by Bob Walsh
I confess I had never heard of Artie Missie Walker until the Stockton RECORD ran her CV and obit on the front page yesterday. She was the first black female Sheriff's Deputy hired in San Joaquin County.
She was one of 23 children born to a school teacher and railroad worker in Stallo, Mississippi in 1930. She graduated from high school in 1948 and moved to Stockton to live with her sister, continue her education and find work. She continued her schooling, among other places at Humphrey's Business College but finding work was difficult for a black woman, even a bright and well educated black woman, in the 1950s.
At some point she took the civil service examination for Deputy Sheriff and was one of 175 candidates. Only 75 passed the written exam and were allowed to continue. She was one of them. She was the only female among 13 candidates who passed the entire hiring process and was hired as a Sheriff's Deputy in 1957 at age 27.
During her career she worked the jail, Youth Services, patrol, investigations and court services. She died a couple of weeks ago at age 89.
RIP sister. I suspect being first was not always a lot of laughs, but it is important. Someone has to lead so that others can follow along.
EDITOR'S NOTE: One of 23 children born to a school teacher - when did that poor woman have any time to teach?
Monday, September 30, 2019
GUN COMPANY SUMMARY
by Bob Walsh
I did not author this. I "borrowed" it from a gun forum I hang out on but I thought it was amusing so here it is. Enjoy.
Beretta: You only hate us because we won the XM9 trials.
Browning: Have you seen our new T-shirts, dog bowls, hats, hoodies and bumper stickers? Oh, we make guns too.
Colt: The more you ask for it the less likely we are to build it.
FN: We are like H&K but we are Belgian.
Glock: So perfect we have updated it five times.
H&K: We are not against civilians owning guns. We are just against poor civilians owning guns.
Hi Point: Why spend $500 on a handgun when you can spend $200 for a gun and have $300 left over for beer.
Mossberg: You didn't ask for a M4 stock on a lever action rifle or a chainsaw grip shotgun, but we built it anyway.
Kel-Tec: Our level of innovation exceeds our level of production.
Remington: We have more lemons than Minute Maid.
Ruger: We bring you the innovation of others at an affordable price.
Sig Sauer: German and Swiss heritage with Indian quality control.
S&W: We have the revolver market locked up.
Taurus: We heard you like to gamble.
Winchester: An American legend....built in Japan.
I did not author this. I "borrowed" it from a gun forum I hang out on but I thought it was amusing so here it is. Enjoy.
Beretta: You only hate us because we won the XM9 trials.
Browning: Have you seen our new T-shirts, dog bowls, hats, hoodies and bumper stickers? Oh, we make guns too.
Colt: The more you ask for it the less likely we are to build it.
FN: We are like H&K but we are Belgian.
Glock: So perfect we have updated it five times.
H&K: We are not against civilians owning guns. We are just against poor civilians owning guns.
Hi Point: Why spend $500 on a handgun when you can spend $200 for a gun and have $300 left over for beer.
Mossberg: You didn't ask for a M4 stock on a lever action rifle or a chainsaw grip shotgun, but we built it anyway.
Kel-Tec: Our level of innovation exceeds our level of production.
Remington: We have more lemons than Minute Maid.
Ruger: We bring you the innovation of others at an affordable price.
Sig Sauer: German and Swiss heritage with Indian quality control.
S&W: We have the revolver market locked up.
Taurus: We heard you like to gamble.
Winchester: An American legend....built in Japan.
MAKING FUN OF A PARAPLEGIC IS NOT NICE
Travis County judge apologizes for saying Gov. Greg Abbott "hates trees because one fell on him"
By Davis Rich
The Texas Tribune
September 27, 2019
Travis County Judge Sarah Eckhardt apologized late Friday for saying Gov. Greg Abbott “hates trees because one fell on him" during a panel discussion at The Texas Tribune Festival.
A journalist from The Federalist, John Daniel Davidson, first reported the comment in a tweet. Davidson added that the crowd laughed after Eckhardt's comments, which were made in the context of the Texas Legislature overriding local ordinances like Austin's tree ordinance.
"In my panel today at the Texas Tribune Festival on 'Public Enragement' I spoke about the importance of being able to disagree without being disagreeable. Then I said something disagreeable," Eckhardt said in statement late Friday. "I want to apologize to Governor Abbott. I made a flippant comment that was inappropriate. The comment did nothing to further the debate I was participating in, much less further the political discourse in our community, state, and nation. While the Governor and I disagree on a number of issues, that is no excuse to be disagreeable."
A spokesman for Abbott could not immediately be reached for comment late Friday.
Travis County Republican Chairman Matt Mackowiak called Eckhardt's comments "disgusting" in a statement late Friday.
"Judge Eckhardt apparently believes that his disability is open to ridicule if it helps her make a political argument. This joke represents a profound lack of compassion from Judge Eckhardt," Mackiowak said.
"There is no place for insulting Americans with disabilities and Judge Eckhardt should know better.”
Abbott was 26 when he was paralyzed by a falling oak tree while he was jogging in Houston on a windy day in July 1984. The accident left Abbott, who uses a wheelchair, paralyzed from the waist down.
The next year, he sued the homeowner whose tree fell on him and the tree service company that had inspected it before it crashed down on him.
He received a multimillion-dollar lawsuit agreement that he told The Texas Tribune in 2013 allows him to address the health and mobility challenges every paraplegic must confront. During his initial run for governor, he told the Tribune that he would gladly give the money back if he could regain the use of his legs.
“Money doesn’t heal anything. Money doesn’t allow me to walk. It doesn’t allow me to dance with my wife. It doesn’t allow me to pick up my daughter. It doesn’t allow me to walk my daughter down the aisle when she gets married,” Abbott said in 2013. “If you could name the person I could write the check to, I’d send all this money right back if I could walk again.”
EDITOR’S NOTE: For those unfamiliar with Texas government, a County Judge is the presiding officer of the Commissioners Court, the governing body of Texas counties.
In the metropolitan counties like Travis, presiding over the Commissioners Court is a full-time job. In the cow counties, the County Judge also performs judicial duties, such as presiding over misdemeanor criminal and small civil cases, probate matters and appeals from the Justice of the Peace Court.
By Davis Rich
The Texas Tribune
September 27, 2019
Travis County Judge Sarah Eckhardt apologized late Friday for saying Gov. Greg Abbott “hates trees because one fell on him" during a panel discussion at The Texas Tribune Festival.
A journalist from The Federalist, John Daniel Davidson, first reported the comment in a tweet. Davidson added that the crowd laughed after Eckhardt's comments, which were made in the context of the Texas Legislature overriding local ordinances like Austin's tree ordinance.
"In my panel today at the Texas Tribune Festival on 'Public Enragement' I spoke about the importance of being able to disagree without being disagreeable. Then I said something disagreeable," Eckhardt said in statement late Friday. "I want to apologize to Governor Abbott. I made a flippant comment that was inappropriate. The comment did nothing to further the debate I was participating in, much less further the political discourse in our community, state, and nation. While the Governor and I disagree on a number of issues, that is no excuse to be disagreeable."
A spokesman for Abbott could not immediately be reached for comment late Friday.
Travis County Republican Chairman Matt Mackowiak called Eckhardt's comments "disgusting" in a statement late Friday.
"Judge Eckhardt apparently believes that his disability is open to ridicule if it helps her make a political argument. This joke represents a profound lack of compassion from Judge Eckhardt," Mackiowak said.
"There is no place for insulting Americans with disabilities and Judge Eckhardt should know better.”
Abbott was 26 when he was paralyzed by a falling oak tree while he was jogging in Houston on a windy day in July 1984. The accident left Abbott, who uses a wheelchair, paralyzed from the waist down.
The next year, he sued the homeowner whose tree fell on him and the tree service company that had inspected it before it crashed down on him.
He received a multimillion-dollar lawsuit agreement that he told The Texas Tribune in 2013 allows him to address the health and mobility challenges every paraplegic must confront. During his initial run for governor, he told the Tribune that he would gladly give the money back if he could regain the use of his legs.
“Money doesn’t heal anything. Money doesn’t allow me to walk. It doesn’t allow me to dance with my wife. It doesn’t allow me to pick up my daughter. It doesn’t allow me to walk my daughter down the aisle when she gets married,” Abbott said in 2013. “If you could name the person I could write the check to, I’d send all this money right back if I could walk again.”
EDITOR’S NOTE: For those unfamiliar with Texas government, a County Judge is the presiding officer of the Commissioners Court, the governing body of Texas counties.
In the metropolitan counties like Travis, presiding over the Commissioners Court is a full-time job. In the cow counties, the County Judge also performs judicial duties, such as presiding over misdemeanor criminal and small civil cases, probate matters and appeals from the Justice of the Peace Court.
ODDS ARE AGAINST THE ASTROS
‘Mattress Mack’ plans to bet $4M-plus on Astros to win World Series
By Todd Dewey
Las Vegas Review-Journal
September 28, 2019
“Mattress Mack” is back and plans to place more than $4 million in hedge bets on his hometown Houston Astros to win the World Series.
For the second time in three years, Houston furniture store owner Jim “Mattress Mack” McIngvale is using legal sportsbooks to help offset a potential eight-figure loss on a free mattress set promotion.
Any customer who makes a purchase of at least $3,000 at his Gallery Furniture retail chain will get a refund if the Astros win it all. McIngvale refunded $13 million in the same promotion in 2017, when Houston won the World Series over the Los Angeles Dodgers in seven games.
The stakes are higher this year, as McIngvale said he’s fast approaching a $15 million liability on the promotion, which has proved extremely popular with the Astros as the plus 200 favorites to win the title.
“It’s been going on since the preseason, and there’s been a lot of excitement with the Astros,” McIngvale said. “The (Zack) Greinke trade made a huge difference and the fact that they have the best record in baseball.”
McIngvale, 68, partially hedged his 2017 promotion through wagers on the Astros at Nevada sportsbooks, which sources told the Review-Journal amounted to about $1.8 million.
He wants to bet a lot more than that this year and asked Anthony Curtis, who runs LasVegasAdvisor.com, and professional sports bettor Frank Betti to help him negotiate prices and numbers with the books.
The well-respected Las Vegas sharps told the Review-Journal on Saturday that the FanDuel and DraftKings sportsbooks in New Jersey have agreed to take a total of $4 million in wagers from McIngvale to win $8.8 million on the Astros at plus 220.
FanDuel is expected to take $3 million and DraftKings $1 million, according to Curtis.
“As of now, this is the agreement,” Curtis said. “Both groups have been very forthright.”
McIngvale is expected to place the bets this week, though he declined to provide details.
“I’m finalizing all that,” he said. “I’ve got to fly up to New Jersey to do it. It’ll be very dynamic. It’s going to happen fast, before the playoffs.”
The wild-card playoff games are scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday. The National League Division Series starts Thursday, and the American League Division Series begins Friday.
Curtis said McIngvale already has placed $350,000 in wagers to win $875,000 at Nevada books at plus 250. Venerable South Point oddsmaker Jimmy Vaccaro tweeted an image of a $200,000 wager to win $500,000 on the Astros.
“We wanted plus 250 essentially for any amount,” Curtis said. “We had four sportsbooks here that took the bet at plus 250. The big dog was Jimmy Vaccaro working on behalf of Michael Gaughan at South Point.
“Caesars took $100,000, and we also had wagers at MGM (Resorts) and TI (Treasure Island). Those are the four books that stepped up. It was a complete eye-opener to me how unwilling these sportsbooks were in Nevada to step up the way they are in New Jersey.”
Curtis said he and Betti will continue to look for hedge bets for McIngvale during the playoffs.
“These futures bets that he’s going to make are essentially preflop bets,” said Curtis, comparing McIngvale’s position to a poker game.
The sharps said the best bet of all is to buy a $3,000 mattress set.
“You’ve got close to a one in three shot to get it for free,” Curtis said.
McIngvale lost $8 million on his first sports promotion in 2014, when the Seattle Seahawks upset the Denver Broncos in Super Bowl XLVIII.
“I was told by two guys who work here that the Broncos were a dead solid lock,” McIngvale said. “They’re still around. I remind them of it almost every day.”
By Todd Dewey
Las Vegas Review-Journal
September 28, 2019
“Mattress Mack” is back and plans to place more than $4 million in hedge bets on his hometown Houston Astros to win the World Series.
For the second time in three years, Houston furniture store owner Jim “Mattress Mack” McIngvale is using legal sportsbooks to help offset a potential eight-figure loss on a free mattress set promotion.
Any customer who makes a purchase of at least $3,000 at his Gallery Furniture retail chain will get a refund if the Astros win it all. McIngvale refunded $13 million in the same promotion in 2017, when Houston won the World Series over the Los Angeles Dodgers in seven games.
The stakes are higher this year, as McIngvale said he’s fast approaching a $15 million liability on the promotion, which has proved extremely popular with the Astros as the plus 200 favorites to win the title.
“It’s been going on since the preseason, and there’s been a lot of excitement with the Astros,” McIngvale said. “The (Zack) Greinke trade made a huge difference and the fact that they have the best record in baseball.”
McIngvale, 68, partially hedged his 2017 promotion through wagers on the Astros at Nevada sportsbooks, which sources told the Review-Journal amounted to about $1.8 million.
He wants to bet a lot more than that this year and asked Anthony Curtis, who runs LasVegasAdvisor.com, and professional sports bettor Frank Betti to help him negotiate prices and numbers with the books.
The well-respected Las Vegas sharps told the Review-Journal on Saturday that the FanDuel and DraftKings sportsbooks in New Jersey have agreed to take a total of $4 million in wagers from McIngvale to win $8.8 million on the Astros at plus 220.
FanDuel is expected to take $3 million and DraftKings $1 million, according to Curtis.
“As of now, this is the agreement,” Curtis said. “Both groups have been very forthright.”
McIngvale is expected to place the bets this week, though he declined to provide details.
“I’m finalizing all that,” he said. “I’ve got to fly up to New Jersey to do it. It’ll be very dynamic. It’s going to happen fast, before the playoffs.”
The wild-card playoff games are scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday. The National League Division Series starts Thursday, and the American League Division Series begins Friday.
Curtis said McIngvale already has placed $350,000 in wagers to win $875,000 at Nevada books at plus 250. Venerable South Point oddsmaker Jimmy Vaccaro tweeted an image of a $200,000 wager to win $500,000 on the Astros.
“We wanted plus 250 essentially for any amount,” Curtis said. “We had four sportsbooks here that took the bet at plus 250. The big dog was Jimmy Vaccaro working on behalf of Michael Gaughan at South Point.
“Caesars took $100,000, and we also had wagers at MGM (Resorts) and TI (Treasure Island). Those are the four books that stepped up. It was a complete eye-opener to me how unwilling these sportsbooks were in Nevada to step up the way they are in New Jersey.”
Curtis said he and Betti will continue to look for hedge bets for McIngvale during the playoffs.
“These futures bets that he’s going to make are essentially preflop bets,” said Curtis, comparing McIngvale’s position to a poker game.
The sharps said the best bet of all is to buy a $3,000 mattress set.
“You’ve got close to a one in three shot to get it for free,” Curtis said.
McIngvale lost $8 million on his first sports promotion in 2014, when the Seattle Seahawks upset the Denver Broncos in Super Bowl XLVIII.
“I was told by two guys who work here that the Broncos were a dead solid lock,” McIngvale said. “They’re still around. I remind them of it almost every day.”
MIDDLE EAST STUDIES IN THE US HAS BECOME A SAFE SPACE FOR ANTI-ISRAEL AND ANTI-SEMITIC COURSEWORK AND PROGRAMMING MASQUERADING AS SCHOLARSHIP
Is regulation of anti-Semitism on campus censorship?
by Jonathan S. Tobin
JNS
September 27, 2019
As far as US President Donald Trump’s liberal critics are concerned, this is just the latest instance of his administration’s hostility to free speech. The Education Department announced earlier this month that it had ordered the Middle East studies department run jointly by Duke University and the University of North Carolina to revamp the curriculum it was offering students. If the schools’ consortium that runs the program doesn’t comply, it will lose the federal grant money it gets under Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act.
As far as most academics are concerned, the government’s unprecedented intervention in course material is an outrage and infringement on academic freedom. Yet what really riled up the critics are the reasons for the demand. The Education Department said the course offering of the consortium advanced an agenda that glorified Islam and ignored other faiths in the Mideast. The program also promoted boycott, divestment and sanctions movement activities, including a conference that was tainted by anti-Semitic rhetoric on the part of speakers.
Yet rather than being portrayed as a necessary action in which the administration sought to prevent taxpayer dollars from being used to promote a skewed view of the world and promote hate, the Education Department’s letter has received scathing coverage from outlets like The New York Times and The Washington Post, as well as academic publications. Even more bizarrely, a column in the Forward denounced the government effort as not merely Islamophobic, but reminiscent of Nazi regime’s censorship of German scholars.
What can explain this kind of grossly inflammatory language, as well as the massive pushback against this move?
In the current divisive political atmosphere, anything that the Trump administration does – whether good, bad or indifferent – is always going to be shoehorned into a narrative in which its work is denounced as evidence of criminal behavior and/or authoritarianism by its liberal and Democratic critics. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos has been a particular target of scorn from the “resistance.” Kenneth Marcus, the head of the department’s civil-rights bureau, has gotten similar treatment. The Times snidely referred to him in an article on the North Carolina controversy as someone “who has made a career of pro-Israel advocacy,” which is an interesting way to refer to someone whose career has been focused on fighting anti-Semitism.
But the real problem is that the government’s action is based on the recognition that Middle East studies in the United States has become a safe space for anti-Israel and anti-Semitic coursework and programming masquerading as scholarship. Within these departments, support for anti-Zionism and anti-Semitic BDS campaigns has become a form of orthodoxy that teachers and students dare not challenge. This was brilliantly exposed by Martin Kramer in his 2001 book "Ivory Towers on Sand: The Failure of Middle East Studies in America," and the situation has only grown worse since then.
Yet is it the government’s business to police this lamentable situation?
Small government conservatives, as well as libertarians and liberals, might be inclined to answer “no.” The last thing anyone should want is for federal bureaucrats vetting or censoring academic offerings. Yet, if there is to be federal Education Department dispensing money to schools throughout the country, why shouldn’t it monitor how funds are being spent?
The federal government is quite vigilant about policing the use of grant money when it comes to possible discriminatory conduct or practices. The same is true for a host of other issues relating to federal preferences about a wide array of conduct and agendas. Why then would monitoring anti-Semitism be the one topic on which Washington should stay mum? It is widely understood that anything that smacks of condoning racism or prejudice against other minorities would result in the loss of federal grants. But anti-Semitism operating under the veil of Middle East studies has had impunity.
That has been the way the Education Department and the federal government have treated instances of anti-Semitism up until 2017. For instance, the Obama administration ignored many anti-Semitic incidents on college campuses during its eight years in office and dismissed calls (from people like Marcus) for it to use the threat of loss of federal funding to force those responsible to act. It was only after DeVos and Marcus were appointed to their posts by Trump that the Education Department began to take an active interest in the way hatred of Jews has found a home on some campuses and especially within departments focused on the Middle East.
These departments, like the one operated by Duke and UNC, are free to go on teaching the history of the Middle East in a manner that treats the presence of Christians and Jews there as illegitimate or to promote BDS and other forms of anti-Semitism. They have a choice. If they don’t want federal criticism, all they have to do is to give up the money they get from the federal government or any other entity that seeks to uphold the standards of decency one would not think has to be imposed on such elite institutions. Indeed, there are plenty of Middle East governments, such as that of Qatar, whose Muslim Brotherhood-run foundation is happy to dispense money to American institutions while promoting a very different agenda than that of the administration.
But if they do so, they can’t pretend that they are responsible scholars or anything other than promoters of hate.
What Trump’s Education Department has done is neither Islamophobic nor an unconscionable interference in academia worthy of an authoritarian regime. It’s merely upholding the values and principles that liberal academics claim to support.
For this, it is denounced by Jewish publications and groups, like the Anti-Defamation League, that claim to defend the community from anti-Semitism and are now silent when they should be speaking up in defense of the administration. Whatever you may think of Trump or DeVos, the Jewish community should be standing with the administration on this issue. The failure to do so is nothing short of a disgrace.
by Jonathan S. Tobin
JNS
September 27, 2019
As far as US President Donald Trump’s liberal critics are concerned, this is just the latest instance of his administration’s hostility to free speech. The Education Department announced earlier this month that it had ordered the Middle East studies department run jointly by Duke University and the University of North Carolina to revamp the curriculum it was offering students. If the schools’ consortium that runs the program doesn’t comply, it will lose the federal grant money it gets under Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act.
As far as most academics are concerned, the government’s unprecedented intervention in course material is an outrage and infringement on academic freedom. Yet what really riled up the critics are the reasons for the demand. The Education Department said the course offering of the consortium advanced an agenda that glorified Islam and ignored other faiths in the Mideast. The program also promoted boycott, divestment and sanctions movement activities, including a conference that was tainted by anti-Semitic rhetoric on the part of speakers.
Yet rather than being portrayed as a necessary action in which the administration sought to prevent taxpayer dollars from being used to promote a skewed view of the world and promote hate, the Education Department’s letter has received scathing coverage from outlets like The New York Times and The Washington Post, as well as academic publications. Even more bizarrely, a column in the Forward denounced the government effort as not merely Islamophobic, but reminiscent of Nazi regime’s censorship of German scholars.
What can explain this kind of grossly inflammatory language, as well as the massive pushback against this move?
In the current divisive political atmosphere, anything that the Trump administration does – whether good, bad or indifferent – is always going to be shoehorned into a narrative in which its work is denounced as evidence of criminal behavior and/or authoritarianism by its liberal and Democratic critics. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos has been a particular target of scorn from the “resistance.” Kenneth Marcus, the head of the department’s civil-rights bureau, has gotten similar treatment. The Times snidely referred to him in an article on the North Carolina controversy as someone “who has made a career of pro-Israel advocacy,” which is an interesting way to refer to someone whose career has been focused on fighting anti-Semitism.
But the real problem is that the government’s action is based on the recognition that Middle East studies in the United States has become a safe space for anti-Israel and anti-Semitic coursework and programming masquerading as scholarship. Within these departments, support for anti-Zionism and anti-Semitic BDS campaigns has become a form of orthodoxy that teachers and students dare not challenge. This was brilliantly exposed by Martin Kramer in his 2001 book "Ivory Towers on Sand: The Failure of Middle East Studies in America," and the situation has only grown worse since then.
Yet is it the government’s business to police this lamentable situation?
Small government conservatives, as well as libertarians and liberals, might be inclined to answer “no.” The last thing anyone should want is for federal bureaucrats vetting or censoring academic offerings. Yet, if there is to be federal Education Department dispensing money to schools throughout the country, why shouldn’t it monitor how funds are being spent?
The federal government is quite vigilant about policing the use of grant money when it comes to possible discriminatory conduct or practices. The same is true for a host of other issues relating to federal preferences about a wide array of conduct and agendas. Why then would monitoring anti-Semitism be the one topic on which Washington should stay mum? It is widely understood that anything that smacks of condoning racism or prejudice against other minorities would result in the loss of federal grants. But anti-Semitism operating under the veil of Middle East studies has had impunity.
That has been the way the Education Department and the federal government have treated instances of anti-Semitism up until 2017. For instance, the Obama administration ignored many anti-Semitic incidents on college campuses during its eight years in office and dismissed calls (from people like Marcus) for it to use the threat of loss of federal funding to force those responsible to act. It was only after DeVos and Marcus were appointed to their posts by Trump that the Education Department began to take an active interest in the way hatred of Jews has found a home on some campuses and especially within departments focused on the Middle East.
These departments, like the one operated by Duke and UNC, are free to go on teaching the history of the Middle East in a manner that treats the presence of Christians and Jews there as illegitimate or to promote BDS and other forms of anti-Semitism. They have a choice. If they don’t want federal criticism, all they have to do is to give up the money they get from the federal government or any other entity that seeks to uphold the standards of decency one would not think has to be imposed on such elite institutions. Indeed, there are plenty of Middle East governments, such as that of Qatar, whose Muslim Brotherhood-run foundation is happy to dispense money to American institutions while promoting a very different agenda than that of the administration.
But if they do so, they can’t pretend that they are responsible scholars or anything other than promoters of hate.
What Trump’s Education Department has done is neither Islamophobic nor an unconscionable interference in academia worthy of an authoritarian regime. It’s merely upholding the values and principles that liberal academics claim to support.
For this, it is denounced by Jewish publications and groups, like the Anti-Defamation League, that claim to defend the community from anti-Semitism and are now silent when they should be speaking up in defense of the administration. Whatever you may think of Trump or DeVos, the Jewish community should be standing with the administration on this issue. The failure to do so is nothing short of a disgrace.
HEZBOLLAH NOW HOLDS A DIVERSE ARSENAL OF WEAPONRY OF A QUANTITY AND QUALITY BEFITTING A MODERN ARMY AND EVENTUALLY THERE IS LIKELY TO BE A TERRIBLE WAR BETWEEN ISRAEL AND HEZBOLLAH
Iran creating more Hezbollahs across the Middle East
by Maj. Gen. (ret.) Yaakov Amidror
Israel Hayom
September 29, 2019
Over the past several weeks, Israel and the Hezbollah terrorist group have been at daggers drawn in the Middle East. Israeli aircraft recently struck Iranian-backed forces in Syria that were plotting a major drone attack in Israel.
Hezbollah responded by firing advanced anti-tank missiles into Israel, with the leader of the group pledging a “new phase” in which Hezbollah would no longer observe past “red lines.”
Meanwhile, Israel disclosed sites in Lebanon where Iran and Hezbollah are working together to build precision-guided missiles that could hit sites throughout Israel during a war.
This dramatic escalation in tensions with Iran and its proxies is dangerous but unsurprising. It should be understood as a warning that Iran’s strategy of training and arming proxy terror groups throughout the Middle East is not being countered aggressively enough.
In the summer of 2006, at the conclusion of the Second Lebanon War between Israel and Hezbollah, few expected that the quiet between Israel and Lebanon would have lasted this long.
But it is a deceptive quiet because the Israel-Hezbollah battlefield has moved to Syria and other locales. The Israeli Air Force has carried out many airstrikes on Iranian-backed targets in recent years.
That war was a missed opportunity since it ended without a clear victory over Hezbollah, which at the time was a far less intimidating enemy.
Since then, Hezbollah has grown in manpower and firepower to the extent that Israel is careful not to attack it inside of Lebanon.
Today, there is mutual deterrence, which is a strategic accomplishment for Hezbollah, a terrorist group opposing one of the most capable militaries in the world.
Thanks to massive Iranian investment, Hezbollah has now developed into a “hybrid organization,” a terror organization with strong military components. Significantly, this success has made the frightening model on which Iran is basing its promotion of new terrorist militias in Yemen, Syria, and Iraq.
Hezbollah has some 30,000 troops and an equivalent number in militia positions held in parallel to civilian occupations.
The group has gained valuable combat experience in Syria (at a high cost), and now holds a diverse arsenal of weaponry of a quantity and quality befitting a modern army.
No terror organization in history has had as powerful an armament as the one Hezbollah currently stockpiles. It is no wonder, then, that the Iranians are very happy with their success and are attempting to replicate this model in Yemen, Iraq, and Syria. What remains a wonder is why these attempts by Iran are not being fought more aggressively.
Iran is pursuing this effort with adaptations that take into account the different conditions in each place, but the principle is the same: set up a local organization aided by foreigners and supplied by Iran in order to create a militia that serves Iranian interests, but also benefits the local population. Iran’s successful joint operations with its proxy forces often increase local support for foreign involvement.
This was not supposed to happen. UN Security Council Resolution 1701 was passed at the end of the 2006 conflict to prevent precisely this situation.
Western countries reinforced UN forces in Lebanon with troops that had a clear mandate to monitor and report on Hezbollah’s activities. The resolution included a categorical statement banning the transfer of weaponry to Lebanon. These measures were supposed to ensure Lebanese sovereignty and prevent Hezbollah from growing stronger.
But the reality has been completely different. Lebanon today is completely dominated politically and militarily by Hezbollah, not by the Lebanese government or army – so much so that Iran is moving to a new stage focused less on increasing the quantity of arms than on improving their quality.
A sufficient quantity of precision-guided missiles could be a tiebreaker in the current stalemate, as they would allow Hezbollah to paralyze sensitive infrastructure and strike at strategically important targets in Israel, both military and civilian.
Israel’s cautious approach to Lebanon has allowed Hezbollah and Iran to realize their vision there. Israel’s more aggressive approach to Syria has so far prevented Iran from freely entrenching. Because Iran’s military buildup in Lebanon is already too far advanced, eventually there is likely to be a terrible war between Israel and Hezbollah.
World powers should take heed. What Iran has accomplished in Lebanon with Hezbollah offers a clear vision of the future. The same thing will happen in the coming years in other parts of the region if the international community fails to stop Iran’s development of proxy militaries across the Middle East.
__________
Nasrallah: We are prepared to enter 'occupied Palestine'
Israel Hayom
September 29, 2019
The leader of the Lebanese-based terror group Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah, claimed over the weekend that his organization was in possession of a large amount of military intelligence on Israel and warned that his forces were prepared to enter "occupied Palestine" [i.e. Israel] at any time.
"[We] are threatening them and we will enter occupied Palestine," Nasrallah was quoted by an Arabic-language daily on Friday.
"We have abundant information, unprecedented in fact, about all events and developments occurring on the enemy side, using both public and secretive measures," Nasrallah continued.
"We have very good intelligence and very good oversight," he added.
Earlier this month, the radical cleric claimed that "there are no red lines left in regards to defending Lebanon from Israeli aggression," adding that "Lebanon has a right to defend itself from Israeli attacks."
He further warned that an attack on Iran by the Jewish state "would result in Israel ceasing to exist."
by Maj. Gen. (ret.) Yaakov Amidror
Israel Hayom
September 29, 2019
Over the past several weeks, Israel and the Hezbollah terrorist group have been at daggers drawn in the Middle East. Israeli aircraft recently struck Iranian-backed forces in Syria that were plotting a major drone attack in Israel.
Hezbollah responded by firing advanced anti-tank missiles into Israel, with the leader of the group pledging a “new phase” in which Hezbollah would no longer observe past “red lines.”
Meanwhile, Israel disclosed sites in Lebanon where Iran and Hezbollah are working together to build precision-guided missiles that could hit sites throughout Israel during a war.
This dramatic escalation in tensions with Iran and its proxies is dangerous but unsurprising. It should be understood as a warning that Iran’s strategy of training and arming proxy terror groups throughout the Middle East is not being countered aggressively enough.
In the summer of 2006, at the conclusion of the Second Lebanon War between Israel and Hezbollah, few expected that the quiet between Israel and Lebanon would have lasted this long.
But it is a deceptive quiet because the Israel-Hezbollah battlefield has moved to Syria and other locales. The Israeli Air Force has carried out many airstrikes on Iranian-backed targets in recent years.
That war was a missed opportunity since it ended without a clear victory over Hezbollah, which at the time was a far less intimidating enemy.
Since then, Hezbollah has grown in manpower and firepower to the extent that Israel is careful not to attack it inside of Lebanon.
Today, there is mutual deterrence, which is a strategic accomplishment for Hezbollah, a terrorist group opposing one of the most capable militaries in the world.
Thanks to massive Iranian investment, Hezbollah has now developed into a “hybrid organization,” a terror organization with strong military components. Significantly, this success has made the frightening model on which Iran is basing its promotion of new terrorist militias in Yemen, Syria, and Iraq.
Hezbollah has some 30,000 troops and an equivalent number in militia positions held in parallel to civilian occupations.
The group has gained valuable combat experience in Syria (at a high cost), and now holds a diverse arsenal of weaponry of a quantity and quality befitting a modern army.
No terror organization in history has had as powerful an armament as the one Hezbollah currently stockpiles. It is no wonder, then, that the Iranians are very happy with their success and are attempting to replicate this model in Yemen, Iraq, and Syria. What remains a wonder is why these attempts by Iran are not being fought more aggressively.
Iran is pursuing this effort with adaptations that take into account the different conditions in each place, but the principle is the same: set up a local organization aided by foreigners and supplied by Iran in order to create a militia that serves Iranian interests, but also benefits the local population. Iran’s successful joint operations with its proxy forces often increase local support for foreign involvement.
This was not supposed to happen. UN Security Council Resolution 1701 was passed at the end of the 2006 conflict to prevent precisely this situation.
Western countries reinforced UN forces in Lebanon with troops that had a clear mandate to monitor and report on Hezbollah’s activities. The resolution included a categorical statement banning the transfer of weaponry to Lebanon. These measures were supposed to ensure Lebanese sovereignty and prevent Hezbollah from growing stronger.
But the reality has been completely different. Lebanon today is completely dominated politically and militarily by Hezbollah, not by the Lebanese government or army – so much so that Iran is moving to a new stage focused less on increasing the quantity of arms than on improving their quality.
A sufficient quantity of precision-guided missiles could be a tiebreaker in the current stalemate, as they would allow Hezbollah to paralyze sensitive infrastructure and strike at strategically important targets in Israel, both military and civilian.
Israel’s cautious approach to Lebanon has allowed Hezbollah and Iran to realize their vision there. Israel’s more aggressive approach to Syria has so far prevented Iran from freely entrenching. Because Iran’s military buildup in Lebanon is already too far advanced, eventually there is likely to be a terrible war between Israel and Hezbollah.
World powers should take heed. What Iran has accomplished in Lebanon with Hezbollah offers a clear vision of the future. The same thing will happen in the coming years in other parts of the region if the international community fails to stop Iran’s development of proxy militaries across the Middle East.
__________
Nasrallah: We are prepared to enter 'occupied Palestine'
Israel Hayom
September 29, 2019
The leader of the Lebanese-based terror group Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah, claimed over the weekend that his organization was in possession of a large amount of military intelligence on Israel and warned that his forces were prepared to enter "occupied Palestine" [i.e. Israel] at any time.
"[We] are threatening them and we will enter occupied Palestine," Nasrallah was quoted by an Arabic-language daily on Friday.
"We have abundant information, unprecedented in fact, about all events and developments occurring on the enemy side, using both public and secretive measures," Nasrallah continued.
"We have very good intelligence and very good oversight," he added.
Earlier this month, the radical cleric claimed that "there are no red lines left in regards to defending Lebanon from Israeli aggression," adding that "Lebanon has a right to defend itself from Israeli attacks."
He further warned that an attack on Iran by the Jewish state "would result in Israel ceasing to exist."
Sunday, September 29, 2019
WHERE WERE THE PICTURES OF COPS KILLED BY BLACK MEN?
During the four-hour hearing on Police Oversight, the House Judiciary Committee flashed photos of Eric Garner and other black men killed by police – including Michael Brown who was killed in Ferguson, Missouri — on screens around the hearing room
BarkGrowlBite
September 29, 2019
I had lunch Saturday with an old friend of mine who is a retired state police officer. During the luncheon I mentioned that recently Al Sharpton and Eric Garner’s mother appeared before a meeting on Police Oversight that was held by the House Judiciary Committee which is chaired by NY Congressman Jerry Nadler.
When I told my friend that during the four-hour hearing, photos of Garner and other black men killed by police – including Michael Brown who had robbed a convenience store clerk in Ferguson, Missouri — flashed on screens around the hearing room, he got really pissed off.
Where were the pictures of cops killed by black men? he growled at me.
A good question!
I don’t blame my friend for being pissed off. By flashing pictures of criminals like Garner and Brown throughout the hearing room, Nadler, Sheila Jackson Lee and the other Democrats on the committee showed they favored criminals over cops that were just trying to do their jobs.
BarkGrowlBite
September 29, 2019
I had lunch Saturday with an old friend of mine who is a retired state police officer. During the luncheon I mentioned that recently Al Sharpton and Eric Garner’s mother appeared before a meeting on Police Oversight that was held by the House Judiciary Committee which is chaired by NY Congressman Jerry Nadler.
When I told my friend that during the four-hour hearing, photos of Garner and other black men killed by police – including Michael Brown who had robbed a convenience store clerk in Ferguson, Missouri — flashed on screens around the hearing room, he got really pissed off.
Where were the pictures of cops killed by black men? he growled at me.
A good question!
I don’t blame my friend for being pissed off. By flashing pictures of criminals like Garner and Brown throughout the hearing room, Nadler, Sheila Jackson Lee and the other Democrats on the committee showed they favored criminals over cops that were just trying to do their jobs.
DONALD TRUMP USES PUTIN TO HIRE RUSSIAN ASSASSINS TO KILL PELOSI, NADLER AND SCHIFF
by Bob Walsh
This assertion is, as far as I know, completely untrue. Which means it has the same level of truthfulness of most of the rest of the things written about Trump in the last couple of years.
This assertion is, as far as I know, completely untrue. Which means it has the same level of truthfulness of most of the rest of the things written about Trump in the last couple of years.
BEING NICE IS REWARDING
By Trey Rusk
Running Code 3
September 28, 2019
I had lunch today with a retired cop and LE professor and he told me that back in his day, when he wanted to know anything about anybody in the building, all he had to do was ask the janitor.
Most of the time we speak to service oriented persons such a food servers and the clerk who works at the Dry Cleaners as acquaintances. We may of may not know their names. But because we are in law enforcement, they know us.
The sometimes so called unimportant people hold a wealth of information. The people who have service jobs are often over looked while mopping or emptying the trash but they hear and see things.
My father taught me to always treat the CEO and the maintenance staff of a company on the same level. People are people and everyone remembers how they have been treated by you.
I tell you these things because the Brotherhood at the Cop Shop sometimes includes non-law enforcement staff. Janitors, mechanics, and clerks that see and hear a lot. Now, I've always considered corrections officers to be cops. They take the same oath of office as street cops and the deal with the scum of the earth.
Let's not forget the trained volunteers who man the Citizens-on-Patrol and those who show up at a 24 hour crime scene with coffee and sandwiches. The person who sits at the front door of the station and gives information and directions. I always kept a box of Congratulatory, Sympathy and Thank You cards in my desk and addressed these folks when the occasion fit. I guarantee that if you dismiss these folks as nothing, you are making a big mistake.
I premised this blog with the rather lengthy analysis to tell you a story.
I attended a department Christmas Party. During the party people exchanged gifts. The employees had pulled names from a sack and each gift was to have a $10 limit. My gift was a patrol bag with my name and rank on it. It cost much more than $10. I received it from a jailer named Norman whom I knew made much less than me. He struggled to make ends meet with his family. I sent him a Thank You card. I had gotten to know him while taking smoke breaks outside, usually in the evening. We discussed most topics and I knew he hung out with some half outlaw bikers.
I was getting close to identifying a badly decomposed body. My snitch had disappeared.
As the case was about to go cold, I found a envelope on my desk with my name on it. I opened it and the note read, "The body is John Smith from Victoria." Once the body was identified, known associates were rounded up and a confession was obtained. I had become busy and hadn't seen Norman in a couple of weeks. The Captain told me he had quit and moved out of state.
I knew Norman had written the note, because the handwriting was the same as the Christmas Card in the patrol bag he had given me.
Had Norman given me the name for the sake of justice? I believe he did. After all, he had taken the same oath I took.
Note: The names and locations have been changed in the story because I don't want anyone to get hurt.
Be nice to folks.
That's the way I see it.
Running Code 3
September 28, 2019
I had lunch today with a retired cop and LE professor and he told me that back in his day, when he wanted to know anything about anybody in the building, all he had to do was ask the janitor.
Most of the time we speak to service oriented persons such a food servers and the clerk who works at the Dry Cleaners as acquaintances. We may of may not know their names. But because we are in law enforcement, they know us.
The sometimes so called unimportant people hold a wealth of information. The people who have service jobs are often over looked while mopping or emptying the trash but they hear and see things.
My father taught me to always treat the CEO and the maintenance staff of a company on the same level. People are people and everyone remembers how they have been treated by you.
I tell you these things because the Brotherhood at the Cop Shop sometimes includes non-law enforcement staff. Janitors, mechanics, and clerks that see and hear a lot. Now, I've always considered corrections officers to be cops. They take the same oath of office as street cops and the deal with the scum of the earth.
Let's not forget the trained volunteers who man the Citizens-on-Patrol and those who show up at a 24 hour crime scene with coffee and sandwiches. The person who sits at the front door of the station and gives information and directions. I always kept a box of Congratulatory, Sympathy and Thank You cards in my desk and addressed these folks when the occasion fit. I guarantee that if you dismiss these folks as nothing, you are making a big mistake.
I premised this blog with the rather lengthy analysis to tell you a story.
I attended a department Christmas Party. During the party people exchanged gifts. The employees had pulled names from a sack and each gift was to have a $10 limit. My gift was a patrol bag with my name and rank on it. It cost much more than $10. I received it from a jailer named Norman whom I knew made much less than me. He struggled to make ends meet with his family. I sent him a Thank You card. I had gotten to know him while taking smoke breaks outside, usually in the evening. We discussed most topics and I knew he hung out with some half outlaw bikers.
I was getting close to identifying a badly decomposed body. My snitch had disappeared.
As the case was about to go cold, I found a envelope on my desk with my name on it. I opened it and the note read, "The body is John Smith from Victoria." Once the body was identified, known associates were rounded up and a confession was obtained. I had become busy and hadn't seen Norman in a couple of weeks. The Captain told me he had quit and moved out of state.
I knew Norman had written the note, because the handwriting was the same as the Christmas Card in the patrol bag he had given me.
Had Norman given me the name for the sake of justice? I believe he did. After all, he had taken the same oath I took.
Note: The names and locations have been changed in the story because I don't want anyone to get hurt.
Be nice to folks.
That's the way I see it.
PATIENTS FROM 5 STATES DROVE HUNDREDS OF MILES FOR OPIOID PRESCRIPTIONS
Doctor facing life in prison for dispensing half a million opioid prescriptions in 2 years
By Denise Lavoie and Sarah Rankin
Associated Press
September 28, 2019
By the time drug enforcement agents swooped into his small medical office in Martinsville, Virginia, in 2017, Dr. Joel Smithers had prescribed about a half a million doses of highly addictive opioids in two years.
Patients from five states drove hundreds of miles to see him, spending up to 16 hours on the road to get prescriptions for oxycodone and other powerful painkillers.
"He's done great damage and contributed ... to the overall problem in the heartland of the opioid crisis," said Christopher Dziedzic, a supervisory special agent for the Drug Enforcement Administration who oversaw the investigation into Smithers.
In the past two decades, opioids have killed about 400,000 Americans, ripped families apart and left communities — many in Appalachia — grappling with ballooning costs of social services like law enforcement, foster care and drug rehab.
Smithers, a 36-year-old married father of five, is facing the possibility of life in prison after being convicted in May of more than 800 counts of illegally prescribing drugs, including the oxycodone and oxymorphone that caused the death of a West Virginia woman. When he is sentenced Wednesday, the best Smithers can hope for is a mandatory minimum of 20 years.
Authorities say that, instead of running a legitimate medical practice, Smithers headed an interstate drug distribution ring that contributed to the opioid abuse epidemic in West Virginia, Kentucky, Ohio, Tennessee and Virginia.
In court filings and at trial, they described an office that lacked basic medical supplies, a receptionist who lived out of a back room during the work week, and patients who slept outside and urinated in the parking lot.
At trial, one woman who described herself as an addict compared Smithers' practice to pill mills she frequented in Florida.
"I went and got medication without — I mean, without any kind of physical exam or bringing medical records, anything like that," the woman testified.
A receptionist testified that patients would wait up to 12 hours to see Smithers, who sometimes kept his office open past midnight. Smithers did not accept insurance and took in close to $700,000 in cash and credit card payments over two years.
"People only went there for one reason, and that was just to get pain medication that they (could) abuse themselves or sell it for profit," Dziedzic said.
The opioid crisis has been decades in the making and has been fueled by a mix of prescription and street drugs.
From 2000 to 2010, annual deaths linked to prescription opioids increased nearly fourfold. By the 2010s, with more crackdowns on pill mills and more restrictive guidelines on prescriptions, the number of prescriptions declined. Then people with addictions turned to even deadlier opioids. But the number of deaths tied to prescription opioids didn't begin to decline until last year, according to data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Martinsville, where Smithers set up shop, has been particularly hard hit.
A city of about 14,000 near Virginia's southern border, Martinsville once was a thriving furniture and textile manufacturing center that billed itself as the "Sweatshirt Capital of the World." But when factories began closing in the 1990s, thousands of jobs were lost. Between 2006 and 2012, the city had the nation's third-highest number of opioid pills received per capita, according to an Associated Press analysis of federal data.
Andrew Kolodny, a Brandeis University doctor who has long been critical of opioids, said that in recent years, doctors became less comfortable writing lots of opioid prescriptions and many big prescribers retired. That opened an opportunity for others.
"If you're one of the guys still doing this," he said, "you're going to have tons of patients knocking down your door."
During his trial, Smithers testified that after he moved to Virginia, he found himself flooded with patients from other states who said many nearby pain clinics had been shut down. Smithers said he reluctantly began treating these patients, with the goal of weaning them off high doses of immediate-release drugs.
He acknowledged during testimony that he sometimes wrote and mailed prescriptions for patients he had not examined but insisted that he had spoken to them over the phone.
Once, he met a woman in the parking lot of a Starbucks, she handed him $300 and he gave her a prescription for fentanyl, an opioid pain reliever that is 50 to 100 times more potent than morphine.
When area pharmacists started refusing to fill prescriptions written by Smithers, he directed patients to far-flung pharmacies, including two in West Virginia. Prosecutors say Smithers also used some patients to distribute drugs to other patients. Four people were indicted in Kentucky on conspiracy charges.
At his trial, Smithers portrayed himself as a caring doctor who was deceived by some patients.
"I learned several lessons the hard way about trusting people that I should not have trusted," he said.
Smithers' lawyer told the judge he had been diagnosed with depression and anxiety. Family members said through a spokesperson that they believe his decisions were influenced by personal stress, and emotional and mental strain.
Even before he opened his Martinsville practice in August 2015, Smithers had raised suspicions. West Virginia authorities approached him in June 2015 about a complaint with his practice there, but when they returned the next day with a subpoena, they found his office cleaned out and a dumpster filled with shredded papers and untested urine samples.
Some of Smithers' patients have remained fiercely loyal to him, insisting their severe chronic pain was eased by the powerful painkillers he prescribed.
Lennie Hartshorn Jr., the father of the West Virginia woman who died two days after taking drugs Smithers prescribed, testified for the defense.
Hartshorn said his daughter, Heather Hartshorn, told someone "she would rather be dead than in pain all the time." According to a form Heather Hartshorn filled out when she went to see Smithers, she had chronic pain in her lower back, legs, hips and neck from a severe car accident and a fall.
When asked by Smithers' lawyer if he blames Smithers for anything, Lennie Hartshorn said he does not.
Smithers has been denied bond while he awaits sentencing. His attorney did not respond to inquiries from AP. Smithers has said he plans to appeal.
By Denise Lavoie and Sarah Rankin
Associated Press
September 28, 2019
By the time drug enforcement agents swooped into his small medical office in Martinsville, Virginia, in 2017, Dr. Joel Smithers had prescribed about a half a million doses of highly addictive opioids in two years.
Patients from five states drove hundreds of miles to see him, spending up to 16 hours on the road to get prescriptions for oxycodone and other powerful painkillers.
"He's done great damage and contributed ... to the overall problem in the heartland of the opioid crisis," said Christopher Dziedzic, a supervisory special agent for the Drug Enforcement Administration who oversaw the investigation into Smithers.
In the past two decades, opioids have killed about 400,000 Americans, ripped families apart and left communities — many in Appalachia — grappling with ballooning costs of social services like law enforcement, foster care and drug rehab.
Smithers, a 36-year-old married father of five, is facing the possibility of life in prison after being convicted in May of more than 800 counts of illegally prescribing drugs, including the oxycodone and oxymorphone that caused the death of a West Virginia woman. When he is sentenced Wednesday, the best Smithers can hope for is a mandatory minimum of 20 years.
Authorities say that, instead of running a legitimate medical practice, Smithers headed an interstate drug distribution ring that contributed to the opioid abuse epidemic in West Virginia, Kentucky, Ohio, Tennessee and Virginia.
In court filings and at trial, they described an office that lacked basic medical supplies, a receptionist who lived out of a back room during the work week, and patients who slept outside and urinated in the parking lot.
At trial, one woman who described herself as an addict compared Smithers' practice to pill mills she frequented in Florida.
"I went and got medication without — I mean, without any kind of physical exam or bringing medical records, anything like that," the woman testified.
A receptionist testified that patients would wait up to 12 hours to see Smithers, who sometimes kept his office open past midnight. Smithers did not accept insurance and took in close to $700,000 in cash and credit card payments over two years.
"People only went there for one reason, and that was just to get pain medication that they (could) abuse themselves or sell it for profit," Dziedzic said.
The opioid crisis has been decades in the making and has been fueled by a mix of prescription and street drugs.
From 2000 to 2010, annual deaths linked to prescription opioids increased nearly fourfold. By the 2010s, with more crackdowns on pill mills and more restrictive guidelines on prescriptions, the number of prescriptions declined. Then people with addictions turned to even deadlier opioids. But the number of deaths tied to prescription opioids didn't begin to decline until last year, according to data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Martinsville, where Smithers set up shop, has been particularly hard hit.
A city of about 14,000 near Virginia's southern border, Martinsville once was a thriving furniture and textile manufacturing center that billed itself as the "Sweatshirt Capital of the World." But when factories began closing in the 1990s, thousands of jobs were lost. Between 2006 and 2012, the city had the nation's third-highest number of opioid pills received per capita, according to an Associated Press analysis of federal data.
Andrew Kolodny, a Brandeis University doctor who has long been critical of opioids, said that in recent years, doctors became less comfortable writing lots of opioid prescriptions and many big prescribers retired. That opened an opportunity for others.
"If you're one of the guys still doing this," he said, "you're going to have tons of patients knocking down your door."
During his trial, Smithers testified that after he moved to Virginia, he found himself flooded with patients from other states who said many nearby pain clinics had been shut down. Smithers said he reluctantly began treating these patients, with the goal of weaning them off high doses of immediate-release drugs.
He acknowledged during testimony that he sometimes wrote and mailed prescriptions for patients he had not examined but insisted that he had spoken to them over the phone.
Once, he met a woman in the parking lot of a Starbucks, she handed him $300 and he gave her a prescription for fentanyl, an opioid pain reliever that is 50 to 100 times more potent than morphine.
When area pharmacists started refusing to fill prescriptions written by Smithers, he directed patients to far-flung pharmacies, including two in West Virginia. Prosecutors say Smithers also used some patients to distribute drugs to other patients. Four people were indicted in Kentucky on conspiracy charges.
At his trial, Smithers portrayed himself as a caring doctor who was deceived by some patients.
"I learned several lessons the hard way about trusting people that I should not have trusted," he said.
Smithers' lawyer told the judge he had been diagnosed with depression and anxiety. Family members said through a spokesperson that they believe his decisions were influenced by personal stress, and emotional and mental strain.
Even before he opened his Martinsville practice in August 2015, Smithers had raised suspicions. West Virginia authorities approached him in June 2015 about a complaint with his practice there, but when they returned the next day with a subpoena, they found his office cleaned out and a dumpster filled with shredded papers and untested urine samples.
Some of Smithers' patients have remained fiercely loyal to him, insisting their severe chronic pain was eased by the powerful painkillers he prescribed.
Lennie Hartshorn Jr., the father of the West Virginia woman who died two days after taking drugs Smithers prescribed, testified for the defense.
Hartshorn said his daughter, Heather Hartshorn, told someone "she would rather be dead than in pain all the time." According to a form Heather Hartshorn filled out when she went to see Smithers, she had chronic pain in her lower back, legs, hips and neck from a severe car accident and a fall.
When asked by Smithers' lawyer if he blames Smithers for anything, Lennie Hartshorn said he does not.
Smithers has been denied bond while he awaits sentencing. His attorney did not respond to inquiries from AP. Smithers has said he plans to appeal.
ELABORATE MURDER PLOT FALLS APART WHEN GUN BEATS WRENCH
Bond denied for Florida man paralyzed in Virginia Beach shooting
By Allison Mechanic
News 3
September 25, 2019
VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. - A judge has decided to keep a man paralyzed in a recent shooting behind bars.
Henry Frank Herbig is 65 years old and is from Florida. Earlier this month, he was arrested in Virginia Beach, accused of aggravated malicious wounding and breaking and entering with intent to commit a felony.
Virginia Beach Police were called to a Bunsen Drive home around 9:45 p.m. on September 8. Investigators say Herbig broke into the home and assaulted his stepdaughter, who lives at the home, and his estranged wife, who was staying there, with a large wrench.
Herbig was shot by his stepdaughter and became paralyzed. Police deemed her actions self-defense.
Due to Herbig's condition, he was not able to be transported from the Virginia Beach City Jail to the courtroom for his bond hearing on Wednesday morning. Instead, he appeared from his jail hospital bed through video conference.
His defense attorney argued that this showed that jail staff were unable to provide proper care for his client and that he should be released on bond. Prosecutors argued that even though Herbig cannot make a fist and will not ever be able to ever walk again, he is still a danger to the community and a flight risk.
Investigators say Herbig is wealthy, has connections to pilots and several homes - one of which is on the Canadian border. Prosecutors say Herbig drove up from Florida with an elaborate plan to commit murder.
They say he had a lengthy list in his car that mentioned all the actions he took and planned to take in order to kill his wife. Some of the items listed included using several different cars to make the trip from Florida to Virginia, bringing gas cans with him so he wouldn't need to buy any, having multiple cell phones so he couldn't be traced and not using any credit cards during the trip.
Investigators say he also brought disguises, a bag with garbage bags, duct tape, zip ties and several weapons including a wooden baton, a firearm and a large wrench.
In court Wednesday, prosecutors told the judge Herbig first attacked his stepdaughter with the wrench when she was letting her dog out in the backyard. He then forced himself into the home and attacked his estranged wife.
The stepdaughter shot Herbig as he was attacking her mother, severing his spine. Prosecutors say if she didn't shoot Herbig, he may have been able to carry out his plan.
Prosecutors called Herbig "dangerous" and said with his connections, he could still be a flight risk. Herbig's attorney disagreed and said by staying in the jail where he may not receive adequate care, his health could deteriorate.
After hearing both sides, the judge decided to deny Herbig bond. However, she says she is willing to hear about this matter at a later date if Herbig's defense attorney can come up with a plan for where he can be treated.
By Allison Mechanic
News 3
September 25, 2019
VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. - A judge has decided to keep a man paralyzed in a recent shooting behind bars.
Henry Frank Herbig is 65 years old and is from Florida. Earlier this month, he was arrested in Virginia Beach, accused of aggravated malicious wounding and breaking and entering with intent to commit a felony.
Virginia Beach Police were called to a Bunsen Drive home around 9:45 p.m. on September 8. Investigators say Herbig broke into the home and assaulted his stepdaughter, who lives at the home, and his estranged wife, who was staying there, with a large wrench.
Herbig was shot by his stepdaughter and became paralyzed. Police deemed her actions self-defense.
Due to Herbig's condition, he was not able to be transported from the Virginia Beach City Jail to the courtroom for his bond hearing on Wednesday morning. Instead, he appeared from his jail hospital bed through video conference.
His defense attorney argued that this showed that jail staff were unable to provide proper care for his client and that he should be released on bond. Prosecutors argued that even though Herbig cannot make a fist and will not ever be able to ever walk again, he is still a danger to the community and a flight risk.
Investigators say Herbig is wealthy, has connections to pilots and several homes - one of which is on the Canadian border. Prosecutors say Herbig drove up from Florida with an elaborate plan to commit murder.
They say he had a lengthy list in his car that mentioned all the actions he took and planned to take in order to kill his wife. Some of the items listed included using several different cars to make the trip from Florida to Virginia, bringing gas cans with him so he wouldn't need to buy any, having multiple cell phones so he couldn't be traced and not using any credit cards during the trip.
Investigators say he also brought disguises, a bag with garbage bags, duct tape, zip ties and several weapons including a wooden baton, a firearm and a large wrench.
In court Wednesday, prosecutors told the judge Herbig first attacked his stepdaughter with the wrench when she was letting her dog out in the backyard. He then forced himself into the home and attacked his estranged wife.
The stepdaughter shot Herbig as he was attacking her mother, severing his spine. Prosecutors say if she didn't shoot Herbig, he may have been able to carry out his plan.
Prosecutors called Herbig "dangerous" and said with his connections, he could still be a flight risk. Herbig's attorney disagreed and said by staying in the jail where he may not receive adequate care, his health could deteriorate.
After hearing both sides, the judge decided to deny Herbig bond. However, she says she is willing to hear about this matter at a later date if Herbig's defense attorney can come up with a plan for where he can be treated.
POLAND NEED S TO LIVE WITH THE FACT THAT MANY POLES EAGERLY HELPED THE SS FIND AND ROUND UP JEWS FOR SLAUGHTER IN THE NAZI EXTERMINATION CAMPS
Poland denies report that its president blamed Israel for increased anti-Semitism
By Eldad Beck
Israel Hayom
September 27, 2019
A senior official in Polish President Andrzej Duda's office dismissed a Jewish Insider report claiming that the Polish leader had accused Israeli Foreign Minister Yisrael Katz of causing an uptick in anti-Semitic attacks in Poland.
The official said the report was "fake news" and the accusation was never made.
According to Jewish Insider, during a meeting with Jewish leaders in New York this week, Duda reportedly said that Katz caused the increase in incidents in his country because the Israeli chief diplomat accused Poles of "suckling their anti-Semitism with their mother's milk," causing a diplomatic war of words between the two countries.
According to the report, Duda said Katz’s comments, which were a reiteration of a famous accusation uttered by the late Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir, "were a humiliation and were the reason for an increase in antisemitic attacks against Jews in Poland."
Later, the office issued an official statement. The Spokesperson of President Andrzej Duda, Błażej Spychalski, said: "The quote is not only inaccurate. It is plainly not true. President Duda never said that 'Israel is responsible for recent anti-Semitic attacks in Poland.' All participants of the said meeting can corroborate this. Jewish Insider made this up."
The Jewish Insider report also noted that Duda "told the group – which included representatives of [pro-Israel lobby in Washington] AIPAC and the Anti-Defamation League – that people in his country had advised him not to travel to Israel until Katz apologizes for the comment. "
Duda's statements blaming Katz for violent attacks caused an uproar at the event, according to Jewish Insider, which cited two witnesses at the meeting.
The recent tension between Israel and Poland stems from a law that makes it a civil offense to claim that the Polish people as a whole or the Polish state were responsible for the Nazi atrocities against the Jews.
Katz's statements, made just as the two sides were trying to put this issue behind them, outraged Warsaw and led to Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki canceling his visit to Israel.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Historically, Poland has always been a hotbed of anti-Semitism and there is no reason to believe things have changed any. Besides that, anti-Semitism has been on the rise in Britain, France an Germany as well as throughout Europe, and it’s not because of anything Katz said.
By Eldad Beck
Israel Hayom
September 27, 2019
A senior official in Polish President Andrzej Duda's office dismissed a Jewish Insider report claiming that the Polish leader had accused Israeli Foreign Minister Yisrael Katz of causing an uptick in anti-Semitic attacks in Poland.
The official said the report was "fake news" and the accusation was never made.
According to Jewish Insider, during a meeting with Jewish leaders in New York this week, Duda reportedly said that Katz caused the increase in incidents in his country because the Israeli chief diplomat accused Poles of "suckling their anti-Semitism with their mother's milk," causing a diplomatic war of words between the two countries.
According to the report, Duda said Katz’s comments, which were a reiteration of a famous accusation uttered by the late Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir, "were a humiliation and were the reason for an increase in antisemitic attacks against Jews in Poland."
Later, the office issued an official statement. The Spokesperson of President Andrzej Duda, Błażej Spychalski, said: "The quote is not only inaccurate. It is plainly not true. President Duda never said that 'Israel is responsible for recent anti-Semitic attacks in Poland.' All participants of the said meeting can corroborate this. Jewish Insider made this up."
The Jewish Insider report also noted that Duda "told the group – which included representatives of [pro-Israel lobby in Washington] AIPAC and the Anti-Defamation League – that people in his country had advised him not to travel to Israel until Katz apologizes for the comment. "
Duda's statements blaming Katz for violent attacks caused an uproar at the event, according to Jewish Insider, which cited two witnesses at the meeting.
The recent tension between Israel and Poland stems from a law that makes it a civil offense to claim that the Polish people as a whole or the Polish state were responsible for the Nazi atrocities against the Jews.
Katz's statements, made just as the two sides were trying to put this issue behind them, outraged Warsaw and led to Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki canceling his visit to Israel.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Historically, Poland has always been a hotbed of anti-Semitism and there is no reason to believe things have changed any. Besides that, anti-Semitism has been on the rise in Britain, France an Germany as well as throughout Europe, and it’s not because of anything Katz said.
Saturday, September 28, 2019
WHITE HOUSE STAFF MEMBERS HAVE CONTINUALLY DAMAGED AND ENDANGERED THE TRUMP PRESIDENCY
The whistleblower is only the latest recipient of information from White House staffers who have been leaking damaging information to the media ever since Trump assumed office
By Howie Katz
Big Jolly times
September 27, 2019
There can be no doubt the Trump presidency is now endangered. The whistle blower report has incited the Democrats to go for the President’s jugular. And the media is only too happy to join them.
The whistleblower, who is thought to be a CIA agent, alleges that Trump and many of his aides engaged in a months-long effort of pressuring the Ukraine government to discredit Joe Biden and then covered up their wrongdoing. His report states that the Ukraine government was made aware that US military aid was dependent on its compliance with the request to investigate Biden’s son Hunter. The whistleblower said:
“In the course of my official duties, I have received information from multiple U.S. Government officials that the President of the United States is using the power of his office to solicit interference from a foreign country in the 2020 U.S. election. This interference includes, among other things, pressuring a foreign country to investigate one of the President’s main domestic political rivals. I am also concerned that these actions pose risks to U.S. national security and undermine the U.S. Government’s efforts to deter and counter foreign interference in U.S. elections.”
At the center of the whistleblower’s report is the phone call Trump made to Ukranian President Volodymyr Zelensky. That call was not the ‘lovely’ call Trump made it out to be. It was improper and the dumbest thing Trump has done since he became President.
As usual, when attacked, Trump responds with a furious counterattack. In a closed-door meeting with U.S. diplomats, the President raged:
“We’re at war. These people are sick. They’re sick. I want to know who’s the person, who’s the person who gave the whistle-blower the information? Because that’s close to a spy. You know what we used to do in the old days when we were smart? Right? The spies and treason, we used to handle it a little differently than we do now.”
And, of course, there were the usual barrage of Trump tweets belittling this whole brouhaha.
Even though all of the allegations made by the whistleblower were second-hand, acting Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire told the House Intelligence Committee: “I believe that the whistleblower and the inspector general have acted in good faith throughout. I have every reason to believe that they have done everything by the book and followed the law.”
Dumb and improper, yes, but was the call to Zelensky an impeachable offense? Adam Schitt (oops, typo) calls it a “classic mafia like shakedown.” Jerry Nadler, with Houston’s Sheila Jackson Lee at his side, makes it clear he wants Trump impeached. AOC and Rashida Tlaib are screaming for impeachment and Nancy Pelosi has caved in to their demands.
Pelosi also accused AG William Barr of “The cover up of a cover up,” while Tlaib announced she is selling T-shirts imprinted with the slogan: Impeach the Motherfucker.
It’s hard to tell how all this will play out. It’s a foregone conclusion that Trump will be impeached by the Democratic controlled House and then not convicted by the Republican controlled Senate. That could backfire on the Democrats. However, when all the House investigations are over and done with, there may be enough evidence to persuade some Republican senators to abandon the leaky ship. If that happens, there might be 60 votes in the Senate to convict Trump.
Joe Biden does not come out of this mess squeaky clean either. When he was vice president, Biden threatened to withhold a $1 billion U.S. loan from Ukraine if Viktor Shokin, that country’s chief prosecutor, was not fired. At the time, Shokin was widely rumored to be investigating Hunter Biden’s appointment to the board of the Ukrainian natural gas company Burisma. And the vice president's threat was a direct threat, unlike the implied threat in Trump's phone call.
The media is playing the Goebbels tune. Ever since he became President, The New York Times, the Washington Post, MSNBC and, except for Fox, the other TV networks have taken every opportunity to smear Trump because he defeated their beloved Hillary.
Nazi Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels is credited with saying: “If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it.” Let me paraphrase that to show how Trump could lose the 2020 election. If you smear Trump enough and keep on smearing him, people will eventually come to believe it. And that’s what the Democrats and the Trump-hating media are counting on.
Although Trump implies that the leakers in his administration are spies who should be hanged or shot, he has not been able to learn the identity of the numerous White House staffers who have been feeding the media, and now the whistleblower, with damaging information about the President.
It’s mainly the leaks that have enabled the media to mount their blitzkrieg against the president. If Trump loses in 2020, he can thank members of his own staff for his defeat.
By Howie Katz
Big Jolly times
September 27, 2019
There can be no doubt the Trump presidency is now endangered. The whistle blower report has incited the Democrats to go for the President’s jugular. And the media is only too happy to join them.
The whistleblower, who is thought to be a CIA agent, alleges that Trump and many of his aides engaged in a months-long effort of pressuring the Ukraine government to discredit Joe Biden and then covered up their wrongdoing. His report states that the Ukraine government was made aware that US military aid was dependent on its compliance with the request to investigate Biden’s son Hunter. The whistleblower said:
“In the course of my official duties, I have received information from multiple U.S. Government officials that the President of the United States is using the power of his office to solicit interference from a foreign country in the 2020 U.S. election. This interference includes, among other things, pressuring a foreign country to investigate one of the President’s main domestic political rivals. I am also concerned that these actions pose risks to U.S. national security and undermine the U.S. Government’s efforts to deter and counter foreign interference in U.S. elections.”
At the center of the whistleblower’s report is the phone call Trump made to Ukranian President Volodymyr Zelensky. That call was not the ‘lovely’ call Trump made it out to be. It was improper and the dumbest thing Trump has done since he became President.
As usual, when attacked, Trump responds with a furious counterattack. In a closed-door meeting with U.S. diplomats, the President raged:
“We’re at war. These people are sick. They’re sick. I want to know who’s the person, who’s the person who gave the whistle-blower the information? Because that’s close to a spy. You know what we used to do in the old days when we were smart? Right? The spies and treason, we used to handle it a little differently than we do now.”
And, of course, there were the usual barrage of Trump tweets belittling this whole brouhaha.
Even though all of the allegations made by the whistleblower were second-hand, acting Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire told the House Intelligence Committee: “I believe that the whistleblower and the inspector general have acted in good faith throughout. I have every reason to believe that they have done everything by the book and followed the law.”
Dumb and improper, yes, but was the call to Zelensky an impeachable offense? Adam Schitt (oops, typo) calls it a “classic mafia like shakedown.” Jerry Nadler, with Houston’s Sheila Jackson Lee at his side, makes it clear he wants Trump impeached. AOC and Rashida Tlaib are screaming for impeachment and Nancy Pelosi has caved in to their demands.
Pelosi also accused AG William Barr of “The cover up of a cover up,” while Tlaib announced she is selling T-shirts imprinted with the slogan: Impeach the Motherfucker.
It’s hard to tell how all this will play out. It’s a foregone conclusion that Trump will be impeached by the Democratic controlled House and then not convicted by the Republican controlled Senate. That could backfire on the Democrats. However, when all the House investigations are over and done with, there may be enough evidence to persuade some Republican senators to abandon the leaky ship. If that happens, there might be 60 votes in the Senate to convict Trump.
Joe Biden does not come out of this mess squeaky clean either. When he was vice president, Biden threatened to withhold a $1 billion U.S. loan from Ukraine if Viktor Shokin, that country’s chief prosecutor, was not fired. At the time, Shokin was widely rumored to be investigating Hunter Biden’s appointment to the board of the Ukrainian natural gas company Burisma. And the vice president's threat was a direct threat, unlike the implied threat in Trump's phone call.
The media is playing the Goebbels tune. Ever since he became President, The New York Times, the Washington Post, MSNBC and, except for Fox, the other TV networks have taken every opportunity to smear Trump because he defeated their beloved Hillary.
Nazi Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels is credited with saying: “If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it.” Let me paraphrase that to show how Trump could lose the 2020 election. If you smear Trump enough and keep on smearing him, people will eventually come to believe it. And that’s what the Democrats and the Trump-hating media are counting on.
Although Trump implies that the leakers in his administration are spies who should be hanged or shot, he has not been able to learn the identity of the numerous White House staffers who have been feeding the media, and now the whistleblower, with damaging information about the President.
It’s mainly the leaks that have enabled the media to mount their blitzkrieg against the president. If Trump loses in 2020, he can thank members of his own staff for his defeat.
HOUSTON’S FIRST SIKH DEPUTY SHOT DEAD FROM BEHIND
HCSO deputy dies after being shot 'ambush-style' during traffic stop, sheriff says
By Brittany Taylor
Click2Houston
September 27, 2019
HOUSTON - A Harris County Sheriff's Office deputy died after he was shot from behind Friday while conducting a traffic stop in northwest Harris County, Sheriff Ed Gonzalez said.
The shooting was reported around 1 p.m. at 14807 Willancy Court at West Road.
Gonzalez said Deputy Sandeep Dhaliwal, who is a 10-year veteran of the department, stopped a vehicle with a man and woman inside. During that stop, Gonzalez said, one of the people in the vehicle got out and shot the 41-year-old deputy "ambush-style" at least twice in a "ruthless, cold-blooded way."
The shooter was seen running in a Kroger shopping center nearby, officials said. An employee told KPRC 2 that the shooter never entered the Kroger but left the vehicle in the parking lot before fleeing the scene.
Investigators were able to identify what the shooter looked like by watching Dhaliwal's dashcam video.
"They immediately looked at his dashcam to see what the suspect looked like, they took a photo of the suspect on the scene with their phone and immediately got that out to our intel people," Gonzalez said.
The vehicle the shooter was driving was recovered and is being investigated, officials said.
The owner of a Marble Slab Creamery said the possible gunman hung out at his shop for nearly a half-hour before authorities arrived and took him into custody. The woman who was inside the vehicle with the suspect was also detained, officials said.
SKY 2 video shows a police unit taking that suspect to the county jail.
Gonzalez asked everyone to pray for the deputy after he was flown to Memorial Hermann Hospital by Life Flight. About 4:30 p.m., Gonzalez said in a tweet that the deputy had died.
Gonzalez is asking to please keep Dhaliwal's family in your prayers. He said Dhaliwal leaves behind a wife and three children.
"Deputy Sandeep Dhaliwal was a trailblazer. He was an example for many. He represented his community with respect and pride," said Commissioner Adrian Garcia.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Robert Solis, 47, has been charged with capital murder in the shooting of Deputy Dhaliwal.
Solis is a parolee with an active parole violation warrant for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon dating back to January 2017. Was there a parole hold placed on Solis when he was arrested on that aggravated assault charge? Apparently not! How did this sorry piece of shit manage to avoid arrest for that parole violation? This serves as a good example of how Texas parole fails to protect the public, and in this case a good cop paid the price.
By Brittany Taylor
Click2Houston
September 27, 2019
HOUSTON - A Harris County Sheriff's Office deputy died after he was shot from behind Friday while conducting a traffic stop in northwest Harris County, Sheriff Ed Gonzalez said.
The shooting was reported around 1 p.m. at 14807 Willancy Court at West Road.
Gonzalez said Deputy Sandeep Dhaliwal, who is a 10-year veteran of the department, stopped a vehicle with a man and woman inside. During that stop, Gonzalez said, one of the people in the vehicle got out and shot the 41-year-old deputy "ambush-style" at least twice in a "ruthless, cold-blooded way."
The shooter was seen running in a Kroger shopping center nearby, officials said. An employee told KPRC 2 that the shooter never entered the Kroger but left the vehicle in the parking lot before fleeing the scene.
Investigators were able to identify what the shooter looked like by watching Dhaliwal's dashcam video.
"They immediately looked at his dashcam to see what the suspect looked like, they took a photo of the suspect on the scene with their phone and immediately got that out to our intel people," Gonzalez said.
The vehicle the shooter was driving was recovered and is being investigated, officials said.
The owner of a Marble Slab Creamery said the possible gunman hung out at his shop for nearly a half-hour before authorities arrived and took him into custody. The woman who was inside the vehicle with the suspect was also detained, officials said.
SKY 2 video shows a police unit taking that suspect to the county jail.
Gonzalez asked everyone to pray for the deputy after he was flown to Memorial Hermann Hospital by Life Flight. About 4:30 p.m., Gonzalez said in a tweet that the deputy had died.
Gonzalez is asking to please keep Dhaliwal's family in your prayers. He said Dhaliwal leaves behind a wife and three children.
"Deputy Sandeep Dhaliwal was a trailblazer. He was an example for many. He represented his community with respect and pride," said Commissioner Adrian Garcia.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Robert Solis, 47, has been charged with capital murder in the shooting of Deputy Dhaliwal.
Solis is a parolee with an active parole violation warrant for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon dating back to January 2017. Was there a parole hold placed on Solis when he was arrested on that aggravated assault charge? Apparently not! How did this sorry piece of shit manage to avoid arrest for that parole violation? This serves as a good example of how Texas parole fails to protect the public, and in this case a good cop paid the price.
KATZ: TURKISH PRESIDENT ERDOGAN IS NOT THE SULTAN AND TURKEY IS NOT THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE
Israeli foreign minister tells UN: Jews will not be 'separated from homeland'
i24 News
September 27, 2019
Foreign Minister Yisrael Katz addressed the United Nations General Assembly in New York on Thursday where he took the opportunity to slam critics of Israel, declaring that the Jewish people would not be "separated from their homeland," and warned of the growing threat posed by Tehran and its proxies.
Katz, who was announced as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's replacement after Israel's general election on Sept. 17 ended in deadlock, began his speech by thanking US President Donald Trump for his support of Israel before launching into a condemnation of Israel's greatest antagonists in the region.
Addressing the Palestinians, Katz urged leaders in Ramallah "to stop incitement … and financing terrorism."
He also called on Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to recognize "the right of the Jewish people to its own state" and "to come back to direct negotiations without any pre-conditions."
The foreign minister also urged Hamas, the ruling authority in the Gaza Strip, to release "two Israeli citizens, Avraham Mengistu and Hisham Al-Sayed, and the bodies of two Israeli soldiers, Hadar Goldin and Oron Shaul," from their custody.
In addition, Katz issued a condemnation of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who earlier in the UNGA accused Israel of stealing Palestinian land while questioning the country's sovereign borders.
"The other day I heard Erdoğan attack Israel and I want to say to him: You, that brutally oppress the Turkish people, slaughter the Kurdish minority and support the terror organization Hamas – you are the last one that can lecture Israel. You are not the Sultan and Turkey is not the Ottoman Empire. Shame on you," Katz said.
But Katz saved his harshest critique for the Islamic Republic of Iran, who he called the "main problem threatening stability, and security in the Middle East," and accused Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei of giving the "direct orders" to attack several Saudi oil facilities from Yemen earlier this month.
"Iran is the biggest terror state, and the biggest 'sponsor of terror' in the world," Katz said. "I call on the international community to unite in order to stop Iran."
During the live address, the camera panned to a row of empty seats revealing no Iranian officials were present to hear Katz speak. During Rouhani's address on Wednesday, Israeli officials were also not in attendance.
i24 News
September 27, 2019
Foreign Minister Yisrael Katz addressed the United Nations General Assembly in New York on Thursday where he took the opportunity to slam critics of Israel, declaring that the Jewish people would not be "separated from their homeland," and warned of the growing threat posed by Tehran and its proxies.
Katz, who was announced as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's replacement after Israel's general election on Sept. 17 ended in deadlock, began his speech by thanking US President Donald Trump for his support of Israel before launching into a condemnation of Israel's greatest antagonists in the region.
Addressing the Palestinians, Katz urged leaders in Ramallah "to stop incitement … and financing terrorism."
He also called on Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to recognize "the right of the Jewish people to its own state" and "to come back to direct negotiations without any pre-conditions."
The foreign minister also urged Hamas, the ruling authority in the Gaza Strip, to release "two Israeli citizens, Avraham Mengistu and Hisham Al-Sayed, and the bodies of two Israeli soldiers, Hadar Goldin and Oron Shaul," from their custody.
In addition, Katz issued a condemnation of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who earlier in the UNGA accused Israel of stealing Palestinian land while questioning the country's sovereign borders.
"The other day I heard Erdoğan attack Israel and I want to say to him: You, that brutally oppress the Turkish people, slaughter the Kurdish minority and support the terror organization Hamas – you are the last one that can lecture Israel. You are not the Sultan and Turkey is not the Ottoman Empire. Shame on you," Katz said.
But Katz saved his harshest critique for the Islamic Republic of Iran, who he called the "main problem threatening stability, and security in the Middle East," and accused Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei of giving the "direct orders" to attack several Saudi oil facilities from Yemen earlier this month.
"Iran is the biggest terror state, and the biggest 'sponsor of terror' in the world," Katz said. "I call on the international community to unite in order to stop Iran."
During the live address, the camera panned to a row of empty seats revealing no Iranian officials were present to hear Katz speak. During Rouhani's address on Wednesday, Israeli officials were also not in attendance.
Friday, September 27, 2019
IMELDA NOT ONLY FUCKED UP THE MAIL, BUT THE BITCH ALSO FUCKED UP THE ENVIRONMENT
State records show thousands of pounds of pollutants released during Imelda
By Robert Arnold
Click2Houston
September 26, 2019
HOUSTON - Texas environmental records show several refineries and chemical plants reported the unauthorized release of thousands of pounds of pollutants during Tropical Storm Imelda.
Air emission event reports show at least 10 facilities in Harris, Brazoria, Jefferson and Orange counties directly listed Imelda as the cause of the releases. These facilities combined reported approximately 75,000 pounds of pollutants were released over a four-day period.
Other facilities report emissions during this window but did not specifically list the tropical storm as a direct cause.
What type of pollutants were released?
A variety of compounds were released during the storm, including Benzene, Carbon Monoxide and Butadiene, 1-3. The single largest release was reported by the ExxonMobil facility in Beaumont.
State records show approximately 36,000 pounds were released "as a result of adverse weather conditions caused by Tropical Storm Imelda, a process unit compressor tripped causing a unit shutdown event."
Other facilities reported lightning strikes and rising floodwaters as causes for these events.
What is the state saying about the releases?
Officials with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality told KPRC that aerial and hand-held monitoring showed there was no danger to the public as of Thursday. Governor Greg Abbott temporarily suspended certain environmental rules for facilities in affected areas, as he did after Hurricane Harvey.
When TCEQ requested the rule suspension on Sept. 19, officials wrote that "such suspension is requested only to the extent the rules actually do prevent, hinder or delay necessary action in coping with this disaster."
The rule suspension remains in place Thursday. When asked how long the suspension would last TCEQ officials wrote, "communities in areas impacted by Tropical Storm Imelda are still in the process of recovering from this disaster.
The state's and TCEQ's response to Tropical Storm Imelda is also ongoing, as they move into the cleanup and recovery phase. You can read more about the rule suspension on the TCEQ website.
A disagreement with the state
"This does not give me any comfort," said Dr. Bakeyah Nelson, executive director for Air Alliance Houston. "I think what everyone needs to know is that there is no level of air pollution that is quote unquote safe."
Nelson worries about the cumulative effects of these incidents, given major fires and corresponding emissions at tank yards and refineries earlier this year.
"They impact our air quality, they impact our water quality, the impact the soil," said Nelson. "We have an expanding industry, we have more frequent storms, and we're all living in this region, and we're all impacted by it."
EDITOR’S NOTE: When may we expect 16-year-old Swedish eco warrior Greta Thunberg to come to Houston to demand that the petro-chemical industry in Houston and southeast Texas be eradicated?
As for the mail, Thursday was the first day since Wednesday a week ago that I received any first-class mail. I’m concerned that some of my bills may have been destroyed when the Houston area Postal sorting and distribution center’s roof collapsed. And the same goes for the payments I made.
By Robert Arnold
Click2Houston
September 26, 2019
HOUSTON - Texas environmental records show several refineries and chemical plants reported the unauthorized release of thousands of pounds of pollutants during Tropical Storm Imelda.
Air emission event reports show at least 10 facilities in Harris, Brazoria, Jefferson and Orange counties directly listed Imelda as the cause of the releases. These facilities combined reported approximately 75,000 pounds of pollutants were released over a four-day period.
Other facilities report emissions during this window but did not specifically list the tropical storm as a direct cause.
What type of pollutants were released?
A variety of compounds were released during the storm, including Benzene, Carbon Monoxide and Butadiene, 1-3. The single largest release was reported by the ExxonMobil facility in Beaumont.
State records show approximately 36,000 pounds were released "as a result of adverse weather conditions caused by Tropical Storm Imelda, a process unit compressor tripped causing a unit shutdown event."
Other facilities reported lightning strikes and rising floodwaters as causes for these events.
What is the state saying about the releases?
Officials with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality told KPRC that aerial and hand-held monitoring showed there was no danger to the public as of Thursday. Governor Greg Abbott temporarily suspended certain environmental rules for facilities in affected areas, as he did after Hurricane Harvey.
When TCEQ requested the rule suspension on Sept. 19, officials wrote that "such suspension is requested only to the extent the rules actually do prevent, hinder or delay necessary action in coping with this disaster."
The rule suspension remains in place Thursday. When asked how long the suspension would last TCEQ officials wrote, "communities in areas impacted by Tropical Storm Imelda are still in the process of recovering from this disaster.
The state's and TCEQ's response to Tropical Storm Imelda is also ongoing, as they move into the cleanup and recovery phase. You can read more about the rule suspension on the TCEQ website.
A disagreement with the state
"This does not give me any comfort," said Dr. Bakeyah Nelson, executive director for Air Alliance Houston. "I think what everyone needs to know is that there is no level of air pollution that is quote unquote safe."
Nelson worries about the cumulative effects of these incidents, given major fires and corresponding emissions at tank yards and refineries earlier this year.
"They impact our air quality, they impact our water quality, the impact the soil," said Nelson. "We have an expanding industry, we have more frequent storms, and we're all living in this region, and we're all impacted by it."
EDITOR’S NOTE: When may we expect 16-year-old Swedish eco warrior Greta Thunberg to come to Houston to demand that the petro-chemical industry in Houston and southeast Texas be eradicated?
As for the mail, Thursday was the first day since Wednesday a week ago that I received any first-class mail. I’m concerned that some of my bills may have been destroyed when the Houston area Postal sorting and distribution center’s roof collapsed. And the same goes for the payments I made.
CALIFORNIA FINALLY ACKNOWLEDGES THAT VIOLENT, GANG ORIENTED CRIMINALS ARE NOT FRIENDLY
by Bob Walsh
It has happened before. The CDC made at least one major and a couple of minor attempts to force integration of cells and bunk stacks in dorms. It was, as one might expect, an unmitigated disaster.
A year ago the empty suits who run the new California Dept. of Corrections (and rehabilitation), many of who have never worn a uniform in their lives, started loosening up on yard restrictions for known gang involved inmates and allowing and even encouraging some intermingling on the yard so that the "good inmates" among them could effectively function as peace makers.
Not only did it not work worth a diddly damn but the prisoners themselves and prison rights groups accused officials of "setting up fights" between the groups for their own amusement.
The Fresno Bulldogs are one of the prime players in this little farce, having generated 32 of the brawls (riots) over the last year. Of the 45 recorded serious attempts to integrate the yards 27 ended up in notable violence.
Anybody with any brains and any experience within the system knows these social experiments are doomed to failure. Brains and experience are not widely present at higher levels of the department.
It has happened before. The CDC made at least one major and a couple of minor attempts to force integration of cells and bunk stacks in dorms. It was, as one might expect, an unmitigated disaster.
A year ago the empty suits who run the new California Dept. of Corrections (and rehabilitation), many of who have never worn a uniform in their lives, started loosening up on yard restrictions for known gang involved inmates and allowing and even encouraging some intermingling on the yard so that the "good inmates" among them could effectively function as peace makers.
Not only did it not work worth a diddly damn but the prisoners themselves and prison rights groups accused officials of "setting up fights" between the groups for their own amusement.
The Fresno Bulldogs are one of the prime players in this little farce, having generated 32 of the brawls (riots) over the last year. Of the 45 recorded serious attempts to integrate the yards 27 ended up in notable violence.
Anybody with any brains and any experience within the system knows these social experiments are doomed to failure. Brains and experience are not widely present at higher levels of the department.
A CRACK IN THE BLUE WALL OF SILENCE
Former Honolulu police officer pleads guilty for failing to report the other officer in urinal case
By Nelson Daranciang
Honolulu Star-Advertiser
September 25, 2019
One of two Honolulu police officers accused of forcing a homeless man’s face into a urinal pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court this afternoon to failing to report the crime.
Reginald Ramones, 43, faces a prison term of up to three years when he is sentenced in February. In exchange for his guilty plea and promise to testify against the other officer, however, the government will recommend probation.
A federal grand jury indicted Ramones and John Rabago in April on charges accusing them of conspiring to violate the constitutional rights of the homeless man and using their position as police officers to deprive the man of his rights.
The government has promised to drop the charges against Ramones at sentencing.
Rabago is scheduled to stand trial in March. He remains with the Honolulu Police Department but is on restricted duty.
Ramones resigned in August.
By Nelson Daranciang
Honolulu Star-Advertiser
September 25, 2019
One of two Honolulu police officers accused of forcing a homeless man’s face into a urinal pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court this afternoon to failing to report the crime.
Reginald Ramones, 43, faces a prison term of up to three years when he is sentenced in February. In exchange for his guilty plea and promise to testify against the other officer, however, the government will recommend probation.
A federal grand jury indicted Ramones and John Rabago in April on charges accusing them of conspiring to violate the constitutional rights of the homeless man and using their position as police officers to deprive the man of his rights.
The government has promised to drop the charges against Ramones at sentencing.
Rabago is scheduled to stand trial in March. He remains with the Honolulu Police Department but is on restricted duty.
Ramones resigned in August.
NECKTIE WITH A SYRINGE ON IT DID NOT STOP TEXAS EXECUTION
Texas inmate who claimed intellectual disability is executed for raping, killing family
By Morgan Phillips
Fox News
September 25, 2019
A Texas inmate who claimed he had an intellectual disability in a bid to avoid execution was given a lethal injection on Wednesday, 12 years after admitting to fatally stabbing his wife and two stepsons and raping his two stepdaughters.
Robert Sparks, 45, told investigators he killed his wife and 9- and 10-year-old stepsons and raped his 12- and 14-year-old stepdaughters because his family had been poisoning him and a voice told him to kill his family. He asked to be tested for poison, and for the two girls to undergo polygraph tests.
Sparks received a lethal injection at the state penitentiary in Huntsville, Texas. He became the 16th inmate put to death this year in the U.S. and the seventh in Texas. Seven more are scheduled for execution this year in Texas, the country’s busiest capital punishment state.
“I am sorry for the hard times. And what hurts me is that I hurt y'all ... even y'all, too,” Sparks told family members who watched through death chamber windows.
“I love you all. … I feel it,” he said. He was pronounced dead 23 minutes later.
Prosecutors said Sparks first stabbed his wife, then-30-year-old Chare Agnew, 18 times as she lay in her bed. He then went into the bedroom of his stepsons, Harold Sublet Jr. and Raekwon Agnew, took them separately into the kitchen, and stabbed them. Raekwon had been stabbed at least 45 times.
He then proceeded to rape his stepdaughters.
Sparks' lawyers fought until the end to have him exempt from the death penalty on grounds of intellectual disability. A psychologist hired by Sparks’ attorneys said last month in an affidavit that he “meets full criteria for a diagnosis of" intellectual disability. The Supreme Court in 2002 barred execution for mentally disabled people but states have their own discretion over how to determine intellectual disability.
His attorneys said that at the time of the trial, Sparks was not deemed intellectually disabled, but updates to the handbook used by medical professionals to diagnose mental disorders would have changed that.
The U.S. Supreme Court also denied a request by Sparks’ attorneys to stop the execution; they alleged the jury had been improperly influenced because an officer had worn a necktie with a syringe on it, indicating he supports the death penalty.
The attorney general’s office said the jury foreperson said she never saw the tie and did not believe it influenced jurors.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Intellectual disability? Shit, many of today’s high school students graduate intellectually disabled.
A better argument would have been that the only reason he received the death penalty was because he is black.
By Morgan Phillips
Fox News
September 25, 2019
A Texas inmate who claimed he had an intellectual disability in a bid to avoid execution was given a lethal injection on Wednesday, 12 years after admitting to fatally stabbing his wife and two stepsons and raping his two stepdaughters.
Robert Sparks, 45, told investigators he killed his wife and 9- and 10-year-old stepsons and raped his 12- and 14-year-old stepdaughters because his family had been poisoning him and a voice told him to kill his family. He asked to be tested for poison, and for the two girls to undergo polygraph tests.
Sparks received a lethal injection at the state penitentiary in Huntsville, Texas. He became the 16th inmate put to death this year in the U.S. and the seventh in Texas. Seven more are scheduled for execution this year in Texas, the country’s busiest capital punishment state.
“I am sorry for the hard times. And what hurts me is that I hurt y'all ... even y'all, too,” Sparks told family members who watched through death chamber windows.
“I love you all. … I feel it,” he said. He was pronounced dead 23 minutes later.
Prosecutors said Sparks first stabbed his wife, then-30-year-old Chare Agnew, 18 times as she lay in her bed. He then went into the bedroom of his stepsons, Harold Sublet Jr. and Raekwon Agnew, took them separately into the kitchen, and stabbed them. Raekwon had been stabbed at least 45 times.
He then proceeded to rape his stepdaughters.
Sparks' lawyers fought until the end to have him exempt from the death penalty on grounds of intellectual disability. A psychologist hired by Sparks’ attorneys said last month in an affidavit that he “meets full criteria for a diagnosis of" intellectual disability. The Supreme Court in 2002 barred execution for mentally disabled people but states have their own discretion over how to determine intellectual disability.
His attorneys said that at the time of the trial, Sparks was not deemed intellectually disabled, but updates to the handbook used by medical professionals to diagnose mental disorders would have changed that.
The U.S. Supreme Court also denied a request by Sparks’ attorneys to stop the execution; they alleged the jury had been improperly influenced because an officer had worn a necktie with a syringe on it, indicating he supports the death penalty.
The attorney general’s office said the jury foreperson said she never saw the tie and did not believe it influenced jurors.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Intellectual disability? Shit, many of today’s high school students graduate intellectually disabled.
A better argument would have been that the only reason he received the death penalty was because he is black.
Thursday, September 26, 2019
DUMB YES, BUT NOT AN IMPEACHABLE OFFENSE ….. AND WHAT PROMISES DID HUNTER BIDEN MAKE TO GET A CUSHY JOB IN THE UKRAINE FOR WHICH HE HAD NO EXPERIENCE?
If there’s one thing dumber than President Trump’s shockingly inappropriate Ukraine phone call, it’s the deluded Democrats using it to fight an impeachment battle they can’t win
By Piers Morgan
Daily Mail
September 25, 2019
SERIOUSLY, Mr President?
Just a few weeks after you were cleared by Special Counsel Robert Mueller of colluding with a foreign power to fix the 2016 Election, you called the leader of another foreign power asking him to investigate your main presidential rival Joe Biden for the 2020 Election?
Have you lost your mind????
That was my first reaction when I read the bombshell transcript of Donald Trump’s July conversation with Ukraine’s President Volodymr Zelensky.
On any level, this was spectacularly ill-advised and brazen behavior, and far removed from the ‘perfect’ and ‘beautiful’ chat that President Trump led us to believe it had been.
And this is no longer ambiguous Washington rumor, it’s cold hard fact confirmed in Donald Trump’s own words, released in an official document from the White House.
Any impartial non-partisan observer who reads that transcript would conclude it’s at very least, highly inappropriate.
I certainly did.
Frankly, it’s absolutely shocking to me that President Trump would be so reckless so soon after the Mueller probe ended.
He must have known it would become public, and spark the very firestorm that is now erupting over it.
BUT, and it’s a very significant ‘but’, it wasn’t a crime.
At least, that was the clear determination of the Justice Department when its high-powered legal brains carefully studied the transcript after it was referred to them following a complaint by a mystery whistle-blower.
They concluded unequivocally that there was no criminal case to answer.
And the main reason for that, I suspect, is that it failed to establish the main charge – namely, that President Trump deliberately withdrew substantial aid to Ukraine unless they did his bidding on the investigation into Joe Biden.
So there was no ‘quid pro quo’, which would almost certainly have taken the conversation into very perilous legal waters.
Yes, Trump is heard saying ‘I’d like you to do us a favor’, and yes, he had withheld the aid just days before the call.
But there is no damning irrefutable connection proven between these two things in what has so far been published – no ‘smoking gun’.
And without it, we’re left with Trump asking the leader of Ukraine to investigate what he claims is possible - though vehemently denied - corruption in that country involving Biden’s son Hunter.
Many will think this is a not entirely unreasonable request given that Biden Snr was Vice-President at the time his son was being paid $50,000 a month to advise a dodgy Ukrainian gas company, Burisma Holdings, without, say his critics, any proper experience to do so.
As Vice-President, Joe Biden led US diplomatic efforts to protect Ukraine’s fledgling democracy and root out corruption after mass protests ousted former President Viktor Yanukovych.
Burisma, on whose board Hunter Biden sat, had links to Yanukovych that prompted corruption probes and caused the Obama White House to panic about a potentially damaging conflict of interest.
No such conflict has ever been proven, but the stench of suspicion surrounding Hunter Biden’s activities in Ukraine remains and seems a legitimate issue of concern if his father wants to be President. The bottom line is this: Hunter was only valuable to Burisma because his dad was Vice-President, so what did he do for them?
The transcript reveals that Trump also asked President Zelensky to look into whether he could find Hillary Clinton’s infamous missing email server, which he said he’d been told might have ended up in Ukraine.
Again, many, particularly among Trump’s base, will think that’s not an outrageous request given how central it was to a criminal investigation that may have affected the 2016 Election.
Yet outraged Democrats think all this is deadly serious presidential misconduct, have decided to risk dying on this Ukraine hill, and are now moving to impeach the President.
And by doing so, I think they’re making a terrible political mistake that may well cause them to end up.. dying on this hill.
Impeachment is a very rare thing in America.
Only three Presidents have ever been impeached – Andrew Johnson, Bill Clinton and Richard Nixon.
None of them was convicted though Nixon would have been had he not resigned.
To be successful, an impeachment process must pass through the House of Representatives and then go to trial in the Senate.
And there’s the big problem for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her fellow Democrats.
They’ll almost certainly get Trump’s impeachment through the House where they hold a majority. In fact, the votes are already almost there.
But as things stand, they don’t have a cat in hell’s chance of getting Trump convicted in the Senate, where 67 of 100 votes are needed to succeed and there are currently 53 Republican Senators.
So unless some new dynamite piece of information emerges during the investigations then this bid will inevitably fail, and everyone knows it.
And everyone also knows how gleefully Trump likes to seize on failure and mock ‘losers’.
He shamelessly used the Mueller Report to go on a seemingly never-ending one-man ticker tape parade, branding the media who obsessed about it ‘fake news’ and his political opponents a bunch of useless wastrels who got their come-uppance for lying about him.
Just imagine what Trump would do with an impeachment acquittal in the run-up to November, 2020?!
So why in hell have the Democrats done this?
Well, I believe it’s what NFL fans call a ‘Hail Mary Pass’, one made in desperation with the knowledge that it has very little chance of success.
The quarterback, Ms Pelosi, has hurled the impeachment ball into the air after intense pressure from her own side, and is hoping it somehow lands in the end zone with enough mud to sink Trump’s re-election chances.
She’s done it, after repeatedly saying she wouldn’t, because Pelosi is a smart long-serving Washington cookie that has read the election tealeaves and reached the sobering conclusion Trump’s increasingly likely to win re-election.
The US economy’s doing well, certainly by comparison to most other countries, and when sitting presidents run for re-election on the back of a strong economy, they invariably win again.
There’s also the issue of who could beat him anyway?
The Democrat presidential candidate field looks increasingly lackluster, and I don’t think Trump fears any of them with the possible exception of Biden who despite his age remains a canny operator.
Yet the irony of this impeachment development is that it may end up doing more harm to Biden than Trump.
There are, as I said, very genuine questions to be asked as to exactly what Hunter Biden was doing in Ukraine for his $50,000 a month, while his father held one the second highest office in America.
What did he promise them when he joined?
What influence did he wield?
Did his father intervene to prevent his son being investigated?
Biden Snr says they never discussed it, which seems highly implausible, not least because Biden Jr said they did at least once.
Whatever the truth, it will all come out in these impeachment investigations, and if the Bidens aren’t being entirely straight then it could be Joe who is politically scalped, not Trump.
So, I find this impeachment move inexplicable.
‘It turned out to be a nothing call,’ Trump said today.
No, it didn’t Mr President.
It was a very dumb call to have made.
But nowhere as dumb as the Democrats’ call to try to impeach you over it.
THAT call may cost them the election next year.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Instead of making that dumb call, Trump should have had Donald Jr. contact Zelensky to make that request.
As for the impeachment, Nancy Pelosi caved in to the demands of Jerry Nadler, Adam Schitt (oops, typo) and AOC. Schitt insists Trump’s request was linked to US military aid and called the phone call “A classic Mafia-like shakedown.”
The Democrats are dismissive of the Justice Department’s unequivocal conclusion that there was no criminal case to answer by accusing AG William Barr of acting as Trump’s personal attorney.
By Piers Morgan
Daily Mail
September 25, 2019
SERIOUSLY, Mr President?
Just a few weeks after you were cleared by Special Counsel Robert Mueller of colluding with a foreign power to fix the 2016 Election, you called the leader of another foreign power asking him to investigate your main presidential rival Joe Biden for the 2020 Election?
Have you lost your mind????
That was my first reaction when I read the bombshell transcript of Donald Trump’s July conversation with Ukraine’s President Volodymr Zelensky.
On any level, this was spectacularly ill-advised and brazen behavior, and far removed from the ‘perfect’ and ‘beautiful’ chat that President Trump led us to believe it had been.
And this is no longer ambiguous Washington rumor, it’s cold hard fact confirmed in Donald Trump’s own words, released in an official document from the White House.
Any impartial non-partisan observer who reads that transcript would conclude it’s at very least, highly inappropriate.
I certainly did.
Frankly, it’s absolutely shocking to me that President Trump would be so reckless so soon after the Mueller probe ended.
He must have known it would become public, and spark the very firestorm that is now erupting over it.
BUT, and it’s a very significant ‘but’, it wasn’t a crime.
At least, that was the clear determination of the Justice Department when its high-powered legal brains carefully studied the transcript after it was referred to them following a complaint by a mystery whistle-blower.
They concluded unequivocally that there was no criminal case to answer.
And the main reason for that, I suspect, is that it failed to establish the main charge – namely, that President Trump deliberately withdrew substantial aid to Ukraine unless they did his bidding on the investigation into Joe Biden.
So there was no ‘quid pro quo’, which would almost certainly have taken the conversation into very perilous legal waters.
Yes, Trump is heard saying ‘I’d like you to do us a favor’, and yes, he had withheld the aid just days before the call.
But there is no damning irrefutable connection proven between these two things in what has so far been published – no ‘smoking gun’.
And without it, we’re left with Trump asking the leader of Ukraine to investigate what he claims is possible - though vehemently denied - corruption in that country involving Biden’s son Hunter.
Many will think this is a not entirely unreasonable request given that Biden Snr was Vice-President at the time his son was being paid $50,000 a month to advise a dodgy Ukrainian gas company, Burisma Holdings, without, say his critics, any proper experience to do so.
As Vice-President, Joe Biden led US diplomatic efforts to protect Ukraine’s fledgling democracy and root out corruption after mass protests ousted former President Viktor Yanukovych.
Burisma, on whose board Hunter Biden sat, had links to Yanukovych that prompted corruption probes and caused the Obama White House to panic about a potentially damaging conflict of interest.
No such conflict has ever been proven, but the stench of suspicion surrounding Hunter Biden’s activities in Ukraine remains and seems a legitimate issue of concern if his father wants to be President. The bottom line is this: Hunter was only valuable to Burisma because his dad was Vice-President, so what did he do for them?
The transcript reveals that Trump also asked President Zelensky to look into whether he could find Hillary Clinton’s infamous missing email server, which he said he’d been told might have ended up in Ukraine.
Again, many, particularly among Trump’s base, will think that’s not an outrageous request given how central it was to a criminal investigation that may have affected the 2016 Election.
Yet outraged Democrats think all this is deadly serious presidential misconduct, have decided to risk dying on this Ukraine hill, and are now moving to impeach the President.
And by doing so, I think they’re making a terrible political mistake that may well cause them to end up.. dying on this hill.
Impeachment is a very rare thing in America.
Only three Presidents have ever been impeached – Andrew Johnson, Bill Clinton and Richard Nixon.
None of them was convicted though Nixon would have been had he not resigned.
To be successful, an impeachment process must pass through the House of Representatives and then go to trial in the Senate.
And there’s the big problem for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her fellow Democrats.
They’ll almost certainly get Trump’s impeachment through the House where they hold a majority. In fact, the votes are already almost there.
But as things stand, they don’t have a cat in hell’s chance of getting Trump convicted in the Senate, where 67 of 100 votes are needed to succeed and there are currently 53 Republican Senators.
So unless some new dynamite piece of information emerges during the investigations then this bid will inevitably fail, and everyone knows it.
And everyone also knows how gleefully Trump likes to seize on failure and mock ‘losers’.
He shamelessly used the Mueller Report to go on a seemingly never-ending one-man ticker tape parade, branding the media who obsessed about it ‘fake news’ and his political opponents a bunch of useless wastrels who got their come-uppance for lying about him.
Just imagine what Trump would do with an impeachment acquittal in the run-up to November, 2020?!
So why in hell have the Democrats done this?
Well, I believe it’s what NFL fans call a ‘Hail Mary Pass’, one made in desperation with the knowledge that it has very little chance of success.
The quarterback, Ms Pelosi, has hurled the impeachment ball into the air after intense pressure from her own side, and is hoping it somehow lands in the end zone with enough mud to sink Trump’s re-election chances.
She’s done it, after repeatedly saying she wouldn’t, because Pelosi is a smart long-serving Washington cookie that has read the election tealeaves and reached the sobering conclusion Trump’s increasingly likely to win re-election.
The US economy’s doing well, certainly by comparison to most other countries, and when sitting presidents run for re-election on the back of a strong economy, they invariably win again.
There’s also the issue of who could beat him anyway?
The Democrat presidential candidate field looks increasingly lackluster, and I don’t think Trump fears any of them with the possible exception of Biden who despite his age remains a canny operator.
Yet the irony of this impeachment development is that it may end up doing more harm to Biden than Trump.
There are, as I said, very genuine questions to be asked as to exactly what Hunter Biden was doing in Ukraine for his $50,000 a month, while his father held one the second highest office in America.
What did he promise them when he joined?
What influence did he wield?
Did his father intervene to prevent his son being investigated?
Biden Snr says they never discussed it, which seems highly implausible, not least because Biden Jr said they did at least once.
Whatever the truth, it will all come out in these impeachment investigations, and if the Bidens aren’t being entirely straight then it could be Joe who is politically scalped, not Trump.
So, I find this impeachment move inexplicable.
‘It turned out to be a nothing call,’ Trump said today.
No, it didn’t Mr President.
It was a very dumb call to have made.
But nowhere as dumb as the Democrats’ call to try to impeach you over it.
THAT call may cost them the election next year.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Instead of making that dumb call, Trump should have had Donald Jr. contact Zelensky to make that request.
As for the impeachment, Nancy Pelosi caved in to the demands of Jerry Nadler, Adam Schitt (oops, typo) and AOC. Schitt insists Trump’s request was linked to US military aid and called the phone call “A classic Mafia-like shakedown.”
The Democrats are dismissive of the Justice Department’s unequivocal conclusion that there was no criminal case to answer by accusing AG William Barr of acting as Trump’s personal attorney.
NANCY PELOSI JUMPS ON BOARD THE CRAZY TRAIN
by Bob Walsh
Nancy Pelosi, while being a hard-core San Francisco liberal, used to be at least something of a political pragmatist. She knew that you usually avoided fights you could not win.
She has jumped on board the IMPEACHMENT train. It is hard to say if she thinks she can really pull it off (absent some actual evidence of actual criminality that is hard to believe) or simply sees that the Democrat-Socialist political wind is blowing too strongly in that direction to fight.
Perhaps she thinks they can convince enough middle-of-the-road voters that, if they scream CRIMINAL loud enough and long enough it will be true. That is far from impossible.
One thing is for sure. Clinton was impeached for actual, unquestioned criminal activity. No doubt about it. He committed perjury by lying about his games of hide the salami with Monica. He was disbarred for it. Still the senate would not vote to convict. (Granted, that was private criminal conduct and not political misconduct, which is allegedly occurring with Trump.) It seems more likely that they just hope to damage him badly enough to make him unelectable. Will his base abandon him? I doubt it. Unless something pops up that we don't yet see coming what we have now is a lot of baseless and even stupid accusations with zero evidence. Zero.
Doesn't mean it won't work.
Nancy Pelosi, while being a hard-core San Francisco liberal, used to be at least something of a political pragmatist. She knew that you usually avoided fights you could not win.
She has jumped on board the IMPEACHMENT train. It is hard to say if she thinks she can really pull it off (absent some actual evidence of actual criminality that is hard to believe) or simply sees that the Democrat-Socialist political wind is blowing too strongly in that direction to fight.
Perhaps she thinks they can convince enough middle-of-the-road voters that, if they scream CRIMINAL loud enough and long enough it will be true. That is far from impossible.
One thing is for sure. Clinton was impeached for actual, unquestioned criminal activity. No doubt about it. He committed perjury by lying about his games of hide the salami with Monica. He was disbarred for it. Still the senate would not vote to convict. (Granted, that was private criminal conduct and not political misconduct, which is allegedly occurring with Trump.) It seems more likely that they just hope to damage him badly enough to make him unelectable. Will his base abandon him? I doubt it. Unless something pops up that we don't yet see coming what we have now is a lot of baseless and even stupid accusations with zero evidence. Zero.
Doesn't mean it won't work.
DESPITE CONSTANT ATTACKS AGAINST HIM, A BLOODIED TRUMP WINS MORE THAN HE LOSES
The Real Reason for Trump Derangement Syndrome
By Victor Davis Hanson
The Daily Signal
September 19, 2019
Donald Trump is waging a nonstop, all-encompassing war against progressive culture, in magnitude analogous to what 19th-century Germans once called a Kulturkampf.
As a result, not even former President George W. Bush has incurred the degree of hatred from the left that is now directed at Trump. For most of his time in office, Trump, his family, his friends, and his businesses have been investigated, probed, dissected, and constantly attacked.
In 2016 and early 2017, Barack Obama appointees in the FBI, CIA, and Department of Justice tried to subvert the Trump campaign, interfere with his transition, and, ultimately, abort his presidency. Now, congressional Democrats promise impeachment before the 2020 election.
The usual reason for such hatred is said to be Trump’s unorthodox and combative take-no-prisoners style. Critics detest his crude and unfettered assertions, his lack of prior military or political experience, his attacks on the so-called bipartisan administrative state, and his intent to roll back the entire Obama-era effort of “fundamentally transforming” the country leftward.
Certainly, Trump’s agenda of closing the border, using tariffs to overturn a half-century of Chinese mercantilism, and pulling back from optional overseas military interventions variously offends both Democrats and establishment Republicans.
Trump periodically and mercurially fires his top officials. He apparently does not care whether the departed write damning memoirs or join his opposition. He will soon appoint his fourth national security adviser within just three years.
To make things worse for his critics, Trump’s economy is booming as never before in the new 21st century: near record-low unemployment, a record number of Americans working, increases in workers’ wages and family incomes, low interest rates, low inflation, steady GDP growth, and a strong stock market.
Yet the real source of Trump derangement syndrome is his desire to wage a multifront pushback—politically, socially, economically, and culturally—against what might be called the elite postmodern progressive world.
Contemporary elites increasingly see nationalism and patriotism as passé. Borders are 19th-century holdovers.
The European Union, not the U.S. Constitution, is seen as the preferable model to run a nation. Transnational and global organizations are wiser on environmental and diplomatic matters than is the U.S. government.
The media can no longer afford to be nonpartisan and impartial in its effort to rid America of a reactionary such as Trump, given his danger to the progressive future.
America’s ancient sins can never really be forgiven. In a new spirit of iconoclasm, thousands of buildings, monuments, and statues dedicated to American sinners of the past must be destroyed, removed, or renamed.
A new America supposedly is marching forward under the banner of ending fossil fuels, curbing the Second Amendment, redistributing income, promoting identity politics and open borders, and providing free college, free health care, and abortion on demand.
An insomniac Trump fights all of the above nonstop and everywhere. In the past, Republican presidents sought to slow the progressive transformation of America but despaired of ever stopping it.
No slugfest is too off-topic or trivial for Trump. Sometimes that means calling out former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick for persuading NFL stars to kneel during the national anthem. Huge, monopolistic Silicon Valley companies are special Trump targets. Sometimes Trump enters cul-de-sac Twitter wars with Hollywood has-beens who have attacked him and his policies.
Trump variously goes after Antifa, political correctness on campus, the NATO hierarchy, the radical green movement, Planned Parenthood, American universities, and, above all, the media—especially CNN, The Washington Post, and The New York Times.
For all the acrimony and chaos—and prognostications of Trump’s certain failure—a bloodied Trump wins more than he loses. NATO members may hate Trump, but more are finally paying their promised defense contributions.
In retrospect, many Americans concede that the Iran deal was flawed and that the Paris climate accord mere virtue-signaling. China was long due for a reckoning.
Special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation proved fruitless and was further diminished by Mueller’s bizarrely incoherent congressional testimony.
Some of the most prominent Trump haters—Michael Avenatti, James Comey, Andrew McCabe, Anthony Scaramucci, and Rep. Adam Schiff—either have been discredited or have become increasingly irrelevant.
Trump has so enraged his Democratic adversaries that the candidates to replace him have moved farther to the left than any primary field in memory. They loathe Trump, but in their abject hatred he has goaded the various Democratic candidates into revealing their support for the crazy Green New Deal, reparations for slavery, relaxed immigration policies, and trillions of dollars in new free stuff.
In a way, the left-wing Democratic presidential candidates understand Trump best. If he wins his one-man crusade to stop the progressive project, they are finished, and their own party will make the necessary adjustments and then sheepishly drift back toward the center.
By Victor Davis Hanson
The Daily Signal
September 19, 2019
Donald Trump is waging a nonstop, all-encompassing war against progressive culture, in magnitude analogous to what 19th-century Germans once called a Kulturkampf.
As a result, not even former President George W. Bush has incurred the degree of hatred from the left that is now directed at Trump. For most of his time in office, Trump, his family, his friends, and his businesses have been investigated, probed, dissected, and constantly attacked.
In 2016 and early 2017, Barack Obama appointees in the FBI, CIA, and Department of Justice tried to subvert the Trump campaign, interfere with his transition, and, ultimately, abort his presidency. Now, congressional Democrats promise impeachment before the 2020 election.
The usual reason for such hatred is said to be Trump’s unorthodox and combative take-no-prisoners style. Critics detest his crude and unfettered assertions, his lack of prior military or political experience, his attacks on the so-called bipartisan administrative state, and his intent to roll back the entire Obama-era effort of “fundamentally transforming” the country leftward.
Certainly, Trump’s agenda of closing the border, using tariffs to overturn a half-century of Chinese mercantilism, and pulling back from optional overseas military interventions variously offends both Democrats and establishment Republicans.
Trump periodically and mercurially fires his top officials. He apparently does not care whether the departed write damning memoirs or join his opposition. He will soon appoint his fourth national security adviser within just three years.
To make things worse for his critics, Trump’s economy is booming as never before in the new 21st century: near record-low unemployment, a record number of Americans working, increases in workers’ wages and family incomes, low interest rates, low inflation, steady GDP growth, and a strong stock market.
Yet the real source of Trump derangement syndrome is his desire to wage a multifront pushback—politically, socially, economically, and culturally—against what might be called the elite postmodern progressive world.
Contemporary elites increasingly see nationalism and patriotism as passé. Borders are 19th-century holdovers.
The European Union, not the U.S. Constitution, is seen as the preferable model to run a nation. Transnational and global organizations are wiser on environmental and diplomatic matters than is the U.S. government.
The media can no longer afford to be nonpartisan and impartial in its effort to rid America of a reactionary such as Trump, given his danger to the progressive future.
America’s ancient sins can never really be forgiven. In a new spirit of iconoclasm, thousands of buildings, monuments, and statues dedicated to American sinners of the past must be destroyed, removed, or renamed.
A new America supposedly is marching forward under the banner of ending fossil fuels, curbing the Second Amendment, redistributing income, promoting identity politics and open borders, and providing free college, free health care, and abortion on demand.
An insomniac Trump fights all of the above nonstop and everywhere. In the past, Republican presidents sought to slow the progressive transformation of America but despaired of ever stopping it.
No slugfest is too off-topic or trivial for Trump. Sometimes that means calling out former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick for persuading NFL stars to kneel during the national anthem. Huge, monopolistic Silicon Valley companies are special Trump targets. Sometimes Trump enters cul-de-sac Twitter wars with Hollywood has-beens who have attacked him and his policies.
Trump variously goes after Antifa, political correctness on campus, the NATO hierarchy, the radical green movement, Planned Parenthood, American universities, and, above all, the media—especially CNN, The Washington Post, and The New York Times.
For all the acrimony and chaos—and prognostications of Trump’s certain failure—a bloodied Trump wins more than he loses. NATO members may hate Trump, but more are finally paying their promised defense contributions.
In retrospect, many Americans concede that the Iran deal was flawed and that the Paris climate accord mere virtue-signaling. China was long due for a reckoning.
Special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation proved fruitless and was further diminished by Mueller’s bizarrely incoherent congressional testimony.
Some of the most prominent Trump haters—Michael Avenatti, James Comey, Andrew McCabe, Anthony Scaramucci, and Rep. Adam Schiff—either have been discredited or have become increasingly irrelevant.
Trump has so enraged his Democratic adversaries that the candidates to replace him have moved farther to the left than any primary field in memory. They loathe Trump, but in their abject hatred he has goaded the various Democratic candidates into revealing their support for the crazy Green New Deal, reparations for slavery, relaxed immigration policies, and trillions of dollars in new free stuff.
In a way, the left-wing Democratic presidential candidates understand Trump best. If he wins his one-man crusade to stop the progressive project, they are finished, and their own party will make the necessary adjustments and then sheepishly drift back toward the center.
THEY SHOULD HAVE STUCK WITH FORD
Fremont police Tesla runs low on juice during high-speed chase
By Joseph Geha
The Mercury News
September 24, 2019
FREMONT, Calif. -- The last thing a police officer trying to chase down a suspect in a high-speed pursuit needs to see is a warning that their patrol car is running low on gas — or on battery juice.
But that’s how it went down Friday night in Fremont — in a Tesla no less. A Fremont police officer pursuing a suspect while driving the department’s Tesla Model S patrol car noticed it was running out of battery power.
During the pursuit of a “felony vehicle” that started in Fremont and reached peak speeds of about 120 miles per hour on the highway, the officer driving the Tesla radioed in to dispatch that he might not be able to continue the chase he was leading.
“I am down to six miles of battery on the Tesla so I may lose it here in a sec,” Officer Jesse Hartman said.
“If someone else is able, can they maneuver into the number one spot?,” he asked fellow officers nearby, as the chase approached the Jacklin Road exit on Interstate 680 south in Milpitas.
However, shortly after Hartman called out the low juice warning, the person driving the car police were chasing began driving on the shoulder of the highway as traffic was thickening, prompting police to call off the roughly eight-minute chase at that moment for safety, according to police dispatch recordings on Broadcastify and a department spokeswoman.
So the Fremont cops pulled off the highway in San Jose and headed back to their city — but not before the officer in the Tesla made a pit stop.
“I’ve got to try to find a charging station for the Tesla so I can make it back to the city,” Hartman said over the radio.
He eventually found a charger in San Jose to juice up his car, said Geneva Bosques, a Fremont police department spokeswoman.
Apparently the Tesla had not been recharged after the previous shift before Hartman took it out for his swing shift Friday, so the battery level was lower than it normally would have been, Bosques said. She couldn’t provide details on why it wasn’t charged.
“Hartman was monitoring the charge and responsibly notifying everyone of its status,” she said in a text Tuesday, noting the department had other officers as well as California Highway Patrol available to take over the pursuit if needed.
The CHP informed Fremont police that the car they were chasing was later found crashed into some bushes not far from where the chase was called off, and the driver was not found, Bosques said. The felony warrant associated with the car is from the Santa Clara Police Department.
Fremont’s police department made headlines earlier this year when this news organization broke the story that it would likely become the first police agency in the nation to roll out a Tesla as part of its patrol fleet.
The used 2014 Tesla Model S is considered part of a pilot program, to determine whether electric vehicles are suitable for police use on a larger scale.
The department spent a tad over $61,000 to buy the car from Tesla in 2018 — which has its main manufacturing factory in Fremont — and spent over a year modifying the car to get it ready for police use, officially rolling it out in March.
The used Tesla cost approximately $20,000 more than a new Ford Explorer police vehicle that the department uses for its other patrol vehicles, though officials said they expect to save on fuel and maintenance costs over the long run with the Tesla.
The department says it has been monitoring how the vehicle performs, and tracking metrics such as electricity costs versus fuel costs. Department leaders are expected to report their findings to the city council soon about how effective the car has been, and any potential shortfalls.
Fremont Police Capt. Sean Washington said in a July interview that things were going well with the Tesla pilot program, which had already been involved in at least one other pursuit at that time.
“So far so good,” Washington said, noting there is usually about 40 to 50 percent battery life left after a normal shift. “We are easily able to make it through an 11-hour shift with battery power to spare.”
By Joseph Geha
The Mercury News
September 24, 2019
FREMONT, Calif. -- The last thing a police officer trying to chase down a suspect in a high-speed pursuit needs to see is a warning that their patrol car is running low on gas — or on battery juice.
But that’s how it went down Friday night in Fremont — in a Tesla no less. A Fremont police officer pursuing a suspect while driving the department’s Tesla Model S patrol car noticed it was running out of battery power.
During the pursuit of a “felony vehicle” that started in Fremont and reached peak speeds of about 120 miles per hour on the highway, the officer driving the Tesla radioed in to dispatch that he might not be able to continue the chase he was leading.
“I am down to six miles of battery on the Tesla so I may lose it here in a sec,” Officer Jesse Hartman said.
“If someone else is able, can they maneuver into the number one spot?,” he asked fellow officers nearby, as the chase approached the Jacklin Road exit on Interstate 680 south in Milpitas.
However, shortly after Hartman called out the low juice warning, the person driving the car police were chasing began driving on the shoulder of the highway as traffic was thickening, prompting police to call off the roughly eight-minute chase at that moment for safety, according to police dispatch recordings on Broadcastify and a department spokeswoman.
So the Fremont cops pulled off the highway in San Jose and headed back to their city — but not before the officer in the Tesla made a pit stop.
“I’ve got to try to find a charging station for the Tesla so I can make it back to the city,” Hartman said over the radio.
He eventually found a charger in San Jose to juice up his car, said Geneva Bosques, a Fremont police department spokeswoman.
Apparently the Tesla had not been recharged after the previous shift before Hartman took it out for his swing shift Friday, so the battery level was lower than it normally would have been, Bosques said. She couldn’t provide details on why it wasn’t charged.
“Hartman was monitoring the charge and responsibly notifying everyone of its status,” she said in a text Tuesday, noting the department had other officers as well as California Highway Patrol available to take over the pursuit if needed.
The CHP informed Fremont police that the car they were chasing was later found crashed into some bushes not far from where the chase was called off, and the driver was not found, Bosques said. The felony warrant associated with the car is from the Santa Clara Police Department.
Fremont’s police department made headlines earlier this year when this news organization broke the story that it would likely become the first police agency in the nation to roll out a Tesla as part of its patrol fleet.
The used 2014 Tesla Model S is considered part of a pilot program, to determine whether electric vehicles are suitable for police use on a larger scale.
The department spent a tad over $61,000 to buy the car from Tesla in 2018 — which has its main manufacturing factory in Fremont — and spent over a year modifying the car to get it ready for police use, officially rolling it out in March.
The used Tesla cost approximately $20,000 more than a new Ford Explorer police vehicle that the department uses for its other patrol vehicles, though officials said they expect to save on fuel and maintenance costs over the long run with the Tesla.
The department says it has been monitoring how the vehicle performs, and tracking metrics such as electricity costs versus fuel costs. Department leaders are expected to report their findings to the city council soon about how effective the car has been, and any potential shortfalls.
Fremont Police Capt. Sean Washington said in a July interview that things were going well with the Tesla pilot program, which had already been involved in at least one other pursuit at that time.
“So far so good,” Washington said, noting there is usually about 40 to 50 percent battery life left after a normal shift. “We are easily able to make it through an 11-hour shift with battery power to spare.”
NETANYAHU STOOD UP TO BARACK OBAMA’S UTOPIAN AND NAÏVE ALLIANCE WITH THE EXPORTERS OF WORLDWIDE TERROR
João Lemos Esteves, a lecturer in the Law Faculty of the University of Lisbon and a contributor to two major Portuguese newspapers, penned an open letter of gratitude to Netanyahu
Here, from Israel Hayom, is just a part of that letter:
For me, the most relevant thing is the resolution to defend the existence and security of the State of Israel.
Even now when most political analysts say you are weaker than you've been in a decade, I say thank you. Gratitude is not valued in politics but it is still an imperative of human conscience.
Thank you, Mr. Prime Minister, for standing up to radical Islamic terrorism, when the so-called “international community” was drunk in love with US President Barack Obama’s utopian and naive alliance with the exporters of worldwide terror. You had the courage to defy these "geniuses" and defend Israel and its values.
Thank you, Mr. Prime Minister, for denouncing the barbaric regime of Iran's ayatollahs, who keep their own people hostage while spreading violence, fear, and death all over the world.
Iran is an existential threat to our values, our countries, and our peoples.
And thank you, Mr. Prime Minister, for denouncing so bravely the disastrous Iran nuclear deal – an evil strangely embraced by the main European nations. (Thank God, US President Donald Trump withdrew his country from such a terrible international accord.)
Thank you, Mr. Prime Minister, for making Israel a true startup nation with a great sense of innovation, entrepreneurship and economic growth. Israel has become an example to the whole world of a dynamic and boundlessly creative society with a thriving economy.
Despite all the criticism, Mr. Prime Minister, I know with 100% certainty that, whatever happens, you will be, as Trump says all the time, the first cheerleader for Israel around the world. You are a true patriot who knows that there is nothing more important than acting in Israel's best long-term interests.
Here, from Israel Hayom, is just a part of that letter:
For me, the most relevant thing is the resolution to defend the existence and security of the State of Israel.
Even now when most political analysts say you are weaker than you've been in a decade, I say thank you. Gratitude is not valued in politics but it is still an imperative of human conscience.
Thank you, Mr. Prime Minister, for standing up to radical Islamic terrorism, when the so-called “international community” was drunk in love with US President Barack Obama’s utopian and naive alliance with the exporters of worldwide terror. You had the courage to defy these "geniuses" and defend Israel and its values.
Thank you, Mr. Prime Minister, for denouncing the barbaric regime of Iran's ayatollahs, who keep their own people hostage while spreading violence, fear, and death all over the world.
Iran is an existential threat to our values, our countries, and our peoples.
And thank you, Mr. Prime Minister, for denouncing so bravely the disastrous Iran nuclear deal – an evil strangely embraced by the main European nations. (Thank God, US President Donald Trump withdrew his country from such a terrible international accord.)
Thank you, Mr. Prime Minister, for making Israel a true startup nation with a great sense of innovation, entrepreneurship and economic growth. Israel has become an example to the whole world of a dynamic and boundlessly creative society with a thriving economy.
Despite all the criticism, Mr. Prime Minister, I know with 100% certainty that, whatever happens, you will be, as Trump says all the time, the first cheerleader for Israel around the world. You are a true patriot who knows that there is nothing more important than acting in Israel's best long-term interests.
Wednesday, September 25, 2019
TEEN AGE SWEDISH ECO WARRIOR GETS MIXED REACTIONS
Liberals think Greta Thunberg is the Second Coming, while conservative think she is doing the work of Satan
Daily Mail
September 24, 2019
PIERS MORGAN: Grating Greta's a vulnerable young drama queen who should go back to school, but President Trump must stop mocking her and start listening - because but she's right about climate change
If you're a liberal, she's a brilliantly passionate teenage firebrand single-handedly saving the planet and torching useless politicians with much-needed fire.
If you're a conservative, she's a whining, crying, annoyingly self-righteous weirdo who is massively exaggerating the imminent threat posed by climate change and just 'doesn't get it'.
__________
Fox News host Laura Ingraham compares climate change activist Greta Thunberg, 16, to creepy kids from Stephen King's Children of the Corn - hours after another pundit called her a 'mentally ill child'
Fox News host Laura Ingraham has come under fire for comparing teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg to the murderous youth in the 1984 horror film Children of the Corn.
She mocked the 16-year-old Swedish environment activist on the Ingraham hour for her impassioned speech at the United Nations Climate Summit on Monday.
She compared the speech to Stephen King's film Children of the Corn, which is about disturbed, murderous children in Nebraska who kill all the adults in the town. 'I can't wait for Stephen King's sequel Children of the Climate,' Ingraham said.
Her incendiary comment came just hours after another Fox panelist slammed Thunberg as a 'mentally ill Swedish child.'
__________
Kentucky governor calls teen climate activist Greta Thunberg 'remarkably ill-informed' and says the US should NOT rush into replacing coal and other fossil fuels
Kentucky Governor Matt Bevin has described teen climate activist Greta Thunberg as 'remarkably ill-informed' while attending a conference on energy.
Bevin, 52, made the remark on Tuesday, after giving a keynote address at the annual meeting of the Southern States Energy Board in Louisville.
When asked about Thunberg, 16, the Governor replied: 'She is an intelligent young woman, she's very emotional, she's very passionate and she's remarkably ill-informed'.
Daily Mail
September 24, 2019
PIERS MORGAN: Grating Greta's a vulnerable young drama queen who should go back to school, but President Trump must stop mocking her and start listening - because but she's right about climate change
If you're a liberal, she's a brilliantly passionate teenage firebrand single-handedly saving the planet and torching useless politicians with much-needed fire.
If you're a conservative, she's a whining, crying, annoyingly self-righteous weirdo who is massively exaggerating the imminent threat posed by climate change and just 'doesn't get it'.
__________
Fox News host Laura Ingraham compares climate change activist Greta Thunberg, 16, to creepy kids from Stephen King's Children of the Corn - hours after another pundit called her a 'mentally ill child'
Fox News host Laura Ingraham has come under fire for comparing teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg to the murderous youth in the 1984 horror film Children of the Corn.
She mocked the 16-year-old Swedish environment activist on the Ingraham hour for her impassioned speech at the United Nations Climate Summit on Monday.
She compared the speech to Stephen King's film Children of the Corn, which is about disturbed, murderous children in Nebraska who kill all the adults in the town. 'I can't wait for Stephen King's sequel Children of the Climate,' Ingraham said.
Her incendiary comment came just hours after another Fox panelist slammed Thunberg as a 'mentally ill Swedish child.'
__________
Kentucky governor calls teen climate activist Greta Thunberg 'remarkably ill-informed' and says the US should NOT rush into replacing coal and other fossil fuels
Kentucky Governor Matt Bevin has described teen climate activist Greta Thunberg as 'remarkably ill-informed' while attending a conference on energy.
Bevin, 52, made the remark on Tuesday, after giving a keynote address at the annual meeting of the Southern States Energy Board in Louisville.
When asked about Thunberg, 16, the Governor replied: 'She is an intelligent young woman, she's very emotional, she's very passionate and she's remarkably ill-informed'.
OK, THAT IS GOING TO BE INTERESTING ... AND GROSS
by Bob Walsh
Harate is a city of about 2 million people and is the capital of Zimbabwe. I admit I did not know that, and don't really care. The interesting thing is that their drinking water treatment system is now shut down because they are out of hard currency to pay for the chemicals they need for their water treatment plant. People are re-activating old wells and getting water from other highly dubious sources. Expect out breaks of interesting diseases any time now.
Maybe Bernie Sanders and AOC should go over there and tell them how lucky they are not to have to deal with chemicals in their drinking water put there by Donald Trump and the evil Republicans.
Harate is a city of about 2 million people and is the capital of Zimbabwe. I admit I did not know that, and don't really care. The interesting thing is that their drinking water treatment system is now shut down because they are out of hard currency to pay for the chemicals they need for their water treatment plant. People are re-activating old wells and getting water from other highly dubious sources. Expect out breaks of interesting diseases any time now.
Maybe Bernie Sanders and AOC should go over there and tell them how lucky they are not to have to deal with chemicals in their drinking water put there by Donald Trump and the evil Republicans.
MORE EVIDENCE OF WHY A GOOD HOLSTER IS AN IMPORTANT FIREARMS ACCESSORY
by Bob Walsh
There have been two unfortunate shootings in Kroeger stores in the last couple of weeks that seem to tie into this assertion.
In one of them, in Tennessee last week, a man was adjusting his pants when he admits he accidentally pulled the trigger of his pistol and it discharged, shooting himself in the leg. Most decent modern pistols are designed to cover the trigger guard just to prevent this sort of thing from happening. The man had a valid permit to carry but was issued some sort of citation by the Memphis P D that will require a court appearance in a few weeks.
The other incident occurred when a dropped pistol allegedly discharged when it hit the ground in a parking lot, seriously injuring the owner.
Kroeger has signs posted requesting that customers not carry firearms, but in much of the south and mid-west where Kroeger is big they have no ability to actually keep armed customers out of their stores.
There have been two unfortunate shootings in Kroeger stores in the last couple of weeks that seem to tie into this assertion.
In one of them, in Tennessee last week, a man was adjusting his pants when he admits he accidentally pulled the trigger of his pistol and it discharged, shooting himself in the leg. Most decent modern pistols are designed to cover the trigger guard just to prevent this sort of thing from happening. The man had a valid permit to carry but was issued some sort of citation by the Memphis P D that will require a court appearance in a few weeks.
The other incident occurred when a dropped pistol allegedly discharged when it hit the ground in a parking lot, seriously injuring the owner.
Kroeger has signs posted requesting that customers not carry firearms, but in much of the south and mid-west where Kroeger is big they have no ability to actually keep armed customers out of their stores.
THE FBI MAY HAVE FUCKED UP THE HOFFA CASE BUT WILL NOT ADMIT IT IN ORDER TO AVOID ANY EMBARRASSMENT
New book claims FBI knows Jimmy Hoffa's killer, but is keeping it secret
By Karma Allen
ABC News
September 24, 2019
A new book penned by Jack Goldsmith, a Harvard law professor and the former U.S. assistant attorney general, claims the FBI knows who killed legendary labor leader Jimmy Hoffa, but it won't admit that it blamed the wrong man.
In his new book, "In Hoffa’s Shadow," Goldsmith lays out his case for why he believes federal investigators allowed Chuckie O’Brien, the labor boss's protege, to be known as the key suspect in Hoffa’s mysterious disappearance in 1975, despite evidence proving otherwise.
Hoffa served as the president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters labor union until 1971, making him a hero to many blue-collar Americans. He also had powerful enemies and ties to organized crime.
Goldsmith is also O'Brien's stepson.
The conventional wisdom was that O’Brien picked up Hoffa from the parking lot of the Machus Red Fox restaurant in Michigan on July 30, 1975, and drove him to his death, Goldsmith told Detroit ABC affiliate WXYZ in an interview Monday, a day before the book's release.
"There were good reasons for the FBI to suspect [O’Brien]. He had recently had a break with Hoffa, he was in the vicinity of the Machus Red Fox the morning of the disappearance, and the afternoon of the disappearance," Goldsmith told WXYZ.
"The last known time, when Hoffa was thought to be alive, did not leave enough time given the other things we know about Chuckie's whereabouts," he added, citing unnamed agents who worked on the case.
Goldsmith said federal agents assigned to the case know who the real killer is, but won't reveal the person's name due to embarrassment over accusing the wrong man.
"They just didn’t want to take the political heat, admitting they had basically accused the wrong person -- or let linger the accusations against Chuckie for 40 years," Goldsmith said.
The author did hint at who he has been told the real killer is, saying, "That person I learned was a low-level member of the Detroit family in the 1970s who rose to prominence and is no longer alive. Beyond that I’m not going to say anything else."
Periodic searches for Hoffa's body have always turned up empty, including one in a Detroit lumberyard in 2009; a Roseville, Michigan, driveway in 2012; and a farm in Oakland Township, Michigan, in 2013.
A new film about Hoffa's death and disappearance, "The Irishman," written and directed by Martin Scorsese and starring Al Pacino as the labor leader, premieres at the New York Film Festival this week and will be released on Netflix in November. Robert De Niro stars as Frank Sheeran, the titular character, who reflects on his role in Hoffa's murder. The real Sheeran died in 2003.
By Karma Allen
ABC News
September 24, 2019
A new book penned by Jack Goldsmith, a Harvard law professor and the former U.S. assistant attorney general, claims the FBI knows who killed legendary labor leader Jimmy Hoffa, but it won't admit that it blamed the wrong man.
In his new book, "In Hoffa’s Shadow," Goldsmith lays out his case for why he believes federal investigators allowed Chuckie O’Brien, the labor boss's protege, to be known as the key suspect in Hoffa’s mysterious disappearance in 1975, despite evidence proving otherwise.
Hoffa served as the president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters labor union until 1971, making him a hero to many blue-collar Americans. He also had powerful enemies and ties to organized crime.
Goldsmith is also O'Brien's stepson.
The conventional wisdom was that O’Brien picked up Hoffa from the parking lot of the Machus Red Fox restaurant in Michigan on July 30, 1975, and drove him to his death, Goldsmith told Detroit ABC affiliate WXYZ in an interview Monday, a day before the book's release.
"There were good reasons for the FBI to suspect [O’Brien]. He had recently had a break with Hoffa, he was in the vicinity of the Machus Red Fox the morning of the disappearance, and the afternoon of the disappearance," Goldsmith told WXYZ.
"The last known time, when Hoffa was thought to be alive, did not leave enough time given the other things we know about Chuckie's whereabouts," he added, citing unnamed agents who worked on the case.
Goldsmith said federal agents assigned to the case know who the real killer is, but won't reveal the person's name due to embarrassment over accusing the wrong man.
"They just didn’t want to take the political heat, admitting they had basically accused the wrong person -- or let linger the accusations against Chuckie for 40 years," Goldsmith said.
The author did hint at who he has been told the real killer is, saying, "That person I learned was a low-level member of the Detroit family in the 1970s who rose to prominence and is no longer alive. Beyond that I’m not going to say anything else."
Periodic searches for Hoffa's body have always turned up empty, including one in a Detroit lumberyard in 2009; a Roseville, Michigan, driveway in 2012; and a farm in Oakland Township, Michigan, in 2013.
A new film about Hoffa's death and disappearance, "The Irishman," written and directed by Martin Scorsese and starring Al Pacino as the labor leader, premieres at the New York Film Festival this week and will be released on Netflix in November. Robert De Niro stars as Frank Sheeran, the titular character, who reflects on his role in Hoffa's murder. The real Sheeran died in 2003.
PETER GOTTI DESERVES EVERY BIT AS MUCH COMPASSION AS HE SHOWED THOSE WHO WERE RUBBED OUT BY HIM OR ON HIS ORDERS, BUT IF RELEASED, HE WILL JUST BE A RETIRED OLD MOBSTER
Feds oppose Peter Gotti’s request for compassionate release
By Emily Saul
New York Post
September 23, 2019
The feds aren’t feeling much compassion for Peter Gotti.
The 79-year-old former Gambino boss begged for compassionate release earlier this summer — asking to be sprung 17 years into his 25-year sentence due to medical issues including an enlarged prostate, gastric reflux and early onset dementia.
But prosecutors think the aging mafioso still poses a “substantial danger to the community” despite his laundry list of ailments, they wrote in a letter filed Monday.
“Gotti argues that he is incapable of his violence due to his age and medical condition,” writes Assistant US Attorney Jun Xiang while insisting that argument should be rejected.
“The danger posed by a Gambino Family leader like Gotti is not that he will personally engage in acts of violence, but that he can command others to do so.”
Gotti served as the acting boss of the Gambino organized crime family from 1999 to 2002, according to court papers, and spent an estimated $70,000 on failed attempts to hunt down Salvatore “Sammy the Bull” Gravano after the turncoat landed his brother John Gotti behind bars.
A judge has yet to rule on the request.
Gotti is serving time in a North Carolina federal lockup and is slated for release in 2032.
EDITOR’S NOTE: The feds are full of shit when they say Gotti can command others to engage in acts of violence. When he gets out of prison, Michael Paradiso, Lorenzo Mannino and Domenico “Italian Dom” Cefalu, the current leaders of the Gambino Family, are not about to let Gotti have any role in leading the organization. Gotti will just be a retired old mobster until he croaks from his illnesses or until he’s rubbed out like Paul Castellano was on orders of his brother, John Gotti.
By Emily Saul
New York Post
September 23, 2019
The feds aren’t feeling much compassion for Peter Gotti.
The 79-year-old former Gambino boss begged for compassionate release earlier this summer — asking to be sprung 17 years into his 25-year sentence due to medical issues including an enlarged prostate, gastric reflux and early onset dementia.
But prosecutors think the aging mafioso still poses a “substantial danger to the community” despite his laundry list of ailments, they wrote in a letter filed Monday.
“Gotti argues that he is incapable of his violence due to his age and medical condition,” writes Assistant US Attorney Jun Xiang while insisting that argument should be rejected.
“The danger posed by a Gambino Family leader like Gotti is not that he will personally engage in acts of violence, but that he can command others to do so.”
Gotti served as the acting boss of the Gambino organized crime family from 1999 to 2002, according to court papers, and spent an estimated $70,000 on failed attempts to hunt down Salvatore “Sammy the Bull” Gravano after the turncoat landed his brother John Gotti behind bars.
A judge has yet to rule on the request.
Gotti is serving time in a North Carolina federal lockup and is slated for release in 2032.
EDITOR’S NOTE: The feds are full of shit when they say Gotti can command others to engage in acts of violence. When he gets out of prison, Michael Paradiso, Lorenzo Mannino and Domenico “Italian Dom” Cefalu, the current leaders of the Gambino Family, are not about to let Gotti have any role in leading the organization. Gotti will just be a retired old mobster until he croaks from his illnesses or until he’s rubbed out like Paul Castellano was on orders of his brother, John Gotti.
Tuesday, September 24, 2019
THE ULTIMATE DISPLAY OF WHITE ARROGANCE
by Bob Walsh
Yesterday there was a CLIMATE EMERGENCY BLOCKAGE set up in Washington, D.C. Hundreds of young, mostly school age, middle class White kids (of which are nine actually live in D.C.) blocked the roads so that hard working mostly Black and Hispanic adults could not get their butts to work, costing many people from a couple of hours to a full days pay.
That boys and girls is liberal White arrogance on display.
Yesterday there was a CLIMATE EMERGENCY BLOCKAGE set up in Washington, D.C. Hundreds of young, mostly school age, middle class White kids (of which are nine actually live in D.C.) blocked the roads so that hard working mostly Black and Hispanic adults could not get their butts to work, costing many people from a couple of hours to a full days pay.
That boys and girls is liberal White arrogance on display.
COPS USED NEW TECHNOLGY TO STOP ‘FLASH SCOOTER MOB’ BY DISABLING SCOOTERS
LAPD Stops ‘Flash Scooter Mob’ Takeover Of DTLA
LAPPL News Watch
September 23, 2019
The Los Angeles Police Department stopped what it calls a “flash scooter mob” takeover of downtown and possibly the 101 Freeway late Saturday night.
LAPD is cracking down on street takeovers by groups of people riding electric scooters.
CBS2/KCAL9 reporter Cristy Fajardo talked to some of the scooter riders who said the gathering was just a meet-up and denied they were planning a 101 Freeway or DTLA take over. The LAPD and CHP said the group — including people coming to Los Angeles from all over the state — was planning just that. Last night, the planned take-over she says became a take down.
“Flash scooter mobs” have been taking over streets in cities all over and most recently a highway in San Jose. Groups get the word out on social media hence the flash mob label.
The LAPD teamed up with some of the scooter companies and used new technology to disable many of the scooters. Officers and CHP helped break up the rest.
LAPPL News Watch
September 23, 2019
The Los Angeles Police Department stopped what it calls a “flash scooter mob” takeover of downtown and possibly the 101 Freeway late Saturday night.
LAPD is cracking down on street takeovers by groups of people riding electric scooters.
CBS2/KCAL9 reporter Cristy Fajardo talked to some of the scooter riders who said the gathering was just a meet-up and denied they were planning a 101 Freeway or DTLA take over. The LAPD and CHP said the group — including people coming to Los Angeles from all over the state — was planning just that. Last night, the planned take-over she says became a take down.
“Flash scooter mobs” have been taking over streets in cities all over and most recently a highway in San Jose. Groups get the word out on social media hence the flash mob label.
The LAPD teamed up with some of the scooter companies and used new technology to disable many of the scooters. Officers and CHP helped break up the rest.
WERE WALRUSES THAT SANK RUSSIAN LANDING CRAFT TRAINED BY THE CIA?
Walruses attacked and sank Russian Northern Fleet boat at Franz Josef Land
By Thomas Nilsen
The Barents Observer
September 23, 2019
The walruses probably feared for their cubs and attacked the rubber landing craft.
The boat sank, but a tragedy was avoided thanks to the prompt action by the squad leader. All landing participants safely reached the shore, a press update from the Geographical Society reads.
Sailing the remote archipelago of Franz Josef Land in the Russian Arctic, the participants used the navy’s tug vessel Altai», but have to use smaller landing crafts to get ashore.
The Northern Fleet also reports about the same expedition, but just briefly mention that during the landing at Cape Heller, a group of researchers had to flee from a female walrus who attacked an expedition boat when protecting her cub. The photo-gallery attached to the report shows that the military was flying a drone close to the group of walruses on the beach.
The navy’s text says nothing about the fact that the boat sank, just underlines that serious troubles were avoided thanks to the clear and well-coordinated actions of the Northern Fleet servicemen, who were able to take the boat away from the animals without harming them.
By Thomas Nilsen
The Barents Observer
September 23, 2019
The walruses probably feared for their cubs and attacked the rubber landing craft.
The boat sank, but a tragedy was avoided thanks to the prompt action by the squad leader. All landing participants safely reached the shore, a press update from the Geographical Society reads.
Sailing the remote archipelago of Franz Josef Land in the Russian Arctic, the participants used the navy’s tug vessel Altai», but have to use smaller landing crafts to get ashore.
The Northern Fleet also reports about the same expedition, but just briefly mention that during the landing at Cape Heller, a group of researchers had to flee from a female walrus who attacked an expedition boat when protecting her cub. The photo-gallery attached to the report shows that the military was flying a drone close to the group of walruses on the beach.
The navy’s text says nothing about the fact that the boat sank, just underlines that serious troubles were avoided thanks to the clear and well-coordinated actions of the Northern Fleet servicemen, who were able to take the boat away from the animals without harming them.
ISRAELI PRESIDENT IS MOTIVATED BY A HEALTHY APPETITE FOR REVENGE TOWARD NETANYAHU
Bizarro world: Neither candidate wants the president's blessing
By Mati Tuchfeld
Israel Hayom
September 23, 2019
Before any general election, each candidate hopes the president will task him or her with forming the next government. Now, however, for the first time ever, the candidates hope President Reuven Rivlin will task their rival with the responsibility.
It seems the president has never had as much discretion as he does presently. Even in 1984 when the election resulted in a deadlock, Shimon Peres was tasked with forming the government because he received three more seats than his rival.
As stated, however, neither Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu nor Blue and White leader Benny Gantz want be granted the opportunity first, because alongside the inherent advantages of such a mandate, going first would actually reduce their chances of successfully forming a coalition.
On the other hand, both Netanyahu and Gantz aren't sure they want to go second either. Being tasked first comes with considerable advantages. For instance, when the Knesset is sworn in, power is transferred to the party that received the president's mandate. It controls the Arrangements Committee, it can create other committees, pass laws, and even try appointing a permanent Speaker of the Knesset – who wouldn't be replaced even if the other party eventually forms the government.
Gantz considered all these benefits when he decided to enter talks with the Arab parties, most of which recommended his Blue and White party and increased his odds of receiving the president's mandate. Again, though, in complete contrast to the aforementioned benefits, going first also entails the most critical of pitfalls – it reduces his chances of actually forming a government.
As of now, each side and all the parties are doubling down on their campaign promises. Netanyahu corralled a solid right-wing bloc that gives him the keys to forming a government at all, while Blue and White is refusing to enter coalition talks. It's safe to assume that as time passes, the glue holding these promises together will start to weaken.
This won't happen right away, but coalition talks last a minimum of 28 days, with an option for a 14-day extension thereafter. Another election, which would be Israel's third in the past year, is an extreme and outrageous scenario. We can reasonably expect all sides to do their utmost to gradually and eventually eschew most if not some of their campaign vows to avoid dispersing another Knesset. However, the fact that the first candidate's failure to form a government simply means the second in line receives the opportunity, could lead the parties to harden their stances in the near future and prevent progress.
Hence, only after the second candidate's attempt to form a government – in other words in another two-three months from today – will the pressure reach a breaking point conducive to compromise. Or perhaps other solutions will arise, such as party defections capable of tipping the scales.
For the time being, once the president is done receiving all the parties' recommendations, the decision is entirely his. It stands to reason that Rivlin, who is motivated by a healthy appetite for revenge toward the prime minister, will consider the option most likely to hurt Netanyahu, whether that means tasking him first or second, and will choose accordingly. The reasons for any decision he eventually makes, after all, are already known.
__________
Israel’s Election Scene Descends Into Chaos
By Ryan Jones
Israel Today
September 23, 2019
As if a second national election in less than half a year wasn’t enough, the aftermath of the September 17 vote in Israel now resembles something of a political circus.
You go first. No, YOU go first!
We now know that the “Blue and White” party won the most seats in Knesset, edging out Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud 33-31.
Even so, it now appears that Netanyahu will get the first crack at forming the next government.
In a risky gamble, Blue and White chief Benny Gantz is hoping that by going first and failing, Netanyahu will then be compelled to enter a unity government under Blue and White’s terms.
Why will Netanyahu fail, in Gantz’s estimation?
Because Likud has already agreed to include the ultra-Orthodox Jewish parties in his coalition. But, the right-wing bloc as it currently stands is well short of a 61-seat majority. They need Avigdor Liberman’s Yisrael Beiteinu and its 8 seats to form a stable government.
However, Liberman has refused to sit with the ultra-Orthodox. He staked his electoral campaign on the promise of combatting religious coercion in Israeli politics.
So, Netanyahu’s stuck, and Gantz knows it. Still, the latter is taking a risk, given that Bibi has pulled rabbits out of his hat in the past.
Meanwhile, Netanyahu wants Gantz to go first, for pretty much the same reason, and there were even rumors that Likud would recommend the Blue and White chief for prime minister. In the end, however, Likud recommended Netanyahu when its representatives met on Sunday with President Reuven Rivlin, who has the unenviable task of sorting through this mess.
How many prime ministers?!
Liberman, who finds himself in the position of “kingmaker,” declined when he met with Rivlin to recommend either Netanyahu or Gantz for prime minister. He wants to see the two come together in a secular national unity government, which is more in line with Gantz’s vision, so long as he gets to lead.
But, and this is a big “but,” what Liberman and all other Israelis calling for a unity government are ignoring for the time being is the preexisting agreement between Gantz and his party’s Number 2, Yair Lapid.
If Likud and “Blue and White” were to form a unity government, it would undoubtedly be on the condition that Netanyahu and Gantz rotate as prime minister. What’s currently being sidestepped is that Gantz and Lapid have the same agreement should Blue and White ever head the government.
So, is Israel to now have three prime ministers?
Break all the laws!
Perhaps the reason that wrench in the gears is getting little attention at the moment is that reports suggest Blue and White has tacitly agreed to the coalition demands of the Joint Arab List.
Most reports are focusing on the fact that the Arab factions might be part of an Israeli government for the first time in decades, but the real story is that those demands that Blue and White purportedly approved include repealing the Kaminitz Law.
The Kaminitiz Law, which went into effect just two years ago, is a series of amendments to Israel’s Planning and Building Law. It was made necessary due to rampant illegal building on both public and private land in Israel, a phenomenon that severely impairs city planning. The vast majority of this illegal building occurs in Arab communities.
Were Gantz to repeal this law, it would effectively signal a free-for-all in illegal Arab construction.
Seriously? ANOTHER election?!
With the situation as it now stands, there is serious talk of a third national election. But, as commentators here at Israel Today note, the outcome is likely to be exactly the same unless changes are made.
One of those changes would be to raise the electoral threshold to 5 percent, but in recent years, Netanyahu has actually been lowering it in an effort to choke out the smaller right-wing parties. The result hasn’t been as Bibi hoped, given the present political deadlock, for which there appears to be no other solution.
By Mati Tuchfeld
Israel Hayom
September 23, 2019
Before any general election, each candidate hopes the president will task him or her with forming the next government. Now, however, for the first time ever, the candidates hope President Reuven Rivlin will task their rival with the responsibility.
It seems the president has never had as much discretion as he does presently. Even in 1984 when the election resulted in a deadlock, Shimon Peres was tasked with forming the government because he received three more seats than his rival.
As stated, however, neither Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu nor Blue and White leader Benny Gantz want be granted the opportunity first, because alongside the inherent advantages of such a mandate, going first would actually reduce their chances of successfully forming a coalition.
On the other hand, both Netanyahu and Gantz aren't sure they want to go second either. Being tasked first comes with considerable advantages. For instance, when the Knesset is sworn in, power is transferred to the party that received the president's mandate. It controls the Arrangements Committee, it can create other committees, pass laws, and even try appointing a permanent Speaker of the Knesset – who wouldn't be replaced even if the other party eventually forms the government.
Gantz considered all these benefits when he decided to enter talks with the Arab parties, most of which recommended his Blue and White party and increased his odds of receiving the president's mandate. Again, though, in complete contrast to the aforementioned benefits, going first also entails the most critical of pitfalls – it reduces his chances of actually forming a government.
As of now, each side and all the parties are doubling down on their campaign promises. Netanyahu corralled a solid right-wing bloc that gives him the keys to forming a government at all, while Blue and White is refusing to enter coalition talks. It's safe to assume that as time passes, the glue holding these promises together will start to weaken.
This won't happen right away, but coalition talks last a minimum of 28 days, with an option for a 14-day extension thereafter. Another election, which would be Israel's third in the past year, is an extreme and outrageous scenario. We can reasonably expect all sides to do their utmost to gradually and eventually eschew most if not some of their campaign vows to avoid dispersing another Knesset. However, the fact that the first candidate's failure to form a government simply means the second in line receives the opportunity, could lead the parties to harden their stances in the near future and prevent progress.
Hence, only after the second candidate's attempt to form a government – in other words in another two-three months from today – will the pressure reach a breaking point conducive to compromise. Or perhaps other solutions will arise, such as party defections capable of tipping the scales.
For the time being, once the president is done receiving all the parties' recommendations, the decision is entirely his. It stands to reason that Rivlin, who is motivated by a healthy appetite for revenge toward the prime minister, will consider the option most likely to hurt Netanyahu, whether that means tasking him first or second, and will choose accordingly. The reasons for any decision he eventually makes, after all, are already known.
__________
Israel’s Election Scene Descends Into Chaos
By Ryan Jones
Israel Today
September 23, 2019
As if a second national election in less than half a year wasn’t enough, the aftermath of the September 17 vote in Israel now resembles something of a political circus.
You go first. No, YOU go first!
We now know that the “Blue and White” party won the most seats in Knesset, edging out Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud 33-31.
Even so, it now appears that Netanyahu will get the first crack at forming the next government.
In a risky gamble, Blue and White chief Benny Gantz is hoping that by going first and failing, Netanyahu will then be compelled to enter a unity government under Blue and White’s terms.
Why will Netanyahu fail, in Gantz’s estimation?
Because Likud has already agreed to include the ultra-Orthodox Jewish parties in his coalition. But, the right-wing bloc as it currently stands is well short of a 61-seat majority. They need Avigdor Liberman’s Yisrael Beiteinu and its 8 seats to form a stable government.
However, Liberman has refused to sit with the ultra-Orthodox. He staked his electoral campaign on the promise of combatting religious coercion in Israeli politics.
So, Netanyahu’s stuck, and Gantz knows it. Still, the latter is taking a risk, given that Bibi has pulled rabbits out of his hat in the past.
Meanwhile, Netanyahu wants Gantz to go first, for pretty much the same reason, and there were even rumors that Likud would recommend the Blue and White chief for prime minister. In the end, however, Likud recommended Netanyahu when its representatives met on Sunday with President Reuven Rivlin, who has the unenviable task of sorting through this mess.
How many prime ministers?!
Liberman, who finds himself in the position of “kingmaker,” declined when he met with Rivlin to recommend either Netanyahu or Gantz for prime minister. He wants to see the two come together in a secular national unity government, which is more in line with Gantz’s vision, so long as he gets to lead.
But, and this is a big “but,” what Liberman and all other Israelis calling for a unity government are ignoring for the time being is the preexisting agreement between Gantz and his party’s Number 2, Yair Lapid.
If Likud and “Blue and White” were to form a unity government, it would undoubtedly be on the condition that Netanyahu and Gantz rotate as prime minister. What’s currently being sidestepped is that Gantz and Lapid have the same agreement should Blue and White ever head the government.
So, is Israel to now have three prime ministers?
Break all the laws!
Perhaps the reason that wrench in the gears is getting little attention at the moment is that reports suggest Blue and White has tacitly agreed to the coalition demands of the Joint Arab List.
Most reports are focusing on the fact that the Arab factions might be part of an Israeli government for the first time in decades, but the real story is that those demands that Blue and White purportedly approved include repealing the Kaminitz Law.
The Kaminitiz Law, which went into effect just two years ago, is a series of amendments to Israel’s Planning and Building Law. It was made necessary due to rampant illegal building on both public and private land in Israel, a phenomenon that severely impairs city planning. The vast majority of this illegal building occurs in Arab communities.
Were Gantz to repeal this law, it would effectively signal a free-for-all in illegal Arab construction.
Seriously? ANOTHER election?!
With the situation as it now stands, there is serious talk of a third national election. But, as commentators here at Israel Today note, the outcome is likely to be exactly the same unless changes are made.
One of those changes would be to raise the electoral threshold to 5 percent, but in recent years, Netanyahu has actually been lowering it in an effort to choke out the smaller right-wing parties. The result hasn’t been as Bibi hoped, given the present political deadlock, for which there appears to be no other solution.
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