California's Accounting System Cost Taxpayers $1.1 Billion And Still Can't Produce A State Checkbook

California State Controller Betty Yee admits to paying 49 million bills last year. Yet, she won’t produce a single transaction subject to our public records request for line-by-line state spending.

Out of the 50 states, California is the only one that refuses to produce its state checkbook to our auditors at OpenTheBooks.com. Even though it’s home to Silicon Valley, the state government isn’t letting tech drive transparency when it comes to its own records.

It shouldn’t take subpoenas and litigation to force open the books.

Last year, Yee paid 49 million bills for about $320 billion in payments. If you can make the payment, then you can track the payment. The state controller’s office – whose job it is to stop waste, fraud, corruption, and taxpayer abuse – may be in violation of transparency laws.

In 2013, then-California State Controller John Chang rejected our public records request for the state checkbook telling us: stop asking because the records can’t be located. Today, six-years later – Yee is still parroting the same answer.

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/californias-accounting-system-cost-taxpayers-11-billion-and-still-cant-produce-state

Red State Democrat Governors Approve More Refugees for Their States

Democrat governors representing red states such as Kentucky, North Carolina, Montana, and Kansas have approved more refugee resettlement in 2020 for their states.

For Fiscal Year 2020, President Donald Trump will continue cutting refugee admissions by reducing former President Barack Obama’s refugee inflow by at least 80 percent. This reduction would mean a maximum of 18,000 refugees can be resettled in the U.S. between October 1, 2019, and September 30, 2020. This is merely a numerical limit and not a goal federal officials are supposed to reach.

Coupled with the refugee reduction, Trump signed an executive order that gives localities, counties, and states veto power over the resettlement of refugees in their communities.

The newly-elected Democrat Governor of Kentucky, Andy Beshear, has formally asked Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to continue resettling refugees into the state. Likewise, Democrat governors such as Steve Bullock, Roy Cooper, and Laura Kelly representing red states such as Montana, North Carolina, and Kansas have approved more refugees for resettlement.

“North Carolina was one of the first states to welcome refugees to the United States after the United States Refugee Act was signed into law in 1980,” Cooper wrote in his letter to Pompeo, asking for more refugee resettlement. “Our state has a strong network of community and faith-based groups which aid in the resettlement of refugees who seek safety from persecution.”

Also asking for more refugees is Republican Governor of Iowa, Kim Reynolds, joining Republican governors Bill Lee of Tennessee, Doug Ducey of Arizona, Doug Burgum of North Dakota, and Gary Herbert of Utah.

For months, organizations with ties to billionaire George Soros have carried out a pressure campaign on Republican governors, who have readily caved, to ask that refugees continue being resettled. Likewise, in states like Iowa and North Dakota, the big business lobby and donors have continuously claimed they need more refugees to fill jobs.

Refugee contractors have a vested interest in making sure as many refugees are resettled across the U.S. as possible because their annual federally-funded budgets are contingent on the number of refugees they resettle. Those refugee contractors include:

Church World Service (CWS), Ethiopian Community Development Council (ECDC), Episcopal Migration Ministries (EMM), Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS), International Rescue Committee (IRC), U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants (USCRI), Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Services (LIRS), U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), and World Relief Corporation (WR).

The federally mandated refugee resettlement program has brought more than 718,000 refugees to the U.S. since January 2008 — a group larger than the entire state population of Wyoming, which has 577,000 residents. In the last decade, about 73,000 refugees have been resettled in California, 71,500 resettled in Texas, nearly 43,000 resettled in New York, and more than 36,000 resettled in Michigan.

Refugee resettlement costs American taxpayers nearly $9 billion every five years, according to the latest research. Over the course of five years, an estimated 16 percent of all refugees admitted will need housing assistance paid for by taxpayers.

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2019/12/22/red-state-democrat-governors-approve-more-refugees-states/

Trump Has Quietly Appointed 25% Of Circuit Court Judges As Smug Liberals Celebrate 'Merry Impeachmas'

While the smug left clinks champagne for "Merry Impeachmas" after the House passed articles of impeachment against President Trump, they're fast losing the battle when it comes to America's judicial landscape.

Even if 20 GOP Senators somehow flipped on Trump and he was removed from office, he's already appointed 25% of sitting US circuit court judges, not to mention given us a conservative Supreme Court - after Senate Republicans stalled in 2016 on confirming Obama's choice to replace the late justice Antonin Scalia, Merrick Garland.

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/trump-has-quietly-appointed-25-circuit-court-judges-smug-liberals-celebrate-merry

>>7592347

In short they are evil cunts and a buying time hoping for a hail Mary to save them

American, British tycoons donate to Netanyahu, Sa’ar campaigns

Netanyahu defense donor helps his Likud race

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his challenger in Thursday’s Likud leadership race, MK Gideon Sa’ar, each received hundreds of thousands of shekels in campaign contributions from American and British millionaires, the State Comptroller’s Office website revealed on Sunday.

The Knesset passed a law last year preventing Knesset candidates from raising money from private donations and instead providing public funds for primaries. But the law does not apply to races for the leadership of a party.

Michigan real estate developer Spencer Partrich, who has donated millions of dollars to Netanyahu’s legal defense, gave the prime minister the maximum contribution of $12,000, as did two relatives.

Netanyahu also received large donation from Cherna Moskowitz, who together with her late husband Irving have supported many right-wing causes in Israel, and from several members of the Falic family, who own the Duty Free America chain, which operates over 180 stores at airports and border crossings in the US and Latin America, and are major contributors to the Friends of the IDF.

Other names that stand out on the list of donors to Netanyahu’s campaign include British real estate magnate Zak Gertler, who recently financed the prime minister’s 70th birthday party, and Jay Zises, a New York-based investment and financial manager who served on the board of Yeshiva University.

Sa’ar has donors from New York, New Jersey, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Oakland and Miami. One name that stands out on the list is Dr. Gabi Picker, a former close friend of Netanyahu and his family.

There is also Albert Dadon, a Melbourne, Australia businessman who founded the International Institute for Strategic Leadership Dialogue. The institute held its gala dinner at the King David Hotel in Jerusalem last week. Sa’ar took time out from the campaign trail to be the event’s keynote speaker.

https://www.jpost.com/Israel-Elections/American-British-tycoons-donate-to-Netanyahu-Saar-campaigns-611758

How Sacramento shifted billions of dollars in future wildfire costs to consumers

San Diego Gas & Electric executives spent 10 years seeking permission to charge customers hundreds of millions of dollars for company losses due to three backcountry wildfires started by its equipment in 2007.

Lawyers for the power monopoly were thwarted at each turn — first by regulators, then by a state appellate court, then the California Supreme Court and, finally, by the U.S. Supreme Court when it declined in early October to take up the case.

The judges all concluded that SDG&E should not be able to recover $379 million in damages left over from the Witch, Guejito and Rice fires. Investigations showed that the three wildfires were the result of negligence and mismanagement committed by the utility — a finding the company never conceded.

In reaching their decisions, the judges relied on what’s known as the “just and reasonable” standard — the rule that utilities can only pass along to customers those costs that fairly serve consumers’ interest. It has been a cornerstone of California energy regulation for more than 100 years.

Under Assembly Bill 1054, which was introduced, passed and signed into law within a matter of days over the summer, the legal standards have changed.

Now power companies are permitted to get future wildfire damages covered by ratepayers as long as they create a wildfire mitigation plan and receive a “safety certification” from the California Public Utilities Commission, whose regulatory authority dates back to 1911.

“If the electrical corporation has that valid safety certification, the electrical corporation’s conduct would be deemed reasonable unless a party to the proceeding creates a serious doubt as to the reasonableness of the electrical corporation’s conduct,” the bill states.

SDG&E, Pacific Gas & Electric and Southern California Edison all received their safety certifications in August.

Law takes teeth out of panel, critics say

The law also says regulators can no longer consider a utility’s past practices or history of violations when they examine whether fire damage can be covered — a rule change that critics say disarms the utilities commission.

“It’s eating the chickens and saying that as long as the chickens are dead you can’t look at who killed them,” said Loretta Lynch, a San Francisco attorney and former California Public Utilities Commission president. “This is as close to a blank check as it gets.”

The legislation’s main feature is the creation of a $21-billion insurance pool that can be tapped by utilities to pay wildfire damage claims. Such claims already have pushed PG&E into bankruptcy and resulted in bond-rating downgrades for SDG&E and Edison.

The fund is designed to allow power companies to maintain their profitability and creditworthiness while the state confronts the rising threat from wildfires.

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2019-12-22/sacramento-shifted-future-wildfire-costs-consumers

=TURKEY’S OUTRAGE: Greek FM meets with anti-Turkish leader of the Libyan National Army

BENGHAZI – Greece’s position on the recent Ankara-Tripoli agreement was outlined by Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias during a meeting with General Khalifa Haftar.

The situation in Libya, the prospects of resolving the crisis, as the memorandum of understanding between Turkey and the Government of National Reconciliation (GNA) was placed at the center of the unannounced visit of Nikos Dendias Benghazi.

The Greek Foreign Minister met with the head of the Libyan National Army (LNA), General Khalifa Haftar, in the presence of Greece’s special envoy to Libya, Christodoulos Lazaris.

According to the Greek government’s official announcement, Mr Dendias raised the issue of two “non-existent agreements” signed between Turkey and the government of Tripoli, analyzing Greek positions.

It has also shown that the content of these texts is completely contrary to International Law and International Maritime Law. At the same time, he underlined the need for a political solution to the Libyan crisis in the context of the efforts of the UN Special Representative.

https://www.fort-russ.com/2019/12/turkeys-outrage-greek-fm-meets-with-anti-turkish-leader-of-the-libyan-national-army/

MAJOR: Report Reveals Dozens of Former French Soldiers Joined Terrorist Groups in Middle East

Militant groups have recruited dozens of former French soldiers, a troubling new report revealed less than three months after a terrorist attack by a staff member at police headquarters in Paris shocked the nation.

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More than a third of the ex-servicemen are converts to the Wahhabi Islam promoted by Saudi Arabia and groups like Daesh (ISIL or ISIS) and nearly half served in the elite Foreign Legion, parachute, commando or marine units where they acquired expertise in combat and handling weapons and explosives.

The conservative newspaper Le Figaro published excerpts on Wednesday from the forthcoming report by the Center for the Analysis of Terrorism, a Paris-based think tank. The report said the French Army “constitutes a strategic recruitment target for terrorist groups… and former soldiers represent tremendous assets for these groups”.

The report, “Soldiers and Jihad”, profiles 23 ex-servicemen “identified within terrorist organizations [mainly Daesh] or implicated in plotting terrorist attacks”. An earlier parliamentary report noted that about 30 former servicemen have joined terrorist groups since 2012.

Several former Legionnaires have been arrested over terrorist plots in France, and ex-paratroopers or commandos have become leaders of Daesh combat units in Syria or Iraq. Others who stayed in France have been involved in planning attacks against soldiers or military sites.

“Some of the ex-servicemen became radicalized after they joined the French Army, while others started becoming radicalized after they left the army”, the report added.

“However, some were planning to go and join jihadist groups before being recruited by the French Armed Forces,” it stated.

One such fighter is named Boris V., from Charente, in southwestern France, who became an air commando specifically to learn skills that would be useful to a terrorist group. He took the nom de guerre of “Younous the Deserter” and was killed near Aleppo, Syria, in 2016. Frédéric R., a former legionnaire in his sixties who converted to radical Wahhabi Islam, was also arrested last month.

French military intelligence announced that efforts to detect and prevent radicalization were stepped up earlier this year and “several cases showing low-level signs” were currently being monitored. In October, a radicalized police employee stabbed four people to death at police headquarters in Paris, supposedly one of France’s most secure buildings.

Thibault de Montbrial, a former paratrooper and head of the Centre for Internal Security Studies, another think tank, told The Telegraph, “The issue of detecting people likely to become radicalized while serving [in the armed forces] is capital. Even if the army is a formidable institution for integration and cohesion, the risk is real.”

https://www.fort-russ.com/2019/12/major-report-reveals-dozens-of-former-french-soldiers-joined-terrorist-groups-in-middle-east/

>>7592783

Melissa triangle next to your name on your post allows you to hide it. Do not self doxx please.

Use this link and read

https://8kun.top/qresearch/welcome.html

>>7592981

>Would educating the public through the Senate prior to Barr/Durham/Huber release(s) be important?

Hmmm more delays? Really

The public don't give a fuck until they get shocked by a huge arrest, till then they couldn't care less