Cyclone...

Following a White House briefing Tuesday morning regarding reports that Russia offered bounties to the Taliban to kill U.S. military personnel, House Democrats renewed their call for an all-Member briefing from the intelligence community – “so we’d have direct evidence and discussion from intelligence community into how credible they assess the information.” 

Operation Cyclone [Wikipedia] was the code name for the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) program to arm and finance the mujahedeen (jihadists) in Afghanistan from 1979 to 1989, prior to and during the military intervention by the USSR in support of its client, the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan. 

The mujahedeen were also supported by Britain's MI6, who conducted separate covert actions. 

If this happened or didn't you can't look at one and ignore the other.

Run...

The NYPD was tight lipped about the mayor’s protection, but when he’s in New York City, like that day in May when threw his hat into the presidential ring, he normally travels with eight to 10 officers. Five or six usually go with him out of town, and when first lady goes along she has her own security detail.

And while de Blasio 2020 paid for hizzoner’s trip, taxpayers paid for the cops. Estimates by The City, a digital news service, put the cost for travel expenses for de Blasio’s NYPD bodyguards since announcing his presidential run, before the blackout, at over $100,000.

A Freedom of Information request was filed with the NYPD, seeking all security costs associated with the campaign hotels, meals, cars logistics and overtime because the city taxpayers shouldn't be on the hook for costs associated with the mayor’s monumentally unpopular campaign.

As the mayor said, there are plenty of money.... in the wrong hand.

Keep Moving...

 A couple brandished an AR-15 and a handgun at protesters marching past their mansion in an upscale St. Louis neighborhood.

The protesters were en route to Mayor Lyda Krewson's home to demand her resignation. 

They had broken their way into the gated community where the McCloskeys live.  

The couple stated they were on their property when they heard a loud commotion coming from the street. When the victims went to investigate the commotion, they observed a large group of subjects forcefully break an iron gate marked with “No Trespassing” and “Private Street” signs,' police said. 

'Once through the gate, the victims advised the group that they were on a private street and trespassing and told them to leave. The group began yelling obscenities and threats of harm to both victims.

Where was the police?

Scrapped...

16-year-old is dead and a 14-year-old is in critical condition in the latest of a series of shootings inside Seattle’s self-proclaimed police-free zone, known as the Capitol Hill Organized Protest (Chop).

Initially home to hundreds of protesters, in the last 10 days, four other people were shot in the area, including a 19-year-old man who was killed. The violence has left some officials seriously questioning the safety of the encampment and looking to take steps to dismantle it.

Officers said in a police blog that at about 3am on Monday, a white Jeep Cherokee SUV was reported near a Chop concrete barrier that surrounds the protest area. Several unidentified people then fired shots into the vehicle.

The message of defunding the police is being scrapped as we speak. Just a thought.

Note...

Strike down...

Chief Justice John Roberts sided with the liberal justices on the Supreme Court on Monday to block a controversial Louisiana abortion law that critics said would have closed nearly every clinic in the state.

The 5-4 ruling is a win for supporters of abortion rights who argued that the law was not medically necessary and amounted to a veiled attempt to restrict abortion. The law barred doctors from performing the procedure unless they had admitting privileges at a nearby hospital.

The majority opinion was penned by Justice Stephen Breyer, who wrote that the majority "consequently hold that the Louisiana statute is unconstitutional."

Breyer added later: "The evidence also shows that opposition to abortion played a significant role in some hospitals' decisions to deny admitting privileges."

The ruling continues a trend of Roberts siding with liberals in major cases.  

Sway...

Much of the election’s impact on the stock market will depend on whether the Republicans retain control of the Senate as Democrats would then be less likely to enact major economic changes.

Some finance executives and analysts are warning that if the Democrats sweep the White House and the Senate in November, increased regulation and higher taxes would be bad for businesses and could negatively impact the stock market.

“If it looks like the Senate stays Republican than there’s less to worry about in terms of policy changes,” Liz Ann Sonders, chief investment strategist for Charles Schwab, told CNBC.

So it is a sway process. Tax or no tax.

Syphoning...

Several Minneapolis City Council members who have received death threats following their calls to defund the police have been assigned private security details -- reportedly costing the city $4,500 a day in taxpayer dollars.

The city has spent $63,000 on private security over the last three weeks.

On the other hand the NYPD was tight lipped about the mayor’s protection, when the mayor threw his hat into the presidential ring, he normally travels with eight to 10 officers. Five or six usually go with him out of town, and when first lady Chirlane McCray goes along she has her own security detail.

Syphoning the tax payer's money. Just a thought.

Whada...

While former Vice President Joe Biden has been limited in his campaign efforts, the presumptive Democratic nominee has continued to hold virtual town halls.

Here's a look at several incorrect and misleading claims Biden has made during these events and interviews over the past several weeks.   

*The jobs report showed that Hispanic unemployment decreased, not increased as Biden Claimed.

*After Biden claimed endorsement, the organization issued a statement "to clarify that the NAACP is a non-partisan organization and does not endorse candidates for political office at any level."

Millions...

“People don’t have a job, people don’t know where to go, they don’t know what to do,” Biden said Thursday. “Now we have over 120 million dead from COVID.”

As of Thursday, there have been more than 122,000 – not million -- coronavirus deaths in the United States, according to Johns Hopkins figures.  Biden appears to immediately catch himself after his gaffe -- the pool video of Biden’s comments cuts off after he made the remark.

Comments: Biden just want to talk. He made his own stats and own facts right or wrong. He can't say what he is going to do since he didn't do it before. Moreover, he is not all up there. Just a thought

Keep...

Birds...

Sigh...

PEWooooo...

A new Pew Research Center analysis of data on official reports of COVID-19 deaths, collected by the Johns Hopkins University  finds that, nearly a quarter of all the deaths in the United States attributed to the coronavirus have been in just 12 congressional districts – all located in New York City and represented by Democrats in Congress.

Of the more than 92,000 Americans who had died of COVID-19 as of May 20 , nearly 75,000 were in Democratic congressional districts.

Of the 44 hardest-hit congressional districts – the top 10% in terms of deaths – 41 are represented by Democrats, while three are represented by Republicans. These include the New York-area districts, as well as those in the Boston, Detroit and New Orleans metropolitan areas. The average death toll in each of these hardest-hit districts was 1,122 as of May 20.

The next 100 hardest-hit districts, which represent the remainder of the top third of districts, with an average of 270 deaths, also are disproportionately represented by Democrats: 75 are represented by Democrats, 25 by Republicans.

Best wishes to the blue States. You want more money/taxes .... Just a thought.

Flynn...

A federal appeals court ordered Judge Emmet Sullivan to dismiss the case against former Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn.

Despite Flynn twice pleading guilty for lying to the FBI about his conversations with then-Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak during the presidential transition, the Justice Department moved last month to dismiss the case against him.

The ruling exonerates Flynn after he sought to change his plea and claimed innocence.

The three-judge panel on the DC Circuit Court of Appeals decided the trial judge, Sullivan, didn't have enough reason to question the DOJ's prosecution decisions in this case. They also said Sullivan having a third-party attorney weigh in on Flynn's case, the former judge John Gleeson, isn't needed anymore.

Sullivan "fails to justify the district court's unprecedented intrusions on individual liberty and the Executive's charging authority," DC appeals court Judge Neomi Rao, wrote in the majority opinion.

Always...

The de facto leader of the autonomous protest zone in Seattle said Wednesday "a lot of people have already" left the area, days after the mayor said she was going to persuade people to leave.

A statement from a Twitter account that claims to be associated with the protest zone -- known as the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone (CHAZ), or Capitol Hill Organized Protest -- said that "few people remain in our beloved CHOP."

The statement, signed by "The Capitol Hill Occupied Protest Solidarity Committee," added that "the CHOP project is now concluded."

They always leave.  Just a thought.

False...

The Supreme Court ruled for the  administration in a key immigration case, determining that a federal law limiting an asylum applicant’s ability to appeal a determination that he lacked a credible fear of persecution from his home country does not violate the Constitution.

The ruling means the administration can deport some people seeking asylum without allowing them to make their case to a federal judge. The 7-2 ruling applies to those who fail their initial asylum screenings, making them eligible for quick deportation.

Vijayakumar Thuraissigiam, a Sri Lankan national, had crossed the southern U.S. border without documentation in January 2017, was apprehended within 25 yards of the border, and detained for expedited removal. 

According to court documents, he said he was afraid of returning to Sri Lanka because he had once been abducted and beaten by a group of men, but did not know who they were or why they attacked him. At the time, he said that he did not fear persecution due to his political beliefs, race, or any other protected characteristics.

Sell...

I want to sell, believe me

Selling...

Claim...

No one can claim to 'not be racist' because there is no middle ground between being a racist or an anti-racist.

Hating white people becomes, in the end, hating black people.  Black people can be racist as well. You've heard of the argument that people of color can't be racist because they don't have institutional power. But this isn't about institutional racism alone, its about human interaction as well.

As the United States grows, there are more races than any other country. Who has more power than who?

Racism is a two way street, back and forth, regardless of who has power over whos. We just focused on one direction.

Iowa...

Ab-Normal...

NYC must do some thing about the ab-normal transportation system. It is about the quality of life for those the politicians describe as low income population who are exposed and devastated the most by the Covid 19.

So to all the politicians calling themselves progressive, here it is. Progress on this. In addition, millions are waiting for the hand outs of the churches, etc for free food, what's up with that?

It is easy to blame others, like the Trump administration, the Federal gov., the police, the institutional racism, the virus, and the nursing homes...

You are very progressive in doing that. Skip money collection and taxing the people. Just help them.

Lost...

Democrats are worried their party unity is fraying five months out from the presidential election as several contested primaries pitting progressives against mainstream Democrats go down to the wire.

Some Democrats have begun pointing the finger at Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), saying he's been consumed with down ballot elections at the expense of promoting Biden's bid for the White House.

The Democrats, who are not affiliated with the Biden campaign, say Sanders needs to do more to make sure progressives fall in line behind Joe Biden in November. 

While they concede Sanders has done more to help Biden than he did in the 2016 race for then-Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, they still say Sanders needs to use his influence with his supporters to ensure they turn out, as well as donate to Biden's campaign. 

Warmonger...

Fanatics...

Wishes...

The chairman of the House Judiciary Committee says he believes Attorney General William Barr should be impeached, but conceded that any such effort would be futile in the Republican-controlled Senate.

Nadler called the Senate "corrupt" for its decision to acquit the president earlier this year on two articles of impeachment.

His comments followed the firing of Geoffrey Berman, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York. Under Berman's watch, the SDNY oversaw the prosecution of Trump's former personal attorney, Michael Cohen, and brought the grand jury indictment against two associates of the president's current personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani.

Nadler said the Senate is corrupt and some say the Democrats are corrupt. So which is it?

Father...

Chop...

The head of Seattle's police union lamented the lack of "leadership" in the city Saturday after reports emerged that an early morning shooting in the so-called 'CHOP' left one person dead and another in critical condition.

"On June 20th, at approximately 2:30 AM, East Precinct officers responded to a report of shots fired in Cal Anderson Park," a statement on the blotter said.

"This is inside the area referred to as the Capitol Hill Organized Protest (CHOP). Officers attempted to locate a shooting victim but were met by a violent crowd that prevented officers safe access to the victims. Officers were later informed that the victims, both males, had been transported to Harborview Medical Center by CHOP medics.

"Officers responded to Harborview and were informed that one of the victims, a 19-year-old male, had died from injuries. The other victim, also a male, unknown age, remains in the hospital with life-threatening injuries."

Well, did these folks achieved life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness?