Deep State FBI Offers New Fitness App — That Spies on Your Location and Downloads Your Stored Information
In February the FBI started offering a new fitness app that “takes you to the next level.”
The FBI advertised their app as an informative and interactive way to track your fitness routine.
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2019/03/wow-deep-state-fbi-offers-new-fitness-app-that-spies-on-your-location-and-downloads-your-stored-information/
The Rise Of Totalitarian Technology
Is technological progress bad for human autonomy? That’s the question posed by Shoshana Zuboff in “The Age of Surveillance Capitalism,” a book that recounts the ways in which corporations and governments are using technology to influence our behavior. Zuboff is just the latest to chime in on “totalitarian technology” (or “total tech”), a term that describes devices and algorithms by which individuals forfeit their privacy and autonomy for the benefit of either themselves or some third party.
In the United States, total tech can be sorted into three different categories, or “spheres” of life: consumer services, the workplace, and government and politics.
Is there such a thing as too much technology?
Total tech is pervasive in the increasingly data-driven world of retail. Many shopping apps tap into your phone’s GPS to access your location, allowing retailers to send you advertisements the moment you’re walking past their storefront. Personalized pricing enables retailers to charge you the exact maximum that you would be willing to pay for a given product. Your personal data isn’t safe at home, either: Digital assistants like Amazon Alexa store your query history, meaning they know everything from your unique shopping history to your travel patterns to your music preferences.
Employers are also using total tech to track and monitor their workers. A growing number of companies use biometric time cardsthat scan an employee’s fingerprint, hand shape, retina, or iris. UPS outfits its trucks with sensors that track the opening and closing of doors, the engine of the vehicle, and the clicking of seat belts. Amazon is patenting an electronic wristband that would be used to track hand movements—making sure, for instance, that a warehouse worker stays busy moving boxes. Global freelancing platform Upwork runs a digital “Work Diary” program that counts keystrokes and takes screenshots of workers’ monitors.
Uptake of total tech has been particularly striking in government and politics. The New Orleans Police Department runs a “predictive policing” program that uses Big Data to compile a heat list of potential criminal offenders. The TSA operates its own total tech program, called Quiet Skies, which monitors and flags travelers based on “suspicious” behavior patterns. Travelers can land themselves on the Quiet Skies list by changing their clothes in the restroom, being the last person to board their flight, or even inspecting their reflection in a terminal window. More nefariously, software developed at Stanford University enables anyone to manipulate video footage in real time. Now, anyone with a grudge could alter the facial expressions of a prominent politician making a speech, and then dub in new audio that completely changes the speech’s contents.
https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-03-10/rise-totalitarian-technology
Israel hammers Gaza for 3rd night in ‘vigorous response’ ordered by Netanyahu
Israel continues to pound Hamas targets in retaliation for cross-border attacks from Gaza, as the IDF carries out a “very vigorous response” against the militants, ordered by the Prime Minister as he gears up for his re-election.
IDF fighter jets and other aircraft struck several Hamas targets, including a military compound in the north of the strip and two naval vessels belonging to the group, the army said in a statement. There were no immediate reports of Palestinian casualties from the strikes which occurred at around 1:30am local time on Sunday.
The military said the raids, carried out for a third night in a row, was launched in response to mortar shell attack in southern Israel on Saturday night, as well as “continuing terror activities from the Strip, including balloon explosives” in the last several days.
Reiterating that Hamas bears responsibility for everything that goes on inside the Gaza Strip, the IDF vowed to act “vigorously” against any attacks or provocation, a day after thousands of Palestinians marked the 50th week of the Great Return March protests.
Cross-border tensions along the border fence have witnessed an uptick ahead of the Knesset elections on April 9, prompting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to take a decisive stand this week. “Hamas must understand that [the IDF] will respond to any manifestation of aggression with double the force,” the Prime Minister explained on Thursday, vowing a “very vigorous response” from Israel.
https://www.rt.com/news/453444-israel-strikes-gaza-attacks/
yesterdays notes
look at their links to Dyncorp or search previous digs
Three Russians were onboard crashed Ethiopian plane, airline says
Nationals of 33 countries are on the lists of those killed
MOSCOW, March 10. /TASS/. Three Russian nationals were onboard the Ethiopian Airlines’ plane, which crashed on Sunday morning shortly after taking off from Addis Ababa to Kenya’s Nairobi, the airline’s representatives told a news conference.
Nationals of 33 countries are on the lists of those killed. The plane carried 149 passengers and eight crew members.
According to the Ethiopian Airlines Group, among those dead are 18 Canadians, 9 Ethiopians, 8 Italians, 8 Chinese, 8 Americans, 7 British, 7 French, 6 Egyptians, 5 Dutch, 4 New Zealanders, 4 Indians, 4 Slovaks, 3 Austrians, 3 Swedes, 3 Russians, 2 Moroccans, 2 Spanish, 2 Israelis and one Belgian. Three more passengers had UN passports and their nationality is being identified.
The Boeing 737 en route from Ethiopia’s capital of Addis Ababa to Kenya’s Nairobi crashed on Sunday morning near Debre Zeit in central Ethiopia. The plane lost contact six minutes after takeoff, the airline said. There were 149 passengers and 8 crew members onboard the plane. There are no survivors in the crash.
http://tass.com/emergencies/1048048
Viktor Orbán: “Hungary is a Christian country and not a a place for multiculturalism”
In an interview in a book published by French politician and essayist Philippe de Villiers, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán says there is no place for multiculturalism in Hungary.
“What outrages our opponents the most is the fact that in our Constitution we have written that Hungary has Christian roots, that here there is no place for multiculturalism, that a child has the right to a mother and a father, and that our nation has the right to defend its borders.”
Orbán stated that the Hungarian people have long-standing traditions of resistance to “limited sovereignty”: “First there were the rulers of the Holy Roman Empire, then the khans of the vast Mongol Empire, followed by the sultans of the Ottoman Empire; and then the Soviet comrades and their tanks. All of them wanted to put an end to Hungary”, he said, “but mysteriously the Hungarian people have survived in a boundless sea of Germans and Slavs.”multimulti
Asked if he is concerned today about the danger of national dissolution, Orbán said that he sees disintegration of the EU as a greater danger, with a line dividing Europe into two parts – one which is becoming Islamised, and one which does not want to become Islamised.
He outlined the choices thus: “If they leave us alone and do not force Islamisation upon us, Europe can live on as a club of free nations. If, however, they force us to accept the UN’s migration compact or the decisions of the European Commission, thereby aligning us with their permissive Western policy, disintegration cannot be ruled out.”
The Prime Minister continued: “For us the accusation that we are not fully European is a cruel joke. When after half a century of Soviet occupation and communist oppression we finally regained our freedom, when the West opened its arms to embrace us, we thought we had returned to our own kind – a family of free nations resting on the pillars of Christian culture, national identity and human dignity.”
“Not even in our worst nightmares did we think that, twenty-nine years after our enchained nations gained freedom and the continent reunited, Europe would again be vulnerable to imperial ambitions – those which this time do not originate outside its borders, but within them.”
He added that Europe is not a melting pot, but the home of nations.
https://voiceofeurope.com/2019/03/viktor-orban-hungary-is-a-christian-country-and-not-a-a-place-for-multiculturalism/
UK: Twenty Arrested for Child Sexual Exploitation in Wakefield, Yorkshire
Nineteen men and one woman have been arrested on suspicion of perpetrating sexual offences against two underage girls in Wakefield, West Yorkshire.
The suspects are alleged to have victimised two girls between 2014 and 2016 when they were aged between 14 and 15, according to the BBC.
The backgrounds of the suspects and victims have not been made available for publication, and the exact nature of the alleged offences — first reported in 2016 — have not been disclosed at this time.
“We have now arrested and bailed 19 men and a woman as part of an ongoing operation into the child sexual exploitation of two females in the Wakefield District,” confirmed Detective Chief Inspector Fran Naughton, who has been leading the investigation, an official statement issued by West Yorkshire Police.
“This large scale enquiry will be ongoing for some time and we will update residents when we can and it is legally appropriate to do so,” Naughton added.
“I fully appreciate the concern news of these arrests will cause in communities within the Wakefield area and can assure residents that the force is very experienced at managing investigations of this kind.
“Wakefield, just like other district’s in the force, has a dedicated team of experienced safeguarding officers who work to protect those at risk and conduct enquiries to identify and prosecute those seeking to cause harm.
“We work closely with partners in local authorities, charities and partner agencies to support victims, and are, of course, doing so in this case.
“As always, we continue to urge all victims of sexual abuse whether recent or historic, to report it to the police.
“We realise the trauma victims suffer as a result of these dreadful offences and can promise those who came forwards will be listened to and supported by trained, dedicated professionals who want to deliver justice for them.”
https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2019/03/10/uk-twenty-arrested-for-child-sexual-exploitation-in-wakefield-yorkshire/
Syrian Opposition Will Meet In Turkey Soon To Legitimize Al-Qaeda: Reports
Major groups of the Syrian opposition will hold an extensive meeting in the Turkish city of Antioch on March 14 to take important decisions on the situation in Syria.
The meeting will include the National Syrian Army (NSA), the National Front for Liberation (NFL), the Syrian Higher Negotiation Committee (HNC), the National Coalition for Syrian Revolution and Opposition Forces, The opposition’s delegation to the Astana talks and the Syrian Islamic Council (SIC).
Elaph, a London-based Arabian newspaper, reported that a series of high-level decisions and measures are expected to be announced at the end of the meeting. The outlet didn’t provide any additional information.
However, a recent report by the Syrian Enab Baladi news outlet predicted that opposition forces will announce steps to merge the Turkish-backed Syrian Interim Government with the Salvation Government, which is run by Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS).
HTS, commonly known as the al-Nusra Front, was the main branch of al-Qaeda in Syria up until 2017. Back then, the terrorist group leader, Abu Mohammad al-Julani, announced that the group has parted ways with al-Qaeda.
Despite this announcement, Ayman al-Zawahiri said in late 2017 that al-Qaeda has never released HTS from its pledge of allegiance. Furthermore, al-Qaeda-affiliated groups in Syria continued to work under HTS protection.
Even the U.S. rejected this rebranding scheme. Washington’s embassy in Damascus warned from cooperating with the so-called the Salvation Government.
This new attempt to legitimize HTS and its “government” was not a surprise. Two months ago, a source in the HNC told Sputnik news agency that Turkey is working to transform HTS into a political party.
“Turkey is trying to handle the Nusra matter in Syria’s north, and they [the Turks] want to make this group a political group, like Hezbollah in Lebanon,” the source said.
These attempts to legitimize al-Qaeda will not likely settle well with the Damascus government and its allies, especially Moscow. Even the U.S. and its Arab allies will not likely tolerate such step, because it would damage their allies in the region, especially Kurdish forces in Syria.
Local observers believe that Turkey is planning to de facto divide Syria by placing its northern part under the control of a terrorist group. This would kill chances for a political settlement of the conflict.
https://southfront.org/syrian-opposition-will-meet-in-turkey-soon-to-legitimize-al-qaeda-reports/
Merkel Govt May Have Let In Thousands of War Criminal Migrants
A damning new report has claimed that since 2014, the government of German Chancellor Angela Merkel has allowed thousands of war criminal migrants to enter the country.
The new report claims that from 2014 to 2019, the German government not only let in around 5,000 migrants who were subject to investigation for violating international law, but only investigated a handful of them itself, German tabloid Bild reports.
The paper states that the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF) tipped the government off to around 5,000 migrants they believed had been involved in war crimes or other crimes against humanity.
Despite a large number of reports, only 129 migrants were actually investigated by the government, according to data from the German Interior Ministry that was requested by the libertarian Free Democratic Party (FDP).
FDP politician Linda Teuteberg commented on the shocking data, saying: “War criminals must not get protection in Germany. I have doubts as to whether the Federal Government has always pursued this with the necessary seriousness in recent years.”
The Interior Ministry has claimed that the cases were not ignored but rather they had been noted and were awaiting further investigation and possible future prosecution.
Since the height of the migrant crisis in 2015, many have been concerned over the possibility of criminals and terrorists using the crisis as a way to enter Europe.
Several reports have claimed that groups like the Islamic State have purposely used the crisis to smuggle in their fighters with several arrests of ISIS fighters being made in Germany and other countries.
War criminals have also been discovered among the migrants and several have faced trial in various European countries.
In Sweden, the government has seen a surge in reports of war criminals since 2014. The Swedish Migration Board has claimed that they had received 14 reports in 2014 but it had risen to 79 in 2017.
https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2019/03/10/report-merkel-govt-may-have-let-in-thousands-of-war-criminal-migrants/
YouTube terminates Middle East Observer after almost 10 years online
After almost 10 years online, over 250 videos, almost 13,000 subscribers, and about 8 million total video views, YouTube has terminated the Middle East Observer (MEO) channel on its platform.
Although perhaps MEO became best known for its video translations of regional political actors such as Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, its work was certainly not limited to that. Middle East Observer sought to provide its viewers with reliable English translations on politics, religion, and culture from the Middle East more broadly, with a particular focus on media from key states such as Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Iran.
The termination of MEO’s channel came after several months of seemingly routine ‘violation’ emails sent to us by YouTube, the taking down of various videos of ours (most of which were uploaded several years ago) and the imposition of ‘channel strikes’ accompanied by emails about how we could better uphold its rather vague and in many ways hegemonic ‘Community Guidelines’. We gradually realised that no matter what measures we took, it would not satisfy YouTube’s ‘Guidelines’, as the platform’s architecture and policies increasingly moved towards the censorship of alternative news and views.
This censorship process against MEO began several years earlier, when YouTube deactivated our ability to monetise the absolute majority of our videos, classifying them as “Non-advertiser friendly”. Needless to say, this demonetisation regime has increasingly been criticised by many observers and major ‘YouTubers’ in recent years. They argued that the “Non-advertiser friendly” label was deeply ideological, as it worked to effectively censor (no funds = less ability to produce content) alternative and non-mainstream narratives while continuing to portray YouTube as a democratic and transparent media platform.
To bypass reliance on YouTube advertising revenue, we tried various options over the years, the last of which being an up-until-now successful experience on Patreon (here’s our page), where after only a few months 17 of our global viewers/readers joined the highly flexible crowd sourcing platform to fund our work and keep it going. Truly without their support we would not have been able to continue producing translations consistently (by all means support us to help us expand our work too).
Nevertheless, we believe that the termination of our channel today is a great blow to the coverage on YouTube of voices, news, and perspectives found on Arab and Islamic media that are rarely covered – or even purposefully silenced – by Western mainstream media.
YouTube’s message today is clear: the production, uploading, and viewing of genuinely critical and alternative ideas and viewpoints is not welcome.
Thankfully we at MiddleEastObserver.net have been anticipating this scenario for many years, and especially in the last 6 months. For now, these are the best ways to continue to follow and support our work:
– Support us financially (even with $1/month) on Patreon
– You won’t miss out on any content if you subscribe to our Website Mailing List
– We will now be uploading our video content on our Daily Motion channel
– Like our Facebook page
– Follow us on Twitter
Best wishes,
Middle East Observer
https://www.blacklistednews.com/article/71517/youtube-terminates-middle-east-observer-after-almost-10-years.html
The Arms Race Between Gold Counterfeiters and Bullion Testers Is Heating Up
In late February 2019, we came across the first sample of fake bullion that was optimized to pass testing using electrical conductivity measurements (ECM).
ECM testing machines are one of the most effective retail testing tools for high purity gold or silver bullion as they are affordable, easy to use and allow for testing of packaged bars in blister packs without opening the packaging.
The bar in question was successfully sold to a pawn shop in Singapore after passing the ECM tests.
Fake gold bars are usually made of gold-plated tungsten because the density of tungsten, which is 19.25 times that of water, is very similar to gold’s density of 19.30. This makes tungsten the most suitable metal to create counterfeit gold bars whose dimensions and weight are very close to gold.
ECM testing machines have been very effective testing tools in detecting such tungsten bars because tungsten has a much lower conductivity compared to gold (18.52 vs 44.7 MS/m). Thus, as ECM testing machines have become more mainstream, it became easy to detect gold-plated tungsten bars.
With the prevalence of ECM testing machines, counterfeiters are now optimizing fake gold bars to fool testers. These bars were made of about 90% copper which has a theoretical conductivity of 59.1 MS/m which is one of the few metals that has a higher conductivity than gold. By carefully mixing copper with other lower conductivity metals and impurities, it is easy to reproduce gold’s theoretical conductivity of around 44.7 and pass the ECM test.
While this is a cause for concern, optimizing to pass ECM tests mean that the altered bars are physically twice as big as real gold bars of the same weight because copper is less dense, being about 9 times the density of water, compared to gold’s 19.3. These fake gold bars can easily be identified by people familiar with gold. Placing these gold-plated copper bars next to real gold bars would make it very obvious that these are fake gold bars.
https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-03-02/arms-race-between-gold-counterfeiters-and-bullion-testers-heating
Poroshenko is Preparing to Flee Ukraine, says ex-minister
Former Minister of Economy of Ukraine, Vladimir Lanovoy, said that the current President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko is preparing to run abroad, to flee, in the event of his defeat in the elections.
In his article for the Glavred magazine, the ex-minister explained that Poroshenko himself was aware that he would not be able to remain as president for a second term. And in this case, the flight from the country is for him the only way to avoid criminal prosecution.
Published on: Mar 9, 2019 @ 19:33
The author of the article is confident that the head of the Ukrainian state deliberately delays the fighting in the Donbass for the greatest personal benefit. The sluggish conflict in the southeast brings him a huge profit due to embezzlement from the defense budget, Lanovoy believes.
The theft of budget funds on deals with military equipment, weapons, construction of military and domestic facilities for the military is corruption carried out like a mafia clan with the participation of representatives of the NSDC and on the blood of theArmed Forces of Ukraine. No matter how much military equipment and weapons could be made additionally for the stolen money – and this despite the fact that there are not enough funds allocated for this purpose from the defense budget.
This information makes it necessary to critically assess the ability and desire of Poroshenko and his surrounding team to raise our defensive capability and achieve the restoration of our sovereignty over the territories seized by the aggressor.
According to him, corruption flourishes in the field of defense contracts, most of which are concluded only with certain companies. At the same time, smuggled spare parts are purchased in Russia using “gray market” schemes. As a result, the army remains weak, technically unsecured, morale is devastated.
At the same time, the former minister is convinced that the president does not doubt that his defeat is coming and that he will have to answer for many things, in particular, for the terrible state of the army and corruption.
Rumors that Poroshenko isn’t even seriously campaigning for the presidency and are already “packing his bags” are constantly being fueled by the media by his political opponents. Earlier his alleged fleeing was warned of by the candidate for the presidency of Ukraine, Anatoly Gritsenko .
https://www.fort-russ.com/2019/03/poroshenko-is-preparing-to-flee-ukraine-says-ex-minister/
Ex-Mossad agents harass US students, BDS activists
In September 2017, Palestine Legal attorneys received nearly 30 emails from students, teachers and even librarians who were justifiably concerned about an anonymous message they had received.
The emails contained threats from outlawbds.com that recipients had been “marked” and “identified as a BDS promoter” and had a “limited window of opportunity to cease and desist or face the consequences of your actions in legal proceedings.”
The origin of the attack was a mystery.
Thanks to February exposés in The New Yorker, however, we now know the origin – Psy-Group, a defunct Israeli private intelligence firm.
Additionally, we have further confirmation that former Israeli intelligence agents were paid to spy on US students and activists engaged in BDS – boycott, divestment and sanctions – campaigns.
The organization responsible compiled dossiers on activists and published a Canary Mission-like blacklist site, as well as defamatory sites that attempted to discredit Muslim activists, among others.
The New Yorker first published an article by Adam Entous and Ronan Farrow on Psy-Group, which used former Israeli military, intelligence and governmental advisers to influence politics around the US.
Psy-Group, which reportedly ceased operations in 2018 following an FBI investigation into possible 2016 US election interference reported on previously by The Electronic Intifada, used shadowy and coercive methods to attempt to undermine the Palestine solidarity movement in the US.
Psy-Group raised at least $1.2 million to conduct dark web surveillance, in-person intimidation, online blacklists and smear campaigns against Palestinian rights activists.
According to The New Yorker, Psy-Group asked private donors for an additional $1.3 million in funding in 2017 for “Project Butterfly” and told potential donors that a successful campaign would “make it look as though Israel, and the Jewish-American community, had nothing to do with the effort.”
The overall goal, according to a company document (see below), was to “destabilize and disrupt anti-Israel movements from within.”
Some donors asked the group to target students who supported BDS campaigns on campuses where their children studied. Project Butterfly concentrated its efforts on up to 10 college campuses, including the University of California, Berkeley.
The second article, authored solely by Entous, focuses on Psy-Group’s work against Palestinian rights activists.
It profiles UC Berkeley lecturer, Zaytuna College professor and American Muslims for Palestine (AMP) founder Hatem Bazian, who in May 2017 found fliers of himself saying “He supports terror” outside his home.
Around the same time, Psy-Group advertised to a potential partner, the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, that it had compiled intelligence dossiers on nine Palestinian rights activists, including a lecturer at UC Berkeley, presumably Bazian (see second document below).
More
https://electronicintifada.net/content/ex-mossad-agents-harass-us-students-bds-activists/26846
Biochemical Engineer Drops Bombshell Facts About Measles & The MMR Vaccine In Washington
The Facts:
Washington State Passed a bill limiting vaccine exemptions for the MMR vaccine for children. The Senate measure now seeks to remove exemptions for any required school vaccinations. Biochemical Engineer Dr. Brian Hooker explains why this is a problem.
Reflect On:
Why are the points made by vaccine awareness advocates never acknowledged or brought up by mainstream media?
The Washington State House just passed a bill eliminating philosophical or personal exemptions from the measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine. The bill is attempting to remove these exemptions and make the vaccination completely mandatory for all school children. The lower chamber approved the measure in a 57-40 vote, according to The Associated Press. The bill will now head to the state Senate, which is expected to vote on a broader measure related to vaccines in the next week.
The Seattle Times reports that the vote “comes in in the midst of an outbreak that has sickened at least 71 people, mostly children age 10 and younger.”
The measure is sponsored by a lawmaker from that region, Republican Rep. Paul Harris of Vancouver, who said that the measure “will make our communities safer.” There were, of course, representatives opposed to this like Republican Rep. Norma Smith of Clinton, who said that most of the communication she’s gotten from voters in her district was in opposition to the bill. She urged that it’s important to “recognize that this is a complex issue and that we need to respect the decisions made by families. For us to take an action which doesn’t allow them to have a voice, I believe is wrong.”
What nobody is acknowledging is the fact that these outbreaks are happening in highly vaccinated populations. Vaccination coverage of MMR has not dropped, so why is the media saying that parents aren’t vaccinating and therefore measles is making a comeback? Washington State has a very high vaccination coverage for MRR. See for yourself, here.
Furthermore, the mainstream never seems to acknowledge the fact that measles outbreaks have occurred in heavily vaccinated populations throughout history. For example, a study published in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases – whose authorship includes scientists working for the Bureau of Immunization, New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Atlanta, GA – looked at evidence from the 2011 New York measles outbreak, which showed that individuals with prior evidence of measles vaccination and vaccine immunity were both capable of being infected with measles and infecting others with it (secondary transmission). The study concluded that “measles may occur in vaccinated individuals, but secondary transmission from such individuals has not been documented.” (source)
“This is the first report of measles transmission from a twice vaccinated individual. The clinical presentation and laboratory data of the index were typical of measles in a naïve individual. Secondary cases had robust anamnestic antibody responses. No tertiary cases occurred despite numerous contacts. This outbreak underscores the need for thorough epidemiologic and laboratory investigation of suspected measles cases regardless of vaccination status.”
https://www.collective-evolution.com/2019/03/10/biochemical-engineer-drops-bombshell-facts-about-measles-the-mmr-vaccine-in-washington/
IT’S TIME TO TELL THE TRUTH ABOUT CRITICISM OF ISRAEL
The House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed a resolution Thursday condemning anti-Semitism, anti-Muslim discrimination, white supremacy and other forms of hate, following a week of debate among congressional Democrats. The controversy began after some lawmakers accused Democratic Congressmember Ilhan Omar of invoking anti-Semitic tropes while questioning U.S. foreign policy on Israel. The House leadership initially drafted a resolution condemning anti-Semitism in what was seen as a direct rebuke of Omar. But many progressive Democrats said Omar, one of the first two Muslim Congresswoman in U.S. history, was unfairly being singled out. The split within the Democratic Party forced the leadership to withdraw its initial resolution and then present a much broader one. Congressmember Ilhan Omar voted for and praised the new resolution in a joint statement with fellow Muslim lawmakers Rashida Tlaib of Michigan and André Carson of Indiana. We speak with Gideon Levy, Haaretz columnist and member of the newspaper’s editorial board. His latest piece is headlined “Keep It Up, Ilhan Omar.”
https://desertpeace.wordpress.com/2019/03/10/its-time-to-tell-the-truth-about-criticism-of-israel/
Mysterious Florida woman busted for voter fraud was registered Democrat: cops
A 71-year-old woman who prosecutors say used a counterfeit naturalization certificate to vote in at least five Alachua County elections was arrested Wednesday.
Aida Xilomen Rodriguez de Shehab, who authorities say is not a U.S. citizen, faces five counts of being an unqualified elector willfully voting and four counts of submitting false voter registration information, according to the charging document filed Feb. 25 by State Attorney Bill Cervone.
Rodriguez de Shehab, a registered Democrat, voted in elections — possibly in more than one county — over several years, Cervone said. His office was alerted to the case after receiving a tip from investigators in Duval County, where de Shehab is now registered to vote.
Rodriguez de Shehab repeatedly voted while knowing she wasn’t qualified, Cervone said, but the charging document does not indicate that she voted in the same election twice.
In the charging document, Cervone said she voted illegally in Alachua County elections on Aug. 28, 2018, March 20, 2018, March 14, 2017, and Aug. 30, 2016. She also voted illegally in Alachua County on Nov. 8, 2016, which was the U.S. presidential election.
www.ocala.com/news/20190307/prosecutor-woman-71-used-fake-citizenship-papers-to-vote
Aipac President Quits After Boasting of Influence over Baker and Clinton
November 5, 1992
The president of AIPAC has resigned after revelations of a taped telephone conversation in which he falsely claimed to have cut a secret deal with the secretary of state and to have influenced the Clinton campaign on prospective Cabinet appointments.
The tape was made without the knowledge of the AIPAC president, David Steiner, and was sent to The Washington Times, which published excerpts of it in a story that appeared Wednesday.
The incident is an embarrassing blow to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, which has been attacked in the news media over the years for being politically heavy-handed. The powerful pro-Israel lobby also has been stung in recent months by charges from Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin that its confrontational efforts to secure loan guarantees for Israel were counterproductive.
According to a confidential memo obtained by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that was sent Tuesday to AIPAC’s executive committee, Steiner received a telephone call about two weeks ago from a man who identified himself as a “major potential political activist.”
In an apparent effort to “encourage him to become more involved,” Steiner told the caller stories about his own political involvement and “presented an inflated characterization of his contacts and dealings with major public figures,” according to the memo.
The AIPAC president claimed to have had a meeting with James Baker while he was secretary of state that Steiner said secured a $1 billion strategic cooperation deal for Israel. He also said he had negotiated with the Clinton campaign about who would become secretary of state in a Clinton administration.
Steiner was unaware the conversation was being taped by the caller, a New York businessman named Harry Katz. Katz has been described in media reports as a man with a propensity to sue individuals and Jewish agencies.
After Steiner learned a tape of the conversation had been sent to The Washington Times, he issued a resignation statement, dated Oct. 30. In it, he apologized to Clinton, Baker and AIPAC, calling it “a difficult and painful moment.”
“In an effort to encourage and impress what I thought was a potential political activist,” he said, “I made statements which went beyond overzealousness and exaggeration and were simply and totally untrue.”
https://www.jta.org/1992/11/05/archive/aipac-president-quits-after-boasting-of-influence-over-baker-and-clinton
What’s going on with the dying California sea animals?
Sick marine mammals turning up on California beaches in droves
LOS ANGELES — As record rains have poured down on California’s coasts, sending thousands of gallons of runoff into the ocean and dumping debris and trash onto the beaches, dozens of sickened marine mammals have been turning up along the state’s shores this winter.
Rescues of unhealthy seals and sea lions have nearly tripled for this time of year in Orange County, according to the Pacific Marine Mammal Center, which this week took in its 41st pinniped since the year began.
“It’s been a little bit of a whirlwind,” said Krysta Higuchi, a spokeswoman for the Pacific Marine Mammal Center in Laguna Beach. “We’re going through fish, funds and medical supplies faster than we expected. It is a strain on all of us here.”
The center says it’s normal for the number of stranded pinnipeds to go up near the end of March, but this year the organization has rescued a large number of sea lions along with three elephant seals much earlier than usual, and most are 8-month-old pups.
Sea lion pups are typically beached because their mothers are unhealthy and cannot properly feed them, or they were strong enough to wean early and then are unable to find food on their own, according to Sharon Melin, a wildlife biologist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
The pups rescued have been dry, malnourished and emaciated, weighing half as much as they should, the marine center said.
While the exact reason for the increase in the number of strandings this year is unknown, Higuchi said it could be tied to warmer ocean waters caused by an El Nino weather pattern or excess stormwater runoff from all of this winter’s rains.
After months of flirting, conditions for El Nino came together in the central Pacific in mid-February, but forecasters say the pattern is weak.
For an El Nino to be declared, a certain atmospheric circulation pattern has to form over warm ocean-surface temperatures. The ocean temperatures have been elevated for months, but the circulation pattern hadn’t caught on until last month, said Michelle L’Heureux, a meteorologist with the National Weather Services’ Climate Prediction Center.
Warm waters often reduce the amount of bait fish in the ocean, such as sardines and anchovies, which larger marine mammals eat. The smaller forage fish tend to swim in cold water, so during an El Nino event the fish may be diving deeper or farther out than usual – out of the reach of young sea lions, said Melin, who studies the overall population of sea lions in the state.
She recently returned from a trip to the Channel Islands off the coast of Southern California and found a strong population of healthy sea lion mothers there, which seems to indicate the newly weaned pups aren’t finding enough food, leading to their strandings.
In addition to the higher-than-normal pinniped rescues, researchers are seeing an increase in the number of stranded dolphins.
https://www.dailyrepublic.com/all-dr-news/wires/state-nation-world/sick-marine-mammals-turning-up-on-california-beaches-in-droves/
yep, early picks look like it was blown up in piece when it hit the ground