Posts on Sunday, December 22, 2019
Farmington's only grocery store
shutters, leaving thousands without
immediate access to food replies
shutters, leaving thousands without
immediate access to food replies
Ahead of the busy holiday shopping weekend, the Family Fresh Market closed its doors at the Farmington, Minnesota, location for the final time Thursday afternoon.
In November, the store's parent company announced it was pulling out of Farmington, a city south of the Twin Cities with a population of more than 21,000 people. It was the only grocery store in town.
As the staple shuttered, community partners rushed to find ways to fill the gap to help thousands of vulnerable residents.
The nation’s illegal and legal immigration system will help shift 26 congressional seats, primarily from red states, and redistribute them to mostly blue states next year, according to new analysis.Every year, the United States imports about 1.2 million legal immigrants who largely arrive to reunite with foreign relatives already in the country. This level of annual legal immigration is in addition to the hundreds of thousands of foreign workers who arrive on work visas every year and nearly a million illegal aliens who successfully enter the U.S.Research by the Center for Immigration Studies’ Steven Camarota and Karen Zeigler finds that annual illegal and legal immigration
Rudy Giuliani has revealed some of what he discovered on his trip to the Ukraine, unraveling a conspiracy theory alleging the U.S. Embassy – led by then-Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch – 'quashed' efforts by Kiev to end a corruption investigation into the disappearance of foreign aid because it was going to a non-governmental organization run by billionaire George Soros. Giuliani, Donald Trump's personal attorney, unveiled his findings in an interview with Turning Point USA (Snip) He told Kirk he has told President Trump of his findings.
'I have notified the president of that,' he said in the 30-minute interview, which will be posted online Monday.
Northern Iraq - There are growing indications that the Islamic State (IS) group is re-organising in Iraq, two years after losing the last of its territory in the country. Kurdish and Western intelligence officials have told the BBC that the IS presence in Iraq is a sophisticated insurgency, and IS attacks are increasing.
The militants are now more skilled and more dangerous than al-Qaeda, according to Lahur Talabany, a top Kurdish counter-terrorism official.
"They have better techniques, better tactics and a lot more money at their disposal," he said. "They are able to buy vehicles, weapons, food supplies and equipment. Technologically they're more savvy.
Former national security adviser John Bolton said in an interview Sunday that he doubts that President Trump "really means it" when he says his administration will stop North Korea from developing nuclear warheads that could reach the U.S.
In an interview with Axios's Jonathan Swan, the former White House official said that Trump's policy of blocking North Korea from obtaining such weapons was a "rhetorical policy" that the administration would soon be forced to admit had failed.
"The idea that we are somehow exerting maximum pressure on North Korea is just unfortunately not true," Bolton told the news outlet.
The United Nations has placed strict gender quotas on a British Army peacekeeping deployment to Mali in west Africa, demanding more females are sent under the auspices of a special bureaucratic directive.
At least 250 soldiers are expected to join the U.N. peacekeeping force helping France to contain the deadly Islamist jihadi threat in the disputed Sahel region, the Daily Express reports.
The call for more female UK soldiers to be included is part of a wider set of directives drafted by the U.N. that mandates strict quotas for female personnel in the name of equal opportunity. Under Uniformed Gender Parity Strategy targets, 15 percent of military observers and staff officers
Score another million votes for President Trump in the coming 2020 election.
The president has gotten rid of a despicable little micromanaging regulation left over from the Obama era, restoring the citizens' right to buy the light bulbs that fit their preferences and needs. According to The Hill:
“Today the Trump Administration chose to protect consumer choice by ensuring that the American people do not pay the price for unnecessary overregulation from the federal government,” Brouillette said in a statement. (Snip) The American people will continue to have a choice on how they light their homes.”
The United Arab Emirates is using one of the most popular messaging apps in the United States to track the conversations, locations, and interactions of all of the app’s users.
The app ToTok became one of the most downloaded messaging apps in the U.S. last week on both Apple and Google’s app store. The app, sold as a safe and secure way to communicate, is being used by the U.A.E. to spy on its own people and others around the world, according to the New York Times. ToTok is most popular in the U.A.E., but also serves millions of users in Africa, Asia, Europe, the Middle East, and North America.
Vice President Mike Pence's chief of staff, Marc Short, defended President Trump's recent attacks on former Rep. John Dingell by insisting the late congressman "was not exactly a wallflower" himself.
Joining Fox News Sunday, Short was confronted about the president's rally last week, during which Trump suggested Dingell may be in hell "looking up" at his wife Debbie Dingell, who now holds the Michigan Democrat's congressional seat. (Snip) John Dingell called the president ‘imbecile’ in his closing months. John Dingell himself, as well, had a lot of critical comments about the president, yet he took time to call Debbie Dingell, to express his personal condolences on the passing.
McCarthy suggests Jordan, Collins and
Ratcliffe represent Trump during Senate
impeachment trial replies
Ratcliffe represent Trump during Senate
impeachment trial replies
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., suggested on Sunday that he would choose Republican Reps. Jim Jordan of Ohio, Doug Collins of Georgia and John Ratcliffe of Texas to represent President Trump in his looming Senate impeachment trial.“These are individuals I would actually pull in at the White House,” McCarthy said during an interview on Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures.” “You want people that have been through this, understand it, been in the hearings even when they were in the basement.” “The basement” is a reference to the Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility, where House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif.,
On its face, a tweet President Trump sent last week is fairly benign. It doesn’t mock anyone, isn’t personally nasty and hasn’t caused any hair-on-fire controversy.Yet it is powerful in its own way, for it artfully sums up the Trump era from the perspective of the president and his supporters. With a likeness to the Uncle Sam “I want you” poster, the disrupter in chief reaffirms in 14 words the belief of Trump Nation that the political establishment, the media, the permanent bureaucracy and yes, the deep state, are trying to crush him and them.The president tweeted the image
A North Carolina pastor is speaking out against the recent editorial in Christianity Today that called for President trump’s removal from office. During an interview Saturday, Pastor Tim Jones, a strong proponent of the president, slammed the publication as being a well-known liberal and far-left leaning magazine in church circles. Jones added that the magazine has no pulse on the feelings of evangelical voters like himself.“It was kind of a cheap shot, but in no way do I feel it’s going to effect the conservative vote,” he stated. “As a matter of fact, I think you’re going to see more Christians vote in the next election than previous.
SALT LAKE CITY — The word was out on Rio Grande Street that if you got arrested, you could get into treatment. After a two-decade slide into heroin and homelessness, Branden Jenkins was ready. He didn’t even try to hide.
(Snip)But unlike in Los Angeles, where the response to homelessness has leaned heavily toward housing and services, and law enforcement has been a lesser part of the equation, Salt Lake City has pursued both strategies equally.
And the community (Snip) has managed to do it without running afoul of City of Boise vs. Martin, the 2018 federal appeals court decision that found it unconstitutional to punish people for sleeping on
Fired Former FBI Director Andrew McCabe made the decision to put what is likely the infamous pee-pee garbage story from the dossier into reports that was shared with the press based on a directive from President Obama. This fake and disgusting piece of information they all knew was false at that time was used anyway to support their spying on candidate and President Trump.
The FBI knew in January 2017 that the Trump-Russia dossier was a crap document. Catherine Herridge released a page from the recent FISA report that shows that Andrew McCabe gave the directive to the FBI
The liberal #FakeNews mainstream media continues to play defense for Democrats insisting that Ukraine did NOT interfere in the 2016 US presidential election.
Of course, this is fake news.The Gateway Pundit was the first publication to interview Ukrainian whistleblower and former embassy official Andrii Telizhenko back in December 2018.In early 2016 Telizhenko was approached by DNC operative Alexandra Chalupa. She is still working at the DNC. She wanted dirt on Trump and his campaign manager Paul Manafort. The Ukrainian embassy in Washington DC worked VERY CLOSELY with DNC operative and Hillary supporter Alexandra Chalupa.
The editor-in-chief of Christianity Today, the evangelical magazine that published an editorial last week labeling Donald Trump's actions in office "profoundly amoral," asked evangelicals to consider whether they can do the "trade-off" of having Trump be pro-life but maintaining poor personal values. (Snip) "We're not making a political judgment about him because that's not our expertise at Christianity Today. But I am making a moral judgement that he's morally unfit, or more precisely it's his public morality that makes him unfit," Galli said Sunday, just days after his editorial crashed the publication's website due to such a high volume of traffic.
“On Tuesday in Washington, D.C., at Politico’s Women Rule Summit, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) admitted the impeachment process of President Donald Trump has been going on for “two and a half” years. “When asked about criticisms of “the speed” of the House Democrats impeachment, Pelosi replied, “Speed? It’s been going on 22 months—two and a half years, actually.”
When Shakespeare wrote that “All the world’s a stage … and one man in his time plays many parts,” he could have had in mind Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.). In 1999, Schumer famously opposed witnesses in the trial of President Bill Clinton as nothing more than “political theater.” Now Schumer has declared that witnesses and a full trial are essential for President Donald Trump, and that any trial without witnesses would be the “most unfair impeachment trial in modern history.”Of course, that would not include the Clinton trial, where Schumer sought to proceed to a summary vote without a trial. As the Senate gears up
California's population inched toward 40 million last year, but the state experienced the slowest rate of population growth since 1900.Why is that? What's not to like about California? The weather is awesome, the scenery is breathtaking, the people are beautiful, and there's abundance everywhere.Except in housing. California is a fabulous place to live -- if you're a millionaire.Associated Press: More than 158,000 people moved to California over the 12 month period that ended July 1. But more than 197,000 people left.
Blexit founder Candace Owens told Breitbart News on Friday she believes the “impeachment fiasco” is good for President Donald Trump’s 2020 reelection campaign, as more and more moderate Democrats are waking up to the fact their party stands for “damaging America as a whole.”“I see the silver lining in that, I think it’s great for Trump,” said Owens, after speaking to thousands of young conservatives at Turning Point USA’s fifth annual Student Action Summit in West Palm Beach, Florida.“I think that it’s going to definitely give him a lot of energy when he’s at rallies,” she added, “We’re going to hear it over and over again — the impeachment fiasco.”
By signing the $738 billion Defense Spending Bill, on Friday, President Donald Trump has raised the legal age for smoking to 21 nationwide — news that went largely unnoticed. The new rules include cigarettes and e-cigarettes. The smoking age hike had bipartisan support in the Senate, and was co-authored by Democrats Brian Schatz and Dick Durbin, and Republicans Mitt Romney and Todd Young, CNN reported. Now that Trump’s signature is on the bill, the Food and Drug Administration has 180 days to update its regulations — and the new age requirement will go into effect 90 days later, ABC News reported.
Eddie Gallagher has met with Donald Trump and his wife Melania at their Mar-a-Lago estate to 'thank' the president after he overruled the Navy's decision to strip the SEAL of his Trident pin. Eddie and his wife Andrea shared a series of images from Palm Beach, Florida, where the first family will be spending Christmas. They gave the president 'a little gift from Eddie's deployment to Mosul' during the meeting.Chief Petty Officer Gallagher was accused of war crimes that included murder in the fatal stabbing of an Islamic State militant captive in his care
This is being reported by The Epoch Times: CrowdStrike Co-Founder Held Special Government Employee Status. And nobody responsible wants to comment about this. Go figure, hey? If I were the suspicious kind I'd say he was helping the Obama administration to prepare for the 2016 election in some way. Excerpt:
The Department of Defense granted Dmitri Alperovitch, the co-founder of cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike, the status of a special government employee in 2013, a Pentagon spokesperson confirmed to The Epoch Times.
Alperovitch held the status for one year starting on Nov. 23, 2013. (Snip)Alpervotich provided services in cybersecurity, forensic cyber analysis, and post-incident remediation.”
Is it transphobic to say biological sex is binary and immutable? Can you support transgender people while criticizing modern transgender activism? Would you imagine losing your job or being suspended from social media for merely stating factual human biology?
The answers might shock you and affirm growing fears on both the left and the right regarding the freedom to discuss gender, sex, and sexuality honestly in the public square. Alarming developments in the U.K. and Canada show where the United States is headed if it passes the Equality Act and continues bowing to the increasingly powerful transgender bullies. (Snip)
these determinations raise one group of people and their beliefs above others
Boeing landed its crew capsule in the New Mexico desert Sunday after an aborted flight to the International Space Station that threatened to derail the company's effort to launch astronauts for NASA next year. The Starliner descended into the Army's White Sands Missile Range in the predawn darkness, ending a two-day demo that should have lasted more than a week.(Snip) 'Congratulations, Starliner,' said Mission Control, calling it a successful touchdown. A test dummy named Rosie the Rocketeer—after Rosie the Riveter from World War II—rode in the commander's seat. Also returning were holiday presents, clothes and food that should have been delivered
The co-founder of the prominent intelligence community blog, Lawfare, admitted that a recent report from the Justice Department inspector general on FBI FISA abuses for Trump campaign surveillance has destroyed their own credibility.
On a Thursday podcast hosted by Stewart Baker, a partner at the Washington office of Steptoe & Johnson LLP, the blog’s founder, Bobby Chesney admitted that the damming report from the DOJ IG documenting FBI abuses and vindicating the infamous Nunes memo on the discredited Steele Dossier alleging Russian collusion has been destructive to his publication’s reputation.
The decision by Nancy Pelosi and the Democratic House leadership to depart from Washington without resolving whether the Senate trial of the president will even happen is a blunder of potentially serious proportions. It totally undermines everything the Democrats have done narratively for the past several months,(Snip). Instead, impeachment now looks more like an example of that ancient term: a partisan traveshamockery.
Pelosi’s supporters who are hard core Democratic donors and partisans may like this move, since it denies the president the surety of what is almost assuredly going to be a bipartisan vote to acquit him on both charges in the Senate.
Chicago police do not plan on confiscating small amounts of marijuana found on adults traveling out of the city’s airports once Illinois legalizes recreational pot next month. Federal and local officials discussed enforcement during a press conference held Friday ahead of the state’s new recreational marijuana law taking effect January 1, 2020. “Our officers are not looking for cannabis as they go through their normal security duties. But should they come across it, we are going to contact the Chicago Police Department to make a final determination on the disposition,” said Louis Traverzo, a deputy federal security director for the U.S. Transportation Security Administration (TSA).
Dan Bongino is very well versed in the details of Spygate; so it’s especially interesting when a person who knows the details interviews former House Intelligence Chairman, and current ranking member, Devin Nunes.
Keyword to focus attention; something CTH has drawn attention toward; is when Nunes says: “conspiracy” and “conspiring” in relation to conduct being illegal. Another interesting reference is when Devin Nunes outlines FBI supervisory special agent #1, or SSA1 is “deep throat”. We know from research SSA1 is Joseph Pientka.
So it was corrupt FBI Agent Joseph Pientka who was the workhorse organizing the various schemes and day-to-day FBI manipulations. (Video)
A memorial for a Chicago man shot dead earlier this year turned into a bloodbath early Sunday with at least 13 people getting shot, according to authorities. The house party just days before Christmas was to honor the birthday of Lonell Irvin, a 22-year-old man fatally shot during an attempted carjacking in April, sources told the Chicago Tribune. At least two gunmen are believed to have opened fire just after 12:30 a.m. with at least four victims—including a 16-year-old boy—left in critical condition, police said.(Snip) The shooting started inside following a dispute inside the South Side house
Vatican City—Pope Francis warned Saturday that "rigidity" in living out the Christian faith is creating a "minefield" of hatred and misunderstanding in a world where Christianity is increasingly irrelevant. Francis called for Vatican bureaucrats to instead embrace change during his annual Christmas greetings to the cardinals, bishops and priests who work in the Holy See. Francis' message appeared aimed at conservative and traditionalist Catholics, including within the Vatican Curia, who have voiced increasing opposition to his progressive-minded papacy.(Snip) Francis issued a stark reality check to the men in the Sala Clementina of the Apostolic Palace, acknowledging that Christianity no longer holds
Fresh from his impeachment stunt, House Intelligence committee chairman Adam Schiff comes off as an amazing creep in the aftermath.
Asked about the recent Horowitz report's findings on Carter Page, a young Trump advisor who was illegally spied upon, Schiff said he had no sympathy.
Here's the Fox News account:
In an interview clip released on Friday, "Firing Line" host Margaret Hoover read quotes from Page about how the Russia probe had such a negative impact, including how the FBI spying into his life "ruined his good name" and that he will "never completely have his name restored."
Don’t Count On Romney
replies
David Ignatius must be kidding:
Who might deliver us from this national train wreck? Who could restore a sense of balance to the Senate trial so that, whatever its outcome, it doesn’t feed Trump’s false narrative of victimization and populist rage? There’s one obvious answer: Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah, the 2012 Republican presidential nominee and custodian of what remains of his party’s moral and political balance.
Counting on Mitt Romney for political courage and moral leadership is always a bad bet. Romney has a very safe seat in Utah, so in theory he could afford to take risks, but taking political risks is exactly what Romney never does.
Did we just witness an historic event, the impeachment of only the third president in the entire history of the Republic?Or was this a case of accusatio interrupta: impeachment interrupted by an untimely withdrawal from Nancy Pelosi?The speaker of the House, unhappy at Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s obvious contempt for the House proceedings, has suggested that she might not file the charges with the Senate.In which case, the Senate could not hold a trial. In which case, Donald Trump could neither be exonerated nor convicted.
When even CNN reports that the economy is booming and the President’s popularity soaring, what can a Democratic House stuck with loser candidates do? Peddle a phony impeachment. And when the President says, bring it on, I want the same rights you give a felon for a fair trial (in this case, the Senate), what do you do? Refuse to name managers for the trial and fail to move the matter over to the Senate, which according to the Constitution is the body vested with the obligation to decide the matter.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s decision not to send the articles of impeachment to the Senate for trial on the pretext that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell won’t conduct the trial in a manner approved by House Democrats introduces a novel and dangerous dynamic to the impeachment of President Trump—namely, a constitutional crisis, not between the legislative and executive branches, but between the House and the Senate.
Under the Constitution, the House has the sole power of impeachment and the Senate has the sole power of conducting a trial. Although the Constitution doesn’t say the House must go through a formal process of “transmitting” the articles of impeachment to the Senate,
The House of Representatives impeached President Bill Clinton on Dec. 19, 1998. It was a Saturday. The votes, in which two articles of impeachment passed, were held around midday. By 3 p.m., the House had passed a resolution naming its impeachment managers, and those managers had physically delivered the articles to the Senate for trial.
Impeachment was on. The House, controlled by a Republican majority, was serious about its ultimately failed effort to remove Clinton from office.
Contrast that to today. On Wednesday, Dec. 18, at around 8 p.m., the Democratic-controlled House passed two articles of impeachment against President Trump. Speaker Nancy Pelosi immediately announced that the House would not appoint managers,
WASHINGTON - After three years in office, President Donald Trump has remade the federal judiciary, ensuring a conservative tilt for decades and cementing his legacy no matter the outcome of November's election.
Trump nominees make up 1 in 4 U.S. circuit court judges. Two of his picks sit on the Supreme Court. And this past week, as the House voted to impeach the president, the Republican-led Senate confirmed another 13 district court judges.
In total, Trump has installed 187 judges to the federal bench.
Trump's mark on the judiciary is already having far-reaching effects on legislation and liberal priorities. Just last week, the 5th Circuit struck down a core provision
LOS ANGELES – A California crowdfunding effort is hoping to solve the U.S. homeless crisis by building a 300-acre city open exclusively to those without a home.
Daune Nason, founder of the Folsom-based Citizens Again, released details Thursday of his plans for an estimated $3 billion private city equipped with amenities and services for a 150,000 “high-needs” population. California’s homeless population in 2018 was almost 130,000, nearly a quarter of the national total, according to the most recent federal data.
Whenever any criminal conspiracy begins to unravel, one overriding question always emerges, about the fate of each low-level perp who actually carried out the felonious instructions of Mr. Big.
The question is: Will he stand up?
No. Next question.
Will he fold under pressure? As Joe Pesci famously asked in “Goodfellas.”
Absolutely yes, he will fold under pressure.
The small-timers always rat out the boss. That’s the true mark of a thug — snitching on one’s fellow criminals.
The December 18 House votes (230-197 on abuse of power and 229-198 on obstruction of Congress) to impeach President Trump, one day shy of 21 years since Bill Clinton was impeached, followed one of American history’s most delicious ironies: the very date, December 10, that the House Judiciary Committee began formal debate, there was a reminder of the Ghost of Impeachments Past, none other than one Jerrold Nadler, who exactly 21 years earlier, in his opening statement in the Clinton vote, said,
The effect of impeachment is to overturn the popular will of the voters as expressed in a national election.
Now that we know FBI agents deceived the court to get the warrants to spy on Trump campaign aide Carter Page, the big question is: Was this the exception, or the rule?
That is, has the bureau taken to regularly lying in its 1,500 requests a year for Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act wiretaps — or did higher-ups opt to go rogue in this particular case?
The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court’s presiding judge, Rosemary Collyer, last week issued a rare public order telling the FBI to submit a sworn statement by Jan. 10
I hate to say I told you so, but … actually, I never hate to say I told you so. For the sixth official time (not counting media “town halls”), the DNC staged the same debate that they have been staging since June. And for the sixth time the ratings declined, making Thursday’s game-show event the least watched of the cycle.
As voters get closer to making their choices in the Democratic presidential primaries, they seem to be less enthusiastic about it than ever: Last night’s Democratic debate, which inevitably dealt with the recent impeachment
An early morning fire that left six people dead and 13 others injured is being considered "the worse fire fatality" in Las Vegas Fire Department history, officials said.
The three-story building on Ogden Street and Stewart Avenue in the downtown area went up in smoke about 4:15 a.m., said Timothy Szymanski, the public information officer with the Las Vegas Fire & Rescue.
When firefighters arrived at the Alpine Motel Apartments, several people were hanging from the second floor windows and "some have jumped," including a pregnant woman, Szymanski said at a press conference on Saturday.
It was 2007 and I was feeling patriotic about the Iraq War. I was also getting to know my fiancee's extended family, and at a family get-together my future sister-in-law shared her anti-war views. I couldn't help myself. I had to respond.
My future sister-in-law said that the war was ruining America's reputation across the world. I said I didn’t care what the world thought, and then I proceeded to tell her what I thought of the rest of the world.
Finally, I shut down the conversation with a serenade.