THUG WHO HANDED GUN TO COP KILLER GETS SWEETHEART PLEA DEAL

Chicago man charged over murder of cop Ella French is offered plea deal that'll see him jailed for just SEVEN years

Chicago police officer Ella French was shot dead in August 2021 during a routine traffic stop and cop Carlos Yanez was severely wounded but survived his injuries

 

By Kamal Sultan 

 

Daily Mail

Sep 20, 2023

 

Eric Morgan, who was charged over the murder of police officer Ella French, has been offered a plea deal that will see him jailed for just seven years

 

A Chicago man who was charged over the murder of police officer Ella French has been offered a plea deal that will see him jailed for just seven years. 

French, 29, was shot dead in the West Englewood neighborhood on August 7, 2021 during a routine traffic and cop Carlos Yanez was severely wounded but survived his injuries.  

Eric Morgan was accused of handling the murder weapon allegedly used by his brother Emonte and was charged with aggravated unlawful use of a weapon, unlawful use of a weapon by a felon, and obstruction of justice.

But despite the gravity of the offense, Eric will be freed by 2030.  The murder accomplice's lawyer revealed on Friday that he has been offered a seven-year prison sentence which is the maximum for the most serious charge he faces.

Emonte Morgan is accused of pulling the trigger. He has been charged with first-degree murder of a peace officer, attempted first-degree murder of a peace officer, aggravated unlawful use of a weapon, and unlawful use of a weapon by a felon.

 

Ella French, 29, was shot dead in the West Englewood neighborhood on August 7, 2021 during a routine traffic and cop Carlos Yanez was severely wounded but survived his injuries

Emonte Morgan is accused of pulling the trigger. He has been charged with first-degree murder of a peace officer, attempted first-degree murder of a peace officer, aggravated unlawful use of a weapon, and unlawful use of a weapon by a felon

 

His attorney Roger Brown claimed he could face 23 years in prison if he does not accept the plea deal. 

'If it were not for the fact that it was associated with the Chicago police and officers, he would've gotten a sentence of probation,' Brown said. 

'So I think a sentence of seven years is more than enough.'

Eric is set to have his plea hearing on October 12. 

Officer French was killed during a shooting at a traffic stop. The Morgan brothers were said to have been driving with expired license plates, prompting police to pull them over.

French's brother shed some more light on his late sibling in a moving tribute shared after her murder.

'She's my sister, she's my little sister. And as much as I was there for her when we were growing up, she was there for me. And I was proud of her, I'm still proud of her...God took the wrong kid,' he told the Chicago Tribune.

She and Yanez stopped the vehicle with two men and a woman inside just after 9pm on the day of the shooting, when a male passenger opened fire. 

Investigators said the officers had demanded one of the suspects get out of the car.

There was a physical altercation and the suspect then opened fire, shooting both officers.

Her death was the first fatal shooting of a Chicago officer in the line of duty after former mayor Lori Lightfoot took office and the first female officer fatally shot on the job there in 33 years.

In the exchange of gunfire, one of the brothers was shot and wounded.

 

French's death was first fatal shooting of a Chicago officer in the line of duty after former mayor Lori Lightfoot took office and first female officer fatally shot on the job there in 33 years

Officers Carlos Yanez is seen paralyzed in a hospital bed after he was shot during a traffic stop 

 

At the time of the shooting, both brothers were on probation for separate cases.

Emonte pleaded guilty to robbery in Cook County court last year.

He also has other criminal charges on his record, including minor traffic offenses such as leaving the scene of an accident, operating a vehicle without a license and driving uninsured. He was also charged with battery and theft in 2019.

Eric pleaded guilty to theft in Dane County, Wisconsin, according to public records.

Jamal Danzy, 29, of Hammond, was accused of buying the weapon from a license gun dealer in Hammond, Indiana, in March and then providing it to an Illinois resident who Danzy knew could neither buy nor possess guns because of a felony conviction.

Danzy, of Hammond, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit federal firearm offenses in July 2022. 

The charges did not name the individual who he bought the gun but it ended up in the hands of Eric who allegedly shot French.

FALSE ALARMS ARE CRIMES ... KICK BOWMAN OUT OF CONGRESS AND THROW HIS ASS IN JAIL

Democrat accused of pulling FIRE ALARM to disrupt vote to avoid a shutdown slams claims as 'complete BS' and says he 'was just trying to open a door' - as McCarthy tells critics threatening to oust him to 'bring it'

New York Rep Jamaal Bowman pulled a fire alarm in the Cannon building. The stunt came amid fervent debate over a potential shutdown 

 

By Morgan Phillips, Jimmy Mccloskey and Will Potter

 

Daily Mail

Sep 30, 2023

 

 

Capitol Police circulated a photo of Jamaal Bowman pulling the fire alarm

 

Democrat Rep. Jamal Bowman says claims he purposefully pulled a fire alarm to disrupt House Republicans as they debated a stopgap bill to avert a government shutdown are 'BS.' 

The New York representative was allegedly caught on camera pulling the stunt in the Cannon Building, which houses numerous Congressional office spaces, as lawmakers scrambled to pass a plan to keep the government funded before it ran out of money on Saturday at midnight.

Bowman is now being investigated after the incident that unfolded during chaotic scenes on Capitol Hill on Saturday as the deadline loomed to avert what seemed like an inevitable shutdown.

The House passed a short-term solution to keep the government funded for 45 days without additional funding for Ukraine, with Speaker Kevin McCarthy turning to Democrats to help him push it through. It went to the Senate, which was set to vote on Saturday night.

With the Republicans in disarray, Bowman quickly became the center of a firestorm over what he insists was a simple mistake that he thought would 'open a door'.

The former school principal, who would have conducted dozens of fire drills during his career, is facing a Republican threat of expulsion and an investigation by the Capitol Police.

 

The New York representative was allegedly caught on camera pulling the stunt in the Cannon Building, which houses numerous Congressional office spaces, as lawmakers scrambled to pass a plan to keep the government funded before it ran out of money on Saturday at midnight

The resolution calling for Bowman to be expelled from the House  

 

'I thought the alarm would open the door,' Bowman told reporters about the incident. 

'I was rushing to make a vote, I was trying to get to a door.' 

'[Bowman] pulled a fire alarm in Cannon this morning,' a spokesperson for the Congressional Administration Committee said. 'An investigation into why it was pulled is underway.' 

Bowman called the notion that he pulled the fire alarm to delay a vote 'complete BS.'  

Meanwhile, Speaker Kevin McCarthy dared his conservative critics to try to oust him as they have long threatened in a press conference after the vote. 

'If somebody wants to make a motion against me, bring it,' the speaker said. 'There has to be an adult in the room.' 

He also said there should be an Ethics Committee investigation into Bowman's actions. 

 

The House managed to pass a short-term solution to keep the government funded for 45 days without additional funding for Ukraine, with Speaker Kevin McCarthy turning to Democrats to help him push it through

'I’m going to have a discussion with the Democratic Leader about it, but this should not go without punishment.'

Republicans, led by Rep. Nicole Malliotakis, N.Y., are now working on a resolution to expel Bowman from Congress, and Capitol Police were circulating a photo of what appeared to be Bowman pulling the alarm. 

Bowman's antics led to an evacuation of the building, which came as House representatives were readying to vote on a bill that would avert a government shutdown less than 12 hours before a deadline.

The bill passed in a 335-91 vote, and now heads to the Senate. It will keep the government funded for 45 days. 

Before the bill's passing Democrats had been trying to delay the vote to give them time to read the text and make sure they could support it.  

Ninety Republicans against the continuing resolution (CR) that extends government funding at 2023 levels beyond the midnight deadline. Only one Democrat - Rep. Mike Quigley, Ill., opposed it. He wanted it to include Ukraine funding. 

Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., has long said that if McCarthy cut a deal with Democrats to get a CR across the floor he would launch a movement to oust him immediately. 

Gaetz moved to speak on the House floor Saturday after the vote but the House adjourned until Monday - ensuring that any plan to bring forward a motion to vacate the speakership will have to wait until then. 

The stopgap funding bill's passage came after concerns it could be held up by party infighting, and comes as a relief as the potential shutdown could have jeopardized the livelihoods of millions of Americans. 

The passage today saw officials hash out 45 day continuing resolution deal which would supply disaster relief funds, an extension of the federal flood insurance program and FAA reauthorization. 

It remains uncertain whether the bill will survive as it heads to the Senate, where a procedural vote has yet to be scheduled. The government will officially shut down at midnight if lawmakers cannot land a deal. 

Republicans had spent up until almost the last minute trying to pass a party-line CR that included steep funding cuts and border security provisions. But with 21 Republicans opposed to that plan as of Friday, Speaker Kevin McCarthy finally had enough and agreed to put a clean funding extension on the floor that had Democratic support - and did not include conservative priorities. 

He was always going to have to put a bipartisan deal on the floor at the end in order for it to pass the Senate, but a Republican-only deal would have been a messaging win on spending cuts and could have been a starting point for negotiations. 

Democrats celebrated the deal as a win - since it did not include the priorities Republicans had been pushing for  

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez wrote on X: 'Here’s what went down: we just won a clean 45 day gov extension, stripped GOP’s earlier 30% cuts to Social Security admin etc, staved off last minute anti-immigrant hijinks, and averted shutdown (for now). People will get paychecks and MTG threw a tantrum on the way out. Win-win.' 

Much of the dispute has been focused on Biden's aggressive funding of the conflict in Ukraine, with firebrand Republican Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene slamming the bill she voted no on 'America last' on Saturday. 

The stopgap bill crucially did not include any aid to Ukraine.  

Before the vote, House Democratic Caucus Chair Pete Aguilar said Republican opposition to Ukraine war funding was a 'huge problem'.

'Kevin McCarthy and the Republican conference have proven time and time again that they don't care about the freedom of the Ukrainian people, and they turn their backs on them time and time again,' Aguilar said. 'And his anti-Ukraine, pro-Putin caucus is pretty strong.' 

 

It is feared the government shutdown could drag on for weeks

Friday's failed vote was a brutal defeat for House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, who has faced relentless criticism from the right of his party

The House Speaker has faced stern opposition from hardline Republican representatives including Florida Congressman Matt Gaetz (pictured)

Republican firebrand Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene told reporters on Saturday that she wouldn't approve policies funding the conflict in Ukraine, which she dubbed 'America last'

 

As fears mounted over the shutdown, President Biden readied to convene his cabinet next week to discuss how the government will function. 

If the government had shut down, two million members of the military and one and half million federal civilian employees will go without pay until lawmakers can strike a deal. 

Over half the civilian employees will be furloughed, and the rest will have to show up for work without payment. 

The bill that failed on Friday included a number of staunchly conservative policies that were not included in the stopgap bill on Saturday, which McCarthy indicated was to kick the can down the road while he hashed out a new deal.

'I want to keep government open while we finish our job,' he told reporters. 

As the situation teeters on the brink of a shutdown, the Biden administration had said it was engaged in regular communication with its staff and agencies on what to expect if there is no government funding.

The agencies started to make their own contingency plans in the event of a shutdown.

'We understand uncertainty can be unsettling,' the White House told employees in an email.

'Thank you for your hard work, dedication, and patience through this process, and for all that you do for the Executive Office of the President and the American people.'

A shutdown would have meant flight mayhem, garbage piling up, national parks shuttered and members of the military not getting paid.

Before the stopgap bill was voted on, Democrats pulled stunts to buy time to read the details of the bill and indicated they would not vote to approve it right away. 

House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries took to the floor shortly after midday to use 'magic minutes', an unlimited amount of speaking time, to extend the vote further. 

He demanded that Republicans kept to their word on agreeing to avoid a shutdown, saying he wanted to 'have a conversation with the American people. So strap in, because this may take a little while.' 

ADDENDUM:

U.S. shutdown avoided: Senate PASSES 11th-hour vote to keep government funded for 45 days.

TRUMP USED THE SECOND MOST-VULGAR WORD IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE - MOTHERFUCKER

Trump did what many Americans do daily

By Howie Katz

While addressing the California GOP fall convention on Friday, former President Donald Trump was talking about being indicted when he said: 

"What they've done is they've gone after opponents, so that if you become president, or some other job, but if you become president, and you don't like somebody or somebody is beating you by 10, 15, or 20 points, like we're doing with crooked Joe Biden - let's indict the motherfucker."

His remark was met with laughter and applause.

As expected, Democrats were quick to condemn Trump, saying that use of the word was unbecoming and beneath a person seeking the presidency.

Having used the word myself on a number of occasions, I find no fault in Trump's use of it.

And I also found no fault in President Harry Truman when he publicly called columnist Drew Pearson a son of a bitch for having discredited daughter Margaret's piano performance.

AMERICA'S DAD ... YOU RASCAL

Bill Cosby’s new accuser: Woman claims he ‘lured,’ raped her in 1972 

 

By Deirdre Bardolf

 

New York Post 

Sep. 30, 2023

 

Bill Cosby is facing a new lawsuit from a woman who says he drugged and raped her in 1972.

 

Another woman has come forward to file a civil suit against Bill Cosby, alleging that he drugged and raped her in the 1970s after inviting her to his comedy show.

Donna Motsinger, who now lives in New Mexico, filed the complaint in Los Angeles Superior Court on Thursday, saying that she met the comedian in 1972, when she was waitressing at The Trident, a renowned Sausalito restaurant and celebrity haunt.

Cosby would come in every day, hanging around to chat with Motsinger, who was 31 at the time, according to court papers.

In an attempt to “lure and groom” her for the future sexual assault 50 years ago, Cosby — who was “fawned over” due to his celebrity status — once asked her if he could call up her son from a payphone, according to the suit.

Cosby followed her home after one of her shifts and invited her to his comedy show at the Circle Theater that night, where he was filming “In the Mind of Bill Cosby,” according to court documents.

He picked her up in a limousine that night and offered her wine on the way to the show, she claimed in the suit.

At the theater, he took her to the dressing room where she began to feel sick, and he offered her what she believed was aspirin, according to court documents. 

“Next thing she knew, she was going in and out of consciousness while two men attending to Mr. Cosby were putting her in the limousine with Mr. Cosby,” the suit continues.

“In the limousine, Mr. Cosby sat near the window and put his arms around her. The last thing Ms. Motsinger recalls were flashes of light. She woke up in her house with all her clothes off, except her underwear on — no top, no bra, and no pants,” she claimed in the suit.

The suit, which seeks unspecified damages, also seeks to hold Cosby’s production company, Jemmin, Inc., responsible for the alleged assault, as well as the Circle Star Theater, for “failing to ensure the safety of its guests at the hands of its performers,” and not intervening because of Cosby’s fame.

Motsinger came forward in 2014 as one of was one of the 12 “Jane Does” who testified against Cosby during a 2005 civil rape case against Cosby. 

 

Cosby has been accused of rape, sexual assault and sexual harassment by more than 60 women.

 

The 86-year-old former “Cosby Show” star has been accused of rape, sexual assault and sexual harassment by more than 60 women.

He served three years of a ten-year sentence at a state prison near Philadelphia before a higher court threw out the conviction and released him in 2021.

He has denied all allegations involving sex crimes.

Cosby’s team could not immediately be reached for comment.

FOR CENTURIES, UKRAINE HAS BEEN INEXTRICABLY LINKED WITH ANTISEMITISM

Canada’s Ukrainian Nazi embarrassment was no accident

The cheers for a collaborator highlighted something the media and foreign-policy establishment are ignoring: Ukrainian nationalism’s ongoing antisemitism problem

 

By Jonathan S. Tobin

 

JNS

Sep 29, 2023

 

 

Ukrainian Nazi veteran Yaroslav Hunka (pictured) was given a standing ovation by Canadian parliamentarians

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau (right) was seen applauding the Nazi veteran as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy raised his fist in salute to him

 

It was all a big mistake. And no one important was to blame. So, the only thing to do is to just move along, pretend it never happened and, of course, denounce anyone who might consider it a reason to ask some inconvenient questions. But maybe some questions need to be asked.

I’m referring to the embarrassing scene that took place at Canada’s House of Commons last week when Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was hosting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and his wife, Olena Zelenska. As part of the Ukraine lovefest, Anthony Rota, the Speaker of the House, introduced a guest in the gallery: 98-year-old Yaroslav Hunka of North Bay, Ontario. He described Hunka, who lives in the district that Rota represents in Ottawa, as a war hero “who fought [for] Ukrainian independence against the Russians and continues to support the troops today. “He’s a Ukrainian hero, a Canadian hero, and we thank him for all his service,” Rota said. At that point, all assembled rose to applaud Hunka with Zelenskyy raising his fist in salute to him.

But the good feelings vanished in the coming days when Jewish groups, among others, pointed out that those fighting for Ukrainian independence during World War II were allies and collaborators with the Nazis. It turned out that Hunka was a member of the 14th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS.

 

Hunka's involvement in the 14th Waffen-SS 'Galacia' Division resurfaced after he was invited to Canada's House of Commons 

 

Once this became known, Trudeau profusely apologized. Rota resigned as Speaker, taking full responsibility for the incident and saying he had consulted with no one, including Trudeau and Zelenskyy, about highlighting Hunka’s presence. Though, interestingly, Zelenskyy has said nothing about the incident, let alone apologizing for saluting a Nazi collaborator.

And as far as the formidable forces within the corporate media that support Ukraine are concerned, that is all that needs to be said about the incident. The widespread Ukrainian collaboration with the Nazis is not only something that most people don’t want to acknowledge. Those who do mention it are accused of being pro-Russian or pro-Putin. That’s especially true since Russian President Vladimir Putin has, at least in part, justified his illegal and brutal invasion of Ukraine on the bogus grounds that he’s trying to “de-Nazify” it.

The conventional wisdom has bought into the notion that Zelenskyy is a latter-day Winston Churchill and that Putin’s Russia is analogous to the Nazis or as a great threat to the West as the Soviet Union once was. That’s why any mention of the past—let alone the fact that for centuries, Ukrainian nationalism has been inextricably linked with antisemitism—is considered off-limits for commentary.

This comes as the enormous American financial commitment to Ukraine seems to be escalating again and justified as either a righteous defense of democracy or on the more cynical grounds that it’s a cheap way to undermine Russia. There is something odd about a country that is seemingly unable to defend its own southern border against an unprecedented surge of illegal immigration—bringing misery to both border communities and urban areas elsewhere—that is simultaneously pouring hundreds of billions of dollars into a war that seems as endless as it is unwinnable. Those who have the temerity to raise this fact are dismissed as uninformed or ill-intentioned. But the rigid unwillingness to discuss either the Ukrainian present or past, lest it be seen as anything other than an embattled outpost of Western democracy, is itself a reason to raise questions.

After Russia’s illegal invasion in February 2022, sympathy for Ukraine understandably surged, especially as reports about Russian atrocities proliferated. Supporters of the war among liberals and the Washington Republican establishment both like to pretend that democracy is the issue at stake in Ukraine.

The truth about Zelenskyy’s Ukraine is more complicated than that. Russia’s motives in this war are entirely bad. But Ukraine remains a deeply corrupt country, where increasing power is being given to its security services, whose record of conduct is no more laudable than those of its opponents. Dissent against Zelenskyy’s government is punished—something that was made clear by his ban on the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. Nor has he any plans for new elections.

A history of antisemitism

Nor did we need the cheers for Hunka to know that Ukraine has an antisemitism problem. That was made clear in a troubling story published in The New York Times back in June about the ubiquitous wearing of insignia and symbols associated with the Nazis and their allies among the troops presently fighting for Ukraine.

Ukrainians wear these symbols for a reason. Its nationalist movement has been linked to antisemitism since its beginnings.

The Ukrainian state honors the memory of Bohdan Khmelnitsky, the 17th-century leader of Ukrainian Cossacks who was responsible for the massacres of Ukrainian and Polish Jews. This was the worst disaster to befall European Jewry from the Crusades to the Holocaust; historians estimate that more than 100,000 Jews were slaughtered by Khmelnitsky’s followers while thousands of others were enslaved or held for ransom. Yet the current Ukrainian republic titled its highest military honor after Khmelnitsky in 1995, and its Jewish president, who is protected by a unit named after the Cossack murderer, has awarded it to his soldiers.

The Ukrainians also honor the memory of more recent pogromists like Symon Petlura, who led pogroms that were responsible for the deaths of as many as 70,000 Jews or Nazi collaborator Stepan Bandera. Ukrainians actively participated in the murder of the Jews, taking a principal role in atrocities like the Babi Yar massacre, whose 82nd anniversary is observed this week.

The events of the Holocaust were highlighted last year by Zelenskyy during his virtual speech to the Knesset. As part of his effort to pressure Israel to abandon its own interests and join the war against Russia, he claimed that Russia’s invasion was morally equivalent to the Holocaust and then made the gobsmackingly false assertion that Ukrainians had stood in solidarity with the Jews of their country, thus obligating Israelis to rally to Ukraine today.

This was the sort of statement that, had it been uttered by anyone else, would have been rightly labeled as Holocaust denial. But since Zelenskyy is now the new Churchill, virtually everyone in the West, including the organized Jewish world, gave him a pass for this lie.

Zelenskyy’s election as Ukraine’s president is considered proof that the country’s attitude towards Jews is changing. But his willingness to spread falsehoods about the Holocaust was also evidence that Ukrainian politics make it impossible for him to reject its history of antisemitism.

Why they didn’t face justice

That brings us back to last week’s Canadian farce.

Hunka’s SS unit was used by the Germans to suppress anti-Nazi partisans and killed many Russians, Poles and citizens of the former Yugoslavia.

The SS was declared to be a criminal organization, whose members were an integral part of the Holocaust, at the Nuremberg Trials. But postwar politics enabled the members of the 14th Waffen Grenadier Division to get a pass. Having been fortunate to surrender to the British rather than the Soviets, its members were spared investigations. Thanks, in part, to intervention by the Vatican, whose representative declared them to be “good Catholics and anti-Communists,” they were spared repatriation to the Soviet Union, where they would have faced rough justice. As a result, most of them immigrated to Canada and the United Kingdom.

Nor was that the end of the story. Canada has never fully admitted its fault in providing a haven for ex-Nazis. A commission in the 1980s declared that members of the unit should not be indicted on the dubious grounds that not enough proof had been brought forward to establish their guilt, even though no serious investigation of their crimes was ever carried out. Monuments to them erected by the Ukrainian community exist in both Canada and the United States. Of even greater interest is the fact that their insignia are among those worn by contemporary Ukrainian soldiers, and streets are named in honor of the unit in at least two Ukrainian cities.

Seen in that light, maybe what happened in Canada requires greater scrutiny. Poland certainly thinks so. Though resolutely anti-Russian, the Poles have demanded that Hunka be extradited so as to face justice for the crimes committed by the Ukrainian SS.

Raising this doesn’t excuse Russia. But it does undermine the fanciful claims about the cause of Ukraine being indistinguishable from that of Western democracy.

Yet those who believe that sensible calls for the United States to be working to end the war rather than prolong it are still damned as Putin’s followers. Neither Kyiv nor Moscow has the ability to do anything but continue the slaughter. Unless Americans want to continue wasting hundreds of billions of dollars a year for the foreseeable future on this tragedy, they should be encouraging the Biden administration to work for compromise peace terms that will, sooner or later, have to be accepted by both sides. Doing so won’t endanger Western Europe, which stands in no peril from a weak Russia that couldn’t manage to conquer Ukraine. Nor will it help China, whose strategic position is enhanced by the fact that America’s armed forces have been stripped of armaments for Ukraine’s sake.

Do Americans really think it is justified to persist in funding a war that doesn’t directly involve U.S. national interests in order to go on valorizing a government tainted by its inability to confront antisemitism just to spite their old Russian foe? Ukraine’s failure to confront its past may not invalidate its right to independence, but it does call into question a policy that commits American money and arms to indefinitely continue a war that has no end in sight.

IT'S NOT A SAD DAY FOR THE JEWISH COMMUNITY

In chat with prominent Jews, Musk burnishes philo-semitic credentials

Abraham Foxman, director emeritus of the Anti-Defamation League, called the event a “sad day for the Jewish community.” 

 

By Bradley Martin

 

JNS

Sep 29, 2023

 

 

The entrepreneur Elon Musk at the annual VIVA Technology conference on June 16, 2023

 

During a live online discussion that ran for about 90 minutes, billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk repeatedly claimed that he is a friend of the Jews, despite attacks, including from some Jewish organizations, that he gives antisemitism the run of the place on his social-network platform X (formerly Twitter).

“My entire life story is pro-semitic,” Musk said. He added that he attended a Jewish kindergarten in South Africa and visited Israel at 13 with his father. “I don’t know if I’m genetically Jewish,” he said. “I’m aspirationally Jewish. Let’s put it that way.”

Conservative political commentator and columnist Ben Shapiro and Ari Lamm—an Orthodox rabbi, scholar and podcaster who is a grandson of late former Yeshiva University president Norman Lamm—co-hosted the discussion with Musk.

The event was Musk’s idea, Shapiro said at the beginning. “One of the things that nobody can deny about Elon is that he’s willing to speak publicly on pretty much everything,” Shapiro said. “Tonight is no exception.”

Asked how X will respond to governmental backdoor pressure to censor, Musk said the social network’s policy is to resist such efforts to the extent that the law allows.

Among other speakers were former Israeli President Reuven Rivlin; Michal Cotler-Wunsh, Israel’s new special envoy for combating antisemitism; Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean and director of global social action at the Simon Wiesenthal Center; Rabbi Menachem Margolin, chairman and founder of the European Jewish Association; and author and activist Rabbi Shmuely Boteach.

Lamm, who is co-founder of SoulShop and CEO of the Bnai Zion Foundation, had harsh words for the Anti-Defamation League, which has criticized Musk and sought to dissuade those who advertise on the platform.

“We are the stewards of quite literally the most influential tradition of wisdom in the history of humanity,” Lamm said, calling the Torah the foundation of Western civilization. 

 

American Jewish conservative political commentator and columnist Ben Shapiro at the International Conservatism Conference in Tel Aviv on July 20, 2022

 

He charged that Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO and national director of the ADL, “doesn’t even pretend to play in the field of great Jewish ideas and texts.” Instead, American Jews should look to leading Orthodox rabbis like Hershel Schachter of Yeshiva University and Osher Weiss in Israel as representative of their values.

“I feel at home when I call you Elon because Elon is a very popular name here in Israel,” Rivlin told Musk, calling in from Israel.

The former Israeli president asked where he thought the line should be between antisemitism and protecting free speech. Musk said he was open to ideas and his Jewish friends haven’t found the platform to be antisemitic.

“Probably, I have twice as many Jewish friends as non-Jewish friends,” the entrepreneur said. He added that sometimes sunlight is the best disinfectant for hatred, including antisemitism. Otherwise, people like Ye (Kanye West) can keep such sentiment hidden, he said.

 

Natan Sharansky said he is shocked by how much antisemitism there is in the free world

 

‘Absurd and outrageous’

Israeli statesman, activist and well-known refusenik Natan Sharansky spoke about experiencing a lack of free speech and extensive antisemitism in the former Soviet Union. He said he is shocked by how much antisemitism there is in the free world—manifesting as anti-Zionism on the far left and demonization of Jews as a people on the far right.

“This notion that Israel should not exist is absurd and outrageous,” Musk said.

Abraham Foxman, the ADL’s director emeritus, called it a “sad day for the Jewish community” when Jewish leaders were meeting with Musk. 

Foxman charged that Musk enabled “an explosion of antisemitism on X” under the banner of free speech, threatened the ADL with a lawsuit for “challenging his enabling antisemitism” and now has split the Jewish community.

Attorney Alan Dershowitz, who also spoke during the event, praised Musk for conducting an experiment “to see if we can survive in the marketplace of ideas without censorship.”

“No idea should be censored,” said the professor emeritus at Harvard Law School. “My suggestion to you is don’t listen to critics.”

He warned Musk not to let the platform drift too far to the right. “X has to be perfectly symmetrical,” Dershowitz said. “Don’t destroy it by being perceived as a right-wing reaction to left-wing excesses.”

REPUBLICANS JOIN DEMOCRATS IN MOURNING DIANNE FEINSTEIN

A trailblazer who survived beatings from her alcoholic mother to become a giant for women in politics: Dianne Feinstein - from single mom at 26 to San Francisco's first female mayor and three decades in Congress

Feinstein was born in 1933 and has held her seat in the Senate for nearly 31 years. The former San Francisco mayor was long a powerhouse of Democratic politics

 

By Morgan Phillips 

 

Daily Mail 

Sep 29, 2023

California Democrat Dianne Feinstein turned 90 years old in June - a birthday that made her one of only five senators ever to serve in the upper chamber as a nonagenarian

 

Dianne Feinstein, the nation's oldest senator and a longtime liberal powerhouse, passed away at 90 Thursday night after over 30 decades in the upper chamber. 

She voted Thursday morning but missed afternoon votes before passing at her Washington, D.C. home. Her final vote was a procedural motion to advance FAA reauthorization.  

The California Democrat turned 90 in June - a birthday that made her one of only five senators ever to serve in the Senate as a nonagenarian. 

Feinstein was born in 1933 and held her Senate seat for nearly 31 years - despite battling a series of ailments that inhibited her ability to do the job. 

The former San Francisco mayor was long a bastion of Democratic politics - previously chairing the high-profile Senate Rules and Intelligence committees and authoring the 1994 assault weapons ban. 

But her reputation began to sour as the ailing senator clung to power despite plain-as-day cognitive decline and a two-and-a-half month illness absence that led to a backlog of judge confirmations through the Judiciary Committee. 

With the death of Alaska Rep. Don Young, Feinstein became the oldest member of U.S. Congress in March 2021. Iowa Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley is only months behind - he will turn 90 on September 17. 

 

Dianne Feinstein, the nation's oldest senator and a longtime liberal powerhouse, passed away at 90 Friday morning after over 30 decades in the upper chamber

 

According to a 1985 Los Angeles Times report Feinstein describes her childhood as 'very brutal' and said that her alcoholic mother frequently beat her and her sister. 

Nevertheless she became San Francisco's first female and Jewish mayor in 1978 at 45, after the city's former mayor George Moscone was assassinated, along with city supervisor Harvey Milk.

As president of the county Board of Supervisors at the time, she was in City Hall at the time of the assassinations and was the one who discovered Milk dead in his office. Feinstein then announced their deaths at a press conference in words that reverberated around the country. 

She held the mayoral seat for a decade before launching a campaign her governor.  

Feinstein married her first husband Jack Berman in 1956 and was left a single mother to daughter Katherine three years later at 26. In 1962, she married Bertram Feinstein, who died of colon cancer in 1978. Two years later, she married San Francisco investment banker Richard Blum. 

Billionaire Blum was Feinstein's third husband and she never quite seemed to recover from his passing in 2022. 

Blum and Feinstein married while she was still serving as San Francisco mayor and became a power couple in the city. Both were wealthy - Feinstein had family money and Blum a self-made banker. 

After her failed campaign for governor in 1990, she was appointed to the Senate seat in 1992.

 

Feinstein, D-Calif., left, and Deb Fischer, R-Neb., are seen after a group photo to mark National Seersucker Day in the Ohio Clock Corridor of the U.S. Capitol on Thursday, June 8, 2023

Senator Strom Thurmond during the Judiciary Committee hearing regarding Billy Carter's dealing with Libya, Washington DC, July 1980. Thurmond was the oldest senator ever, retiring at 100 

Grassley is the Senate's second-oldest member 

 

Feinstein is the fifth-oldest to ever serve in the Senate. Strom Thurmond, the segregationist Democrat-turned-Republican, was the oldest and longest-serving senator ever: he was 100 when he retired in January 2003 after 48 years in office. 

And in addition to a slew of health battles in the final chapter of her life Feinstein faced a messy family legal battle. 

She accused the trustees of her late husband's estate of financial elder abuse, asking they be removed from their position, and charging them with improperly financially enriching Richard Blum's three daughters.

The lawsuit was filed by Feinstein's daughter Katherine who had power of attorney for her. The three daughters from Richard Blum's previous marriage questioned why Feinstein could serve in the Senate but not file her own lawsuit. 

Feinstein, meanwhile, alleges the Blum daughters were wrongly appointed and refused to pay the senator's disbursements or reimburse her medical bills. 

In the latest filing, the trustees place Feinstein's own net worth at $50 million and say she has over $1 million in income per year from her late husband's trust and her salary.  

A poll conducted over the summer by the University of California at Berkeley showed some two-thirds of California voters did not think the senator was fit for office. 

The senator sparked confusion when she returned to the Senate after her extended absence earlier this year and appeared to forget she'd been gone.

'No, I've been here. I've been voting,' the then-89-year-old told reporters on May 16 when they asked how she was feeling and what her colleagues thought of her return. 'Please. You either know or don't know,' she added. 

She had been out due to a bout with shingles that led to vision and balance impairments as well as facial paralysis known as Ramsay Hunt syndrome in addition to encephalitis, a brain infection.

Her office confirmed the diagnosis after the senator herself curiously told reporters she had had the flu. 'It was a really bad flu. I'm doing better thank you,' Feinstein said initially about her condition.

Still, the senator's work from her heyday drew widespread praise from both sides of the aisle. 

'Sen Feinstein did an outstanding job representing the ppl of California. I worked closely w her as a member of the drug caucus& judiciary cmte. During the time I was chair& she was ranking Democrat we had a wonderful working relationship She’s a true public servant I’ll miss her,' Grassley, who served with Feinstein the entirety of her Senate career, wrote on X. 

Feinstein had planned to retire in 2024 - three House Democrats have already lined up to try to replace her: Reps. Barbara Lee, Katie Porter and Adam Schiff. Businessman Eric Early is running on the Republican side. 

 

Feinstein holds a copy of a billboard to be placed in 20 locations throughout the City on January 20, 1983

Mayor Feinstein - then running for governor in 1990 - speaks on the phone 

Feinstein uses a weight machine at her home in 1990

 

In May it also came to light that Nancy Corinne Prowda, Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi's eldest daughter, has been acting as a caretaker of sorts to Feinstein, the Senate's oldest member. 

Asked if the arrangement was to aid Schiff's campaign, Pelosi spokesperson Aaron Bennett gave a curt 'no.' 

Sources suggested to Politico that the arrangement was to ensure Feinstein, whose  state of confusion and misremembering has been plainly on display in the Senate, remained in office to the end of her term. 

 

Feinstein speaking on telephone in private box during NFL game between San Francisco 49ers & Seattle Seahawks; looking at aide

Swearing-in of Diane Feinstein at the Senate in 1992

Feinstein jogging looks far more full of life than in recent years

 

The 58-year-old marketing executive has appeared with the retiring senator after the departure of several trusted aides. 

Pelosi has endorsed Schiff in the primary, and sources told Politico they believed the arrangement could be to prevent Gov. Gavin Newsom from appointing Lee to fill the seat. 

Newsom has pledged to appoint a black woman to the Senate - though he's suggested he won't appoint anyone who is currently in the 2024 race for the seat. 

A spokesman for Feinstein said Prowda was not drawing a salary for her role. 

'Nancy Corinne and Senator Feinstein have been friends for decades. Nancy Corinne has been supporting her in her shingles recovery,' Pelosi spokesperson Aaron Bennett explained in a statement to DailyMail.com.

'Speaker Emerita Pelosi and Senator Feinstein have been friends since long before their service in Congress — and their friendship is personal, not political. Anyone who knows Senator Feinstein knows that her service in the Senate is entirely her own decision, and Speaker Emerita Pelosi would never suggest otherwise.'

THE TUPAC SHAKUR MURDER

Duane ‘Keffe D’ Davis arrested, charged with murder 1996 killing of rapper Tupac Shakur 

 

By Marjorie Hernandez and Andy Tillett

 

New York Post 

Sep. 29, 2023

 

 

Duane “Keffe D” Davis was arrested early Friday and charged with conspiracy to commit murder.

Las Vegas police have arrested a man over the 1996 drive-by shooting of Tupac Shakur, 27 years after the rapper’s death.

Duane “Keffe D” Davis was arrested early Friday on a charge of murder with a deadly weapon.

Davis, 60, said he was one of four occupants of a white Cadillac that pulled alongside the rapper’s car before someone inside rolled down its windows and fired, hitting Tupac four times.

In his memoir “Compton Street Legends,” Davis identified his nephew, Orlando Anderson, as the one who fatally shot Tupac. Anderson, who was a member of the South Side Compton Crips gang, died at age 23 as the result of another gangland shooting in 1998.

However, A Nevada grand jury indicted Davis over the murder with Chief Deputy District Attorney Marc DiGiacomo describing Davis as the “on-ground, on-site commander” who “ordered the death” of Shakur, rather than being a bystander.

Anderson denied involvement in Shakur’s murder and was never charged. However, Nevada does not have a statute of limitations on prosecuting murder cases and the case of the “California Love” rapper’s shooting has always been open.

In July this year, Las Vegas police served a search warrant at the Henderson, Nevada, home of Davis’ wife, Pamela Clemons, as part of Shakur’s homicide investigation.

 

Tupac was gunned down on the Vegas Strip in 1996.

The car in which rapper Tupac Shakur was fatally shot by an unknown gunman in 1996.

 

Cops confiscated several computers, laptops and iPads from the home, as well as a .40-caliber cartridge — the same type as the many casings that were recovered from the scene where Shakur was shot, according to a search warrant obtained by The Post.

 

Greg Kading, a retired LAPD detective who had investigated Tupac’s death, told The Post Friday: “Davis provided the gun and he actively sought out Tupac with his nephew.

 

“Davis gave the gun to his nephew, who was in the car with them, and collectively, they went out and intended to shoot Tupac. He provided the gun, and his nephew did the shooting, so they are all equally guilty under solicitation for murder.”

Kading added, “I am super excited because this is huge! We knew this wasn’t an unsolved case, and now it looks like they have taken it to a point where they can officially close it. For the rest of history, Tupac’s murder will not be considered an unsolved crime.” 

 

Tupac was 25 at the time of the shooting. 

 

Kading had interviewed Davis twice while he was a cop in LA, in 2008 and 2009 while investigating the murders of Shakur and his rap rival Notorious B.I.G., a.k.a. Christopher Wallace, who was gunned down in Hollywood.

Following the shooting, Tupac was rushed to the University Medical Center of Southern Nevada — along with Knight, who was also hit — and listed in critical condition.

He died six days later, on Sept. 13, of cardiac arrest. Although the shooting took place in a very visible public area, no witnesses came forward at the time.

It has been heavily speculated Tupac’s murder was gang-related. The rapper was associated with the Bloods street gang and earlier on the night of his death, he had gotten into a fight with Anderson following a boxing match between Mike Tyson and Bruce Seldon.

 

In his memoir “Compton Street Legends,” Davis identified his nephew, Orlando Anderson, as the one who fatally shot Tupac. 

 

Davis said in his book that the first time he talked about Tupac’s shooting was in 2010 during a meeting with federal and local authorities. He said he agreed to speak to them privately in exchange for them releasing him from drug charges for which he was facing life in prison.

Shakur’s stepbrother, Mopreme Shakur, told CNN in an interview that he and his family have been frustrated since Davis’ name has been floated in connection to the murder for decades.

“This theory hasn’t been looked into for 27 years,” Mopreme Shakur said. “Why? My family’s been traumatized, my sister, my daughter, my nieces, my nephews, we’ve all been traumatized, waiting. We’ve been waiting for something to happen, for someone to be proactive enough to take action.”

Throughout his brief career, Shakur — born Lesane Parish Crooks — sold more than 75 million records worldwide.

TRUMP HAS A BALL AT CALIFORNIA GOP CONVENTION

'Where am I?' Trump mercilessly mimics Biden, 80, getting lost on stage as California audience roars with laughter - and claims Gavin Newsom is plotting 2024 run because he doesn't think Joe will 'make it'

 

By Katelyn Caralle

 

Daily Mail

Sep 29, 2023

Donald Trump tore into President Joe Biden, California Gov. Gavin. Newsom and Democratic California Reps. Nancy Pelosi, Eric Swalwell, Adam Schiff and Maxine Waters

 

Donald Trump got big laughs Friday at the California GOP fall convention when he mimicked a moment when President Joe Biden got confused when trying to find his way off-stage following a speech.

The ex-president also suggested California's Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom positioned himself as a top surrogate to Biden because he doesn't think he will 'make it' to the 2024 general election.

Trump told a room full of Republicans at a ballroom in Anaheim, California that their state can be 'wonderful again' as he tore into the state's lawmakers and leaders. He vowed 'help is on the way' to save California from communism and Marxism – if only he is elected president again in 2024.

He also slammed a series of California's Democratic lawmakers and leaders and claimed 'rich people' in Beverly Hills 'smell' because of strict water laws that keep them from showering enough.

Speaking to about 1,500 attendees munching on the remains of their lunch, Trump said: 'While California was once a symbol of American success, today under the radical left fascists and Marxists that run your state – that's who's running your state, bad people – it's becoming a symbol of our nation's decline.'

He specifically called out California Gov. Gavin Newsom, Vice President Kamala Harris, once a U.S. senator from California, and current Democratic California Reps. Nancy Pelosi, Maxine Waters, Adam Schiff and Eric Swalwell.

Just two days after skipping the second Republican debate in Southern California, Trump flew out to claim his domain in the primary race over the deep blue state.

 

The ex-president got big laughs when he mimicked a moment when a confused Biden appeared not to be able to find his way off stage

 

Trump appeared to claim that Biden won't be the 2024 Democratic nominee, although the incumbent is currently running virtually unopposed in the primary. But the ex-president thinks that the Democratic field is about to get much more crowded – and that Newsom will be leading the pack.

'Gavin has become Crooked Joe Biden's top surrogate because he doesn't think Biden is going to make it – that's why he's doing it,' Trump insisted during his remarks Friday. 'He doesn't think he's going to make it, and it won't be him so easily. He's going to have a big fight. However, because there will be a lot of Democrats competing it's going to be very interesting.'

'But let's see, look, some people say Biden's going to make it. Does anybody think he's going to make it to the starting gate?' Trump asked in a poll of the crowd of Republicans, to which they responded with a resounding, 'no!.'

'I mean the guy can't find his way off of a stage,' Trump said in reference to a viral moment where Biden was seen wandering around the stage following remarks at the U.N. General Assembly in New York City last week.

A confused Biden appeared not be able to find his way off the stage following the event.

Trump reenacted this during his remarks in Anaheim on Friday.

'Look here's a stage,' Trump began. 'I've never seen this stupid stage before – I've never seen it before. But if I walk left there's a stair. And if I walk right, there's a stair.'

'And this guy gets up, 'Where am I? Where the hell am I?' Trump said, walking aimlessly around the stage.

'Nah, he's terrible. You know, I'm much tougher on him than I used to be. Out of respect for the office, I was never like – He's the most corrupt president, the most incompetent president we've ever had.'

The Golden State's Republican Party is the biggest prize for those vying for the Republican presidential nomination. But this year, the CaGOP changed the rules in a way that competitors claim will boost Trump's chances of winning all 169 delegates' votes.

Trump joins three other primary contenders speaking at the California GOP Fall Convention at the Anaheim Marriott this year.

South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott is speaking after Trump's lunch-time remarks. In the evening, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis will make remarks during a dinner banquet. Then on Saturday, biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy is participating in a VIP reception ahead of his lunch banquet – the same time slot Trump had on Friday.

 

Trump said Newsom has become a top surrogate for Biden because he doesn't think the president will 'make it' to the 2024 general election. 'Gavin has become Crooked Joe Biden's top surrogate because he doesn't think Biden is going to make it – that's why he's doing it. He doesn't think he's going to make it, and it won't be him so easily. He's going to have a big fight. However, because there will be a lot of Democrats competing it's going to be very interesting'

 

DeSantis campaign aides told DailyMail.com that they have heard complaints from Trump's team that the Florida governor got the better time slot at the convention on Friday.

Ahead of the remarks, Trump made a show of arriving in southern California as his Trump Force One airplane did a flyover of the Pacific Airshow in Huntington Beach before landing.

Bystanders on the beach cheered for the former president as the plane flew by.

During the March 5 state primary, any candidate who collects more than 50 percent of the votes will win all delegates up for grabs – instead of the previous distribution where candidates could win three delegates in each congressional district in California.

In the past, multiple candidates would walk away from the California primary with at least a few delegates under the belts. And now, if that 50 percent threshold is met, Trump will likely walk away with all of them.

Trump spent his time on stage Friday afternoon tearing into a series of liberal lawmakers in the Golden State how he claims their leadership has ruined California.

'The far-left communists in Sacramento, San Francisco and LA - cities which are absolutely being destroyed rapidly on a daily basis – have given you sanctuary cities, wide-open borders, mass homeless encampments, out-of-control taxes, soaring income inequality like no one's ever seen before, Marxist district attorneys, woke tech tyrants – they are woke – rolling blackouts, child sexual mutilation and roving bands of looters, criminals and thugs,' Trump listed.

He facetiously quipped: 'But other than that, I think they're doing a pretty good job.'

'Those things are all true. What a mess. How the hell do people vote for these people?' he questioned the GOP crowd, who mostly did not vote-in the Democrats in charge of the state.

'I am here to tell you that help is on its way,' Trump assured. 'We can't go on like this - we won't have a country left. The mission to help you liberate California from communist rule begins at noon on inauguration day 2025.'