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Monday, June 10, 2019

Judge rules lawsuit accusing Google of bias against conservatives can proceed

A judge has ruled that a class-action lawsuit filed by two former Google employees claiming discrimination on the basis of gender, race and political bias can move forward, and an attorney representing the plaintiffs told "Fox & Friends" that Google has been making every effort to impede the case.

Attorney Harmeet Dhillon represents ex-engineer James Damore and another plaintiff who claim that they were fired from Google because they are white and Asian men who support conservative politicians like President Trump.

Most recently, Google tried to argue that they could not gather the hiring information requested by the former employees' legal team because millions of people apply to the company and it would be an "impossible task," according to Dhillon.

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https://www.foxnews.com/tech/google-conservative-bias-case-james-damore 

Michael Bloomberg Pledges $500 Million To Close All US Coal-Fired Power Plants By 2030

WASHINGTON — Former New York City Mayor and billionaire Michael Bloomberg is plunging $500 million into an effort to close all of the nation's remaining coal plants by 2030 and put the United States on track toward a 100% clean energy economy.

Bloomberg's investment in the Beyond Carbon initiative marks the largest ever philanthropic effort to combat climate change, according to the mayor's foundation. The organization will bypass the federal government and instead seek to pass climate and clean energy policies, as well as back political candidates, at state and local levels.

"We're in a race against time with climate change, and yet there is virtually no hope of bold federal action on this issue for at least another two years. Mother Nature is not waiting on our political calendar, and neither can we," Bloomberg said.

Bloomberg considered but ultimately passed on seeking the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination. Instead, he vowed to point his vast wealth and political connections toward fighting climate change and defeating President Donald Trump.

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Elderly Man Who Shot Two Burglars In His Home Charged With Felony Over Inherited Gun

An elderly man in New York was arrested for shooting two burglars in his house, not for murdering the intruders, but for shooting them with an unregistered gun.

“He was in the kitchen when he heard people in the garage coming up the stairs to the kitchen. When they got to the top of the stairs he told them to stop, but one started coming toward him. He fired three or four shots and struck both.” That’s how the scenario played out as 64 year old Ronald Stolarczyk did what he had to do when two burglars had broken into his home. This being in New York, police quickly arrested Stolarczyk and charged him not for any form of homicide, but for illegal possession of a firearm, because the gun he used to defend himself and his home had been inherited from his father and not registered.

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SPD Press Release 6-10-19


Key Figure In Russiagate Received Massive Bonus While Feeding FBI Opposition Research From Fusion GPS

A Department of Justice official who acted as a conduit between the FBI and anti-Trump opposition received a massive bonus during the counterintelligence investigation into whether the Trump 2016 campaign colluded with Russia to steal the election.

Bruce Ohr, who was eventually demoted due to a conflict of interest, was paid $28,000 in performance bonuses in November 2016, nearly double the $14,520 he had received in November 2015.

The revelation comes from documents obtained by conservative government watchdog group Judicial Watch, who filed a Freedom of Information Act request for information relating to Ohr’s compensation back in January 2018, after Ohr was transferred from his new position as director of the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force to his current role as counselor for the Office of International Affair’s Criminal Division. The move included a $2,600 a year raise.

While working as a conduit between the FBI and Christopher Steele, who was paid by Democrat opposition research firm Fusion GPS (who was in turn hired by law firm Perkins Coie on behalf of Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign and the Democratic National Committee) to compile a “dossier” that was damaging to Trump, Ohr received a yearly salary of $187,000 as associate deputy attorney general.

“These documents will raise questions as to whether the conflicted Bruce Ohr, who the FBI used to launder information from Christopher Steele was rewarded for his role in the illicit targeting of President Trump,” Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton said in a statement about the released documents.

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McCabe: Comey’s Draft Statement Exonerating Clinton Two Months before Her FBI Interview Was Not Normal Protocol

WASHINGTON — “This is the only time I am aware of, sir.” “I have not seen that before, sir.” “I’ve never seen that.”

These are just some of the words utilized by former acting FBI director Andrew McCabe when asked during closed door testimony about an email penned by disgraced ex-FBI chief James Comey circulating a draft statement exonerating Hillary Clinton in the private email server case a full two months before the FBI interviewed Clinton and other witnesses in the criminal probe.

Documents previously released by the FBI show that Comey on May 2, 2016 sent the email in question to McCabe, FBI general counsel James Baker and chief of staff and senior counselor James Rybicki. Clinton was interviewed by the FBI on June 2, with Comey later testifying that she was not sworn in and that the interview was not recorded.

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Trump left his Mexico critics stunned, speechless and other commentary

From the right: Trump Stuns His Critics on Mexico
In The Washington Post, Hugh Hewitt writes: “Because President Trump emerges as a clear winner from his week-long confrontation with Mexico over our neighbor’s lax enforcement of its southern border, reflexive Trump critics will scramble to find some way of containing what is a clear Trump triumph.” The warnings over permanent damage to bilateral relations and investor freak-outs didn’t pan out, which left the president’s opponents “flailing about” and denying the obvious. But, says Hewitt: Such antics say “nothing about Trump and much about those critics.”

2020 watch: Trump’s African-American Bet

President Trump won a decent 8 percent of the black vote in 2016 by urging African-Americans to take a gamble on him. Now he is telling them they have “a lot” to lose by voting against him in 2020, given the criminal-justice reforms and historic jobless rates he’s delivered, notes Philip Wegmann at RealClearPolitics. “The campaign knows that gaining majority support is impossible,” but Trump needs only to garner a little more black support than he did last time — or prevent the Democratic nominee from rallying the community. Democrats hope the black community believes accusations of racism against Trump, but the president’s team is working to win black voters who deride him publicly but secretly appreciate his policies. Wegmann concludes: “A second term for Trump hinges on this silent black majority.”

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John Rich: 'Shut Up About Politics' hit song resonating because it's 'what everybody's thinking'



A hit song recorded by John Rich is resonating with America and helping military families in a unique way, the country music recording artist said.

Rich explained why the song "Shut Up About Politics" - recorded with a little help from the hosts of "The Five" - had soared to the top of the iTunes download charts, in an appearance "The One with Greg Gutfeld" podcast.

"I looked up and we were literally the number one most downloaded song on any genre of music," the country music star said.

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https://www.foxnews.com/politics/shut-up-about-politics-john-rich-greg-gutfeld-five-militarys-what-everybodys-thinking

Are You An American Citizen?

Philadelphia To Ban Balconies And Bay Windows; “Symbols Of Gentrification”

In Philadelphia, city councilman Kenyatta Johnson has pushed for the city to ban balconies and bay windows from new apartments and condos, saying that they are a “symbol of gentrification” that causes anxiety, as he criticizes the new housing developments being built in the city.
Johnson, who represents much of South Philadelphia, introduced a bill during City Council’s May 23 session that would ban balconies and bay windows across Point Breeze and Grays Ferry. The two architectural features would still be allowed outside of those two neighborhoods, but according to the bill, the distance from which they can project from a building would continue to be regulated.


Johnson’s legislation comes amid unprecedented change in his district, which stretches from the fast-gentrifying neighborhoods of Graduate Hospital and Point Breeze, to areas farther south and west, including the Navy Yard and Eastwick. Thousands of new rowhouses have been built, adding taller and showier structures to older and modest rowhouse blocks. The boxy, bump-out bay windows that Johnson aims to legislate have become a well-known architectural feature of Philadelphia’s construction boom, just as aluminum siding and roof decks have.

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FBI urged to disclose Florida election hack details after ignoring request

The FBI faced fresh calls Friday to release additional details about the hacking campaign that compromised election systems in Florida during the 2016 U.S. presidential race.

Rep. Ted Deutch, Florida Democrat, pressed for transparency nearly two months since the release of special counsel Robert Mueller’s report about Russian election interference began to reveal the scope of its success in the Sunshine State.

The FBI assessed that Russian hackers infiltrated at least one Florida county government during the 2016 race, Mr. Mueller wrote in the report. Many state officials were unaware of the breach prior to the report’s publication, and individuals briefed by the FBI afterward said they were told that a total of two Florida counties had been compromised. Nearly no further details have emerged since, however, and Florida’s governor said he signed a non-disclosure agreement legally preventing him from revealing what counties were hacked.

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Guess How Many People Were Shot On Friday Night In Chicago

The Chicago Tribune reports that at least 22 individuals were shot in under 11 hours last night in Chicago as an already violent summer for the Windy City continues.

Many of these victims were innocent individuals caught in the spray of bullets related to gang organized, other criminal activity, or drive-by shootings according to police records. For example, "at about 7:15 p.m., an 18-year-old man suffered a graze wound to the head in the 2500 block of East 83rd Street in the South Chicago neighborhood," after sitting in a car, hearing gun shots, and realizing he had been hit big a stray bullet.

In one incident, "three people were shot in the 9400 block of South Wentworth Avenue in Princeton Park. The victims were in a parking lot when four males exited a dark SUV and opened fire. A 32-year-old woman was shot in both legs, and was taken to Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn where her condition was stabilized. A 26-year-old man suffered a gunshot wound to the leg, and was taken to Roseland Community Hospital where his condition was stabilized. The third victim, a 32-year-old man suffered wounds to he body, and was taken in critical condition to Christ Medical Center, police said."

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'I think it’s nuts': Oregon HS students could be punished for senior prank

GLADSTONE, Oregon — Gladstone Principal Kevin Taylor said Sunday that the students who participated in a senior prank last week will walk in their graduation ceremony on Wednesday.

More than three dozen students entered the high school early Friday morning and moved hundreds of desks out of classrooms and into the hallway as a senior prank. They also replaced erasers with hot dogs.

Taylor said the kids illegally entered the school and manipulated a trusting custodian in order to accomplish the prank. He said he was planning to charge each student more than $47 for the mess, and said he might not even let them walk at graduation.

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Honoring black conservatives

I don't like singling people out based on the color of their skin, even for the sake of admiration. But in this age of intersectionality-driven deception and propaganda, it is vitally important to recognize our black brethren in the fight for truth and transparency.

In many ways, the scrutiny they endure is much greater than anything we can fathom. Thankfully, they are compelled to fearlessly face the hate as they recognize the greater good at stake.

They are some of our most cherished voices standing faithfully against the hard projections and presumptions of operatives and activists specially appointed to stir our melting pot. They understand the realities and depravities so prevalent in our fallen culture, and they understand what it truly takes to rise above adversity. They know experientially that nothing in life comes easy.

They are exemplary people fighting the good fight, and they all lean hard right.

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AOC insists 'Neo-Nazis are getting off the hook,' despite no domestic terrorism charge existing

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., insists that the FBI has unfairly charged incidents of domestic terrorism based on race or religion, despite being told that such charges don't exist in a House hearing on Tuesday.

Ocasio-Cortez argued that violent perpetrators who were white, like at the Tree of Life synagogue shooting or the 2015 shooting at the South Carolina church where nine African Americans were killed, were let "off the hook" with hate crime charges instead of being charged with "domestic terrorism." Domestic terrorism charges, however, do not exist, nor has a law been passed by Congress defining specifically what domestic terrorism charges would be, though there is a statute defining domestic terrorism itself.

"You're using the word 'charge,'" FBI Assistant Director for Counterterrorism Michael McGarrity said to Ocasio-Cortez in the hearing. "So, as I said before, there is no domestic terrorism charge 18 USC § 2339 ABCD for a foreign terrorist organization. So, what we do both on the international terrorism side with the homegrown violent extremists and domestic terrorism, we'll use any tool in the toolkit to arrest them.”

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University of Alabama trustees vote to refund $26M gift over abortion ban controversy

The University of Alabama gave back a philanthropist’s $26.5 million donation and took his name off the law school Friday, a week after he called on students to boycott the institution over the state’s restrictive new abortion ban.

Hugh F. Culverhouse Jr., a 70-year-old Florida real estate investor who didn’t attend the school, said he has no doubt the board of trustees acted in response to his remarks.

And he complained that the state of Alabama was only reinforcing its reputation as “the land of the backward,” full of “hicks.”

University officials denied the decision had anything to do with Culverhouse’s stand on the abortion law, and said it was prompted by his attempts to dictate how the cash should be spent.

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I took out $40K in student loans. It’s my responsibility to pay it back.

Actions have consequences.

It is a phrase we have heard many times, often with a negative connotation following a misstep in life, but it can also refer to something positive.

As a recent college grad, I have a mountain of debt to pay off, about $40,000 and some change. But on the flipside, I have a college degree now. It was an exchange I agreed to knowingly. It was a price I was — and am — willing to pay.

Later this month the first debate of the 2020 Democratic presidential primary will feature a long list of candidates vying for the nomination, and I expect every single one of them to pander to young voters like me, promising to pay off my college debt or just forgive it.

That’s an insult to me. I took out student loans. To not pay them back myself would be dishonest and immoral. Again, actions have consequences.

Last month I graduated from Franciscan University of Steubenville, a small Catholic institution nestled in the Ohio River valley. It was the culmination of a four-year journey that was one of the best experiences of my life and came with a lot of personal growth.

But when I made the decision as a senior in high school to attend this university, I accepted a responsibility — I am morally accountable to pay for the education I would benefit from, and that I agreed to pay for.

I knew how expensive it was when I signed on the dotted line...


More here


[Refreshing. --Editor]

Jury awards $11 million to bakery owners targeted by student protests

The owners of an Ohio bakery who sued for libel after being targeted by student protests won Friday an $11 million verdict against Oberlin College.

A Lorain County jury ordered Oberlin to pay $11 million in compensatory damages to Gibson’s Bakery, a local fixture since 1885 that was beset by protests and racism allegations after three black students were arrested for shoplifting the day after the 2016 presidential election.

“The jury saw that Oberlin College went out of their way to harm a good family and longtime business in their community for no real reason, and the jury said we aren’t going to tolerate that in our community anymore,” Owen Rarric, an attorney for the Gibsons, told Legal Insurrection.

The award, which could triple at Tuesday’s hearing on punitive damages, came as a warning to universities that encourage social justice activism as student protests spill from the campus to the local community.

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Americans Spent as Much on Cannabis as Taco Bell Last Year

With the opening of more and more state-legal markets, cannabis sales are quickly catching up with that of more established products, brands, and services. New data compiled by Marijuana Business Daily shows that Americans spent an estimated $10.4 billion on cannabis last year—about as much as they dropped at the country’s sixth-largest fast food chain, Taco Bell.

That $10.4 billion in sales, which combines medical and adult-use markets, was nearly $2 billion more than in 2017. It was also nearly three times the $3.6 billion that Americans spent on e-cigarettes in 2018.

As the industry continues to expand—Illinois is poised to become the 11th state to legalize adult-use cannabis, and Texas just OK’d a massive expansion to its medical marijuana program—it seems only a matter of time until cannabis eclipses other sectors of the American economy. Already there are more legal cannabis-industry employees in the US than there are steelworkers.

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350 Congolese Migrants Arrive in San Antonio

San Antonio officials scrambled this week to find French-speaking volunteers to help with hundreds of Congolese migrants arriving in the Alamo City.

“We didn’t get a heads up,” Interim Assistant City Manager Dr. Collen Bridger told KEN 5 after a group of 350 Congolese migrants arrived in the city unexpectedly. “When we called Border Patrol to confirm, they said, ‘yea another 200 to 300 from the Congo and Angola will be coming to San Antonio.'”

South and central African migrants began illegally crossing the South Texas border on May 30 when 117 migrants from the Republic of the Congo, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Angola crossed in the Del Rio Sector. By June 5, more than 500 African migrants had crossed illegally in this single Border Patrol sector, Breitbart News reported.

In a press call on Wednesday afternoon, Brian Hastings, U.S. Border Patrol Chief of Law Enforcement Operations, told reporters this was the first large group “ever recorded in Border Patrol history solely from Central and South Africa. We’ve never seen that demographic in a large group of that size before.”

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[Related: Ebola cases in the Democratic Republic of the Congo pass 2,000 as crisis escalates]

Democrat Rashida Tlaib proposes disastrous cash giveaway

Far-left congresswoman Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., has released a plan that would pay lower- and middle-income Americans hundreds of dollars every month—in exchange for doing absolutely nothing.

The Washington Post reports, “Tlaib’s bill would give direct cash help to those at the bottom of the income distribution — annually offering $3,000 to individuals and $6,000 to families — in an attempt to reduce poverty in the United States and bolster the wages of the poor.”

In an interview with a Fox affiliate in Detroit, Tlaib called her plan “earned income tax credits on steroids.”

“This is basically a broader umbrella for families that make $50,000 or less if you are single, or $100,000 or less if you are a family,” Tlaib added.

The proposal offered by Tlaib, a member of the Democratic Socialists of America and political ally of socialist congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., would cost “trillions” of dollars, according to the Washington Post’s report, and serves as yet another reminder that many Democrats have absolutely no clue how basic economics works.

For starters, giving cash even to those who are unwilling to work would discourage them from finding a job, working more hours, or applying for a promotion. Why work harder—or even at all—if government is going to send you a check every month for doing nothing?

More here
https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/justin-haskins-democrat-rashida-tlaib-proposes-disastrous-cash-giveaway-even-for-those-unwilling-to-work

Trump Deal with Mexico Likely Ends Catch-and-Release, De-funds Cartels

President Donald Trump has announced an immigration reform deal with the Mexican government which likely will allow border officials to end the catch-and-release of Central American migrants.

Ending catch-and-release is a huge win for Americans and Trump because it means border officials now have a legal alternative to the catch-and-release rules which allow migrants to legally enter the United States if they bring children and claim asylum.

Those catch-and-release rules set by Congress and the courts also allow the migrants to get work permits before their asylum court hearings, which are now backlogged for two or more years.

Instead of catch-and-release, the migrants can be returned to Mexico until their asylum claims can be heard by a judge.

The “joint declaration” was outlined in a State Department message:

Police: No active shooter or shots fired at Capital Pride Parade despite panic, dozens running

WASHINGTON -- Chaos and panic erupted during the Capital Pride Parade in Dupont Circle Saturday.

Many people began running away from the scene where some attendees claim they heard gunshots.

DC police said there was not an active shooter but did say someone in the crowd yelled there was a gun. This caused people to panic and start running.

A gun was later found in someone's backpack and that man is in custody according to police. Authorities charged the man --whose identity is still unknown-- with possession of a handgun.

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House Democrats Want To Ban Sending New Prisoners To Gitmo

Democrats on the House Armed Services Committee are seeking to bar the Trump administration from detaining any new terror suspects at the prison facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

The committee’s annual policy bill, according to a copy obtained by Defense One, prohibits the use of funds to detain additional individuals “including United States citizens” and “would prohibit detention of additional individuals under the law of war or pursuant to a military commission proceeding.” It also requires the administration to come up with a plan “identifying a disposition other than continued law of war detention” at Gitmo for each of the 40 detainees currently held there.

Democrats have long sought the closure of the controversial detention facility, created to hold al Qaeda and Taliban fighters in the days following the Sept. 11 attacks under the George W. Bush administration. President Barack Obama sought to shutter it, but was stymied by a Republican Congress, which placed a prohibition on transferring any of the detainees onto U.S. soil.

The legal basis for sending ISIS fighters to the prison remains an open question. While administration officials insist the option is still open, they privately admit that there’s a reason the Trump administration hasn’t tried it yet.

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A Viewer Writes.......LOCAL FAMILY DOLLAR STORE CLOSING

I just checked out the list of Family Dollar Stores closing and our store on Tilghman Road is slated to close per the Dollar Tree buying them and closing over 300 stores. That is the only one in Salisbury right now on the list.

Hundreds of Illegals From Ebola-Ridden Congo Dumped in Texas, 350 More on The Way

Hundreds of illegal aliens from the Democratic Republic of Congo in Africa, which is currently experiencing a massive Ebola virus outbreak, have been dropped off in San Antonio, Texas and hundreds more will arrive in the near future.

A local news reporter looking for French-speaking volunteers to communicate with the individuals made a request on Twitter.

“City confirms hundreds of migrants from the Congo have arrived in SA. The city is in desperate need for French-speaking volunteers,” Jaleesa Irizarry of KENS-5 San Antonio wrote on Thursday.

In a local news report, Interim Assistant City Manager Dr. Collen Bridger said, “We didn’t get a heads up.”

Bridger said the illegal aliens started to arrive in town on Tuesday and that CBP confirmed “another 200 to 300 from the Congo and Angola will be coming to San Antonio.”

The World Health Organization said one in four Ebola infections in Congo are going undetected and that the country is experiencing the second-worst Ebola epidemic on record.

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Litigants Against Census Citizenship Question Suffer Setback

One of the contentious cases before the Supreme Court this term involves the legality of the Trump administration’s decision to reinstate a question on citizenship in the 2020 census questionnaire. During the oral argument of the case last April, the conservative-leaning justices appeared inclined to allow the inclusion of the question. "Citizen voting age population is the critical element in voting rights enforcement, and this is getting citizen information," Chief Justice John Roberts said. Since the oral argument, however, new documentary evidence has surfaced that opponents of the citizenship question believe rebuts the administration’s claim that the purpose of the citizenship question is to enforce the Voting Rights Act for the benefit of minority communities. Rather, they argued, the newly discovered evidence shows highly partisan and discriminatory motives. As a result, they took the evidence to one of the federal district courts that heard their original case, and also submitted a filing to the Supreme Court, hoping to put the Supreme Court’s review on hold. So far, they have failed in that effort.

The new evidence consisted primarily of a study by a gerrymandering expert, relied upon by Republicans, who had recommended the question to ostensibly reduce the response rate of Hispanics and other minorities. Thus, the plaintiffs argue, the administration’s real purpose has been exposed – to deter Hispanics and other minority groups from responding to the census questionnaire. The resulting under-count of Hispanics and other minorities, the argument goes, would skew the population figures used for congressional redistricting purposes in the Republicans’ favor.


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