90 Miles From Tyranny

Wednesday, December 19, 2018

SPEECH PATHOLOGIST WAS FIRED FROM TEXAS SCHOOL DISTRICT FOR REFUSING TO SIGN PRO-ISRAEL STATEMENT. NOW, SHE’S SUING

Texas speech pathologist Bahia Amawi filed a lawsuit after a school district required she sign a contractual clause prohibiting her from boycotting Israeli products while working for the district.

Amawi worked as a contractor for nine years in the Pflugerville Independent School District. The lawsuit names the school district and state Attorney General Ken Paxton, The Washington Post reported.

“My first reaction was shock,” Amawi said, according to the Texas Tribune. “Why is the government restricting me from boycotting a certain entity?”

Amawi is an American citizen of Palestinian descent, according to WaPo.

Her contract’s stipulations come after Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott signed House Bill 89 into law in May 2017, barring state agencies from contracting with companies that boycott Israeli products.

The bill is a response to a pro-Palestinian movement “Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS),” boycotting Israeli products in an attempt to apply economic pressure on the state. Proponents of the movement say the boycott will help end what they allege is the occupation of and violence against Palestine by Israel.

“This language is required by the State of Texas for all school districts in Texas, along with other governmental entities,” the school district said in a statement explaining the requirement, according to WaPo.

Of the new codes and compliances Amawi was asked to sign, the prohibition of an Israeli boycott “was the only one that was not related to my job,” she said, according to the Dallas Observer.

Amawi is seeking an injunction intended to remove the anti-BDS clause from...

Obama’s School Discipline Guidance Could Be Doomed. Here’s Why That’s Great News.

This year started with a reminder that we cannot take the safety of our children for granted, and Washington has ended the year by taking the issue seriously.

The Federal Commission on School Safety released its final report Tuesday and recommended the removal of federal guidance that has cast the specter of federal investigation over school districts since 2014.

The report calls for rescinding federal directives on student suspensions and expulsions (otherwise known as “exclusionary discipline”) that were based on specious legal grounds and have had troubling results in schools around the country.

The Trump administration created the commission after the tragic event on Feb. 14 at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Broward County, Florida. Among the commission’s responsibilities was to consider whether to recommend that Washington rescind federal guidance issued under President Barack Obama in 2014 that micromanaged local school discipline policies.

Billed as policy guidance to schools to prevent discrimination against minority students, the Obama administration’s “Dear Colleague” letter also contained instructions on how to limit student interaction with law enforcement and alternatives to exclusionary discipline.

Heritage Foundation senior legal fellow Hans von Spakovsky wrote in National Review that this agency-level guidance stands out because it violated federal rules regarding congressional approval for such action.

And a letter drafted by the Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty and signed by state-based research institutes questioned the Dear Colleague letter’s use of “disparate impact.” The federal guidance used this legal theory to threaten schools with investigations if schools disciplined students from certain races more often—even if the same students broke rules more frequently than their peers.

In following the guidance, difficult and even dangerous students can remain in class at the expense of other students. Educators in districts following the federal letter such as Oklahoma City and Hillsborough, Florida, report school safety has deteriorated. A study of Philadelphia schools found that student achievement suffered among the peers of offending students when schools...

Yvette Felarca’s Attorneys Plan 3rd Dismissal Motion, Claim Video Of Felarca’s Attack May Be Doctored

Berkleyside has published an update on the felony case against Antifa leader Yvette Felarca and it sounds as if the case isn’t going very well from the defense attorney’s point of view. In fact, the Berkleyside reporter overheard one of the attorneys saying they would need to come up with a 3rd dismissal motion because pursuing the current path would leave them “buried” in the courtroom. Luckily, they’ll have time to work on that new motion because Felarca’s attorney came down with the flu.

related: Watch Berkeley Middle School Teacher Attack a Trump Supporter

A preliminary hearing for the case, where Judge Stacy Eurie Boulware will decide whether to send it to trial, began Dec. 6. The hearing was scheduled to continue Dec. 18, but Felarca’s Michigan-based lawyer Shanta Driver has the flu, the defense said, so it was continued to Jan. 22.

In the meantime, the defense is likely to file a third motion to dismiss the case, Felarca told Berkeleyside in the Sacramento courthouse Tuesday.
“We’re continuing to look for ways to have this incredibly illegal case dismissed,” attorney Mark Reichel, who is representing another defendant, told Berkeleyside.

The DA is “selectively prosecuting people that fought fascists,” Reichel said. “We used to call them heroes in World War II.”

Speaking amongst themselves outside the courtroom, the defense attorneys indicated they would file a new dismissal motion that argues the case violates due process because it is politically motivated. If they instead continued on the same path to a trial, “Our bodies will get buried in that courtroom, if you ask me,” said attorney Linda Parisi to some of her colleagues and clients. This reporter, who has previously identified herself to several of the lawyers and defendants, was sitting nearby during the discussion. Other observers were also gathered in the hallway.

You may recall that the judge in this case already refused to dismiss the case against Felarca back in May. The dismissal motion her attorneys filed at that time claimed the case was a “political witch hunt” but the judge concluded, ” nothing in these exhibits supports the...

The Russia Hoax has Collapsed

The final nails are finally being hammered into the “Russian collusion” narrative’s coffin, and new developments from the past week should cause even Trump’s most hysterical critics to reconsider (which they won’t, of course).

After speaking with the House Judiciary and Oversight Committee, fired FBI head James Comey came out firing against Fox News and Trump. “So another day of Hillary Clinton’s emails and the Steele dossier. This while the President of the United States is lying about the FBI, attacking the FBI and attacking the rule of law in this country. How does that make any sense at all?” Comey asked, before then blaming distrust of the FBI on Fox News.

Though truly, Comey should be blaming distrust of the FBI on the FBI’s actions. Even former assistant FBI counterintelligence division director Bill Priestap acknowledged that dossier wasn’t verified before being used to justify surveillance on members of the Trump campaign team. And as we documented in “Spygate,” there are countless other procedures the FBI ignored or violated in using the Steele dossier. Is concern over the FBI ignoring procedures to justify politically-motivated spying something that only concerns Fox News viewers? If so, that paints Fox News viewers in a positive light.

Of course, Comey is only deflecting to blame Fox News to deflect away from his own role in pushing the bogus dossier, which is even more bogus than we thought.

The Dossier – Glaring Errors Remain, Trump Critics Express Doubt, and Steele Admits Political Motivation

While it’s not like the dossier had any credibility in the first place, we can revise its “D-” grade for truthfulness to a straight “F” for...

Donations From Russia To Trump = 0. Donations From Russia To The Clintons = $145,500,000

Just a bit of information you may want to share with others – especially those diehard anti-Trumpers who somehow still think the Russians favored Trump over the Clintons. Such a belief is a total fabrication courtesy of the Establishment Media and a whole lot of ignorance. The facts are clear – Russia invested a ton of money into the Clintons and the Clintons gobbled it up even when that investment came at the expense of America’s national security.