Saturday 15 February 2020

Escape from Egypt🐪🗻 - More people die taking selfies than in shark attacks

More people die taking selfies than in shark attacks


By Jane Ridley,  New York Post,  February 14, 2020

Selfies kill. Shutterstock photo

Narcissism is alive and well in 2020, even if people put their lives in danger to satisfy their need for attention.
A new survey found that 41 percent of us have already risked our safety in pursuit of a selfie, while more than half of us would stand on the edge of a cliff for that ideal photo.
A third of respondents have visited a destination purely to digitally capture the scene and 4 percent admitted to endangering someone else for the sake of a good snapshot.
The poll, conducted by custom phone case company Case24.com, questioned 2,023 people — 999 women and 1,024 men — to find out what they were willing to do to appear Instagram perfect.
It found that testosterone-fueled men are more likely to take risks than women, with 61 percent of males accepting the challenge of a cliff-edge photo, compared to 38 percent of females.
Worryingly, more than 1 in 10 (11 percent) have sustained injuries while attempting a selfie. The reported accidents range from falling down hills to falling off bikes and being knocked down by a wave.
This latest study comes seven months after research proved that selfies gone wrong — frequently dubbed selficides — account for more deaths than shark attacks.
Last summer, the Journal of Family Medicine and Primary Care in India found that 259 people worldwide died in 137 selfie-related accidents between 2011 and 2017, compared to just 50 people killed by sharks.
While 259 deaths over a seven-year period may not sound excessive, selfie-related fatalities are on the rise. In 2011, there were only three, but by 2017, the number had shot up to 93.
Selfie accidents — many of which were not lethal — range from the downright sad to the ridiculous. Last March, a woman was attacked by a jaguar in an Arizona zoo after crossing the barrier to take a selfie. Luckily, she survived the mauling.
Two years earlier, Oregon cheerleader Aurora Genai Sheffel, 14, died while trying to take a selfie in the ocean. She was snapping pictures with friends on a log at a beach in Bandon when the tide receded and pulled the heavy timber out from underneath the group. The log rolled on top of the teen, pinning her underwater.
More recently, in September 2018, an 18-year-old Israeli boy named Tomer Frankfurter fell 600 feet to his death in Yosemite National Park while dangling off a ledge from his fingertips. His intention? Smiling for a selfie.
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US Politics - Trump Demands Justice for Victims of Sanctuary Cities

Trump Demands Justice for Victims of Sanctuary Cities


It's time for leftist jailers who free dangerous illegal aliens to pay the price.

 
Matthew Vadum , Front Page Magazine 



Crime victims harmed by dangerous illegal aliens should be able to sue the so-called sanctuary jurisdictions that unleashed them on an unwitting public in defiance of federal immigration authorities, President Donald Trump declared in his State of the Union address. At the same time, he endorsed pending legislation that would accomplish this goal.
This is another politically astute immigration-related proposal from Trump who demonstrates time and time again that he is one of the few Republican presidents in modern American history who actually knows how to fight the Left. It puts the illegal alien-coddlers and open-borders fanatics on the defensive and educates the public in clearly understandable terms about who the bad guys really are in this fight over the nation’s future. It comes almost a year after Trump proposed shipping immigration detainees to sanctuary cities, which are Democrat strongholds.
As FrontPage readers know, the sanctuary movement gave illegal aliens permission to rob, rape, and murder Americans by, among other things, stigmatizing immigration enforcement. Some left-wingers call sanctuary jurisdictions “civil liberties safe zones” to blur the distinction between citizens and non-citizens by implying illegal aliens somehow possess a civil right to be present in the U.S. Leftists also like to refer to all migrants, including illegal aliens, simply as “immigrants” in order to further muddy the waters. This helps the Left portray conservatives, who are generally not anti-immigrant –they’re anti-illegal immigration— as xenophobic bigots.
Sanctuary cities really ought to be called traitor cities because they are in open rebellion against the United States just as much as the Confederate Army was when it opened fire on Fort Sumter.
President Trump railed against the sanctuary laws of California in his address.
“Senator Thom Tillis has introduced legislation to allow Americans like Jody to sue sanctuary cities and states when a loved one is hurt or killed as a result of these deadly practices,” Trump said Feb. 4, referring to Jody Jones, a guest at the speech whose brother, Rocky Jones, was allegedly shot and killed by two-time deportee Gustavo Garcia, an illegal alien wanted by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Local authorities in California ignored ICE and let Garcia go.
The December 2018 killing happened after California, which is home to more than 2 million illegals on which the state lavishes unearned benefits, enacted “an outrageous law declaring their whole state to be a sanctuary for criminal illegal immigrants — a very terrible sanctuary — with catastrophic results,” the president said.
The illegal, who had prior arrests for robbery and assault, was released under California’s sanctuary laws that mandate resistance to federal immigration law. Jones “was at a gas station when this vile criminal fired eight bullets at him from close range, murdering him in cold blood,” Trump said.
And Jones was just one of Garcia’s victims during what Trump called “a gruesome spree of deadly violence.” He killed another person, committed a truck hijacking, an armed robbery, and got into a firefight with police.
“Before SB 54, Gustavo Garcia would have been turned over to ICE officials,” Tulare County Sheriff Mike Boudreaux said previously, according to the Washington Post. “That’s how we’ve always done it, day in and day out. After SB 54, we no longer have the power to do that.”
California laws curb the power of state and local law enforcement to hold, question, and transfer detainees at the request of ICE, and punish employers for cooperating with the federal agency.
AB 450 prohibits private employers from voluntarily cooperating with ICE—including officials conducting worksite enforcement efforts. SB 54 prevents state and local law enforcement officials from providing information to the feds about the release date of criminal illegal aliens in their custody. AB 103 imposes a state-run inspection and review scheme on the federal detention of aliens held in facilities pursuant to federal contracts.
Legal challenges to the state’s sanctuary regime have not met with success.
In 2018 the Trump administration sued California, arguing state laws prevented ICE from enforcing federal law. The next year, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals threw out the suit, finding improbably that California law was not in conflict with U.S. immigration law.
Charter cities are allowed in some circumstances to enact legislation that differs from state law, according to the League of California Cities. There are 121 charter cities across the state, including Bakersfield, Chula Vista, Fresno, Irvine, Los Angeles, Palm Springs, San Diego, San Jose, and Vallejo.
But in January, a California appellate court overturned a lower court ruling, finding that Huntington Beach and other charter cities have to follow the sanctuary laws.
Orange County Sheriff Don Barnes blames the sanctuary laws for a surge in crime.
“SB 54 has made our community less safe,” Barnes said earlier this month, according to the Washington Examiner.
“The law has resulted in new crimes because my deputies were unable to communicate with their federal partners about individuals who committed serious offenses and present a threat to our community if released.”
“The two-year social science experiment with sanctuary laws must end,” he added.
The federal legislation touted by Trump could do just that, though with Democrats in control of the U.S. House of Representatives, the bill won’t go anywhere for the time being. Control of the House could shift in November, allowing the next Congress to approve it.
The bill Sen. Tillis introduced, S. 2059, the proposed “Justice for Victims of Sanctuary Cities Act,” would allow a victim of a crime committed by an illegal alien to sue the sanctuary jurisdiction that shielded the alien from ICE for compensatory damages.
Among the original co-sponsors of the bill are Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), Joni Ernst (R-Iowa), Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), and Ted Cruz (R-Texas).
S. 2059 would allow “a civil action [to be] brought against a sanctuary jurisdiction by an individual (or the estate, survivors, or heirs of an individual) who— (A) is injured or harmed by an alien who benefitted from a sanctuary policy of the sanctuary jurisdiction; and (B) would not have been so injured or harmed but for the alien receiving the benefit of such sanctuary policy.” (Its companion bill in the House is H.R. 3964.)
In addition to creating a private right of civil action for victims of sanctuary jurisdictions, the measure would allow the feds to cut off Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funding to any jurisdiction that blocks victims from proceeding with lawsuits.
“If politicians want to prioritize reckless sanctuary policies over public safety, they should also be willing to provide just compensation for the victims,” Tillis said when he launched the bill.
“The Justice for Victims of Sanctuary Cities Act is commonsense legislation that will enhance public safety and hold sanctuary jurisdictions accountable for their refusal to cooperate with federal law enforcement.”
Meanwhile, Attorney General William Barr announced Feb. 10 that the U.S. Department of Justice is cracking down on sanctuary states and cities that have “policies and laws designed to thwart the ability of federal officers to take custody of these criminals and thereby help them escape back into the community.”
“These policies are not about people who came to our country illegally but have otherwise been peaceful and productive members of society,” Barr said at the National Sheriffs’ Association Winter Legislative and Technology Conference.
“Their express purpose is to shelter aliens whom local law enforcement has already arrested for other crimes. This is neither lawful nor sensible.”
Barr said the DoJ is taking legal action against New Jersey, King County in Washington state, and California.
Of course, it’s not enough, but it’s a good start.

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Friday 14 February 2020

Recipes - White Chocolate and Cheese Balls

White Chocolate and Cheese Balls 

 A dessert dish  for Valentines Day !

 By Pascale Perez-Rubin of  Pascale's Kitchen:
The Jerusalem Post , Thursday February 13, 2020
https://www.jpost.com/israeli%20Food%20and%20Jewish%20Recipes/Recipes-for-Valentines-Day-617467

White Chocolate and Cheese Balls (photo credit: Malki Adler)

Ingredients
White chocolate and cheese mousse: 

50 gr. white chocolate
250 gr. sweet cream 38%
5 gr. gelatin dissolved in 25 ml. water
250 gr. cream cheese or 9% cheese
50 gr. (½ packet) powdered sugar
½ tsp. vanilla extract or ¼ tsp. vanilla paste


Coating: 
1 jar (400 gr.) lotus cream or chocolate ganache


Directions

To prepare the mousse, heat 25 ml. of the sweet cream with the white chocolate. Mix well. 

In a separate bowl, dissolve the gelatin in the water by heating a few seconds at a time in the microwave. Add the gelatin to the mousse and mix well. Add the cream cheese and mix again. 

Using an electric mixer, whip the sweet cream with the powdered sugar and then fold in the vanilla. 

Fill a semi sphere silicone baking tray with mousse and put in the freezer for two hours. 

Push out the half balls and stick them together to form a full ball. 

Put a latex glove on and smooth the seam where the two halves touch so that the halves do not fall apart. 

Put  back in the freezer for a few more minutes. 

To prepare the coating, melt the lotus cream for 20 seconds in the microwave (or over a bain-marie). 

Alternatively, prepare chocolate ganache. Stick a toothpick in each ball and then dip them in the lotus cream or the chocolate ganache. 

Place the balls on baking paper and put them back in the freezer for a few more minutes. Store in the fridge until serving. 

If you don’t have a semi sphere silicone baking tray, you can freeze mousse in a square tray and then cut into small cubes after it freezes. Then, dip cubes into lotus or chocolate cream. 

If you’d rather not use gelatin, use three tablespoons of instant pudding instead.

Tipascale
To prepare chocolate ganache, you’ll need 2 packages (200 gr.) of bittersweet chocolate and 200 gr. of sweet whipping cream. 

Add the chocolate and cream to a glass bowl and heat in the microwave for a few seconds at a time. Stir until smooth. 


Level of difficulty: Easy.
Time: 30 minutes.
Status: Dairy.

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Barr under fire as Dems vow to investigate AG, call for impeachment

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/barr-under-fire-as-dems-investigate-ag-call-for-impeachment



Less than two weeks after President Trump was acquitted by the Senate, Democrats have their sights set on Attorney General Bill Barr as a new target for investigations and even impeachment, following the AG's apparent move to overrule prosecutors' recommended sentence for former Trump adviser Roger Stone.
From members of Congress to members of the media, political operatives to law professors, Barr is under intense scrutiny from the left for alleged "misuse of the criminal justice system" involving not only the Stone case, but the removal in January of U.S. Attorney Jessie Liu and accepting Ukraine-related information from Trump's personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani.
He's also walking a fine line with the president himself, who pushed back against Barr's highly publicized comments Thursday that Trump had never asked him to intervene in a criminal case.
“This doesn’t mean that I do not have, as President, the legal right to do so, I do, but I have so far chosen not to!" Trump tweeted Friday morning.
Barr will answer questions on all these issues in a March 31 appearance before the Democrat-controlled House Judiciary Committee.

"In your tenure as Attorney General, you have engaged in a pattern of conduct in legal matters relating to the President that raises significant questions for this Committee," wrote House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler, D-Calif., in a letter confirming that Barr would testify, which he signed along with some of his fellow committee members. "In the past week alone, you have taken steps that raise grave questions about your leadership of the Department on Justice."
Earlier this week, four Department of Justice prosecutors resigned to their posts after top DOJ officials stepped in to soften their 7- to 9-year recommended sentence of Stone following a tweet by Trump about the case. Democrats called the move "without precedent" and sharpened their already simmering criticisms of Barr.
Stone was convicted of witness tampering, among other charges.

Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., said Barr “ought to be ashamed and embarrassed and resign as a result of this action directly interfering in the independent prosecution of Roger Stone.” He also said the controversy was yet another example of “political interference by the president to alter the independent decisions of the Department of Justice.”
Nadler didn’t answer a question on whether Barr should resign, but said: “I think the behavior is extremely egregious.”
Barr, on ABC News Thursday, pushed back on Trump's tweet while also defending his handling of the Stone case.
"I'm gonna do what I think is right," he said, "and you know, I cannot do my job here at the department with a constant background commentary that undercuts me."
White House officials told Fox News that they knew Barr was doing the ABC interview but that they did not know what the AG would say.
Democrats, largely, didn't buy Barr's explanation.
"What Bill Barr REALLY means is that Trump’s tweets saying the quiet part out loud are making it harder for him to do the crimes and cover-up," Jon Cooper, chairman of the anti-Trump organization Democratic Coalition, tweeted.

This followed Democrats' condemnation of Barr's willingness to accept Ukraine-related information from Giuliani, prompting Nadler to wonder whether Barr is "in league with Mr. Giuliani and his associates." Barr has been a lightning rod for most of his time as the top law enforcement officer in the United States, including for his handling of the former Special Counsel Robert Mueller's report on Russia's interference in the 2016 election and his decision not to charge Trump with obstruction of justice based on the report.
"This situation has all the indicia of improper political interference in a criminal prosecution," Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer wrote in a letter to DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz on the Stone sentencing. "I therefore request that you immediately investigate this matter to determine how and why the Stone sentencing recommendations were countermanded, which Justice Department officials made this decision, and which White House officials were involved."
Some on the left have even called for Barr's impeachment, including MSNBC legal analyst Glenn Kirschner, who tweeted before the Stone developments last week that Barr has lied "to Congress, he lied about the Mueller report, he refuses to investigate obvious crimes by the administration, he is conflicted out of many matters but refuses to recuse."
Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., told CNN Wednesday that he wouldn't rule out launching a new impeachment inquiry into Trump himself over the drama around Stone and Barr.
"You know, we’re not going to take our options off the table," he said. "We want to work with him on prescription drugs, background checks, and infrastructure, but we’re not going to let him just torch this democracy because he thinks that he’s been let off once and we’re not going to do something about it."
Others to mention impeachment include Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., liberal Harvard law professor Laurence Tribe and self-labeled conservative Washington Post columnist Jennifer Rubin. House Speaker Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., condemned Barr on Thursday and called for an investigation but did not outright call for impeachment. Sen. Cory Booker joined calls for an investigation.
"Justice in America should not depend on your wealth and connections," Booker said in a tweet. "I agree with [Schumer] — DOJ OIG should open an investigation into improper political interference in the Stone case."
At the same time, Democratic Sens. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., Kamala Harris, D-Calif., Chris Coons, D-Del., and Booker, among others, hit Barr in a joint statement on "the politicization and maladministration of American immigration courts under President Donald Trump." The statement announced a letter they sent to Barr asking for documents on the matter.

Republicans, meanwhile, have largely stuck by Barr. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., released a statement backing the AG on Thursday.
"President Trump, in selecting Bill Barr to be Attorney General, has done a great service to the people serving in the Department of Justice and our nation as a whole," Graham said. "He is the right man at the right time to reform the Department and stand up for the Rule of Law. Attorney General Barr has my complete confidence."

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