[Majorityrights News] Trump will ‘arm Ukraine to the teeth’ if Putin won’t negotiate ceasefire Posted by Guessedworker on Tuesday, 12 November 2024 16:20.
[Majorityrights News] Alex Navalny, born 4th June, 1976; died at Yamalo-Nenets penitentiary 16th February, 2024 Posted by Guessedworker on Friday, 16 February 2024 23:43.
[Majorityrights Central] A couple of exchanges on the nature and meaning of Christianity’s origin Posted by Guessedworker on Tuesday, 25 July 2023 22:19.
[Majorityrights News] Is the Ukrainian counter-offensive for Bakhmut the counter-offensive for Ukraine? Posted by Guessedworker on Thursday, 18 May 2023 18:55.
“Meet the top Jewish officials in the Trump Administration”
American Jews are watching the beginning of Donald Trump’s presidency with both fear and hope. Many have expressed worries about some of his supporters’ ties to the so-called “alt-right” movement, whose followers traffic variously in white nationalism, anti-immigration sentiment, anti-Semitism and a disdain for “political correctness.” Those fears intensified when Trump named as his chief strategist Stephen Bannon, the former chairman of Breitbart News, a site Bannon once referred to as a “platform” of the alt-right. Trump’s strongly conservative Cabinet picks also back policies on health care, the environment, abortion and civil rights often diametrically opposed to the views of most Jewish voters.
Yet others have praised Trump’s stance on Israel and his nomination of David Friedman, a bankruptcy lawyer who supports West Bank settlement construction and has expressed doubts about the two-state solution, as US ambassador to Israel. Trump won 24% of the Jewish vote, with especially strong support in the Orthodox community.
(Trump: “We have to protect Israel”)
Here is a look at the president’s Jewish advisers who will be helping to shape US policy for the next four years.
Jared Kushner
Trump’s Orthodox son-in law is serving as a senior adviser to the president. Kushner, the 36-year-old scion of a prominent real estate family from New Jersey, will not receive a salary and will focus on the Middle East and Israel as well as partnerships with the private sector and free trade, according to The New York Times. A day before his appointment was announced, Kushner said he would step down from his role as CEO of his family firm, Kushner Properties.
Kushner, who married Trump’s daughter Ivanka in 2009, played a crucial role in the president’s campaign, especially on Israel. He worked on Trump’s speech to the AIPAC annual policy conference that earned the real estate mogul a standing ovation, and helped plan a trip to Israel for his father-in-law in 2016 (Trump canceled the trip after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu slammed his call to ban Muslim immigration to the United States).
Trump appears to be smitten with Kushner, often referring to his “fantastic” son-in-law when boasting of his pro-Israel credentials.
Kushner may have become a household name during the campaign, but he’s no stranger to the limelight. In 2006, at 25, he bought the New York Observer newspaper. Two years later he became CEO of Kushner Properties, four years after his father was sent to jail for tax evasion, illegal campaign donations and witness tampering. In 2015, Fortune named Kushner to its 40 Under 40 list, an “annual ranking of the most influential young people in business.”
Stephen Miller
Trump named Miller, who has played a crucial role in his campaign by writing speeches and warming up crowds at rallies, as senior adviser for policy.
Miller, who has described himself as “a practicing Jew,” joined the Trump campaign in early 2016, quickly rising through the ranks to become “one of the most important people in the campaign,” as Trump’s campaign manager told The Wall Street Journal.
Previously the 31-year-old worked for seven years as an aide to Trump’s choice for attorney general, Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., helping the lawmaker draft materials to kill a bipartisan Senate immigration reform bill. Some of Sessions’ arguments are similar to the harsh and often controversial statements by Trump on the issue, such as calling for building a wall on the Mexican border and banning Muslim immigration to the US.
Though Miller grew up in a liberal Jewish home in Southern California, he was drawn to conservative causes early. As a high school student he wrote a letter to the editor of a local paper in which he slammed his school for providing free condoms to students and for making announcements both in English and Spanish, among other things.
Carl Icahn
Icahn, a businessman and investor, is serving as a special adviser on regulatory reform issues. He is working as a private citizen rather than a federal employee or special government employee.
An early supporter of Trump’s candidacy, Icahn, 80, is the founder of Icahn Enterprises, a diversified conglomerate based in New York City formerly known as American Real Estate Partners. He has also held substantial or controlling positions in numerous American companies over the years, including RJR Nabisco, Texaco, Philips Petroleum, Western Union, Gulf & Western, Viacom, Revlon, Time Warner, Motorola, Chesapeake Energy, Dell, Netflix, Apple and eBay.
Icahn is a major giver to Mount Sinai hospital in New York City, among other philanthropic endeavors. In 2012, he donated $200 million to the renamed Icahn School of Medicine there.
In addition, Icahn established seven Icahn Charter Schools in the Bronx borough of New York.
Steven Mnuchin
Trump picked Mnuchin, a former Goldman Sachs executive who worked as Trump’s national finance chairman during the campaign, to serve as Treasury secretary.
Trump and Mnuchin have been friends for 15 years, and prior to being in charge of Trump’s campaign finances, Mnuchin, 54, served as an adviser. Part of what The New York Times describes as one of Manhattan’s “most influential families,” Mnuchin and his father — the prominent art dealer Robert Mnuchin — both became wealthy working at Goldman Sachs. The younger Mnuchin also co-founded the entertainment company RatPac-Dune Entertainment, which has worked on such Hollywood hits as “Avatar” and “Black Swan.”
Some saw Trump teaming up with Mnuchin as unusual, considering that the real-estate mogul had consistently bashed Goldman Sachs during his campaign — but it doesn’t seem to have hindered a good working relationship.
Boris Epshteyn
Epshteyn, a Republican political strategist who appeared as a Trump surrogate on TV, is working as a special assistant to the president. Epshteyn, who is in his mid-30s, also is serving as assistant communications director for surrogate operations.
A New York-based investment banker and finance attorney, Epshteyn was a communications aide for Sen. John McCain’s presidential campaign in 2008, focusing his efforts on the Arizona senator’s running mate, then-Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin.
He defended Trump on major TV networks over 100 times, according to The New York Times. TV hosts have described Epshteyn, who moved to the United States from his native Moscow in 1993, as “very combative” and “abrasive.”
In 2014, he was charged with misdemeanor assault after being involved in a bar tussle. The charge was dropped after Epshteyn agreed to undergo anger management training and perform community service.
Gary Cohn
Cohn, the outgoing president and chief operating officer at Goldman Sachs, heads the White House National Economic Council. At Goldman Sachs, where he had worked since 1990, Cohn answered to CEO Lloyd Blankfein and was considered a strong candidate to lead the bank.
The 56-year-old father of three has a reputation for abrasiveness, but also for getting things done, according to a Wall Street Journal profile last year. In a 2014 New York Times op-ed, Goldman Sachs executive Greg Smith wrote on the day he resigned that Blankfein and Cohn were responsible for a “decline in the firm’s moral fiber” that placed its interests above those of its clients.
Cohn, a Cleveland native, in 2009 funded the Cohn Jewish Student Center at Kent State University named for his parents.
Success wasn’t always obvious for Cohn, whose struggle with dyslexia made school difficult for him. But the Goldman Sachs banker, who was featured in a book on underdogs by writer Malcolm Gladwell, told the author that his learning disability also taught him how to deal with failure and that “I wouldn’t be where I am today without my dyslexia.”
Posted by DanielS on Tuesday, 31 January 2017 09:28.
Breitbart, “Pro-Life Leaders on Judge Gorsuch’s Nomination
- Donald Trump ‘A Man of His Word”, 31 Jan 2017:
National pro-life leaders are applauding President Donald Trump’s Supreme Court pick, Judge Neil Gorsuch of the Tenth Circuit, to take the seat of the late Justice Antonin Scalia.
“We want to express our thanks to President Trump for nominating a man of such stellar quality as Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court,” said Operation Rescue president Troy Newman. “One of the reasons I endorsed Trump for president was because of the strong promises he made to pro-life leaders. Now, after less than two weeks in office, he is keeping those promises, and we are very encouraged. He has proved himself to be a man of his word.”
“The nomination of Judge Neil Gorsuch to the United States Supreme Court is a tremendous victory for religious freedom and, indeed, for the entire nation,” said Father Frank Pavone, national director of Priests for Life. “His reasoned opinions in decisions upholding the rights of groups who — like Priests for Life — have challenged the Obama administration’s HHS mandate show that he respects the rights of Americans of all beliefs. His statements in favor of upholding the Constitution are totally in line with those of the late Justice Antonin Scalia. President Trump has made an excellent choice.”
Regarding the nomination of Gorsuch, Leonard A. Leo, Trump’s Supreme Court Advisor, said the announcement fulfilled the promise the president made to the American people.
“Judge Gorsuch possesses keen intellect, independence of judgment, integrity, courage, and a sense of fairness that is grounded in the Constitution and laws as they are written,” Leo said in a statement. “This is what the President very much wanted in a nominee.”
“Under our Constitution, power ultimately rests with the people,” he added. “This ideal is at the core of Justice Scalia’s legacy. As we heard from President Trump’s inauguration speech, it is at the core of the President’s agenda, and it’s very much at the core of what Neil Gorsuch’s record is as a jurist.”
Rep. Diane Black (R-TN), a member of the Congressional Pro-Life Caucus, reacted to Gorsuch’s nomination in a statement:
I applaud President Trump for nominating a fair-minded Constitutionalist like Judge Gorsuch to serve on our highest court. With this selection, President Trump has chosen a respected jurist who will uphold both the spirit and the letter of our law. I am especially encouraged by Judge Gorsuch’s opinions in the cases of Hobby Lobby vs. Sebelius and Little Sisters of the Poor vs. Burwell, which display a clear respect for religious freedom that has been missing in too many corners of Washington over the last eight years. He is uniquely qualified for this role, having already been confirmed without opposition to the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals by the US Senate in 2006, and I know that he will be a worthy successor to the esteemed legacy of Justice Antonin Scalia.
Family Research Council president Tony Perkins attended the White House announcement. He said in a statement:
I was pleased to witness President Trump follow through on his promise and select a nominee from the list he presented during the campaign. The president has been very clear on the type of justices that he would appoint: textualists who will not issue rulings based on the shadows of the Constitution.
Judge Gorsuch’s record over the last 14 years, especially on religious liberty, gives Americans every reason to believe he will make a fine Supreme Court justice. His reputation as a judge with integrity and dedication to the Constitution should be an encouragement to all Americans.
Kristan Hawkins, president of Students for Life of America, the nation’s largest pro-life youth organization, said:
We are thrilled with Judge Neil Gorsuch’s nomination to the US Supreme Court by President Trump, who is continuing to fulfill campaign promises at a breakneck speed. A strict Constitutionalist and firm supporter of religious freedom and liberties dictated by the Founding Fathers, Judge Gorsuch is an excellent replacement for the late Justice Scalia, and one who has the potential to leave a powerful legacy.
The Supreme Court was of great concern to voters this past November and the Senate should take swift action to confirm Judge Gorsuch to the high Court to ensure a full slate of Justices. The Senate unanimously confirmed Judge Gorsuch to the 10th US Circuit of Appeals and they should follow their previous example. We aren’t tired of winning yet.
Posted by DanielS on Wednesday, 25 January 2017 03:44.
“Don’t be surprised if the money he used to buy-up American real estate came from U.S. foreign aid” - TT. Pictured, Trump signalng 181 dimensional chess with Pakistani-American real estate tycoon, Sajid Tarahas, founder of ‘Muslims for Trump.’
BBC, “Trump’s Hindu, Sikh and Muslim power brokers”, 24 Jan 2017:
When Indian-American industrialist Shalabh “Shalli” Kumar donated close to a million dollars to the Trump campaign, many in the community dismissed it as a poor investment.
But today, Mr Kumar is the go-to guy not just for Indian-Americans chasing opportunities in the new administration but apparently for the Indian officials seeking contacts with Trump aides.
A leading Indian TV channel NDTV introduced him as “the man with a direct line to Trump” on their show. Another top-ranking Diaspora website, The American Bazar, has called him “the most influential Indian-American power broker” in DC.
And Kumar isn’t complaining about this new celebrity status. “I would like to be the bridge between the two sides,” he told the BBC. “I have arranged two big meetings between Indian officials and leading figures in the Trump team.”
A majority in the Indian immigrant community have traditionally supported Democrats and Trump’s anti-immigrant campaign rhetoric seemed to have further alienated many.
Kumar says he and his Republican Hindu Coalition mobilised Hindu Indian-Americans votes in swing states like Florida.
Their message? Trump was the anti-terrorism candidate, and would help India and US see greater collaboration in defence, energy and manufacturing.
Trump’s anti-Muslim rhetoric did appeal to some Hindus, but whether that actually swayed the community at large is unclear.
Kumar is not the only one whose stock has soared with a Trump victory.
Pakistani-American Sajid Tarar, who is a Muslim, and Sikh-American Jesse Singh, sided with Mr Trump at the peak of his anti-Muslim barbs. They were pilloried by their own communities for doing so. One exit poll suggested more than three-quarters of Muslims voted for Clinton.
Mr Tarar’s Facebook inbox used to be swamped with negative messages, calling him a “disgrace to Pakistan and Islam”.
But on the morning of 9 November, his phone wouldn’t stop ringing. Mr Tarar had more than 80 messages congratulating him on Mr Trump’s victory and how he had made Pakistan proud.
He says the Pakistan embassy reached out to him to facilitate a call between Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and the President-elect.
“I sent out a few emails and the call happened,” says Mr Tarar, a real estate businessman.
Posted by DanielS on Tuesday, 24 January 2017 09:06.
This is the kind of example which has me recoil ... the kind of thing which can happen in America when White racial lines are deemed unimportant or when “Hispanics” and “Mexicans” are classified rough-shod along with “non-Whites” (even when they are White - largely enough, anyway), i.e., some really fine women can be written off as chum for blacks.
The world’s most-determined interracial sex practitioner.
Serial killer Joseph Paul Franklin is scheduled to be executed on November 20th, 2013. For those who may not know, Franklin was the inspiration for William Pierce’s book Hunter. During his criminal career, Franklin targeted interracial couples, and public figures who encouraged race mixing. Franklin is the man who shot and paralyzed Larry Flynt, publisher of Hustler. But don’t bother shedding a tear, for after >30 years in prison, Franklin has had a change of heart, according to this article:
Franklin now regrets his actions, saying he was suffering from manic depression. “I felt like a cloud descended over me,” he said. “I was obviously mentally ill.” After going to jail in St. Louis in 1996, Franklin interacted with African Americans and realized the error of his racism, he said. He no longer believes “race mixing” is an abomination, saying God could have easily had the human race all one color, he said. “For some reason, he made us different colors.” As for his many crimes, “I feel like the Lord has forgiven me because I’ve repented,” he said.
This summer, a bystander linked to one of Joseph Paul Franklin’s shootings went public with her story. Terry Jackson-Mitchell was 15-years-old when her two male Negro friends were shot dead as the trio jogged in Liberty Park, Salt Lake City, Utah. Some media reports linked the girl to the shooter, while others simply laid the blame at her feet as a “White” woman who had been spared by the racist serial killer. She is in fact part Mexican, but having two of her black boy friends blown away in a racist shooting spree didn’t dampen her spirits for interracial sex. In fact, she went on to produce two half-black children. She credits art therapy for giving her the ability to overcome the trauma of the killings and move on with her life (and fornication).
And so today, CDN proudly names Terry Jackson-Mitchell the world’s most-determined interracial sex practitioner. Here she is proudly displaying some of her artwork at Art Access in Salt Lake City.
Posted by DanielS on Thursday, 19 January 2017 05:00.
TNO, “Lutherans Pushing Invaders on North Dakota”, 18 Jan 2017:
The Lutheran Social Services of North Dakota (LSSND) has been named as the group primarily responsible for pushing hundreds of nonwhite invaders pretending to be refugees into the state of North Dakota.
The LSSND resettled 558 “refugees” in the fiscal year 2016, which ended Sept. 30. Of those, 372 went to Fargo, 106 to Grand Forks, 50 to Bismarck, and eight to West Fargo. In fiscal year 2017, the group has projected it will resettle 315 refugees in the Fargo area, 110 in Grand Forks, and 50 in Bismarck.
The LSSND website says that as the “state refugee coordinator appointed by the North Dakota Department of Human Services, Lutheran Social Services of North Dakota” they “welcome about 400 refugees each year” who are “resettled in Fargo, West Fargo, Grand Forks, and Bismarck,” and in total have “resettled” 7,600 “refugees” in those cities.
The LSSND “secures an apartment for the [refugee] family, provides deposit and first month’s rent, basic furnishings, clothing, and a two week supply of food; provides assistance in applying for Social Security cards, registering adults and children in English Language Learning classes and public education programs; sets up medical appointments and assists in applying for other support services;” and “prepares a self-sufficiency plan together with client and employment specialist. Assists client in identifying and removing barriers to success.”
The LSSND website says that it is supported by the Lutheran Services in America (LSA), the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod, and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.
Posted by DanielS on Tuesday, 17 January 2017 13:07.
TNO, “US Black/Jewish Alliance—But Not in Israel”, 17 Jan 2017:
The Jewish supremacist “Foundation for Ethnic Understanding” and the Anti-Defamation League have called for a new alliance with blacks against Donald Trump—but in Israel, which both organizations support, black “refugees” are locked up and deported in order to preserve the “Jewish nature of the state.”
“As we celebrate the birthday of Martin Luther King Jr., American Jews should reflect anew upon the epic struggle he led to free African-Americans from the shackles of bigotry and take pride in the singular role played by the Jewish community in support of King and African-Americans.”
Rabbi Schneier continued by saying that
“As we await the advent of the new Trump administration, it is more important than ever for our community to reconnect with that uplifting chapter in American history half a century ago,” and that to this end, “American Jews in 2017 must resolve that we will continue to speak out openly and assertively in support of the principle that Americans of all faiths and ethnicities — including Muslim Americans — must be accorded full civil rights and religious freedom as guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights.”
Finally, Rabbi Schneier says that in “recent weeks, many rabbis and Jewish leaders have vowed that if the new administration institutes a Muslim registry, they themselves will be among the first to sign up for it.”
Posted by DanielS on Friday, 06 January 2017 08:01.
News Sentinel, “Horror of Christian/Newsom killings in focus: What happened on Chipman Street”
In one of Knoxville’s most horrific crimes, Channon Christian, 21, and boyfriend Christopher Newsom, 23, were carjacked, kidnapped, raped and slain in January 2007. Five suspects were identified. One was tried federally as an accessory. Four others were tried in Knox County Criminal Court.
A drug scandal involving the judge in those state court proceedings would upend the convictions against two of those suspects. New trials were held, the most recent of which occurred last week.
Through it all, details of the horrors this young couple suffered have eked out. But with each suspect pointing the finger of blame at the other and jurors limited by law in what they are allowed to know, the real story of what happened when the couple were taken hostage and ultimately slain has proved just as elusive as the court cases convoluted.
Setting the stage
The News Sentinel has covered this case since its beginning. With the aid of interviews, trial coverage and transcripts of each defendant’s statement to authorities, the newspaper can now offer up a snapshot of not only what happened to these two innocents but exactly who did what to them.
Chipman Street resident Lemaricus Davidson was broke and angry. His girlfriend, Daphne Sutton, had left him. He had no car and no way to earn money.
“Selling dope, that’s what I do,” Davidson would later tell law enforcement.
Law enforcers knew, however, that Davidson was not simply a drug dealer. He was on parole for carjacking and, in the days leading up to the abduction of Christian and Newsom, was suspected in a series of robberies.
In the days before the couple’s abduction, Davidson’s brother Letalvis Cobbins came to Knoxville from Kentucky to stay with him. He brought along friend George Thomas and girlfriend Vanessa Coleman.
None of the three had jobs, money or vehicles. Cobbins and Thomas were homeless. Coleman had a salt-of-the-earth family to turn to for help but chose not to.
Davidson grew increasingly angry over what he viewed as the freeloading of his brother and his guests. He turned that anger on Sutton. She left him on Jan. 5, 2007.
A day later, Davidson had concocted a plan to solve all his woes. He, with help from Cobbins and a buddy, Eric Boyd, would carjack someone. Cobbins insisted that he wasn’t happy with the idea.
“Me and my brother got to arguing because he said he was going to do some crazy (expletive),” Cobbins said in an interview with law enforcement. “He like, man, I’m fixing to go carjack somebody, man, try and get me some money.”
Savaging the victims
Christian and Newsom disappeared Jan. 6, 2007, from the Washington Ridge apartments where Christian’s best friend lived.
Hours later, Newsom’s body was found alongside railroad tracks near Chipman Street in East Knoxville. He had been raped with an object and then shot three times. The final shot was delivered execution style. He had been gagged with a sock stuffed in his mouth. His ankles were bound with his own belt. His hands were secured behind his back. His face was wrapped in a bandanna. His head was covered with a sweatshirt tied around his neck with shoestrings.Forensic evidence showed that he had been raped in the final hours of his life. He was forced to walk barefoot to the railroad tracks that ran parallel to Chipman Street and shot in the neck and back. As Newsom lay paralyzed on the ground, the muzzle of a .22-caliber gun was placed against his covered head and fired. His body would later be wrapped up in a comforter, doused in gasoline and set afire.
Christian, meanwhile, was tied up inside the Chipman Street house of Davidson, a stranger to her. She was repeatedly raped orally, vaginally and rectally. At some point, she was savagely attacked in her genital region, either kicked or beaten with an object. She suffered two blows to the head and was dragged into the carpeted living room of Davidson’s Chipman Street home. Bleach was sprayed down her throat, an apparent effort to destroy DNA evidence. She was hogtied with strips of fabric from a bedding set. Still alive, her body was encased in black garbage bags and her head wrapped in a white plastic grocery bag. Christian was then stuffed inside a trash can and left to die, slowly suffocating.
The house at 2316 Chipman St., Knoxville
Suspect Boyd has long denied any role in the couple’s abduction. With no forensic proof tying him to the crimes, authorities were left to prosecute him for hiding out Davidson after the slayings. He is serving an 18-year sentence as a result.
But his statement to authorities provides striking details of the carjacking, details he insisted came from Davidson, not his own memory.
Christian was angry with Newsom because he had tarried in picking her up for the birthday party of a friend. As she sat in the front seat of her Toyota 4-Runner parked outside, Newsom sought to set things right, hugging and kissing her as he stood just outside the driver’s side door.
The couple never saw Boyd cruise into the parking lot at Washington Ridge with passengers Davidson and Cobbins. An armed Boyd and Davidson jumped from the car, leaving Cobbins behind. At that point, the pair intended only to rob Christian and Newsom of the SUV. But as they approached the couple, guns drawn, headlights from another vehicle spooked them. They pushed the couple into the SUV.
Testimony has shown that Christian and Newsom were bound in the SUV with whatever cords the assailants could find. Newsom was forced facedown in the vehicle. A bound Christian was dumped onto his back.
With Davidson behind the wheel of Christian’s SUV and Cobbins trailing behind in a car Boyd had borrowed from his cousin, the crew headed back to Davidson’s Chipman Street home.
There was no doubt then that the couple would die.
“Two white people, white kids, this (expletive) fixing to get crazy, man, you know what I mean?” Cobbins said.
Davidson and his cohorts are black, the victims white. Racial differences have never been suggested as a motivator for what authorities view as a random carjacking.
The perpetrators were never charged with “hate crimes.”
