A US Navy veteran got unexpected help
while jailed in Iran. Once released, he
repaid the favor
Posted By: Mercedes44, 9/10/2023 6:09:59 PM
WASHINGTON (AP) — Michael White had only recently arrived in a grim Iranian jail when a curious fellow prisoner, an English-speaking Iranian, approached him in the courtyard for a conversation. The American did not reveal much at first, but it was the beginning of an unlikely friendship between White, a Navy veteran imprisoned on spying charges he says were unfounded, and Mahdi Vatankhah, a young Iranian political activist whose positions on social issues had drawn his government’s ire. As the men connected behind bars over a shared interest in politics and human rights, they developed a bond that proved vital for both.
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A US Navy veteran got unexpected help
while jailed in Iran. Once released, he
repaid the favor 5 replies
while jailed in Iran. Once released, he
repaid the favor 5 replies
WASHINGTON (AP) — Michael White had only recently arrived in a grim Iranian jail when a curious fellow prisoner, an English-speaking Iranian, approached him in the courtyard for a conversation.
The American did not reveal much at first, but it was the beginning of an unlikely friendship between White, a Navy veteran imprisoned on spying charges he says were unfounded, and Mahdi Vatankhah, a young Iranian political activist whose positions on social issues had drawn his government’s ire.
As the men connected behind bars over a shared interest in politics and human rights, they developed a bond that proved vital for both.
Allies of the president reportedly told the New York Times that Joe Biden's "inability to say no" to his son, Hunter Biden, with regard to his business dealings has caused "avoidable political distractions."
The report says that his allies "have privately criticized Mr. Biden’s apparent inability to say no when Hunter sought to pull him into his business dealings."
"Some allies of the president say his loyalty to his son — inviting him to state dinners, flying with him aboard Marine One and standing on the White House balcony with him — has resulted in wholly avoidable political distractions," the report continued.
If it proves to be the case that China has recruited a Briton, who held a coveted job as a researcher in Westminster, as an agent, it represents a significant escalation in Beijing’s intelligence targeting of the UK.
Chinese spying efforts were once focused on the hacking and stealing of intellectual property. More recently there have been signs of a growth in human intelligence efforts, using undercover Chinese nationals in an effort to obtain information.
In 2020, three alleged Chinese agents were quietly expelled by the UK.
It’s not unusual that power-mad politicians justify depriving us of liberty using the appeal to emotion:“If it saves one life.” Former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo justified the statewide shutdown with this poppycock: “And if everything we do saves just one life, I’ll be happy.” Former president Obama said “If we save even one life from gun violence, it’s worth it.” Then vice president Joe Biden endorsed that: “As the President said, if your actions result in only saving one life, they’re worth taking.”
New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham declared a public health emergency over "gun violence" on Thursday following the death of an 11-year-old boy. On Friday, she took the unprecedented step of "suspending" gun rights in Albuquerque, the state's largest city, with the possibility of other cities following suit. Gov. Lujan Grisham declared gun violence a public health emergency Thursday, following the murder of an 11-year-old boy on his way home from an Isotopes game Wednesday night. That case, combined with several other violent cases involving children, sparked the decision.
The devastating verdict voters deliver on President Joe Biden in a new CNN poll is especially stark ahead of the most unprecedented election in modern times. Fourteen months before his fate is decided, Biden’s unpopularity may be brewing the only possible conditions in which a disgraced and anti-democratic ex-president, who might be a convicted felon by Election Day, would be able to squeeze back into power.
It begs the question of how GOP front-runner Donald Trump, whose administration was a four-year cacophony of chaos, scandal and fury, and who tried to cling to power after losing the 2020 election,
Engraved on the Statue of Liberty pedestal, a stirring poem by American poet Emma Lazarus, "The New Colossus," eloquently captures the essence of compassion and virtue that has defined the American spirit. This renowned excerpt -- "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free" -- has welcomed thousands of immigrants as they journeyed from distant lands to the embrace of America's shores.
“I don't think anybody can deny the impact of the climate crisis anymore,” said President Joe Biden while touring the damage caused by Hurricane Idalia in Florida last weekend. “Just look around,” he urged. “Historic floods. I mean, historic floods. More intense droughts, extreme heat, significant wildfires have caused significant damage,” Biden continued in his attempt to blame natural disasters on the “climate crisis.” Biden's claims might be a politically expedient excuse, but it's just that: an excuse to cover for what is often mismanagement by Democrat leaders.
AUSTIN — In Texas, the impeachment trial of popular Attorney General Ken Paxton has gotten off to its historic start. The state has never impeached an AG before, and the last time a statewide elected official was removed from office was in 1917 — more than 100 years ago.
For many in corporate media, the day of trial was a long time coming. For more than a decade, Paxton and his wife, Sen. Angela Paxton, have been relentlessly pursued in the press on allegations of misconduct and impropriety.
“On August 8, the Gateway Pundit revealed a major fraudulent voter registration operation that had been under investigation for almost 3 years in Michigan that spanned several cities across the state. Although the investigation involved lead investigators working for Michigan’s Democrat Attorney General Dana Nessel and at least one analyst working for Democrat Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, the true depth of the investigation and the shocking details uncovered by the MI State Police and Muskegon Police Department were hidden from the public. Publications like The Detroit News downplayed the investigation and wrote an article to debunk a MI STATE POLICE REPORT titled,
Republican Strategist John Thomas, the FOUNDER of the DeSantis Super PAC just went on News Nation and dropped a bomb! Thomas told News Nation that DeSantis lacks all of the qualities that make a good candidate – charm, charisma, discipline, being likeable – and he is now backing Trump.
John Thomas: I, along with a lot of grassroots supporters and major donors, said, okay, let’s draft DeSantis, encourage him to run for president, because we think he’s got the stuff.
Except there was one problem, Adrian. It’s that when Governor DeSantis did end up launching, he had a failure to launch, and he’s never recovered.
Those of us who have been paying attention since January of 2021 have all seen the ongoing deterioration of President Biden, and it's a matter of some concern for everyone, be they Left, Right, or center, that the man who supposedly sits at the levers of power in Washington is not all he should be. (I would argue that he's not even within shouting distance of where he should be.)
With Donald Trump and Joe Biden in the political mix for the 2024 presidential election, there is nothing normal about our politics or this campaign season. Almost no question is too crazy to ask.
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The daughter of a senior Lowe's executive died early Saturday after plowing her Porsche supercar into a tree - allegedly while speeding.
Stella Grace Bright, 16, who has a twin sister called Olivia, was driving her 2014 Porsche 911 near Lake Norman, North Carolina when she flew off the road and ended up in a rock landscaping wall, which killed the teen and hospitalized two others in her car.
One of the two passengers was in the back of the Porsche, even though it is a two-seater which is not supposed to hold rear-seat passengers. Bright and the other front seat passenger were both in seat belts.
Baby boomers and the 'silent generation' are blaming supermarket self-checkouts for increasing loneliness and wiping out one of their last remaining social interactions.
When 83-year-old Marliss Myers lost her husband, it was her local Albertsons cashier who provided solace.
Workers like Sharon Hechler are determined to maintain that special bond with the elderly, even as almost half of checkout lanes in the US are now automated.
'We all need that human, personal touch,' Hechler told the Los Angeles Times.
It’s not unusual that power-mad politicians justify depriving us of liberty using the appeal to emotion:“If it saves one life.” Former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo justified the statewide shutdown with this poppycock: “And if everything we do saves just one life, I’ll be happy.” Former president Obama said “If we save even one life from gun violence, it’s worth it.” Then vice president Joe Biden endorsed that: “As the President said, if your actions result in only saving one life, they’re worth taking.”
Cringe: Kamala Harris Dances to Rap Music
at 50th Anniversary of Hip-Hop Celebration (Video) 26 replies
at 50th Anniversary of Hip-Hop Celebration (Video) 26 replies
She is one heartbeat away from the presidency.
Kamala Harris danced and twerked at a backyard barbecue as the world burns.
Joe Biden is overseas making a fool of himself at the G20 Summit and Kamala Harris is partying with rappers. This administration is a joke.
Harris on Saturday hosted a backyard party at the vice president’s residence to celebrate the 50th anniversary of hip-hop music. According to pool reports, about 400 people attended the celebration.
“Hip hop is the ultimate American art form,” Harris said. “Born at a back-to-school party in the Bronx, raised on the streets of Philadelphia, Chicago, Oakland, and Atlanta,
Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm set out on a four-day trip this summer. The trip was to prove the worth of the Biden administration's spending a ton on pushing and "investing" in electric vehicles.
NPR's Camila Domonoske went along on the trip and revealed, "Electric cars have a road trip problem, even for the secretary of energy."
What happened on the trip says everything about the Biden team's delusion and entitlement. The trip revealed immediately that the system is not ready to handle even what they have to deal with now, much less with the number of vehicles that you would have to cope with
Allies of the president reportedly told the New York Times that Joe Biden's "inability to say no" to his son, Hunter Biden, with regard to his business dealings has caused "avoidable political distractions."
The report says that his allies "have privately criticized Mr. Biden’s apparent inability to say no when Hunter sought to pull him into his business dealings."
"Some allies of the president say his loyalty to his son — inviting him to state dinners, flying with him aboard Marine One and standing on the White House balcony with him — has resulted in wholly avoidable political distractions," the report continued.
New Mexico's public health emergency,
suspension of gun rights condemned on
the left and right 24 replies
suspension of gun rights condemned on
the left and right 24 replies
New Mexico Democrat Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham's decision to declare a public health emergency and suspend concealed carry gun rights is being condemned on both sides of the political aisle. "I support gun safety laws," California Democrat Congressman Ted Lieu wrote on X, the platform previously called Twitter. "However, this order from the Governor of New Mexico violates the U.S. Constitution. No state in the union can suspend the federal Constitution. There is no such thing as a state public health emergency exception to the U.S. Constitution."
Late Saturday, a gun rights group sued Grisham in federal court, alleging her emergency order is unconstitutional.
The National Association for Gun Rights sued
Stephen King just published his most recent horror novel, Holly. Disappointing does not begin to describe it. Do not purchase Stephen King’s Holly if your goal is to be entertained. This book is a poisonous political diatribe from beginning to end.
King, America’s premier storyteller of the past 50 years, has never hidden his left-wing political bias. But before the mess that is Holly, King kept himself in check, never making politics central to his story nor demonizing those who do not share his ideology by using fact patterns unmoored from any sort of reality.
With Holly, King has jumped the shark.
Former White House chief medical advisor Anthony Fauci said Sunday on ABC’s “This Week” that there were “a number of studies that show that masks actually do work” to stop the spread of COVID-19.
Anchor Jon Karl said, “There’s a new study out that suggests that masks were actually not effective, at least not in a global sense, in containing the pandemic. What is your sense looking back at all of this? Did masks prove to be less effective than you anticipated?”
Fauci said, “You know, Jon, some of the studies are confusing. The study that has been quoted a lot and causing a lot of confusion is this Cochrane Study
Adams warns cuts of up to 15% coming to
every NYC agency over migrant crisis is ‘detrimental’ 20 replies
every NYC agency over migrant crisis is ‘detrimental’ 20 replies
Mayor Adams warned Saturday that all New York City agencies may have to slash up to 15% from their budgets by the spring in response to the ever-rocketing costs of the migrant crisis.
All departments were told they will need to slash 5% from their budget by November, amounting to a several billion dollar haircut from the city-funded portion of Adams’ $107 billion spending plan. But if the city doesn’t get enough financial aid from the Biden administration or state legislators by early next year, Adams warned additional 5% cuts could come in both January and April.
“The simple truth is that longtime New Yorkers and asylum seekers will feel
Massachusetts Mayor Sounds Alarm on Migrant
Crisis, Urges Lawmakers to Reform ‘Right-to-Shelter’ Law 19 replies
Crisis, Urges Lawmakers to Reform ‘Right-to-Shelter’ Law 19 replies
The Democratic mayor of a small Massachusetts city is urging state lawmakers to reform a 40-year-old “right-to-shelter” law that is putting immense strain on the area as thousands of migrant families arrive.
Woburn mayor Scott Galvin said by Friday there were about 150 families living in the city’s hotels, an arrangement he called unsustainable for his 40,000 constituents.
Under the 1983 right-to-shelter law, Massachusetts officials are legally required to offer housing to any homeless families seeking shelter in the state. The law now covers a rising influx of migrant families, although individuals are not covered under its provisions.
NBC’s Chuck Todd, a veteran political journalist and D.C. staple, hosted the network’s popular Sunday political news show “Meet the Press” for the final time Sunday, marking the end to a nine-year run in that position.
Todd announced in July that he would be stepping down as host of the news program, a role that he has held since 2014. He will be replaced by chief White House correspondent and co-anchor Kristen Welker, who has been with the network since 2010.