Feds considering charging Capitol rioters using law typically applied to mafia, organized crime cases: report

The 1970 RICO Act sets up federal criminal penalties for activity that benefits a criminal enterprise. Such racketeering laws are typically reserved for organized crime.

Thousands of protesters streamed to the Capitol on Jan. 6. Some then stormed it, temporarily disrupting Congress' certification of President Biden’s victory over Donald Trump in the November election.

The rioters, some armed with guns, roamed the halls of the federal building, smashed or dismantled property and barged into House and Senate leaders’ chambers. Meanwhile, Hill staffers and lawmakers were under lockdown or hid behind chairs or under tables.

Five people, including U.S. Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick, died during or in connection with the insurrection.

After the siege, Sherwin said the Justice Department was considering bringing sedition charges against some of the rioters, effectively accusing them of attempting to overthrow or defeat the government.

Overall, federal authorities have charged more than 150 people in the Capitol siege.

https://www.foxnews.com/us/feds-capitol-rioters-law-mafia-organized-crime-cases

 

An Arab Israeli Asks ‘What Apartheid’?

Striking down a pervasive lie.

Thu Feb 4, 2021 

Hugh Fitzgerald

 

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Yoseph Haddad is an Arab Israeli who is fed up with being told he lives under an “apartheid” regime. He recently expressed his particular anger with B’Tselem, a left-wing Israei NGO that spreads this baseless claim of Israel “apartheid” around the world. He takes the NGO eloquently to task here: “What apartheid?,” by Yoseph Haddad, Israel Hayom, January 17, 2021. There is a Jihad Watch report on B’Tselem’s claims here. Haddad writes:

Last week, I woke up one morning in my Nazareth home and was astonished to discover I was living under a racist apartheid regime whose only purpose is “the promotion and perpetuation of the superiority of one group of people – the Jews.” I rubbed my eyes, read the story in greater depth, and calmed down as soon as I realized the reports were based on yet another report by the left-wing NGO B’Tselem.

The problem is that this report has spread like wildfire around the world, and the propaganda is working. B’Tselem, which presents itself as a human-rights organization, is in fact known as an organization with a clear political stance that is in contrast to Israel’s position. As it turns out, people have no boundaries. How dare they say that I, an Arab Israeli who served along with Jewish soldiers in the Israel Defense Forces and managed hundreds of Jewish employees, live under an apartheid regime?

How can anyone say our society is living under an apartheid regime when among us you will find doctors, judges, and even lawmakers? How can you say Samer Haj-Yehia lives in an apartheid regime when he is the head of the biggest bank in Israel? B’Tselem has already broken the record for hypocrisy, but to compare Israel to an apartheid regime for its racial laws is not only a distorted lie but an insult to all those South Africans who actually lived through apartheid. It is contempt for and cynical exploitation of the concept.

I am not here to claim that everything in Israel is perfect. Some things need to be fixed, and how. But show me a country where everything is perfect….

When B’Tselem director Hagai El-Ad, who is Jewish, decides that I, my Arab family, and my Arab friends are all living under an apartheid regime, he and his organizations are basically telling us they see us as second-class citizens. B’Tselem, don’t push your agendas at our expense….

This is an eloquent response by an Israeli Arab who hits back at B’Tselem, furious at its falsehoods, not only by denying its charge that Israel is an “apartheid” state, but offering his own story, as someone who both served in the IDF, and as a civilian directed “hundreds of Jewish employees,” as counter-evidence to B’Tselem’s preposterous claims. And he hits back where it hurts at B’Tselem, an organization of far-left Israelis whose reason for being is to undermine their own country’s image, by noting how the group manages to exploit and diminish real examples of “apartheid” for, as Yoseph Haddad says, “to compare Israel to an apartheid regime for its racial laws is not only a distorted lie but an insult to all those South Africans who actually lived through apartheid. It is contempt for and cynical exploitation of the concept.”

He mentions that there are Arab “doctors, judges, even lawmakers” in Israel. He might have added that those Arab “doctors” include specialists who run departments at Israeli hospitals and work side-by-side with Jewish colleagues, as their equals. He could have noted that those Arab “lawmakers” include members of the Arab Joint List, which is the third largest political bloc in the Knesset. He could have observed that Arab Israelis are not just “judges” at the municipal level, but sit on Israel’s Supreme Court. He could have said that Israeli Arabs are sent abroad as ambassadors for their country. There is complete legal equality of Arab and Jew in Israel. In only one thing do they differ, and it is to the Arabs’ advantage. Israeli Arabs, unlike Israeli Jews, are not required to serve in the IDF, though they may – like Yoseph Haddad – do so if they wish. There are Arab majors and lieutenant colonels though, as yet, no Arab generals, but that’s only a matter of time. And as Haddad notes, there is no glass ceiling for Arab Israelis in business, either: the head of Israel’s largest bank – Bank Leumi — is an Arab.

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2021/02/arab-israeli-asks-what-apartheid-hugh-fitzgerald/

B’Tselem, take note. Don’t force Mr. Haddad to hold you up for ridicule yet again.

All asset classes, all South Africans at risk from Expropriation Bill

South Africa: All asset classes, all South Africans at risk from Expropriation Bill 

 The property of millions of South Africans – from land, farms and houses to shares, business premises and mining rights – will be at risk of the government succeeds in passing its latest Expropriation Bill, warns the IRR (Institute of Race Relations).

The scale of the domestic risk, and of the likely damage to South Africa’s economy and its standing as an investment destination, is spelled out in a new report – Issue Alert: Expropriation Bill, One week left to ‘kill the bill’ – published by the IRR yesterday.

Author of the report, IRR head of policy research Dr Anthea Jeffery, describes the draft law as ‘a draconian measure’ that must be stopped before it can be used to strip millions of South Africans of their homes and other assets without fair procedures or equitable compensation.

Jeffery points out that the Bill does not address ‘the injustices of the past and restore land rights’ – as Deputy President David Mabuza claimed when the draft legislation was gazetted last October; the real import of the Bill is that ‘(all) asset classes are vulnerable, and so too are all South Africans’.

With the 10 February deadline for public comment approaching, South Africans are urged to endorse the IRR’s submission and help ‘to kill this bill and protect property rights for everyone, black or white, rich or poor”.

Jeffery points out that the Bill has ‘enormous ramifications for the 1 million white and 8.7 million black South Africans who own houses, the thousands of black South Africans who have bought more than 6 million hectares of urban and rural land since 1991, and the roughly 17 million people with informal rights to plots held in customary tenure. It also threatens companies, both large and small, with the loss of shares, business premises, mining rights, and other property.’

South Africans have been ‘encouraged to believe that the Bill deals only with land, and primarily with ‘white’ farming land”, but the Bill describes the “property” subject to its provisions as “not limited to land”.

Moreover, while failing to meaningfully address land reform or urban housing needs, the Bill will ‘deprive the Constitution of much of its vital force, leaving people far more vulnerable to the destructive interventions of an increasingly powerful state’.

Over time, the Bill ‘will be used to strip people of their land, homes, business premises, pensions, and other assets – and to vest these in the hands of a powerful political elite intent on pursuing a socialist National Democratic Revolution’.

The draft law ‘does nothing to achieve what most people want: jobs, houses, schools, rising prosperity, individual liberty, and respect for the rule of law’, but will instead ‘scare off investment, weaken and in time destroy businesses, increase unemployment, and stifle the economic recovery the country so badly needs’.

Food security will be eroded, and hunger worsened, and it could ‘help trigger a sovereign debt default (and) set hyperinflation spiralling’.

https://dailyfriend.co.za/2021/02/04/all-asset-classes-all-south-africans-at-risk-from-expropriation-bill-irr/

 

Swedish preschool ordered to purge suspected Islamist extremists from its board or face closure

File photo: © REUTERS/Tommy Pedersen/TT News Agency

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A preschool in the Swedish city of Gothenburg has been ordered to replace its entire board or face closure after security police found ties between its founding chairman and violent Islamist extremists operating in the country.

The school, called Snodroppen (“Snowflake”), reportedly has links to the controversial and secretive group, the School of Science, according to media  reports. “If they in principle don’t replace the entire board and the principal, they cannot continue to run the business,” Amanda Larsson of the Gothenburg preschool board said, as cited by Swedish media. 

Local authorities are demanding the school replace its entire board or face being shut down amid fears it has been infiltrated by violent extremists who may pose a national security threat to Sweden or who may attempt to isolate children from the secular state and radicalize them.

The ‘Snowflake’ school has been run by a husband and wife since it opened in 2011, and authorities fear that, despite stepping down officially, the man continues to pull strings at the preschool, making use of its resources, possibly for nefarious purposes. 

“We assess that the man hasn’t left the business and thus continues to have an impact. For example, he can still use the company’s car, which shows a close relationship with the current principal,” Larsson added following discussion with the Swedish Security Police (Sapo).

The school authorities have been issued an ultimatum to find a new principal by April or close, which would affect some 30 local children. The Swedish school system has been plagued by issues with suspected extremist infiltration into its ranks in recent years. 

The school Nya Kastet in the city of Gavle was forcibly closed over links to an extremist network led by Abo Raad, an extremist who was marked to be deported by the authorities. The preschool Lar & Lek (“Learn and Play”) was also closed for links to the controversial ‘Sweden’s United Muslims’ group. 

“We see this as a broad phenomenon and a long-term problem and all pro-violence extremist environments could take advantage of this opportunity,” Sapo Chief of Operations Johan Olsson said. Sapo estimates that there has been a rise from 200 to about 2,000 Islamists operating in the country in the past decade.

https://www.rt.com/news/514575-swedish-preschool-linked-violent-extremism/

Tokyo Olympics Committee President Will Restrict Speaking Time of Annoying Women Who Talk To Much

 https://nationalfile.com/tokyo-olympics-committee-president-will-restrict-speaking-time-of-annoying-women-who-talk-too-much/

The president of the Tokyo Olympics organizing committee sparked rage from Western feminists this after reportedly stating that if new female members were added to the to the committee they would need to have their speaking times restricted because “when you increase the number of female executive members, if their speaking time isn’t restricted to a certain extent, they have difficulty finishing, which is annoying.”

The remarks were made during an Olympic committee meeting on Wednesday by committee president Yoshiro Mori.

“We have about seven women at the organizing committee but everyone understands their place,” Mori reportedly stated.

Mori also noted, “When you increase the number of female executive members, if their speaking time isn’t restricted to a certain extent, they have difficulty finishing, which is annoying.”

The committee president’s remarks appeared to be based on personal experience, as he added, “Women are competitive, when one person raises a hand, others think they need to speak up as well. That’s why everyone speaks.”

Mori’s remarks incited outrage and alarm among Western corporate media publications, though his statements don’t appear to have gone caused as much of an uproar in Japan.

The committee president has also stated that “The education ministry has been very insistent about choosing female directors. But a board meeting with plenty of women will make it drag on.”

The Tokyo Olympics committee has also drawn media ire for resolving to hold the Olympics in 2021, regaardless of hysteria related to Covid-19.

“We will make sure the Games will be held no matter how the Covid situation will be. We go beyond the discussion of whether we hold (the Games) or not hold,” Mori said Tuesday. “We are to come up with ‘new’ Olympics.”

Social Media Star Baby Ariel Calls on 50 Million Followers to ‘#SmashHate’ in New Campaign Against Antisemitism and Racism

 by Algemeiner Staff

The Algemeiner Journal

 

                      Baby Ariel’s TikTok January 27 video message. Photo: Screenshot

 

Baby Ariel, a social media superstar with over 35 million followers on TikTok and 9 million on Instagram, called on her many young fans to fight antisemitism and racism in a new video campaign.

“As a girl of Jewish and Hispanic descent, I have received my fair share of hate on social media over the years and trust me, it always hurts to get hate because of who you are,” said the singer and actress, whose real name is Ariel Martin.

“Imagine getting targeted, arrested and killed because of your religion or skin color, your sexuality or because of your disability,” she continued. “The Nazis murdered six million Jews and another six million Catholics, Jehovah’s Witnesses, gay men and women and children with disabilities.”

Baby Ariel, who also counts 1 million Twitter followers and 3 million YouTube subscribers, is among the top 20 accounts on TikTok, the popular video sharing app.

She concluded her video message by asking her followers to “share your story of how you have received and overcome hate with the hashtag #smashhate and #neveragain.”

The campaign is coordinated with the Combat Anti-Semitism Movement, according to a press release, and Baby Ariel will join group’s annual summit in March.

“We are delighted that Baby Ariel is taking this important step to engage young people in the fight against anti-Semitism and hatred,” said Sacha Roytman Dratwa, the organization’s executive director. “She is one of the most influential global voices for a new generation. Sadly, social media is too often filled with bigotry and intolerance and history shows us that such words are soon followed by acts of hate.”

 

What Not to Do with Marjorie Taylor Greene

 By David Harsanyi

The National Review

The Leading Republican Editorial Magazine

 

 Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R., Ga.) walks to the House floor during the impeachment debate in Washington, D.C., January 13, 2021. (Jonathan Ernst/Reuters) 

 

Don’t rationalize, don’t excuse, and don’t play the other side’s game. 

 

Several recent precedents offer House Republicans a clear roadmap on how not to deal with Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene (QAnon, Ga.):

Under no circumstances should the Republican minority leader appear on glossy magazine covers celebrating the ascendancy of the radicals in the party. That’s an easy one. Don’t mainstream her.

Another easy one: Republicans should never elevate anyone who believes that Jews are imbued with the power to hypnotize the world and/or armed with massive lasers — though, as a Jew, I believe both could be quite useful — to the foreign-affairs committee. This is something you might see in an idiocracy, not in the world’s greatest deliberative body.

 Nor should Republicans pass resolutions shielding their members from taking responsibility for their crass anti-Semitic or bigoted sentiments. Not only would that be an act of sheer cowardice; it normalizes such rhetoric. Only leaders who place partisanship above decency would do something of that nature. Republicans should eschew elevating any freshman member with puerile, half-baked, wish-casting economic theories into places like the powerful financial-services committee. It’s true, of course, that long ago a congresswoman who believed that the CIA had created the crack epidemic to kill black men was its ranking member. That was a national embarrassment. Then again, her predecessor allegedly didn’t know his house was being used as a brothel — er, maison de sex work

Never allow the mad ravings of a first-term congressperson — who, let’s say, wants to ban meat and airplanes, or create a Ministry of Truth, etc. — to be used as the “framework” for the nation’s entire energy policy.

Do not be tempted to rationalize or excuse the insanity of such members, even when they accidentally trip over the truth from time to time. When it comes to conspiracy theorists, there are always some plausible snippets of reality undergirding these beliefs. Take Greene, for example, who seems to believe that Hollywood celebrities are Satan-worshipping, cannibalistic pedophiles, which everyone knows is only two-thirds true.

Do not entertain their fabulism. Much of their popularity is driven by emotional appeals.

Any loon who entertains the views expressed in the 314th comment in a subreddit on “globalism” doesn’t deserve your respect, no matter how many people voted for her or who hates her. The GOP should do whatever it can to marginalize her. What Republicans shouldn’t do is allow the press to create the impression that this powerless backbencher who ran virtually unopposed in a heavily Republican district matters very much. She doesn’t. No more than did fellow Georgian Cynthia McKinney, who served six terms in the House, and a lot less than the Squad.

Even if we concede that MTG, if I may, is a grade or two more outlandish than others, the fact is elected Republicans aren’t treating Greene as the future of their party. While Chuck Schumer tiptoes around AOC, Mitch McConnell has called Greene a “cancer” — harsher rhetoric than he’s used to attack someone on the other side like Ilhan Omar.

Of course, if you fail to exhibit the requisite intensity in calling out the loony statements of this freshman member, Democrats will claim you are complicit in the riots and worse. Unless you incessantly wring your hands over this one representative, the self-appointed conservative-morality police will latch on to some silly formulation, like “anti-anti-Taylor Greene,” to attack you. These are addicts jonesing for more Trump. Sorry, but Greene will never be more than methadone.

Don’t get me wrong: There is no doubt that Greene’s comments are legitimate news and that her presence hurts the GOP. Republicans should do better self-policing for their own sake. The media’s daily, front-page obsession with her, however, is a transparent attempt to make her the face of the party and divert attention away from Joe Biden’s disastrous start — his unprecedented number of unilateral actions, his terrible nominations, his placating of Iran, and his funding of abortion around the world, just for starters. All of these issues are far more important than Taylor Greene’s comments. Liberals want to create the impression that fringe QAnon-ers are the driving force in American conservative politics.

No amount of conservative self-flagellation will ever be enough to appease them.