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Barred big-name candidate publicly challenges Iran's election vetters


RFE/RL
Sat, 12 Jun 2021 10:25 UTC
Ali Larijani
© Anwar Amro/AFP.Disqualified candidate Ali Larijani
The influential political scion and former speaker of Iran's parliament, Ali Larijani, has demanded an explanation from the country's vetters as to why he was excluded from running in next week's Iranian presidential election.

Larijani's query toward the hard-line Guardians Council follows that body's disqualification of hundreds of would-be candidates in a familiar feature of Iranian elections that left just seven contenders to succeed incumbent Hassan Rohani.

There are no prominent critics of the senior leadership or Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who holds ultimate power in Iran's clerically dominated system, among them.

Larijani tweeted:
"Dear Guardians Council, please, between yourself and God, in view of proving the falsity of the reports given to that council regarding me and my family, state all the reasons for my disqualification formally and publicly,"
With just seven days to go before the June 18 vote, it is unclear what the intended effect of Larijani's public challenge could be.

Comment: See also: Iran approves hardliner for presidential polls, bars several hopefuls

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Question

Journalist Christopher Sign, who broke the 2016 secret Clinton-Lynch tarmac meeting found dead, officials investigating as a suicide


The Daily Mail
Sun, 13 Jun 2021 18:51 UTC
Christopher Sign clinton lynch tarmac suicide
© FacebookChristopher Sign, who broke the 2016 story about Bill Clinton's tarmac meeting with then-Attorney General Loretta Lynch, has died of an apparent suicide, according to authorities in Alabama.
The 45-year-old television news man who was the first to report of a secret meeting between former President Bill Clinton and then-Attorney General Loretta Lynch that was held on her private jet in 2016 has died of an apparent suicide.

Police in Hoover, Alabama, said they received a 911 call at 8:13am on Saturday of a person down at a home on Scout Trace.

First responders arrived at the home and found the body of Christopher Sign, a former University of Alabama football player and veteran broadcast journalist with Birmingham's ABC TV affiliate WBMA-LD. News of Sign's death, which is being investigated by police as a suicide, was reported by AL.com.

Comment: From Alabama.com's original report of Mr. Sign's death:
Sign, who grew up near Dallas, previously worked as a reporter for ABC 33/40 from 2000 to 2005, where he covered the 2001 Brookwood mine disaster and hurricanes Charlie, Frances and Ivan.

While a reporter and morning anchor at ABC affiliate KNXV-TV in Phoenix, Sign broke the story of the June 2016 secret tarmac meeting between former President Bill Clinton and then-Attorney General Loretta Lynch.

Sign wrote a book about his experience called Secret on the Tarmac.

Sign also won a 2014 Emmy Award for breaking news for his coverage of the shooting of two Phoenix police officers, as well as an Edward R. Murrow Award for spot news, for his coverage of the search for the "Baseline Killer" and "Serial Shooter" who terrorized Phoenix in the summer of 2016.

Sign attended the University of Alabama in the 1990s and spent four years as an offensive lineman for the Crimson Tide under former coach Gene Stallings.

While at Alabama, he met his wife, Laura, an All-SEC volleyball player. The couple has three sons.
For posterity, the original report filed June 29, 2016 with Arizona's ABC15 by Christopher Sign:
US Attorney General Loretta Lynch, Bill Clinton meet privately in Phoenix before Benghazi report
Christopher Sign

Amid an ongoing investigation into Hillary Clinton's use of email and hours before the public release of the Benghazi report, US Attorney General Loretta Lynch met privately with former President Bill Clinton.

The private meeting took place on the west side of Sky Harbor International Airport on board a parked private plane.

Former President Clinton was visiting the Phoenix area and arrived to Sky Harbor Monday evening to depart.

Sources tell ABC15 Clinton was notified Lynch would be arriving at the airport soon and waited for her arrival.

Lynch was arriving in Phoenix for a planned visit as part of her national tour to promote community policing.

ABC15 asked Lynch about the meeting during her news conference at the Phoenix Police Department.

"I did see President Clinton at the Phoenix airport as he was leaving and spoke to myself and my husband on the plane," said Lynch.

The private meeting comes as Lynch's office is in charge of the ongoing investigation and potential charges involving Clinton's email server.

The private meeting also occurred hours before the Benghazi report was released publicly involving Hillary Clinton and President Obama's administration.

Lynch said the private meeting on the tarmac did not involve these topics.

"Our conversation was a great deal about grandchildren, it was primarily social about our travels and he mentioned golf he played in Phoenix," said Lynch Tuesday afternoon while speaking at the Phoenix Police Department.

Sources say the private meeting at the airport lasted around 30 minutes.

"There was no discussion on any matter pending before the Department or any matter pending with any other body, there was no discussion of Benghazi, no discussion of State Department emails, by way of example I would say it was current news of the day, the Brexit decision and what it would mean," she said.

Sources tell ABC15 former President Clinton did not play golf during his most recent visit in Phoenix.

U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch told reporters the two discussed him playing golf in Phoenix, but it's not clear if the golf reference was aimed at the most recent visit or a previous stop in Phoenix.

Also, ABC15 has confirmed former President Clinton arrived in Phoenix Monday and was hosted by prominent real-estate developer Jim Pederson.

Pederson is the former chairman of the Arizona Democratic Party and once ran for U.S. Senate against Jon Kyl.

ABC15 has been told Clinton was in the Valley for an intimate meeting with a small group of community leaders.

Calls and emails from ABC15 to Pederson have not been returned.
Though five years on, should Christopher Sign death be added to the purported Clinton Bodycount? Some seem to think so, as many of the investigations into the 2016 elections are winding up to present conclusions, and possibly issue charges.





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NPC

Cancel everything! Snowflake NJ school district removes all holiday names from academic calendar, 'no hurt feelings at being left out'

Samuel Chamberlain
New York Post
Fri, 11 Jun 2021 17:39 UTC
statue columbus no holiday new jersey
© Getty ImagesColumbus Day won’t be on the academic calendar in Randolph, NJ this year.
Have a Merry "day off" and a Happy "day off"!

That's the message from the school board of Randolph Township in Morris County, New Jersey, which unanimously voted Thursday to remove holiday names from their academic calendar following an uproar over renaming Columbus Day to Indigenous People's Day, according to reports.

Now holidays like Thanksgiving and Memorial Day, as well as Jewish holy days like Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, will simply be listed as "day off."

"If we don't have anything on the calendar, we don't have to have anyone [with] hurt feelings or anything like that," board member Dorene Roche told Fox 5.
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Eye 2

Evidence unearthed at Mexico serial killer's house suggests 17 victims


Yahoo! News
Sat, 12 Jun 2021 17:30 UTC
mexico serial killer house investigation
© AP Photo/Fernando LlanoPolice walk outside the house where bones were found under the floor in the Atizapan municipality of the State of Mexico, Thursday, May 20, 2021. Police have turned up bones and other evidence under the floor of the house where a man was arrested for allegedly stabbing a woman to death and hacking up her body.
Investigators digging under the house of a suspected serial killer on the outskirts of Mexico City said Saturday they have found 3,787 bone fragments so far, apparently belonging to 17 different victims.

Prosecutors in the State of Mexico, which borders Mexico City, suggested the grisly finds may not end there. In excavations carried out since May 17, authorities have dug up the floors of the house where the suspect lived. They now plan to extend the search to the soil beneath several other rooms he rented out on the same property.

ID cards and other possessions from people who disappeared years ago were found at the junk-filled home, suggesting the trail of killings may go back years.
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Pistol

Cops say Florida Publix gunman posted on Facebook about killing children

Jesse O'Neill
New York Post
Fri, 11 Jun 2021 14:24 UTC
timothy wall gunman florida
© WPECTimothy Wall posted about his desire to kill children on Facebook prior to gunning down a grandma and toddler at a Florida Publix on June 10, 2021.
The man who gunned down a grandmother and her toddler grandson at a Florida supermarket had posted on Facebook about his desire to kill children, a local sheriff said Friday.

Timothy Wall, 55, reportedly turned the gun on himself moments after he pushed the 69-year-old victim to the ground and shot her inside the Royal Palm Beach Publix Supermarket on Thursday.

"There was a chance that this could be stopped," Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw said at a press conference, CBS 12 News reported. "He's on Facebook. He has said, 'I want to kill people and children.' He has friends, obviously, they saw that."
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Blue Planet

Israel scraps its redundant vaccine passports

Arieh Kovler
The Spectator
Tue, 01 Jun 2021 12:20 UTC
jews
© Amir Levy/Getty Images
So farewell, then, to Israel's vaccine passport, the green pass. Less than three months after coming into effect, the Covid vaccination certification scheme was scrapped today, along with almost all of the remaining Covid-19 restrictions in public places.

Israel was the first country to introduce a vaccine passport back in March. Cafes, bars, restaurants, gyms and plays were allowed to reopen to the public after months of lockdown, provided they only admitted vaccinated (and recovered) people. The pass took the form of a QR code downloaded from the health ministry or stored in a phone app.

The scheme was vocally opposed by a small and passionate minority, but most Israelis were just relieved to be able to return to something approaching normality. Restaurateurs and gym owners, meanwhile, were happy they could finally reopen, even if they were sometimes frustrated by the restrictions the green pass imposed. In particular, venues were effectively banned from admitting children, who aren't eligible for vaccination — fine for bars, terrible for cinemas and ice cream parlours.

In reality, though, cafes were full of kids as the green pass was widely ignored. In the last three months, I was only asked to show my pass twice. A few times I was asked if I had one, but taken at my word without needing to show the 'paperwork'. Most often, I wasn't challenged at all. Enforcement of the green pass rules was close to non-existent; as long as coronavirus cases kept falling, nobody was very bothered.

Comment: See also: Vaccine passports backfire - the case of Israel shows that

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Bizarro Earth

Kiev's 'hit list' intends to silence dissent & journalism - that's all you need to know about Ukrainian 'democracy'

Eva Bartlett
Source
Sat, 12 Jun 2021 11:21 UTC
ukraine nationalist
© REUTERS/Valentyn OgirenkoA procession to mark the Defender of Ukraine Day and the Day of Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) in central Kyiv, Ukraine October 14, 2020
Address issues which Ukraine, the West's client state, does not like and you could end up on a 'hit list'. Because that's apparently how flourishing democracies roll...

Last week, photojournalist Dean O'Brien participated in a United Nations meeting to give his perspective on the war in Donbass, Ukraine's breakaway region in the east. Shortly after the discussion, O'Brien came under fire from the Ukrainian embassy in the UK.

However, smears from Ukrainian officials are nothing compared to what the controversial 'enemies of Ukraine' database, the Mirotvorets (Peacekeeper) website, could bring.

Comment: The very Ukraine that the US just gave $150 million in additional military aid to, with the Pentagon declaring that it's aim was to boost their army's "lethality", amongst other things.

See also: Ukraine 'condemns persecution of journalists' in Belarus as it raids press and opposition party offices at home

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Arrow Up

Border officials report a record number of migrants attempted to enter the US in May; Kamala Harris tells them 'do not come'

Kaylee Greenlee
Daily Caller News Foundation
Wed, 09 Jun 2021 06:03 UTC
chopper patrol
© Pedro Pardo/AFP/Getty ImagesBorder patrol deters fence jumpers
Border officials apprehended over 180,000 migrants at the southern border in May, surpassing the record highs set in March and April, Customs and Border Protection announced Wednesday.

Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officials apprehended over 173,000 migrants in March and more than 178,000 in April, according to the agency. Officials apprehended over 530,000 migrants between January and April, compared with just under 350,000 during the same period in 2019, the agency reported.
"Single adults continue to make up the majority of these encounters. In May 2021, CBP expelled 112,302 individuals under Title 42. CBP continues to expel single adults and family units that are encountered pursuant to CDC guidance under Title 42 authority."
Title 42 is the provision that allows border agents to expel migrants due to the spread of the coronavirus.
Migrants over fence
© Pedro Pardo/AFP/GettyImages.Central American migrants -mostly from Honduras- cross over a fence as they try to reach the border fence between Mexico and the United States, in Tijuana, Baja California State, Mexico.

Comment: Harris' telling migrants not to come was amazingly effective. Not visiting the border, she led by example.

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Target

Gaddafi's son seeks Libyan presidency 10 years after NATO-backed campaign plunged country into chaos - media


RT
Fri, 11 Jun 2021 11:48 UTC
Saif
© Reuters/Ammar El-DarwishSaif al-Islam is seen after his capture, in the custody of revolutionary fighters
Obari, Libya • November 19, 2011
The son of former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi is reportedly eyeing his country's highest office a decade after his father was overthrown and murdered by NATO-backed rebels, triggering years of civil unrest.

Saif al-Islam Gaddafi has begun to reach out to Western and other diplomats as he seeks to re-enter public life, the Times reported. Once viewed as his father's successor, he is preparing to stand in Libya's December 24 presidential contest. Speaking to the paper via telephone, he said he was in good health, and confirmed his relationship with a team of advisers acting on his behalf. Gaddafi is expected to publicly announce his political ambitions in the near future. However, it is still unclear whether he will be allowed to run, as a new election law currently being drafted could potentially exclude him from participating.

The 48-year-old was captured and imprisoned by militants in 2011. He was freed by his captors six years later under an amnesty agreement. Since then, he has remained in hiding. He still faces an arrest warrant in Libya, and, according to the Times, is also wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC). Several of his siblings remain in prison either in Libya and abroad.

Sources who spoke with the Times said the ICC warrant could be withdrawn, but that Gaddafi would likely run for office even if it were not.
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Pistol

'People are scared' as gang activity fuels Portland violence

Sarah Cline
Breitbart
Fri, 11 Jun 2021 00:00 UTC
Billboard
© Beth Nakamura/The OregonianAnti-gun violence billboard in Portland, Oregon
When Oregon's most populous city had a rampant gang problem 30 years ago, Portland detectives were stunned if they found more than a few dozen bullet casings after a shooting. Now, police are recording multiple shootings a week with 50 to 70 shots fired, and in one case more than 150, as gang attacks and retaliatory shootings again spiral into a vicious cycle.

With more bullets comes more bloodshed. There have been 37 homicides in Oregon's largest city so far this year, more than six times the number recorded in the same period last year. If nothing changes, Portland will surpass its all-time record for homicides of 70 set in 1987, when the city was in the midst of a gang siege.

The violence has deeply affected Portland, a liberal city that continues to grapple with the role of its police force more than a year after thousands of Black Lives Matter protesters demanded change following the murder of George Floyd. The surge in gang-related shootings, which has disproportionately impacted people of color, puts the spotlight on a sensitive and polarizing topic — felt in major cities across the country — where violence is increasing as people continue to call for defunding police.

Comment: They could stop making stupid decisions or just board up the city, sit on their thumbs and accept the inevitable: A country-wide police state impacting all citizens with no turning back.



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