Europe's Terror Storm

At WSJ, "François Hollande declares war on Islamic State. Does he mean it?"

I think he wants to mean it. But rescinding the call to strip citizenship from convicted jihadists belies resolve.

But from the editorial:

The proper response to Islamic State is to go on swift and decisive offense, beginning with the eradication of its strongholds in Syria, Iraq and Libya. Mr. Hollande may have declared war on Islamic State, but so far the fight has been more symbolic than strategic. Unless that changes, Tuesday’s attack in Normandy will merely be one more of many horrors to come.

Read the whole thing.

It sounds like WSJ's editors aren't sold on the need for a strong domestic surveillance state apparatus. But it's not that on the home front. France isn't clueless, or lacking the administrative apparatus. The jihadist, Adel Kermiche, had long been known to authorities and was being monitored with an ankle bracelet. He was captured in Turkey trying to make it to Syria to join the Islamic State. He served time behind bars. France should've deported the fucker. That's the problem. Too many Muslims in France. Yeah, destroy Islamic State, but don't neglect the enemy within. Get rid of the vermin.

Julian Assange Timed WikiLeaks Release to Harm Hillary Clinton (VIDEO)

Of course he did.

Assange is interviewed at Democracy Now! below.

And see the New York Times, via Memeorandum, "Assange Timed WikiLeaks Release of Democratic Emails to Harm Hillary Clinton":

WASHINGTON — Six weeks before the anti-secrecy organization WikiLeaks published an archive of hacked Democratic National Committee emails ahead of the Democratic convention, the organization's founder, Julian Assange, foreshadowed the release — and made it clear that he hoped to harm Hillary Clinton's chances of winning the presidency.

Assange's remarks in a June 12 interview underscored that for all the drama of the discord that the disclosures have sown among supporters of Bernie Sanders — and of the unproven speculation that the Russian government provided the hacked data to WikiLeaks in order to help Donald Trump — the disclosures are also the latest chapter in the long-running tale of Assange's battles with the Obama administration.

In the interview, Assange told a British television host, Robert Peston of the ITV network, that his organization had obtained "emails related to Hillary Clinton which are pending publication," which he pronounced "great." He also suggested that he not only opposed her candidacy on policy grounds but also saw her as a personal foe.

At one point, Peston said: "Plainly, what you are saying, what you are publishing, hurts Hillary Clinton. Would you prefer Trump to be president?"

Assange replied that what Trump would do as president was "completely unpredictable." By contrast, he thought it was predictable that Clinton would wield power in two ways he found problematic.

First, citing his "personal perspective," Assange accused Clinton of having been among those pushing to indict him after WikiLeaks disseminated a quarter of a million diplomatic cables during her tenure as secretary of state.

"We do see her as a bit of a problem for freedom of the press more generally," Assange said.

(The cables, along with archives of military documents, were leaked by Pvt. Chelsea Manning, then known as Bradley Manning, who is serving a 35-year prison sentence. WikiLeaks also provided the documents to news outlets, including The New York Times. Despite a criminal investigation into Assange, he has not been charged; the status of that investigation is murky.)

In addition, Assange criticized Clinton for pushing to intervene in Libya in 2011 when Moammar Gadhafi was cracking down on Arab Spring protesters; he said that the result of the NATO air war was Libya's collapse into anarchy, enabling the Islamic State to flourish.

"She has a long history of being a liberal war hawk, and we presume she is going to proceed" with that approach if elected president, he said.

In February, Assange said in an essay that a vote for Clinton to become president amounted to "a vote for endless, stupid war."

Efforts to reach Assange for comment were unsuccessful, and a Clinton campaign spokesman did not respond to an inquiry. In November 2010, when WikiLeaks and its media partners began publishing the cables, Clinton strongly condemned it...

More.

Democrats Nominate Hillary Clinton (VIDEO)

Again, here's the Wall Street Journal's excellent live blog, "Bill Clinton, Madeleine Albright to take the stage."

I'm not watching tonight.

I genuinely can't stand it. I can't stand these people.

Indeed, the only one I find myself minimally sympathetic to is Bernie Sanders, and that's surprising:

Los Angeles County Sand Fire Casts Ominous Pall Over Region (VIDEO)

There's been so much other news I've neglected to post on the Santa Clarita "Sand Fire."

Dave Swindle and Roger Simon tweeted photos. A charred sky is never very welcoming.

More, at LAT, "'The most frightening thing': 10,000 homes evacuated as Sand fire rages in Santa Clarita Valley":

There hung the sun, brazenly aglow in red. The sky around it, tinted a dusty rose. In the stifling air, ashes fluttered like snowflakes.

The effects of the Sand fire over the last few days have cast an ominous yet picturesque pall across the Los Angeles Basin, the sun and the moon eliciting comparisons to J.R.R. Tolkien’s “Eye of Sauron” and apocalyptic films.

But up in the Santa Clarita Valley, the largest blaze in Los Angeles County this year was no photo op. Raging in the steep, rugged mountains and charring more than 35,000 acres, the Sand fire plowed through homes and sent thousands fleeing as it swept through a landscape of desiccated fuel. Explosive and swift, it melted cars, downed power lines and left the air thick with smoke.

“This is a big animal,” said Mike Wakoski, a spokesman for the multi-agency wildfire effort made up of nearly 3,000 firefighters. Wakoski warned that the fire was scorching an average of 10,000 football fields a day and that containment would be slow...

More.

Political Party Divisions: A Tale of Two Feuds (VIDEO)

Interesting, but I don't think comparing the divisions between the Democrats and Republicans works that well.

Even after the booing of Ted Cruz last week, it's clear that the Democrats have been way more divided. Frankly, Monday's convention looked like things were about to blow.

Oh well, see Cathleen Decker in any case, at LAT, "What's at stake in the Democratic and Republican family feuds":

If nothing else, the opening day of the Democratic National Convention showed that family feuds are not solely the province of the Republican Party.

Party stalwarts arrived onstage only to be treated dismissively — loudly so —  by many of the delegates. That followed a second day of protests by supporters of Sen. Bernie Sanders, the second-place finisher, who was booed by many of his own backers for suggesting they should cast their November ballots for the winner, Hillary Clinton.

That followed Florida delegates yelling at the party’s chairwoman, Florida Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, on Monday morning, contributing to her decision to cancel her convention appearances.

“Brothers and sisters, this is the real world that we live in,” Sanders had implored his supporters as they booed.

Real world or not, it should come as no shock after the campaign season America has witnessed that chaos has been visited upon both political parties as they seek to put their best faces forward in four-day television extravaganzas.

But the lines of division are not the same in each party.

Republicans saw last week that their party has been taken over by Donald Trump, the real estate impresario whose improbable campaign defeated more than a dozen candidates who, in more normal times, could have found success.

Trump channeled the economic and cultural concerns of Americans who felt spurned by more traditional Republicans, attracting them with bombastic words and spraying insults across many voter groups.

He succeeded to the point that delegates to his Cleveland convention roundly booed when his second-place finisher, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, failed to endorse Trump, saying that people should vote their consciences.

The Democratic problem is the opposite in many ways: Rather than taking over the party, many supporters of Sanders here remain on the outside, protesting. They do so despite his dramatic successes in winning votes, raising money, successfully liberalizing the party platform and contributing to the deposing of Wasserman Schultz, who will leave her post at the conclusion of the convention, months before her term ended.

Both feuds also look very different outside the convention halls...

More.

Hardee's 'Fantasty' Bacon Three-Way Thickburger (VIDEO)

Heh.

There's a fairly obvious double entendre at this commercial.

At the caption, "With bacon strips, bacon jam, and bacon crumbles, this burger is a bacon lover's fantasy":



Carl's Jr.'s not running this ad on the West Coast, for shame, lol.

One of the Normandy Jihadists Tried to Go to Syria

More on the slaughter of of the innocent French priest.

At WSJ, "French Say One of Priest’s Killers Had Tried to Go to Syria":

The two attackers were killed by police upon exiting the church. Prosecutors said one of them was Adel Kermiche, a young man who was under court order to wear an electronic bracelet after trying to travel to Syria.

Kermiche, a 19-year-old who was born and raised in France, was detained in Turkey in 2015 while trying to reach Islamic State’s stronghold in northern Syria, French authorities said. He was ordered to wear the bracelet in March after French prosecutors placed him under investigation on preliminary terrorism charges.

Henria Bayouki, 19, a friend who attended summer camp with Kermiche, said she spoke to his family, who confirmed he was one of the attackers.

The knife-wielding men, one of whom was carrying fake explosives, entered the 16th-century stone church in this Normandy town and took five hostages, including Rev. Jacques Hamel, the parish’s 85-year-old auxiliary priest.

A nun who fled the scene told French TV she saw the attackers force Father Hamel to kneel before cutting his throat. The attackers recorded the attack and “did a sort of sermon around the altar in Arabic,” she said.

Another person knifed in the church was in stable condition, a prosecutor said.

Police surrounded the church and shot and killed the two men as they exited the building, the spokesman said.

Islamic State said via its media arm, the Amaq news agency, that the attack was carried out by two of its “soldiers” without providing evidence of any direct links to the attackers.

French President François Hollande said the attackers had sworn allegiance to the extremist group.

“We are faced with a group that has declared war on us,” Mr. Hollande said after rushing to the scene.

The gruesome nature of the attack—and the fact that it was carried out in a Catholic church in a predominantly Catholic country—provoked outrage across France, fueling calls for a broader crackdown on Muslim radicals.

“A new low has been reached,” said Marine Le Pen, leader of the anti-immigration National Front party. “The heart of our nation’s cultural identity has been intentionally struck.”

Authorities were also grappling with the possibility of another breakdown in France’s security apparatus as they investigated Kermiche’s involvement in this latest attack...

My prediction is that things do not get better. We will see more jihad terror in France.

And also, Marine Le Pen will make the runoff in the French presidential election next year. I'd like to say she'll be elected, but even that remains an unknown. Leftists would do anything to sabotage a so-called "far-right nationalist" from coming to power.

Sadly, it's a true nationalist that France needs as its savoir, far-right or not.

Terror Attacks In Europe Are Becoming a Daily Occurence

At Heat Street.

It's like I've been saying.

Cuck Conservatives Flock to the Progressives

Remember my post from the other day, "Louise Mensch Implores Me to Come Back to the Light."

I pretty much made my case for Trump at the post, but to reiterate the main point: My vote this November is a vote against the left, and to add to it, those so-called conservative "#NeverTrump" goons are frankly working to get Hillary elected, which would be essentially a third term for Obama.

If you're conservative, you're certainly not going to vote for the Democrats.

In any case, see Bill Quick's post, "Vox Day Eviscerates Andrew Klavan":

Vox Popoli: Conservatism in ruins:

It very much looks to me right now as if Trump is going to lose this election on pure incompetence and mean spirit. That might actually make it easier for conservatives to regroup in the ruins of the Republican Party. If he wins, we may need a new party of our own. But whichever way things go, I think we need to open a discussion about how conservatives can not only remain conservative but also win elections in modern America.

Is he even watching the political conventions? This sort of wishful thinking is why no one should bother paying any attention to a cuckservative like Klavan now or in the future. Conservatism is dying. Its diseased remnants are flocking to the progressives, as we always knew they would. And we watch them go with dry eyes and a grim smile, because we don’t need a bunch of useless cucks and moderates who were always happier shooting at their own side than the enemy.

I have never been a conservative. I will never be a conservative. I am delighted to see the conservative movement crumbling into dust. Conservatives conserve nothing, accomplish nothing, and stand for nothing. They will not defend the Church, they will not defend America, and they will not defend the West.

The Alt Right will. Join us, if you have the steel.

I gave up on the formal “conservative” movement a while back, when I realized that Hot Air was an apt name for what almost all of them were spouting, and than almost none of those politicians they supported ever had any intention of winning the war for America that the Leftists and other Democrats were waging on them...

Still more.

Michael Ramirez on the Normandy Jihad Attack

Here, "Normandy Church Attack 07-26-16":

STANDING w FRANCE on Ramirez website: #tcothttps://t.co/gytrW4qbRh
Facebook:https://t.co/WeX1G9jwDl pic.twitter.com/2rMeS5XMP7

— Michael Ramirez (@Ramireztoons) July 15, 2016

Once again, the vile and wretched refuse of mankind have attacked the innocent.
​
Our prayers go out for the families of Father Jacques Hamel, and the nun who is fighting for her life. We pray. Our prayers go out for the people of ​France and for people everywhere who have fallen victim to these heinous acts of terror.

The terrorists who continue to commit these brutal acts, attacking an 84 year old priest and a nun, demonstrate what they truly are, cowards, who prey on the weak, helpless and defenseless.
​
As I have written before, these tragedies expose "those who subvert religion to justify brutal acts of barbarity. Only when the world can see these animals for what they truly are will the world unite against these emissaries of death and destruction."

But before you can go after evil, you must define it. It goes by many names; ISIS, ISIL, lone wolf, DAESH... but they all share one thing in common, the celebration of death in the name of radical Islam.

We pray for those who have been touched by terror.

More.

Helpless Europe

Following-up, "'Shock' in France as 'Soldier' of Islamic State Murders Priest, Takes Nuns Hostage (VIDEO)."

Yes, Europeans are helpless as long as they refuse to grasp the reality of the situation, and of course socialist France won't do it. Perhaps Marine will be elected to the presidency next year, and they'll have a chance.

Meanwhile, here's Bret Stephens, at WSJ, "Is Europe Helpless?" (via Israel Matzav):

At last count, members of the European Union spent more than $200 billion a year on defense, fielded more than 2,000 jet fighters and 500 naval ships, and employed some 1.4 million military personnel. More than a million police officers also walk Europe’s streets. Yet in the face of an Islamist menace the Continent seems helpless. Is it?

Was France helpless in May 1940?

Let’s stipulate that a van barreling down a seaside promenade isn’t a Panzer division, and that a few thousand ISIS fighters scattered from Mosul to Marseilles aren’t another Wehrmacht. But as in France in 1940, Europe today displays the same combination of doctrinal rigidity and loss of will that allowed an Allied army of 144 divisions to be routed by the Germans in six weeks. The Maginot Line of “European values” won’t prevail over people who recognize none of those values.

So much was made clear by French Prime Minister Manuel Valls, who remarked after the Nice attack that “France is going to have to live with terrorism.” This may have been intended as a statement of fact but it came across as an admission that his government isn’t about to rally the public to a campaign of blood, toil, tears and sweat against ISIS—another premature capitulation in a country that has known them before.

Mr. Valls was later booed at a memorial service for the Nice victims. It would be heartening to think this was because he and his boss, President François Hollande, have failed to forge a strategy to destroy ISIS. But the public’s objection was that there hadn’t been enough cops along the Promenade des Anglais to stop the attack. In soccer terms, it’s a complaint about the failure of defense, not the lack of a proper offense.

Then there is Germany, site of three terror attacks in a week. It seems almost like a past epoch that Germans welcomed a million Middle Eastern migrants in an ecstasy of moral self-congratulation, led by Angela Merkel’s chant of “We can do it!” Last summer’s slogan now sounds as dated and hollow as Barack Obama’s “Yes we can!”

Now Germany will have to confront a terror threat that will make the Baader-Meinhof gang of the 1970s seem trivial. The German state is stronger and smarter than the French one, but it also surrenders more easily to moral intimidation. The idea of national self-preservation at all costs will always be debatable in a country seeking to expiate an inexpiatable sin.

Thus the question of whether Europe is helpless...

Keep reading.

'Shock' in France as 'Soldier' of Islamic State Murders Priest, Takes Nuns Hostage (VIDEO)

We're almost to one attack a day in Europe alone. It's long been the case that we see daily Islamic attacks around the world.

The sad thing is that people in France are "shocked" that there's now yet another jihadist slaughter of the innocents.

At the leftist Guardian U.K., "France in shock again after Isis murder of priest in Normandy: One of the attackers who killed Father Jacques Hamel during mass has been named as 19-year-old Adel Kermiche."

But see London's Daily Mail, "First picture of one of ISIS knifemen who forced elderly priest, 84, to kneel at altar before they slit his throat on camera after invading Mass - then gave 'Arabic sermon' before they were shot dead by police.

Really, be sure to scroll through at Daily Mail. The picture of President Hollande embracing Mayor Hubert Wulfranc fully encapsulates the current crisis of French politics. How long can a society pledged to tolerance and diversity hold out? I'd say the earlier proposal to strip French citizenship from jihadists needs to be given fresh air. And the prison camp on Devil's Island should be opened as a French Guantánamo.

Robert Spencer comments, at Jihad Watch:

“Allahu akbar” is such a constant of jihad attacks that every time it is shouted, it is bearing witness not only to the fact that the murder in question is being committed in the name of Islam and in accord with its teachings, but also to the fact that Western authorities are resolute in their refusal to acknowledge the motivating ideology of the enemy, and thus are abjectly ill-equipped to deal with it adequately.

And as for Hollande saying that France is at war with the Islamic State, we have heard French and other Western officials say that before. But they don’t act as if they mean it...

Well, as I asked above, what will it take? I suspect it'll take Marine Le Pen's accession to the Élysée Palace in Paris. I have no worry that she'd fail to protect the French national interest.

In any case, more headlines:

* Atlas Shrugs, "Muslims SHOUTED ALLAHU AKBAR as they BEHEADED PRIEST in Normandy CHURCH, Nun fighting for her life, STORMED Morning MASS."

*Bare Naked Islam, "FRANCE: Islamic terrorists shouting “Allahu Akbar” slits throat of 84-year-old priest."

* Blazing Cat Fur, "Islamist Knifemen Forced Priest, 84, To Kneel Before They Slit His Throat On Camera: Jihadists Carry Out Slaughter In Church Then Give ‘Arabic Sermon’… And Now Hollande Says ‘We’re At War With ISIS’."

* iOWNTHEWORLD, "Priest murdered during Mass in terror attack on Catholic church in France."

* Legal Insurrection, "Priest in France murdered by ISIS terrorists."

Expect updates.

WikiLeaks Dismantling of #DNC is Clear Attack by Putin on Clinton

Following-up from yesterday, "Is Donald Trump a Vladimir Putin Plant?"

From John Schindler, at the New York Observer:

EXCLUSIVE: Inside the Kremlin's covert operation via Wikileaks to destroy Hillary + the DNC & elect Donald Trump.https://t.co/ezoTER1v3D

— John Schindler (@20committee) July 25, 2016

The recent Wikileaks dump of 20,000 emails belonging to the Democratic National Committee has caused political sensation and scandal on a grand scale. These internal communications reveal nothing flattering about the DNC or Hillary Clinton, who is set to be anointed as the Democrats’ presidential nominee at their party convention in Philadelphia that gets underway with fanfare today.

Wikileaks has thrown an ugly wrench into Hillary’s coronation. DNC emails reveal a Clinton campaign that’s shady and dishonest, not to mention corrupt. Its secret dealings with Hillary’s opponents—whether Bernie Sanders or Donald Trump—have been distasteful and possibly illegal. To say this is an unflattering portrayal of Team Clinton is like saying the Titanic had issues with ice.

The ramifications of this massive leak are already serious. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, the embattled DNC chair, has been forced to tender her resignation in advance of the party conclave in Philadelphia, while Senator Sanders, who’s been revealed as the target of much aggressive DNC attention during the Democratic primary campaign, stated he was “not shocked but I’m disappointed” by the Wikileaks revelations. The Democrats are anything but united now as they prepare to take on Donald Trump and the Republicans.

On the eve of the four-day Democratic convention extravaganza, this data-dump could not have been timed better to damage Hillary and her efforts to move back into the White House this November. Although it’s doubtful that leaked RNC internal emails would make any more pleasant a read for the public, Clinton will emerge from this tarred with the indelible brush of corruption and collusion with her party’s leadership to fix the Democratic presidential nomination.

Wikileaks has delivered as promised on its public threats of damaging Team Clinton with hacked emails. Although the DNC can’t deny that many of the leaked messages appear authentic—they wouldn’t have forced the chair’s resignation if they were fake, obviously—there remains the important question of how the vaunted “privacy organization” got its hands on them.

It turns out there’s hardly any mystery there. It’s no secret that the DNC was recently subject to a major hack, one which independent cybersecurity experts easily assessed as being the work of Russian intelligence through previously known cut-outs. One of them, called COZY BEAR or APT 29, has used spear-phishing to gain illegal access to many private networks in the West, as well as the White House, the State Department, and the Joint Chiefs of Staff last year. Another hacking group involved in the attack on the DNC, called FANCY BEAR or APT 28, is a well-known Russian front, as I’ve previously profiled.

These bears didn’t make much efforts to hide their DNC hack—in one case leaving behind a Russian name in Cyrillic as a signature—and Kremlin attribution has been confirmed by independent analysis by a second cybersecurity firm.

The answer then is simple: Russian hackers working for the Kremlin cyber-pilfered the DNC then passed the purloined data, including thousands of unflattering emails, to Wikileaks, which has shown them to the world...

I'm getting a little more sold on the idea that Russia's behind the hack, although not so much that Trump's a Putin plant.

But keep reading.

Emily Ratajkowski Poses for Harper's Bazaar's August Issue

At Harper's, "EMILY RATAJKOWSKI'S NAKED AMBITION: The actress sits down with the famed feminist author Naomi Wolf to discuss sexuality, shaming, and the notorious Kim Kardashian selfie."

Alan Grayson Threatens to Have Reporter Arrested After Question About Domestic Abuse Allegations

You know, watching all the communist and NoKo sympathizers out there in Philly, I think threats of jail time have now become the default Democrat Party position on uncomfortable press inquiries.

At Twitchy, "Roll tape! Rep. Alan Grayson threatens to have reporter arrested after question about domestic abuse allegations."

Also, "Dana Loesch calls out Florida man *cough Alan Grayson cough* for two DECADES of domestic abuse."

She's tweeting the story out today from Politico:

Florida man accused of beating wife for two decades: https://t.co/gc1nEjKWpx cc @AlanGrayson

— Dana Loesch (@DLoesch) July 26, 2016

Ireland Baldwin for Treats Magazine

At London's Daily Mail, "Bombshell! Ireland Baldwin shows off her stunning figure as she poses nude in sexy photos for treats! magazine."

And at WWTDD, "Ireland Baldwin Topless."

If the Election Were Held Today Donald Trump Would Likely Win!

Now that's what I'm talking about!

You know, he did get a nice post-convention bounce, heh.

At the Hill, "Nate Silver: Trump would likely win if election were held today" (via Memeorandum).

If the election were today, Trump would likely win. But Clinton's still favored long-term: https://t.co/2uB2oqpXy4 pic.twitter.com/HUTQMaVrBx

— FiveThirtyEight (@FiveThirtyEight) July 25, 2016

Finally catching up to the old crook... #CrookedHillary pic.twitter.com/WF3TLMY0hc

— James Woods (@RealJamesWoods) July 25, 2016

Protesters Proudly Wave North Korean Flag Outside Democrat National Convention in Philly (PHOTO)

Just saw this from Ed Driscoll, at Instapundit, "CHAOS! COMMUNISTS, ENVIRONMENTALISTS, TRUMP HATERS, BERNIE BACKERS, THOUSANDS PROTEST DNC PHILADELPHIA. JUST ONE GROUP MISSING: HILLARY CLINTON SUPPORTERS, claims the London Daily Mail."

And that reminded me of Tania Gail's tweet:

Why the North Korean flag at a Bernie rally? pic.twitter.com/U4qZUl9340

— Tania Gail (@TaniaGailPhotos) July 26, 2016

Leftists love Stalinists. https://t.co/UJccMzLPS0

— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) July 26, 2016

Tania's a Philly native.

She's blogging the convention. See, "Day One: Bernie Rally Meets Mississippi Flag."

U.S. and European Elites Just Not Equipped to Deal With Islam's Insurgency

Well, that's pretty obvious by now.

But see Blazing Cat Fur:

The terror attacks in Nice and Wurzburg are the latest manifestations of what should now be seen as a still fairly low-level Islamist insurgency taking place in a number of west European countries. The fact that this insurgency has been allowed to kindle itself and slowly emerge before now bursting forth represents a profound failure of Western European political culture and of the continent’s elites.

This is not merely a matter of poor police or intelligence work. Rather, it is the culmination of a long process of enfeeblement. The Islamist insurgency is a disease attacking an already weakened body which lacks the means to defend itself...

Trump Stumps the Establishment

Seen on Twitter:

Establishment Trumps People every time; Trump Stumps Establishment, everytime. #DEMSINPHILLY RETWEET #RETWEET pic.twitter.com/iIve2QbBBT

— ⚓ I'm With You ™ (@ImWithYou010) July 25, 2016