DRAIN THE SWAMP: Why is Hillary Clinton’s private server man running the US embassy in UK and undercutting Trump’s tweets?

CHUCK SCHUMER: ‘BDS Supporters Will Be Defeated’

Schumer argued that the Obama administration should have vetoed Resolution 2334, which declared Israeli settlements to be a violation of international law, in December and said the U.S. “should never use the United Nations as a forum to put pressure on Israel of any kind.”

Schumer slammed the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement as a “deeply biased campaign aimed at delegitimizing the Jewish State.”

“There’s no greater example than this insidious effort to harm the Jewish State than through boycotts, divestment, and sanctions,” he said. “The global BDS movement is a deeply biased campaign aimed at delegitimizing the Jewish State and its supporters, sometimes wittingly, sometimes unwittingly, but all of them practice a modern form of anti-Semitism, and we have to call them out for that.”

Schumer said the BDS movement is silent about the human rights abuses happening in the Middle East.

“BDS condemns Israel and seek to impose boycotts solely on the Jewish State, but willfully turn a blind eye to nations that actually violate human rights. When Iran sponsors terror and executes dissenters, BDS movement is quiet. When Arab nations jail journalists and punish homosexuality with prison sentences and physical abuse, BDS is nowhere to be found,” he said.

President Obama helped unleash a wave of “legitimized” Jew-hatred in a fit of pique against Benjamin Netanyahu.

WASHINGTON EXAMINER: @realDonaldTrump, delete your account.

President Trump too often uses Twitter to stream his thoughts directly to the world. Some of his supporters revel in the howls these tweets produce from news media and other critics. This trollish appreciation misses the main consequence, that Trump imperils his own agenda, much of which we agree with, when he tweets from the hip.

“[T]weets on legal matters seriously undermine Admin agenda and POTUS,” wrote respected Republican attorney George Conway, husband of Kellyanne Conway, councilor to the president. He continued, “and those who support him, as I do, need to reinforce that and not be shy about it.”

Conway is right, and early on the morning after the London Bridge terrorist attack, in a span of 14 minutes, Trump rattled off a series of tweets that demonstrated his potential and actual self-harm.

Campaigning and governing are two different things.

LINDSEY GRAHAM: I don’t think GOP can pass healthcare bill this year.

STRANGE BEDFELLOWS: Amazon will produce a “drama about the relationship between whistleblower Linda Tripp and Monica Lewinsky has been snapped up by Amazon – and a billionaire Clinton donor is set to be a producer.”

I get the feeling they may take a creative liberty or two.

POLLING: Conservatives gain 31 seats and have 77% chance of controlling a majority.

As noted here previously, Theresa May’s Conservatives appear to be doing better in traditionally Labour regions, rather than just running up the totals with Tory voters.

BUT THE NARRATIVE! NSA Leaks Contradict What Obama Promised The Public About Russia’s Election Meddling.

“What I was concerned about in particular was making sure [the DNC hack] wasn’t compounded by potential hacking that could hamper vote counting, affect the actual election process itself,” Obama said. “So in early September when I saw President Putin in China, I felt that the most effective way to ensure that that didn’t happen was to talk to him directly and tell him to cut it out and there were going to be serious consequences if he didn’t. And in fact we did not see further tampering of the election process.”

“But the leaks through WikiLeaks had already occurred,” Obama said, indicating that any further election interference was the result of emails released by WikiLeaks in the days and weeks leading up to the election.

“The president made it sound like that worked,” The New York Times reported at the time, noting Obama’s claim that “we did not see further tampering of the election process.”

But NSA documents published by The Intercept on Monday revealed that as late as October 31 or November 1, hackers launched an election-related spearfishing operation “targeting U.S. local government organizations.”

In other words, Russia was still tampering with the American electoral process after Obama said they ceased doing so. The documents’ authenticity have been confirmed by U.S. officials, and the U.S. Department of Justice charged on Monday the woman who leaked the Top Secret documents to The Intercept.

“The NSA assessed that this phase of the spear-fishing operation was likely launched on either October 31 or November 1 and sent spear-fishing emails to 122 email addresses ‘associated with named local government organizations,’ probably to officials ‘involved in the management of voter registration systems,’” The Intercept reported.

The leaked documents reveal that two other election-related hacking efforts were launched in October — one month after Putin supposedly “cut it out.”

Putin was merely taking advantage of the flexibility afforded him by Obama’s reelection.

TYLER O’NEIL: Think Climate Change Had Anything to Do With the Conflict in Syria? You’re a Fool.

THIS SEEMS LIKE A BIG DEAL: Security Analysts Confirm Links Between Beijing Spy Agency and Security Firm.

RAND PAUL: We should repeal Obamacare like Republicans promised, not just “fix” it.

Well, that is what they’ve promised to do in every election since 2010.

QUESTION ASKED: At What Point Is Islamist Rhetoric a Crime?

Jim Geraghty:

Yesterday on Twitter, Sam Hooper gave me a little grief – perhaps deserved – for my comments on the day’s Three Martini Lunch podcast generally supportive of U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May’s proposal of new measures in response to the recent Islamist terror attacks.

Hooper asked, “should someone be arrested for saying ‘I want to overthrow the US government and establish an Islamic state?” Not for actually doing it, mind you, but merely for saying the words. Are saying those words aloud a crime? If so, aren’t we getting unnervingly close to the concept of “Thought Crimes”?

It’s fair to ask that question; it’s entirely possible that my perspective on terrorism right now is emotionally clouded by the thought of those ten children, and 22 people overall, went to an Ariana Grande concert one night and never came home. Indeed, it would be odd and unnerving and inconsistent with our traditions of free expression to arrest and imprison someone for the mere expression of the thought.

(On the other hand, if you’re going to have a hate crime law the way the United Kingdom does, it’s pretty ridiculous to not apply it to someone who’s preaching violence against infidels.)

But when we’ve witnessed and endured Islamist terror attack after Islamist terror attack in one Western city after another, isn’t it fair to ask how many who call for an Islamist overthrow of the government and imposition of Sharia law are truly harmless?

This is a gray area for liberal (in the classic sense) governments. But perhaps it would clarify our thinking if we imagined what steps would be permissible and advisable if parts of the Islamic world were at actual war with the West — which they are.

WELL, GOOD: Nunes on Unmasking Subpoenas: ‘Oh, This Is Only the Beginning’

ANGELO CODEVILLA: Punishing The Real Russia Crime: Leaking.

To divert attention from Clinton’s assorted e-mail problems, the DNC hired its associated IT firm, Crowdstike, which concluded―without giving any evidence―that “the Russians” had been hacking Democrats, and that they had done so to help the Republicans. The intelligence agencies concurred. Numerous intelligence officials have claimed to know who supplied the-mails to Wikileaks. No one has given evidence on the record. A minor defensive maneuver at the time, the “Russia interference in the elections” narrative grew into the Democratic Party’s main explanation for the massive electoral rejection at all levels it ended up suffering on November 8, 2016.

When Donald Trump became the Republican nominee, much of the U.S government, intelligence agencies included, conducted “opposition research” on him. This included tacitly validating a scurrilous report by a British source of Donald Trump with Russian prostitutes. At first, it targeted Paul Manafort, whom Trump had chosen to manage his campaign at the Republican convention, and Carter Page, a minor foreign policy advisor. The FBI and the Justice Department obtained a warrant from the secret court established under the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act to intercept their electronic communications. Both men had worked, legally, with Russian entities.

On May 24, 2017 Obama’s CIA Director John O. Brennan testified in that regard with language that reflected the “probable cause” assumption presented to the court that these were or could be “foreign agents.”

As Glenn has noted here previously, “Brennan’s track record is poor and his motives suspect.”

And do read the whole thing.

COMPETITION: Amazon Fights Wal-Mart for Low-Income Shoppers.

The online retailer giant said Tuesday that it will offer a nearly 20% segment of the U.S. population—people who obtain government assistance with cards typically used for food stamps—a $5.99 monthly Prime membership, less than the $10.99 a month or $99 annual plan for other consumers. The membership buys access to unlimited two-day shipping, video and music content, photo storage and other perks.

The new Prime offering takes direct aim at Wal-Mart, which counts on shoppers who receive government assistance for a large percentage of sales. Wal-Mart generated about $13 billion in sales last year from shoppers using the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, accounting for around 18% of the money spent through the program nationwide. Those customers also spend additional income while in Wal-Mart stores.

Amazon will require cards typically used for food stamps as an initial measure to determine participant eligibility, although they can’t yet be widely used for shopping online. The retailer plans to add additional ways to qualify.

What could go wrong?

CHARLIE MARTIN: Courage, ‘Courage,’ and the British Blitz Spirit.

NSA LEAKER: ‘Being White Is Terrorism’

That’s according to a tweet the alleged leaker, Reality Winner, sent in February. Winner, who is herself white, tweeted at rapper Kanye West that he should make a shirt declaring whiteness an act of terror.

“@kanyewest you should make a shirt that says, ‘being white is terrorism’,” she tweeted.

Winner’s social media history is filled with left-wing messages and support for progressives like Bernie Sanders, as The Daily Caller’s Chuck Ross has previously documented.

The majority of her recent tweets are angrily directed against President Donald Trump, in particular rehashing the liberal trope about “tiny hands.” She has also called the president an “orange fascist,” a “cunt” and bashed his selection of “Confederate General” Jeff Sessions amounts to racism. Sessions is head of the agency currently prosecuting Winner.

Winner held a Top Secret security clearance for her job at Pluribus International, an NSA contractor. She reportedly is the source for The Intercept’s Monday report about previously unknown Russian interference in the 2016 election.

It seems she had quite the progressive education.

LAST STAND FOR CHRISTIANS IN IRAQ: The disappearance of first Jews and now Christians from most parts of the Middle East means the termination of the historical Middle Eastern mosaic of peoples.

Despite periods of violence and persecution, coexistence between ethno-religious groups on the Nineveh Plains in northern Iraq, Christians, Shabak, Yazidis and Kaka’i, has over the years been marked by pluralism and cooperation.

This coexistence also used to include Jews.

When I recently visited the town of Alqosh, where Jews and Christians lived together for a thousand years, I had the honor to visit the tomb of the biblical prophet Nahum. The last Jew leaving Alqosh 1948 left the keys to a Christian family. It was this very family that helped us visit the synagogue and the tomb upon my visit.

The disappearance of first Jews and now Christians from most parts of the Middle East means the termination of the historical Middle Eastern mosaic of peoples. The result will be a region rapidly going into a dark age – with no hope for peace and stability for a very long time.

A Middle East without Christians will no longer be able to rely on a group which for centuries has been able to act as a broker between ethnic or religious groups. The risk of irreconcilable conflicts between remaining groups will be even higher if and when Christians are gone forever.

Given the level of religious cleansing throughout the Islamic Middle East, I’m afraid that’s considered a feature, not a bug.

PATRICK POOLE: Today’s Known Wolf…

A BRIDGE TOO FAR: 130 British imams refuse to perform funerals for London, Manchester attackers.

In what is a highly unusual move, Muslim religious leaders from different schools of Islam — both Sunni and Shia — issued a statement late Monday saying their pain at the suffering of the victims of Saturday’s attacks had led to their decision, and they called on others imams to follow suit.

“We are deeply hurt that a spate of terror attacks have been committed in our country once more by murderers who seek to gain religious legitimacy for their actions. We seek to clarify that their reprehensible actions have neither legitimacy nor our sympathy,” the statement put out by the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB), an umbrella body representing over 500 organizations, read.

“Consequently, and in light of other such ethical principles which are quintessential to Islam, we will not perform the traditional Islamic funeral prayer for the perpetrators and we also urge fellow imams and religious authorities to withdraw such a privilege. This is because such indefensible actions are completely at odds with the lofty teachings of Islam,” the statement continued.

It would be even better if they’d cooperate with the authorities on identifying the radical religious leaders.

NSA PLUGS A LEAK, ISIS GOES DOWN UNDER, AND AL FRANKEN CANCELS ON BILL MAHER: Liz Sheld’s morning brief has it all.

NEWS YOU CAN USE: Most Annoying Moviegoers, Ranked.

VIDEO: Muslim Man Runs Into Christian Wedding in Spain, Attacks Priest.

JIHADI TV: Neighbors identify London Bridge attack suspect as man featured in recent documentary.

Neighbors have identified one of the London Bridge attack suspects as a man known by the nickname “ABZ” or “Abs” who was featured in a recent documentary on the British Channel 4 from 2016 called “The Jihadist Next Door.”

Neighbors say he was the attacker who wore the fake suicide vest during the vehicle and stabbing attack that killed seven people in London on Saturday night.

He was a member of Al Muhajiroun, a small group of men led by Anjem Choudary and Siddartha Dhar who openly preached for the need for Sharia law.

The group was closely monitored by authorities. Police know the man’s name but have not yet publicly announced it.

Yet another known wolf — this time in the most public way possible.

THAT’S (NOT) ENTERTAINMENT! ISIS rock star Choudary extends Islamist influence – even from behind bars.

TWITTER BATTLE: Donald Trump versus George Conway — Kellyanne’s husband.