Israeli Soldiers Murder Unarmed 16 Year Old Palestinian by Shooting Him at Close Range in Unprovoked Attack

From [HERE] A 16-year-old Palestinian boy was shot dead at point-blank range by an Israeli soldier in the occupied West Bank on Saturday, the latest in a string of lethal shootings that bookend a particularly violent year for the enclave.

Ryan Muhammad Abdul Qader Abu Mualla was killed in the northern town of Qabatiya, during a raid by the Israeli military, Palestinian officials said in several statements on Saturday.

The Israeli military said in a statement on the same day that a “terrorist” had thrown a “block” at several soldiers, and they then shot and “eliminated" the block thrower.

But CCTV video appeared to show Mualla was not throwing a block or holding one.

The video, which Reuters obtained from the owner of a security camera, begins six minutes before the shooting and shows relatively empty streets.

Two Israeli soldiers, one crouching and one standing, can be seen on a lit street corner at dark. A third soldier appears to take position in an adjacent street leading to the same corner.

Three seconds before the shooting, a person appears walking down the street, and as he reaches the corner, the crouching soldier opens fire. The person then falls to the ground.

While the incident is partially obscured because of the angle of the camera and the low light, the video does not appear to show the person who was shot throwing a block or holding one. [MORE]

Video Shows Israeli Soldier Run Over a Palestinian Man from Behind and While He was Praying

From [HERE] Israeli police have released a soldier from custody after he was filmed running his vehicle over a Palestinian man who was praying outside the city of Ramallah in the occupied West Bank.

A silent video of the incident, which both Israeli and Palestinian outlets reported on Thursday, shows an Israeli settler with a rifle slung over his back driving his all-terrain vehicle (ATV) toward a 23-year-old Palestinian man as he knelt in prayer on the roadside.

Mokho told Agence France-Presse: “The assailant is a known settler. He set up an outpost near the village, and with other settlers he comes to graze his livestock, blocks the road, and provokes the residents.”

He also said the settler blinded him with pepper spray after hitting his son, though this is not shown in the video.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) identified the driver as an Israeli reserve soldier with one of its regional defense units. These battalions have dramatically expanded in recent years with backing from Israel’s right-wing government, which contains many officials at the center of the settler movement. [MORE]

Massa Media Ignores Video Evidence that Barbaric Israeli Soldiers Raped Detained Palestinian Men with Objects and Dogs (in self-defense of course)

From [HERE] Earlier this year, a United Nations inquiry accused Israel of using sexualised torture and rape as "a method of war... to destabilize, dominate, oppress and destroy the Palestinian people".

The Israeli human rights organisation B’Tselem has described the Israeli prison system as a "network of torture camps" within which prisoners were subjected to "repeated use of sexual violence" including "gang sexual violence and assault committed by a group of prison guards or soldiers".

Last year, Israel's Channel 12 published a leaked video which appeared to show Israeli soldiers sexually assaulting a Palestinian detainee.

In response to questions from MEE, the Israeli Prison Service said it "categorically rejected" the allegations of abuse described by the prisoners.

‘We want to kill you’

Al-Sai, 44, a father from Tulkarm, has worked for years as a journalist in the occupied West Bank, reporting for Al Jazeera Mubasher and the local broadcaster Al-Fajer TV.

On 23 February 2024, Israeli forces raided his home during an intensive arrest campaign in the West Bank following the October 2023 war on Gaza. He was taken from his home and spent the next 16 months in Israeli custody under administrative detention.

Under the controversial practice, detainees are held without charge or trial based on secret evidence they are not permitted to see.

After an initial 19 days in military custody, al-Sai was transferred to Megiddo Prison. Upon arrival, he said he was handcuffed and blindfolded.

His first stop was the prison clinic. On the way, he could hear screams from other rooms.

“'Say long live the Israeli flag,'” he recalls hearing a guard, speaking fluent Arabic, shout at a prisoner. “'We want to kill you. We want to make you die.'

“At that moment, I knew I was entering a stage I had never experienced before,” said al-Sai, who had been arrested by Israeli forces three times before.

Inside the clinic, guards and medical staff accused him of being a member of Hamas, repeatedly threatening him that they “fuck, fuck, fuck” anyone associated with the group. He denied the accusation. 

After an electrocardiogram and a brief examination, the doctor told the guards he was fit.

Al-Sai said he was blindfolded again and escorted by four to six guards, including a woman, through a series of corridors. Doors opened and closed. He was finally thrown to the ground.

At this point, al-Sai said, his trousers and underwear were pulled down, and he was ordered onto his knees. The beating began, with the guards striking him repeatedly on the head, back and legs.

“I felt close to death,” he said. “The pain was overwhelming. But I still didn’t know what they were going to do. Why did they remove my trousers?”

‘Reception party’

Moments later, he said, a solid object was forced into his rectum.

“I tried to resist. I clenched my body to stop it. That only made the pain worse. Eventually, I surrendered.”

The object was pushed deeper and twisted deliberately, he said. When he began screaming, a guard squeezed his testicles and pulled his penis.

“I screamed so loudly I thought my voice would leave the prison walls,” he said. 

“I wanted to die at that moment. I couldn’t take it. I reached a point where I couldn’t comprehend what was happening.”

Throughout the assault, guards laughed. One addressed him directly.

“You are a journalist,” the guard said, according to al-Sai.

“We will bring all the journalists and do this to them. We will bring your wife, your sisters, your mother, and your son.”

At one point, he heard a guard say: “Bring me a carrot.” Another object was inserted.

Later, he learned from other detainees that vegetables, sticks and other objects were commonly used during such assaults.

A guard stood on his head with full body weight. Al-Sai feared his skull would burst. He also heard one guard tell another to “stop filming”, suggesting the assault may have been recorded.

“They said they were taking revenge for 7 October,” he said. “But I am not from Gaza. I am a journalist.”

The assault lasted about 25 minutes, he estimates. He was held in the room for nearly an hour.

Among prisoners, this assault is called “the reception party” - a violent attack involving sexual violence that many detainees face upon arrival at the prison. [MORE]

Trump Claims the US Conducted a Drone Strike in Venezuela- No Proof that it Occurred, Other than His Statement. Alleged Attack Not Confirmed by Venezuela

From [HERE] President Trump has claimed that the US had “knocked out” a “big facility” as part of the US campaign targeting alleged drug boats in Latin America and against Venezuela.

CNN later reported on Monday that the CIA conducted a drone strike on a port facility in Venezuela, which, if true, would mark a major US escalation against the country. So far, the Venezuelan government hasn’t confirmed the claims.

Trump first made the comments in an interview on WABC radio on Friday when discussing the US operations against alleged drug boats in the region. “And we just knocked out, I don’t know if you read or you saw, they have a big plant or a big facility where they send the, you know, where the ships come from. Two nights ago, we knocked that out, so we hit them very hard,” he said.

The president was asked by a reporter on Monday about the comments and whether the alleged attack was conducted by the US military. “Well, it doesn’t matter, but there was a major explosion in the dock area where they load the boats up with drugs,” he said, describing the target as an “implementation area” that’s no longer around.

Unnamed US officials speaking to The New York Times claimed that in the WABC interview, Trump was referencing a “drug facility in Venezuela” that they said was “eliminated.” Sources speaking to CNN said the facility was allegedly used by the gang Tren de Aragua and that there were no casualties because no one was present at the time of the attack.

Trump claimed the attack occurred on December 24, the same day there was an explosion at a warehouse in Venezuela’s northwestern state of Zulia. The company that owns the warehouse, Primazol, which specializes in chemical supplies for livestock feed and other purposes, said in a statement that it rejected unspecified allegations about the incident that were circulating on social media, though it’s unclear if it was referencing claims that the blast may have been caused by a US attack.

A major part of the US aggression against Venezuela has been a psychological campaign aimed at scaring Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, involving leaks to the media about US plans to bomb the country.

Back in October, Trump said that he authorized covert CIA activity inside Venezuela, and the US spy agency had previously conducted cyberattacks in the country during his first administration.

Any US attack on Venezuela would be illegal under the Constitution, which requires congressional authorization to launch a war. The Trump administration has been clear that its goal in its campaign against Venezuela is the ouster of Maduro, while using false claims that his government is a “cartel” as a pretext.

The US has been enforcing a naval blockade on Venezuela, which so far has involved the seizure of two tankers, a step that’s traditionally considered an act of war and has been strongly denounced by UN experts as illegal aggression.

“There is no right to enforce unilateral sanctions through an armed blockade,” four UN human rights experts said last week. “The illegal use of force, and threats to use further force at sea and on land, gravely endanger the human right to life and other rights in Venezuela and the region.”

With No Evidence other than Trump's Claims and Fake Looking Computer Generated Video, Massa Media Reports that the US Bombed 5 More Alleged Drug Boats - according to Trump

From [HERE] US Southern Command said on Wednesday that its forces bombed three more alleged drug boats that were traveling as a convoy and suggested there may have been survivors. Later in the night, the command announced another attack on two other boats.

SOUTHCOM said the first strikes that targeted three boats killed at least three “narco-terrorists,” a term the Trump administration uses to justify extra-judicial executions for an alleged crime that doesn’t receive the death penalty in the US.

“The remaining narco-terrorists abandoned the other two vessels, jumping overboard and distancing themselves before follow-on engagements sank their respective vessels,” the command wrote on X, adding that it notified the US Coast Guard to “activate the Search and Rescue System.”

In its second announcement, SOUTHCOM said that it killed five people. “A total of five narco-terrorists were killed during these actions – three in the first vessel and two in the second,” the command said.

SOUTHCOM, which oversees US military operations in Central and South America, did not specify the location of either attack. The bombing campaign against small boats started in the Caribbean off the coast of Venezuela and has expanded into the Eastern Pacific Ocean.

Previous US attacks on boats in the region have left survivors, including a Colombian national and an Ecuadorian, who were both sent back to their home countries and released due to the lack of evidence that they committed a crime. According to a report from The New York Times, the Pentagon released the survivors to ensure that they did not end up in the US judicial system, where the Trump administration could be forced to show evidence justifying the bombing campaign. [MORE]

Republocrats Signal End to Its Probe of Trump's Alleged Boat Strikes in Venezuala and Fail to Release So-Called Unedited Video of the 2nd Strike [original videos all look AI generated]

From [HERE] Top Republican lawmakers have signaled they are ending their inquiries into a controversial U.S. military strike on an alleged drug smuggling vessel in the waters off Venezuela.

Sen. Roger Wicker (Mississippi), Republican chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said in a statement Thursday that he had seen “no evidence of war crimes” in the Sept. 2 operation that killed two survivors of an initial U.S. attack on their boat. He expressed confidence that the Trump administration’s military campaign around Latin America, responsible to date for the deaths of nearly 100 people, has been conducted “based on sound legal advice.”

His comments come a day after Rep. Mike D. Rogers (R-Alabama), who leads the House Armed Services Committee, said he will shutter a parallel inquiry. Rogers told reporters that he, too, was “satisfied” that members of his panel had been able to directly question the military officials who oversaw the Sept. 2 strike, which killed 11 people in all, and that he had concluded the operation followed a “lawful process.”

Wicker’s statement does not specify that his probe is ending immediately or whether he would seek any additional materials from the Defense Department related to the operation. [MORE]

Trump Signs Bill That Gives Him Over $1 Trillion Military Budget

From [HERE] President Trump on Thursday signed the massive $901 billion 2026 National Defense Authorization Act into law, which will be combined with a supplemental spending bill he signed earlier this year to give him a more than $1 trillion military budget.

While the true cost of US military and national security spending has exceeded $1 trillion for many years, this marks the first time the official military budget is over $1 trillion, though it was done in an unconventional way by combining the NDAA with a $156 billion supplemental that was part of the so-called “Big Beautiful Bill.”

The NDAA passed through the Senate on Wednesday in a vote of 77-20, with just two Republicans, Senators Rand Paul (KY) and Mike Lee (UT), and 18 Democrats voting against it. Last week, the House approved the bill in a vote of 312-112.

Notable amendments include a provision directing the Selective Service System (SSS) to register all potential draftees in the US automatically. According to Edward Hasbrouk, an expert on the Selective Service, it marks the biggest change to the system since 1980.

The NDAA also includes a new provision to ensure Israel is not impacted by global arms restrictions that have been imposed in response to its genocidal war in Gaza. The amendment requires a review of the arms restrictions and says the US will take steps to “mitigate” any “gaps” it may find.

The NDAA formally lifts the Caesar Act sanctions that were imposed on Syria in 2020 and were designed to prevent the country’s reconstruction until the ousting of former President Bashar al-Assad, which happened last year, when Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, an offshoot of al-Qaeda, took power in Damascus. [MORE]

Rent Strikes Being Used as a Strategic Tactic in Mid Sized Cities Against Rising Housing Costs

The rent strike is part of a strategy that housing activists have started to replicate in midsize cities across the country. Tenant organizing is more common in liberal coastal metropolises like Los Angeles and New York — which recently elected Zohran Mamdani, a former tenant organizer, as its mayor.

But rent strikes have been almost unheard of in places like Kansas City, Missouri, where according to Zillow the median rent increased 4.4 percent in the last year, twice the rate of the national average. Now, tenants in at least three buildings around the city have formed unions. Similar groups have popped up in Bozeman, Montana; Louisville; and New Haven, Connecticut.

The country’s renters are at a “total breaking point,” said Tara Raghuveer, founding director of the Kansas City Tenants Union, also known as KC Tenants, an activist group. “When you get displaced from Chicago as a tenant, you might end up in a place like Kansas City. When you get displaced from Kansas City, you might end up in a Raytown, Missouri. When you get displaced in Raytown, Missouri, I do not know where … you’re supposed to go.” [MORE]

DPIC Report says US Juries Increasingly Rejecting Death Penalty

From [HERE] The Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC) released its annual report Monday, finding that, while the number of executions in the US increased last year, the number of new death sentences decreased. The following is an overview of the report’s key findings.

Death Sentences Decline, Executions Rise

The report drew a contrast between new death sentences and number of executions, with the former totaling 22 and the latter 48. The executive director of the DPIC, Robin Maher, commented that this suggests “new death sentences are becoming vanishingly rare.”

Executions Concentrated in a Few States

Four states—Florida, Alabama, South Carolina and Texas—imposed the majority of death penalty sentences (72 percent). Florida enacted by far the most, increasing from one execution in 2024 to 19 in 2025, which made up over a third of executions overall.

The death penalty is legal in 27 states in total.

Public Opinion Increasingly Against the Death Penalty

Polling demonstrates that support for the death penalty is at an all-time low, with 52 percent being in favor. This figure is lower amongst those under 55. A shift in public opinion is also suggested by the actions of capital juries, with 56 percent proposing a life sentence over a death sentence when given the choice (from a study of over 50 juries.) [MORE]

Trump Takes Positive Step by Changing Marijuana Classification from Schedule I to Schedule III- as Drug is Less Dangerous than Alcohol

From [HERE] President Trump recently signed an executive order changing marijuana’s Controlled Substances Act classification from Schedule I to Schedule III. Schedule I is supposed to include especially dangerous drugs that are likely to be abused and have no medical purpose. Whatever one thinks of the wisdom and morality of using marijuana, the fact is it is less addictive, and quite possibly safer, than alcohol. Many Americans who live in one of the 40 states that have legalized medicinal marijuana use it for a variety of ailments.

Reclassifying marijuana does not repeal federal laws criminalizing its use. The reclassifying does, though, facilitate research into marijuana’s medical benefits. It also enables marijuana businesses that are legal under state laws to take ordinary deductions on their taxes. While President Trump’s executive order is a step forward, those who support advancing liberty must continue to press for repeal of all federal drug laws.

The Constitution does not give the federal government any authority to outlaw marijuana or any other “illicit” substance. At least supporters of alcohol prohibition understood that a constitutional amendment was needed to impose a national ban on alcohol. The war on drugs has been a primary excuse for violations of liberties including unconstitutional searches and seizures, “no-knock raids,” bank reports to the federal government on those making large cash deposits, and draconian mandatory minimum sentences. The drug war has also been used to justify foreign interventions — such as President Trump’s current actions against Venezuela.

Defenders of the drug war say it is necessary because the drug trade is controlled by violent criminals — even though this is the inevitable result of outlawing a product people wish to consume. The most important reason to end the drug war is that government has no moral right to stop adults from engaging in a peaceful (even if unwise) behavior like smoking marijuana. Laws prohibiting drug use have no place in a free society. These laws are rooted in the idea that our rights are merely gifts from the government conditioned on our “good “behavior. A government that can stop people from smoking marijuana is a government that can also mandate what vaccines we receive and how our children are educated.

Of course, in a free society, an individual who uses drugs would be responsible for the consequences of his choices, and those who oppose drug use could exercise their right to try to persuade others to abstain from drug use. [MORE]

Dr Vernon Coleman: Obedience will Destroy us All

From [HERE] For more years than most people realise, the conspirators have been training the masses to obey and to comply. They have used endless threats (such as global warming and the fake covid pandemic) to terrify populations around the world.

We cannot fight back with force because the enemy controls our armies.

Throwing apple crumble and custard at the crown jewels, delaying traffic, interrupting sporting events and throwing dye onto the stones of Stonehenge either annoy or trigger contempt. (All of these have been tried.) Such pathetic stunts will not change anything.

We cannot fight back through the ballot box because elections are fixed and the political parties are interchangeable.

So what can we do? Things are now moving very quickly – especially in Britain, where the massive rise in local property taxes means that banks have an excuse to close the remainder of the branches – making online banking inevitable.

A programme of non-compliance is our only choice – the only route to victory.

Here’s how the modern defender of freedom does not comply with the system created by the conspirators (please replace “he” with “she” where appropriate):

He doesn’t vote for any political party. He will always prefer to vote for an entirely independent candidate outside the system.

He refuses to bank online. He insists on using cash and paper cheques as often as possible.

He refuses to accept a digital identity.

He has never worn a face mask in private or in public.

He refused the covid vaccine (and other vaccines he is offered).

He writes regularly to politicians explaining why they should oppose “death by doctor” legislation. (I send them my free book `The Kill Bill’, which is available on my website).

He does not participate in the absurdly wasteful recycling programmes run by local councils.

He does not have a smart meter for electricity or water. (If you have a smart meter, you are vulnerable. If you annoy the authorities, they can cut off your electricity in an instant.)

He does not have a doorbell with a camera (most such bells merely provide the authorities with yet more surveillance cameras).

He will never have a dash camera and if he rides a bike, he won’t have a helmet camera (these are part of the surveillance of the people).

He does not have a TV licence, and if anyone comes from the BBC (“if you don’t give us money for something you don’t want, we will harass you to death”), he will refuse to let them through the door (as is his right).

He uses cash whenever he can. [MORE]

US Supreme Court Blocks Trump's Unlawful Deployment of National Guard to Chicago; "no credible evidence that there is danger of rebellion in the state of Illinois”

From [HERE] The US Supreme Court on Tuesday refused to allow the Trump administration to deploy National Guard troops to Chicago.

In an unsigned order, the court rejected the administration’s petition to overturn a Temporary Restraining Order(TRO) issued in October by Judge April Perry of the Northern District of Illinois. Perry wrote that there is “no credible evidence that there is danger of rebellion in the state of Illinois” when issuing the TRO that originally blocked the National Guard deployment.

The Trump administration appealed the TRO to the Supreme Court after an appellate court refused to overturn the order later in October. In its petition, the administration argued that:

Federal immigration-enforcement efforts have encountered significant resistance, as well as some violence, in Chicago… [F]ederal officers have been obstructed, threatened, and assaulted as they attempt to perform their duties [and] an Immigration and Customs Enforcement processing facility in Broadview, Illinois, has been the site of frequent and sometimes violent protests, damaging federal property and threatening the safety of federal officers.

In the unsigned order the Court responded: “At this preliminary stage, the Government has failed to identify a source of authority that would allow the military to execute the laws in Illinois. The President has not invoked a statute that provides an exception to the Posse Comitatus Act.” The administration has sought to circumvent the Posse Comitatus Act, which restricts the president’s ability use the military as a domestic police force.

Illinois Governor JB Pritzker called the ruling “an important step in curbing the Trump Administration’s consistent abuse of power and slowing Trump’s march toward authoritarianism.”

The deployment of National Guard troops has been one of the more controversial elements of the administration’s response to illegal immigration.

The administration’s appeal to the Supreme Court was filed after the US Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit upheld the part of Judge Perry’s order that blocked the administration from deploying the National Guard within Illinois. [MORE]

MD General Assembly Overrides Wes Moore’s Veto on Reparations Commission. Nations Only Black Governor Promotes the On Going Smiling Face while Opposing Restitution Owed to Blacks for Unjust Enrichment

From [HERE] Studies on reparations and climate change in Maryland now won’t have to clear major state legislative hurdles, thanks to the General Assembly’s override of a slew of bills on Tuesday.

The overrides took place after the Maryland General Assembly convened to elect Del. Joseline Peña-Melnyk, D-Anne Arundel and Prince George’s counties, the new Speaker of the House of Delegates. The lawmakers reconsidered various bills vetoed by Gov. Wes Moore, a Democrat, before ultimately overriding 18, including notable legislation to establish the Maryland Reparations Commission. 

The bill, a priority of the Legislative Black Caucus during the 2025 regular legislative session, would establish the commission to take two years to delve into research to determine if Marylanders whose families were impacted by slavery or unjust government policies should receive reparations.

Moore shocked the legislature when he, the state’s first Black governor, vetoed the legislation, which passed with overwhelming Democratic approval in both chambers. This move was part of a broader break from his norm: In past years, he only vetoed a handful of bills after each session. In 2025, though, he prevented 29 from becoming law.

“I will always protect and defend the full history of African Americans in our state and country,” Moore said in his May letter vetoing the reparations commission bill. “But in light of the many important studies that have taken place on this issue over nearly three decades, now is the time to focus on the work itself: Narrowing the racial wealth gap, expanding homeownership, uplifting entrepreneurs of color, and closing the foundational disparities that lead to inequality — from food insecurity to education.”

Arguing for the override in his chamber, Sen. Charles Sydnor, D-Baltimore County, said reversing Moore’s veto “does not stop the governor from acting on those topics he has expressed support for.”

“The recommendations will ensure that, when Maryland acts specifically in the name of reparations, it does so with clarity, credibility and permanence,” he said. “If the legislature or community leaders want a durable, defensible roadmap for redress, a focused commission remains the appropriate mechanism to convert fragment studies into coordinated recommendations.”

No further debate took place in the chamber after Sydnor sat down. The veto was overridden on a margin of 31-14. [MORE]

More Symbolic Politics from Elite White Liberals: San Francisco Mayor Creates a Fund for Reparations but Government Has No Money to Fund It

From [HERE] The mayor of San Francisco has signed a city measure to create a fund that could grant each of the city’s eligible black residents $5 million in reparations.

The new ordinance, signed by Mayor Daniel Lurie just before Christmas, establishes a reparations fund, as proposed by the city’s African American Reparations Advisory Committee (AARAC) in 2023 – a measure that would cost an estimated $50 billion.

The legislation merely establishes the fund but does not allocate any money to it - setting up the framework for any future contributions, whether they be through the city or privately donated.

The AARAC is tasked with developing 'recommendations for repairing harm in our black communities,' according to its website.  San Francisco journalist Erica Sandberg was among the first to highlight what Mayor Lurie had done. 

Per the 2023 report, every eligible African-American adult in San Francisco should be handed a $5 million lump sum to 'compensate the affected population for the decades of harm that they have experienced.' Approximately 50,000 black people live in San Francisco, and the qualifying requirements remain unclear.

But Mayor Lurie said the city is bracing for a $1 billion budget deficit next year.

'That means identifying key priorities for funding so we can continue delivering those services well,' he explained. 

'Given these historic fiscal challenges, the city does not have resources to allocate to this fund.'

He noted that his administration has always been open to outside donors, so 'if there is private funding that can be legally dedicated to this fund, we stand ready to ensure that funding gets to those who are eligible for it.' [MORE]

DOJ Sues Virgin Islands Police Over its Purposeful Gun Permit Delays

From [HERE] The Department of Justice has slammed another police agency for dragging its feet on issuing gun permits, this time in the Virgin Islands, declaring in a 12-page federal complaint, “Despite the Supreme Court’s unequivocal and repeated endorsement of an individual right to keep and bear arms…the VI Defendants have continued to obstruct and systematically deny law-abiding American citizens this fundamental right by systematically delaying the processing of applications and imposing unconstitutional conditions on the exercise of this constitutional right.”

Named as defendants in the action are the government of the Virgin Islands, the Virgin Islands Police Department (VIPD) and Police Commissioner Mario Brooks, in his official capacity.

In a prepared statement announcing the lawsuit, Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon said, “This Civil Rights Division will protect the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding citizens. The newly-established Second Amendment Section filed this lawsuit to bring the Virgin Islands Police Department back into legal compliance by ensuring that applicants receive timely decisions without unconstitutional obstruction.”

Earlier, the DOJ sued the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department for essentially the same thing: deliberately delaying the issuance of carry licenses, sometimes for more than a year. This new action suggests the new 2A Section will be focusing attention on the permit processes, although gun rights organizations, such as the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, have recommended the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division take on some bigger issues, such as state laws which do, or will, require permits-to-purchase before law-abiding citizens can exercise their right to buy and own a firearm.

“Nowhere in this country should a citizen be forced to get permission from a government entity in order to exercise a fundamental right protected by the U.S. Constitution and delineated in nearly all state constitutions,” said CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb. “Nobody needs government permission to exercise a right.”

In a statement, U.S. Attorney Adam Sleeper, who filed the federal complaint in U.S. District Court of the Virgin Islands, St. Thomas and St. John Division, asserted, “The territory’s firearms licensing laws and practices are inconsistent with the Second Amendment. This lawsuit seeks to uphold the rights of law-abiding citizens to bear arms in the U.S. Virgin Islands.” [MORE]

Rep Pressley pushes AI Civil Rights Act, aimed to ‘especially’ protect Black, Brown and marginalized people

Rep. Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass., helped advocate for the AI Civil Rights Act last week in order to prevent companies from using what Democrats describe as "biased and discriminatory AI-powered algorithms."

Pressley joined Sen. Edward J. Markey, D-Mass., and Reps. Yvette Clarke, D-N.Y., Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., and Summer Lee, D-Pa., to reintroduce and advocate for the AI Civil Rights last week.

"As AI innovation grows, it is incumbent on us all to prioritize the safety, rights, and opportunity of all people — especially the Black, Brown, and marginalized communities who disproportionately bear the burden of biased and discriminatory systems," Pressley said in a statement on her website. "We cannot allow AI to be the latest chapter in America’s history of exploiting marginalized people. That is why the AI Civil Rights Act is necessary — to invest in an approach rooted in equity that safeguards all of our civil rights and liberties."

Damon Hewitt, president and executive director of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, was quoted in the same piece declaring his organization’s pride in partnering with the politicians pushing this legislation. [MORE]

Black Lawmakers in MD Seek to Create a Commission to Investigate the Deaths of Black Children Killed at a Juvenile Prison and Buried by Gov Authorities in an Abandoned Graveyard

From [HERE] A group of Black Maryland state lawmakers plan to propose a bill during the upcoming legislative session that would create an independent commission to investigate the deaths of hundreds of Black children who died at a segregated juvenile detention facility during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Members of the General Assembly‘s Legislative Black Caucus are drafting a bill that would create the investigative body and allocate $750,000 so the commission can assemble a full accounting of what happened at the House of Reformation and Instruction for Colored Children – where Black boys as young as 7 were committed, typically for minor offenses.

Boys who died at the facility were buried on state-owned land in Cheltenham, near the former House of Reformation. State Sen. William C. Smith Jr. (D-Montgomery) and lawmakers who represent the area in Prince George’s County where the grave site is located, including Del. Jeffrie E. Long Jr. (D-Calvert) and state Sen. Kevin M. Harris (D-Prince George’s), said they will file the bill at the beginning of the legislative session in January.

The third-party nature of the commission is essential, Smith said, “because no agency and no entity can investigate itself.”

“The independent investigation will do a very thorough analysis and inquiry into some things that will ultimately and undoubtedly be uncomfortable to learn,” Smith said. “And to have that information presented in an unbiased and unvarnished manner is critical to the purpose of this project, which is to provide Marylanders an explanation and understanding of the tragedies that happened here.”

Long, who will sponsor the bill in the House of Delegates, said that since learning about the graveyard earlier this year, he has wanted to make it his “mission” to ensure the House of Reformation boys are properly memorialized.

A Washington Post investigation in September found that for decades, Maryland officials allowed the boys’ unmarked graves to remain dilapidated, even as they approved construction of a well-kept veteran’s cemetery yards away. The reporting also found that at least 230 children died at the facility between 1870 and 1939, far exceeding the 67 previously estimated by the state.

Staff members of Maryland’s Department of Juvenile Services rediscovered about 100 of the graves last year, finding them in an overgrown, wooded patch of state property – many marked only by cinder blocks. Without further forensic and anthropological work at the site, it’s impossible to determine exactly how many children are buried in the House of Reformation graveyard. [MORE]

Bill Gates, Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla Ordered to Testify in Dutch COVID Shot Injury Lawsuit

From [HERE] Bill Gates and Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla will have to appear in person in the Netherlands to testify at a hearing in a COVID-19 vaccine injury lawsuit, a Dutch court ruled late last month.

The court order relates to a lawsuit filed in 2023 by seven people injured by COVID-19 vaccines. One of the victims has since died.

The lawsuit centers around the question “of whether the COVID-19 injections are a bioweapon,” Dutch newspaper De Andere Krant reported. In addition to Gates and Bourla, the suit names 15 other defendants, including former Dutch prime minister and current NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, the Dutch state, and several Dutch public health officials and journalists.

De Andere Krant said last month’s ruling “is a significant setback for the defendants, who are accused of misleading victims about the ‘safety and effectiveness’ of the vaccines.” However, it “remains to be seen” whether the defendants will comply with the court’s order and appear at next year’s hearing.

The defendants may face additional legal challenges in Dutch courts in the new year. A second lawsuit, filed in March by three COVID-19 vaccine injury victims in the Netherlands, presents a similar set of allegations and names the same defendants.

At a press conference last week, Dutch attorney Peter Stassen, who represents the vaccine-injured plaintiffs in both cases, earlier this month petitioned the courts in both cases to hear in-person testimony by five expert witnesses regarding the safety and efficacy of the mRNA COVID-19 vaccines.

According to Stassen, oral hearings will be held in both cases next year, but hearing dates have not yet been scheduled. Stassen seeks to consolidate the cases.

The expert witnesses include:

• Catherine Austin Fitts, founder and publisher of the Solari Report and former assistant secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

• Sasha Latypova, a former pharmaceutical research and development executive.

• Joseph Sansone, Ph.D., a psychotherapist who is litigating to prohibit mRNA vaccines in Florida.

• Katherine Watt, a researcher and paralegal.

• Mike Yeadon, Ph.D., a pharmacologist and former vice president of Pfizer’s allergy and respiratory research unit. [MORE]