Wall Street Journal Fires Chief Foreign Affairs Correspondent for Having Stake in CIA-Run Company

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The Wall Street Journal today announced that it is sacking its chief foreign affairs correspondent, Jay Solomon, related to “ethical lapses” that were revealed in a Tuesday AP expose that revealed Solomon’s substantial ties to an arms dealer and smuggler for the CIA.

The AP investigation focused on Farhad Azima, an Iran-born magnate who had ferried weapons for the CIA, and founded a company, Denx LLC, that was trying to make a deal with the United Arab Emirates on a surveillance scheme intended to spy on Iran.

Solomon had been using Azima as a key source in his reporting for years, and the AP story found Azima offered Solomon a 10% stake in Denx LLC. Among the services Solomon was expected to provide was to secure a meeting with a top UAE official to sell him on the surveillance proposal.

The AP’s investigation doesn’t reveal how far this relationship actually went, and Solomon denied ever intending to have a business relationship at all. He did however admit to “mistakes in my reporting and entered into a world I didn’t understand.”

The Wall Street Journal insists Solomon forfeited their trust and that they were dismayed by his “poor judgement.” (For more from the author of “Wall Street Journal Fires Chief Foreign Affairs Correspondent for Having Stake in CIA-Run Company” please click HERE)

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Would Baseball Team Have Mocked Tebow’s Religion Had He Been a Muslim?

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The Charleston RiverDogs are in the doghouse with baseball fans after they incessantly mocked the Christian faith of Columbia Fireflies outfielder Tim Tebow.

“While we believe that our promotions were poking fun at Mr. Tebow’s celebrity status rather than his religion or baseball career, our intent was not to offend anyone, and for the fact that we did offend, we are sorry,” general manager Dave Echols wrote in a statement to The Post and Courier.

Tebow, a devout Evangelical Christian, was in Charleston last weekend for a three-game series with the minor league ball club. The Fireflies are the Class A affiliate of the New York Mets.

Every time Tebow came to bat, the “Hallelujah Chorus” was played over the public address system. The Riverdogs’ mascot wore eye black inscribed with “John 3:16” and was filmed “Tebowing” on the field.

You might recall during Tebow’s football career at the University of Florida, he would strike a prayerful pose on the sidelines that became known as “Tebowing.” He was roundly criticized by godless liberals for writing “John 3:16” in eye black during his gridiron days. (Read more from “Would Baseball Team Have Mocked Tebow’s Religion Had He Been a Muslim?” HERE)

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Canadian Charged in US Airport Terror Attack

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A Canadian man from Tunisia shouted in Arabic before stabbing a police officer in the neck at a Michigan airport, and referenced people being killed overseas during the attack that’s now being investigated as an act of terrorism, federal and court officials said.

Amor Ftouhi, 49, of Montreal, was immediately taken into custody. A criminal complaint charging him with committing violence at an airport says Ftouhi asked an officer who subdued him why the officer didn’t kill him.

The attack Wednesday at Bishop International Airport in Flint, Michigan, is being investigated as an act of terrorism, but authorities have no indication at this time that the suspect was involved in a “wider plot,” said FBI Special Agent in Charge David Gelios. (Read more from “Canadian Charged in US Airport Terror Attack” HERE)

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Up to 5.7 Million Noncitizens Voted in Past Presidential Elections, Study Finds

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As many as 5.7 million noncitizens voted in the 2008 election and potentially more voted in 2016, according to a new study by Just Facts, a New Jersey-based research group, drawing on information from other studies.

The study—based on data compiled from Harvard University’s Cooperative Congressional Election Study, an analysis published in the journal Electoral Studies co-authored by Old Dominion University faculty, and Census data—also provides some support for what then-President-elect Donald Trump tweeted in late November, when he asserted he won the popular vote if the fraudulent votes were deducted. The Just Facts study did not look specifically at 2016.

The study by Just Facts, which identifies its point of view as conservative/libertarian, but says it maintains independent inquiry, determined as few as 594,000 and as many as 5.7 million noncitizens voted in 2008, in the race between Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain. Eighty-two percent of noncitizens who admitted to voting in a survey said “I definitely voted” for Obama.

An estimate from 2012, which the study finds to have less complete data, is between 1 million and 3.6 million noncitizens registered to vote or voted, including both the “self declared” and the “database-matched” populations.

Democrat Hillary Clinton won the popular vote over Trump by about 2.9 million votes in 2016.

Previously, an Old Dominion University professor’s analysis found that, extrapolating on a more extensive 2014 study, an estimated 800,000 noncitizens voted in the 2016 election—falling well short of enough to affect the popular vote.

James Agresti, president of Just Facts, was cautious about stating whether this would have changed the result of the popular vote in the 2016 election. He concluded it is likely the number of noncitizen voters in the most recent presidential election was higher than eight years ago.

When asked if noncitizen voters changed the popular vote outcome in 2016, he said, “There is a distinct possibility.”

“The 3 million vote margin would be smack in the middle,” Agresti told The Daily Signal. “I don’t want to say it would. There are a lot of uncertainties. It’s possible.”

There are two ways of looking at the noncitizen voting figures for 2012, Agresti said. Based on the Harvard and Census data, between 1 million and 2.6 million noncitizens voted under “self-declared.” However, there are between 1.2 million and 3.6 million “database-matched” noncitizens who voted that year. So the full range is 1 million to 3.6 million. Because of the overlapping information, Agresti is particularly cautious about drawing conclusions here.

“Just Facts does not have all the data needed to calculate inclusive figures for the 2012 election, so these figures are undercounts,” Agresti said.

Hans von Spakovsky, a senior legal fellow at The Heritage Foundation who has written extensively about voter fraud, was not very familiar with Just Facts, but he said if the findings were true, it lends more evidence to a growing problem.

“This is just another indication of how serious the problem may be and why it is even more important to investigate the possibility of noncitizens voting,” von Spakovsky told The Daily Signal.

In May, Trump named Vice President Mike Pence to chair the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity.

The difference between the Just Facts finding and the estimate from Old Dominion University research is likely because of a different methodology, said Jesse Richman, an associate professor of political science at Old Dominion University, who did the aforementioned study that arrived at 800,000 noncitizen votes in the 2016 election.

“My impression is that the differences arise principally from the different assumptions we made about how to treat individuals for whom there was some ambiguity about whether they voted or not, e.g. individuals who said they didn’t vote but had a validated vote, etc.,” Richman told The Daily Signal in an email. “There are a variety of assumptioans one could make about how to treat those individuals, and my general impression is that this is the main thing driving the differences between our results.”

Richman’s figure was based on the 2014 study he co-authored that looked at noncitizen voting in the 2008 and 2010 elections. Richman applied the methodology from the study of those years to arrive at an estimated 800,000 noncitizen voters in 2016. (For more from the author of “Up to 5.7 Million Noncitizens Voted in Past Presidential Elections, Study Finds” please click HERE)

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4 Conservative Senators Say They Can’t Vote for GOP’s Draft Health Care Bill

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Four conservative senators promptly said they can’t support the draft of a health care bill released Thursday by the Senate’s Republican leadership as a cure for Obamacare.

“Currently, for a variety of reasons, we are not ready to vote for this bill, but we are open to negotiation and obtaining more information before it is brought to the floor,” Sens. Rand Paul of Kentucky, Ted Cruz of Texas, Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, and Mike Lee of Utah wrote in a formal statement.

The four Republicans said they oppose the Senate leadership plan, called the ‘‘Better Care Reconciliation Act of 2017,” because it does not fully repeal and replace Obamacare.

“There are provisions in this draft that represent an improvement to our current health care system, but it does not appear this draft as written will accomplish the most important promise that we made to Americans: to repeal Obamacare and lower their health care costs,” the four senators wrote.

The Senate plan would end mandates for health insurance, including the Obamacare mandate forcing consumers to buy insurance or pay a penalty. It also would phase out the Medicaid expansion under Obamacare over three years, Axios reported.

The eventual support of Cruz, Johnson, Lee, and Paul is crucial because Republicans have a 52-46 majority over Democrats in the Senate. Two independents caucus with the Democrats.

Republicans will need at least 51 votes to pass a health care bill under a procedure known as budget reconciliation, with Vice President Mike Pence empowered to break a tie.

President Donald Trump said Wednesday night in a speech in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, that it would be “so easy and so beautiful” if some Democrats would judge the final plan on its merits.

One major difference in form compared with the House-passed version of the health care bill is the absence of the so-called MacArthur amendment.

The MacArthur amendment, negotiated in the House to resolve differences between conservative and centrist Republicans, gives states “the ability to repeal cost-driving aspects of Obamacare” left in place in the original version of the American Health Care Act, the House Freedom Caucus said in a formal statement.

Freedom Caucus Chairman Mark Meadows, R-N.C., and Tuesday Group Co-chairman Tom MacArthur, R-N.J., negotiated the amendment.

The Senate proposal instead leans on Obamacare’s “1332 waiver,” described this way by Heritage Foundation health policy expert Bob Moffit in a recent report:

Section 1332 of Obamacare allows states to apply to the secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and get a ‘waiver’ from 11 statutory provisions, including the individual and employer mandates, the actuarial value mandate that determines coverage levels, the federal rules governing the definition of individual and small group coverage, and the federal essential health benefit requirements.

How much flexibility will states have under the Section 1332 waiver is an important question, some observers say.

In a statement provided to The Daily Signal, Moffit, who was traveling, said he is not sure how the Senate’s proposed legislation would repeal and replace Obamacare.

Overall, the Senate bill is better than Obamacare because it contains provisions to reduce insurance premiums and promote access to insurance in the short run; cut taxes; and provide major Medicaid reform that will help refocus the program to those most in need.

It is still an open question, however, whether the bill will repair enough of the damage caused by Obamacare so that the middle-class self-employed will be able to find affordable health insurance in five years.

The Senate plan retains Obamacare’s requirements for covering pre-existing conditions and preserves Obamacare’s tax credits for individuals based on age, location, income and geography, The Hill reported.

The legislation also would retain for two years Obamacare’s cost-sharing subsidies, which were created to reduce out-of-pocket costs for low-income patients who purchase silver-level insurance plans through Obamacare’s exchanges, as The Daily Signal previously reported.

Senate Democrats, some of whom Trump appears to be trying to shame publicly into negotiating, are wary of the draft. Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., was among them, tweeting:

Sen. Martin Heinrich, D-N.M., tweeted:

The House passed its revised version of Republicans’ health care bill May 4 by a razor-thin vote of 217-213.

Senate Republicans are using the tool called budget reconciliation to pass a bill because it requires only 51 votes to clear the Senate, rather than 60 votes to end debate and proceed to a floor vote.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., formally released the plan Thursday.

Four conservative senators promptly said they can’t support the draft of a health care bill released Thursday by the Senate’s Republican leadership as a cure for Obamacare.

“Currently, for a variety of reasons, we are not ready to vote for this bill, but we are open to negotiation and obtaining more information before it is brought to the floor,” Sens. Rand Paul of Kentucky, Ted Cruz of Texas, Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, and Mike Lee of Utah wrote in a formal statement.

The draft of the Senate bill would defund Planned Parenthood for a year, a promise that House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., made in March.

Senate Republicans’ draft also specifies that tax credits could not be used to pay for abortions.

Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., a member of the House Freedom Caucus, voiced concern in a statement about the Senate draft:

I am extremely disappointed by the lack of resolve from Congress to repeal Obamacare—most recently, with the U.S. Senate’s legislation. The American people demanded a full repeal. Now, the 115th Congress is dangerously close to abandoning our promise and opportunity to completely repeal Obamacare, remove government from the health care industry, permanently defund Planned Parenthood, and give Americans their long-awaited relief from overwhelming premiums.

Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., another conservative senator, said he is studying the draft and hasn’t made up his mind.

“I’m going through it,” Lankford said in an interview with CNN. “I have a lot of questions still, a lot of things we have talked about. It’s 142 pages of text, but there’s things piled into that text that we’ve got to decipher. Put me down as a solid undecided.” (For more from the author of “4 Conservative Senators Say They Can’t Vote for GOP’s Draft Health Care Bill” please click HERE)

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Former Government Worker Charged With Giving Top-Secret Info to China

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The Justice Department announced Thursday that it had arrested and charged a former US government employee for sharing top-secret information with a Chinese government agent.

The criminal complaint states that Kevin Mallory has been charged with delivering defense information to aid a foreign government and making false statements to investigators. The Justice Department said Mallory could face a life sentence if convicted . . .

The criminal complaint says Mallory met with a Chinese national in Shanghai during March and April 2017 who “represented himself” as working for a think tank the FBI has said is intertwined with Chinese intelligence. Mallory consented to an interview with FBI agents in late May, where he told them about a communication device the Chinese national had provided him with. He allowed the FBI to examine the device, and the Justice Department said the FBI found classified information on it, including a document marked top-secret. (Read more from “Former Government Worker Charged With Giving Top-Secret Info to China” HERE)

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California Bans State Travel to Areas They View as ‘Discriminatory Towards Transgender and Homosexual People’

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California is restricting publicly funded travel to four more states because of recent laws that leaders here view as discriminatory against gay and transgender people.

All totaled, California now bans most state-funded travel to eight states.

The new additions to California’s restricted travel list are Texas, Alabama, Kentucky and South Dakota.

They join Kansas, Mississippi, North Carolina and Tennessee as states already subjected to the ban.

California Attorney Xavier Becerra announced the new states at a Thursday press conference, where he was joined by representatives from ACLU Northern California and Equality California. (Read more from “California Bans State Travel to Areas They View as ‘Discriminatory Towards Transgender and Homosexual People'” HERE)

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30 GOP Congressmen Have Been Attacked or Threatened Since May

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A total of 30 Republican members of Congress have either been attacked or revealed that they were the victim of a death threat since the beginning of May.

May 8: Wendi Wright, 35, was arrested after stalking Rep. David Kustoff (Tenn.) and trying to run him off the road. After pulling over, Wright “began to scream and strike the windows on Kustoff’s car and even reached inside the vehicle.”

May 9: Virginia Rep. Tom Garrett needed heavy security at a town hall after receiving a series of death threats in May that police “deemed to be credible and real.” . . .

May 12: A town hall participant accosted North Dakota Rep. Kevin Cramer, shoving fake dollar bills into his suit jacket. A Kramer supporter grabbed the same man by the neck. Both men were ejected by law enforcement, but neither were charged.

May 12: A Tucson, Ariz. school district employee was arrested by the FBI for sending several death threats to Arizona Rep. Martha McSally. The man threatened to shoot McSally and told her to “be careful” because her days “were numbered.” (Read more from “30 GOP Congressmen Have Been Attacked or Threatened Since May” HERE)

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Starbucks Caught Lying to Public Again: Spent Almost $100 Million Covering up GMO Use

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First, it was Starbucks’ anti-family campaign, then its anti-gun fanaticism that turned off millions of conservative Americans to its high-priced coffee. Now, with Starbucks caught lying over GMO use, the coffee-giant is offending citizens of all political stripes. As reported by the Hearty Soul.

We live in an age of inequality and social divide. With 1% of the population in the United States holding 38% of the wealth and almost all of the power. Education, healthcare, the government, and even the food we eat and drink are owned by wealthy individuals and faceless corporations.

So it may not come as a surprise to you that a morning coffee from Starbucks is the last thing that you should be drinking to put a pep in your step. It has been discovered that the coffee conglomerate has spent nearly $100 million to cover up their use of GMOs in their drinks.

‘In the past two years alone, Starbucks has been a part of a GMA-led coalition that has donated more than $70 million dollars to defeat GMO labeling efforts in California and Washington State,’ said a spokesperson for Food Democracy Now. ‘By opposing GMO labeling, Starbucks has willingly climbed in bed with Monsanto and the GMA and is intentionally misleading customers about their commitment to sustainability and ethical sourcing.’

It’s a damning statement and is certainly warranted. Not only have Starbucks been putting on a facade as an ethical organization, but they have proactively sought to increase the usage of GMO foods. Considering that they have over 23,000 stores in 64 different countries, Starbucks has a huge influence on farmers.

Starbucks’ milk currently comes from factory farmed cows, usually owned by their partner Monsanto. These cows are kept in terrible conditions, pumped with unnatural antibiotics and fed GMO grains. According to the Organic Consumers Association (OCA) in 2011, Starbucks used over, ‘93 million gallons of milk per year, enough to fill 155 Olympic-sized swimming pools.’

Considering their continued growth over the past five years it is likely that the figure today would be even higher. Their continued desire to quash legislation that calls for the labeling of GMO foods equates to an awful lot of people consuming them without their prior knowledge.

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Privacy Organization Urges Congress to Examine FBI’s Secret Biometric ID Program

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While the general public is still in the dark about the arrival of biometric identification that is taking place in nearly every walk of life, even privacy defenders who have been closely following these developments don’t have sufficient information.

A shocking report came to light early this year about a massive FBI database that has been collecting millions of faceprints of American citizens – for years.

Known as the Next Generation Identification system, since 2014 the FBI has amassed more than 50 million images scoured from facial recognition alone; and, as reported by the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the images have merged into the FBI’s legacy database of fingerprints and other identifiers to create a centralized hub of surveillance:

NGI builds on the FBI’s legacy fingerprint database—which already contains well over 100 million individual records—and has been designed to include multiple forms of biometric data, including palm prints and iris scans in addition to fingerprints and face recognition data. NGI combines all these forms of data in each individual’s file, linking them to personal and biographic data like name, home address, ID number, immigration status, age, race, etc. This immense database is shared with other federal agencies and with the approximately 18,000 tribal, state and local law enforcement agencies across the United States.

(Source)

Worst of all, the FBI has admitted that the system contains non-criminal identification as well as criminal, including:

suspects and detainees,
fingerprints for job applicants
licenses
military or volunteer service
background checks
security clearances
naturalization

All told, it’s been estimated that half of all adult Americans appear in a biometric database.

Despite what is clearly a sweeping program of surveillance and a violation of numerous Amendments to the Constitution, the FBI has resisted all inquiries made by privacy organizations and even the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.

Now one of the most respected privacy defenders, EPIC, is urging Congress to do its job and fully examine the secret FBI program. EPIC summarized the scope of the program, as well as measures taken by the FBI to exempt itself from privacy protections:

EPIC has sent a statement to the House Appropriations Committee in advance of a hearing on the FBI’s budget. EPIC urged the Committee to examine the FBI’s Next Generation Identification program. EPIC explained that the program “raises far-reaching privacy issues that implicate the rights of Americans all across the country.” The FBI biometric database is one of the largest in the world, but the Bureau proposed to exempt the database from Privacy Act protections. EPIC and others supported strong safeguards for the program. In an early FOIA case against the FBI, EPIC obtained documents which revealed high error levels in the biometric database. EPIC has recently filed a FOIA lawsuit against the FBI for information about the agency’s plans to transfer biometric data to the Department of Defense.

(Source)

The full statement from EPIC is posted below. As the use of biometrics is increasing by the day, it is essential that we help uncover the true scope of how this information is going to be used. Spread the word now and raise awareness so that we can ensure the best chance possible at resisting what appears to be the construction of a digital tyranny.

(For more from the author of “Privacy Organization Urges Congress to Examine FBI’s Secret Biometric ID Program” please click HERE)

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