Hickenlooper Fined for Breaking Ethics Rules: Senate Bid in Jeopardy?

John Hickenlooper, former Colorado governor and current Democratic Senate hopeful, was found in violation of state ethics laws while serving as governor and will be forced to pay a paltry fine.

The Colorado Independent Ethics Commission, a body mandated by the state constitution, found Hickenlooper had broken state gifting laws on two out of six complaints and has been fined $2,750.

While the fine is practically pocket change for the entrepreneur-turned-politician, it is the largest ever imposed by the Ethics Commission.

Maybe the Commission was still sore — as they very well should have been — after Hickenlooper ditched their subpoena two weeks ago, forcing an unprecedented showdown. For that, the panel found Hickenlooper in contempt, something for which they did not impose any penalty.

Hickenlooper Hell: AG ‘Team’ Unleashed to Enforce Ethics Panel Subpoena

The six ethics complaints involved private or semiprivate trips Hickenlooper took as governor, which were paid for by private companies. The state limit of private gifts to public office holders at the time was $59.

Travel included a trip to Turin, Italy, for the Bilderberg Meeting; another trip to Connecticut for the commissioning of the USS Colorado; a private trip to New Jersey (yes, New Jersey); a wedding in Texas; and a work + pleasure trip to Jackson Hole, Wyoming, for an American Enterprise Institute symposium.

The lion’s share of the fines was a $2,200 penalty for the trip to Connecticut. On that trip, Hick traveled on a jet owned by billionaire Larry Mizel’s company, MDC Holdings. The fine was approved on a 4-1 vote.

On another 4-1 vote, the commission imposed a $550 fine for Hickenlooper’s Bilderberger trip to Turin.

Hickenlooper had no need for any travel to the commission’s hearing since it was held virtually. In response to the coronavirus lockdowns, the Ethics Commission has been holding its hearings from home using videoconference software.

The Senate hopeful’s legal counsel argued that “the hearing’s remote format violates his right to face his accusers in person,” but a Denver District Court judge disagreed and upheld the subpoena.

Nevertheless, even after the Ethics Commission sent a “team” to compel Hickenlooper’s virtual appearance, he remained AWOL and in violation of the court’s order.

https://pjmedia.com/election/stephen-green/2020/06/15/hickenlooper-fined-for-breaking-ethics-rules-senate-bid-in-jeopardy-n530968

Pennsylvania Man Pleads Guilty to Engaging in Illicit Sexual Conduct with Minors in the Republic of Kenya

https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/pennsylvania-man-pleads-guilty-engaging-illicit-sexual-conduct-minors-republic-kenya

Northeast Texas family sentenced for their roles in massive illegal gambling, money laundering enterprise

BEAUMONT, Texas – A Northeast Texas businessman, his wife and son were sentenced Friday for their roles in a massive illegal gambling and money laundering enterprise.

Larry Earnest Tillery, 70, Judy Kay Tillery, 63, and Brian Tillery, 47, all of Beaumont, Texas, were sentenced by U.S. District Judge Thad Heartfield in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas.

Larry Tillery was sentenced to 33 months in federal prison for engaging in monetary transactions in property derived from specified unlawful activity and tax evasion. He was further ordered to forfeit approximately $2 million in cash, jewelry, and sports memorabilia that were proceeds of his illegal gambling enterprise and to pay restitution in the amount of $1,000,040. A money judgment of $32,758,541 was also ordered by the court.

Judy Tillery was sentenced to two years of federal probation for structuring of financial transactions to evade reporting requirements. She shares the forfeiture judgment with her husband.

Brian Tillery was sentenced to two years of federal probation for engaging in monetary transactions in property derived from specified unlawful activity. He was further ordered to forfeit approximately $245,477 and a residence in Beaumont with an appraised value of approximately $600,000 that was determined to be proceeds of the illegal gambling enterprise. A money judgment of $700,000 was also ordered by the court.

All three parties pleaded guilty to their respective charges on June 25, 2019.

According to information presented in court, Larry Tillery was engaged in the business of accepting illegal wagers on sporting events from 1985 until April 2017. He owned and operated Daylight Motors, a used car dealership, and Lamar Capital, a holding company for Daylight Motors, and used both companies as a front to launder illicit proceeds from the illegal gambling enterprise.

Larry Tillery used a website to receive and track wagers from his betting clients, allowing his bettors to place wagers on sporting events, including professional and collegiate basketball, baseball, and football games. Judy assisted her husband in laundering the proceeds of his illegal gambling activities by depositing cash into her personal bank account at the Beaumont Community Credit Union and then writing checks to bank accounts controlled by her husband. Judy Tillery structured these cash deposits in amounts under $10,000 in an attempt to evade federal currency transaction reporting requirements.

Brian Tillery aided the bookmaking enterprise by collecting money from sports bettors, making payments to bettors on Larry’s behalf, tracking online wagers to keep Larry apprised of what bets were being placed, accepting illegal gambling funds and making wire transfers to pay illegal gambling debts for Larry, and mailing packages of currency derived from illegal gambling activities that were in excess of $10,000 via the United States Postal Service at the request of Larry.

Larry Tillery knew that despite the fact that he was violating Texas state and federal law, that federal tax law nonetheless required him to register as a bookmaker with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and to file monthly excise tax returns to report total wagers he accepted during the month. Larry also knew that he was required to pay gross wagering excise taxes of 2% on wagers he accepted each month, but he failed to report or pay taxes to the IRS based on the wagers he accepted each month. From September through November of 2016, Larry Tillery accepted at least 450 wagers totaling $5,060,150. These wagers are subject to the 2% federal gross wagering excise tax, and Larry evaded gross excise wagering taxes of $29,717 in September 2016, $34,423 in October 2016 and $37,063 in November 2016.

Between 2011 and 2016, Larry Tillery accepted at least $52 million in illegal wagers on sporting events and did not report these wagers to the IRS or pay gross excise taxes. The gross wagering taxes that resulted from wagers Larry Tillery accepted between 2011 and 2016 total $1,040,000.

The investigation traced a total of 125 financial transactions in excess of $10,000 derived from illegal gambling that utilized the United States banking system. These financial transactions total $32,383,841 and occurred between 2010 and 2016.

https://www.ice.gov/news/releases/northeast-texas-family-sentenced-their-roles-massive-illegal-gambling-money-laundering

United Borrowing $5 Billion Against Its Frequent Flyer Program

United hopes to arrange for $17 billion in liquidity to get it through the third quarter

American Airlines and Delta announced borrowing programs last week

United has been cutting costs aggressively in recent weeks but still is expected to lay off workers in October

United Airlines said Monday it would borrow $5 billion from its loyalty program as part of an effort to raise $17 billion in liquidity by the end of the third quarter. The second-largest U.S. carrier has been burning through $40 million a day as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, which has gutted air travel and is likely to keep numbers down for the foreseeable future.

United (UAL), which was trading off about 2% Monday, said it also expects to receive $4.5 billion under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act.

The airline sector, which includes aerospace manufacturers, has been the hardest hit by the pandemic. Thousands of layoffs are expected in the fall, despite $25 billion in government loans and grants.

United has been cutting costs aggressively.

“The airline has already reduced planned capital expenditures and operating and vendor expenditures, suspended raises and implemented an unpaid time off program for management and administrative employees, put a freeze on hiring, introduced voluntary leave and separation programs, reduced pay for all executives and cut its CEO and president's base salaries by 100%, among other cost-saving measures,” United said in a press release.

United last week announced measures to allay employee and travelers’ fears, asking passengers to complete health assessments as part of the check-in process and requiring all passengers to wear face masks while on board.

The airline said cash burn was expected to slow in the third quarter to $30 million a day and borrowing against its MileagePlus program, which has more than 100 million members, would allow it to continue to operate.

https://www.ibtimes.com/coronavirus-travel-united-borrowing-5-billion-against-its-frequent-flyer-program-2994305

Cities call on cops to work overtime to quell unrest, despite ‘defund’ rallying cry

Police officers are being demanded to go above and beyond their typical call of duty to handle ongoing protests and unrest, even as political figures are calling for their departments to be defunded or abolished entirely.

In Chicago, officers were reportedly ordered to work 12-hour shifts with no days off until further notice. All the while, critics including elected officials want to strip them of funding.

"This police system in Chicago and in the country is beyond repair, and so it’s absolutely within reason for people to say that we should tear this system down and start over,” Democratic state Rep. LaShawn Ford of Chicago told reporters outside police headquarters earlier this month, according to the Chicago Tribune.

The Chicago order took effect as tension is still high in the country following the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis after a white cop kneeled on his neck for nearly nine minutes, and two days after Rayshard Brooks, a 27-year-old black man, was shot and killed by a police officer in Atlanta on Friday – in what was ruled a homicide.

Officers were already working more demanding schedules in recent weeks in response to protests, violence, looting, and civil unrest in parts of the city, as Mayor Lori Lightfoot imposed a 9 p.m. curfew and called in the National Guard for assistance, the Tribune reported.

Former Chicago Police Department Superintendent Garry McCarthy said in a WGN radio appearance earlier this month that the city "got caught with our pants down," saying police should have used a report created after protests at the 2012 NATO summit that is now "on the shelf somewhere in police headquarters."

"You could implement it today, and it would help control what is happening today," he McCarthy said.

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/cities-call-on-cops-to-work-overtime-to-quell-unrest-despite-defund-rallying-cry

China Creep on Campus

Dozens of universities failed to disclose millions in Chinese donations

Dozens of top American universities that received funding from the Chinese government failed to disclose those donations to the Department of Education, prompting concerns from education watchdogs about Beijing's growing influence on campuses.

More than 100 U.S. universities host or once hosted Confucius Institutes, programs underwritten by the Chinese government that teach Chinese language and culture to American college students. The Department of Education requires all credentialed universities to disclose foreign gifts of more than $250,000, but only about 30 percent of institutions with Confucius Institutes have disclosed their financial ties to Beijing, according to a Washington Free Beacon review of federal records.

The Free Beacon reached out to all 75 institutions that did not report their funding to the federal government; 22 of them responded. A common theme of the responses was that the colleges did not disclose their donations because their annual receipts did not meet the $250,000 threshold. For example, a spokesman from the University of Wisconsin-Platteville said the college declined to disclose its 2019 Confucius Institute donations because it received only $246,711.

Rachelle Peterson, director of policy at the National Association of Scholars, called the lack of accountability at prestigious universities "alarming."

"It is extremely alarming how little transparency there is," she said. "$250,000 is much too high of a threshold. Gifts of money at much smaller amounts can be very swaying over a college or university, especially the humanities [departments] which traditionally have lower funding."

The Chinese government has funneled millions of dollars to American universities to support more than 100 Confucius Institutes across the country. Colleges such as the University of Michigan, University of Maryland, and Emory University, which did disclose funding, have received $30.4 million in total between 2014 and 2020 for their Confucius Institutes, according federal filings.

But experts warn that the widespread failure to report the foreign funding leaves millions of dollars worth of Chinese government funding in the dark.

https://freebeacon.com/national-security/china-creep-on-campus/

‘The Majority Of Them Don’t Even Know Why They’re There’: Walkaway Founder Crashes A BLM Protest

Brandon Straka, the gay former Democrat behind the #Walkaway movement, crashed a Black Lives Matter protest in Hartford, Conn. to talk to protesters.

Things got a bit heated when he spoke to some about police shooting statistics, as many of the demonstrators he spoke with didn’t actually know the numbers.

Straka told the Daily Caller that he doesn’t believe that there is systemic racism in policing.

“People’s homes have been burned down, people’s businesses have been burned down and all of this has happened over a statistical lie,” said Straka. “It’s unfortunate that we can’t have a conversation in a unified way about how we need to do better perhaps with making sure that nobody gets killed in this country without due process by the law.”

Straka went on to discuss the Walkaway campaign’s two-year anniversary and upcoming projects.

The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of The Daily Caller.

Check out TheDC’s fantastic videos and subscribe to our YouTube channel to avoid missing out.

https://dailycaller.com/2020/06/14/walkaway-brandon-straka-crashes-blm-protest/

DIG FIGHT MEME PRAY

40,000+ Pounds Of Ground Beef Recalled Due To E. Coli

Lakeside Refrigerated Services, a Swedesboro, N.J. establishment, is recalling approximately 42,922 pounds of ground beef products that may be contaminated with E. coli O157:H7, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) announced today.

The raw ground beef items were produced on June 1, 2020. The following products are subject to recall: [View Labels(PDF Only)]

1-lb. vacuum packages containing “MARKETSIDE BUTCHER ORGANIC GRASS-FED GROUND BEEF” and a use or freeze by date of 07/01/20 and lot code P-53298-82.

1-lb. vacuum packages containing four ¼ lb. pieces of “MARKETSIDE BUTCHER ORGANIC GRASS-FED GROUND BEEF PATTIES” and a use or freeze by date of June 27, 2020 and lot code P-53934-28.

3-lb. vacuum packages containing three 1 lb. pieces of “MARKETSIDE BUTCHER ORGANIC GRASS-FED GROUND BEEF 93% LEAN / 7% FAT” and a use or freeze by date of 07/01/20 and lot code P53929-70.

1-lb. tray packages containing four ¼ lb. pieces of “THOMAS FARMS GRASS-FED GROUND BEEF PATTIES 85% LEAN / 15% FAT” and a use or freeze by date of 06/25/20 and lot code P53944-10.

4-lb. tray packages containing 10 ¼ lb. pieces of “THOMAS FARMS GRASS-FED GROUND BEEF PATTIES 80% LEAN / 20% FAT” and a use or freeze by date of 06/25/20 and lot code P53937-45.

1-lb. vacuum packages containing four ¼ lb. pieces of “THOMAS FARMS GRASS-FED GROUND BEEF PATTIES 85% LEAN / 15% FAT” and a use or freeze by date of 06/27/20 and lot code P53935-25.

1-lb. vacuum packages containing “VALUE PACK FRESH GROUND BEEF 76% LEAN / 24% FAT” and a use or freeze by date of 07/01/20 and lot code P53930-18.

The products subject to recall bear establishment number “EST. 46841” inside the USDA mark of inspection. These items were shipped to retail locations nationwide.

The problem was discovered during routine FSIS testing. There have been no confirmed reports of adverse reactions due to consumption of these products.

Anyone concerned about an injury or illness should contact a healthcare provider. E. coli O157:H7 is a potentially deadly bacterium that can cause dehydration, bloody diarrhea and abdominal cramps 2–8 days (3–4 days, on average) after exposure the organism. While most people recover within a week, some develop a type of kidney failure called hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS). This condition can occur among persons of any age but is most common in children under 5-years old and older adults. It is marked by easy bruising, pallor, and decreased urine output. Persons who experience these symptoms should seek emergency medical care immediately.

FSIS is concerned that some product may be in consumers’ refrigerators or freezers. Consumers who have purchased these products are urged not to consume them. These products should be thrown away or returned to the place of purchase.

https://breaking911.com/alert-40000-pounds-of-ground-beef-recalled-due-to-e-coli/

Top Pharma-Brand of Children’s Vitamins Contains Aspartame, GMOs, & Other Hazardous Chemicals

The #1 Children’s Vitamin Brand in the US contains ingredients that most parents would never intentionally expose their children to, so why aren’t more opting for healthier alternatives?

Kids vitamins are supposed to be healthy, right? Well then, what’s going on with Flintstones Vitamins, which proudly claims to be “Pediatricians’ #1 Choice”? Produced by the global pharmaceutical corporation Bayer, this wildly successful brand features a shocking list of unhealthy ingredients, including:

Aspartame

Cupric Oxide

Coal tar artificial coloring agents (FD&C Blue #2, Red #40, Yellow #6)

Zinc Oxide

Sorbitol

Ferrous Fumarate

DL-alpha tocopherol (synthetic vitamin E)

Hydrogenated Oil (Soybean)

GMO Corn starch

The Bayer Health Science’s Flintstones product page* designed for healthcare professionals leads into the product description with the following tidbit of information:

“82% of kids aren’t eating all of their veggies1. Without enough vegetables, kids may not be getting all of the nutrients they need.”

References: 1. Lorson BA, Melgar-Quinonez HR, Taylor CA. Correlates of fruit and vegetable intakes in US children. J Am Diet Assoc. 2009;109(3):474-478.

The implication? That Flintstones vitamins somehow fill this nutritional void. But let’s look a little closer at some of these presumably healthy ingredients….

ASPARTAME

Aspartame is a synthetic combination of the amino acids aspartic acid and l-phenylalanine, and is known to convert into highly toxic methanol and formaldehyde in the body. Aspartame has been linked to over 40 adverse health effects in the biomedical literature, and has been shown to exhibit both neurotoxicity and carcinogenicity [1] What business does a chemical like this have doing in a children’s vitamin, especially when non-toxic, non-synthetic non-nutritive sweeteners like stevia already exist?

CUPRIC OXIDE

Next, let’s look closer at Cupric Oxide, 2mg of which is included in each serving of Flinstone’s Complete chewable vitamins as a presumably ‘nutritional’ source of ‘copper,’ supplying “100% of the Daily Value (Ages 4+), according to Flintstones Vitamins Web site’s Nutritional Info.[2]

But what is Cupric Oxide? A nutrient or a chemical?

According to the European Union’s Dangerous Substance Directive, one of the main EU laws concerning chemical safety, Cupric Oxide is listed as a Hazardous substance, classified as both “Harmful (XN)” and “Dangerous for the environment” (N). Consider that it has industrial applications as a pigment in ceramics, and as a chemical in the production of rayon fabric and dry cell batteries. In may be technically correct to call it a mineral, but should it be listed as a nutrient in a children’s vitamin? We think not.

Top US Brand of Children's Vitamins Contain Aspartame, GMOs, & Other Hazardous Chemicals

https://www.naturalblaze.com/2020/06/top-pharma-brand-of-childrens-vitamins-contains-aspartame-gmos-other-hazardous-chemicals.html

Pentagon Surplus Handouts Stoke the Militarization of U.S. Police

This has been happening since 1997.

Via: AFP:

When US police flooded the streets around the country to confront protesters two weeks ago, for many it appeared like the army had deployed, with camouflage uniforms and combat gear, heavily armored anti-mine vehicles, and high-powered assault weapons.

That’s not by accident. For years the US Defense Department has been handing its surplus equipment over for free to police departments — and the departments, large and small, have revelled in it.

Critics say it has been part of the overall militarization of the police, and helped fuel mass nationwide demonstrations against police abuse and deadly tactics that began after the May 25 killing of a handcuffed African American, George Floyd, by a Minneapolis police officer.

As soon as protests began in Minneapolis, the city’s troubled police department rolled out armored vehicles appearing more suited to Middle East battlefields.

Other large cities have them too, but also small towns.

…

Since 1997, the US military has distributed used and new equipment ranging from handguns to helicopters to armored vehicles, worth around $8.6 billion, to more than 8,000 federal, tribal and local police forces, according to the US Congress.

In 2015 President Barack Obama severely limited the program, but his successor Donald Trump restored it in 2017.

That year alone, some 500 million pieces of military equipment were transferred to the country’s police services under the 1033 program.

https://www.cryptogon.com/?p=58595

Judicial Watch Statement on Supreme Court Ruling Regarding Sex Discrimination

(Washington, DC) – Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton made the following statement about today’s decision by the United States Supreme Court regarding sex discrimination:

The Supreme Court undermined the rule of law today. In expanding the ban of sex discrimination in the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to include sexual orientation and gender identity, the court engaged in an abuse of power by legislating from the bench.

There has been a years-long battle by Left to change federal law to bar discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. But Supreme Court today short-circuited the democratic process and rewrote the law without a vote of Congress but by a vote of six unelected judges.

Congress should reaffirm the Constitution and combat this judicial power grab by reaffirming the original meaning of the Civil Rights Act. Only Congress can amend a law, not the Supreme Court.

Today’s radical Supreme Court decision shows that the threat to the rule of law doesn’t only come from leftist rioters in the streets, but also from judicial activists on the bench.

As Justice Alito warns, today’s decision, unless fixed by Congress, could destroy women’s sports, weaken religious freedom and free speech, weaken personal privacy, and cause chaos in schools.

Judicial Watch last year submitted an amicus curiae (friend of court) brief to the court on this issue, detailing how Congress repeatedly rejected efforts to amend the law:

Where 71 bills over the course of 45 years attempted to include sexual orientation or gender identity in Title VII’s definition of sex, it is singularly unpersuasive, after all those bills have failed, to argue that these categories were “in there all along.” Any such statute should be passed by Congress, not ordered by the court.

https://www.judicialwatch.org/press-releases/sex-discrimination/

Head Of Turkish-backed Jaish al-Suqour Assassinated In Idlib

A series of military incidents and assassinations continues in the militant-held part of Syria’s Greater Idlib.

On June 15, the head of Jaish al-Suqour, Abu Husain, was assassinated south of the village of Ariha. Another militant commander, Abu Usama, was injured in the incident. Usama is a member of Liwa al-Hansa. Both militant groups are a part of the National Front for Liberation, a coalition of Turkish-backed militant groups.

On June 14, a drone strike eliminated two senior commanders of al-Qaeda-affiliated Horas al-Din – Qassam al-Urduni and Bilal al-Sanani – in the western part of Idlib city.

https://southfront.org/head-of-turkish-backed-jaish-al-suqour-assassinated-in-idlib/

U.N. Human Rights Council Resumes With ‘Urgent Debate’ On Alleged U.S. ‘Systemic Racism’

The United Nations Human Rights Council is meeting Monday in Geneva for the first time in three months after COVID-19 lockdowns. The global body has prioritized the issue of alleged “systemic racism” and police brutality in the U.S. as one of their first orders of business to tackle on their first day back in session.

The decision to discuss the topic was motivated by a letter sent by a number of African leaders, including Burkina Faso diplomat Dieudonne Desire Sougouri, coordinator of the African Group, who formally requested a debate on the subject Monday, according to reports.

“The death of George Floyd is unfortunately not an isolated incident,” Dieudonne Desire Sougouri wrote in his letter to the Council, adding that “The numbers of previous cases of unarmed people of African descent who met the same fate because of uncontrolled police violence are legion.”

The U.S. left the Human Rights Council in 2018. At the time, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo explained the Trump administration’s justification for the move, describing that the countries on the Council “say one thing and do another.”

“In some cases, states that seek to subvert this institution’s noble aims have hijacked the very systems that are supposed to advance them,” President Trump said during his 2017 address before the U.N. General Assembly. “For example, it is a massive source of embarrassment to the United Nations that some governments with egregious human rights records sit on the U.N. Human Rights Council.”

Trump added, “The United States is one out of 193 countries in the United Nations, and yet we pay 22 percent of the entire budget and more. In fact, we pay far more than anybody realizes. The United States bears an unfair cost burden, but, to be fair, if it could actually accomplish all of its stated goals, especially the goal of peace, this investment would easily be well worth it.”

https://saraacarter.com/u-n-human-rights-council-resumes-with-urgent-debate-on-alleged-u-s-systemic-racism/

In Videos: Shooting In Western Moscow. 2 Police Officers Injured. Gunman Neutralized

On June 15, a man opened fire at police officers that stopped a car to for a routine check at Leninsky Prospekt. Authorities reported that that 2 police officers and a civilian (most likely the gunman) were injured in the incident.

According to local media, the criminal was in the state of alcoholic, narcotic or other intoxication. The criminal was identified as Ratmir Galaev, 25, a native of Ingushetia. He opened fire from a MP-79-9T gas pistol converted to a lethal weapon. This explains why his attack was unsuccessful despite the close distance.

One of the injured police officers is in critical conditions. The attacker reportedly died from wounds at hospital.

Almost immediately, Russian liberal media outlets expectedly started spreading a lie about the incident. For example, in its report on the situation RBC uses a single video claiming that emphasizing that it shows a man in blood on the ground and that “one of officers slams his head”.

Nonetheless, videos clearly show that the criminal intentionally attacked police officers from a close distance and then he was neutralized by a single shot. As to the video referring by RBC, it shows how police officers try to give a first aid to the injured criminal. Despite this, rogue liberals posing as ‘journalists’ try to exploit this situation to fuel the ‘police brutality’ hype under the US-like scenario.

https://southfront.org/in-videos-shooting-in-western-moscow-2-police-officers-injured-gunman-neutralized/

Israel’s Military Occupation Must Be Discussed in the Colonial Context

In June 1967, Israel displaced over 400,000 Palestinians as a result of the Six-Day War. The Naksa (setback) is the most prominent wave of Palestinians expulsion after the 1948 Nakba, resulting in Israel seizing the Gaza Strip, Jerusalem and the West Bank. Decades later, the UN Security Council still feels it accomplished its duty through Resolution 242 which considers Israel’s withdrawal from the occupied territories a “principle”, rather than an obligation.

The Naksa is synonymous with Israel’s military occupation – a term which has eclipsed colonialism and which shields Israel from accountability. Political rhetoric does not confront Israel with decolonisation; instead it focuses on military occupation and as a result, shifts attention away from the ongoing colonial expansion which is still displacing the Palestinian people.

Within the international community and especially in relation to the two-state compromise, diplomacy regarding Israel’s military occupation proved a veneer to refrain from acknowledging the UN’s role in Israel’s creation and maintenance. Accepting Israel as a state marked the first collective normalisation of Zionist colonialism in Palestine. Sovereignty, built upon the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people from their land, was attributed to the colonial entity in Palestine. With Palestinians deemed a humanitarian urgency since 1948 and the classification further entrenched in 1967, the international community’s dismissal of the Zionist colonial project not only normalised colonialism, but also the ensuing military occupation of Palestine.

This has occurred due to the UN’s narrative of Israel’s international law violations, which are isolated from the earlier violence meted out by Zionist paramilitaries during the Nakba. From 1967 onwards, the military occupation provided Israel with the opportunity to legislate violations in order to collectively punish Palestinians and increase the likelihood of gradual Palestinian displacement, thus appropriating more land for its colonial expansion.

To describe Israel only as a military occupation is inconsistent with Israel’s colonial identity. Likewise, the calls to end Israel’s military occupation of Palestine ignore the colonial reality which supports the legislation depriving Palestinians of their movement, political expression, livelihood, basic necessities and freedom. Military occupation is a tool for colonial Israel; it does not define Israel and should not be exploited by the international community as the means to further deprive Palestinians of their anti-colonial endeavours, as is their political right.

https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2020/06/15/israels-military-occupation-must-be-discussed-in-the-colonial-context/

Planned Parenthood Endorses Joe Biden, Says “Literally a Life and Death Election”

The nation’s largest abortion provider Planned Parenthood endorsed former Vice President Joe Biden for president on Monday, with the group’s acting president Alexis McGill Johnson saying, “This is literally a life and death election.”

In a separate statement, the group said, “Donald Trump is putting our lives at risk every single day he remains in office.”

McGill Johnson is acting president of both Planned Parenthood and the group’s campaign arm Planned Parenthood Action. She spoke to NPR about the endorsement:

With abortion rights advocates on the defensive at the federal and state levels over the last four years, Planned Parenthood’s advocacy arm is endorsing former Vice President Joe Biden in his race to defeat President Trump.

Activists are putting their hope in Biden, whom some see as having a mixed record on abortion, as they watch a U.S. Supreme Court reshaped by Trump appointees for key decisions that could scale back access to abortion and birth control. They’re also reeling from a series of policy reversals related to reproductive health during the Trump administration.

“This is literally a life and death election,” Alexis McGill Johnson, acting president of Planned Parenthood, told NPR ahead of the announcement. “We felt like we can’t endure another four years of Trump; we have to do everything we can to get him out of office.”…

Endorsement video posted to YouTube with this statement, “Donald Trump is putting our lives at risk every single day he remains in office — from endless attempts to block access to abortion, to his total incompetence in handling the response to COVID-19, to inciting violence against protestors. Joe Biden is the only candidate in this race who will stand up for our health and our rights. In this election, the choice is clear: Planned Parenthood Action Fund endorses Joe Biden for President of the United States.”

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2020/06/planned-parenthood-endorses-joe-biden-says-literally-life-death-election/

The Floyd Riots Mark a Century of Communist Agitation

On the evening of June 10, in the midst of an impromptu desecration festival in Portsmouth, Virginia, the statue of a Confederate soldier was yanked off its pedestal and crowned the unfortunate Chris Green, who stood underneath.

Green, now in a medically induced coma, coded twice on the way to the hospital. He may not survive. Erasing the past is a dangerous business. It has been since the communists got involved in rewriting history a century ago.

As it happens, George Floyd died exactly 100 years and 40 days after Alessandro Berardelli and Frederick Parmenter were shot to death in a payroll robbery in Braintree, Massachusetts. These men have little in common with Floyd save that none of them deserved to die and that their respective deaths set off worldwide demonstrations orchestrated out of the very same playbook.

In the 1920s, communists had to erase some immediate history — namely, the fact that a pair of Italian anarchists murdered Berardelli and Parmenter in cold blood. The evidence that the anarchists, Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti, killed the pair was overwhelming. They were convicted soon after the murders.

In 1924, as the appeals process wore on, Sacco and Vanzetti caught a break of sorts. Lenin died, and Stalin replaced him. Always the realist, Stalin had no illusions that the Soviet P.R. arm, the Comintern, could inspire an American revolution. He focused his American efforts instead on defamation.

With Stalin's blessing, the Comintern set out to find a case that would undermine the idea of America, which at the time held great sway throughout the world. America was widely perceived as the land of opportunity, the ever beckoning home of the free and the brave. For the Soviet experiment to prevail, the American experiment had to yield. The world had to see America through fresh, unblinking eyes, not as the great melting pot, but as a simmering stew of xenophobic injustice.

In 1925, the Comintern came looking for Sacco and Vanzetti, glass slipper in hand. Almost immediately, "spontaneous" protests sprung up throughout the world. Europe's great squares filled with sobbing, shouting protesters, declaiming the innocence of the immigrant martyrs and denouncing the vile injustice of their persecutors. These protesters donated hundreds of thousands dollars to the cause, almost none of which found its way to the real Defense Committee.

https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2020/06/the_floyd_riots_mark_a_century_of_communist_agitation.html

Well that's where we are. You say we're on the brink of destruction and you're right. But it's only on the brink that people find the will to change. Only at the precipice do we evolve.