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Recent Appearances... Rantburg

Africa Horn
US fails to compensate victims of drone strikes in Somalia
2024-05-15
[Garowe] The Department of Defence has failed to compensate victims of dronezaps in Somalia since 2022, The Intercept reports, despite evidence of several casualties throughout the said period in a total of 288 attacks within the country.

For 17 years, the US has carried out 288 attacks in the Horn of Africa nation, with the US Africa Command only admitting 5 deaths, including Luul and Mariam, who tragically gave up the ghost following an Arclight airstrike
...KABOOM!...
in southern regions.

But despite the smaller number quoted by US Africa Command, the Airwars, a UK-based group monitoring airstrikes, at least 3,000 people have been killed in Somalia over the last two decades, with their families failing to get justice even with overwhelming evidence.

Not long ago, the Pentagon started giving quarterly reports on casualties, but in the last two years, the US Africa Command has failed to acknowledge several deaths attributed to defence airstrikes within Somalia. US Africa Command offers aerial surveillance during ground operations.

Pentagon directed the armed forces to address people and communities on the receiving end of military operations, including by "expressing condolences" and providing ex gratia payments to next of kin.

Since 2020, Congress appropriate $15 million meant for compensation of victims of airstrikes. The money is sent to families of the victims of the airstrikes; both those killed or injured. The military rarely makes compensation payments, even in cases as clear-cut as the 2018 strike in Somalia.

Last year, various lobby groups in Somalia and their international partners protested to the Pentagon, asking Defence Defence Lloyd Austin to expedite compensation of Luul and Mariam families. This year, Sen. Elizabeth Being Native American has been part of my story since the day I was born Warren
...The Great White Squaw, Lizzie is the Dem Senatrix from Massachussetts. She traces her noble lineage all the way back to Big Chief Spouting Bull. She has high cheekbones that stretch all the way to the top of her head. It has been alleged that she speaks with forked tongue but she denies that. She had a DNA test to prove her lineage and it turns out she's colorless...
, D-Mass., and Reps. Sara Jacobs, D-Calif.; Ilhan Omar
...Somali-American Dem representative from Minnesota. She was apparently married to her brother and may be her own grandmaw on her mother's side. She is a member of The Squad, and would like to make the country look a lot more like Mogadishu...
, D-Minn; Barbara Lee, D-Calif.; and Jim McGovern, D-Mass., joined the effort.

The Defense Department missed the May 1, 2024, deadline for releasing its 2023 civilian casualty report.

"The 2022 report was almost a full year late, and the 2023 report is already overdue," said Shiel. "That means we have no public visibility into whether DoD finally began making payments last year as it worked to implement the action plan, which commits the Department to improve how it responds to civilian harm."

The United States withdrew its forces from Somalia in 2021 following a presidential decree, repositioning them to neighbouring Kenya and Djibouti, but the decision would be reversed later after Somalia complained to the Department of Defence.

Since then, at least 500 soldiers have been redeployed to Somalia where they are assisting the Somali National Army (SNA) and the African Union
...a union consisting of 53 African states, most run by dictators of one flavor or another. The only all-African state not in the AU is Morocco. Established in 2002, the AU is the successor to the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), which was even less successful...
Transition Mission in Somalia (ATMIS), who are actively involved in the fight against al-Shabaab
... Somalia's version of the Taliban, functioning as an arm of al-Qaeda...
The US Africa Command is also responsible for training and equipping the elite Danab forces, who are integral units in the fight against al-Shabaab. The US Africa Command carries out air raids based on the request from the Somalia government particularly in self-defence situations.
Link


Home Front: Politix
Pelosi joins call for Biden to stop transfer of US weapons to Israel
2024-04-07
[GEO.TV] Representative Nancy San Fran Nan Pelosi
Congresswoman-for-Life from the San Francisco Bay Area, born into a family of professional politicians. On-again-off-again Speaker of the House. It's not her fault when they lose, but it's her accomplishment when they win. Noted for her heavily botoxed grimace and occasional senior... uhhh... moments...
, former House speaker and a key ally of Joe The Big Guy Biden
...46th president of the U.S. Former Senator-for-Life from Delaware, an example of the kind of top-notch Washington intellect hacked up by the World's Greatest Deliberative Body. The guy who single-handedly lost Afghanistan...
, signed a letter on Friday from dozens of congressional Democrats to the president and Secretary of State Antony Blinken, urging a halt to weapons transfers to Israel.
Paul must have investments with Hamas and Hezbollah
Support from Pelosi, a veteran member of Biden's Democratic Party, for stopping the transfer of weapons to Israel showed that the view is increasingly becoming mainstream in the party.

Friday's letter called on the Biden administration, the guys that caused the debacle in Afghanistan
...the pack of self-imagined masterminds of strategy and intrigue at the service of the Biden Crime Family and a grateful nation...
to conduct its own probe into an Israeli Arclight airstrike
...KABOOM!...
that killed seven staff of the aid group World Central Kitchen on Monday.

"In light of the recent strike against aid workers and the ever-worsening humanitarian crisis, we believe it is unjustifiable to approve these weapons transfers," the letter said. It was signed by Pelosi and 36 other Democrats including Representatives Barbara Lee, Rashida Tlaib and Alexandria Sandy Ocasio-Cortez
Dem Congressgirl from da Bronx in Noo Yawk and leader of the Mean Girl Caucus in Congress. One of the Great Minds of the 21st Century, she is known as much for her innaleck as for her dance moves. She is all in favor of socialism, even though she's fuzzy on the details. She was the inventor of the Green New Deal, though she doesn't talk about it much anymore...

Link


Government Corruption
Communist US lawmakers went on a SECRET trip to Communist Cuba
2024-03-01
[NYP] Progressive Reps. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) and Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) traveled to Cuba last week — a secret trip that has outraged several Republican lawmakers.

Jayapal, the chairwoman of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, and Omar, the deputy chairwoman, led a delegation of about a dozen people to the communist island, according to the Miami Herald.

A staffer from Rep. Barbara Lee’s (D-Calif.) office was also among those on the trip, according to the outlet, which notes that the travel was not disclosed by the liberal lawmakers beforehand or reported on in Cuban state media.

"Representatives Jayapal and Omar traveled to Cuba last week, where they met with people from across Cuban civil society and government officials to discuss human rights and the U.S.-Cuba bilateral relationship," a spokesperson for the progressive caucus told the Miami Herald.

The mysterious trip, which took place during a week when the House was in recess, also overlapped with a visit to Havana by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, who traveled to the island as part of a Latin American tour that included stops in Venezuela and Brazil.

READ AND DESTROY - OADR
Related:
Pramila Jayapal: 2023-07-19 Visit of Israel's President Isaac Herzog to Washington, D.C. an opportunity to expose the Jew-hatred among Democrats in Congress
Pramila Jayapal: 2023-07-19 US House overwhelmingly passes GOP resolution backing Israel meant to rebuke Dems
Pramila Jayapal: 2023-07-18 US House’s top progressive walks back claim Israel is a ‘racist state’ amid uproar
Related:
Ilhan Omar: 2024-02-22 Nayib Bukele Drops the Hammer on BBC Reporter
Ilhan Omar: 2024-02-21 Death of aviation worker sparks row in Somalia
Ilhan Omar: 2024-02-19 Unknown persons tried to divert the El Al airliner from its route over Somalia
Related:
Cuba: 2024-02-26 30 Al-Shabaab Militants Killed in Joint Operation in Middle Juba
Cuba: 2024-02-23 Russia doesn't need a diplomatic buffet
Cuba: 2024-02-19 Cuban doctors held hostage by Al-Shabaab killed in Somalia airstrike
Related:
Congressional Progressive Caucus: 2023-07-19 US House overwhelmingly passes GOP resolution backing Israel meant to rebuke Dems
Congressional Progressive Caucus: 2023-07-18 US House’s top progressive walks back claim Israel is a ‘racist state’ amid uproar
Congressional Progressive Caucus: 2023-02-11 162 Democrats Vote to Allow Illegal Aliens to Vote in D.C.'s Local Elections
Link


Home Front: WoT
Palestinian protesters disrupt Katie Porter, Adam Schiff at California Democratic convention, evening events cancelled for ‘safety’
2023-11-20
[WASHINGTONEXAMINER] Reps. Katie Bat Girl Porter
...Dem law professor, attorney and politician serving as the U.S. Representative for Caliphornia, an impregnable bastion of the Democratic Party,'s 45th congressional district (Orange County) since 2019. Katie takes her job and her personal dignity so seriously she once showed up for a committee hearing dressed as Batman....
and Adam Schiff
...Showboating U.S. Representative for California's 28th congressional district since 2013. A member of the Democratic Party, Schiff has served in Congress since 2001. He currently serves as the chairman of the United States House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. In a manner reminiscent of Joe McCarthy, on March 22, 2017, in a interview with Chuck Todd on MSNBC Schiff claimed there was “more than circumstantial evidence now” that Donald Trump's campaign colluded with Russia." Todd followed up by asking if he had seen direct evidence of collusion and Schiff responded that there was "evidence that is not circumstantial and is very much worthy of investigation"...
(D-CA) were interrupted by pro-Paleostinian protesters during their pitches to California Democrats at the state party's endorsing convention.

"Ceasefire now!" the demonstrators repeatedly shouted Saturday in Sacramento, California, during Porter and Schiff's closing statements for the convention's candidate forum.

"I respect your opinions, and I have heard you," Porter said, whose protest was more protracted than that of Schiff. "I'm going to ask you to allow me to please finish my remarks."

After the demonstrators dismissed her and the two forum moderators' appeals to be respectful, California Democratic Party
...every time you hear the phrase white people, white supremacy, white anything but paint, you're listening to a Democrat. Ask him/her/it to reimagine something for you; they do that a lot, though not well. They can hear a dog whistle a mile or two away. They invented the spoils system and Tammany Hall, and inspired the addition of the word (Thomas) Nasty to the English language. They want to stop continental drift and repeal the law of unintended side effects...
Chairman Rusty Hicks joined Porter onstage, telling the protesters, "every candidate in this race deserves to be heard."

"Every candidate in this race deserves to be heard, so let's allow the congresswoman to finish her remarks," he said.

Hicks returned to the stage during Schiff's demonstration, saying "here" he was "again."

"Give every candidate the opportunity to be heard before we go and make our voice heard at the ballot box," he said.

Outside the convention hall, protesters held a sit-in near one of the doors. At some points, their chants made it hard to hear the candidates speak, except for Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA), who has called for a ceasefire amid Israel's war against Hamas
...a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth",...
. Porter and Lee are considered to be more liberal Democrats than Schiff, with Porter's share of the vote at risk over the conflict.

"What do we want?" one demonstrator said.

"A ceasefire," the group replied.

"If we don't get it?" the leader added.

"Shut it down," others responded.

California Democrats cancel events for ‘safety’ amid pro-Palestinian demonstrations

[IsraelTimes] Demonstrators demanding a cease-fire in the Israel-Hamas war prompt California Democratic Party officials to cancel evening events during their state convention “for the safety and security of our delegates.”

California Democrats have been meeting in Sacramento this weekend to consider candidate endorsements ahead of the March primary. That includes the state’s competitive US Senate race featuring four Democrats, including three sitting US House members.

The convention was disrupted multiple times Saturday afternoon by pro-Palestinian demonstrators demanding a cease-fire in Gaza. Party officials had increased security for the weekend convention, requiring participants to be scanned and have their bags searched before entering the convention hall.

Following the afternoon session, a large crowd of demonstrators gathered at the hall. Sacramento police closed some roads near the convention center but soon reopened them.

Shortly after voting ended party endorsements, Democratic Party spokesperson Shery Yang said the evening’s events had been canceled.

“Due to circumstances beyond our control, and for the safety and security of our delegates and convention participants, we are cancelling tonight’s caucus meetings, hospitality suites and VoteFest taking place at the convention center,” Yang says.
Related:
Katie Bat Girl Porter: 2023-04-18 Dem Rep. Porter: 'Congress Absolutely Can and Should Police the Supreme Court'
Katie Bat Girl Porter: 2023-04-14 Rep. Katie Porter scalded ex-husband's scalp with potatoes: documents
Katie Bat Girl Porter: 2023-01-27 Rep. Adam Schiff launches Senate bid to replace Dianne Feinstein
Related:
Adam Schiff: 2023-11-14 Marjorie Taylor Greene Slams Eight Republicans for Joining Democrats in Killing Her Articles of Impeachment Against Mayorkas (VIDEO)
Adam Schiff: 2023-11-03 Mortgage Sinanigans
Adam Schiff: 2023-10-02 Multi-sources report Newsom picks Laphonza Butler to replace Feinstein in Senate
Link


Government Corruption
Mortgage Sinanigans
2023-11-03
[MSN] For more than 10 years, Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) has filed mortgage forms listing his primary residence as a home in Maryland despite saying in campaign materials from 2010-2014 that he is raising his family in Burbank, California, according to a CNN report. Schiff has been earning tax exemptions worth $7,000 for a small condo in Burbank that he has also claimed is his primary residence, CNN reported. The network analyzed Schiff’s social media posts and records, concluding that he lives full-time in Maryland. The arrangement could "present a political problem" for Schiff as he runs for Dianne Feinstein’s California Senate seat against Democratic Reps. Barbara Lee and Katie Porter, CNN reported. But Marisol Samayoa, a spokesperson for Schiff’s campaign, maintained that his primary residence was in California but, as Schiff has publicly said in the past, "He and Eve made the difficult decision to move their family to the D.C. area to spend more time with his children while doing his job." Samayoa also told CNN that Schiff stated both homes as primary residences for "loan purposes" and "to distinguish them from a vacation property."
Related:
Adam Schiff: 2023-10-02 Multi-sources report Newsom picks Laphonza Butler to replace Feinstein in Senate
Adam Schiff: 2023-09-26 Busted! Adam Schiff Funneled Millions To Defense Contractors After Taking Donations
Adam Schiff: 2023-09-21 Merrick Garland says 'I don't know' when asked how many FBI informants were at January 6 - after former assistant director's bombshell claim bureau had MULTIPLE confidential sources involved in the Capitol Riot
Link


Home Front: Politix
Multi-sources report Newsom picks Laphonza Butler to replace Feinstein in Senate
2023-10-02
[WashingtonExaminer] Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) has selected political strategist Laphonza Butler to replace the late Sen. Dianne Feinstein in the Senate, according to multiple sources.

Butler is the president of EMILY's List, the self-described "nation's largest resource dedicated to electing Democratic pro-choice women to office," and a longtime labor leader in the Golden State. Newsom's decision passes over Reps. Adam Schiff (D-CA), Barbara Lee (D-CA), and Katie Porter (D-CA), the favorites to win Feinstein's seat during next year's election.

Feinstein's term was slated to end in 2024, and Newsom had long implied he was only searching for an interim replacement. However, Newsom's office confirmed to the Washington Examiner on Sunday that there will not be a "precondition" that this replacement is in the Senate only temporarily, setting Butler to potentially be a roadblock in the way of Schiff, Lee, and Porter's election prospects.

Feinstein died on Friday at the age of 90. Butler reacted to the news on X, formerly known as Twitter.

Likely "selected" months, possibly years ago. A perfect Washington fit.

Wiki - Butler is a lesbian.[16] She and her partner, Neneki Lee, have a daughter. They live in Maryland.
Related:
Dianne Feinstein: 2023-10-01 China's Doll Departs
Dianne Feinstein: 2023-09-30 Good Morning
Dianne Feinstein: 2023-09-30 Dianne Feinstein leaves stunning properties to her and billionaire husband's feuding daughters
Related:
EMILY''s List: 2022-01-22 Why the Loss of Donors for Kyrsten Sinema is So Ironic
EMILY''s List: 2020-05-27 Pro-Abortion Group Joins Liberal Effort to Meddle in GOP Primary
EMILY''s List: 2020-03-31 Woman Who Ingested Fish Tank Cleaner Is Prolific Donor to Democratic Causes
Link


Home Front: Politix
Democrats Denied Election Results 150+ Times Before Trump Was Indicted for Challenging Election
2023-08-17
[Breitbart] Although a Georgia grand jury indicted former President Donald Trump on Monday for challenging the 2020 election result, Democrats have refused to accept the results of elections they lost for decades.

As Breitbart News reported, more than 150 examples show Democrats denying election results, including President Joe Biden; two-time failed presidential candidate Hillary Clinton; House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY); Reps. Barbara Lee (D-CA), Maxine Waters (D-CA), and Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX); and failed Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams.

In fact, every single Democrat president since 1977 has questioned the legitimacy of U.S. elections, according to the Republican National Committee. In both 2013 and 2016, Biden claimed that Al Gore won the 2000 presidential election. In May 2019, Biden said he “absolutely agrees” that Trump was an “illegitimate president.” Biden cast doubt on the legitimacy of the 2022 midterms this year.

In 2006, then-DNC Chairman Howard Dean stated that he was “not confident that the [2004] election in Ohio was fairly decided.” Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) said it is “appropriate” to have a debate concerning the 2004 election and claimed that there were “legitimate concerns” regarding the “integrity” of U.S. elections. Then-Rep. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) cast doubt on the security of electronic voting machines in the 2004 election, saying he was “worried” that some machines do not have a paper trail.

Democrats also cast doubt on the 2016 election. Seven House Democrats tried to object to the 2016 election electoral votes. After President Trump’s victory in 2016, 67 Democrats boycotted his inauguration, with some claiming Trump’s victory was not legitimate.

In September 2017, Hillary Clinton said she would not “rule out” questioning the legitimacy of the 2016 election. In October 2020, she added that the 2016 presidential election was not conducted legitimately, saying, “We still don’t really know what happened.”

In addition, Democrats supported Stacey Abrams in her stolen election claims. Hillary Clinton said Stacey Abrams “would have won” Georgia’s gubernatorial race “if she had a fair election” and that Stacey Abrams “should be governor” but was “deprived of the votes [she] otherwise would have gotten.”

Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) said, “I think that Stacey Abrams’s election is being stolen from her.” Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) contended that “if Stacey Abrams doesn’t win in Georgia, they stole it.” Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) said, “the evidence seems to suggest” the race was stolen from Stacey Abrams.

“We won,” Abrams falsely claimed about the 2018 election. “I didn’t lose; we got the votes,” and “we were robbed of an election.” She also called it a “stolen election” multiple times and argued, “It was not a free and fair election.”

Link


Home Front: WoT
Rep. Dan Bishop Moves To Overturn ‘War On Terror’ Authorization
2023-07-09
[DailyCaller] A bipartisan group of representatives, led by Republican North Carolina Rep. Dan Bishop, has introduced legislation to repeal the 2001 Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF) that has granted four presidents broad authority to prosecute the War on Terror.

The 2001 AUMF allows the president to wage war "against those nations, organizations, or persons he determines planned, authorized, committed, or aided the terrorist attacks that occurred on September 11, 2001, or harbored such organizations or persons." In addition to the 20-year-long war in Afghanistan, presidents have used the resolution to justify operations in Somalia, Syria, and the Philippines.

"The 2001 AUMF has served as the legal rationale for nearly every global entanglement in the nebulous ’War on Terror’ under four different Presidents. This is far beyond what the American people imagined this authority would be used for. Congress is constitutionally bound to take responsibility here — any overseas military campaign should have specific and limited authorizations, and those in favor of them should make that case. The American people are tired of forever wars and deserve to know where their representatives stand," Bishop said in a statement to the Daily Caller.

Every sitting member of Congress at the time except Democrat Caliphornia, an impregnable bastion of the Democratic Party, Rep. Barbara Lee voted in favor of the AUMF. Lee is the lead Democrat co-sponsor on Bishop’s legislation, which will be offered as an amendment to the Fiscal Year 2024 National Defense Authorization Act. Other co-sponsors include Republican Reps. Andy Biggs and Eli Crane of Arizona, Ken Buck of Colorado, and Matt Gaetz of Florida. (RELATED: Gaetz Suggests Alliance Between ’Squad’ And Populists On Anti-War Measures)

Congress has repeatedly sought to reassert its war powers in the 117th and 118th Congresses. The House voted in 2021 to repeal the 2002 AUMF that allowed the U.S. to go to war in Iraq, and the Senate followed in March. The Senate also voted to repeal the 1991 AUMF that birthed the Gulf War. Those repeals have not become law.

The House Armed Services Committee marked up the FY2024 NDAA in late June, before Congress departed for the two-week-long July 4 recess. The legislation appropriates $886 billion for the Defense Department, a 3.3% increase over 2023 levels. The House and Senate are likely headed for a showdown over the package, since Republicans in the upper chamber want to spend more money on the military.
Related:
Dan Bishop: 2023-01-05 Crenshaw Blasts Anti-McCarthy Republicans: ‘Tell Us What You Actually Want Or Shut The F*** Up'
Dan Bishop: 2022-12-23 Taxpayers feel the pain of politicians' wasteful and absurd $1.7 trillion spending plan
Dan Bishop: 2022-12-22 File Under You Have To Pass It To... Aw Hell
Related:
2001 Authorization for Use of Military Force: 2017-06-30 House panel votes to repeal war authorization for fight against ISIS and al Qaeda
2001 Authorization for Use of Military Force: 2012-05-17 Military Detention Law Blocked by New York Judge
Related:
Barbara Lee: 2023-02-15 Dianne Feinstein announces she will not seek re-election in 2024
Barbara Lee: 2023-01-27 Rep. Adam Schiff launches Senate bid to replace Dianne Feinstein
Barbara Lee: 2022-11-25 Just two House races remain undeclared, and Republicans lead in both
Related:
Andy Biggs: 2023-05-25 FBI Asst Director, 'It just doesn't add up' – that the FBI Doesn't Know Who the J6 Pipe Bomber Is
Andy Biggs: 2023-04-18 GOP-led House panel opens hearing on DA Alvin Bragg's 'pro-crime' policies
Andy Biggs: 2023-04-07 About the situation with the US government debt
Related:
Eli Crane: 2023-04-15 Hunter Biden and Associates Sought Irish Investments in 2011 Through U.S. Ambassador
Eli Crane: 2023-01-05 Crenshaw Blasts Anti-McCarthy Republicans: ‘Tell Us What You Actually Want Or Shut The F*** Up'
Eli Crane: 2021-11-13 Five Navy SEALs Running for Congress to Save America
Related:
Ken Buck: 2023-06-22 Adam Schiff censured by House
Ken Buck: 2022-08-25 Republicans: Biden Must Disclose How Much Taxpayers Are Paying for NGOs to Fly Illegal Aliens into U.S.
Ken Buck: 2022-01-24 House Republicans, Democrats Lobby Joe Biden to Cut U.S. Tariffs on China
Related:
Matt Gaetz: 2023-05-17 Matt Gaetz demands FBI agents be indicted after damning Durham report
Matt Gaetz: 2023-05-16 IRS removes ENTIRE team probing Hunter Biden's tax returns 'in retaliation against whistleblower who alleged they were covering up president's son's financial 'crimes''
Matt Gaetz: 2023-05-02 Bud Light disables comments on 'countrified' YouTube ad in wake of Dylan Mulvaney fiasco
Link


Home Front: Politix
Dianne Feinstein announces she will not seek re-election in 2024
2023-02-15
[FoxNews] California Democrat Sen. Dianne Feinstein, who has represented the Golden State in the U.S. Senate since 1992, announced Tuesday that she will not seek re-election in 2024.

"I am announcing today I will not run for reelection in 2024 but intend to accomplish as much for California as I can through the end of next year when my term ends," Feinstein said in a statement.

Feinstein, the longest-serving female senator ever, is also the oldest sitting senator at age 89.

From October to December 2022, filings from the Federal Election Commission (FEC) revealed Feinstein raised a mere $558.91.

Ahead of Feinstein's announcement, a handful of House Democrats announced they would run for her seat in the 2024 election.

Both Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., and Rep. Katie Porter, D-Calif., announced their bids for Feinstein's Senate seat last month. Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Calif., is also expected to announce later this month that she will run for the seat.

div style="background:linen;color:gray;font-size:10pt;font-family:helvetica,arial,sans;border:1px solid silver;">Related:
Dianne Feinstein: 2023-02-03 Pakistani Gitmo prisoner transferred to Belize
Dianne Feinstein: 2023-01-28 Matt Gaetz introduces bill barring Adam Schiff from receiving classified information
Dianne Feinstein: 2023-01-27 Rep. Adam Schiff launches Senate bid to replace Dianne Feinstein
Link


Home Front: Politix
Rep. Adam Schiff launches Senate bid to replace Dianne Feinstein
2023-01-27
[NYPOST] Rep. Adam Schiff
...Showboating U.S. Representative for California's 28th congressional district since 2013. A member of the Democratic Party, Schiff has served in Congress since 2001. He currently serves as the chairman of the United States House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. In a manner reminiscent of Joe McCarthy, on March 22, 2017, in a interview with Chuck Todd on MSNBC Schiff claimed there was “more than circumstantial evidence now” that Donald Trump's campaign colluded with Russia." Todd followed up by asking if he had seen direct evidence of collusion and Schiff responded that there was "evidence that is not circumstantial and is very much worthy of investigation"...
joined the crowded 2024 Senate race in Caliphornia, an impregnable bastion of the Democratic Party, on Thursday, saying Democrats "need a fighter" just days after House Speaker Kevin McCarthy
...the GOP house majority whip. He replaces Eric Cantor, who got whupped because his politix are like Kevin McCarthy's...
booted him from the House Intelligence Committee.

The polarizing 62-year-old will face fellow Reps. Katie Bat Girl Porter
...Dem law professor, attorney and politician serving as the U.S. Representative for California's 45th congressional district (Orange County) since 2019. Katie takes her job and her personal dignity so seriously she once showed up for a committee hearing dressed as Batman....
, 49, Barbara Lee, 76, and potentially incumbent Sen. Dianne Feinstein
...Dem Senator-for-Life from Caliphornica. She has been a politician since about the time she was weaned. Feinstein was the author of the 1994 Federal Assault Weapons Ban, and tried it a second time in 2012. Feinstein has chaired the Select Committee on Intelligence since 2009. At age 89.51563, Feinstein is the oldest currently serving United States Senator...
, 89, in the Democratic primary.

Schiff gained national prominence as a leading opponent of former President Donald Trump
...Oh, noze! Not him!...
— who nicknamed him "Shifty Schiff" — and was the lead impeachment manager in the 45th president’s 2020 Senate trial for pressuring Ukraine to investigate the Biden family’s business dealings.

McCarthy (R-Calif.) on Tuesday banned Schiff from the intelligence committee, which the Democrat had chaired for the past four years, for allegedly lying about the existence of evidence showing Trump conspired with Russia to win the 2016 election.
Link


Home Front: Politix
Just two House races remain undeclared, and Republicans lead in both
2022-11-25
[The Hill] Just two House races remain undeclared as of Thanksgiving Day, with Republicans leading in both races and looking to add to their majority.

Democrats were able to hold on to the Senate and keep control of a number of key House seats after the "red wave" failed to materialize on Election Day, but Republicans last week narrowly crossed the 218-seat threshold to take the House.

Now, more than two weeks after the midterms, two House races in California and Colorado are officially still up in the air — though the Democrat has conceded in Colorado. If the current GOP leads hold, Republicans will secure 222 House seats, while Democrats would hold 213.

The 222-213 breakdown would notably be the exact reverse of the results in the 2020 election cycle, when the House split in the Democrats’ favor.

In California’s 13th Congressional District, Republican John Duarte is ahead of Democratic former State Assemblyman Adam Gray by less than 600 votes, with 99 percent of the vote counted, according to The Associated Press.

The race was seen as a toss-up heading into Election Day in the recently redrawn California district.

The 13th Congressional District is currently represented by Rep. Barbara Lee (D), who decided to run in, and win, the new 12th District. Gray was endorsed by California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) and both of California’s Democratic senators, Dianne Feinstein and Alex Padilla, but the redrawn lines made a blue win uncertain.
Link


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Israel won’t let US open Jerusalem consulate, Bennett said to tell visiting Dems
2021-11-12
[IsraelTimes] PM reportedly acknowledges Biden’s campaign promise and domestic sensitivities, but says his government views reopening of mission to Paleostinians as ’unacceptable’.

Prime Minister Naftali Bennett has reportedly reiterated to visiting Democratic US Congress members that he won’t allow Washington to reopen the US consulate.

US President Joe The Big Guy Biden
...46th president of the U.S. Sleazy Dem machine politician, paterfamilias of the Biden Crime Family, the guy who bungled Afghanistan...
’s administration has said it will reopen the diplomatic mission historically responsible for Paleostinian affairs. The consulate was shuttered by then-US president Donald Trump
...His ancestors didn't own any slaves...
in 2019 and its staff was folded into the US embassy — which had been moved from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem a year earlier — in what the Paleostinians viewed as a downgrading of their ties with the US.

The mission was based on Jerusalem’s Agron Street, in West Jerusalem, and had a consular services office in East Jerusalem, which the Paleostinians claim as the capital of their future state.

Israel must accredit the consul general that the US sends to Jerusalem, according to the diplomatic protocol.

Bennett has called the planned move "unacceptable," though he acknowledged the domestic political sensitivities within the Democratic Party and Biden’s election promise to his voters, the Axios news site reported Wednesday, citing an unnamed Israeli official.

"I am not going to... try to score political points over this issue, but the government position is that reopening the consulate is unacceptable," he told the visiting congressional delegation, according to the report.

The Democratic delegation, sponsored by the dovish J Street organization, is led by Rep. Rosa DeLauro and includes representatives Mark Pocan, Barbara Lee, Melania Stansbury and Jamaal Bowman. That delegation also met Foreign Minister Yair Lapid.

Bennett also met Tuesday with a separate, bipartisan US delegation, which also met Defense Minister Benny Gantz and traveled to Ramallah to meet Paleostinian Authority Prime Minister Mohammed Shtayyeh.

"The issue of the consulate came up in each of our meetings," said the head of the delegation, Democratic Senator Chris Coons
...Dem Junior Senator from Delaware since 2010. He won a special election to succeed Ted Kaufman, who had been appointed to the seat when Joe Biden resigned to become Vice President. Previously, Coons was the county executive of New Castle County. Raised in Hockessin, Delaware, Coons was a frat boy at the Amherst College liberal mill. He received graduate degrees from Yale Divinity School and Yale Law School....
, stressing that "it is important for the United States to continue to have an open dialogue with the Paleostinian Authority."

Bennett told news hounds Saturday that "there’s no room for another American consulate in Jerusalem," clearly stating that his government would resist moves by Washington to restore the Paleostinian mission. Bennett is a hawk who opposes Paleostinian statehood.

Foreign Minister Yair Lapid said at the same news conference that Israel would have no objection to the US opening a mission in Ramallah, the PA’s seat of power.

Shtayyeh claimed Wednesday that the United States does not need Israel’s "permission" to reopen its consulate, urging Washington to honor its diplomatic pledges.

However,
a lie repeated often enough remains a lie...
a senior US State Department official recently acknowledged that Israel’s permission would be required before the United States could reopen the consulate.
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