Buttigieg meets with Hillary Clinton

Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg sat down with Hillary Clinton on Tuesday, sources tell The Hill.

Buttigieg, the mayor of South Bend, Ind., who has been recently surging in the polls, requested the meeting, the sources say.

He's the latest 2020 contender to meet with Clinton, the 2016 Democratic nominee, as she offers advice on what she learned from her race. Others who have met with her include Sens. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Cory Booker (D-N.J.).

“She has a lot to share and is happy to give advice to the 2020 candidates,” one Clinton ally said.

The former secretary of State met with Buttigieg at her office in New York, a source said.

Clinton has not endorsed anyone in the race and her allies don’t expect an endorsement to come until at least the end of the primary.

The development follows reports that Buttigieg has gained the support of several top fundraisers who worked for Clinton during her presidential bid. Among them was Steve Elmendorf, who bundled more than $100,000 for her in 2016.

https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/441632-buttigieg-meets-with-hillary-clinton

How Companies and Allies of One Powerful Democrat Got $1.1 Billion in Tax Breaks

CAMDEN, N.J. — On a blustery day here in early March, a waterfront amphitheater in one of America’s poorest cities became the unlikely venue for a rare public performance by New Jersey’s top political boss.

George E. Norcross III, a silver-haired insurance broker who is widely regarded as the most powerful unelected official in New Jersey, showed up at the BB&T Pavilion in Camden to tout the “rebirth” of his long-suffering hometown and praise the state tax break program that made it possible.

“It looks to me like the state got a pretty good deal,” said Norcross, standing before projected photos of children cavorting in what appears to be an idyllic Camden, only blocks away from streets lined with dilapidated buildings.

In an interview a few weeks later, Norcross called himself “one of the loudest cheerleaders” for the embattled tax break program. “I’m certainly very proud to be part of it,” he said.

Norcross and his associates have reaped substantial benefits from the tax breaks. Of the $1.6 billion in tax breaks for companies that agreed to make a capital investment in Camden, at least $1.1 billion went to Norcross’ own insurance brokerage, his business partnerships and charitable affiliations, and clients of the law and lobbying firms of his brother Philip, an investigation by WNYC and ProPublica found.

Camden reaped more than four times as many tax breaks as the combined amounts of other cities designated as “growth zones,” according to data from the New Jersey Economic Development Authority.

Many of those benefits are a direct result of state legislation that Norcross was instrumental in getting passed in 2013. One influential lawmaker remembered the bill as “George’s baby.” Philip Norcross helped draft key amendments in 2014, and brother Donald Norcross — then a state senator and now a member of Congress — co-sponsored the bill.

A panoramic view of the waterfront shows the range of Norcross’ influence within the program, which is run by the state Economic Development Authority and is now in the crosshairs of Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy.

On the banks of the Delaware River, a soaring 15-story tower will be the new headquarters of Norcross’ company, Conner Strong & Buckelew, and its partners, The Michaels Organization and NFI LP. All three companies are moving to Camden from the suburbs, a little more than 10 miles away.

More

https://www.blacklistednews.com/article/72398/how-companies-and-allies-of-one-powerful-democrat-got-11-billion-in-tax.html

US, Israel to supply anti-aircraft missiles to Kurdish militants in Syria: Report

The United States and Israel are reportedly set to supply anti-aircraft missiles to Kurdish militants in northern Syria amid tensions between Ankara and Washington over the latter’s support for the militants, which the Turkish government views as terrorists.

Citing local sources, Turkey’s Yeni Safak daily reported that the US is set to deliver shipments of Stinger Man Portable Air Defense System (MANPADS) to militants of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).

The PKK, it added, has designated the towns of Rmelan and Shaddadah in Syria’s Hasakah Province as well as the Jalabiyah and al-Omar regions as launching points for its American-supplied missiles.

Ankara is unhappy with Washington’s support for Kurdish militants of the People’s Protection Units (YPG), which it views as an extension of the PKK, and has repeatedly called on the US administration to stop providing them with arms.

The PKK has been fighting for autonomy inside Turkey for decades and runs bases in neighboring Syria and Iraq as well.

The report further said the regime in Israel has also vowed to supply the Kurds with Spike anti-aircraft missiles in the Syrian provinces of Dayr al-Zawr and Raqqah following high-level meetings between the militants and Tel Aviv.

Israel has long been backing the militants operating against the Syrian government. The regime has, on several occasions, criticized Turkey for its operations against the Kurdish militants.

The US-Kurdish alliance is closely coordinating the missiles’ deployment to Syria as part of a “special joint strategy,” according to the report.

It further said that a group of 30 PKK militants have already received training to handle the advanced anti-aircraft missiles.

Turkey has since 2016 launched two military operations inside Syria against the US-backed Kurdish militants and has threatened a third if they fail to leave the east of the Euphrates.

Like Turkey, the US has listed the PKK as a terrorist group, but views the YPG as an ally in its so-called fight against the Takfiri Daesh terror group.

Turkey has repeatedly questioned Washington’s deployment of heavy weapons in Syria despite the defeat of Daesh.

Last December, US officials said the Pentagon was considering recommending that Kurdish militants be allowed to keep American-supplied weapons after the withdrawal of troops from Syria.

In February, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan slammed Turkey’s NATO allies for supplying huge loads of weapons to Kurdish militants in northern Syria, while ignoring Ankara’s arms purchase requests.

https://www.blacklistednews.com/article/72409/us-israel-to-supply-antiaircraft-missiles-to-kurdish-militants-in-syria.html

The secret history of Lyme disease, which was originally developed by the military as a biological weapon for depopulation

Although you’ve almost certainly heard of Lyme disease, there’s a good chance that you don’t know anyone personally who has been diagnosed with it. Most doctors are very hesitant to diagnose it, and evidence is pointing to the disease being originally developed as a biological weapon.

The illness, which causes loss of memory, constant pain, crippling fatigue, and possibly psychosis, blindness and paralysis, can sometimes be fatal. It’s caused by the bacterium known as Borrelia burgdorferi and is usually transmitted to people via the bite of an infected tick. While many cases can theoretically be treated successfully by a round of antibiotics over the course of a few weeks, it’s often not diagnosed in time for successful treatment.

It can begin with a distinctive bull’s-eye rash, but not everyone will get it, and some people have a different type of rash. This can make it hard for people to get antibiotics before it has progressed too far.

This is compounded by its remarkable ability to avoid detection in routine tests by altering the outer surface protein of its cells, making many people test negative when they do actually have the disease. It also mimics a range of other illnesses, leading to no small number of misdiagnoses. It presents itself in a unique way among various patients, which can even leave patients being dismissed by their doctors as hypochondriacs.

Mysterious origins

One theory is that Lyme disease originated in the Animal Disease Center on Plum Island, a site that has been linked to biological weapon experiments during the Cold War and a place where Nazi scientists once worked.

Situated off the coast of Long Island, it was first set up to study foot and mouth disease. It’s now part of the Department of Homeland Security, and it is shrouded in secrecy.

https://governmentslaves.news/2019/05/01/the-secret-history-of-lyme-disease-which-was-originally-developed-by-the-military-as-a-biological-weapon-for-depopulation/

Time to Foreclose on the Churchill Cult

He's a religious faith that no one is allowed to question without forfeiting membership in Western civilization.

In a recent broadside in National Review against “ill-informed critics of Churchill,” Ben Shapiro mocks his opponents by reminding them that they “would be speaking German if he (Churchill) had not led the fight against Hitler.” If that’s the worse that would have happened had the Third Reich prevailed, it would have been an exceedingly small price to pay for such an outcome.

I offer this comment as someone who grew up speaking German and who still regards it as his second mother tongue. According to Shapiro, those who dare criticize Churchill are mostly “a variety of groups ranging from Indians to Sudanese to Asian tribes.” These quibblers, he writes, are fixated on Churchill’s “racial comment” which “have taken out of context to slander his achievements.” Supposedly those who dwell on Churchill’s imperialist ideas or slurs about lesser breeds are uniformly on the left and mistakenly believe that “an ounce of sin washes away a lifetime of heroism.”

But Shapiro never demonstrates that Churchill spent his entire life engaged in heroic action. He properly recognizes his heroism in standing up to Nazi Germany; and he notes that Churchill “successfully led Great Britain through the most dangerous time in her history.” But was this a more dangerous period than when Churchill’s ancestor the Duke of Marlborough opposed the expansive despotism of Louis XIV, which threatened both England and the European continent in the early 18th century? What about the heroism of William Pitt the Younger, Britain’s very young prime minister who kept his country fighting on against Napoleon and his empire after other countries had deserted the cause?

It’s also not clear in what way we attack the West “by savaging the civilizational history” that Churchill embodied. Are we not allowed to write critically about someone whom Shapiro, and presumably National Review, want us to admire for his presumed “lifetime of heroism”?

https://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/time-to-foreclose-on-the-churchill-cult/

New House Bill Would Bar Israel From Using U.S. Military Aid to Detain Palestinian Children

New legislation proposed by Rep. Betty McCollum, a Minnesota Democrat, would ban Israel from using any of the billions of dollars in military assistance it receives from the United States every year to pay for the detention, interrogation, or torture of Palestinian children living under Israeli military occupation in the West Bank.

Israel’s military typically arrests and prosecutes 500 to 700 Palestinian children between the ages of 12 and 17 each year, subjecting them to coercive interrogation, physical violence, and trials in military courts that lack basic guarantees of due process.

McCollum’s bill, HR 2407, would amend the Foreign Assistance Act to prohibit funding for the military detention of children in any country, including Israel. The proposed law would also provide $19 million a year to American, Israeli, and Palestinian nongovernmental organizations to monitor the treatment of children detained by Israel’s army and offer physical and psychological treatment.

“Israel’s system of military juvenile detention is state-sponsored child abuse designed to intimidate and terrorize Palestinian children and their families,” McCollum said in a statement on Wednesday. “It must be condemned, but it is equally outrageous that U.S. tax dollars in the form of military aid to Israel are permitted to sustain what is clearly a gross human rights violation against children.”

In dry legislative language, the factual findings section of the bill paints a devastating picture of injustice sponsored by American taxpayers:

In the Israeli-occupied West Bank, there are two separate legal systems, with Israeli military law imposed on Palestinians and Israeli civilian law applied to Israeli settlers. Approximately 2,900,000 Palestinians live in the West Bank, of which around 45 percent are children under the age of 18, who have lived their entire lives under Israeli military occupation.

Since 2000, more than 10,000 Palestinian children have been subject to the Israeli military court system. Israeli security forces detain children under the age of 12 for interrogation for extended periods of time even though prosecution of children under 12 is prohibited by Israeli military law.

The bill notes that Human Rights Watch reported in 2018 that Israel’s security forces detained Palestinian children “often using unnecessary force, questioned them without a family member present, and made them sign confessions in Hebrew, which most did not understand.” Such detentions, the same group discovered in 2015, “included the use of chokeholds, beatings, and coercive interrogation on children between the ages of 11 and 15 years.”

https://theintercept.com/2019/05/01/betty-mccollum-israel-palestine-children-bill/

Now you've been polarized into the left right paradigm can you support what is right?

US Carries Out First Airstrikes With F-35 in Iraq

Massively expensive warplane carries out first strikes ever

A US F-35A has carried out a pair of airstrikes against targets inside northern Iraq. They say the strikes were against ISIS, claiming to have hit a tunnel network and a weapons cache.

This marks the first time the F-35A has been used in combat. This was widely expected, with the jets deployed into the region on April 15, and officials hotly anticipating the first use of them.

The F-35 program has been wildly expensive, and the Pentagon are eager to start putting them into the field, where it can stop being an overpriced prototype and start being an overpriced vehicle in active combat.

Recent estimates are that the F-35 and its variants will cost conservatively $1 trillion over their lifetime for the Pentagon. Some estimates are even projecting this to go to $1.5 trillion, which seems reasonable given how many previous estimates have proven far below the reality of the matter.

https://news.antiwar.com/2019/04/30/us-carries-out-first-airstrikes-with-f-35-in-iraq/

Julia Roberts Calls For Gender-Neutral School Bathrooms

It appears that Julia Roberts wants schools to have gender-neutral bathrooms. It is unclear if those bathrooms should be private or public to the point of biological males urinating alongside biological females.

In an Instagram post on Tuesday, the "Pretty Woman" star shared a photo of herself posing in front of a "gender-neutral" bathroom — not a unisex bathroom, mind you; the kind that includes both the male and female symbol alongside a half male/half female symbol.

"I wish they all said this," Roberts said in her post before asking people to check her Instagram story. Actress Rita Wilson, wife of Tom Hanks, expressed her approval. In her Instagram story video, Roberts invited her followers to donate to the organization, GLSEN, which, according to HuffPost, is "a national education organization that works to help LGBTQ children in K-12 schools."

"Hi everybody, I wanted to talk to you about an organization I feel really strongly about. It’s called GLSEN," Roberts said in the story video. "GLSEN makes schools safe for every student no matter your sexual orientation or gender identity, I’ve donated, I’m asking you to. Click that donation button, every dollar helps."

GLSEN claims it simply promotes anti-bullying of LGBTQ students, but it often goes into propaganda — specifically on the subjects of gender pronouns and gender-neutral bathrooms. In a post explaining their position, GLSEN described traditional bathrooms as being harmful to transgender students in schools.

http://www.stationgossip.com/2019/05/julia-roberts-calls-for-gender-neutral.html

Jewish students sue to oust pro-Palestinian panel from UMass

BOSTON (AP) —

A group of Jewish students at the University of Massachusetts Amherst is asking a judge to order a panel discussion about Palestinian human rights off campus because it is anti-Semitic.

The panel, titled "Not Backing Down: Israel, Free Speech, and the Battle for Palestinian Human Rights" is scheduled for Saturday and features Roger Waters, a member of the rock band Pink Floyd. The panelists are expected to argue that pro-Israel groups have tried to silence Palestinian points of view.

A Superior Court judge heard arguments Monday but did not rule.

The panel is sponsored by an organization run by a UMass faculty member, and co-sponsored by two academic departments.

The university said it allowed the event on campus because UMass is "committed to the principles of free speech and academic freedom."

https://news.yahoo.com/jewish-students-sue-oust-pro-palestinian-panel-umass-163606556.html

High ranking Saudi jihadist commander assassinated in Idlib

BEIRUT, LEBANON (2:00 P.M.) – A Saudi nation that served as a military commander of Hay’at Tahrir Al-Sham was reportedly assassinated in the Idlib province this week.

According to pro-opposition activists, Abu Yousef Al-Jazrawi was assassinated this week, when unknown assailants opened fire on the jihadist commander inside the Idlib Governorate town of Ma’aratah.

Jazrawi was considered a security adviser to Hay’at Tahrir Al-Sham’s leader Abu Mohammad Al-Jolani before he was assassinated.

His death came just hours after a Chechen commander from the Hay’at Tahrir Al-Sham jihadist organization was assassinated in the northwestern countryside of the Idlib Governorate.

https://www.almasdarnews.com/article/high-ranking-saudi-jihadist-commander-assassinated-in-idlib/

The 70 Years of NATO: From War to War,

Documentation presented at the International Conference on the 70th Anniversary of NATO, Florence, April 7, 2019

In the course of the next two weeks, Global Research will publish the 16 sections of this important document, which will also be available as an E-book.

Contents

1. NATO is born from the Bomb

2. In the post-Cold War, NATO is renewed

3. NATO demolishes the Yugoslav state

4. NATO expands eastward to Russia

5. US and NATO attack Afghanistan and Iraq

6. NATO demolishes the Libyan state

7. The US/NATO war to demolish Syria

8. Israel and the Emirates in NATO

9. The US/NATO orchestration of the coup in Ukraine

10. US/NATO escalation in Europe

11. Italy, the aircraft carrier on the war front

12. US and NATO reject the UN treaty and deploy new nuclear weapons in Europe

13. US and NATO sink the INF Treaty

14. The Western American Empire plays the war card

15. The US/NATO planetary war system

16. Exiting the war system of NATO

***

1. Multiple factors make Libya important in the eyes of the United States and the European powers. It has the largest oil reserves in Africa, precious for its high quality and low cost of extraction, and large reserves of natural gas. On these, the Libyan state maintains strong control, leaving limited profit margins to US and European companies. In addition to black gold, Libya has white gold: the immense reserve of fossil water from the Nubian aquifer, which extends under Libya, Egypt, Sudan and Chad. Relevant are the sovereign funds, the capital that the Libyan state has invested abroad, in particular to provide Africa with its own financial bodies and its own currency.

https://www.globalresearch.ca/nato-demolishes-libyan-state/5676173

Sri Lanka: US-Saudi Terror Links to Deadly Easter Bombings

As predicted, the Sri Lankan Easter Day blasts which killed hundreds and injured hundreds more – have been connected to the so-called “Islamic State” (ISIS).

US Ambassador to Sri Lanka – Alaina Teplitz – would openly claim foreign groups were most likely behind the attacks. Reuters in an article titled, “Foreign groups likely behind Sri Lanka attacks, U.S. ambassador says,” would report:

The scale and sophistication of the Easter Sunday attacks on churches and hotels in Sri Lanka suggested the involvement of an external group such as Islamic State, the U.S. ambassador said on Wednesday as the death toll jumped to 359.

ISIS itself would also later claim responsibility for the attacks. The Washington Post in an article titled, “Sri Lankan Easter bombings, claimed by ISIS, show the group maintains influence even though its caliphate is gone,” would claim:

On Tuesday, video emerged of the suspected ringleader of the attacks and seven followers, their faces obscured by scarves, swearing allegiance to the Islamic State and its leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. The Islamic State also issued a formal communique asserting responsibility for the attacks, which it said targeted Christians and “coalition countries.”

Absent from US diplomatic statements and Western media reports is any mention of ISIS’ inception, its state sponsors, and even admissions by Western intelligence agencies themselves of Washington and its allies’ role in the terrorist organization’s rise.

More

https://21stcenturywire.com/2019/04/30/sri-lanka-us-saudi-terror-behind-deadly-blasts/

Nervous, James? Comey Viciously Attacks Bill Barr Mid-Hearing – Then Turns His Ire Toward Rod Rosenstein!

Fired FBI Director and coup plotter James Comey viciously attacked Attorney General Bill Barr mid-hearing on Wednesday.

Attorney General Bill Barr testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee about Mueller’s report.

Barr doubled down on his “spying” allegation Wednesday. Barr believes Obama’s FBI, DOJ and intel agencies spied on Trump’s 2016 campaign.

James Comey wasn’t too happy about Barr and his spying allegation and fired off his New York Times op-ed on Wednesday.

Comey then turned his ire toward Rod Rosenstein because the Deputy Attorney General praised Trump in his resignation letter earlier this week and asked, “What happened to these people?”

“How could Mr. Barr, a bright and accomplished lawyer, start channeling the president in using words like “no collusion” and F.B.I. “spying”? And downplaying acts of obstruction of justice as products of the president’s being “frustrated and angry,” something he would never say to justify the thousands of crimes prosecuted every day that are the product of frustration and anger?” Comey wrote.

How could he write and say things about the report by Robert Mueller, the special counsel, that were apparently so misleading that they prompted written protest from the special counsel himself?

How could Mr. Barr go before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday and downplay President Trump’s attempt to fire Mr. Mueller before he completed his work?

And how could Rod Rosenstein, the deputy attorney general, after the release of Mr. Mueller’s report that detailed Mr. Trump’s determined efforts to obstruct justice, give a speech quoting the president on the importance of the rule of law? Or on resigning, thank a president who relentlessly attacked both him and the Department of Justice he led for “the courtesy and humor you often display in our personal conversations”?

Comey also asserted that Bill Barr and Rod Rosenstein ‘lack inner strength’ and they “can’t resist the compromises necessary to survive Mr. Trump.”

“It takes character like Mr. Mattis’s to avoid the damage, because Mr. Trump eats your soul in small bites,” Comey added.

Comey finished his petty op-ed by claiming people who choose to work with Trump are lost.

Of course, to stay, you must be seen as on his team, so you make further compromises. You use his language, praise his leadership, tout his commitment to values.

And then you are lost. He has eaten your soul.

Barr confirmed on Wednesday that he has looked into — and continues to look into the origins of the illegal CI investigations on Trump and his associates.

There’s a new sheriff in town. No wonder why Comey is sweating bullets.

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2019/05/nervous-james-comey-viciously-attacks-bill-barr-mid-hearing-then-turns-his-ire-toward-rod-rosenstein/

Fox News: US Congressman Specualtes Russia May Have Nuclear Missiles In Venezuela

The propaganda war on the situation in Venezuela has reached a new level. Fox News just came a report speculating that Russia has put nuclear missiles in Venezuela.

The quote:

“Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart, R-Fla., appeared on “Tucker Carlson Tonight” Tuesday and made a case for backing opposition to disputed Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and suggested that Russia had installed nuclear missiles in the South American nation.

“Imagine if this regime that now is receiving a lot of international pressure survives, is it or is it not potentially a green light, an open door for the Russians and for the Chinese and for others to increase their activity against our national security interest right here in our hemisphere, “Diaz-Balart told Carlson.

Tuesday, tensions flared in Caracas between newly elected President Juan Guaido supporters who clashed with pro-Maduro forces.

…

Carlson pressed the congressman on if he thought anti-American forces would invade the U.S.

“No. It’s kind of hard to see what you’re talking about. Are you suggesting they are going to invade?” Carlson asked.

“The United States, the closest we ever came to nuclear war was because the Russians put missiles, right, nuclear missiles in Cuba,” Diaz-Balart said.

“Are you saying the Russians will put nuclear missiles in Venezuela?” Carlson asked.

“What I am suggesting is that they are already there,” Diaz-Balart said. He did not offer any evidence. Russia famously landed a nuclear-capable bomber in the country late last year and recently confirmed that it has military personnel in the country.”

It remains unclear who, how and when elected Guaido to be the “President” of Venezuela, besised the Washington establishment for sure. Guaido did not even participate in the 2018 Presidential election. It remains even more unclear when Moscow had installied its nuclear missiles in the country.

However, it’s clear that mainstream media outlets and US politicians are furious over the recent failed attempt of Guaido and its armed supporters to seize power by force.

https://southfront.org/us-congressman-specualtes-russia-may-have-nuclear-missiles-in-venezuela/