US, Other Nations Challenge Russia’s Claim That Toxic Gas Came From Rebel Weapons Facility

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Amid a barrage of international criticism directed at its Syrian ally, Russia argued Wednesday that those killed by a toxic agent in Syria’s Idlib province were the victims not of chemical-laced bombs dropped by the regime’s planes, but of chemicals released when the air force bombed a rebel storage facility.

The suggestion was challenged during an “emergency meeting” of the U.N. Security Council, where Western nations laid the responsibility for the attack at the door of the Assad regime.

The U.N. high representative for disarmament affairs, Kim Won-Soo, told the council that the attack in Khan Sheikhun on Tuesday had reportedly taken the form of an airstrike on a residential area, although he said the means of delivery could not be confirmed, and noted that the Syrian government has denied responsibility.

The World Health Organization (WHO) says at least 70 people were killed and hundreds more were affected.

“Doctors in Idlib are reporting that dozens of patients suffering from breathing difficulties and suffocation have been admitted to hospitals in the governorate for urgent medical attention, many of them women and children,” it said in a statement that reiterated that “the use of chemical weapons is a war crime.” (Read more from “US, Other Nations Challenge Russia’s Claim That Toxic Gas Came From Rebel Weapons Facility” HERE)

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Bannon Wants a War on Washington. Now He’s Part of One Inside the White House.

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By Ashley Parker, Robert Costa and Abby Phillip. Stephen K. Bannon — the combative architect of the nationalistic strategy that delivered President Trump to the White House — now finds himself losing ground in an internecine battle within the West Wing that pits the “Bannonites” against a growing and powerful faction of centrist financiers led by the president’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner.

Less than 100 days into Trump’s chaotic presidency, the White House is splintering over policy issues ranging from taxes to trade. The daily tumult has created an atmosphere of tension and panic around the president, leaving aides fearing for their jobs and cleaving former allies into rivals sniping at one another in the media.

The infighting spilled into full view this week after Trump removed Bannon from the National Security Council’s “principals committee,” a reshuffling that left the president’s chief strategist less fully involved in the administration’s daily national security policy while further empowering Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster, Trump’s new national security adviser. (Read more from “Bannon Wants a War on Washington. Now He’s Part of One Inside the White House.” HERE)

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Pence: Bannon’s Removal From National Security Council Part of ‘Routine Evolution’ of National Security Team

By Melanie Arter. Vice President Mike Pence, in an interview with Fox News’s “The First 100 Days,” said Wednesday that White House chief strategist Steve Bannon’s removal from the National Security Council “represents a very routine evolution of the national security team around the president.”

“With H.R. McMaster as our national security adviser, I think the president’s action, adding the chairman of the Joint Chiefs, adding the director of national intelligence, and moving a couple of our senior personnel off the National Security Council just simply represents a very routine evolution of the National Security team around the president,” Pence told Fox News’ Martha MacCallum.

Bannon was part of the Principals Committee, “a group of high-ranking officials who meet to discuss pressing important national security priorities,” the Associated Press reported.

Tom Bossert, assistant to the president for homeland security and counterterrorism, “also had his role downgraded as part of the changes,” according to the AP.

Pence said the move is not a demotion for Bannon. (Read more from “Pence: Bannon’s Removal From National Security Council Part of ‘Routine Evolution’ of National Security Team” HERE)

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North Korea Vows ‘Most Ruthless Blow’ on United States

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North Korea is ready to deliver the “most ruthless blow” if provoked by the United States, its ambassador to Moscow said overnight, after US President Donald Trump pledged to keep building up defences against Pyongyang.

“Our army has already said that if there will be even the smallest provocation from the United States during exercises, we are ready to deliver the most ruthless blow,” Interfax news agency quoted ambassador Kim Hyong-Jun as saying . . .

Mr Trump on Wednesday pledged to Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe that the US would “continue to strengthen its ability to deter and defend itself and its allies with the full range of its military capabilities,” a day after Pyongyang fired a ballistic missile into the Sea of Japan (East Sea).

North Korea’s foreign ministry on Monday assailed Washington for its tough talk and for an ongoing joint military exercise with South Korea and Japan which Pyongyang sees as a dress rehearsal for invasion.

The “reckless actions” are driving the tense situation on the Korean peninsula “to the brink of a war”, a ministry spokesman was quoted as saying by the official KCNA news agency. (Read more from “North Korea Vows ‘Most Ruthless Blow’ on United States” HERE)

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Pentagon Plans Next Major Missile Intercept Test for Late May

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The Pentagon has tentatively scheduled for late May the next intercept test of its $36 billion ground-based missile defense system — the first in nearly three years, according to a spokesman.

With North Korea ramping up its ballistic missile development and President Donald Trump vowing to rein in Kim Jong-un’s regime, the success of missile defense efforts has taken on heightened importance in Washington. The head of the U.S. Strategic Command, Air Force General John Hyten, told a Senate panel this week that “although North Korea is not an existential threat,” it’s “the most dangerous and unpredictable actor in the Pacific region.”

While confirming the May target, the next missile defense test remains contingent on the availability of testing resources, Missile Defense Agency spokesman Christopher Johnson said via email. Interceptors are located at Fort Greely in Alaska and Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. The system is managed by Boeing Co.

North Korea’s weapons program is expected to be a major subject of talks between Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping in Florida starting Thursday. The U.S. president has said Beijing can do more to rein in North Korea. Beijing, in turn, has protested an Obama administration decision to deploy an Army missile system called Thaad in South Korea designed to intercept short and medium-range systems. (Read more from “Pentagon Plans Next Major Missile Intercept Test for Late May” HERE)

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Ben Carson Finds $500 Billion (Billion!) in Errors During Audit of Obama HUD

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. . .President Trump picked Carson to head the Department of Housing and Urban Development, whose budget grew by leaps and bounds under Barack Obama.

In one of his first acts as HUD Secretary, Carson ordered an audit of the agency. What he found was staggering: $520 billion in bookkeeping errors . . .

But there were plenty of other problems, too.

There were several other unresolved audit matters, which restricted our ability to obtain sufficient, appropriate evidence to express an opinion. These unresolved audit matters relate to (1) the Office of General Counsel’s refusal to sign the management representation letter, (2) HUD’s improper use of cumulative and first-in, first-out budgetary accounting methods of disbursing community planning and development program funds, (3) the $4.2 billion in nonpooled loan assets from Ginnie Mae’s stand-alone financial statements that we could not audit due to inadequate support, (4) the improper accounting for certain HUD assets and liabilities, and (5) material differences between HUD’s subledger and general ledger accounts. This audit report contains 11 material weaknesses, 7 significant deficiencies, and 5 instances of noncompliance with applicable laws and regulations.

(Read more from “Ben Carson Finds $500 Billion (Billion!) in Errors During Audit of Obama HUD” HERE)

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This Is Apparently What Drove Devin Nunes to Finally Step Aside From the Trump-Russia Probe

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House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes has temporarily stepped aside from the committee’s probe into Russia’s interference in the US election and whether President Donald Trump’s campaign was involved.

His announcement comes as he has become the subject of an ethics investigation.

Nunes has come under intense scrutiny after his decision last month to bypass the rest of his committee and brief Trump on classified executive-branch documents he said showed that members of Trump’s transition team had been swept up in government surveillance.

Nunes repeatedly had said he did not intend to step aside, but there have been questions about his ability to lead an independent investigation. Reports have said he obtained the documents from White House officials, despite his claims to the contrary.

But in a statement on Thursday, Nunes said he would allow Rep. Mike Conaway to lead the investigation while he waited for the House Ethics Committee to look into complaints filed against him by what he said were “several left-wing activist groups.” (Read more from “This Is Apparently What Drove Devin Nunes to Finally Step Aside From the Trump-Russia Probe” HERE)

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US Launches Dozens of Cruise Missiles After (Some Contend) Apparent False Flag Chemical Attack in Syria

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So somebody please tell us what possible purpose there was to Assad launching a small scale chemical attack that had no apparent tactical advantage on the battlefield? What purpose would something of this nature serve, especially given the brutal conventional force already being applied against the rebels?

Notably, there’s no direct proof that Assad committed the heinous attack.

Joe Miller, publisher of Restoring Liberty, was a certified NBC (nuclear, biological, chemical) officer while in the U.S. Army and had this to say about the videos of what has been described as a sarin gas attack: “Sarin gas is an incredibly toxic nerve agent which can kill a human with a single drop. Contact with the agent is almost immediately debilitating. The videos of the attack reflected numerous victims being treated by responders with minimal to no protective gear. The fact that the responders were seemingly unaffected by contact with clothing and skin contaminated with alleged sarin nerve agent has not been explained.”

No matter the truth of what happened, so much for Trump’s anti-Neocon positions that he campaigned on. And so much for congressional approval.

Some are contending this is part of the globalists’ intent to start World War III, to ultimately remove Russia as an international player. They are furious over Russia’s involvement in the Syrian civil war. Given that Russia is still a nuclear power, it’s apparent that they have little concern for the People. Perhaps depopulation is part of their insane objective.

Here’s what NBC News just reported:

The United States launched dozens of cruise missiles Thursday night at a Syrian airfield in response to what it believes was the Syrian government’s use of banned chemical weapons blamed for having killed at least 100 people on Tuesday, U.S. military officials told NBC News.

The U.S. military fired at least 50 Tomahawk missiles intended for a single target — Ash Sha’irat in Homs province in western Syria, the officials said.

That’s the airfierld from which the United States believes the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad fired the banned weapons.

Read more about the US response to this potential false flag chemical attack HERE.

Is There a Constitutional Crisis in the USA No One Is Addressing?

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Everyone is so smitten with high tech and other political correctness ‘awareness’ goings on, no one is paying attention to the fact our Constitutional Rights, especially those emphasized in the first ten amendments, aka the Bill of Rights, originally proposed and then written by James Madison, are being overlooked, denied and, basically, thrown to the winds as if they did not exist!

As I hear the drumbeats of what’s going on around the country with regard to all sorts of consumer and taxpayer issues, I think I understand how all these crises are being rolled out simultaneously so everyone thinks they are the new norm. Well, let’s think again! I say. We still have the U.S. Constitution, which is the basic law of the USA, and also we have individual state’s Constitutions which, in most cases, parrot some of the rights in the U.S. Constitution. So, what’s gone wrong, you say?

Well, there are two perfect examples in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. The first occurs in a sleepy little Borough of Pottstown. Pottstown’s ‘city fathers’ apparently enacted a biannual rental inspections policy requiring rental properties to be inspected, even against the renter’s wishes!

Question: Doesn’t that type of inspection require a warrant based upon probable cause? According to KYW 1060 radio news reports, those inspections can include moving beds, looking into closets—actions which are “off limits for government” unless there is “probable cause.”

Dorothy and Omar Rivera, who rent a home from landlord Steven Camburn, filed a lawsuit against the borough to prevent such inspection. Coincidentally, their landlord also joined in the suit! The Riveras contend such inspections are unconstitutional; they are represented by an attorney with the Virginia-based Institute for Justice.

So, which Constitutional rights are the Riveras concerned about? According to Dorothy Rivera, “I’m a private person. I’ve done nothing wrong, and I don’t want people snooping around my house.” Add to that the fact their landlord says, “Everybody deserves privacy. If there’s no real probable cause, they should not be entering a house that is occupied.”

Meagan Forbes, the plaintiffs’ attorney, says, “People should know about how intrusive these searches are.” However,

In the lawsuit, attorneys claim that Pottstown’s policy is too broad, allowing for inspectors to conduct “highly-intrusive, wall-to-wall searches for compliance with on-the-spot standards that inspectors are free to make up as they go along.”

What’s going on in Pottstown regarding rental property inspections is NOTHING compared with what’s happening to every Pennsylvania utility customer who is supplied electric, natural gas and water with more than 100,000 customers.

Customers’ appliances and usage are being monitored, collected and SOLD to third parties unknown to consumers without their knowledge and consent, nor a legal warrant to collect such personal information. Check out Onzo and what that algorithm does with smart meter data and information.

AMI Smart Meters surveil and collect information, plus interact with customers’ appliances 24/7/365 in total violation of Amendments IV, V, and XIV §2 of the U.S. Constitution, including the Pennsylvania Constitution art. 1 §1.

And the most egregious part about the AMI Smart Meter snooping without a warrant is that AMI Smart Meters and their incessant snooping are mandated ‘supposedly by law’ by an erroneous interpretation of the PA Public Utility Commission’s “belief” interpretation of HB2200/Act 129 (2008), which actually was enacted in reality as an Opt-In Smart Meter bill as publicly published of record in section 2(i) below:

HB2200 §2807(f)7(2)

(2) Electric distribution companies shall furnish smart meter technology as follows:

(i) Upon request from a customer that agrees to pay the cost of the smart meter at the time of the request.

(ii) In new building construction.

(iii) In accordance with a depreciation schedule not to exceed 15 years.

Furthermore, PA State Senator Fumo is on record in PA Senate Journal October 8, 2008 (pp. 2626-2631) stating, “In addition we did not mandate smart meters, but we made them optional.”

However, the piece de resistance is this most damning of admissions by the PA PUC’s Office of Communications’ Dave Hixson in his letter to Thomas A. McCarey dated March 22, 2017 wherein Hixson says:

As I stated in my earlier email correspondence with you, the Commission believes that it was the intent of the General Assembly to require all covered electric companies to deploy smart meters system-wide.

[CJF emphasis added. Thereby supposedly and illegally, the PA PUC made smart meters mandatory—not the state legislature!]

But that’s not all!

Every U.S. state—bar none, except those states which provide opt-outs from AMI Smart Meters—are breaking federal law! Did you know that? The federal law which individual states are violating when they mandate smart meters is Public Law 109-58, The Energy Policy Act of 2005, §1252 Smart Metering. Nothing is said about AMI smart meters being mandated! That would be unconstitutional, I contend, so that’s why “mandated” is not in the language! However, the feds offered a few ‘carrots’ i.e., grants and monetary incentives, to those utilities that would implement AMI Smart Meters. What does that tell you? Follow the money!

In essence, sleepy little Pottstown is “small potatoes” compared with the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in denying Constitutional rights to citizens.

What’s going on in your state?

Have you looked into your state’s AMI Smart Meters ‘law’; how AMI SMs are snooping on you; and that you don’t have to have them retrofitted; plus how your constitutional rights are being abrogated? (For more from the author of “Is There a Constitutional Crisis in the USA No One Is Addressing?” please click HERE)

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Yes, Change May Be Coming to America’s Tax Code, and It’s Going to Cost You MORE

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Conservatives were told they must rush through a health care bill that doesn’t repeal Obamacare or heal the insurance market because there was an imperative to move on to tax reform. But much like with health care reform, the Trump administration and congressional Republicans never offered any details or philosophy behind their tax plan. We are now seeing that, once again, these “reform” proposals are more like interceptions than touchdowns.

Our tax code, much like our regulatory burden (which costs families $15,000 per year), punishes productivity, is too redistributive, socially engineers our economy, and has too much uncertainty. Yet, rather than lead with a plan that addresses these problems, Republicans are talking about raising taxes, and worse, opening up entirely new streams of revenue that will crush economic growth, job creation, and consumer pricing. Evidently, the projection of less than two percent growth for the indefinite future is too much for these people to handle. They are gunning for zero growth!

The Washington Post reports today that the Trump White House is mulling a carbon tax and a value-added tax (VAT), which is a de facto national sales tax on consumers and businesses alike. After all, nothing screams blue collar populism like driving up the cost of all products, energy, and basic goods sold at Walmart:

Administration officials are aware how politically divisive these ideas are, but they are searching for ways find new revenue sources.

The value-added tax, which is popular in many other countries, would serve as a kind of national sales tax, one that consumers would pay when they make purchases and that businesses would pay for supplies, services and raw materials. But many economists view a VAT as a tax that disproportionately hurts lower-income workers, who typically benefit from a progressive income-tax system.

A carbon tax would target the emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouses gases in the burning of gasoline, coal and other fossil fuels. Many Democrats support the creation of a carbon tax as a way to address climate change, but they couldn’t even reach an agreement on the issue when they had control of Congress and the White House during the early years of the Obama administration.

It’s as if we are in the twilight zone. This time into the Obama administration, they were voting on a Keynesian stimulus, cap and trade, and expanding government health care (SCHIP). Some things never change.

Clearly, as the Post notes, some administration officials strongly oppose these proposals, but the concern for conservatives is that the lead players on tax issues — Steven Mnuchin, Gary Cohen, and Wilbur Ross — are all progressives. It’s hard to imagine any pro-growth tax plan emanating from that trio, and no tax plan would be worth the creation of these pernicious new revenue streams that strike at the lifeblood of our economy.

This rumor comes on the heels of months of negotiations in pursuit of yet another tax increase — the border adjustment tax (BAT) — championed by Ways and Means Chairman Kevin Brady, R-Texas. His proposal would open a new revenue stream by taxing imports and subsidizing exports. Aside from social engineering the economy, this plan would devastate consumers who rely on cheap products from retailers.

Concurrently, the president has voiced support for yet another pernicious tax hike on “carried interest.” Although proponents use demagoguery to single out evil wealthy hedge fund managers, this plan would tax the sale of ordinary private equity partnerships as full income (even though they are already paying annual income taxes on the business) instead of at the lower capital gains level. This will drive a stake through the heart of entrepreneurship and risk taking — the lifeblood of capital formation.

A carbon tax, a VAT, a BAT, and raising taxes on investors are all bad ideas. It would be one thing if Washington were planning to abolish the income tax or the corporate tax altogether. But to add another revenue stream in return for a promise of some other tax cuts, which invariably make the code even more progressive … conservatives should not waste their time on this issue.

The seminal issue of our time, unlike during the Reagan era, is debt, dependency, and socialist health care. Not only will the leviathan bankrupt our country, but it is weighing down our economy to the point that the benefits even from legitimate tax reform will be somewhat muted. If Republicans are going to insist on pursuing the worst forms of taxation to pay for undefined “tax reform,” they should focus on actually reforming entitlements and dependency so that the budget scoring of future tax plans is not a problem.

In the meantime, Republicans should pursue a simple reduction in the corporate tax rate from 35% (or as high as 38.9%) to 25% without touching any deductions or creating disruptions. This will inject an immediate pro-growth shot into the economy at a time when it badly needs a recovery. And given that corporate taxes don’t even bring in that much revenue, a simple reduction to 25% (as opposed to 15%) is very achievable. Moreover, Democrats are already on record as supporting such an idea, and this would be a great way to call their bluff.

We’ve tried taxing and subsidizing our way into prosperity and it never works. The only positive aspect to Republicans dabbling in progressive ideas is that it will finally get Democrats to hate taxes and worry about the cost of public spending. (For more from the author of “Yes, Change May Be Coming to America’s Tax Code, and It’s Going to Cost You MORE” please click HERE)

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Trump Signs off on the Pentagon Carrying out Offensive Strikes in Somalia

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President Trump has approved new kinds of operations for the U.S. military in Somalia, the Pentagon said Thursday, setting the stage for a wider American role in the war there as U.S. troops team directly with Somali soldiers in offensive operations.

The authorization, approved Wednesday, is “consistent with our approach of developing capable Somali security forces and supporting regional partners in their efforts to combat al-Shabab,” said Navy Capt. Jeff Davis, a Pentagon spokesman, referring to the al-Qaeda-linked group. U.S. troops will team with the Somali military and the African Union Mission in Somali (AMISOM), a regional peacekeeping force that operates with approval from the United Nations.

“Somali and AMISOM forces have already achieved significant success in recapturing territory from al-Shabab, and additional U.S. support will help them increase pressure on al-Shabab and reduce the risk to our partner forces when they conduct operations,” Davis said. “We stand with the international community in supporting the federal government of Somalia as it strives to improve stability and security in Somalia.” (Read more from “Trump Signs off on the Pentagon Carrying out Offensive Strikes in Somalia” HERE)

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