IT WAS ALL REHEARSED! Michael Cohen Met with Adam Schiff’s Staff for 10 HOURS Before Testifying Before Congress

Michael Cohen told House Republicans this week that staff for Intelligence Committee Chairman Rep. Adam Schiff traveled to New York at least four times and met with him for ten hours.

This was before Cohen’s public testimony before Congress last week.

It was all a dog-and-pony show.

It was rehearsed.

IT WAS ALL REHEARSED! Michael Cohen Met with Adam Schiff’s Staff for 10 HOURS Before Testifying Before Congress

Jim Hoft by Jim Hoft March 8, 2019 158 Comments

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Michael Cohen told House Republicans this week that staff for Intelligence Committee Chairman Rep. Adam Schiff traveled to New York at least four times and met with him for ten hours.

This was before Cohen’s public testimony before Congress last week.

It was all a dog-and-pony show.

It was rehearsed.

Donald Trump Jr. weighed in.

FOX News reported:

President Trump’s former personal attorney Michael Cohen told House investigators this week that staff for Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., traveled to New York at least four times to meet with him for over 10 hours immediately before last month’s high-profile public testimony, according to two sources familiar with the matter — as Republicans question whether the meetings amounted to coaching a witness.

The sources said the sessions covered a slew of topics addressed during the public hearing before the oversight committee — including the National Enquirer’s “Catch and Kill” policy, American Media CEO David Pecker and the alleged undervaluing of President Trump’s assets.

But, Republicans have signaled they’re not convinced, with Ohio Rep. Mike Turner sending a letter to Cohen’s team on Wednesday demanding answers.

Turner specifically asked for confirmation of Cohen’s contacts, if any, “with Democratic Members or Democratic staff of SSCI [Senate Select Committee on Intelligence], COR [House Committee on Oversight and Reform], or HPSCI [House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence] prior to his appearances before House and Senate committees last week” — as well as the lengths of such contacts, their locations and who exactly was involved.

“These questions are important for the public to understand whether or not they were watching witness testimony, a public hearing, or well-rehearsed theater,” he wrote.

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2019/03/it-was-all-rehearsed-michael-cohen-met-with-adam-schiffs-staff-for-10-hours-before-testifying-before-congress/

White House Communications Director Bill Shine Resigns

Former Fox News co-President and White House Communications Director Bill Shine has resigned from his West Wing job, according to a statement from Sarah Huckabee Sanders.

https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-03-08/white-house-communications-director-bill-shine-resigns

Venezuela blames sabotage & ‘US electricity war’ after major power outage

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro accused the US of waging an “electricity war” against the country, as Caracas and other cities were plunged into darkness Thursday night. The government says the incident is likely sabotage.

Thousands of commuters in Caracas had to walk home as a power outage shut down the capital’s subway, resulting in massive traffic jams.The lights also went out in the largest airport of Caracas.

People on social media described disruptions in most of the nation’s regions and it is unclear how long the blackout will last. The government had to cancel school lessons and suspend the working day on Friday due to the emergency, Vice-President Delcy Rodriguez wrote on Twitter.

The outage was caused by “deliberate sabotage” at the Guri hydroelectric power plant, which provides most of the country’s energy, local media reported. The presumed saboteurs are likely linked to the US-backed opposition, Venezuela’s electric energy minister, Luis Motta Dominguez, claimed on national TV.

The minister pointed out that US Senator Marco Rubio, who is leading a fierce campaign to oust Maduro, tweeted about the outage just minutes after the emergency occurred.

Meanwhile, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Maduro’s government only has itself to blame for power shortages in Venezuela, noting sarcastically that “Maduro’s policies bring nothing but darkness.”

The US openly supports Venezuela’s opposition leader, Juan Guaido, who proclaimed himself ‘interim president’ in January, following both anti- and pro-government protests. Guaido’s claim is supported by most Latin American countries as well as many EU countries. Russia, China, Turkey, and Iran stand by President Maduro, who was re-elected in 2018, and caution Washington and its allies against “meddling” in Venezuela’s affairs. US President Donald Trump has warned that “all options” remain on the table, including military intervention.

https://www.rt.com/news/453310-venezuela-outage-sabotage-us/

This is pretty ordinary and obvious

Donald Trump: Democrats the ‘Anti-Israel Party’ and ‘Anti-Jewish Party’

President Donald Trump criticized Democrats for failing to condemn Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) for antisemitic comments on Friday, calling them the “anti-Israel party.”

“They’ve become an anti-Israel party, they have become an anti-Jewish party, and that’s too bad,” Trump said about the Democrat party.

The president commented on the controversy as he left the White House to tour tornado damage in Alabama and Georgia.

Trump called the “anti-hate” resolution passed by the House “a disgrace” after critics described it as an attempt to mask Omar’s antisemitic comments.

“I thought that vote was a disgrace, and so does everybody else, if you get an honest answer from politicians, they thought it was a disgrace,” he said.

Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) described the vote in a statement on Thursday as “a sham put forward by Democrats to avoid condemning one of their own and denouncing vile anti-Semitism.”

She was one of 23 Republican members to vote against it.

Rep. Ted Deutch (D-FL) also criticized the vote.

“It feels like we’re only able to call the use of antisemitic language by any colleague of ours if we’re addressing all forms of hatred, and it feels like we can’t say it’s antisemitism unless everyone agrees that it’s antisemitism,” he said on the House floor on Thursday.

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2019/03/08/donald-trump-democrats-the-anti-israel-party-and-anti-jewish-party/

First amendment is dead, Israel first

Stormy Daniels ‘Hush Money’ Lawsuit Dismissed

The porn star who has vowed to take down Donald Trump has seen another one of her lawsuits against him dismissed. In December, a judge ordered porn star Stormy Daniels to pay nearly $300,000 in legal fees after her frivolous defamation suit against the president was thrown out. On Thursday, another judge dismissed another lawsuit Daniels filed against Trump, this one asking to be released from the infamous nondisclosure agreeement she signed in 2016 promising not to discuss her alleged one-night affair with Trump years ago.

In exchange for $130,000, Daniels (real name Stephanie Clifford) agreed just weeks ahead of the 2016 election that she would not publicly discuss her alleged adulterous tryst with Trump back in 2006. It is for this nondisclosure agreement, as well as another with former Playmate Karen McDougal, that Trump's former "fixer" Michael Cohen pleaded guilty to violating campaign finance laws.

Despite having received the money, Daniels quickly sought to violate the agreement, repeatedly appearing on television in 2017 to tease her big reveal of what supposedly happened that night. She eventually aired it all and included some rather specific details in her tell-all book, which enjoyed a bunch of free press due to the massive media coverage Daniels and her celebrity lawyer Michael Avenatti received.

"The Court grants Defendants’ Motions and holds that it lacks subject matter jurisdiction over the only remaining cause of action in Plaintiff’s First Amended Complaint, the cause of action for declaratory relief," Judge S. James Otero of the U.S. District Court in Los Angeles wrote in his ruling Thursday, remanding the case back to state court. "The move back to state court essentially kills the high-profile case," Deadline reports.

The legal argument behind the case, Otero argued, was moot because Daniels has not been held to the terms of the NDA, Trump making clear in September that he would not enforce it. "Indeed, Ms. Daniels and her lawyer, Michael Avenatti, have spoken freely about the arrangement since the filing last March," The New York Times reports. "The lawsuit led to escalating national attention that culminated in Mr. Cohen’s pleading guilty to related campaign-finance crimes last summer."

Both parties have declared victory in the case. Trump's lawyer Charles Harder said in a statement to Deadline: "The US District Court confirmed today that the claim against the President has no basis in law. Combined with the attorneys’ fees and sanctions award in the President’s favor totaling $293,000, the President has achieved total victory."

Avenatti, as usual, took to Twitter to claim victory despite suffering a technical defeat: "Yet again, lots of misreporting going on. Be clear: The Court specifically found that Stormy received everything she asked for in the lawsuit — she won. How people can claim this is a 'loss' after we forced Trump and Cohen to cave and Cohen has been convicted, etc. is a mystery."

https://www.dailywire.com/news/44413/stormy-daniels-hush-money-lawsuit-dismissed-james-barrett

Elizabeth Warren Proposes Breaking Up Amazon, Facebook, Google

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) announced Friday that she will propose to break up some of America’s largest tech companies, which includes Facebook, Google, and Amazon, as a means to separate herself from the large swathe 2020 presidential Democrat primary candidates.

Warren will hold a presidential campaign rally in Long Island City, New York, which was supposed to be the hub of a major new Amazon headquarters, and called for the appointment of regulators who would “unwind tech mergers that illegally undermine competition.” Warren will also call for legislation that would block platforms from both offering a marketplace for commerce and participating in that marketplace.

Warren said in a statement Friday:

I want a government that makes sure everybody — even the biggest and most powerful companies in America — plays by the rules. To do that, we need to stop this generation of big tech companies from throwing around their political power to shape the rules in their favor and throwing around their economic power to snuff out or buy up every potential competitor.

The Massachusetts Democrat, who has largely been critical of large financial companies, said that the plan would unravel large tech giants’ acquisitions of rival tech companies. For instance, her plan would unwind Facebook’s purchase of WhatsApp and Instagram, Amazon’s acquisition of Whole Foods, and Google’s purchase of Waze. Warren’s plan would also prohibit companies from transferring or sharing users’ private data with third parties. Warren would also split up Amazon entities such as Amazon Marketplace and AmazonBasics.

“To restore the balance of power in our democracy, to promote competition, and to ensure that the next generation of technology innovation is as vibrant as the last, it’s time to break up our biggest tech companies,” Warren added.

Under the Massachusetts senators’ plan, companies with more than $25 billion in annual global revenue would have to “structurally separate” their products and marketplace, while those companies between $90 million and $25 billion in revenue would face regulations but would not have separate their operations.

Warren’s call for regulating big tech helps separate her from the rest of the crowded 2020 Democrat presidential field, where many candidates have varying opinions on Silicon Valley’s influence. Republicans and Democrats have both increasingly voiced concern and called for regulating large social media and tech companies over violating Americans’ privacy.

Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) have signaled a willingness to curb big tech’s influence, although, they have not presented a clear-cut policy proposal. Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA), who represents many of those large companies in California, has called on big tech executives to improve their privacy policies but has avoided calls to regulate the companies. Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) has largely been willing to embrace the big tech giants.

Warren’s plan reportedly received praise from technology regulation and privacy scholars such as Siva Vaidhyanathan and Frank Pasquale.

Faiz Shakir, an executive for the ACLU, said in January, “Elizabeth Warren is trying to position herself as the ideas candidate of the field, and thus far, in the early going, she’s winning that.”

“Others should start thinking about competing in the arena for new ideas,” Shakir added. He has since joined Mr. Sanders’s presidential bid as its campaign manager.

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2019/03/08/elizabeth-warren-proposes-breaking-up-amazon-facebook-google/

May Warns if Parliament Rejects Her Brexit Betrayal Deal, UK May Never Leave EU

Prime Minister Theresa May is warning lawmakers that if they reject her Brexit divorce deal next week, Britain may never leave the European Union.

British legislators are due to vote Tuesday on the agreement, which they have already rejected once.

May is seeking last-minute changes to the deal, but the EU is unwilling to reopen the agreement with Britain.

In a speech Friday, May urged the bloc to help her by making changes, saying there needs to be “one more push” to get the agreement approved.

If Parliament rejects the deal, lawmakers will get to vote on whether to seek a delay to Brexit.

May warned lawmakers that could lead to “more months and years” of argument over Brexit. She says “if we go down that road we may never leave the EU at all.”

___

9:50 a.m.

British Prime Minister Theresa May is battling to stave off defeat for her Brexit divorce deal, imploring the European Union to help her win approval from Parliament.

In a speech Friday – three weeks before Britain is due to leave the EU – May plans to tell the bloc that “it is in the European interest for the U.K. to leave with a deal.”

May’s office says she will warn that “decisions that the European Union makes over the next few days will have a big impact on the outcome of the vote.”

British lawmakers are due to vote for a second time Tuesday on the deal, which they overwhelmingly rejected in January. May has been trying to secure changes, but the EU is unwilling to change the 585-page agreement.

https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2019/03/08/may-warns-if-parliament-rejects-her-brexit-betrayal-deal-uk-may-never-leave-eu/

Nasrallah Slams “Economical-Psychological War” On Axis Of Resistance

Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said on March 8 that new sanctions on his party, Iran and Syria are a part of an “economical-psychological war” on the so called axis of resistance.

“The financial difficulties which face all the axis of resistance is part of the US-Israeli war on it … We expect escalating sanctions and financial measures against Hezbollah and all the Resistance allies in the Middle East,” the Lebanese leader said at a ceremony held on the 30th anniversary of establishing the Islamic Resistance Support Association.

Nasrallah stressed that the Hezbollah and its allies will emerge from this financial war victorious. He also called on his supporters to donate funds and said that the group needs public support during this war.

In his first response to the British decision to recognize Hezbollah as a terrorist group, Nasrallah said that that the decision is a result of the West’s failure in the region and expected that more countries will take a similar decision soon.

“When the place us on terror lists, that’s because we defeated them, we broke them and foiled their projects … The recognize us as terrorists because they are today incapable [of doing anything] after the failure of their wars and projects,” Nasrallah said.

The U.S. and its allies ramped up their sanctions on Hezbollah, Syria and Iran last year in an effort to break their alliance. However, the sanctions have apparently brought the the allies even closer.

https://southfront.org/nasrallah-slams-economical-psychological-war-on-axis-of-resistance/

Former Texas Border Police Chief Convicted for Aiding Gulf Cartel

McALLEN, Texas – A career lawman who at one time served as police chief for La Joya was convicted on drug trafficking charges for his role in helping smugglers connected to Mexico’s Gulf Cartel operate in Texas. Homeland Security Investigations arrested the corrupt lawman in 2017.

After almost four hours of deliberation, a federal jury convicted former La Joya Police Chief Geovani Hernandez on two counts of aiding and abetting the possession of drugs with intent to distribute, information released by the U.S. Attorney’s Office revealed. Hernandez’s most recent law enforcement job was as a sergeant with Progreso Police, where federal agents targeted him for investigation.

Hernandez’s conviction followed a four-day trial where jurors heard testimony from government informants and federal agents about Hernandez’s role in providing intelligence to drug smugglers, protecting drug loads, and helping cartel operators carry out raids in Texas homes.

Federal agents with Homeland Security Investigations initially arrested Hernandez in August 2017 after receiving information that Hernandez was working with the Gulf Cartel and bragged to an informant that he was a personal friend of a cartel boss in Mexico. The Texas cop told the informant that he needed money for an upcoming election.

Arturo Cuellar Jr., a man with a Gulf Cartel tattoo on his neck, told jurors that he paid Hernandez to help him steal drug loads in Texas as part of home invasions. Breitbart News reported on the type of crime where teams of gunmen storm homes searching for drugs. While the crime usually targets other drug traffickers, there have been cases where hitmen raid the wrong home. According to local journalist Dave Hendricks who live-tweeted the trial, Hernandez and Cuellar even appeared together in a narco-music (narcocorrido) video.

https://www.breitbart.com/border/2019/03/08/former-texas-border-police-chief-convicted-for-aiding-gulf-cartel/

Netanyahu’s threshold: how Israeli PM plans to use far-right to stay in power

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s surprise decision to strike an alliance with Israel’s far-right has unnerved many in Israel and abroad. The truth is more complicated but his goal stays the same: to stay in power by any means.

The looming early elections are seemingly making Israeli politicians more desperate in their quest to snatch precious extra votes. Netanyahu, however, appears to have gone ‘beyond the pale’ in his fight for political survival.

In late February, the prime minister provoked quite a stir by forming what was described as a partnership with two fringe far-right parties, in a move that rocked the Israeli communities both in the Jewish State and abroad, particularly in the US. The Israeli and American media swiftly reacted to this development, producing damning reports on the issue and publishing opinion pieces that accused the prime minister of “endorsing Jewish Fascism” and likened his move to “welcoming the Ku Klux Klan into an American administration.”

So why has the controversial long-time prime minister, who has already been mired in corruption scandals ahead of an early vote that he called for himself, taken such a drastic step?

Netanyahu might, in fact, just have nothing to lose, Amir Oren, a veteran Israeli journalist and political commenter, believes. “Netanyahu could not care less about his image right now. He is one step away from being indicted with corruption charges, including bribery,” he explained, adding that the prime minister is almost literally “fighting for survival, both politically and legally.”

In fact, Netanyahu’s Likud Party has not yet made an alliance with the far-right, at least not formally and not yet, the analysts believe. What he did was encourage the far-right parties to unite to clear the 3.25 percent election hurdle to get into the Israeli parliament – something they could not do on their own, for lack of support, Tatiana Karasova, the head of the Israel and Jewish Communities Department and an academic council member at the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, explained.

https://www.rt.com/news/453289-netanyahu-far-right-israel-elections/

Founder of massage parlor where Robert Kraft was arrested is a Trump donor, frequent Mar-a-Lago partygoer and White House guest who was seen watching the Patriots win the Super Bowl with the president

Orchids of Asia Day Spa founder Li Yang, 45, posted a photo of herself watching the Patriots win the Super Bowl with President Trump at Mar-a-Lago

Two weeks later, Patriots owner Robert Kraft would be charged with soliciting prostitution at the spa after a sex acts were allegedly performed on him

Yang, 45, is a frequent guest at Mar-a-Lago and has also visited The White House and Trump Tower multiple times since President Trump took office

She claim to be out of the business now, but would not comment on whether or not she knew about human trafficking practices at establishments she founded

'Leaders like you are the key to fulfilling our bold agenda to Make America Great Again,' wrote Trump in a note to Yang signed by himself and the First Lady

Yang donated $8,100 to the Trump Victory Fund in 2018, and on federal forms listed her occupation as Chairman of the Women's Charity Foundation

She owns three homes in neighboring counties in Florida and is still a registered cosmetologist

The Chinese entrepreneur who founded Orchids of Asia Day Spa & Massage was seen rooting for the New England Patriots at Mar-a-Lago alongside President Donald Trump early last month.

Li Yang shared a photo of herself and a friend sitting directly behind President Trump at the event, which took place just two weeks before Patriots owner Robert Kraft would be charged with two counts of misdemeanor solicitation of prostitution for incidents that allegedly transpired at that spa.

Kraft is accused of visiting the spa on two consecutive days in January, with a worker performing a manual sex act on the billionaire during his first appointment while another worker performed an oral sex act during his second sojourn.

He is planning to fight those charges and denies claims he was the recipient of any sexual act at the spa, despite police claiming there is video evidence in the case.

Kraft is one of Trump's closest friends, while Yang is one with deep pockets.

Records obtained by DailyMail.com show that she donated $8,100 to the Trump Victory Fund in 2018, listing her occupation on federal election forms as Chairman of the Women's Charity Foundation

She is also a Trump Republican, having beenann inactive voter with no declared political party for the decade before the current president ran for office.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6786845/Founder-massage-parlor-Robert-Kraft-arrested-Trump-donor-frequent-Mar-Lago-guest.html

Liz Cheney Slams 'Sham House Resolution Vote' Protecting Ilhan Omar

Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) slammed House Democrats on Thursday over a "sham" House resolution vote condemning hate, saying that the vote avoided condemning Rep. Ilhan Omar's (D-MN) anti-Semitic remarks.

"Today’s resolution vote was a sham put forward by Democrats to avoid condemning one of their own and denouncing vile anti-Semitism," Cheney wrote in a statement provided to The Daily Wire. "While I stand whole heartedly against discrimination outlined in this resolution, the language before the House today did not address the issue that is front and center."

"After several days of infighting and a near-rebellion by rank-and-file Democrats, as well as a major last-minute revision, the House on Thursday overwhelmingly passed a bipartisan resolution that only indirectly condemned Minnesota Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar's repeated 'anti-Semitic' and 'pernicious' comments – without mentioning her by name," Fox News reported. "The final vote was 407 to 23, with 23 Republicans voting no, and all Democrats voting yes. Iowa GOP Rep. Steve King, who faced his own bipartisan blowback for comments purportedly defending white nationalists, voted present."

"Rep. Omar’s comments were wrong and she has proven multiple times that she embodies a vile, hate-filled, anti-Semitic, anti-Israel bigotry," Cheney continued. "She deserves to be rebuked, by name, and removed from the House Foreign Affairs Committee so that there is no mistake about the values and priorities that the House stands for."

Omar sparked outrage over the weekend when she suggested that a Jewish member of Congress was expecting her to have dual loyalties to Israel.

"For Democratic leadership to kowtow to their radical members and refuse to offer legislative language that criticizes Rep. Omar’s statements in the strongest possible manner confirms what we already knew: that their party is controlled by far-left extremists who can’t even muster the courage to stand up to blatant anti-Semitism," Cheney concluded. "This is a sad day for the House and Democrats’ lack of action is fully responsible for bringing us to this unfortunate moment."

Fox News added that while Democrats postponed the vote as they continued to debate over the resolution, Rep. Ted Deutch (D-FL) slammed his own party for not condemning anti-Semitism.

"Why are we unable to singularly condemn anti-Semitism?" Deutch asked. "It feels like we're only able to call out the use of anti-Semitic language by a colleague of ours – any colleague of ours – if we're addressing all forms of hatred. It feels like we can't say it's anti-Semitism unless everyone agrees it's anti-Semitism."

Omar later released a press statement calling the resolution "historic," as if it was a win for her, and did not apologize for her statements.

"Today is historic on many fronts," Omar said. "It’s the first time we have voted on a resolution condemning Anti-Muslim bigotry in our nation’s history. Anti-Muslim crimes have increased 99% from 2014-2016 and are still on the rise."

"We are tremendously proud to be part of a body that has put forth a condemnation of all forms of bigotry including anti-Semitism, racism, and white supremacy," the statement added. "At a time when extremism is on the rise, we must explicitly denounce religious intolerance of all kinds and acknowledge the pain felt by all communities. Our nation is having a difficult conversation and we believe this is great progress."

https://www.dailywire.com/news/44393/liz-cheney-slams-sham-house-resolution-vote-ryan-saavedra

All about the shekels 'Genie Oil'

America is a broken wreck because of Jewish greed

These people waving their flags and glorying in America’s military depravities make me sick. They cheer the ruthless murder of innocent people based on the business projections of the oil companies and the paranoiac manipulations of The Chosen People.

Throw in America’s longest war (Afghanistan) to continue distributing heroin to the world in order to fund all these hired terrorists necessitating American bombing and slaughter to please and profit the Jewish billionaires who desire this kind of messed up world.

Americans make a big deal out of pretending to salute their brave veterans but ignore the fact that 7300 veterans committed suicide in 2014. That’s exactly 20 every single day. It would be poetic justice to see the cowards who devise these wars (but never fight them) be the ones who kill themselves. The world would be better off.

They kill 40,000 innocents in Yemen with cholera and call it supporting an ally in the Middle East, an ally which murders foreign journalists yet faces no criticism because it feeds the West’s insatiable appetite for oil.

The reason there is this constant barrage of anti-Semitism legislation and propaganda spewing forth is to keep the public from realizing the criminal nature of Jewish financial activities, or that the entire American population is being deliberately poisoned in a number of ways.

This is your country. And it’s a psychopathic killer. You never realized this was the case because of the Jewish ownership of U.S. mass media, slanting the news in favor of Jews and covering up Jewish crimes for more than a hundred years now, always made us Yanks feel proud as we slaughtered innocents around the world.

But now something worse is happening. The U.S. government is killing its own citizens.

https://www.johnkaminski.org/index.php/john-kaminski-american-writer-and-critic-2/202-allegiance-to-a-horror-show

Are rap lyrics about killing cops protected free speech? The Supreme Court will have to decide

In 2014, a Pittsburgh rapper was convicted of issuing terroristic threats and intimidating witnesses with violent rap lyrics that specifically targeted police officers who had arrested him in the past.

The rapper, Jamal Knox (stage name Mayhem Mal), is still in prison. His lawyers are appealing the convictions related to his lyrics, saying they were never meant to be taken literally as threats.

His case will now go before the federal Supreme Court, which will have to decide whether the lyrics to Knox's song "F*** the Police" are protected under the First Amendment, The New York Times reported.

How did we get here?

Knox was arrested in 2012 for gun and drug possession by Pittsburgh Police Officer Michael Kosko and Detective Daniel Zeltner. Both were scheduled to testify against Knox in court regarding the charges.

While the charges were pending, Knox and the co-defendant in the case, Rashee Beasley, recorded "F*** the Police." Here are some key lyrics that contributed to the conviction on threat charges:

"This first verse is for Officer Zeltner and all you fed force b****es

And Mr. Kosko, you can s my d you keep knocking on my riches"

"I keep a forty on my waist, that'll wet you like a mop n***a

Clip filled to the tippy top with some cop killas

F*** the police, they bring us no peace

That's why I keep my heat when I'm roamin' through these streets"

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court upheld the conviction, ruling that there was proof Knox intended to issue threats.

High-profile rappers support Knox's case

A group of rappers including big names like Chance the Rapper, Meek Mill, 21 Savage, Fat Joe, Killer Mike and Yo Gotti filed a brief in the case, which argued that Knox was convicted by people who lacked an awareness of rap music.

"[The brief] illustrates how a person unfamiliar with what today is the nation's most dominant musical genre or one who hears music through the auditory lens of older genres such as jazz, country, or symphony, may mistakenly interpret a rap song as a true threat of violence and may falsely conclude a rapper intended to convey a true threat of violence when he did not," the brief reads.

Knox's lawyer, R. Stanton Jones, also claimed that rap music by black artists is more likely to being misinterpreted than music of other genres, or even music by white rappers such as Eminem, who has a catalogue of extremely and intentionally violent and offensive lyrics.

"It's an alarming trend, often with devastating consequences for the young men of color who are almost always targeted in these cases," Stanton said according to The New York Times.

http://www.stationgossip.com/2019/03/are-rap-lyrics-about-killing-cops.html

Kahane in, Arabs out: Israeli election panel disqualifies Palestinian party calling for equality, approves racist Jewish Power leader

Just hours after chairman of the far right Otzma Yehudit, or “Jewish Power” party, Michael Ben Ari was approved by Israel’s Central Election Committee to run for the Knesset on Wednesday, the same committee disqualified the joint Arab slate Balad-United Arab List from running.

The decisions were made despite recommendations from Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit who said Ben Ari should be disqualified, while the Balad-UAL list should be allowed to run. It is expected to be appealed to the Supreme Court.

In addition to the disqualification of Balad-UAL, the committee ruled to prevent Ofer Cassif, a Jewish representative in Hadash, from running. The claim against Cassif was, that he “denied the existence of Israel as a Jewish state”, and in the case of UAL-Balad it also included “supporting terror” (Haaretz, Hebrew).

Ben Ari, who once said that those speak against Jews should be killed, petitioned against both Hadash-Ta’al and Balad-UAL. MK David Bitan also petitioned on behalf of Likud against Balad-UAL, while Yisrael Beitenu chairman Avigdor Lieberman petitioned against Cassif. The petitioners claimed both lists and Cassif supported terror and ruled out Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish and Democratic state. Mendelblit said he opposed all the petitions.

It is important to note these allegations should not be taken seriously. If they were serious, Mandelblit would support them. Instead they should be seen as a punishment for calling for a “just, democratic equal” state, like Cassif explicitly does.

Prior to the committees decisions, Mandelblit had voiced his opposition to the petitions against Cassif, instead saying that Ben Ari should be banned from running on the grounds of incitement and racism.

The accusations against Cassif and Balad-UAL of “support for terror” seemed to be ‘substantiated’ by Avigdor Lieberman, who said:

Whoever says that the Chief of Staff is a war criminal and that Israel is committing ethnic cleansing in the Gaza strip, must not sit in the Israeli Knesset. His place is together with the rest of the Knesset terror supporters, in the parliament of Hamas in the Gaza strip or in the Iranian Majles in Tehran.

Lieberman expressed a clear expectation that the Supreme Court would not interfere in the decision.

Prime Minister Netanyahu added:

Whoever supports terror will not be in the Israeli Knesset.

The usage of the word “terror” doesn’t have to be factual, it can be completely selective.

https://mondoweiss.net/2019/03/disqualifies-palestinian-approves/

>>5576400

US gov is Israel first and second