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'Fire Pantaleo!' chants disrupt Democratic debates as protesters call for dismissal of cop implicated in Eric Garner's death

Protests Eric Garner, Pantaleo acquittal
© REUTERS/Michael A. McCoy
Protesters march and rally on the fifth anniversary of the death of Eric Garner, a day after federal prosecutors announced their decision not to prosecute NYPD officer Daniel Pantaleo in New York, U.S., July 17, 2019
A group of protesters lent some spectacle to Wednesday's CNN-hosted Democratic debate, as a group of activists cut in with chants against the police officer implicated in the 2014 death of Eric Garner.

As Sen. Cory Booker (D- New Jersey) began his opening remarks, chants of 'Fire Pantaleo' filled the room, eventually forcing him to stop short of finishing his statement while guards escorted the protesters out of the hall. As they were led away, the protesters continued chanting 'Fire Pantaleo!' as Booker sported a smile, seemingly OK with that.


Comment: No charges against police officer accused of choking Eric Garner to death
Police say they were attempting to arrest Mr Garner for selling loose, untaxed cigarettes outside a store in Staten Island. When Mr Garner refused to be handcuffed, officers put him in a chokehold, which are banned under police policy. Mr Pantaleo maintains that he actually used a legal manoeuvre called the "seatbelt." Mr Garner's medical examiner found that his death was caused by a chokehold.

None of the officers involved in Mr Garner's death have been charged with a crime, nor have they been reprimanded by the New York Police Department. Mr Pantaleo remains an active member of the NYPD.



Wolf

There is only one real challenger to Trump: Tulsi Gabbard dominates online ratings after Democratic debates (before Big Tech censors her) - UPDATE

gabbard harris
© CNN
A real leader (left), and a pretender
While presidential challenger Tulsi Gabbard was the most searched for candidate on Google during the second round of Democratic debates, her rankings on Twitter stoked accusations that results were being manipulated.

Ahead of the Wednesday night debate, former VP Joe Biden dominated Google's search rankings. But Tulsi came out the clear winner across all fifty US states after the event started. Directly trailing Tulsi in the search trends was California Senator Kamala Harris at number two, while Biden held onto third place.

By large margins, Gabbard also repeated her victory in separate online polls organized by conservative media outlets, crushing Breitbart News' poll with 50 percent of the vote, and winning out in the Drudge poll at 39 percent.

The dovish Hawaii Congresswoman likely bolstered her search numbers in tangling with her fellow Democrats on stage, drawing wide praise and attention online after confronting Harris on her tough-on-crime record as a criminal prosecutor.


Comment: Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey actually supports Gabbard, and he donated $5,600 to her campaign - the maximum individual donation - the day after the first round of debates.

Which goes to show that he, like the Zuck, doesn't really have much control of his organization. They and Google are effectively already functioning as 'utilities' - only they're privately, not publicly, controlled.

If Gabbard is not the Democratic nominee next June, you'll know they rigged it. Again.

At least this time more people than ever have the opportunity to watch them do it in real time.

UPDATE 08/01/2019: Gabbard calls Harris response to attacks 'pathetic'. The Hill reports:
Presidential candidate Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii) hit back at Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) after Harris brushed off her criticism following Wednesday's debate in Detroit.

"Honestly, it's pathetic that when confronted with the facts and the truth about her record that she claims to be proud of as a prosecutor, as attorney general of California, all she can do is lob cheap smears," Gabbard told Hill.TV on Thursday in response to Harris's remarks.

The Harris campaign didn't immediately respond to Hill.TV's request for comment.

Following Gabbard's attack of her record as a prosecutor in California, Harris told CNN that she expected to "take hits," calling herself a "top-tier candidate" and noting Gabbard's low standing in recent polling.

The California senator also called out Gabbard for meeting with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in 2017 and declining to call him a war criminal.

In her interview with Hill.TV, Gabbard re-upped her criticism over Harris's prosecutorial record, emphasizing that the senator's campaign is "predicated on being a champion for the people," particularly people of color.

"This is all a lie because when she was in a position to do something about it, when she was in a position to make a difference and truly be a champion for the people she furthered and perpetuated this unfair, unjust system that harmed many black and brown people in the state of California," she told Hill.TV.

Gabbard's comments mark the latest exchange between the two White House contenders after a brutal night of intraparty fighting among Democrats in the second round of Democratic debates.

During the debate, Gabbard said she was "deeply concerned" about Harris's record as a prosecutor, accusing her of locking up scores of of racial minorities for low-level drug offenses. She also accused the senator of hiding evidence that would free an innocent man on death row and keeping people imprisoned for longer sentences to use them as cheap prison labor.

"The people who suffered under your reign as prosecutor, you owe them an apology," Gabbard said.

Harris defended her record, saying she has done more than give "fancy speeches," an apparent dig at the congresswoman.

"I did the work of significantly changing the criminal justice system and I'm proud of that work, to not just give fancy speeches or be in a legislative body and give speeches on the floor but actually doing the work," Harris said on the debate stage.
Tulsi's got a long uphill climb considering that Harris seems to be the Establishment's choice. Notice the difference between these two interviews. Carlson sticks to the facts of the interchange between Harris and Gabbard. Chris Cuomo, instead of doing the same, immediately pivots to the tired canard that Gabbard 'supports a murderous dictator'. The MSM has been beating that dead horse for three years now, probably because that's all they've got to go after a reasonable, intelligent candidate. To Tulsi's credit, she managed to shut Cuomo up long enough make her points.






Play

Spanish cop neutralizes machete-wielding ex-con with flying tackle

machete spain
© Twitter / @JupolNacional
Spanish national police surrounded a machete-wielding man who holed up in a fountain after officers attempted to arrest him. While the man was distracted by a group of police, one brave cop took him down with a diving tackle.

The dramatic incident happened on Wednesday at roughly 5:40pm local time after police witnessed the man taking drugs in public in the Villaverde area of the city.

When they went to question him, he threw his rucksack at the officers and became violent, attempting to stab the cops multiple times with his machete. However, with the aid of reinforcements, the police were able to bring the situation under control and arrest the man safely, if forcefully, as eyewitness video showed.


NPC

Mario Lopez draw wrath of trans community with reasonable statement: It's 'dangerous' for parents to support 3 year-olds who "self-identify"

candace owens Mario Lopez
© YouTube/Candace Owens Show/Prager U
Mario Lopez and Candace Owens discussed Hollywood's "weird trend" of accepting transgender children as they are.
Mario Lopez claims that parents who allow their children to live according to their self-identified genders are setting a "dangerous" example." Mario Lopez claims that parents who allow their children to live according to their self-identified genders are setting a "dangerous" example.

Lopez, a father of three, shared his opinions during a June interview on The Candace Owens Show, a PragerU video series hosted by the 30-year-old conservative figure, but the clips have only recently caught Twitter's attention.

During the 40-minute interview, Owens brought up the "weird trend" in Hollywood that have celebrities like Charlize Theron taking cues from their children as to how they identify. In April, the Long Shot actress revealed that her 7-year-old child Jackson did not identify as a boy.

Comment: Lopez was indeed dropped from his show after producers caved to the woke trans lunatics. RT's Danielle Ryan picks through the wreckage:
Mario Lopez is feeling the wrath of the outrage brigade after suggesting that kids as young as three years-old shouldn't be deciding their own gender. He was instantly pronounced "dead" by those for whom PC culture is a religion.

Lopez made the comments on conservative YouTube host Candace Owens' show back in June, but it took the usually hyper-vigilant PC police more than a month to notice them. Well, now that they have, it looks like no bell can save Lopez, with social media lit up with criticism of his "transphobia," for which he was summarily "canceled" in the eyes of many liberal tweeters. The entertainer was forced to apologize on Wednesday, telling NBC his comments were "ignorant and insensitive."


What did Lopez actually say to cause such outrage?

The actor and host said he was "trying to understand" why some parents support their extremely young children's pronouncements that they are a different gender and that he was "blown away" by adults letting kids as young as three years-old declare themselves a different sex.

Lopez did not launch into a hate-filled tirade against transgender individuals, but simply said toddlers might be too young to understand the full implication of what they are saying. The actor prefaced the comment by saying he didn't want to "tell anyone how to parent their kids" but said in his opinion it was just far too early to make such a big decision.
My God, if you're three years old and you're saying you're feeling a certain way or you think you're a boy or a girl or whatever the case may be, I just think it's dangerous as a parent to make this determination.
Owens, who regularly stokes controversy in the media for a variety of other reasons, agreed, arguing that sometimes three-year-olds believe they are mermaids or princesses and that oftentimes they will be going through a phase that they grow out of. Yet, some modern parents take this as their cue to whisk the child off to a doctor for hormone injections and surgical intervention.

The only arguably controversial thing Lopez did in the interview was to briefly equate a child's announcement about its gender as something to do with its "sexuality" - which isn't the same thing, since a person who identifies as transgender isn't necessarily confused about their sexuality.

There was even a call for Warner Bros. which distributes the Extra entertainment show co-hosted by Lopez to "hold him accountable" for his "gross" actions.


It was a double whammy of condemnation for Lopez, however, because he also criticized the #MeToo era and the #BelieveWomen movement. He said it was "dangerous" to believe every accuser, no questions asked, because it is possible that on occasion a woman might conceivably lie about assault or sexual misconduct - another apparently indefensible position which earned Lopez the title of "misogynist" to go with "transphobe."

As for Lopez's comments on transgender kids, they are actually backed up by doctors on both sides of the Atlantic, who recently warned about the potential negative consequences of pumping kids full of hormones and early gender re-assignment surgeries instead of adopting a wait-and-see approach, in case the child changes its mind (which studies have shown is often the case.)

One whistleblower, a National Health Service (NHS) psychologist who'd previously worked at Britain's only child gender clinic, warned that doctors were worried about being labeled "transphobic" if they looked too deeply into each case to find possible psychological reasons, including past abuse, which might explain a child's feelings.

If medical experts and whistleblowers are branded transphobic for urging caution around the issue of trans-identified kids, then an actor like Lopez has no hope.

Danielle Ryan is an Irish freelance writer based in Dublin.



Broom

Following Trump's scathing criticism, US Navy revokes awards given to prosecutors in case against SEAL acquitted of murdering Iraqi captive

Edward Gallagher

Navy Special Operations Chief Edward Gallagher celebrates after being acquitted of premeditated murder at Naval Base San Diego on July 2. Gallagher was found not guilty in the killing of a wounded Islamic State captive in Iraq in 2017.
Military awards given to prosecutors in a case against a SEAL who was acquitted of murder in the death of a prisoner in Iraq have been revoked by the Navy's top official after President Trump tweeted Wednesday that the commendations should be withdrawn.

Navy Secretary Richard Spencer ordered seven Navy Achievement Medals and three letters of commendation given to the prosecution team be rescinded, Navy spokesman Cmdr. Jereal Dorsey said Wednesday, hours after a pair of scathing tweets from the president.

In the high-profile case, Special Operations Chief Edward Gallagher was found not guilty by a military jury of premeditated murder of the 17-year-old Islamic State prisoner in 2017. In early July, Gallagher was sentenced to a demotion in rank and a reduction in pay for posing with the dead captive's body.

The jury heard testimony from fellow SEALs that Gallagher stabbed the captive in the neck, but one of the witnesses dramatically changed his story at trial, saying that in an act of mercy, he had killed the prisoner by blocking his airway after Gallagher stabbed him.

Comment: See also:


Bullseye

4.5 TONS of cocaine valued at €1bn seized in record-breaking drug bust in Germany

Drugs
© AFP / Hamburg Customs Investigation Office
The 4.5 tonne cocaine shipment, with an estimated street value of one billion euros ($1.1 billion), was seized by police in Hamburg
Germany's customs service has intercepted 4.5 tons of cocaine found in a shipping container in Hamburg - the country's largest drug bust to date.

The container was traveling to the Netherlands from Uruguay and was supposed to be full of soybeans. But German customs agents in the port city of Hamburg instead discovered copious amounts of coke inside.

Candle

Saoirse Kennedy Hill, granddaughter of Robert F. Kennedy, found dead at Kennedy compound in Hyannis Port

Kennedy Compound

An aerial view of the Kennedy Compound, July 25, 2008, in Hyannisport, Mass.
Saoirse Kennedy Hill, the granddaughter of the late Robert F. Kennedy, was found dead on Thursday afternoon at the Kennedy Compound, according to a law enforcement source and people close to the family.

The Kennedy family confirmed the death in a statement.

"Our hearts are shattered by the loss of our beloved Saoirse. Her life was filled with hope, promise and love. She cared deeply about friends and family, especially her mother Courtney, her father Paul, her stepmother Stephanie, and her grandmother Ethel, who said, 'The world is a little less beautiful today,'" the Kennedy family said in the statement.

She lit up our lives with her love, her peals of laughter and her generous spirit. Saoirse was passionately moved by the causes of human rights and women's empowerment and found great joy in volunteer work, working alongside indigenous communities to build schools in Mexico. We will love her and miss her forever," the statement continued.

Snakes in Suits

Lawsuits filed against IBM reveal it fired up to 100K older employees recently to appear 'cool' and 'trendy' to millenials

IBM age discrimination lawsuits

Last March, ProPublica published an extensive investigation that found IBM had fired an estimated 20,000 U.S. employees ages 40 or older in the past five years.
International Business Machines Corp. has fired as many as 100,000 employees in the last few years in an effort to boost its appeal to millennials and make it appear to be as "cool" and "trendy" as Amazon and Google, according to a deposition from a former vice president in an ongoing age discrimination lawsuit.

The technology company is facing several lawsuits accusing it of firing older workers, including a class-action case in Manhattan and individual civil suits filed in California, Pennsylvania and Texas last year.

"We have reinvented IBM in the past five years to target higher value opportunities for our clients," IBM said in a statement. "The company hires 50,000 employees each year."

Big Blue has struggled with almost seven straight years of shrinking revenue. In the last decade, the company has fired thousands of people in the U.S., Canada and other high-wage jurisdictions in an effort to cut costs and retool its workforce after coming late to the cloud-computing and mobile-tech revolutions. The number of IBM employees has fallen to its lowest point in six years, with 350,600 global workers at the end of 2018 -- a 19% reduction since 2013.

Comment: It will be interesting to note how the strategy impacts IBM in the coming years - will ditching experience / competence for 'trendy and cool' have the desired effects?


Stop

Backlash forces Malaysia senator to withdraw bill preventing men from being charged with rape

Chinese lanterns Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia woman
© REUTERS/Olivia Harris
A woman walks under Chinese lanterns in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
A senator from Malaysia's ruling party had to apologize for introducing a bill that would shift blame from male sex assailants to their female victims, whose clothing and conduct allegedly provoke men into harassment or rape.

Mohamad Imran, a member of the ruling coalition's People's Justice Party (PKR), pitched the bizarre initiative because he was concerned about men at risk of being "seduced and end up breaking the country's laws" due to "what women wear." His solution to the 'problem' was as simple as his logic: a Sexual Harassment Act.

Contrary to the legislation's name, it would enable Malaysian males to deal "with the acts, speech or dressing of women that could seduce men into committing incest, rape, molest and pornography, among other things."

Info

NY fire commissioners demand new 9/11 investigation, citing 'overwhelming evidence' of pre-planted explosives

New York fire commissioners

Franklin square and Munson Fire District commissioners: Philip F. Malloy, Jr (left), Dennis G, Lyons (second from left); Joseph M. Torregrossa (center); Christopher L. Gioia (second from right); Les Saltaman (right)
New York area fire commissioners have called for a new investigation into 9/11, claiming that "overwhelming evidence" of "pre-planted explosives...caused the destruction of the three World Trade Center buildings." The Franklin Square and Munson Fire District outside of Queens, New York made history by becoming the first legislative body in the country to support a new investigation into the events of 9/11, according to Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth.

The resolution, read aloud and passed during a July 24, 2019 meeting and calling for the investigation was drafted by Commissioner Christopher Gioia and was unanimously approved by the five commissioners.

According to Activist Post, Commissioner Christopher Gioia said: "We're a tight-knit community and we never forget our fallen brothers and sisters. You better believe that when the entire fire service of New York State is on board, we will be an unstoppable force. We were the first fire district to pass this resolution. We won't be the last."