theblaze--2020-02-08--Joe Biden stops Democratic debate to ask audience to stand and applaud for impeachment witness fired

Joe Biden stops Democratic debate to ask audience to stand and applaud for impeachment witness fired by Trump '' Who @ @ @ @ @ who we are !
We are not what Trump is ! ''

Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden paused the Democratic debate in order to have the audience stand and applaud for Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, the impeachment witness who was dismissed from the national security counsel earlier in the day.
"And by the way, Col. Vindman got thrown out of the White House today! Walked out!" said Biden.
"I think we should, and the same time, he should be pinning a medal on Vindman and not on Rush Limbaugh!" he added to growing applause.
"I think what we should be doing now, I think we should all stand and give Col. Vindman a show of how much we support him!" Biden exclaimed.
"Stand up and clap for Vindman!" he said. "Get your, get up there! Who we are! That's who we are! We are not what Trump is!"
Vindman was a key witness for the Democrats in the House impeachment hearings. He testified in corroboration with the accusations that the president withheld military aid from Ukraine in order to pressure a politically motivated investigation into Joe Biden and his son.
Vindman was escorted from the White House and removed as a national security adviser hours before the debate. Critics say it was retaliation for his testimony, while supporters of the president praised him for "draining the swamp."
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) defended the decision of the White House to demote Col. Vindman in a tweet that corrected the media by denying that he had been fired. "He was assigned to NSC to serve the President who has a right to have people he trusts on his staff," Rubio wrote.
Here's video of the debate moment:


theblaze--2020-02-08--'We’re losing our damn minds' — Democratic strategist James Carville hammers his party in blistering

'We’re losing our damn minds' — Democratic strategist James Carville hammers his party in blistering interview

'We ’ re losing our damn minds ' — Democratic strategist James Carville hammers his party in blistering interview

Well-known Democratic strategist James Carville continued to sound the alarm to his party that they are heading to defeat in 2020 if they don't shape up and stop steering so far left.
Carville explained why he's "scared to death" about the party's chances to Vox.
"Look, the turnout in the Iowa caucus was below what we expected, what we wanted. Trump's approval rating is probably as high as it's been. This is very bad. And now it appears the party can't even count votes. What the hell am I supposed to think?" Carville asked rhetorically.
"I'll just say it this way: The fate of the world depends on the Democrats getting their shit together and winning in November. We have to beat Trump. And so far, I don't like what I see. And a lot of people I talk to feel the same way," he explained.
Who's to blame?
Carville did not want to name who was to blame for the extremism in the Democratic party, but he contrasted the current state of the party to their victory in the midterm elections of 2018.
"I don't know. We just had an election in 2018. We did great. We talked about everything we needed to talk about, and we won. And now it's like we're losing our damn minds. Someone's got to step their game up here.
Progressive distractions
Carville said the Democrats were getting bogged down in distractions and cited several examples.
"We have candidates on the debate stage talking about open borders and decriminalizing illegal immigration. They're talking about doing away with nuclear energy and fracking. You've got Bernie Sanders talking about letting criminals and terrorists vote from jail cells," he added.
"It doesn't matter what you think about any of that, or if there are good arguments," he explained, "talking about that is not how you win a national election. It's not how you become a majoritarian party."
"It's the godd**n smugness"
Carville gave an example that displayed how urban liberals were looking down at their fellow Americans, and said the attitude would doom the party.
A few weeks ago, Binyamin Appelbaum, an economics writer for the New York Times, posted a snarky tweet about how LSU canceled classes for the National Championship game. And then he said, do the "Warren/Sanders free public college proposals include LSU, or would it only apply to actual schools?"
You know how f**king patronizing that is to people in the South or in the middle of the country? First, LSU has an unusually high graduation rate, but that's not the point. It's the godd**n smugness. This is from a guy who lives in New York and serves on the Times editorial board and there's not a single person he knows that doesn't pat him on the back for that kind of tweet. He's so f**king smart.
Appelbaum doesn't speak for the Democratic Party, but he does represent the urbanist mindset. We can't win the Senate by looking down at people. The Democratic Party has to drive a narrative that doesn't give off vapors that we're smarter than everyone or culturally arrogant.
The veteran strategist concluded by saying the only thing that mattered was power, and that even if some Democrats were right to argue for "rabbit hole" issues, they were threatening to disable the party's ability to defeat President Donald Trump.
Here's Carville talking about extremism in his party:
youtu.be
[Ed. Note: An earlier version of this article attributed an interview to Axios instead of Vox. We apologize for the error.]


theblaze--2020-02-08--Republican Joe Walsh gives up on primary bid, says he'll vote for a socialist before President Trump

Republican Joe Walsh gives up on primary bid , says he 'll vote for a socialist before President Trump The @ @ @ @ @ rather have a socialist in the White House ' than Trump

Republican presidential candidate and former Rep. Joe Walsh (Ill.) abandoned his long-shot primary challenge against President Donald Trump on Friday, and promised to dedicate his time to electing "any Democrat" in his efforts to oust the president.
In making his announcement, Walsh told CNN, "I would rather have a socialist in the White House than a dictator."
What are the details?
Walsh, a Tea Party conservative and longtime member of the GOP, broke the news that he was suspending his campaign on CNN, and blamed his own party, saying, "This Republican Party is not my Republican Party. It's Trump's political party, and I feel like I don't belong. I think it's a cult, and I think Trump needs to be removed."
The former congressman vowed to spend the rest of his time before the November election to send "any Democrat" to the Oval Office — even a socialist.
Walsh later reiterated to Fox News, "This is not easy for me to say, I probably don't agree with Bernie Sanders on any policy issue, but I would rather have a socialist in the White House than a dictator, a king, a man who thinks he's above the law."
He added, "I think that's a much more dangerous threat to America than a guy in the White House fighting for free college."
Walsh, a former Trump supporter, announced his presidential bid in August, telling ABC News' George Stephanopoulos of the president, "We've got a guy in the White House who is unfit, completely unfit to be president and it stuns me that nobody stepped up, nobody in the Republican Party stepped up, because I'll tell you what, George, everybody believes in the Republican Party, everybody believes he's unfit."
Anything else?
Walsh is the second primary challenger to President Trump to drop out of the race, behind former South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford (R), who gave up his White House bid in November.
Former Gov. Bill Weld (R-Mass.) continues to press on with his campaign, despite President Trump's overwhelming support among Republicans.


theblaze--2020-02-08--President Trump ousts Gordon Sondland, who testified in the impeachment trial

President Trump ousts Gordon Sondland , who testified in the impeachment trial Some are calling it political retribution

Gordon Sondland said that he had been recalled as the US ambassador to the European Union after his participation as a witness for the impeachment trial.
"I was advised today that the President intends to recall me effective immediately as United States Ambassador to the European Union," Sondland said in a statement.
Earlier on Friday another impeachment witness, Lt. Col. Vindman, was removed from the National Security Council, which some critics saw as retaliation on the part of President Donald Trump.
Sondland continued in his statement to thank the president for the opportunity to serve as an ambassador.
"I am grateful to President Trump to having given me the opportunity to serve, to Secretary Pompeo for his consistent support, and to the exceptional and dedicated professionals at the U.S. Mission to the European Union," he added.
Sondland testified about what he overheard in relation to a call by the president to the president of Ukraine, and whether a "quid pro quo" demand was made in exchange for an investigation into Joe Biden and his dealings in the country crippled by corruption.
Washington Post contributor and MSNBC analyst Eugene Washington responded to the firings by the Trump administration in a tweet calling it "outrageous and vile."
"This is how tin-pot dictators act. These are the stakes in November," he added.
Here's more about Sondland's testimony:


theblaze--2020-02-09--Venezuelan Americans warn US voters in powerful video: Don't let socialism happen here

Venezuelan Americans warn US voters in powerful video : Do n't let socialism happen here

It began with polls showing a growing number of Americans supporting socialism and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, an unabashed socialist, being called "the future" of the Democratic Party by DNC Chair Tom Perez. Now, with Bernie Sanders within striking distance of becoming the Democratic 2020 nominee, many Hispanics living in the United States are horrified at the prospect of a socialist rising to the country's highest office.
While some members of the media go to great lengths to argue that U.S. democratic socialists are different than Latin American leftists, some Venezuelan-Americans see little difference between the two. As they watch their native homeland fall apart from afar, they are now turning their attention to the 2020 race for the White House and warning Americans of the horrors of socialism.
'We thought what happened in Cuba would never happen to us'
Reached by telephone on Sunday, Daniel DiMartino, a young activist, told TheBlaze how many of his fellow countrymen were fooled by the late Hugo Chavez into believing the country was poorer than it actually was.
"We were able to put food on the table, work hard, and pay for what we wanted. We were rich but didn't know it," DiMartino said.
He added, "I don't want Americans to wake up one day and find themselves saying the same thing."
Meanwhile, Victor Perez, a Venezuelan-American finance executive in Miami, Fla., told TheBlaze that too many voters in the U.S. are allowing themselves to be misled by the likes of Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
"We were too arrogant to pay attention and we thought what happened in Cuba would never happen to us — we were wrong," Perez said while noting that he sees troubling parallels between the rationale of chavistas in Venezuela and the reasoning of American supporters of Sanders and other socialists.
"I'm now seeing the same arrogance from Bernie Sanders' backers and so-called 'democratic socialists' that we had. They say 'oh, but we have checks and balances that wouldn't allow that to happen.' You know who else thought that? We did! The same Venezuelans who are now searching through trash to find food," he said.
'Bernie Sanders is your enemy'
These sentiments were echoed in Washington, D.C. last last year when hundreds of Venezuelan expats gathered for a "Venezuela Freedom Rally" in the nation's capital.
According to Campus Reform, which covered the event, attendees were deeply troubled that so many Americans view socialism favorably.
"Bernie Sanders is your enemy. Do not ever, ever get involved with this individual or any of the other socialists," said one man, who added: "You do not ever want anyone even close to socialism to come to this country."
Another young woman said that while socialism promises to help the poor, it eventually fails them.
"People are eating from trash bags in the streets, so how has socialism actually helped the country?" she said, referring to the food shortages in the South American country.
"Check your history, look at the news. Look at all the countries that have failed under a socialist government, like Cuba, like Venezuela," another rally-goer noted.
Meanwhile, a young woman said that Americans should not fool themselves into believing that socialism cannot happen in the United States. "We also thought that this could never happen in our country. We had a balance of powers. We had democracy and we elected our leaders," she said while draped in a Venezuelan flag.
"In Venezuela, there is no food, no medicine, education. No, nothing, nothing," another woman stated.


theblaze--2020-02-09--President Trump will propose massive spending cuts, tax cut extension in upcoming budget

President Donald Trump will unveil a budget proposal on Monday that outlines the direction of his administration in a second @ @ @ @ @ totaling more than $ 4 trillion .
The budget will dramatically decrease foreign aid and @ @ @ @ @ increasing funds for NASA , Homeland Security , and the Department of Veterans Affairs .
@ @ @ @ @ 2 billion for the border wall , while slashing the Environmental Protection Agency 's budget @ @ @ @ @ , the Wall Street Journal reported .
In total , the budget proposes $ 4.4 @ @ @ @ @ the next decade .
The budget proposal totals $ 4.8 trillion in spending per year @ @ @ @ @ decrease deficits , from an estimated $ 1 trillion in 2020 to $ 966 billion @ @ @ @ @ an extension of the tax cuts passed by Republicans in 2017 through the year 2035 @ @ @ @ @ unlikely that the budget will ever become law because the Democrat-controlled House will almost certainly @ @ @

President Donald Trump will unveil a budget proposal on Monday that outlines the direction of his administration in a second term, including spending cuts totaling more than $4 trillion.
The budget will dramatically decrease foreign aid and social safety-net spending, while increasing funds for NASA, Homeland Security, and the Department of Veterans Affairs. The proposal also allocates $2 billion for the border wall, while slashing the Environmental Protection Agency's budget by a whopping 26 percent, the Wall Street Journal reported.
In total, the budget proposes $4.4 trillion in budget cuts over the next decade.
More from NBC News:
That includes $130 billion from changes to Medicare prescription-drug pricing, $292 billion from cuts in safety net programs — such as work requirements for Medicaid and food stamps - and $70 billion from tightening eligibility rules for federal disability benefits.
Trump's foreign aid proposal seeks $44.1 billion in the upcoming fiscal year compared with $55.7 billion enacted in fiscal year 2020, an administration official said.
The budget proposal totals $4.8 trillion in spending per year. It would only marginally decrease deficits, from an estimated $1 trillion in 2020 to $966 billion.
Trump will also propose an extension of the tax cuts passed by Republicans in 2017 through the year 2035.
However, it is unlikely that the budget will ever become law because the Democrat-controlled House will almost certainly reject it.


theblaze--2020-02-10--Pete Buttigieg calls for decriminalizing all drugs, including meth and heroin

Pete Buttigieg calls for decriminalizing all drugs , including meth and heroin 'He is guaranteeing more drug addicts '

Pete Buttigieg may be catching up to Sen. Bernie Sanders in the race to capture the Democratic Party's nomination, but his radical views could come back to haunt him in November if he ever faces off against President Donald Trump.
The former mayor of South Bend, Indiana told Fox News host Chris Wallace on Sunday that if he's elected president, he will move to decriminalize all drugs, including meth and heroin.
The exchange
"Mayor, you not only want to decriminalize marijuana, you want to decriminalize all drug possession. You say that the better answer is treatment, not incarceration," Wallace said.
"That's right," Buttigieg responded.
The Fox News Sunday host responded: "But isn't the fact that it's illegal to have, to possess, meth and heroin, doesn't the fact that it's illegal act as a deterrent to actually trying it in the first place?"
Buttigieg evaded the question by saying the focus should be on penalizing distribution; however, Wallace didn't let him avoid the question.
"But you would decriminalize it, so it wouldn't be illegal," he interjected.
Buttigieg replied, "Possession should not be dealt with through incarceration."
"But you would say that possession of heroin is not illegal?" Wallace responded.
"Is not going to be dealt with through incarceration," Buttigieg insisted.
An incredulous Wallace then told the presidential candidate: "But your website says 'decriminalize'; it would not be illegal."
"Yes, or it could be a misdemeanor, Buttigieg respond."The point is not the legal niceties. The point is that we have learned through 40 years of a failed war on drugs that criminalizing addiction doesn't work. Not only that, the incarceration does more harm than the offense that it's intended to deal with."
'He is guaranteeing more drug addicts'
Buttigieg's position on drug laws has been slammed by at least one law enforcement leader.
As TheBlaze reported in December, Polk County, Florida, Sheriff Grady Judd ripped the 2020 presidential candidate for pledging to legalize drug possession across the board.
"He is guaranteeing more drug addicts, he's guaranteeing more crime, and he's guaranteeing less help because we don't have enough services for those who are addicted to crimes now and he's going to create more addiction," Judd said, according to Fox News.


theblaze--2020-02-10--Former Dem lawmaker booted from Muslim event after asking Rashida Tlaib: 'What about your anti-Semit

Former Dem lawmaker booted from Muslim event after asking Rashida Tlaib: 'What about your anti-Semitism?'

Former Dem lawmaker booted from Muslim event after asking Rashida Tlaib : 'What about your anti-Semitism ? '
The pro-Israel @ @ @ @ @ police

Former Democratic New York Assemblyman Dov Hikind was removed from a Muslims for Peace event on Sunday, after he dared to ask keynote speaker Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), "What about your anti-Semitism? What about your blood libel?"
What are the details?
Mr. Hikind, a pro-Israel activist, posted video online showing him being interrupted and escorted out by police at Rutgers University when he attempted to ask Congresswoman Tlaib questions as she stood at the podium.
In the clip, Hikind can be heard asking Tlaib, "What about your ..." before he's interrupted and grabbed by a man wearing civilian clothes. "What about your anti-Semitism?" Hikind then shouts at Tlaib, "What about your blood libel?"
Tlaib appears to be attempting to calm the crowd by saying, "It's OK, no, no, no," and then she can be heard asking, "Can I answer the question?"
Police officers then gathered around Hikind and escorted him from the event — titled "A Global Crisis: Refugees, Migrants, and Asylum Seekers — Lessons from the Prophet Muhammad" — as audience members chanted, "Rashida! Rashida!"
What's the background?
Hikind told Fox News that the event was not bad. He said he sat in the audience for almost three hours and "loved what they were saying," but when Tlaib came up to speak, he confronted her over spreading the false claim last month that Israeli Jews had killed a Palestinian little boy.
Qais Abu Ramila, 8, went missing in January. A Palestinian official retweeted an unsubstantiated claim that the boy had been kidnapped and murdered by Jews, and Tlaib, in turn, retweeted the message. Qais' death was later ruled an accidental drowning.
The Palestinian official, Hanan Ashrawi, later apologized "for retweeting something that's not fully verified," but Tlaib did not offer an apology herself.
"She point-blank accused Jews of killing a child," Hikind told the Washington Examiner. "I went to confront her. This is as fundamental as anything, this is not disagreeing with her on some policy matter like abortion or something, this is blood libel. When you say something like this, and it spreads all over the world."
"The Muslim community looks up to her, " Hikind continued. "When she says something like that, it's incredibly damaging. She owes the Jewish people an apology, period."
Rep. Tlaib's office refused to comment on the matter to the Examiner.


theblaze--2020-02-10--Minister sues NFL over Super Bowl halftime show

On Monday 's episode of the `` Chad Prather Show , '' Chad discussed a minister attempting to sue the @ @ @ @ @ half time show .
According to the minister , the show featured Shakira and JLo @ @ @ @ @ of his home . ''
To find out how the price of the sanctity of @ @ @ @ @ watch the video below .
Use code CHAD to save $ 10 on one year @ @ @ @ @ from Chad Prather ?
To enjoy more of Chad 's comedy , craziness and common @ @ @ @ @ — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America , defend the Constitution and @ @ @ @ @

On Monday's episode of the "Chad Prather Show," Chad discussed a minister attempting to sue the NFL over the Super Bowl halftime show. According to the minister, the show, featuring Shakira and J.Lo, "penetrated the sanctity of his home." To find out how high the price on the sanctity of the man's home, watch the video below.
Use code CHAD to save $10 on one year of BlazeTV.
Want more from Chad Prather?
To enjoy more of Chad's comedy, craziness and common sense, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution and live the American dream.


theblaze--2020-02-10--Utah GOP resolution would demand Mitt Romney support Trump or vacate his seat

Utah GOP resolution would demand Mitt Romney support Trump or vacate his seat '' No question the consequence will be @ @ @ @ @

Some Republican party members in Utah are calling for the censure of Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) over his vote in favor of the impeachment of President Donald Trump, the only Republican to do so.
Others are far more supportive of the controversial impeachment vote that they say reflected Romney's firm dedication to his principles.
A draft resolution calling on Romney to support the president's agenda or vacate his seat will be considered at the Republican Party state central committee meeting on February 29.
The resolution was touted by Utah GOP State Central Committee member Brandon Beckham on his Twitter account.
The motion, if approved by the Utah Republican Party, includes a statement expressing "severe disapproval" for Romney's impeachment vote.
"A lot of us feel that it's sort of an embarrassment to our party," Beckham said, according to the Salt Lake Tribune.
Beckham notes that the Utah GOP passed a previous resolution to express full support of the president and to call on all Republicans to defend him.
Romney met with party leaders but would not comment to reporters about what they said. He did recognize that he would be facing criticism over his vote.
"No question the consequence will be enormous," Romney said. "The consequence of violating my conscience and my oath of office to God would be even greater."
Utah Gov. Gary Herbert, also a Republican, said he did not support a censure vote against Romney.
"I think that would be just a mistake to go down that road," said Herbert.
Immediately after Romney's vote, some on social media called for him to be recalled, but Utah has no recall provision to force its senators to step down.
The president on Monday mocked Romney in a meeting with state governors, saying, "How's that Mitt Romney? You keep him, we don't want him!"
Here's video of Trump's comments:


theblaze--2020-02-10--Rudy Giuliani: I have the 'smoking gun' to prove money-laundering linked to Burisma, Bidens

Rudy Giuliani : I have the 'smoking gun ' to prove money-laundering linked to Burisma , Bidens 'According to publicly @ @ @ @ @ Limited and its director , Hunter Biden , are involved in a corruption affair '

President Donald Trump's personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani told Fox News' Jesse Watters that he's found the "smoking gun'' in an investigation that has uncovered a multimillion-dollar money-laundering scheme in the Ukraine that involves far more than just Joe Biden and his son, Hunter Biden.
On the radio program Monday, Glenn Beck and chief researcher Jason Buttrill discussed Giuliani's interview on "Watters' World" and broke down the details in a document from the Prosecutor General's Office of the Republic of Latvia to the Ukrainian Financial Intelligence Unit that shows a multinational money-laundering transaction that was disguised as a loan.
Glenn played a clip from the Fox News interview:
"I have, what I used to call, while I was U.S. attorney, a smoking gun," Giuliani said to Watters. "This is a money-laundering transaction. It occurred just at the time that [Viktor] Shokin [Ukraine's prosecutor general in 2016] was fired. And it's about $14.6 million. This is a notice from the Latvian government to the Ukrainian government that Hunter Biden is under investigation for corruption, a 'corruption affair,'" he explained.
"I'll simplify it: $14.8 million goes from Ukraine to a company in Latvia disguised as a loan. Then it goes from Latvia to another company, disguised as another loan in Cypress. And then it goes to the U.S.," he continued.
Giuliani later went on to add, "I want to prove what happened, because I believe if we prove what happened, [President Donald Trump] will be totally vindicated."
Glenn read a copy of the document, which was also discussed in detail during last week's special presentation: "Ukraine: The Final Piece (The Billion-Dollar Question)".
"This is from the prosecutor's office from the Republic of Latvia, Office for Prevention of Laundering of Proceeds Derived from Criminal Activity. This was sent to the Ukrainian FIU, that's the Financial Intelligence Unit. And the subject is Burisma Holdings Limited," Glenn said. "It says [they are] currently investigating suspicious activity of Burisma Holdings Limited. According to publicly available information, Burisma Holdings Limited and its director, Hunter Biden, are involved in a corruption affair.
"The following transactions made to Burisma Holdings Limited account as PrivatBank are known to the Latvian FIU. From July of 2012, until July of 2015 ... the first one is almost $15 million from Wire Logic Technology. Then from July 2015 until December 2015, a total of $1,964,375 US dollars were received from Digitex Organization as payments for other loan agreements. The funds were partially transferred from Burisma Holding Limited account, to Devon Archer, Hunter Biden, Alan Apter, and Alexander Kwasniewski."
Watch the special in full on YouTube.com/BlazeTV and at BlazeTV.com to learn more.
The document can be viewed at glennbeck.com.
Watch the video below to catch more of the conversation:
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Use code GLENN to save $10 on one year of BlazeTV.


theblaze--2020-02-10--‘Political retribution’: New York sues Trump admin over Global Entry ban

'We will not compromise our values '

Yet another Trump administration travel decision is on its way to federal court as the result of a Democrat-led state's lawsuit. This one has to do with how long some Americans will have to wait in line at the airport.
On Monday, the state of New York is suing the Trump administration over a decision announced last week that will keep Empire State residents from participating in some DHS travel programs, saying that the move was an act of "political retribution."
Last week, the Department of Homeland Security announced that it would no longer allow New York residents to participate in Customs and Border Protection's Trusted Traveler Programs — including Global Entry — which are meant to move pre-screened people through airport security and other ports of entry more quickly.
"New Yorkers will not be held hostage by an Administration intent on restraining the sovereign rights of states, while it simultaneously enacts discriminatory policies across the country," New York state Attorney General James said in a statement about the lawsuit. "No one should ever use our nation's security as a political weapon, let alone the commander-in-chief."
The state's 34-page lawsuit claims that the administration issued the decision not as the result of legitimate security concerns, but "as political retribution for the State's enactment of legislation that the federal government disfavors," and is meant "intended to coerce New York into changing its policies." The suit also alleges that the administration's decision violates the Fifth and 10th Amendments to the Constitution as well as the Administrative Procedure Act.
DHS, however, says that its decision was the result of a provision of New York's new "Green Light Law," which allows illegal immigrants to get state driver's licenses. DHS says that because of part of the law prohibits the state's Department of Motor Vehicles from sharing information with them, they can't properly vet any of the state's resident's for security concerns.
"New York's 'Green Light Law' is ill-conceived and the Department is forced to take this action to ensure the integrity of our Trusted Traveler Programs. It's very clear: this irresponsible action has consequences," acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf said of the program ban last week.
"CBP is able to offer Trusted Traveler Programs like Global Entry because we are able to use DMV data to make an evidence-based assessment that those individuals who seek this benefit are low risk and meet the eligibility requirements," Wolf added. "Without the DMV information, we aren't able to make that assessment."
Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed the driver's license bill into law in June. It allows people without legal status in the U.S. to use foreign documents to get state-issued licenses. When it went into effect in December, DMV offices across the state were flooded with license applicants.
After the the administration's announcement on Thursday, Cuomo made it clear that the new license law wasn't going to go anywhere, and he reiterated the same sentiment on Monday.
"We will not compromise our values nor back down when the federal government continues to unfairly and illegally target New York," Cuomo said. "Make no mistake, we are fighting back and will be using every tool available to us to do so."
The lawsuit was filed in federal district court for the Southern District of New York.


theblaze--2020-02-10--Nevada bails on caucus app in attempt to avoid repeat of Iowa debacle — but it may be too late

The Iowa Democratic Party tried to use an app to keep track of caucus results last week, and it ... didn't work. At all. Even though the party has awarded delegates based on its demonstrably inaccurate results, the caucus was an undeniable failure.
That disaster turned attention to Nevada, another state that utilizes the much-maligned caucus system. Nevada also had plans to use an app for the Democratic caucus. Since Iowa, however, the state party has reconsidered that plan and decided to do things the old-fashioned way, according to FiveThirtyEight.
They aren't in the clear yet, however. With the caucus less than two weeks away, and previously established plans to use that app for early voting, now the party has to figure out how to adjust — the early voting plans were dependent on having a functioning app, and early voting was supposed to begin Saturday.
There apparently was not a backup plan in place. From FiveThirtyEight:
"They never did address what to do if the app wasn't working, how you would incorporate those early votes," Ruben Murillo Jr., a precinct chair in Nevada, said, adding that he plans to seek further training now that the app has been scrapped.
If the number of people who vote early is small, folding the early votes into the process on caucus day should be fairly easy for the volunteers in charge of the caucuses to handle, according to Barry Burden, the director of the Elections Research Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
But he said the addition of paper ballots would almost certainly slow down the process — and if the people responsible for the caucus aren't well trained, they could inadvertently reproduce the small but widespread errors that have already been documented in Iowa.
It's likely that all caucus processes are riddled with at least minor errors, but this year's Nevada caucus will face tighter scrutiny from candidates and observers than ever before after what happened in Iowa.
Nevada's 2016 Democratic caucus was not without issues. Sen. Bernie Sanders' supporters accused the state party of rigging the process in favor of Hillary Clinton and trying to change the rules. They protested at the state convention, complaining about a lack of transparency in the process.
Those supporters will likely be on edge this year as well, after the questionable Iowa result awarded Pete Buttigieg a narrow victory over Sanders, even though Sanders earned more raw votes than the former South Bend, Indiana, mayor.


theblaze--2020-02-10--Critic of Vladimir Putin found dead in French hotel room with throat slit and multiple stab wounds

Critic of Vladimir Putin found dead in French hotel room with throat slit and multiple stab wounds The attack is @ @ @ @ @ motivated '

An internet blogger who publicly opposed Russian President Vladimir Putin was recently found dead in a French hotel room with his throat slit and multiple stab wounds, Business Insider reports.
Police suspect the murder was "politically motivated," as this is just the latest in a series of attacks sparking concerns that a Russian hit squad is actively assassinating dissidents in Europe.
What are the details?
Imran Aliev, 44, had been living in Belgium, where he was under police protection due to threats on his life coming out of Chechnya and Russia. Aliev had been critical of the Putin and the Russia-supported Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov on his blog and YouTube channel for years, operating under the pseudonyms Mansur Stariy or Old Mansur.
But on Jan. 29, he told his wife and four children that he was heading to France "on business" after an unknown man showed up from Chechnya, according to Fox News.
Only a day later, French investigators found Aliev's body in a hotel room in Lille, France, riddled with stab wounds. Sources told the Agence France-Presse that the attack was the result of "extreme savagery."
Now, investigators are looking for Aliev's travel companion, who has mysteriously vanished.
"He was accompanied by another Chechen, who we have tentatively identified based on his travel documents," the official said, according to Business Insider.
"This identification could be a case of mistaken identity or even an illegal alibi," he added, saying nothing could be determined "until we have spoken with this man we believe is an important witness."
Anything else?
The French have allegedly not contacted Russia for assistance with the case yet due to the possibility of state involvement in the murder.
"Obviously, considering Aliev's history and previous threats, we need to strongly examine the possibility of a state intelligence service in this murder, and we are collecting and analyzing evidence from travel patterns, electronic intercepts, and other investigative tools at our disposal," a French police official said.
According to the Business Insider report, a Belgian law enforcement officer also expressed concerns and suggested that Belgian authorities are very suspicious about the incident.
"We had him under police protection for a reason," said the official, adding that there were "specific and credible threats on his life from certain political sectors in Chechnya and Russia."


theblaze--2020-02-10--Student voter humiliated by Joe Biden blasts former VP: He has no 'momentum' for a national election

Student voter humiliated by Joe Biden blasts former VP : He has no 'momentum ' for a national election

A 21-year-old female student said she felt humiliated after Democratic presidential candidate and former Vice President Joe Biden called her a "lying, dog-faced pony soldier."
Biden hurled the insult as a response to a question she asked Sunday at a Biden campaign event in Hampton, New Hampshire.
What's a brief history?
The student, Madison Moore, asked Biden about his lackluster results at the Iowa caucuses during the campaign event.
Moore, an economics student at Mercer University in Macon, Georgia, said the former vice president was apparently shaken when she asked about his performance with Iowa voters and wondered how he could hold up in a national arena.
He retorted by asking if she'd ever been to a caucus. When she nodded her head in the affirmative, Biden shot back, calling her a "lying, dog-faced pony soldier."
The quip — which Biden later said was a joke, and a hat tip to the late John Wayne — drew laughs from the crowd.
You can read more about the exchange here.
So what's she saying now?
"It was kind of humiliating to be called a 'liar' on national TV by the former vice president," Moore said of the interaction, according to the Daily Mail. "Instead of answering that question straightforward, his immediate response was to attempt to invalidate me by exposing my inexperience."
Moore pointed out that the former vice president has been "performing extremely poorly in this race" and insisted that the fact that he couldn't answer a simple question without going on the offensive was only "exacerbates the fact."
"I am a 21-year-old college student, like, what the hell do I know? Who cares who I am or [about] my experience. Just answer the damn question," she added.
Fox News' Griff Jenkins also spoke to Moore, who said, "A lot of what he's saying seems to be really pathos-based and very sad. We've heard a lot about deaths and cancer and people losing their jobs, and to me, he doesn't really seem very solution-oriented. I don't think he has the momentum to carry this to a national election."


theblaze--2020-02-10--Ryan: Mayor Pete's last night in town

Ryan: Mayor Pete's last night in town

'So , are you ready to make history one more time ? '

Pete Buttigieg deadpanned the stage, barely out of view on the eve of disaster.
For nearly a year, he had practically lived in Iowa, as he competed with a veritable boatload of Democratic presidential candidates. Despite the outlandishly crowded field, he had risen from what the Washington Post described as "the most interesting mayor you've never heard of," to a front-runner in the presidential race, edging his position among the seven remaining candidates.
Super Bowl Sunday. With the first-in-the-nation-vote Iowa caucuses in 28 hours, this "Get Out The Caucus" rally was Buttigieg's last pre-caucus event. Not a parking spot for 10 blocks by the time Buttigieg was supposed to have appeared.
A couple thousand people packed inside the Roundhouse, a gymnasium that resembled an ant colony, with its spiraling dome built in 1965. Situated on the campus of Abraham Lincoln High School, with its imposing Collegiate Gothic architecture, hilltopped on the south side of Des Moines, near Gray's Lake — which, on that Feb. 2, 2020, had succumbed to Iowa snow and shortened days, so the water was frozen. Not solid, not deep — only on the surface.
Inside the gymnasium, a profusion of red and yellow. Sultry, humid. People sweating. Warmed by a nagging fluorescence. And bustling. Frantic.
Abraham Lincoln High School, home of the Rail-Splitters Photo by Kevin Ryan
Periodically, the crowd shouted "BOOT-edge-edge" to the cadence of "U-S-A." Some of their far more elaborate chants had surely been scripted.
Then, lightning shook the gymnasium in the form of Panic! at the Disco. An instrumental loop of their once-ubiquitous single "High Hopes," which you have definitely heard. Over the past year, it has become Buttigieg's campaign song, especially after this video went viral. The choreographed dance routine became a meme, and more videos appeared of Buttigieg-supporter flash mobs, at parks, in conference rooms, at Irish pubs.
Saturday Night Live took a few jabs, with Weekend Update anchor Colin Jost joking, "It's all part of Mayor Pete's strategy to get a negative percentage of the black vote."
And, just like that, Buttigieg, 38, took the stage. Behind him, a giant American flag and risers full of Pete-gear-bedecked supporters shouting "BOOT - EDGE - EDGE. BOOT - EDGE - EDGE. BOOT - EDGE - EDGE."
The floor rumbled. The bleachers and stairs and blinking scoreboards shook. It was a tribal war ceremony. A pep rally for a game that could cost us everything. Our freedom, our lives, our fast food whenever we want it.
The Maltese Chicken
In many way, Buttigieg represents the anti-Trump.
He's polite. He's intellectual. He's young. A church-going Episcopalian, a Rhodes Scholar, a veteran, a former McKinsey management consultant, a Harvard grad, a piano player. He even once accompanied Ben Folds for a performance of "Steven's Last Night in Town," a song about an enigmatic guy who's always about to leave but never does. Afterward, Folds said, "It was a very difficult song he pulled off. I'm serious. He's a fine player."
www.youtube.com
He's well-spoken, decorously well-spoken. Also fluent in French, Spanish, Italian, Maltese, Arabic and Dari, a dialect of Persian that he learned while serving overseas. Oh, and Norwegian.
Like presidential candidate Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, he's a veteran. He joined the Navy Reserve at 27, achieved the rank of lieutenant, with a Joint Service Commendation medal. Then, In 2014, he took a leave as mayor of South Bend, Indiana, to serve a seven-month deployment in Afghanistan, where he worked as an intelligence officer as part of Operation Enduring Freedom.
"I was packing my bags for Afghanistan while [Donald Trump] was working on Season 7 of 'The Apprentice," he said at a May 2019 rally.
In his autobiography, "Shortest Way Home: One Mayor's Challenge and a Model for America's Future," he says that, during his time in Afghanistan, he was mostly "behind a sophisticated computer terminal in a secure area," although he served as a vehicle commander on convoys through Kabul 119 times.
I would heave my armored torso into the driver's seat of a Land Cruiser, chamber a round in my M4, lock the doors and wave a gloved goodbye to the Macedonian gate guard. My vehicle would cross outside the wire and into the boisterous Afghan city, entering a world infinitely more interesting and ordinary and dangerous than our zone behind the blast walls at ISAF headquarters.
Like fellow candidates Andrew Yang and Bernie Sanders, and former candidate Kamala Harris, Buttigieg is a second-generation American. His father emigrated from Malta in 1979, became a naturalized American citizen, then taught as a professor. "Buttigieg" is Maltese for "lord of the poultry."
History in the Making
Two types of people at the rally — Buttigieg supporters decked in PETE 2020 gear, and journalists, strutting or looking bored. Meanwhile, I desperately fished through my backpack for my Houston Astros hat, failing, dropping everything, a human spill. But with a smirk, because the Astros had just been disgraced following revelations that they cheated their way to a World Series win, something about banging a trash can like it was a kettledrum.
All through Buttigieg's speech, various media chattered. With their PETE press badges stuck to their arms, they gabbed like people do at annual conferences or family reunions, indifferent to the presidential candidate 80 yards away.
Chuck Todd, host of NBC's "Meet the Press," gabbed right beside us. Media pundits, anchors, columnists, all the important people, had converged on Des Moines.
It was like a journalism catwalk. It was like homecoming, for us, the media — the eloquent vultures who stomp around with our wings stretched as a show of dominance or a remedy to fear, compensating always.
Fox News anchor Bret Baier strutted up the aisle, flanked by an entourage. It looked like he'd deep-fried himself in orange baby powder.
Baier lacked the ordinariness that I'd sensed when I met him in Houston at the third Democratic debate. I liked Baier, even if he did snub me when I told him I write for Blaze Media. Now, he was a puffin of confidence, resembling some American emperor as he walked, parting the crowd.
Didn't any of these journalists want to know what Buttigieg had to say? Sure, when you cover an election, you hear a stump speech 40 times and it loses its spark. But our whole job was to comb for lice.
Buttigieg asked the audience, "So, are you ready to make history one more time?"
They'd be making history, all right, far more than they expected, but not like they'd imagined. By the end of the next day, American democracy would take a pie to the face.
Youth and Inexperience
If elected president, Buttigieg would be the youngest in our nation's history, just two years over the minimum age. He got his start as mayor of South Bend, Indiana, at the age of 29. After serving two terms, he left office on Jan. 1, 2020.
In a field of seasoned, older politicians, including a former vice president, Buttigieg has faced relentless scrutiny for his lack of political experience — it has come up every single debate. Most recently, in a now-viral campaign ad from former Vice President Joe Biden, who like Buttigieg, coincidentally, entered politics at age 29 when he became the sixth-youngest senator in American history.
So much of this campaign has been about age, and not in a charming way. A 73-year-old Ronald Reagan responded to a question about his age by saying, "I will not make age an issue of this campaign. I am not going to exploit, for political purposes, my opponent's youth and inexperience."
Buttigieg has often championed the idea of "Intergenerational justice" as a means of establishing an "intergenerational alliance." Connecting the generations.
During a May 2019 town hall for Fox News, Chris Wallace asked Buttigieg about the constraints of age for a president. Here's Buttigieg's response:
www.youtube.com
At 38, Buttigieg is technically a millennial, and the first to become a serious presidential candidate.
"We're not a generation that feels sorry for itself," Buttigieg told one journalist. "But I think when somebody says, 'Gosh, why are you guys less likely to leave the home?' It's like, well, because college is unaffordable, most of the best opportunities are in cities that are unaffordable. And we graduated into a recession. So what do you expect?"
Politics Politics Politics
Despite all the chaos in the Roundhouse as Mayor Pete chanted to the crowd, I found Justin Robert Young, host of the Politics Politics Politics podcast.
Justin and I first connected last November, after my story on Kanye West's appearance at the Joel Osteen megachurch in Houston. Then Justin had me on his podcast. Immediately, we connected.
The Buttigieg rally was the first time we'd met in person.
Justin gave intermittent commentary into his ZOOM portable recorder, the kind with dual external microphones.
In person, as on his podcast, Justin Robert Young discusses politics with the grace and off-handedness and clarity of a philosophy professor explaining Immanuel Kant. Like a surfer gliding a wave.
But then he throws in some humor. He is what you could call an outcast of the media world. Same as me. There aren't all that many of us. We work for different publications, networks, podcasts — media of every political orientation. But we take umbrage with the politics of new media, it's Trumpian snarl and disdain, it's blunt sense of apathy.
He asked me for my prediction, my "1, 2, 3, 4" on who would win Iowa.
I get asked questions like this fairly often. I don't pretend to be a political expert. But if you're at the horse races, you pick a horse, and sometimes you just go with the horse trotting the wildest and maybe it will win.
"For my number one," I said, "I'd guess Bernie. Two, Biden. Three, Warren. Four, Klobuchar."
"No Pete?" Justin asked.
"I mean, that would really surprise me."
Outside the Wire
Buttigieg is the first openly gay Democratic presidential candidate. He came out in 2015, at the age of 33, near the end of his first term as mayor, with an essay in the South Bend Tribune:
Like most people, I would like to get married one day and eventually raise a family. I hope that when my children are old enough to understand politics, they will be puzzled that someone like me revealing he is gay was ever considered to be newsworthy. By then, all the relevant laws and court decisions will be seen as steps along the path to equality. But the true compass that will have guided us there will be the basic regard and concern that we have for one another as fellow human beings — based not on categories of politics, orientation, background, status or creed, but on our shared knowledge that the greatest thing any of us has to offer is love.
Ten days later, the Supreme Court struck down all state bans on gay marriage, making same-sex marriage legal on the federal level. He married his husband, Chasten Glezman, a schoolteacher from Michigan, in 2018. The following year, he appeared on the cover of TIME Magazine, with his Chasten, and the words "First Family."
The Atlantic said a Buttigieg presidency could "transform the relationship between gay and straight America for the better." One op-ed in the New York Times praised Buttigieg for changing America with what the author called "Mayor Pete's gay reckoning." Another noted that "Mr. Buttigieg's ascent has made a sudden and unexpected reality of something [LGBT] donors thought was still years away, if not decades." Although the author added that the LGBT community is by no means monolithic.
Any criticisms of his gayness, or his being a white gay man, have come not from conservatives or Republicans, but from the left, from LGBT groups and openly left-leaning activism-journalists — a discord that the right has crudely exploited for their own benefit, with concern-troll schadenfreude. Because most of the writers who've criticized Buttigieg are themselves LGBT. And, while they may focus far more on differences than unity, it's their prerogative.
Either way, it's complicated. All of it. For everyone. But especially for the people in the middle of the chaos.
The most cited Buttigieg hit piece is probably the one from The Outline, titled, "Why Pete Buttigieg is bad for gays."
The author dislikes Buttigieg's ordinariness, his lack of overt gayness, and, finally, his status as a "democratic capitalist." The author concludes,
But it is hard to escape the way that American capitalism and American democracy have worked in tandem both to dissipate and to assimilate the radical democratic energies of queer liberation by giving a very circumscribed sort of gay a conditional membership to the club.
LGBTQ Nation responded with an article titled, "Why Pete Buttigieg is good for gays," rebuking the Outline article, "That isn't an argument. That's self-hatred."
A journalist for Slate wrote that
in a primary for the overwhelmingly pro-gay Democratic Party, Buttigieg can be more accurately lumped in with his white male peers than with anyone else.
Senior politics reporter for HuffPost Jennifer Bendery wrote,
[H]is candidacy is already exposing tensions in the LGBTQ community between gay white men, who benefit from the economic and social privileges of being white men, and all the other queer people who don't.
Buzzfeed wrote, "You Wanted Same-Sex Marriage? Now You Have Pete Buttigieg."
Vice wrote, "Why Do White People Love Pete Buttigieg?"
The Root wrote, "Pete Buttigieg is a lying MF."
The New Republic published an article in which author Dale Peck, who is also gay, referred to Buttigieg as "Mary Pete." LGBTQ Nation called the article disgusting. Within a day, New Republic editors removed it, saying that it crossed the line into "inappropriate and invasive." The removal of the article caused its own controversy.
Buttigieg addressed the negative press on "The Clay Cane Show,"
I just am what I am, and, you know, there's going to be a lot of that. That's why I can't even read the LGBT media anymore because it's all, 'he's too gay, not gay enough, wrong kind of gay.' All I know is that life became a lot easier when I just started allowing myself to be myself and I'll let other people write up whether I'm 'too this' or 'too that'
Negotiating
Outside, among the snow of things and the ice-veiled football field, a vendor wearing a Los Angeles Lakers beanie sold Buttigieg T-shirts and hats, prowling behind two poker tables.
"Buttigieg gave quite a speech," I said to Justin. "But it was so neat and tidy."
"Nice, is the word," he replied. "What we saw was a coordinated effort to be the nice guy."
"That's not so bad."
Buttigieg has repeatedly championed the importance of dialogue between the left and the right. Which would involve broadening the information we consume. Twitter, obviously, perpetuates echo-chamber tribalism. But the news media are guilty of ideological round-abouts as well, so it's a matter of media literacy, what Buttigieg calls "correcting our media diet." He was the first Democratic candidate to appear on FoxNews.
"I also think sometimes there's a sense of condescension coming from our party," he told Bill Maher. "I think a lot of people perceive that we're looking down on them." Which can lead to radicalization. A loss in the sense of belonging.
Truth
Later, Justin and I drank cheap beer and watched the Super Bowl at Beechwood Lounge in Des Moines' Historic East Village, with its boutiques and microbrews and gay bars and pedestrians. Hell of a place to watch the Super Bowl. That long narrow room, steep, a revamped house of some kind. Low lighting. No frill from the bartenders, just abrupt conversation so you know they meant what they said. Home to fashionable outcasts, such as ourselves. The less militant kind with their passion and their certitude, the profound disquiet, a disgust with the status quo.
2020 marked the centennial Super Bowl. Also, it was Shakira's birthday, a fact that everyone in the nation buzzed with, later, during the halftime show, on account of her and J-Lo being hosts, and both giving acrobatically flawless performances. Photo by Kevin Ryan
Toward the end of the night Justin raised his finger, squinted his left eye, and said, "For your series. You should find a universal truth. Something everyone knows but hasn't said or can't express. Give them a universal truth."
On the flight to Des Moines, I read Forrest Gander's Pulitzer-Prize-winning poetry collection "Be With." All week, I kept thinking about one line. A seeming non sequitur. A sentence fragment. "Intuition of the infinite."
Is that truth? When we discover truth, are we grasping something infinite? A constant strain. Reaching for feathers as they float through the breeze. Chasing a rabbit near a busy road and all you want to do is save a creature but it's just too fast and now the danger has spread. Still, in the words of Robert Browning, "Ah, but a man's reach should exceed his grasp, Or what's a heaven for?"
Our era already resigned itself to a life of mistruth, the Age of Fake News Supreme. We know the chaos of doubting whether something is the truth or a lie. A pattern that seems to worsen each day. So it has become harder than ever to apply a universal truth to hundreds of millions of people. But I would do it.
"You're going to see some ads saying there's only two ways to go," Buttigieg had said earlier that day at the rally. "Either you're for a revolution or you're for the status quo. But the good news for Americans today is we have a historic majority ready not only to rally around what we're against to get a better president, but to come together in the name of what we are for as a country."
During an appearance on "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert," Dr. Phil perfectly described how this is possible.
"Why do you think that nobody can talk to each other anymore?" Colbert asked.
"You know, to tell you the truth, I don't think anybody's trying to get along right now," Dr. Phil said. "Everybody is pissed off and it's like they don't want to get along. If I'm negotiating with somebody — if I'm negotiating with you, the first thing I'm going to do is figure out how to get you the most of what you want I possibly can."
Colbert recoiled. "Is negotiating all about winning?" he asked.
"Certainly you want to win," said Dr. Phil, "but you gotta define 'win.' If 'win' is all one-sided, that's not gonna last very long. If you and I make a deal and I say, 'Okay, here's the deal, you do all the work and I'm gonna get all the money,' I might talk you into that today, but three-four days later you're gonna go, 'Excuse me, can we — kiss my ass, I'm not doing that anymore. Nobody's gonna go along with that, you've gotta have a sense of saying, 'All right, let's start by saying, what do we agree on?"
"Okay, that's it," replied Colbert. "What do we agree on? Because it seems like, right now, during the campaign and right now, too, people are having trouble agreeing on reality. People are having trouble agreeing on what is a fact, what is an alternative fact … Why is this happening, Dr. Phil?"
"Any time there's a dispute," Dr. Phil responded, "the first thing I do is say, 'Okay, let's figure out what it is we agree on, because we might agree on more than we think, and then we can have these things over to the side that we disagree on.'"
He added, "So. What do we agree on? Everybody agrees that we're all Americans, that we all enjoy the freedoms that we want, we all want to be safe — everybody agrees with those things, right? If you say, 'What do we not agree on' — okay, now we're talking about the disagreements, but we at least have some common ground. Nobody's talking about that."
New stories come out every Monday and Thursday. The next few will take you through the chaos of the Iowa caucuses. Check out my Twitter. Send all notes, tips, corrections to kryan@blazemedia.com


theblaze--2020-02-10--UK mom who 'misgendered' trans woman now on trial. Her crime? Using social media 'to cause annoyance

UK mom who 'misgendered' trans woman now on trial. Her crime? Using social media 'to cause annoyance, inconvenience, and anxiety.'

UK mom who 'misgendered ' trans woman now on trial .
Her crime ?
Using social media 'to cause annoyance @ @ @ @ @ . '
' I am litigious , ' the accuser said in court

The mother of two from the United Kingdom who was arrested in 2018 for allegedly referring to a transgender woman as a man in social media interactions is now on trial for the misdeed — specifically for "using a public communications network to cause annoyance, inconvenience, and anxiety," the Daily Mail reported.
What's the background?
Three officers detained Kate Scottow of Hitchin, Hertfordshire, at her home before questioning her at a police station on Dec. 1, 2018, over a Twitter exchange with transgender activist Stephanie Hayden.
"I was arrested in my home by three officers, with my autistic 10-year-old daughter and breastfed 20-month-old son present," Scottow wrote on the Mumsnet online forum, the Daily Mail said in an earlier story. "I was then detained for seven hours in a cell with no sanitary products (which I said I needed) before being interviewed then later released under investigation ... I was arrested for harassment and malicious communications because I called someone out and misgendered them on Twitter."
At the time, Scottow had her photograph, DNA, and fingerprints taken — and authorities also took her cellphone and laptop.
Hertfordshire Police confirmed the arrest, the outlet said, and noted that "we take all reports of malicious communication seriously." Scottow was charged for malicious communication late last summer.
What's happening at the trial?
Hayden said the defendant referred to Hayden as "he" or "him" during a period of "significant online abuse," the Daily Mail noted, adding that Hayden also is involved in similar legal disputes with others.
"I am litigious, I put my hands up," Hayden said during cross examination, the outlet noted. "I use the law if I feel I have to use the law. That is a right I have got as a citizen of this country. I cannot tell you how many because, quite frankly, there have been a fair few."
Scottow's lawyer also said Hayden has been in criminal courts 11 times for 21 offenses and spent six months in prison for obtaining property deception in years past, the Daily Mail noted.
Scottow also accused Hayden of posting a racist tweet, after which Hayden contacted a staff member at the defendant's university to raise concerns, the outlet said.
In addition, when police were interviewing Scottow at her home after Hayden's accusations, Scottow referred to Hayden as a "he" — and police officers corrected Scottow, who apologized, the Daily Mail said.


theblaze--2020-02-10--Utah saves money by sending public employees to Mexico to buy prescription drugs

Utah saves money by sending public employees to Mexico to buy prescription drugs Even with the travel costs , it @ @

Prescription drugs for some state employees in Utah are being sent to Mexico to purchase their prescription drugs because it's so much cheaper that it even justifies the cost of airfare, according to Yahoo News.
One example is Ann Lovell, a teacher in Utah who travels to Tijuana several times per year to get the medication for her rheumatoid arthritis. Even though the state health insurer pays the travel costs for her and others, the total cost is still half as much as it would be if she bought the drugs in the U.S.
Lovell flies from Salt Lake City to San Diego and then is escorted to Tijuana to refill her prescription.
Lovell had been paying $450 in co-pays every few months for her medication, though she said it would have increased to some $2,400 if she had not started traveling to Mexico. Without the program, she would not be able to afford the medicine she needs.
"This is the drug that keeps me functioning, working," said Lovell, who works at an early-intervention program for deaf students that's part of the Utah Schools for the Deaf and Blind. "I think if I wasn't on this drug ... I'd be on disability rather than living my normal life."
The cost difference is so large that the state's insurance program for public employees can pay for each patient's flight, give them a $500-per-trip bonus and still save tens of thousands of dollars.
Utah workers who take one of about a dozen qualifying prescription drugs are eligible to take advantage of this under the state's "right to shop" law. That means about 400 out of 160,000 employees are eligible. Only 10 are currently getting their drugs from Mexico.
The state is looking to expand the program to save more money, however, with flights to Canada so employees can get prescriptions from Vancouver.


theblaze--2020-02-10--Twitter user goes viral after insisting that men get periods and Fitbit's 'Female Health' isn't incl

Twitter user goes viral after insisting that men get periods and Fitbit's 'Female Health' isn't inclusive enough: 'I'm not female and I menstruate'

Twitter user goes viral after insisting that men get periods and Fitbit 's 'Female Health ' is n't inclusive enough @ @ @ @ @ female and I menstruate' User says Fitbit responds , and is 'working on pushing this @ @

A queer Twitter user has gone viral for criticizing Fitbit for its "Female Health" tracker because the term apparently isn't inclusive enough — to people who aren't women who get periods.
What are the details?
On Saturday, Twitter user, "Lilo the Autistic Queer," wrote, "Hey @FitbitSupport. I love the 'Female Health' tracker in your app. However, I'm not female & I menstruate. Many trans & intersex people are in this position and feel alienated from menstrual health access. Could you please change the name to the neutral term 'Menstrual Health?'"
The user added, "If people could retweet this to try to get @fitbit to see it, that would be helpful. It's a tiny change they could make that will make a huge difference to a lot of people. I don't want to have to misgender myself and my body in order to access menstrual health tools."
The user — who prefers the pronouns "they" and "them" — also shared a screenshot of what the offending term looked like.
"Here is what the tool looks like, with the one issue circled," the user wrote. "It lets me track my period, tells me when my next period is likely to happen, let's me track symptoms (including on non-period days), keeps track of trends, and tracks fertility."
After the user's tweet went viral, they noted that a Fitbit employee reportedly reached out to them for the apparent sake of inclusivity.
"Hey just so y'all know a Fitbit employee DMed me and said that they and several others are working on pushing this change, but that it may take some time," the user added. "Just keeping everyone updated."
Anything else?
The Twitter user told The Daily Caller that they were referring to people "assigned female at birth" who can also have menstrual cycles.
"I was referring to people who were assigned female at birth," the user said in a statement. "Trans men and nonbinary people who have a uterus and menstruate, but do not identify as female as it is a word strongly associated with womanhood."
The user also added that "born female" is even different from "biologically female."
"'Born female' is not really the best way to phrase it because that implies that someone is biologically 'female' but of a different gender," the user continued. "Female is a gendered word strongly associated with womanhood, so using it to talk about a trans person who is not a woman can be misgendering and dysphoria-inducing."


theblaze--2020-02-10--Colin Kaepernick allegedly wanted $20 million to play in the XFL. Most players make under $500K.

Colin Kaepernick allegedly wanted $ 20 million to play in the XFL .
Most players make under $ 500K .
@ @ @ @ @ not in the new league

One player noticeably absent during the XFL's kick-off weekend Saturday and Sunday was controversial former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick.
Given Kaepernick's fallout with the NFL, one might expect that he would jump at opportunities to showcase his talents on a different stage in order to lure offers. With that not being the case for Kapernick, many have speculated as to why.
Is Kaepernick being blackballed by the XFL?
Not quite. Actually, according to recent comments from XFL Commissioner Oliver Luck, the reverse may be closer to the truth.
What is the XFL saying?
Speaking with NPR on Saturday, Luck shed light on the situation, confirming that the league had spoken with Colin Kaepernick about joining the league last year, but that the former NFL quarterback's salary demands were too "exorbitant" for any agreement to be made.
"We gave it some thought," Luck said. "We have some pretty significant salary restrictions, you know. We're a start-up league, so we want to make sure that we can be fiscally responsible and fiscally prudent. And the, you know, salary requirements that some folks, you know, shared with us were in our case exorbitant, so we, you know, couldn't go down that path."
"We spoke with his representative, and the salary requirements that were broached in that conversation were exorbitant and certainly out of our range," he added.
'Exorbitant' is putting it lightly
Luck's remarks correspond with a Sporting News report from last year claiming that Kaepernick was seeking at least $20 million to suit up for the new league — a demand well outside the league's range.
According to Sporting News, while the XFL is willing to pay more for the coveted quarterback position, they are not willing to pay nearly that much. "The highest-paid players make just shy of $500,000 in the XFL. Not even some starting quarterbacks in the NFL make that much," the outlet notes.
Luck has reportedly made similar comments about Kaepernick's salary demands in the past, telling the Tampa Bay Times last year that "his salary demands are way out of our ballpark" and because of that, "he was never really a viable option."
But, even if Kaepernick were to significantly lower his salary demands, questions remain about whether the league and he would be able to come to an agreement regarding national anthem and on-field protest policies.
The XFL has a policy requiring players to stand for the national anthem. If they don't, there will be consequences.


theblaze--2020-02-10--Professor: We can fight climate change by not having any more babies — then letting human race beco

Professor: We can fight climate change by not having any more babies — then letting human race become extinct

Professor : We can fight climate change by not having any more babies — then letting human race become extinct @ @ @ @ @ death so much as it 's about celebrating the tools that exist to care for @ @ @ @

A professor who teaches in the United Kingdom says in her new book that we can solve climate change by deciding to not have any more babies and simply letting the human race die out, CambridgeshireLive reported.
Patricia MacCormack — a continental philosophy professor at Anglia Ruskin University and researcher of "feminism, queer theory, posthuman theory, horror film, body modification, animal rights/abolitionism, cinesexuality, and ethics" — notes in "The Ahuman Manifesto" that humans have failed to see the damage we've done to each other and other living species on Earth, the outlet said.
What are the details?
"The basic premise of the book is that we're in the age of the Anthropocene, [and] humanity has caused mass problems, and one of them is creating this hierarchal world where white, male, heterosexual, and able-bodied people are succeeding, and people of different races, genders, sexualities, and those with disabilities are struggling to get that," she told CambridgeshireLive.
"This is where the idea of dismantling identity politics comes in — they deserve rights not because of what they are, but because they are. The book also argues that we need to dismantle religion and other overriding powers like the church of capitalism or the cult of self, as it makes people act upon enforced rules rather than respond thoughtfully to the situations in front of them."
MacCormack added to the outlet that capitalism has enslaved the human race to the point of “zombiedom," and ending human reproduction is the only way to repair the damage to the world.
She also told CambridgeshireLive that her book's ideas are "joyful" and full of "radical compassion, which cares for the world. It's not about our death so much as it's about celebrating the tools that exist to care for a decelerating Earth. People wonder why I don't think humans are exceptional, dominant beings — but when I ask them why they think that, I never get a good answer back."
Here is MacCormack talking about the subject last year:
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Not kidding around apparently
Others have come to similar conclusions:


theblaze--2020-02-10--Actor Gary Sinise receives prestigious Patriot Award for his decadeslong service to veterans

Actor Gary Sinise has been bestowed with the Patriot Award, the Congressional Medal of Honor Society's highest civilian honor, for his decadeslong service to U.S. veterans, first responders, and their families.
Sinise, who is known for his iconic role as Lieutenant Dan in "Forrest Gump," was presented with the award last week at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California.
Sinise has spent his entire life giving back to those who risk their lives protecting us. In 2011, the famed actor started the Gary Sinise Foundation, which aims to serve "veterans, first responders, their families, and those in need" through unique support programs "designed to entertain, educate, inspire, strengthen, and build communities."
The foundation generously serves in a variety of ways, including anything from serving meals and awarding grants to building smart homes for those injured in the line of duty and taking Gold Star families to Disney World.
"Freedom and security are precious gifts that we, as Americans, should never take for granted," Sinise says on his foundation's website. "We must do all we can to extend our hand in times of need to those who willingly sacrifice each day to provide that freedom and security. While we can never do enough to show gratitude to our nation's defenders, we can always do a little more."
Here's more about the Gary Sinise Foundation:


theblaze--2020-02-10--Biden laughs when asked about federal investigation against his son, calls Rudy Giuliani a 'thug'

Biden laughs when asked about federal investigation against his son , calls Rudy Giuliani a 'thug '

The months-long impeachment crusade against President Donald Trump may be over, but the underlying questions about the Bidens and their actions in Ukraine still remain. However, Democratic presidential candidate and former Vice President Joe Biden doesn't seem too worried about the prospect of a federal investigation into the matter.
During an interview on "CBS This Morning" Monday, cohost Anthony Jacobs informed the the elder Biden that the Justice Department is taking in information about Hunter Biden's work for a natural gas company in the Ukraine — which occurred while his dad was vice president — from Trump's personal attorney Rudy Giuliani.
"[Sen.] Lindsey Graham [R-S.C.] told CBS News the Justice Department is vetting information from Rudy Giuliani about about your son's work in Ukraine," Jacobs asked. "Are you concerned a federal investigation may be launched?"
Biden began chuckling at the first mention of Giuliani's name and continued laughing as Jacobs repeated his question a second time, before his demeanor transformed into a more serious one as he gave the answer, "No."
"Look, I expect, I expect Trump to do the same exact thing he's been doing," the former vice president elaborated.
"Why has he been attacking me from the beginning, why did he risk — and he should have been impeached — why did he risk getting convicted by going to a foreign leader to say, 'You don't have to get me anything on Biden, there's nothing to get, just tell me you're going to investigate him so I can hurt him,'?" Biden added, echoing a Democratic impeachment allegation about the president's motives in dealing with Ukrainian officials last year. "Have you ever seen a sitting president as concerned about a single nominee, in trying to stop a nominee?"
When asked a follow-up on whether or not Hunter is "fair game," Biden responded, "I don't think our sons are fair game at all. No one has said he's done anything wrong except the thug, Rudy Giuliani. Come on, Rudy Giuliani?"
Graham told CBS' "Face the Nation" Sunday that he had spoken with Attorney General William Barr and that Barr told him the Justice Department had set up a "process" for Giuliani to turn over information he'd gathered in Ukraine so that it could be vetted for accuracy.
Graham explained, "We're to make sure that Hunter Biden's conflict of interest is explored because it's legitimate. How could Joe Biden really fight corruption when his son sitting on the Burisma board?" He also said that vetting information coming out of Ukraine was critical because of the possibility of Russian misinformation.
On Monday morning, Barr said that there is a process to take in and look over information on Ukraine from Giuliani as well as others, but that the department would proceed very cautiously in doing so.
"As I did say to Sen. Graham, we have to be very careful with respect to any information coming from Ukraine," Barr cautioned at a DOJ press conference. "There are a lot of agendas in the Ukraine, there are a lot of cross-currents, and we can't take anything we receive from the Ukraine at face value."
Barr explained that the department has set up an "intake process in the field so that any information coming in about Ukraine could be carefully scrutinized by the department and its intelligence community partners" and the same "is true for all information that comes to the Department related to the Ukraine, including anything that Mr. Giuliani might provide."


theblaze--2020-02-10--AG Barr has 'created a process' to vet Giuliani's info on Hunter Biden, Ukrainian corruption, Graham

AG Barr has 'created a process' to vet Giuliani's info on Hunter Biden, Ukrainian corruption, Graham says

AG Barr has 'created a process ' to vet Giuliani 's info on Hunter Biden , Ukrainian corruption , Graham @ @ @ @ @ at Hunter Biden 's conflict .
Let 's look at Joe Biden '

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) revealed Sunday that Attorney General William Barr has "created a process" to vet information that Rudy Giuliani discovered regarding Hunter Biden and Ukrainian corruption.
Speaking on CBS' "Face the Nation" Sunday, Graham, who spoke with Barr prior to his interview, said the Justice Department has not been ordered to investigate the Bidens but is vetting all intelligence about Ukraine.
"The Department of Justice is receiving information coming out of the Ukraine from Rudy to see," Graham said. "He told me that they've created a process that Rudy could give information and they would see if it's verified. Rudy Giuliani is a well-known man. He's a crime fighter. He's loyal to the president. He's a good lawyer."
Graham continued:
What I'm trying to say — to the president and anybody else — is that the Russians are still up to it. Deterrence is not working.
So let's look at Hunter Biden's conflict. Let's look at Joe Biden. Vice President Biden, what did you do when they told you your son was on Burisma's board? It undercuts your ability to fight corruption. Did you take it seriously? Obviously he didn't. But when it comes to documents coming out of the Ukraine, to Republicans and Democrats, be very cautious, turn anything you got over to the intel community.
However, Graham cautioned that Giuliani's information may have been generated as part of a Russian disinformation campaign and urged the lawyer to turn over his intelligence to the Justice Department.
"Here's my message to Rudy: If you've got something coming from the Ukraine, turn it over to the intelligence people, the Department of Justice, to any Democrat," Graham said.
www.youtube.com
Giuliani has spent an extensive amount of time digging for dirt on Joe and Hunter Biden, as well as searching for evidence of Ukrainian corruption. Gordon Sondland, the former U.S. ambassador to the European Union, said he worked with Giuliani to pressure Ukraine into investigating the Bidens.
Over the weekend, Giuliani claimed he has the "smoking gun" in the Hunter Biden case and claimed he has multiple witnesses who are ready to "name names."


theblaze--2020-02-10--Public homophobic comments could land you in prison in Switzerland under amended law

A campaign poster showing gagged Swiss MP Celine Amaudruz of the Swiss People 's Party and asking Swiss voters in @ @ @ @ @ proposed ban on discrimination based on sexual orientation , charging it will lead to censorship @ @ @ @ @ billboard in Geneve , on January 30 , 2020 .
( Photo by FABRICE COFFRINI/AFP @ @ @ @

An amendment to an anti-discrimination law in Switzerland means public comments deemed to be homophobic could land violators in prison for up to three years, according to the New York Times.
A majority of voters supported a referendum to add sexual orientation to the list of protected categories under the law, which already protected race, ethnicity, and religion.
Opponents of the change fear that it infringes on the right to free expression. The Times reported:
Yet, opponents argued that such an extension was counter to freedom of expression, and that they should be able to express their views on homosexuality publicly. They gathered the 50,000 signatures necessary to force a national referendum.
A committee against the referendum, "No to Censorship," argued on its website that Swiss people had the right "to express opinions that don't please everybody."
"This also includes defending points of view that are irritating, or diverging from the mainstream," the website read.
Proponents of the amendment say it does not target private speech and only aims to penalize speech that is "insulting" or "promoting hatred," not discussion of disagreements on the issue of sexuality and LGBTQ rights. They highlighted examples of violent or threatening homophobic speech that needed to be curtailed.
"In Switzerland, it's possible to publicly say, for instance, 'Burn the gay' or 'Lesbians must be raped' without any concern," Caroline Dayer, identified by the Times as an expert and researcher on preventing violence and discrimination based in Geneva, said.
The amendment is, at least in part, a response to the urging of the United Nations Human Rights Council in 2017 to enact laws protecting LGBTQ people from hate speech.
Same-sex partnerships are legal in Switzerland, but same-sex marriage is not. Switzerland ranks in the bottom half of Europe (27th out of 49 countries) in terms of LGBTQ rights, according to the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association.


theblaze--2020-02-10--Left-wing NYC Mayor de Blasio links new bail reform law — pushed by progressive politicians — to cit

Left-wing NYC Mayor de Blasio links new bail reform law — pushed by progressive politicians — to city's recent crime surge

Left-wing NYC Mayor de Blasio links new bail reform law — pushed by progressive politicians — to city 's recent @ @ @ @ @ stands out like a sore thumb that this is the single biggest new thing in @ @ @

Left-wing New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio linked the state's new bail reform law to a recent crime surge in the city, the New York Post reported.
The law, which requires judges to set most criminal defendants free without posting bail during their pretrial phase, was championed by progressive politicians and went into effect Jan. 1.
What did de Blasio say?
“We had, for six years, steady decreases in crime across the board. There's not a whole lot of other environmental things that have changed recently," de Blasio told WNYC-FM radio host Brian Lehrer about new data showing crime has spiked since the new laws, the paper said. “It sort of stands out like a sore thumb that this is the single biggest new thing in the equation and we saw an extraordinary jump."
According to the Post, the mayor added: “Of course there's always a possibility this is plain statistical variation, that happens sometimes. But I think it's pretty clear that there's only one new major piece in the equation."
In addition, de Blasio re-emphasized his support for giving judges the authority to incarcerate defendants awaiting trial if they're dangerous to the public, the paper said.
"I think judicial discretion should be clarified so that there are very clear checks and balances, so that we avoid any inkling of bias entering into the process," the mayor added in the interview, the Post said, "but I think a system predicated only on the question of flight risk misses the fact that there are some individuals who are just consistently, by their own actions, and by the proof of due process, consistently creat[ing] a threat to their neighbors."
What else?
There have been more than a few controversies surrounding the state's new bail reform law since it's been enacted:
In addition, the Post reported in a separate story that a Long Island man arrested after a fatal drunken wreck Jan. 12 bragged to cops, "The laws changed, I'll be out tomorrow." Indeed, Jordan Randolph went free the next day, the paper said, adding that the 40-year-old also told police the crash was "just a DWI." Randolph was indicted on 24 counts for vehicular manslaughter, aggravated vehicular homicide, and numerous other charges in the crash that killed 27-year-old Jonathan Flores-Maldonado, the Post noted.


theblaze--2020-02-10--'Mad as hell': DNC chairman pushes for an end to caucuses after Democratic Party flubs in Iowa

'Mad as hell ' : DNC chairman pushes for an end to caucuses after Democratic Party flubs in Iowa Iowa @ @ @ @ @ , too

In response to the debacle in Iowa last week, Democratic National Committee Chairman Tom Perez is calling for an end to caucuses and threatening to strip Iowa of its first-in-the-nation status.
"I do think it needs to be state election officials running elections," Perez told CNN's Jake Tapper during an interview Sunday.
"It's undeniably unacceptable. I'm frustrated, I'm mad as hell — everybody is," he added with regard to the party's flubbed handling of the Iowa caucus after a coding issue disrupted the app designed to collect voting data.
Results were not ready to be released the night of the caucus, leading to widespread speculation and distrust. Days after the fiasco, when the majority of results had finally been tallied and made public, the Associated Press declined to project a winner due to errors and irregularities reported by several campaigns.
During the interview, Perez signaled that a shake-up in the order in which states vote is also on the docket following this year's election cycle.
"Is Iowa about to lose their first-in-the-nation caucus status?" CNN anchor Jake Tapper asked. To which Perez responded, "Well, that's the conversation that will absolutely happen after this election cycle."
youtu.be
Perez, though not directly involved in the debacle since it is state party officials — not the national party — who run the Iowa caucus, has nonetheless been pressured to resign.
When Tapper asked if he was considering stepping down, Perez responded, "Absolutely not."
"We are really good at building parties, building organizing, building the best voter file, winning elections ... that's our sweet spot as a party," Perez said.
"But not running elections themselves," Tapper jumped in to suggest.
"Right," Perez affirmed.
During the interview, Tapper pressed Perez to outright demand that changes be made, but Perez was careful to note that the DNC does not have unilateral power to simply end caucuses. Rather, individual state legislatures would have to vote to move from a caucus to a state-run primary system.
One state that does hold a state-run primary is New Hampshire, which is set to hold its primary Tuesday. Democrats will be hoping for a clean result.


theblaze--2020-02-10--Video of police officer threatening to shoot high school student goes viral after the student is exp

Video of police officer threatening to shoot high school student goes viral after the student is expelled

A viral video shows a disturbing interaction between a student at a Florida high school and the school's resource officer.
The officer refuses to allow the student, who reportedly had a valid excuse, to leave the campus and apparently threatens to shoot him if he tries to go.
The 17-year-old student's mother shared video of the incident, which took place on Dec. 17, to Facebook in January.
What are the details?
The student, William Miller, was attempting to leave the parking lot of River Ridge High School in New Port Richey, Florida, when the school resource officer and the school discipline assistant stopped him at the campus gate.
The SRO, who is employed by the Pasco County Sheriff's Office, told William that he could not leave the premises unless he wanted to be classified as truant and receive a suspension. Cindy Bond, the discipline assistant, confirmed the officer's threat.
William, who reportedly only entered school grounds that day to drop off a friend, was headed to an orthodontist appointment, according to the Washington Post.
In the video, the officer, who remains unnamed at the time of this writing, can be heard telling William that he will not be able to leave campus unless he goes to the office to call his parents to confirm the excuse.
William tells the officer that he has a planned excused absence. Bond and the officer, however, insist that he can only leave if he phones his parents to have them confirm the absence over the phone.
When it's clear that the officer is not going to let William out of the lot, William appears to try maneuvering his pickup truck around the officer's golf cart.
"You're gonna get shot, you come another f***ing foot closer to me," the officer can be heard saying. "You run into me, you'll get f***ing shot."
William ends up conceding and goes into the school to call his mother.
Despite the fact that he didn't leave the school parking lot before calling his mother, the school still ended up suspending William from Dec. 17 to Jan. 9. The school then permanently expelled him following the suspension, his mother, Nedra Miller, said.
What else?
The district, according to the Tampa Bay Times, is not investigating the two adults involved in the incident. The local sheriff's department also says that the officer did not violate any policies during the interaction, which was caught on the officer's body cam.
The teen's mother said that "all three" parties were "acting like children" and that "all three" are wrong.
"But the cop more so," she added. "He's just flat-out not OK to be around children. I was shocked that an officer of the law working with children would speak to my son that way."
In her Facebook post, Miller said, "They are the ones cursing and threatening. My son did nothing to provoke such behavior from the 'adult' in this situation."
She added, "We can all see this could have been a disaster. Someone could have actually been hit or shot. No one in this situation is in the right."
Miller also told the outlet that she filed an appeal against the district's decision and wants Bond and the officer to be held accountable.
“I just feel like if they were all acting like children and my son received that level of discipline, they should, too," she said. “They should both be removed from their jobs."


theblaze--2020-02-10--Christians are being captured and killed across the globe: 'World Watch List' takes you inside the c

Christians are being captured and killed across the globe: 'World Watch List' takes you inside the crisis

Christians are being captured and killed across the globe : 'World Watch List ' takes you inside the crisis 'An @ @ @ @ @ places around the world where it costs the most to be a Christian '

Millions of Christians across the globe live in perpetual fear that they will be punished, harmed — or even killed — for merely practicing their faith.
Worldwide persecution continues to be at a fevered pitch, with varying degrees of affliction for those who openly embrace the Bible.
(Listen: Candace Cameron Bure and more — Check out the best of "The Pure Flix Podcast")
This tragic reality is more than evident in Open Doors USA's latest "World Watch List," an annual report that offers "an unparalleled glimpse into the 50 places around the world where it costs the most to be a Christian."
According to the stunning 2020 report, more than 260 million Christians live in places where there is a high level of persecution, amounting to one-in-eight Christians worldwide.
Learn more about the horrors of Christian persecution:
The "World Watch List" gives a lens into some of the most unthinkable scenarios.
"It's the foremost grassroots data on the persecution of Christians," Open Doors USA president and CEO David Curry recently told "The Pure Flix Podcast." "It gives us an idea about the trends of religious liberty generally."
(Read also: Jesus Died For Us: 10 Powerful Bible Verses About Salvation)
He said there are restrictions in most places of the world, but that the areas of extreme oppression will likely shock those unfamiliar with the dire scenario.
From government seizure of property and social exclusion to violence and murder, there is a wide range of ways in which Christians can be oppressed for their faith.
"The most dangerous country where persecution was most intense was North Korea," Curry said. "But as far as violence, Nigeria pops up [high] on our list."
The government of North Korea, for instance, has "great control over every sphere of life," Curry said, with people who are found with scripture or who are suspected of being a Christian at risk of losing everything and being sent to labor camps.
In places like Nigeria — the 12th most dangerous place to be a Christian on the 2020 list — Islamic extremists with the Boko Haram terror group use extreme violence.
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"Such violence often results in loss of life, physical injury, as well as loss of property," the report says. "As a result of the violence, Christians are also being dispossessed of their land and means of livelihood — and Christians with a Muslim background also face rejection from their own families."
Curry said Open Doors collects the "World Watch List" data through a network of researchers who are on the ground all over the globe.
"We measure it across all spheres — church life national life, the community, private life," he said, noting that the level of violence is then discerned. "The trends are all very difficult right now."
You can see the 2020 "World Watch List" for yourself here.
This article was originally published on Pure Flix Insider. Visit Pure Flix for access to thousands of faith and family-friendly movies and TV shows. You can get a free trial here.


theblaze--2020-02-10--Andrew Yang accused of 'demonizing' abortion for saying that it isn't something to celebrate

Andrew Yang accused of 'demonizing ' abortion for saying that it is n't something to celebrate 'It 's a tragedy @ @ @ @ @ they do n't want to have a child '

Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang is being criticized by abortion advocates for making a statement that would have been incredibly wholly noncontroversial in a past version of the American political scene: That the willful taking of unborn life is not something that ought to be celebrated.
During one point of a presidential candidate forum on Saturday, Yang was asked how he intended to message his views on late-term abortion with Americans voters who don't support it.
"I think we have to get back to the point where no one is suggesting that we be celebrating an abortion at any point in the pregnancy," Yang began. "There was a time in Democratic circles where we used to talk about it being something, like, that you don't like to see, but should be within the freedoms of the woman and the mother to decide."
The candidate went on to add:
There is a really important tone to set on this, where you don't just say, like, we're absolutist about it, though I have to say I am relatively absolutist about it on this. Like I think that it should be completely up to the woman and her doctor and the state should not be intervening all the way through pregnancy. But it's a tragedy to me if someone decides they don't want to have a child and they're on the fence and then maybe at some point later; it's a very difficult personal decision and it's something that we should be very, very sensitive to. I think that celebrating children, family, like these are universal human values and if we manage to lead on that and say that we also stand for women's reproductive rights, I believe we can bring Americans closer together on a really, really important personal issue.
While Yang's answer got some applause from those in the audience, it drew scorn and criticism from abortion proponents on social media, where Yang was accused of "demonizing" abortion and spreading "right-wing slander."
Just to be clear here: Yang made it very clear that he supports the legal taking of unborn life all the way through a pregnancy, but merely made the point about how the decision to do so ought to be discussed among people who supported and drew criticism for it, which actually helps make his point to a certain degree.
And while some abortion abortion proponents may try to argue that nobody is celebrating it, it's not hard to see where Yang's assessment comes from. When a pro-abortion group gives out candles that say "abortions are magical" as party favors, when women are encouraged to "shout" their abortions, when art shows declare that "abortion is normal," when New York applauds the passage of an extreme late-term abortion law and the One World Trade Center is lit up in response to it, it's not hard to see how someone could see how the tone on the "pro-choice" side of side of the argument just might be off-putting to those who aren't completely sold on the matter.
But even if Yang could succeed in toning down the messaging on late-term abortion, the numbers show he'd have an uphill battle selling the substance of his message, even to some Democrats. Gallup polling conducted in May 2019 showed that 29% of Democrats identified as "pro-life." And while it found that a smaller percentage of Democrats identified as "pro-life," Marist polling conducted in January found that 44% of Democrats and 65% of Americans over all favor restrictions on abortions ranging from limiting it to the first three months of a pregnancy to not allowing it under any circumstances.