In a recent interview, former US President George W. Bush described the current political climate in Washington as "pretty ugly" and criticized current US President Donald Trump for engaging in "racism and name-calling."

Cindy Sheehan, legendary anti-war activist and journalist currently hosting the podcast Cindy Sheehan's Soapbox, told Radio Sputnik's Brian Becker that she is exasperated by a series of articles favorable to George W. Bush that followed soon after the remarks, especially those from outlets which generally align with the liberal wing of the ruling elite.

"It is really ridiculous and crazy to see that anybody would listen to anything he had to say, and then treat him as if he is some kind of wise elder statesman, instead of a war criminal responsible for millions of deaths, injuries, a refugee crisis, and a crisis still in Iraq to this day," she said during a Loud & Clear broadcast.

Sheehan pointed out that the main reason why Bush, busy settling into his post-White House life as a painter, is in the news is because he is promoting his first art book, "Portraits of Courage: A Commander in Chief's Tribute to America's Warriors."

A former journalist for The Intercept is accused of making at least eight bomb threats to various Jewish community centers and the Anti-Defamation League. The threats were made to settle a score with a woman, authorities say.

Juan Thompson, 31, was arrested by the FBI early Friday in St. Louis. He has been charged with cyberstalking in the state of New York. The bomb threats made to the various Jewish community centers (JCCs) were part of a "campaign to harass and intimidate" a woman with whom Thompson was formerly in a romantic relationship, according to federal prosecutors.

Some threats communicated to JCCs were made in the woman's name, according to the US Attorney's Office of the Southern District of New York.


Thompson is a former staff writer for The Intercept who was fired a year ago for fabricating sources and quotes in stories published in 2015.


The arrest comes after five waves of bomb threats, totaling nearly 100 specific instances, made to JCCs in 30 states since the beginning of the year. The most recent wave occurred on February 27.


Thompson's intimidation campaign against the woman likely began "shortly after their romantic relationship ended," federal prosecutors said. He reportedly sent "defamatory emails and faxes" to the woman's employer, made "false reports of criminal activity" by the woman, including possession of child pornography, and made threats to JCCs in her name.

The Anti-Defamation League was emailed bomb scares at its offices in New York on February 21 and 22, according to the criminal complaint. Thompson is accused of saying in a February 21 email that "[the victim's name and birthdate] is behind the bomb threats against jews. She lives in nyc and is making more bomb threats tomorrow." On February 22, the ADL office received a phone call claiming there was explosive material on site.

Thompson even made JCC threats in his own name in an attempt to claim the woman was trying to frame him. One email threat made on February 7 from an anonymous email account said, "Juan Thompson [Thompson's birthday] put two bombs in the office of the Jewish center today. He wants to create Jewish newtown tomorrow," referring to the Newtown, Connecticut massacre of December 2012.

On February 24, Thompson used his own Twitter account to accuse the woman, dubbed "Victim-1" by federal prosecutors, of blaming him for the JCC threats that she was making, as he alleged. He tweeted: "[s]he [Victim-1], though I can't prove it, even sent a bomb threat in my name to a Jewish center, which was odd given her antisemitic statements. I got a visit from the FBI. So now I'm battling the racist FBI and this vile, evil, racist white woman."


Two days later, another post on the Twitter account stated: "The hatred of Jews goes across all demos. Ask NYC's [Victim-1's employer]. They employ a filthy anti-Semite in [Victim-1]. These ppl are evil."

While Calvin Louis Blackshire Jr. lay dying at a Fayetteville motel, his final moments were livestreamed on Facebook.

Police are now looking for those responsible for the shooting death.

"I just want to know who in the world with any kind of decency would do something like that?" said his mother, Pamela Blackshire, at a news conference Thursday. "It's a shame they couldn't be arrested for watching someone dying and not assisting."

The family and police are asking for the public's help in solving the Jan. 19 homicide.

Blackshire, 27, of Hope Mills, had scheduled to meet up with someone at the Motel 6, 2076 Cedar Creek Road, the night that he was shot.

He was robbed when he arrived at the motel, which is near Interstate 95. Police say someone stole his cellphone and shoes.

Investigators aren't sure whether Blackshire was shot at the time of the robbery or after. But just before midnight, police responded to a call of a shooting. They found Blackshire near the rear of the motel. He died the next morning at Cape Fear Valley Medical Center.

More than 4,300 refugees that would have been blocked by President Trump's travel ban have resettled in the U.S. since a federal judge in Washington stopped the executive order.

President Trump's executive order signed in late January stopped refugee entry across the board for 120 days, eliminated refugee entry from Syria indefinitely, and blocked the entry of all immigrants from seven majority-Muslim nations (Iran, Iraq, Libya, Sudan, Somalia, Yemen and Syria).

On Feb. 3, U.S. District Judge James L. Robart ruled that the order was unconstitutional and this decision was later upheld by an appeals court. President Trump subsequently expressed dismay saying that the country's safety is at risk due to the court's decision.

Eight Iraqi asylum seekers have been sentenced by an Austrian court to between nine and 13 years in jail for the brutal gang-rape of a 28-year-old German woman during New Year's celebrations over a year ago.

A group nine Iraqi nationals, between 22 and 48 years, were arrested last summer in Vienna and two other Austrian provinces and charged with "abuse of a defenseless person and rape in a very humiliating and agonizing way for the victim."

Charges against one suspect were dropped, as investigators found that he was asleep during the assault.

All members of the same family, the men came to Austria as migrants between May and December 2015. Five of them already had refugee status at the time of the assault, while the other four had their applications pending.

Maybe some people just aren't meant for social networking. Sean Spicer, the man in charge of delivering White House news to the public, for example, should perhaps think about taking a step back after his latest Twitter gaffe.

On Thursday, an eager Spicer took to Twitter to announce President Donald Trump's new secretary of the department of Housing and Urban Development, former presidential candidate Ben Carson.

Michigan has a law on the books that grants the police immunity from prosecution if they've had sex with a prostitute during an investigation.

Michigan is the only remaining state we know of which still grants that immunity, but that might change.

Bridgette Carr, a professor and director of the Human Trafficking Clinic at the University of Michigan Law School, is working with Rep. Gary Glenn, R-Midland, to draft a bill that would get rid of that exemption.

Authorities are investigating a Central Michigan University hazing incident in which a member of an off-campus fraternity smeared peanut butter on the face of a student with a peanut allergy while he was passed out, according to the victim's mother and the university.

"He could have been killed," Teresa Seely, the mother of now-former-CMU student Andrew Seely, wrote in a Facebook post this morning.

The incident happened in October, but Teresa Seely said her son kept the matter to himself until telling family Tuesday night. Now, she said, she wants parents and others to know about what happened to her 19-year-old son, who completed one semester at the Mt. Pleasant school before transferring because of the incident. She declined to identify the new school to protect her son from potential retaliation.

"Our family is devastated," Teresa Seely told the Free Press this afternoon. "We thought we were sending our child off to school in a safe environment, and obviously that wasn't the case. He could have died from this. He has a deadly peanut allergy."

A Republican candidate running for a Louisiana seat in the US House of Representatives has defended appearing in blackface after a 15-year-old picture of him dressed as Tiger Woods surfaced online.

Robbie Gatti, who is the frontrunner in Louisiana's 8th congressional district, attempted to explain away the photo in a Facebook post describing it as a part of a dress up event in his church.

"15 years ago, my church held a fall festival, where all the volunteers were told to dress as a famous person," Gatti explained. "Tiger Woods was at the height of his popularity, as a world champion, and that was who I was dressed as."

Since women are "smaller, weaker and less intelligent" than men they rightfully should earn less, a controversial Polish member of the European Parliament has claimed during a debate on gender pay gap, sparking an immediate and fierce backlash.

To support his argument, Janusz Korwin-Mikke, a right-wing politician who represents the remote region of Silesia, claimed that there are no women among the world's top chess players. Women according to him are also much weaker when it comes to physics.

"Of course women must earn less than men because they are weaker, they are smaller and they are less intelligent, they must earn less, that's all," stated the 74-year-old MEP.