Hillary REFUSES to be served legal papers in $50M defamation row with Tulsi Gabbard over Clinton's claim the presidential hopeful is a Russian 'asset'
Daily Mail
January 30, 2020
Tulsi Gabbard's lawyers say they were turned away by the Secret Service at the Clinton residence in Chappaqua, New York, and later by Clinton's attorney when they tried to deliver the paperwork.
The Democratic presidential hopeful is suing Clinton for $50million over an interview in which the 2016 nominee suggested that Gabbard was the 'favorite of the Russians'.
Gabbard's attorney Brian Dunne claimed that Clinton was 'so intimidated by Tulsi Gabbard that she won't accept service of process'.
Dunne, the attorney, said Gabbard's representatives had tried to deliver the papers in person at the Clinton residence in Chappaqua, New York. However, they were allegedly turned away by Secret Service agents who protect the home. Gabbard's camp says the agents directed them to Clinton's lawyer David Kendall, who said he could not accept the papers on her behalf.
Dunne said Gabbard's team was now considering its next move. Gabbard filed the lawsuit in federal court in Manhattan last week, accusing Clinton of promoting 'extremely dubious conspiracy theories.'
EDITOR’S NOTE: Ironically, the Hildebeasr has a law enforcement agency – the Secret Service - standing in the way of a legal process.
Friday, January 31, 2020
QUEEN CALLS AN EMERGENCY MEETING
by Bob Walsh
The Queen has called an emergency family meeting with Charles (aka horse face), Harry and William attending her. Allegedly the subject matter will be the Harry-Meghan situation and how it will develop, and possibly Prince Andrew, who is said to be using Special Branch to duck people he does not want to deal with. In addition it is rumored that Special Branch is likely to reopen a solicitation of a minor case against Andrew for an alleged encounter he had with an under-age hooker supplied by Jeffrey Epstein.
I do not know if it is even possible to haul a member of the royal family into criminal court without the consent of the Queen. I am not sure she would go for it, but I am also not sure she would enforce the privilege (even if it still exists) and ride the heat that the action would generate.
You can pick your friends, and you can pick your nose, but you can't pick your family.
The Queen has called an emergency family meeting with Charles (aka horse face), Harry and William attending her. Allegedly the subject matter will be the Harry-Meghan situation and how it will develop, and possibly Prince Andrew, who is said to be using Special Branch to duck people he does not want to deal with. In addition it is rumored that Special Branch is likely to reopen a solicitation of a minor case against Andrew for an alleged encounter he had with an under-age hooker supplied by Jeffrey Epstein.
I do not know if it is even possible to haul a member of the royal family into criminal court without the consent of the Queen. I am not sure she would go for it, but I am also not sure she would enforce the privilege (even if it still exists) and ride the heat that the action would generate.
You can pick your friends, and you can pick your nose, but you can't pick your family.
FREE AT LAST, FREE AT LAST
by Bob Walsh
As of 11:00 p.m. this evening GMT the United Kingdom will be FREE from the European Union.
Yippee Skippee.
As of 11:00 p.m. this evening GMT the United Kingdom will be FREE from the European Union.
Yippee Skippee.
ABBAS CALLS FOR THIRD INTIFADA
“Trump is a Dog” – Palestinian President Responds to Deal of the Century
By Ryan Jones
Israel Today
January 30, 2020
Never one for eloquence, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ first public reaction to the publication of the “deal of the century” was to personally insult US President Donald Trump in the most unflattering of terms.
Officials with Abbas’ own Fatah party confirmed to Israeli media that the Palestinian leader responded to the new peace proposal by exclaiming, “Trump is a dog and the son of a dog!”
Abbas added that just before the plan’s publication, “They called me from Washington and I did not pick up the phone. I said no and I will continue to say no.”
In Arabic, calling someone a dog is one of the most severe insults one can dish out, and if done so in person will often lead to physical violence. Adding “son of a dog” expands the insult to include the scorned person’s family.
In other words, rather than address a serious international diplomatic initiative endorsed by many Arab states with some degree of decorum, the head of the Palestinian Authority resorted to vulgar trash-talk.
But he went further than that.
After slandering Trump, Abbas effectively called for a third intifada, or terrorist uprising, against Israel.
“Resistance must be escalated at all points of friction. All young people must be encouraged,” said Abbas, referring to the kind of dangerous incitement of young Palestinian Arabs that Israel has long said is a serious obstacle to peace.
Needless to say, the White House was unimpressed.
Trump’s son-in-law and the primary author of the “deal of the century,” Jared Kushner, told Al Jazeera that it’s time for the Palestinians to stop living a fiction.
“It’s time to let go of past fairy tales that quite frankly will never happen,” said Kushner. “If they have expectations that are not realistic then I feel bad for them. They’ve been lied to by their leadership and they’ve been lied to by a lot of people and they’ve been used as pawns in the Middle East.”
For his part, Abbas vowed to cling fast to his fairy tales, despite what that might mean for his people.
“I was told I’ll pay a heavy price for my foolish behavior,” he told fellow Palestinians. “I do not have much longer to live and I will not go down as a traitor. It’s either dying like martyrs or flying the Palestinian flag on the walls of Jerusalem.”
EDITOR’S NOTE: What kind of a dog … a Rottweiler or a Chihuahua?
By Ryan Jones
Israel Today
January 30, 2020
Never one for eloquence, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ first public reaction to the publication of the “deal of the century” was to personally insult US President Donald Trump in the most unflattering of terms.
Officials with Abbas’ own Fatah party confirmed to Israeli media that the Palestinian leader responded to the new peace proposal by exclaiming, “Trump is a dog and the son of a dog!”
Abbas added that just before the plan’s publication, “They called me from Washington and I did not pick up the phone. I said no and I will continue to say no.”
In Arabic, calling someone a dog is one of the most severe insults one can dish out, and if done so in person will often lead to physical violence. Adding “son of a dog” expands the insult to include the scorned person’s family.
In other words, rather than address a serious international diplomatic initiative endorsed by many Arab states with some degree of decorum, the head of the Palestinian Authority resorted to vulgar trash-talk.
But he went further than that.
After slandering Trump, Abbas effectively called for a third intifada, or terrorist uprising, against Israel.
“Resistance must be escalated at all points of friction. All young people must be encouraged,” said Abbas, referring to the kind of dangerous incitement of young Palestinian Arabs that Israel has long said is a serious obstacle to peace.
Needless to say, the White House was unimpressed.
Trump’s son-in-law and the primary author of the “deal of the century,” Jared Kushner, told Al Jazeera that it’s time for the Palestinians to stop living a fiction.
“It’s time to let go of past fairy tales that quite frankly will never happen,” said Kushner. “If they have expectations that are not realistic then I feel bad for them. They’ve been lied to by their leadership and they’ve been lied to by a lot of people and they’ve been used as pawns in the Middle East.”
For his part, Abbas vowed to cling fast to his fairy tales, despite what that might mean for his people.
“I was told I’ll pay a heavy price for my foolish behavior,” he told fellow Palestinians. “I do not have much longer to live and I will not go down as a traitor. It’s either dying like martyrs or flying the Palestinian flag on the walls of Jerusalem.”
EDITOR’S NOTE: What kind of a dog … a Rottweiler or a Chihuahua?
Thursday, January 30, 2020
TRUMP GAVE WHITE HOUSE PRESS CREDENTIALS TO THIS FAKE NEWS PURVEYOR
Florida pastor says coronavirus is a 'plague sent by God to purge a lot of sin off this planet' and blames parents 'transgendering children' for the outbreak
By James Gordon
Daily Mail
January 28, 2020
A right-wing evangelical pastor has claimed the coronavirus is God's 'death angel' and says parents 'transgendering little children' and 'the filth on our TVs and our movies' are to blame for the outbreak.
Christian Pastor Rick Wiles, who is the creator of the TruNews streaming channel, described China as having a 'godless communist government,' in an attempt to explain why the country had been hit so badly by the virus.
He noted, 'plagues are one of the last steps of judgment' and warned Americans to 'get right with God.'
Wile addressed the deadly outbreak in his evening broadcast on Monday, saying: 'Look at the spiritual rebellion that is in this country, the hatred of God, the hatred of the Bible, the hatred of righteousness.
'Just vile, disgusting people in this country now, transgendering little children, perverting them. Look at the rapes, and the sexual immorality, and the filth on our TVs and our movies.
'Folks, the Death Angel may be moving right now across the planet. This is the time to get right with God.'
In comments that were first noted by Right Wing Watch, Wiles said that his 'spirit bears witness that this is a genuine plague that is coming upon the Earth, and God is about to purge a lot of sin off this planet.'
Wiles has a history of spreading conspiracy theories and warning of an imminent apocalypse.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Wiles has described President Trump's impeachment as “a Jew coup” planned by “a Jewish cabal”.
By James Gordon
Daily Mail
January 28, 2020
A right-wing evangelical pastor has claimed the coronavirus is God's 'death angel' and says parents 'transgendering little children' and 'the filth on our TVs and our movies' are to blame for the outbreak.
Christian Pastor Rick Wiles, who is the creator of the TruNews streaming channel, described China as having a 'godless communist government,' in an attempt to explain why the country had been hit so badly by the virus.
He noted, 'plagues are one of the last steps of judgment' and warned Americans to 'get right with God.'
Wile addressed the deadly outbreak in his evening broadcast on Monday, saying: 'Look at the spiritual rebellion that is in this country, the hatred of God, the hatred of the Bible, the hatred of righteousness.
'Just vile, disgusting people in this country now, transgendering little children, perverting them. Look at the rapes, and the sexual immorality, and the filth on our TVs and our movies.
'Folks, the Death Angel may be moving right now across the planet. This is the time to get right with God.'
In comments that were first noted by Right Wing Watch, Wiles said that his 'spirit bears witness that this is a genuine plague that is coming upon the Earth, and God is about to purge a lot of sin off this planet.'
Wiles has a history of spreading conspiracy theories and warning of an imminent apocalypse.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Wiles has described President Trump's impeachment as “a Jew coup” planned by “a Jewish cabal”.
CRAZY AND CRAZIER DESCRIBES CRAZY BERNIE’S STAFF
Project Veritas—Bernie Sanders Staffer: ‘After We Abolish Landlords, We Don’t Have to Kill Them’
By Joshua Caplan
Breitbart
January 28, 2020
A Project Veritas video published Tuesday purportedly shows a Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) campaign staffer musing about a ban on private property ownership in the United States as an alternative to mass killings.
A man identified as Mason Baird, a Sanders field organizer in South Carolina, is seen telling a Project Veritas journalist that he believes a “militant labor movement,” working in tandem with a Sanders administration, should “strip power” away from capitalists.
“We would need a federal government and labor union movement that is working together to strip power away from capitalists and preferably directing violence toward property,” the man says. “At the end of the day, this kind of stuff will come out through practice, through the work and it’s hard for me to talk about it in the moment we live in, ’cause I think China today is not what Mao envisioned, right — it was through the practice of Chinese people doing the work to create the China today.
“So, it never – we’re never going – I think a lot of the stuff – a lot of these answers are going to come through practice – we’re going to try things – things aren’t going to work – we’re going to move on to the next thing,” he continues. “And we’re going to try to be as conscious and intentional about those things, but when you get into a certain level of detail, and depth, it’s like, that’s kind of my ‘cop-out’, it comes through the work, you know. The answers come through the work.”
“It would, it’s gonna take, you know, it’s gonna take militancy, like a militant labor movement that’s willing to strike, and if necessary, you know, just destroy property and things like that,” he adds.
The man then turns his attention to landlords, arguing in favor of sparing their lives after they are eradicated from the system.
“After we abolish landlords, we don’t have to kill them, that’s my feeling. I think it’s damaging to the soul, but there were plenty of excesses in 1917 I would hope to avoid,” Baird says, referencing the Russian Revolution.
The Sanders staffer adds: “Labor, I think that’s a big source of power for us, and just try to gain as much leverage and power in the short time that we have. You know, Lenin didn’t have the Internet, they were a peasant society, and, I mean, it was like, so, you know, I would hope that, like, that we would – we’d have – we’d be doing a bunch of prep work before the capitalists got hip to what we were doing, I guess. I’m not excited about the prospect of armed struggle.”
In another part of the Project Veritas video, another purported Sanders staffer says he believes “plans for extreme action” must be made — even if his candidate becomes president.
“We have all this momentum, where do we go, regardless of the outcome, after it’s all over? Change won’t come easily, regardless. Even if Bernie is elected, change will not come swiftly or easily, so the connections we make now in the campaign with people, and volunteers, it’s important we retain that regardless of the outcome,” says a man identified by Project Veritas as Daniel Taylor, a Sanders field organizer in South Carolina. “It’s unfortunate that we have to make plans for extreme action, but like I said, they’re not going to give it to us even if Bernie is elected.”
Tuesday’s video release is part of an ongoing Project Veritas effort aimed at exposing radical staffers inside 2020 Democratic campaigns.
By Joshua Caplan
Breitbart
January 28, 2020
A Project Veritas video published Tuesday purportedly shows a Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) campaign staffer musing about a ban on private property ownership in the United States as an alternative to mass killings.
A man identified as Mason Baird, a Sanders field organizer in South Carolina, is seen telling a Project Veritas journalist that he believes a “militant labor movement,” working in tandem with a Sanders administration, should “strip power” away from capitalists.
“We would need a federal government and labor union movement that is working together to strip power away from capitalists and preferably directing violence toward property,” the man says. “At the end of the day, this kind of stuff will come out through practice, through the work and it’s hard for me to talk about it in the moment we live in, ’cause I think China today is not what Mao envisioned, right — it was through the practice of Chinese people doing the work to create the China today.
“So, it never – we’re never going – I think a lot of the stuff – a lot of these answers are going to come through practice – we’re going to try things – things aren’t going to work – we’re going to move on to the next thing,” he continues. “And we’re going to try to be as conscious and intentional about those things, but when you get into a certain level of detail, and depth, it’s like, that’s kind of my ‘cop-out’, it comes through the work, you know. The answers come through the work.”
“It would, it’s gonna take, you know, it’s gonna take militancy, like a militant labor movement that’s willing to strike, and if necessary, you know, just destroy property and things like that,” he adds.
The man then turns his attention to landlords, arguing in favor of sparing their lives after they are eradicated from the system.
“After we abolish landlords, we don’t have to kill them, that’s my feeling. I think it’s damaging to the soul, but there were plenty of excesses in 1917 I would hope to avoid,” Baird says, referencing the Russian Revolution.
The Sanders staffer adds: “Labor, I think that’s a big source of power for us, and just try to gain as much leverage and power in the short time that we have. You know, Lenin didn’t have the Internet, they were a peasant society, and, I mean, it was like, so, you know, I would hope that, like, that we would – we’d have – we’d be doing a bunch of prep work before the capitalists got hip to what we were doing, I guess. I’m not excited about the prospect of armed struggle.”
In another part of the Project Veritas video, another purported Sanders staffer says he believes “plans for extreme action” must be made — even if his candidate becomes president.
“We have all this momentum, where do we go, regardless of the outcome, after it’s all over? Change won’t come easily, regardless. Even if Bernie is elected, change will not come swiftly or easily, so the connections we make now in the campaign with people, and volunteers, it’s important we retain that regardless of the outcome,” says a man identified by Project Veritas as Daniel Taylor, a Sanders field organizer in South Carolina. “It’s unfortunate that we have to make plans for extreme action, but like I said, they’re not going to give it to us even if Bernie is elected.”
Tuesday’s video release is part of an ongoing Project Veritas effort aimed at exposing radical staffers inside 2020 Democratic campaigns.
TRUMP DEAL FLIPS PEACE PROCESS ON ITS HEAD
After 20 years of requiring painful concessions of Israel, it’s now the Palestinians’ turn
Israel Today
January 29, 2020
For the past two decades, the formula underlying the Middle East peace process was to accept the Palestinian positions, turn a blind eye to their transgressions (because they were the “oppressed”), and require painful concessions of Israel.
After more than 20 years of failure despite intensive diplomatic efforts, US President Donald Trump’s “Deal of the Century” finally proposes a different approach by effectively turning the peace process on its head.
As top Israeli media commentator Amit Segal wrote: “While Israel will gain its concessions immediately and without conditions, the Palestinians now have to go through ten levels of hell” if they want to gain theirs.
So, what exactly is each side being offered?
Israel gets:
__A green light to annex the 30% of the West Bank containing Jewish settlements, as well as the entire Jordan Valley, what is today known as “Area C”;
__Official US recognition of the annexed areas as sovereign Israeli territory, meaning an automatic veto of any UN effort to sanction Israel; Official US recognition of the annexed areas as sovereign Israeli territory, meaning an automatic veto of any UN effort to sanction Israel;
__Full security control over sea, land, air and electromagnetic space west of the Jordan River, including those areas that are part of a Palestinian state;
__Full security control over all border crossings;
__Hamas and all other independent Palestinian militias will be fully disarmed;
__The Palestinian Authority will stop all payments to terrorists and their families;
__The Palestinian Authority will halt all diplomatic activities against Israel;
__The Palestinian Authority will cease incitement against Israel in its media and schools;
__The Palestinians will recognize Israel as the Jewish state;
__The Palestinians will officially recognize Israel’s new borders after the aforementioned annexation;
__The Palestinians will recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel;
__The Palestinians will waive the “right of return” for so-called Palestinian “refugees to sovereign Israel;
__While the Temple Mount will remain under Muslim custodianship, people of all faiths will be permitted to pray there.
Only after they fulfill the above obligations, the Palestinians will get:
__An independent Palestinian state on 70% of the West Bank and all of the Gaza Strip;
__Two large parcels of land in the western Negev to compensate for the 30% of the West Bank annexed by Israel;
__Dedicated highways connecting Gaza to the Negev enclaves, and a tunnel connecting the Palestinian state in the West Bank to the Gaza Strip;
__Some outlying neighborhoods in eastern Jerusalem enabling them to also claim the Holy City as their capital;
_Access to the Israeli ports of Haifa and Ashdod;
__Generous financial incentives including extensive trade agreements with Arab neighbors, Israel and the US to boost the economy of the future Palestinian state.
__________
EDITOR’S NOTE: As expected, Democrats trashed the plan.
Bernie Sanders: “It must end the Israeli occupation and enable Palestinian self-determination in an independent state of their own alongside a secure Israel. Trump's so-called 'peace deal' doesn't come close, and will only perpetuate the conflict. It is unacceptable.”
Elizabeth Warren: “Trump’s ‘peace plan’ is a rubber stamp for annexation and offers no chance for a real Palestinian state. Releasing a plan without negotiating with Palestinians isn’t diplomacy, it’s a sham. I will oppose unilateral annexation in any form — and reverse any policy that supports it.”
Joe Biden: “A peace plan requires two sides to come together. This is a political stunt that could spark unilateral moves to annex territory and set back peace even more. I’ve spent a lifetime working to advance the security & survival of a Jewish and democratic Israel. This is not the way.”
Pete Buttigieg: “It makes complex situations worse. Peace requires both parties at the table. Not a political green light to the leader of one for unilateral annexation.”
Ilhan Omar: “They could have guaranteed justice, and brought everyone into this peace deal, Instead, these two embattled heads of state, impeached and indicted, have a ‘just us’ peace deal. This is not a peace plan. It is theft. It is erasure. Shameful and disingenuous.”
Rashida Tlaib: “It’s fitting that the @realDonaldTrump-@netanyahu ‘plan’ was released by a forever impeached President on the same day that Netanyahu was indicted for corruption. This political stunt gets us no closer to peace or justice. As a member of Congress, I consider it a non-starter.”
Ayanna Pressley: “Let’s remember: Trump has been impeached & Netanyahu was indicted. Releasing a plan without negotiating with Palestinians isn’t diplomacy, it’s a planned distraction. I reject this pro-annexation plan, it is a step in the wrong directionI reject this pro-annexation plan, it is a step in the wrong direction.”
(Omar, Tlaib and Pressley, together with AOC make up AOC’s Squad. Omar and Tlaib have each made several statements that expressed a hatred of Jews.)
Israel Today
January 29, 2020
For the past two decades, the formula underlying the Middle East peace process was to accept the Palestinian positions, turn a blind eye to their transgressions (because they were the “oppressed”), and require painful concessions of Israel.
After more than 20 years of failure despite intensive diplomatic efforts, US President Donald Trump’s “Deal of the Century” finally proposes a different approach by effectively turning the peace process on its head.
As top Israeli media commentator Amit Segal wrote: “While Israel will gain its concessions immediately and without conditions, the Palestinians now have to go through ten levels of hell” if they want to gain theirs.
So, what exactly is each side being offered?
Israel gets:
__A green light to annex the 30% of the West Bank containing Jewish settlements, as well as the entire Jordan Valley, what is today known as “Area C”;
__Official US recognition of the annexed areas as sovereign Israeli territory, meaning an automatic veto of any UN effort to sanction Israel; Official US recognition of the annexed areas as sovereign Israeli territory, meaning an automatic veto of any UN effort to sanction Israel;
__Full security control over sea, land, air and electromagnetic space west of the Jordan River, including those areas that are part of a Palestinian state;
__Full security control over all border crossings;
__Hamas and all other independent Palestinian militias will be fully disarmed;
__The Palestinian Authority will stop all payments to terrorists and their families;
__The Palestinian Authority will halt all diplomatic activities against Israel;
__The Palestinian Authority will cease incitement against Israel in its media and schools;
__The Palestinians will recognize Israel as the Jewish state;
__The Palestinians will officially recognize Israel’s new borders after the aforementioned annexation;
__The Palestinians will recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel;
__The Palestinians will waive the “right of return” for so-called Palestinian “refugees to sovereign Israel;
__While the Temple Mount will remain under Muslim custodianship, people of all faiths will be permitted to pray there.
Only after they fulfill the above obligations, the Palestinians will get:
__An independent Palestinian state on 70% of the West Bank and all of the Gaza Strip;
__Two large parcels of land in the western Negev to compensate for the 30% of the West Bank annexed by Israel;
__Dedicated highways connecting Gaza to the Negev enclaves, and a tunnel connecting the Palestinian state in the West Bank to the Gaza Strip;
__Some outlying neighborhoods in eastern Jerusalem enabling them to also claim the Holy City as their capital;
_Access to the Israeli ports of Haifa and Ashdod;
__Generous financial incentives including extensive trade agreements with Arab neighbors, Israel and the US to boost the economy of the future Palestinian state.
__________
EDITOR’S NOTE: As expected, Democrats trashed the plan.
Bernie Sanders: “It must end the Israeli occupation and enable Palestinian self-determination in an independent state of their own alongside a secure Israel. Trump's so-called 'peace deal' doesn't come close, and will only perpetuate the conflict. It is unacceptable.”
Elizabeth Warren: “Trump’s ‘peace plan’ is a rubber stamp for annexation and offers no chance for a real Palestinian state. Releasing a plan without negotiating with Palestinians isn’t diplomacy, it’s a sham. I will oppose unilateral annexation in any form — and reverse any policy that supports it.”
Joe Biden: “A peace plan requires two sides to come together. This is a political stunt that could spark unilateral moves to annex territory and set back peace even more. I’ve spent a lifetime working to advance the security & survival of a Jewish and democratic Israel. This is not the way.”
Pete Buttigieg: “It makes complex situations worse. Peace requires both parties at the table. Not a political green light to the leader of one for unilateral annexation.”
Ilhan Omar: “They could have guaranteed justice, and brought everyone into this peace deal, Instead, these two embattled heads of state, impeached and indicted, have a ‘just us’ peace deal. This is not a peace plan. It is theft. It is erasure. Shameful and disingenuous.”
Rashida Tlaib: “It’s fitting that the @realDonaldTrump-@netanyahu ‘plan’ was released by a forever impeached President on the same day that Netanyahu was indicted for corruption. This political stunt gets us no closer to peace or justice. As a member of Congress, I consider it a non-starter.”
Ayanna Pressley: “Let’s remember: Trump has been impeached & Netanyahu was indicted. Releasing a plan without negotiating with Palestinians isn’t diplomacy, it’s a planned distraction. I reject this pro-annexation plan, it is a step in the wrong directionI reject this pro-annexation plan, it is a step in the wrong direction.”
(Omar, Tlaib and Pressley, together with AOC make up AOC’s Squad. Omar and Tlaib have each made several statements that expressed a hatred of Jews.)
Wednesday, January 29, 2020
THE LEADING CAUSE OF MURDER
Now why haven't the social scientists with all their theories on the cause of murder been able to come up with this simple explanation. Sheila makes Houston proud!
THIS SHOOTING IS SURE TO FIRE UP THE WRATH OF COP HATERS
Handcuffed and buckled into seat, man shot and killed inside police cruiser
Associated Press
January 28, 2020
TEMPLE HILLS, Md. -- A man who had been handcuffed with his arms behind his back by police in Maryland was shot and killed inside an officer's cruiser.
Prince George's County police officers responded Monday night to reports that a driver had struck multiple vehicles near the Temple Hills community, spokeswoman Christina Cotterman told news outlets during a news conference.
When officers located the driver, they smelled PCP and believed the man was under the influence, Cotterman said.
The suspect was buckled into the front passenger seat of the vehicle, which Cotterman said is normal for Prince George's County police. The officer then got into the driver's seat.
Two independent witnesses told police they either saw or heard a struggle, and heard loud bangs coming from the cruiser, according to Cotterman.
The man was shot multiple times by the officer's service weapon, the police spokeswoman said. Officers performed lifesaving measures and took the man to a hospital. He died a short time later.
Police haven't publicly identified the suspect because family members had not yet been notified.
The shooting wasn't caught on body-camera video because the officer didn't have one, Cotterman said. Investigators were looking for surveillance cameras in the area that may have recorded the shooting.
The officer involved has been placed on administrative leave. Cotterman said the officer was expected to be identified Tuesday.
UPDATE
Maryland cop charged with murder in shooting of handcuffed man
CBS News
January 28, 2020
A Maryland police officer was arrested and charged with second-degree murder Tuesday after the fatal shooting of a man who was handcuffed in a police cruiser, according to CBS affiliate WUSA-TV. Corporal Michael Owen Jr. is also being charged with manslaughter and associated weapons charges in the death of William Green.
Chief Hank Stawinski called the announcement "the most difficult moment of my tenure as your Chief of Police," according to WUSA-TV.
Police initially said Monday that they received a 911 call at about 8 p.m. reporting a male driver who had struck multiple cars, WUSA-TV reported. Officers said they located Green and thought he was under the influence after smelling what they believed to be PCP in his car.
Police added that they handcuffed Green and buckled him into the front seat of a police cruiser. Two independent witnesses claimed they heard or saw a fight in the front seat and heard loud bangs, according to police. They added that Owen shot Green multiple times, and that lifesaving measures were attempted before he was pronounced dead at a local hospital.
Stawinski walked back some of those claims on Tuesday.
"We do not believe PCP was involved, we do not have independent witnesses that observed a struggle and we do not know for certain that Mr. Green was seat-belted in that cruiser," Stawinksi said, according to WUSA-TV. He added that seating Green in the front of the car is standard departmental procedure when the vehicle does not have a transport partition, which Owen's cruiser did not.
Police said Owen was not wearing a body camera. He has worked with the department for 10 years, and is assigned to the Bureau of Patrol.
Green's family is represented by Billy Murphy, the attorney who represented the family of Freddie Gray, according to Murphy's office.
Associated Press
January 28, 2020
TEMPLE HILLS, Md. -- A man who had been handcuffed with his arms behind his back by police in Maryland was shot and killed inside an officer's cruiser.
Prince George's County police officers responded Monday night to reports that a driver had struck multiple vehicles near the Temple Hills community, spokeswoman Christina Cotterman told news outlets during a news conference.
When officers located the driver, they smelled PCP and believed the man was under the influence, Cotterman said.
The suspect was buckled into the front passenger seat of the vehicle, which Cotterman said is normal for Prince George's County police. The officer then got into the driver's seat.
Two independent witnesses told police they either saw or heard a struggle, and heard loud bangs coming from the cruiser, according to Cotterman.
The man was shot multiple times by the officer's service weapon, the police spokeswoman said. Officers performed lifesaving measures and took the man to a hospital. He died a short time later.
Police haven't publicly identified the suspect because family members had not yet been notified.
The shooting wasn't caught on body-camera video because the officer didn't have one, Cotterman said. Investigators were looking for surveillance cameras in the area that may have recorded the shooting.
The officer involved has been placed on administrative leave. Cotterman said the officer was expected to be identified Tuesday.
UPDATE
Maryland cop charged with murder in shooting of handcuffed man
CBS News
January 28, 2020
A Maryland police officer was arrested and charged with second-degree murder Tuesday after the fatal shooting of a man who was handcuffed in a police cruiser, according to CBS affiliate WUSA-TV. Corporal Michael Owen Jr. is also being charged with manslaughter and associated weapons charges in the death of William Green.
Chief Hank Stawinski called the announcement "the most difficult moment of my tenure as your Chief of Police," according to WUSA-TV.
Police initially said Monday that they received a 911 call at about 8 p.m. reporting a male driver who had struck multiple cars, WUSA-TV reported. Officers said they located Green and thought he was under the influence after smelling what they believed to be PCP in his car.
Police added that they handcuffed Green and buckled him into the front seat of a police cruiser. Two independent witnesses claimed they heard or saw a fight in the front seat and heard loud bangs, according to police. They added that Owen shot Green multiple times, and that lifesaving measures were attempted before he was pronounced dead at a local hospital.
Stawinski walked back some of those claims on Tuesday.
"We do not believe PCP was involved, we do not have independent witnesses that observed a struggle and we do not know for certain that Mr. Green was seat-belted in that cruiser," Stawinksi said, according to WUSA-TV. He added that seating Green in the front of the car is standard departmental procedure when the vehicle does not have a transport partition, which Owen's cruiser did not.
Police said Owen was not wearing a body camera. He has worked with the department for 10 years, and is assigned to the Bureau of Patrol.
Green's family is represented by Billy Murphy, the attorney who represented the family of Freddie Gray, according to Murphy's office.
MORE IDIOCY FROM THE FORMERLY GREAT STATE OF CALIFORNIA
by Bob Walsh
Nancy Skinner is a member of the state legislature from the People's Republic of Berkeley. She is, by any reasonable definition, a hard-core liberal psychopath. Her latest proposal, if enacted into law, would raise the minimum age of adult prosecution in CA from 18 to 20. She says this is because teenagers (young adult) brains are not yet fully developed and they are not capable of making adult decisions.
And people wonder why California is going down the toilet. It is already almost impossible to prosecute a traditional minor for anything. This would make it impossible to prosecute younger adults as adults for adult crimes, like robbery, rape and murder.
Welcome to California, the buttcrack of the west coast.
Nancy Skinner is a member of the state legislature from the People's Republic of Berkeley. She is, by any reasonable definition, a hard-core liberal psychopath. Her latest proposal, if enacted into law, would raise the minimum age of adult prosecution in CA from 18 to 20. She says this is because teenagers (young adult) brains are not yet fully developed and they are not capable of making adult decisions.
And people wonder why California is going down the toilet. It is already almost impossible to prosecute a traditional minor for anything. This would make it impossible to prosecute younger adults as adults for adult crimes, like robbery, rape and murder.
Welcome to California, the buttcrack of the west coast.
UBER LIBERAL SAN FRANCISCO DA INVITES ATTACKS ON COPS
Police, DA Chesa Boudin battle over withdrawal of charges against attack suspect
By Evan Sernoffsky
San Francisco Chronicle
January 27, 2020
San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin’s decision to withdraw criminal charges last week against a man who was shot by police after allegedly attacking officers with a bottle has inflamed a simmering conflict between the city’s new progressive prosecutor and the law enforcement groups that opposed his election.
The city’s police union accused Boudin — a former public defender — of giving a “green light” to criminals to attack police, and on Monday called on the federal government to prosecute Jamaica Hampton, the 24-year-old man accused in the Dec. 7 attack in the Mission District. Hampton remains hospitalized and recently had his leg amputated after being shot three times, officials said.
The district attorney’s office, though, said there is nothing conclusive about its decision Friday to pull back the charges “without prejudice,”meaning they can be refiled anytime in the next three years. The office said it suspended the charges as part of a new policy aimed at avoiding conflicts between officer-involved shooting investigations and parallel criminal probes.
__________
San Francisco and San Jose Police Officers Association & LA Police Protective League seek federal charges against violent attacker of SF officersSan Francisco and San Jose Police Officers Association & LA Police Protective League seek federal charges against violent attacker of SF officers
LAPPL News Watch
January 28, 2020
The San Francisco Police Officer's Association is asking the U.S. attorney's office to prosecute a man who attacked officers last year. The request comes after San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin, who formerly worked as a public defender, withdrew charges against Jamaica Hampton, 24, in the December assault.
“Mr. Boudin’s actions impact every police officer patrolling America’s neighborhoods, said LAPPL Director Jamie McBride. “It sends a message that so called reformer district attorneys will let attacks on police officers go unpunished.”
_________
SF COPS AND DA GO NOSE TO NOSE
by Bob Walsh
Chesa Boudin is the new District Attorney for San Francisco, and he is a hard-core liberal, most would say radical extremist. He just dropped charges against a man who was shot by the cops when he attacked the cops using a broken beer bottle as a weapon.
The police union is very unhappy. They assert that the D.A., a former public defender who has never been a prosecutor until elected to be the D.A., has essentially given a green light to criminals to attack cops. The bad guy, Jamaica Hampton, 24, is still in the hospital from the December 7 shooting and lost one leg to gunshot damage.
The D.A.'s spokeshole, Paula Lehman-Ewing, asserted, "No conclusion about the prosecutorial viability of Hampton's case should be drawn here." I guess that means they intend to routinely drop solid cases, just because they can.
The police union announced a new web site, BoudinBlunders.com, where tips can be submitted on screw-ups by the new D.A.
Hampton was originally charged by the acting D.A. with adw, assault on an officer and threats to an officer. Boudin dropped the charges after he was sworn in on January 8. There is in fact body cam footage of the incident.
The D.A. is asserting that he may reinstate the charges when in internal affairs investigation into the shooting is completed. Boudin has announced that a hallmark of his term in office will be investigations of excessive force against cops.
By Evan Sernoffsky
San Francisco Chronicle
January 27, 2020
San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin’s decision to withdraw criminal charges last week against a man who was shot by police after allegedly attacking officers with a bottle has inflamed a simmering conflict between the city’s new progressive prosecutor and the law enforcement groups that opposed his election.
The city’s police union accused Boudin — a former public defender — of giving a “green light” to criminals to attack police, and on Monday called on the federal government to prosecute Jamaica Hampton, the 24-year-old man accused in the Dec. 7 attack in the Mission District. Hampton remains hospitalized and recently had his leg amputated after being shot three times, officials said.
The district attorney’s office, though, said there is nothing conclusive about its decision Friday to pull back the charges “without prejudice,”meaning they can be refiled anytime in the next three years. The office said it suspended the charges as part of a new policy aimed at avoiding conflicts between officer-involved shooting investigations and parallel criminal probes.
__________
San Francisco and San Jose Police Officers Association & LA Police Protective League seek federal charges against violent attacker of SF officersSan Francisco and San Jose Police Officers Association & LA Police Protective League seek federal charges against violent attacker of SF officers
LAPPL News Watch
January 28, 2020
The San Francisco Police Officer's Association is asking the U.S. attorney's office to prosecute a man who attacked officers last year. The request comes after San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin, who formerly worked as a public defender, withdrew charges against Jamaica Hampton, 24, in the December assault.
“Mr. Boudin’s actions impact every police officer patrolling America’s neighborhoods, said LAPPL Director Jamie McBride. “It sends a message that so called reformer district attorneys will let attacks on police officers go unpunished.”
_________
SF COPS AND DA GO NOSE TO NOSE
by Bob Walsh
Chesa Boudin is the new District Attorney for San Francisco, and he is a hard-core liberal, most would say radical extremist. He just dropped charges against a man who was shot by the cops when he attacked the cops using a broken beer bottle as a weapon.
The police union is very unhappy. They assert that the D.A., a former public defender who has never been a prosecutor until elected to be the D.A., has essentially given a green light to criminals to attack cops. The bad guy, Jamaica Hampton, 24, is still in the hospital from the December 7 shooting and lost one leg to gunshot damage.
The D.A.'s spokeshole, Paula Lehman-Ewing, asserted, "No conclusion about the prosecutorial viability of Hampton's case should be drawn here." I guess that means they intend to routinely drop solid cases, just because they can.
The police union announced a new web site, BoudinBlunders.com, where tips can be submitted on screw-ups by the new D.A.
Hampton was originally charged by the acting D.A. with adw, assault on an officer and threats to an officer. Boudin dropped the charges after he was sworn in on January 8. There is in fact body cam footage of the incident.
The D.A. is asserting that he may reinstate the charges when in internal affairs investigation into the shooting is completed. Boudin has announced that a hallmark of his term in office will be investigations of excessive force against cops.
HIDDEN DWELLER EVICTED AFTER 10 YEARS
Tapeworm removed from man’s brain after months of ‘awful’ headaches, Texas doctors say
By Dawson White
Fort Worth Star-Telegram
January 27, 2020
A Texas man’s “awful” headaches had a disturbing cause.
Last year, a man in Austin told his doctors he’d been tormented by terrible headaches for months before passing out during a soccer game, KXAN reported.
After running a few tests, doctors made a frightening discovery: a tapeworm was lodged in his brain, KVUE reported.
“This can go undetected for years, so you can eat by accident a microscopic egg from the tapeworm larva and not know it for years,” neurosurgeon Dr. Jordan Amadio said, according to the outlet. “They can grow inside the body without causing symptoms until they get big enough.”
Doctors performed surgery to remove the parasite and the man has recovered, KVUE reported. They believe he may have gotten the parasite after eating under-cooked pork in Mexico over a decade ago, according to KEYE.
“In this patient’s case he had been in the states from Mexico for over a decade. We actually think this had been growing in his brain for over a decade undetected,” Amadio said, according to the outlet.
Tapeworm infections occur when a person eats under-cooked pork or beef, the Centers for Disease Control say. Symptoms can be mild or non-existent, but occasionally cause digestive problems, loss of appetite, stomach pain or weight loss. Those infected may also see segments of the tapeworm in their poop, the CDC says.
About 1,000 cases of tapeworm infections are reported each year in the U.S., but the CDC says it’s tough to determine the exact number of cases.
By Dawson White
Fort Worth Star-Telegram
January 27, 2020
A Texas man’s “awful” headaches had a disturbing cause.
Last year, a man in Austin told his doctors he’d been tormented by terrible headaches for months before passing out during a soccer game, KXAN reported.
After running a few tests, doctors made a frightening discovery: a tapeworm was lodged in his brain, KVUE reported.
“This can go undetected for years, so you can eat by accident a microscopic egg from the tapeworm larva and not know it for years,” neurosurgeon Dr. Jordan Amadio said, according to the outlet. “They can grow inside the body without causing symptoms until they get big enough.”
Doctors performed surgery to remove the parasite and the man has recovered, KVUE reported. They believe he may have gotten the parasite after eating under-cooked pork in Mexico over a decade ago, according to KEYE.
“In this patient’s case he had been in the states from Mexico for over a decade. We actually think this had been growing in his brain for over a decade undetected,” Amadio said, according to the outlet.
Tapeworm infections occur when a person eats under-cooked pork or beef, the Centers for Disease Control say. Symptoms can be mild or non-existent, but occasionally cause digestive problems, loss of appetite, stomach pain or weight loss. Those infected may also see segments of the tapeworm in their poop, the CDC says.
About 1,000 cases of tapeworm infections are reported each year in the U.S., but the CDC says it’s tough to determine the exact number of cases.
Tuesday, January 28, 2020
BEING A FATHER DEFINED KOBE BRYANT IN A WAY BASKETBALL NEVER COULD
Beyond the basketball court was Kobe Bryant the father
By Ed Graney
Las Vegas Review-Journal
January 26, 2020
MIAMI — My daughter got into her preferred college sorority Sunday. She texted me with the news and a picture of the bid and a heart emoji.
I wasn’t thrilled, never a fan of the level of anxiety and sadness such a selective process causes some.
But she has never been happier.
So I texted her back a heart emoji and told her how proud I was of her.
Because she’s my daughter, and I love her unconditionally.
A few hours later, upon landing here to begin covering Super Bowl week, news had broken about the helicopter crash that took the life of NBA legend Kobe Bryant.
Soon after, we learned that his daughter, 13-year-old Gianna, was with him and also perished.
And that the lives of one of her travel ball teammates and that child’s parents were also taken.
And that nine souls in all were lost.
And all I could think about were those heart emojis.
Damn, it’s true. We never really do know the love of a parent until we become one ourselves.
It’s why, while the basketball accomplishments of Bryant will be universally celebrated, his post-career relationship with his daughters fascinated me far more than any Mamba-type hoops domination.
He and wife Vanessa had four girls, ages 17 and 13 and 3 and not yet 1. And while few in sports history owned Bryant’s cutthroat competitive nature, fatherhood seemed to soften him.
It gave him a purpose beyond the adulation.
It fed his drive when the game was gone, and yet allowed him to share his love of it with his children.
And no one loved it more than Bryant. No one.
Mostly, being a father defined him in a way basketball never could.
It made him, well, more human.
We know of his off-court transgressions, of being accused of rape in 2003 and the case ultimately being dropped when his accuser refused to testify. We know about the civil suit and out-of-court settlement and public apology that followed.
You can’t tell his story without all the good and bad.
Anyone’s story, really.
But the most wonderful and indelible images of Bryant were with his girls, him posting pictures across social media of them playing basketball or volleyball, of performing ballet, of his eldest preparing to attend a high school dance.
I can’t count the number of snapshots we saw of Bryant and Gianna, his GiGi, sitting at basketball games, their smiles wide enough to fill all the courts in the world as father explained to daughter those minute details that he mastered like so few.
She was the baller, talented beyond her years, more like him than anyone.
She would also correct others when they told Bryant he needed to have a son to carry on his basketball legacy.
“I’ve got that,” GiGi would say.
And each of those pictures becomes more heartbreaking than the next now.
“We all want our kids to be the best version of themselves and dream as big as they can to reach their highest potential,” Bryant tweeted last September. “But chasing a dream takes a lot of courage. That’s what I want kids to learn by reading these novels.”
He spoke of the book, “Legacy and the Queen,” a creation of his about the kingdom of Nova and a 12-year old tennis player named Legacy who spent long days taking care of other kids at an orphanage.
In it, Legacy must rise above others who have been afforded the advantage of magic, using just her passion for the game and work ethic to overcome all competitors.
Sound like someone?
Send those emojis
It was another way for Bryant to teach his daughters about the traits that defined his own greatness, ones he hoped they would embrace most when facing life’s adversity.
Spouses and siblings and friends and family are left behind to grieve now, the pieces of such an unfathomable tragedy scattered in a million places. Nine souls.
Kobe Bryant will surely be named as part of the 2020 Hall of Fame class.
What a loss, not hearing him speak about what his wife and four girls meant to him when accepting the honor.
But he is gone at 41. It doesn’t feel real.
Most will remember the historic player, the author, the philanthropist, the venture capital businessman, the Academy Award and Emmy winner, the Mamba in all his glory.
I will remember the father.
My daughter got into a sorority Sunday. I wasn’t all that thrilled.
But, man, I’m going to drive her crazy with all the heart emojis to come.
To all parents, do yourself a favor: Never, ever stop sending them.
By Ed Graney
Las Vegas Review-Journal
January 26, 2020
MIAMI — My daughter got into her preferred college sorority Sunday. She texted me with the news and a picture of the bid and a heart emoji.
I wasn’t thrilled, never a fan of the level of anxiety and sadness such a selective process causes some.
But she has never been happier.
So I texted her back a heart emoji and told her how proud I was of her.
Because she’s my daughter, and I love her unconditionally.
A few hours later, upon landing here to begin covering Super Bowl week, news had broken about the helicopter crash that took the life of NBA legend Kobe Bryant.
Soon after, we learned that his daughter, 13-year-old Gianna, was with him and also perished.
And that the lives of one of her travel ball teammates and that child’s parents were also taken.
And that nine souls in all were lost.
And all I could think about were those heart emojis.
Damn, it’s true. We never really do know the love of a parent until we become one ourselves.
It’s why, while the basketball accomplishments of Bryant will be universally celebrated, his post-career relationship with his daughters fascinated me far more than any Mamba-type hoops domination.
He and wife Vanessa had four girls, ages 17 and 13 and 3 and not yet 1. And while few in sports history owned Bryant’s cutthroat competitive nature, fatherhood seemed to soften him.
It gave him a purpose beyond the adulation.
It fed his drive when the game was gone, and yet allowed him to share his love of it with his children.
And no one loved it more than Bryant. No one.
Mostly, being a father defined him in a way basketball never could.
It made him, well, more human.
We know of his off-court transgressions, of being accused of rape in 2003 and the case ultimately being dropped when his accuser refused to testify. We know about the civil suit and out-of-court settlement and public apology that followed.
You can’t tell his story without all the good and bad.
Anyone’s story, really.
But the most wonderful and indelible images of Bryant were with his girls, him posting pictures across social media of them playing basketball or volleyball, of performing ballet, of his eldest preparing to attend a high school dance.
I can’t count the number of snapshots we saw of Bryant and Gianna, his GiGi, sitting at basketball games, their smiles wide enough to fill all the courts in the world as father explained to daughter those minute details that he mastered like so few.
She was the baller, talented beyond her years, more like him than anyone.
She would also correct others when they told Bryant he needed to have a son to carry on his basketball legacy.
“I’ve got that,” GiGi would say.
And each of those pictures becomes more heartbreaking than the next now.
“We all want our kids to be the best version of themselves and dream as big as they can to reach their highest potential,” Bryant tweeted last September. “But chasing a dream takes a lot of courage. That’s what I want kids to learn by reading these novels.”
He spoke of the book, “Legacy and the Queen,” a creation of his about the kingdom of Nova and a 12-year old tennis player named Legacy who spent long days taking care of other kids at an orphanage.
In it, Legacy must rise above others who have been afforded the advantage of magic, using just her passion for the game and work ethic to overcome all competitors.
Sound like someone?
Send those emojis
It was another way for Bryant to teach his daughters about the traits that defined his own greatness, ones he hoped they would embrace most when facing life’s adversity.
Spouses and siblings and friends and family are left behind to grieve now, the pieces of such an unfathomable tragedy scattered in a million places. Nine souls.
Kobe Bryant will surely be named as part of the 2020 Hall of Fame class.
What a loss, not hearing him speak about what his wife and four girls meant to him when accepting the honor.
But he is gone at 41. It doesn’t feel real.
Most will remember the historic player, the author, the philanthropist, the venture capital businessman, the Academy Award and Emmy winner, the Mamba in all his glory.
I will remember the father.
My daughter got into a sorority Sunday. I wasn’t all that thrilled.
But, man, I’m going to drive her crazy with all the heart emojis to come.
To all parents, do yourself a favor: Never, ever stop sending them.
LOOKS LIKE CALIFORNIA IS MOVING AHEAD WITH DRUG PLAN
by Bob Walsh
It looks like the formerly great state of California is moving ahead with its plan to have its own drug label to reduce drug costs. One of the first items on the list is insulin. It will not be possible for the state to actually manufacture insulin due to lots of regulatory and technical concerns, but they believe that they can create their own drug label and hire an existing manufacturer and buy and distribute in bulk, thereby cutting out a lot of the profit in the distribution stream.
I have no idea if this will work or not. State governments are not known for flexible, efficent operations but Gavin Newsom might have a good idea here. It is certainly worth a shot.
It looks like the formerly great state of California is moving ahead with its plan to have its own drug label to reduce drug costs. One of the first items on the list is insulin. It will not be possible for the state to actually manufacture insulin due to lots of regulatory and technical concerns, but they believe that they can create their own drug label and hire an existing manufacturer and buy and distribute in bulk, thereby cutting out a lot of the profit in the distribution stream.
I have no idea if this will work or not. State governments are not known for flexible, efficent operations but Gavin Newsom might have a good idea here. It is certainly worth a shot.
ANY ULTRA ORTHODOX JEW WHO REFUSES TO SERVE IN THE IDF SHOULD BE KICKED OUT OF ISRAEL
Good Morning, Israel: It Stinks
By Dov Eilon
Israel Today
January 27, 2020
Boker Tov dear readers!
It stinks here! No, I’m not angry. It really stinks at the entrance to the city.
As soon as I got off the bus this morning, an extremely foul odor greeted me. I knew immediately from where it came. Yesterday, there was once again chaos at the entrance to Jerusalem. A number of buses did not arrive and left many people stranded at the Central Bus Station, frustrated after a long day at work.
The reason? The ultra-Orthodox were again demonstrating against moves in the government to draft them into mandatory military service, like every other Israeli Jew.
The Police had responded with blue “skunk” water to break up the disruption to public transportation.
Jews fighting Jews
This group is known as the “Jerusalem Faction,” in Hebrew HaPeleg HaJerushalmi. The reason for it’s actions yesterday was the recent arrest of the son of a well-known rabbi of Ethiopian origin for failing to respond to his military conscription letter. The letter was most likely just a summons to appear at the recruitment office to be told that, like most yeshiva students, he was exempt from service.
But that’s not good enough for this group. They demand full and automatic exemption. And as long as they don’t get it, they refuse to cooperate with the IDF in any way.
The result was yet again ugly images of Jews fighting Jews.
And, of course, the near collapse of public transportation into and out of the city.
I should have taken the train
I had gone to the bus stop just like every other day, certain of soon catching my bus and arriving home to Modi’in at a decent hour. But the bus never came. Nor the one after, or the one after that. Each would appear briefly on the schedule board, only to disappear.
I decided to try a different bus line from a different bus company, and got lucky. After about 30 minutes, I was already at the entrance to Modi’in.
I had gotten out just in time. The situation in Jerusalem deteriorated further and traffic came to a complete standstill. I should have just taken the train yesterday, even if doing so requires a detour via the airport. Next time I won’t let the demonstrators hold me hostage in the city.
A constant annoyance
The situation is a constant annoyance for average Israelis.
Our youngest son will start his army service in just under four weeks. We never once considered trying to get out of it. Why is service to the state a matter of course for us, while other groups will literally fight to avoid it?
Yes, in my opinion, even the very Orthodox Jews should likewise do something for their country, for their fellow citizens. I understand that they are studying the Torah, and that is also important, because we still stand today thanks to our faith.
But I think everyone should also make the time and effort to tangibly serve the nation. A one-year social service program would be a good start. Rejecting any kind of service to the state in such an aggressive way while others risk their lives to protect us all is simply intolerable.
It makes me sad that we have this division in our society, among us Jews. How can we make peace with others if we can’t make peace among ourselves?
EDITOR’S NOTE: Blue skunk water. What a great police crowd control weapon. That’s what we need here in the US to break up unruly crowds.
By Dov Eilon
Israel Today
January 27, 2020
Boker Tov dear readers!
It stinks here! No, I’m not angry. It really stinks at the entrance to the city.
As soon as I got off the bus this morning, an extremely foul odor greeted me. I knew immediately from where it came. Yesterday, there was once again chaos at the entrance to Jerusalem. A number of buses did not arrive and left many people stranded at the Central Bus Station, frustrated after a long day at work.
The reason? The ultra-Orthodox were again demonstrating against moves in the government to draft them into mandatory military service, like every other Israeli Jew.
The Police had responded with blue “skunk” water to break up the disruption to public transportation.
Jews fighting Jews
This group is known as the “Jerusalem Faction,” in Hebrew HaPeleg HaJerushalmi. The reason for it’s actions yesterday was the recent arrest of the son of a well-known rabbi of Ethiopian origin for failing to respond to his military conscription letter. The letter was most likely just a summons to appear at the recruitment office to be told that, like most yeshiva students, he was exempt from service.
But that’s not good enough for this group. They demand full and automatic exemption. And as long as they don’t get it, they refuse to cooperate with the IDF in any way.
The result was yet again ugly images of Jews fighting Jews.
And, of course, the near collapse of public transportation into and out of the city.
I should have taken the train
I had gone to the bus stop just like every other day, certain of soon catching my bus and arriving home to Modi’in at a decent hour. But the bus never came. Nor the one after, or the one after that. Each would appear briefly on the schedule board, only to disappear.
I decided to try a different bus line from a different bus company, and got lucky. After about 30 minutes, I was already at the entrance to Modi’in.
I had gotten out just in time. The situation in Jerusalem deteriorated further and traffic came to a complete standstill. I should have just taken the train yesterday, even if doing so requires a detour via the airport. Next time I won’t let the demonstrators hold me hostage in the city.
A constant annoyance
The situation is a constant annoyance for average Israelis.
Our youngest son will start his army service in just under four weeks. We never once considered trying to get out of it. Why is service to the state a matter of course for us, while other groups will literally fight to avoid it?
Yes, in my opinion, even the very Orthodox Jews should likewise do something for their country, for their fellow citizens. I understand that they are studying the Torah, and that is also important, because we still stand today thanks to our faith.
But I think everyone should also make the time and effort to tangibly serve the nation. A one-year social service program would be a good start. Rejecting any kind of service to the state in such an aggressive way while others risk their lives to protect us all is simply intolerable.
It makes me sad that we have this division in our society, among us Jews. How can we make peace with others if we can’t make peace among ourselves?
EDITOR’S NOTE: Blue skunk water. What a great police crowd control weapon. That’s what we need here in the US to break up unruly crowds.
ISIS LEADERR WANTS TO CONQUER ISRAEL AND TURN IT INTO FIELDS FOR ARMS EXPERIMENTS
ISIS orders militants to begin conquering Israeli settlements and start targeting Jews
By Ryan Fahey
Daily Mail
January 27, 2020
The head of ISIS has called on militants to begin conquering Israeli settlements and to start targeting Jews.
Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Quraishi, the leader of the Islamic State, directed the organisation's remaining militants to wage a campaign of terror against Israel and Jews, according to the Israeli public broadcasting corporation.
Al-Quraishi said that combatants, especially those in Sinai and Syria, should turn their focus to Israeli settlements in the West Bank, reconquer the land, and turn it into fields for arms experiments.
Despite the defeat of the ISIS caliphate in December 2018, the Islamist's are still operational in areas of Sinai, Syria and Iraq.
In his statement, al-Quraishi commanded that Muslims across the globe derail US President Donald Trump's Middle East 'peace plan'.
Four days after the suicide of ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi when he was cornered by a US tactical operation in October last year, an Islamic State radio message confirmed al-Baghdadi's successor as al-Quraishi.
According to the Guardian, al-Quraishi played a pivotal role in the genocide and enslavement of the Yazidi minority in Iraq.
By Ryan Fahey
Daily Mail
January 27, 2020
The head of ISIS has called on militants to begin conquering Israeli settlements and to start targeting Jews.
Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Quraishi, the leader of the Islamic State, directed the organisation's remaining militants to wage a campaign of terror against Israel and Jews, according to the Israeli public broadcasting corporation.
Al-Quraishi said that combatants, especially those in Sinai and Syria, should turn their focus to Israeli settlements in the West Bank, reconquer the land, and turn it into fields for arms experiments.
Despite the defeat of the ISIS caliphate in December 2018, the Islamist's are still operational in areas of Sinai, Syria and Iraq.
In his statement, al-Quraishi commanded that Muslims across the globe derail US President Donald Trump's Middle East 'peace plan'.
Four days after the suicide of ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi when he was cornered by a US tactical operation in October last year, an Islamic State radio message confirmed al-Baghdadi's successor as al-Quraishi.
According to the Guardian, al-Quraishi played a pivotal role in the genocide and enslavement of the Yazidi minority in Iraq.
THE COMPANY OF SECOND CHANCES
At Nehemiah Manufacturing, workers with a criminal past are the norm. But the company has learned that giving someone a job is just half the battle
By Ruth Simon
The Wall Street Journal
January 25, 2020
CINCINNATI—While some companies try to attract and keep employees with yoga classes and lavish cafeterias, Nehemiah Manufacturing Co.’s perks include a social-service team and an attorney.
When two consumer-product veterans started Nehemiah a decade ago, their idea was to create more opportunities in a struggling part of Cincinnati. Increasingly, that meant hiring people who had a particularly hard time finding jobs: those with criminal backgrounds.
Now, workers with criminal records make up around 80% of the company’s about 180 employees—and Nehemiah has learned that offering a job to people trying to turn their lives around is just half the battle.
“We are investing in our employees in order to retain them,” said Richard Palmer, president of Nehemiah, whose brands include Boogie Wipes, Saline Soothers and other consumer products. “It’s no different than tech companies bringing in lunch and a foosball table.”
In one of the tightest labor markets in decades, more employers are willing to give ex-convicts a chance, trying to marry business needs and good intentions. Even large American companies are rethinking whether their responsibilities extend beyond their shareholders. JPMorgan Chase & Co. Chief Executive James Dimon said in October that the bank would step up efforts to recruit people with criminal backgrounds.
Hiring people with a criminal past can pay big dividends for companies, such as closer community ties and a loyal workforce. But keeping them on the job can be a struggle.
Gina Johnson, 56
Before Nehemiah hired her, Ms. Johnson was in and out of prison. Nehemiah helped her find housing, clean up her credit record and set a budget. Having a steady job has helped her rebuild her relationship with her children. ‘I never knew what a goal was until I got here,’ she says.
Rayshun Holt, 40
When Mr. Holt was 15, he fatally shot a friend during a scuffle. During two decades in prison, he started taking classes and coaching other prisoners. Released in 2016, he was ‘filled with hope and overwhelmed by fear.’ He struggled to find steady work. Nehemiah hired him as a second-shift supervisor at $19 an hour.
Michael Taylor, 37
‘I wanted to make a change,’ says Mr. Taylor, Nehemiah’s operations manager who has struggled with drug and alcohol addiction and was jailed for burglary. Nehemiah employees support each other, he says. ‘We tell our stories; we show our scars...I will tell my story a million times if it helps one person.’
Privately held Nehemiah started hiring workers with a criminal record in 2011, about a year and a half after launch, at the request of a local nonprofit. The experiment got off to a rocky start. Many workers continued to struggle with substance abuse or mental illness; some were homeless, the company says.
“We didn’t understand all of the challenges,” says Dan Meyer, Nehemiah’s chief executive and veteran of Procter & Gamble Co. and Bristol-Myers Squibb. Employees showed up one day, only to disappear the next.
At a loss, Nehemiah enlisted the support of a social-service worker to help employees with anything from finding housing to staying clean.
“They were thinking that providing jobs would fix things,” said Dana Merida, who initially provided social services for Nehemiah employees a few hours a week and now heads the company’s three-person social-service team. But some of them would take a break and never come back, she said. “If you are homeless, couch surfing, how productive can you be?”
Karrie Norgren, a 26-year-old recovering heroin addict, said she wasn’t reliable when she first joined Nehemiah in 2018. “Old habits were starting to form,” she said. But “something clicked” after she missed three days of work and Ms. Merida sat her down for a chat. She now runs a small team of employees as a line captain.
Ms. Merida said that Ms. Norgren would have lost her job if she hadn’t shown more commitment to changing her path.
Gina Johnson, 56 years old, has a seventh-grade education and was in and out of prison for drug-related crimes. Nehemiah helped her find housing, clean up her credit record and set a budget. She now runs a team that fulfills Amazon orders for items from Nehemiah and other companies.
“I never knew what a goal was until I got here,” Ms. Johnson said. She spent seven months as a temporary Nehemiah worker before being taken on full time. “It was the best feeling in the world,” she said.
Having a steady job has helped her rebuild her relationship with her children, who were raised by her sister and grandmother. Her oldest daughter is now helping her study to obtain her GED. “It’s good for the kids to say they are proud of me,” she said.
Since its first days, Nehemiah has become more deliberate about identifying candidates who are likely to be good, reliable employees and has developed a more formal system for providing them with support.
Today, Nehemiah’s annual turnover stands at roughly 15%, well below the 38.5% average for consumer-products companies, as reported by Mercer’s 2019 U.S. Turnover Survey. Nehemiah says it had operating income of $5.7 million on sales of $59.4 million in 2018.
Even among companies embracing so-called second-chance hiring, Nehemiah is unusual, with a workforce where a criminal past is the norm rather than the exception.
“We found that the population we were hiring who had criminal backgrounds were our most loyal people,” said Mr. Palmer. “When we were looking for people to work overtime, come in on Saturday or go that extra mile, it was the second-chance population that was saying, ‘I’m in.’”
Nehemiah’s approach to hiring only works if the entire company is committed to it, from the chief executive down, said Matt Mooney, a vice president with nonprofit Cincinnati Works, which helps people with criminal records find work and navigate barriers to self-sufficiency. “If you have front-line supervisors who are not comfortable, it will collapse,” he said.
At Nehemiah, having a criminal past carries less of a stigma because so many workers have been incarcerated. Employers with a more traditional workforce must grapple with what, if any, information about employees’ backgrounds to share with managers and others.
“We don’t put a red star on their names,” said Fred Keller, founder and chair of Cascade Engineering Inc., a privately held Grand Rapids, Mich., contract manufacturer with about 1,700 employees that has hired people with criminal records for more than two decades. “We believe it’s important to treat them the same as everybody else.” Cascade uses a local nonprofit that assists workers with criminal records or other challenges.
Companies also have different tolerances for the types of crimes they are willing to look beyond: More employers are comfortable overlooking minor drug offenses but not violent crimes, or sexual offenses. Nehemiah can’t hire sex offenders because its facility is near a school.
Nehemiah’s hiring process typically includes a session with a member of the social-service team who scrutinizes applicants’ histories and current support systems. Applicants also sign a release that allows the team to contact the agencies that provide them with housing, drug treatment or other support.
Only half of applicants make it through that initial screening, according to the company. Those that do are taken on as temporary workers and assigned a job coach who helps them understand employer expectations. They typically spend a week or more in a job-readiness program that includes classes on how to create a résumé, interview for a job and manage in the workplace. After a probation period of three to six months or so, about 60% of the temp workers are elevated to full-time employees.
“There’s a misconception that Nehemiah will hire anybody,” said Mr. Palmer. “No, we won’t. If we bring on somebody who is not ready to work, it will impact our operations.”
Conversely, Nehemiah’s approach also means it can spot potential other employers might overlook. When Rayshun Holt came to Nehemiah roughly two years ago, Ms. Merida said he immediately stood out as someone the company wanted.
Mr. Holt, 40, spent two decades in prison after fatally shooting a friend when he was 15 during what he describes as a scuffle over a gun. While in prison, Mr. Holt reconnected to his faith, started taking classes and began coaching other prisoners on how to turn their lives around.
Released in 2016 with $96 in his pocket, he said, “I was filled with hope and overwhelmed by fear.” His first job was in a fast-food restaurant specializing in chicken fingers. “I was the oldest person there and the most enthusiastic. It was the first time in my life I was earning an honest check,” he said.
But he struggled to find steady work with decent pay. Nehemiah hired him as a second-shift supervisor at $19 an hour.
Ms. Merida said she was impressed by Mr. Holt’s passion, humility and sincerity when he told his life story, how he knew the streets but had already taken steps to turn his life around. “I knew this was a born leader who could really have a profound impact on our employees,” said Ms. Merida. “He could show them that no matter how bad it is, your life isn’t over.”
Mr. Holt now works as the company’s commercialization coordinator, responsible for taking new products and product improvements from concept to market.
Nehemiah spends about $120,000 a year on its social-service team, not including the standard human-resources tasks the team also handles. It donates about $150,000 a year to nonprofits including City Gospel Mission, which sends job candidates to Nehemiah and provides drug-treatment classes and rehab programs to the company’s employees.
Other expenses include about $15,000 for the services of an attorney who helps workers with legal issues such as getting criminal records expunged or navigating bankruptcy proceedings and about $50,000 for continuing education. The company owns four apartment units it rents out to employees at half of market rates; it hopes to add more in the next few years.
“Can I cut some of this stuff and make a little more money? I sure don’t want to,” said Mr. Meyer. “This is a business model about a social enterprise making money.”
In their previous lives, Mr. Meyer had sold a business he founded to a private-equity company; part of Mr. Palmer’s work had focused on economic development. Both wanted to bring manufacturing jobs, which had moved to the suburbs, back to the city and partner with social-service agencies as a way to allow people a chance to work their way out of poverty.
Their Christian beliefs were a motivator; the pair named the company Nehemiah after an Old Testament prophet who helped rebuild Jerusalem. A family member’s struggles with substance abuse has also shaped Mr. Meyer’s willingness to offer workers more than one chance.
Government support, such as federal tax credits for hiring workers who face barriers to employment, has been minimal, the company says, but $300,000 in state funding helped lower the cost of building a new 183,000-square-foot facility, which opened last year in a ZIP Code where more than a third of residents live below the poverty line.
Jeffrey Korzenik, chief investment strategist for Cincinnati-based Fifth Third Bancorp, who has studied the practices of Nehemiah and other employers, says Nehemiah’s screening process is crucial for success. “For this to work on a business basis, not as charity, it requires selectivity in who is hired,” he said.
One job candidate had been drug-free for 25 days when he showed up at Nehemiah for an interview in the fall. “It was commendable; he had made changes,” said Basette Smith, a member of the social-service team. But Mr. Smith wasn’t ready to make him an offer. “I wanted a more stable history of treatments,” he said. “It’s not a ‘yes’ right now. It’s not a ‘no.’”
In the months since, the social-service team found the job applicant had showed up for just one drug-treatment session and didn’t get back in touch with the team, as requested. The door isn’t closed, but “it doesn’t bode well,” said Mr. Smith.
New hires must not only be job ready, Mr. Smith added, but also be prepared “for what life looks like as a working adult,” which includes everything from having a bank account to deposit paychecks to a support system and treatment plan.
Permanent employees at Nehemiah start at $12.50 an hour, with midlevel workers earning around $15. That is roughly in line with the national average for similar work, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Nehemiah workers also receive a year-end bonus of around 7%. All full-time employees are also eligible for health insurance, tuition reimbursement, a retirement-savings plan and other benefits.
Roughly 70% of Nehemiah’s employees have dealt with drug addiction or committed drug-related crimes. About a dozen have been fired after relapsing, said Michael Taylor, Nehemiah’s operations manager who has struggled with drug and alcohol addiction and was jailed for burglary.
At a previous job, Mr. Taylor was escorted off the premises by armed guards after the company determined he had lied about his past, he said. “I wanted to make a change,” he said. On his first day, Mr. Meyer shook his hand. The biggest challenge for Nehemiah employees, Mr. Taylor said, “is having them see value in themselves, the confidence that they can succeed. We did bad things, but we were never bad people.”
He said employees support each other. “We tell our stories; we show our scars,” he said. “I will tell my story a million times if it helps one person.”
Nehemiah conducts random drug tests of employees; depending on the situation, it may pay the cost of treatment for those who fail the tests as well as workers’ salaries while they’re out.
Its hiring model hasn’t scared away customers, Mr. Palmer said, but the company’s leaders have sometimes struggled to balance heart and head, taking action that may not in the end be helpful.
After discovering that a temporary worker was living in his car, Mr. Meyer pulled out his wallet to give the man money for a hotel. Instead of handing cash to the temporary worker, the social-service team paid his hotel bill for three weeks, then moved him to an apartment and bought him furniture. He eventually moved on to a job in the construction industry.
Another time, Mr. Meyer brought a man who had been panhandling on a nearby street corner to Nehemiah’s offices and told the staff to hire him. Nehemiah helped him secure a government ID, therapy and a bed at a shelter; it bought him new clothes and an alarm clock. He spent a rocky six months at the company, and was ultimately fired for showing up drunk.
“He wasn’t ready,” said Mr. Meyer. But “we are about second chances, third chances,” he said. “I may go to five.”
Catching On
Nehemiah has tried to help other Cincinnati companies open their workforces to those with criminal pasts.
It launched the Beacon of Hope Business Alliance for employers and held a golf outing to raise funds for three vans that Alliance members can use to transport workers without cars to far-flung jobs. The social-service team connected workers to other employers until this fall, when Nehemiah handed the job to Cincinnati Works, a nonprofit.
Kroger Co. Chief Executive Rodney McMullen toured Nehemiah’s operation in 2016 and, a year later, asked the consumer-products company for help with recruiting. The grocery giant hired 40 people with criminal records in two Cincinnati manufacturing plants; Kroger is expanding the program to manufacturing and distribution facilities in Indiana, South Carolina, Wisconsin and Oregon.
At Kroger, with 460,000 employees, only hiring managers know workers’ backgrounds. Kroger partners with nonprofits and local business groups for services its human-resources department doesn’t offer.
Of the initial hires, 37 still work for Kroger; about half have been promoted from entry-level jobs to lead manufacturing roles paying $20 or more an hour. “We have many examples of people buying their first car, buying a house,” Mr. McMullen said.
JBM Packaging, a privately held maker of seed packets and other specialty packaging, began “second-chance” hiring after struggling to find new employees. The 35-year-old Lebanon, Ohio, company donated two excess folding machines that are used to train workers at the Pickaway Correctional Institution; it also recruits at the Dayton Correctional Institution, a women’s prison. Roughly 25 of JBM’s 145 employees have criminal records.
“Nehemiah has been a big inspiration,” said JBM CEO Marcus Sheanshang, who uses the van service launched by Nehemiah to ferry workers to his facility. A JBM “change coach” teaches classes to inmates nearing release and helps employees find housing, set up bank accounts, obtain reliable transportation and navigate other challenges.
The extra services cost about $200,000 a year, said Mr. Sheanshang. Turnover has fallen, he added, as JBM has strengthened its support program and focused on identifying inmates who want to change their lives upon release.
By Ruth Simon
The Wall Street Journal
January 25, 2020
CINCINNATI—While some companies try to attract and keep employees with yoga classes and lavish cafeterias, Nehemiah Manufacturing Co.’s perks include a social-service team and an attorney.
When two consumer-product veterans started Nehemiah a decade ago, their idea was to create more opportunities in a struggling part of Cincinnati. Increasingly, that meant hiring people who had a particularly hard time finding jobs: those with criminal backgrounds.
Now, workers with criminal records make up around 80% of the company’s about 180 employees—and Nehemiah has learned that offering a job to people trying to turn their lives around is just half the battle.
“We are investing in our employees in order to retain them,” said Richard Palmer, president of Nehemiah, whose brands include Boogie Wipes, Saline Soothers and other consumer products. “It’s no different than tech companies bringing in lunch and a foosball table.”
In one of the tightest labor markets in decades, more employers are willing to give ex-convicts a chance, trying to marry business needs and good intentions. Even large American companies are rethinking whether their responsibilities extend beyond their shareholders. JPMorgan Chase & Co. Chief Executive James Dimon said in October that the bank would step up efforts to recruit people with criminal backgrounds.
Hiring people with a criminal past can pay big dividends for companies, such as closer community ties and a loyal workforce. But keeping them on the job can be a struggle.
Gina Johnson, 56
Before Nehemiah hired her, Ms. Johnson was in and out of prison. Nehemiah helped her find housing, clean up her credit record and set a budget. Having a steady job has helped her rebuild her relationship with her children. ‘I never knew what a goal was until I got here,’ she says.
Rayshun Holt, 40
When Mr. Holt was 15, he fatally shot a friend during a scuffle. During two decades in prison, he started taking classes and coaching other prisoners. Released in 2016, he was ‘filled with hope and overwhelmed by fear.’ He struggled to find steady work. Nehemiah hired him as a second-shift supervisor at $19 an hour.
Michael Taylor, 37
‘I wanted to make a change,’ says Mr. Taylor, Nehemiah’s operations manager who has struggled with drug and alcohol addiction and was jailed for burglary. Nehemiah employees support each other, he says. ‘We tell our stories; we show our scars...I will tell my story a million times if it helps one person.’
Privately held Nehemiah started hiring workers with a criminal record in 2011, about a year and a half after launch, at the request of a local nonprofit. The experiment got off to a rocky start. Many workers continued to struggle with substance abuse or mental illness; some were homeless, the company says.
“We didn’t understand all of the challenges,” says Dan Meyer, Nehemiah’s chief executive and veteran of Procter & Gamble Co. and Bristol-Myers Squibb. Employees showed up one day, only to disappear the next.
At a loss, Nehemiah enlisted the support of a social-service worker to help employees with anything from finding housing to staying clean.
“They were thinking that providing jobs would fix things,” said Dana Merida, who initially provided social services for Nehemiah employees a few hours a week and now heads the company’s three-person social-service team. But some of them would take a break and never come back, she said. “If you are homeless, couch surfing, how productive can you be?”
Karrie Norgren, a 26-year-old recovering heroin addict, said she wasn’t reliable when she first joined Nehemiah in 2018. “Old habits were starting to form,” she said. But “something clicked” after she missed three days of work and Ms. Merida sat her down for a chat. She now runs a small team of employees as a line captain.
Ms. Merida said that Ms. Norgren would have lost her job if she hadn’t shown more commitment to changing her path.
Gina Johnson, 56 years old, has a seventh-grade education and was in and out of prison for drug-related crimes. Nehemiah helped her find housing, clean up her credit record and set a budget. She now runs a team that fulfills Amazon orders for items from Nehemiah and other companies.
“I never knew what a goal was until I got here,” Ms. Johnson said. She spent seven months as a temporary Nehemiah worker before being taken on full time. “It was the best feeling in the world,” she said.
Having a steady job has helped her rebuild her relationship with her children, who were raised by her sister and grandmother. Her oldest daughter is now helping her study to obtain her GED. “It’s good for the kids to say they are proud of me,” she said.
Since its first days, Nehemiah has become more deliberate about identifying candidates who are likely to be good, reliable employees and has developed a more formal system for providing them with support.
Today, Nehemiah’s annual turnover stands at roughly 15%, well below the 38.5% average for consumer-products companies, as reported by Mercer’s 2019 U.S. Turnover Survey. Nehemiah says it had operating income of $5.7 million on sales of $59.4 million in 2018.
Even among companies embracing so-called second-chance hiring, Nehemiah is unusual, with a workforce where a criminal past is the norm rather than the exception.
“We found that the population we were hiring who had criminal backgrounds were our most loyal people,” said Mr. Palmer. “When we were looking for people to work overtime, come in on Saturday or go that extra mile, it was the second-chance population that was saying, ‘I’m in.’”
Nehemiah’s approach to hiring only works if the entire company is committed to it, from the chief executive down, said Matt Mooney, a vice president with nonprofit Cincinnati Works, which helps people with criminal records find work and navigate barriers to self-sufficiency. “If you have front-line supervisors who are not comfortable, it will collapse,” he said.
At Nehemiah, having a criminal past carries less of a stigma because so many workers have been incarcerated. Employers with a more traditional workforce must grapple with what, if any, information about employees’ backgrounds to share with managers and others.
“We don’t put a red star on their names,” said Fred Keller, founder and chair of Cascade Engineering Inc., a privately held Grand Rapids, Mich., contract manufacturer with about 1,700 employees that has hired people with criminal records for more than two decades. “We believe it’s important to treat them the same as everybody else.” Cascade uses a local nonprofit that assists workers with criminal records or other challenges.
Companies also have different tolerances for the types of crimes they are willing to look beyond: More employers are comfortable overlooking minor drug offenses but not violent crimes, or sexual offenses. Nehemiah can’t hire sex offenders because its facility is near a school.
Nehemiah’s hiring process typically includes a session with a member of the social-service team who scrutinizes applicants’ histories and current support systems. Applicants also sign a release that allows the team to contact the agencies that provide them with housing, drug treatment or other support.
Only half of applicants make it through that initial screening, according to the company. Those that do are taken on as temporary workers and assigned a job coach who helps them understand employer expectations. They typically spend a week or more in a job-readiness program that includes classes on how to create a résumé, interview for a job and manage in the workplace. After a probation period of three to six months or so, about 60% of the temp workers are elevated to full-time employees.
“There’s a misconception that Nehemiah will hire anybody,” said Mr. Palmer. “No, we won’t. If we bring on somebody who is not ready to work, it will impact our operations.”
Conversely, Nehemiah’s approach also means it can spot potential other employers might overlook. When Rayshun Holt came to Nehemiah roughly two years ago, Ms. Merida said he immediately stood out as someone the company wanted.
Mr. Holt, 40, spent two decades in prison after fatally shooting a friend when he was 15 during what he describes as a scuffle over a gun. While in prison, Mr. Holt reconnected to his faith, started taking classes and began coaching other prisoners on how to turn their lives around.
Released in 2016 with $96 in his pocket, he said, “I was filled with hope and overwhelmed by fear.” His first job was in a fast-food restaurant specializing in chicken fingers. “I was the oldest person there and the most enthusiastic. It was the first time in my life I was earning an honest check,” he said.
But he struggled to find steady work with decent pay. Nehemiah hired him as a second-shift supervisor at $19 an hour.
Ms. Merida said she was impressed by Mr. Holt’s passion, humility and sincerity when he told his life story, how he knew the streets but had already taken steps to turn his life around. “I knew this was a born leader who could really have a profound impact on our employees,” said Ms. Merida. “He could show them that no matter how bad it is, your life isn’t over.”
Mr. Holt now works as the company’s commercialization coordinator, responsible for taking new products and product improvements from concept to market.
Nehemiah spends about $120,000 a year on its social-service team, not including the standard human-resources tasks the team also handles. It donates about $150,000 a year to nonprofits including City Gospel Mission, which sends job candidates to Nehemiah and provides drug-treatment classes and rehab programs to the company’s employees.
Other expenses include about $15,000 for the services of an attorney who helps workers with legal issues such as getting criminal records expunged or navigating bankruptcy proceedings and about $50,000 for continuing education. The company owns four apartment units it rents out to employees at half of market rates; it hopes to add more in the next few years.
“Can I cut some of this stuff and make a little more money? I sure don’t want to,” said Mr. Meyer. “This is a business model about a social enterprise making money.”
In their previous lives, Mr. Meyer had sold a business he founded to a private-equity company; part of Mr. Palmer’s work had focused on economic development. Both wanted to bring manufacturing jobs, which had moved to the suburbs, back to the city and partner with social-service agencies as a way to allow people a chance to work their way out of poverty.
Their Christian beliefs were a motivator; the pair named the company Nehemiah after an Old Testament prophet who helped rebuild Jerusalem. A family member’s struggles with substance abuse has also shaped Mr. Meyer’s willingness to offer workers more than one chance.
Government support, such as federal tax credits for hiring workers who face barriers to employment, has been minimal, the company says, but $300,000 in state funding helped lower the cost of building a new 183,000-square-foot facility, which opened last year in a ZIP Code where more than a third of residents live below the poverty line.
Jeffrey Korzenik, chief investment strategist for Cincinnati-based Fifth Third Bancorp, who has studied the practices of Nehemiah and other employers, says Nehemiah’s screening process is crucial for success. “For this to work on a business basis, not as charity, it requires selectivity in who is hired,” he said.
One job candidate had been drug-free for 25 days when he showed up at Nehemiah for an interview in the fall. “It was commendable; he had made changes,” said Basette Smith, a member of the social-service team. But Mr. Smith wasn’t ready to make him an offer. “I wanted a more stable history of treatments,” he said. “It’s not a ‘yes’ right now. It’s not a ‘no.’”
In the months since, the social-service team found the job applicant had showed up for just one drug-treatment session and didn’t get back in touch with the team, as requested. The door isn’t closed, but “it doesn’t bode well,” said Mr. Smith.
New hires must not only be job ready, Mr. Smith added, but also be prepared “for what life looks like as a working adult,” which includes everything from having a bank account to deposit paychecks to a support system and treatment plan.
Permanent employees at Nehemiah start at $12.50 an hour, with midlevel workers earning around $15. That is roughly in line with the national average for similar work, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Nehemiah workers also receive a year-end bonus of around 7%. All full-time employees are also eligible for health insurance, tuition reimbursement, a retirement-savings plan and other benefits.
Roughly 70% of Nehemiah’s employees have dealt with drug addiction or committed drug-related crimes. About a dozen have been fired after relapsing, said Michael Taylor, Nehemiah’s operations manager who has struggled with drug and alcohol addiction and was jailed for burglary.
At a previous job, Mr. Taylor was escorted off the premises by armed guards after the company determined he had lied about his past, he said. “I wanted to make a change,” he said. On his first day, Mr. Meyer shook his hand. The biggest challenge for Nehemiah employees, Mr. Taylor said, “is having them see value in themselves, the confidence that they can succeed. We did bad things, but we were never bad people.”
He said employees support each other. “We tell our stories; we show our scars,” he said. “I will tell my story a million times if it helps one person.”
Nehemiah conducts random drug tests of employees; depending on the situation, it may pay the cost of treatment for those who fail the tests as well as workers’ salaries while they’re out.
Its hiring model hasn’t scared away customers, Mr. Palmer said, but the company’s leaders have sometimes struggled to balance heart and head, taking action that may not in the end be helpful.
After discovering that a temporary worker was living in his car, Mr. Meyer pulled out his wallet to give the man money for a hotel. Instead of handing cash to the temporary worker, the social-service team paid his hotel bill for three weeks, then moved him to an apartment and bought him furniture. He eventually moved on to a job in the construction industry.
Another time, Mr. Meyer brought a man who had been panhandling on a nearby street corner to Nehemiah’s offices and told the staff to hire him. Nehemiah helped him secure a government ID, therapy and a bed at a shelter; it bought him new clothes and an alarm clock. He spent a rocky six months at the company, and was ultimately fired for showing up drunk.
“He wasn’t ready,” said Mr. Meyer. But “we are about second chances, third chances,” he said. “I may go to five.”
Catching On
Nehemiah has tried to help other Cincinnati companies open their workforces to those with criminal pasts.
It launched the Beacon of Hope Business Alliance for employers and held a golf outing to raise funds for three vans that Alliance members can use to transport workers without cars to far-flung jobs. The social-service team connected workers to other employers until this fall, when Nehemiah handed the job to Cincinnati Works, a nonprofit.
Kroger Co. Chief Executive Rodney McMullen toured Nehemiah’s operation in 2016 and, a year later, asked the consumer-products company for help with recruiting. The grocery giant hired 40 people with criminal records in two Cincinnati manufacturing plants; Kroger is expanding the program to manufacturing and distribution facilities in Indiana, South Carolina, Wisconsin and Oregon.
At Kroger, with 460,000 employees, only hiring managers know workers’ backgrounds. Kroger partners with nonprofits and local business groups for services its human-resources department doesn’t offer.
Of the initial hires, 37 still work for Kroger; about half have been promoted from entry-level jobs to lead manufacturing roles paying $20 or more an hour. “We have many examples of people buying their first car, buying a house,” Mr. McMullen said.
JBM Packaging, a privately held maker of seed packets and other specialty packaging, began “second-chance” hiring after struggling to find new employees. The 35-year-old Lebanon, Ohio, company donated two excess folding machines that are used to train workers at the Pickaway Correctional Institution; it also recruits at the Dayton Correctional Institution, a women’s prison. Roughly 25 of JBM’s 145 employees have criminal records.
“Nehemiah has been a big inspiration,” said JBM CEO Marcus Sheanshang, who uses the van service launched by Nehemiah to ferry workers to his facility. A JBM “change coach” teaches classes to inmates nearing release and helps employees find housing, set up bank accounts, obtain reliable transportation and navigate other challenges.
The extra services cost about $200,000 a year, said Mr. Sheanshang. Turnover has fallen, he added, as JBM has strengthened its support program and focused on identifying inmates who want to change their lives upon release.
Monday, January 27, 2020
ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY
In 1934, a Nazi storm trooper was driving down a street in Frankfurt, Germany when suddenly he hit a Scottish Terrier.
He stopped to examine the animal and saw that he had killed the poor dog. A bystander approached and pointed him to the dog owner’s residence.
The storm trooper knocked on the dog owner’s door. When a man opened the door, the storm trooper clicked the heels of his boots together, gave the Nazi salute and said, “Heil Hitler, the dog is dead.”
The man jumped up and down with joy. “Come in, come in, this callas for a celebration,” he said. “Hitler is dead. Let’s have some schnaps together.”
He stopped to examine the animal and saw that he had killed the poor dog. A bystander approached and pointed him to the dog owner’s residence.
The storm trooper knocked on the dog owner’s door. When a man opened the door, the storm trooper clicked the heels of his boots together, gave the Nazi salute and said, “Heil Hitler, the dog is dead.”
The man jumped up and down with joy. “Come in, come in, this callas for a celebration,” he said. “Hitler is dead. Let’s have some schnaps together.”
TIT FOR TAT
by Bob Walsh
The Governor of Oklahoma signed an executive order a couple of days ago to stop all state payed travel TO the formerly great state of California. I am not aware of the exact reason, but perhaps he is afraid they will catch typhoid, plague, or be murdered by illegal aliens. All of these are very real threats in CA.
The Governor of Oklahoma signed an executive order a couple of days ago to stop all state payed travel TO the formerly great state of California. I am not aware of the exact reason, but perhaps he is afraid they will catch typhoid, plague, or be murdered by illegal aliens. All of these are very real threats in CA.
TRAGEDY HAS TRAGIC ENDING
by Bob Walsh
The four year old boy who was allegedly accidentally shot while play-wrestling with his father on a bed a few days ago has died.
Assuming the story being reported is accurate the father had the weapon in the back of his waistband (holster ?) and it fell out, hit the floor and discharged one round, striking both the father and the son in the head.
As I pointed out in an earlier comment this is not quite impossible. Modern firearms are specifically designed to NOT fire when dropped. It would be an odd accident where a gun could fall onto a hard enough surface (presumably the floor) in just such a way as to fire and that one bullet could manage to hit two people who were on the bed both in the head, killing one.
The local constabulary is debating whether or not to file charges in the death.
Nationwide about 1% of firearms deaths are considered to be accidental or otherwise preventable. In 2017 there were 486 such deaths nationwide.
None of the few articles I have seen on this have offered any reason why this should have been something other than an accident other than the seeming improbability of the chain of occurrences that would have have to happened to make it come about.
FURTHER INFO ON FIREARMS DEATH
The weapon involved in the death of Tripp Shaw, 4, in Monroe County, Indiana was a Glock semi-automatic pistol which was being carried without a holster in the waistband of the father's pants. The Glock pistol is a modern design that is specifically intended to be drop safe. Assuming the weapon was properly assembled at the factory, was properly maintained and was not diddled with afterwards, it will NOT fire when dropped. The firing pin (striker) can not contact the primer on the cartridge unless the trigger is pulled and held back. It is difficult to see how this could happen if the gun were dropped.
The Monroe County S. O. is sending the weapon out for an extensive forensic examination to determine if there was in fact some flaw in the weapon.
The four year old boy who was allegedly accidentally shot while play-wrestling with his father on a bed a few days ago has died.
Assuming the story being reported is accurate the father had the weapon in the back of his waistband (holster ?) and it fell out, hit the floor and discharged one round, striking both the father and the son in the head.
As I pointed out in an earlier comment this is not quite impossible. Modern firearms are specifically designed to NOT fire when dropped. It would be an odd accident where a gun could fall onto a hard enough surface (presumably the floor) in just such a way as to fire and that one bullet could manage to hit two people who were on the bed both in the head, killing one.
The local constabulary is debating whether or not to file charges in the death.
Nationwide about 1% of firearms deaths are considered to be accidental or otherwise preventable. In 2017 there were 486 such deaths nationwide.
None of the few articles I have seen on this have offered any reason why this should have been something other than an accident other than the seeming improbability of the chain of occurrences that would have have to happened to make it come about.
FURTHER INFO ON FIREARMS DEATH
The weapon involved in the death of Tripp Shaw, 4, in Monroe County, Indiana was a Glock semi-automatic pistol which was being carried without a holster in the waistband of the father's pants. The Glock pistol is a modern design that is specifically intended to be drop safe. Assuming the weapon was properly assembled at the factory, was properly maintained and was not diddled with afterwards, it will NOT fire when dropped. The firing pin (striker) can not contact the primer on the cartridge unless the trigger is pulled and held back. It is difficult to see how this could happen if the gun were dropped.
The Monroe County S. O. is sending the weapon out for an extensive forensic examination to determine if there was in fact some flaw in the weapon.
RASHIDA TLAIB EXPLOITS A TRAGEDY TO EXHIBIT HER HATRED OF JEWS
The exploitation of a tragedy: 8-year-old Palestinian boy found dead in Jerusalem
The Jerusalem Post
January 25, 2020
Before he was found dead early Saturday morning, the disappearance of an eight-year-old boy from the Jerusalem neighborhood of Beit Hanina was snowballing into a political football that threatened the tenuous calm between Jews and Arabs in the capital.
Qais Abu Ramila’s body was discovered in a reservoir of rainwater Saturday after long hours of search efforts after he was last seen at 4 p.m. Friday heading to a local market to buy pita. The boy apparently slipped into and drowned in the pool, full from the heavy rains last week, according to police.
Residents of Beit Hanina, including MK Ahmad Tibi, joined search teams in the area throughout the night.
Relatives of Abu Ramila claimed to have security footage showing the boy entering a car Friday afternoon, raising suspicions that he had been kidnapped.
With the 2014 abduction and murder of teenager Mohammed Abu Khdeir by Jewish terrorists still fresh in the minds of many residents, the family issued a statement saying: “We demand the police check security footage [from the streets]. If it turns out he was kidnapped by settlers it would set the entire neighborhood on fire,” The Jerusalem Post’s sister publication Maariv reported.
The boy’s father later clarified that the video didn’t contain footage of his son, but some residents marched toward the nearby Jewish neighborhood of Neveh Ya’acov. Rock throwing ensued when police prevented them from entering the neighborhood and 12 demonstrators were lightly injured and three arrested.
Adding fuel to the fire, Palestinian politician Hanan Ashrawi re-tweeted a tweet from an account named “Real Seif Bitar” that accused “Israeli settlers” of kidnapping and executing Abu Ramila and also accused IDF soldiers of assaulting search teams. Ashrawi added to her tweet “the heart just shatters, the pain is unbearable, no words.”
US Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib then re-tweeted Ashrawi and included all the allegations.
Ashrawi later apologized for her tweet. “My apologizes for re-tweeting something that’s not fully verified. It seems that the news of his being kidnapped is not certain.” Tlaib, the Democratic representative from Michigan, also retweeted and the tweet was thereafter deleted but she did not apologize for spreading the false information.
The tweets led to an outpouring of incitement against Israel and responses of blood libel against Israel.
Israeli-Jewish Congress executive director Arsen Ostrovsky wrote “seriously Rashida Tlaib?... This was a tragic case of a child who went missing and fell into a pool of rainwater. Have you no shame in reposting these lies?”
On Saturday, video clips showed first responders wading through the waist-deep pond carrying Abu Ramila’s lifeless body, bringing the drama to its tragic conclusion.
At Abu Ramila’s funeral Saturday, the family and residents of Beit Hanina criticized the Jerusalem Municipality for neglecting the reservoir and not building a fence around it.
“It’s not a reservoir, it’s death trap,” said one family member.
Despite the best efforts by some who would have liked to have propelled the tragedy into another incendiary chapter in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, this time there was just a young boy whose life ended way too soon and a shattered family left to mourn.
EDITOR'S NOTE: Even Hanan Ashrawi apologized for wrongly blaming the Jews, but not Rashida Tlaib.
The Jerusalem Post
January 25, 2020
Before he was found dead early Saturday morning, the disappearance of an eight-year-old boy from the Jerusalem neighborhood of Beit Hanina was snowballing into a political football that threatened the tenuous calm between Jews and Arabs in the capital.
Qais Abu Ramila’s body was discovered in a reservoir of rainwater Saturday after long hours of search efforts after he was last seen at 4 p.m. Friday heading to a local market to buy pita. The boy apparently slipped into and drowned in the pool, full from the heavy rains last week, according to police.
Residents of Beit Hanina, including MK Ahmad Tibi, joined search teams in the area throughout the night.
Relatives of Abu Ramila claimed to have security footage showing the boy entering a car Friday afternoon, raising suspicions that he had been kidnapped.
With the 2014 abduction and murder of teenager Mohammed Abu Khdeir by Jewish terrorists still fresh in the minds of many residents, the family issued a statement saying: “We demand the police check security footage [from the streets]. If it turns out he was kidnapped by settlers it would set the entire neighborhood on fire,” The Jerusalem Post’s sister publication Maariv reported.
The boy’s father later clarified that the video didn’t contain footage of his son, but some residents marched toward the nearby Jewish neighborhood of Neveh Ya’acov. Rock throwing ensued when police prevented them from entering the neighborhood and 12 demonstrators were lightly injured and three arrested.
Adding fuel to the fire, Palestinian politician Hanan Ashrawi re-tweeted a tweet from an account named “Real Seif Bitar” that accused “Israeli settlers” of kidnapping and executing Abu Ramila and also accused IDF soldiers of assaulting search teams. Ashrawi added to her tweet “the heart just shatters, the pain is unbearable, no words.”
US Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib then re-tweeted Ashrawi and included all the allegations.
Ashrawi later apologized for her tweet. “My apologizes for re-tweeting something that’s not fully verified. It seems that the news of his being kidnapped is not certain.” Tlaib, the Democratic representative from Michigan, also retweeted and the tweet was thereafter deleted but she did not apologize for spreading the false information.
The tweets led to an outpouring of incitement against Israel and responses of blood libel against Israel.
Israeli-Jewish Congress executive director Arsen Ostrovsky wrote “seriously Rashida Tlaib?... This was a tragic case of a child who went missing and fell into a pool of rainwater. Have you no shame in reposting these lies?”
On Saturday, video clips showed first responders wading through the waist-deep pond carrying Abu Ramila’s lifeless body, bringing the drama to its tragic conclusion.
At Abu Ramila’s funeral Saturday, the family and residents of Beit Hanina criticized the Jerusalem Municipality for neglecting the reservoir and not building a fence around it.
“It’s not a reservoir, it’s death trap,” said one family member.
Despite the best efforts by some who would have liked to have propelled the tragedy into another incendiary chapter in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, this time there was just a young boy whose life ended way too soon and a shattered family left to mourn.
EDITOR'S NOTE: Even Hanan Ashrawi apologized for wrongly blaming the Jews, but not Rashida Tlaib.
WILL SOMEONE PLEASE SEND GEORGE TAKEI BACK INTO OUTER SPACE AND LEAVE HIM THERE!
Star Trek Actor George Takei Thinks He’s Entitled to Royalties for the Space Force Logo
By Matt Margolis
PJ Media
January 25, 2020
George Takei has been suffering from Trump Derangement Syndrome for a long time and has probably spent more time in the past few years criticizing Trump than breathing. Nothing is too petty for Takei to gripe about when it comes to Trump. When Trump announced the new logo for the U.S. Space Force, it was inevitable that the has-been actor, mostly known for his portrayal of Lieutenant Sulu on Star Trek: The Original Series, would have an opinion.
Many people quickly noticed the similarities between the new Space Force logo and the logo of the fictional Starfleet Command from the Star Trek universe.
But, the insufferable George Takei’s criticism reached an extra level of absurd when he suggested that he and others connected to Star Trek were somehow entitled to royalties.
It’s possible that Takei was being tongue-in-cheek with his tweet, but I’m inclined to believe he was being serious. For starters, he’s technically accusing the federal government of trademark infringement, since the logo was created for the Space Force, and not the same as the Starfleet Command logo that has been licensed for use by the federal government. If it were, neither Takei nor any actors involved with Star Trek would not be entitled to any such royalties, as ViacomCBS owns Star Trek, and it would be up to them to make any claims of trademark infringement or claim any monetary compensation or royalties.
But here’s the other problem with George Takei’s accusation. Chris Burns at Slash Gear explains why the logos look similar. “[The Space Force] logo should look familiar. It would very much appear to be a reincarnation of its former self – not to mention a clear reminder of the origins and controversy over the original. And yes, that does very much look like the Star Trek Starfleet Command insignia, largely because all of these symbols are designed to mimic one another – for real.”
Michael Okuda, the longtime graphic designer and lead designer for Star Trek who designed the Starfleet Command seal, noted that his logo “was intended to be somewhat reminiscent of the NASA emblem.”
George Takei knows what NASA is, right?
Seriously though, George Takei could have simply acknowledged the logos as being homages to each other, and maybe even taken some pride in the similarities of the logos, but instead, he decided to use the news to make another silly attack on Trump.
So, no George, you aren’t entitled to any royalties. If you’re that desperate for money, go start a GoFundMe page.
By Matt Margolis
PJ Media
January 25, 2020
George Takei has been suffering from Trump Derangement Syndrome for a long time and has probably spent more time in the past few years criticizing Trump than breathing. Nothing is too petty for Takei to gripe about when it comes to Trump. When Trump announced the new logo for the U.S. Space Force, it was inevitable that the has-been actor, mostly known for his portrayal of Lieutenant Sulu on Star Trek: The Original Series, would have an opinion.
Many people quickly noticed the similarities between the new Space Force logo and the logo of the fictional Starfleet Command from the Star Trek universe.
But, the insufferable George Takei’s criticism reached an extra level of absurd when he suggested that he and others connected to Star Trek were somehow entitled to royalties.
It’s possible that Takei was being tongue-in-cheek with his tweet, but I’m inclined to believe he was being serious. For starters, he’s technically accusing the federal government of trademark infringement, since the logo was created for the Space Force, and not the same as the Starfleet Command logo that has been licensed for use by the federal government. If it were, neither Takei nor any actors involved with Star Trek would not be entitled to any such royalties, as ViacomCBS owns Star Trek, and it would be up to them to make any claims of trademark infringement or claim any monetary compensation or royalties.
But here’s the other problem with George Takei’s accusation. Chris Burns at Slash Gear explains why the logos look similar. “[The Space Force] logo should look familiar. It would very much appear to be a reincarnation of its former self – not to mention a clear reminder of the origins and controversy over the original. And yes, that does very much look like the Star Trek Starfleet Command insignia, largely because all of these symbols are designed to mimic one another – for real.”
Michael Okuda, the longtime graphic designer and lead designer for Star Trek who designed the Starfleet Command seal, noted that his logo “was intended to be somewhat reminiscent of the NASA emblem.”
George Takei knows what NASA is, right?
Seriously though, George Takei could have simply acknowledged the logos as being homages to each other, and maybe even taken some pride in the similarities of the logos, but instead, he decided to use the news to make another silly attack on Trump.
So, no George, you aren’t entitled to any royalties. If you’re that desperate for money, go start a GoFundMe page.
BLACK MAGIC HELPS POLICE FIND MISSING GIRL
Kentucky sheriff claims psychics told him he would find missing teen -- and he did
By Robert Gearty
Fox News
January 25, 2020
Psychics told a Kentucky sheriff they had a premonition he would find a missing teen safe -- and they were proven right.
According to a report by Fox News, Franklin County Sheriff Chris Quire asked mediums to help him find 17-year-old Haylee Martin who was reported missing from Frankfort on Jan. 13, a day after disappearing.
She was found Friday in another jurisdiction, Scott County, after police there responded to a burglary call and found her and a friend trying to break into a house belonging to the friend's boyfriend, the Frankfort State Journal reported.
Quire told the paper that he met a group of local psychics on Thursday evening at Haylee's house where she was last seen.
The paper reported that the sheriff was at first skeptical but said he "did not want to leave any stone unturned."
"It's hard to believe, but most (of the psychics) agreed that we would find Haylee in a neighboring county by morning," he said. "And we did."
The girl disappeared after breaking up with a boyfriend, according to deputies.
Quire said two of three adults may face charges for helping Haylee avoid being found, the paper reported.
By Robert Gearty
Fox News
January 25, 2020
Psychics told a Kentucky sheriff they had a premonition he would find a missing teen safe -- and they were proven right.
According to a report by Fox News, Franklin County Sheriff Chris Quire asked mediums to help him find 17-year-old Haylee Martin who was reported missing from Frankfort on Jan. 13, a day after disappearing.
She was found Friday in another jurisdiction, Scott County, after police there responded to a burglary call and found her and a friend trying to break into a house belonging to the friend's boyfriend, the Frankfort State Journal reported.
Quire told the paper that he met a group of local psychics on Thursday evening at Haylee's house where she was last seen.
The paper reported that the sheriff was at first skeptical but said he "did not want to leave any stone unturned."
"It's hard to believe, but most (of the psychics) agreed that we would find Haylee in a neighboring county by morning," he said. "And we did."
The girl disappeared after breaking up with a boyfriend, according to deputies.
Quire said two of three adults may face charges for helping Haylee avoid being found, the paper reported.
Sunday, January 26, 2020
DID THE MOST UNFAIRLY ATTACKED PRESIDENT IN HISTORY COMMIT AN IMPEACHABLE OFFENSE?
In 1970, then House Minority Leader Gerald Ford defined an impeachable offense as: “An impeachable offense is whatever a majority of the House of Representatives considers it to be at a given moment in history”
By Howie Katz
Big Jolly Times
January 25, 2020
President Trump has been impeached for “Abuse of Power” and Obstruction of Congress.”
The abuse charge resulted from an unidentified whistleblower claiming he was told by another source that Trump was going to withhold military aid to the Ukraine if it did not investigate Joe Biden and his crackhead son Hunter for corruption. The alleged threat was made in a phone call to Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky.
The obstruction charge was brought because Trump refused to let administration officials appear before the House committees investigating him.
I have always maintained that Trump has not met the constitutional “treason, bribery or other high crimes and misdemeanors” grounds for impeachment. However, by doing some extensive research on impeachment, I found out that I was wrong.
Over the years, Congress has interpreted “high crimes and misdemeanors” to include acts that are not criminal. And in 1970, then House Minority Leader Gerald Ford defined an impeachable offense as: “An impeachable offense is whatever a majority of the House of Representatives considers it to be at a given moment in history.”
So, let’s assume that Trump did abuse his power and obstruct congress. Do those offenses rise to a level calling for the ouster of the President? I say, no way! No way because Trump has been impeached by the Democrats strictly for political reasons.
Hillary Clinton and the Democrats laughed themselves sick on June 16, 2015, when Trump officially became a candidate for president. They kept laughing and laughing until the night of November 9, 2016, when Hillary, in disbelief, burst into tears upon learning she would not achieve her life-long dream of becoming the first woman president of the United States. The Democratic laughter had finally stopped.
From the time that Trump took office, the Democrats, abetted by a Trump-hating media, have been relentless in attempts to destroy the Trump presidency and to nullify the 2016 election. Trump could hardly take a breath without the media making something ugly of it.
And the impeachment of Trump is a purely political move by Nancy Pelosi, Adam Schiff, Jerry Nadler and the rest of the House Democrats to nullify the election and drive Trump out of office. Failing that, the Demoncrats (oops, typo) hope that the impeachment proceedings will turn the 2020 election into their favor.
While I have to admit that Adam Schitt (oops, another typo) made a compelling case for convicting Trump, I do not think the transgressions he committed rise to the level of ousting the President from office, especially since the impeachment proceedings were nothing more than a partisan political attack on Trump.
The impeachment circus started with a whistleblower's hearsay complaint about the president making an inappropriate phone call. Inappropriate it may have been, but inappropriateness is not what the founding fathers had in mind when they included the impeachment process in the Constitution.
Fortunately for Trump, it will take a two-thirds majority of Senators present to convict him. Currently there are 53 Republican senators, 45 Democratic senators and 2 independents. The independents are expected to join the Democrats in convicting Trump. That means 20 Republican senators would have to join the Democrat in order to reach the 67-vote threshold for conviction … and that ain’t about to happen.
Daily Mail columnist Piers Morgan thinks that when the Senate fails to convict him, Trump will point to it as further ‘evidence’ that he is the most unfairly attacked president in history. And that he is!
By Howie Katz
Big Jolly Times
January 25, 2020
President Trump has been impeached for “Abuse of Power” and Obstruction of Congress.”
The abuse charge resulted from an unidentified whistleblower claiming he was told by another source that Trump was going to withhold military aid to the Ukraine if it did not investigate Joe Biden and his crackhead son Hunter for corruption. The alleged threat was made in a phone call to Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky.
The obstruction charge was brought because Trump refused to let administration officials appear before the House committees investigating him.
I have always maintained that Trump has not met the constitutional “treason, bribery or other high crimes and misdemeanors” grounds for impeachment. However, by doing some extensive research on impeachment, I found out that I was wrong.
Over the years, Congress has interpreted “high crimes and misdemeanors” to include acts that are not criminal. And in 1970, then House Minority Leader Gerald Ford defined an impeachable offense as: “An impeachable offense is whatever a majority of the House of Representatives considers it to be at a given moment in history.”
So, let’s assume that Trump did abuse his power and obstruct congress. Do those offenses rise to a level calling for the ouster of the President? I say, no way! No way because Trump has been impeached by the Democrats strictly for political reasons.
Hillary Clinton and the Democrats laughed themselves sick on June 16, 2015, when Trump officially became a candidate for president. They kept laughing and laughing until the night of November 9, 2016, when Hillary, in disbelief, burst into tears upon learning she would not achieve her life-long dream of becoming the first woman president of the United States. The Democratic laughter had finally stopped.
From the time that Trump took office, the Democrats, abetted by a Trump-hating media, have been relentless in attempts to destroy the Trump presidency and to nullify the 2016 election. Trump could hardly take a breath without the media making something ugly of it.
And the impeachment of Trump is a purely political move by Nancy Pelosi, Adam Schiff, Jerry Nadler and the rest of the House Democrats to nullify the election and drive Trump out of office. Failing that, the Demoncrats (oops, typo) hope that the impeachment proceedings will turn the 2020 election into their favor.
While I have to admit that Adam Schitt (oops, another typo) made a compelling case for convicting Trump, I do not think the transgressions he committed rise to the level of ousting the President from office, especially since the impeachment proceedings were nothing more than a partisan political attack on Trump.
The impeachment circus started with a whistleblower's hearsay complaint about the president making an inappropriate phone call. Inappropriate it may have been, but inappropriateness is not what the founding fathers had in mind when they included the impeachment process in the Constitution.
Fortunately for Trump, it will take a two-thirds majority of Senators present to convict him. Currently there are 53 Republican senators, 45 Democratic senators and 2 independents. The independents are expected to join the Democrats in convicting Trump. That means 20 Republican senators would have to join the Democrat in order to reach the 67-vote threshold for conviction … and that ain’t about to happen.
Daily Mail columnist Piers Morgan thinks that when the Senate fails to convict him, Trump will point to it as further ‘evidence’ that he is the most unfairly attacked president in history. And that he is!
DEMAND PRICING IS A BITCH
by Bob Walsh
You are probably aware that there was a modest mass-shooting a few days ago outside a bar in Seattle. Seven people shot, one fatality. It seems that a LOT of people in the area suddenly wanted to get the fuck out of Dodge and hit their Uber and Lyft apps. The sudden increase in demand bumped a $17 dollar ride up to about $122.
That, boys and girls, is capitalism. Allegedly the companies are unsympathetic to accusations of gouging.
FURTHER INFORMATION
After due consideration, Uber and Lyft decided to reverse the "surge" (demand) charges for their customers fleeing the Seattle shooting. Due to the public safety issue and the fact that the cops redirected bus traffic away from the area it made it look like the ride hailing services were profiteering from a public safety event.
You are probably aware that there was a modest mass-shooting a few days ago outside a bar in Seattle. Seven people shot, one fatality. It seems that a LOT of people in the area suddenly wanted to get the fuck out of Dodge and hit their Uber and Lyft apps. The sudden increase in demand bumped a $17 dollar ride up to about $122.
That, boys and girls, is capitalism. Allegedly the companies are unsympathetic to accusations of gouging.
FURTHER INFORMATION
After due consideration, Uber and Lyft decided to reverse the "surge" (demand) charges for their customers fleeing the Seattle shooting. Due to the public safety issue and the fact that the cops redirected bus traffic away from the area it made it look like the ride hailing services were profiteering from a public safety event.
THE BRITISH HAVE A GOOD CASE FOR EXTRADITION AND I THINK WE SHOULD GRANT IT
Harry Dunn: Family will 'never give up' after extradition request denied
Sky News
January 24, 2020
Harry Dunn's mother has told Sky News they were "prepared" for the US to turn down an extradition request for the woman charged over the 19-year-old's death.
Charlotte Charles said the denial by the US State Department to extradite Anna Sacoolas was a "blow" but one that she and Mr Dunn's father Tim Dunn expected.
"We've just got to carry on fighting and we will get there in the end," she told Sky News correspondent Lisa Dowd.
"We'd prepared ourselves for this. We've just got to carry on fighting and we will get there in the end.
"It doesn't matter when, whether it's this administration or the next. The extradition request is always going to be over Anna Sacoolas's head, and we're never going to give up."
Mr Dunn died in a head-on crash with a car on 27 August last year near to RAF Croughton in Northamptonshire.
The driver of the car, Mrs Sacoolas, claimed diplomatic immunity and returned to the US, where she has been since Harry died. Her husband is thought to be a US intelligence officer.
Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said: "I called the US Ambassador earlier to express the Government's disappointment about this decision. We feel this amounts to a denial of justice, and we believe Anne Sacoolas should return to the UK.
"We are now urgently considering our options. I also explained that the UK would have acted differently if this had been a UK diplomat serving in the US."
A State Department spokesperson said: "At the time the accident occurred, and for the duration of her stay in the UK, the US citizen driver in this case had immunity from criminal jurisdiction.
"If the United States were to grant the UK's extradition request, it would render the invocation of diplomatic immunity a practical nullity and would set an extraordinarily troubling precedent.
"The United States has a history of close law enforcement cooperation with the United Kingdom, and we value that relationship.
"The United States government again expresses its sincere condolences and sympathy to the Dunn family for the loss of their son."
Mrs Sacoolas, 42, was charged with causing his death by dangerous driving, by the Crown Prosecution Service in December.
Lawyers acting on behalf of the Dunn family have said it is the first time in the 100-year history of the extradition treaty that such a request had been turned down by the US.
However, Boris Johnson has previously described the chances of America handing over Mrs Sacoolas as "very low".
Spokesman for the Dunns, Radd Seiger, said the family's constituency MP Andrea Leadsom had called him on Thursday evening to inform him of Mr Pompeo's decision.
He told Sky News: "She told me an email had dropped in to the government this evening from Secretary Pompeo declining the extradition request.
"It was not a surprise and there was no reason given."
Mr Seiger continued: "This changes absolutely nothing, we completely factored in this development into our planning - we knew it was coming all along. Secretary Pompeo made his position clear right from the start that she was never going back."
Ms Leadsom is due to meet the US ambassador Woody Johnson in London on Friday to discuss the case.
The decision comes after the commander of a US military base, Colonel Bridget McNamara of RAF Croughton in Northamptonshire, said all staff must take a "driver safety course" and pass a written exam based on UK driving laws.
At the weekend, police revealed that diplomatic cars were driven on the wrong side of the road in two separate incidents near the base.
Footage has emerged of one of the incidents, showing a blue BMW involved in a near-miss.
The base, which is used as a communications station for the US Air Force, has come under scrutiny since Mr Dunn's death.
In reaction to the statement from Col McNamara, Mr Dunn's family said it was the first time they had heard from the colonel for five months.
Mr Seiger said the base had a "blatant disregard for the safety of the community" and said their statement was "the opposite of the truth".
Sky News
January 24, 2020
Harry Dunn's mother has told Sky News they were "prepared" for the US to turn down an extradition request for the woman charged over the 19-year-old's death.
Charlotte Charles said the denial by the US State Department to extradite Anna Sacoolas was a "blow" but one that she and Mr Dunn's father Tim Dunn expected.
"We've just got to carry on fighting and we will get there in the end," she told Sky News correspondent Lisa Dowd.
"We'd prepared ourselves for this. We've just got to carry on fighting and we will get there in the end.
"It doesn't matter when, whether it's this administration or the next. The extradition request is always going to be over Anna Sacoolas's head, and we're never going to give up."
Mr Dunn died in a head-on crash with a car on 27 August last year near to RAF Croughton in Northamptonshire.
The driver of the car, Mrs Sacoolas, claimed diplomatic immunity and returned to the US, where she has been since Harry died. Her husband is thought to be a US intelligence officer.
Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said: "I called the US Ambassador earlier to express the Government's disappointment about this decision. We feel this amounts to a denial of justice, and we believe Anne Sacoolas should return to the UK.
"We are now urgently considering our options. I also explained that the UK would have acted differently if this had been a UK diplomat serving in the US."
A State Department spokesperson said: "At the time the accident occurred, and for the duration of her stay in the UK, the US citizen driver in this case had immunity from criminal jurisdiction.
"If the United States were to grant the UK's extradition request, it would render the invocation of diplomatic immunity a practical nullity and would set an extraordinarily troubling precedent.
"The United States has a history of close law enforcement cooperation with the United Kingdom, and we value that relationship.
"The United States government again expresses its sincere condolences and sympathy to the Dunn family for the loss of their son."
Mrs Sacoolas, 42, was charged with causing his death by dangerous driving, by the Crown Prosecution Service in December.
Lawyers acting on behalf of the Dunn family have said it is the first time in the 100-year history of the extradition treaty that such a request had been turned down by the US.
However, Boris Johnson has previously described the chances of America handing over Mrs Sacoolas as "very low".
Spokesman for the Dunns, Radd Seiger, said the family's constituency MP Andrea Leadsom had called him on Thursday evening to inform him of Mr Pompeo's decision.
He told Sky News: "She told me an email had dropped in to the government this evening from Secretary Pompeo declining the extradition request.
"It was not a surprise and there was no reason given."
Mr Seiger continued: "This changes absolutely nothing, we completely factored in this development into our planning - we knew it was coming all along. Secretary Pompeo made his position clear right from the start that she was never going back."
Ms Leadsom is due to meet the US ambassador Woody Johnson in London on Friday to discuss the case.
The decision comes after the commander of a US military base, Colonel Bridget McNamara of RAF Croughton in Northamptonshire, said all staff must take a "driver safety course" and pass a written exam based on UK driving laws.
At the weekend, police revealed that diplomatic cars were driven on the wrong side of the road in two separate incidents near the base.
Footage has emerged of one of the incidents, showing a blue BMW involved in a near-miss.
The base, which is used as a communications station for the US Air Force, has come under scrutiny since Mr Dunn's death.
In reaction to the statement from Col McNamara, Mr Dunn's family said it was the first time they had heard from the colonel for five months.
Mr Seiger said the base had a "blatant disregard for the safety of the community" and said their statement was "the opposite of the truth".
THE SPEECHES OF MIKE PENCE AND VLADIMIR PUTIN AT THE 5TH WORLD HOLOAUST FORUM IN JERUSALEM ON JANUARY 23
Here is the full text of US Vice President Mike Pence's speech at the Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum
"President Rivlin, Prime Minister Netanyahu, Your Majesties, Presidents, Excellencies, honored survivors and distinguished guests: It is deeply humbling for me to stand before you today, on behalf of the American people, as we mark the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz.
"On this occasion, here on Mount Herzl, we gather to fulfill a solemn obligation – an obligation of remembrance: to never allow the memory of those who died in the Holocaust to be forgotten by anyone, anywhere in the world.
"The word 'remember' appears no fewer than 169 times in the Hebrew Bible – for memory is the constant obligation of all generations.
"And today we pause to remember what President Donald Trump rightly called the "dark stain on human history" – the greatest evil ever perpetuated by man against man in the long catalogue of human crime.
"The faces of a million and a half children reduced to smoke under a silent sky for the crime of having a single Jewish grandparent. The night Elie Wiesel called "seven times sealed" consumed the faith of so many then, and challenges the faith of so many still.
"Today we remember what happens when the powerless cry for help and the powerful refuse to answer.
"The town’s name was Oswiecim. As part of their plan to destroy the very existence of Polish culture, the Nazis gave Polish towns German names. And this one they called Auschwitz.
"When soldiers opened the gates of Auschwitz on January 27, 1945, they found 7,000 half-starved, half-naked prisoners, hundreds of boxes of camp records that documented the greatest mass murder in history. Before the war was over, in its five years of existence, more than 1.1 million men, women, and children would perish at Auschwitz.
"As my wife and I can attest firsthand, from this past year, one cannot walk the grounds of Auschwitz without being overcome with emotion and grief. One cannot see the piles of shoes, the gas chambers, the crematoriums, the lone boxcar facing the gate to the camp, and those grainy photographs of men, women, and children being sent to their deaths without asking: "How could they?"
"Today we mourn with those who mourn and grieve with those who grieve. We remember the names and the faces and the promise of the six million Jews who were murdered in the Holocaust.
"Today we also pay tribute to those who survived, who all these years have borne witness to that evil and have served mankind by their example.
"And today we honor and remember the memory of all the Allied forces, including more than 2 million American soldiers, who left hearth and home, suffered appalling casualties, and freed a continent from the grip of tyranny.
"And, finally, we pay tribute to the memory of those non-Jewish heroes who saved countless lives – those the people of Israel call the "righteous among the nations."
"In an age of indifference, they acted. In an age of fear, they showed courage. And their memory and their example should kindle anew the flame of our hearts to do the same in our time.
"We must be prepared to stand as they did against the wave of their times. We must be prepared to confront and expose the vile tide of anti-Semitism that is fueling hate and violence all across the world. And we must stand together.
"In that same spirit, we must also stand strong against the leading state purveyor of anti-Semitism, against the one government in the world that denies the Holocaust as a matter of state policy and threatens to wipe Israel off the map. The world must stand strong against the Islamic Republic of Iran.
"And, finally, we must have the courage to recognize all the leaders and all the nations that are gathered here that, today, we have the responsibility and the power to ensure that what we remember here today can never happen again.
"Mr. Prime Minister, as we honor and remember the 6 million Jewish martyrs of the Holocaust, the world can only marvel at the faith and resilience of the Jewish people, who just three years after walking in the valley of the shadow of death, rose up from the ashes to reclaim a Jewish future and rebuild the Jewish State.
"And I’m proud to say, as Vice President of the United States, that the American people have been with you every step of the way since 1948. And so we will remain.
"As President Trump declared in his historic visit to Jerusalem, the bond between our two peoples is 'woven together in the fabric of our hearts.' And so it shall always be.
"Today we remember not simply the liberation of Auschwitz but also the triumph of freedom – a promise fulfilled, a people restored to their rightful place among the nations of the Earth. And we remember – we remember the long night of that past, the survivors and the faces of those we lost, the heroes who stood against those evil times. And today we gather nearly 50 nations strong, here in Jerusalem, to say with one voice: Never again.
"Through pogroms, persecutions, and expulsions in the ghettos, and finally, even though the death camps, the Jewish people clung to an ancient promise that He would 'never leave you or forsake you' and that he would leave this person to inherit the land that he swore to your ancestors that he would give them.
"And so, today, as we bear witness to the strength and the resilience and the faith of the Jewish people, so too we bear witness to God’s faithfulness to the Jewish people.
"May the memory of the martyrs be enshrined in the hearts of all humanity for all time.
"May God bless the Jewish people, the State of Israel, the United States, and all the nations gathered here.
"And may he who creates peace in the heavens create peace for us and for all the world.
"Oseh shalom bimromav. Hu ya’aseh shalom aleinu. V’al kol Yisrael V’imru. Amen."
__________
Here is the full text of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s speech at the Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum
"Mr. President, Mr. Prime Minister, colleagues, friends, ladies and gentlemen.
"Today we are brought together at the international forum to honor the victims of the Holocaust by a shared responsibility, our duty to the past and the future.
"We mourn all the victims of the Nazis, including the six million Jews tortured in ghettos and death camps and killed cruelly during raids. Forty percent of them were citizens of the Soviet Union, so the Holocaust has always been a deep wound for us, a tragedy we will always remember.
"Before visiting Jerusalem, I looked through original documents, reports by Red Army officers after the liberation of Auschwitz. I must tell you, colleagues, it is very difficult, unbearable to read these military reports, documents describing in detail how the camp was set up, how the cold-blooded killing machine worked.
"Many of them were hand-written by soldiers and officers of the Red Army on the second or third day after the liberation of the prisoners and convey the shock that the Red Army soldiers and officers experienced from what they saw there, from testimonies that caused pain, indignation and compassion.
"Red Army Field Marshal Konev, who then led the military operation to capture the densely populated Silesian industrial region of Germany, used tactics to spare as many civilians as possible and, having received a report about the atrocities committed at Auschwitz, forbade himself from even seeing this camp. Later he wrote in his memoirs that he had no right to lose his moral strength so that a fair sense of revenge would not have blinded him during military operations and would not have caused additional suffering and casualties among the civilian population of Germany.
"Jan. 27 marks the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. In this hell, where people from different countries were brought for torture, monstrous experiments and mass killing, hundreds of thousands of people of different ethnicities died. More than half of them were Jews.
"The crimes committed by the Nazis, their deliberate, planned, and as they said, 'final solution to the Jewish issue,' is one of the darkest and most shameful pages of modern world history.
"But we should not forget that this crime also had accomplices. They were often crueler than their masters. Death factories and concentration camps were served not only by the Nazis, but also by their accomplices in many European countries.
"In the occupied territories of the Soviet Union, where these criminals were operating, the largest number of Jews were killed. Thus, about 1.4 million Jews were killed in Ukraine, and 220,000 people were killed in Lithuania. I draw your attention, friends, to the fact that this is 95 percent of the pre-war Jewish population of this country. In Latvia, 77,000 Jewish people were killed. Only a few hundred Latvian Jews survived the Holocaust.
"The Holocaust was a deliberate annihilation of [a] people. But we must remember that the Nazis intended the same fate for many other peoples. Russians, Belarusians, Ukrainians, Poles and many other peoples were declared Untermensch. Their land was meant to serve as living space for the Nazis, providing for their prosperous existence, while the Slavs and other peoples were meant either to be exterminated or to become slaves without rights, culture, historical memory, and language.
"Back in 1945, it was first of all the Soviet people who put an end to these barbaric plans. As it has just been said, they protected their Fatherland and liberated Europe from Nazism. We paid a price no nation could even imagine in their worst dreams: a toll of 27 million deaths.
"We will never forget this. The memory of the Holocaust will serve as a lesson and a warning only if it remains fully intact, without any omissions. Unfortunately, today the memory of war and its lessons and legacy often fall subject to the immediate political situation. This is completely unacceptable. It is the duty of current and future politicians, state and public figures to protect the good name of the living and fallen heroes, civilians, and victims of the Nazis and their allies.
"We must use everything we have – our informational, political and cultural capabilities as well as the reputation and influence our countries have in the world – to this end. I am sure that everyone present here today, in this audience, shares these concerns and is ready to protect truth and justice together with us.
"We are all responsible for making sure that the terrible tragedies of this war will not happen again, that the generations to come will remember the horrors of the Holocaust, the death camps and the siege of Leningrad – Prime Minister Netanyahu has just said that today a monument to the victims of the siege was unveiled here in Jerusalem – Babi Yar, and the burned-down village of Khatyn, remember that we must remain alert and must not overlook when the first seeds of hate, chauvinism, and antisemitism take root, or when people start to indulge in xenophobia or other similar manifestations.
"Destruction of the past and lack of unity in the face of threats can lead to terrible consequences. We must have the courage to be straight about this and do everything to defend peace.
"I think an example could and should be set by the founding countries of the United Nations, the five powers that bear special responsibility for the preservation of civilization.
"We have discussed this with several of our colleagues and, as far as I know, have received a generally positive response to holding a meeting of the heads of state of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council: Russia, China, the United States, France, and Britain. We can hold it in any country, in any place that our colleagues would find convenient. Russia is ready for such a serious discussion. We intend to send this proposal to the leaders of the Five without delay.
"We are faced with many challenges. We discussed one of them recently at the initiative of German Chancellor Angela Merkel. This is about Libya. But we will have to return to this issue at the Security Council and adopt a relevant resolution.
"There are many other problems as well. I consider it important and symbolic to hold the proposed meeting this year. After all, we are celebrating 75 years since the end of World War II and the foundation of the United Nations.
"A summit of the states that made the main contribution to the routing of the aggressor and the formation of the postwar world order can play a big role in searching for collective ways of responding to current challenges and threats and would demonstrate our common commitment to the spirit of allied relations, historical memory and the lofty ideals and values for which our predecessors, our grandfathers, and fathers fought shoulder to shoulder.
"In conclusion, I would like to thank our Israeli colleagues for a warm, very hospitable reception here in Jerusalem, and to wish peace, prosperity and all the best to everyone at the conference, and, of course, to the citizens of Israel.
"Thank you."
EDITOR’S NOTE: Putin brought up a good point when he mentioned the fact that many people in the countries occupied by the Nazis collaborated with the Nazis in the slaughter of Jews.
"President Rivlin, Prime Minister Netanyahu, Your Majesties, Presidents, Excellencies, honored survivors and distinguished guests: It is deeply humbling for me to stand before you today, on behalf of the American people, as we mark the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz.
"On this occasion, here on Mount Herzl, we gather to fulfill a solemn obligation – an obligation of remembrance: to never allow the memory of those who died in the Holocaust to be forgotten by anyone, anywhere in the world.
"The word 'remember' appears no fewer than 169 times in the Hebrew Bible – for memory is the constant obligation of all generations.
"And today we pause to remember what President Donald Trump rightly called the "dark stain on human history" – the greatest evil ever perpetuated by man against man in the long catalogue of human crime.
"The faces of a million and a half children reduced to smoke under a silent sky for the crime of having a single Jewish grandparent. The night Elie Wiesel called "seven times sealed" consumed the faith of so many then, and challenges the faith of so many still.
"Today we remember what happens when the powerless cry for help and the powerful refuse to answer.
"The town’s name was Oswiecim. As part of their plan to destroy the very existence of Polish culture, the Nazis gave Polish towns German names. And this one they called Auschwitz.
"When soldiers opened the gates of Auschwitz on January 27, 1945, they found 7,000 half-starved, half-naked prisoners, hundreds of boxes of camp records that documented the greatest mass murder in history. Before the war was over, in its five years of existence, more than 1.1 million men, women, and children would perish at Auschwitz.
"As my wife and I can attest firsthand, from this past year, one cannot walk the grounds of Auschwitz without being overcome with emotion and grief. One cannot see the piles of shoes, the gas chambers, the crematoriums, the lone boxcar facing the gate to the camp, and those grainy photographs of men, women, and children being sent to their deaths without asking: "How could they?"
"Today we mourn with those who mourn and grieve with those who grieve. We remember the names and the faces and the promise of the six million Jews who were murdered in the Holocaust.
"Today we also pay tribute to those who survived, who all these years have borne witness to that evil and have served mankind by their example.
"And today we honor and remember the memory of all the Allied forces, including more than 2 million American soldiers, who left hearth and home, suffered appalling casualties, and freed a continent from the grip of tyranny.
"And, finally, we pay tribute to the memory of those non-Jewish heroes who saved countless lives – those the people of Israel call the "righteous among the nations."
"In an age of indifference, they acted. In an age of fear, they showed courage. And their memory and their example should kindle anew the flame of our hearts to do the same in our time.
"We must be prepared to stand as they did against the wave of their times. We must be prepared to confront and expose the vile tide of anti-Semitism that is fueling hate and violence all across the world. And we must stand together.
"In that same spirit, we must also stand strong against the leading state purveyor of anti-Semitism, against the one government in the world that denies the Holocaust as a matter of state policy and threatens to wipe Israel off the map. The world must stand strong against the Islamic Republic of Iran.
"And, finally, we must have the courage to recognize all the leaders and all the nations that are gathered here that, today, we have the responsibility and the power to ensure that what we remember here today can never happen again.
"Mr. Prime Minister, as we honor and remember the 6 million Jewish martyrs of the Holocaust, the world can only marvel at the faith and resilience of the Jewish people, who just three years after walking in the valley of the shadow of death, rose up from the ashes to reclaim a Jewish future and rebuild the Jewish State.
"And I’m proud to say, as Vice President of the United States, that the American people have been with you every step of the way since 1948. And so we will remain.
"As President Trump declared in his historic visit to Jerusalem, the bond between our two peoples is 'woven together in the fabric of our hearts.' And so it shall always be.
"Today we remember not simply the liberation of Auschwitz but also the triumph of freedom – a promise fulfilled, a people restored to their rightful place among the nations of the Earth. And we remember – we remember the long night of that past, the survivors and the faces of those we lost, the heroes who stood against those evil times. And today we gather nearly 50 nations strong, here in Jerusalem, to say with one voice: Never again.
"Through pogroms, persecutions, and expulsions in the ghettos, and finally, even though the death camps, the Jewish people clung to an ancient promise that He would 'never leave you or forsake you' and that he would leave this person to inherit the land that he swore to your ancestors that he would give them.
"And so, today, as we bear witness to the strength and the resilience and the faith of the Jewish people, so too we bear witness to God’s faithfulness to the Jewish people.
"May the memory of the martyrs be enshrined in the hearts of all humanity for all time.
"May God bless the Jewish people, the State of Israel, the United States, and all the nations gathered here.
"And may he who creates peace in the heavens create peace for us and for all the world.
"Oseh shalom bimromav. Hu ya’aseh shalom aleinu. V’al kol Yisrael V’imru. Amen."
__________
Here is the full text of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s speech at the Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum
"Mr. President, Mr. Prime Minister, colleagues, friends, ladies and gentlemen.
"Today we are brought together at the international forum to honor the victims of the Holocaust by a shared responsibility, our duty to the past and the future.
"We mourn all the victims of the Nazis, including the six million Jews tortured in ghettos and death camps and killed cruelly during raids. Forty percent of them were citizens of the Soviet Union, so the Holocaust has always been a deep wound for us, a tragedy we will always remember.
"Before visiting Jerusalem, I looked through original documents, reports by Red Army officers after the liberation of Auschwitz. I must tell you, colleagues, it is very difficult, unbearable to read these military reports, documents describing in detail how the camp was set up, how the cold-blooded killing machine worked.
"Many of them were hand-written by soldiers and officers of the Red Army on the second or third day after the liberation of the prisoners and convey the shock that the Red Army soldiers and officers experienced from what they saw there, from testimonies that caused pain, indignation and compassion.
"Red Army Field Marshal Konev, who then led the military operation to capture the densely populated Silesian industrial region of Germany, used tactics to spare as many civilians as possible and, having received a report about the atrocities committed at Auschwitz, forbade himself from even seeing this camp. Later he wrote in his memoirs that he had no right to lose his moral strength so that a fair sense of revenge would not have blinded him during military operations and would not have caused additional suffering and casualties among the civilian population of Germany.
"Jan. 27 marks the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. In this hell, where people from different countries were brought for torture, monstrous experiments and mass killing, hundreds of thousands of people of different ethnicities died. More than half of them were Jews.
"The crimes committed by the Nazis, their deliberate, planned, and as they said, 'final solution to the Jewish issue,' is one of the darkest and most shameful pages of modern world history.
"But we should not forget that this crime also had accomplices. They were often crueler than their masters. Death factories and concentration camps were served not only by the Nazis, but also by their accomplices in many European countries.
"In the occupied territories of the Soviet Union, where these criminals were operating, the largest number of Jews were killed. Thus, about 1.4 million Jews were killed in Ukraine, and 220,000 people were killed in Lithuania. I draw your attention, friends, to the fact that this is 95 percent of the pre-war Jewish population of this country. In Latvia, 77,000 Jewish people were killed. Only a few hundred Latvian Jews survived the Holocaust.
"The Holocaust was a deliberate annihilation of [a] people. But we must remember that the Nazis intended the same fate for many other peoples. Russians, Belarusians, Ukrainians, Poles and many other peoples were declared Untermensch. Their land was meant to serve as living space for the Nazis, providing for their prosperous existence, while the Slavs and other peoples were meant either to be exterminated or to become slaves without rights, culture, historical memory, and language.
"Back in 1945, it was first of all the Soviet people who put an end to these barbaric plans. As it has just been said, they protected their Fatherland and liberated Europe from Nazism. We paid a price no nation could even imagine in their worst dreams: a toll of 27 million deaths.
"We will never forget this. The memory of the Holocaust will serve as a lesson and a warning only if it remains fully intact, without any omissions. Unfortunately, today the memory of war and its lessons and legacy often fall subject to the immediate political situation. This is completely unacceptable. It is the duty of current and future politicians, state and public figures to protect the good name of the living and fallen heroes, civilians, and victims of the Nazis and their allies.
"We must use everything we have – our informational, political and cultural capabilities as well as the reputation and influence our countries have in the world – to this end. I am sure that everyone present here today, in this audience, shares these concerns and is ready to protect truth and justice together with us.
"We are all responsible for making sure that the terrible tragedies of this war will not happen again, that the generations to come will remember the horrors of the Holocaust, the death camps and the siege of Leningrad – Prime Minister Netanyahu has just said that today a monument to the victims of the siege was unveiled here in Jerusalem – Babi Yar, and the burned-down village of Khatyn, remember that we must remain alert and must not overlook when the first seeds of hate, chauvinism, and antisemitism take root, or when people start to indulge in xenophobia or other similar manifestations.
"Destruction of the past and lack of unity in the face of threats can lead to terrible consequences. We must have the courage to be straight about this and do everything to defend peace.
"I think an example could and should be set by the founding countries of the United Nations, the five powers that bear special responsibility for the preservation of civilization.
"We have discussed this with several of our colleagues and, as far as I know, have received a generally positive response to holding a meeting of the heads of state of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council: Russia, China, the United States, France, and Britain. We can hold it in any country, in any place that our colleagues would find convenient. Russia is ready for such a serious discussion. We intend to send this proposal to the leaders of the Five without delay.
"We are faced with many challenges. We discussed one of them recently at the initiative of German Chancellor Angela Merkel. This is about Libya. But we will have to return to this issue at the Security Council and adopt a relevant resolution.
"There are many other problems as well. I consider it important and symbolic to hold the proposed meeting this year. After all, we are celebrating 75 years since the end of World War II and the foundation of the United Nations.
"A summit of the states that made the main contribution to the routing of the aggressor and the formation of the postwar world order can play a big role in searching for collective ways of responding to current challenges and threats and would demonstrate our common commitment to the spirit of allied relations, historical memory and the lofty ideals and values for which our predecessors, our grandfathers, and fathers fought shoulder to shoulder.
"In conclusion, I would like to thank our Israeli colleagues for a warm, very hospitable reception here in Jerusalem, and to wish peace, prosperity and all the best to everyone at the conference, and, of course, to the citizens of Israel.
"Thank you."
EDITOR’S NOTE: Putin brought up a good point when he mentioned the fact that many people in the countries occupied by the Nazis collaborated with the Nazis in the slaughter of Jews.
Saturday, January 25, 2020
‘AN ENEMY OF ISRAEL IS AN ENEMY OF TEXAS’
While kings and presidents came to get their pictures taken at the World Holocaust Forum, Texas Governor Greg Abbott offered genuine support
By Ryan Jones
Israel Today
January 24, 2020
We all know that one simply doesn’t mess with Texas.
Texas is now warning that anyone who messes with the Jewish state will likewise earn the ire of the Lone Star State.
Practical support beats photo-ops
While the visiting kings and presidents of the Western world were busy trying to be seen ahead of this week’s Holocaust commemoration event, Texas Governor Greg Abbott quietly visited a week earlier to show his support for Israel in a much more practical way.
The primary reason for Abbott’s visit was to scout for new Israeli technology for Texas to either invest in or purchase.
The trip was facilitated by Start-Up Nation Central, a local non-profit that exists to connect Israeli innovations with the people and regions that need them most.
Texas is already one of Israel’s biggest trade partners, and vice versa, and Abbott vowed that would continue.
“There is a connection between business in Israel and Texas that make both Israel and Texas far better,” he told the gathering in Tel Aviv.
Mess with Israel, you mess with Texas
Later, Abbott came up to Jerusalem, where he was honored with the “Friends of Zion Award” by the Friends of Zion Heritage Center.
In his acceptance speech, Abbott firmly planted his state’s flag of support for Israel.
“There are strong relations between Texas and Israel,” said the governor. “Anybody who is an enemy of Israel is an enemy of Texas. Whenever anybody threatens Israel, we come side by side with Israel to support Israel in any way we can.”
EDITOR’S NOTE: Mahmoud Abbas and his cronies at Fatah better be careful or Governor Greg is liable to send a handful of Texas Rangers to clean house.
By Ryan Jones
Israel Today
January 24, 2020
We all know that one simply doesn’t mess with Texas.
Texas is now warning that anyone who messes with the Jewish state will likewise earn the ire of the Lone Star State.
Practical support beats photo-ops
While the visiting kings and presidents of the Western world were busy trying to be seen ahead of this week’s Holocaust commemoration event, Texas Governor Greg Abbott quietly visited a week earlier to show his support for Israel in a much more practical way.
The primary reason for Abbott’s visit was to scout for new Israeli technology for Texas to either invest in or purchase.
The trip was facilitated by Start-Up Nation Central, a local non-profit that exists to connect Israeli innovations with the people and regions that need them most.
Texas is already one of Israel’s biggest trade partners, and vice versa, and Abbott vowed that would continue.
“There is a connection between business in Israel and Texas that make both Israel and Texas far better,” he told the gathering in Tel Aviv.
Mess with Israel, you mess with Texas
Later, Abbott came up to Jerusalem, where he was honored with the “Friends of Zion Award” by the Friends of Zion Heritage Center.
In his acceptance speech, Abbott firmly planted his state’s flag of support for Israel.
“There are strong relations between Texas and Israel,” said the governor. “Anybody who is an enemy of Israel is an enemy of Texas. Whenever anybody threatens Israel, we come side by side with Israel to support Israel in any way we can.”
EDITOR’S NOTE: Mahmoud Abbas and his cronies at Fatah better be careful or Governor Greg is liable to send a handful of Texas Rangers to clean house.
TRUMP BELIEVES CONCUSSIONS ARE ‘NOT VERY SERIOUS’
Pentagon reveals 34 US troops suffered traumatic brain injuries in Iran's missile attack
By Ryan Pickrell
Business Insider
January 24, 2020
The Department of Defense told reporters Friday that nearly three dozen US service members have been diagnosed with traumatic brain injuries in the aftermath of the Iranian missile attack on US forces in Iraq earlier this month, according to multiple reports.
The Pentagon, following repeated questions, revealed Friday that a total of 34 US service members have been diagnosed with concussions and traumatic brain injuries, some of whom were flown to Germany and the US for treatment. (The Pentagon is reportedly using those two terms interchangeably).
The department said that the delays in reporting the TBIs is that these injuries are not always immediately apparent. "Some of these conditions manifest over time, symptoms can get better and get worse. This is a snapshot in time," Pentagon spokesman John Hoffman explained.
A concussion is a type of traumatic brain injury — damage affecting the brain's normal function caused by a sudden blow to the head or the severe shaking of the head and body.
Immediately following the Jan. 8 ballistic missile attack on US and coalition forces at Al Asad Air Base and in Irbil, President Donald Trump proudly announced that "no Americans were harmed."
A little over a week later, US Central Command revealed that there were, in fact, injuries.
"While no U.S. service members were killed in the Jan. 8 Iranian attack on Al Asad Air base, several were treated for concussion symptoms from the blast and are still being assessed," CENTCOM spokesman Capt. Bill Urban explained in a statement.
He said that a total of 11 US service members had to be transported to facilities in Germany and Kuwait for additional screening and treatment.
On Tuesday, Jan. 21, The Washington Post reported that the number was higher, although it did not give a specific number.
When questioned Wednesday about his earlier statement, now known to be inaccurate, Trump downplayed the severity of the injuries, saying they are "not very serious."
"I heard that they had headaches and a couple of other things, but I would say and I can report that it's not very serious," the president told the press in Davos, Switzerland. "I don't consider them very serious injuries relative to other injuries that I've seen."
When an Associated Press reporter asked for more information about these injuries on Jan. 23, a CENTCOM spokesman told him they'll no longer "play this game."
EDITOR’S NOTE: I think Trump is downplaying the seriousness of brain injuries because he does not want to carry out his threat to punish Iran if they cause any harm to Americans. Either that, or he is an ignoramus.
By Ryan Pickrell
Business Insider
January 24, 2020
The Department of Defense told reporters Friday that nearly three dozen US service members have been diagnosed with traumatic brain injuries in the aftermath of the Iranian missile attack on US forces in Iraq earlier this month, according to multiple reports.
The Pentagon, following repeated questions, revealed Friday that a total of 34 US service members have been diagnosed with concussions and traumatic brain injuries, some of whom were flown to Germany and the US for treatment. (The Pentagon is reportedly using those two terms interchangeably).
The department said that the delays in reporting the TBIs is that these injuries are not always immediately apparent. "Some of these conditions manifest over time, symptoms can get better and get worse. This is a snapshot in time," Pentagon spokesman John Hoffman explained.
A concussion is a type of traumatic brain injury — damage affecting the brain's normal function caused by a sudden blow to the head or the severe shaking of the head and body.
Immediately following the Jan. 8 ballistic missile attack on US and coalition forces at Al Asad Air Base and in Irbil, President Donald Trump proudly announced that "no Americans were harmed."
A little over a week later, US Central Command revealed that there were, in fact, injuries.
"While no U.S. service members were killed in the Jan. 8 Iranian attack on Al Asad Air base, several were treated for concussion symptoms from the blast and are still being assessed," CENTCOM spokesman Capt. Bill Urban explained in a statement.
He said that a total of 11 US service members had to be transported to facilities in Germany and Kuwait for additional screening and treatment.
On Tuesday, Jan. 21, The Washington Post reported that the number was higher, although it did not give a specific number.
When questioned Wednesday about his earlier statement, now known to be inaccurate, Trump downplayed the severity of the injuries, saying they are "not very serious."
"I heard that they had headaches and a couple of other things, but I would say and I can report that it's not very serious," the president told the press in Davos, Switzerland. "I don't consider them very serious injuries relative to other injuries that I've seen."
When an Associated Press reporter asked for more information about these injuries on Jan. 23, a CENTCOM spokesman told him they'll no longer "play this game."
EDITOR’S NOTE: I think Trump is downplaying the seriousness of brain injuries because he does not want to carry out his threat to punish Iran if they cause any harm to Americans. Either that, or he is an ignoramus.
SEND HER BACK THEY WILL ….. BUT NOT TO SOMALIA
Rep. Ilhan Omar launches reelection bid with big advantages, including a massive bank account
By Steve Karnowski
Associated Press
January 23, 2020
MINNEAPOLIS -- Rep. Ilhan Omar’s congressional career got off to a rocky start just a year ago, with her provocative remarks on Israel and Jews stirring anger across the country and raising speculation that some other Minnesota Democrat might step forward to challenge her in 2020.
That was then.
Omar was kicking off her reelection campaign Thursday night with a massive bank account and no challengers who pose a serious threat from either party. Her campaign slogan — “Send her back to Congress!” — gleefully evokes President Donald Trump’s personal attacks on her.
In an overwhelmingly Democratic district that where Omar took 78% of the vote in 2018, University of Minnesota political scientist Larry Jacobs gives her opponents no chance.
“This is one of the most progressive-liberal districts in the country and Rep. Omar is one of the most progressive-liberal members of Congress,” Jacobs said. “She’s a fit for the district even if Democrats around the country are uncomfortable with her positions and her style.”
Omar, a Somali American immigrant, became a national figure in 2018 as one of the first two Muslim women elected to Congress. But her tweets last February insinuating that lawmakers support Israel because they have been bought off came under intense bipartisan criticism. She added fuel to the fire last March by suggesting that Jewish Americans have divided loyalties between the U.S. and Israel.
Trump moved quickly to try to make Omar and three other freshmen congresswomen of color — known as “The Squad” — the face of his opposition, saying they should “go back” to their counties, even though only Omar was foreign born. His supporters chanted, "Send her back!" at a rally a few days later in North Carolina. But Omar received a hero’s welcome at the airport when she returned home from Washington that week.
Trump's attention to Omar has helped her raise enormous amounts of money, and she's used the national stage effectively, Jacobs said.
Omar raised more than $2.5 million through last year’s third quarter, the latest figures available, and had $1.56 million in the bank. Her fundraising was more than triple the House incumbent average, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.
Omar did not immediately respond to a request for an interview ahead of her kickoff.
Omar's only real primary threat would have to come from a Democratic officeholder, but none has stepped forward, said Kathryn Pearson, another University of Minnesota political scientist.
One of her three little-known Democratic challengers, mediator Antone Melton-Meaux, did raise more than $200,000 in the fourth quarter, with more than $180,000 in the bank. His strong support for Israel and opposition to the Palestinian-led Boycott, Divest and Sanctions movement contrast with Omar’s positions.
“I don’t think he poses a serious threat, but the fact that he raised a chunk of money fairly quickly, it shows that while Rep. Omar is pretty safe, it doesn’t mean there aren’t some Democrats who are unhappy with her performance in Congress so far,” Pearson said.
Taking advantage of conservative dislike of Omar nationally, her likely GOP opponent, black businessman Lacy Johnson, raised nearly $478,000 by the end of the third quarter but had spent most of that.
Divisions still remain between Omar and some Jewish community leaders, though they’re not expected to make a big dent in her margin of victory.
“The injury and ill-confidence ... have not been adequately addressed,” said Steve Hunegs, executive director of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Minnesota and the Dakotas, who lives in her district. “The community will pay close attention to her in the 2020 election cycle.”
While Omar’s job seems secure for now, her long-range future is less clear.
“This is the beginning of what I think will be a series of nationally prominent and contested races against Rep. Omar,” Jacobs said. “I think at some point it’s going to beat her down.”
By Steve Karnowski
Associated Press
January 23, 2020
MINNEAPOLIS -- Rep. Ilhan Omar’s congressional career got off to a rocky start just a year ago, with her provocative remarks on Israel and Jews stirring anger across the country and raising speculation that some other Minnesota Democrat might step forward to challenge her in 2020.
That was then.
Omar was kicking off her reelection campaign Thursday night with a massive bank account and no challengers who pose a serious threat from either party. Her campaign slogan — “Send her back to Congress!” — gleefully evokes President Donald Trump’s personal attacks on her.
In an overwhelmingly Democratic district that where Omar took 78% of the vote in 2018, University of Minnesota political scientist Larry Jacobs gives her opponents no chance.
“This is one of the most progressive-liberal districts in the country and Rep. Omar is one of the most progressive-liberal members of Congress,” Jacobs said. “She’s a fit for the district even if Democrats around the country are uncomfortable with her positions and her style.”
Omar, a Somali American immigrant, became a national figure in 2018 as one of the first two Muslim women elected to Congress. But her tweets last February insinuating that lawmakers support Israel because they have been bought off came under intense bipartisan criticism. She added fuel to the fire last March by suggesting that Jewish Americans have divided loyalties between the U.S. and Israel.
Trump moved quickly to try to make Omar and three other freshmen congresswomen of color — known as “The Squad” — the face of his opposition, saying they should “go back” to their counties, even though only Omar was foreign born. His supporters chanted, "Send her back!" at a rally a few days later in North Carolina. But Omar received a hero’s welcome at the airport when she returned home from Washington that week.
Trump's attention to Omar has helped her raise enormous amounts of money, and she's used the national stage effectively, Jacobs said.
Omar raised more than $2.5 million through last year’s third quarter, the latest figures available, and had $1.56 million in the bank. Her fundraising was more than triple the House incumbent average, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.
Omar did not immediately respond to a request for an interview ahead of her kickoff.
Omar's only real primary threat would have to come from a Democratic officeholder, but none has stepped forward, said Kathryn Pearson, another University of Minnesota political scientist.
One of her three little-known Democratic challengers, mediator Antone Melton-Meaux, did raise more than $200,000 in the fourth quarter, with more than $180,000 in the bank. His strong support for Israel and opposition to the Palestinian-led Boycott, Divest and Sanctions movement contrast with Omar’s positions.
“I don’t think he poses a serious threat, but the fact that he raised a chunk of money fairly quickly, it shows that while Rep. Omar is pretty safe, it doesn’t mean there aren’t some Democrats who are unhappy with her performance in Congress so far,” Pearson said.
Taking advantage of conservative dislike of Omar nationally, her likely GOP opponent, black businessman Lacy Johnson, raised nearly $478,000 by the end of the third quarter but had spent most of that.
Divisions still remain between Omar and some Jewish community leaders, though they’re not expected to make a big dent in her margin of victory.
“The injury and ill-confidence ... have not been adequately addressed,” said Steve Hunegs, executive director of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Minnesota and the Dakotas, who lives in her district. “The community will pay close attention to her in the 2020 election cycle.”
While Omar’s job seems secure for now, her long-range future is less clear.
“This is the beginning of what I think will be a series of nationally prominent and contested races against Rep. Omar,” Jacobs said. “I think at some point it’s going to beat her down.”
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