Year: 2019

Anti-War – by Grant Smith

One of every three members of Congress boarding a jetliner on a privately-funded all-expense paid trip overseas has Israel as their final destination. Only one out of a hundred ever visits Palestinian territories as a final destination.

Analysis of Gift Travel Filings made to the US House of Representatives Office of the Clerk over the past half-decade reveals Israel is far and away their top foreign destination. House of Representatives members made nearly 1,400 trips to Israel, while total subsidized visits to foreign countries other than Israel were 2,500.   Continue reading “Do Members of Congress Take Too Many Private Trips to Israel With AIPAC?”

Moon of Alabama

The Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is finished. A long simmering scandal did him in.

Between 2001 and 2011 the Canadian construction and engineering company SNC-Lavalin bribed officials in Libya with tens of millions to get contracts in that country. In 2015 the company was charged by the Public Prosecution Service of Canada. It tried to avoid a trial and argued instead for a negotiated settlement since it had cleaned shop by changing its chief executive officer.   Continue reading “Justin Trudeau Is Finished”

ABC News

San Francisco has become the latest city to push for old marijuana-related criminal offenses to be cleared, with the city’s district attorney announcing that thousands of people will have their cases dismissed and sealed.

In all, 9,362 people will be eligible for dismissal, according to George Gascon, the San Francisco District Attorney. Each of them had received either a misdemeanor possession convictions or felony convictions for possession with intent to sell, sales or transportation of marijuana or the cultivation of more than six marijuana plants.   Continue reading “More than 9,000 marijuana convictions dismissed in latest case of cities taking action”

The Charlotte Observer

Sheriff’s deputies pushed them against jail-yard fences and shoved them to the ground. They yelled and cursed within inches of their faces. They forced them to run for long periods, ignoring pleas for breaks, until some vomited.

Receiving this treatment: Kids and teens — one was 8 years old.   Continue reading “Sheriff says ‘Scared Straight’ program helps troubled kids. Experts say it’s child abuse”

Epoch Times – by John Smithies

LONDON—Chinese state television channel CCTV is under fire for broadcasting what campaigners call “clear lies” in the UK, and it could face similar charges in the United States.

Human rights NGO Safeguard Defenders has written to British broadcasting regulator Ofcom about numerous so-called “forced confession” broadcasts on China Central Television (CCTV) and its English-language counterpart, China Global Television Network (CGTN).   Continue reading “Chinese State TV Under Fire Over ‘Forced Confessions’”

Eagle Forum – by Patrick Wood

People who have a modern smartphone normally think of 5G as nothing more than a progression from 3G and 4G. Offering fewer dropped calls, faster data transfer, and more convenience. 5G is the fifth generation of wireless technology.

This thinking barely scratches the surface. There must be a greater reason why CEOs of major cellular carriers are breaking their necks to railroad the fastest implementation in history of a new communication standard.   Continue reading “Total Data Domination: 5G, IoT, AI Surveillance And The Smart City”

NCPR

Cornell University has received over $68 million from the United States Department of Agriculture to build a new federal research facility for grape genetics. The site will be in Geneva, New York, home to ongoing collaborations between Cornell and the USDA.

New York is home to the largest Concord grape industry in the eastern United States. And it’s one of the top five wine producers in the nation. Overall, the New York grape industry contributes $4.8 billion annually to the New York State economy.   Continue reading “Cornell gets $68.9 million for grape genetics research”

NEO

A recent BBC segment titled, “The Syrians returning home after years of fleeing war,” contradicted 8 years of the British state media’s narratives regarding the war in Syria.

A synopsis of the short BBC video segment would read:   Continue reading “Returning Syrian Refugees Were Fleeing US Proxy War, Not “Assad””

KTLA 5 News

A federal judge delivered a blow Thursday to a decade-long effort by prosecutors to strip the Mongols motorcycle gang of its trademarked logo, ruling it would be unconstitutional.

U.S. District Court Judge David O. Carter in Santa Ana, California, essentially reversed a first-of-its-kind jury verdict that would have given the government control of the logo of a Mongol warrior astride a chopper-style motorcycle.   Continue reading “Judge Won’t Make Mongols Motorcycle Gang Surrender Trademark Logo After Racketeering Conviction”

Free Thought Project

(FEE) — Harvard’s Gernot Wagner wants to save the world from global warming. His method? Develop a new type of plane that will fly more than 4,000 missions a year dumping particulates into the stratosphere.

Wagner and his colleague Wake Smith call the proposed plane “SAI Lofter (SAIL).” Anonymous individuals at “Airbus, Atlas Air, Boeing, Bombardier, GE Engines, Gulfstream, Lockheed Martin, NASA, Near Space Corporation, Northrup Grumman, Rolls Royce Engines, Scaled Composites, The Spaceship Company, and Virgin Orbit” provided input.   Continue reading “Harvard Scientists to Fight Global Warming by Spraying Particles into Atmosphere—4,000 Times a Year”

Medium  – by Nafeez Ahmed

A senior European Commission economist has warned that a Third World War is an extremely “high probability” in coming years due to the disintegration of global capitalism.

In a working paper published last month, Professor Gerhard Hanappi argued that since the 2008 financial crash, the global economy has moved away from “integrated” capitalism into a “disintegrating” shift marked by the same sorts of trends which preceded previous world wars.   Continue reading “The “disintegration” of global capitalism could unleash world war 3, warns top EU economist”

VPR

The parents of a 23-year-old man who committed suicide last December are asking lawmakers to create a waiting period for gun purchases in Vermont.

It’s been less than three months since Alyssa Black’s youngest child took his own life, and she’s still piecing together the events that led to her son’s death.   Continue reading “Right To Self-Defense Versus Suicide Prevention: Lawmakers Consider Waiting Period For Gun Sales”

The Organic Prepper – by Dagny Taggart

For the second day in a row, gun-grabbers in the US House of Representatives have passed an extreme gun control bill.

Yesterday we reported that the House of Representatives voted to pass H.R. 8, the Bipartisan Background Checks Act of 2019, which would require background checks for all firearm sales, including private transactions and purchases made online and at gun shows. Currently, only federally licensed firearms dealers, importers, and manufacturers are required to conduct background checks on customers under federal law.   Continue reading “The House Just Passed A SECOND Extreme Gun Control Bill”

The Oregonian – by Andrew Theen

Oregonians should not be required to prove they are U.S. citizens or legal residents to drive a car.

That’s the premise behind a bill filed in Salem this week by a bipartisan group of state lawmakers. If passed opens the door for non-citizens to obtain legal Oregon driver’s licenses, learner’s permits or general identification cards. It wouldn’t apply to commercial driver’s licenses.   Continue reading “Oregon lawmakers introduce bill to eliminate ‘proof of legal presence’ requirement to get driver’s license”

Tech Dirt – by Tim Cushing

The Houston Police Department has a huge problem. A recent no-knock drug raid ended with two “suspects” killed and four officers wounded. The PD says no-knock entrances are safer for officers, not that you’d draw that conclusion from this raid.

The problem the PD has is its drug warriors are dirty. The raid was predicated on a tip from a confidential informant who doesn’t appear to exist. The warrant contained sworn statements about a heroin purchase that never happened and a large quantity of heroin packaged for sale that was not among the things seized from the dead couple’s residence. The heroin central to the raid appears to have been taken from the console of an officer’s squad car and run to the lab for some very unnecessary testing.   Continue reading “FBI, DA’s Office Open Investigation Of Fatal Houston PD Drug Raid”

Big League Politics – by Jose Nino

Gun controllers are re-branding.

The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, the U.S.’s oldest gun control lobby, has changed its name to Brady as part of its rebranding efforts.

The gun control advocacy group announced this new rebranding strategy at an event celebrating the 25^th anniversary of the Brady bill, which laid the first step to creating a federal gun registry.   Continue reading “Gun Control Group Gets a New Disguise”

Zero Hedge – by Tyler Durden

It’s no secret that California residents, particularly people residing in the most expensive parts of the state (SoCal, the Bay Area) are fleeing in droves, displaced by expensive rents, sky-high home prices, unbearable traffic congestion and – oh yeah – increasingly deadly wildfires. As a result, California expat communities have sprung up in Texas, Arizona, Idaho and Nevada, sun-belt states where residents can enjoy many of the benefits of California living (namely, the agreeable climate and booming economy) without the downsides.   Continue reading “The California Dream Is In Nevada: Golden State Expats Flock To Las Vegas Suburb”