keeping tabs on me.

It started last summer. I don’t consider myself a “right-wing extremist” — but the far-Left Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) does, and the FBI uses the SPLC as a resource. Since then, every time I fly — and I fly almost weekly – I can’t check in online. I am always directed to go to the airline counter.

There — as soon as I present my identification — the trouble starts. It generally proceeds like this:

• The clerk types a great deal, frowns at the screen, types some more, asks me what my middle name is, types still more, looks at me quizzically, and gets on the phone.

• They’re very secretive about these calls, sometimes even moving to a different desk to make them. They refuse to tell me anything about them afterward, including who they called or why.

• The call usually takes around ten minutes. The whole process takes fifteen or twenty minutes. Then I am checked in and allowed to go to my gate.

After these long, unexplained delays — which had never occurred prior to last summer — happened to me five or six times consecutively, I asked an FBI agent of my acquaintance about it, and he kindly agreed to look into it. A few days later he told me that the strange delays weren’t about me, but about someone else: as it happened, he said, someone on some watch list or other is named Robert Spencer and shares my birthdate.

More…

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Do you know that a right-wing extremist is yesteryear’s patriot? I have never met a political elite (any politician) who supports freedom. I never thought that the United States would be run by greed and power instead of Liberty. But then we all have to grow up one day and choose between good and evil.

David DeGerolamo

FREEMANSPERSPECTIVE

I’ve never met Edward Snowden, so please understand that I’m not trying to besmirch his character. And the truth is that I was thrilled when his disclosures hit. I was managing a professional-level VPN and traveling widely, warning people (who were often skeptical) about state-level surveillance. Edward Snowden vindicated me.

But it’s now becoming clear that there is a serious down-side to the Snowden disclosures. I’ve been noticing it in my work at Cryptohippie and it has recently started to appear in scholarly literature.

For example, a new study from Oxford University (read about it here) shows that mass surveillance makes people less likely to read about surveillance topics online, and significantly so. Even page-viewing on Wikipedia has been affected.

A second study, from MIT, showed a “substantial empirical… chilling effect.” The study goes on to say that this chilling effect seems related to an “increased awareness of government surveillance.”

In other words, Snowden’s proof of surveillance made people turn away from the entire discussion. And there’s a reason for this.

Sooner Or Later, the Sword Must Be Seen

Again, I am not implying that this was Ed Snowden’s intent, but the fact remains that mass surveillance is never more than half-effective until people know about it. Consider this, please: Continue reading →

h/t WRSA

The last 48 hours (May 7-8) have seen a major escalation of the ISIS threats against Israel, DEBKAfile’s intelligence and counterterrorism sources report. In a coordinated maneuver by all of the ISIS commands in the Middle East, the terrorist organization simultaneously released at least 10 videos that it said showed ISIS forces on their way to attack targets in Israel.

All of the videos refer to the Palestinian issue, Jerusalem and the timing of the attacks. In each one, the narrator claims the terror organization did not forget the Palestinians, and will not neglect them any more; describes Jerusalem as “a bridge to Islam”; and threatens an impending attack, saying “We’re coming, and coming very soon” accompanied by images of fighters from the ISIS affiliate in the Sinai are shown.

It was not the first time for the ISIS propaganda machine to threaten hostilities against Israel, but it was the first time for the threat to be issued simultaneously from every province or city where ISIS is located in the Middle East. The videos included ones from Raqqa, the ISIS capital in Syria; Mosul, the terrorist organization’s capital in Iraq; the Sinai Peninsula and Egypt; Derna in eastern Libya; and central Libya, where according to DEBKAfile’s counterterrorism sources ISIS controls a huge 300-kilometer area including the Mediterranean coast on the Gulf of Sidra.

More…

If you believe that nuking Mecca will “show” Muslims anything, then you don’t understand Islam.

The cult of Mecca — black stone, shrines, etc. — is considered idolatry by the Islamic State and other Salafists. It represents putting something before the worship of Allah, and is thus a form of shirk, or polytheism. The Islamic State has already promised to destroy the “idols” of Mecca.

If anyone were to nuke Mecca, they would be understood by devout Muslims to be carrying out the will of Allah. It would be seen as a punishment sent by Allah against those whose faith is less than pure, and a warning to Muslims everywhere.

The net effect would be to turn the survivors — which would be the vast majority of Muslims, even if the destruction occurred during the hajj — into Salafists. Islam, in effect, would be purified.

For those Muslims who consider themselves the true practitioners of Islam — the original form of it from the time of the Companions of the Prophet, al-salaf al-salih — the shrines of Mecca are just a racket set up by servants of Satan to divert Muslims from the true faith.

More…

h/t Matt Bracken