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Thursday, August 01, 2024

Right Wing Watch: John Pierce, a lawyer representing dozens of defendants facing charges for the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, told supporters in a fundraising email Sunday that if Kamala Harris defeats Donald Trump in this year's presidential election, his "contingency" plan for getting presidential pardons for his clients will be off the table.


The U.N. human rights office has issued a report saying Palestinians detained by Israeli authorities since the Oct. 7 attacks have faced waterboarding, sleep deprivation, electric shocks and other forms of torture and mistreatment. read more


Wednesday, July 31, 2024

It's a a statistical dead heat given the margins of error. But Kamala Harris has done something Joe Biden hadn't been able to do when he was still running against Donald Trump: outperform him in the swing states that will likely decide November's election. read more


The former president spoke at the National Association of Black Journalists annual convention in Chicago where he questioned if Harris was Black, adding "someone should look into that." Trump said he was not aware Harris was Black until a few years ago because she only promoted her Indian heritage, but then claimed she "happened to turn black." read more


Tuesday, July 30, 2024

Former President Donald Trump attempted to explain what he meant when he told a crowd of Christians last Friday that, as far as voting goes, they wouldn't "have to do it anymore" if he wins in November. read more


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More: The strike killed both journalists, who were wearing the blue press vest that over the last 10 months has become a kind of symbol for press solidarity and Palestinian freedom around the world. The attack also killed a child who happened to be riding his bicycle in the area when the missile hit.

Extremely graphic photos and video of the scene of the strike show what appears to be al-Ghoul sitting in the driver's seat of his now-destroyed white car, which was marked as a press vehicle. He is decapitated, with no sign of his head in photos of him behind the wheel.

Al-Ghoul grabbed the world's attention earlier this year when he reported on his own arrest by Israeli soldiers who were raiding Gaza's largest medical facility, al-Shifa Hospital. The two-week siege trapped tens of thousands of people at the hospital, effectively turning the complex into a graveyard.

Al-Ghoul and dozens of other journalists were documenting the raid in March when soldiers destroyed their broadcast equipment, tents and vehicles before detaining them. Journalists were stripped, handcuffed, blindfolded and beaten for hours, al-Ghoul reported, and Israeli troops would open fire if they sensed any movement from the detained press. He said he was finally able to leave the compound by helping escort an elderly man who had been released.

According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, at least 111 journalists and media workers have been killed in Gaza since the current wave of fighting began Oct. 7, all but five of whom are Palestinian. The Gaza media office has put the figure at closer to 165 Palestinian journalists. Israel's military offensive has become the deadliest conflict for journalists that CPJ has documented in 30 years.

Specifically, Israeli forces have killed multiple Al Jazeera journalists since Oct. 7, according to the media outlet. Israeli officials have long voiced their opposition to the Qatar-based network, bombing its Gaza office and banning its journalists from reporting in Israel.

More: The U.N. human rights office issued a report Wednesday saying Palestinians detained by Israeli authorities since the Oct. 7 attacks faced waterboarding, sleep deprivation, electric shocks, dogs set on them, and other forms of torture and mistreatment.

The report said Israel's prison service held more than 9,400 "security detainees" as of the end of June, and some have been held in secret without access to lawyers or respect for their legal rights.

A summary of the report, based on interviews with former detainees and other sources, decried a "staggering" number of detainees " including men, women, children, journalists and human rights defenders " and said such practices raise concerns about arbitrary detention.

"The testimonies gathered by my office and other entities indicate a range of appalling acts, such as waterboarding and the release of dogs on detainees, amongst other acts, in flagrant violation of international human rights law and international humanitarian law," said U.N. Human Rights Chief Volker Trk in a statement.

Israel's prison authorities previously told the AP that all Palestinian prisoners are treated according to Israeli law. However, Israel's Ministry of National Security, the body in charge of prisons, says it has actively made conditions worse and purposefully overcrowded cells for Palestinians held on security charges since the war broke out as a policy of deterrence.

The ministry is headed by ultranationalist minister Itamar Ben Gvir, who has long called for harsher punishment, including the death penalty, for Palestinians held on terror charges.

"Detainees said they were held in cage-like facilities, stripped naked for prolonged periods, wearing only diapers. Their testimonies told of prolonged blindfolding, deprivation of food, sleep and water, and being subjected to electric shocks and being burnt with cigarettes," a summary of the report said.

"Some detainees said dogs were released on them, and others said they were subjected to waterboarding, or that their hands were tied and they were suspended from the ceiling," it added. "Some women and men also spoke of sexual and gender-based violence."

More: The latest disclosure of Robinson's troubling background came last week. The state Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) announced that a Greensboro nonprofit at one time run by Robinson's wife, Yolanda Hill, must repay $132,000 for disallowed expenses submitted to a federally funded child care meal program. The amount could grow if DHHS expands the scope of its review. Robinson previously worked for the nonprofit, Balanced Nutrition. So did his son and daughter. The Associate Press reported that "Balanced Nutrition, funded by taxpayers, has collected roughly $7 million in government funding since 2017, while paying out at least $830,000 in salaries to Hill, Robinson and other members of their family, tax filings and state documents show." The disallowed expenses were not merely the result of sloppy paperwork. And the pressure on Balanced Nutrition to justify its billing does not reflect, as the nonprofit's attorney claims, "political bias in the treatment of Balanced Nutrition and Ms. Hill based on the fact that Ms. Hill's husband is the Lieutenant Governor." The causes of the overcharges are suspicious. In one case, Balanced Nutrition billed the government for more than $10,000 for food and related items it purchased for Gingerbread Learning Academy in Fuquay-Varina, but the child care center says it did not receive any resources from Balanced Nutrition.

The Balanced Nutrition issue follows upon a recent disclosures that Robinson and his wife ran a Greensboro child care center in the early 2000s that was cited for a raft of violations. Those violations included claims that the center presented falsified documents showing that staff had passed training requirements and criminal background checks. DHHS took no further action after Robinson and his wife gave up the business in 2007. All this adds to what's already known about Robinson's past problems. He has been evicted for nonpayment of rent, declared bankruptcy three times and failed to file federal income taxes for the taxable years 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, and 2002. Robinson says shirking his obligations is some sort of everyman trait, just the financial bumps and bruises endured by all people of limited means. He says in a recent campaign ad, "I'm running for governor because we deserve to be represented by someone who's actually lived like us." Most people don't live like Robinson. They pay their rent. They pay their debts. They pay their taxes. And when they are questioned, they come forward. They don't stonewall or repeatedly walk away from what they owe.

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