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US News:
Former police officer gets 7-plus years in prison in Jan. 6 case
Former Rocky Mount Police Sgt. Thomas Robertson declined to address the court before U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper sentenced him to seven years and three months in prison. Cooper also sentenced Robertson to three years of supervised release after his prison term.
Federal prosecutors had recommended an eight-year prison sentence for Robertson. His sentence equals that of Guy Reffitt, a Texas man who attacked the Capitol while armed with a holstered handgun.
Robertson gets credit for the 13 months he has already spent in custody. Robertson has been jailed since Cooper ruled last year that he violated the terms of his pretrial release by possessing firearms.
The judge said he was troubled by Robertson’s conduct since his arrest — not only his stockpiling of guns but also his words advocating for violence. After Jan. 6, Robertson told a friend that he was prepared to fight and die in a civil war and he clung to baseless conspiracy theories that the 2020 election was stolen from then-President Donald Trump, the judge noted.
Judge Unseals Mar-a-Lago Raid Warrant, Reveals Why FBI Is Investigating Trump
Trump is under investigation for alleged violations of 18 USC 2071—concealment, removal, or mutilation; 18 USC 793 of the Espionage Act—gathering, transmitting, or losing defense information; and 18 USC 1519—destruction, alteration, or falsification of records in federal investigations, according to the warrant, which was unsealed by Judge Bruce Reinhart on Friday afternoon. A conviction under these statutes can lead to imprisonment or fines.
Agents were granted authority to seize “all physical documents and records constituting evidence, contraband, fruits of crime, or other items illegally possessed,” according to the warrant. That includes documents with classification markings and presidential records that were drafted between Jan. 20, 2017, and Jan. 20, 2021—when Trump was in office.
The search and seizure warrant shows FBI agents targeted “the ’45 Office,’ all storage rooms, and all other rooms or areas within the premises used or available to be used by FPOTUS (former president of the United States) and his staff and in which boxes or documents could be stored, including all structures or buildings on the estate.”
Media “fact-checkers” are helping the White House make the unconvincing case that boosting IRS enforcement by 69 percent won’t affect you.
Asked repeatedly about the enforcement boost Tuesday, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre insisted that “it will only apply to those earning over $400,000,” that “this is not about folks who make less than $400,000,” and that the answer to whether there will be new audits on anybody making less than that was: “No. Very clear, no.”
As Liz Wolfe has reported repeatedly in the pages of Reason, none of these assurances live in the text of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) itself.
One Republican amendment “to prevent the use of additional Internal Revenue Service Funds from being used for audits of taxpayers with taxable incomes below $400,000” was voted down on party lines. You’ll just have to take Democrats’ word for it.
There are at least three good reasons to suspect that, despite this week’s aggressive official insistence to the contrary, the rate of IRS audits performed on the under-$400,000s will be higher than one out of every 400.
‘Inject her with heroin’: Baby doctor who hired hit men on dark web to kidnap wife pleads guilty to federal charges
Ronald Craig Ilg, a 55-year-old former neonatal doctor in Spokane, Washington, pled guilty to transmitting threats in interstate commerce in federal court. The felony has a maximum sentence of 10 years, but Ilg’s legal team made a plea agreement to a sentencing range of 60 to 96 months.
Ilg was supposed to go on trial next month and was initially facing eight federal charges, including cyberstalking, attempted kidnapping, and tampering with a witness, according to KLXY.
Ilg allegedly used the dark web to attempt to hire multiple hit men to inflict pain on his estranged wife and a colleague.
In February 2021, Ilg purportedly utilized the dark web to try to hire a hit man to injure a former professional colleague.
SHOCK: ATF inspector THREATENS gun buyers, calls them ‘NUTS’
David Nagel originally recorded video of an ATF inspector taking pictures of his company’s documents to show others what struggles his business was facing.
But what Nagel — the owner of Black Metal Firearms LCC — caught on camera has now gone viral.
He details to Glenn the threats made by that ATF inspector against his regular customers, the insults she hurled towards all gun owners, and the uphill battle he now faces to restore licensing…
Author Salman Rushdie stabbed before New York speech
An Associated Press reporter witnessed a man storm the stage at the Chautauqua Institution and begin punching or stabbing Rushdie as he was being introduced. The author was taken or fell to the floor, and the man was restrained.
In a press release, the New York State Police confirmed that a man rushed the stage and stabbed Rushdie in the neck.
“Rushdie suffered an apparent stab wound to the neck, and was transported by helicopter to an area hospital,” the press release said.
Rushdie’s book “The Satanic Verses” has been banned in Iran since 1988, as many Muslims consider it to be blasphemous. A year later, Iran’s late leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini issued a fatwa, or edict, calling for Rushdie’s death.
Iran has also offered over $3 million in reward for anyone who kills Rushdie.
Albuquerque’s muslim murders: Another case of media, politicians making premature assumptions (analysis)
It is a disturbing and unjournalistic practice: Assuming racism or “hate” involving crimes committed against a victim who is or was part of a minority group (but never making the assumption when crimes are committed against whites).
The most recent high-profile case is the sad group of murders of four Muslim men in Albuquerque, NM over a nine month period.
Many in the news media joined political advocates and analysts in the unfounded conclusion, without evidence, that the murders were “anti-Muslim hate crimes.”
President Biden stoked the racist sentiment tweeting: “These hateful attacks have no place in America,” that he was “angered and saddened” by the killings, and that his administration “stands strongly with the Muslim community.”
Jon Voight: May the Barbaric Acts Against Trump Expose the Corrupt Abuse of ‘The Democrat Fools’
Academy Award-winning actor Jon Voight blasted the “Democrat fools” whom he says are lying about Donald Trump in the wake of the FBI raid on his Florida Mar-a-Lago home.
In a video posted to social media, the longtime Trump supporter slammed those who support the raid on the ex-president’s home and office as “evil ones” trying to destroy Trump.
“This is now a cruel world. It’s of intention. He should be charged for what? For being straight forward? For allowing all to understand the meaning of America, land of the free? Is this a medieval time, a time when being wrongly condemned is to be expected?” Voight told his followers.
‘Beyond Chilling’: Homeland Security Seeks to Share Biometric Databanks With Foreign Countries
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is promoting “Enhanced Border Security Agreements” by offering access to the department’s vast biometric databanks to foreign states that agree to reciprocate, according to a July 22 Statewatch report.
Some human rights and civil liberties advocates raised concerns about the collection of people’s biometric information by the DHS, foreign governments and corporations.
“It’s not just the surveillance and the buying and selling of your data that is worrisome,“ John Whitehead, a civil liberties attorney and author told The Defender.
“The ramifications of a government — any government — having this much unregulated, unaccountable power to target, track, round up and detain its citizens is beyond chilling,” he said.
The soaring use of biometric technologies is about money and profits, Whitehead said.
Politics:
Grassley To Wray: Why Is There One Law For Hunter Biden And Hillary, Another For Trump?
Senate Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Chuck Grassley filed a blistering list of questions for the record addressed to FBI Director Christopher Wray on Thursday, demanding the law enforcement bureaucrat answer questions about his agency’s malfeasance, including its raid on former President Donald Trump’s private home and its disparate treatment of Democrats like former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and President Joe Biden’s son Hunter. Grassley gave Wray a deadline of Aug. 25 to respond to the 15-page document.
Grassley ordered Wray to explain why he bailed early on a hearing for questioning from Congress, amid reports that Wray may have left for vacation on the FBI’s private jet.
“News reports indicate that you took your government plane to the Adirondacks,” Grassley wrote. “Is that true? If so, why couldn’t you have stayed for a second round to complete the hearing?”
From Wray, he demanded to know: “With respect to the 91 security violations committed by the 38 individuals relating to Secretary Clinton’s mishandling of highly classified information, did the State Department refer any of them to the Justice Department or FBI? If so, what steps were taken to investigate them for those security violations and potential criminal conduct?”
Grassley also highlighted whistleblower reports of the FBI’s special treatment for President Joe Biden’s son, Hunter.
GOP Needs To Get Rid Of McConnell, Not Trump
But that’s not all. McConnell has made a number of other contributions as he seeks to chart the future of the party.
He’s endorsed boring and unelectable candidates that would do nothing to advance conservative causes. He consistently screws over taxpayers by caving on exorbitantly expensive legislation stuffed with pork and Democrat wish-list items. He’s helped Democrats send tens of billions of dollars to Ukraine — something he’s proud of — with no clear foreign policy objective but plenty of insults calling his detractors fringe isolationists.
He endorsed Democrats’ anti-gun bill that would gut rights guaranteed by the Second Amendment. And he pretends conservatives are the aggressors in the culture war waged by the radical left.
Democrat promises more taxes if the party stays in power: report
Neal, the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, said Democrats, should they keep power in the House, will look to raise corporate and individual tax rates in 2023, according to a Bloomberg reporter.
The Inflation Reduction Act, a social spending and tax increase measure that is expected to pass in the House on Friday, includes a proposed expansion of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).
According to the Joint Committee on Taxation, Americans making less than $10,000 per year would see a 0.3% tax hike starting in 2023. Overall, starting in 2023, taxes would increase by $16.7 billion for Americans earning less than $200,000.
Sen. Ron Johnson calls for FBI agents to call out alleged ‘corruption’
Sen. Ron Johnson, R-W.I., makes the case for corruption existing at the highest levels of the FBI on ‘Hannity.’
Dem Rep. Kathy Manning scooped up thousands in chip company stock one day before voting to pass CHIPS Act
Manning and her husband purchased up to $30,000 in Micron Technology stocks and up to $95,000 in Nvidia stocks on July 27, the new disclosures show. The next day, Manning voted to pass the CHIPS Act, which will help expand semiconductor manufacturing facilities in the United States while providing the industry tens of billions of dollars in subsidies.
The legislation received plenty of media attention prior to the vote, particularly concerning stock investments made by Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi’s husband.
“I’m proud of my vote to pass this historic investment in American CHIP manufacturing, lower costs, and creating good-paying jobs,” Manning tweeted after the vote.
Rashida Tlaib pocketed up to $100,000 in rental income during the pandemic despite pushing to cancel rent
Tlaib filed her latest annual financial disclosure report Thursday, which reveals she collected between $15,001 and $50,000 in rental income from a Detriot property in 2021. The Michigan Democrat reported the same rental income for 2020 last August, meaning she now made between $30,000 and $100,000 from rent payments during the pandemic.
Tlaib, however, collected the rent checks despite co-sponsoring a bill alongside other “Squad” members that sought to cancel rent during the pandemic.
Tlaib is not the only “Squad” member who wanted rent cancellation during the pandemic as they collected rental income.
There is a bipartisan disease in DC: Miranda Devine
Fox News contributor Miranda Devine weighs in on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s son Paul Pelosi, Jr.’s alleged corruption on ‘Jesse Watters Primetime.’
Reminder: Joe Biden Senate Papers Still Hidden from Public
Biden’s Senate papers reportedly fill 1,875 boxes and include 415 gigabytes of electronic records spanning Biden’s time in the Senate between 1973 and 2009. The documents include “committee reports, drafts of legislation,” and Biden’s personal correspondence with his Senate colleagues.
Biden also said the documents include “a lot of confidential conversations” during a 2020 interview on MSNBC’s Morning Joe.
It is rumored the documents include a written complaint filed by Tara Reade, who accused Biden of sexual misconduct during an interaction that allegedly took place in 1993.
Biden gifted his Senate Papers to his alma mater, the University of Delaware, in 2011 on the condition that they would be made public after his tenure as Vice President. However, the University of Delaware changed the papers’ release date one day before Biden announced his 2020 presidential campaign.
World News:
EU proposes lifting pressure on Iran’s Revolutionary Guards to revive nuclear deal
BERLIN — Europe’s proposal to resuscitate Tehran’s nuclear deal with world powers would blunt American sanctions against Iran’s Revolutionary Guards and pave the way for Tehran to avoid further scrutiny of suspected atomic sites, according to excerpts of a draft of the text reviewed by POLITICO.
The details of the draft were finalized in Vienna on Monday after 16 months of talks. As the EU worked on it in close co-ordination with Washington, the terms suggest that U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration is prepared to make greater concessions than expected to secure a deal — especially by reducing pressure on the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, a powerful military organization with near-ubiquitous political and economic influence in Iran that the U.S. has designated as a terrorist organization.
Biden has made trying to revive the 2015 nuclear deal a foreign policy priority, arguing that it is the best way to keep Iran from building a nuclear bomb.
Hong Kong’s ‘3+4’ Covid-19 hotel quarantine arrangements for international arrivals
Fully vaccinated travellers arriving in Hong Kong from Friday will benefit from a change in Hong Kong’s tough Covid-19 quarantine policy, the “3+4” arrangement. They must isolate in a hotel room for three nights, down from seven days. Last updated: August 11, 2022.
The government has also amended its computing of the quarantine period, with the day of arrival now being counted as day zero, instead of day one.
Travellers must spend three nights at the hotel. They will be required to take daily rapid antigen tests (RAT) and a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test on day two. If those return negative results for Covid-19, they can leave the hotel on day three.
Neil Oliver – ‘…big pharma, corporations, the state they’re fostering a dependency culture on us…’
‘…they’re trying to make us feel we’re helpless & can’t do anything without them….’
Exclusive: Academic Who Published Paper on Masturbating to Child Porn Under Police Investigation
Greater Manchester Police (GMP) has said that an investigation has been launched after University of Manchester student Karl Andersson published a PhD research paper on his personal experiences of masturbating to the “Shotacon” subgenre of Japanese manga comic books that focus on often highly sexualised portrayals of prepubescent or pubescent boys.
Anderson claimed that in order to “understand how [people] experience sexual pleasure when reading shota” he conducted a three-month “experiment” of masturbating to paedophilic comic books, taking notes during every “session”.
“I would not be allowed to have any other sexual relief during this ‘fieldwork’ in my own sexuality: no regular porn, no sex with another person, no fantasies or memories — it had to be shota every time.”
3 Hong Kong police officers charged with sexual offences involving 15-year-old girl
The trio, who have already been suspended by the force, face a total of 10 charges and were granted bail pending trial.
Yao Yanwu, 27, Lai Tsz-leung, 26 and Ng Sing-yap, 26, appeared at Sha Tin Magistrates’ Courts on Thursday, almost five months after they were arrested in March on suspicion of having sex with a girl aged 15.
According to the police charge sheet, Yao is accused of inciting a girl identified as “X” to commit an act of gross indecency with or towards him on September 30 last year. He was also said to have committed acts of gross indecency with or towards “X” by having oral sex with her twice in a hotel in Tsuen Wan on two days between January last year and this February.
Don’t Like Progressivism, ‘Don’t Apply to Work for Us’ – UK Police Force
Critics of progressive politics need not apply, one police force in the United Kingdom appears to have declared, telling the general public that it does not want those who dislike their left-wing politics to even attempt to become one of their officers in a social media post online.
The declaration by the British Transport Police (BTP) was made in the wake of a number of policing organisations joining a Pride parade in the British city of Brighton, with members of Sussex Police in particular being pictured posing in rainbow colours at the event, despite the fact that British police forces are mandated by law to be politically neutral.
However, seemingly pre-empting outcry over the political nature of attending a Pride event, the official social media account of the British Transport Police publicly defended the presence of its officers at the parade, before telling any individual offended by the pro-progressivism actions of the force to refrain from applying for a job with them.
Commentary/Opinion:
AS THE BIDEN GANG ASSASSINATES AMERICA THE USA BECOMING THE USSR
An FBI Agent Blows The Cover Off The Mar a Lago Raid (Ep. 1829) – The Dan Bongino Show
In this episode, I conduct a shocking interview with a former FBI agent who blows the cover off of the outrageous Mar a Lago raid.