FBI Reveals Who’s Behind Colonial Pipeline Attack; Georgia Bans ‘Defund the Police’ Efforts. The FBI says hacker group DarkSide is behind the cyberattack on Colonial Pipeline, fraudulent unemployment claims created thousands of identity theft victims last quarter, and the Health and Human Services secretary is reportedly raising concern over President Joe Biden’s increased cap on refugees entering the country.
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Antifa Assaults Small Child, Seattle Police During May Day Riot, Say Cops
Police in Seattle declared an Antifa May Day protest to be a riot after marchers reportedly assaulted cops and a small child. The rioters continued, marching into the streets committing crimes.
BREAKING: Mitt Romney Booed At Utah GOP Convention, Tells Crowd ‘You Can Boo All You Want’
Sen. Mitt Romney, the lone Republican Senator to vote to impeach President Donald Trump in both of the 45th President’s Senate impeachment trials, was just loudly booed at the Utah Republican Party convention at the Maverick Center in West Valley, Utah.
Romney was greeted by boos immediately after entering the stage. Apparently mistaking the boos for applause, Romney began by smiling and thanking the booing crowd profusely. He offered thanks and thumbs up to the crowd for over two minutes as the crowd continued to boo his presence.
“So what do you think about President Biden’s first 100 days,” Romney said, beginning his speech even as the crowd made it almost impossible to hear him through their boos. Romney eventually stopped speaking for several seconds before asking the crowd, “Aren’t you embarrassed?” At one point a Republican Party operative approached the podium and instructed the crowd to “show respect.”
“So yeah, I understand I have a few folks who don’t like me terribly much, and I’m sorry about that.” Soon after, the crowd began booing again. “You can boo all you want, I’ve been a Republican all my life.” The crowd later broke into thunderous applause when Romney left the stage.
Ben Winslow, a Utah based reporter, confirmed the booing with another video captured from a different angle. “Senator Romney is getting boo’d loudly at the Utah GOP convention,” wrote Winslow.
.@SenatorRomney is getting boo’d loudly at the @UtahGOP convention. @fox13 #utpol #utgop pic.twitter.com/4vMwVnh6YI
— Ben Winslow (@BenWinslow) May 1, 2021
Romney has repeatedly suffered public humiliation at the hands of Trump supporters due to his repeated verbal criticisms of the 45th President. After voting to confirm electoral votes from states with credible reports of widespread voter fraud, Romney was heckled on a crowded flight back to Utah.
Hacker Erases UNC Conservative Student Publication’s Website
A hacker breached the website of a conservative student publication at the University of North Carolina, erasing hundreds of articles and leaving a threatening message for the paper’s staff.
The Carolina Review’s website was left largely blank Wednesday night around 10:00 PM, save for a note the hacker left on the masthead that called editor in chief Bryson Piscitelli a “nazi scum fuck off.” The hack came just hours after one of the Review’s campus distribution boxes—installed last Sunday—was vandalized with the word “racist” in black Sharpie.
Piscitelli, a sophomore, told the Washington Free Beacon that the school’s liberal political culture has made his publication a target, leading him to believe a student is responsible for the hack.
“The sad truth is, this sort of thing is really not surprising to us,” Piscitelli said. “We all in the back of our minds have always expected this—it’s been a fear certainly, but a thing we’ve had to stoically embrace as people who are not willing to keep in ideological step with the leftwing orthodoxy of the university’s student body.”
Expressing conservative views on college campuses can in many cases leave students vulnerable to physical attacks and intimidation from their liberal peers. A conservative at Berkeley was punched in 2019 while recruiting students to join the Leadership Institute, a conservative activist group, and student government leaders have been pressured to resign for holding Christian beliefs and defending Israel.
Conservatives at UNC have also faced harassment for their beliefs. One UNC student assaulted a pro-life advocate at the university in 2019. Liberal students lambasted Fox News host Tucker Carlson when he spoke at UNC in 2018, calling him a neo-Nazi and white supremacist.
Founded in 1993, the Carolina Review is an independent student publication that expresses the university’s “conservative and libertarian voice.” Carolina Review managing editor Elliot Gualano said he often fears for the safety of his staff writers.
“I am less concerned for myself but more concerned about the people that work for us, our staff writers that make up the most of the publication. They have been attacked and ostracized by their peers for joining the journal,” Gualano told the Free Beacon. “I fear for their personal safety sometimes, for the horrible backlash these individuals get just for being a staff writer.”
BLM-Antifa Rioters Target Upscale Restaurant in Louisville, Kentucky – Heroic Patrons Refuse to Bow Down, Tell Mob ‘Bring It On, Let’s Go!’
BLM and/or Antifa goons targeted an upscale restaurant in Louisville restaurant in Louisville, Kentucky this evening.
The patrons were having none of it as they faced the mob and taunted them like, ‘Come on, Let’s go!”
Some tweets are coming out of Kentucky tonight indicating BLM and Antifa are in full force again. It’s spring so the rioters are gonna riot. Noticeably none were wearing Trump hats.
What was amazing was the patrons of the restaurant were having none of it with at least one saying to the goons something like, ‘Come On, Let’s Go’.
The group is walking on the sidewalk, past police. pic.twitter.com/26wLPQbAKl
— Hayes Gardner (@HayesGardner) May 2, 2021
Fortunately for the BLM/Antifa goons, they backed away and then walked right by the police. We are unaware of any arrests being made.
Assault On The Ballot Box – Lessons Learned In Pennsylvania
Democracy, done well, depends on fair, open, and honest elections. From roughly the time of the first election, people have sought ways to gain an advantage over their opponents, some within the rules and some not so much.
This nation has seen its share of election dishonesty but the 2020 General Election witnessed industrial-scale election fraud. Please spare me the nonsense that there was no fraud. There was and I will prove it.
In this article, I will demonstrate the fact that fraud occurred in Pennsylvania, here in Washington County, in fact, and how election officials at all levels violated the law in certifying election results. I will do this using their own numbers and their own source documents, documents anyone can obtain, examine and come to the same conclusions. I will then suggest some actions that must be taken to first mitigate this type of fraud and then eliminate a good part of it.
In Pennsylvania, a person must be a registered voter to vote. Whether a person votes by mail-in ballot or at a polling place, there are processes in place that are supposed to check that the person is registered and then record in a voter registry a notation against that person’s name the person voted and on what day.
How 202,391 votes in Pennsylvania cannot be attributed to a registered voter…
Using the same December 14 data for the entire state, 6,962,621 ballots were cast and the SURE system showed 6,760,230 registered voters had voted. This is a total of 202,391 votes that cannot be attributed to a registered voter. Where did these votes come from? Not from registered voters according to the state’s own data and documents.
Dave Ball (quoted from below)
It would seem a reasonable and straightforward assertion that, if an election is honestly conducted, only registered voters vote and when votes are tallied up, for every vote cast there should be an equal number of registered voters on the voter roll who voted. The law, in fact, requires this.
Iodine is Important but a New Study Shows Too Much Causes Problems
By Dr. Mercola
Iodine is a vitally important nutrient that is detected in every organ and tissue. Along with being essential for healthy thyroid function and efficient metabolism, there is increasing evidence that low iodine is related to numerous diseases, including cancer.
Worldwide, it’s thought that up to 40 percent of the population is at risk of iodine deficiency.
In the United States, health agencies tend to say most people are iodine “sufficient,” meaning they get enough of the nutrient from their diet, however this is controversial.
According to other sources, such as Dr. David Brownstein, who has been working with iodine for the last two decades, over 95 percent of the patients in his clinic are iodine deficient.
There are serious risks to taking too much iodine, however, which is why you need to be very cautious and get informed before opting for an iodine supplement.
Even Texas Has Communists
It’s May 1st, or May Day as it’s known.
May Day is commie day. A bunch of them gathered in a downtown park in the rain in Austin, Texas.
Not a lot of them, but more than there should be. They got very wet. Some of them tried to take over a public street and got arrested.
Here Is What Republican Voters Really Believe in. It’s a Shame the GOP Has No Idea
At least 74 million Americans voted for Donald Trump in the 2020 election. Everyone I know believes the number was actually much higher, but 74 million is the number the biased, “fake news” media counts as fact.
This is the base of the Republican Party. I know what these 74 million (and probably a few more million) voters believe in. How? Because I tested my beliefs at three major GOP events in the past month where I was the keynote speaker. And I got wild, enthusiastic standing ovations at all three.
What’s amazing is that the GOP leadership in Washington, D.C., and the Republican National Committee have no clue what their most loyal, passionate voters believe in.
I’m here to spread the gospel. I’m here to report that “the truth will set you free.” The people are desperate to hear the raw truth. Preach it. Let it rip. This is how you get standing ovations from tens of millions of Republicans, conservatives, patriots and capitalists. This is how you win elections.
When the media hear this, they will get sick to their stomachs. So will the D.C. swamp. And the deep state. All your work was for nothing. No one believes your lies and “fake news” anymore.
I began my speeches by saying: “Here is what I know. Here is what I believe. Here is raw truth. Let me know if you agree by your applause. Only applaud if you agree.”
I said, “No matter what the lying, ‘fake news’ media says, no matter what they try to stuff down our throats, I know President Donald J. Trump won the 2020 election.”
Dershowitz: FBI’s Raid of Giuliani ‘Unconstitutional’
The FBI’s recent raid on an apartment owned by Rudy Giuliani, a lawyer for former President Donald Trump, violated the Constitution, according to constitutional expert Alan Dershowitz.
“This was just a misuse of the search and seizure power. Initially, it was turned down; now it was approved, both by a judge and by the attorney general of the United States, so it wasn’t lawless action, but I believe that they acted inconsistently with both the spirit and the letter of the Constitution and that there should be remedies for it,” Dershowitz said on Newsmax on Saturday.
“It should be done through subpoena, and that is the constitutional route to getting evidence,” he added.
A search warrant being executed points to officials believing the subject would destroy evidence if the search was not carried out. But the lawyer knew that he was being investigated for months, so there’s no basis for a search unless a subpoena was obtained, Dershowitz argued.
“The 4th Amendment demands a subpoena in these situations, not a search warrant. What they did in this case was unconstitutional,” he said.
Bannon’s War Room | Saturday Edition Hour 1 | Recorded May 1, 2021 | Video: 48 Minutes 18 Seconds
Episode 915 – Who Are the Rubes? … NY Times Steps Up Vaccine Information Warfare Against Christians.
“The mere fact that Biden wears a mask constantly would lead people to think maybe these vaccines don’t work,” Kennedy said. “This isn’t political theater at this point, it’s self preservation.” Guests are: Cpt. Maureen Bannon, Brian Kennedy, Dustin Cournoyer.
Bannon’s War Room | Saturday Edition Hour 2 | Recorded May 1, 2021 | Video: 48 Minutes 35 Seconds
Episode 916 – Stinking to High Heaven … CCP Inside the CIA and Biden Abolishes ICE.
“Biden was in the photo finish for last place in the primaries up here,” Cournoyer said. “He left before lunchtime. He did not, I believe, get 50,000 votes above Trump.” Guests are: Cpt. Maureen Bannon, Dustin Cournoyer, Sam Faddis, Victor Avila.
Michael Collins, Apollo 11 Astronaut, Remembered By NASA | Video: 1 Minute 44 Seconds
Michael Collins was part of an extraordinary team of astronauts when most Americans were still looking forward filled with hope and optimism instead of looking back filled with hate and loathing. Michael Collins, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin were the first men to land on the moon, a monumental achievement in human history. He was born October 31, 1930 and passed away on April 28, 2021.
The Things We Don’t Know | “Buzz Aldrin Took Holy Communion on the Moon. NASA Kept it Quiet”
When Apollo 11‘s Eagle lunar module landed on the moon on July 20, 1969, astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin had to do something hard: Wait. They were scheduled to open the door of their lunar lander and step onto the unknown surface of a completely different world. But for now, their mission ordered them to take a pause before the big event.
And so Aldrin spent his time doing something unexpected, something no man had ever attempted before. Alone and overwhelmed by anticipation, he took part in the first Christian sacrament ever performed on the moon—a rite of Christian communion.
Aldrin’s lunar communion has since become shrouded in mystery and confusion, but the rite itself was relatively simple.The astronaut was also an elder at Webster Presbyterian Church, and before he headed into space in 1969, he got special permission to take bread and wine with him to space and give himself communion.
Men had already prayed in space, but Aldrin was about to go one step further—literally and figuratively. Part of his mission was not just to land on the moon, but to walk on it. To prepare, he took communion after the Eagle lunar module landed on the moon’s Sea of Tranquility during an hours-long downtime period designed to let the astronauts recover from their space flight and prepare for their moon walk.
How the Pentagon Started Taking U.F.O.s Seriously
On May 9, 2001, Steven M. Greer took the lectern at the National Press Club, in Washington, D.C., in pursuit of the truth about unidentified flying objects. Greer, an emergency-room physician in Virginia and an outspoken ufologist, believed that the government had long withheld from the American people its familiarity with alien visitations. He had founded the Disclosure Project in 1993 in an attempt to penetrate the sanctums of conspiracy. Greer’s reckoning that day featured some twenty speakers. He provided, in support of his claims, a four-hundred-and-ninety-two-page dossier called the “Disclosure Project Briefing Document.” For public officials too busy to absorb such a vast tract of suppressed knowledge, Greer had prepared a ninety-five-page “Executive Summary of the Disclosure Project Briefing Document.” After some throat-clearing, the “Executive Summary” began with “A Brief Summary,” which included a series of bullet points outlining what amounted to the greatest secret in human history.
Over several decades, according to Greer, untold numbers of alien craft had been observed in our planet’s airspace; they were able to reach extreme velocities with no visible means of lift or propulsion, and to perform stunning maneuvers at g-forces that would turn a human pilot to soup. Some of these extraterrestrial spaceships had been “downed, retrieved and studied since at least the 1940s and possibly as early as the 1930s.” Efforts to reverse engineer such extraordinary machines had led to “significant technological breakthroughs in energy generation.” These operations had mostly been classified as “cosmic top secret,” a tier of clearance “thirty-eight levels” above that typically granted to the Commander-in-Chief. Why, Greer asked, had such transformative technologies been hidden for so long? This was obvious. The “social, economic and geo-political order of the world” was at stake.
Why Is the Left Allowed to Be ‘Transphobic’ and Racist?
Source: Joshua Roberts/Pool via AP
Last week, I asked why there was no uproar from LGBTQ activists when Bruce “Caitlyn” Jenner was “misgendered” and mocked by the left after announcing that he would run for governor of California. (In reality, some of the mocking came from LGBTQ activists, who painted Jenner as a fame-hungry reality TV star.) And where was the uproar when Bill Maher questioned the “born that way” dogma, stating, “Wasn’t always sure about the man-woman thing, but low capital gains taxes — born that way.”
To be sure, there were some scattered voices of protest, but not a fraction of what would have happened had the mockery been pointed towards someone like Richard “Rachel” Levine, President Biden’s appointee as assistant secretary for Health and Human Services.
But all that pales in comparison to some of the attacks on Sen. Tim Scott after he responded forcefully to Biden’s address to Congress on Wednesday night.
As Mollie Hemingway tweeted in response to the Twitter-supported “Uncle Tim” tweet, “Twitter is choosing to trend a racist attack from the left on Sen. Tim Scott, the black Republican senator from South Carolina.”
Could Your Body Render Future COVID Vaccines Useless?
Get vaccinated. It’s the latest COVID-19 propaganda message appearing everywhere from TV commercials to social media feeds, and it’s being pushed by celebrities and government officials alike. Yet, a sizeable population of Americans aren’t ready to roll up their sleeve just yet.
A January 2021 poll found 31% were taking a “wait and see” approach to see how the vaccine — or more aptly, gene therapy — is working while 7% said they would get the COVID-19 vaccine only if it became required for work, school or other activities, and 13% said they would “definitely not get it.”1
A cautionary approach is warranted, as none of the COVID-19 vaccines currently on the market are actually licensed. They only have emergency use authorization — which, incidentally, also forbids them from being mandated, although this is being widely and conveniently ignored — as trials are still ongoing.
The fact is, there’s a lot that’s unknown about these products, including their ultimate effects on your immune response. Increasingly, scientists are asking whether a phenomenon known as original antigenic sin (OAS), or imprinting, may render next-generation COVID vaccines useless.2
What Is Original Antigenic Sin, or Imprinting?
The term “original antigenic sin” was first used by Thomas Francis in 1960, who determined that hemagglutination inhibition assay titers — which are used to determine the antibody response to a viral infection — were highest against strains of seasonal influenza to which different age cohorts had first been exposed.3
In other words, the first influenza virus that you’re exposed to affects the way your lifelong immunity to that virus plays out.4 Later infections with virus strains similar to the first one will boost your antibody response against the original strain, and it’s not only influenza that this applies to. Imprinting is also known to occur in children with multiple dengue virus infections, for instance.5
In some cases, imprinting can be beneficial, but it can also be problematic. One study found that birth-year cohorts that had a first influenza exposure to seasonal H3 subtype viruses were less susceptible to avian influenza H7N9 virus later in life, while those exposed to H1 or H2 subtype viruses in childhood were less susceptible to avian H5N1-bearing viruses when they were older.6
“Using data from all known human cases of these viruses, we show that an individual’s first IAV [influenza A virus] infection confers lifelong protection against severe disease from novel hemagglutinin (HA) subtypes in the same phylogenetic group,” the researchers explained.7 Imprinting has been suggested as one reason why flu vaccines are often ineffective.
Scott Hensley, an associate professor of microbiology at the University of Pennsylvania, explained to STAT News, “We’ve all been trained on different influenza viruses. If you vaccinate 100 people, guess what? They’re all going to respond differently. We think a large part of that is that we all have a different immunological imprint.”8 He referred to a flu vaccine from 2017, when experts suggested a new H1N1 strain should be added. STAT News reported:9
“The one they had been using seemed to work fine for most people. But it wasn’t working well for a slice of the population — adults between the ages of about 30 and late middle age.
Hensley and his lab discovered that the vaccine target was making people who had their first flu exposures between 1977 and 1985 create antibodies to a version of H1N1 that was circulating back then — their imprinting virus. The decades-old H1N1 strains were too different from the 2009 version for the vaccine to work well in these people.”
The same thing could be happening with COVID-19.
Imprinting Could Mean Next COVID-19 Vaccines Won’t Work
While imprinting can enhance your protection against future infections if you’re exposed to antigenically related strains, if you’re exposed to a distantly related strain, it may increase susceptibility to infection. According to researchers in The Journal of Immunology:10
“OAS-like responses were also problematic during the 2013–2014 influenza season, when H1N1 viruses acquired a mutation in an HA [hemagglutinin] epitope that was the primary target of the Ab [antibody] response mounted by middle-aged individuals.
The cohort generated a focused Ab response against this epitope during early life exposure to seasonal H1N1 viruses that circulated in the 1970s. As reported by the Hensley laboratory, this epitope was conserved in the original 2009 H1N1 pandemic strain.
However, the drifted H1N1 strain that emerged in 2013-2014 contained a mutation in this region of HA that resulted in poor Ab binding and subsequently unusually high mortality for middle-aged individuals.”
In the case of COVID-19, it’s possible that the immune system reaction triggered by the vaccine will act as the original imprint, leaving subsequent COVID-19 vaccines — updated to target emerging variants of SARS-CoV-2 — ineffective.11
Michael Worobey, a professor of evolutionary biology at the University of Arizona, who conducted research on imprinting with influenza,12 told STAT News, “I do think it’s something that we need to be thinking about. We might actually see lower efficacy five years from now, if people are still locked into recalling the response to the first [SARS-2] antigen that they saw.”13
The Time Has Come for Cannabis Equity
As cannabis legalization enters its newest phase with social equity dominating the conversation, Ohio State University’s Moritz College of Law hosted an advocate and regulator-packed panel to map out a path to Social Equity 2.0.
The Tri-State was well represented on the panel. Incoming New Jersey Cannabis Regulatory Commission chair Dianna Houenou spoke to how the issue had been embedded from the start in her new state agency. Minority Cannabis Business Association President Jason Ortiz spoke about the current effort in Connecticut to put equity front and center in the conversation.
The pair were joined by Illinois governor J. B. Pritzker’s senior advisor for cannabis control, Toi Hutchinson, and former Massachusetts Cannabis Commission member Shaleen Title. Both have championed the issue in their respective states over the years. Politico’s Natalie Fertig led the conversation.
Johnson & Johnson COVID vaccine returns next week and more Maryland doctors will offer vaccines
Maryland vaccination sites will again offer the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine after a pause so experts could reaffirm that it is safe to use, and the state will also make vaccines more generally available in doctors’ offices.
The Maryland Department of Health said Friday that it will resume allocation of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine to various sites next week, the first week since the U.S. Food and Drug Administration determined that a blood-clotting condition was extremely rare in women.
“The Johnson & Johnson vaccine is one of our most important tools in the ongoing fight to prevent hospitalizations and deaths associated with COVID-19,” Dr. Jinlene Chan, the state deputy secretary for public health services, said in a statement. “By resuming allocations of this safe and effective vaccine in Maryland, we continue to bolster our ability to stay ahead of new cases and emerging variants.”
The vaccine has been less widely used than others but is considered crucial to local and national vaccination efforts because it requires only one dose and doesn’t need to be stored in deep freezers. The Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna vaccines require two doses and must be kept ultra cold until used.
100 Days from America First to America Last: GM Joins Ford and Moves Automotive Plant to Mexico to Escape Biden Taxes
Joe Biden tells off workers at an automotive plant in Michigan in 2020.
In March, just two months after President Trump left office Ford announced plans to move a major manufacturing plant to Mexico.
America Last: Ford Announces Plans to Move Plant to Mexico 2 Months After Biden Enters Office
On Thursday, the day after Biden promised electric vehicles would be made in America, GM moved its $1 billion electric vehicle plant to Mexico.
Breitbart.com reported:
Less than one day after President Biden proclaimed American workers would build the electric vehicles necessary to bring us into the zero admissions future, General Motors said it plans to invest more than $1 billion in Mexico to produce electric vehicles.
The automaker said Thursday it would make a $1 billion investment in its Ramos Arizpe production facility. The plant will begin producing at least one electric vehicle beginning in 2023, the company said.
The company did not disclose which vehicles would be produced at the plant or where they would be sold. But the plant currently produces parts and vehicles, including the Chevrolet Equinox and Chevrolet Blazer, that are sold in the U.S. and globally.
It’s Been 6 Months Since CNN Gave Zoom Masturbator Jeffrey Toobin ‘Time Off’ To Deal With a ‘Personal Issue’
You’ve gotta hand it to Jeffrey Toobin. The CNN legal analyst was promptly fired by the New Yorker after masturbating on a Zoom call in October 2020 and traumatizing his colleagues for the rest of their lives. Toobin, however, managed to persuade CNN not to fire him over his public display of self-affection. The left-wing news network merely granted his request for “some time off while he deals with a personal issue.”
That was more than six months ago, which is a long time to be dealing with a personal issue, even one you’ve simply made up after getting caught masturbating on a Zoom call, or “tweaking the lede,” as they say in the news business. Reports suggest Toobin will “probably” return to CNN at some point, but the network’s top legal analyst was conspicuously absent during the coverage of Derek Chauvin’s murder trial.
CNN did not respond to a request for comment about Toobin’s situation. It remains unclear why the news network did not handle the situation the same way as the New Yorker, which launched an investigation and took appropriate action in an effort to foster “an environment where everyone feels respected and upholds our standards of conduct.”
A New York Times profile published in January confirmed that Toobin was still employed as CNN’s chief legal analyst and hinted at a possible return. CNN president Jeff Zucker is reportedly a big fan of Toobin but is leaving the network at the end of the year.
In the meantime, Toobin continues to lurk on Twitter, posting occasionally to mourn the death of someone he knew. Several weeks after the masturbation scandal, he claimed that his account had been “hacked,” which is what the disgraced former congressman Anthony Weiner (D., N.Y.) claimed after accidentally tweeting a photo of his crotch. Thankfully, no such photos of Toobin have surfaced.
Toobin popped out again in January and perhaps inadvertently telegraphed his impending return to the airwaves. “Many thanks. I’ll be back,” he wrote in a tweet that was promptly deleted.
DNC Panelist Calls For The Destruction Of Capitalism
In the DNC Caucus and Council Meeting Youth Council, a panelist called for the destruction of capitalism.
Let’s Call BLM What It Is – Marxist
The Department of Defense (DOD) is devoting significant time and resources to briefing its employees on the dangers of “extremism” and teaching them how to ‘inform on’ coworkers they regard as threats. The briefing slides, for the sessions that are underway, give multiple examples of groups that qualify as “extremist” and include symbols used by many of the groups. Prominent for its absence is any reference of any kind to Black Lives Matter (BLM). That organization apparently – in the eyes of the federal government – poses no threat whatsoever and neither membership in it or even the display of symbols associated with the organization are of any concern.
How is that possible?
After a year of digital hearings, Minnesota federal courts moving back to in-person operation
After a year of mostly virtual operation, Minnesota’s federal courts are moving back into the real world.
Criminal and civil trials will resume in the state’s U.S. District courtrooms beginning Monday, a sign that the COVID-19 pandemic’s grip on the justice system is loosening.
On March 13, 2020, Chief Judge John Tunheim issued an order suspending in-person trials, grand jury proceedings and attorney swearing-in ceremonies, an unprecedented move in Minnesota’s federal courts system, in response to early reports of infections in the state.
Tunheim has followed with several orders in the months since, at one point easing restrictions to allow for trials to return but keeping most court appearances to video apps like Zoom.
Ashli Babbitt; Chip Crunch; Inside 60 Minutes at CBS
Four months after the Capitol riots, one verdict is in… there was only one homicide that day: that of an unarmed protester Ashli Babbitt. But that police shooting has been shrouded in secrecy. Some say the officer’s use of deadly force was justified. Others say it was not. Prosecutors have announced they aren’t going to charge the U.S. Capitol Police lieutenant involved. But an attorney for Babbitt’s husband is planning to file a civil lawsuit. […]
COVID-19 surges in Oregon, sickening younger adults and forcing a return to restrictions
For months, Susannah Sbragia waited her turn for a COVID-19 vaccination while Oregon’s teachers, older adults and others with higher priority got theirs.
The 55-year-old city finance director was meticulous about wearing a mask and washing her hands during the pandemic. She worked at home and stayed fit with daily walks and YouTube dance lessons with her husband.
But a week before her appointment for an April 22 shot, she felt exhausted and began aching all over. A test confirmed COVID-19. She gasped for breath during an ambulance ride to Samaritan Lebanon Community Hospital, a 25-bed medical center in a onetime logging and lumber mill town 80 miles south of Portland.
Sbragia became one of hundreds of patients hospitalized in a COVID-19 surge that has struck Oregon, alarming officials, who have slammed the state’s opening measures into reverse. Doctors say that patients they’re seeing are younger, sicker and often without underlying medical conditions, suggesting that potent variants could be partly to blame.
EXCLUSIVE: FBI Raids Alaska Spa Seeking Pelosi’s Laptop | Podcast: 48 Minutes 53 Seconds
Raheem Kassam is joined by Paul and Marilyn Hueper after their home was raided by the FBI on Wednesday, April 28th. The FBI claimed they were looking for Pelosi’s laptop…
‘We Are Killing Our Own People’ Says BLM Supporter Accused of Murder
33-year-old Zimele ‘Prince’ Dube, 40-year-old Simon Emmons, and a 19-year-old who cannot be named for legal reasons are accused of murdering 35-year-old Ebrima ‘Brim’ Cham by stabbing him 11 times in his own home in Hounslow, West London, according to a Court News report.
Emmons and the 19-year-old are also accused of involvement in the killing of 53-year-old William ‘Blaise’ Algar and dismembering him after he accused the teen of being responsible for his cat going missing. Mr Algar’s arms and legs were buried at Hounslow Heath after being taken from the flat in a taxi, but his severed head and torso remained at the premises where they were found wrapped in a bedsheet by the authorities. . .
A Black Lives Matter support accused of a “ferocious and frenzied” knife murder has told a court that “we are killing our own people as well, so it’s sad.”
Louisville Police Can’t Replace Veteran Cops Who Quit After Department Embraced Leftist Policies
The Louisville, Kentucky, police union says that the department is currently in “dire straits” in terms of employment after 200 officers quit their positions in 2020 and 2021 amid leftist calls to defund the police.
Following the officer-involved shooting that led to the death of Breonna Taylor, nearly 190 police officers quit their jobs in 2020, reported Daily Wire. The Louisville police union says that they are now in “dire straits,” failing to replace the officers amid the department’s embrace of leftist policies.
The shooting incident resulted in protests as no officers were charged for Taylor’s death. In response, the city has placed a ban on “no-knock warrants,” which prevent officers from entering a residence without announcing themselves, even if they had obtained a warrant.
The Louisville Police Department is now having trouble finding replacement officers as anti-police leftists continue their calls to “Defund the Police” according to the police union. “Nearly 190 cops left the Louisville Metro Police Department (LMPD) in 2020 and 43 have stepped away from the Kentucky city’s agency so far in 2021, either choosing to retire or resign altogether, as law enforcement officials struggle to recruit new members to make up for a deficit in manpower,” reported Fox News. “I would say that we’re in dire straits,” said a union spokesperson.
Chinese money-laundering rings in Chicago, New York cleaning Mexican drug cartel cash
They’ve used complex schemes to disguise millions in drug proceeds, making them seem to be legitimate transactions, according to law enforcement sources and court files.
A Chinese money-launderer was about to pick up Mexican drug-cartel cash in Chicago, federal authorities say, when his plans suddenly changed.
They say the suspected launderer got a call from a man he thought was a Mexican money courier who told him they needed to change their meeting place because he’d spotted a cop.
“You Asian, I’m Mexican — not a good look,” the courier said in the 2017 phone call, court records show.
So they picked a different address to meet. They described their cars to each other. And when they met on the Southwest Side, they had a way to identify each other, authorities say: The money-launderer handed the courier a $1 bill. The men had agreed earlier that the serial number on the bill — G5915410C — would confirm the Chinese man’s identity. Authorities say that’s common in the world of drug-trafficking.
They say the courier then turned over a Menards shopping bag stuffed with nearly $200,000 in cash to Huazhi Han, who later was charged with money-laundering.
But the courier was no courier. He was an informant for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.
DEA agents arrested Han and say they found a gun in his van.
They also searched the Riverside home where he was living and seized about $1.2 million they found hidden in the ceiling there, according to court documents.
Han’s now awaiting trial on money-laundering charges in Chicago.
He was part of a network of Chinese nationals who were using complex financial schemes to launder Mexican cartel cash, federal authorities say. Such schemes have disguised tens of millions of dollars of drug proceeds into what are supposed to look like legitimate business transactions, according to law-enforcement sources and court documents.
It’s party time again! 6,000 clubbers in Liverpool return to dancefloor for pilot post-lockdown rave
It’s party time again! 6,000 clubbers in Liverpool return to dancefloor for Britain’s first post-lockdown rave (but doors open at 2pm and pre-drinks are replaced by Covid tests).
- Thousands of revellers are returning to the dancefloor at the UK’s first post-lockdown ‘nightclub’ rave today
- But there will be tent of scientists outside the venue monitoring their behaviour at the two-day mini festival
- Ravers had to take a lateral flow test 24 hours before the event and show negative result to release e-tickets
- The trial events are designed to advance the reopening roadmap’s plan to scrap social distancing on June 21
Matt Gaetz and Marjorie Taylor Greene sure to drive media insane with ‘America First’ tour. First stop, Sunshine State!
Embattled Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., is going on tour, and if that wasn’t enough on its own to drive the liberal media insane, he’s doing so with Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, the controversial freshman Republican from Georgia.
The dynamic conservative duo, perhaps the “most canceled” two people in Congress, are holding an America First Rally at The Villages, a mostly Republican retirement community in Florida.
Gaetz announced the tour in a radio ad for the May 7 event in Florida, according to Politico.[…]
Poll: Democrats Want Puerto Rico Statehood More Than Puerto Ricans
With current control in Congress and the White House, Democrats are considering attempting to add Washington, D.C. and Puerto Rico as states. The additions will likely give Democrats more power, which may explain why Democrats support Puerto Rico statehood more than Puerto Ricans.
A recent Economist/YouGov poll of 1,500 U.S. adults taken from April 25-27 found that a plurality of Americans (43%) support statehood for Puerto Rico, while 31% were opposed and about a quarter were undecided.
However, the approval for Puerto Rican statehood increased by 20 points among Democrats.
The poll found 63% of Democrats approved of statehood for Puerto Rico. Just 13% of Democrats were opposed, although another 24% remained undecided. Even if all undecided Democrats surveyed ended up opposing Puerto Rico statehood, support for Puerto Rico statehood would still be higher among U.S. Democrats than native Puerto Ricans.
April 30, 2021 | Nightly News Rebroadcast | Video: 52 Minutes 29 Seconds
Officials in Texas say the discovery of 90 people in a house there could be a human smuggling case, President Joe Biden says railroad company Amtrak could be in for a large 50th anniversary gift, and Andrew Giuliani tells NTD what he thinks about his father’s investigation.
One Of The Bravest, If Not THE Bravest Journalist In Today’s ‘Leftist’ Cancel Culture, Classical Liberal Glenn Greenwald Charged With Cybercrimes
| Brazilian federal prosecutors have charged the American journalist Glenn Greenwald for cybercrimes in a decision which has prompted outrage among press freedom activists – and celebration by allies of the far-right president Jair Bolsonaro.
The prosecutors said that Greenwald “helped, encouraged and guided” a group of hackers who obtained cellphone messages between leading figures in Brazil’s mammoth Car Wash anti-corruption investigation.
The leaks, subsequently published in several stories on the investigative site the Intercept Brazil, which Greenwald co-founded, appeared to show collusion between then judge Sérgio Moro and prosecutors and exacerbated questions of political bias of the investigations. Moro was subsequently named justice minister by Bolsonaro.
“It’s not just Glenn and his family’s safety which are threatened by this, but all journalists and freedom of speech in Brazil. This is an attempt to intimidate the press in general,” said Rogério Sottili, the executive director of the Vladimir Herzog Institute, an NGO that advocates for democracy, human rights and press freedom. | ~ The Guardian, “Brazilian prosecutors charge journalist Glenn Greenwald with cybercrimes” by Sam Cowie in São Paulo
With Trump Out Of Office, It’s Open Game On Those Who Fight For Freedom | “Brazil Charges Journalist Glenn Greenwald With Cyber Crimes” by New York Mag
| Journalist Glenn Greenwald, best known for publishing Edward Snowden’s leaked government documents, has been charged with cyber crimes by Brazilian authorities for his “role in the spreading of cellphone messages that have embarrassed prosecutors and tarnished the image of an anti-corruption task force,” the New York Times reported.
The Brazil-based American journalist, whose reporting exposed corruption in the upper ranks of the Brazilian government, is accused of being a part of a “criminal organization” that hacked private devices belonging to the officials. The Intercept Brazil, which Greenwald co-founded, published stories based on leaks under the heading of the “Secret Brazil Archive.” | ~ New York Mag
Greenwald Discusses Freedom Of The Press and How It Was Obama and The Democrats That Jailed Reporters and Threatened Sources, NOT President Donald Trump
“If you look at the last 8 years, there has been a very concerted war on not just sources and whistleblowers, also journalists, implemented not by Donald Trump but by the Obama Administration. More sources prosecuted under the 1917 Espionage Act than in all previous administrations combined.” ~ Glenn Greenwald
“Trump Wages War on the Press, but Was Obama Much Better to Reporters? (Guest Column)” in Variety | Trump Ended Up Using Speech |
As it turned out, the ‘war’ was actually a ‘war of words’. In one sense, Trump turned out to be the greatest proponent of Article 19, then our own American Press.
| Obama, who campaigned on a promise to protect government whistle-blowers, made greater use of the Espionage Act to prosecute leakers and menace journalists than all other presidents combined.
Obama’s Justice Department accessed the personal email of a Fox News reporter and surveilled the reporter’s parents and colleagues. They seized the home, work and mobile phone records of journalists at the Associated Press.
Risen, who fought the administration to protect his sources, got so deep in his own legal battle with Obama that he selected a reading list for prison before the government finally backed off.
White House officials subverted the press in a number of ways while touting themselves as the most transparent in history.
Obama routinely banned news photographers from official events. He went months between press conferences and used social media to circumvent reporters.
First lady Michelle Obama took policy trips overseas with no press on her airplane. The White House scrubbed public visitor logs of names it didn’t want in the news.
The Obama administration posted the worst record in history for fulfilling requests for public records under the Freedom of Information Act.
In a bleak episode of unintended irony, an open-government group gave Obama an award for transparency in an Oval Office ceremony closed to the press.
Trump may well end up being worse on press issues than Obama, and today’s White House reporters could be picking out their prison reading lists eventually.
But for now, those on duty there are guardedly hopeful. | ~ Paragraph 8 on, Variety
In 2020, It Was Reported That A “Record Number Of Journalists Jailed Worldwide” | Committee To Protect Journalists | But Not By President Trump
Again, while attacking President Trump’s own use of free speech, our friends on the ‘left’ again have to admit that President Trump never jailed any journalists.
| Within the United States, no journalists were jailed at the time of CPJ’s prison census, but an unprecedented 110 journalists were arrested or criminally chargedin 2020 and around 300 were assaulted, the majority by law enforcement, according to the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker. At least 12 still face criminal charges, some of which carry jail terms. Observers told CPJ that the polarized political climate, militarized law enforcement, and vitriol toward the media combined during a wave of protests to eradicate norms that once afforded journalists police protection. | ~ Paragraph 4, Committee To Protect Journalists
Even In Articles When The “Left” Tried To Convince Us That Trump Was An Enemy To Freedom, They Admit He Never Jailed One Journalist | Reuters
| While no journalists were in prison in the United States as of Dec. 1, 110 were arrested or charged in 2020, many while covering demonstrations against police violence, the CPJ said. | Paragraph 8 ~ Reuters
Obama’s War On Freedom Of The Press | Kevin Lamarque | Reuters
In 2014, Kevin Lamarque for Reuters reported:
| President Barack Obama came into office in 2009 promising a new era of unprecedented transparency in his administration. But when he leaves office, reporters may remember him for an effort that has largely turned out to be the opposite — and for being what one affected reporter has called the “greatest enemy to press freedom in a generation.”
At a time when journalists’ roles in covering different, critical conflict zones have been under the microscope, renewed attention has come to the case involving James Risen. He is the New York Times journalist who has been fighting efforts by two different Departments of Justice — under Presidents Obama and George W. Bush — to compel him to identify sources from a 2006 book that reveals a secret CIA plan to sabotage Iran’s budding nuclear program.
For the past five years, he has battled the Obama administration’s Justice Department, which in 2009 took a rather unprecedented step of renewing a subpoena scheduled to expire that year. From his case and others the Obama administration has pursued, Risen told The Times’ Maureen Dowd recently that Obama represented a fundamental obstacle for press freedom.
“It’s hypocritical,” Risen said. “A lot of people still think this is some kind of game or signal or spin. They don’t want to believe that Obama wants to crack down on the press and whistleblowers. But he does. He’s the greatest enemy to press freedom in a generation.” |
For the full text -> Why The Obama Administration Wants This Journalist In Jail