Tuesday, December 31, 2019

THERE IS NOT MORE ANTI SEMITISM IN THE BLACK COMMUNITY THAN OTHERS

Please don't think that we as a people hate Jews, we don't!

By Donald Jenkins

As a black man I must disagree there is more antisemitism in the black community than others. Growing up, I saw the sacrifices Jews made to stand with blacks during the civil rights movement. Jews marched and died so all American's could have full civil rights.

We learned about Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner in school.

There are certain self-appointed black community leaders, that for their own agenda fan the flames of antisemitism because it serves their agenda of perpetuating the myth that blacks are perpetual victims. These folks include poverty pimps such as Al Sharpton, "Reverend" Jesse Jackson and Louis Farrakhan. However, the average black person sees these fools for who they are and understands that they are out for themselves, not the black community.

Jesse Jackson is a shakedown con-artist who screams racism to extort large companies to enrich himself. The good reverend Jackson's sons, Yusuf and Jonathan Jackson got a beer distributorship from Anheuser Busch after Jackson organized a boycott. Now that his sons are selling the beer, he does not complain about the alcohol problems in the black community. He is an uncle tom sellout.

As to the violence against Jews in Brooklyn, the root cause in my opinion is the lack of swift punishment or accountability. When Giuliani and Bloomberg were in charge, and there was a sane DA in Brooklyn, punishment was swift and severe. People knew to behave themselves. The cops now seem scared to do their jobs and criminals are treated like they are simply victims of racism, or just need counseling. Because of this, folks don't believe they will be held accountable and act like fools without consequences. The black community suffers terribly because of the increase in black-on-black crime.

Lastly, the black leaders are silent in the face of these attacks. If a black person is wrongly pulled over, Al Sharpton organizes a march and protest. If a Jew is attacked by a black person, he is silent. This is not leadership. When there have been isolated incidents where Jewish folks have mistreated blacks, there is thunderous, consistent and forceful denunciation from the Jewish leaders to speak up for the wrong, against the Jewish wrongdoer.

In sum, please don't think that we as a people hate Jews, we don't. We are suffering from a lack of leadership and a media that does not give conservative, sane blacks a voice, and instead focuses on the likes of Jesse and Al, who don't speak for or are respected by, the average black person.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Mr. Jenkins submitted this piece as a comment to “What Have Jews Ever Done To Deserve Black Anti-Semitism?” which I posted on Monday. I thought it deserved far better than to be posted merely as a comment. And as you can tell, he writes like a very well-educated person.

I would like to think that Mr. Jenkins is right, but if you look at the densely populated black ghettos, especially back east, they are hot beds of anti-Semitism. Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton and Louis Farrakhan merely fanned the flames of the anti-Semitism that was already there. Sharpton actually did much more than just fan the flames. In 1991, he played a key role in perpetrating the 3-day Crown Heights riot by blacks against Jews.

Thank you for submitting your thoughts, Mr. Jenkins. May God bless you and your family!

SEATTLE PUBLIC SCHOOLS ARE NOT COMPLETELY INSANE

by Bob Walsh

It seems that there is some sort of a measles outbreak on the horizon in Seattle. The Seattle public schools are not allowing the crumb snatchers back into school after Christmas break unless they can prove they have had the MMR vaccine. The school is supplying the vaccine as a freebie during the break. About 2,000 of the little monsters were unvaccinated before the requirement kicked in, which apparently put a serious ding in the "herd immunity" numbers.

By law this was supposed to have been done a couple of months ago, but they have been slow-dragging it. Washington state dumped its personal-philosophical belief exemption this year, but still has a legit. medical exemption and religious exemption available.

SO, WHAT WILL HAPPEN AFTER IOWA ?

by Bob Walsh

The Iowa Caucuses will be here February 3. Remember, this is NOT a primary but a caucus. It is loud (very often) and public. So, what will the results be and what will the fallout be?

Right now the smart money is on Mayor Pete. Joe the Hairsniffer will probably come out #3. If he doesn't he will look really, really stupid. Joe will also probably NOT win in New Hampshire, the Bernie Bros will probably take that. After all, Bernie is their next-door neighbor. Also, in Bernie's favor, he doesn't change direction every time the wind changes direction. He is pretty honest about who he is (for a politician anyway) and what he wants. There is something to be said for that.

If Joe does not score BIG in South Carolina specifically and overall in general on Super Tuesday he will be in trouble. There will be 14 states up for grabs, including a couple of caucus states. If Joe isn't ahead by then he will start to founder. His only real "advantage" is that he appears to be a reasonable opponent to Trump. That does not help if his own party does not back his play.

The REAL fun will come in if there is no clear winner going into the convention in mid-July. In response to the rip-off Hillary pulled on Crazy Bernie four years ago the rules changed. The superdelegates do NOT get to vote on the first ballot. It is within the realm of possibility that the Dems will end up with a brokered convention. It may even be likely. That will truly be a clusterfuck.

Both Styer and Bloomberg seem to think they will run this thru to the end and both have the resources in their own wallets to make it happen. Styer has no program except TRUMP IS EVIL. Bloomberg has no program except TRUMP IS EVIL, GUNS ARE EVIL, SODA IS EVIL, REPUBLICANS ARE EVIL.

Pocahontas is getting increasingly desperate. Her fund raising is dropping like a stone. She has been forced to back away (slightly) from her EVERYTHING FREE FOR EVERYBODY basic campaign position. Even her sort-of allies are having trouble swallowing that and her embarrassing unwillingness to even pretend to explain how she will fund it makes even liberal's brains hurt.

Personally I think it is shame that Yang hasn't got a chance in hell. He is kind of an interesting guy and is not completely psychotic.

How about Rosie O'Donnell and Michael Moore on a ticket. Golden Corral would probably sponsor them. (OK, that was mean.)

EDITOR'S NOTE: If I were a Democrat, Bloomberg's agenda sounds pretty damn good. As for Rosie and Michael, they would most certainly get the fat vote. (The fat vote ... was that mean?)

CRIMINAL JUSTICE REFORM AT WORK

Bail reform is setting suspects free after string of anti-Semitic attacks

By Israel Salas-Rodriguez, Khristina Narizhnaya and Laura Italiano By Israel Salas-Rodriguez, Khristina Narizhnaya and Laura Italiano

New York Post
December 28, 2019

Suspects arrested in last week’s spree of eight anti-Semitic attacks are being quickly released right back into the neighborhoods they terrorized thanks to “bail reform” legislation — which doesn’t even take effect until Jan. 1.

The most recent case of revolving-door justice came Saturday morning, with the release, with no bail, of a woman charged with punching and cursing at three Orthodox women, ages 22, 26 and 31, in Crown Heights, Brooklyn at dawn the day before.

The accused assailant, Tiffany Harris, was hauled in handcuffs before a Brooklyn judge on 21 menacing, harassment and attempted assault charges.

“Fuck you, Jews!” Harris, 30, of Flatbush, allegedly shouted during the attack.

“Yes, I was there,” Harris later admitted to cops, according to the criminal complaint against her.

“Yes, I slapped them. I cursed them out. I said ‘Fuck you, Jews.’”

As she stood before a judge in Brooklyn Criminal Court with the hood to a navy blue jacket over her head, Harris was in familiar territory.

She still has an open harassment and assault case on the Brooklyn docket from November 2018.

And last month, she was sentenced to no jail time for felony criminal mischief in Manhattan, court records show — a case for which she had repeatedly failed to make court appearances.

Brooklyn prosecutors didn’t even bother requesting bail Saturday, as they could have, given that the reform law, approved in April, technically doesn’t take effect until Jan. 1.

“The de Blasio administration has made it clear that we all need to get into compliance with bail reform now,” said a law enforcement source.

“If prosecutors had asked for bail, corrections would release them immediately,” or they would be sprung on Jan. 1, the source said.

But the de Blasio administration responded that the DOC does nothing without a court order and can’t decide to release anyone.

Brooklyn Criminal Court Judge Laura Johnson even made mention of the coming bail reform legislation in ordering Harris freed.

“So I’m releasing her on consent and also because it will be required under the statute in just a few days,” the judge said.

“Ms. Harris you’re being released on your own recognizance.”

She was issued an order of protection barring contact with the three victims — and a court date of Jan. 10.

Harris broke into a grin when approached by a reporter. “Why do you want to know?” she said. ”Goodbye.”

The legislation requires arraignment judges to set free suspects in any non-sexual assault that doesn’t actually cause a physical injury, even in cases of hate crime attacks.

“If there is an injury, then bail could be requested, because then it would be considered a violent felony,” explained Insha Rahman, who, as director of strategy and new initiatives at the Vera Institute of Justice, worked closely with legislators and the governor’s office in drafting the controversial reforms.

The no-injury loophole will mean a quick get-out-of-jail-free card for all but one of the accused attackers in the eight Hanukkah-timed, anti-Semitic bias crimes that have terrified the city’s Orthodox communities.

“You have to beat the hell out of somebody — or murder them — for there to be any consequences,” said former state lawmaker Dov Hikind, founder of Americans Against Anti-Semitism. “Otherwise, you are set free.”

He continued: “It’s open season in New York — open season on innocent people. On Jews, on Muslims, on gay people. It applies to anybody. But it’s the Jewish people in particular who have been targeted.”

Only one of last week’s eight attacks resulted in an actual physical injury — that of a 65-year-old Jewish man who was punched and kicked on Monday morning at East 41st Street and Third Avenue in Manhattan.

“Fuck you, Jew bastard!” the petrified victim told cops his assailant shouted.

The suspect in that crime, Steven Jorge, 28, is indeed alleged to have injured his victim, and so was ordered locked up with no bail pending a psychological examination.

Jorge, though, is the exception.

On Friday night, a suspect in another of the hate attacks was similarly sprung with no bail, though in her case she was at least ordered to attend twice-monthly mental health appointments.

“You fucking Jew, the end is coming for you!” that suspect, Ayana Logan, 43, allegedly shouted as she swung a handbag at a 34-year-old Orthodox mom in Gravesend.

The mother had been holding the hand of her 3-year-old son when the unprovoked attack happened, according to the criminal court complaint against Logan.

By Saturday night, Logan, Harris, and Jorge remained the only suspects apprehended in the hate spree. The assailants in the remaining five attacks remain at large.

Rahman and other reformers argue that the vast majority of suspects in minor assaults are quickly released anyway — and that the new bail reform lets judges set conditions for release that can address the underlying mental health issues.

“That can be mental health counseling, a stay-away order, which wasn’t readily available before, as conditions for release,” said Rahman.

Suspects are getting none of that during their pretrial stays in city jails, Rahman noted.

“Money bail, and keeping someone temporarily detained with no care, doesn’t address at all the long term concerns” of community safety and the well-being of suspects, she said.

But in the city’s Orthodox neighborhoods, there was outrage in learning that even when violent bigots are caught, they’ll be immediately released.

“They were released on no bail?” a 32-year-old Orthodox man asked a Post reporter near where the three women were attacked. “Disgusting.”

Steve Benjamin, 30, of Borough Park, said, “We’re scared to walk at night in the street.

“There is a lot of hate here and I don’t know why. People in the community are scared. It’s very dangerous. It’s just like remembering the days before World War II. I don’t let my kids out alone.

“It should be more justice — they arrest them, but they let them out of jail a day later.”

EDITOR’S NOTE: Would the attackers be released so quickly if they were white and the victims were black?

BANG BANG BANG BANG

U.S. Mass Killings Hit New High In 2019, Most Of Them Shootings

LAPPL News Watch
December 30, 2019

The first one occurred 19 days into the new year when a man used an ax to kill four family members including his infant daughter.

Five months later, 12 people were killed in a workplace shooting in Virginia. Twenty-two more died at a Walmart in El Paso in August.

A database compiled by The Associated Press, USA Today and Northeastern University shows that there were more mass killings in 2019 than any year dating back to at least the 1970s, punctuated by a chilling succession of deadly rampages during the summer.

In all, there were 41 mass killings, defined as when four or more people are killed excluding the perpetrator. Of those, 33 were mass shootings. More than 210 people were killed.

Most of the mass killings barely became national news, failing to resonate among the general public because they didn’t spill into public places like massacres in El Paso and Odessa, Texas; Dayton, Ohio; Virginia Beach, Virginia; and Jersey City, New Jersey.

The majority of the killings involved people who knew each other — family disputes, drug or gang violence or people with beefs that directed their anger at co-workers or relatives.

‘GOD SHOULD INCREASE YOUR STRENGTH TO RISE ABOVE ALL THE OBSTACLES PLACED BEFORE YOU!’

Donald Trump praises 'wonderful statements' of Democratic Jewish leader who accuses AOC, Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib of anti-Semitic hate speech amid growing row with New York Mayor Bill de Blasio over blame for mass stabbing at Hanukkah party

By Katelyn Caralle

Daily Mail
December 30, 2019

Donald Trump praised a Jewish leader Monday for 'wonderful statements about me' after he blamed Democrats for a rise in anti-Semitism and slammed Bill DeBlasio and Andrew Cuomo in the wake of a mass stabbing at a Hanukkah party.

'There is a cause for hate speech. When you have the Farakahns of the world, when you have members of the United States Congress – Tliab, Omar, AOC – when you have them indulging in hate speech themselves – and to get away with it. You know there's a new standard, one is for anti-Semitism and one is for other type of hate,' Dav Hikind said on Fox & Friends Sunday morning.

'Unfortunately, people within my party – I'm a Democrat – within the Democratic Party, there's a double standard,' he said, claiming those on the left disparage any type of hate speech unless it's against Jewish people.

'The hate, the anti-Semitism that emanates from within the left – you don't hear anything, you hear very little,' he continued. 'Anything that comes from the other side, it's all – I mean, even the mayor of the city of New York has continued to call the hate coming from the right. All the hate in New York is coming from the left.'

Trump thanked Hikind, a former Democratic New York state assemblyman.

'Thank you to highly respected Jewish leader Dov Hikind for his wonderful statements about me this morning on @foxandfriends,' Trump tweeted Monday morning, but he was actually referencing Hikind's interview with Pete Hegseth on Sunday.

Hikind reacted to Trump's gratitude on Twitter Monday, and thanked him in return for helping make strides to protect Jewish people.

'Thank you Mr. President for all you've done and continue to do to protect the Jewish people all the while making America stronger and more prosperous!' Hikind said in response to Trump's tweet. 'God should increase your strength to rise above all the obstacles placed before you!'

Hikind, a Democrat, appeared on Fox News Channel the day after a man broke into a rabbi's home during a candle lighting ceremony in upstate New York Saturday night, the seventh night of Hanukkah, and stabbed five people.

The stabbing came after a string of attacks on the Jewish community in the area throughout Hanukkah, and Hikind blamed the rise in anti-Semitism on the left side of the political aisle.

He specifically called out those who have been accused of spouting anti-Semitic tropes, including Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan and progressive freshmen Representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib.

Hikind and New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio are also at odds over the cause of the stabbing and overall genisis of the spike of anti-Semitic attacks.

'For him to tell me, every time there's an anti-Semitic incident that he condemns it, that he feels the pain, and then he goes home and waits for the next incident and does the same thing, what is going to be done by the mayor, the governor? They are literally taking advantage of us,' Hikind said of de Blasio and New York Governor Andrew Cuomo.

De Blasio disagreed with Hikind in an interview with Fox News Sunday night, claiming that the hate is emanating from Washington D.C. and Trump.

'When I think something is anti-Semitic, I say it and I've said it about fellow Democrats. But I also want us to be clear what's happening here. An atmosphere of hate has been developing in this country over the last few years. A lot of it is emanating from Washington and it's having an effect on all of us,' de Blasio said.

'Wait, so you're saying -- you're blaming the president by saying [unintelligible] from Washington,' Fox News' Ed Henry questioned on America's News HQ Sunday evening.

'Not just the president,' de Blasio asserted. 'I'm saying, but we have to be clear. We need a different tone starting in Washington.'

Stabbing suspect Grafton Thomas, a 37-year-old black man, broke into Rabbi Chaim Leibush Rottenberg's house in a predominantly Jewish neighborhood in Monsey, New York Saturday night. He stabbed five people before he was chased out of the house.

The victims were taken to two nearby hospitals, but their conditions were not released.

De Blasio said in an interview with Fox News over the weekend that authorities in New York are working to find the root cause of the attacks on the Jewish community and other minority groups.

Hikind says de Blasio needs to face the fact that the issue of violence against Jews is mostly coming from young black men.

'I think the mayor is being very dishonest, because the mayor is not dealing with a reality that exists,' Hikind said of de Blasio. 'Most of the attacks in New York that have happened against Jews, happened to come from the African-American community.'

'We're not blaming the African-American community,' he continued, 'but when you look at the video surveillance and you see that almost all these acts are committed by young blacks, you need to raise the question, you need to have the discussion, you need to bring in the clergyman, you need to bring in people and say, 'Why is this going on?'

Hikind also said Jews, in particular Hasidic Jews, are easy targets, especially when they are easy to identify by their appearance and garb.

Trump, on Sunday, called for the country to 'come together to fight anti-Semitism' after a machete-wielding man attacked those gathered for a Hanukkah celebration.

'The anti-Semitic attack in Monsey, New York, on the 7th night of Hanukkah last night is horrific,' Trump tweeted Sunday afternoon is response to the attack. 'We must all come together to fight, confront, and eradicate the evil scourge of anti-Semitism. Melania and I wish the victims a quick and full recovery.'

Witnesses said Thomas had a machete and stabbed five people before one of the attendees chased him out of the home by throwing a coat rack, table and chair. There were about 60 people gathered for the celebration.

Thomas tried to enter the synagogue next door but it was already barricaded by people who had taken shelter inside.

NYPD officers located him covered in blood 30 miles away in Harlem about two hours later and he was taken into custody at the 32nd precinct.

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, while speaking to reporter Sunday morning, called the attack 'an act of domestic terrorism.'

Trump's daughter and Senior Advisor Ivanka converted to Judaism and is married to fellow-Senior Advisor Jared Kushner, who is also Jewish.

Ivanka posted on her Instagram story that the issue of anti-Semitic violence in the New York area isn't receiving enough media attention or action from the government.

'The vicious attack of a rabbi in Monsey, NY last night was an act of pure evil. As we pray for the victims, may the candles of Chanukah burn bright through this darkness,' she posted.

'Attacks on Jewish New Yorkers were reported almost every single day this past week,' she continued in a second story post. 'The increasing frequency of anti-Semitic violence (and around the country) receives far too little local governmental action and national press attention.'

The attack in New York appeared to be the latest in a string targeting Jews in that region.

Earlier this month a massacre occurred at a kosher grocery store in New Jersey and there are at least six other known anti-Semitic incidents over the first seven nights of Hanukkah, which began on December 23.

This time, a witness said the suspect said, 'No one is going anywhere' before he launched the attack.

The five stabbing victims were transported to two hospitals in the area but their conditions are still unknown.

Authorities have also not provided a motive for the attack, including whether it was prompted by religion.

An estimated one-third of the 320,000 residents of Rockland County, where the attack occurred, are Jewish, according to census figures, and it is the county with the highest concentration of Jews in the United States.

LET’S START WITH HUNTER

'We should put them in jail!' Joe Biden wants to prosecute fossil fuel executives for environmental damage-but doesn't mention son Hunter who helped run Ukrainian natural gas giant

Daily Mail
December 30, 2019

Joe Biden said Sunday that fossil fuel executives should be jailed – but failed to mention that his son was on the board of a Ukrainian natural gas firm.

While speaking to supporters at a town hall in Peterborough, New Hampshire Sunday, the former vice president said executives of these companies need to be held liable.

'We have to set sort of guide rails down now, so between the years 2021 and 2030, it's irreversible – the path we set ourselves on. And one of which is doing away with any substance for fossil fuels – number one,' Biden said.

'Number two, holding them liable for what they have done,' he said of fossil fuel executives, 'particularly in those cases where your underserved neighborhoods and – you know the deal, ok. And by the way, when they don't want to deliver, put them in jail. I'm not joking about this.'

His last comment was met with applause from the audience.

Biden's son Hunter, 49, served on the board of Burisma Holdings, the largest natural gas producer in Ukrainian, beginning in 2014 and continued to help run the company until he stepped down earlier this year.

Hunter's involvement in Burisma is now at the center of the impeachment proceedings against Donald Trump – since the president's correspondence with Ukraine involved a request for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to open an investigation into potential corruption from the Bidens' business dealings there.

HA HA HA

'Don't touch kids, you pervert': Woman heckler disrupts Joe Biden campaign rally in New Hampshire by calling him 'creepy' and labels him 'Quid Pro Joe'

Daily Mail
December 30, 2019

The 2020 presidential hopeful shouted back, 'This is not a Trump rally,' as he sought to bring order to the event in Milford, New Hampshire, on Sunday night.

But as the 'Quid Pro Joe' chants erupted he could not help but be drawn into protecting his honor against the slur about his links to Ukraine.

'I've released 21 years of my tax returns, how many has yours? What's he hiding?' Biden shouted back at the heckler.

They had appeared to reference the former Vice Presidents' ties to eastern Europe, as referenced by President Donald Trump's July 25 phone call to President Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky'.

The accusation leveled by Trump, that Biden had threatened to cut off loan guarantees unless the Ukraine replace its prosecutor general in 2016, is currently at the center of the ongoing impeachment scandal.

UC BERKELEY PROFESSOR’S CALL TO BOYCOT TRADER JOE’S BACKFIRES

The Cheese Challenge That Stopped a Boycott

By Yossi Aloni

Israel Today
December 30, 2019

A Palestinian professor never imagined that his call to boycott a major supermarket chain would increase sales of Israeli-made products.

Prof. Hatem Bazian, a Palestinian who lectures on Islam at the University of California, Berkeley, called for a boycott of Trader Joe’s supermarkets because they sell Israeli feta cheese.

Bazian published a picture of the Israeli feta cheese sold at Trader Joe’s 503 stores found in 42 US states, and in his Facebook post wrote: “Trader Joe’s is selling Israeli feta cheese. One more reason to stop buying in this store.” In his comments, the professor tagged Linda Sarsour, an American of Palestinian descent who has made anti-Israel and antisemitic statements such as “There is nothing more revolting than Zionism.”

Joe Zevulun, an Israeli who resides in Florida, hurried to call his 35,000 followers on Facebook to rush to the supermarkets and buy the Israeli cheese and other Israeli products. “This is a call to arms to all fighters for Israel!” he wrote. “I need your backing. An antisemitic professor from the University of California, Berkeley hates Israel and has tagged Linda Sarsour in his post calling to boycott Trader Joe’s because of the Israeli feta cheese they sell. Go to his (FB) page and rank him a fascist as he deserves and don’t forget to thank him because we’re all going out to buy from Trader Joe’s because of his post. Tag the Population and Immigration Authority and help me show Israel who this guy is.”

Zevulun calls his FB group “an army of pro-Israel publicity.” His post inspired many Israelis living in the US and US citizens to buy the feta cheese. One Israeli in Miami photographed himself buying five canisters of the Israeli cheese. In some of the supermarket’s branches, the cheeses were completely sold-out and many of the shelves depleted. The result was that people started buying other Israeli products like Bamba, tahini, soup and more.

Zevulun posted another video over the weekend encouraging people to buy the Israeli cheese. “Now it’s your turn… Go to Trader Joe’s and buy only Israeli-made products. And if you want to indulge me, buy some for families who cannot afford these products.”

Zevulun said he received many messages of support from Israelis and Jews in the US. “Every message warms the heart and you give me a lot of strength,” he added. “We broke the boycott with the Cheese Challenge. I get messages from all over the US with pictures of the cheese that people buy. That wretched professor came to curse, but it turned out to be a blessing.”

TOP 5 ISRAELI INNOVATIONS OF THE PAST DECADE

The Start-up Nation has made several groundbreaking discoveries in the fields of technology, science, and innovation during the past decade

By Yafit Ovadia

Israel Hayom
December 29, 2019

While Israeli discoveries reach far and wide, the past decade marked a high number of Israeli technological milestones in an astounding variety of fields – from medicine to high-tech to space exploration. Some of those startling advancements include finding potential cures for diseases such as cancer and diabetes, and improvements in transportation by using artificial intelligence-run devices. Leaping into the unknown, Israel launched objects into orbit, such as the Amos communications satellites, and earlier this year made history as the seventh country to send a spacecraft to the Moon.

Below is our countdown for the top five Israeli innovations of the decade:

5. Electric-powered airplane

Eviation, an Israeli startup introduced its first electric airplane, capable of flying short distances of up to 650 miles (1,050 kilometers) at around 270 mph (440 kmp). The craft, named Alice, is not only cheaper to produce, it also produces zero emissions, as it relies mainly on electricity and uses very little fuel. As the world grows greener and numerous attempts are made to reduce the human carbon footprint on the planet, this innovation is a creative endeavor by far.

Alice can transport up to nine passengers, including two pilots. It is equipped with revolving seats and even portable chargers for mobile phones. Unveiled at the Paris Air Show this past June, Alice is capable of embarking on shorter flights, such as from Israel to Cyprus or from Paris to Toulouse. Eviation expects its main customers to be American aviation companies, which can service short-haul lines within the continental US like the New York-Boston route.

4. Clean drinking water

In order to provide clean water for underdeveloped communities, Israeli startup WaterGen unveiled its GEN-M, a medium-scale atmospheric generator (AWG) that makes water out of air. The device can produce over 200 gallons (800 gallons) of clean drinking water per day. GEN-M creates water by cooling air at its natural dew point, and then filtering it, and purifying it with carbon. By using ultraviolet rays, any remaining bacteria is subsequently eliminated, making it suitable for consumption.

While the product was first presented in 2010, it has been put into service in far-reaching countries like Puerto Rico during the aftermath of Hurricane Maria in 2017, in a small village near Cúcuta, Colombia, and in various other disaster zones.

3. Mobileye, an AI device that helps drivers navigate roads safely

The company launched this invention in 2011, with the aim of assisting drivers to navigate roads and highways with more caution. The Mobileye device contains a small digital camera equipped with algorithms that are capable of predicting traffic accidents, thereby aiding drivers to travel more safely. The system can alert a driver when he or she attempts to switch lanes, by warning of a collision or sensing the presence of pedestrians in the street. The life-saving artificial intelligence device has already been installed by several known carmakers, including Volvo, BMW, GM, and others. After its worldwide success, Mobileye was later bought by Intel in 2017.

2. The first artificial pancreas – A potential cure for diabetes?

In a possible future cure for diabetes, researchers at Betalin Therapeutics have engineered the first artificial pancreas. It can be inserted underneath the skin, without anesthesia and "reprograms" the natural pancreas to function correctly, by teaching it how to properly administer insulin. The pancreas, which is located in the abdomen, is a vital organ crucial to the digestive process. In diabetic patients, it doesn't produce enough insulin, causing the amount of sugars to increase in the bloodstream, and leading to symptoms such as nausea and shortness of breath.

Betalin's ground-breaking bio-artificial pancreas was engineered using pig lung tissue and cells secreted by insulin. It can identify a patient's blood sugar level and accurately dispense the required amount of insulin as needed, rendering all future injections, drugs or blood glucose measures obsolete.

"We are mimicking what actually happens in the body," Dr. Nikolai Kunicher, CEO of Betalin Therapeutics previously told Israel Hayom.

1.The first Israeli spacecraft to the Moon, Beresheet

In February of this year, Israel Aerospace Industries and SpaceIL did the impossible – after years of a combination of hard work, Israeli ingenuity, and budgeted-funding – the first Israeli spacecraft, Beresheet blasted off to the Moon. Beresheet – in the beginning – as it was aptly named, was sent into space, and orbited the Earth for two months relying mainly on solar powered energy in order to save fuel costs, before it crash-landed on the lunar surface in April.

Although communication was ultimately lost with the craft, it made history as both the cheapest and lightest probe ever built. Beresheet generated a combined cost of $100,000, and was funded by SpaceIL President Morris Kahn, Dr. Miriam and Sheldon Adelson, Canadian businessman Sylvan Adams, the Science and Technology Ministry, the Israel Space Agency, Israel Aerospace Industries, and numerous other private donors.
__________

Although the Jewish state has only been in existence for 71 years, it is on a direct trajectory to technological innovation-success, from new developments in medicine to future space exploration projects.

So, who knows what the next decade may hold?

Monday, December 30, 2019

THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY HAS A LONG HISTORY OF DISCRIMINATION AGAINST BLACKS

Did you know that the Democratic Party defended slavery, started the Civil War, founded the KKK, and fought against every major civil rights act in U.S. history? Watch as Carol Swain, professor of political science at Vanderbilt University, shares the inconvenient history of the Democratic Party



EDITOR'S NOTE: The Republicans must have photoshopped this video to make Carol Swain, who is obviously white, look like a black woman.

OKLAHOMA EMBARRASSED BY LOUISIANA

LSU demolishes OU 63-28 in Peach Bowl to earn a spot in college football’s national championship game

There is nothing like one state embarrassing another and that is exactly what happened when LSU demolished Oklahoma U 63-28 Saturday in the Peach Bowl in Atlanta.

LSU led OU 49-14 at halftime on seven touchdown passes by Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback Joe Burrow. Burrow also ran for a 3-yard touchdown in the third quarter.

LSU will face Clemson for the national championship in – of all places – New Orleans on January 13. Clemson, the reigning champion, defeated Ohio State 29-23 Saturday in the Fiesta Bowl in Glendale, Arizona.

Ironically, Burrow transferred from Ohio State to LSU because he did not think he would become the starting quarterback at OSU.

Another irony is that Carley McCord, the daughter-in-law of LSU offensive coordinator Steve Ensminger, was killed in a plane crash in Lafayette, Louisiana while on her way to see the LSU-OU game.

It’s a good thing the two states don’t share a common border because if the did, a bunch of armed Oakies would invade Louisiana to seek revenge. Since they don’t share a common border, that Oakie army would dissipate in the bars and whorehouses of Arkansas or Texas on its way to Louisiana.

THERE WAS A FOOTBALL GAME YESTERDAY

by Bob Walsh

The S. F. 49ers vs. the Seattle Ocean Chickens. The game was won, or lost, depending on how you look it it, in the last 22 seconds within the 1 yard line for four plays. The 9ers won by five. Even allowing for one or two questionable calls, it was definitely a football game.

THE DANGER OF CHURCH SHOOTINGS IN TEXAS

Texans Shoot Back

by Bob Walsh

Yesterday some asswipe went into a Baptist church in Fort Worth during Sunday service and opened fire. He was immediately engaged by two armed members of the congregation and shot dead. One member of the congregation is also dead and a second in critical condition, along with a couple of very minor injuries.

Those who do not own a sword can still die on a sword, and the Lord helps those who help themselves. Churches are no longer safe places.

GOVERNOR FREDO CUOMO HASN'T BLAMED RUSH LIMBAUGH FOR THE MONSEY ATTACK.......YET

But He Probably Will

by Bob Walsh

Saturday evening an asshole named Grafton E. Thomas, 37, barged his way into the home of a Hasidic Rabbi in Monsey, New York, about 30 miles north of the slime-pit known as New York City. He attacked the people there with a machete leaving five injured, one of them is still critical.

The area has a very high percentage Jewish population. Many of them were VERY outspoken on the news reports, asserting that they are tired of government officials condemning such attacks but failing to actually DO ANYTHING about them. There have been over a dozen anti-Semitic attacks in the greater New York area in the last week or so.

Someone got the asshole's license tag number and the cops nailed him about midnight in Harlem. By the time you read this he will probably have already been arraigned for five counts of attempted murder and one count of burglary.

Governor "Fredo" Cuomo flapped his lips a lot, and made noise about wanting a state domestic terrorism law. That way he can prosecute conservatives, Republicans, NRA members and gun owners in general as domestic terrorists.

FEDERAL JUDGE BLOCKS CALIFORNIA GATOR LAW

by Bob Walsh

The formerly great state of California has a law banning the import and sale of crocodile or alligator products. (I wonder why I can still buy alligator jerkey?) U. S. District Court Judge Kimberly J. Mueller has blocked enforcement of that law and has a hearing scheduled for April 24 on the state of Louisiana's request for a further injunction against the California action.

American alligators were removed from the endangered species act in 1987 and selling the critters has become a major business in Louisiana. The income from the business goes a long way toward protecting their habitat. They do not breed well in captivity so most people in that business collect alligator eggs and hatch them to get their product. They then return a certain number to the wild. The eggs have a very high non-survival rate in the wild as the eggs and hatchlings have many natural predators. The system works out well for pretty much everybody concerned.

Unfortunately the American alligator is very similar in appearance to the Chinese alligator, which is highly endangered in the wild. That being said I am unsure why anybody would go to the trouble to import endangered Chinese alligators when you can practically trip over American ones in Louisiana and Florida.

California is not opposing the injunction at this time.

CA ROADKILL LAW IN LIMBO

by Bob Walsh

Regular readers of my crystal prose will recall I mentioned that as of 01-01-2020 it will be legal to keep and eat roadkill in the formerly great state of California. Well, that is still sort-of true but it is also still mostly false.

The problem is that the law requires that officials of the Department of Fish and Wildlife develop rules and procedures for implementation. They haven't got around to it yet. So, if you nail Bambi with your Buick and decide to toss him into the trunk and take him home, you could be in serious legal trouble.

DFW promises they will get around to making and issuing the new rules sometime before mammals become extinct.

WHAT HAVE JEWS EVER DONE TO DESERVE BLACK ANTI-SEMITISM?

Machete-wielding black man attacks Jews at Hanukkah party

By Elizabeth Keogh and Bill Sanderson

New York Daily News
December 29, 2019

NEW YORK—Several people were stabbed Saturday night at a Hanukkah celebration at an Orthodox rabbi’s home in Rockland County, police said.

A man armed with a machete entered the home in Monsey’s Forshay neighborhood around 9:50 p.m., said several reports.

The suspect stabbed five people, said Chief Brad Weidel of the Ramapo Police Department, which covers Monsey.

New York Police Department officers later caught the suspect in Harlem, Weidel said. The suspect was a black man who had fled the scene in a Nissan Sentra, said the website Vos Iz Neias .

About 50 people attended the celebration at the rabbi’s home, said Lazer Klein, 19, who lives in the neighborhood and spoke to others about what happened.

Klein said the suspect, whose face was covered, parked his car on a side street and went to the home armed with a “large machete.”

“He just took it out, and started to run at people,” said Aron Kohn, 65, who witnessed the attack. “I saw him stabbing people, and I started throwing chairs and tables.”

Kohn said he then fled the home with two women. “I was scared for my life. I ran out the front door,” he said.

Around then, Klein arrived at the scene. “As I came up people were running away, screaming and calling the cops," he said. "They didn’t know what was going on.”

The suspect tried to make a run from the rabbi’s home to a synagogue next door — but someone locked the door to keep him from going inside.

Two of the five wounded were in in critical condition, said the Orthodox Jewish Public Affairs Council of the Hudson Valley.

One victim was stabbed at least six times, the organization said.

FBI agents were at the scene early Sunday. The NYPD’s Counterterrorism Bureau said it was “closely monitoring” the situation.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Israeli Prime minister Netanyahu said, ““Israel strongly condemns the recent displays of anti-Semitism, including the vicious attack at the home of a rabbi ... during Hanukkah. We send our best wishes for recovery to the wounded. We will cooperate however possible with the local authorities in order to assist in defeating this phenomenon. We offer our assistance to every country.”

Rabbis Marvin Hier, Dean and Founder, and Abraham Cooper, Associate Dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center urged Black leaders to speak out against the spate of recent hate crimes in New York and New Jersey carried out by black anti-Semites. They also said, “Enough is enough! Jews should not have to fear for their lives in America to go to their houses of worship. The FBI must step up and take the lead in all recent violent hate crimes targeting religious Jews.”

Blacks constitute the largest group of Jew haters in this country, despite that Jews were in the forefront of the civil rights movement and shed their blood for blacks.

The Guardian Angels have stepped in to patrol the Jewish neighborhoods of Brooklyn which are in the midst of that borough’s black communities.

What have Jews ever done to deserve black anti-Semitism? It must be because as a minority that has been hated as much as blacks, Jews have become successful while blacks are left with Farrakhan’s Nation of Islam, dope dealers, and the likes of Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton. Envy breeds hatred.
__________

Guardian Angels to patrol Jewish neighborhoods in New York City after recent attacks

By Dennis Romero

NBC News
December 28, 2019

The Guardian Angels, a private, unarmed crime-prevention group, said it would start patrolling New York City's Brooklyn borough on Sunday following a series of anti-Semitic attacks.

Curtis Sliwa, who founded the organization in 1979 in New York City, said the patrols would start at noon in the Crown Heights neighborhood and expand to Williamsburg and Borough Park later in the day.

The move came hours before five people were wounded in a stabbing attack during a Hanukkah party at a rabbi's house in upstate New York late Saturday.

The latest incident followed eight attacks on Jews in Brooklyn since Dec. 13, according to the New York Police Department.

The violence included victims being struck in the face, head and back of the head and at least one suspect throwing a beverage at someone, police said.

"These attacks are taking place, and the cops have not been proactive at all," Sliwa said Saturday. "It comes from City Hall and the mayor. He's been just apathetic."

The press office for Mayor Bill de Blasio responded in a statement Saturday, saying, “We have no tolerance for anti-Semitism in New York City.

"The best police department in the world has increased deployment in Crown Heights, Boro Park and Williamsburg, and has launched a new intelligence unit to prevent hate crimes from occurring," it continued. "We will continue to work hand in hand with the community to keep our city safe.”

Prior to Saturday night's stabbing, the latest attack occurred Friday when a woman allegedly slapped three females in Brooklyn and later told officers it was because they're Jewish, police said at a news conference.

The suspect, Tiffany Harris, 30, was charged Saturday with attempted assault as a hate crime, according to court records. She was released without bail.

On Dec. 10, a couple opened fire at a kosher market in Jersey City, New Jersey, and exchanged gunfire with officers. It ended in the deaths the two, a police officer and three people who had been inside the JC Kosher Supermarket.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo called the attacks "disturbing."

"This recent spate of hate-fueled crimes is even more disturbing as they occurred during the Hanukkah holiday, a time when Jewish New Yorkers gather to celebrate," he said in a statement Friday.

Sliwa said local leaders of the Lubavitch Hasidic movement asked for his group's help, and he believes Guardian Angels patrols will halt the violence.

"We’re a visual deterrence in our red berets and our red satin jackets," he said. "Nobody’s going to commit an attack when we're around."

If they do, he said, "We’ll physically restrain the persons responsible, make a citizen's arrest, and hold them until the police arrive."

EDITOR’S NOTE: The police do not like the Guardian Angels because the Angels do a better job of protecting communities than do the cops. It hasn’t been lost on them that many people think more highly of the Guardian Angels than they think of cops.

TULSI IS A SMART COOKIE, GAINES TRUMP’S RESPECT

Democratic presidential candidate Tulsi Gabbard says impeachment will only 'embolden' Donald Trump and help him WIN a second term in 2020

Daily Mail
December 29, 2019

Hawaii Rep Tulsi Gabbard voted 'present' on the articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump on Wednesday, December 18 - the only Democrat to do so.

The vote garnered criticism that was trying not to alienate any of her potential voters in the 2020 Democratic primaries.

She said that she did so because impeachment proceedings will 'embolden' the president and help him win a second term.

Gabbard, a 2020 Democratic presidential candidate, says believes the vote and a Trump reelection will leave 'lasting damage' on the country.

Trump praised Gabbard for her impeachment vote and said that he gained 'respect' for her.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Unfortunately, her impeachment vote may cost Tulsi her seat in congress because the Democrats are furious with her for not joining them in impeaching Trump.

COME ON NOW, IT’S NOT A SCANDAL WHEN THE CROOKS ARE SONS OF PROMINENT DEMOCRATS

'Any answers Nancy?' Donald Trump demands a response from 'Crazy' Speaker Pelosi over report claiming her son Paul may have been involved in a Ukrainian corruption scandal similar to Hunter Biden

Daily Mail
December 29, 2019

Donald Trump prompted Nancy Pelosi on Sunday to respond to a new report alleging her son was part of a Ukrainian corruption scandal.

'Any answers Nancy?' Trump wrote on Twitter two days after initially asking the House speaker to respond to the report from conservative network One American News Network.

'Wow Crazy Nancy, what's going on? This is big stuff!' Trump tweeted on Friday along with the video reporting from OAN.

MONEY LAUNDERING HIDES ILL BEGOTTEN WEALTH

Mexico’s top financial investigator reveals webs of corruption in contracts, trafficking

Associated Press
December 27, 2019

MEXICO CITY -- Mexico’s top financial investigator on Friday reported on the webs of corruption and money laundering that thieves, traffickers and political figures have used to hide their wealth.

Santiago Nieto, the head of Mexico’s Financial Intelligence Unit, said a federal judge took bribes to rule in favor of the violent Jalisco cartel, and then used a lawyer’s office to buy vehicles and send as much as $2 million to the United States.

Another gang stole fuel from government pipelines and set up trucking companies to use the diesel and launder profits from sales of fuel to third parties.

Nieto revealed that a sex ring trafficked as many as 2,000 South American women into prostitution in Mexico over the course of a decade. They used front companies and web sites to charge for their services and distribute profits.

He said there were over $100 million in suspicious deposits and transfers to accounts linked to he former head of the country’s state-owned oil company.

Nieto said government money was channeled into a web of companies that sent about $2 million, and perhaps much more, to relatives of the country’s former top security official.

That official, former Public Safety Secretary Genaro Garcia Luna, is being held pending trial in the United States for allegedly taking bribes from the Sinaloa drug cartel.

Nieto said a web of companies got tens of millions in Mexican government contracts for security software, and later channeled some of the money through Panama to Garcia Luna, who lived in Miami, Florida after leaving public service in 2012.

Garcia Luna, 51, was indicted on three counts of cocaine trafficking conspiracy and a false statements charge in New York. He waived his right to a detention hearing in Dallas a week after the federal case against him was made public in New York City.

LIKE MOTHER, LIKE SON

Mom of suspected Tessa Majors killer has old stabbing on her rap sheet

By Georgett Roberts, Ruth Weissmann and Larry Celona

New York Post
December 29, 2019

Like mother, like son?

The 14-year-old boy suspected of fatally stabbing Barnard College freshman Tessa Majors has a mother with a stabbing of her own on her rap sheet, The Post has learned.

Thirteen years ago, the suspect’s mother, identified by police sources and neighbors as Katima Minton, 35, was arrested in a knife attack in Jamaica, Queens, where she lived at the time.

It was 1:30 in the morning and Minton and a second woman had gotten into a screaming match at 148th Street and 87th Avenue, according to a story that ran in The Post on Aug. 6, 2006.

“Katima Minton pulled a knife and lunged at the victim, whose identity was withheld, after they started fighting,” cops alleged, ¬according to the story.

The victim was stabbed in the shoulder, and was treated at a hospital and released.

Minton, meanwhile, was arrested and charged with assault, criminal possession of a weapon and harassment, the clip said.

The disposition of Minton’s case was unclear.

She was 21 at the time and living in Jamaica, according to public records.

At the time, her son — whose photo was released by police but who has not been charged in Majors’ death — was 16 months old.

Fast forward 13 years and investigators are now awaiting DNA results for Minton’s son, who on Thursday was cheek-swabbed under court order, then released.

Investigators are seeking a DNA-profile match with any forensics that may have been left on Majors’ body.

Probers believe the boy, too, allegedly stabbed in anger, according to law-enforcement sources.

Majors bit her main attacker on the finger as they scuffled during the mugging-gone-awry on Dec. 11, just steps from the Barnard College campus in Morningside Heights.

One theory of investigators is that the bite enraged the young mugger, prompting him to stab Majors, 18. That same bite may have left behind enough DNA to confirm the killer’s identity.

Minton did not respond to requests for comment at her address or through social media. Her Facebook account includes numerous photos of her 14-year-old son.

“Then came my charming prince,” she posted on Mother’s Day two years ago, alongside a photo of the then-12-year-old.

Investigators believe a DNA profile from the boy’s swab will be ready early this week.

ROACHES WERE THE WORST PART OF PRISON

The Young Climate Activist Who Just Spent 6 Days in Russian Prison Said It Wasn’t That Bad — Minus the Cockroaches

by Alex Lubben

Vice News
December 27, 2019

Arshak Makichyan, a 25-year-old climate activist, didn’t have that bad of a time in a Russian prison. In fact, he said people treated him fairly well behind bars.

“Everyone was supporting me in the prison, even some thieves,” Arshak told VCE News after being released on Thursday. “They were quite good to me.”

“I was talking about climate with police, with people in jail. People in Russia, they’re getting angry, and they’re starting to support every protest, even if they’re about climate,” he added.

Arshak, a violinist who recently finished his studies at the Moscow Conservatory, served a six-day prison sentence for staging an unauthorized protest to demand action on climate change. His punishment was among the harshest dealt to any of the climate activists inspired by 16-year-old activist Greta Thunberg, who started skipping school to strike by herself every Friday in 2018.

Arshak, sign in hand, took to the streets again on Friday, for the forty second consecutive week.

“It was better than I expected,” Arshak said of his time at a prison in Moscow. But he also noted the cockroaches and his foul-smelling mattress.

“I’m a vegan, so it was difficult for me to be imprisoned because there isn’t a lot of vegan food,” he said.

Arshak has held off getting a job so he can focus on his climate activism. Until around February of this year, he knew little about climate change; he said it’s not talked about much in Russia, where the environment isn’t exactly a political priority. Politicians often cite the benefits to the country that could come from a warmer climate, like new shipping lanes through the Arctic. Russian President Vladimir Putin even claims that “nobody knows the origins of global climate change.”

Arshak started hearing about Thunberg’s protests in Sweden and began poring over articles about climate science. After he took part in another political demonstration, in memory of a slain Russian opposition leader, Boris Nemstov, he started identifying as an activist.

“It was at that moment that I understood myself to be part of society, and I had to do something because nothing was happening,” he said.

So he linked up with the budding youth climate movement in Russia, which mobilized some 700 people to strike across the country in September, alongside millions of others across the world. Many people have been arrested around the globe, including in the U.S. and U.K., for protesting climate change, but few, if any, have served prison sentences for their activism.

Protesting in Russia without a permit is illegal, and Arshak said he unsuccessfully tried to get permits more than 10 times for a mass climate demonstration in Moscow. But lone demonstrators don’t need a permit.

Every week since March of this year, Arshak’s been staging a solo protest in Pushkin Square. Sometimes his friends join him and take turns holding a single sign, but two people won’t hold signs simultaneously to avoid confrontation with authorities.

The day Arshak was arrested, however, he was protesting with two other activists, who were arrested but didn’t face charges. The cops didn’t give him the opportunity to roll up his banner, he said in court, according to the BBC. He was detained, brought to a police station, held for five hours and released with a charge of demonstrating illegally.

He’s not the only young Russian climate activist to face pressure from cops. Sasha Shugai, a 25-year-old climate striker in Novosibirsk, told VICE News she’s been facing threats from authorities over her strikes. So are other activists across Russia, she said.

“The police are harsh with us,” Sasha said. “They threaten and intimidate us.”

It’s not just the police: Shugai said her teacher intimidated one of her friends into giving up participating in the strikes.

As Arshak was being released on Thursday, police were arresting another protester. Konstantin Fokin, a school principal in Moscow, chained himself up in Pushkin Square. The police showed up with bolt cutters and pried him loose.

He appeared to protesting by himself.

Sunday, December 29, 2019

THE PUBLIC IS ENTITLED TO KNOW THE IDENTITY OF THE PERSON WHO IS RESPONSIBLE FOR THE IMPEACHMENT MESS

President Trump is being excoriated for naming CIA analyst Eric Ciaramella as the whistleblower

On Thursday, the Washington Examiner ran an article on the Judicial Watch’s lawsuit under the Freedom of Information Act against the CIA and the Justice Department seeking the communications between the whistleblower and former FBI agent Peter Strzok, former FBI attorney Lisa Page, former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, and special counsel Robert Mueller’s office, and his emails between June 1, 2016, and Nov. 12, 2019.

The Examiner named Eric Ciaramella as the whistleblower.

Trump retweeted the Examiner story and later sent out another tweet in which he named Ciaramella as the whistleblower. Trump is being excoriated by the media and all over the internet for naming the whistleblower.

Ciaramella had already been identified as the whistleblower by various sources long before the Examiner story and Trump’s tweets.

Trump did absolutely nothing wrong in naming Ciaramella!

The public is entitled to know the identity of the person who is responsible for the impeachment mess. Adam Schiff relied on the whistleblower’s concern about Trump’s call to the Ukrainian president to start his kangaroo court proceedings against Trump. If it weren’t for Ciaramella, President Trump might never have been impeached. And that is why the whistleblower’s identity is fair game.

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

by Bob Walsh

In 1890, the Massacre at Wounded Knee South Dakota took place. The U. S. Cavalry attacked a Sioux camp and killed somewhere between 125 and 300 people, mostly women and children.

In 1845 Texas entered the Union. I often wonder how many of the current residents regret it.

In 1170 four knights rid Henry II of the meddlesome priest, Archbishop Thomas Becket. Henry allegedly later regretted having him murdered and repented.

CHRISTMAS TRADITION IN STOCKTON

by Bob Walsh

On the second day after Christmas large numbers of mostly Black teenagers get together and riot at the two large local malls, which are right across the street from each other. They attack shoppers (mostly White shoppers), damage vehicles in the parking lots and act like spoiled and dangerous assholes. No arrests were made. No serious injuries resulted.

The malls were both locked down until the little bastards could be cleared out. The next day no juveniles were admitted to either mall unless they had a parent with them.

These his been the third year running for this charming local tradition.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Hmmm, no arrests. I'll bet had the little thugs been white, there would have been arrests.

DEMOCRACY IN ACTION

by Bob Walsh

There are going to be a total of 52 names on the ballots for President in the formerly great state of California come this March 3.

These include 20 Democrats, 13 Republicans, 5 Greens and 13 Libertarians. One person, Roque De La Fuente III, is running as a Democrat and his grandfather, Roque De La Fuente, is running as a Republican.

Just thought you might like to know.

LONGEST TRIAL IS STANISLAUS COUNTY HISTORY IS FINALLY OVER

by Bob Walsh

On Thursday, just a few days after local prosecutors vowed to prosecute the last defendant, a former CHP officer, four years of trail involving nine defendants is done.

The case started in 2012 in the death of Korey Kauffman. In 2015 nine people were charged in the death. There has only been one conviction, that person pled out and ratted on the others, including a prominent local defense attorney and two cops. Trouble is, the jury didn't buy it.

The last remaining defendant, former CHP officer Walter Wells, had been held in jail for 16 months against a $10 million bond. Finally the charges were reduced to obstructing justice and an accessory after the fact. Those charges went away last week.

The trial of the lawyer, Frank Carson, and brothers Baljit Athwal and Daljit Atwal, went on for 14 months.

Several lawsuits have been filed against the county in these cases, alleging criminal misconduct, false arrest and malicious prosecution.

CAN’T REALLY BLAME COP FOR USING PROFANITY

Two Washington Police Officers Found Justified in Arrest of Teen

By Paige Cornwell

The Seattle Times
December 27, 2019

KIRKLAND, Washington -- Two Kirkland police officers followed department policies and procedures when they roughly arrested a 14-year-old boy in a YMCA teen center, shoved the center’s director and threatened to use a Taser on another teenager this fall, according to a final report following an investigation of the arrest.

However, one officer’s use of profanity during the Sept. 5 arrest at the Kirkland Teen Union Building (KTUB) violated Kirkland Police Department policy, Chief Cherie Harris and City Manager Kurt Triplett said in a joint statement this month. The investigation also found that the second officer failed to correctly assist the first officer during the arrest, when he could have prevented a group from getting too close to his partner.

The investigation said the officers were not motivated by race. The two police officers are white, and the teenagers and program director are Black.

YMCA officials say the incident, which was captured on video by KTUB’s surveillance cameras, traumatized the staff and teens and undermined relations between police and youth. They plan to collaborate with the city of Kirkland to try to improve those relationships, especially between marginalized communities and the city’s law enforcement.

“On behalf of our staff, the young people we serve and Kirkland community members, we are troubled by the results of this investigation,” the YMCA of Greater Seattle said in a prepared statement. “While we are disappointed by the findings of the investigation, we must continue to speak up for the community we serve.”

Doug Miller, the officer who swore when he threatened to use a Taser and in response to the KTUB director, received verbal counseling. The incident will also be documented in his file, Kirkland police Lt. Rob Saloum said in an interview.

In the report, Harris wrote that the officer’s behavior was unacceptable.

“While those around him are reported to have been ‘loud’ in challenging the arrest and may have been using profanity, a police officer is expected to maintain professional decorum at all times,” Harris wrote.

He had not been disciplined previously nor received any citizen complaints, according to the report. Neither he nor the second officer, Randy Rogers, could be reached for comment Thursday.

The September arrest occurred as police officers responded to several 911 calls involving a group of teens who allegedly trespassed at Juanita High School and were chased off by a school resource officer. The police department said there were multiple 911 calls from the neighborhood reporting vandalism and theft, including one where a youth stole a tip jar at Taco Del Mar. One of the boys, the 14-year-old, was seen going into KTUB by someone whose package was stolen, the department said.

Miller and Rogers were let into the building by someone who was holding the door open for another person, then told a KTUB intern that “they were looking for a suspect who they had probable cause to arrest and asked if there were kids inside,” according to the report. An officer reported he saw the teen suspected of stealing a package, told him he was under arrest and took hold of his elbows. The teen, according to police, attempted to flee. The officer flung the teen to the ground, put his knee on his head and handcuffed him, video of the arrest shows.

Program Director Antoine Jackson arrived, identified himself as the director and asked what was happening. Jackson told the officers that he needed information before they could take the boy out of the facility, according to his statement, outlined in the report. The officer then pushed him and said “I don’t give a (profanity) who you are.”

The department didn’t object to the officer pushing Jackson but did to his use of swear words.

Other youth and Jackson followed the officer, who then pulled out his Taser and said “I’m going to (expletive) taze you if you don’t back up.” He then exited the building with the arrested teen.

The 14-year-old was charged with third-degree theft of the package, which had contents worth about $20, according to the report.

MAN MISTAKEN FOR BURGLAR SHOT BY COP

Texas Deputy Shoots Homeowner's Father During Home Invasion Call

By Hannah Dellinger

Houston Chronicle
December 27, 2019

HOUSTON -- A woman reported a home invasion to police Thursday night, but when a Harris County deputy responded to the home north of Houston her father wound up being shot, according to law-enforcement officials.

Two Harris County deputies responded to the home in the 800 block of Darbydale Crossing Lane around 7 p.m., the sheriff’s office said, after athe woman called to report that she heard sounds in the downstairs area of her home.

As they arrived, the deputies saw a vehicle parked on the lawn of the home, according to the sheriff’s office, and they encountered a man in front of the home.

One of the deputies fired his weapon at the person he believed to be a burglary suspect, shooting the man in the leg, according to the statement.

What took place between the officers and the man prior to the shooting is still under investigation, a spokesperson for the sheriff’s office said at the scene.

The father was responsive before he was taken to a nearby hospital for treatment, officials said.

No deputies were injured during the incident, according to the sheriff’s office. The name of the officer who shot the man has not been released to the public.

There were multiple people in the home at the time, the spokesperson said, including children.

The sheriff’s office’s Homicide Unit, its internal affairs division and the Harris County District Attorney’s Office are investigating the shooting.

POT DECRIMINALIZED TO PROMOTE TOURISM

Jamaica Can’t Shake Status As US’ Top Marijuana Provider

By Maria Alejandra Navarrete

InSight Crime
December 26, 2019

A series of marijuana seizures reported over the last few months highlight the magnitude of the drug flow from Jamaica to the United States, as well as the difficulties authorities have in stemming it.

During a November 22 operation, six men were arrested after the seizure of 1,000 pounds of marijuana in the port city of Ocho Ríos, the Jamaica Gleaner reported. The haul was valued at $4.5 million in the US market.

The latest seizure came after two earlier marijuana busts in the same city. In early October, police discovered about 1,000 pounds during a raid. Days before that raid, authorities had captured 500 pounds of marijuana, Caribbean news outlet Loop reported.

In August, authorities seized about 7,000 pounds of marijuana in a district neighboring Ocho Ríos. The marijuana — valued at $36 million — was packaged and appeared ready for export.

According to the latest US State Department report on international drug control strategies, most of the marijuana leaving Jamaica is headed for the United States.

InSight Crime Analysis

The recent seizures show that Jamaica’s steps to stop large quantities of marijuana continue flowing out of the island have been toothless. Corruption at Jamaica’s ports and airports facilitates the movement of drugs, and local organized crime bosses have ties to government officials, “creating a permissive environment for drug trafficking,” the State Department report stated.

According to the report, factors that have contributed to the island nation becoming one of the hemisphere’s key drug trafficking points include the country’s location in the Caribbean, its difficult-to-patrol shores, and its role as a container transshipment point.

Jamaica’s popularity as a tourist destination also facilitates the movement of drugs via small boats and private aircraft, according to the report.

The Jamaican and US governments have tried to stop the flow for years with bilateral cooperation agreements. Both countries uphold judicial assistance and extradition treaties in order to facilitate the prosecution of traffickers. The countries also collaborate on enforcement efforts to interdict maritime trafficking.

In 2019, the two countries signed a bilateral Customs Mutual Assistance Agreement (CMAA) to formalize the exchange of information between US and Jamaican customs agencies to help control the flow of drugs, arms and other contraband smuggled through legal ports of entry.

In 2015, Jamaica decriminalized possession of marijuana, allowing citizens to carry small quantities of 57 grams or less, for personal use.

By passing this law, the country hoped not only to reduce micro-trafficking on the island and the burden on the judicial system, but also to encourage the development of a legal marijuana industry that could in turn promote tourism around regulated marijuana consumption.

THE KILLER THANKED THE NRA

Washington man accused of killing wife purportedly confessed to murder in tweets to NRA, Trump

By Lucia I. Suarez Sang

Fox News
December 28, 2019

A Washington state man accused of killing his wife the day after Christmas apparently confessed to the shooting in tweets to the NRA, President Trump, and Sen. Mitch McConnell.

A Twitter account purportedly owned by Kevin Heimsoth - a Bellingham man who is the main suspect in the shooting death of his wife Lynn Heimsoth - sent a series of four reply tweets shorting after 3 a.m. PT on Dec. 26 stating that the user shot and killed his “whole family.”

In a reply to the NRA’s Merry Christmas tweet, the account wrote: “Guns don’t kill people, people do.”

“Guns just make it a lot easier. AR-15 makes it super easy,” the post continued. “I jist (sic) killed my whole family, and i couldnt have done it without a gun! I’m too much of a coward, a knife would have been waaay too hard. So, thanks to everyone at the NRA.”

Similar tweets were also sent as replies to Trump’s personal and presidential accounts as well as to McConnell’s account.

In a subsequent tweet, the user then thanks McConnell for making it possible and then requested a welfare check at an address on Marine Drive in Bellingham.

The rest of the account appeared to just be political commentary replying to President Trump.

Fox News’ has not independently verified that the Twitter account belongs to Kevin Heimsoth. As of Saturday morning, the tweets are still up.

However, the Bellingham Herald reported the account is associated with email accounts and phone numbers that belong to him and the account associated with Lynn Heimsoth followed it.

Whatcom County Sheriff Bill Elfo said deputies were called to a home on the 900 block of Marine Drive around 10:28 a.m. Dec. 26 for a report of a murder-suicide.

Inside, they found a 58-year-old woman dead from a gunshot wound. The woman’s 56-year-old husband was also found inside the apartment with a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

The pair were later identified as the Heimsoths.

As of Friday, Kevin Heimsoth remained hospitalized in critical condition.

“This horrendous crime impacted many in our community,” Elfo told the Bellingham Herald. “While our investigation has not yet revealed any facts that would indicate a propensity for domestic violence prior to the murder, anyone with information that might be helpful to our investigation and review of this incident is requested to contact the Sheriff’s Office. As this case illustrates, the dynamics of domestic violence can escalate and lead to extreme violence.”

Deputies also found Lynn Heimsoth’s therapy dog, Sukha, and a cat, both dead from gunshot wounds, the Bellingham Herald reported.

Lynn Heimsoth was the principal at Sunnyland Elementary in Bellingham since July 2017.

The school’s superintendent said in a statement Thursday that they are “heartbroken” by her death.

“Her death is a profound loss to our Sunnyland community, our school district and to our extended community,” Bellingham Public Schools Superintendent Greg Baker said. “Lynn was a passionate, equity-driven instructional leader. She loved kids to the core and always kept students’ needs at the center of her work.”

A vigil was held Friday.

MS-13 USED MACHETES, KNIVES AND AX TO MURDER FOUR RIVAL GANG MEMBERS

Female suspect known as ‘Little Devil’ to be tried as adult in grisly MS-13 slayings

By Elizabeth Rosner and Ebony Bowden

New York Post
December 27, 2019

A young woman who is accused of luring four MS-13 gang murder victims to their deaths in a brutal 2017 slaying, will be prosecuted as an adult, a judge ruled Thursday.

The suspect was eight months shy of her 18th birthday when she participated in the savage 2017 slayings on Long Island — luring members of a rival gang into a wooded area in Central Islip with another female where they were bludgeoned to death.

On Thursday, the US Court of Appeals affirmed the District Court’s decision to prosecute the woman — identified as “Diablita,” or “Little Devil” in court — as an adult in connection with the murder of Michael Lopez, Justin Llivicura, Jorge Tigre and Jefferson Villalobos.

Judge Joseph F. Bianco detailed the woman’s conduct in his decision, including, “instigating the murders, along with another juvenile female, by locating photographs of some of the victims flashing MS-13 gang signs on social media (which was viewed as disrespectful because the victims were not members of MS-13), and then showing those photographs to MS-13 members.”

She also “knowingly lured the unsuspecting victims to a prearranged location in the Central Islip woods where they were murdered with machetes, knives and tree limbs,” Judge Bianco said.

Four male MS-13 gang members are already awaiting trial for the quadruple murders — two others have pled guilty and were sentenced to 50 years and 55 years in prison.

Prosecutors alleged the group schemed to have a pair of female associates lure the five suspected rivals from the 18th Street gang to a wooded area.

Josue Portillo, 18, pleaded guilty to stabbing four suspected rival teen gang members and bludgeoning them to death in a municipal park in what prosecutors called a “horrific frenzy of violence.”

Portillo, who was just 15 when he committed the slayings, faced life in prison for the savage murders — but a federal judge went easy on him in June, giving him 55 years.

NOT MUCH DIFFERENCE BETWEEN COPS AND CARTELS

Mexican security chief arrested in connection to Mormon family massacre

By Jorge Fitz-Gibbon and Lia Eustachewich

New York Post
December 27, 2019

A head of public security in Chihuahua, Mexico has been arrested in connection with the Mormon massacre last month, according to new reports.

Fidel Alejandro Villegas Villegas, the director of public safety in Janos, was nabbed Tuesday by the Attorney General’s Office for his alleged ties to La Linea, part of the Juárez drug cartel that’s believed to have ambushed the nine relatives last month, the Herald of Chihuahua reported.

Villegas Villegas, whose nickname is “El Chiquilin,” is being held in Mexico City.

His arrest wasn’t officially announced but it was confirmed by Sebastián Efraín Pineda, the mayor of Janos, located near the US-Mexico border.

Villegas Villegas is the fourth person to be detained in the high-profile murders of extended members of the LeBaron family — a breakaway sect of Mormons with US-Mexico citizenship.

Three mothers and six children were gunned down Nov. 4 in Sonora, Mexico and are believed to have been caught between the warring Juárez and Sinaloa drug cartels.

Family members, however, believe the victims were targeted.
__________

MEXICAN POLICE CHIEF ARRESTED FOR SLAUGHTER OF MORMON FAMILY

by Bob Walsh

An extremely thin news piece I just caught the end of mentioned that a local Chief of Police is now under arrest for complicity in the slaughter of a Mormon family in Mexico back in November.

That whole country is a shithole. The criminals are criminals. The cops are criminals. The government is run by criminals. The whole place is one huge, violent, psychotic criminal enterprise.

Saturday, December 28, 2019

NOT ALL SHRINKS ARE CRAZY

MY MAN OF THE DECADE IS DONALD TRUMP

I have come to the realization that Trump is one of the most important presidents in US history because of his moral clarity, and because he dared to defy political correctness

By Boaz Bismuth, Editor-in-Chief

Israel Hayom
December 27, 2019

Over the past decade, the world's equilibrium has been disrupted. Social media helped advance the democratic debate, but also intensified the shaming of others, no to mention psychological warfare.

And the US, as always, was the leader of the pack. Self-appointed clergy from the Political Correctness Religion have been telling us what we can say and what we cannot. If you say one bad joke, you are automatically put on trial. The Inquisition is back, but this time in English.

But there is one person who has taken it upon himself to counter this trend, using the very social media networks that have created this problem.

His name is Donald Trump, the same person who has been dismissed all through the primaries and the general election, only to prove his detractors wrong, eventually becoming the 45th president of the United States.

He has already fulfilled his most important pledges, among them the appointment of two Supreme Court justices and 50 federal judges to lower courts.

The US economy is on fire despite the ongoing spats with China. And despite the domestic problems he faces at home, he has managed to successfully amend free-trade agreements, create new alliances and successfully promote US interests in NATO and other international bodies.

He has maintained his policy of maximum pressure on Iran by withdrawing from the 2015 nuclear deal and imposing sanctions. Even the investigations into the alleged Russian interference in the election went nowhere, and now people are asking questions over law enforcement's conduct and why Trump's campaign was subject to wiretapping.

The Israeli public has also understood that the president has lived up to his promises, especially after his decision to move the US Embassy to Jerusalem and recognize the Golan Heights as Israeli territory, as well as his decision to view Israeli settlements as consistent with international law and his executive order punishing campuses for allowing anti-Israel activity.

But the media herd, the intellectuals, and the fundamentalist liberals will just not let go. For them, Trump is like a red rag to a bull. They consider him a thug who has taken over the White House.

I had the opportunity to meet and interview him multiple times on the campaign trail and three times as president. I have come to the realization that Trump is one of the most important presidents in US history.

In a world where boundaries are blurred, where it is unclear who is good and who is bad, it is good to know that that the world's superpower is led by a person with moral clarity, a president who knows which side creates technology and develops medicine, and which side exports terrorism. He knows that there are some who are for liberty and some who live in darkness.

We live in an era where if you are a conservative, God forbid, you are automatically considered an enemy because you are against political correctness.

Some would say that he is vulgar, but he has forced the liberals to confront the reality they have created with their discourse on the "Deplorables," as Hillary Clinton called his supporters.

Trump is the man of the decade because he has been the leader of the good guys. Regardless of whether he wins another term, he has redefined the world and challenged the cardinals of the new Inquisition – and by doing that he changed our discourse and reality.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Caroline Glick writes that “Thanks to the Obama administration's political, economic and military support for Iran, when President Donald Trump entered office in January 2017, Iran had effectively consolidated its control over an empire that stretched from Iran through Iraq to Syria and Lebanon. Yemen had also become an Iranian colony. With Trump's decision in May 2018 to withdraw the US from Obama's nuclear deal and reinstate US sanctions against Iran, the Trump administration began destabilizing Iran, at home and throughout its colonies. The protests, which began in Lebanon and Iraq in October and spread last month to Iran, are rooted in economic privation and dislocation fomented in large part by the US sanctions.”

WHO IS TELLING THE TRUTH ….. GALLAGHER OR HIS ACCUSERS?

Fellow Navy SEALs call Edward Gallagher "toxic" and "freaking evil" in never-before-seen interviews

CBS News
December 27, 2019

Never-before-seen confidential video reveals shocking details from the war crimes investigation of a decorated Navy SEAL. In interviews obtained by "The Weekly," The New York Times' TV series, members of SEAL Team 7 told investigators they witnessed Special Operations Chief Edward Gallagher stabbing a young ISIS fighter for no reason.

The SEALs call Gallagher "toxic," "evil" and a man who was "perfectly OK with killing anybody that was moving," reports CBS News correspondent David Martin.

"I think he just wants to kill anybody he can," one said.

The testimony paints a chilling pattern of violence executed by their platoon chief.

"Did Eddie say anything when he did this or did he just literally pull out a knife and just start stabbing him?" one SEAL was asked.

"He just pulled out a knife and started stabbing him," he replied.

The evidence includes bodycam footage in which Gallagher is seen over the limp ISIS fighter's body before the camera is switched off.

Asked in the interviews if he interpreted the fighter as a threat when Gallagher stabbed him, one of the SEALs said, "I did not, no."

One of the SEALs confirmed that he views what happened that day, as well as other incidents, as war crimes.

In July, Gallagher was found not guilty by a military jury for the stabbing. He was, however, demoted after the jury convicted him of posing for a photo with the ISIS fighter's corpse.

Corey Scott, whose testimony in court was crucial to Gallagher's acquittal, was also interviewed in the videos. Asked if the fighter did anything to Gallagher that would justify the chief's actions, Scott said, "No."

But on the stand and after being given full immunity, Scott took the fall for the stabbing.

"They tried to frame me as a criminal from the get-go," he said.

The Navy Board also considered stripping Gallagher of his status as a Navy SEAL. But last month, President Trump intervened and restored Gallagher's rank.

"They wanted to take his pin away and I said, 'No, you're not going to take it away,'" he said at the time. "These are tough people, and we're going to protect our warfighters."

That move angered many in the Navy, including former Navy Secretary Richard Spencer, who was ousted after requesting the president not get involved in Gallagher's case.

"I don't think he really understands the full definition of a warfighter. A warfighter is a profession of arms, and a profession of arms has standards that they have to be held to and they hold themselves to," Spencer said.

Gallagher, who just this week met with Mr. Trump at his Mar-a-Lago resort, called the SEALs' testimony "blatant lies" in a statement.

"My first reaction to seeing the videos was surprise and disgust that they would make up blatant lies about me, but I quickly realized that they were scared that the truth would come out of how cowardly they acted on deployment," he said. "I felt sorry for them that they thought it necessary to smear my name, but they never realized what the consequences of their lies would be."

An attorney for Gallagher said he is preparing a lawsuit against The New York Times and correspondent Dave Philipps.

"There were sections where the video inexplicably cut off, sections where you could hear the investigator coaching the witness in the hall, and probably the most unprofessional witness interview technique that any of us have ever seen," Tim Parlatore said in a statement. "Philipps' persistent desire to ignore the facts of this case, to continue to publish false and misleading articles months after the acquittal demonstrates clear bias and actual malice, which is why my client has instructed me to prepare a lawsuit against him and the New York Times."

Another attorney for Gallagher told CBS News, "The jury heard all the evidence — the prosecution's and the defense's — and acquitted Eddie of every single serious charge. Enough said."

EDITOR’S NOTE: I hate yo pass judgement on a courageous combat hero, but it also took a lot of courage for his accusers to speak out knowing that they would be shunned forever for ratting out a fellow SEAL. And if they are telling the truth, did President Trump act in Gallagher’s behalf before he knew what his accusers said.

Gallagher accuses his accusers of having been cowards during their missions. Could he be calling them cowards because they would not shoot at innocent civilians? Just a thought.

As for the planned lawsuit, it would be very nice to see The New York Times hit with a multimillion-dollar judgement.

ANTI-SEMITIC NEW YORKERS CELEBRATE HANUKKAH BY ATTACKING ‘FUCKING’ JEWS

Four Jewish women targeted in latest anti-Semitic attacks in Brooklyn

By Olivia Bensimon, Natalie Musumeci, Jacob Henry and Tina Moore

New York Post
December 27, 2019

There have been at least eight suspected anti-Semitic attacks in the city so far this week — including a pair on four Jewish women and a threat to “shoot up” the Lubavitch World Headquarters in Brooklyn, police and sources said Friday.

The most recent incident occurred around 7 a.m. Friday when a man in his mid-40s walked into the headquarters on Eastern Parkway in Crown Heights and threatened to fire some rounds before fleeing toward the subway, authorities said.

Earlier in the morning, a deranged woman assaulted three women in Crown Heights, cops said.

Tiffany Harris, 30, of Flatbush allegedly slapped and whacked the women in the face and barked “Fuck you Jews!” during the 12:40 a.m. assault at Eastern Parkway and Kingston Avenue, cops said.

Harris fled but was nabbed soon after and charged with harassment as a hate crime, according to police.

The victims, ages 22, 26, and 31, were not seriously injured.

Harris has several prior arrests, including for criminal mischief, criminal contempt and assault, authorities said.

Around 4 p.m. Thursday, a homeless lady also attacked a 34-year-old woman who was with her 3-year-old child on Avenue U near West Fifth street in Gravesend at around 4 p.m. Thursday, cops said.

The suspect, identified as 42-year-old Ayana Logan, allegedly yelled out an anti-Semitic slur and then hit the mother with her bag.

“You fucking Jew, your end is coming!” Logan shouted, police sources told The Post.

Logan was arrested and charged with assault, hate crime, harassment, acting in a manner injurious to a child and criminal possession of a weapon, police said.

The unidentified victim was not hospitalized but received medical attention at the 62nd Precinct, cops said.

In another incident early Thursday in Borough Park, a man punched a 40-year-old Jewish man in the chin and mouth. The assailant fled, and the victim suffered a cut and swelling to his lip.

At a press conference Friday, Mayor Bill de Blasio denounced the hate crimes and called for swift justice.

“Anti-semitism is a danger to everyone. When it starts to grow, everybody is threatened,” he said. “We have to show real consequences for any acts of hate.

“No one should belittle what’s happening. We will not accept it,” Hizzoner added. “Anyone who commits a hate crime, we will find them, and we will prosecute them. No exceptions. ”

Year to date, New York City has seen a spike in hate crimes, with an 18% surge in anti-Semitic attacks, according to NYPD statistics as of Sunday.

GOVERNORS CUOMO AND NEWSOM, A MATCHED SET

N.Y. Gov. Cuomo blocks some federal judges from officiating at weddings — because they might be Trump nominees

By Allan Smith

NBC News
December 23, 2019

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo has vetoed a noncontroversial bipartisan bill that would have allowed all federal judges to officiate weddings in the state because some might have been nominated to the bench by President Donald Trump.

"I cannot in good conscience support legislation that would authorize such actions by federal judges who are appointed by this federal administration," Cuomo's veto message stated.

"President Trump does not embody who we are as New Yorkers," the Democratic governor added Friday. "The cornerstones that built our great state are diversity, tolerance and inclusion. Based on these reasons, I must veto this bill."

The legislation, sponsored by Democratic state Sen. Liz Krueger, passed the state Senate by a 61-to-1 vote. It passed the state Assembly by a 144-to-2 tally. Both the state Senate and the Assembly are under Democratic control.

Currently, New York law permits all state judges in their official capacity to preside over wedding ceremonies, although only certain federal judges — like those in the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals and those at each of the state's federal district courts — are eligible to preside over weddings. This bill would have expanded the wedding authority to all federal judges, largely those from outside New York.

"Four years ago, we gave the governor the ability to perform marriages," Krueger said in a statement. "Two years ago, we gave legislators that ability. Marriage in New York is inclusive, equal, and open to all who want it. So when it was suggested to me that we expand it to federal judges, I thought, 'Why not? The more the merrier!' I'm certainly no fan of the judges this president is choosing to appoint — but since any New Yorker can become a minister online for $25 and legally perform weddings, I didn't consider this to be a major issue."

Trump has now had nearly 190 federal judges confirmed through his first term, including 1 in every 4 circuit court judges.

The Federal Judges Association declined to comment on Cuomo's veto, saying that the "solemnization of marriage is within the sole jurisdiction of individual states which control all matters of family law."

"Federal Judges do enjoy performing wedding ceremonies as a function granted specifically by the laws of many states in the Union, but that grant of authority is not universal," U.S. District Judge Cynthia M. Rufe, president of the Federal Judges Association, told NBC News in a statement.

The White House declined to comment. Cuomo did not respond to a request for comment from NBC News.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Cuomo and California's Newsom do not govern for all the people in their respective states. They govern only for the Democrats, and the far-left Dems at that.

AN EVIL ALLIANCE

Russia, China, Iran start joint naval drills in Gulf of Oman and Indian Ocean

Reuters
December 27, 2019

DUBAI/MOSCOW -- Iran, China and Russia began joint naval drills on Friday in the Indian Ocean and Gulf of Oman, in what Moscow said was an unprecedented exercise in naval cooperation and training.

Waters around Iran have become a focus for international tensions, with the United States exerting pressure for Iranian crude oil sales and other trade ties to be cut off.

“The message of this exercise is peace, friendship and lasting security through cooperation and unity... and its result will be to show that Iran cannot be isolated,” Iranian flotilla admiral Gholamreza Tahani said on state television.

The broadcaster said the drills included rescuing ships on fire or vessels under attack by pirates and shooting exercises.

The Gulf of Oman is a particularly sensitive waterway as it connects to the Strait of Hormuz, through which about a fifth of the world’s oil passes and which in turn connects to the Gulf.

Washington proposed a U.S.-led naval mission following several attacks in May and June on international merchant vessels, including Saudi tankers, in Gulf waters which the United States blamed on Iran. It denies the accusations.

President Donald Trump last year pulled the United States out of Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal with six nations and re-imposed sanctions on the country, crippling its economy.

Tension has risen in the region not only over Iran’s disputed nuclear program but also over a September attack on Saudi oil facilities blamed on Iran by the United States and Saudi Arabia. Iran also denies involvement in that.

China said on Thursday it was sending a guided missile destroyer to the four-day drills, which it called a “normal military exchange” between the three armed forces.

“It is not necessarily connected with the regional situation,” a Chinese defense ministry spokesman said.

China has close diplomatic, trade and energy ties with Iran, which has friendly ties with Russia.

Russia’s Defence Ministry said on Friday it had sent three ships from its Baltic Fleet - a frigate, a tanker and a rescue tug boat - to take part in the drills, Red Star, the official newspaper of Russia’s armed forces, reported.

The ministry was cited as saying that it was the first time that such drills were being held in such a format.

Both Russia and China also have good relations with Iran’s regional rival Saudi Arabia.

SCORE ONE FOR THE SHRINKS

California Supreme Court Allows Therapists To Challenge Law On Child Porn Reporting

LAPPL News Watch
December 27, 2019

Psychotherapists have spent years fighting a 2014 California law requiring them to report patients who confided having looked at child pornography, complaining that it deters people with sexual compulsions from seeking treatment and forces therapists to call the police on patients they do not believe pose a risk.

But they knew they faced a steep hurdle in getting the law overturned, citing what one scholar called “the ick and disgust factor” at the mere thought of the subject.

A sharply divided California Supreme Court grappled with the case Thursday, deciding the state must show the law actually helps children by presenting evidence at a trial. In the 4-3 decision, the state’s highest court overturned rulings that threw out a lawsuit brought by therapists who treat sexual compulsions, addictions and disorders.

The court did not give therapists everything they wanted — a clear ruling that the law was unconstitutional — but revived their lawsuit so the effects of the reporting requirement can be closely examined.