News and Headlines: In The News, Politics, World News, Commentary/Opinion.
In The News:
12 arrested after ATF raids across Colorado, some tied to ‘motorcycle gangs’
19 search warrants were executed, said ATF Special Agent David Booth at a Thursday afternoon news conference. He did not share the exact locations, but said they included the Denver metro area, Weld County and Colorado Springs.
The 12 will face charges in state court, with some charges related to organized crime, Denver District Attorney Beth McCann said. She did not reveal any specific charges.
Neighbors said one of the locations, on the 3200 block of Navajo Street in Denver, is a clubhouse for the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club.
Cell phone video captured officers executing the search warrant around 4 a.m. Thursday. Neighbors said they woke up to bright lights and a series of “booming noises.”
Man dies in Hawaii after falling into a lava tube in his yard
The man was reported missing after he wasn’t heard from or seen in several days, according to Hawaii Island police.
When they went to his home in Kaumana on Monday they discovered the man had plummeted 22 feet below the surface through a soft area of ground on his property into a lava tube, according to a press release.
Police Maj. Robert Wagner told Big Island Now that it appeared the man had been trimming branches when he fell through the soft ground.
Rescue teams were able to rappel into the lava tube and bring the man back up. He was transported to Hilo Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead, the press release said.
New York tech firm sold Chinese equipment with ‘made in USA’ labels to American government: prosecutors
Aventura Technologies, located in Commack, N.Y., began to falsely represent their equipment as made in the U.S. back in 2006, and made more than $88 million in sales revenue, U.S. Attorney Richard Donoghue said at a news conference. Seven current and former employees have been charged.
The scheme “created a channel in which foreign adversaries could potentially access our government’s most sensitive facilities and computer networks” with technology that had “known cybersecurity vulnerabilities,” Donoghue said.
The company went to “extraordinary lengths to perpetrate fraud,” removing identifiers in software code, modifying markings on circuit boards and even having the items imported with fake “made in the USA” labels,” Donoghue said.
CBS fires former ABC staffer who blew whistle on network spiking Epstein accuser interview: report
Reporter Yashar Ali cited “two sources with knowledge of the situation” who claimed ABC News honchos “believe they know the identity” of a former employee with access to the viral footage.
“Two sources with knowledge of the situation tell me that ABC News executives know who the former employee is but don’t know if that person leaked the footage to Project Veritas, the right-wing activist group, or if they shared it with others who leaked the footage,” Ali wrote. “What ABC News executives do know is that the former employee is now working at CBS News.”
Ali added that ABC executives informed CBS that the potential leaker was now working at “The Tiffany Network.”
Less than 24 hours after Ali’s initial story, he followed up with a report that CBS terminated the employee in question. The New York Post has also reported that CBS fired the employee.
One of FBI’s Most Wanted fugitives offers surrender
The New Jersey U.S. Attorney’s Office would not comment on the case, nor would the FBI, but former New Jersey Assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph Mack says Khan’s request is a tall order from a man on the run.
“He has created this issue. He has created this quagmire. And now he’s looking for the Department of Justice to fix that for him. And I think that’s where the difficulty in this and this issue is,” Mack said. “I think it’d be tough to have a lot of sympathy for someone that has created that situation for his family.”
Khan claims his two children have not attended school or seen a doctor in the 5 years he’s been on the run, and says his wife struggles with constant pain.
Stephanie Khan told Fox News: “It is beyond difficult constantly looking over your shoulder. Being a mother and having children and them not being able to go to school like they would if we were back home is very difficult.”
Search Continues for Hurlburt Airman who Fell from C-130
The search area is being continuously adjusted as search efforts continue, according to the 24th SOW news release. Among those searching Wednesday afternoon as part of a massive effort involving a number of Department of Defense and other federal assets, along with state and local assets, were a group of about a dozen 24th SOW airmen staged at the Navarre Beach Pier.
The airmen were using all-terrain vehicles to search the beach for signs of the missing airman and also were scanning the Gulf of Mexico, alerting rescue aircraft and boats to points of interest in the water.
An Air Force ambulance was standing by with the 24th SOW airmen. A short distance out into the Gulf of Mexico, a C-130 circled above a helicopter that would occasionally hover over the water as the boat followed along.
‘Kidz Bop Karen’ went viral for on-camera road rage. The Lyft passenger she targeted calls the tirade ‘scary.’
The video was captured during rush hour Friday, when Klein was riding in a Lyft down Manhattan’s West Side Highway on her way home to New Jersey. At a red light near 39th Street, her car appeared to cut off another driver.
“Karen,” while driving with her children in the back seat, flashed Klein her middle finger and her driver the middle finger.
Klein wasn’t sure what had happened, she told WPIX, so she said she did what she always does when faced with road rage: respond with a thumbs-up.
But that move prompted an irate “Karen” to exit her car and start yelling at the Lyft driver, sticking her head into the vehicle through the passenger-side window. When Klein instructed the woman to “calm down,” she only got louder.
Politics:
Virginia: Daughter of terror-linked Muslim wins school board seat, Muslim Brotherhood praises
The daughter of one of America’s most prominent Islamist leaders became the youngest woman and one of the first Muslim women elected to office in Virginia on Tuesday.
Abrar Omeish, 24, won an at-large seat on the Fairfax County school board as part of a Democratic wave that also gave the party control of both houses of Virginia’s General Assembly.
Her campaign received support from her father, former Muslim American Society (MAS) President Esam Omeish. Prosecutors say MAS is the Muslim Brotherhood’s “overt arm” in the United States.
Abrar Omeish supports the Muslim Brotherhood-linked International Institute for Islamic Thought (IIIT), which has long endorsed an Islamic supremacist vision of society.
Thirty years ago, IIIT’s then managing editor of its social science journal, Shareefa al-Khatib, advocated modifying curricula to proselytize. Al-Khatib played a key role in introducing Islam and the Arabic language into the Fairfax County Public Schools in the 1990s.
People with Muslim Brotherhood links praised Omeish’s election.
Nunes: Schiff is a fact witness to this disaster
Rep. Devin Nunes goes off on House Democrats for resisting calls to identify the Trump whistleblower and have them testify in public.
Trump slams whistleblower’s attorney after anti-Trump tweets resurface
In 2017, attorney Mark Zaid tweeted a ‘coup has started’ and promised that impeachment ‘will follow, ultimately’; David Spunt reports from the Justice Department.
Tulsi Gabbard to Breitbart News: ‘We Do Not Have a Nation If We Do Not Have Borders’
She fielded a variety of question from Marlow, including questions about domestic policy, starting with immigration.
“The reality is that we do not have a nation if we don’t have borders,” she said.
“It’s a false choice for people to say you’re anti-immigrant if you support secure borders. That’s just not the case.”
Gabbard is one of the only candidates who has opposed decriminalizing illegal immigration, and who has opposed providing free health care and free college tuition to illegal aliens.
She has criticized President Donald Trump’s immigration policy, but also departed from the radical stances of her rivals.
Obama fundraiser accused of ‘lavish’ misspending at nonprofit that filed for bankruptcy
In a Chapter 7 bankruptcy filing in a federal court in California, the anti-poverty nonprofit Youth Policy Institute (YPI) reportedly accuses its former chief executive, Dixon Slingerland, of misusing the organization’s money on a number of things – including paying for his children’s private tutoring, padding his wife’s pensions, paying for “lavish” entertainment and making “partisan political contributions” to federal campaign committees. That last activity would be a violation of federal tax law.
The allegations in the bankruptcy filing come as the longtime nonprofit abruptly closed for good nearly two weeks ago, putting almost 1,000 employees out of work and disrupting services to low-income families across the Los Angeles region.
He is also a well-known Democratic booster, reportedly holding at least seven fundraisers for Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti’s 2013 campaign and contributing $5,000 to a committee set up by Garcetti to support congressional candidates during the 2018 midterm elections.
Slingerland was also heavily involved in raising money for former President Barack Obama’s election campaigns in both 2008 and 2012, with The New York Times reporting that he had raised more than $743,000.
Rep. Jordan: GOP To Subpoena Whistleblower To Testify Publicly
On Thursday, Jordan told reporters the anonymous person may be on a list of witnesses the Republicans want to testify in open hearings.
“You don’t get to ignite an impeachment effort and never account for your actions and role in orchestrating it,” he stated. “Whistleblower needs to testify.”
The GOP has questioned the political motivations of the unnamed individual as reports have alleged the whistleblower is a registered Democrat and supposedly worked close to former Vice President Joe Biden.
“The Oversight Committee probably deals with more whistleblowers than any committee in Congress,” said Jordan. “You always look for two things when a whistleblower comes forward: did they have firsthand knowledge and what is their bias and/or motive?”
Sen. Paul Blocks Senate Resolution Backing Whistleblower Protection
Paul accused Democrats of “selective outrage,” adding, they are determined on removing the president from office.
The Kentucky lawmaker is now proposing his own legislation, which would let President Trump face his accuser.
One America’s John Hines caught up with Sen. Paul and has this from Washington.
Sanders’ immigration plan: Halt deportations, abolish ICE, welcome 50K ‘climate migrants,’ give welfare to all
Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., on Thursday released a sweeping immigration plan that would impose a moratorium on deportations, “break up” existing immigration enforcement agencies, grant full welfare access to illegal immigrants and welcome a minimum of 50,000 “climate migrants” in the first year of a Sanders administration.
Sanders promises that both his “Medicare-for-all” and “College-for-all” plans would be available regardless of immigration status.
He also wants to include free universal school meals — breakfast, lunch, dinner (and snacks) — regardless of immigration status.
Additionally, he pledges to “address disciplinary practices in schools that disproportionately affect Black and Brown children.” He also wants Congress to pass Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s, D-N.Y., Embrace Act — which opens up all welfare programs to illegal immigrants.
In addition to the path to citizenship, Sanders wants to streamline legal immigration channels, reduce fees, and provide funding to unite immigrants who are stuck in backlogs.
Uh Oh! Schiff’s Staff Forgot To Redact Ciaramella’s Name From Bill Taylor’s Transcript
Either Adam Schiff ‘s staff overlooked the name of alleged whistleblower Eric Ciaramella in the transcript of acting U.S. ambassador to Ukraine Bill Taylor before releasing it or Eric Ciaramella isn’t the whistleblower.
Democrats want to prevent Ciaramella from testifying under oath before lawmakers, because their entire case depends on his credibility as a true whistleblower.
Once the American people are presented with Ciaramella’s work history, his associations and his activities during the 2016 election and beyond, he will have zero credibility and voters will see for themselves that once again, the Democrats, rather than the Republicans, have tried to subvert the U.S. system of justice.
Trump Jr. Defends Tweeting Alleged Name Of Whistleblower — ‘In Public Domain For Weeks’
“The entire media is #Triggered that I (a private citizen) tweeted out a story naming the alleged whistleblower.
Are they going to pretend that his name hasn’t been in the public domain for weeks now?
Numerous people & news outlets including Real Clear Politics already ID’d him.”
Although the alleged name has been stated publicly, some Republicans are urging the media to do so.
During a Monday night rally with President Donald Trump, Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul said, “I say tonight to the media: do your job and print his name.”
Virginia lawmaker jailed for teen sex scandal wins state Senate seat
Morrissey was jailed four years ago after the sex scandal involving his secretary, who Morrissey later married.
The couple now has three children.
He denied wrongdoing but entered an Alford plea to a misdemeanor, contributing to the delinquency of a minor, acknowledging that prosecutors had enough evidence for a conviction.
Morrissey lost a 2016 campaign to be Richmond’s mayor and had his law license revoked last year.
Tucker: Russia collusion hoax is still claiming victims
Commentary/Opinion: Is Roger Stone guilty of being too close to Trump?
World News:
Thailand: Muslims storm security checkpoint, murder at least 15 people, including cop and security volunteers
Tuwaedaniya Meringing | AFP | Getty Images
Suspected separatist insurgents stormed a security checkpoint in Thailand’s Muslim-majority south and killed at least 15 people, including a police officer and many village defense volunteers, security officials said on Wednesday.
It was the worst single attack in years in a region where a Muslim separatist insurgency has killed thousands.
The attackers, in the province of Yala, also used explosives and scattered nails on roads to delay pursuers late on Tuesday night.
“This is likely the work of the insurgents,” Colonel Pramote Prom-in, a regional security spokesman, told Reuters.
China, U.S. Agree To Roll Back Tariffs As Part Of Trade Deal: Officials
The Chinese commerce ministry, without laying out a timetable, said the two countries had agreed to cancel the tariffs in phases.
A U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed the planned rollback as part of a “phase one” trade agreement that President Donald Trump and President Xi Jinping are aiming to sign before the end of the year.
The interim trade pact is widely expected to include a U.S. pledge to scrap tariffs scheduled for Dec. 15 on about $156 billion worth of Chinese imports, including cell phones, laptop computers and toys.
Tariff cancellation was an important condition for any agreement, Chinese Commerce Ministry spokesman Gao Feng said, adding that both must simultaneously cancel some tariffs on each other’s goods to reach the phase one pact.
Slovakia Deputy Speaker Resigns Over Links To Journalist Murder Suspect
REUTERS/Radovan Stoklasa/File Photo
Martin Glvac, leader of the Bratislava chapter of Fico’s Smer party, is the highest-ranking individual to resign over contacts with politically-connected entrepreneur Marian Kocner, whose extensive reach within the state was revealed by the investigation into the killing.
Last month, police completed the initial phase of the case, seen as a test of Slovak judicial independence. They charged Kocner and three others with the murder of Jan Kuciak, who covered corruption in the EU country, and his fiancee at their home outside Bratislava last February.
Kocner and two alleged accomplices have pleaded not guilty while the fourth suspect has confessed to the shooting. A fifth man has confessed to facilitating the killing and made a plea deal with prosecutors to act as a witness in the trial.
US-led coalition to protect ships on Middle East oil routes formally launches
One-third of the world’s seaborne crude and fuels passes from the Persian Gulf through the narrow Strait of Hormuz and into the Gulf of Oman on its journey to international markets. The Bab el-Mandeb is a bottleneck at the southern tip of the Red Sea for ships sailing to and from the Suez Canal.
“Over the last six months, we have seen increased threats in these waters,” said U.S. Vice Admiral James Malloy, commander of America’s Fifth Fleet, based in Bahrain. The naval force will only attack if attacked, he said Thursday at a ceremony in Bahrain.
Large naval vessels, such as frigates and destroyers, will guard critical chokepoints and smaller vessels will patrol the seas, according to a statement from the U.S. Navy. Airborne surveillance will monitor the flow of traffic through “high risk areas,” it said.
10 Dead After Cartel Gunmen Attack in Juarez — Many Victims Innocent Factory Workers
Violence erupted in Juárez early Tuesday morning at approximately 2:00am local time when cartel shooters stopped a factory worker transit bus.
The operatives barricaded the doors and set it on fire. The passengers were able to break out windows and jump to safety after sustaining first and second-degree burns.
The bus marked a series of attacks throughout the city, resulting in four factory vehicles ignited, according to local reports.
At least 10 cars were also torched throughout the day, resulting in numerous burn victims. Cartel henchmen also reportedly directed gunfire at several individuals.
Late Tuesday night, an attack was carried out on a building adjacent to the Chihuahua State Attorney General’s Office, according to local reports.
Gunmen opened fire on the building, resulting in a civilian security guard sustaining non-fatal gunshot wounds.
Bolivia mayor dragged through streets, has hair cut by protesters as election violence swells
Officials said Wednesday that a third person was killed in street clashes between supporters and foes of President Evo Morales, Bolivia’s first indigenous president, who has accused the opposition of trying to stage a coup.
The deadly incident on Wednesday happened in the city of Cochabamba, where 20-year-old student Limbert Guzman was killed in a spate of clashes.
Meanwhile,
Vinto Mayor Patricia Arce Guzman was confronted at the town hall by protesters, who then dragged her out barefoot through the streets of the town as windows at the city building were broken and her office was set on fire.
Guzman was then forced to kneel down as demonstrators cut her hair, doused her in red paint, and forced her to sign a resignation letter all while yelling “murderess, murderess,” according to the BBC.
Russian re-enacts famous World War II parade with vintage tanks, uniforms in Moscow
The original event on Nov. 7, 1941, saw Red Army soldiers move directly to the front line in the Battle of Moscow — a maneuver that eventually led to the Nazis’ first major defeat since the start of World War II.
The parade Thursday – 78 years later – featured about 4,000 troops, vintage T-34 tanks, and other vehicles.
Nazi forces approached Moscow in October 1941 as the Red Army suffered a series of devastating defeats following the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union in June that year.
They came as close as 19 miles to the city in some areas and Nazi officers were able to see Moscow’s landmarks in binoculars.
Paris police demolish massive migrant camps as officials vow to stop them from reappearing
The massive operation targeting the camps underneath highways in northern Paris began in the early morning and involved nearly 600 police officers.
By the time it was finished, an estimated 1,606 migrants were taken away — and police say they will keep a presence in the areas to may sure they don’t come back.
“I will no longer tolerate these installations by the roadside here or anywhere else on public spaces in Paris,” Didier Lallement, the leader of Paris’ police department, was quoted by Reuters as saying.
Buses picked up the migrants – described by Reuters as being mostly men from Africa and the Middle East – and later dropped them off at gyms and other public venues in the Paris area while the makeshift structures they used to call home were demolished.
Commentary/Opinion:
Democrat Voters Reject Sanctuary Cities Why Don’t Their Leaders? | Ep 477
Some Democrat voters appear to finally be coming to their senses by voting against sanctuary city policies.
Republicans need to take this as a lesson that the American people want someone to speak up for them.
Then, a pregnant women recently defended her family with an AR-15 against two armed home intruders.
Just because Beto is out of the race, don’t think that your self-defense is safe.
If anything, Democrat politicians now know they need to be quiet about their gun confiscation plans if they hope to get elected.
Donald Trump’s Berlin Wall moment? A Reagan-sized opportunity for Middle East stability
The killing of the most wanted terrorist in the world, Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi, came within a few weeks of Trump’s brokering a deal with Turkey that ended months of dead end negotiations on a so-called “safe zone.”
Those events have significantly advanced U.S. interests in the Middle East, a chess play ripped from the pages of Ronald Reagan’s peace-through-strength manual. They also could open the door to several regional deals that return refugees home and enhance stability in the region — including a new, more comprehensive, and tougher nuclear deal with Iran.
But you would have a hard time getting the whole picture from news coverage, which has been preoccupied with the U.S. “sellout” of the Kurds and how Trump’s statement on Baghdadi compared with Obama’s on Osama Bin Laden. Or the differences in the White House photos.
To appreciate the opportunity that has opened up for America in the Middle East, one must first examine the facts and correct the misleading narrative.
The Radical Left Claims Trump is an Amateur – So Who is the Genius Here?
Consider the genius of his move: By pulling a small number of our troops away from the Turkish-Syrian border, and not stopping Turkey, our NATO Ally from invading Syria and assaulting the Kurds, he caused the Russians to quickly send an envoy to Damascus to negotiate a deal to unite the Kurds (PPK) and Syrian government against Turkey, a NATO ally.
In doing so, he really upset Iran’s Mullah’s not happy the Turks are pushing into Syria, even a little ways, even beyond the Syrian border. Now, Germany, an uninvolved NATO ally, hits Turkey with sanctions.
Israel was given a relief period from Iran’s depredations including moving hoards of war supplies, troops and missiles into Syria. Now, Iran has to defend Syria against Turkey instead of focusing on driving Israel into the sea, leaving Israel’s three main enemies, Iran, Turkey and Syria facing off against each other. Turkey’s invasion is going to be very expensive for them.
In the end, Trump’s withdrawal feint brought some level of common unity between Syria and the Kurds while at the same time opening troubling cracks in the apparent wall of solidarity between Russia, Turkey and Iran. Today, Iraqi tribes are in revolt over the Iranian Mullah’s growing influence in their country. Tell me the “elites” in the State Department or the DoD, could have seen this one coming! I don’t think so.
Trump continues to demonstrate a level of genius the Deep State elites simply fail to realize.
CNN, MSNBC Give More Minutes To Middle East Violence Than Murders At The U.S. Border
On Tuesday night, following Monday’s slaughter of American women and children, more murders and bus burnings were unleashed on the city of Juarez by a group identifying themselves as “La Empresa” or “The Business” cartel.
The mayor of Juarez said the chaos was the cartel’s response to police arresting suspects involved in an ongoing drug turf war.
But to an average spectator of cable news networks like CNN and MSNBC, the seemingly most pressing issue in American foreign policy at the moment would not be Los Zetas or the Sinaloa Cartel, but relationships with countries half a world away in the Middle East.
Producers and anchors at CNN and MSNBC have spent more minutes discussing never-ending wars and victims like the Kurds with little strategic importance to the United States than they have the victims of the violence unfolding close to home.
It’s not just the news channels.
Even Americans who get their only news from the new class of hyper-political late-night hosts like John Oliver, Jimmy Kimmel, and Trevor Noah might think Turkey is our next-door neighbor if they were to judge by the amount of mentions the Kurds received on late night.
Neverending Foreign Wars Are Keeping The United States From Fixing The Border Crisis
It’s time for an overhaul of the U.S. national security establishment. No subjects of failed policy are more evident than Afghanistan and our southern border.
Afghanistan cost us $45 billion last year with little to show for it. Meanwhile, our southern border is awash with desperate human beings trying to make a better life in our great country.
All the while narcotics are flowing across to feed our insatiable habit.
Meanwhile, Mexico is one of the most dangerous places on earth, and Central America has an incredibly low standard of living.
No wonder people are streaming to our great country! A humanitarian crisis has been occurring for years, and administration after administration has ignored it.
What good is our powerful military stationed all over the world if on our very border is a failing state?
Just because we are not involved in a major world conflict should not validate our current foreign policy gurus.
Failure to think critically about our plans is why we are still in Afghanistan and not in Mexico.
The Constitution tasks Congress with providing for the common defense. Congress can do a better job of defending America by rethinking its strategies free of current national security establishment ideals.