Published by an old curmudgeon who came to America in 1936 as a refugee from Nazi Germany and proudly served in the U.S. Army during World War II. He is a former law enforcement officer and a retired professor of criminal justice who, in 1970, founded the Texas Narcotic Officers Association. BarkGrowlBite refuses to be politically correct.
(Copyrighted articles are reproduced in accordance with the copyright laws of the U.S. Code, Title 17, Section 107.)
Venice's world-famous beach and boardwalk have been 'crippled' by a
HUGE 177% increase in robberies after booming homeless population in new
camp 'results in more shootings, arson even and pit bull attacks'
Venice Beach residents say they are terrified of going out
after dark due to increasing violence among the homeless community, who
have set up a permanent camp on the their famous boardwalk.
Violence is a
daily occurrence, and violent robberies are up 177% in the
neighborhood from last year, according to figures from the LAPD.
Hundreds of residents have signed an open letter to city and county
officials begging for them to help, saying their 'world famous beach and
boardwalk are crippled.
Around 15,000 'chronically homeless' people
live in LA County, and a further 50,000 cough-surf or drift in and out
of not having a home.
Los Angeles officials are trying to rehouse some
of the city's estimated 15,000 chronically homeless residents - many who
suffer mental health issues - in permanent shelters.
AUSTIN -- Texas
has become the latest Republican-dominated state to advance sweeping
new limits on voting, despite no evidence of any problems with last
year’s vote and a coalition of state and federal officials calling the
2020 presidential election the most secure in history.
The
GOP-led restrictions cleared the Texas House on Friday, starting with
the a key vote at 3 a.m. It followed hours of debate that started the
day before, and lawmakers are now likely to begin negotiating a final
version of the legislation that will need approval before heading to
Republican Gov. Greg Abbott, who signaled an eagerness to sign it.
“One step closer to my desk & making it TX law,” he tweeted Friday.
From
Florida to Georgia, Iowa and now Texas, Republican lawmakers have used
unsubstantiated claims by former President Donald Trump and his allies
to justify new voting restrictions. They argue the new limits, which
largely target mail voting, are needed to boost public confidence and
improve security. In some cases, the rules also create onerous
requirements and penalties for local election officials.
In
Texas, Democrats have virtually no path to stop the bill in the
GOP-controlled Legislature, but they warned of legal fights ahead.
“You
have your vote, you have your majority. But guess what? I look forward
to seeing you in federal court,” said Democratic state Rep. Trey
Martinez Fischer before a final procedural vote Friday afternoon that
sent the bill back to the Senate. He added that “history is on our
side.”
The vote in Texas came a day after Florida Gov. Rick DeSantis signed a
wide-ranging list of new voting restrictions into law. New voting
limits have also been signed into law in Georgia and Iowa. Elsewhere,
Republicans in Ohio and Michigan are also pressing ahead with overhauls
of various election procedures.
“We
are seeing the strong effect of President Trump’s big lie. We are
seeing the Republican Party go all-in on supporting him and his lies,”
said Sylvia Albert, voting and elections director for Common Cause,
which advocates for expanded voter access. “We are seeing them use this
opportunity to create deliberate barriers to voting for Black and brown
voters. It’s un-American.”
House
Democrats had dug in for a long fight starting Thursday, then struck an
agreement with Republicans that significantly watered down some of what
advocates called the most problematic aspects of the bill, which passed
81-64. The session ends May 31.
The
amendments lowered initially proposed enhanced criminal penalties,
allowed poll watchers to be removed if they breach the peace and
clarified that election judges and volunteers wouldn’t be held liable
for honest mistakes. Additionally, they instructed the state to develop
an online format for tracking early ballots and to send voter
registration applications to high schools.
Republican
state Rep. Briscoe Cain, who authored the House version of the voting
bill, said some of the changes were in response to recommendations made
by disability rights groups and the NAACP.
“We
don’t need to wait for bad things to happen to protect the security of
the election,” Cain said. “I don’t believe that this is voter
suppression; I believe it is voter enhancement.”
Other
restrictions in Cain’s bill would outlaw county officials from sending
mail-ballot request forms to all registered voters, efforts voting
officials in Harris County — where Cain is from — put in place last year
to expand ballot access when in-person gatherings were more hazardous
because of the coronavirus pandemic. Harris County, which includes
Houston, is a Democratic stronghold where 44 percent of the nearly 5
million residents are Latino and 20 percent are Black.
Voting
rights groups say poor and minority voters will bear the brunt of GOP
restrictions, and that Republicans are counting on the privilege of
their voters to overcome hurdles. Some Republicans across the country
have expressed concern the new rules could end up hurting GOP voters as well. Republican voters, particularly seniors, have long embraced mail voting
CLEWISTON, FLORIDA: The elementary school principal who was caught in
a video spanking her 6-year-old student with a wooden paddle won't be
facing any charges. Although there's been severe social media flak
against the principal for using corporal punishment on her ward,
investigators looking into the case concluded that no crime was
committed. The reason? The child's mother allegedly consented to the
corporal punishment.
Principal Melissa Carter, 37, is also no longer listed on the Hendry
Schools website, so it is unclear if she has been removed from the role.
The school district has refused to comment on the matter despite
attempts from multiple press outlets. Amid the intense backlash on
social media with people calling her out on alleged child abuse, the
child's mother is also hopeful of seeing Carter put to justice.
Why won't Melissa Carter be charged?
According to new legal documents obtained by TMZ,
state prosecutors found that Carter carried out the punishment at the
request of the child's mother. Both Carter and her clerk Cecilia Self
carried out the discipline after the mother, who had filmed the video
and initially raised concern, reportedly gave her consent.
Deputy Chief Assistant State Attorney Abraham R Thornburg explains,
"The evidence in this case appears clear that the child's mother
sanctioned and consented to the spanking of her daughter as discipline
for misbehavior." According to Thornburg, there were "significant
concerns" about the mother's credibility surrounding her statements that
she was confused or wasn't able to understand the process. He also
added that even if the mother was confused, there was "no reason to
believe" the principal was aware of any such confusion at the time of
the paddling. "A parent has the right to use corporal punishment to
discipline their children, and similarly has the right to consent that
others do so on their behalf," he added.
Girl's family fighting to get principal's license revoked
The family's attorney Brent Probinsky told TMZ of the decision: "The
state attorney reached the wrong conclusion here. It's frightening the
state attorney, who is in charge of prosecuting crimes in this
community, is not filing charges in what clearly is child abuse." The
girl's family meanwhile is hoping for justice and wish to see the
principal's license revoked. The child's mother is allegedly devasted
that Carter won't be facing criminal charges for using corporal
punishment, Probinsky told the outlet.
Corporal punishment is legal in Florida but banned in Hendry County
School District. The mother wants the department of education to look at
the situation properly and do what's right and revoke the principal's
license. The family has an ally within the Department of Children and
Family Services because they recommended Carter get banned from teaching
or even being around children. The six-year-old and her two other
siblings were also interviewed without the mother's knowledge about
alleged neglect at home. Since the Department of Education has concluded
their investigation, the family can now decide if they want to file a
civil lawsuit against Carter, the clerk and the school.
L.A. County inmate could face hate crime charges in caught-on-video assault on custody assistant
KTLA
May 7, 2021
Hate crime charges are pending against an inmate at the Los Angeles
County sheriff’s Inmate Reception Center after he assaulted a custody
assistant this week, officials said Friday.
Surveillance footage captured at the facility Wednesday shows
29-year-old Arnulfo Meza assaulting the 54-year-old Asian female
assistant after his hand was unchained from his waist when he asked to
use the restroom, the Sheriff’s Department said in a news release.
The assistant was handing him toilet paper when Meza struck her,
sending her crashing into medical carts and punching her again as she
laid on the floor, according to the Sheriff’s Department.
Meza then sat back down on the gurney and did not resist when sheriff’s personnel arrived to handcuff him to the gurney.
The woman suffered trauma to her face and head and was transported to
a local hospital to receive treatment. She is in stable condition,
deputies said.
Meza was transported to a high-security area and is facing hate crime
charges as the investigation continues, according to sheriff’s
officials.
Police are investigating the death of a Brooklyn 12-year-old, whose
family said he died after being attacked at school over a dollar in a
possible dare that turned deadly.
Emergency responders found Romy Vilsaint losing consciousness at his
Flatbush home Friday morning. The pre-teen was taken to Kings County
Hospital, where he died.
The NYPD is investigating if Vilsaint was attacked, and said his death was “suspicious.”
Relatives said the fifth-grader had been attacked twice in two days at PS 361.
“He got jumped by two kids on Wednesday. And he got hit in the head
on Thursday. There were two different attacks at school,” Romy’s cousin
Roodwiny Exantus told The Post at the family’s home Friday night.
After the second attack, Romy told a teacher that he’d been jumped,
and the attacker had been paid a dollar by a third student, his cousin
explained.
“He was like, ‘Uncle, did I tell you today I had a bad day at school?
A kid hit me in the back of the head, and I have a bad headache,’”
Exantus said, as Romy’s grief stricken aunt and father wailed in the
background.
“He didn’t look good this morning. He vomited. My aunt had to help
him in the shower. By 1 p.m. he looked bad, bad, bad,” the boy’s cousin
said.
Vilsaint moved from Haiti to Brooklyn in 2017 with his father, a
construction worker, and two of his sisters. His mother, and three other
sisters remain in the Carribean, the family said.
“We’re devastated. He was only 12 years old,” Exantus said.
“He was always predicting what was going to happen next. He was a great kid. He wanted to be an actor or a basketball player
Federal civil rights charges filed against ex-cops in George Floyd's death
By Erin Donaghue
CBS News
May 7, 2021
A federal grand jury in Minnesota has indicted Derek Chauvin, the fired Minneapolis officer convicted in the death of George Floyd, and three other ex-officers on civil rights charges.
The federal indictment accuses Chauvin, J. Alexander Kueng, Thomas Lane and Tou Thao, the three fired officers who are awaiting trial
on state charges of aiding and abetting in Floyd's death, of depriving
Floyd of his civil rights under color of law, meaning while acting in
their capacity as police officers.The Department of Justice announced the indictments in a press release but did not provide further comment Friday.
The
indictment accuses Chauvin of willfully depriving Floyd of the
Constitutional right to be protected from illegal search and seizure,
which includes the right to be free from unreasonable force by a police
officer. It says Chauvin did so by pinning Floyd to the ground with a
knee on his neck as he was handcuffed and unresisting, resulting in
Floyd's death.
A federal grand jury in Minnesota has indicted Derek Chauvin, the fired Minneapolis officer convicted in the death of George Floyd, and three other ex-officers on civil rights charges.
The federal indictment accuses Chauvin, J. Alexander Kueng, Thomas Lane and Tou Thao, the three fired officers who are awaiting trial
on state charges of aiding and abetting in Floyd's death, of depriving
Floyd of his civil rights under color of law, meaning while acting in
their capacity as police officers.The Department of Justice announced the indictments in a press release but did not provide further comment Friday.
The
indictment accuses Chauvin of willfully depriving Floyd of the
Constitutional right to be protected from illegal search and seizure,
which includes the right to be free from unreasonable force by a police
officer. It says Chauvin did so by pinning Floyd to the ground with a
knee on his neck as he was handcuffed and unresisting, resulting in
Floyd's death.
It accuses Tao and Kueng of depriving Floyd of the same rights by
failing to intervene, and it accuses all four officers of depriving
Floyd of liberty by not providing him medical attention. It says all
four "saw George Floyd lying on the ground in clear need of medical
care, and willfully failed to aid Floyd, thereby acting with deliberate
indifference to a substantial risk of harm to Floyd." Floyd died as a
result, the indictment says.
Chauvin is also charged with
deprivation of civil rights under color of law for an incident involving
a 14-year-old boy, whom Chauvin allegedly struck in the head with a
flashlight and pinned to the ground with a knee on his neck and back
during a September 2017 arrest. (The other three officers were not
involved in that case.)
The new charges come as Chauvin awaits
sentencing on his second-degree murder, third-degree murder and
second-degree manslaughter convictions in Floyd's death.
Chauvin already faces decades in prison on his state convictions in Floyd's death, though he could serve far less time.
It's not immediately clear when Chauvin and the three other ex-officers
would face a federal trial. Kueng, Lane and Thao are expected to be
tried jointly on the state charges in August.
Thao, Lane and Kueng
appeared via video Friday in a Minnesota federal court, where a
magistrate judge informed them of their rights. All told the judge they
would continue being represented by their private attorneys, who
appeared with them, and did not require a federal public defender. The
judge said the three would be released pending trial on a $25,000
unsecured bond. They were ordered to follow conditions including
attending court hearings and following all state laws or risk their bond
being revoked. All agreed to the conditions of their release.
Chauvin, who is in state custody as he awaits sentencing, did not make a court appearance Friday.
In
a statement, the Reverend Al Sharpton and the National Action Network
said the indictments show "we have a Justice Department that deals with
police criminality" and does not excuse it.
"For many years we have tried to get the federal government to make
it clear that these crimes are not only state crimes but violate civil
rights on a federal level when police engage in this kind of behavior,"
the statement said. "What we couldn't get them to do in the case of Eric
Garner, Michael Brown in Ferguson, and countless others, we are finally
seeing them do today and this is a significant development for those of
us who have been engaged in the struggle and police reform movement."
Ben
Crump, Antonio Romanucci and L. Chris Stewart, lawyers who represent
Floyd's family, said in a statement the indictment "reinforces the
strength and wisdom of the United States Constitution."
"The
Constitution claims to be committed to life, liberty and justice, and we
are seeing this realized in the justice George Floyd continues to
receive," the statement said. "This comes after hundreds of years of
American history in which Black Americans unfortunately did not receive
equal justice."
The additional indictment against Chauvin shows
the convicted officer had "a pattern and practice of behavior," the
statement said.
In court filings last year, state prosecutors
outlined chilling similarities between Chauvin's restraint of Floyd and
his handling of the 14-year-old, who required stitches.
A brief
description of the 2017 incident is contained in court documents filed
in September 2020 by state prosecutors as they sought to introduce
evidence of Chauvin's prior use of excessive force on the job. It was one of eight incidents that prosecutors argued showed
Chauvin's "knowledge; intent; common scene or plan; absence of a
justifiable mistake, accident, misunderstanding; and state of mind" at
the time of Floyd's death. Judge Peter Cahill later blocked those
efforts, barring the jury from hearing about them at Chauvin's trial.
The
September filing said Chauvin allegedly restrained a juvenile by using a
neck restraint on September 4, 2017, flipping the youth onto his
stomach and pinning him to the floor after he resisted arrest during a
domestic assault call. Prosecutors said at the time Chauvin "continued
to restrain the juvenile in this position beyond the point when such
force was needed."
But a few months later, in a December 2020 court filing, prosecutors
said they had based that account on Chauvin's own report of the
incident. Prosecutors wrote they had since viewed body camera video that
showed "a far more violent and forceful treatment of this child than
Chauvin describes in his report."
"The videos show Chauvin's use
of unreasonable force towards this child and complete disdain for his
well-being," reads the document filed by prosecutor Matthew Frank.
The
document says Chauvin responded with another officer to a home where a
woman had reported she was assaulted by her two minor children. After
obtaining a complaint form from the woman, Chauvin went to the bedroom
of the woman's 14-year-old son, who was laying on his floor looking at
his cellphone. The second officer told the boy to stand up because he
was under arrest, according to the document, but the boy responded that
his mother was drunk and had assaulted him.
Both officers
approached the boy, the document says, again ordering him to stand up.
The child said the officers could not touch him in his own house, and
both officers grabbed the boy, "a mere 33 seconds" after giving him the
initial command. As the boy was backed up against his bedroom wall,
according to the document, the second officer told the boy to get on his
stomach. When he did not, Chauvin hit the boy in the head with his
flashlight, "just eight seconds after first grabbing the child," the
document says.
"Two seconds later, Chauvin grabbed the child's
throat and hit him again in the head with his flashlight," the document
says. "The child cried out that they were hurting him, and to stop, and
called out 'mom.'"
Chauvin then applied a neck restraint on the
boy, causing him to lose consciousness and fall to the ground. Chauvin
and the second officer placed the boy in a prone position and handcuffed
him behind his back while the mother pleaded with them not to kill the
boy and told her son to stop resisting, the document said.
Chauvin
placed his knee on the child's upper back and neck at some point after
he was on the ground, though the court documents don't specify exactly
when. After about a minute, the boy began repeatedly telling officers
that he couldn't breathe. The mother several times asked Chauvin to take
his knee off of her son, saying the boy couldn't breathe and was
already in handcuffs. But Chauvin didn't move, according to the
documents, at one point replying that the boy could breathe and calling
him a "big guy." The officers continued restraining the boy and didn't
provide him medical assistance even after the boy was bleeding from his
ear and told the officers he was in pain. After about seven minutes, the
child asked to be placed on his back because his neck really hurt, and
started crying. Chauvin asked if he would be "flopping around at all,"
to which the boy replied no, and Chauvin said "better not" while
maintaining the restraint.
Chauvin didn't ease up his restraint until several minutes after the
arrival of a paramedic, who assessed the boy's ear and said he would
need stitches. The boy confirmed that his ear was where Chauvin struck
him with the flashlight. Chauvin told the boy he was under arrest for
domestic assault and obstruction with force, telling him, "you were told
you were under arrest and then this whole show in here. You don't get
to do that."
Chauvin restrained the boy for a total of 17 minutes,
according to the documents, after which he and the officer helped the
child roll on one side and walked him to an ambulance.
In the
filing, prosecutors cited similarities between Chauvin's use of force on
the child and on George Floyd, such as rapidly escalating his use of
force over a "relatively minor offense."
"Just like with Floyd,
when the child was slow to comply with Chauvin and [the second
officer's] instructions, Chauvin grabbed the child by the throat, forced
him to the ground in the prone position, and placed his knee on the
child's neck with so much force that the child began to cry out in pain
and tell Chauvin he could not breathe," the prosecutors stated in the
document. "And just like with Floyd, Chauvin ignored those pleas and
refused to provide medical assistance. Instead, Chauvin held the child
down with his knee on the child's neck and back for nearly 17 minutes."
In
a statement, the Justice Department said the federal charges are
"separate from and in addition to" the charges Chauvin and the other
ex-officers face under state law. They allege violations of the
Constitution, not of Minnesota criminal code. The federal charges are
criminal offenses and are separate from a pattern and practice investigation
into the Minneapolis Police Department, a civil probe that will be
handled by a different team of Civil Rights Division and U.S. Attorney's
Office staff.
Members of the Hoolies gang allegedly murdered a total of four
victims and left nine more wounded while unleashing mayhem across
Bedford-Stuyvesant amid a deadly turf war with the rival 900 gang.
Seven people — the majority of the 13 shot — were innocent bystanders
caught up in the violence that the remorseless Hoolies allegedly
perpetrated — and later celebrated in posts on Facebook and Instagram,
as well as in music videos uploaded to YouTube.
Following are the 15 shootings outlined in the 63-count indictment pending against the defendants:
May 15, 2018
Jerry “Double O” Washington, allegedly shot a 900 member multiple
times in the back around 10 a.m. near in a courtyard of the Marcy
Houses, near 626 Park Ave. The victim survived.
Dec. 4, 2018
Shortly after the slaying of Hoolies leader Jahlil “Jackboy” Grant,
21, and the wounding of Akhil “Beans” Artis, 24 — allegedly by a 900
member and an accomplice — various Hoolies members met in a Roosevelt
Houses apartment to allegedly plot a series of revenge shootings. The
first took place at 7:22 p.m at the intersection of Ralph Avenue and
Bainbridge Street, where Rasheen Parnell, 27 — known as both “Hoolie
Sco” and “Baby Rah” — allegedly shot an innocent bystander four times in
the torso, left leg and groin, leaving the 23-year-old man paralyzed.
Dec. 4, 2018
A second retaliatory shooting took place around 10:17 p.m., when
Travis Scott, 33 — known as “Loso” and “Trav” — allegedly opened fire
at Tyree Walker, 35, as he walked toward his home at 997 Myrtle Ave.
Walker — who authorities say was not a 900 member — was hit multiple
times in the torso and died.
Dec. 5, 2018
A third shooting tied to Grant’s slaying took place at around 12:40
a.m., when several Hoolies drove to the Kingsborough Houses and fired
multiple shots from a 9-mm. pistol near Ralph Avenue and Dean Street,
hitting an innocent bystander in the chest. The 43-year-old victim
survived.
March 8, 2019
Several Hollies walked into Hoolie territory, where Michael “Doogie”
Parnell, 19, allegedly opened fire at a group of 900 members standing in
front of the apartment building at 260 Herkimer St. around 6 p.m.
March 23, 2019
Dominick Scott, 28 — known as “Chino” and “Domo” — allegedly
followed a man into 65 Tomkins Ave., part of the Tompkins Houses, around
5:40 a.m. and asked if he was “900.” Scott then allegedly shot the man
in his arm, pistol-whipped him and stole his cellphone. The victim was
not a gang rival.
March 3, 2020
Jayquan Lane, 28 — known as “Bo” and “Boshaun” — and Dashawn Austin,
25 — known as “Capo,” “Doo Doo” and “Hot Wheels” — drove to the Kinanm
Lounge, 856 Atlantic Ave., around 12:20 a.m. after Lane got a text
message saying that a member of the rival “Pop Out Boys” gang was there.
At about 3:10 a.m., Lane and Austin allegedly followed POB member
Janile Whitted to the nearby Amour Cabaret, 566 Nostrand Ave., where
Austin made his way through the crowd and allegedly fired several shots
into Whitted’s chest, killing him.
March 9, 2020
Several Hoolies traveled in a white Mercedez-Benz to the Raymond Bush
Playground at 457 Madison St., where a memorial was being held for
Whitted. Once there, they got out and opened fire at the mourners with a
9-mm. pistol.
April 4, 2020
Unique “Trilla” Newell, 21, leaned out the window of a white
Mercedes-Benz driven by Jonathan Arroyo, 29 — known as “Junito” and
“Jayo” — and opened fire at a person riding a scooter across from 231
Throop Ave., part of the Sumner Houses, around 6:11 p.m. The intended
target was shot in the chest but survived.
June 24, 2020
Artis — since recovered from his 2018 shooting — allegedly repeatedly
fired a pistol at a black sedan that had driven past him near 69
Stuyvesant Ave., in Hoolie territory, around 9:50 p.m.
June 25, 2020
A Hoolies member identified only as “RM” drove a Chrysler Pacifica
alongside a teal-colored sedan near the brownstone at 579 Monroe St.
around 5:03 p.m., at which point someone inside the Pacifica fired a
pistol toward the sedan and a group of people nearby.
July 12, 2020
Davell Gardner
A three-car caravan of a Mercedes-Benz, an Audi and a Volkswagen
Jetta lined up in front of the apartment building at 365 Pulaski St.,
where cops spotted the activity and activated the lights on a patrol car
around 11:15 p.m. The Jetta sped off, luring away the cops, after which
the Mercedes and the Audi turned onto Madison Street, near a park where
a cookout was underway. The two cars circled the block and returned
moments later, when Austin and a second, unidentified shooter allegedly
got out of Audi and opened fire at a group of people attending the
cookout. Four innocent bystanders were hit, including 1-year-old Davell
Gardner, who later died. The three others survived.
Aug. 8, 2020
Divine Moore, 25 — who’s known as “Eaz” and “Squeak” — allegedly used
a .40-caliber pistol to shoot into a dark-colored sedan owned by a 900
member that was traveling east past 365 Pulaski St. around 5:12 p.m.
Aug. 15, 2020
Brandon “Lee Loc” Lee, 25, allegedly fired a 9mm pistol at both a
dark-colored sedan and a white vehicle in front of 375 Pulaski St. at
around 11:49 p.m.
Sept. 1, 2020
Lamore “La” Weems, 23, and Freedom Williams, 27, who’s known as
“Free” and “Free Lite,” went into a bodega at 147 Park Ave. around 10:20
p.m., after which 900 member Tavon Parker pulled up in a car and also
entered the bodega. Parker bought something to drink, then went back to
his car. Weems allegedly handed Williams a loaded, 9-mm. pistol and told
him, “Do what you do” after Williams said Parker was an “Opp.” Williams
then allegedly went outside and fired three shots into the driver’s
side of Parker’s car, hitting Parker in the head. He died three days
later.
Note: Responding to 'JOHN KERRY AND JOE BIDEN HAVE PROVEN TO BE PRO-IRANIAN' (5-4-21), an Anon commented:
.....if you read the Michael Scheuer book, “through our enemies eyes” and
still consider Israel an ally, I will donate 10,000 to any pro Zionist
organization of your choice.
(Scroll down to the May 4th post to read Anon's complete comment.)
I must confess that I can't remember hearing of Michael Scheuer before. I browsed the internet for information on Scheuer and learned he is a former CIA agent who has become a QAnon follower. He is noted for his anti-Semitism and has called for "the end of all U.S. aid to Israel, the elimination of the Jewish state, and in its stead the creation of an Islamic Palestinian state." Scheuer claims that “Israel Firsters” started the Iraq War and that our relationship with Israel cost America “blood and lives.” He also claims that Israel “owns Congress.”
Here is an informative article on the QAnon crackpot:
New report reveals the strange story of an ex-CIA officer who hunted bin Laden turning to QAnon
By Alex Henderson
AlterNet
September 15, 2020
Michael Scheuer
During his 22 years in the Central Intelligence Agency, Michael F.
Scheuer became known for the time he spent tracking Al Qaeda leader
Osama bin Laden. But Scheuer left the CIA in 2004, and these days, he is
best known for his violent rhetoric and fondness for far-right
conspiracy theories. Journalist Spencer Ackerman wrote an in-depth
article chronicling the story for the Daily Beast this week.
Ackerman, who specializes in national security issues, describes
Scheuer's journey from CIA agent to conspiracy theorist — noting that
these days, the blogger's activities including praising the QAnon cult
and applauding vigilante Kyle Rittenhouse. And these days, according to
Ackerman, Scheuer isn't shy about calling for violence against fellow
U.S. citizens.
"The former senior CIA official once in charge of the hunt for Osama
bin Laden has spent the summer calling for the slaughter of his fellow
Americans," Ackerman explains. "Michael Scheuer calls Black Lives Matter
a 'terrorist organization' and a 'semi-human mob.' On his blog and his
podcast, Scheuer rages against a widespread, treasonous conspiracy
targeting not only President Trump, but the fundamental character of the
American republic. It deserves 'punishment…. we've not seen before in
this country.'"
Ackerman notes that Scheuer has exalted Rittenhouse — who is facing
murder charges for allegedly shooting two demonstrators at a Black Lives
Matter protest in Kenosha, Wisconsin — as a "young hero" and recently wrote,
"Rittenhouse's necessary, patriotic and constitutional actions will
power the formation of militias across the United States." Scheuer has
described George Floyd, whose brutal killing at the hands of Minneapolis
police officers on May 25 set off anti-racism protests around the
world, as "felonious scum."
"Scheuer's advocacy of violence follows a long trajectory," Ackerman
explains. "In December, he endorsed the increasingly violent QAnon
conspiracy movement, which the FBI has called a potential wellspring of domestic terrorism."
In July, Scheuer said that if a civil war occurred in the U.S., the
"only thing" he "would be upset about" is "that not enough Democrats
would get killed."
"Counterterrorism experts have long since written Scheuer off as a
crank," Ackerman observes. "Yet Scheuer's advocacy of political violence
looks disturbingly like a harbinger. Trump's one-time consigliere,
Roger Stone, urged Trump to declare martial law and jail his critics if
he loses the November election."
Glenn Carle, a retired CIA operations officer who knew Scheuer's
co-workers, told the Beast, "He's always been an extremist. That's a
psychological characteristic, not a political attribute of his. Clearly
and without exception, he's derogatory to the point of being grotesque
in his unfairness toward any political figure who shows any temperance."
Carle also said of Scheuer, "In times of stress, unconsciously, we're
tribal and visceral. This is happening in American society in a larger
sense, and it's what's going on with Scheuer."
NOTE Since I didn't waste my time reading the crackpot's book, I'm letting Anon off the hook. He doesn't have to donate 10,000 to a Zionist organization.
EXCLUSIVE: 'Your doggy chain necklace is waiting for you.' Flirty
messages from Hunter Biden's Chinese-American secretary, 29, who worked
for him when he partnered with the 'spy chief of China' are revealed
By Josh Boswell
Daily Mail
May 7, 2021
JiaQi Bao offered to do anything and everything to make Hunter happy
Hunter Biden's
emails reveal his close relationship with the Chinese-American
secretary who worked for him when he went into business with the man he
called the 'spy chief of China.'
The mysterious young assistant wrote the president's son flirty messages, sent him opposition research for Joe's White House
run and encouraged him to draw funds from the company's accounts when
the joint venture collapsed and even ended up with Hunter's military dog
tags.
In 2017 Hunter went into business with Patrick Ho, secretary general of Chinese oil giant CEFC.
Hunter described Ho in a call recording on
his abandoned laptop as the 'spy chief of China', and the Chinese
businessman was later surveilled by US law enforcement as a foreign
intelligence threat before he was convicted of bribery in 2018.
After
launching his multi-million-dollar joint venture with CEFC, Hunter was
assigned a 29-year-old Chinese-American assistant, JiaQi Bao, who
quickly struck up a close and intriguing relationship with her Biden
boss.
At first, emails show the New
York-based Bao diligently scheduled flights, hotels and even doctor's
appointments for the president's son.
But
mysteriously, the young assistant also sent him opposition research to
help Joe Biden's 2020 election bid, urged him to take cash from the
joint venture's accounts as the business collapsed and wrote flirty and
personal messages and even ended up with Hunter's military dog tags in
her New York apartment – the same tags he can be seen wearing in
home-made porn videos he recorded on his laptop.
While
Hunter had photos of Bao on his laptop, seen here, DailyMail.com did
not find any explicit photos or videos of the assistant.
A Senate probe highlighted links between
Hunter's Chinese backers and the country's spy machine, and reported
that his dealings with the Chinese 'raise criminal financial,
counterintelligence and extortion concerns'.
But it is still unclear whether Bao was
aware of Hunter's partner's alleged links to the intelligence services
at the time – as the New York-based clerical worker has not responded to
multiple requests for comment.
Hunter
and Joe Biden's brother Jim partnered with CEFC in 2017, in a deal that
was meant to generate billions of dollars and create a string of oil and
gas projects in the Middle East and Europe.
But
the joint venture collapsed the following year when CEFC's secretary
general Patrick Ho was arrested and later convicted of bribery in a US
federal prosecution.
Ho was suspected
of working with the Chinese intelligence services, and had been
monitored by federal law enforcement under the Foreign Intelligence
Surveillance Act, court documents revealed.
The
Senate homeland security and finance committees issued a joint report
in September 2020 scrutinizing Hunter's business deal with CEFC, noting
the company's deep ties to the Chinese government and concluding that
the millions of dollars transferred from the firm to Hunter and his
uncle 'raise criminal financial, counterintelligence and extortion
concerns.'
In November, then finance
committee chair Senator Chuck Grassley wrote to the Department of
Justice, demanding an investigation into Hunter's business dealings with
his corrupt foreign billionaire backers.
The
president's son admitted in December last year that he is currently the
subject of an FBI investigation, reportedly for tax crimes, though it
has been reported that investigators are also scrutinizing his foreign
dealings.
Hunter himself seems to have
believed his business partner's ties to Chinese intelligence agencies –
telling a friend in an audio recording on his laptop that Ho was the
'spy chief of China'.
Patrick Ho
After partnering with Chinese oil giant
CEFC in the multi-million-dollar deal, Bao was appointed as his
secretary and assistant, acting as a go-between for his Chinese business
partners, translating documents and performing clerical work for Hunter
in the joint venture.
According to
Bao's LinkedIn page, she has worked as an analyst and assistant in
finance and private equity in Hong Kong, Shanghai, Beijing and New York
since 2011.
Her Chinese-American family
are based in Arizona, and she studied at the state's university before
taking a masters at top Beijing university Tsinghua.
Her
LinkedIn page does not mention CEFC or the joint venture with the
Bidens, only listing 'Hedge Fund / Asset Management / Financial
Services' as her job from February 2016 to July 2019.
Their
correspondence in emails obtained by DailyMail.com from Hunter's
abandoned laptop were at first purely professional, with Bao booking
plane tickets and hotel rooms and translating reports on Hunter's oil
and gas ventures into Chinese for his CEFC business partners.
But
in November 2017, just weeks after Bao's first email to Hunter, Ho was
arrested in New York on charges of bribing the president of Chad for oil
rights.
After the arrest, Bao wrote Hunter an email asking for information about the case 'as a learning opportunity'.
'I
just don't get it, why the US has the legitimacy or the authority to
sue when whatever involved is not happening in the U. S. and no U. S.
company is involved?' she wrote.
'In
case if someone really should sue, it should be Hong Kong or the African
country government as it involves its citizen...how is this has
anything to do with the U. S.? Or something happened in the U. S. and
through a U. S. bank ? Or some international lawy that every country
follows?
'So the US government thought
he did, based on the U. S. government's standard, might be his dealing
with whatever various circle(s)/companies he close to, or a personal
matter, may or may not related to CEFC...why the US government is so
certain of the linkage?'
She ended the
message by lavishing compliments on the president's son, writing: 'Many
thanks for having been the most amazing and understanding boss, and the
most charismatic friend and coconspirator-in-mischief.'
By January 2018 Bao was becoming more
familiar in her emails to Hunter, telling him: 'One of my New Year's
Wishes is that you could drink less… I will do anything and everything
to make you happy so that alcoholic beverages' widely believed mythical
function as a stress reliever won't be an excuse for indulgence!
'You
have such a charismatic personality and I know you are a super nice
person that I'm naturally draw to, so you know, I have your best
interest at heart and I want to do something for you to show my
appreciation.'
Bao's messages became
strangely obsequious, even emailing Hunter to tell him not to pay her
for the whole month of February because she took four vacation days to
see her family.
'I'm taking too many days off on February,
I really should not waste your money like this,' the diligent assistant
wrote. 'Please do not pay me any salary for the month of February.'
In
one striking email Bao revealed that she had Hunter's military dog tags
and asked him to visit her New York apartment to pick them up.
Hunter
wears the tags in several naked selfies on his laptop, as well as in
home-made porn videos shot with prostitutes which he uploaded to his
Porn Hub account. Bao does not appear in any explicit pictures or videos
on the laptop.
'Your doggy chain
necklace: I thought I would simply bring it to you whenever I see you
during your last trip in NY, but you were too busy and that didn't
happen. Please let me know when and where I should bring it to you or
how would you like it to be delivered,' Bao wrote to Hunter in March
2018.
'I think the most convenient way
might be to simply pick it up whenever you are in NY next time. For the
meanwhile, it is in a safe place awaiting for you.'
As
Hunter's joint venture with the Chinese began to crumble that month
amid the arrests of its two leaders, Bao wrote one of her most
surprising emails encouraging him to raid the coffers of one of Hunter
and CEFC's joint corporate vehicles called Hudson West.
'I'm
a bit hesitated to say this to you, because I don't want you to
misunderstood me as a messed up bad girl. However, for your benefit, I
can't hold it back to myself,' Bao wrote in the March 26 email marked
'confidential'.
'Here is my two cents:
Whatever money from Hudson West, please take them, take as much as
possible, or figure out a way to spend them for your own benefit.
'It
doesn't matter whether the left-over operational fund for Hudson West
is labeled as 'personal goodwill / loan' or 'non-recourse' 'recourse'
'borrowing/drawing'...just take it and keep as much as possible.
'If
you do not take that money, the money would ended up become 'nobody's
money.' So it is better to use it for good. 'Nobody's money' means they
take away whatever you give up to no body knows where in the system it
will end up and whomever stranger might simply take the money for
granted.'
Delaware company filings show the
Biden-CEFC joint venture corporation, Hudson West III, was dissolved in
November 2018, eight months after Bao’s email recommending Hunter take
any remaining money in its accounts.
According to last year’s Senate committee report, payments to Hunter from the corporation continued through September 2018.
The
report also says that between January 2018 and October 2018, Hudson
West III wired Jim Biden’s consulting firm Lion Hall Group a total
$76,746.15 with the memo, ‘office expense and reimbursement.’
Wire
orders on the abandoned laptop show Hunter also transferred about $1.4
million of funds from his company Owasco to his uncle’s consulting firm
between August 14th 2017 and August 3rd 2018.
In an earlier email Bao also encouraged Hunter to add personal bills into his expenses reports for the joint venture.
'I
included your Yale Club Quarterly Contribution starting from last year
up to the latest one, not sure if the accounting department will let
this go, but let's try,' she wrote.
'Don't worry about our drinks, it's on me, no need to be included in this report.'
After
the joint venture had dissolved, Bao emailed Hunter with a
conspiratorial message encouraging him to help his father run for
president and listing talking points to combat criticism of Hunter's
dealings with the Chinese.
'Trump
advocate's stupid book with exaggeration and fabrication on your
business connection with Chinese or that NYTimes article mentioning a
retired Hong Kong official trying to reach you/Uncle Jim when need help
have no relevance whatsoever!' she wrote.
Bao listed negative stories about Trump
for Hunter to use, including allegations of selling citizenship to
corrupt Chinese officials, his alleged links to a Chinese-owned Florida
'prostitution parlor', and letting human rights violations slide in
negotiations with China.
Bao also
attacked Trump's trade war with China, slamming it as 'a complete
failure thus far, resulting in tremendous loss to Americans'.
Under
the heading 'Uncle Joe 2020', the former assistant encouraged Hunter to
tell his father to 'lead by example', 'bring back sensibility', and
emphasize his experience and age as a strength.
Bao's
suggestions appear to fit with China's foreign policy at the time. Joe
Biden was expected to have a less confrontational policy towards China,
and appeared to be preferred by the Chinese government over Trump.
Good
News For Accused Torture Killers Of Lancaster 10-Year-Old: Mom,
Boyfriend Won’t Face Death Penalty As DA Gascon Ignores Own Outraged
Prosecutor
LAPPL News Watch
May 7, 2021
The Los Angeles
County District Attorney’s Office has ignored its own prosecutor and
dropped its bid for the death penalty against a Lancaster woman and her
boyfriend who are charged with the horrifying murder and torture of the
woman’s 10-year-old son.
The alleged torture included whipping the boy
with a belt and a looped cord, pouring hot sauce on his face and mouth
and holding him by his feet, and dropping him on his head repeatedly
before he died, according to court papers.
A powder keg, courtesy of the Biden administration
By Caroline B. Glick
Israel Hayom
May 7, 2021
Biden and mentor
Since the Democrats took control of the White House and both Houses
of Congress a hundred days ago, the Middle East has become a powder keg.
But Israel's ruling class sees nothing.
In Afghanistan and Iraq, violent attacks against US forces are rising
steeply. From January through April, attacks on US forces increased
40%. President Joe Biden's announcement that the US will withdraw its
forces from the country by September 11, the 20th anniversary
of the jihadist attacks on the US worsened the situation by
communicating a message of profound American weakness and defeatism. The
Taliban, al-Qaida and Iran clearly believe they are now free to
humiliate and bleed the US as they take control of the country.
In Iraq, Iranian-controlled Shiite militias launched three missile
strikes against US bases in the past week. Hoping to avoid confrontation
with Iran as its emissaries appease it in Vienna, the Biden
administration is assiduously avoiding acknowledging that Iran is behind
the attacks, and so it guarantees that more attack will soon follow. As
in Afghanistan, Iran reads US behavior as an invitation to strike with
immunity.
In Syria, Iran's Syrian proxy President Bashar Assad and Iran's
Lebanese proxy Hezbollah continue to wage a war of extermination against
Syrians who oppose them. In southern Syria last weekend, after
opposition forces from the village of Am Batana, six kilometers (3.7
miles) from the border with Israel attacked a joint Syrian military and
Hezbollah base nearby, the military ordered the entire village to
evacuate by 2 p.m. last Saturday, or else. Most of the villagers
reportedly fled their homes.
While turning a blind eye to Syria, the Biden administration
continues to empower the Lebanese armed forces and government – both
wholly controlled by Iran through Hezbollah. Last month, the
administration transferred armored trucks valued at $14 million to the
Hezbollah-controlled Lebanese military and asked that Congress provide
financial assistance to the government. Hezbollah for its part has
launched a charm campaign on the public. Having caused the government to
go bankrupt and forced the people of a once prosperous land into
destitution, Hezbollah is now carrying out a well-publicized food drive,
handing out Iranian basic foodstuffs to starving Lebanese along with
Hezbollah membership cards.
Just months ago, hope abounded that Saudi Arabia would join the UAE,
Bahrain, Morocco and Sudan in the Abraham peace accords with Israel. But
the picture is now reversed. Recognizing the US has changed sides, the
Saudis no longer believe that with Israel they can contain Iran. So now
they are hoping to cut a deal with the ayatollahs.
Ties between Israel and the UAE are also showing signs of stress.
Last week, the UAE joined the anti-Israel cavalcade, releasing a
statement condemning Israel for quelling Arab violence against Jews in
Jerusalem. And this week reports emerged that Iranian Foreign Minister
Mohamed Javad Zarif paid a visit to the Emirates.
In Vienna Iran's Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Arachi told
journalists that the US team has agreed to remove economic sanctions
from Iranian oil sales, banks, maritime shipping, firms and officials.
Arachi said that the US has agreed to release $7 billion in frozen funds
and Britain has agreed to release an additional $400 million pounds in
return for four American and one British hostage being held in Iran. The
US also agreed to release four Iranians being held in US prisons. After
days of vague denials, the State Department confirmed major sanctions
relief is on the table.
While the Biden administration has yet to focus on the Palestinians,
its statements and appointments have empowered Fatah and Hamas to launch
a new campaign against Israel.
Following Palestinian Authority and Fatah Chairman Mahmoud Abbas's
cancellation of the Palestinian elections, Fatah returned to killing
Jews. For the first time in years, Fatah's Nablus office took credit for
Monday's terror attack in northern Samaria where one seminary student
was murdered and two more were critically wounded in a drive by shooting
as they stood at a bus stop.
Ahead of Israel's Jerusalem Day next week, Iran's Jerusalem Day this
week and the end of Ramadan, both Hamas and Fatah are focused on
Israel's capital. Although the focal point of Arab violence was
initially the Damascus Gate to the Old City, where Arab gangs beat Jews
in the street, it has now moved to Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood in
north-east Jerusalem.
After decades of court battles, and countless court orders requiring
Arab squatters to be removed from the Jewish owned homes in Sheikh
Jarrah, the Supreme Court is set to end the legal saga with a final
verdict May 10. Hamas leaders Khaled Mashaal and Ismail Haniyeh
announced this week that May 9 will be "a turning point for the war
against the occupation and the settlers."
Hamas's terror kingpin Mohammed Deif joined the threatening chorus as
well. In his first statement since 2014 Deif threatened, that if Israel
evicts the squatters, "The move will not go unanswered and the
occupation will pay a heavy price."
Thursday night the riots in Sheikh Jarrah began in earnest with Arab
mobs setting fire outside Jewish homes and assaulting Jewish residents
of the neighborhood. Earlier in the week, the Palestinians launched
their political warfare campaign to demonize Israel.
As the excellent Telegram page "Abu Ali Express," which tracks events
in the Arab world, reported the Palestinians put English subtitles on a
video of Israeli police arresting an Arab suspect in Sheikh Jarrah. In
it, the suspect says, "You are suffocating me," as the police restrain
him on the ground and handcuff him.
The purpose of the video is obvious – the Palestinians seek to draw a
direct line between the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis
and Israeli law enforcement in Jerusalem. And it is working.
Thursday the EU and the governments of most major EU states along
with the Biden State Department issued statements condemning Israel and
insisting that Israel's control over its unified capital along with
Judea and Samaria is "illegal." Whatever is coming next week will be the
first expression of a coordinated Palestinian-Western assault against
Israeli control over Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria since Biden entered
office.
The Palestinians understand two key truths. First, the only unified
foreign policy the EU has is delegitimization of Israel. And second, for
the Biden administration and Democrats as a whole, there is no
difference between foreign policy and domestic policy. The
administration is supportive of Iran and the Palestinians because Biden
and his advisors apply the same identity politics to their foreign
policy as they do to their domestic policy.
Identity politics hold that the US was born in sin and systemically
racist. To cleanse its soul, America must adopt a two-tier system of
governance in which members of recognized "victim" groups are given
extraordinary rights and members of recognized "oppressor" groups must
be punished. And just as America is morally infirm and must mend its
evil ways, so its allies –particularly Israel – must be similarly
punished and forced to transform itself.
Biden gave voice to this position in his speech before Congress this
week. There he presented a portrait of the US as an inherently racist
state. This racism, he claimed was preserved and enforced by the law
enforcement system which suffers from "systemic racism." Police reform
laws that he and his fellow Democrats intend to promulgate, he said,
will remedy the situation.
To understand what Biden was referring to we can look to New York
State, where the Democrat-controlled government passed a bail reform law
in 2019. The new law effectively gave tens of thousands of violent
criminals a get-out-of-jail-free card by making it extremely difficult
for judges to either remand criminal suspects to custody pending their
trial or impose bail as a condition for pre-trial release. The
consequence of the reform has been a massive increase in violent crimes
statewide.
This week, and not for the first time, New York's Jews were
victimized by their state's no-bail policy. For 11 days, a black
assailant terrorized the Jewish community of Riverdale in the Bronx.
Jordan Burnette vandalized four synagogues, some multiple times before
police arrested him. After one judge imposed $20,000 bail on Burnette,
the local prosecutor went to a more politically savvy judge who
cancelled her colleague's ruling and set him free.
Thanks to Democrat control over the White House and both houses of
Congress, soon the entire country will have the two-tiered justice
system now in place in New York, where favored groups are protected and
disfavored groups are left to fend for themselves.
The tyranny of the identity politics driven Democrats has brought
about a level of social and political polarization in America unseen
since the Civil War. It is not a stretch to say that today there are two
Americas and two American peoples living side by side in hostility and
fear. While it is impossible to foretell how things will develop, it is
also impossible to believe that a positive or peaceful outcome to this
explosive situation is likely.
This brings us to Israel. At this moment of profound and perilous
uncertainty, Israel's ruling class – particularly in the media and the
security establishment – is dangerously blind to what is happening. On
Tuesday, Avi Benayahu, a former IDF Spokesman and a fixture in the
media-security establishment, gave voice to the ruling class's myopia in
post on his Twitter account. Benayahu presented the current situation
in the US as utopian and gushed that Israel could enjoy the same lucky
fate if Likud and the rightist bloc are replaced by what the left has
euphemistically dubbed a "government of change." That is, a leftist
government joined by anti-Semitic Arab parties and opportunistic
formerly rightist parties.
Benayahu gushed, "You want to see what 'change' looks like? Look at
the US under Biden. Look and listen to the quiet, to the normalcy, to
the sanity and tranquility that have fallen on America. There's no fake
news, no racist statements, no attacks on the media and the judges and
there's great attention being paid to domestic affairs. Biden is working
for America's citizens. For everyone. That's what change looks like!"
Benayahu's position owes to two factors. First, like his fellow
leftists, Benayahu shares the Democrats' progressive mindset. Second,
Israel's ruling class gets its information on Israel's most important
ally from media organs like the New York Times and CNN.
Benayahu and his fellow elitists fail to recognize that these outlets
have long abandoned their role as news organizations and have
transformed themselves in to the propaganda arm of the Democrat Party.
The reality obscured by the Democrats' media echo chamber is that
Biden's domestic policies have launched American society into a downward
spiral driven by hatred and fear. His foreign politics have placed
Israel in the eye of a storm of epic proportions.
With its members now grasping the reins of power, Israel's ruling class must face the truth of the situation.
This
little scene played out recently in Escambia County, Florida. A
54-year old man went to the house of his baby-mama and their children.
He kicked in the door (this is all on a doorbell camera), went to the
kitchen and grabbed a knife, screaming all the time that he was going to
kill her, and started going thru the house room by room. She was
hiding in a back bedroom, with a gun. He found her. She shot him. He
died.
Don't you just love happy endings. The S. O. is, as one might expect, calling it justifiable homicide.
Prior
to this Rigby, Idaho was famous only for the being the location of the
invention of broadcast television. It is now also the location of an
unusual female mass shooting.
The
girl, a middle-school student, shot three people, one adult and two
students, before she was disarmed by a teacher. All her victims are
likely to survive. The girl has not yet been charged and the cops are
unaware of a motive, or if they are they are not talking about it.
The
DMV is proposing to cut out 25 of the 33 languages they currently
supply written tests for. If you read only Korean, Klingon or Afrikaans
you are screwed.
In
addition, the state is contemplating making it legal for bicycle
operators to blow thru stop signs. I don't see how anything bad could
ever happen there.
Mayor Bill de Blasio on Thursday insisted New York City’s subways are
safe — taking a dig at Gov. Andrew Cuomo for suggesting he wouldn’t let his kids ride and accusing his rival of denigrating the NYPD.
“Leaders are supposed to help people move forward and tell them when
something is actually working,” de Blasio said when asked to respond to
multiple rants by Cuomo this week about the abysmal conditions underground.
“As a real New Yorker, who lives in the city, has taken the subway
all my life, I wouldn’t hesitate at all to take the subway,” the mayor
said in response to Cuomo, who on Monday suggested he wouldn’t let his
own children ride the rails due to crime.
“My children take the subway all the time. If you said to one of my
kids, ‘Oh, you shouldn’t go on the subway, it’s not safe,’ they would
laugh you out of the room,” the mayor said Thursday.
“They would tell you you clearly couldn’t be a real New Yorker because they couldn’t think of life without taking the subway.”
He added: “Let’s get real. Let’s tell people it’s safe because it is safe, and it’s part of our recovery.”
De Blasio’s remarks come after Cuomo’s successive comments on the
issue on Monday and Wednesday. The governor accused the city of allowing
trains to deteriorate into a rolling homeless shelter and insisted many
New Yorkers won’t return to mass transit after the pandemic because
they are “afraid.”
Chief Kathleen O’Reilly, the NYPD’s top transit cop, previously accused MTA leaders of “fearmongering” by publicizing concerns about crime and harassment.
The subways saw felony crimes drop 12 percent from February to March, after de Blasio surged 644 new cops into the subways at the MTA’s behest.
But the crime rate remains significantly higher than before the COVID-19 pandemic. Several people were attacked in the system overnight Thursday, including an off-duty conductor stabbed with an ice pick.
“I think [Chief O’Reilly’s] frustration is very real, as a life-long
public safety professional, hearing the governor and hearing the
leadership of the MTA putting down the work of the men and women of the
NYPD who are actually getting the job done,” de Blasio said Thursday.
“We put more officers in the subway. It’s had a very positive effect.
The NYPD’s made clear that they’ll make adjustments whenever needed,”
he said.
“Let’s believe in our city, let’s believe in the NYPD, let’s believe
we can move forward. To me, that’s what leaders should be talking about —
how to move forward.”
Disabled white farmer sues Biden admin over ‘racist’ COVID relief plan
By Yaron Steinbuch
New York Post
May 6, 2021
A disabled Wisconsin dairy farmer is suing the Biden administration
over a COVID-19 loan forgiveness program – alleging it is racist because
whites aren’t eligible.
Adam Faust, a white resident of Chilton who has two prosthetic legs,
is among five Midwestern farmers who recently filed a lawsuit in Green
Bay that accuses the federal government of violating their
constitutional rights, WLUK reported.
“Were plaintiffs eligible for the loan forgiveness benefit, they
would have the opportunity to make additional investments in their
property, expand their farms, purchase equipment and supplies, and
otherwise support their families and local communities,” the lawsuit
states.
“Because plaintiffs are ineligible to even apply for the program
solely due to their race, they have been denied the equal protection of
the law and therefore suffered harm,” it says.
Faust, owner of Faust Farms, told the news outlet that the program is “out and out racist.”
“It was just out and out racist, and I really don’t think that there
should be racism allowed in the federal government at any level,” the
farmer griped.
“If somebody’s green, I think they should be allowed to participate,
based on their actual qualifications for the program, and not just
picking an arbitrary thing like race.”
The American Rescue Plan provides $4 billion to forgive loans for
socially disadvantaged farmers and ranchers, according to the lawsuit,
which alleges that “socially disadvantaged” are only those who are
black, American Indian, Hispanic, Alaskan native, Asian American or
Pacific Islander, WLUK reported.
“I don’t see where they’re gonna be impacted any different than anybody else,” said Faust, who was born with spina bifida.
“I’ve never seen any government program based solely on that. I mean,
if it would’ve been against any other race, everybody would’ve been
onboard and would’ve been complaining immediately,” he added.
Deputy counsel Daniel Lennington of the Wisconsin Institute for Law
& Liberty — which filed the suit on behalf of the farmers from
Wisconsin, Minnesota, South Dakota and Ohio — told the outlet: “If
you’re not white, you get the benefit. If you’re white, you do not get
the benefit.”
During a Fox News appearance
Wednesday night, Faust said that “we can’t have a government picking
and choosing who they are going to give any program to based solely on
the color of their skin.”
“Everything that we have all learned growing up is racism is wrong,
and now, all of a sudden, the federal government seems to think that
racism is acceptable in certain ways. And it should never be
acceptable,” he claimed.
Attorney Rick Esenberg, who appeared with Faust, called the situation “really disturbing.”
“We are all for laws that prohibit discrimination, but those laws have
to apply across the board, to people like Adam, as well as to black and
Hispanic farmers,” Esenberg said.
“This really disturbing move we
have about equity instead of equality of opportunity will not end well.
It will lead … to a war against all, where we all are looking for our
racial spoils and that is simply not what America is about.”
The US Department of Justice did not respond to a request for comment by WLUK.
The
US Department of Agriculture said in a statement to the outlet that it
was reviewing the lawsuit with the DOJ, but that it plans to continue to
offer loan forgiveness to “socially disadvantaged” farmers.
Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick: Statement on the Passage of Senate Bill 2202
Office of the Lieutenant Governor of Texas
April 28, 2021
AUSTIN – Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick issued this statement today following
the passage of Senate Bill 2202, by Sen. Brandon Creighton, R-Conroe:
“Texans reject critical race theory and other so-called ‘woke’
philosophies that maintain that one race or sex is inherently superior
to another race or sex or that any individual, by virtue of his or her
race or sex, is inherently racist, sexist or oppressive. These divisive
concepts have been inserted into curriculums around the state, but they
have no place in Texas schools. SB 2202 will ensure that they cannot be
taught.
“When Texan parents send their children to school, they expect their
students to learn to think critically without being forced to consume
misinformation about our country’s founding and the biases of advocacy
groups that seek to belittle our democracy and divide us. I congratulate
Sen. Creighton and the Texas Senate for passing this critical
legislation for our children and our schools.”
There
is this nice little bar, the Old Corner Saloon, in Clements, San
Joaquin County, California. The state ABC (Alcoholic Beverage Control)
was investigating a complaint that the bar was selling counterfeit
vaccination cards. They were.
The
owner, who is an ex-con, was arrested for weapons possession. One bar
employee was arrested. The cops found blank cards and a laminating
machine. The interesting thing is that purchasing the cards is
apparently not illegal but selling them is.
Charges
were filed for falsifying medical records and forging government
documents. ABC may also take action against the bar's license.
