News and Headlines: In The News, Politics, World News, Commentary/Opinion.
In The News:
It’s Back: The Ground Zero Mosque Project Is in the Works Again
For years it looked as if this project was dead. It wasn’t. It was just waiting for the massive number of Americans who opposed it to forget about the whole thing.
Pamela Geller, who defeated the Ground Zero Mosque initiative the first time around, broke the news Monday:
“The news was buried under two dense paragraphs and five large photos in an article in New York YIMBY about a different project: ‘Construction has also yet to begin on 51 Park Place, which is slated to become a 71-foot-tall, 16,000-square-foot Islamic cultural center.’”
Russian spy ship spotted off the Bahamas, Coast Guard warns
The U.S. Coast Guard in Charleston, S.C. had issued a warning to boaters over the weekend about the spy ship, but the Russian vessel has moved south since the safety bulletin was released, according to the official.
The vessel is the same spy ship that has made an annual trip across the Atlantic for the past two years.
A Coast Guard bulletin says the ship, Victor Leonov, “has been operating in an unsafe manner off the coast of South Carolina and Georgia” near the home of the Navy’s East Coast ballistic missile submarine fleet in Kings Bay, Ga.
3 time removed Mexican national sentenced in federal court to 46 months
(U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement/Released)
“Gutierrez-Perez is a criminal alien who repeatedly broke the laws of this nation, reentering illegally after removal on multiple occasions,” said Thomas R. Decker, field office director for ERO New York.
Until elected officials in this state place the safety of their constituents before politics, the pipeline of criminal aliens will continue to flow into the New York metropolitan area.”
According to court filings and facts presented during court proceedings, Gutierrez-Perez, a Mexican citizen, was initially removed from the United States in September 2007, after serving 1-3 years in New York State prison following a felony conviction for DWI.
Gutierrez-Perez illegally reentered the United States Dec. 6, 2007, and was again removed Dec. 11, 2017….
FLASHBACK: Hillary Clinton’s Lawyer DELETED 33k Emails–NEW Hearing THIS THURSDAY!
Commentary/Opinion: This summer, Senior Attorney Ramona Cotca appeared with Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton to discuss the depositions Judicial Watch took from Obama State Department officials relating to the Clinton email scandal.
Politics:
Latvian government says it flagged ‘suspicious’ Hunter Biden payments in 2016
As the U.S. presidential race began roaring to life in 2016, authorities in the former Soviet republic of Latvia flagged a series of “ suspicious” financial transactions to Hunter Biden and other colleagues at a Ukrainian natural gas company and sought Kiev’s help investigating, according to documents and interviews.
The Feb. 18, 2016 alert to Ukraine came from the Latvian prosecutorial agency responsible for investigating money laundering, and it specifically questioned whether Vice President Joe Biden’s younger son and three other officials at Burisma Holdings were the potential beneficiaries of suspect funds.
“The Office for Prevention of Laundering of Proceeds Derived from Criminal Activity … is currently investigating suspicious activity of Burisma Holdings Limited,” the Latvian agency also known as the FIU wrote Ukraine’s financial authorities.
House approves $1.4 trillion spending bill, repealing ObamaCare taxes
The Democratic-controlled House on Tuesday approved a $1.4 trillion federal spending bill to avoid a government shutdown that includes funding for President Trump’s border wall, strips ObamaCare taxes, raises the minimum age for buying tobacco products and gives Democrats increases for a variety of other domestic programs.
The House – as it prepares to vote on articles of impeachment against President Trump – approved all 12 spending bills. They now go to the Senate to sync up later this week.
The deadline to fund the government is Dec 20. These bills would fund the government for the rest of fiscal 2020, through Sept 30.
No Grounds for Impeachment—Larry Elder on Trump Derangement Syndrome, IG Report & Identity Politics
Commentary/Opinion: In the eyes of radio talk show personality Larry Elder, does the Horowitz IG Report on FISA abuse possibly vindicate the FBI, as some have been suggesting?
Why does Larry think that the Democrat-led Trump impeachment efforts are likely to backfire, hurting the Democratic Party more than helping?
What’s his take on the unusual articles of impeachment that were drafted?
And, how, in Larry’s eyes, does identity politics play a role in media under-reporting of antisemitism in the United States?
In this episode, we’ll sit down again with radio personality and bestselling author Larry Elder, who hosts The Larry Elder Show for The Epoch Times.
We discuss the IG Report, the Trump impeachment inquiry, identity politics, and how it plays into knee-jerk assumptions about the identities of the suspects involved in the recent kosher market shooting in New Jersey.
World News:
IDF Chief warns of growing challenges to Israel’s security – 17.12.19 TV7 Israel News
1) Israel’s military chief warns that the numerous threats Jerusalem is facing have recently expanded, and that “the number of enemies Israel is facing is greater than the number of fronts” it is forced to operate in.
2) The United States has called upon the Iraqi central government to “take action” to protect U.S. interests in the country, after a mounting number of attacks were recorded over the course of recent weeks – hostilities that according to intelligence officials “have been orchestrated by Iran and carried out by its local (Shi’ite) proxies.”
3) Turkish naval forces intercepted an Israeli research-ship in Cypriot waters and reportedly escorted it away, amid increased regional tensions over natural resource exploration.