Attention

The opinions expressed by columnists are their own and do not represent our advertisers

Tuesday, January 21, 2020

Nigerian pastor who praised God in ransom video beheaded after refusing to deny Christ

A pastor who made headlines this month after praising God in a ransom video has been executed by alleged Boko Haram militants in Nigeria.

International human rights activists have condemned the killing of Rev. Lawan Andimi, the chairman of the Christian Association of Nigeria’s chapter in the Michika Local Government Area of Adamawa State.

Andimi was declared missing on Jan. 3 following a raid by the Islamic extremist group in Michika. Video posted online appeared to show Andimi being forced into a vehicle by his captors.

More

Troopers Arrest Rehoboth Beach Man Following Pursuit-Seaford

Seaford-  The Delaware State Police have arrested 35-year-old Everett L. Burton after he led them on a pursuit.
The incident occurred on January 20, 2020 at approximately 6:20 p.m., when Troopers observed a silver Mercury Grand Marquis traveling northbound on Concord Pond Road, Seaford, without a license plate tag light and functioning taillights.  A traffic stop was initiated when the driver refused to stop and continued to travel northbound on Concord Pond Road.  The driver procced to turn onto King Road and then onto Coverdale Road traveling at a high rate of speed and committing multiple traffic violations.
The vehicle eventually came to a stop after it slid off the edge of Coverdale Road.  The operator proceeded to exit the vehicle and flee on foot.  Shortly after, Troopers located the driver, Everett Burton in the woods.  Burton was taken into custody without further incident and transported back to Troop 4 where he was charged with the following:
  • Disregarding a Police Officer Signal (Felony)
  • Resisting Arrest
  • Driving While Suspended or Revoked
  • Aggressive Driving
  • Multiple Traffic Related Violations
Burton was arraigned before the Justice of the Peace Court and committed to the Sussex Correctional Institution on $3008.00 secured bond.

I am Gov. Ralph Northam and I am in blackface today.#VirginaRally

“As an African-American on MLK Day It’s Critically Important” – Black Gun-Owner at Virginia Rally Speaks Out in Support of Second Amendment (VIDEO)

Thousands of Second Amendment supporters are expected to attend a rally in Richmond, Virginia on Monday.

Democrat Governor Blackface Northam is putting the squeeze on Virginia gun owners before Monday’s Second Amendment protest.

The protesters were fenced in.
And the governor ordered the 2A protesters to leave their guns at home — in an Open Carry State!

25,000 Pro-Gun Protesters turned out for the rally.

More/Video

The Senate Impeachment Trial: 8 Things You Need to Know

The House of Representatives has chosen members to participate in the Senate impeachment trial of President Donald Trump, and they have presented the articles of impeachment to the Senate.

This is only the third impeachment trial of a president in our nation’s history, with the others occurring in 1868 for Andrew Johnson and 1999 for Bill Clinton.

Here are eight things you need to know as the Senate prepares to begin Trump’s impeachment trial.

More

Governor Hogan Reports on 2019 Success of Maryland Criminal Intelligence Network

Law Enforcement Coalitions Disrupt or Dismantle 194 Drug Trafficking Organizations, 146 Human Trafficking Organizations, 77 Gangs, 21 Firearms Trafficking Organizations
ANNAPOLIS, MD—The day after officially introducing his crime bills in the General Assembly, Governor Larry Hogan today announced a successful year for the Maryland Criminal Intelligence Network (MCIN). MCIN, a criminal justice strategy announced by Governor Hogan in 2017 and funded through the Governor's Office of Crime Prevention, Youth, and Victim Services, encourages local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies to collaborate and share information to target, disrupt, and dismantle gangs as well as criminal organizations involved in drug, firearm, and human trafficking operations. 
“Crime is the number one concern of Marylanders, and through the work of the Maryland Criminal Intelligence Network, we have dismantled hundreds of criminal organizations and seized more than $9 million in assets,” said Governor Hogan. “Our administration remains committed to providing law enforcement officers with every tool possible to track down, arrest, and convict these criminals and make our communities safer.”
During 2019, the work of the 13 MCIN coalitions in Maryland resulted in:
  • 620 criminal organizations identified
  • 194 drug trafficking organizations disrupted or dismantled
  • 146 human trafficking organizations disrupted or dismantled
  • 77 gangs disrupted or dismantled
  • 21 firearms trafficking organizations disrupted or dismantled
  • $3.4 million in assets seized

PRAGER: Newsweek Changed Its Article About Me. But …

In my last column, “Newsweek Hits a New Low,” I wrote about Newsweek’s dishonest description of what I had said on one of my weekly PragerU “Fireside Chats.” A viewer had asked me to respond to a statement Anne Frank made in her epic Holocaust diary. Frank said, “Despite everything, I believe that people are really good at heart.”

The Newsweek headline, “Conservative Radio Host Ridicules Anne Frank,” was simply a lie. In order for readers to appreciate the level of mendacity, I had my entire response transcribed and placed it in the column.

A few days later I received a message from Nancy Cooper, global editor-in-chief of Newsweek. She emailed me her personal cellphone number and asked me to call her. I did, and we had a good conversation. She agreed that what Newsweek published mis-characterized my remarks and corrected both the headline and the article, written by deputy editor Benjamin Fearnow.

She changed the headline to “Conservative Radio Host Counters Anne Frank’s View That People Are ‘Good at Heart.'”

But....

SHOCKING FOOTAGE OF WHITE NATIONALISTS AT VIRGINIA GUN RALLY

San Francisco DA Touts Progressive Ambitions for Already Troubled City

Chesa Boudin raised in Chicago by Weather Underground leaders Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn while his parents were in prison

Chesa Boudin spent his childhood influenced by members of a radical left and violent domestic terrorist organization. During college, he worked as an English translator for Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez.

Today, Boudin is the top prosecutor in one of America’s largest cities, gaining laudatory endorsements from a U.S. Supreme Court justice and a U.S. senator, vowing to revolutionize the office to stop what he considers “mass incarceration,” and prosecuting federal immigration agents.

Within days of being sworn in Jan. 8 as San Francisco’s district attorney, Boudin cleaned house–targeting those in the criminal division in charge of the homicide unit, the general felonies unit, and gang units.

Boudin, 39, the son of two Weather Underground radicals who were convicted of murder, replaced those officials with former colleagues from the San Francisco Public Defender’s Office.

In a campaign that he won by fewer than 3,000 votes, Boudin was clear that his top priorities were decreasing incarceration, eliminating cash bail, and refusing to cooperate with Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.
 

More

[Backed by a grant of $50 million from billionaire George Soros, the American Civil Liberties Union announced in April 2017 a campaign to target, remove, and replace pro-law enforcement, anti-illegal immigration district attorneys around the country. This is one of their successful attempts. --Editor]

Why Michael Flynn’s Lawyers And Prosecutors Don’t Understand Each Other

Retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn moved to withdraw his guilty plea in federal court last Tuesday, a stunning development only two weeks before he was due to be sentenced on Jan. 28, 2020. The judge has since reset the sentencing for the end of February.

This move comes after the government filed a new sentencing memo in which it withdrew its prior recommendation that Flynn receive probation and accused him of reneging on his agreement to cooperate in the prosecution of his former business partner. In response, Flynn’s attorneys argued the government had thereby breached its obligations to Flynn under his plea agreement. They asserted Flynn had been truthful and accused the prosecutors of wanting Flynn to lie.

This dispute between the prosecution and the defendant is genuine and passionate and reflects their completely divergent views of the relevant facts. The dispute centers around whether Flynn knowingly made false statements in filings under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) about whether he and his partner, Bijan Rafiekian, had acted as agents for Turkey in performing certain work. Flynn did not plead guilty to that offense, but it was included as “relevant conduct” in the Statement of Offense that was part of his plea agreement, meaning the court can consider it in imposing Flynn’s sentence.

The backdrop to this dispute is that Covington and Burling, a prominent law firm, had represented Flynn in preparing and submitting the FARA filings that allegedly contained the false statements.

More

Parents of 16-year-old girl killed in Maryland high school shooting file lawsuit

Jaelynn Willey was a 16-year-old student at Great Mills High School and was killed by another student in March 2018 in their school hallway. On Friday, her parents filed a lawsuit against the St. Mary’s County School Board claiming that Great Mills High School failed to protect Willey.

Austin Rollins shot and killed Willey shortly after the two had ended a relationship, according to authorities. Rollins fatally shot himself in the head after he was confronted by Deputy First Class Blaine Gaskill.

The lawsuit, which was filed in the U.S. District Court in Greenbelt, accuses Great Mills High School of having “made informed decisions and took steps which actively increased the danger to her and created new dangers Jaelynn had ability to abate.”

More

2A Activist: Media Smearing Virginia Protesters as ‘Nothing but White Rednecks’


A black Second Amendment supporter at the January 20, 2020, rally pulled back the covers on the establishment media’s attempts to paint pro-gun Virginians as “nothing but white rednecks.”

Listen as the pro-Second Amendment American says, “I do not in any way, shape, or form support Governor Northam’s and the Democrat’s gun control.”

“What I also don’t support is the fact that every news piece you’ve seen on this, this weekend, they’ve always brought up the issue of race, as though it’s nothing but white rednecks and hillbillies out here who care for the Second Amendment,” he continued. “When Actually, black Americans, Asian Americans, Hispanic Americans, Americans in general, care about the Second Amendment.”

Prior to Monday’s rally, Breitbart News reported that NBC News reporter Ben Collins previewed Virginia’s Second Amendment event by calling it a “white nationalist rally.” Michael Bloomberg-funded Moms Demand Action and the Washington Post took similar approaches, linking support for the event and/or Second Amendment Sanctuaries to extremism.

More


[CNN: You know what today’s gun-rights rally will look like? Charlottesville; NBC: The Pledge of Allegiance is … problematic?]

Governor Hogan Urges Federal Officials to Lift Cap on H-2B Visas to Help Seafood Industry and Seasonal Employers

Failure to Act Would Threaten Maryland’s $355 Million Seafood Industry and Supply Chain; Governor Renews Call for Long-Term, Permanent Fix

ANNAPOLIS, MD—With Maryland’s blue crab harvest season starting on April 1, Governor Larry Hogan today urged federal officials to make more H-2B Nonimmigrant Temporary Worker Program visas available to help protect Maryland’s $355 million seafood industry and supply chain. In a letter to Acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf and Labor Secretary Eugene Scalia, the governor also called for a long-term, permanent solution to provide certainty to rural Maryland and in particular the Eastern Shore. Read the governor’s letter here.

In a typical year, 500 H-2B seasonal workers are needed for Maryland’s 20 licensed crab picking houses. Research conducted by the University of Maryland indicates that every H-2B temporary worker in crab processing helps create 2.5 jobs for American citizens.

“In support of Maryland’s seafood industry and other seasonal employers, I request that you take immediate action to increase the number of H-2B Nonimmigrant Temporary Worker Program visas—now capped at 66,000—to the maximum allowable under federal law,” writes Governor Hogan. “These workers are vital to rural Maryland and in particular our Eastern Shore. In addition to lifting the cap, I ask that you partner with Congress and Maryland’s congressional delegation to finally find a long-term solution to this issue.”

Last year, Governor Hogan was successful in pushing the U.S. Department of Homeland Secretary to release an additional 30,000 visas through the H-2B program. This came after the federal administration’s 2018 decision to limit the number of visas available, a move that devastated the local crab industry and seasonal employers.

“Without these temporary workers, and without an end to the arbitrary lottery system, local seafood processors will be unable to open for business or be forced to significantly reduce their operations,” writes Governor Hogan. “Another year of hardship could permanently damage Maryland’s sustainable seafood industry, causing these iconic family and small businesses to close or constrict, which would have a devastating impact on commerce and jobs, particularly in economically disadvantaged areas of the state.”

In his letter, the governor also invited Secretaries Scalia and Wolf to personally visit a Chesapeake Bay crab house or processor.

Black Americans Get Wage Hikes Thanks to Trump’s Tightened Labor Market


President Trump’s “Buy American, Hire American” economy has given black Americans a boost over the last year in terms of wages, job opportunities, and labor force participation.

As Breitbart News has reported, Trump’s economic agenda has greatly tightened the labor market for the blue-collar and working class — the bottom 25 percent of the labor force — thanks to increased interior immigration enforcement that has driven down foreign competition against Americans.

Nearly 60 percent of black Americans in the labor force, as of 2018, are working class or lower-middle-class and compete against other lower-wage workers for jobs, thus are disproportionate beneficiaries of a tightening labor market.

Increased interior immigration enforcement, in multiple cases, has secured new job opportunities for often disenfranchised black communities. As Breitbart News reported, dozens of mostly black Mississippians arrived at job fairs at Koch Foods last year after the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency conducted raids of illegal alien workers.

Black Americans working full-time saw their weekly wages grow 4.3 percent in the last year.

More

‘Infiltrator’ Pushes Violence At 2A Rally In VA. Rally Attendees Shut It Down.

When a man at the pro-Second Amendment rally in Virginia seemingly tried to agitate others into violence, conservative rally attendees shut him down and dismissed him as an “infiltrator.”

“Wanna hop the fence and kill that guy?” a man at the rally said to another attendee talking about “revolution,” video shows.

Pro-Second Amendment advocates quickly jumped in. “He’s starting stuff up,” one man accused. “Why would you say something dumb like that?”

The man who asked about killing then seemingly claimed he was trying to expose a pro-Second Amendment rally attendee for promoting violence.

“We know what you’re about,” the attendees told him. “You’re an infiltrator. Get the f*** out.”

More

Hospitals Give Tech Giants Access to Detailed Medical Records

Hospitals have granted Microsoft Corp., International Business Machines Corp. and Amazon.com Inc. the ability to access identifiable patient information under deals to crunch millions of health records, the latest examples of hospitals’ growing influence in the data economy.

This breadth of access wasn’t always spelled out by hospitals and tech giants when the deals were struck.

The scope of data sharing in these and other recently reported agreements reveals a powerful new role that hospitals play—as brokers to technology companies racing into the $3 trillion health-care sector. Rapid digitization of health records in recent years and privacy laws enabling companies to swap patient data have positioned hospitals as a primary arbiter of how such sensitive data is shared.

“Hospitals are massive containers of patient data,” said Lisa Bari, a consultant and former lead for health information technology for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Innovation Center.

Hospitals can share patient data as long as they follow federal privacy laws, which contain limited consumer protections, she said.

“The data belongs to whoever has it.”

More

Frank Keating Wind Turbines “Big Mistake” 60 Sec

Liberal Fake News At It Again In Richmond Virginia


Biden lumps Trump in with KKK during speech before black congregation

Former Vice President Joe Biden delivered a speech before a mostly black congregation at the Bethlehem Baptist Church in Columbia, S.C., Sunday in which he spoke of race relations in terms befitting a biblical prophet warning of impending destruction.

Biden’s brief address the weekend of Martin Luther King Jr. Day included tales of the Civil Rights Movement while expressing fear that the progress made during the 1960s was unraveling, at least in part due to President Trump.

Biden forebodingly claimed that this progress was part of a movement that “has not been able to be stopped until recently,” warning that while “I thought you could defeat hate … hate only hides.”

More

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/biden-speaks-against-racism-lumps-trump-in-with-kkk-during-speech-before-black-congregation

Virginia 2A: Black Guy Waving Trump Flag, 'I Am Governor Ralph Northam and I Am in Blackface Today'

Julio Rosas from our Townhall mothership is at the Virginia Second Amendment rally today, and just posted what might be the best civil rights video of the 21st century.

An unidentified black man -- who I suspect is about to become an internet video sensation -- announced to laughs from the crowd, "I am Governor Ralph Northam and I am in blackface today." Before that, you can hear him instructing the crowd to "Make a hole, I'm using my white privilege. Make a hole, step to the side!"

How do you describe this crowd? Far from threatening violence or anything like that, they're outdoors, dressed for the weather, laughing and having a good time. You certainly wouldn't call them unruly, but they certainly aren't too serious or dour given the importance of today's event. So if they aren't unruly... is "ruly" a word?

More/Video

Cluster of explosive devices land near Jerusalem

Just days before dozens of world leaders are expected to gather in Jerusalem, a cluster of explosive balloons landed close the capital. They were dismantled by Israel Police bomb disposal experts.

The incident on Monday, in the area of Mesilat Tzion near the city of Beit Shemesh, caused no damage or injuries, and comes after several other clusters landed in communities in southern Israel over the weekend.

On Sunday, the Israeli military fired a shell toward a Hamas post along the Gaza border fence in response to the launching of an explosive balloon cluster from the blockaded coastal enclave, which had detonated over the college town of Sderot.

On Saturday, a cluster of incendiary balloons was found in Sderot, and on Friday, several balloons with explosive devices attached to them were found along Ashdod’s promenade. The beaches were closed off by the police until sappers had dismantled the devices to prevent danger to the public.

Over the past two years, Gazans have launched countless explosive and incendiary aerial devices into southern Israel.

More here

'A birthday present for Ralph Northam': Protesters clean garbage off streets following Virginia gun rally

Demonstrators picked up trash off the streets of downtown Richmond as they left a pro-Second Amendment rally in the Virginia capital.

Footage posted on social media shows gun rights activists and other attendees doing their part to clean up after the Monday rally in protest of several pieces of gun control legislation being considered in the state.

"Pick up the trash, everybody, put it right here in this bag," a man can be heard saying in one video while he holds a large plastic trash bag. "It's a birthday present for Ralph Northam, all right? Put it right here."

More

Professors at Catholic University Outraged over Screening of Pro-Life Movie ‘Unplanned’

Dozens of professors at King’s University College in Ontario, Canada, are outraged over the screening of the pro-life film, 'Unplanned.' The professors believe the screening of the pro-life film will hinder the Catholic school’s efforts to recruit “excellent” students. The school’s principal responded by stating that while professors “do not need to prescribe to the tenets of the Catholic Church,” the Campus Ministry is still allowed to share its belief that life begins at conception.

Over 40 King’s University College professors and faculty members are demanding that the Catholic college apologize for screening pro-life film 'Unplanned' earlier this month, according to a report by LifeSiteNews.

'Unplanned' is a U.S. film about Abby Johnson, a former Planned Parenthood manager who quit her job after watching an abortion on an ultrasound, and has since become a pro-life activist.

In a bizarre letter published on Wednesday, the professors insisted that “the public endorsement of an anti-abortion stance” at King’s University College “is of great concern” and “antithetical” to the Catholic school’s mission statement, as well as obstructing the college’s efforts “to recruit and maintain excellent students, staff, and faculty.”

More here

Ukrainians React to Iran’s Admission of Guilt in Shooting Down Airliner

KYIV, Ukraine—Ukrainians of all generations know what it’s like to have a war in their homeland.

In World War II, Ukraine was the deadliest battlefield of the deadliest war in human history. And today, just 400 miles southeast of Ukraine’s capital city of Kyiv, Ukrainian soldiers remain hunkered down in trenches and improvised forts, facing their sixth straight winter at war against Russian forces in the country’s embattled Donbas region.

Tragedy struck Ukrainians again on the morning of Jan. 8, when a pair of Iranian surface-to-air missiles shot down a Ukrainian airliner outside Tehran, killing all 176 passengers and crew on board. The shoot-down happened only hours after Iran had fired ballistic missiles at bases in Iraq housing U.S. troops.

More

SCOTUS Case Could Derail Effort to Negate Electoral College


On Friday, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear cases that hold significant implications for the Electoral College and states’ rights. During the 2016 presidential election, four Electoral College electors, one from Colorado and three from Washington, cast votes for candidates who did not win their state’s popular vote. In Colorado, the elector cast a vote for John Kasich instead of Hillary Clinton, and in Washington, three electors cast their votes for Colin Powell rather than Clinton. Both the states of Colorado and Washington are among approximately 30 states that require Electoral College electors to cast their votes in concurrence with their respective state’s popular vote.

Following the votes of the so-called “faithless electors,” both states responded — Colorado voided the elector’s vote and Washington fined the electors. The electors responded by suing their respective states; the Colorado elector won, but the Washington state supreme court ruled against the electors and upheld the fine.

More here

Illegal Border Crossings Fall A Staggering Ninety Percent In Arizona

Illegal border crossings in Arizona “plunged” in December of 2019, according to the Associated Press, dropping a staggering 90% year-over-year following a Trump administration change in policy that has asylum seekers waiting for their adjudication hearings in Mexico and not in the United States.

Last winter, a “record number” of illegal border crossers were apprehended in the Arizona sector of the United States-Mexico border, with 60,000 migrants taken into United States Border Protection custody in December of 2019 alone, per the Washington Examiner.

The Border Patrol credits the Trump administration’s new “remain in Mexico” policy, which requires those who want to seek refuge from violence and disorder by emigrating to the United States to stay south of the border until their asylum case comes before a judge. Before that policy took effect, asylum seekers were given a piece of paper with a court date and then released into the United States to stay with friends and family until they had to appear before a judge.

“Arrests in the Border Patrol’s Yuma sector nearly hit 14,000 in May, when the policy to make asylum-seekers wait in Mexico took effect there. By October, they fell 94%, to less than 800, and have stayed there since, making Yuma the second-slowest of the agency’s nine sectors on the Mexican border, just ahead of the perennially quiet Big Bend sector in Texas,” the AP reported.

More

Davos 2020 - Special Address by Donald J. Trump, President of the United States of America

AOC claims there were 'almost no police officers' at Virginia Second Amendment rally

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez wondered why there were "almost no police officers" at a Second Amendment rally in Virginia that saw a heavy police presence.

Thousands of gun rights advocates demonstrated in Richmond, Virginia, on Monday in protest of a series of gun control bills proposed by Democrats. While speaking the same day at Blackout for Human Rights: MLK Now 2020 in Harlem's Riverside Church, the New York Democrat criticized the rally.

"There's this gun rights protest happening down in Richmond," she began as the event's host said, "On MLK day!"

"On MLK day!" Ocasio-Cortez said before contrasting the Richmond rally with the Baltimore, Maryland, riots following the 2015 death of Freddie Gray while he was in police custody.

More

Schools Took Away Students’ Phones. Now They’re Treating Separation Anxiety

Before class each day, a high-school teacher in Indianapolis grabs a clear plastic bag and fastens it to her waist with a ribbon. The homemade pouch is a repository for phones that are either confiscated or handed over voluntarily by students who don’t want to be tempted to tap or swipe during class.

She calls it the “phoney pack,” and the magic of the makeshift vault isn’t that it keeps devices out of reach. It’s that it lowers students’ anxiety by keeping their phones in view.

Smartphones have long been a scourge for teachers and administrators, who have employed a range of strict measures to keep them out of the classroom. But it turns out that getting rid of phones introduced another distraction: withdrawal pangs.

Now, teachers across the country are testing their own methods for managing their students’ phone-related angst.

More

EXCLUSIVE - 'OSS' Counter Operation Initiated To Stop Coup

'Not a left party': AOC calls the Democratic Party a 'center-conservative party'

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said the Democratic Party leans to the right of the political center.

The New York Democrat spoke at a Martin Luther King Jr. Day event held in Harlem’s Riverside Church on Monday. While there, the 30-year-old lawmaker claimed that the United States lacks a “left party” politically.

"We don’t have a left party in the United States. The Democratic Party is not a left party," Ocasio-Cortez said. "The Democratic Party is a center or center-conservative party.

"We can’t even get a floor vote on Medicare for All, not even a floor vote that gets voted down. So, this is not a left party," she continued, referring to a policy proposal that would provide health insurance to all while eliminating private insurance options. "There are a lot of true believers that we can 'capitalism' our way out of poverty in the Democratic Party. If anything, that’s probably the majority."

More

Why Michael Flynn’s Lawyers And Prosecutors Don’t Understand Each Other

Retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn moved to withdraw his guilty plea in federal court last Tuesday, a stunning development only two weeks before he was due to be sentenced on Jan. 28, 2020. The judge has since reset the sentencing for the end of February.

This move comes after the government filed a new sentencing memo in which it withdrew its prior recommendation that Flynn receive probation and accused him of reneging on his agreement to cooperate in the prosecution of his former business partner. In response, Flynn’s attorneys argued the government had thereby breached its obligations to Flynn under his plea agreement. They asserted Flynn had been truthful and accused the prosecutors of wanting Flynn to lie.

This dispute between the prosecution and the defendant is genuine and passionate and reflects their completely divergent views of the relevant facts. The dispute centers around whether Flynn knowingly made false statements in filings under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) about whether he and his partner, Bijan Rafiekian, had acted as agents for Turkey in performing certain work. Flynn did not plead guilty to that offense, but it was included as “relevant conduct” in the Statement of Offense that was part of his plea agreement, meaning the court can consider it in imposing Flynn’s sentence.

The backdrop to this dispute is that Covington and Burling, a prominent law firm, had represented Flynn in preparing and submitting the FARA filings that allegedly contained the false statements.

More

ANALYSIS: On eve of Senate trial, White House strikes back

"Trump has no defense at all," Harvard law professor Laurence Tribe, an influential figure among impeachment Democrats, tweeted last week.

"The case is uncontested," Democratic House impeachment manager Rep. Hakeem Jeffries said Sunday.

"They can't contest the facts," said lead Democratic impeachment manager Rep. Adam Schiff.

In the last month or so, it has become commonplace for Democrats and their allies in the press to argue that President Trump simply has no defense against the two articles of impeachment passed by the House. Republicans disagreed, and vigorously defended the president in House hearings, but the fact was, the White House had not released a comprehensive defense in the nearly four months since Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced the beginning of impeachment proceedings.

Until now.

More

2A Activist Calls Out NBC’s Ben Collins: ‘They Want Another Charlottesville’

An attendee of Monday’s Second Amendment rally in Virginia slammed NBC News’s Ben Collins for originally smearing the event as a “white nationalist rally,” blasting those on the left for attempting to paint Trump supporters as “neo-Nazis and white supremacists” and adding that they “want another Charlottesville.”

“Ben Collins from NBC yesterday tweeted that the white supremacist rally tomorrow — he was telling his fellow journalists, ‘Make sure that at the white supremacist rally, that you report the facts and that you get the facts before you report it,'” she explained.

“The fact that he tweeted that — what an idiot,” she exclaimed. “He finally deleted it because he got a lot of pushback. But yeah. That is the narrative they want to paint. They want to paint Trump supporters as neo-Nazis and white supremacists, and they want — they want another Charlottesville is what they want.”

Collins came under fire on Sunday after inaccurately describing the pro-Second Amendment rally, organized by the Virginia Citizens Defense League (VCDL), as a “white nationalist rally.”

More

White House adds eight House Republicans to Trump impeachment team

Eight Republican members of the House have joined President Trump's impeachment team ahead of his Senate trial.

The White House released the names of the lawmakers on Monday night. They include Reps. Doug Collins of Georgia, Mike Johnson of Louisiana, Jim Jordan of Ohio, Debbie Lesko of Arizona, Mark Meadows of North Carolina, John Ratcliffe of Texas, Elise Stefanik of New York, and Lee Zeldin of New York.

"Throughout this process, these Members of Congress have provided guidance to the White House team, which was prohibited from participating in the proceedings concocted by Democrats in the House of Representatives," the White House said in a statement. "The President looks forward to their continued participation and is confident that the Members will help expeditiously end this brazen political vendetta on behalf of the American people."

More

Black pastor calls Trump more 'pro-black' than Obama

A black pastor who’s a long-time supporter of President Trump is saying that Mr. Trump is more “pro-black” than former President Barack Obama, the nation’s only black president.

Pastor Darrell Scott of Cleveland, co-founder of Mr. Trump’s National Diversity Coalition, is one of several dozen inner-city faith leaders working with the White House on prison reform and other initiatives to help urban America.

“This is probably going to be … the most pro-black president I’ve seen in my lifetime,” Mr. Scott said Wednesday in an Oval Office meeting with the president. “This president actually wants to prove something to our community, our faith-based community and our ethnic community. The last president didn’t feel like he had to.”

More here

Martin Luther King Jr.'s daughter Bernice warns of the ‘resurgence of white supremacist groups’ and attacks ICE over children who have died in their custody as MLK Day is marked across the US

Dr.Martin Luther King Jr.'s daughter spoke out against white supremacy, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement's treatment of children and other social inequalities during a speech on Monday.

Dr. Bernice A. King, the youngest daughter of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., delivered a powerful speech at the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, Georgia, that insisted that one day of focusing on her father's teachings 'were not enough.'

'In these times of increased political and ideological polarization, catastrophic environmental threats and injustice, continual racial hatred and discrimination - a day on is not enough,' she said.

'In the face of widening income and wealth gaps, out of control police officers who have no regard for the value of black lives, a day on is not enough.'

More

No violence at Virginia pro-gun rally as fearmongering falls flat

On Monday, tens of thousands of people descended on the state Capitol in Richmond, Virginia, to exercise the First Amendment in defense of their Second Amendment rights. But if all you’d done was follow liberal media reports and take cues from Democratic politicians, you would have expected this political protest, launched in response to Virginia Democrats' anti-gun legislative agenda, to end in violence and be made up of extremists.

Examples of hysterical media fearmongering abound.

News outlet Axios billed the protest as possibly “another Charlottesville.” As my colleague Timothy P. Carney noted, one NBC reporter called it a “white nationalist rally.” Even the Washington Post’s post-event headline was ridiculously inflammatory: “Weapons, flags but no violence: Massive pro-gun rally in Virginia capital.”

More

Political Memes






Tuesday Morning Funnies






I’ve waited almost 3 years for this night.

I’ve waited almost 3 years for this night.
Suit dry cleaned, shaved, haircut, favorite candy purchased , favorite flowers purchased , reservations to her favorite restaurant ....... I hope I didn’t disappoint .