Death camp survivor tells the Bookkeeper of Auschwitz trial that Oskar Groening ‘was part of the machinery that murdered my family' as the ex-Nazi declares he 'can only ask God for forgiveness'

UK Daily Mail  "Former S.S. Auschwitz guard Oskar Groening told a court he had 'no right' to ask anyone for forgiveness for his service at the extermination camp.

" 'I can only ask the Lord God for forgiveness,' the former Sergeant added before apologising once again to the victims whose searing accounts, he said, affected him deeply.

"His statement came before the powerful testimony of one of the world's most famous Holocaust survivors who lost most of her family in the death camp in Nazi-occupied Poland.. . . 

 

. . . "Irene Weiss, now 84, was photographed on the arrivals ramp by an S.S. cameraman after she stepped down from a crammed cattle car of prisoners in the spring of 1944.



"Forty five years ago she discovered the photo of herself which now adorns Holocaust museums around the world, including the one in Washington D.C.

"After she told her searing tale of loss and survival she said outside court: 'He is right that only God can forgive him, because I cannot. He was part of the machinery that murdered my family and even today, I can imagine him in his S.S. uniform and it sends chills down my spine." . . .
. . .

"Groening was on duty in Auschwitz during a 48-day period in 1944 when 300,000 Hungarian Jews were shipped there, most of them gassed within hours of arrival.

"He continued to insist that he had been on the arrivals ramp 'only three or four times' and that his duties were confined to shipping back to Berlin the money and possessions of the doomed - hence his nickname 'The Bookkeeper of Auschwitz.'

"In the statement, he said: 'What happened in Auschwitz, the mass murder, were known to me through my own actions and later through my interest in the Holocaust. But the details told here were not known to me.

" 'For example, I had no idea of the terrible conditions on the transports. That really shocked me. The descriptions by the survivors and the relatives of the victims also left an extremely strong impression on me.

"'What happened in Auschwitz has been brought before my eyes once again. " . . .

Read more:

Obama Administration obsessed with accommodating Iranian nuclear goals

Legal Insurrection
 Two reports in The Wall Street Journal raise serious doubts about the efficacy of the emerging nuclear deal with Iran

 

. . . "In the first case, Jay Solomon of The Wall Street Journal reported (Google link) on the secret dealings between the Obama administration – going back to 2009 – and Iran. The dealings, facilitated by the Sultan of Oman, raise serious questions about how President Barack Obama is going about his nuclear negotiations. (By the way, remember that Obama was silent during Iran’s stolen election of 2009 that returned Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to power. Presumably he didn’t want to upset his negotiating partners.)

"The early negotiations were, in effect, prisoner swaps. The United States and Britain had jailed Iranian nationals for smuggling prohibited items to Iran. Iran wanted the smugglers returned. On the other side, in 2009, three American hikers had strayed into Iran and were imprisoned. The United States saw that the Iranians, who had violated the law, were released quickly. (In one case it appears that an Iranian woman was released early; in other cases their deportation hearing was expedited.) Eventually the three hikers were released, after Oman paid approximately a $500,000 bond for each – essentially a ransom payment. One of the hikers called the releases “goodwill gestures” which the Journal characterized as “help[ing] build momentum for the secret nuclear negotiations.” . . .

 

Iran and America: the wolves and the sheep

Is Iran luring Obama into a trap in Iraq?   "Bloomberg View’s Eli Lake and Josh Rogin recently reported that U.S. troops are sharing a base with Iran-backed Shiite militias in Iraq, where Tehran’s notorious proxies are spying on U.S. operations and personnel at their leisure to prepare the ground for future crimes. This worrying revelation is the latest manifestation of a misconception about the Iranian regime’s nature and its intentions in Iraq -- an error that can prove to be fatal if not corrected." . . . By Amir Basiri

 US Giving up on Military Inspections of Iran Nuke Sites . . . "If you needed any further evidence that our government is much more interested in playing nice with the Iranians than actually solving the problem at hand, then here it is. “That’s not appropriate” is reasoning that might have worked in high school, but in the real world, we are telling the one of the most dangerous and least trustworthy states in the world exactly where they can building nuclear weapons without worrying about being discovered. Bill Kristol at the Weekly Standard sums it up well*:" . . .

. . . This sentence says it all. Opponents of a bad deal should make it famous: You can only vote for this deal if you accept this basic equivalence between the Iranian regime and the U.S. Which is the consistent position of the left.

*The Sentence That Could Doom the Iran Deal

 And those who've been genuinely undecided, but have said repeatedly that an acceptable deal would have to have "go anywhere, anytime" inspections, must now acknowledge the Obama administration has unequivocally yielded on what had been presented by the administration as one of its key requirements. Could this sentence be a final tipping point in collapsing congressional support for the deal?

ISIS Responds To SCOTUS Gay Marriage Ruling By Tossing 4 Gays From Building As Crowd Cheers, Tweets #LoveWins

 

"Excerpted from The Gateway Pundit: ISIS celebrated gay love today by tossing four more gays from top of a highrise.
Of course a crowd gathered below to watch the execution.
Several Islamists tweeted out #LoveWins – the same hashtag that was used today after the Supreme Court ruling.
Of course this wasn’t the first time…
A massive crowd assembled to watch ISIS rebels throw another gay man off a building top earlier this month.
Hundreds of spectators came out to watch Keep reading.
 Video here.
Read more at Pat Dollard

Activists to burn U.S. flags in protest prior to July Fourth holiday

Examiner

 

"A group calling itself “Disarm NYPD” is set to burn U.S. flags in a Brooklyn park on Wednesday, just days before the July fourth holiday, The Blaze reported Tuesday. The Facebook event, called “Burn the American Flags,” invites supporters to join them at Fort Greene Park to “set fire to this symbol of oppression.”

"According to organizers, Charleston shooting suspect Dylann Roof wasn’t an “isolated actor,” the Blaze said, but a “product of a consistent pattern of state-sponsored terrorism and radicalized dehumanization in America.” Initially, Oliver Darcy added, the event was set to burn Confederate battle flags, but later changed to focus on the stars and stripes instead.

“ 'There will be no peace until we tear down this system of oppression,” the group said, echoing comments made by Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan. “It isn’t enough to take the flag down; we must put an end to white supremacy once and for all.” The group defended its position in a Facebook post, Darcy said." . . .

Which politicians own these houses?

Campus Reform   "Hillary Clinton has vowed to be a champion for “everyday Americans.”

"The former Secretary of State—who once described herself and husband Bill Clinton as “dead broke”—kicked off her campaign on June 13 and in her 45-minute speech on New York City’s Roosevelt Island, Clinton delivered a message similar to her initial presidential announcement.

“ 'Americans have fought their way back from tough economic times,” Clinton said in the video announcement on April 12. “But the deck is still stacked in favor of those at the top.”

"So what do Millennials think of a candidate who criticizes the “1 percent,” but simultaneously owns multi-million dollar properties in Washington, D.C. and New York and spends her summers in the Hamptons? Campus Correspondent Cabot Phillips took to the streets of our nation’s capitol to find out in Campus Reform’s debut of “Candidate’s Cribs.' ”

Hat tip to Rush Limbaugh who discussed this at length . . . "So here's Campus Reform, a poster board on an easel, four or five mansions, anywhere from five to $15 million, asking random Millennial passersby, who owns them?  They all think either Marco Rubio or Ben Carson.  One person said George Bush.  None of them guessed Hillary Clinton. And when they were told that Hillary owned all of them, they could not believe it.  And then learned that in February 2014 Hillary demanded 275 grand for a 10-minute speech at the University of Missouri Kansas City. " . . .

. . . "But, by the same token, Mrs. Clinton and her husband, Bill, it was shocking. You could have dropped a bomb on these people.  They could not believe it, even after they were told.  Some of them didn't want to believe it.  It didn't compute.  Here's a companion story from the Washington Post: "When the University of Missouri at Kansas City was looking for a celebrity speaker to headline its gala luncheon marking the opening of a women’s hall of fame, one of the names that came to mind was Hillary Rodham Clinton.' " . . .

At ONLY $65,000 for a 10 minute speech, Chelsea the ‘Discount Clinton’ is the choice of fiscally responsible colleges

 

Twitchy   " For colleges that want the star power of a Clinton, but don’t want to pay full price, the solution is easy … hire Chelsea instead! She’s a bargain at only $65,000 for an hour’s worth of work (10 minute talk, 20 minute Q and A, 30 minutes posing for photos):"

 

EPA Gets Another Much-Needed Smackdown From The Courts

 

Investor's Business Daily  . . . "The latest case involves an EPA rule requiring coal plants to cut back mercury emissions. With annual compliance costs of more than $9 billion, it was one of the agency's most expensive rules.

"Even though the rule would provide only about $9 million in health benefits, the EPA still ignored the cost side of the equation. Only this agency would spend $9 billion for just $9 million in benefits." . . .

"It's up to a federal appeals court to decide the final fate of the rule. Too bad many coal plants have already spent billions or closed in anticipation of the rule.

"This case is just the latest sign of how out of control the EPA is. Back in 2012, an appeals court chucked rules limiting sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide, saying the agency had overstepped its bounds." . . .

EPA Loses at SCOTUS—but is Damage Already Done?. . . "Despite the victory, it may have come at a cost that is too late to recover. The rule went into place several years ago and the impact has taken its toll:

Since 2012, when the EPA finished its mercury rule, at least 58 coal-burning power plants have partially or entirely shut down, according to data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration. That has taken more than 16,000 megawatts of capacity offline, enough to power roughly 16 million homes.

"The decision also looks like it will cause further rifts between the Obama administration and Congress . . ."

11 Native American Tribes, Including The Two Largest, Prohibit Gay Marriage

CNS News   Tribal laws of the two largest Native American tribes in the United States prohibit gay marriage, as do the laws of nine other smaller tribes.
The Navajo and Cherokee Nations, the first and second largest tribes respectively, together have about 600,000 members. The nine smaller tribes that ban gay marriage have another 350,000 members. These tribes all either define marriage as between a man and a woman or explicitly prohibit same-sex marriage, according to the Associated Press (AP).
Since 2011, six of the eleven tribes revisited and upheld their preexisting legal definitions of marriage as between a man and a woman, AP researchers found.
Due to their status as sovereign nations, these 11 tribes will not need to change their marriage laws, which govern nearly one million tribal members. . . 
Right:  "Navajo Wedding," by Mike Larsen, circa 1980. (National Museum of the American Indian).

Hillary Gump

Victor Davis Hanson

Forrest Gump usually had a positive role to play at the hinges of fate; the equally ubiquitous Hillary Gump’s cameos have made history far worse.

 

. . . "Take the issue of government abuse, ethics, and public transparency. The modern locus classicus of government overreach was the Watergate scandal. Over forty years ago Hillary was there as a young legal intern purportedly advising the House Judiciary Committee during the congressional investigations. She was also reportedly let go by her superiors for unethical conduct — quis custodiet ipsos custodes?  From Watergate to Travelgate to Filegate to Whitewater to the current quid pro quos of the Clinton Foundation to her recent destruction of private emails and her private server while serving as Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton has been at or near lots of government scandals of the last half-century. Twenty years ago Hillary Clinton was brazenly evading federal law by hiding her legal records from a court-ordered subpoena for documents — in the same fashion that in 2015 she destroyed all traces of her email correspondence on her private server, in violation of State Department protocol and most likely federal law." . . .
Read the full article here.

 

Liberal Silliness 6/29/15

Pretty much what the Tunnel Dweller does now.

The Phrase “trigger warning” is now in itself also a trigger.  "Yes — now even trigger warnings need trigger warnings. According to the Feminist Internet, the phrase“trigger warning” is now in itself also a trigger.
. . .  "And the thing that makes even less sense here (yes, that is possible) is that Everyday Feminism’s “content warning” uses the word “trigger” — not just once, but twice!

 Content Warning: This article discusses triggering in detail and mentions common topics of triggering (sexual assault, anxiety, health anxiety, depression, death, non-specific fears and phobias).

 

Farm couple sued for discrimination say they were 'set up' . . . " How can there be "pain and suffering" if the plaintiffs knew full well the outcome of their request?"

 Obama on gay marriage then and now.   . . .  "As Ace points out, most people feel a certain amount of shame in a situation like this but Obama isn’t most people. He’s a lying political opportunist of the highest order. Watch and compare…"
That was then...  and  this is now.

 

A Mosque Raised Thousands To Help A Catholic Church That Was Vandalized

 "What better time than Ramadan for a story about helping out a neighbour in need."

Buzzfeed   "In May, the statue of Jesus in front of St. Catherine of Siena Church in Mississauga, Ont. was desecrated — its sacred heart and face blackened with paint, its fingers mangled."

 

"But it was only the latest act of vandalism at the Catholic church.

"Earlier this year, according to the Catholic Register, someone had previously broken in and ripped pages out of the Sacramentary book. In previous incidents, someone had defaced both the church and a nearby Catholic school with spray paint.

"That didn’t sit well with Hamid Slimi, imam of the nearby Sayeda Khadija Centre.
. . .
"Lando mentioned they needed funds to repair the damage and Slimi took that news back to the mosque.

"The mosque managed to raise $5,000 in a single day after Slimi mentioned the church’s plight at a Friday sermon.". . .

 

More at the link.