Month: June 2017

Mass Transit – by Erin Baldassari

June 21–OAKLAND — BART’s governing board on Thursday will consider adding the four-county transit district to the growing list of local jurisdictions refusing to enforce federal immigration laws.

The proposed policy, dubbed “Safe Transit,” would prohibit BART from spending any money or resources on enforcing federal immigration laws, and it would forbid BART employees, including its police officers, from questioning riders about their immigration status, except if that cooperation is required by federal or state laws, or through a court order.   Continue reading “CA: BART Board to Consider Adopting an Immigration Sanctuary Policy Thursday”

Ars Technica – by David Kravets

A Rhode Island legislative committee has approved a bill that would greatly expand the surveillance state through the deployment of license plate readers. For the first time in the US, these devices would be attached along Rhode Island highways and roads for the stated purpose of catching uninsured motorists from any state.

The House Corporations Committee approved the bill on a 7-2 vote earlier this week. The legislation spells out that the contractor for the project would get 50 percent of the fines paid by uninsured motorists ensnared under the program. The state and the contractor would each earn an estimated $15 million annually. Fines are as high as $120.  Continue reading “Rhode Island bill sees highway surveillance cams ticketing uninsured motorists”

Reason – by Eric Boehm

Cronyist-in-chief Donald Trump promised in December that he would do whatever was necessary to keep Carrier, an HVAC manufacturer, from laying off employees at an Indiana factory and shifting those jobs to Mexico.

On Thursday, Carrier announced it will lay off 600 workers in Indiana and shift those jobs to Mexico.

While the decision is understandably devastating for the people who will lose their jobs, it’s heartening to know that the government’s influence over the economy does not extend so far that the president can point his finger and tell CEOs how high to jump.   Continue reading “Carrier Will Move Jobs to Mexico, Despite Trump’s Promise to Keep Them in Indiana”

ABC News

New Jersey authorities are looking for a police officer after he skipped out on his trial on charges that he helped gang members in police investigations.

The Monmouth County Sheriff’s Office says it is searching for 49-year-old Keith German after the Asbury Park patrolman failed to show up in court Tuesday. The trial went on without him. German’s lawyer isn’t commenting.   Continue reading “Police looking for patrolman who skipped out on his trial”

World Events and the Bible

In Chapter 5 we discussed “The Timing of Satan’s Appearance” and provided scriptural documentation as to when we might expect to see Satan cast from Heaven to earth. In Chapter 6 we are going to discuss “The Hour of Temptation” which is the portion of time Satan will be on earth, from the time he is cast from Heaven until the Return of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. As we will learn, Satan will be on earth for the entire Tribulation and we will uncover the length of the Tribulation as well.   Continue reading “The Timeline Of The Tribulation: Chapter 6 – The Hour Of Temptation”

St. Louis Post-Dispatch – by Christine Byers and Nassim Benchaabane

ST. LOUIS • An off-duty officer was wounded by “friendly fire” as police looked for suspects after a stolen vehicle fled police and crashed late Wednesday.

The injured off-duty officer was treated at a hospital released on Thursday. The suspect was also treated, and released into police custody.   Continue reading “Off-duty St. Louis officer injured by ‘friendly fire’ after police chase of stolen car”

RT

A federal appeals court has ruled that members of the US Navy can now, in a US court, pursue their lawsuit which alleges that they were exposed to radiation while providing aid after the nuclear crisis in Fukushima, Japan.

On Thursday, the US Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco ruled in favor of the sailors who were exposed to dangerous levels of radiation while providing humanitarian aid after an earthquake destroyed the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant in Japan.   Continue reading “USS Reagan crew can sue Japanese company over Fukushima nuclear disaster – court”

Liberty Blitzkrieg – by Michael Krieger

Just when you thought air travel couldn’t get any more invasive, authoritarian and downright miserable, the Department of Homeland Security and two U.S. carriers are determined to prove you wrong.

Yesterday, Harrison Rudolph, a law fellow at the Center on Privacy & Technology at Georgetown Law, wrote a very troubling article at Slate titled, DHS Is Starting to Scan Americans’ Faces Before They Get on International Flights. Here’s some of what we learned:  Continue reading “Certain U.S. Airlines Are Testing Mandatory Facial Recognition Scans on Americans Flying Abroad”

Life Site News – by Claire Chretien

SALEM, Oregon, June 20, 2017 (LifeSiteNews) – Oregon Right to Life (ORTL) declared victory Tuesday because a bill allowing dementia and mentally ill patients to be starved to death was sent to a House committee that’s already closed for the legislative session, effectively killing the anti-life bill.

Senate Bill 494 was written in such an insidious way, said Gayle Atteberry, ORTL’s executive director, that its text can be difficult for lay people to understand. She called it the most “devious bill” she’d ever seen.   Continue reading “Victory: Oregon bill allowing dementia patients to be starved fails to pass”

New York Times – by JONATHAN MARTIN and MATT FLEGENHEIMER

WASHINGTON — The House Democratic leader, Nancy Pelosi, strolled before the cameras on Thursday with defeat at her back once more, projecting a well-worn swagger — brash, defiant, more than a little off key — as she insisted that her moment had not passed.

“I think I’m worth the trouble,” she told reporters, parrying renewed questions from Democrats about her stewardship after yet another Republican congressional candidate, this time in Georgia, found success by making Ms. Pelosi and her adopted hometown, San Francisco, the centerpiece of a campaign.

Continue reading “Nancy Pelosi Tells Democratic Critics, ‘I Think I’m Worth the Trouble’”

Waking Times – by Phillip Schneider

It has been rumored for years that Monsanto plans to take over the cannabis industry with genetic engineering just as they’ve taken over the corn and soy industries. Although they have always denied having any intentions to do so, at this point it is unlikely that anybody really believes them. In contrast, many in the cannabis sphere are prepared to resist any kind of GMO takeover of marijuana by Monsanto or any of their cohorts.

Evidence is mounting, though, which points strongly to the notion that Monsanto does indeed plan to take control of the cannabis plant, and it doesn’t look good for medical users, or anyone planning on getting into the industry.   Continue reading “Monsanto and Bayer are Maneuvering to Take Over the Cannabis Industry”

Dearest Dad,

I am coming home to get married soon, so get your check book out.  I’m in love with a boy who is far away from me.

As you know, I am in Australia… and he lives in Scotland.  We met on a dating website, became friends on Facebook, had long chats on Whats app.  He proposed to me on Skype, and now we’ve had two months of a relationship through Viber.   Continue reading “Dear Dad”

LA Times – by Veronica Rocha

monk from Riverside and an Australian man looking to buy a 6-year-old boy were among 238 people arrested during a two-month operation targeting child predators in Southern California, officials said Monday.

Conducted by the Los Angeles Regional Internet Crimes against Children task force,  “Operation Broken Heart III”  targeted offenders wanted for the sexual exploitation of children, child prostitution, sex tourism and possessing and distributing child pornography, said Deputy Chief Matt Blake of the Los Angeles Police Department.  Continue reading “238 arrested in sweep of suspected child sex predators”

The Last American Vagabond – by Matt Agorist

One of the most rational bills ever proposed, barring the feds from giving money and weapons to child murdering terrorists, has almost zero support.

For the last several decades, the US government has openly funded, supported, and armed various terrorist networks throughout the world to forward an agenda of destabilization and proxy war. It is not a secret, nor a conspiracy theory, America arms bad guys.

Given the insidious history of the American empire and its creation and fostering of terrorist regimes across the globe, it should come as no surprise that the overwhelming majority of politicians would refuse to sign on to a law that requires them to ‘Stop Arming Terrorists.’ And, that is exactly what’s happened.   Continue reading “US Gov’t Proves Loyalty to ISIS as Bill to ‘Stop Arming Terrorists’ Gets Only 13 Supporters”

The Daily Sheeple – by Will Porter

I swear to drunk I’m not God, occifer!

An officer from the San Antonio Police Department faces a Driving While Intoxicated (DWI) charge and has been placed on paid administrative leave after he rear-ended a Kirby City police squad car early on the morning of Friday, June 16.

The off-duty officer, Armando Alvarado Jr., 40, denied that he crashed his truck and insisted he was merely pulling over to assist the Kirby officer, who was in the middle of writing a traffic ticket when Alvarado hit his car. The 37-year-old Kirby officer sustained minor injuries to the back and neck, and the victim of the traffic stop stayed with him at the scene until help arrived.   Continue reading “Off-Duty San Antonio Cop Crashes into Squad Car, Faces DWI Charge”

Breitbart – by Edwin Mora

WASHINGTON, D.C. — There is a “rather long list” of sanctuary cities across the United States that choose to release incarcerated members of the notoriously violent Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) gang back into U.S. communities rather than allow immigration agents to prosecute and deport them, testified a federal officer under oath before lawmakers.

“We are not asking the state of local institutions to do anything besides give us access and transfer that individual to our custody at the completion of their criminal process so we [can]…remove them from the country or prosecute them,” declared Matthew Albence, the executive associate director for Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) at the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency, during a Senate panel hearing.  Continue reading “Sanctuary Cities Protecting MS-13 Gang Members from Deportation, Says ICE”

PowerLine

The Supreme Court ruled [Monday] that the government cannot deny full trademark protection to allegedly racially offensive trademarks. The opinions are here.

The case involved an Asian-American band called “The Slants.” It sought federal registration of that mark. The Patent and Trademark Office denied the application under a Lanham Act provision prohibiting trademarks that may “disparage. . .or bring. . .into contemp[t] or disrepute” any “persons, living or dead.”

The Court ruled in favor of The Slants. The vote was unanimous, though the Court split 4-4 on some of the finer points.

Eugene Volokh summarizes the core points on which all eight Justices agreed (Justice Gorsuch did not participate):

1. By denying registration to trademarks that allegedly disparage certain kinds of groups, the federal trademark law discriminates based on viewpoint.

2. While the government may discriminate based on viewpoint when it comes to speech that is treated as the government’s own speech, trademarks are private speech (albeit protected by the government against certain forms of infringement) and not government speech.

3. Even if these trademarks are viewed as “commercial speech” (basically, commercial advertising), which is subject to somewhat more restrictions than other speech — and the court stresses that they might not be — such speech still can’t be restricted because of its alleged offensiveness.

Both of the main opinions are solid when it comes to protecting “hate speech.” Justice Alito wrote:

[The idea that the government may restrict] speech expressing ideas that offend. . .strikes at the heart of the First Amendment. Speech that demeans on the basis of race, ethnicity, gender, religion, age, disability, or any other similar ground is hateful; but the proudest boast of our free speech jurisprudence is that we protect the freedom to express “the thought that we hate.”

Justice Kennedy wrote:

A law that can be directed against speech found offensive to some portion of the public can be turned against minority and dissenting views to the detriment of all. The First Amendment does not entrust that power to the government’s benevolence. Instead, our reliance must be on the substantial safeguards of free and open discussion in a democratic society.

All eight participating Justices signed one or the other of these opinions.

As Volokh points out, in this case, the government didn’t bar The Slants from using the mark; it just denied certain protections that trademarks get against unauthorized use by third parties. But even in this limited context, the court held that viewpoint discrimination — including against allegedly racially offensive viewpoints — is unconstitutional.

Clearly, says Volokh, the same principle will apply to exclusion of speakers from universities, denial of tax exemptions to nonprofits, and much more.

Of less moment is the fact that the decision means victory for the Washington Redskins. Some left-wing activists have been campaigning against that name on the theory that it demeans Indians. They suffered a huge setback when a poll by the sympathetic Washington Post found that Indians overwhelmingly aren’t offended by the name.

Unable to prevail in the court of public opinion, the activists have been trying to prevail in the court of the administrative state by attacking the Redskins trademark. Now, they will fail in this effort too.

Hail to the Redskins!

PowerLine