IRS Denies Tax Benefit to Christian Organization Over Bible
The IRS turned down a Christian organization’s request for a tax benefit, the reason being that they study and use the Bible, which the IRS says is “affiliated” with the Republican Party.
https://www.ntd.com/irs-denies-tax-benefit-to-christian-organization-over-bible_629475.html
Justice Deparment argues Arkansas and West Virginia transgender restrictions are unconstitutional
One law prohibits transgender individuals competing in female scholastic sports, while the other prohibits doctors from giving youth transgender treatments or surgeries.
The Justice Department has filed a statement of interest in a lawsuit challenging a West Virginia law that bars transgender athletes from competing in female scholastic sports. The DOJ has also filed a statement of interest in a suit opposing an Arkansas prohibition banning physicians from supplying so-called gender-confirming hormone treatments, puberty blockers or surgeries to individuals younger than 18.
The Associated Press reported that the Justice Department claimed that the states' laws breach the 14th Amendment's equal protection clause, and that the West Virginia law additionally runs afoul of Title IX, which forbids discrimination based on sex in education programs or activities that get federal money.
"A state law that limits or denies a particular class of people’s ability to participate in public, federally funded educational programs and activities solely because their gender identity does not match their sex assigned at birth violates both Title IX and the Equal Protection Clause," the Justice Department filing declared, claiming that the state law "does exactly this."
The Arkansas ban, which also bars doctors from referring youth to different providers for such treatment, is slated to go into effect on July 28, the AP noted.
"A state law that specifically denies a limited class of people the ability to receive medically necessary care from their healthcare providers solely on the basis of their sex assigned at birth violates the Equal Protection Clause," the Justice Department filing said, according to the outlet. "These restrictions explicitly target transgender people."
https://justthenews.com/government/courts-law/justice-deparment-argues-arkansas-and-west-virginia-transgender-restrictions
IDF: Red Alert Sirens Sounding in Southern Israel
Earlier in the day, the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) said it conducted airstrikes against Hamas military targets in the Gaza Strip, stating that the airstrikes were a response to launches of "arson balloons" from Gaza into Israel.
The Israeli army early on Friday tweeted that sirens were sounding in southern Israel, without providing immediate details.
Later, the IDF clarified that the sirens were activated due to incoming fire, not rockets, from Gaza.
Prior to the IDF tweet, Palestinian news agency Shehab reported that "heavy weapon fire" from Gaza could have triggered the rocket sirens, suggesting that "Hamas is testing the readiness of the Iron Dome."
The Jerusalem Post reported that Hamas had launched a rocket into Israeli territory after the IDF carried out airstrikes against what it described as Hamas military objects located in Gaza.
The IDF said the Thursday strikes were conducted in response to the launches of incendiary balloons from Gaza into Israeli territory.
The attacks come less than a month after Tel Aviv and Hamas agreed on a ceasefire, ending 11 days of rocket fire and airstrikes that killed some 250 Palestinians and 13 Israelis. The escalation started on 10 May, sparked after clashes between Palestinians and Israeli police in Jerusalem that were set into motion by an Israeli court ruling to evict Palestinians from their homes.
The airstrikes occurred just days after Naftali Bennett, Israel's new prime minister, assumed office, after having formed a government coalition and ousting former PM Benjamin Netanyahu.
https://sputniknews.com/middleeast/202106171083177964-idf-red-alert-sirens-sounding-in-southern-israel/
Defector Claiming Chinese Military Responsible for COVID-19 Identified as Top Counterintelligence Official
Over the last several weeks, we’ve been bringing you Jen Van Laar’s shocking exclusive reports at RedState about a Chinese defector, reportedly working with the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), who claims to have “direct knowledge” of China’s bioweapons program. The defector allegedly has evidence proving that SARS-CoV-2 was created by the Chinese military and released from a lab. Now, we know the defector’s name.
RedState:
RedState’s sources confirmed that the defector is, in fact, Dong [Jingwei], that he was in charge of counterintelligence efforts in China, and that he flew to the United States in mid-February, allegedly to visit his daughter at a university in California. When Dong landed in California he contacted DIA officials and told them about his plans to defect and the information he’d brought with him. Dong then “hid in plain sight” for about two weeks before disappearing into DIA custody.
Spy Talk, a website that reports on U.S. intelligence, defense, and foreign policy, alleges that the information provided by Dong was the impetus behind the Biden administration making a 360-degree turn on the lab-leak theory. The site reported that Dong is a “longtime official in China’s Ministry of State Security (MSS), also known as the Guoanbu.” According to his public profiles, “he was responsible for the Ministry’s counterintelligence efforts in China, i.e., spy-catching, since being promoted to vice minister in April 2018.”
If that is true, Dong would be the highest-level defector in the history of the People’s Republic of China.
Dr. Han Lianchao, another Chinese defector, citing an unnamed source, claimed in a tweet last week that Chinese officials demanded the extradition of Dong at last August’s Sino-American Summit in Alaska.
RedState’s sources confirmed that Chinese officials did indeed demand the return of Dong, but said that at the time, Sec. of State Anthony Blinken wasn’t aware that Dong was working with the DIA and denied that the U.S. had him.
Spy Talk warns that it’s not unusual for unconfirmed reports about Chinese defectors to surface.
That’s not the case here, insists RedState, “based on conversations with sources familiar with the information Dong has already provided and its quantity and reliability.”
https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/paula-bolyard/2021/06/17/breaking-defector-claiming-chinese-military-responsible-for-covid-19-identified-as-top-counterintelligence-official-n1455436
Top General Downplays Report of 1,900 Lost Military Weapons, But Promises an Accurate Count
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley on Thursday downplayed an Associated Press report that at least 1,900 military firearms had been lost or stolen over a decade, with some resurfacing as weapons used in violent crimes.
But Milley could not say exactly how many weapons were missing, and pledged to track down those numbers for lawmakers.
The AP on Wednesday reported that pistols, shotguns, machine guns and automatic assault rifles had vanished from armories or other locations where they were to be used or stored, across the services and around the world between 2010 and 2019.
In a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing on the Defense Department's budget, Milley said the military takes weapons security "extraordinarily seriously."
He said he was "frankly shocked" by the numbers that were reported in the media, and asked the services to report to him how many weapons they have lost.
But, Milley said, the numbers the services reported to him as of Thursday morning "are significantly less" than what has been publicly reported.
And it's uncertain exactly how many weapons are lost or stolen right now, he said.
"That's not to say it's zero, but it's much less," Milley said. "So I need to square the balance here. I owe you a firm answer."
Milley said that once per month, every company grade officer who is in charge of an organization is required to inventory 10% of their units' arms rooms, and account for all weapons, including explosives. If anything is missing or in any way unaccounted for, Milley said, a full criminal investigation, and an investigation by the unit's chain of command, is required.
"There are weapons that we can't account for," Milley said. "But I can assure you that we take it extraordinarily seriously, and I owe you the exact numbers that we're getting, and I'll get you those very, very quickly."
https://www.military.com/daily-news/2021/06/17/top-general-downplays-report-of-1900-lost-military-weapons-promises-accurate-count.html
Farmers Blame The Feds: The “Government Stole Our Water!”
Farmers in the United States have reached a breaking point. They now say that what the government has done has been so disastrous that they are willing to stand off with the Feds.
Farmers in Oregon are protesting because they own the water in the Upper Klamath Lake, farmer Dan Nielsen told RT’s Ruptly video agency. He stood outside an American flag-colored tent that was set up next to the canal headgates, which control the flow of irrigation water from the lake. “It’s ours and the federal government actually just stole it. No due process of law, no compensation,” Nielsen said, adding that federal officials had violated the locals’ property rights guaranteed by the US Constitution.
Are people really just now figuring out that the government, doesn’t care about the Constitution?
“But whether the Constitution really be one thing or another, this much is certain – that it has either authorized such a government as we have had or has been powerless to prevent it. In either case, it is unfit to exist.” ― Lysander Spooner, No Treason: The Constitution of No Authority
The rulers do not care. They do not care about the rules they use force and violence to make the rest of us obey. Government is slavery it always has been and it always will be.
The US Bureau of Reclamation closed the canal last month, saying that due to the extreme drought there was not enough water left for it to operate properly. The bureau also said that releasing the water will threaten the endangered species of salmon that inhabit the lake. The fish have agricultural and spiritual significance to the Native American tribes who live upstream, according to a report by RT.
According to local media, thousands of farmers on the Oregon-California border were left without a steady water supply after the closure of the canal. Klamath Irrigation District president Ty Kliewer said that “the impacts to our family farms and these rural communities will be off the scale.”
The farmers are now in such a dire situation and with a food supply already on a razor’s edge of disaster, they say they will release the water themselves.
They spoke about releasing the water themselves if the government does not back down. “If [the Feds] don’t budge… I think we’re just going to end up taking it,” Nielsen said. “It’s the only way the government gets it.” In order to avoid confrontation, officials must let farmers use the water for their crops or purchase the land from the farmers, he said.
They showed JPR a text conversation with Bundy and said the militiamen will get a heads-up when the farmers make their move. “I’m planning on getting DC’s attention,” another outraged farmer, Grant Knoll told Jefferson Publis Radio this month. “We’re going to turn on the water and have a standoff.”
“Everything the State says is a lie, and everything it has it has stolen.”― Friedrich Nietzsche
https://patriotrising.com/farmers-blame-the-feds-the-government-stole-our-water/
yes we are on the list of people who are on a list of those who are on a lot of lists
The only thing G7 proved is western leaders are ‘totally consumed’ by woke gesture politics
It seems the only thing the G7 Summit proved was that western political leaders are “totally consumed” by woke gesture politics about climate change and other nonsense, according to Sky News host Alan Jones.
“We’ve had these meetings every year since 1975 and they’ve achieved diddly squat,” Mr Jones said.
“The G7 leaders, led by Boris Johnson and Joe Biden, were all about pressuring the other nations into adopting so-called ambitious targets when it comes to net-zero emissions.
“It is the most low-order issue facing the world.”
Mr Jones noted the Chinese Communist Party will next month celebrate its centenary.
“Do you think President Xi will be spending his days worrying about climate change or would he be thinking about how to take over 80 per cent of the South China Sea?” he said.
“When will the west, G7, or G20 wake up? President Xi is not mucking around.
“There should have only been one issue on the agenda in Cornwall and that should have been China, not climate change.”
Biden Attacks Voting Integrity Laws at Juneteenth Federal Holiday Signing Ceremony
President Joe Biden signed the Juneteenth federal holiday bill into law on Thursday, using the occasion to criticize Republican voting integrity laws.
Biden said the holiday reminded Americans of the “promise of equality” that was made at the end of slavery but that failed to find fulfillment in the current systemically racist society of the United States.
“It’s not going to be fulfilled so long as the sacred right to vote remains under attack,” Biden said, earning applause from the audience at the White House.
“We see this assault from restrictive laws, threats of intimidation, voter purges, and more,” Biden said. “An assault that offends the very democracy, our very democracy.”
Biden vowed to continue fighting for equality throughout society for every American.
“We cannot rest until the promise of equality is fulfilled for every one of us in every corner of this nation,” he said. “That to me is the meaning of Juneteenth.”
Biden described signing the law as “one of the greatest honors” of his presidency.
The president called the new holiday “a day we remember the moral stain, the terrible toll that slavery took on the country and continues to take, what I’ve long called as America’s original sin.”
Biden said Juneteenth had to enter into the catalog of national holidays along with days to celebrate the military, the workers, previous presidents, and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
“This is a really, really, really important day in our history,” Biden said.
He said the day would allow Americans to celebrate the progress they had made with race relations and “grapple” with the history of racism in America.
“Great nations don’t ignore the most painful moments … they embrace them. Great nations don’t walk away,” Biden said.
https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2021/06/17/biden-attacks-voting-integrity-laws-at-juneteenth-federal-holiday-signing-ceremony/