Liberal Federal Judge Rejects Puff Daddy's Fourth Request for Pre-Trial Release, Claims Witness Tampering Concerns

From [HERE] A federal judge appointed by President Biden on Wednesday afternoon denied entertainment mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs’ latest motion for release from jail on a $50 million bail package due to “compelling evidence of Combs’ propensity for violence” and a strong risk of witness tampering.

Echoing the rulings of three other judges who also denied Combs’ requests for bail, U.S. District Judge Arun Subramanian cited in his five-page opinion a 2016 episode at the InterContinental Hotel in Los Angeles where Combs was captured on surveillance video violently assaulting his then-girlfriend Cassie Ventura in a hotel hallway, in addition to separate evidence “supporting a serious risk of witness tampering.”

Subramanian also noted that even in federal pretrial custody while has bail motions were pending, Combs had violated Bureau of Prisons regulations to obscure his communications with third parties.

Prosecutors had notified the judge that Combs paid other inmates at the Metropolitan Detention Center, Brooklyn to use their Phone Access Code (PAC) numbers to make calls to those not on his approved contact list, instructed family members and defense counsel to add other people to three-way calls so that their communications were more difficult to trace, and used a third-party messaging program called ContactMeASAP.

“His willingness to skirt BOP rules in a way that would make it more difficult for his communications to be monitored is strong evidence that the court cannot be ‘reasonably assure[d]’ as to the sufficiency of any conditions of release, especially given that they occurred when Combs was seeking bail, and when he knew the government’s concerns about witness tampering and obstruction were front and center.”

Combs, also known as Puff Daddy or Diddy, has been in federal pretrial detention since he was arrested in a Manhattan hotel lobby in September, six months after federal investigators searched his luxury homes in Los Angeles and Miami.

He was charged in a three-count indictment, accusing him of racketeering conspiracy, sex trafficking and transportation to engage in prostitution.

At a bail hearing this past Friday, Combs’ defense lawyer Marc Agnifilo told Subramanian that his legal team had secured a three-bedroom apartment on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. He said Combs could be confined there under “a very, very rigorous set of conditions,” including strict 24/7 monitoring by a private security firm.

His attorneys argued the current conditions of confinement infringe his constitutional rights to participate in his own defense. [MORE]

60 Members of Congress, Others are Urging Corpse Biden to Grant Clemency to the 40 Men Currently on Federal Death Row

From [HERE] On November 25, 2024, President Joe Biden pardoned two Thanksgiving turkeys, an annual, symbolic tradition that highlights the president’s constitutional authority to issue pardons and commutations. Now, as President Biden sets to leave office in January 2025, 60 members of Congress and many others are urging him to grant clemency to the 40 men currently on federal death row. During his 2020 presidential campaign, President Biden said he would work to abolish the federal death penalty but there has been little evidence of anything done in furtherance of this promise. President Trump, on the other hand, has vowed to use and expand the federal death penalty when he resumes office.

A grant of clemency to some or all the federally death-sentenced men would not be unprecedented. President Biden would join a number of elected officials who have made similar mass grants of clemency for a variety of reasons. Since 1976, governors in eight states have commuted all death sentences under their authority, often citing systemic concerns. In 2003, Illinois Governor George Ryan cleared the state’s death row, commuting 167 death sentences to life in prison due to many wrongful convictions and systemic concerns about the fairness of the state’s death penalty system. Upon announcing his decision, Gov. Ryan said, “I started with this issue because I was and still am concerned about innocence, but once I studied, I pondered what had become of our justice system, I came to care above all about fairness. Fairness is fundamental to the American system of justice and to our way of life.” In 2011, the state of Illinois abolished the death penalty, and then-Governor Pat Quinn commuted the sentences of the 15 individuals remaining on death row to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Gov. Quinn said that when he signed the abolition bill, he meant to “abolish the death penalty for everyone,” including those already sentenced to death. 

Most recently, Oregon Governor Kate Brown commuted the death sentences of 17 prisoners on the state’s death row before leaving office in 2022, calling the death penalty “both dysfunctional and immoral.” Gov. Brown’s commutations completed what she characterized as “the near abolition of the death penalty” by the state legislature in 2019. At that time, the legislature amended its death penalty statute to significantly limit the crimes for which capital punishment can be imposed. In her statement announcing the commutations, Gov. Brown called the death penalty “an irreversible punishment that does not allow for correction; is wasteful of taxpayer dollars; does not make communities safer; and cannot be and never has been administered fairly and equitably.” Gov. Brown said the commutations were “consistent” with the legislature’s effort to functionally end the death penalty.

In 1986, New Mexico Governor Toney Anaya commuted the death sentences of five prisoners on the state’s death row. Gov. Anaya said that he did this because he “consistently opposed capital punishment as being inhumane, immoral, anti-God, and incompatible with an enlightened society.” In 1991, before leaving office, Ohio Governor Richard Celeste commuted the death sentences of eight death row prisoners. Ahead of New Jersey’s abolition of the death penalty in 2007, Governor Jon Corzine commuted the death sentences of the eight individuals remaining on the state’s death row. Governor Martin O’Malley commuted the death sentences of four prisoners still on Maryland’s death row in 2015, after the legislature’s prospective abolition of capital punishment in 2013. In 2020, Colorado Governor Jared Polis commuted the death sentences of the three prisoners still on the state’s death row after the legislature’s prospective abolition of capital punishment. 

Kamala Harris' Campaign Paid Al Sharpton $500K for His Coin-Operated Support. MSNBC Staffers Feign Outrage after Massa' Media Promoted Her as Their Golden Retriever

From [HERE] Believe it or not, there are people at far-left MSNBC pretending to have journalistic scruples over the Al Sharpton payola scandal.

In September, the Kamala Harris campaign forwarded a cool $250,000 to a non-profit run by MSNBC contributor and fake civil rights activist Al Sharpton. In October the donation was doubled. All in all, Sharpton received $500,000 from the Harris campaign…and then…and then…

On October 20, Sharpton used the mighty MSNBC network resources to conduct a fawning interview with Kamala Harris.

“MSNBC was unaware of the donations made to the National Action Network,” a network spokesperson told the Washington Free Beacon, the outlet that originally broke the scandal two weeks ago.

That “two weeks ago” is important because in the two weeks since the story broke, nothing has changed. The network has not disclosed the “donation” to its disintegrating viewership. Sharpton continues to make his usual-usual appearances without addressing the “donation.”

Boy, Democrats sure got it good.

However, Fox News Digital did find some MSNBC staffers pretending to have journalistic standards. Anonymously, (naturally), they are outraged…

“No one’s surprised that anybody at MSNBC was rooting for Harris. This feels like another level of nonsense… This has a bit of a dirty feel to it,” a current MSNBC staffer told Fox. “These things happen and they don’t bounce around MSNBC all that much. Like people just don’t care. This one feels, I’d say, there’s a deeper disappointment… This feels kind of grifty and gross.”

“There is a sense among the people I’ve spoken to that this feels like something wrong and that something should be done about it… It just doesn’t sit well with people.”

“That kind of money should not be changing hands to people who are cosplaying being a journalist. Maybe that’s not a fair term because I don’t know, is he a journalist?” the employee continued. “I don’t know. But that just feels a little bit like pay to play and it doesn’t feel right in an organization that we’re all still part of.”

I find this absurd. MSNBC is one giant pay-to-play network. That’s all it is. Every single second of MSNBC (and CNN) is transactional. The anchors and contributors spew outrageous lies and spread fear porn so that MSNBC will overpay them. When they are not spreading misinformation and dehumanizing the right, MSNBC staffers are saying what they need to say to enjoy entree to everything from cocktail parties to government leaks to all kinds of unearned access.

When you label yourself a news organization and refuse to do or say or report anything that might diminish your status, that’s payola. When you label yourself a news organization and actively participate in this… [

David Plouffe says Kamala Harris Campaign’s Internal Polling Never Had Her Ahead of Trump

From [HERE] Senior advisers to Vice President Kamala Harris’ failed presidential campaign suggested this week that there just wasn’t much else Harris could have done to beat Donald Trump.

Harris couldn’t have distanced herself from President Joe Biden, they said, because she was loyal. She couldn’t have responded more forcefully to attacks over trans rights, because doing so would have been playing Trump’s game.

And she might not have had much chance of winning anyway, given the deficit she inherited from Biden when he dropped out of the race in July.

“We were hopeful. I don’t know how optimistic we were, but we thought, OK, this is tied, and if a couple things break our way [we could win],” David Plouffe, a senior adviser to the campaign, said Tuesday on the “Pod Save America” podcast in a joint interview with fellow Harris campaign alums Jen O’Malley Dillon, Quentin Fulks and Stephanie Cutter.

Plouffe said the campaign’s internal polling never had Harris ahead of Trump.

“We didn’t get the breaks we needed on Election Day,” he said. “I think it surprised people, because there was these public polls that came out in late September, early October, showing us with leads that we never saw.”

There’s no doubt that voter anger over high prices hurt Harris, just as it has hurt incumbent politicians all over the world. Since Trump’s victory, however, Democrats have debated the relative impacts of other factors, such as the campaign’s muted response to Trump’s anti-trans TV ads and Harris’ decision not to say how she’d be different from Biden.

During an early October appearance on “The View,” Sunny Hostin, one of the hosts of the daytime talk show, asked Harris if there was anything she would have done differently than Biden, whose approval rating had been underwater since 2021.

“There is not a thing that comes to mind,” Harris said, in an answer ready-made for a Trump TV ad. “And I’ve been part of most of the decisions that have had impact.”

Many Democratic pollsters and strategists have questioned why Harris didn’t give some example of how she’d be different, such as by saying she would have acted faster than Biden did to reduce migrant crossings at the U.S.-Mexico border.

Cutter said the campaign heard the second-guessing ― but, she said, Harris was merely being true to herself and loyal to Biden, and saying otherwise would have backfired. [MORE]

Damian Williams, 1st Black SDNY U.S. Attorney, Resigns before Diddy and Eric Adams Trials

Damian Williams, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, has announced his decision to resign from his position effective December 13 at 11:59 p.m.

Williams, who has been at the forefront of several major legal cases, including the convictions of Senator Robert Menendez and Sam Bankman-Fried, as well as the ongoing investigations involving New York City Mayor Eric Adams and Sean "Diddy" Combs, will be succeeded by his deputy, Ed Kim, who will serve as acting U.S. Attorney.

Williams' resignation comes just before the trials of Adams and Combs are set to proceed, marking a significant shift in leadership during a critical time for the office. His tenure has been characterized by high-profile cases and a commitment to maintaining the integrity of one of the most respected legal institutions in the nation. [MORE]

Judge May Order Federal Takeover of Rikers. Liberal NYC Authorities Cage Their 90% Black/Latino Inmates, Pre-Trial in Reprehensible Conditions. Court Finds Jail in Contempt Over Pervasive Violence

Waiting to Go to Court Shouldn’t Be a Death Sentence But it Is If You're Black or Latino and Live in Liberal NYC, Where the So-Called Right to a Speedy Trial and Humane Detention are Non-Existent

From [HERE] and [HERE] A U.S. judge on Wednesday said she was leaning toward ordering a federal takeover of New York City's Rikers Island jail complex, after finding the city had failed to improve violent conditions that put inmates and staff at risk.

In a 65-page opinion, Chief U.S. District Judge Laura Taylor Swain in Manhattan said the city and its Department of Correction were in contempt of 18 provisions of court orders designed to remedy the use of excessive force and improve staff supervision.

"Those who live and work in the jails on Rikers Island are faced with grave and immediate threats of danger, as well as actual harm, on a daily basis," Swain wrote.

The case stems in part from a class action lawsuit in 2012 brought on behalf of Rikers inmates alleging conditions at the jail violated their constitutional rights. After the Manhattan U.S. Attorney's Office intervened in the case, the city in 2015 agreed to have a federal monitor keep tabs on the jail.

Swain said she was inclined to impose a receivership, a structure in which an individual answerable to her would be responsible for safety at Rikers. The judge gave the city, the plaintiffs and the U.S. Attorney's office until Jan. 14 to propose what such an arrangement could look like.

In a statement, the city said it had made progress and would continue to work with the federal monitor to improve safety.

The Legal Aid Society, a nonprofit, and law firm Emery Celli, which brought the class action, said the ruling "will finally create a pathway for reform."

In her opinion, Swain said the rates of use of force, self-harm, deaths and other types of violence were worse today than they were in 2015.

There were 6,784 incidents of use of force at the jail in 2023, up from 4,652 in 2016, according to figures the judge cited. Thirty-three people have died in custody since 2022, according to the report.

More than 6,000 people were in custody on Rikers Island in mid-2023, according to the New York City Comptroller's office.

Separately, New York City in 2019 passed a law to close all jail facilities on Rikers Island and move detained individuals to new jails to be built elsewhere in the city.

Congressional Black Caucus Reaches Historic 62 Members - Yet Black Power is No Greater than it was in 1971 when the CBC was Formed

From [HERE] The Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) will enter the 119th session of Congress with a historic 62 members, marking the largest number of Black federal lawmakers in U.S. history. In total, 67 Black lawmakers will serve, with five Republican members declining to join the caucus. However, this historic milestone comes against the backdrop of a new Trump administration that has signaled sharp policy shifts, including an almost entirely white Cabinet and the implementation of the anti-minority Project 2025.

The CBC, established in 1971 to advocate for Black and marginalized communities, now represents 120 million Americans, including 41% of Black Americans. Yet its leaders face a steep challenge under a Trump administration openly pursuing policies that could roll back decades of progress in civil rights, healthcare access, and economic equity.

“We’ve always been the conscience of Congress, no matter who’s in charge,” said Rep. Gregory Meeks, D-N.Y., a senior CBC member and ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. “But now we have a larger choir of leaders ready to call truth to power, ensuring the voices of the voiceless are heard. This administration poses a danger, and we’re here to counter that.” [MORE]

Would the NAACP Ever Issue a Travel Ban for a City Controlled by Elite White Liberals? NAACP Only Seeks Resignation of Trenton Police Chief after DOJ Report Shows Cops Routinely Degrade Black People

A Black political organization is an organization run, controlled, directed and defined by Black people whose exclusive mission pertains to the general welfare of Black people and aims to do the greatest good for the greatest number of Black people. Political organizations involving decision making and substantial financing from elite whites are not “Black” organizations. Such organizations may have the ostensible purpose of being “black” but their actual purpose is to serve the interests of elite whites by influencing and directing the thought and action of Black sheeple. WHEN THEIR SUBORDINATE GOAL OF HELPING BLACK PEOPLE CONFLICTS WITH THEIR PRIMARY PURPOSE OF ENABLING ELITE LIBERAL INTERESTS, THE former WILL BE DISCARDED.

NAACP is an organization heavily financed and controlled by wealthy white liberals. The NAACP issued a Travel advisory warning Black people to avoid Florida because its College Board rejected a newly proposed African-American Studies advanced placement (AP) class. The NAACP plainly indicated THAT GOP GOVERNOR Ron DeSantis was the target of its action, BECAUSE HE IS A REPUBLICAN. In contrast, NAACP took no similar action IN TRENTON, A CITY CONTROLLED BY ELITE WHITE LIBERALS. Surely, the use of unprovoked, unjustified and disproportionate force by TRENTON COPS to injure or destroy Black life and to intentionally interfere with Black people’s daily freedom of movement and free speech are far more serious deprivations than rejecting a class curriculum for college bound students. Indeed, as a practical matter Black tourists should stay away from liberal TRENTON because the DOJ report demonstrates that it is a dangerous place to be for Blacks – as cops have been niggerizing, targeting and putting Blacks in greater confinement with the apparent support or approval of white liberal judges, prosecutors, politicians, administrators and white liberal controlled local media and most white citizens. OBSERVE THAT THE NAACP ALSO DID NOT ISSUE A TRAVEL BAN WHEN DOJ SIMILARLY DISCOVERED THAT MINNEAPOLIS POLICE WERE ROUTINELY DEGRADING AND DEPRIVING BLACKS OF THEIR RIGHTS LAST YEAR. MINNEAPOLIS IS ANOTHER CITY CONTROLLED BY EITE WHITE LIBERALS.

FUNKTIONARY defines the NAACP as “The Negro-Anglo-American Corporate Preserve. 2) National Association for the Advancement of Confused People.”

DOJ Finds Misrule, Rights Lacking for Blacks in Trenton. Uncontrollable Cops Routinely Subject Blacks to Unreasonable Force, Stops/Searches/Seizures, Arrests w/o Cause; Degrade Blacks in Liberal City

From [HERE] The NAACP in Trenton, New Jersey, is calling for the resignation of the city's police director and the creation of a community-based police review board.

This comes after a Department of Justice investigation found the Trenton Police Department engaged in systemic misconduct, including the use of excessive force, as well as conducting unlawful stops.

Several speakers, including victims, called for change outside the city's police department.

The year-long investigation also found that Trenton officers used unnecessary force during a 2022 police stop when they shot a young Black man driving away from a scene. He is now paralyzed.

Attorney Gregg Zeff says trust is lost with the public.

The DOJ has recommended the department change policies and improving training.

NIH Chief Confesses COVID Health Initiatives Were Completely Made Up and Vax Didn't Stop COVID. Raja Cholan: 'We’re all going to learn about the dangers of COVID Injections When It’s Too Late'

From [HERE] O’Keefe Media Group on Monday released its first undercover video in its NIH Tapes series.

In OMG’s first video release, Raja Cholan, Chief of Health Data Standards Branch US National Library of Medicine, said the Covid health initiatives were completely made up.

“I probably shouldn’t be saying this out loud. They might have funded a lab in Wuhan, China and Pfizer and Moderna are getting a bunch of money from all of these vaccine mandates,” Raja Cholan said to the OMG undercover journalist.

“I don’t even know if these vaccines stop you from getting COVID. They don’t,” Raja Cholan said, adding, “We’re all going to learn [about the dangers of the Covid vaccine] when it’s too late.”

Raja Cholan said the ‘six feet of social distancing’ rule “wasn’t based on any real evidence that it did anything – it was completely made up.”

The NIH Chief told OMG that Trump’s victory is “worse for the NIH.”

“It would be better for a Democrat to be in office,” he said.

“We fly under the radar of really being scrutinized…I don’t think I have too much to worry about. That’s not recording, right?” he said to the undercover journalist.

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) earlier this year finally admitted to funding gain-of-function research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, the ground zero for the COVID-19 pandemic.

This admission directly contradicts previous statements made under oath by Dr. Fauci, the former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID). [MORE]

Florida Surgeon General Dr Ladapo Recommends the State to Remove Fluoride from Public Water Due to Serious Health Risks

From [HERE] Florida’s Surgeon General has issued a recommendation that fluoride be removed from public water.

Joseph Ladapo said fluoride should be removed from public water by 1 January next year or “as soon as possible thereafter.”

Ladapo said the measure was necessary because of the “neuropsychiatric risk associated with fluoride exposure.”

“Historically, community water fluoridation was considered to be a method to systemically, through ingestion, deliver fluoride to all community members. However, currently many municipalities across the U.S. and several European countries, including Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Norway, and Sweden, have eliminated water fluoridation,” the guidance states.

The guidance goes on to list a wide variety of detrimental health effects of fluoride exposure beyond certain levels, which include “adverse effects in children reducing IQ, cognitive impairment, and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, “increased neurobehavioral problems in children whose mothers ingested fluoride during pregnancy,” and “accumulation of fluoride in the pineal gland, causing sleep cycle disturbance.”  

Ladapo added that “the previously considered benefit of community water fluoridation does not outweigh the current known risks, especially for special populations like pregnant women and children.”

The recommendation comes after Robert F. Kennedy Jr. made clear that removing fluoride from public water will be one of the new Trump administration’s top health priorities.

“On January 20, the Trump White House will advise all U.S​. water systems to remove fluoride from public water,” Kennedy Tweeted.

“Fluoride is an industrial waste associated with arthritis, bone fractures, bone cancer, IQ loss, neurodevelopmental disorders, and thyroid disease. President ​@realDonaldTrump and First Lady @MELANIATRUMP want to Make America Healthy Again.”

In September, Judge Edward Chen, in the Northern District of California, ruled that fluoride in drinking water poses an “unreasonable risk” of reduced IQ in children.

“In all, there is substantial and scientifically credible evidence establishing that fluoride poses a risk to human health; it is associated with a reduction in the IQ of children and is hazardous at dosages that are far too close to fluoride levels in the drinking water of the United States,” Chen wrote.

“EPA’s own expert agrees that fluoride is hazardous at some level,” he added, citing a report by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and National Toxicology Program (NTP) which “concluded that fluoride is indeed associated with reduced IQ in children, at least at exposure levels at or above 1.5 mg/L.”

American towns have already started removing fluoride from their water supplies after Judge Chen’s ruling.

Yorktown and Somers, both in New York State, have both announced an end to municipal fluoridation.

Somers Supervisor Robert Scorrano said that the town’s decision to stop fluoridating the municipal water supply would “give residents the freedom to choose their own sources of fluoride, ensuring personal control over their health decisions. Additionally, concerns about potential long-term health risks from fluoride exposure support reevaluating its use in public water systems.”

Biden, Fed Authorities Hired PR Firm to Aggressively Push Useless and Dangerous COVID Injections for Kids

From [HERE] A U.S. House of Representatives committee report revealed the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ $900 million “We Can Do This” COVID-19 campaign was flawed and claimed COVID-19 shots prevented transmission despite the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) stating there was no such evidence.

• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) shifting mask guidelines and reversals on recommendations damaged public trust, with changes appearing politically motivated rather than based on scientific evidence.

• The government aggressively promoted COVID-19 shots for children despite low-risk levels, using emotional manipulation and fear-based messaging through the Fors Marsh Group PR firm.

• Clinical trial studies showed significant bias in measuring COVID-19 shot effectiveness, with case-counting window bias making ineffective shots appear 50% to 70% effective.

• Pfizer and Moderna vaccine trials revealed higher risks of serious adverse events than initially reported, with Pfizer showing 36% higher risk compared to placebo groups.

The House Energy and Commerce Committee released an assessment of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) COVID-19 public health campaign, revealing it was fraught with miscalculations that set the stage for widespread public distrust.

In December 2020, the FDA granted emergency use authorization (EUA) to the first COVID-19 shots, yet these authorizations clearly stated there was no evidence the shots prevented viral transmission.

Despite this, the administration launched the “We Can Do This” campaign, spending over $900 million to promote vaccine uptake and public health measures.

However, foundational issues plagued the campaign from the beginning. Past contracts and fiscal mismanagement within HHS raised red flags about the effectiveness and integrity of their public relations, or PR, efforts.

As the campaign aimed to shape public behavior around masking, social distancing and vaccination, the reliance on flawed CDC guidance undermined its credibility.

By allowing CDC recommendations to drive public messaging, the administration sowed confusion and mistrust.

These early failures were not isolated incidents but part of a broader pattern of inconsistent and politically influenced public health strategies that ultimately eroded the very trust needed to effectively manage a public health crisis. [MORE]

Dr Peter McCullough: COVID-19 Was Actually All About Getting COVID Injections, A Needle In Every Arm!

Federal Judge Permanently Enjoins Enforcement of the Illinois 'Assault Weapon' Ban - AR-15 Style Weapons are Not Uncontrollable or Unusual and are Suited for Self Defense

From [HERE] A federal judge in Illinois recently issued a permanent injunction against that state's "assault weapon" ban, deeming it inconsistent with the Second Amendment. The Protect Illinois Communities Act (PICA) "is an unconstitutional affront to the Second Amendment and must be enjoined," U.S. District Judge Stephen P. McGlynn wrote in Barnett v. Raoul, which combines several challenges to the law, on Friday. "The Government may not deprive law-abiding citizens of their guaranteed right to self-defense as a means of offense."

McGlynn imposed a 30-day stay on his injunction to allow an appeal that seems likely to succeed. Last year in Bevis v. City of Naperville, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit vacated a preliminary injunction against PICA that McGlynn issued in April 2023. The 7th Circuit concluded that the state was likely to prevail in its defense of the law.

The 168-page opinion that McGlynn issued on Friday, which followed a bench trial, aims to reconcile the 7th Circuit's reasoning, which was based on a distinction between "military" weapons and "Arms protected by the Second Amendment," with the U.S. Supreme Court's Second Amendment precedents. That's a tall order. But the Firearms Policy Coalition (FPC), which represents the plaintiffs in one of the PICA lawsuits, argues that the evidence presented at trial showed that "PICA fails even under the Seventh Circuit's misguided test," which it says "conflicts with binding Supreme Court precedent."

Illinois legislators enacted PICA in January 2023, six months after a gunman used a Smith & Wesson M&P15 rifle to kill seven people at an Independence Day parade in Highland Park. Among other things, the law bans a long list of specific rifle models, along with any semi-automatic rifle that accepts detachable magazines and has one or more of six listed features: a pistol grip or thumbhole stock, a protruding grip, a folding or adjustable stock, a flash suppressor, a grenade launcher, or a barrel shroud. PICA also bans "large capacity ammunition feeding devices," defined to include rifle magazines that hold more than 10 rounds and pistol magazines that hold more than 15 rounds.

Illinois House Speaker Chris Welch (D–Westchester) said the law was aimed at "weapons of war." That phrase suggested that Welch was talking about selective-fire rifles like those carried by U.S. soldiers, which can shoot automatically.

That was clearly not true. Such rifles are strictly regulated under federal law, which has forbidden sales of newly manufactured machine guns to civilians since 1986. PICA does not deal with machine guns; it deals with semi-automatic firearms, which fire one round per trigger pull.

Illinois Senate President Don Harmon (D–Oak Park) said PICA "begins the pushback against weapons whose only intent is to eviscerate other human beings." Since firearms are inanimate objects that cannot form an intent, and since only a tiny percentage of the guns banned by PICA are ever used to commit crimes, that remark was puzzling. But it reflected the difficulty that legislators face when they try to ban guns that supposedly are good for nothing but mass murder. [MORE]

Corpse Biden (or Whoever is in Charge) is Complicit in the Israeli-American Genocide in Gaza [and COVID Injections]

From [HERE] Past the 20-foot-high aluminum doors of the Justice Department’s Robert F. Kennedy Building, and down a long limestone hallway lined with art deco accents, Room B-206 has long served as the epicenter of the Biden administration’s prosecutorial war against former president Donald Trump. Behind the heavy wooden door is the office of special counsel Jack Smith, a highly secure redoubt where attorneys spent years building criminal cases against Trump for allegedly attempting to overturn the outcome of the 2020 election, as well as for his alleged improper handling of classified documents after leaving the White House.

But now, instead of heading to trial, the prosecutors are scrambling to empty file cabinets and stuff their contents into cardboard storage boxes. As a result of Trump’s election win, the prosecution is officially halted by the Justice Department’s policy prohibiting the filing of criminal cases against a sitting president. But while President-elect Trump will likely never face the consequences of his alleged criminal actions, President Biden may one day face trial for his, albeit in a far different courtroom in The Hague.

Three thousand eight hundred miles to the east from Washington sits the International Criminal Court (ICC), a complex of six modern towers in the Netherlands not far from Peace Palace and Europol in The Hague. In the largest building, Court Tower, are three courtrooms that carry out the institution’s mandate: to prosecute perpetrators of genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes, thereby providing justice to victims.

According to Article 1 of the Genocide Convention, the Contracting Parties, including the United States and Israel, must prevent and punish acts of genocide. Under Article III, those punishable acts include “Complicity in genocide,” such as by knowingly providing the deadly weapons used to carry it out. In 2007, the International Court of Justice (ICJ), in a case involving Bosnia and Serbia, established that the obligation to refrain from providing weapons or other assistance begins the moment a state becomes aware of the existence of a serious risk that genocide may be committed. [MORE]

Israeli Attacks in Gaza Kill at Least 71 Palestinians in 24 Hours

From [HERE] Gaza’s Health Ministry said on Thursday that Israeli attacks killed at least 71 Palestinians and wounded 176 in the previous 24-hour period as Israeli strikes continued to pound targets across the Strip.

Al Jazeera reported that Israeli strikes in northern Gaza early Thursday killed 88 people, but the Health Ministry only counts bodies that are brought to hospitals and morgues. The strikes in north Gaza targeted Beith Lahia, where 66 were killed, and the Sheikh Radwan neighborhood of Gaza City, where 22 were killed.

“A number of victims are still under the rubble and on the roads, and ambulance and civil defense crews cannot reach them,” the ministry said.

Beit Lahia has been under a total Israeli siege since early October as part of an ethnic cleansing campaign. Hind Khoudary, a reporter for Al Jazeera, said there were no paramedics or civil defense crews left in Beit Lahia. “There are dozens of Palestinians still trapped under the rubble in the two northern areas targeted overnight – Sheikh Radwan and Beit Lahia,” Khoudary said.

Israeli strikes were also reported in southern and central areas of Gaza. In the southern city of Rafah, at least three Palestinians were killed. Israeli strikes near Khan Younis also killed at least three people.

The Health Ministry said that the latest violence has brought its death toll to 44,056 and the number of wounded to 104,268. The figures don’t account for Palestinians missing and presumed dead under the rubble, which has previously been estimated to be over 10,000. [MORE]

US Authorities Approve of Themselves and Their Ongoing Israeli-American Holocaust, Veto Gaza Ceasefire Resolution at the UN Security Council, the Only Nation to Do So

From [HERE] On Wednesday, the US again used its veto power on the UN Security Council to kill a resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, a vote that came as Israel is carrying out an ethnic cleansing campaign in northern Gaza, and aid levels in the Strip are at the lowest level yet.

The resolution failed in a vote of 14-1 as every other member of the 15-member Security Council, including the UK, supported the call for a ceasefire. The five permanent members — the US, the UK, France, Russia, and China — all have veto power.

The resolution demanded “an immediate, unconditional and permanent ceasefire to be respected by all parties, and further” reiterates a “demand for the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages.”

Even though the resolution called for the unconditional release of Israeli hostages in Gaza, the US justified its veto by saying it didn’t make the hostage release a condition for a ceasefire. “We made clear throughout negotiations we could not support an unconditional ceasefire that failed to release the hostages,” said Robert Wood, the deputy US ambassador to the UN, who cast the vote to veto the resolution.

The vote marked the fourth time the US vetoed a Security Council resolution calling for an end to the US-backed Israeli genocidal war on Gaza. The ambassador from Algeria, a non-permanent member of the Council, slammed the US veto.

“Today’s message is clear to the Israeli occupying power: First you may continue your genocide. You may continue your collective punishment of the Palestinian people with complete impunity. In this chamber, you enjoy immunity,” said Ambassador Amar Bendjama.

The vote came just a few days after the US criticized Russia for vetoing a Security Council resolution calling for a ceasefire in Sudan. “It is shocking that Russia has vetoed an effort to save lives – though perhaps, it shouldn’t be,” said US Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield, who has cast previous votes to veto Gaza ceasefire resolutions.

Human Rights Monitor Says the Israeli Military Is Subjecting Gazans to Direct Killings, Extrajudicial Executions, Mass Starvation, and Ethnic Cleansing “with No Justification whatsoever”

From [HERE] A major European rights body recounts in harrowing detail the atrocities that have been carried out for the past 43 days by the Israeli regime against Palestinians in the northern Gaza Strip.

Geneva-based Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor provided the information in a report on Monday.

The report showed how the Israeli military has been subjecting the Gazans to direct killings, extrajudicial executions, mass starvation, and ethnic cleansing “with no justification whatsoever” as part of its now-13-month-old genocidal war on the coastal sliver.

Israeli forces, the report noted, have been committing the crimes by bombing homes with residents inside, committing mass killings against displaced civilians in shelters, and targeting gatherings and vehicles.

‘Largest campaign of forced displacement in modern history’

The forces have also embarked on bringing about “the largest cases of forced displacement in modern history” against the targeted civilians, it said.

The period in question, throughout which the Israeli military has markedly intensified its deadly aggression against northern Gaza, has seen it “conducting its third incursion and military offensive” against the targeted areas and “committing heinous atrocities,” the body stated.

The combined killing and displacement routine was being carried out with the aim of “terrorizing civilians” among other things, it said.

‘They executed them in front of me’

The body cited Tamam Abdel Maqadmeh, one of the civilians, as describing some of the atrocities that the forces committed in the city of Beit Lahia.

“Conditions worsened in al-Shemaa Street, Beit Lahia, due to heavy artillery and aerial bombardment. As a result, we moved from our home near al-Shemaa Clinic to the Abbas Kilani area in the middle of al-Shemaa Street,” he said.

“On Wednesday, Israeli occupation forces began advancing into the area where we were sheltering. We stayed trapped in the house, and less than two hours later, the forces blew open the door and stormed the building,” Maqadmeh added.

“When we descended to the ground floor [on the forces’ orders], I found my brother-in-law Khaled lying dead with two gunshots to his abdomen, blood streaming from him. His eldest son, Ibrahim (21), had been shot in the head. I stood in shock for moments before a soldier threatened me to move or be shot. We were about 26 people in total.”

He noted how her sister was prevented by the invading troops from saying goodbye to her husband and son, and would keep crying, “They executed them in front of me” as Maqdameh and others would try to pull her away.

“They killed them without them moving a muscle,” he added, describing the manner of the victims’ execution.

“This happened in front of the small children—four boys and four girls—who witnessed their father and brother executed before their eyes,” Maqdameh’s sister said.

According to Euro-Med, the Israeli military has, meanwhile, been preventing civil defense and medical teams from accessing the victims, including those who have been buried under the rubble in northern Gaza, for the past 25 days.

‘Shot dead while trying to retrieve food’

Beit Lahia has turned into a specific target of the campaign for the past 10 days, with the forces pushing some 5,000 civilians there into various gathering points, and targeting those who would try to return to their homes to retrieve direly-needed food, which is unavailable at the gathering sites.

“Dozens who attempted to do so (bring back food) have not returned, as they were executed in the streets,” said a civilian.

Another described the condition, in which he had found one of the victims, who had tried to return with some food.

“Beside one of the victims, there was a bag of flour. It seems he had successfully retrieved it from his home, but the Israeli army shot him as he was returning to the shelter.”

“Any food we manage to secure from nearby homes is distributed primarily to children, followed by the elderly in smaller portions. Young adults receive, at best, a single loaf of bread per day,” he said of the dire nutritional conditions at the gathering locations.

The rights body, meanwhile, denounced the international community’s reluctance to take decisive action against the Israeli regime, which has claimed the lives of more than 43,900 Palestinians, mostly women and children, during its October 2023-present genocidal war on Gaza. [MORE]

The UN is Using Africa as a Testing Ground for Controversial Digital ID Systems

From [HERE] The United Nations (but not only) has clearly chosen to focus its push on introducing digital ID systems to some of the world’s developing countries, particularly in Africa.

What’s referred to in reports as “a comprehensive initiative” is now taking place across the continent, driven by the UN development agency UNDP, as well as the UN Innovation Network, and even UNESCO (Education, Scientific, and Cultural Organization). This is one of the components of what’s known as the UN’s Global Digital Compact.

Such initiatives are sold in those countries as a way to develop better access to services and improve “digital inclusion.”

But opponents around the world say the schemes create large, centralized surveillance networks prone to misuse, particularly without stringent safeguards in place.

After the UN agencies previously formalized their initiatives in Kenya, it is now the turn of Ethiopia and Eswatini (formerly Swaziland) where similar programs are being launched in cooperation with their governments.

In Ethiopia, the government is organizing ID card registration in what’s said to be a large-scale effort that encompasses financial services, healthcare, and education.

In Eswatini, the UNDP, together with the country’s government, carried out a digital readiness assessment. The goal was to find out if Eswatini’s digital infrastructure in various sectors is capable of implementing digital ID programs at this time. [MORE]