[NY Post] A Manhattan jury has cleared Daniel Penny of criminal wrongdoing in the chokehold death of Jordan Neely on a crowded subway — a caught-on-video killing that sparked fierce debate over the city’s mental health system and crime underground.
The panelists acquitted Penny of criminally negligent homicide — which could have put him behind bars for up to four years — in Neely’s chokehold death aboard a crowded uptown F train in May 2023.
Manslaughter, the top charge against Penny, was tossed on Friday after jurors twice said they couldn’t reach a unanimous verdict.
Jurors sided with Penny’s defense attorneys, who had argued that the Marine veteran was justified in rushing to protect his fellow subway straphangers when he subdued the erratic homeless man. The lawyers had also questioned whether there was sufficient evidence that the chokehold caused Neely’s death.
“Who do you want on the next train ride with you?” one of his lawyers, Steven Raiser, in his closing statement in Manhattan Supreme Court.
[MAIL] Comedian Bill Burr compared United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson to a 'gangster' while revealing the possible 'motive' behind the shocking murder of the exec outside a NYC hotel.
The 50-year-old Thompson was in Midtown Manhattan to attend the company's Investor Day conference last week when he was gunned down by a masked assailant outside the Hilton in the early morning hours.
Burr, 56, initially expressed his sympathy for Thompson and his family but revealed how his feelings soon shifted as he learned more about the circumstances surrounding Thompson's career.
'I was sitting there reading an article, and a guy was like, "Oh my god, he's such a great guy; he had a wife and kids, and he's such a great guy,"' Burr began.
'And then you find out, he and the other guys he's working for are getting sued for $121 million for dumping a stock, and not letting the other people know.'
Burr didn't mince words about his view of corporate misconduct.
'It's like there's your motive,' he said about the targeted killing. 'They're gangsters, dude. And then one of them gets whacked or something, they're like, I was good, he was such a good guy. It's a dirty game.'
The legal controversy referenced by Burr refers to a lawsuit accusing Thompson and other executives of insider trading.
[News With Views] Assassinations are now in favor on the political left. They failed to kill President Trump but health care CEO Brian Thomspon was shot from behind, and the left-wing assassin fled. Nobody in the private sector or in the new Trump Administration is safe from the fury of the left.
It is clear, by now, that the assassin was motivated by hatred of big corporations in the health care sector. His hatred is a staple of the socialists, who want the private sector to be regulated out of existence or outlawed in total. Their future is "Medicare for All," once embraced by Kamala Harris, who once campaigned on abolishing private health plans. That meant that an estimated 180 million people in the U.S. with employer-sponsored health insurance would go under federal government control.
Despite the social media enthusiasm greeting the CEO’s murder, a recent public opinion poll found that a strong majority (75 percent) are satisfied with their current employer-provided plans.
With the assassination of Thomson, the FBI is now coming to the rescue, announcing a $50,000 reward for information leading to the apprehension of the assassin. No doubt the FBI will find their man and bask in the limelight of those eager to preserve this gigantic federal agency as it is and forget its history of abuses.
The assassin’s ability to so far escape apprehension suggests somebody with special training and an axe to grind against private insurance.
The bigger target is private health care coverage, with the assassin clearly hoping to promote more government control, thereby eliminating free choice options, and forcing everybody into a national health care system. It is the Bernie Sanders and Kamala Harris "dream" that could easily become the nightmare we see in other countries.
In the wake of this tragedy, look for the Democrats to exploit the situation and promote socialized medicine.
A Toronto newspaper is already citing the murder as proof that a socialist health care system, like they have in Canada, is the answer. This is promoted as a panacea when the inevitable result of more government-controlled health care coverage is more denial of services, longer waits, and the "mercy killing" of old folks.
Not just old folks. I’ve recently read that it’s being offered as a primary option for depression and anxiety, as well as expensive or chronic diseases.
What we are seeing, once you get beyond the seemingly isolated murder, is a greater plot targeting health insurance companies in general. Social media have been unleashed on the incident in New York, with the far-left applauding the murder of the father of two. Ordinary Americans with complaints about their coverage are being ushered on the bandwagon, not knowing what the goal of this orchestrated effort really is.
#1
Killing him for insider trading? That seems a bit much (although in China he might have been executed for corruption), but for UnitedHealth doing its best not to pay claims, well, hmmmm.
[NY Post] Karma, Bitch
When thieves made off with Darcie Bell’s rented U-Haul truck, the San Francisco woman put out a call for help on X: “If you see a 26 foot uhaul truck with the Arizona plate AL50003- would you let me know because it had like everything I own on it.”
The post went viral, but not for the reason she hoped for. Bell spent years posting left-wing “defund the police” views — and users across the site blasted and mocked the activist.
“Anti Police activist begs the police to help,” jeered the X account Bay State of Mind, which comments on San Francisco Bay Area politics.
Tom Wolf, an addiction recovery advocate who has nearly 30,000 followers, posted a screenshot of a previous post in which Bell blasts the San Francisco Police, alongside a screenshot of her recent plea.
“Shot. Chaser.” the caption reads.
Bell – who goes by Jerque Cousteau on X with a bio saying “will respond to all bad faith arguments w/ad hominem attacks” — is returning fire.
Mere hours after she filed a police report, she blasted the police for not immediately locating her stolen possessions.
“I haven’t found my s—! The cops didn’t do s—! U-Haul made me file a f—ing police report!” she told The Post.
“There’s cameras all over this city. They haven’t done s—! … I just want my stuff back!”
To those accusing her of hypocrisy, she insisted she “literally never called the cops” and is re-posting more calls to defund law enforcement, for good measure.
U-Haul itself urged her to alert authorities to the theft of their truck.
“Please be sure to contact us back to provide the police report to the Equipment Recovery department,” the company’s customer support account urged.
As for her critics, she sneered at them.
“Look at these good, Christian ‘victim advocates’ celebrating my kids losing their belongings at Christmas,” she fired at the haters in general.
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/09/2024 00:00 ||
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#1
I've read this story 6 times now and I can't stop laughing!
[OffThePress] IRS’ Armed Division Expands To Largest Level In A Decade.
The Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI) division, the armed enforcement wing of the IRS tasked with combating financial crimes, has expanded its workforce by nearly 11 percent, bringing staffing levels to their highest in nearly a decade and boosting the division’s conviction rate to 90 percent, according to the IRS-CI’s latest annual report.
The fiscal year 2024 report, released on Dec. 5, outlines a year of intensified enforcement for the IRS-CI, which serves as the tax agency’s law enforcement branch that focuses on tax violations that cross into criminal territory.
The report shows that the division achieved several firsts over the past year, including the first sentencing for syndicated conservation easement schemes, the first cryptocurrency tax fraud indictment, and a record-setting financial settlement with Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, for anti-money laundering violations.
IRS-CI special agents, who are authorized to carry guns and use lethal force, now number 2,290 after a hiring spree added 146 employees to its ranks over the fiscal year. The division’s overall workforce expansion is the largest in nearly a decade, bringing total headcount to 3,474 employees. Between 2010 and 2020, the division’s staffing numbers fell from 4,017 to 2,858.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[Regnum] On December 8, two high-class X and M flares occurred on the Sun. This was reported by the solar activity monitoring center.
On December 8, scientists recorded two high-class M and X flares on the Sun
“At 01:15 Moscow time, an M3.2 flare lasting 13 minutes was recorded in the X-ray range in the sunspot group 3917 (S07E27),” the center told TASS.
According to the IKI and ISTP solar astronomy laboratory, another X2.3 flare was registered in the X-ray range at 12:06 Moscow time. Its duration was 20 minutes.
A total of eight solar flares were recorded on December 8. Most of them were of the middle class C. The day before, 22 flares occurred on the star.
As reported by the Regnum news agency, on November 10, scientists registered a powerful solar flare - in the M class range, but close to the highest class (X), lasting 31 minutes.
On November 6, the Institute of Applied Geophysics reported that scientists had registered the second highest-class X flare on the Sun since the beginning of the month. Its duration was 32 minutes.
In early October, a level X flare occurred on the Sun, which caused a plasma ejection towards the Earth and a magnetic storm. According to scientists, this occurred exactly along the Sun-Earth line, and the geometric dimensions of the ejection exceeded possible calculation errors.
According to the forecast of the solar astronomy laboratory of IKI and ISTP, in December the Earth's magnetosphere will be in a calm state almost until the end of the year.
[NYPOST] Guyana is revisiting a dark history nearly half a century after US Rev. Jim Jones and more than 900 of his followers died in the rural interior of the South American country.
It was the largest suicide-murder in recent history, and a government-backed tour operator wants to open the former commune now shrouded by lush vegetation to visitors, a proposal that is reopening old wounds, with critics saying it would disrespect victims and dig up a sordid past.
Jordan Vilchez, who grew up in Caliphornia, an impregnable bastion of the Democratic Party, and was moved into the Peoples Temple commune at age 14, told The News Agency that Dare Not be Named in a phone interview from the US that she has mixed feelings about the tour.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/09/2024 00:00 ||
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#1
There should probably be a memorial there. I can understand having some tour guides. “Tourist Attraction” means profit to me. That is too far will only attract stray Reddit weirdos, and few of them.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
12/09/2024 8:52 Comments ||
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#2
They should start in San Francisco. Jones had the backing of the SF Dem power structure before he went south
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/09/2024 9:58 Comments ||
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#3
Nobody is going to Guyana for this. I hope they don’t have a gift shop.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
12/09/2024 12:00 Comments ||
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[NYPOST] South Korea's Justice Ministry on Monday imposed an overseas travel ban on President Yoon Suk Yeol as authorities investigate allegations of rebellion and other charges in connection with his short-lived declaration of martial law last week.
Yoon's martial law decree last Tuesday, which brought special forces troops into Seoul streets, plunged South Korea into political turmoil and caused worry among its key diplomatic partners and neighbors.
On Saturday, Yoon avoided an opposition-led bid to impeach him, with most governing party politicians boycotting a parliamentary vote. But the opposition parties vowed to submit a new impeachment motion against him this week.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/09/2024 13:12 ||
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[GEO.TV] China's retaliatory export controls could take a toll on the growing US clean energy sector and its defence industry, analysts say, as a trade tussle escalates between the world's two biggest economies.
Beijing announced this week it would ban exports of gallium, germanium and antimony to the United States, targeting materials used for everything from semiconductors to solar cells.
China also tightened restrictions on graphite, which is key to the electric vehicle industry.
The moves, which Beijing said were to safeguard national security, swiftly followed Washington's own curbs to hobble China's ability to make advanced computer chips.
While trade tensions have been simmering, US President-elect Donald Trump ...Never got invited to a P.Diddy party... 's arrival at the White House in January is likely to ratchet up the temperature on trade — with the Republican already vowing sweeping tariffs on Chinese imports.
Analysts say it would take time to assess the impact of the new Chinese curbs on US industries, though any immediate hit should be limited.
Some see Beijing's moves as symbolic for now, even as ramifications depend on how China enforces the new rules.
"This certainly could drive up costs," said Arun Seraphin of the National Defence Industrial Association. "It could create situations where you can't produce what you need."
"It's certainly going to drive a lot of uncertainty for companies who want to plan out their supply chain," he told AFP.
China is a major producer of the three metals in question.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/09/2024 00:00 ||
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[11129 views]
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[IsraelTimes] Court rejects social media platform’s claims of free speech violations, noting Americans will still be able to share ‘as much PRC propaganda’ and other content as they want
A federal appeals court panel on Friday unanimously upheld a law that could lead to a ban on TikTok in a few short months, handing a resounding defeat to the popular social media platform as it fights for its survival in the US.
The US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit denied TikTok’s petition to overturn the law — which requires TikTok to break ties with its China-based parent company ByteDance or be banned by mid-January — and rebuffed the company’s challenge of the statute, which it argued had ran afoul of the First Amendment.
"The First Amendment exists to protect free speech in the United States," said the court’s opinion, which was written by Judge Douglas Ginsburg. "Here the Government acted solely to protect that freedom from a foreign adversary nation and to limit that adversary’s ability to gather data on people in the United States."
TikTok and ByteDance — another plaintiff in the lawsuit — are expected to appeal to the Supreme Court, though its unclear whether the court will take up the case.
"The Supreme Court has an established historical record of protecting ans’ right to free speech, and we expect they will do just that on this important constitutional issue," TikTok spokesperson Michael Hughes said in a statement.
"Unfortunately, the TikTok ban was conceived and pushed through based upon inaccurate, flawed and hypothetical information, resulting in outright censorship of the American people," Hughes said. Unless stopped, he argued the statute "will silence the voices of over 170 million Americans here in the US and around the world on January 19th, 2025."
Though the case is squarely in the court system, it’s also possible the two companies might be thrown some sort of a lifeline by President-elect Donald Trump ...The tack in the backside of the Democratic Party... , who tried to ban TikTok during his first term but said during the presidential campaign that he is now against such action.
The law, signed by President Joe The Big Guy Biden ...46th president of the U.S. Old, boring, a plagiarist, fond of hair sniffing and grabbing the protruding parts of women, and not whatcha call brilliant.... in April, was the culmination of a yearslong saga in Washington over the short-form video-sharing app, which the government sees as a national security threat due to its connections to China.
"Today’s decision is an important step in blocking the Chinese government from weaponizing TikTok to collect sensitive information about millions of Americans, to covertly manipulate the content delivered to American audiences, and to undermine our national security," Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement Friday.
The US has said it’s concerned about TikTok collecting vast swaths of user data, including sensitive information on viewing habits, that could fall into the hands of the Chinese government through coercion. Officials have also warned the proprietary algorithm that fuels what users see on the app is vulnerable to manipulation by Chinese authorities, who can use it to shape content on the platform in a way that’s difficult to detect. The European Union ...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing... on Friday expressed similar concerns as it investigates intelligence that suggests Russia possibly abused the platform to influence the elections in Romania.
TikTok, which sued the government over the law in May, has long denied it could be used by Beijing to spy on or manipulate Americans. Its attorneys have accurately pointed out that the US hasn’t provided evidence to show that the company handed over user data to the Chinese government, or manipulated content for Beijing’s benefit in the US. They have also argued the law is predicated on future risks, which the Department of Justice has emphasized pointing in part to unspecified action it claims the two companies have taken in the past due to demands from the Chinese government.
Friday’s ruling came after the appeals court panel, composed of two Republicans and one Democrat appointed judges, heard oral arguments in September.
In the hearing, which lasted more than two hours, the panel appeared to grapple with how TikTok’s foreign ownership affects its rights under the Constitution and how far the government could go to curtail potential influence from abroad on a foreign-owned platform. On Friday, all three denied TikTok’s petition.
In the court’s ruling, Ginsburg, a Republican appointee, rejected TikTok’s main legal arguments against the law, including that the statute was an unlawful bill of attainder, or a taking of property in violation of the Fifth Amendment. He also said the law did not violate the First Amendment because the government is not looking to "suppress content or require a certain mix of content" on TikTok.
"Content on the platform could in principle remain unchanged after divestiture, and people in the United States would remain free to read and share as much PRC propaganda (or any other content) as they desire on TikTok or any other platform of their choosing," Ginsburg wrote, using the abbreviation for the People’s Republic of China.
Judge Sri Srinivasan, the chief judge on the court, issued a concurring opinion.
TikTok’s lawsuit was consolidated with a second legal challenge brought by several content creators — for which the company is covering legal costs — as well as a third one filed on behalf of conservative creators who work with a nonprofit called BASED Politics Inc. Other organizations, including the Knight First Amendment Institute, had also filed amicus briefs supporting TikTok.
"This is a deeply misguided ruling that reads important First Amendment precedents too narrowly and gives the government sweeping power to restrict Americans’ access to information, ideas, and media from abroad," said Jameel Jaffer, the executive director of the organization. "We hope that the appeals court’s ruling won’t be the last word."
Meanwhile,
...back at the laboratory, Igor and Oleg were discussing what the quickest way might be to deal with the monster... on Capitol Hill, politicians who had pushed for the legislation celebrated the court’s ruling.
"I am optimistic that President Trump will facilitate an American takeover of TikTok to allow its continued use in the United States and I look forward to welcoming the app in America under new ownership," said Republican Representative John Moolenaar of Michigan, chairman of the House Select Committee on China.
Democratic Representative Raja Krishnamoorthi, who co-authored the law, said "it’s time for ByteDance to accept" the law.
To assuage concerns about the company’s owners, TikTok says it has invested more than $2 billion to bolster protections around US user data.
The company has also argued the government’s broader concerns could have been resolved in a draft agreement it provided the Biden administration more than two years ago during talks between the two sides. It has blamed the government for walking away from further negotiations on the agreement, which the Justice Department argues is insufficient.
Attorneys for the two companies have claimed it’s impossible to divest the platform commercially and technologically. They also say any sale of TikTok without the coveted algorithm — the platform’s secret sauce that Chinese authorities would likely block under any divesture plan — would turn the US version of TikTok into an island disconnected from other global content.
Still, some investors, including Trump’s former treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin and billionaire Frank McCourt, have expressed interest in purchasing the platform. Both men said earlier this year that they were launching a consortium to purchase TikTok’s US business.
This week, a spokesperson for McCourt’s Project Liberty initiative, which aims to protect online privacy, said unnamed participants in their bid have made informal commitments of more than $20 billion in capital.
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] Italian police have arrested 12 neo-Nazis who are accused of plotting to assassinate prime minister Giorgia Meloni in order to spark civil war and overthrow the government, local media reports.
The 'Werewolf Division', a group which operated on Telegram, sought to establish an authoritarian regime 'centered on the Aryan race', and planned violent attacks on high-ranking officials to achieve this, according to police.
Raids took place across the country targeting the group on Wednesday, with a total of 25 homes searched and cops uncovering Nazi insignia, fascist flags and zombie knives.
Members of the group allegedly planned to shoot Meloni in the head as she left parliament, with conversations between them reportedly discussing training sessions and reconnaissance missions around Rome.
'There is a hotel in front of Parliament - is one of the intercepted conversations - from there you can shoot from above,' one of them reportedly said in the chilling correspondence. 'I'll shoot her in the head,' another said.
The suspects allegedly referred to the Brothers of Italy politician as a 'concubine of Zion,' 'a fascist until she rose to power' who 'now denies being one' and 'persecutes fascists', as well as a 'traitor'.
Anti-terror police said that the group had already been in an advanced stage of operational preparedness and were capable of carrying out attacks at the time of the raids.
Another secretive Telegram group called Movimento Nuova Alba had been set up to discuss the group's most violent projects and to train the 'warriors', with in-person meetings having taken place to discuss the plans, according to investigators.
How many of their best buddies were actually undercover government informants?
The 'division' was allegedly headed by three key figures - Daniele Trevisani, said to be the ideological leader, Andrea Ziosi, who allegedly ran communications and kept in touch with the cells located in other countries, and Salvatore Nicotra, reportedly known as 'the instructor.'
According to documents seen by La Repubblica, he is alleged to have 'had the task of enlisting and militarily training the members of the association,' whom they called 'comrades.'
They allegedly struck up relationships with jihadist groups, sharing methods and combat techniques to achieve their joint objectives of 'collapsing the system'.
The members, based across the country, allegedly fixated on heading to Rome to 'punish' Meloni, proudly stating that they were training for the attack, La Repubblica reports.
They reportedly searched for weapons on the internet and visited shooting ranges to practice firing guns.
They are also accused of recruiting minors on the internet to partake in the violence, allegedly stating that 'the troops must grow'.
'Look at my daughter who has learned to do the Roman salute' writes one of the group, attaching the photo of a newborn with her arm raised. 'Great! Aryan baby'.
They allegedly shared their racist and anti-Semitic views online, denying the Holocaust and sharing vile statements like 'a white man is worth three blacks.'
Posted by: Super Hose ||
12/09/2024 8:36 Comments ||
Top||
#2
Giorgia Meloni is consistently identified in the press as being right-wing or far right-wing, so I gotta ask: Are these 12 neo-Nazis assassins left-wing neo-Nazis or are they the more traditionally right-wing neo-Nazis? Something smells.
[DM] Donald Trump wants to get rid of 14th Amendment birthright protections as a way to crack down on the migrant crisis in the U.S.
The president-elect said there might need to be a constitutional shake-up to 'get it changed' and get rid of the amendment that says those born in the United States are U.S. citizens.
'Can you get around the 14th Amendment with an executive action?' NBC host Kristen Welker asked Trump in an interview that aired Sunday.
'Well, we're going to have to get it changed,' he said. 'We'll maybe have to go back to the people. But we have to end it.'
'We're the only country that has it, you know,' Trump added.
In his first interview since reelection, Trump said he wanted to end birthright citizenship in his first term but was waylaid when the coronavirus pandemic hit in March 2020, essentially interrupting all actions in his final year in office.
Trump wants to get rid of this provision in the Constitution to specifically target illegal immigrants who have children while released in the U.S. without documentation or citizenship.
The way this could happen is by Trump proclaiming the new policy and then ordering agencies to cease issuing citizenship confirming documents – such as Social Security cards and passports – to children born in the U.S. to undocumented parents.
#1
The intent of the 14th Amendment as to citizenship was to deny the states the ability to classify freed slaves as non-citizens. That task has been accomplished. Stick to originalism.
#2
It would have to be done by Constitutional Amendment, even if the current interpretation was not the original intent it has not been successfully challenged in 150 years. Honestly, it OUGHT to be an Amendment.
[IsraelTimes] President-Elect Donald Trump announced Sunday that his personal lawyer, Alina Habba, will serve as counselor to the president in his upcoming second term.
Trump says in a Truth Social post that Habba has shown “unwavering loyalty” as part of Trump’s legal team across several criminal and civil trials, and calls her a “tireless advocate for justice.”
Habba has served as legal spokesperson for Trump and a senior advisor for his Super PAC, MAGA, Inc. since 2021.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
...Never got invited to a P.Diddy party...
...46th president of the U.S. Old, boring, a plagiarist, fond of hair sniffing and grabbing the protruding parts of women, and not whatcha call 
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] Italian police have arrested 12 
