Politics

Yesterday I laid out a rationale for social conservatives voting for Trump. Today I will do the same for social conservatives to vote against Trump (and therefore for one of the other GOP candidates). I’m going to start with the premise that you, the social conservative, are alienated from the Republican Party and tempted to vote for Trump to send a message, to blow up the system, or some related reason. Here is a case for not doing that — and remember, like yesterday’s post, this is a thought experiment.

Moments after a massive explosion rocked Ankara on Wednesday, we said the following: “Expect this to be pinned on either ISIS or the PKK. If it's the latter, Ankara will once again claim that the group is working in concert with the YPG and that will be all the evidence Erdogan needs to march across the border.”

A Syrian army outpost south of Damascus was hit by an “Israeli bombardment,” according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. Deutsche Welle reports: “The location was targeted by three missile strikes, which caused physical damage,” the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said in a report. “It is unknown whether members of Hezbollah were inside the location or not,” SOHR added, referring to an armed Lebanese Shiite movement allied with the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

An internet privacy organization has planned nationwide protests over a court order pressuring Apple Inc. to build a backdoor into their encryption security, used on their smart-phones, to allow the FBI access. Fight for the Future, dedicated to fighting basic internet rights and freedoms, is organizing protests at Apple stores nationwide. Sputnik reports: The protests will not be against Apple, who has released a message to their customers decrying the order and vowing to challenge it, but against the US government.

A Russian expert has claimed that the crashed Malaysian Boeing-777 (MH17) was shot down by an air-2-air missile  and not the BUK missile system as stated by the Dutch commission.  The claims are from the chief researcher of the Central Research Institute of the Ministry of Defence Force, Zahar Omarov. “I can say that our results refute the conclusion that the aircraft was shot down by a missile from the anti-aircraft missile system of “Beech”.