90 Miles From Tyranny : 2017-01-22

Finally- a President of the United States and not a Guardian of the Galaxy

Donald Trump has had a busy first week as POTUS. NBC called it “chaos.” Joe Klein, not unexpectedly, calls Trump’s Presidency “radical.” Politico called it “Yuge.” The media is still in shock over Trump’s electoral victory and it keeps churning out fake news:


Since the Nov. 8 election, major newsrooms have overhyped stories suggesting supposedly unprecedented conduct by the new administration, including imposing so-called “gag orders” on government scientists and deleting several pages from the White House website.
….
On Thursday, for example, the Washington Post grabbed everyone’s attention with a shocking headline that read, “The State Department’s entire senior administrative team just resigned.”
The response from media was swift, as newsroomsand reportersrushedto share and comment on the Post’s supposedly jarring scoop.
“All the top management of the State Department have quit because of Trump. ‘Great’ America? Or Little America?” asked the Post’s Liz Sly on social media.
BuzzFeed’s Sheera Frenkel added, “Asked a US diplomat friend how he felt about the resignations at State and the Trump administration so far. His answer, ‘We are fucked.'”
CNN followed up shortly thereafter with a less dramatic story titled, “Trump administration asks top State Department officials to leave.”
As it turns out, four mid-tier State officials were told recently by the new administration that their services were no longer needed. In response, the officials tendered their resignations, which is customary in these situations
Desperate to paint Trump as a racist, the media eagerly spread a false story of Trump removing...

Girl, 16, who stabbed a German police officer after being ordered to carry out an 'act of martyrdom' for ISIS is jailed for six years

  • Teenager stabbed officer with a kitchen knife in Hanover's main train station
  • German-Moroccan dual citizen had travelled to Istanbul hoping to reach Syria
  • Returned with orders from ISIS to carry out an 'act of martyrdom' in Germany
  • She has been jailed for six years at Celle state court for carrying out the attack
A 16-year-old girl who stabbed a German police officer after being ordered to carry out an 'act of martyrdom' for ISIS has been jailed for six years.

The teenage extremist, identified only as Safia S. under German privacy regulations, launched the attack on the policewoman in Hanover's main train station last February.

She was jailed for the attack after appearing at Celle state court today.

The German-Moroccan dual citizen travelled to Istanbul a year ago hoping to reach Syria only to be brought back by her mother.

But this was not before prosecutors say ISIS members tasked her with carrying out an attack in Germany.

She used a kitchen knife to attack her victim, who had stopped the extremist for...

Texas Gov. Abbott threatens to oust officials who promote sanctuary cities

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott is vowing to pursue legislation to "remove from office" any official who promotes sanctuary cities -- potentially raising the stakes for local sheriffs and mayors who defy federal law.

The proposal also could set up a legal showdown between local and state officials in the Lone Star State.

Abbott announced the legislation in an interview Wednesday with "Fox & Friends," saying he and fellow Republicans in the Texas legislature are working to ban sanctuary cities and impose financial and criminal penalties on officials who fail to comply.

"We are working on laws that will ... ban sanctuary cities [and] remove from office any officer-holder who promotes sanctuary cities," he said.

President Trump also signed an executive order on Wednesday threatening to cut off federal grant money for sanctuary cities and states. Abbott already threatened to cut off around $2 million in state funding to Hernandez’s office if she doesn’t comply with the federal mandate.

A sanctuary city is a broadly used term to describe any jurisdiction that refuses to ...

Trump's Immigration Enforcement Big Bang

"This is a law-enforcement agency."

That's what President Trump told Department of Homeland Security staff Wednesday after he signed two executive orders on immigration enforcement.

The fact that he had to say that – and that the assembled ICE agents, Border Patrol officers, and others heartily applauded – tells you all you need to know about how badly Obama gutted immigration enforcement and torpedoed employee morale.

The two executive orders dealt with border and interior enforcement. They are substantive and far-reaching, a change from the pabulum and generalities we usually get from politicians. Some of the directives will have immediate impact, while others will require congressional action and will take time to bear fruit.

Border. The border enforcement order led off with the wall, naturally, calling for "the immediate construction of a physical wall." The definitions section allowed for some wiggle room, saying "‘Wall' shall mean a contiguous, physical wall or other similarly secure, contiguous, and impassable physical barrier."

Though the wall provisions get the press attention, more important might be the other parts of the border directive. For instance, it directs that border infiltrators be dealt with at the border, and not released into the country with a summons to appear in court, often years in the future. The order calls for the construction or contracting of more detention facilities, plus the assignment of asylum officers and immigration judges on site. This represents the termination of what the order itself calls "the practice commonly known as ‘catch and release.'" (Border Patrol union chief Brandon Judd testified last year that more than 80 percent of infiltrators apprehended by the Border Patrol are released into the U.S.)

It also calls for the "proper application" of the law governing the treatment of unaccompanied children who have been trafficked into the U.S. Obama's people used that law (the William Wilberforce Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2008) as a pretext to allow the de facto permanent settlement of thousands of Central American minors who were neither unaccompanied nor trafficked (and often not even minors). Rather than being kidnapped or tricked by what we used to call white slavers seeking fresh meat for the sex trade – the intended beneficiaries of the law – Obama extended its protections to young people coming voluntarily, accompanied by smugglers who'd been paid by their illegal-alien parents in the U.S. This has been one of the main reasons for the surge in border infiltrations in south Texas.

Interior. The order on interior enforcement is also going to have real impact. The part that got the most attention was the directive to cut off funding to sanctuary cities – jurisdictions that take it upon themselves to decide whether an illegal alien's crimes are serious enough to warrant deportation, rather than leaving that judgment up to the federal immigration authorities. (We have a map of them here.)

But there's a lot more there, including restoration of the 287g program, which deputizes local authorities to start the deportation paperwork; reinstituting the successful Secure Communities program to identify immigration violators when they're booked by local cops; and a cutoff of visas for countries that refuse to take back their own citizens when we try to deport them.

Another seemingly minor goal of the executive order will have important consequences: increasing transparency of information. There are to be regular reports on the immigration status of inmates in prisons and jails and weekly reporting of crimes committed by non-citizens, including those instances when sanctuary cities released someone DHS wanted to deport. These statistics will represent an ongoing source of political pressure on sanctuary cities and the anti-borders crowd more generally. The order also specifies that DHS is to stop the Obama-era practice of pretending that the federal Privacy Act applies to illegal aliens, which it specifically does not.

Finally, the interior enforcement executive order includes a matter that genuinely seems close to the president's heart – the families of people who were killed by illegal aliens. It establishes an Office for Victims of Crimes Committed by Removable Aliens, an important change in perspective for DHS. Up to now, DHS has been told its customers are the aliens themselves, which is why Obama created the position of ICE Public Advocate and USCIS Ombudsman, both of them serving as advocates for foreigners trying to get or stay in the U.S. The new victims' services office makes clear DHS's clientele is the American people, not foreigners.

The resonance of the families' plight was clear when Trump concluded his comments to DHS staff with an extended discussion of the victim families, some half-dozen of whom were present and whom he recognized individually, naming their lost relatives in turn. Referring to anti-borders folks who complain that immigration enforcement splits families, he said "they don't talk about American families forever separated from the ones they love." Regarding their role in shining a light on our shamefully lax immigration system, President Trump told them, "I want you to know that your children will not have lost their lives for no reason."

The big thing that was missing from the interior enforcement order was any reference to worksite enforcement or E-Verify. Maybe they will be the subject of future policy directives; the outlines of several more orders have already been leaked, including one addressing visa-tracking and the arrival of people from terror-ridden nations in the Middle East. Vox has drafts of several more that seem legit, including one ending DACA (though why they didn't just suspend processing on Day One, before the order's legal details were fully nailed down, I don't know).

Of course, all this relates only to enforcing the law. Any reduction in legal immigration – which is the most important objective from a jobs or welfare or even security perspective – has to come from Congress. The good news is that Sen. Tom Cotton is apparently working on a bill to...

CONGRESSWOMAN DROPS DEVASTATING TRUTH BOMB ON MCCAIN’S SYRIAN REBEL TERRORIST BUDDIES

The Trump era is off to a roaring start as the new president has spent the week stomping the dismal legacy of Barack Obama into pulp. Trump has churned out executive orders on a daily basis that have sank the TPP, restarted work on critical domestic oil pipelines, drawn a hard line on immigration, ordered the construction of the Mexican border wall and the week isn’t done yet.

The Democrats and their warmongering allies in the media and Congress are on their heels as Trump drives the good guys down the field like Tom Brady eviscerating an opposing defense while he continues to run up the score. On Thursday the POTUS is reportedly going to turn his focus to foreign matters with a series of orders designed to free America from the clutches of foreign interests and to target the U.N.

The real threat to the corrupt order however may be Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard who is being vilified for her trip to Syria where she talked to the survivors of Obama’s ruinous Middle East policies and met with Syrian president Bashar Al Assad.

Gabbard then went on CNN and in an interview with Jake Tapper intended to be an ambush, dropped the truth bomb that Obama and John McCain’s cherished Syrian rebels are actually terrorists.

Check this out, it is very rare that such truth telling is allowed to seep out via the establishment media:
Tapper was clearly gobsmacked after the Hawaii Democrat completely undermined his propaganda.



5 ILLEGALS ARRESTED AFTER SHOOTING WASHINGTON WOMAN 13 TIMES

Police in George, Washington State, have arrested five illegal aliens wanted in connection with the murder of a woman allegedly shot 13 times.

Investigators with the Grant County Sheriff’s Office working in connection with deputy U.S. Marshalls and the Interagency Narcotics Enforcement (INET) task force arrested five illegal aliens who allegedly murdered Jill Sundberg. The woman had been in an argument with one of the alleged shooters shortly before she was killed, KNDO NBC23 reported.

Sheriff’s officials reported the following arrests:
• Gustavo Tapia Rodriguez, and alleged shooter, age 39, charged with murder in the first degree and kidnapping in the first degree;• Ambrosio Mendez Villanueva, age 25, charged with murder in the first degree and kidnapping in the first degree;• Julio Mendez Villanueva, age 25, charged with murder in the first degree and kidnapping in the first degree;• Fernando Marcos Gutierrez, age 33, been charged with being a material witness along with immigration charges;• Salvador Espinoz a Gomez, age 24, charged with being a material witness, and possession of a firearm, drug charges, as well as immigration charges.
The Grant County Sheriff confirmed that all five were in...

Germany's New 'Ministry of Truth' or Achtung!! Ve Have Vays Of Making You Not To Talk!

  • It seems that all ideas suspected of being "populist" -- or simply those ideas without the blessing of the elites -- will now be banned in Germany. This restriction applies to criticism of the government (especially regarding immigration and energy policies), of the EU, of Islam, of government officials and of the media.
  • As in communist dictatorships, the more obvious the failings of the government, the more aggressively the establishment attacks those who speak out about them.
  • Large companies such as Deutsche Telekom (T-Mobile), BMW, Mercedes-Benz and the supermarket chain REWE obeyed straightaway and promised to place Breitbart on the blacklist immediately, and never to advertise there again.
  • A plucky little pizza delivery service responded to the blacklisting demand by declaring that it was "not the morality police". The company was denounced by Der Spiegel as "inept", and after "protests from customers", it ended up capitulating, as the newspaper reported with much satisfaction.
The elites and intellectuals are apparently now counted among the German minorities in need of protection.

Toward the end of last year, Germany experienced a previously unheard-of boycott campaign – funded by the German government, no less -- against several websites, such as the popular "Axis of Good" ("Achse des Guten"). The website, critical of the government, was suddenly accused of "right-wing populism".

The German government's efforts at thought control seem to have begun with the victory of Donald J. Trump in the US presidential election -- that seems to set the "establishment" off. Germany's foreign minister and the probable future federal president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier -- one of the first to travel to Iran after the removal of sanctions there to kowtow to the Ayatollahs -- called America's future president a "hate preacher".

Germany's newspapers were suddenly littered with apocalyptic predictions and anti-American fulminations.

For hard-core Trump-haters, however, a witch hunt by itself is insufficient; they want activism! Since November, Germany's left-wing parties have had a strong increase in membership, as reported by Der Spiegel. At the same time, the federal government evidently decided, at least regarding the federal elections taking place in 2017, that it would no longer count on journalists' self-censorship. The German government, instead of merely hoping that newspapers would voluntarily -- or under pressure from the Press Council -- refrain from criticising the government's immigration policies, decided that it, itself, would inaugurate censorship.
The Federal Government's "Ministry of Truth"

To this effect, as reported by Der Spiegel, the Federal Interior Ministry, intends to set up a "Defense Center against Disinformation ("Abwehrzentrum gegen Desinformation") in the fight against "fake news on social networks". "Abwehr" -- the name of Nazi Germany's military intelligence agency -- is apparently meant to demonstrate the government's seriousness regarding the matter.

"It sounds like the Ministry of Truth, 'Minitrue,' from George Orwell's dystopian novel 1984", wrote even the left-leaning daily, Frankfurter Rundschau.

Frank Überall, national head of the German Association of Journalists (DJV), bluntly stated: "This smells like censorship."

It seems that all ideas suspected of being "populist" -- or simply those ideas without the blessing of the elites – will now be banned in Germany. This restriction applies to criticism of the government (especially regarding immigration and energy policies), of the EU, of Islam, of government officials and of the media.

The Federal Agency for Political Education -- the information agency of...

Silicon Valley billionaires buy underground bunkers preparing for the apocalypse

Billionaires in the world's tech capital Silicon Valley are reportedly preparing for the apocalypse by buying underground bunkers, guns, ammo and motorcycles.

Fearful that artificial intelligence will displace so many jobs that there will be a revolt against those responsible for the technology, the are entrepreneurs readying themselves for doomsday like scenarios.

Reid Hoffman, the co-founder of the professional social network, LinkedIn, told The New Yorker that he believes more than 50 per cent of billionaires in the Californian tech hub are preparing for the worst.

“I own a couple of motorcycles. I have a bunch of guns and ammo. Food. I figure that, with that, I can hole up in my house for some amount of time,” he said.

Others are investing in bunkers and large swathes of land. Antonio García Martínez, a former Facebook product manager, recently purchased five acres on an island in the America's Pacific Northwest. His island home features generators, solar panels, and...

Michigan Man Whose Drug Sentence Commuted By Obama Is Shot Dead

A man whose drug-related prison sentence was commuted in November by President Barack Obama has been fatally shot at a federal halfway house in Michigan after two men with assault-style rifles sought him out, police said.

Two men wearing masks went into Bannum Place in Saginaw on Monday night with plans to kill 31-year-old Damarlon Thomas, a former Saginaw gang member. Lt. David Kaiser said Thomas was shot several times by one of the men as some of the roughly two dozen people at the home were held at gunpoint.

“One person watched over a group of them while another subject located the victim and executed him,” Kaiser told The Saginaw News. “They were looking for this person.”

Thomas was pronounced dead at the scene, WSGW-AM reported. No one else was injured and no one was immediately taken into custody.

“This was a very targeted individual, for whatever reason,” said Kaiser. “The people that shot this man knew who they were looking for and wanted him deceased.”

Thomas had been sentenced to 19 years in prison in 2008 on a cocaine charge, but with the commutation the sentence was to expire in March. He was arrested as part of “Operation Sunset,” a federal investigation that effectively dismantled the “Sunny Side Gang” in Saginaw.

Thomas’ commutation, which was among a group of 79 announced Nov. 22, was part of Obama’s second-term effort to try to...

I Knew Chelsea Manning in Basic Combat Training. Here’s the Story You Haven’t Heard



January 2017 – as one of his final acts in office, President Obama yesterday commuted the 35-year prison sentence of Chelsea Manning down to just four years with a scheduled release date of 17 May 2017. For supporters, it must have been an unbelievable victory, and for her critics, an outrage. For those that have known her, there’s an added dimension of anecdotes, personal interactions, and concrete memories of her conduct, all of which color the quality of that commutation. She is a hero to some, a traitor to others. Either she was an idealistic do-gooder who was intent on revealing state-sponsored human rights violations while exposing the darkest corners of the U.S. Government, or she was a coward suffering delusions of grandeur who invented enemies to blame, lashed out at her own country, and revealed nothing but her own self-sponsored narcissism. Which one is accurate? Let me tell you a story.

In the Manning saga, the debate has always been over her state of mind leading up to and during the theft and dissemination of that classified information. There is no debate regarding the basic facts of what she did and what was done with her. During her 2009-2010 deployment to Iraq, she stole diplomatic cables, daily intelligence reports, and combat footage; she fed that information to the anti-secrecy website WikiLeaks, then separately admitted to as much to a grey-hat hacker named Adrian Lamo, who in-turn contacted U.S. Army Counterintelligence. She was convicted in 2013 on 17 original charges and four more amended charges, including violating the Espionage Act, for her role in illegally disclosing over 700,000 pages of classified documents. To date, Manning has been tried, convicted, imprisoned, and as of yesterday, scheduled for release.

As such, Manning has been a specter in the background of the Obama presidency and a central figure in national debates about everything from Iraq War policy, to the security practices of the Intelligence Community, to the weaponization of information, all the way to conversations about how the LGBTQ community is treated both in and outside the military. Likely few-to-none would have predicted such an unassuming person would be at the center of so much controversy. That is, unless you met her when she first joined the Army and she started down a trajectory toward infamy. In hindsight, maybe it was obvious.

Chelsea Manning and I enlisted in the U.S. Army during the Surge in the fall of 2007 and attended the same U.S. Army Basic Combat Training (BCT) at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri. As new recruits, we were assigned to Charlie Company, 82d Chemical Battalion, 3d Chemical Brigade. Training began 12 OCT and for me, it ended 14 DEC. For Manning, however, graduation from Charlie Company never came. Her problems began the moment she arrived on station.

During Reception and Integration, Drill Sergeants conducted what is known as “the Shark Attack”: the company’s entire Drill Sergeant cadre descends on a busload of new recruits to welcome them to their home for the next nine weeks. It is intense and it is intentionally disorienting. If the recruit displays any emotion, non-verbal reaction, or any appearance of weakness, they will immediately receive the unrelenting attention of the Cadre. They probe for mental weakness and emotional triggers, assessing who will likely need the most shaping, molding, and mentoring. To ensure sufficient stress during this event, our Cadre’s Shark Attack was enabled by a simple instruction: hold your duffel bag in front of your face. Do not let it drop below your eyes.

Every recruit had the same packing list with the same items in that green duffel bag. They all weighed the same amount. Whether you were 6’4” or 5’4”, male or female, all recruits had to carry their own weight. Understand, that no one breezes through this exercise – everybody hurts, everyone drops their bag at least once, and everyone pays the price for it, including myself. During this exercise, Manning’s problem wasn’t that she was too small or not strong enough. The problem was, she quit. As the rest of the platoon faced one way, gritting their teeth and baring it, whispering words of encouragement to each other, she stood at an about-face the opposite direction, and said she simply could not pick up her own bag.

After the first day, lights came on promptly at 04:20AM every morning, accompanied by the booming voice of a Drill Sergeant blasting through the intercom system, announcing the uniform of the day. By 04:30 we were expected to have bunks made, personal hygiene conducted (clean shaven, teeth brushed, pit stick applied, etc.), wall lockers secured, and already be outside, in formation, waiting for the Drill Sergeants to initiate Accountability Report and then Physical Training (PT).

No one could accomplish all of those tasks in ten minutes. Therefore as a matter of custom everyone woke up at 04:00AM and silently conducted their business in the dark. At 04:20 when the uniform of the day was put out, half the company would...