Iran reports they have seized another oil tanker in the Strait of Hormuz, in an apparent effort to increase hostilities in the region and make a larger conflict with the U.S. and western allies.  All of this activity has a ring of familiarity to it from the late 1980’s.
In ’87 and ’88 the U.S. took over patrolling the strait to afford safe passage for Kuwait tankers and western-flagged ships. Eventually, following the Iranian attack on a U.S. frigate (USS Samuel B Roberts), there were several U.S-Iran military fights.
It looks like Iran is attempting to provoke a similar scenario today.  Only this time former President Obama and former U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry appear to be assisting the Iranian government in their political efforts.  As incredible as it might sound at first blush, if Iran kills or captures any American military members in the modern version of the conflict – Obama and Kerry will be working directly for the enemy.  FUBAR:

WASHINGTON – Tehran, Iran — Iran’s Revolutionary Guard says it has seized British oil tanker, the Stena Impero, in the Strait of Hormuz. The announcement comes one day after the U.S. said it destroyed an Iranian drone.
The military branch said the tanker over “non-compliance with international maritime laws and regulations” and has transferred the vessel to an Iranian port.

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This is an example of what happens when politicians and far-left activists push a false narrative that ICE facilities are comparable to concentration camps.
An obviously unstable man armed with a rifle attempts to blow up an ICE detention facility in Tacoma Washington following protests hours earlier.

WASHINGTON – An armed man was fatally shot early Saturday during a confrontation with police after he hurled incendiary devices at a Washington state immigration detention center, Tacoma police said.
The shooting occurred about 4 a.m. local time outside the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Northwest Detention Center, where the gunman attempted to set the building and parked cars on fire, according to police spokeswoman Loretta Cool.

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Portland, Oregon, is located in the Northwestern United States. Portland is considered the cultural mecca for the most refined vision of Democratic Socialism. Known as a Marxist hub for modern cultural and political violence, all tourists are eligible for complimentary helmets as they travel to and from various points of interest.
In addition to teaching your kids new words, Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler welcomes each visiting family.  Together, he and his leadership team are committed to maximum excitement during your stay. Welcome to Portland – You’ll fight like hell to enjoy it, or else:
[wpvideo lrghtxKh]
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A very sad end to a statewide search for missing University of Utah student Mackenzie Lueck. During a police conference update today, Ms. Lueck was identified as a murder victim. A suspect has been arrested.

(Via NBC) Salt Lake City police on Friday arrested and charged a man with the murder of missing University of Utah student Mackenzie Lueck.

Ayoola Ajayi, 31, is charged with aggravated murder, aggravated kidnapping, obstruction of justice and desecration of body, authorities announced.

Salt Lake City police Chief Mike Brown said he personally telephoned Lueck’s parents in Southern California to tell them their 23-year-old daughter was dead.

“This is one of the most difficult phone calls I have ever made as both Greg and his wife, Diana, are devastated, are heartbroken by this news,” Brown said.

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North Korea state-run news agency is reporting on a letter from U.S. President Trump to North Korean Chairman Kim Jong-Un.    In an interesting aspect to the media report, KCNA releases a picture of Chairman Kim reading the letter.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un reads a letter from U.S. President Donald Trump, in Pyongyang, North Korea in this picture released by North Korea’s Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on June 22, 2019.

On the hostage dynamic…. last week the hostage taker (Chairman Xi), finally positioned the public optics of Chairman Kim as the hostage; and indicated a likelihood Beijing would negotiate terms for release (better trade deal) with President Trump.  Therefore the rescuer (Trump) now communicates with the hostage (Kim) against an entirely different geopolitical background.
Additionally, both President Trump and Chairman Kim know the picture will be analyzed by high-tech software (Beijing, China and Russia) and the content is easily discoverable.   The message itself, as well as the answer to the message (from Kim), is likely in the picture.  [Note: the White Shirt, business office, is part of the reply].
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Lots of differing opinion on the decision by POTUS to cancel a retaliatory strike against Iran.  Some praise and some criticize.   Here’s President Trump’s reason for cancelling the strike against Iran:

As it relates to the Trump doctrine, CTH would note any current ally of the U.S; and/or any entity engaged with significant economic interests attached to the U.S; including any EU entity who might have previously been skirting the sanctions against Iran (think Turkey); would now be very cautious about appearing on President Trump and Secretary Mnuchin’s proverbial radar.

Iran didn’t just shoot down a simple ‘drone’, Iran used a surface-to-air missile to shot down one of the most technologically advance U.S. aircraft costing $123 million; more than the price of an F-35 stealth fighter jet.
The targeted aircraft was a US Navy Broad Area Maritime Surveillance (BAMS-D); a RQ-4A Global Hawk high-altitude long endurance (HALE) drone, flying in international airspace over the Gulf of Oman.

“The RQ-4 flies at upwards of 65,000 feet,” Tyler Rogoway, the editor of The War Zone, wrote. “So this would have been a sophisticated radar-guided surface-to-air missile that shot the aircraft down, not a shoulder-fired, heat-seeking missile.”

(Business Insider)The US military called the incident “an unprovoked attack on a US surveillance asset in international airspace” over the Strait of Hormuz, the entrance to the Persian Gulf. The Iranians have accused the US drone of entering Iranian airspace, an allegation Central Command characterized as completely false.

President Trump responds below:
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In August 2016 a Syrian named Mustafa Mousab Alowemer, now 21, entered the U.S. under President Obama’s refugee program.  Today he was arrested in an ISIS plot to bomb a Christian church in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

(Via DOJ) Mustafa Mousab Alowemer, 21, a resident of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, was arrested today based on a federal complaint charging him with one count of attempting to provide material support and resources to the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS), a designated foreign terrorist organization, and two counts of distributing information relating to an explosive, destructive device, or weapon of mass destruction in relation to his plan to attack a church in Pittsburgh.

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This entire story is creepy, really creepy.  God bless those poor people on the jury who had to sit and hear all these skeezy details….
Following a six-week trial the Democrats favorite sex trafficker, Keith Raniere (58), was convicted on all charges including: sex trafficking, racketeering, wire fraud, forced labor and attempted sex trafficking; all conspiracy charges. He will be sentenced Sept. 25.
Here’s the statement by U.S. Attorney Richard P. Donoghue after the conviction of Keith Raniere outside the Brooklyn federal courthouse:

NEW YORK – NXIVM’s founder Keith Raniere was convicted on Wednesday on all seven counts against him, for creating what prosecutors described as a sex cult in which female members were branded with his initials and kept in line through blackmail.

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No-one seems to know why Americans are dying of ‘heart attacks’ during vacations in the Dominican Republic, but many people are beginning to suspect intentional poisoning by hotel workers.   Another mysterious death today:

(Dominican Republic) The son of a New York hospital technician who died suddenly in her room at an all-inclusive resort in Punta Cana says Dominican authorities are resisting doing toxicology tests and pressuring him to have her body cremated or embalmed before its return to the U.S.

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