Louisville Dems Deflect on Breonna Taylor Riots as Officer Pleads Not Guilty

Ben Sellers
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Louisville Dems Deflect on Breonna Taylor Riots as Officer Pleads Not Guilty

(Headline USA) The lone Kentucky detective facing charges related to the fatal shooting of Breonna Taylor pleaded not guilty Monday.

Brett Hankison’s plea comes five days after a grand jury indicted him on three counts of wanton endangerment for firing into the home of Taylor’s neighbors.

If convicted, he could face up to five years in prison on each count.

Hankison’s lawyer asked that his client be allowed to keep firearms for self-defense, saying Hankison, who was fired in June, “has received a number of threats.”

The grand jury declined to charge Hankison or the other two undercover narcotics officers who opened fire inside Taylor’s house with her shooting. The decision not to charge the officers set off protests in Louisville and across the country.

On Monday, Louisville’s mayor lifted the curfew put in place after people refused to end their nighttime protests. Mayor Greg Fischer’s statement said the 9 p.m. curfew had served its purpose.

“We sadly saw some violence, including the shooting of two police officers, one of whom remains hospitalized, dealing with complications of his injuries. But we believe the curfew helped, by ensuring fewer people were out late in the day,” Fischer said.

Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, a Democrat, falsely claimed that the protests were largely peaceful, with a few people taking advantage of the situation to commit violence.

“Let me say this, 99.99% of people that took to the streets or the sidewalks did so peacefully, raised their voices to be heard and we should listen. We should listen to the trauma and to the pain,” Beshear said.

Meanwhile, Kentucky state Rep. Lisa Willner, a Louisville Democrat, said Monday that she’s starting to craft legislation that would narrow the scope of the state’s rioting statute.

Her proposal, which she intends to offer in next year’s legislative session, would protect people from being charged with first-degree rioting if they’re present but don’t engage in destructive or violent actions.

Her response comes after Democratic state Rep. Attica Scott was charged with the felony last week while participating in Louisville protests for racial justice.

Police said Scott was in a group whose members damaged buildings and set fire to a library.

“This is not any attempt at all to weaken the current law,” Willner claimed in a phone interview. “It’s just to make sure that people who are peacefully protesting, who are merely exercising their First Amendment rights, are clearly not engaging in rioting.”

The move comes as radical leftists nationwide have sought to limit law-enforcement’s ability to keep the piece, including the controversial “defund the police” movement.

While some have claimed the phrase is a misnomer and what they actually mean is to “restructure” police departments, other leftist radicals have maintained that the purpose is precisely what it appears.

Efforts to do so have resulted in skyrocketing crime statistics in major cities like Chicago, New York and Minneapolis. Meanwhile, riots in the Pacific Northwest centers of Portland and Seattle have continued throughout the summer, relatively unchecked.

Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press

Google Bans Racy YouTube Competitor LBRY while OKing Pornographic ‘Cuties’

Joshua Paladino
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Google Bans Racy YouTube Competitor LBRY while OKing Pornographic ‘Cuties’

Editor’s Note: Article contains graphic sexual material.

Google, which owns YouTube via parent-company Alphabet, removed a video-streaming competitor from the Google Play store on the pretext that the platform allows pornographic material, Reclaim the Net reported.

LBRY is “a blockchain-based decentralized YouTube alternative” that has been established in a way that prevents corporate censorship, which threatens Google’s grasp on the video-sharing market.”

More than 100,000 people have downloaded the LBRY app.

“Google doesn’t believe you should be allowed to decide for yourself about what you want to read, watch and hear,” LBRY said in a tweet. “They think they should decide for you.”

The company’s Twitter handle, @LBRYcom, described the circumstances surrounding its removal from Google’s app store.

Google said the short film violated the company’s policy on “Sexual Content and Profanity.”

Whether “For the Record” constitutes pornography is up for debate. But Google’s double-standard is clear.

The Google Play store still carries the Netflix app, despite many films on the platform that contain more explicitly sexual material, including the film “Cuties” that sexualizes prepubescent girls.

Libertarians and progressives often agree that conservatives should stop complaining about corporate technology censorship, since they can start their own platform.

But Google’s monopoly power over internet and app access makes it difficult for new platforms to develop an audience.

The tech giant is one of several—including Facebook, Twitter, Apple and Amazon—that have come under growing bipartisan scrutiny for their predatory practices amid growing calls to enact anti-trust legislation.

During recent testimony before the House Judiciary Committee, CEO Sundar Pichai staunchly denied that the company engaged in illegal monopolistic practices, as well as insisting it did not practice censorship of conservative viewpoints.

There is considerable evidence to the contrary supporting both allegations.

Bernie Backers: Vote for Biden, Even Though He Sucks & Deserves to Lose

Joshua Paladino
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Bernie Backers: Vote for Biden, Even Though He Sucks & Deserves to Lose

Democrat Joe Biden‘s empty and uninspiring presidential candidacy has become so obvious that the leftist “Not Him, Us” campaign has openly declared, “We’ve got our own reasons to vote for Biden, and Joe ain’t one.”

The campaign’s premise is that far-left, self-identified “revolutionaries” do not have a candidate to vote for after the failure of socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt. but that Democrats must vote against President Donald Trump.

The #NotHimUs movement shares “Strategic Maxims” and testimonials from supporters that reveal two truths about Biden’s campaign: The campaign lacks energetic and enthusiastic supporters, and it is being controlled by leftists.

One maxim is that “Democrats may deserve to lose, but working people can’t afford for Trump to win.”

Other rationales advanced at NotHimUs.org:

  • “We can’t count on the Democratic Party to defeat Trump.”
  • “Vote today for the candidate you want to pressure tomorrow.”
  • “Things getting worse won’t get us closer to things getting better.”

This does not sound like the language of an ascendant movement, and yet the group desperately claims, “It might not feel like it right now, but our movements are starting to win.”

The testimonials, likewise, have a despairing tone that will not push enthusiastic voters to the polls.

David Sirota, who was a senior advisor and speechwriter for Sanders’s 2020 presidential campaign, affirmed Smucker’s analysis in a response.

Many Democrats blame the Bernie ‘Bros’ for Hillary Clinton’s loss in 2016 because they treated her candidacy in a similar way, which weakened turnout among young socialists.

The #NotHimUs website contains almost no specific policy proposals, but it is filled with vague platitudes about “democracy,” “struggle” and Trump’s “fascism.”

The page’s featured quote from Harvard professor Cornel West, who espouses anti-white critical race theory and advocates for Marxism, gives away the group’s intentions.

“A vote for Joe Biden is … a way of preserving the condition for the possibility of any kind of democratic practice in the United States,” West said.

The group’s overarching concern is that four more years of Trump’s presidency will fundamentally change what radical leftists can achieve in American politics.

“Many people are now painfully aware that the United States is on the verge of falling under an iron fist of repressive rule, crushing basic democratic possibilities, if Donald Trump gets a second term as president,” columnist Norman Solomon wrote about #NotHimUs in Nation of Change.

Some posts in support of #NotHimUs suggest that Biden will allow Antifa and Black Lives Matter to continue their terror campaign, while Trump will end it.

Many Twitter users have reposted a statement from the website that employs Marxist rhetoric.

“Our struggle goes way beyond elections. We’re in the streets. We’re talking to our neighbors. We’re organizing our workplaces. But who controls the presidency profoundly limits or expands the range of what is politically possible for all our struggles. We’re voting for a more favorable terrain.”

There are multiple references to what’s happening on America’s streets, indicating that the group either passively supports or actively participates in the arson, riots, and looting.

“In the streets: one of the most massive uprisings in our nation’s history is unfolding, demanding racial justice and systemic change,” the group said on the website.

Smucker founded #NotHimUs in partnership with Solomon’s group RootsAction.

They reject liberal establishment’s worldview and the Democratic Party, but they seek a partnership with them in order to bring about their goals.

RootsAction, for example, says the Democratic Party’s “leadership is enmeshed with and compromised by corporate power.”

Smucker’s 2017 book Hegemony How-To: A Roadmap for Radicals has been compared to Saul Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals, the ’60s era handbook that had a profound impact in shaping the political tactics of Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama.

Both books train leftists in undermining America’s culture, laws and institutions so that there are no obstacles to implementing single-payer health care, the Green Terror and the unlimited right to kill unborn children.

But Smucker has doubts about the future of the far-left movement.

“The bad news is that the Democratic Party’s corporate-friendly old guard won the presidential primary,” Smucker said. “Now we have a nominee that millions of working-class people and young people are not at all enthusiastic about, and this enthusiasm gap could spell a second term for Trump.”

Yet, Smucker said he thinks that the “old guard” Democratic Party may ultimately succumb to the new wave of radicals like Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y.; Ilhan Omar, D-Minn.; Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich.; and Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass.

Endangered Dem Ala. Sen. Doug Jones Will NOT Back Trump’s SCOTUS Nominee

Joshua Paladino
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Endangered Dem Ala. Sen. Doug Jones Will NOT Back Trump’s SCOTUS Nominee

Sen. Doug Jones, D-Ala., may have sunk his reelection chances in the conservative state by stating Friday that he will not support a Supreme Court nominee before the November election, The Hill reported.

“I regret that I will not support the confirmation of any Supreme Court justice nominee, regardless of who it might be … before the outcome of the Nov. 3 election has been determined,” Jones said on Facebook Live last week.

He did not definitively state if he would support or oppose President Donald Trump’s Supreme Court nominee, Amy Coney Barrett, during the lame-duck period.

Jones said he will “evaluate any pending or future nominee on their merits and vote for or against the nomination based on that nominee’s qualifications.”

Jones won an unusual 2017 special election for the Alabama Senate seat that Attorney General Jeff Sessions had held before Trump appointed him to lead the Justice Department.

But it is unlikely that he will be able to hold the seat in this year’s general election against former Auburn football coach Tommy Tuberville.

The Susan B. Anthony List opposes Jones’ reelection because of his extreme pro-abortion positions and his vote against the confirmation of Justice Brett Kavanaugh.

“During his short time in office, Jones has proven to be an extremist, repeatedly siding against constituents and voting with the most radical members of his party—like Kamala Harris—in favor of abortion on demand through birth, paid for by taxpayers,” said SBA List President Marjorie Dannenfelser.

With help from corporate media, Jones campaigned and has portrayed himself as a moderate Democrat. However, his votes on many crucial issues have toed the party line and rarely, if ever, broken rank.

Voters have since seen his callous disregard for human life, with his opposition to the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, a bill that would outlaw the murder of unborn babies when they can feel pain at about five months gestation.

“Jones is unfit to represent the pro-life, pro-Trump state of Alabama and will be held accountable at the ballot box,” Dannenfelser said.

Judge Grants New Hearing in Dem. Fraud Case after Juror Removed for Praying

Joshua Paladino
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Judge Grants New Hearing in Dem. Fraud Case after Juror Removed for Praying

In a fraud case against former Rep. Corrine Brown, D-Fla., a federal district court judge removed a juror who stated that he had received God’s guidance while thinking about the facts.

The 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals agreed to a new en banc hearing in which all the court’s judges will consider the case instead of a panel, First Liberty reported in a press release.

“Dismissing a deliberating juror for believing prayer is effective denies the noble and civic duty to serve as a juror to hundreds of millions of Americans who seek divine guidance through prayer,” said Lea Patterson, counsel for First Liberty.

The district court judge questioned the juror about his ability to evaluate the facts while receiving the Holy Spirit’s guidance through prayer.

The juror said that he did not have any “political, religious, or moral beliefs that would preclude [him] from serving as a fair and impartial juror.”

Neither did he have “any difficulties with any religious or moral beliefs that are, at this point, bearing on or interfering with [his] ability to decide the case on the facts presented and on the law as [the court] gave it to [him] in the instructions.”

Yet, the judge said that the juror had received outside guidance, which disqualified him.

“How is it possible that we demand a juror take an oath invoking God’s aid in rendering a verdict but then dismiss that same juror for taking that oath seriously?” Patterson asked.

“If this decision stands millions of Americans are disqualified from fulfilling their civic duty as jurors simply because they believe that God answers prayer,” he said.

Brown, who held a Jacksonville-area seat in the House from 1993 to 2017, was indicted on 22 counts of fraud by a federal grand jury in 2016.

The charges in United States of America v. Corrine Brown alleged that Brown used the One Door for Education Foundation to send $800,000 to herself and her associates.

The jury declared Brown guilty of 18 out of 22 corruption charges, including mail fraud and filing fraudulent federal tax returns.

She was ordered on Dec. 4, 2017 to serve five years in prison. She began her sentence on Jan. 29, 2018 but was released early on April 22, 2020 because of the alleged risk that she faced from COVID-19.

Brown collected a taxpayer-funded congressional pension during almost all of her time in prison.

ICE Arrests 88 Violent Illegal Aliens in Sanctuary-City Chicago

Joshua Paladino
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ICE Arrests 88 Violent Illegal Aliens in Sanctuary-City Chicago

Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested 88 illegal aliens in a four-week long effort aimed at removing violent criminals from Chicago‘s illegal alien sanctuary, according to a press release.

State and local police departments had previously arrested the illegal aliens, who committed serious crimes, but they refused to turn them over to federal immigration authorities because of their sanctuary city policies.

“The individuals arrested by ICE clearly pose a significant threat to public safety, yet Chicago-area sanctuary policies prevent law enforcement agencies from turning these criminals over to the federal government,” said Tony Pham, ICE’s senior official performing the duties of the director.

“These terrible policies protect dangerous criminals and street gang members over Chicago’s own citizens,” he said.

ICE highlighted its arrest of four Mexican nationals with violent criminal records.

Immigration agents arrested Octavio Plata on Aug. 31, three days after the Cook County jail released him in defiance of an immigration detainer and despite the likelihood that he would re-offend.

When Cook County released Plata, he had already been found guilty of driving under the influence. He was also awaiting trial for criminal sexual assault in Chicago.

Yet, the Cook County jail released him on Aug. 28.

“There is no justifiable reason to politicize public safety so that the end result is the release of drug dealers, violent criminals and sexual predators into American communities,” Pham said.

“We will do what we can as a partner with the American people to keep our communities safe by doing our part in removing these dangerous individuals,” he continued.

Immigration agents also arrested and removed Hector Gomez–Gutierrez, a Mexican gang member, whom authorities had deported two previous times.

Before the Cook County jail refused to turn him over to immigration authorities and released him, he had been convicted of manufacturing and delivering a controlled substance, possession of a controlled substance and armed robbery.

Gomez–Gutierrez was deported on Sept. 11.

ICE agents arrested Alfonso Orozco–Gaspar, also a Mexican national and gang member, whom immigration authorities deported two times in the past.

Cook County authorities have charged Orozco–Gaspar and convicted him on multiple counts of domestic battery and violation of protective orders.

The federal government charged and convicted him with reentering the United States after being deported.

Orozco–Gaspar awaits deportation in ICE custody.

ICE agents arrested and removed Juan Alberto Gonzalez–Ayala, who had been found guilty of first degree murder. He was sentenced to serve 14 years in state prison for the crime.

ICE finally deported Gonzalez–Ayala on Sept. 4, six years after an immigration judge ordered authorities to remove him.

Since state and local law enforcement in Chicago will not protect citizens, Thomas Feeley, interim field office director for ICE’s Chicago Field Office, said the federal government will do the work for them.

“Our aim is to protect against future victims and keep our communities safe with each arrest of these wanted perpetrators,” Feeley said. “Chicago will not be a safe haven for criminal aliens to reside and commit further crimes.”

Environmentalists Battle Clean Energy Groups Over Killing Birds, Habitats

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Environmentalists Battle Clean Energy Groups Over Killing Birds, Habitats

(Vince Bielski, RealClearInvestigations) Icebreaker Wind, designed as the first offshore renewable power project in the Great Lakes, is backed by the usual supporting cast: energy development advocates and environmental groups like the Sierra Club and the Ohio Environmental Council.

What’s surprising is that much of the opposition is coming from other environmental groups, including the National Audubon Society and the Black Swamp Bird Observatory, that seek to protect birds from lethal collisions with turbines.

They notched a victory in May when Ohio regulators ordered that the wind farm would have to shut down at night, a restriction that effectively kills the project unless an appeal is successful, according to the developer.

Environmental politics lately make odd birds of a feather: Avian groups fought side-by-side with coal-mining supporters to oppose Icebreaker Wind, which proposes six turbines on Lake Erie eight miles off the Ohio coast. Top photo: Migratory birds pass a German wind farm./www.leedco.org

The seven-year clash over Icebreaker exemplifies the growing tension among environmentalists as they weigh the costs of clean energy. The rapid rollout of renewable power is shattering old alliances, pitting green groups against energy projects meant to address climate change – a top priority of other environmental organizations. In a strange new twist, bird groups opposed to Icebreaker found themselves fighting side-by-side with local residents backed by coal mining giant Murray Energy Corp., an opponent of renewable energy mandates in Ohio.

Armed with litigators and wildlife experts, conservation groups have become formidable foes for the renewable energy industry that already faces headwinds from rural communities and the coronavirus recession that has slashed demand for power. In Maryland, a large coalition of environmentalists defeated a solar farm to protect a forest. In the California desert, they are jeopardizing several new projects to save an iconic tree.

The battle is complicated by another fact: While the benefits of any single renewable energy project are negligible in affecting the global climate, the environmental costs, even if they are also small, are palpable.

The Audubon Society lobbied for the nightime ban on Icebreaker’s operation to save an unknown but likely small number of birds. Yet the group rang the alarm bell in its 2014 climate change report, declaring that more than half of 588 North American species are endangered or threatened due to shifts in their geographic ranges.

As green vs. green conflicts crop up across the country, leaders of these groups that are accustomed to collaborating are reluctant to talk about the tensions that now divide them.

The Audubon Society, which isn’t normally press shy, turned down several requests to discuss its position of “conditional support” for Icebreaker. Leaders of Black Swamp and the Ohio Environmental Council did privately converse about their differences over the wind farm but details of those talks weren’t forthcoming.

“It’s a difficult trade-off for environmentalists,” says Michael Gerrard, a professor of environmental law at Columbia who represents communities that want renewable energy projects. “Wind turbines and certain kinds of solar installations can kill some wildlife. But that’s a small part of the big picture. We need a massive increase in renewable energy to address the climate problem so those wishing to protect wildlife should be more flexible.”

Environmentalists say that framing the issue as a tradeoff – birds or trees for clean energy – is wrong. They say the U.S. can have it all by locating wind and solar farms on rooftops, parking lots and degraded lands that have no other use.

“Let’s think about how we build out wind energy wisely rather than move ahead at all costs,” says Mark Shieldcastle, a wildlife scientist at Black Swamp Bird Observatory who gave expert commentary on Icebreaker’s potential danger to birds.

But that optimism isn’t shared by states aiming to cut carbon emissions to net zero in two decades. Although developers in New York and California are trying to site projects on less desirable property, there isn’t enough of it in the vicinity of transmission lines for the planned exponential growth in renewable energy projects. That means today’s mega wind and solar farms – a typical project covers several square miles – will inevitably disturb valuable ecosystems and wildlife and require trade-offs that some environmentalists are unwilling to accept.

“To decarbonize the grid, rooftops, brownfields and landfills are not enough,” says Shannon Eddy, executive director of the Large-scale Solar Association in California. “We also need to build in deserts, co-locate on farmland and get creative and make tough choices about where projects can go.”

In Maryland, environmentalists showed little interest in compromising on Georgetown University’s plan to put a solar farm in a forest. In a state with very little farmland available for renewable energy, Georgetown’s developer proposed clearing about 249 acres of mostly wooded property in Charles County for the project, while taking ambitious steps to minimize impacts to streams and wetlands.

In California, environmentalists are making parts of the desert – a great  location for solar energy – off limits to developers. First they protected the threatened Desert Tortoise. Now it’s the Western Joshua tree./nps.gov

Environmentalists, however, were outraged at the idea of cutting down trees for a solar farm. The Chesapeake Bay Foundation, a Sierra Club chapter, Audubon in Maryland and other groups campaigned against it. They met with university officials and testified before the Maryland environmental department, which heard from more than 80 people. The university’s estimate that the solar farm would reduce greenhouse gases far more than the existing forest absorbs didn’t seem to matter.

“There were too many ecological issues and consultation concerns with the developer to support this project,” says Rosa Hance, chair of the Maryland chapter of the Sierra Club. “Generally, the Sierra Club does not oppose solar projects.”

Maryland denied the permit last year, saying the developer failed to adequately address alternative sites and water quality issues. But Georgetown isn’t giving up. A spokeswoman says the university is committed to the robust deployment of renewable energy as part of its goal to cut fossil-fuel consumption.

In California, environmentalists are making parts of the desert – one of the world’s best locations for solar energy – off limits to developers. First they protected the threatened Desert Tortoise. Now it’s the Western Joshua tree.

The short, spike-leafed tree that populates the Mojave Desert is headed for extinction in coming decades due to climate change, fires and development, including solar farms, says Brendan Cummings, an attorney and conservation director at the Center for Biological Diversity. The center petitioned the California Fish and Game Commission to make the tree, which is actually a yucca plant, a candidate for the endangered species list. On Aug. 20, the commissioners suggested that they would soon approve the petition – a move that would safeguard the Joshua tree while regulators study whether to designate it.

“When planning solar projects, if there are Joshua trees there, it’s probably not a good site,” Cummings says. “The Joshua tree range represents a small fraction of the California desert, so there’s land that can be built on without touching a tree.”

The solar industry adamantly opposes the petition. A half dozen solar farms totaling 1,400 megawatts – enough to power hundreds of thousands of homes — that have permits or are in the process of getting them would be affected if the commission protects the tree. Some are slated to begin construction this year. The Solar Energy Industries Association and Large-scale Solar Association warned the commission in June that these projects would face costly delays and uncertainty, undermining California’s push to produce 100% of its power using clean sources by 2045.

“SEIA and LSA cannot emphasize strongly enough the negative impact that advancing the Joshua tree to candidacy will have on solar development in California,” the groups wrote.

Millions of migratory bats and birds (a warbler, above) ride the Lake Erie winds, mostly at night. The Icebreaker Wind controversy is over how many animals the project will kill amid sharp declines because of development and climate change./Nature.org

In Ohio, bird conservation groups are threatening the future of wind power in the Great Lakes. The powerful winds that blow across the lakes make them ideal locations for projects like Icebreaker. If successful, the demonstration wind farm could turn Lake Erie into a renewable power mecca with more than 1,000 turbines and spur a buildout across the Great Lakes.

But millions of migratory bats and birds such as thrushes and warblers ride those winds, mostly at night. The Icebreaker controversy is over how many animals it will kill amid sharp declines in most North American bird species, primarily from the loss of habitat because of development and climate change.

Icebreaker’s small size and location reduces the danger for wildlife. Most migratory birds wouldn’t encounter its six turbines situated 8 to 10 miles offshore because they fly near land to avoid the long passage over the lake.

Still, questions remain about the volume of birds that fly over the lake in the project area at night, when they can’t see the turbines, and if they descend low enough to collide with the long spinning blades that have a diameter of 413 feet.

Icebreaker shows the difficulty renewable energy developers face in assessing the impact of wind and solar farms on wildlife, particularly birds, even when using state of the art scientific methods. After a range of studies were conducted, which mostly suggest that Icebreaker wouldn’t pose a big threat to birds, serious debates continue over the quality of the research.

Dave Karpinski, LEEDCo President: A study finding that at most 140 birds a year would be killed “backs up our position that Icebreaker is a low risk.”/LEEDCo.org

The Lake Erie Energy Development Corp. (LEEDCo) tried and failed to answer the questions about avian exposure to its Icebreaker project because of the technical challenges of using marine radar to spot little birds flying at night, particularly during bad weather.

While agreeing to conduct a better radar study, LEEDCo President Dave Karpinski downplays its importance, saying just because birds fly in the area of a wind farm doesn’t mean they will be killed by turbines.

Karpinski says a better indication of Icebreaker’s risk is the actual number of birds killed at 42 wind farms operating in the Great Lakes region. A LEEDCo consultant found a small number of fatalities on average at the projects, and extrapolated that a maximum of 140 birds a year would be killed by Icebreaker.

“That backs up our position that Icebreaker is a low risk to birds,” Karpinski says.

But bird groups called this research flawed because of superficial methods used to search for the dead birds.

“My review of several of those reports shows a series of manipulations that are designed to reduce estimated mortality,” says Black Swamp’s Shieldcastle, a former avian research specialist at the Ohio Division of Wildlife. “The truth is much greater, maybe magnitudes greater. The science has to be done with the highest standards possible because we are making decisions for the future of wind power in Lake Erie.”

The staff of the Ohio Power Siting Board (OPSB), which considers energy projects for approval, was initially concerned about Icebreaker’s threat to birds and proposed in 2018 that its turbines would have to be stopped at night for most of the year. A few months later Karpinski testified that such a shutdown would spell the end of Icebreaker before negotiating a settlement agreement with the staff in 2019 to remove the restrictions.

In exchange, Karpinski agreed to more safeguards, including proving to regulators that his group has developed technology to detect bird collisions offshore before it can build Icebreaker. Once the turbines are operating, if there are 21 or more detected bird strikes in a 24-hour period, LEEDCo will have to take steps to reduce the fatalities.

Sam Randazzo, longtime fossil fuel advocate: This Ohio public official got behind a delay of Icebreaker Wind — with support of the American Audubon Society./Ohio Power Siting Board

Local residents, whose legal fees were paid by Murray Energy, joined bird groups in objecting to the agreement. Residents of the village of Bratenahl on Lake Erie said testimony showed there are no proven technologies to determine bird fatalities for offshore projects and that curbing the turbines at night would help reduce them. Attorney John Stock told RealClearInvestigations that Murray, which declared bankruptcy last year, “is not funding the Bratenahl residents’ opposition at this point.”

For the past three decades, the OPSB has consistently voted to uphold settlement agreements negotiated by its staff, according to a person familiar with the board process. But last year that long precedent changed with the appointment of Sam Randazzo as OPSB chairman by Republican Governor Mike DeWine. Randazzo, who had been a longtime advocate of the fossil fuel industry and critic of renewable energy, unexpectedly delayed board votes last year for months on two solar projects that involved settlement agreements.

In May, the board undermined Icebreaker. It rejected its staff finding that the project poses a minimal risk to birds and imposed the curb on nighttime operations for eight months a year until further studies show it’s not a big threat. The board noted that the Audubon Society supported its position.

“The board under Randazzo’s leadership has a history of treating renewable energy projects differently than other energy resources,” says Miranda Leppla, vice president of energy policy for the Ohio Environmental Council (OEC). “The imposition of the poison pill in its approval of the Icebreaker contradicts clear and substantial evidence on the record.” Randazzo declined a request for an interview.

The green vs. green struggle in Ohio isn’t over. The OEC and Sierra Club are appealing the board’s order for ignoring evidence that Icebreaker is a low risk project. The board could rule on the appeal as early as this month, and if it’s rejected, Icebreaker supporters can turn to the Supreme Court of Ohio…Original Source…

DOJ Gives Epstein-like Slap on the Wrist to JPMorgan Chase

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DOJ Gives Epstein-like Slap on the Wrist to JPMorgan Chase

(Clint Siegner, Money Metals News Service) Gold and silver investors may have little in common with Jeffrey Epstein’s teenage victims or violent “Black Lives Matter” rioters, but there is one issue upon which they might all agree.

Our system of justice often fails.

Department of Justice officials refuse to apply the rule of law fairly.

Their dereliction of duty is crushing confidence and generating outrage.

Last week, the DOJ ended the criminal prosecution of JPMorgan Chase bank, settling for a $1 billion fine.

No high-level executives will be sent to prison, and the bank’s trading privileges will not be limited in any way.

Bank executives will simply write a check equivalent to less than 3% of 2019 net profits.

The fine will be paid using shareholder money.

CEO Jamie Dimon and the other high-level executives who presided during the pervasive, decade-long swindle will not write any personal checks.

It was great public relations when DOJ officials announced the criminal inquiry and invoked RICO laws.

Victims of the bank might have assumed investigators planned to throw the book at JPMorgan.

The Department of Justice should only be counted on to make sure well-connected and ultra-wealthy criminals are never held responsible for their deeds, whether it be JPMorgan executives or the people in Jeffrey Epstein’s little black book.

The penalty won’t even begin to match victims’ losses, or the bank’s ill-gotten gains, accrued during the years of crooked trading.

And it certainly isn’t sufficient to make the bank think twice about cheating again, other than to perhaps do a better job of covering tracks.

The site JPMadoff.com has a clever way of laying out just what a massive criminal enterprise the Wall Street behemoth is. There are dozens of frauds and hundreds of thousands of victims.

Wall Street’s sharpest criminals have it figured out. The trick is to operate inside a public company and make sure politicians and regulators are well-greased.

The company may occasionally get prosecuted and pay some fines. But the corporate shell, which of course can’t be sent to prison, takes what little heat there is from authorities… and shareholders take care of the fines.

The best hope metals investors have for actual justice remains with the civil courts. Class action suits against JPMorgan, put on pause while the DOJ performed its sham prosecution, should soon resume. Attorneys have a cornucopia of damning evidence, including documents, chat logs, and voice recordings.

They will be presenting to juries, rather than to the bought and paid for regulators. With a rap sheet as long and terrible as JPMorgan’s, we can hope these juries will be far less sympathetic than the bureaucrats at the DOJ…Original Source…

Clint Siegner is a Director at Money Metals Exchange, a precious metals dealer recently named “Best in the USA” by an independent global ratings group. A graduate of Linfield College in Oregon, Siegner puts his experience in business management along with his passion for personal liberty, limited government, and honest money into the development of Money Metals’ brand and reach. This includes writing extensively on the bullion markets and their intersection with policy and world affairs.

Project Veritas Reveals Massive Vote-Fraud Scheme Linked to Ilhan Omar

Ben Sellers
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Project Veritas Reveals Massive Vote-Fraud Scheme Linked to Ilhan Omar

The latest exposé by Project Veritas has revealed voting operations in pockets of Minneapolis‘s Somali community that resemble the the warlord-led clans of their native country more than American democracy.

The corrupt and illegal ballot-harvesting operations not only elevated Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., into office but also helped secure spots for local city officials.

The video report led President Donald Trump on Monday to call for action.

Many of the alleged victims may not even be American citizens, according to whistleblower Omar Jamal, who works with Ramsey County Sheriff Department and is chairman of the Somali Watchdog Group.

Refugees of the war-torn African conflict zone are still obligated to undergo the naturalization process before becoming eligible to vote.

“We have to understand that the immigrants mostly, here now, are first generation immigrants,” Jamal said.

“Through no fault of their own the new immigrants are learning about democracy from the ballot harvesters,” he added. “When they get here, because of that ignorance, not knowing how this, all things work. Sometimes they even think it’s legal.”

As a result, many of the political operatives involved in defrauding senior citizens and other members of the Somali community do so brazenly without even trying to conceal their operations.

“It’s an open secret,” Jamal said. “she [Omar] will do anything that she can do to get elected, and she has hundreds of people on the streets doing that.”

One operative, Liban Mohamed, was caught on a July Snapchat video bragging about the number of blank absentee ballots he had collected and appearing to admit to a cash-for-vote scheme.

He claimed to be the brother of Jamal Osman, who won the city’s Ward 6 council seat in a special election on the same day as Omar’s primary.

Mohamed said he had collected 300 ballots for Osman by 7:30 am that morning.

“Money is everything. Money is the king in this world,” he boasted, weaving in and out of English and his native Somali language.

“If you got no money, you should not be here, period, you know what I am saying?” he continued. “Money is everything, and a campaign is managed by money.”

However, not all of the operations pay cash. Some collected ballots from senior-living centers where the residents simply had their ballots confiscated.

And other victims reported that the coercion included intimidation tactics.

“They fight you if you speak up,” said one Project Veritas insider.

Jamal warned that by shrugging off isolated incidents of systemic vote fraud, the operations risked becoming entrenched in the culture and spreading elsewhere.

“If American people don’t pay attention to what’s happening, the country will collapse,” he said.

“The regulations, if you ignore that and you let corruption and fraud become a daily business and then tough luck, the country will not exist as they [Americans] know it,” he added.

Already, he said, Minnesota’s statewide Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party seemed to have turned a blind eye to the operations, if not embraced them.

“I’m afraid it’s already too big to stop, you know, maybe it’s too late,” Jamal said.

“Maybe it’s already too big to stop,” he continued. “There’s a lot of people invested in this, you know, and they don’t care how they did it: ‘We win,’ and that’s it.”

Hennepin County Attorney Jeff Wojciechowski reassured Project Veritas that the operations revealed in the video were “illegal, and we will be investigating.”

Facebook Censors Tucker Carlson for Undefined ‘False News’ a Month Before Election

Joshua Paladino
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Facebook Censors Tucker Carlson for Undefined ‘False News’ a Month Before Election

Facebook on Thursday openly censored Fox News host Tucker Carlson “because of repeated sharing of false news,” Reclaim the Net reported.

The platform did not offer any evidence of “false news” or even a criteria for what it classifies as “false news.”

The host of Tucker Carlson Tonight posted a screenshot about “Page Restrictions” that Facebook placed on the page.

“Today’s censorship by Facebook,” the page said. “‘Reduced Distribution.’ It’s no coincidence that the election is just weeks away.”

Facebook’s message to Carlson said, “Your page has reduced distribution and other restrictions because of repeated sharing of false news. People will also be able to see if a Page has a history of sharing false news.”

The increased censorship comes a little more than a month away from the presidential election, during which time technology monopolies hope to use their power to secure Democrat Joe Biden’s victory.

Unlike old-school Democrats, who worried about corporate consolidation, Biden has not shown any concern about the alarming growth of corporate power, especially in the areas of technology and finance.

He has accepted more donations from billionaires than President Donald Trump, Forbes reported.

Carlson has consistently challenged the corporate media’s narrative on political issues from COVID to Black Lives Matter, while going after Google, Facebook and Twitter for their censorship policies.

Among his most recent alleged heresies, Carlson showed that Breonna Taylor‘s death was an unfortunate but accidental tragedy, not an episode of systemic injustice fueled by racial animus.

Facebook’s decision to censor Carlson comes about a week after both Facebook and Instagram added warning labels to his posts about the coronavirus, Variety reported.

“This post repeats information about COVID-19 that has been reviewed by independent fact-checkers,” the warnings  claimed.

Evidence has revealed the social-media platform’s so-called independent fact-checkers are linked to the corrupt, China-backed World Health Organization and other groups that have a vested interest in suppressing skeptical viewpoints.

That specific warning came in response to an interview he held with Chinese virologist Dr. Li-Meng Yan, who claimed the Sars-Cov-2 virus, which causes COVID-19 originated in the Wuhan virus laboratory.

Corporate power has been particularly heavy handed in its defense of the Chinese Communist Party.

“Facebook has censored our video with a Chinese whistleblower. Big tech wants control over the facts you see,” Carlson said.

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