News and Headlines: In The News, Politics, World News, Commentary/Opinion.
In The News:
Marine Corps blocks members from ‘sharing’ political social media posts under new guidelines
In a message, the corps said active-duty troops are allowed to voice their political opinions or endorse candidates on platforms such as Facebook, but the post must be accompanied with a disclaimer noting that the views expressed are that of the individual, and not the government or the Marine Corps.
Marines may not “share” political pages but they can “like,” follow or “friend” the social media page of a candidate or cause, according to the guidelines. They also can’t suggest others do the same.
“Because an active-duty member may not engage in partisan political activity, the active-duty member may not post or make direct links to a political party, partisan political candidate, campaign, group or cause,” the message said.
“Such activity is akin to distributing literature on behalf of those entities, which is prohibited.”
Army says faith-based group can no longer put Bible verses on dog tags after complaint
For the past 20 years, military members have been able to wear dog tags with Bible verses on them, giving them light and hope in some of their darkest times.
For some Gold Star families, this is one of their most cherished possessions to remember their loved one who gave the ultimate sacrifice. But all this could be coming to an end.
After Fox News reported in July on “Shields of Strength,” the faith-based business that prints Bible verses on dog tags for military members and their family, complaints were raised to the Department of Defense by Mikey Weinstein, founder, and president of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF).
He demanded the military branches stop allowing the group to use the military emblem.
Oakland’s rising homelessness crisis prompts DIY effort using large logs
While the motive is clear — to keep the homeless out — no one person or group has come forward to say they are behind the long line of logs that have been preventing the homeless from parking their RVs or dilapidated vehicles in front of businesses.
City officials have complained the logs have blocked crews from cleaning up the areas of Oakland but admit they have done little to root out the culprit.
Oakland saw a 47 percent jump in homelessness in two years — one of the largest surges of any California city, according to a one-night street count released in July.
The Point-In-Time Count also found that the number of people living in their vehicles had more than doubled, skyrocketing 131 percent.
Chicago police arrest 53 in ‘Operation FaceBOOKED’ investigation
Arrests were made when officers found sellers in private Facebook groups and made a deal.
Police said buyers will seek out weapons and drugs this way because it is discrete due to Facebook’s privacy policy.
Investigators within CPD’s Bureau of Organized Crime said members of covert groups are making these deals.
Typical Facebook users cannot find these groups with a simple search. They have to be invited inside.
But police said Facebook is stopping them when they realize undercover officers are not who they say they are.
“Facebook is harboring criminals. Criminals know how to use the privacy Facebook affords them, and they profit from the sale of illegal drugs,” said Riccio.
“The people who are doing the illegal acts, under their own identities, Facebook doesn’t shut them down.
But when they find out there are officers working undercover, with covert identities, Facebook will shut those officers down… because we’re not real.”
Officer shot Wisconsin high school student who stabbed him
OSHKOSH, Wis. (AP) — A 16-year-old student stabbed a school resource officer who then shot the teenager at a Wisconsin high school Tuesday morning, police said, in the second shooting at a school in the state in as many days.
The latest shooting happened at Oshkosh West High School just after 9 a.m., Oshkosh police spokeswoman Katherine Mann said at a news briefing. The student and the officer were taken to hospitals, but no one else was injured, Mann said.
Oshkosh Police Chief Dean Smith said at a news conference Tuesday afternoon that neither the officer or student had suffered what were expected to be life-threatening injuries. He said the officer shot the teenager once.
Woman killed in Sheridan hotel room, police seek Uber driver as person of interest
Sheridan police are asking the public for any information on Abbas Abdal Kathem Abed, identified as a person of interest in the case.
Abed has been employed as an Uber driver and may still be working in that capacity, police said. He drives a 2011 silver Dodge Grand Caravan with the license plate VOR-925.
Police request anyone with information about Abbas to contact the Sheridan Police Department at 303-762-2211.
Ex-Cy-Fair ISD officer sentenced to 10 years in rape of 12-year-old
Bastida pleaded guilty last month to one charge of sexual assault of a child under the age of 14.
Prosecutors offered him a plea deal, in part so the girl wouldn’t have to take the witness stand against Bastida and relive the rape, according to the Harris County District Attorney’s Office.
Still a trainee officer at the time, Bastida met the girl on the “Meet Me” app and sent an Uber to pick her up on Oct. 1, 2018, in Deer Park, prosecutors said. The car took her to a motel in Cypress in the 10000 block of Huffmeister Road.
In the morning, Bastida gave her money for a candy bar before he left for work, the girl told police.
She called her mother from the motel around 11:30 a.m., and police picked her up.
Couple had sex on New York subway platform in front of riders, police say
(NYPD Crimestoppers)
Officials said the man, about 200 pounds with brown eyes, started having sex with a woman in front of other subway riders on the platform for the Nos. 4 and 5 subway trains.
Officials said the incident was witnessed by “multiple customers” inside the station.
It was not disclosed if the couple then got on a train or left the station, but officials released a photograph of a man wanted for public lewdness.
An image of the woman involved in the incident was not released.
Off-duty California police officer attacked by teens after helping woman who said phone was stolen
(Emeryville Police Department)
The assault – which was captured on video – happened around 8 p.m. at the Bay Street Mall in Emeryville, located next to Oakland.
The Emeryville Police Department said Monday a woman seen in surveillance video wearing white clothes approached a group of teenagers and accused them of taking her cellphone minutes earlier.
“She confronted them asking for her phone back. During the confrontation, the juveniles got aggressive with the victim and began to assault the victim,” Emeryville Police Detective Jaime Pardo told reporters.
After spotting the commotion, a California Highway Patrol officer – who asked to only be identified as Greg B. – approached the group and tried to secretly take photos until one of the girls in the crowd noticed what he was doing.
“The group then turned toward him and became violent with him,” Pardo said.
Pennsylvania mom charged with murder in hanging deaths of her two children
Snyder’s arrest was announced Monday by Berks County prosecutors. She was arrested at her home.
Snyder was also charged with child endangerment and having sex with a dog, the Allentown Morning Call reported.
The paper, citing court documents, reported that authorities said the children’s deaths happened a day after Snyder searched “hanging yourself” on Google and visited a website detailing an effective way of hanging a person.
Politics:
Nadler then and now: 1998 video shows Dem saying impeachment would ‘overturn’ will of voters
“The effect of impeachment is to overturn the popular will of the voters,” Nadler said on the House floor during the Clinton impeachment hearings, in footage unearthed by Grabien.
“We must not overturn an election and remove a president from office except to defend our system of government or constitutional liberties against a dire threat, and we must not do so without an overwhelming consensus of the American people.”
“There must never be a narrowly voted impeachment or an impeachment supported by one of our major political parties and opposed by the other,” he had said before warning of dire consequences if Republicans moved on with their push.
“Such an impeachment will produce a divisiveness and bitterness in our politics for years to come and will call into question the very legitimacy of our political institutions,” he said.
Devin Nunes sues CNN for $435M over ‘false and defamatory’ Ukraine story
The 47-page lawsuit, filed in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, accuses the liberal network of publishing “numerous egregiously false and defamatory” statements about Nunes on Nov. 22, 2019 when journalist Vicky Ward reported claims that Nunes met with Ukranian prosecutor, Viktor Shokin, in Vienna in 2018 to dig “up dirt” on Hunter and Joe Biden.
Nunes, who has been leading GOP opposition to the House Democratic impeachment inquiry in the House Intelligence Committee, says he “did not go to Vienna or anywhere else in Austria in 2018” and “has never met” Shokin.
“CNN is the mother of fake news. It is the least trusted name. CNN is eroding the fabric of America, proselytizing, sowing distrust and disharmony. It must be held accountable,” the lawsuit, obtained by Fox News, states.
California GOP backs longshot efforts to recall Gov. Gavin Newsom
“Last weekend, the CA GOP Board of Directors voted to support both recall efforts at the urging of many of our supporters due to the severe lack of leadership Gavin Newsom has provided on the serious issues facing California,’’ Millan Patterson said in a statement to POLITICO.
One effort is fronted by physician James Veltmeyer, a former Republican congressional candidate from San Diego who has raised almost $48,000 with a committee called the “Californians to Recall Gavin Newsom” coalition.
Veltmeyer’s website says Newsom has mishandled California tax policy, homelessness and illegal immigration issues.
Trump Campaign Mocks Kamala Harris Dropping Out: ‘Congratulations Tulsi Gabbard!’
Trump War Room, a Twitter account managed by the president’s campaign, tweeted a congratulatory message to 2020 presidential candidate Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI) after Harris suspended her campaign.
Gabbard’s rivalry with Harris was a mainstay on the campaign trail after the Hawaii Democrat eviscerated the senator’s record as a prosecutor at July’s primary debate.
President Trump’s official campaign Twitter account also joined in, sharing a silent video of Harris waving good-bye.
California congressman Hunter pleads guilty to campaign finance felony
The felony offense carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison, but his attorney has said prosecutors have agreed to recommend significantly less time than that. Sentencing was set for March 17.
He appeared on Tuesday before U.S. District Judge Thomas Whelan in San Diego for a hearing that lasted less than 10 minutes, calmly answering “guilty” when asked by the judge for his plea to a single count of conspiring to use campaign funds for non-campaign purposes.
Hunter and his wife, Margaret, were indicted in 2018 on charges of misappropriating $250,000 in campaign donations to pay for personal expenses, including their children’s private school tuition, lavish travel, expensive meals at restaurants, groceries and clothing.
House Dem continues to rail against impeachment push: ‘Everything our country doesn’t stand for’
Van Drew was one of just two House Democrats to oppose the chamber’s November vote on setting rules for the impeachment inquiry.
The New Jersey congressman also commented that his job wasn’t to “like or dislike” the president.
“My job is to exact as much goodwill and help for my district and for this nation and for this world that I possibly can while he’s president,” he said.
During an interview with Fox Business host Maria Bartiromo, Van Drew similarly blasted the inquiry by comparing it to “something you would see in Europe or third-world nations.”
“You know, De Tocqueville in 1853 wrote that if a nation was more and more often using…impeachment as a way of actually removing its leaders, it would show the deterioration of the nation,” he said, referring to historian Alexis De Tocqueville.
Kamala Harris drops out of presidential race
Harris entered the race in January as a top contender and had a breakout moment in the first debate thanks to a memorable clash with then-frontrunner Joe Biden over his record on desegregation busing.
But she’s struggled to shine through in subsequent debates and has seen her poll numbers plunge in recent months.
The campaign was also hemorrhaging money, spending more than what was coming in, amid tough media coverage about the campaign’s struggles.
She becomes one of the biggest candidates yet to drop out of the crowded 2020 primary field, two months before the lead-off Iowa caucuses.
World News:
Trump says China trade deal may have to wait amid sticking points in talks
“I have no deadline, no,” Trump told reporters in London, where he was due to attend a meeting of NATO leaders.
“In some ways, I like the idea of waiting until after the election for the China deal. But they want to make a deal now, and we’ll see whether or not the deal’s going to be right; it’s got to be right.”
Trump’s remarks sent stock prices tumbling and triggered a rush into safe assets such as U.S. Treasury debt.
Trump’s comments came as sources in Beijing and Washington familiar with the talks said that the two countries have made progress, but are still wrangling over whether existing U.S. tariffs will be removed and over specific levels of Chinese purchases of U.S. agricultural products as part of a “phase one” trade deal.
China jails man for 18 months over ‘insulting country’s leaders, ruling party’
The family of Long Kehai were informed late last month of the sentence, which was handed down by the Weibing District People’s Court in Shaanxi’s Baoji city, which found him guilty of “picking quarrels and stirring up trouble,” a charge frequently used to target peaceful critics of the regime.
Long’s son Long Shaoteng said the charges related to posts his father had made to Twitter and Facebook that were judged to have “slandered and insulted” China’s leaders and its ruling party.
Long’s verdict and sentence were announced following a secret trial, and come amid an ever-widening crackdown on any speech relating to Chinese President Xi Jinping.
Jeremy Corbyn says he is ‘very sorry’ about Labour Party anti-Semitism allegations
The show of remorse comes after the United Kingdom’s chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis recently said Jewish voters should not back the party during the Dec. 12 general election, calling the Labour boss “unfit for office.”
Corbyn has long been a champion of the Palestinians and has criticized the Israeli government in the past.
The comments come after Corbyn repeatedly was asked to apologize during an interview with the BBC last Tuesday — yet declined to do so.
Nepal’s animal sacrifice festival, known as ‘world’s bloodiest,’ gets underway after ‘ban’ ignored
The two-day Gadhimai festival kicked off at a Hindu temple in Bariyarpur, located about 80 miles south of Kathmandu, with the ceremonial slaughter of a goat, rat, chicken, pig and pigeon, according to news reports.
Held once every five years, hundreds of thousands of devout Hindus prepared to sacrifice thousands of buffalo corralled on temple grounds.
The ceremonies are known as being the largest and bloodiest in the world.
Commentary/Opinion:
Trump Negotiation Secrets Revealed & Fair Taxes (Pt. 1) | Stephen Moore | POLITICS | Rubin Report
Dave Rubin of The Rubin Report talks to Stephen Moore, a visiting fellow at the Heritage Foundation and co-author of “Trumponomics:
Inside the America First Plan to Revive Our Economy,” He talks about his experience working with Donald Trump and how he advised President Trump on taxes and other issues.
Stephen discusses his feelings on a flat tax and why he thinks a fixed rate income tax would be the fairest tax system. He also says that the people most against the flat tax are not liberals, but special interest groups in Washington D.C who are always lobbying for loopholes in the tax code.
“If you really want to drain the swamp, go to a flat tax.” He also discusses his first hand accounts of Trump’s negotiation skills and how he used them for the tax cuts and job act.
Stephen also gives a glimpse into how Trump’s public persona is very different from how he is in private.
Are You There, Satan? It’s Me, Lisa Page! | Ep 492
Lisa Page, former FBI lawyer and lover of Agent Peter Strzok, just wants her life back.
She wants President Trump to stop reminding everyone that she and her boyfriend worked to undermine our democracy. After all, she’s just a victim!
Then, Michael Bloomberg is the only candidate openly running for president as a tyrant.
He loves the Chinese dictator, wants to tax you into making the choices he like, owns and controls a massive media company, and wants to disarm the public. What could go wrong?