John Kerry: Trump’s Soleimani Story a ‘Cover-Up’; Trump Authorized Soleimani’s Killing 7 Months Ago

/0 Comments/in , /by

By Breitbart. On Monday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “Hardball,” former Obama administration Secretary of State John Kerry said he believed the Trump administration’s stories about the killing of Iranian General Qasem Soleimani were a “coverup.”

Kerry said, “Obviously they’ve been all over the place , in fact, the place. and in fact the decision we now learn to go after Soleimani was made in June. We have heard all kinds of different stories imminence, about embassies, no there aren’t embassies this is a shifting story that is so shifting that I think is beginning to look like a coverup over their original choices.” (Read more from “John Kerry: Trump’s Soleimani Story a ‘Cover-Up’” HERE)

__________________________________________________

Trump Authorized Soleimani’s Killing 7 Months Ago

By NBC News. President Donald Trump authorized the killing of Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani seven months ago if Iran’s increased aggression resulted in the death of an American, according to five current and former senior administration officials.

The presidential directive in June came with the condition that Trump would have final signoff on any specific operation to kill Soleimani, officials said.

That decision explains why assassinating Soleimani was on the menu of options that the military presented to Trump two weeks ago for responding to an attack by Iranian proxies in Iraq, in which a U.S. contractor was killed and four U.S. service members were wounded, the officials said.

The timing, however, could undermine the Trump administration’s stated justification for ordering the U.S. drone strike that killed Soleimani in Baghdad on Jan. 3. Officials have said Soleimani, the leader of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ elite Quds Force, was planning imminent attacks on Americans and had to be stopped. (Read more from “Trump Authorized Soleimani’s Killing 7 Months Ago” HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE

Kansas Man Requests ‘Trial by Combat’ in Court

/0 Comments/in , /by

A Kansas man has requested that an Iowa court grant his motion for a “trial by combat” to settle a custody dispute with his ex-wife and her attorney on the battlefield.

David Ostrom, 40, of Paola, Kansas, has cited in court documents that his ex-wife, Bridgette Ostrom, 38, of Harlan, Iowa, has “destroyed (him) legally,” the Des Moines Register reported Monday.

The Carroll Times-Herald reported that Ostrom filed a request with the Iowa District Court in Shelby County to give him 12 weeks to source or forge Japanese swords used in battle. . .

Ostrom told the Register that he got the idea for the duel after he learned about a 2016 New York Supreme Court case in which New York Supreme Court Justice Philip Minardo said that duels had not been abolished under state law.

Ostrom said the motion began when he became frustrated with his ex-wife’s attorney, Matthew Hudson, saying he wanted to take the fight to “the field of battle where (he) will rend their souls from their corporal bodies.” (Read more from “Kansas Man Requests ‘Trial by Combat’ in Court” HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE

State Lawmakers Propose Bill to Legalize Prostitution

/0 Comments/in , , /by

A bill to legalize adult prostitution in Vermont was recently introduced by female lawmakers in the state’s legislature.

The bill’s text read:

This bill proposes to repeal the prostitution laws while retaining felony human trafficking laws that prohibit recruiting, enticing, harboring, transporting, providing, or obtaining a minor for the purpose of commercial sex; patronizing a minor for commercial sex; recruiting, enticing, harboring, transporting, providing, or obtaining any person through force, fraud, or coercion for the purpose of having the person engage in commercial sex; compelling any person through force, fraud, or coercion to engage in commercial sex; and patronizing any person for a commercial sex act who is being compelled through force, fraud, or coercion to engage in a commercial sex.

One of the bill’s sponsors, Rep. Selene Colburn who is a Burlington Progressive, said she believed decriminalizing so-called “sex work” would offer prostitutes more safety and improve their health.

Colburn also stated that if prostitution were not considered illegal in the state, charges would not be brought against the sex worker or the buyer, the VTDigger reported. (Read more from “State Lawmakers Propose Bill to Legalize Prostitution” HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE

Gay Student Dies in Apparent Suicide After Going Viral for Protesting Drag Queen Story Hour (VIDEO)

/0 Comments/in , /by

A gay man who went viral for protesting a drag queen story hour died Monday in an apparent suicide.

President of the University of Queensland’s conservative Liberal National Club Wilson Gavin died early Monday morning in Brisbane, Australia, at the age of 21, Buzzfeed reports. His death came a day after Gavin sparked internet backlash by protesting a drag queen story hour with about 20 others from the Liberal National Club. . .

Gavin and his fellow club members “stormed” into the Sunday morning drag queen story hour at Brisbane Square Library, chanting “drag queens are not for kids,” according to a video from the Australian news outlet Sunrise.

Gavin’s protest caused outrage among prominent Australians and Twitter users who condemned the protest using the hashtag #Istandwithqueens, Buzzfeed reports.

LGBTQIA+ & Human Rights Activist Johnny Valkyrie, who is transgender, posted on Facebook that the protest “was planned and targeted at me. It hurt and affected so many others. I am sorry.” (Read more from “Gay Student Dies in Apparent Suicide After Going Viral for Protesting Drag Queen Story Hour” HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE

Congressional Candidate Calls President Trump America’s Number One Domestic Terrorist

/0 Comments/in , /by

Democratic Georgia House candidate Nabilah Islam called President Donald Trump “America’s #1 domestic Terrorist” in a Twitter post Monday.

Trump made news by retweeting a poorly photoshopped image of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer standing in front of an Iranian flag wearing Islamic attire, posted from an anonymous Twitter account called “D0wn_Under.” . . .

Islam is part of a crowded Democratic field running to represent the party in Georgia’s 7th Congressional District, a swing district currently represented by retiring five-term Republican Rep. Rob Woodall, who narrowly defeated Democrat Carolyn Bourdeaux in 2018. (Read more from “Congressional Candidate Calls President Trump America’s Number One Domestic Terrorist” HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE

Sanctuary County: Judge Issues First Gun Confiscation Denial Under New Red Flag Gun Law

/0 Comments/in , /by

A judge in Colorado denied a law enforcement request to confiscate a man’s guns under Colorado’s red flag gun law, which just took effect Jan. 1, according to KCNC-TV.

The law allows for law enforcement or family members to file for an extreme risk protection order if they deem someone to be a danger to themselves or others, leaving the final decision up to a judge.

In the case of this denial, a woman in Limon, Colorado, reported to police that she was being verbally and physically threatened by a man with a handgun, who she claims had a problem with drugs and alcohol.

A judge in Lincoln County, where the order was filed, denied the request, but the reason for the denial has not been made public.

Lincoln County is considered a Second Amendment sanctuary, where residents have voted to not honor the red flag law, although Democratic state Rep. Alec Garnett said even the denial shows that the law worked as intended. (Read more from “Sanctuary County: Judge Issues First Gun Confiscation Denial Under New Red Flag Gun Law” HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE

Airline Sued Over Creepy Texts Sent to Female Passenger by Employee During Her Flight (VIDEO)

/0 Comments/in , /by

A woman says that she was stalked by an American Airlines employee during her flight and she’s suing the company for not taking her complaint seriously.

Ashley Barno said she received mysterious texts as she boarded a flight at San Diego International Airport in April. . .

That’s when he told her that his name was “Ahmed” and that he worked for the airlines. She believes he obtained her phone number from the luggage tag on her carry-on bag.

“I am on board now. Are you going to Chicago too??” he texted after they boarded. . .

“Just knowing that he knew what I looked like, and that we were in an enclosed flight, on an enclosed plane, and there’s no way out, like, really really scared me,” she told NBC-7 in New York.

(Read more from “Airline Sued Over Creepy Texts Sent to Female Passenger by Employee During Her Flight” HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE

Report: Mullahs Now Using Live Ammo on Protesters, Regime Threatened For “First Time”; Powerful Video Shows Iranians Demonstrating More Respect for the U.S. Flag Than Colin Kaepernick Has

/0 Comments/in , , /by

By Edmund DeMarche. Videos emerged online Monday that purportedly show Iranian police and security forces firing live ammunition to disperse demonstrators protesting against the Islamic Republic after the country mistakenly downed a Ukrainian airline plane shortly after takeoff from Tehran.

There was no immediate report in Iranian state-run media on the incident near Azadi, or Freedom, Square in Tehran, but, if true, could be seen as an act of defiance against President Trump who warned the regime against the use of deadly force.

Trump late Sunday tweeted in Farsi that a combination of protests and sanctions have “choked off” Iran and said Tehran will be forced to the negotiation table.

Trump insisted that he “couldn’t care less” if the regime negotiates, but he appeared to lay down non-negotiable issues that included the development of nuclear weapons and the use of deadly force against protesters.

“Don’t kill your protesters,” he tweeted:

(Read more from this story HERE)
____________________________________________________

Muslim Scholar: Iranian Regime Threatened for “First Time”

By Talia Kaplan. Qanta Ahmed weighed in on Sunday on the anti-government protests that had erupted at Iranian universities across the country on Saturday in response to Iran’s admission that it unintentionally shot down a Ukrainian passenger plane killing all 176 people on board, saying that she thinks “this regime, for the first time ever, is seriously threatened.”

Ahmed, a Muslim scholar, made the comment on “Fox & Friends Weekend” on Sunday adding that the regime “is in its most fragile and precarious time probably since 1979.”

“They’ve had a disastrous outcome to their attempt of intimidating the United States, their attempts on the embassy in Baghdad failed, they’ve had Qassem Soleimani [figuratively] decapitated, they had to admit that they shot down their own commercial airliner, killing hundreds of people, 83 Iranians, many Iranians have lost multiple family members,” she explained. (Read more from this story HERE)

____________________________________________________

Powerful Video Shows Iranians Demonstrating More Respect for the U.S. Flag Than Colin Kaepernick Has

By The Blaze. As protestors took to the streets of Tehran this weekend calling for the resignation of Ayatollah Khamenei, a video shows thousands of them demonstrating more respect toward the flags of the U.S. and Israeli than, frankly, many Americans, like Colin Kaepernick and others, show to Old Glory.

“Today, the crowd in an Iranian university refused to trample US and Israel flag #LoveBeyondFlags. These IR ideologies, like forced hijab, are falling one by one,” it reads in a caption.

The video shows thousands of protestors marching in Iran, approaching an American and Israeli flags that appear to be painted on the floor, and most of them carefully walking around them to avoid stepping on the national symbols.

As of the writing of this story, the video has nearly 1 million views, over 2,800 “likes,” and has been retweeted over 1,000 times. . .

Former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick, who is known for leading the kneeling protest during national anthems in NFL games, has not made any public comments regarding the protests in Iran. However, Kaepernick was quick to attack the U.S. after President Donald Trump ordered an airstrike that killed terrorist Qassem Soleimani.

(Read more from “Powerful Video Shows Iranians Demonstrating More Respect for the U.S. Flag Than Colin Kaepernick Has” HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE

Trump: Impeachment ‘Should Not Even Be Allowed to Proceed’; Republican Believes Nancy Pelosi Withheld Impeachment Articles for Nefarious Reasons (VIDEO)

/0 Comments/in , /by

By Townhall. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced Friday that she was finally willing to transmit two articles of impeachment over to the Senate next week so the upper chamber could begin its impeachment trial of the president. On Sunday, President Trump tweeted his thoughts on the looming Senate trial, echoing concerns that such a trial only gives credence to the partisan House witch hunt that masqueraded itself as a legitimate impeachment inquiry.

The president also tweeted a video featuring his attorney, Rudy Giuliani, being interviewed by Fox News’ Jeanine Pirro on Saturday. In the interview, Giuliani argued the two articles of impeachment against the president should promptly be dismissed at the beginning of Trump’s Senate trial. Giuliani said the two articles, abuse of power and obstruction of Congress, are not impeachable acts under the Constitution.

The former New York City mayor said the two articles of impeachment are not even crimes and therefore should be dismissed by the Supreme Court. Giuliani admitted that there was nothing in the Constitution expressly giving the Supreme Court power over Congress on the subject of impeachment, but Giuliani also pointed out that there was nothing in the Constitution expressly giving the Supreme Court power to declare a law passed by Congress unconstitutional. The Supreme Court should similarly step in like they did in the Madison decision, Giuliani argued, to resolve the clash between the two branches of government.

(Read more from “Trump: Impeachment ‘Should Not Even Be Allowed to Proceed'” HERE)

______________________________________________________

Top House Republican Believes Nancy Pelosi Withheld Impeachment Articles for Nefarious Reasons

By The Blaze. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) said on Fox News Sunday that he believes House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has withheld the approved articles of impeachment from the Senate for nefarious reasons.

Speaking with host Maria Bartiromo on “Sunday Morning Futures,” McCarthy said the “dirty little secret” about Pelosi delaying the articles is that she has done so in order to boost Joe Biden’s presidential campaign and hurt Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), whose campaign is gaining momentum by the day. . .

“This harms Senator Sanders, who is in first place and could become their nominee, because he will be stuck in a chair, because Nancy Pelosi held the papers, different than what she said to the American public why she had to move so urgently,” he continued.

“She told the American public it was urgent. She had to move so fast. The only reason why she should be — that she is doing this that no one is talking about — it is harming Bernie Sanders, the senator, who has been coming into first place, who could win Iowa and propel himself to be the nominee,” McCarthy explained. “It’s the exact same thing they did to him four years ago.”

(Read more from “Top House Republican Believes Nancy Pelosi Withheld Impeachment Articles for Nefarious Reasons” HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE

Spy Court Picks FISA Abuse Denier to Tackle FISA Abuse

/0 Comments/in , /by

By The Federalist. The nation’s top spy court appointed an Obama-era Justice Department official who has denied and downplayed FBI surveillance abuse to assess the FBI’s response to a scathing new report cataloguing problems with how the agency secured authority to spy on a Donald Trump campaign affiliate.

Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) presiding Judge James Boasberg appointed David Kris to review the FBI’s proposed changes to its surveillance application process even though he spent the past few years running interference for the FBI as substantive criticism of the agency mounted.

Lengthy investigations in the House of Representatives and by the Department of Justice inspector general showed major problems with the claims the FBI made as part of an investigation into whether Trump was a traitor who had colluded with Russia to steal the 2016 election. Those problems include withholding exonerating evidence, undue reliance on shady sources, and outright alteration of evidence.

Kris, who served as assistant attorney general for the DOJ’s National Security Division, recently claimed the IG report that catalogued egregious abuse of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) powers actually vindicated the FBI. He also smeared Rep. Devin Nunes in 2018, saying his initial sounding of the alarm about those abuses was incorrect, threatened national security, and should be harshly punished. . .

The appointment of a former official who served as an apologist for the FBI signals that the court isn’t particularly concerned about the civil liberty violations catalogued by Inspector General Michael Horowitz’s investigation into the year-long surveillance of Carter Page. Page is the Trump campaign affiliate whose phone and email communications federal agents wiretapped, and who had confidential human sources and overseas intelligence assets placed against him. False claims that Page was a Russian spy were leaked to the media by government officials as part of a years-long campaign to paint President Trump as a traitor who had colluded with Russia to steal the 2016 election. (Read more from “Spy Court Picks FISA Abuse Denier to Tackle FISA Abuse” HERE)

_________________________________________________________

FBI to Follow FISA Court Recommendations on Wiretapping

By ABC 33 40. In the wake of its surveillance abuse scandal, the FBI has said it will follow recommendations made by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) court. That’s the court that approves government wiretaps on U.S. citizens.

Several weeks ago, the Department of Justice Inspector General (IG) reported finding egregious errors made by the FBI in its controversial wiretap of a former Trump campaign volunteer, Carter Page. In at least one instance, the IG found, an FBI lawyer had doctored a document presented to the court. . .

FBI Agents had repeatedly gotten caught submitting false information to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to justify their wiretapping or spying on U.S. citizens.

The new protections called “Woods Procedures” were named for the FBI official who helped devise them, Michael Woods. They require the FBI, all the way to the top, to strictly verify each fact in a wiretap application. According to the IG, FBI officials violated the Woods Procedures when they wiretapped Page repeating the very mistakes the Woods Procedures were set up to avoid 15 years before. (Read more from “FBI to Follow FISA Court Recommendations on Wiretapping” HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE