Speaking at the fifth Israel-Greece-Cyprus summit held in the southern city of Beersheba on Thursday,
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pledged to intensify military action in Syria after the White House's unexpected order for all US troops to pullout out of the country - an effort that's expected to be complete within months.
"
We will continue to act in Syria to prevent Iran's efforts to militarily entrench itself against us.
We are not reducing our efforts,
we will increase our efforts.
I know that we do so with the full support and backing of the US,"
Netanyahu said.
Netanyahu has long lobbied the White House to take more aggressive action inside Syria while also praising and pledging support for all past US bombings targeting Damascus and the Syrian Army.
Israeli officials have for years touted claims of Iran "
Taking control"
and becoming deeply "
Entrenched"
in Syria - something a number of analysts have doubted given that Damascus'
secular Baathist political ideology doesn't mesh with Iran's hardline theocratic Shi'ism,
beyond being close strategic allies confronting regional threats.
The prime minister also addressed ongoing IDF operations to destroy "
Attack tunnels"
Hezbollah dug along the northern border,
saying "
These tunnels were built by Hezbollah with direct support and funding from Iran."
Continuing his well-known Iranian expansion theme,
Netanyahu continued: "
This is the Iranian web of aggression in the Middle East,
which also terrorizes Europe and the entire world.
Israel continues its operation against the terror tunnels and will do so until its completion.
As we speak,
we are employing means to neutralize these tunnels."
Netanyahu noted that his prior phone call with Trump this week focused on countering the Iran threat in the region.
The President also said that US troops should leave and that "
Others"
should handle the terror threat inside Syria.
While he explicitly suggested that US "
Enemies"
Iran,
Russia,
and Syria should be left to deal with fighting ISIS remnants,
could the president also have had increased Israeli action in mind when it comes to the Iran threat in Syria?
https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-12-22/netanyahu-vows-intensify-attacks-syria-after-us-troop-withdrawal
CNN commentator Philip Mudd is known for his extreme hostility towards President Donald Trump.
What was unusual was that Mudd actually made a great case to fund the border wall,
not so much for border security but rather just to get a budget deal done and avoid a government shutdown.
He couldn't believe that there couldn't be a successful negotiation to agree to an amount somewhere between the $
1.6 billion offered and the $
5 billion Trump requested.
It is the art of the deal which is exactly what dealmaker Trump aspires to but which Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer has been repeatedly rejecting so as not to give Trump any kind of win.
Now Mudd replies with something that initially seems to validate Blitzer's typical anti-Trump attitude but ends up inadvertently supporting Trump's attempt at negotiating funding for the border wall.
Comical leadership?
How about the comical leadership of Chuck Schumer who just can't stand giving Trump any kind of win on the border wall?
Who between the two adversaries is completely unwilling to "
Bridge $
3.4 million,
which is a decimal point in the budget?"
My simple math tells me if they split the difference that would make it $
3.3 billon for the border wall.
One could see Trump the experienced negotiator agreeing to something in that range,
but Schumer just can't allow even that "
Decimal point"
win for Trump.
https://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/pj-gladnick/2018/12/22/cnns-philip-mudd-inadvertently-makes-case-funding-border-wall
California ranks No. 1 among the 50 states for the percentage of its residents 25 and older who have never completed ninth grade and 50th for the percentage who have graduated from high school,
according to new data from the Census Bureau.
Texas ranks No. 2 for the percentage of its residents 25 and older who have never completed ninth grade and 49th for the percentage who have graduated from high school.
California and Texas-while having the highest percentages of residents 25 and older who never finished ninth grade and the lowest percentages who graduated from high school-are the nation's two most populous states.
The 2,510,370 California residents 25 and older who,
according to the Census Bureau,
never finished ninth grade outnumber the entire populations of 15 other states.
Wyoming-with 1.8 percent-had nation's smallest percentage of residents 25 and older who never finished ninth grade.
In seventeen states,
the percentage of residents 25 and older who at least graduated from high school was less than the nationwide percentage of 87.3 percent.
These nineteen states include both No. 14 California and No. 9 New York,
which respectively ranked No.1 and No. 3 for the percentage of residents 25 and older who never finished ninth grade.
https://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/terence-p-jeffrey/least-educated-state-california-no-1-percentage-residents-25-and
Acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker will not recuse himself from his oversight role of Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into the bogus Trump-Russia collusion allegations.
Democrats have been fighting tooth and nail to get Whitaker to recuse himself from overseeing the investigation because he had been publicly critical of Mueller's probe in the past.
Sen. Chuck Schumer said Whitaker as acting attorney general would create a "
Constitutional crisis."
He told CNN, "
The appointment of Mr. Whitaker should concern every American.
If he stays there,
he will create a constitutional crisis by inhibiting Mueller or firing Mueller."
In November,
despite Democrats'
best efforts,
even Robert Mueller acknowledged Whitaker's appointment as acting attorney general would have no impact on his investigation.
Mueller's top attorney,
Michael Dreeben stated in a 17-page legal brief that Whitaker's new role "
Neither alters the special counsel's authority to represent the United States nor raises any jurisdictional issue."
Dreeben continued, "
The Special Counsel continues to exercise the same authority,
and the jurisdiction of the district court and this Court is intact."
https://bongino.com/report-acting-ag-whitaker-will-not-recuse-himself-from-overseeing-mueller-probe/
Where do 2,000 soldiers belong more,
in Syria or on our own border?
When it comes to deploying troops on the border,
the media is quick to rush out and inform us that it will cost $
182 million.
We had $
500 million to spend on training Syrian Jihadis in 2018,
but nobody can find $
5 billion to build a wall and keep Jihadis out of our country.
If Congress really can't find $
5 billion in an accounting error somewhere to build the wall,
then it can find the money by withdrawing from Syria and using the cash we were going to spend on an RPG for Abdul.
We're spending $
45 billion a year in Afghanistan to help former Taliban fight the current Taliban,
who are also fighting ISIS Taliban,
with all the groups of warlords,
militias,
bandits and Koranic meth heads taking the occasional break from fighting each other to take a few shots at us.
It's our interventions in Afghanistan and Syria that are impractical and haven't worked.
We need to import democracy to this country by building a wall,
not just because it will stop the dilution and suppression of American voters with fake districts and illegal votes,
but because it will uphold the will of the people who elected President Trump to end nation building and build a wall.
First we can take the $
50 billion we won't be spending arming and protecting warlords and terrorists in Afghanistan and Syria,
and use it to build a big wall to keep them from invading the United States.
https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/272319/pull-out-syria-and-afghanistan-use-money-build-daniel-greenfield
This form of extortion is possible because a third of all U.S. land is federal property.
This is why the largest expanses of federal land are in western states like Wyoming,
Oregon,
Alaska,
Idaho,
Utah,
and Nevada.
East of the Mississippi,
average federal land ownership is only 4%. Nearly all these eastern states were consolidated prior to 1850.
Article 1 of the Constitution relegates federal property to "
Forts,
Magazines,
Arsenals,
Dock-Yards,
and other needful Buildings."
While a case can be made for setting aside small areas of public land of historic significance,
the Framers would have regarded the actions of presidents like Roosevelt,
Carter,
and later Obama as federal overreach.
Obama's last-minute designation of over a million acres of land surrounding "
Bears Ears"
was particularly egregious because it was overwhelmingly rejected by Utah's legislature,
and according to Article 1,
the acquisition of federal property requires consent of the state government.
If federal lands were transferred to states,
Washington would cede economic leverage over states where many people stubbornly cling to the quaint notion of enumerated powers.
Empowering western residents over all lands inside their borders not only diminishes the authority of federal bureaucrats,
but also threatens their raison d'être because people who believe in limited government are more inclined.
https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2018/12/the_federal_land_grab_racket.html
The progressive bloc of House Democrats supporting a "
Green New Deal"
have a warning for their more moderate colleagues:
Don't get in the way of creating a "
Strong"
climate committee.
New Jersey Rep. Frank Pallone and other top Democrats oppose creating a House climate change committee,
preferring to shepherd any related legislation through the existing committee structure.
Khanna and Democrats supporting the so-called "
Green New Deal"
want a House climate committee that's just as strong as others,
meaning subpoena power and the authority to introduce bills.
The "
Green New Deal"
being pushed by incoming New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is backed by more than 40 Democrats.
The plan calls for a House committee to draft "
Green New Deal"
legislation to move the U.S. to 100 percent green energy.
Khanna,
a "
Green New Deal"
supporter,
said empowering a House climate committee with subpoena powers would help other committees.
https://dailycaller.com/2018/12/20/house-democrats-green-new-deal/
