06-30-2024, 05:18 AM
(This post was last modified: 06-30-2024, 10:56 PM by DerVVulfman.
Edit Reason: Additional Fact Check Trump/Biden
)
USA
So 18 service men and women have been killed or disappeared mysteriously.
So basically, neither any agency nor the courts' jurisprudence can tell the courts what to establish as the right interpretation of the law, namely the APA. The courts must discern what the actual intention of that law was and compare it with any agency's application of that law and the related circumstances. This means any agency can't become its own judge, jury and executioner at the same time.
Meanwhile, US AG Merrick Garland is still enjoying his steakes at any luxury restaurant even after defying a House Committee's subpoena. How quaint.
CANADA
LATIN AMERICA
EUROPE
MIDDLE EAST
Biden Admits it!
Quote:President Joe Biden admitted Friday that former President Donald Trump “knocked him down” in Thursday night’s debate.
Pressure is mounting on Biden to step down, as many Democrats and media members displayed hysteria following the disastrous event. Donors are reportedly backing away from Biden’s reelection campaign.
Sixty-seven percent said Trump won the debate, a CNN flash poll of debate watchers found Thursday night.
The debate averaged 47.9 million viewers, short of the 2020 amount of 73.132 million total viewers, the third most watched of all-time, IndieWire reported.
In his first appearance after the debate, Biden admitted that his performance fell short of standards.
“I don’t walk as easy as I used to. I don’t speak as smoothly as I used to. I don’t debate as well as I used to,” he told a crowd in Raleigh, North Carolina.
“I know, like millions of Americans know, when you get knocked down, you get back up,” he said, as the attendees cheered.
“I know what I do know. I know how to tell the truth,” Biden claimed.
Biden told a multitude of falsehoods during the debate.
“I know it will take to bring this economy to everybody,” Biden said, slurring words.
“I give you my words of Biden, I would not be running again if I didn’t believe with all my heart and soul I can do this job,” he claimed:
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Not Enough For Biden
Quote:President Joe Biden, who reportedly will not drop out of the 2024 presidential race, will participate in the second debate in September, a Biden adviser told CNN Friday.
ABC News’ David Muir and Linsey Davis will serve as moderators for the September 10 debate. More details of the event, including rules, location, staging, and format, are not yet decided, according to ABC News.
Pressure is mounting on Biden to step down as many Democrats and media members display hysteria following a disastrous Thursday debate.
Biden mumbled, sounded raspy, and appeared to lose track of his thoughts a few times. Even during his prepared closing statement, Biden did not deliver without error. First lady Jill Biden later walked him down the studio steps after the debate.
Biden’s performance made New York Times columnist Tom Friedman weep, he wrote Friday.
Sixty-seven percent said Trump won the debate, a CNN flash poll of debate watchers found Thursday night.
Democrats could take a three-step political process to replace Biden with an alternative candidate on their 2024 ticket, top editors at Politico outlined in February.
The three-step political process, according to Politico‘s Charlie Mahtesian, a senior politics editor, and Steven Shepard, a senior campaign and elections editor and chief polling analyst, does not include a “late-entering white knight candidate” due to filing deadlines. The deadlines for primary access already passed in the spring.
The political process to replace Biden includes, according to Politico:
- Biden Must Voluntarily Step Aside Before Democrat National Convention
- Delegates Nominate a New Candidate at Convention
- Tie Loose Ends
Biden Claims There Were No Troop Deaths
Quote:CLAIM: President Joe Biden said he was the “only” president this century with no American troop deaths.
VERDICT: False.
President Joe Biden claimed Thursday during the first 2024 presidential debate that he is the “only president” this century with no American troop deaths during his watch.
Specifically, Biden said:
The truth is, I’m the only president this century that doesn’t have any this – this decade, that doesn’t have any troops dying anywhere in the world, like he did.
This is false.
During Biden’s presidency’s 13 American troops were killed in August 2021 during the Afghanistan withdrawal that he ordered.
In addition, three American soldiers were killed in Jordan in January 2024 after they were targeted by Iran-backed militia groups. A Department of Defense statement issued on January 29, 2024 stated:
Three U.S. soldiers were killed yesterday in Jordan, while more than 40 other service members were injured following an uncrewed aerial system attack at a military base near the Syrian border. Those service members were in Jordan to support Operation Inherent Resolve, which is the U.S. and coalition mission to ensure the defeat of ISIS.
In addition, two Navy SEALs died also in January during an operation to interdict a ship carrying Iranian-made weapons bound for Yemen.
So 18 service men and women have been killed or disappeared mysteriously.
Trump/Biden Debate Fact-Check: Trump, not Biden attacked Insulin Costs first (Video Included)
EDIT BY DERVVULFMAN: Setting the record straight... This video is four years old.
Politico has actively stated that Biden worked to make the cost $35 dollars. But the video footage and Executive Order 13937 (July 24, 2020) are clear proof otherwise.
Even SNOPES stated the claim Biden froze Trump's Insulin plan was "true"...
Politico has actively stated that Biden worked to make the cost $35 dollars. But the video footage and Executive Order 13937 (July 24, 2020) are clear proof otherwise.
Even SNOPES stated the claim Biden froze Trump's Insulin plan was "true"...
Snopes Wrote:An important caveat to note is that Executive Order 13937, issued by Trump, had not yet been put into law. Though it was published in the federal register on Dec. 23, 2020, the order was not scheduled to go into effect until Jan. 22, 2021 — two days after Biden issued a freeze on all rules made by Trump that were not yet in effect.https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/biden-insulin-epipen/
Biden Campaign Mad at the Gray Lady
Quote:President Joe Biden’s team hit back at the New York Times’ editorial board for telling him to drop out of the race following his embarrassing debate performance.
As the first major news outlet to demand the president bow out of his reelection bid, the New York Times published an opinion piece, titled “To Serve His Country, President Biden Should Leave the Race,” on Friday.
“Mr. Biden is not the man he was four years ago,” the editorial board wrote.
Complaining that another term for former President Donald Trump would be disastrous for the country, the publication stated that Biden dropping out would be “the best chance to protect the soul of the nation.”
In response to the Times’ flaming debate review, Biden’s campaign co-chair Cedric Richmond said the publication’s endorsement does not mean anything to him.
“The last time Joe Biden lost the New York Times editorial board’s endorsement, it turned out pretty well for him,” Richmond told CNN on Friday.
During his first post-debate appearance, Biden admitted to an audience in Raleigh, North Carolina, that he was “knocked down” by Trump in the Thursday debate.
“I don’t walk as easy as I used to. I don’t speak as smoothly as I used to. I don’t debate as well as I used to,” the president said Friday. “I know, like millions of Americans know, when you get knocked down, you get back up.”
Even former President Barack Obama conceded that his former vice president’s debate skills were not good, writing on X, “Bad debate nights happen. Trust me, I know.”
Strong Warning for Biden
Quote:Several major Hollywood donors for President Joe Biden have been sent into panic mode after President Joe Biden’s poor performance at Thursday night’s presidential debate.
Anonymous Hollywood donors told Variety that they had received messages and feedback from donors in the media and entertainment industry who were panicked by what they saw from Biden during the debate. Donors reportedly called for Biden to “drop out” or they would not be “giving any more money” to the Democrat Party.
During the presidential debate, Biden appeared to freeze. Biden also spoke with a hoarse voice and mumbled.
The president was also unable to get through his closing statement without making a lot of errors.
“With all the text chains I’m on, people are basically like, ‘If he doesn’t drop out, we’re not giving any more money to Democrats or the Democratic Party,'” an anonymous Hollywood donor told the outlet. “It’s like super intense.”
Another anonymous Hollywood donor told the outlet that there was “a sense that the money dried up last night about 10 minutes into the debate.”
While several Democrat officials and media members also panicked after seeing Biden’s debate performance against former President Donald Trump and called for Biden to be replaced, the Biden campaign has maintained that the president will not be dropping out of the presidential race.
Biden Campaign Co-Chair Mitch Landrieu told NBC News that Biden “had a cold” and had “looked a little sluggish,” but added that he was okay with people judging Biden’s fitness based on the debate.
The outlet notes that other donors in Hollywood have admitted that Biden’s debate performance was “concerning” but have vowed to support him.
Other more high-profile donors for the Democrat Party, Jeffrey Katzenberg and Haim Saban have reportedly decided to wait before making a decision:
But in Hollywood, all eyes are on Jeffrey Katzenberg, the town’s most active Democratic fundraiser, who organized the recent fete that brought Biden and former President Barack Obama to L.A. and drew the likes of George Clooney, Julia Roberts, Jimmy Kimmel and Jack Black. Sources close to Katzenberg say he is taking a wait-and-see approach to how Biden’s debate performance plays out in the coming days. The same is true for media mogul Haim Saban, traditionally one of the Democratic Party’s most prolific donors. Saban has kept a low profile after someone, presumaby within the White House, leaked an email he sent to two Biden aides criticizing the president’s move to withhold some military support to Israel. Both Katzenberg and Saban declined to comment.
Dam in Danger
Quote:The Trinity River Authority announced a “potential failure watch” for the dam located at the base of one of Texas’ largest man-made lakes. The alert says there is no “immediate danger of either failure or breach of the dam.”
In an announcement sent out to affected persons surrounding Lake Livingston and downstream, the Trinity River Authority said recent heavy rainfall and flooding in the dam’s drainage area resulted in the declaration of a “potential failure watch.”
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Emergency management officials in Polk County, which sits on the east side of Lake Livingston and the Trinity River, said they will monitor and evaluate the spillway’s integrity. The TRA will implement necessary repairs and remedial actions, Fox 26 Houston reported.
Lake Livingston is the largest “single-purpose” reservoir in Texas and spans 83,000 surface acres. The lake has more than 45 miles of shortline. Construction finished in 1971.
The water level at Lake Livingston Dam is currently 131 feet above sea level, which is considered to be at 100 percent capacity. During the month of May, more than 27 inches of rain fell on the north end of the lake. This does not include rainfall along the path of the Trinity River which runs from Arlington, Texas, to Galveston Bay.
Arizona Wildfire Advances
Quote:More than 200 firefighters were battling a wildfire northeast of Phoenix that threatened scores of homes and has forced dozens of residents to evacuate
Arizona wildfire advances after forcing evacuations near PhoenixThe Associated PressSCOTTSDALE, Ariz.
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. (AP) — More than 200 firefighters were battling a wildfire northeast of Phoenix on Saturday that threatened scores of homes and has forced dozens of residents to evacuate.
No structures have been damaged as the wildfire traversed nearly 6 square miles (15 square kilometers) on the cusp of the Boulder Heights subdivision, said Matthew Wilcox, spokesman for a multi-agency wildfire response team.
There were 275 people combatting the fire Saturday as temperatures surpassed 100 degrees Fahrenheit (38 degrees Celsius) before midday, with wind gusts expected in the afternoon.
“We still have unseasonably high humidity, hot weather,” Wilcox said. “We have no wind right now, but gusts were predicted.”
Air tankers and helicopters have helped douse flames from the sky above the Boulder View Fire. The cause of the fire is under investigation. It began about 5 miles (8 kilometers) east of Carefree, just outside northern Scottsdale on the edge of the Tonto National Forest.
The Red Cross set up an evacuation center at a high school in Scottsdale, and shelters for horses and other large animals were established at several locations, including the rodeo grounds at nearby Cave Creek.
In central California, increasing temperatures and low relative humidity this weekend could result in worsening wildfire conditions for the Fresno June Lightning Complex. The complex — made up of three large fires in eastern Fresno County as well as several smaller fires — was nearly 17 square miles (44 square kilometers) and 42% contained by Saturday morning. One structure was confirmed destroyed, and evacuation orders remained in place.
To the north, the Apache Fire in Butte County has destroyed 14 structures and damaged two others since Monday. The blaze was one square mile (2.8 square kilometers ) and 95% contained by Saturday morning.
Astronauts Still Stuck
Quote:A pair of NASA astronauts are still stuck at the International Space Station (ISS) while the Boeing spacecraft they traveled in experiences issues, as Boeing insists that “the astronauts are not stranded.”
Butch Wilmore and Sunita “Suni” Williams were supposed to return to Earth on the Boeing Starliner on June 14 after completing a “test drive” of the new capsule, but they have since been stuck for more than three weeks, the Associated Press reported.
While NASA and Boeing work to troubleshoot equipment problems that reportedly “popped up on the way there,” three potential return dates were called off for the astronauts.
The Starliner’s issues have included problems with docking at the ISS, and several leaks of helium, which is used to pressurize fuel for the capsule’s thrusters.
“So far, we don’t see any scenario where Starliner is not going to be able to bring Butch and Suni home,” NASA commercial crew program manager Steve Stich said at a press conference last week.
Still, no return date has been set for Wilmore and Williams.
Even with these glaring problems, a Boeing representative said the spacecraft’s issues won’t prevent a return trip and asserted that “the astronauts are not stranded.”
Both astronauts appeared to be filled with joy upon their third visit to the ISS about a week before their intended departure date, with Williams performing a little happy dance as she entered.
Caveat Emptor - Buyer Beware!
Quote:A group of men posing as delivery drivers broke into a Colorado family’s house while their two children were home with a babysitter.
Ring doorbell footage from June 12 shows the terrifying moment when three men forced their way inside the Aurora home after the babysitter opened the door for who appeared to be a delivery worker, complete with a bright vest and a package, the Daily Mail reported.
The parents, who were not home at the time of the invasion, called 911 as soon as they saw the incident unfold on their Ring doorbell camera phone app.
The invaders allegedly hit the babysitter, pushed the six-year-old son to the ground, and “inappropriately touched” the 14-year-old daughter, according to the parents.
“It’s not about the material things stolen because they can be replaced,” the mother told FOX31 Denver.
Aurora Police said the unidentified suspects stole personal items, including jewelry and cash.
Investigators believe that the family may have been targeted because they run a business out of their home, the local outlet reported.
It is unclear how the three suspects got away, and police are encouraging anyone with information on them to step forward.
About Californian High Schoolers
Quote:Future high schoolers in California will soon be mandated to complete a financial literacy class to graduate, the governor’s office said.
A bill introduced by State Rep. Kevin McCarty (D) and supported by a bipartisan group of several Republicans and Democrats aims to place a semester-long personal finance class in the curriculum by the 2027-2028 school year and to make it required starting with the class of 2030-2031.
AB 2927 would appropriate $300,000 from the California’s General Fund to develop and recommend a curriculum to the state board to then be adopted by schools around the state.
Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) announced his support for the plan on Thursday.
“We need to help Californians prepare for their financial futures as early as possible,” he said in a statement. “Saving for the future, making investments, and spending wisely are lifelong skills that young adults need to learn before they start their careers, not after.”
The move was also celebrated by Senate President Pro Tempore Mike McGuire (D), who said “Financial literacy is a critical tool that pays dividends for a lifetime.”
“There’s a wealth of data about the benefits of learning these valuable lessons in high school, from improving credit scores and reducing default rates to increasing the likelihood that our future generations will maintain three months of savings for emergencies and have at least one kind of retirement account,” McGuire added.
Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas (D) added that the bill’s text “is the culmination of many robust and productive conversations with stakeholders across the state on how best to implement financial literacy into every student’s high school curriculum.”
SCOTUS Section
Quote:The Supreme Court ruled 6-3 on Friday that it is not “cruel and unusual punishment” under the Eighth Amendment to remove homeless people from encampments and to imprison them for repeatedly violating anti-camping laws.
The case, City of Grants Pass v. Johnson, was watched closely by civic leaders nationwide who are struggling to deal with homelessness — especially in Los Angeles, California, where the homeless population has continued to grow.
Justice Neil Gorsuch, writing for the majority, expressed sympathy for the homeless, and acknowledged that the issue is complex and difficult to resolve. But he noted that laws against encampments were “commonplace,” and said that the Eighth Amendment was a “poor foundation” on which to mount a challenge against them. The right forum in which to debate responses to homelessness was in democratically-elected governments, not in the federal courts.
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass called the Court’s decision “disappointing” — although her own city is struggling to deal with homeless encampments:
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Bass’s strategy is to move homeless people into motels or hotels, and bill the taxpayers — and has met with only limited success, with some people benefiting but the homeless population growing.
In April, Bass implored wealthy residents of the city to donate money for property to be devoted to the homeless. Los Angeles County is trying to replace a quarter-cent sales tax for homeless services to a half-cent in a ballot initiative.
Quote:Federal agencies suffered a massive blow to their regulatory power on Friday, when the Supreme Court overruled Chevron, a case under which federal courts have deferred for decades to agency interpretations of the laws they enforce.
As Chief Justice John Roberts began in his majority opinion, if a court determines that a federal law “is silent or ambiguous with respect to the specific issue at hand, the court must, at Chevron’s second step, defer to the agency’s interpretation if it is based on a permissible construction of the statute.”
“Cognizant of the limits of human language and foresight, [those who wrote the Constitution] anticipated that all new laws,” Roberts explained, “though penned with the greatest technical skill, and passed on the fullest and most mature deliberation, would be more or less obscure and equivocal, until their meaning was settled by a series of particular discussions and adjudications.”
“The Framers also envisioned that the final interpretation of the laws would be the proper and peculiar province of the courts,” the 6-3 opinion continued. “In the foundational decision of Marbury v. Madison, Chief Justice Marshall famously declared that it is emphatically the province and duty of the judicial department to say what the law is.”
“The views of the Executive Branch could inform the judgment of the Judiciary, but did not supersede it,” Roberts observed. “Otherwise, judicial judgment would not be independent at all.”
“Congress in 1946 enacted the APA [Administrative Procedure Act] as a check upon administrators whose zeal might otherwise have carried them to excesses not contemplated in legislation creating their offices,” the opinion recounted. “It was the culmination of a comprehensive rethinking of the place of administrative agencies in a regime of separate and divided powers.”
The APA “specifies that courts, not agencies, will decide all relevant questions of law arising on review of agency action—even those involving ambiguous laws—and set aside any such action inconsistent with the law as they interpret it.” Roberts continued. “And it prescribes no deferential standard for courts to employ in answering those legal questions.”
“The deference that Chevron requires of courts reviewing agency action cannot be squared with the APA,” the justices said. “In the decades between the enactment of the APA and this Court’s decision in Chevron, courts generally continued to review agency interpretations of the statutes they administer by independently examining each statute to determine its meaning.”
“Chevron, decided in 1984 by a bare quorum of six Justices, triggered a marked departure from the traditional approach,” the majority determined. “Neither Chevron nor any subsequent decision of this Court attempted to reconcile its framework with the APA.”
“Chevron defies the command of the APA that the reviewing court—not the agency whose action it reviews—is to decide all relevant questions of law and interpret statutory provisions,” Roberts found. “It requires a court to ignore, not follow, the reading the court would have reached had it exercised its independent judgment as required by the APA.”
“Courts interpret statutes, no matter the context, based on the traditional tools of statutory construction, not individual policy preferences,” the majority declared. “Indeed, the Framers crafted the Constitution to ensure that federal judges could exercise judgment free from the influence of the political branches.”
“The only question left is whether stare decisis, the doctrine governing judicial adherence to precedent, requires us to persist in the Chevron project. It does not,” the majority declared.
So basically, neither any agency nor the courts' jurisprudence can tell the courts what to establish as the right interpretation of the law, namely the APA. The courts must discern what the actual intention of that law was and compare it with any agency's application of that law and the related circumstances. This means any agency can't become its own judge, jury and executioner at the same time.
Quote:The Supreme Court on Thursday ruled a person accused by the Securities and Exchange Commission of civil fraud has a right to a trial by jury before a federal judge, rejecting the agency’s authority to bring enforcement actions and assess fines through internal tribunals.
The ruling is a significant blow to what has become in recent years one of the primary enforcement mechanisms against fraud in cases brought by the S.E.C., which regulates securities markets. The agency’s practice of dragging those accused of securities fraud before in-house tribunals, often adjudicated by the very agency bringing the accusation or by administrative law judges who are often seen as rubber stamps for the agency, violates the right to a jury trial, Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. wrote for a six-justice majority opinion.
“A defendant facing a fraud suit has the right to be tried by a jury of his peers before a neutral adjudicator,” the chief justice wrote.
The S.E.C. was purportedly authorized by Depression-era securities laws to have the choice to bring antifraud lawsuits in federal courts or to adjudicate its accusations itself. In the Dodd-Frank financial regulatory reform law passed in 2010, Congress extended the S.E.C.’s authority to bring civil suits in its own tribunals to accusations against unregistered investment advisers.
When the S.E.C. adjudicates fraud accusations in-house, there are no juries to act as fact finders, no life-tenured federal judges presiding, and the litigation is governed by a different set of rules about evidence, procedure, and discovery. The central issue in Securities and Exchange Commission v. Jarkesy, No. 22-859, was whether these administrative tribunals violate the Seventh Amendment’s guarantee of a jury trial in “suits at common law.”
The S.E.C. contended that administrative proceedings do not require juries or presiding federal judges because they are not private lawsuits under common law but efforts to protect so-called “public rights” created statutes. They further argued that many agencies conduct adjudications without juries, with over two dozen agencies authorized to impose penalties administratively.
Quote:The Supreme Court ruled Friday that the government cannot prosecute January 6 defendants under 1512©(2), the “Enron” statute, for generally obstructing “an official proceeding” unless they interfered with objects or documents.
The bombshell decision could result in hundreds of convictions against non-violent January 6 defendants being overturned — and could result in at least some charges being dropped against President Donald Trump as well.
1512©(2) was passed after the Enron scandal, when it was discovered that federal law had a loophole: it was illegal to instruct others to destroy evidence, but not illegal to destroy evidence oneself. Consequently, Congress passed a law prohibiting tampering with witnesses or evidence that is to be used in an “official proceeding.” The Department of Justice used that law to prosecute participants in the Capitol riot based on the idea that they had “obstructed” an official proceeding — i.e. the certification of the Electoral College vote in the 2020 presidential election. But critics said that 1512©(2) had never been intended to apply to protests or other First Amendment-connected activities.
In a 6-3 decision, with the majority opinion written by Chief Justice John Roberts, the Court overruled the (heavily anti-Trump) D.C. Circuit and said that 1512©(2) could not be used as broadly as the Department of Justice had done.
“To prove a violation of Section 1512©(2), the Government must establish that the defendant impaired the availability or integrity for use in an official proceeding of records, documents, objects, or as we earlier explained, other things used in the proceeding, or attempted to do so,” Roberts wrote. The term “otherwise” — as in “otherwise obstructs, influences, or impedes any official proceeding” — could not be used so broadly as to include trespassing.
In order to continue a prosecution under the Enron law, the prosecution would have to show that the defendants not only invaded the Capitol, but that they also impeded the delivery of documents or objects needed for the proceeding.
The Court remanded the case back to the U.S. District Court in D.C., where the petitioner, Joseph Fischer, faces trial for his involvement in the Capitol riot (including for allegedly physical violence against law enforcement). The Court instructed the district court to consider the 1512©(2) court of the case against Fischer more narrowly than before.
Surprisingly, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson concurred with the majority, while Justice Amy Coney Barrett wrote the dissent. Barrett wrote: “Section 1512©(2) is a very broad provision, and admittedly, events like January 6th were not its target. … But statutes often go further than the problem that inspired them, and under the rules of statutory interpretation, we stick to the text anyway.” She said that Fischer had been properly prosecuted under the law.
Trump faces four counts in Special Counsel Jack Smith’s case against him in D.C. relating to the January 6 Capitol riot. One of those is under 1512©(2), and could possibly be thrown out on the basis of the Court’s decision.
The case is Fischer v. United States, No. 23-5572, in the Supreme Court of the United States.
Quote:Former President Donald Trump adviser Stephen K. Bannon will report to prison by Monday, July 1, after the Supreme Court denied a request for him to stay out of jail pending the outcome of his appeal.
The Supreme Court issued a one-sentence denial, saying merely that Bannon’s “application for release pending appeal” was denied.
Bannon, the host of the War Room podcast, sent an emergency appeal to delay his prison sentence for defying a subpoena from the Democrat-run January 6 Select Committee that was created to investigate the riot at the Capitol on January 6, 2021.
The emergency appeal had been addressed to Chief Justice John Roberts, who handles these types of requests from courts in Washington, D.C.
“The application for release pending appeal presented to The Chief Justice and by him referred to the Court is denied,” the Supreme Court wrote.
Before being hired to work as the CEO of the Trump campaign in August 2016, Bannon served as the executive chairman of Breitbart News. Bannon went on to join the Trump administration as a chief strategist and left in August 2017, later rejoining Breitbart News until his departure in early 2018.
Bannon was convicted by a jury in October 2022 and sentenced to four months in prison for defying a subpoena from the January 6 Select Committee. This was placed on hold as Bannon sought an appeal regarding the decision.
In May, an appeals court upheld Bannon’s conviction from 2022.
Meanwhile, US AG Merrick Garland is still enjoying his steakes at any luxury restaurant even after defying a House Committee's subpoena. How quaint.
CANADA
Trudeau Admin Failed Them!
Quote:Canada’s Globe and Mail dropped another bombshell on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s faltering government on Thursday, revealing that Trudeau’s former Defense Minister Harjit Sajjan prioritized rescuing Afghan Sikhs ahead of Canadians after the Taliban stormed Kabul in August 2021.
According to three military sources who spoke with the Globe and Mail, Sajjan intervened after the Canadian military decided its top “operational priority” was to rescue Canadian citizens from the chaos unleashed by U.S. President Joe Biden’s disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan.
The original priority list of Canadian special operators like Joint Task Force 2 (JTF-2) was to go after Canadian citizens and Afghans who worked directly for the Canadian government before the Taliban captured Kabul. “Vulnerable groups, such as feminists, human-rights activists, minorities and LGBTQ people” came next, and then anyone else who could be saved.
Sajjan stepped in and moved a group of 225 Afghan Sikhs to the top of the list and actively participated in their rescue, relaying “local information and other details about the Sikhs” to Canadian special operations forces.
“The way it was presented to us at first was: If we can do this and pay attention to it, great, but not stopping doing everything else. But a day or so later, it came back to us as a firm order. Our leadership was furious. They were very upset,” one special forces officer said of the order to rescue Sikhs first.
“There was such furious anger that the last 24 hours were solely dedicated to getting the Sikhs out. We were unsuccessful,” the officer said, adding a melancholy coda to the affair.
Other sources told the Globe and Mail that Sajjan’s effort to rescue the Sikhs failed because “the frightened Afghan Sikhs left the rendezvous point shortly before Canadian soldiers arrived to take them safely to Kabul international airport.”
Luckily for them, most of the Sikhs in question were able to survive the Taliban coup and escape to India several months later, some of them using planes chartered by the Indian government.
The Globe and Mail noted Sajjan is “an influential figure in the Sikh community whose father served on the board of the World Sikh Organization” and Trudeau’s Liberal party was desperately courting Sikh votes at the time.
LATIN AMERICA
Nicaragua on Biden's Policies
Quote:The policies enacted by President Joe Biden to respond to Nicaragua’s communist regime using its main airport as a hub for U.S.-bound migrants have had little to no effect in curbing migration, the Nicaraguan newspaper La Prensa reported on Thursday.
Nicaragua’s communist dictator Daniel Ortega has been accused of “weaponizing” Managua’s international airport against the United States by allowing migrants to arrive to the airport and freely pass through the country en route to the United States.
Thousands of migrants from Latin America and other continents seeking to cross the U.S. southern border have opted to first land in Managua because the Sandinista government has very limited visa requirements. Nicaragua’s location in Central America also allows migrants to avoid having to cross through the deadly Darién Gap jungle trail located between Colombia and Panama.
The Ortega regime has been able to profit from allowing migrants to transit through its airport by reportedly charging them a fee of upwards $200 per person to use the facilities. Experts have suggested that Ortega sees migrants as a “golden opportunity” bargaining tool to negotiate potential sanctions relief with the United States.
In recent months, the administration of U.S. President Joe Biden has attempted to “crack down” on the use of charter flights that land in Nicaragua, a growing trend among migrants seeking to reach the United States, and imposed sanctions on Nicaraguan-based charter flight airlines and its executives. The Biden administration issued a warning to relevant airlines suggesting they undergo vetting processes and take measures to “avoid complicity.”
Experts estimate that roughly 1,150 charter flights landed in Managua between May 2024 and May 2024.
The measures adopted by the Biden administration, according to La Prensa’s report, have had an “insufficient” effect in the reduction of U.S.-bound migrants using Nicaragua. The migrant flow remains “constant and almost unchanged” compared to 2023, which reportedly saw more than 300,000 migrants use the airport in their journey towards the United States, the report claimed.
According to statistics from the Central Bank of Nicaragua quoted by the newspaper, a total of 198,500 travelers landed in Managua’s airport between January and March 2024, of which only 179,600 left the country on an outbound flight, leaving 18,900 individuals who potentially left the country by land towards the United States.
During the same time period in 2023, 147,600 travelers were registered to have disembarked at the airport, of which only 130,800 departed through an outbound flight, leaving a differential of 16,800 people.
Milei Passes Reform Bill
Quote:The Congress of Argentina passed President Javier Milei’s omnibus bill on Thursday evening, paving the way for sweeping reforms to the Argentine state.
Thursday’s Congressional session, which lasted more than 12 hours, saw the members of Argentina’s Chamber of Deputies cast the final vote required on the bill’s final details after the Argentine Senate voted to approve the bill on June 12. The bill had the support of 147 deputies against 107 who voted to reject it. Two lawmakers abstained from voting.
The bill, titled the “Law of Bases and Starting Points for the Freedom of Argentines,” was first presented by Milei roughly two weeks after he took office on December 10 and contains reforms and deregulation measures across a wide variety of sectors. The bill also codifies the contents of the Necessity and Urgency Decree (DNU) executive order signed by Milei in December, which undid more than 350 socialist policies.
The bill’s title is a reference to a book written by Argentine politician and diplomat Juan Bautista Alberdi in 1852 that saw many of its contents eventually incorporated into Argentina’s original 1853 constitution.
While the original iteration of the bill contained more than 660 articles, the final approved version was trimmed down to 234. Most of its fiscal-related contents were separated into an ancillary bill on “Palliative and Relevant Fiscal Measures,” which was also passed on Thursday.
The final approval of the omnibus bill follows six months of Congressional debates where Milei’s Liberty Advances party only holds seven seats in the Senate and 38 in the lower chamber, leading to negotiations with other political blocs that resulted in modifications to the original text.
EUROPE
Russia on US Debate
Quote:Russian state media was initially dismissive of Thursday night’s debate between former U.S. President Donald Trump and U.S. President Joe Biden, as the Kremlin blithely insisted the U.S. presidential race was “not on our radar.”
On Friday morning, the tenor of Russian coverage had changed, as state media gleefully reported that Biden’s disastrous performance put the “final nail” in his “political coffin.”
“It’s not on our radar. We have a lot of issues that matter much more for our country, that are relevant for us. These are the issues that our president is focusing on. The U.S. debate does not fit into these priorities,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said when asked if Moscow was following the debate and its tumultuous aftermath.
Peskov claimed to be equally blasé about changes in European Union leadership, scoffing that his Kremlin bosses “do not think that European diplomacy will do anything to normalize relations.”
“I don’t think you can expect the Russian president to set his alarm clock to wake up early in the morning for a U.S. debate,” he said when asked if President Vladimir Putin watched the U.S. presidential debate.
“We are absolutely not going to evaluate these debates, this is an internal matter of the United States, this is the U.S. election campaign. We have never interfered in United States election campaigns,” he huffed.
On Friday morning, Russian state media became quite interested in “evaluating” the Biden debacle. Sputnik, for example, asked California psychiatrist and author Carole Lieberman to dissect Biden’s performance.
“It seems like he was on some performance-enhancing drug, but it was either a lower dose or a less potent drug, or they didn’t take into consideration that his cognitive decline was worse since the State of the Union,” Lieberman said.
Liberman noted that Biden had “a hollow stare, a shaky voice, and seemed as though he might not make it through the whole 90 minutes – but was going to collapse right there.”
“Biden showed some of the typical signs of lying, such as being short of breath, having a rigid body, staring, shuffling, and having increasing difficulty trying to speak,” she said, judging that the sitting president’s biggest problem was “getting lost in the middle of sentences.”
In contrast, Lieberman thought Trump looked “much stronger and passionate” about the problems with America and “his desire to fix it,” although she took back a few points for Trump allowing his “narcissism” show.
German Court Convicts Islamic Extremist
Quote:A German court on Friday convicted a 15-year-old boy of plotting an Islamic extremist attack on a Christmas market and gave him a four-year sentence.
The Cologne state court said the boy was convicted of conspiracy to murder and disturbing the public peace by threatening crimes, German news agency dpa reported. The proceedings were conducted behind closed doors under juvenile law, and the defendant’s name wasn’t released in line with German privacy rules.
The teenager was detained in November near Cologne. The court found that he became radicalized last fall and, within a few weeks, had agreed with a 16-year-old acquaintance to attack a Christmas market in Leverkusen.
The plan was for the defendant to drive a rented truck into the market and kill as many visitors as possible, while his accomplice was to film the attack, the court said. According to the verdict, the defendant posted a video in a chat group announcing an attack on “infidels,” with a symbol of the Islamic State group visible in the background.
There are no formal pleas in the German legal system, but the court said the 15-year-old admitted to the charges against him.
His alleged accomplice, who also is accused of conspiracy to murder, is due to go on trial July 17 in Neuruppin, near Berlin in eastern Germany.
French Left Against France & Cops
Quote:French left-wing leader defends police-killing chants and throws in threats of his own in the final days before France goes to the polls in round one of Emmanuel Macron’s big-risk snap parliamentary elections.
Jean-Luc Mélenchon, the left-wing leader who is perhaps the most visible face of the New Popular Front (NFP) coalition bringing in the whole spectrum from pro-Europe centrism to full-blooded communists laughed off chants by his supporters at an anti-right wing rally. Making reference to the populist party of Marine Le Pen and Jordan Bardella polled to come first in the elections, National Rally (RN), the demonstrators had chanted “A dead cop is one vote less for the RN”.
Mélenchon replied “It’s absurd… but We still have the right to laugh”. He later clarified his point, asserting “Not about the deaths of people, of course”. French broadsheet Le Figaro noted his insouciant reply set off a wave of concern, citing former police union spokesman — and now RN politician — Matthieu Valet who said: “He respects nothing, not even those who died for the [country]. He doesn’t even hide his hatred of the cops anymore”.
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Jordan Bardella, the leader of the RN Parliamentary faction who hopes to walk out of this election as Prime Minister, said: “The far left is defending a new right: that of being able to insult our police officers and laugh at their deaths… Mr. Mélenchon and his friends no longer have any moral limits”. President Macron’s interior minister Gérald Darmanin, who banned several “extremist” groups this week, responded to Mélenchon: “the far left once again infamous in the hatred of the police. How can sincere left-wing voters accept this?
Spit on the coffin of our police officers and gendarmes for a few votes… [this makes me want to] vomit.”
MIDDLE EAST
Sham Elections in Iran
Quote:Iran’s “moderate” reformist candidate Masoud Pezeshkian, once dismissed as a dark horse with little chance of winning the emergency election to replace the late President Ebrahim Raisi, managed to become the frontrunner by about a million votes when the results were announced on Saturday. Pezeshkian could not get past the 50 percent threshold to win outright, so he will face hardliner Saeed Jalili in a runoff election on July 5.
Pezeshkian collected 42.4 percent of the vote, or about 10.4 million votes, in the low-turnout election. Jalili came in second with 38.6 percent or 9.4 million votes. Another hardliner and the early favorite to win the election, parliamentary speaker Mohammed Bagher Qalibaf, placed third with just 13.8 percent.
Turnout was estimated at just 40 percent of Iranian voters, a record low. Many Iranians do not bother to vote because the elections are rigged in advance by a theocratic Guardian Council, and even if a “moderate” like Pezeshkian wins, his ability to actually reform the Iranian system would be minimal. The autocratic ruler of the country will remain Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who is aging and in poor health, so he could be replaced soon.
Human rights activists, both within Iran and internationally, urged Iranians to boycott the election to replace Raisi, who was killed in a helicopter crash in May. The Iranian regime complained that the U.S. government was “meddling” in the election and depressing turnout by criticizing the vote as a farce.
Raisi won his election in 2021 with 18 million votes, which was almost as much as the two front-runners in Friday’s contest combined, and turnout for Raisi’s election was considered a record low at the time. Critics of the regime believed it only allowed Pezeshkian to run against five hardliners to create the illusion of a real choice and were taken aback that he polled as well as he did.
Israel & Gaza
Quote:As the United Nations threatens to suspend aid to operations across the Gaza Strip, Fox News Digital has exclusively learned that Israel plans to activate a desalination plant that will increase fresh water access in the region.
"Israel will increase the electricity supply to the desalination facility in Khan Yunis by building new electricity power lines," an Israeli security official told Fox News Digital.
"This will re-enable the desalination facility established with UNICEF funding in 2017 to provide drinking water to areas in Deir al-Balah, Khan Yunis and the Mawasi area – a potential solution for hundreds of thousands of residents throughout the Strip," the official explained.
The government-backed plan awaits final approval, but once in operation, the plant will provide approximately 20,000 cubic meters of water a day for residents – a massive increase from its current capacity of 1,500 cubic meters, which the officials blamed on a "lack of capacity to maximize" generator activity.
"The power line would enable the required 5 megawatts of electricity, which can be provided through the power line that will be connected and provided by Israel," the official said. "Along with the new power line, the Israeli military would allow the international community and NGOs to bring in equipment and conduct infrastructure works that will regulate the power line operation for the desalination facility after a mandatory security inspection."
The official could not elaborate on how much this project would cost or whether it indicates that Israel will look to empower or establish additional desalination plants to further increase water output. The official stressed, however, that the plant in Khan Yunis is the "biggest plant" in the region.
Iran Using University to Hide Nuclear Weapons
Quote:A new report from an Iranian resistance group alleges that the Islamist regime has attempted to dodge U.S. sanctions on its nuclear programs by shifting personnel and resources to a university closely associated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
"Ever since The National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) exposed the Iranian regime’s previously undisclosed nuclear program in 2002 … the regime has persistently thwarted the IAEA’s efforts to uncover the full scope of its nuclear weapons ambitions," Alireza Jafarzadeh, deputy director of the Washington office of the NCRI told Fox News Digital.
"Our revelations have shown that Tehran’s nuclear program has always been about building the nuclear bomb, and it is run by the IRGC," he argued. "The weaponization part of the nuclear program has not only remained intact but has expanded and enhanced with no meaningful scrutiny." Jafarzadeh first revealed the details of Iran’s nuclear program in 2002.
The NCRI issued a report in which it discussed how Iran shifted its nuclear program personnel and resources placed on U.S. sanctions to the Islamic Azad University. The U.S. listed the Organization of Defensive Innovation and Research (SPND) on the international sanctions list, and university personnel asked researchers to "present their activities as being in service of front companies."
The NCRI claimed to have gathered its information through a network of the People’s Mojahedin Organization, known as the MEK, from inside Iran, including reports from inside "the regime entities."
"In order to preserve SPND, the Ministry of Defense and Armed Forces Logistics (MODAFL) has attempted to create a new and better cover to continue its operations, ostensibly making it work on a series of advanced military cases in order to divert attention and lessen focus on its primary goal of making nuclear weapons," the report says.
Shortly before his sudden death, former Iranian President Ibrahim Raisi passed the SPND Act in April, ordering the Ministry of Defense to implement the plan within a month and make the SPND "an independent legal entity with the nature of a public institution and has financial, transactional and administrative independence."
"For God has not destined us for wrath, but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ," 1 Thessalonians 5:9
Maranatha!
The Internet might be either your friend or enemy. It just depends on whether or not she has a bad hair day.
My Original Stories (available in English and Spanish)
List of Compiled Binary Executables I have published...
HiddenChest & Roole
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KyoGemBoost XP VX & ACE, RandomEnkounters XP, KSkillShop XP, Kolloseum States XP, KEvents XP, KScenario XP & Gosu, KyoPrizeShop XP Mangostan, Kuests XP, KyoDiscounts XP VX, ACE & MV, KChest XP VX & ACE 2016, KTelePort XP, KSkillMax XP & VX & ACE, Gem Roulette XP VX & VX Ace, KRespawnPoint XP, VX & VX Ace, GiveAway XP VX & ACE, Klearance XP VX & ACE, KUnits XP VX, ACE & Gosu 2017, KLevel XP, KRumors XP & ACE, KMonsterPals XP VX & ACE, KStatsRefill XP VX & ACE, KLotto XP VX & ACE, KItemDesc XP & VX, KPocket XP & VX, OpenChest XP VX & ACE
Maranatha!
The Internet might be either your friend or enemy. It just depends on whether or not she has a bad hair day.
My Original Stories (available in English and Spanish)
List of Compiled Binary Executables I have published...
HiddenChest & Roole
Give me a free copy of your completed game if you include at least 3 of my scripts!
Just some scripts I've already published on the board...
KyoGemBoost XP VX & ACE, RandomEnkounters XP, KSkillShop XP, Kolloseum States XP, KEvents XP, KScenario XP & Gosu, KyoPrizeShop XP Mangostan, Kuests XP, KyoDiscounts XP VX, ACE & MV, KChest XP VX & ACE 2016, KTelePort XP, KSkillMax XP & VX & ACE, Gem Roulette XP VX & VX Ace, KRespawnPoint XP, VX & VX Ace, GiveAway XP VX & ACE, Klearance XP VX & ACE, KUnits XP VX, ACE & Gosu 2017, KLevel XP, KRumors XP & ACE, KMonsterPals XP VX & ACE, KStatsRefill XP VX & ACE, KLotto XP VX & ACE, KItemDesc XP & VX, KPocket XP & VX, OpenChest XP VX & ACE