Thursday AM ~ TheFrontPageCover

[Rudy Tirre]

The Front Page Cover

~ Featuring ~

War cries drown out 'America First'

by Patrick J. Buchanan

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 Chinese Chess 

Yesterday, we noted North Korea's weekend saber rattling and Mike Pence's warning shot in return. And last week, we explained why Donald Trump's apparent flip-flop on labeling China a currency manipulator was a strategic calculation to ensure China's cooperation on North Korea. Indeed, over the weekend, Trump tweeted, "Why would I call China a currency manipulator when they are working with us on the North Korean problem? We will see what happens!"

          But what if China is pulling some strings of its own? As political strategist Dick Morris wonders, "Is China using the threat of North Korea to derail Trump's trade agenda?" He says, "You can never tell with North Korea how much of the threat is legitimate and how much of it is ginned up by the Chinese for their own purposes."

          The theory, of course, is that China has undervalued the yuan and overvalued the dollar, creating hundreds of billions of dollars of trade surplus with the U.S. Losing that surplus would be a huge blow to the Chinese economy, leaving them plenty of motivation for what Morris speculates — they're using the North Koreans to get Trump off their backs.

          Rest assured, Trump and his advisers are all over this, but the American media is not. The Trump administration was surely considering these countermeasures as soon as he mentioned China after the election. And the chess match bears watching. ~The Patriot Post 

https://patriotpost.us/digests/48599

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Snowflakes Would Melt At “Insensitive” Armour Today

by Rick Wells

{rickwells.us} ~ The other day I was channel surfing a little bit, trying in vain to find something worth spending time looking at on my television, when I passed by a Sylvester Stallone, Sandra Bullock movie, Demolition Man... The back of the box summary on the movie says, “A police officer is brought out of suspended animation in prison to pursue an old ultra-violent nemesis who is loose in a non-violent future society.” In that bit of time traveling that is done through the magic of suspended animation and to create the realism of the period from which the Sylvester Stallone character originated, they played a clip of an old black and white Armour hot dog commercial. Upon hearing it I was reminded of just how far our nation has come in advancing the protected snowflake, overly sensitive, safe-zone, social justice warrior mentality. To put it bluntly, there’s no way a commercial like that could get made today. They’d stand a better chance if they were promoting cigarettes and drinking to underage kids than what is in that classic commercial from 1967...  http://rickwells.us/americas-decline-snowflakes-melt-insensitive-armour-today/

VIDEO:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3fQwJdXFQlU

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USA Today Got Its Big Scoop

On Deported ‘DREAMer’ Totally Wrong

by Alex Pfeiffer

{dailycaller.com} ~ USA Today reported Tuesday that an illegal immigrant protected by Barack liar-nObama’s amnesty was deported in February after spending an evening with his girlfriend... However, a Department of Homeland Security spokesman told The Daily Caller that they have no record of this incident and that Juan Manuel Montes-Bojorquez’s amnesty status was terminated. The USA Today story said that Montes-Bojorquez, 23, was apprehended by Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents while he was waiting for a car ride to pick him up. According to the article, he told the officers he left his wallet in his friend’s car and because he didn’t have his ID or proof of his Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) status, he was deported...  http://dailycaller.com/2017/04/18/usa-today-gets-it-wrong-dhs-did-not-deport-dreamer/
 

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What is the IDF trying to hide about the

interception of the Syrian missile?

by Yossi Melman    

{jpost.com} ~ In the wee morning hours of March 17, a Friday, a strange incident marred the skies over the area of the Jordan Valley in Israel. According to an official statement released by IDF Spokesman... the country's Air Defense Command intercepted a Syrian, Russia-manufactured anti-aircraft missile at 2:40 a.m. It had later been clarified that an Arrow 2 missile was aimed at a Syrian missile that was fired in the direction of the West Bank and Israel north of Jerusalem, in the area of the Jordan Valley. But it seems that the short and laconic announcement by the IDF doesn't really tell the full story. Or in other words- the IDF isn't revealing the whole truth about the incident. So what really happened that Friday morning? On that night, several Israel Air Force jets had returned from a mission in Syria, where they operated like they have in the past according to foreign reports to stop weapons convoys –mostly advanced missiles - on their way to Shi’ite terror organization Hezbollah. When the jets were already en route back to Israel, they came under fire of Russian-manufactured surface to air missiles SAM-5 (Vega) that were launched from Syria...

Advertisement: Replay Ad

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http://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/What-is-the-IDF-trying-to-hide-about-the-interception-of-the-Syrian-missile-488264

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The Screams of Little Girls in Little Palestine

by DANIEL GREENFIELD

{familysecuritymatters.org} ~ Livonia, Michigan is known as Little Palestine. The Detroit suburb is famous for its anti-Israel meetings. You could go hear Mustafa Barghouthi, Omar Barghouti and Ali Abunimah without taking a long drive... It's also known for its shady doctors. Dr. Murtaza Hussain was busted for letting unlicensed employees diagnose patients and write prescriptions. Dr. Waseem Alam and Dr. Hatem Ataya pleaded guilty in the nation's largest Medicare fraud case totaling $712 million in false billings centering on Shahid Tahir, Muhammad Tariq and Manavar Javed's Livonia medical firms. But what was going on at one Livonia clinic was far worse than the theft of millions. Anyone passing by at the right time could hear the screams of little girls. We think of horrors like female genital mutilation as a terrible thing that happens over "there." But as the implacable tide of Muslim immigration swept across Europe, "there" became the United Kingdom... http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/publications/detail/the-screams-of-little-girls-in-little-palestine?f=must_reads

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UK: War on Free Speech at

the National Union of Students

Malia Bouattia, the president of the UK National Union of Students
by Douglas Murray

{gatestoneinstitute.org} ~ The great effort of the present-day censors on campuses across the West is to make speech synonymous with action. Campaigners against free expression claim that words not only "wound" people but actually "kill"... They claim that people associated with any group being criticized are not only suffering a verbal "assault" but an actual "physical" assault. Those who campaign against any and all criticism of Islamists, for instance, not only claim that the attacks are "Islamophobic" and target "all Muslims". They also claim that such words cause violence -- including violence against any and all Muslims. One of the notable things about their objection is that the people who make such claims rarely if ever exercise the same civic hygiene they demand of everybody else. It is interesting to consider what would happen were anyone to demand the same standards of these campaigners as they demand of others. Consider the case of one Malia Bouattia. This is the young woman who is currently president of the National Union of Students (NUS) in Britain... https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/10235/nus-bouattia-free-speech

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War cries drown out 'America First'

by Patrick J. Buchanan

{wnd.com} ~ “Why would I call China a currency manipulator when they are working with us on the North Korean problem?” tweeted President Donald Trump on Easter Sunday.

Earlier, after discovering “great chemistry” with Chinese President Xi Jinping over “the most beautiful piece of chocolate cake” at Mar-a-Lago, Trump had confided, “I explained … that a trade deal with the U.S. will be far better for them if they solve the North Korean problem!”

“America First” thus takes a back seat to big-power diplomacy with Beijing. One wonders: How much will Xi end up bilking us for his squeezing of Kim Jong-un?

Trump once seemed to understand how America had been taken to the cleaners during and after the Cold War. While allies supported us diplomatically, they piled up huge trade surpluses at our expense and became virtual free-riders off the U.S. defense effort.

No nations were more successful at this than South Korea and Japan. Now Xi is playing the game – and perhaps playing Trump.

What is the “North Korean problem” Beijing will help solve in return for more indulgent consideration on future U.S.-China trade deals?

North Korea’s nuclear arsenal. As 80 percent of Pyongyang’s trade comes through China, Trump believes that Beijing can force Kim to stop testing missiles and atomic bombs before he produces an intercontinental ballistic missile that could hit the U.S.

But what is to prevent Xi from pocketing Trump’s concessions and continuing on the strategic course China has long pursued?

For in many ways, Pyongyang’s goals parallel China’s.

Neither could want an all-out war on the Korean Peninsula. For Kim, this would devastate his country, bring down his regime and cost him his life. For China, war could mean millions of Koreans crossing the Yalu into Manchuria and a disruption of Beijing’s march to Asian hegemony.

A continuing crisis on the peninsula, however, with Trump and the U.S. relying on Beijing’s help, could leave Xi in the catbird seat.

And now that North Korea has declared its goal to be building missiles with nuclear warheads that could hit all U.S. bases in Asia – and even California – the clock is running for the White House.

“It won’t happen,” Trump has said of North Korea’s developing an ICBM that could hit the United States. “If China is not going to solve North Korea, we will.”

“The threat is upon us,” says outgoing deputy national security adviser K.T. McFarland. “This is something President Trump is going to deal with in the first year.”

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Vice President Mike Pence have declared that our policy of “strategic patience” with Pyonyang is at an end.

National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster said Sunday the U.S. has “to take action, short of armed conflict, so we can avoid the worst” in dealing with “this unpredictable regime.”

With a stunning parade of missiles in Pyongyang on Saturday, the North’s failed firing of a solid-fueled missile that same day and the promise of new missile tests weekly, Kim is forcing our hand.

Either he backs away from building atomic bombs and long-range missiles, or Trump and his generals must make good on their warnings.

How did we get to this point?

Why, 64 years after the Korean War, a quarter-century after the Cold War, are we still obliged to go to war to defend South Korea from a North with one-half the South’s population and 3 percent of its gross domestic product?

Why are we, on the far side of the Pacific, still responsible for containing North Korea when two of its neighbors – Russia and China – are nuclear powers and South Korea and Japan could field nuclear and conventional forces far superior to Kim’s?

How long into the future will containing militarist dictators in Pyongyang with nuclear missiles be America’s primary responsibility?

Another issue arises. Before the U.S. launches any pre-emptive strike on North Korea, Congress should be called back into session to authorize any act of war against the North.

Perhaps this time, Congress would follow the Constitution.

Though Korea is the crisis of the moment, it is not the only one.

Not since 9/11 have the Afghan Taliban been stronger or controlled more territory. The United States’ commanding general there is calling for thousands more U.S. troops. Russia and Iran are reportedly negotiating with the Taliban. Pakistan is said to be aiding them.

To counter Vladimir Putin’s Russia, we have moved U.S. and NATO troops into Poland, the Baltic States, Romania and Bulgaria. We have fired missiles into Syria. We are reportedly preparing to back the Saudis in the latest escalation of their war on the Houthi rebels in Yemen.

Twenty-four years after “Black Hawk Down,” the weekend brought reports of U.S. troops returning to Somalia.

The promise of a Trump presidency – that we would start looking out for our own country and own national interests first and let the rest of the world solve, or fail to solve, its own problems – appears, not 100 days in, to have been a mirage.

Will more wars make America great again?

 

http://www.wnd.com/2017/04/war-cries-drown-out-america-first/