Democrat Politicians Urge Clemency for Transgender Child Sex Offender and Murderer Set to Be Executed in Missouri Next Week

Democrat politicians and far-left activists are lobbying for clemency to be granted to a transgender child sex offender and murderer set to be executed next week.

Democrat Representatives Cori Bush and Emanuel Cleaver have sent a letter to Republican Missouri Governor Mike Parson urging him to stop the execution.

Scott McLaughlin, who began identifying as “Amber” while on death row, was convicted of raping a 14-year-old girl in 1992. He then went on to stalk and brutally rape and murder his ex-girlfriend Beverly Guenther, in 2003.

“According to court records, Guenther and McLaughlin met in 2002 and began living with each other shortly into the relationship. But the cohabitation was marred by break-ups that were often so serious that Guenther sometimes had to obtain restraining orders to keep McLaughlin away from her,” Reduxx reports. “In the spring of 2003, Guenther and McLaughlin formally ended their relationship, but McLaughlin continued to pursue the woman, exhibiting stalking behaviors by frequently visiting her place of work and calling her.”

The report continues, “on October 27, 2003, McLaughlin was arrested after burglarizing Guenther’s home. He told arresting officers he was trying to reclaim possessions he left behind at the home while living with Guenther, and was arraigned in November. Guenther had filed for a protective order just two days before McLaughlin murdered her.”

Less than one month later, on November 20, McLaughlin went to Guenther’s job and waited for her.

As she left work and made her way to her vehicle, Guenther ambushed her, forced her to the ground, and sexually assaulted her. He then stabbed her to death, shoved her body in his car, drove to a river, and left her in the underbrush.

The cold-blooded killer was found guilty of forcible rape and first-degree murder. He was ultimately given the death penalty.

In their letter too Gov. Parson, Bush and Cleaver claim that the killer should be given a life sentence instead of being executed due to “gender dysphoria” and “mental health issues.”

“Ms. McLaughlin faced a traumatic childhood and mental health issues throughout her life,” the letter stated. “She experienced horrific abuse and neglect at the hands of various caregivers; court records indicate her adoptive father would frequently strike her with paddles and a night stick, and even tase her. Alongside this horrendous abuse, she was also silently struggling with her identity, grappling with what we now understand is gender dysphoria. The abuse, coupled with the persistent mental turmoil surrounding her identity, led to mild neurological brain damage and multiple suicide attempts both as a child and as an adult.”

The far-left politicians also claimed that executing him would be the “first use of the death penalty on a woman” since 1976.

“Ms. McLaughlin’s cruel execution would mark the state’s first use of the death penalty on a woman since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated capital punishment in 1976, and even worse it would not solve any of the systemic problems facing Missourians and people all across America, including antiLGBTQ+ hate and violence, and cycles of violence that target and harm women,” the lawmakers said.

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2022/12/democrat-politicians-urge-clemency-transgender-child-sex-offender-murderer-set-executed-missouri-next-week/

https://nypost.com/2022/12/31/how-pritzkers-became-key-backers-of-bail-reform-gender-affirming-care/

77 members of Congress have violated a law designed to prevent insider trading and stop conflicts-of-interest

Insider and several other news organizations have identified 77 members of Congress who've recently failed to properly report their financial trades as mandated by the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act of 2012, also known as the STOCK Act.

Congress passed the law a decade ago to combat insider trading and conflicts of interest among their own members and force lawmakers to be more transparent about their personal financial dealings. A key provision of the law mandates that lawmakers publicly — and quickly — disclose any stock trade made by themselves, a spouse, or a dependent child.

But many members of Congress have not fully complied with the law. They offer excuses including ignorance of the law, clerical errors, and mistakes by an accountant. Insider has chronicled this widespread nature of this phenomenon in "Conflicted Congress," an ongoing reporting project initially published in December.

While lawmakers who violate the STOCK Act face a fine, the penalty is usually small — $200 is the standard amount — or waived by House or Senate ethics officials. Ethics watchdogs and even some members of Congress have called for stricter penalties or even a ban on federal lawmakers from trading individual stocks.

On Capitol Hill, lawmakers seriously debated such a ban, with a vote on a consensus bill seemingly imminent during early autumn. But Democrats, who enjoyed majories in the House and Senate through January 2023, did not press legislation forward, and a bill to ban lawmakers from trading stocks ultimately died.

A Republican-controlled House and Democrat-controlled Senate would need to work together in 2023 and beyond to reignite a congressional stock-ban effort.

Here are the lawmakers discovered to have recently violated the STOCK Act — to one extent or another:

https://www.businessinsider.com/congress-stock-act-violations-senate-house-trading-2021-9

Scotland’s Woke Police Call Paedophiles ‘Minor-Attracted People’ in EU-Linked Report

The Chief Constable of Police Scotland is under fire for referring to paedophiles by their preferred term “minor-attracted people” (MAPs) in a European Union-linked report.

In his Year End Report for 2021/22, Chief Constable Iain Livingstone QPM said the Specialist Crime Division (SCD) for Public Protection had “engaged in the Horizon Europe Project – Prevention of Child Sexual Exploitation (CSE)” and that its “main agenda is to develop understanding and approach to avoid the victimisation of children by engaging Minor-Attracted People (MAPs) and providing them with the

necessary support, treatment and guidance to help prevent criminal activities.”

While it was some time before the incendiary language in the report registered with the public, its use of the extremely controversial ‘MAP’ term has provoked a predictable backlash after coming to the attention of the wider public.

“Most Scots will find any attempt to soften the language around paedophilia in official guidance to be deeply disturbing and wrong,” said a spokesman for the Scottish Conservatives in comments quoted by The Telegraph.

Independent social work consultant Maggie Mellon further warned that adopting the ran the risk of “normalising and therefore perhaps decriminalising” paedophilia.

Condemnation has not just been local to Scotland, where the devolved government — roughly equivalent to the U.S. state government — is run by the left-separatist Scottish National Party (SNP), however.

“How about we don’t do this: ‘minor-attracted people’ equal predators plain and simple,” urged Canadian celebrity psychologist Jordan Peterson.

Australian conservative commentator Rita Panahi, meanwhile, warned the adoption of paedophiles’ preferred terminology was an example of “[w]hat can happen when sane people don’t fight the ‘culture wars’.”

https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2022/12/31/scotlands-woke-police-call-paedophiles-minor-attracted-people-in-eu-linked-report/

https://www.scotland.police.uk/spa-media/5poka2ck/chief-constables-year-end-report-21-22.pdf

Croatia to Abandon Own Currency, Become Latest €uro Member on New Year’s Day

Croatia is to be the latest European Union member to abandon its financial independence in exchange for integration within the EU money system, as it switches the national kuna for Brussels’ euro on New Year’s Day.

The Republic of Croatia, which became an independent country after the Croatian War of Independence in 1991, is to give up some of that hard-won independence this weekend, as it exchanges financial self-determination for a place among the club of Eurozone nations.

Croatia will be the 20th euro currency state, and Sunday will be the euro’s 21st birthday.

Prices have been displayed in both currencies since September to get locals used to the new money, reports POLITICO, and old kunas will still be valid currency for the next two weeks — although shopkeepers will have to give change in euros.

As POLITICO notes:

It’s not a great moment to be joining the club: the euro slid to parity against the U.S. dollar in July and remains weak despite regaining some ground in recent months. The European Central Bank is on a crusade against inflation, which is causing the economy to slow. A winter recession is now the base-case scenario.

Yet their report insists the Croatian government remains optimistic, with their finance minister claiming borrowing costs in the future would be even higher for Croatia were they not joining up.

https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2022/12/31/croatia-to-abandon-own-currency-become-latest-euro-member-on-new-years-day/

266K Migrants Apprehended in 2 Months in Texas-Based Border Sectors

Border Patrol agents in the five Texas-based sectors apprehended more than 266,000 migrants in the first two months of the new fiscal year. Nearly 107,000 of those entered through the El Paso Sector.

El Paso Sector Chief Patrol Agent Peter Jaquez reports the increasing number of migrants crossing into the El Paso Sector. During the first two months of Fiscal Year 23, which began on October 1, El Paso Sector agents apprehended 106,561 migrants, according to the November Southwest Land Border Encounters Report released on the Friday night before Christmas. This is up more than 260 percent from the 29,539 apprehended in the same period last year. It is anticipated that more than 50,000 migrants will be apprehended in December.

The El Paso Sector continues to be the busiest sector for migrant apprehensions along the southwest border with Mexico.

In the Del Rio Sector, agents apprehended 90,482 during the first two months of the fiscal year. This represents an increase of nearly 55 percent over the 58,439 apprehended in the same period last year. The apprehensions trended upward during the first two months with 42,762 in October and 47,720 in November. The trend is expected to continue in December as large migrant groups continue to cross in large numbers.

https://www.breitbart.com/border/2022/12/31/266k-migrants-apprehended-in-2-months-in-texas-based-border-sectors/

America's Long War Against Humanity - Michel Chossudovsky

https://youtu.be/H0_oDYFlUW0

Declassified intelligence files expose inconvenient truths of Bosnian war

A trove of intelligence files sent by Canadian peacekeepers expose CIA black ops, illegal weapon shipments, imported jihadist fighters, potential false flags, and stage-managed atrocities.

The established mythos of the Bosnian War is that Serb separatists, encouraged and directed by Slobodan Milošević and his acolytes in Belgrade, sought to forcibly seize Croat and Bosniak territory in service of creating an irredentist “Greater Serbia.” Every step of the way, they purged indigenous Muslims in a concerted, deliberate genocide, while refusing to engage in constructive peace talks.

This narrative was aggressively perpetuated by the mainstream media at the time, and further legitimized by the UN-created International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) once the conflict ended. It has become axiomatic and unquestionable in Western consciousness ever since, enforcing the sense that negotiation invariably amounts to appeasement, a mentality that has enabled NATO war hawks to justify multiple military interventions over subsequent years.

However, a vast trove of intelligence cables sent by Canadian peacekeeping troops in Bosnia to Ottawa’s National Defence Headquarters, first published by Canada Declassified at the start of 2022, exposes this narrative as cynical farce.

The documents offer an unparalleled, first-hand, real-time view of the war as it developed, with the prospect of peace rapidly degrading into grinding bloodshed that ultimately caused the painful death of the multi-faith, multi-ethnic Yugoslavia.

The Canadian soldiers were part of a wider UN Protection Force (UNPROFOR) dispatched to former Yugoslavia in 1992, in the vain hope tensions wouldn’t escalate to all-out-war, and an amicable settlement could be reached by all sides. They stayed until the bitter end, long past the point their mission was reduced to miserable, life-threatening failure.

The peacekeepers’ increasingly bleak analysis of the reality on the ground provides a candid perspective of the war’s history that has been largely concealed from the public. It is a story of CIA black ops, literally explosive provocations, illegal weapon shipments, imported jihadist fighters, potential false flags, and stage-managed atrocities.

Read the complete Canadian UNPROFOR cables here.

https://thegrayzone.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/1F-Copy.pdf

https://thegrayzone.com/2022/12/30/declassified-intelligence-files-bosnian-war/

See key excerpts of the files referred to in this article here.

https://thegrayzone.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/image-17.pdf

In major step, Space Force takes over all military satellite communications

The Space Force has taken over all of the Department of Defense’s military satellite communication functions, a major step in building the new service.

The Navy and the Army have transferred major satellite communication operations to the Space Force in an effort to consolidate training, operations, acquisition and other activities, according to a news release. The transfer marks the first time all military satellite communication functions have been consolidated under a single military service.

The Army’s transfers were expected to include $78 million in operations, maintenance and 500 positions, the release said. As part of the consolidation, the Army transferred the Wideband Global SATCOM and Defense Satellite Communications System to the Space Force in August. The Wideband Global SATCOM system is considered the “backbone of the U.S. military’s global satellite communications,” according to the Space Force.

The Colorado Springs area did not see a net gain in jobs although some people did transfer from Fort Carson to Schriever Space Force Base, said Col. David Pheasant, commander of Delta 8. His delta focuses on satellite communications as well as position, navigation and timing, and represents about 10% of the Space Force.

As part of the overall consolidation, Pheasant said he expects those trained in space operations will be able to spend their entire career working on space missions.

“They can build on that knowledge and be able to share it with others,” he said.

Previously, a soldier in the Army might spend just a few years working as a satellite operator before moving on to a new job, he said.

The transfer of all new Space Force members as part of the consolidation is still underway and is expected to last through December, he said. However, those people are already working for the Space Force, even though they may still officially be members of other military branches.

As part of growing Space Force capabilities, Pheasant said he expects the service to grow its partnerships with other countries.

For example, the service could put payloads on some of Denmark’s satellites, he said.

Expanding capability in space is important because the military is seeing demand for satellite connectivity in the field proliferate, just as demand for data connections has risen in homes. Any resident likely has five devices or more in their home requiring a connection. Similarly, one military vehicle in the field likely has five different pieces of equipment that need satellite connectivity.

https://americanmilitarynews.com/2022/12/in-major-step-space-force-takes-over-all-military-satellite-communications/

Netanyahu, Zelensky spoke before Ukraine skipped UN vote on anti-Israel resolution

Ukrainian president confirms pair discussed ‘bilateral cooperation’; report says Kyiv’s leader wanted details on how Israel would aid country, but Israeli PM would not provide any

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky prior to the country’s decision Friday to skip the UN General Assembly vote to have the International Court of Justice weigh in on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Netanyahu’s office said Saturday.

According to a tweet by Zelensky, the two “discussed bilateral cooperation between our states, including in the security sphere and interaction on international platforms.”

Axios and Walla reporter Barak Ravid said he was told by Israeli and Ukrainian officials that Netanyahu had asked Zelensky to vote against the measure.

Ravid said Zelensky had wanted to know how Netanyahu intended to change Israel’s policy on providing his country with defensive aid to intercept Russian strikes using drones and missiles, but that Netanyahu would not commit to any steps.

This irked Zelensky, who decided not to vote against the resolution, but to miss the vote “in order to give a chance to the relationship with Netanyahu,” Ravid cited a Kyiv official as saying,

The measure ended up passing by a vote of 87 in favor, 26 against, with 53 abstentions. Israel knew in advance that it would pass in the Assembly, which is regularly able to muster votes for resolutions critical of the Jewish state, but Kan news said Foreign Ministry officials viewed the vote as something of an achievement for Israel, as the number of votes in favor had fallen since an initial committee ballot on the matter in November.

Kyiv’s support for the resolution in the committee last month sparked a diplomatic spat between Ukraine and Israel.

https://www.timesofisrael.com/netanyahu-zelensky-spoke-before-ukraine-skipped-vote-on-israel-resolution/

UK chief rabbi knighted on King Charles III’s 1st honors list

Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis receives one of Britain’s highest awards, for interfaith initiatives, Jewish community work; Board of Deputies leaders, TV presenter Rachel Riley also honored

Britain’s Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis will be knighted by King Charles III in recognition of his interfaith initiatives, work with the Jewish community, educational programs and other activities.

Mirvis was made a Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire, one of the UK’s highest honors, according to a Friday announcement by the UK cabinet office.

“I am enormously honored and deeply humbled by this award,” Mirvis said in a statement to UK media. “It will be particularly moving for me to receive this award from his majesty the king in his first year as our monarch.”

Mirvis was honored for his Jewish-Muslim community engagement projects; a program bringing together Anglican and Jewish clergy; working toward greater inclusivity in Orthodox Jewish life and opening opportunities for female leadership in the Jewish community; advocating for Uyghur Muslims; and an LGBTQ education initiative, among other programs.

Mirvis received the honor as part of the king’s annual New Year Honours List. The 2023 honors list was the first Charles signed off on, after the death of Queen Elizabeth II in September.

South Africa-born Mirvis, 66, has been chief rabbi since 2013. He made an unprecedented intervention in British partisan politics in 2019, penning an op-ed in The Times that alleged that the opposition Labour Party, led at the time by Jeremy Corbyn, was poisoned with “anti-Jewish racism,” “sanctioned from the very top,” and indicating that the British electorate should not support Labour in elections the following month.

“It is not my place to tell any person how they should vote. I regret being in this situation at all,” Mirvis wrote near the end of his article. “I simply pose the following question: What will the result of this election say about the moral compass of our country? When December 12th arrives, I ask every person to vote with their conscience. Be in no doubt – the very soul of our nation is at stake.”

Britain’s previous chief rabbi, Jonathan Sacks, was knighted in 2005. After Sacks died of cancer in 2020, Charles mourned him as “a leader whose wisdom, scholarship and humanity were without equal.”

President of the Board of Deputies of British Jews Marie van der Zyl, her predecessor Jonathan Arkush, six Holocaust survivors and the TV presenter Rachel Riley were also recognized on the list. Riley was awarded for raising Holocaust awareness and opposing antisemitism.

https://www.timesofisrael.com/enormously-honored-uk-chief-rabbi-knighted-by-king-charles/

Beyond Hubris – European Bank President Lagarde Says Policy Efforts Must be Taken to Stop Wage Growth

The ideology of these elitist minded control officers is really remarkable. The president of the European Central Bank, Christine Lagarde, has given several statements to media saying policy measures must be put into place in order to stop wage growth from fueling inflation.

Think about this in the most practical of terms. Western politicians have created massive inflation through their collective ‘Build Back Better’ energy policy. The central banks have raised interest rates, an effort to shrink the economy by lowering energy demand, to offset the skyrocketing costs of the energy problem the politicians created.

With workers demanding pay raises to help afford the skyrocketing costs of energy, the central EU bank is now worried that wage increases will fuel inflation.

There’s a truckload of pretending needed to avoid seeing the insufferable dynamic of reality.

Political policy drives up energy costs. Central banks try to drive down energy demand. Workers unable to afford the energy prices created by politicians, are then blamed for the inflation the political policy creates.

Sooner or later ordinary people are going to figure this out this abusive cycle.

(Via Reuters) – Euro zone wages are growing quicker than earlier thought and the European Central Bank must prevent this from adding to already high inflation, ECB President Christine Lagarde told a Croatian newspaper.

The ECB has raised interest rates by a total of 2.5 percentage points since July in a bid to arrest a historic surge in inflation and has promised even more policy tightening over its next several meetings as longer-term price growth expectations have started moving above its 2% target.

“We know wages are increasing, probably at a faster pace than expected,” Croatian newspaper Jutarnji list quoted Lagarde as saying on Saturday. “We must not allow inflationary expectations to become de-anchored or wages to have an inflationary effect.”

[…] Lagarde added that the bloc’s expected winter recession, induced by soaring energy costs, is likely to be short and shallow, provided there are no additional shocks. (read more)

That last line is just beyond infuriating.

This era of economic pretending, and the disconnect in the mindset of the self-proclaimed elitist rulers, is just jaw dropping in scale and scope.

https://theconservativetreehouse.com/blog/2022/12/31/european-bank-president-lagarde-says-policy-efforts-must-be-taken-to-stop-wage-growth/

Pelosi announces maximum salary hike for House staffers to over $200,000

High salaries will help Congress “retain and recruit the best talent."

Outgoing Democrat House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has announced the implementation of a new maximum salary for House staffers, saying the hike was necessary to attract and retain top talent in Congress.

The California Democrat made the announcement Friday in a Dear Colleague letter.

We 'must do all we can to retain and recruit the best talent in our nation – and to build a Congressional workforce that reflects the communities we are honored to serve," she wrote.

The House, she said, “will raise the maximum annual rate of pay for staff to $212,100.”

The hike is commensurate with other recent federal pay raises, the speaker said.

Hailing other recent pay hikes and benefit increases throughout Congress, Pelosi also wrote. "This work must continue into the 118th Congress and beyond, as we carry on our dutiful stewardship of this historic institution."

https://justthenews.com/government/congress/pelosi-announces-maximum-salary-hike-house-staffers-over-200000