Democrat New Mexico Governor Begs For More FBI Agents — Again — Amid Crime Wave

Trevor SchakohlOctober 06, 2022 1

Democratic New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham asked the Justice Department (DOJ) to back her petition for further FBI assistance to combat surging violent crime, she revealed Wednesday.

FBI Director Christopher Wray failed to give Grisham more resources when she reached out to him with similar pleas in June, according to a press release. She recently sent Attorney General Merrick Garland a letter that urged assigning more FBI agents to her state.

“Both New Mexico law enforcement agencies and the FBI are partners in addressing and preventing violent crime,” Grisham told Garland, according to the release. “It is therefore imperative to provide the tools and support to achieve our common goal of ending violent crime in New Mexico.”

New Mexico had the 13th-highest homicide mortality rate nationwide in 2020, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data said. Its largest city, Albuquerque, had an estimated violent crime rate of about 1,043.4 offenses per 100,000 inhabitants in 2019, based on statistics collected by the FBI.

After the FBI sent more resources and agents to its Buffalo, New York office, homicides declined by 50%, she cited Wray as claiming.

“Once these resources are allocated to New Mexico, I am confident the FBI and state law enforcement officers will achieve similar success as the Buffalo office,” Grisham stated.

Grisham led her Republican November election opponent, former meteorologist Mark Ronchetti, by about 6.1% in FiveThirtyEight’s polling average Wednesday. In a televised debate Friday, Ronchetti said violent crime continued to rise after her administration came to power.

“What was the answer from this governor?” he argued. “It was to target police, and then make doing their jobs more difficult by removing qualified immunity.”

The FBI, broader DOJ and a representative for Grisham did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.

https://dailycaller.com/2022/10/06/new-mexico-democratic-fbi-crime/

FBI probably asked if they were WDT white domestic terrorists, if not they won’t help, they got a quota to fill.

Hispanic Moderator Stumps Arizona Dem Gov Candidate Katie Hobbs On One ‘Specific’ Lesson Learned From Hispanic Community

Henry RodgersOctober 05, 2022

Democratic Arizona gubernatorial candidate Katie Hobbs was stumped during a Monday forum after a Hispanic moderator asked her to name one specific lesson she has learned from Latinos.

During the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce Forum in Phoenix, Arizona, each candidate received questions without their opponent on stage with them. Mexican journalist León Krauze, who works as an anchor for the Spanish-language news outlet Univision, asked Hobbs about what she has specifically learned from the Latino community.

Hobbs was stumped by the question and struggled to name anything specific she has learned from the Latino community, but mentioned she has a sister-in-law who is Latina, and also tried to say a few words in Spanish.

“Today, today you said that growing up in Arizona, you have seen and heard how impactful the migrant community, talking about the Hispanic community, has been. Let me ask you, how has it impacted you personally? What have you learned — specifically learned — from the Latino community?,” Krauze asked Hobbs.

“Oh, that’s a great question. Um, I don’t necessarily think about it that way, in those terms. I think I really value my relationships across the board with different folks, and I learn all the time from people in my life.My sister-in-law, she is Latino and her family… I love hanging out with them and practicing my español – un piquito. So, but yeah, I mean, I just, it’s… I’ve learned so much from her family, but I think it’s really hard to separate out Arizona and subtract Latino culture because it’s so much a part of who we are as a state, and I — Arizona wouldn’t be Arizona without the… what the Latino community brings,” Hobbs responded.

“So there is not one specific lesson you can share… other than theespañol… it’s one-third of the state,” Krauze followed up.

“Uh, yes absolutely. I mean I think there’s, there’s many lessons: the, the emphasis on, uh, family values, uh, hard work, uh. Those are something that I value in my own life and you know, uh, it’s something that I… that I respect,” Hobbs said.

The Daily Caller contacted Hobbs about her remarks and why she struggled to list specifics about what she has learned from the Latino community, to which she did not immediately respond.

https://dailycaller.com/2022/10/05/hispanic-moderator-katie-hobbs-arizona-democrat-governor-candidate-lesson-latino-community-gubernatorial/

Pathetic and kekkity

Reporter Confronts Mayor With Video Of Her Deputy Allegedly Getting In Altercation After He’s Charged With Assault

Nicole SilverioOctober 06, 2022

A reporter confronted Democratic Washington D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser on Wednesday after the city’s deputy mayor allegedly grabbed a gym trainer by the neck.

Fox 5 DC reporter Sierra Fox approached Bowser with the alleged footage of her employee, Chris Geldart, grabbing the trainer in the Arlington gym’s parking lot during an Oct. 1 incident. The mayor refused to answer Fox’s questions about the footage.

“I haven’t seen it —” the mayor said.

“You’re looking at it now, this is the video,”Fox interjected.

“Actually, I asked you for it earlier where I could really view it and that’s where I will view it, in my office,” Bowser replied.

“You can see it right now, though, in the video,” the reporter said. “So you are going to speak to us later about this at a different time?”

“No, actually, I probably won’t,” the mayor said. She then claimed that she did not receive information from the outlet that she had asked for.

The office then sent a statement to Fox saying that it “take[s] any accusations seriously” but it sounds like these incidents commonly happen. (WTF, thats the statement from the Mayors office???)

The trainer at Gold’s Gym, Dustin Woodward, exclusively shared footage with Fox 5 that allegedly showed Geldart putting his hand on Woodward, the outlet reported. The confrontation reportedly arose after Geldart hit the parked car of Woodward’s girlfriend after opening his car door.

Woodward said Geldart began screaming and cursing after he confronted him. So Woodward turned around and told him to “shut up,” the outlet reported. Geldart then got into Woodward’s face and eventually grabbed him by the throat, footage appeared to show, according to the outlet.

Woodward later told the outlet that the gym had been putting up with Geldart for a long period of time.

“It’s a little frustrating, right? Because he’s way too big to be trying to be a bully, especially with his position. Something should be done. It’s not okay,” Woodward said. “We’ve been dealing with him for a while at Gold’s. Multiple locations actually, that’s how we even figured out who he was. So, something needs to be done because you can’t just abuse your power like that. That’s pretty frustrating on my end.”

Footage from Wednesday night showed Fox knocking on Geldart’s garage door asking if he would like to answer to the video, but he did not answer and eventually drove away.

The Arlington Police Department confirmed in an email to the Daily Caller that Geldart turned himself in following the issuance of a warrant for Assault & Battery and was released on summons.

https://dailycaller.com/2022/10/06/reporter-confronts-mayor-bowser-video-deputy-altercation-assault/

‘OPEC Has Just Done That’: Doocy Says Some People Do Actually ‘F*ck’ With Biden

Brianna LymanOctober 06, 2022

Fox News’ Peter Doocy joked Wednesday night thatcontrary to President Joe Biden’s claim that “no one fucks with a Biden,” people do in fact “fuck” with him.

Biden was caught on a hot mic Wednesday telling a Floridian that “no one fucks with a Biden” while visiting the Sunshine State to survey damage from Hurricane Ian. The man responded, “Yeah, you’re goddamn right.”

Despite Biden’s insistence, it appears that not everyone feels the same way, at least according to Doocy.

“The President says no one fucks with a Biden,” Doocy said on “Special Report” with host Bret Baier. “But it appears OPEC+ has done just that, the group of oil producing nations agreeing to cut oil production by 2 million barrels per day.”

OPEC+, which includes the 15 OPEC members and the consortium’s Russian-led allies, voted Wednesday to slash oil production by two million barrels per day, despite pleas from the White House to pump more oil.

The decision came as OPEC+ is worried demand for oil will fall as the world enters a recession, according to Bloomberg. The Biden administration has been “panicking” about OPEC’s decision to cut production as they fear it will hurt Democrats’ chances in the upcoming midterm elections, CNN reported.

OPEC+ originally agreed to a small production boost in August after Biden visited Saudi Arabia and asked the organization to pump more oil.

https://dailycaller.com/2022/10/06/opec-biden-admin-peter-doocy/

This is hilarious, Doocy getting his 2 cents in!

Biden Admin Promises Legal ‘Response’ After Court Declares DACA Illegal

Jennie TaerOctober 06, 2022 11:19 AM ET

The Biden administration says it will take legal action after a court declared Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) illegal Wednesday.

The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals’ ruling“deeply disappointed” Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, who said his department will work with the Department of Justice (DOJ) to devise an “appropriate legal response.” The case will go back to a lower court while nearly 600,000 DACA recipients currently in the U.S. will be able to remain in the program.

“The Department of Justice respectfully disagrees with the decision and will continue to vigorously defend the lawfulness of DACA as this case proceeds,” DOJ spokesperson Dena Iverson told the Daily Caller News Foundation.

Wednesday’s decision is part of a 2018 lawsuit led by nine Republican states, contesting the legality of then-President Barack Obama’s 2012 program.

“DACA—part of Dems’ program to flood our country with aliens—is illegal & will stay enjoined. Huge victory for the Rule of Law in America!,” Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton wrote in a tweet Wednesday.

The Biden administration attempted in August to codify DACA as a federal regulation before the latest decision. A federal judge ruled in July 2021 that the Biden administration couldn’t process new DACA applications, which the administration appealed.

“Today, we are taking another step to do everything in our power to preserve and fortify DACA, an extraordinary program that has transformed the lives of so many Dreamers,” Mayorkas said at the time.

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) says it will continue to accept DACA renewal requests and will accept new requests without processing them.

https://dailycaller.com/2022/10/06/daca-biden-obama-immigration/

It seems the bidan admin has activated the courts to rule by the law and constitution. A lot of court decisions coming against them.Doesn’t Mayorka look like a super villain

Chris Cuomo’s New Show ‘Cuomo’ Bombs In The Ratings, Loses To Reruns And Cartoons Among 25-54s

Nicole SilverioOctober 05, 2022

Chris Cuomo’s new primetime show on NewsNation, ‘Cuomo,’ bombed in ratings Monday and lost to cartoons and rerun shows in a top demographic for advertisers.

Cuomo garnered 147,000 total viewers Monday as he returned to primetime television after CNN terminated him in December, the New York Post reported, citing numbers released by Nielsen Media Research. In the 25-54-year-old demographic, Cuomo only reeled in 8,000 total viewers.

His ratings in the 25-54 demo were lower than the 7 p.m. program that aired an hour before his show, as well as several cartoon and rerun programs, including “Spongebob,” “Seinfeld,” “The Office” and “Bob’s Burgers,” the outlet reported. Fox News host Tucker Carlson’s show, which also airs at 8 p.m., attained 20 times the number of views that Cuomo received Monday night.

MSNBC’s Chris Hayes earned just over 1.4 million viewers for “All In,” CNN’s Anderson Cooper had a viewership of 814,000 and Newsmax’s Eric Bolling garnered 151,000 viewers for “The Balance” Monday night, all topping Cuomo, the NY Post reported.

The NewsNation host made a return to primetime television after CNN fired him in 2021 for his involvement covering for his brother, former Democratic New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, after 11 women accused him of sexual assault. Chris’ former employer suspended him “indefinitely” in November 2021 after the New York Attorney General’s office released transcripts indicating he attempted to obtain information on his brother’s accusers through media contacts and helped prepare for Andrew’s public response.

The New York Times then reported in February 2022 that CNN executives learned of allegations that Cuomo had sexually assaulted a young temp while employed at ABC News in 2011. The accuser, identified as “Jane Doe,” alleged Cuomo asked her for sex after inviting her to meet so he could give her career advice.

NewsNation announced Cuomo’s employment with the network in July, saying they planned for him to host a primetime show in the fall. The announcement followed reports that NewsNation President Michael Corn, a former co-worker of Cuomo’s at ABC News, was in the process of hiring the former CNN anchor.

https://dailycaller.com/2022/10/05/chris-cuomo-new-show-ratings-newsnation-cnn-primetime-program-premiere/

6 Oct, 2022 14:41

EU bans Russians from crypto market

New sanctions forbid all payments to European wallet providers

The EU has imposed a sweeping ban on providing crypto services to Russians as part of its eighth round of sanctions that were approved on Thursday. The new measure steps up restrictions that had been in place since April.

“The existing prohibitions on crypto assets have been tightened by banning all crypto-asset wallets, accounts, or custody services, irrespective of the amount of the wallet (previously up to €10,000 [$9,900] was allowed),” reads a press release published on the European Commission’s website.

After Visa and Mastercard left the Russian market earlier this year and some banks were disconnected from SWIFT, cryptocurrencies, in particular stablecoin USDT, became one of the most popular ways for Russians to move money abroad.

Crypto service operators headquartered in the EU may have to stop processing transactions with Russians, unless the clients are resident in the bloc, Forbes Russia wrote on Thursday.

Non-EU platforms may follow suit, Forbes Russia warned. After the bloc introduced a limit of €10,000 in April, US-registered Binance, one of the most popular exchanges among Russians, adopted the same measure.

https://www.rt.com/business/564175-eu-russia-crypto-ban/

More sanctions are not the answer.

6 Oct, 2022 17:26

German cities overwhelmed with Ukrainian refugees – media

More than a million Ukrainian refugees are now living in Germany, according to the Interior Ministry

German cities and towns have almost reached their accommodation capacities amid a massive influx of Ukrainian refugees, the heads of some two dozen municipalities in the southwestern state of Baden-Wurttemberg said in an open letter to the Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser, Suddeutsche Zeitung (SZ) reported this week.

Local authorities have exhausted all resources to aid new arrivals, the letter signed by 23 municipal leaders says, in a desperate plea for help. The officials said they were in an “extremely precarious situation” and are running out of space to resettle people.

The municipalities “have their backs against the wall,” the seven-page letter seen by SZ says, adding that they are “at a dangerous tipping point” and calling on federal authorities for support.

The number of Ukrainian refugees living in Germany surpassed the one million mark at the end of September, SZ noted, citing Interior Ministry data. The government now expects those numbers to rise higher over the winter, depending on the trajectory of the war in Ukraine.

The number of migrants arriving to Germany fromSyria, Iraq, Afghanistan and Turkey via the so-called ‘Balkan Route’ is also on the rise, the authorities warn.

“We need more coordination between the federal and state governments when it comes to distributing those seeking protection,”Markus Lewe, the head of the Association of German Cities and a mayor of the western German city of Munster, told SZ. He called on federal and regional authorities to provide aid “as promised” and to “adjust their funding to the high number of refugees.”

The federal government, however, appears reluctant to offer help to the struggling municipalities. The issue of accommodation for refugees is something that the regional authorities should be responsible for, Federal Finance Minister Christian Lindner said, pointing to the “distribution of powers” between the federal and regional governments.

Interior Minister Faeser admitted the rising number of refugees “worries” her and announced a government meeting on the issue of refugees on October 11. According to SZ, federal authorities plan to allocate €2 billion ($1.96 billion) to the problem this year. Yet, that would hardly be enough, authorities warned.

“Federal states [located] close to the border will soon only be able to cope with the influx of refugees by providing temporary accommodation,” interior minister of the German eastern state of Saxony, Armin Schuster, said.

https://www.rt.com/news/564188-german-cities-overwhelmed-ukrainian-refugees/

6 Oct, 2022 16:15

German MEPs call for expulsion of Berlusconi

The European People’s Party is under pressure to kick out Forza Italia if it backs a right-wing government in Italy, Politico reports

Several German MEPs have called on the European Parliament’s main conservative group to kick out Silvio Berlusconi and his party if he chooses to support Giorgia Meloni and her “extreme right-wing” coalition in Italy.

In a letter published by Politico on Wednesday, three German MEPs demanded that Manfred Weber, the leader of the European People’s Party (EPP), which holds the most seats in the European Parliament, eject Forza Italia from the coalition unless its leader and former Italian PM Berlusconi abandons Meloni.

Last month, Meloni and her Brothers of Italy (FI) party led a right-wing bloc – which included Berlusconi’s Forza Italia and Matteo Salvini’s League parties – to a landslide victory in snap parliamentary elections, securing a majority in both houses of the nation’s parliament.

Meloni is now set to form Italy’s most right-wing government since World War II and will likely become the country’s first ever female prime minister.

However, some in Brussels have grown concerned by the prospect of a right-wing group coming to power in Italy. “It is not too late to prevent a far-right government of Giorgia Meloni in Italy,” wrote the German MEPs, branding the FI party extremists and insisting that their populist positions are “incompatible with core European values.”

The authors of the letter, Daniel Freund of the Greens, Katarina Barley of the Socialists & Democrats and Moritz Korner from the liberal Renew Europe, argue that members of the EPP must not be allowed to bring a “far-right government to power,” and that fundamental EU values should not be sacrificed in order to gain power.

“The firewall against right-wing enemies of democracy” cannot be allowed to crumble, the MEPs proclaimed.kek

“We therefore ask you, as president of the European People’s Party, to communicate to your members in Italy that there must be no EPP participation in a far-right government in Italy,” the three parliamentarians urged Weber, stressing that if Forza Italia decides to co-elect Meloni as PM, the party should have “no future” in the EPP.

EPP Secretary General Thanasis Bakolas responded to the letter, calling it “a direct and absolute insult to the democratic will of the Italian people” who he said would be the judges of Meloni’s coalition.

He vowed that the EPP was “absolutely committed” to Forza Italia and “all it is doing to ensure that Italy’s next government serves the best interests of its people.”

https://www.rt.com/news/564185-german-meps-berlusconi-letter/

Rancher Who Spearheaded $244 Million ‘Ghost Cattle’ Scam Sentenced To 11 Years In Prison

Taylor GilesOctober 05, 2022

A cattle rancher from Washington state was sentenced on Tuesday to 11 years in prison for a “ghost cattle” scam that cost Tyson Foods and another unnamed company over $244 million.

Cody Allen Easterday used his company, Easterday Ranches Inc., to charge the two companies for over 265,000 cattle that didn’t exist, according to a Department of Justice (DOJ) news release. “As a result of the fraud scheme, Tyson and Company 1 paid Easterday Ranches over $244 million for the purported costs of purchasing and feeding over 265,000 ghost cattle.”

Easterday’s company agreed to own the cattleon behalf of the two companies. “Once the cattle were slaughtered and sold at market price, Easterday Ranches would repay the costs advanced – plus interest and certain other costs – retaining the difference as profit,” according to the news release.

Once the cattle were taken to market, Easterday was then supposed to be responsible for paying the ownership costs to the companies, the DOJ said in the news release.However, the cattle never existed.

“No one is above the law. Mr. Easterday amassed significant personal wealth, yet, he wanted more, so he defrauded his victims of nearly a quarter billion dollars by charging for cattle that never existed.” US Attorney Vanessa R. Waldref said in the news release.

Easterday previously pled guilty in March 2021, to misleading the companies and fraudulently receiving the money. He also agreed to pay back the money.

https://dailycaller.com/2022/10/05/rancher-sentenced-ghost-cattle-fraud-washington/

So no one from the company ever went to his ranch?

>>17639000

I knew that was coming, especially when he says “I made this decision on my own”

https://twitter.com/JohnBasham/status/1577838243713875970?s=20&t=6-y6OT3DXUIXYZlRKSBnIw

https://twitter.com/lowkeyrbe/status/1578067256420044802?s=20&t=2XVhnuMFNvcuKh9ojZixlA

Seems like satanists have taken over the government

https://twitter.com/seanmdav/status/1578052389654958081?s=20&t=2XVhnuMFNvcuKh9ojZixlA

https://twitter.com/ByronYork/status/1578044725956837381?s=20&t=2XVhnuMFNvcuKh9ojZixlA

FBI Won’t Provide Updates, Say Whether It Has Arrested Anyone Over Attacks on Pro-Life Organizations, Centers, Churches

Mary Margaret Olohan /October 06, 2022

1 of 2

The Federal Bureau of Investigation will not share whether it has made any arrests related to attacks on pro-life centers, organizations, and Catholic churches following the leak of the Supreme Court opinion overturning Roe v. Wade.

At least 83 Catholic churches and 73 pregnancy resource centers or pro-life organizations have been attacked since the draft opinion was leaked in May. And some of these pro-life centers and organizations have told The Daily Signal that they have not heard anything from federal authorities.

The FBI confirmed this week to The Daily Signal that it is investigating “a series of attacks and threats targeting pregnancy resource centers, faith-based organizations, and reproductive health clinics across the country, as well as to judicial buildings, including the U.S. Supreme Court.”

“The incidents are being investigated as potential acts of domestic violent extremism, FACE Act [Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act] violations, or violent crime matters, depending on the facts of each case,” the statement said. “The FBI takes all violence and threats of violence very seriously and we are working closely with our law enforcement partners at the national, state, and local levels to investigate these incidents.”

This statement is almost identical to one that the FBI gave The Daily Wire in mid-June, four months ago, as attacks on pregnancy centers escalated. The militant abortion group Jane’s Revenge has claimed responsibility for many of these attacks and threatened more if pro-life work does not cease. The FBI would not specifically comment on Jane’s Revenge to The Daily Wire in June, and it is unclear how organized this group is.

“It’s open season, and we know where your operations are,” Jane’s Revenge warned over the summer.

When The Daily Signal pressed the FBI for more information this week, referencing the recent arrest of a Catholic, pro-life activist, national press officer Christina Pullen repeatedly said the FBI does “not have any information to add” to its old statement. She also would not say whether the FBI has made any arrests related to these attacks and threats.

The Daily Signal also asked the FBI to address precisely how many attacks and threats it is investigating that specifically targeted pregnancy resource centers, as well as how many attacks and threats it is investigating that specifically targeted faith-based institutions, and how many attacks and threats it is investigating that specifically targeted abortion clinics.

The FBI would not address these questions. The bureau’s refusal to provide more information on the matter is particularly notable in light of the FBI’s dramatic arrest of Mark Houck, a Catholic father who allegedly pushed a pro-abortion activist for allegedly harassing his son while they were praying outside an abortion clinic.

This arrest might fall under the FBI’s reference to attacks and threats on reproductive health clinics, but the bureau would not comment on Houck to The Daily Signal.

Meanwhile, pro-life centers and organizations that were attacked over the summer in the fallout of the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization leak, like Concerned Women for America, tell The Daily Signal that they have not heard from the FBI. The organization’s office was vandalized by a man who reportedly ripped up its security system, flipped off its camera, and urinated on the door (prompting the group to file a hate crime report with the FBI).

“We know that President [Joe] Biden specifically singled out abortion clinics for protection from the federal government, but we have not heard the Biden administration say one word about supporting pregnancy care centers,” Concerned Women for America President Penny Nance said in a phone interview.

“I agree that it’s domestic terrorism that is impacting these pregnancy care centers, but I don’t have any suggestion from any of them or any of our own experience in which the FBI came to our defense,” she added…

https://www.dailysignal.com/2022/10/06/fbi-wont-provide-updates-say-whether-it-has-arrested-anyone-over-attacks-on-pro-life-organizations-centers-churches/

>>17639222

2 of 2

A vandal or vandals dumped a bucket of red paint on the Washington, D.C.-based Capitol Hill Crisis Pregnancy Center in June, spray-painted the words “Jane’s Revenge” on the wall of the center, and egged the windows. The center is filled with baby clothing, baby food, and resources for D.C.-area parents who come to the center hoping they can find help rather than resorting to abortion.

The Metropolitan Police Department has increased its presence around the center, Director Janet Durig told The Daily Signal on Thursday morning, and though the center itself has increased security measures, there have still been several incidents involving a male allegedly beating on the center’s windows that have made her feel very uncomfortable.

Durig praised the D.C. police for keeping her center safe. But she said that she has not heard from the FBI and does not believe that the vandalism is being investigated by federal authorities.

And on Thursday morning, D.C. police told The Daily Signal that its investigation into the June vandalism has been suspended pending further evidence—meaning that if the FBI is not investigating this attack, no one is.

Meanwhile, the Biden Justice Department is heavily focused on protecting abortion clinics from pro-life activists who pray outside or seek to persuade women not to abort their unborn babies. On Wednesday, the Justice Department charged 11 more pro-life activists with violations of the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act for blocking the entrance of an abortion clinic in 2021.

“Reproductive health care providers must be free to carry out their work free from interference or intimidation,” said Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division in a Monday statement. “The Justice Department is committed to enforcing federal law to protect providers and all people seeking access to reproductive health care across our nation.”

Clarke, who oversees the Justice Department’s investigations into potential FACE Act violations, has called pro-life centers “harmful” and “predatory” and called for exposing “fake clinics,” as The Washington Free Beacon’s Chuck Ross reports.

She did not immediately respond to requests for comment from The Daily Signal.

“Today’s #SCOTUS ruling striking down CA law that required crisis pregnancy centers to provide factual information about state-offered services, including abortions, will have harmful consequences for women, especially women of color who are often targeted by predatory CPCs [crisis pregnancy centers],” she tweeted in 2018.

“Make no mistake,” she tweeted later. “Today’s decision at the #SCOTUS striking down a CA disclosure requirement for crisis pregnancy centers is part of a coordinated strategy to tear down #RoevWade. The anti-choice movement will stop at nothing. #EndTheLies #ExposeFakeClincs”

When former President Donald Trump’s administration created a religious liberty task force in 2018, Clarke called the move “shameful.”

“DOJ should be working to fight discrimination and protect the rights of vulnerable communities,” she said at the time. “Instead, [then-Attorney General] Jeff Sessions is launching a Religious Liberty Task Force to make it easier for people to use religion to mask their discriminatory goals. Shameful.”

https://www.dailysignal.com/2022/10/06/fbi-wont-provide-updates-say-whether-it-has-arrested-anyone-over-attacks-on-pro-life-organizations-centers-churches/

Bidan shot down again!

https://twitter.com/kerpen/status/1578035883605127168?s=20&t=gciQvdSBB2MHIpIRsBA3gw

Armed and Beltway-ish: More Federal Bureaucrats Than U.S. Marines Are Authorized to Pack Heat

Mark HemingwayOctober 06, 2022

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When Congress authorized $80 billion this year to beef up Internal Revenue Service enforcement and staffing, Republican House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy invoked the language of war to warn that “Democrats’ new army of 87,000 IRS agents will be coming for you.”

A video quickly went viral racking up millions of views, purporting to show a bunch of clumsy bureaucrats receiving firearms training, prompting alarm that the IRS would be engaged in military-style raids of ordinary taxpayers. The GOP claims were widely attacked as exaggerations – since the video, though from the IRS, didn’t show official agent training – but the criticism has shed light on a growing trend: the rapid arming of the federal government.

A report issued last year by the watchdog group Open The Books, “The Militarization of The U.S. Executive Agencies,” found thatmore than 200,000 federal bureaucrats now have been granted the authority to carry guns and make arrests – more than the 186,000 Americans serving in the U.S. Marine Corps. “One hundred three executive agencies outside of the Department of Defense spent $2.7 billion on guns, ammunition, and military-style equipment between fiscal years 2006 and 2019 (inflation adjusted),” notes the report. “Nearly $1 billion ($944.9 million) was spent between fiscal years 2015 and 2019 alone.”

The watchdog reports that the Department of Health and Human Services has 1,300 guns including one shotgun, five submachine guns, and 189 automatic firearms. NASA has its own fully outfitted SWAT team, with all the attendant weaponry, including armored vehicles, submachine guns, and breeching shotguns. The Environmental Protection Agency has purchased drones, GPS trackers, radar equipment, and night vision goggles, in addition to stockpiling firearms.

A 2018 Government Accountability Office report noted that the IRS had 4,487 guns and 5,062,006 rounds of ammunition in inventory at the end of 2017 – before the enforcement funding boost this year. The IRS did not respond to requests for information, though the IRS' Criminal Investigation division does put out an annual report detailing basic information such as how many warrants the agency is executing in a given year.

Yet more than a hundred executive agencies have armed investigators, and there doesn’t appear to be any independent authority actively monitoring or tracking the use of force across the federal government.

When asked about the need for such lethal materiel, agency officials typically speak only in general terms about security concerns. Agencies contacted by RealClearInvestigations from HHS to EPA declined to provide, or said they did not have, comprehensive statistics on how often their firearms are used, or details on how they conduct armed operations.

“I would be amazed if that data exists in any way,” said Trevor Burrus, a research fellow in constitutional and criminal law at the libertarian CATO Institute. “Over the years of working on this, it's quite shocking how much they try to not have their stuff tracked on any level.”

Abigail Blanco, an economics professor at the University of Tampa, and the co-author of “Tyranny Comes Home: The Domestic Fate of U.S. Militarism,” told RCI that the militarization of the federal government appears to track closely with the increased militarization of local police.

Blanco cites data in her book from criminologist Peter Kraska, who found that about 20% of small-town police departments had SWAT-style teams in the mid-1980s, deployed about 3,000 times annually. After the creation of a federal program in 1997 to arm local police with surplus military equipment, about 90% of small-town police departments had SWAT teams by the early 2000s and those units were being deployed 45,000 times annually.Current estimates suggest those SWAT teams are deployed as many as 80,000 times a year.

https://www.realclearwire.com/articles/2022/10/06/armed_and_beltway-ish_why_more_federal_bureaucrats_than_us_marines_can_pack_heat_857421.html

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By and large, the arming of the federal bureaucracy is a relatively recent phenomenon: Some 74,500 federal agents had firearm authority in 1996, a number that has nearly tripled since then. Some of the increase is due to agencies taking responsibility for the security of their own buildings. The Department of Veterans Affairs, for example, did not have a police force in 1995, but by 2018 it had nearly 4,000 armed officers, mostly dedicated to guarding the agency’s hospitals and other medical sites.

“We can all understand the dangerous world out there,” said Adam Andrzejewski, the CEO of Open The Books – and thus, he said, the need for some heavy weaponry in the Departments of Homeland Security and Justice.“But some of these other agencies, like Health and Human Services, they’ve got machine guns?”

Andrzejewski said that when he asked HHS about its arsenal, the agency spoke only in general terms about the dangers employees faced. It did not detail an increase in threats or provide specific examples of cases where such weapons would be required.

“Our investigations often involve undercover work, surveillance, as well as arrest and search warrants,” the agency said in a statement to Open The Books. “Our special agents have confiscated hundreds of firearms and arrested individuals who had direct access to firearms and other weapons. In order to keep our agents safe and allow them to do their jobs effectively, we use typical law enforcement equipment, including firearms and ballistic vests.”

All that weaponry raises questions about whether the 200,000 armed federal agents are getting adequate weapons and safety training. HHS did not respond to a request to comment on the $14 million in guns, ammunition, and military equipment it purchased between 2015 and 2019 or its new National Training Operations Center within the Washington, D.C. Beltway. There’s also another government agency – Federal Law Enforcement Training Centers – with locations in six states. That agency also declined to speak with RCI for this article.

According to Burrus of the Cato Institute, recent history helps explain the militarization of the federal government. “This is 20 years of the war on terror, with the production of an excessive amount of access to weaponry,” he says.

The Homeland Security Act of 2002 extended law enforcement authority to special agents of 24 Offices of Inspectors General in agencies throughout the government, with additional provisions to enable other OIGs to qualify for law enforcement authority. Though OIG offices are often thought of as being responsible for policing internal corruption at executive agencies, they are also tasked with conducting external criminal and civil investigations regarding the use of agency resources.

As a result, even obscure agencies such as the U.S. Railroad Retirement Board’s Office of Inspector General now have armed federal agents. This summer, before the expansion of the IRS was approved by Congress, Republican congressman Matt Gaetz specifically singled out the RRB as an example of the excesses of an armed bureaucracy when he introduced a bill to stop federal agencies from stockpiling ammunition.

The Railroad Retirement Board was the only federal agency to respond to RCI’s requests for comment for this article. Jill F. Roellig, a manager and program analyst at the RRB in Chicago, countered that the agency distributes $13 billion in retirement and health benefits each year. “As you know, with government payments, there's fraud associated with it, and our job is to investigate those types of fraud cases,” she said. “[RRB agents] execute search warrants, do surveillance, they interview targets, they make arrests, they do all types of things that law enforcement agencies do in order to do oversight and fight fraud in the RRB’s programs. It's a national program, as well.”

While fraud investigations might be an important part of RRB’s mission, the agency has had police powers for only 20 of the agency’s 87 years of existence. When asked, Roellig said she didn’t know how the agency conducted fraud investigations prior to 2002, but did note that the RRB’s investigators regularly worked with the FBI and law enforcement agencies.

https://www.realclearwire.com/articles/2022/10/06/armed_and_beltway-ish_why_more_federal_bureaucrats_than_us_marines_can_pack_heat_857421.html

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Still,federal agencies doing their own criminal investigations raises important constitutional and civil rights questionsthat have never really been addressed. Last year, the Environmental Protection Agency raided a number of small auto shops across the country for allegedly selling equipment that helped car owners circumvent emissions regulations. The auto shop owners say that the emissions equipment they were installing was part of the process of turning street legal cars into vehicles that are solely dedicated to being used on racetracks – an activity that’s not necessarily illegal.

“It was 12 armed federal agents, and they had little EPA badges on and everything,” John Lund, the owner of Lund Racing in West Chester, Pennsylvania, told the Washington Examiner. “They had a search warrant for conspiracy to sell defeat devices. They basically went around the building, and they did forensics — physical forensics, digital forensics on the laptops, and we were compliant.”

The EPA's aggressive enforcement of emissions standards for race cars, resulting in at most civil fines, prompted Republican Rep. Patrick Henry of North Carolina to introduce the RPM Act (short for Recognizing the Protection of Motorsports Act) to clarify the legality of emissions rules on race cars. The bill attracted 133 co-sponsors – including 30 Democrats.

The bill was first introduced in 2016, when a House oversight committee held a hearing titled “Racing to Regulate: EPA's Latest Overreach on Amateur Drivers.” Six years later, the RPM Act is still languishing in Congress – prompting a visit from racing legend Richard Petty in July to lobby for the bill.

The EPA did not respond a request for comment, but last year the agency issued a brief statement defending the raids on the auto shops: “Our agents are necessarily armed when they investigate persons alleged to have knowingly violated the law, and our investigations are often conducted in the company of local/state law enforcement and pursuant to judicially approved subpoenas.”

While it’s hardly a new complaint that federal bureaucracies are overstepping their rulemaking authority and usurping congress’ legislative powers, the idea that executive agencies are broadly empowered to effectively create their own laws and go out and enforce them with armed federal agents is another matter.

“So many of the regulations that can be enforced at the point of a gun have almost nothing to do with what people would normally call dangerous crime, that would be the kind of thing where you might want armed agents there,” said Burrus. “And especially coming from agencies such as the EPA and other agencies that are more quality-of-life agencies dealing with regulatory infractions, rather than involved in solving real crimes.”

Critics say allowing federal agencies to perform their own law enforcement removes an important layer of accountability that existed when unarmed federal investigators were forced to cooperate with local authorities.

“If there's a dispute the EPA has with a rancher where they want to come in with armed agents, you're much better off coming in with a local sheriff who is probably familiar with the person in the situation,” says Peter Schweizer, president of the Government Accountability Institute. “With the sheriff you have an independent person if something goes wrong. Otherwise, you're taking the word of this government agency, where the law enforcement mechanism is the same as the bureaucracy that's alleging the violations. It's a real opportunity for damaging people's rights in a major way.”

https://www.realclearwire.com/articles/2022/10/06/armed_and_beltway-ish_why_more_federal_bureaucrats_than_us_marines_can_pack_heat_857421.html