News and Headlines: In The News, Politics, World News, Commentary/Opinion.
In The News:
Frontline Doctors Discuss Lockdown Consequences, Hydroxychloroquine, and “Following the Money”
US Residents Receive Mysterious Seed Packages From China
Dozens of unsolicited seed packages from China, often labeled as jewelry, have popped up in residents’ mailboxes across nine U.S. states, alarming agriculture officials who warn that the unknown seeds may be damaging to the environment.
Officials from states including Louisiana, Virginia, Kansas, Ohio, Washington, Kentucky, and Wyoming have sent out alerts after residents reported receiving the mysterious packages over the past few days.
Seed packages have also appeared in parts of Utah, Arizona, and the UK, according to local reports.
People are urged to report any such cases to local officials for instructions on how to handle the seeds.
Police Identify Man Who Opened Fire on Jeep During Black Lives Matter Protest
Police officers in Colorado said on Monday they identified the man who opened fire on a Jeep as it drove on a highway through protesters who were trying to block the road.
Two photographs released by the police showed a white male with thick, shaggy hair, a short boxed beard, black-rimmed glasses, and a bandana-style item around his neck.
The man is a person of interest in the July 25 shooting on I-225, which unfolded amid violence in multiple cities as leftist groups gathered to protest against alleged racial injustice.
Susan Rice Spreads Conspiracy Theory About Federal Agents In Portland
“We need answers and accountability,” Rice wrote on Twitter in response to a now-deleted post claiming that a federal officer’s shoulder patch bore those three identifying letters.
While the original post has been deleted, Rice’s tweet remains published.
As rioters in Portland continue their 57th straight day of violent assaults on local and federal law enforcement with mortar-style fireworks and lasers that can cause permanent blindness, sister protests have popped up across the country of anarchists rioting in solidarity with Portland.
Police called after 300 teenagers erupt into chaos at family fun center
According to video shot at the center, teenagers, none of whom appear to be wearing masks, begin knocking items off counters and throwing items behind the counter.
One of the girls involved is seen pulling the plastic screen, which is used as part of COVID-19 safety policy updates, from the counter and throwing it at staff.
In the same video, she picks up a metal stand and throws it. She also later spit on an employee, witnesses claimed.
Witnesses reportedly told officers the girl seen in the video had become upset because staff would not issue her a refund when some of the machines ate her money.
Franklin Graham sounds alarm on urgent threat to America’s future
“In looking at the chaos that has erupted in cities controlled by liberal, socialist-leaning leadership, it should not only grieve us, but it should cause great concern,” he wrote Monday on Facebook.
“Socialism is dangerous, and we have a party and many politicians who are flirting with all-out socialism.
Portland is an example of what will take place in other cities if Americans do not take a stand in defense of the nation – through the power of the vote,” he wrote.
“I would encourage every person who loves this country to pray and to turn out by the millions to vote.
Don’t just watch the news and be depressed or shake your head about what’s going on – stand up for America!
Vote for leaders who love this country, defend the Constitution, and who support law and order.
American Doctors Address COVID-19 Misinformation with Capitol Hill Press Conference
U.S. Department of Labor: CARES Act funding includes $26 billion in improper unemployment payments
According to a report published by the Government Accountability Office (GAO), the newly adopted UI programs are already suffering from fraud.
The GAO analyzed how much the federal government has spent in the last two months through coronavirus relief bills enacted by Congress. The GAO identified examples of waste and fraud, and areas in need of immediate correction.
Historically, the UI program has reported some of the highest improper payment rates out of all federal programs, Dahl says.
Last year, roughly $3 billion in improper payments were made, slightly more than ten percent of the $27 billion worth of payments distributed over a one-year period ending June 2019.
The estimated $26 billion worth of improper UI payments this year “would be wasted, with a large portion attributable to fraud,” Dahl testified.
ABC News mocked for claiming ‘peaceful demonstration intensified,’ with courthouse set ablaze, police officers targeted
“A protest through the streets of downtown Oakland, California, in support of racial justice and police reform turned violent when ‘agitators’ among the demonstrators set fire to a courthouse, vandalized a police station and shot fireworks at officers, authorities said,” the AP wrote.
Hundreds of protesters marched through downtown Oakland, smashing windows of the city’s police headquarters and setting a fire inside the Alameda County courthouse, according to reports.
Similar protests and violent demonstrations have been seen across the country following the death in May of George Floyd, a Black Minneapolis man who died while in police custody.
ABC News’ description of the event sparked outrage on social media, as the Disney-owned news operation appeared to downplay the violence.
More Shooting Victims in Minneapolis So Far This Year Than in All of 2019
The news broke one day after the Minneapolis City Council “cut $1.5 million from the MPD’s $193 million budget.”
The Minneapolis City Council unanimously approved a pledge to disband the police department, Breitbart News reported.
Chicago, New York City, and other Democrat-run cities are also witnessing a surge in gun violence in 2020.
On June 25, 2020, the Washington Post reported that out of the top 20 cities for violent crime in America, 17 have Democrat mayors.
Rep. Jerry Nadler says Antifa violence in Portland a ‘myth’
In a now-viral video posted on Twitter, writer-producer Austen Fletcher caught up with the House Judiciary Committee chairman on his way to his vehicle.
“It is true,” Mr. Fletcher tells Mr. Nadler in the video. “There’s violence across the whole country. Do you disavow the violence from Antifa that’s happening in Portland right now? There’s riots—”
“That’s a myth that’s being spread only in Washington, D.C.,” Mr. Nadler responded.
“About Antifa in Portland?” Mr. Fletcher asked.
“Yes,” Mr. Nadler replied before a staffer nudged him to get into the vehicle.
Nolte: Violent Crime Explosion Forces Minneapolis Residents to Form Militias
In late June, residents near a commercial strip that had been looted, and the 3rd Precinct station that was abandoned and burned, were seeing a surge of shooting and drug-related crime on their block.
“It got to the point where crime had no consequences,” said Tania Rivera, 30, who runs a child-care center with her mother. “It was being done deliberately out in the open.
Drive-through drug dealing, drive-through prostitution, everything from gunshots to assaults to sex out in the public. Everything you didn’t want your neighborhood to look like.”
And now the city’s residents are forced to go to extraordinary lengths to protect their family and property.
Full Measure: July 26, 2020
This week on Full Measure, drug cartels are recruiting thousands of juveniles in Mexico and the U.S. because the feds usually let them go.
But many of the kids end up brutalized by the cartels.
We investigate how one border town is taking a hard line approach to stop juvenile trafficking.
Plus, Senators are blocking legislation through a secretive practice that’s supposed to be banned.
We talk to Senator Chuck Grassley about his fight to stop so-called ‘secret holds.’
And – why some claim rising seas are actually threatening our military. These stories and more, this week on Full Measure.
Politics:
Limbaugh declares: Republicans ‘may never win another election’
Commentary/Opinion:
“Everything the Democrat Party is saying is a demonstrable, provable, misleading lie – and yet crickets from the Republican Party on this,” Limbaugh said Monday on his national broadcast.
“I can’t imagine a more destructive, twisted, upside-down, reality-denying, corrupt string of lies than we are hearing every day from the Democrat Party, and if the Republican Party cannot communicate to voters how utterly false all this is – if they’re too lazy to try – they may never win another election.”
“If the Republican Party does not get a voice sometime soon in this …
You know, they can’t just leave everything to Trump. But that’s what they’ve been doing.”
“You show me where the pushback is, because I don’t see much,” he continued. “I see Donald Trump pushback and that’s it!”
New book ‘Fallout’ examines swampy dealings of Obama-Biden admin
Insight from Seamus Bruner, co-author of ‘Fallout,’ and Peter Schweizer, president of the Government Accountability Institute.
Congressman Matt Gaetz Files Criminal Referral Against Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg
Today, U.S. Congressman Matt Gaetz (FL-01) filed a criminal referral against Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg for making materially false statements to Congress while under oath during two joint hearings in Congress on April 10th, 2018 and April 11th, 2018.
During a hearing of the House Energy and Commerce Committee and also a joint hearing of the Senate Judiciary Committee and the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee, Mr. Zuckerberg repeatedly and categorically denied his company engaged in bias against conservative speech, persons, policies, or politics and also denied that Facebook censored and suppressed content supportive of President Donald Trump and other conservatives.
The letter refers Mr. Zuckerberg to the Department of Justice for an investigation into the false statements made to Congress while under oath.
Legal scholar accuses media of ‘willfull blindness’ to Obama spying on Trump
Virtually none of these journalists or experts have acknowledged that the collusion leaks were proven false, let alone pursue the troubling implications of national security powers being used to target the political opponents of an administration.”
“The Washington press corps seems engaged in a collective demonstration of the legal concept of willful blindness, or deliberately ignoring the facts, following the release of yet another declassified document which directly refutes prior statements about the investigation into Russia collusion,” he wrote.
“It is astonishing that the media refuses to see what is one of the biggest stories in decades,” Turley added.
“The Obama administration targeted the campaign of the opposing party based on false evidence.”
Revelation of Steele’s primary source triggers focus on think tank tied to Clinton, Biden
The links between Obama, Joe Biden and Hillary Clinton and Brookings run deep.
Talbot worked as a deputy secretary of state for Bill Clinton and in 2011 was named by then-Secretary of State Clinton to be chairman of the new Foreign Affairs Policy Board.
He was reported to be on a short list of candidates for a senior government job if Mrs. Clinton won the 2016 election.
He left Brookings in 2017 after 15 years as its president.
Arne Duncan, Obama’s former Education Secretary, serves at Brookings along with several other alumni, such as former Obama Treasury official Stephanie Aaronson, former DOJ official Bill Baer and former State and NSC official Emily Horne.
Progressive “Paradise”
Commentary/Opinion:
Minneapolis burned even though it adopted most every “progressive” idea: a $15 minimum wage, housing subsidies, mandatory paid leave, “green” targets, strong unions, and the most expensive school system in the state.
Did they at least reduce the racial income gap?
Minneapolis’ black/white income disparity is about the biggest in the country.
That confuses the media.
“Minneapolis had progressive policies, but its economy still left black families behind,” reads a headline in the Washington Post.
Stanley Kurtz on Trump’s latest ‘tremendous accomplishment’ and why media largely overlooked it
Commentary/Opinion:
“Very recently, President Trump, with the help of Secretary Carson, have in a very powerful and effective way put an end to AFFH as it was created under the Obama-Biden administration,” Kurtz explained.
“This is really a tremendous accomplishment,” he added. “People say that the federal government often is under a ratchet effect, meaning it only gets bigger. Or, maybe if a Republican gets in, it stays about the same, but it never actually shrinks.”
Kurtz called the move a “brilliant stroke on the part of the Trump administration, and a “courageous action” that illustrated a “radical dichotomy between what Biden is going to offer the suburbs, which is AFFH turbocharged… and President Trump,” who essentially told the suburbs, “I’m not going to mess with your fundamental freedoms.”
World News:
Leaked Government Documents Reveal How Chinese Regime Closely Monitors Falun Gong Adherents
A meditative practice involving slow-moving exercises and moral teachings, Falun Gong quickly grew in popularity, to roughly 100 million adherents by 1999, according to official estimates at the time.
Then-Party leader Jiang Zemin considered the group’s popularity a threat to the atheist regime’s rule, and in July 1999, launched a nationwide campaign to round up and throw practitioners into prisons, labor camps, and psychiatric wards in an attempt to coerce them into renouncing their faith.
Millions of adherents have been detained, with hundreds of thousands tortured, according to estimates by the Falun Dafa Information Center.
Thousands have since died under torture, according to Minghui.org, a U.S.-based website that documents the persecution in China.
Russian-Backed Separatists Violated Ceasefire in Ukraine Within Hours: Ukrainian Military
Ukrainian, Russian, and OSCE (Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe) negotiators last week agreed on a full and comprehensive ceasefire in eastern Ukraine from Monday, putting on hold the military conflict that has claimed more than 13,000 lives since 2014.
The day before the ceasefire Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky and Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed in a phone conversation “on the necessity to urgently implement additional measures to maintain a ceasefire in Donbas,” according to a statement by Zelensky as well as the Kremlin press service as reported by Russian state-owned press agency TASS.
Ukrainian Joint Forces Commander Volodymyr Kravchenko said at a briefing that the separatists forces in Donbas fired at Ukrainian forces shortly after the ceasefire started, reported UkrInform adding that Ukrainian troops have not returned fire and no casualties have been reported.
Israel bombs Syria; U.S. urges Arab unity to confront Iran – TV7 Israel News 27.07.20
1) The Israeli Air Force conducted retaliatory strikes against Syrian military installations in response to projectiles that were fired from Syria toward the Israeli-side of the Golan Heights.
2) The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the United States Military, Four Star General Mark Milley, concludes an official visit to Israel and Jordan.
3) After months of relative quiet, police forces locate and detonate an explosive device that was attached to a cluster of balloons – in Israel’s southern Eshkol Regional Council – adjacent to the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip.
Stunning ancient site discovered near US embassy in Jerusalem
“This is one of the most significant discoveries from the period of the Kings in Jerusalem made in recent years,” said Neria Sapir and Nathan Ben-Ari, directors of the excavations on behalf of the Israel Antiquities Authority, in the statement. The site was used to store food supplies, they explained.
Small statuettes made from clay were also discovered at the site. “Some of the figurines are designed in the form of women, horse riders or as animal,” said Sapir and Ben-Ari, in the statement.
“These figurines are usually interpreted as objects used in pagan worship and idolatry – a phenomenon, which according to the Bible, was prevalent in the Kingdom of Judah.”
“It seems that shortly after the site was abandoned, with the destruction of the Kingdom of Judah in 586 BCE and Babylonian exile, the site was resettled and administrative activity resumed,” they added.
Israel, Hezbollah trade fire in ‘security incident’ near Lebanese border
Local media reported an exchange of fire in an area known as Chebaa Farms, which was captured by Israel during the 1967 Middle East war and is claimed by Lebanon.
Most of the Israeli civilians were ordered to remain indoors amid the heaving fighting between the bitter rivals in nearly a year.
Residents near the border said the fighting lasted about an hour and that there was a series of explosions.
Commentary/Opinion:
Steve Hilton: President Trump’s parent power revolution
Parents all across America are rising up to smash the government school monopoly.