FBI agents try to block administration’s effort to examine Trump, Jan. 6 cases

A group of nine FBI agents asked a federal judge on Tuesday to block the Trump administration’s efforts to collect information on thousands of case agents across the country who worked on investigations tied to the President Donald Trump or the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol.

Attorneys for the agents, who filed suit anonymously in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, said any effort to use that information as a basis to fire FBI employees would be unlawful, retaliatory and violation of civil service protections.

They also raised concerns that administration officials might make public the names of agents involved in the Jan. 6 cases, “placing themselves in their families in immediate danger of retribution by the now pardoned and at-large Jan. 6 convicted felons.”

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inFBI, Trump Derangement Syndrome

How Fentanyl Became Central to Trump’s Tariffs

President Trump has declared that the illegal transit into the U.S. of migrants and drugs, chiefly fentanyl, is a national emergency, and he has targeted Mexico, Canada and China with tariffs to force them to halt the flow.

How fentanyl became part of the tariff equation comes down to the production and smuggling of an opioid that has caused the overdose deaths of hundreds of thousands of Americans.

The U.S. has long pressured Mexico, by far the main source of fentanyl, to do more to halt the drug’s production and export, and the money-laundering activities that are vital to the drug trade. Canada entered the picture because of the growing presence of Mexican cartels there.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inPresident Trump, USA

U.S.A.I.D. Workers Brace for Agency’s Dismantling

Uncertainty and turmoil gripped the U.S. Agency for International Development for a second day, as employees locked out of their offices braced for potential cuts to the work force, while Democrats denounced the Trump administration for what they said was an illegal power grab.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who took control of U.S.A.I.D. as its acting administrator on Monday, insisted during a Fox News interview that night that the takeover was “not about getting rid of foreign aid,” and that the goal had been to reform the agency.

“But now we have rank insubordination,” he said, adding that U.S.A.I.D. employees had been “completely uncooperative, so we had no choice but to take dramatic steps to bring this thing under control.”

(more…)

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"Deep State", USA

Why It’s Absolutely Christian To Swiftly Deport All Illegal Migrants

President Trump is making good on his campaign promise of deporting illegal aliens. So, of course, various self-described Christian leaders are outraged.

Mariann Budde, the Episcopalian “bishop” who reportedly owns a $2 million D.C. mansion, has drawn much attention to herself due to her lecture at the Washington National Cathedral. “I ask you to have mercy upon the people in our country who are scared now,” Budde said to Trump and Vice President J.D. Vance at the inaugural prayer service, adding that “the vast majority of immigrants are not criminals” but are “good neighbors” and members of religious communities.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inCamp Of The Saints, USA

What is Bill Gates afraid of?

The mask is finally coming off

At a moment when the world’s most revered humanitarian faces growing public scrutiny and a fading public profile, what does he do? Try to change the narrative. Over the past year, we’ve seen Bill Gates embark on a powerful PR tour. In addition to his podcast, his blog, and endless speeches and op-eds, he pushed out a five-part self-aggrandising Netflix series last year. And now he’s got a new memoir.

A single volume would not be sufficient for Gates, however, and he has announced that he needs three to tell his life story. The first, Source Code, focuses on his early life, and the initial years of Microsoft, the company that made him a billionaire. As one of the most interviewed and talked about people in history, much of Gates’s personal story has already been told. So what could he tell us at this point that we haven’t heard before?

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"Bad Optics"

Leftist Leader in Germany Suggests Asylum For Millions of ‘Climate Refugees’

The leader of the Left Party in Germany has suggested that the country could grant asylum to a million migrants a year in order to protect them from “the consequences of climate change.”

During an interview with Funke Media Group, Jan van Aken said that Germany accepting a million new migrants every year was “a completely manageable number.”

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"Environmentalists", WTF?

Will Angela Rayner ban criticism of Islam?

Less than 24 hours after a man in Manchester was convicted of a hate crime for burning the Koran, news has emerged of the UK government’s plans for further restrictions on what can be said about Islam.

As the Telegraph reports, UK deputy prime minister Angela Rayner, in her role as communities secretary, is setting up a council to advise her on drawing up an official government definition of ‘Islamophobia’. Although it is presented in the language of tackling prejudice, discrimination and abuse faced by British Muslims, we can be certain that the government will attempt to ringfence criticism of Islam itself – and perhaps even of Islamic fundamentalism and extremism.

She is a lunatic.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"Islamophobia", Islam, Islam and violence, Islamization of the West

Quebec continues to reject Energy East pipeline from Alberta despite tariff threat

That was fast.

The show of solidarity between Canada’s premiers to reduce barriers to interprovincial trade in the face US president Donald Trump’s tariff threats lasted less than eight hours.

Speaking to reporters following The Donald’s gesture to delay what amount to crippling economic sanctions on Canada’s export industries, Quebec Premier François Legault said his province was willing to do anything to prevent the imposition of tariffs in the future.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inQuebec

Trump must be careful – Canada has a devastating ace up its sleeve

Donald Trump is well-advised to pause his unprovoked act of aggression against Canada.

The once “friendly giant of the North” has the means to inflict a serious energy and industrial crisis on America if pushed too far. Ottawa has conspicuously refused to rule this out.

Canada is the world’s fourth biggest producer of crude oil, exporting some 4m barrels a day to the US. It is the fifth biggest producer of natural gas.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inCanada, USA

Conrad Black: Though Postponed, Tariff Threat Presents a Range of Opportunities for Canada

The imposition of 25 percent tariffs on Canadian imports—now suspended for a month—by President Trump was an outrage, but it is also an opportunity.

It is offensive because the president says the tariffs are a result of inadequate efforts on the part of Canada and Mexico to prevent the entry of undesirables and dangerous narcotics into the United States. As I’ve written elsewhere, Canada is not East Germany and does not construct a wall to keep people in the country. It is well-settled international law and usage that sovereign countries maintain their own borders. Mr. Trump’s complaint is not with us but with his predecessor, who wilfully allowed 10–12 million or even more illegal migrants to cross the southern border, a significant number of them dangerous criminals bringing with them horrifying quantities of fentanyl and other lethal drugs.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inCanada, USA

Military not being deployed to border, but Canada will send drones

OTTAWA — The Canadian Armed Forces will not be sent to the Canada-U.S. border, but it will sending more drones to the RCMP and assist with logistics, according to National Defence Minister Bill Blair’s office.

Calls to send the military to the border rang out Monday from Opposition Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre, who requested Prime Minister Justin Trudeau do so as the clock ticked down to the U.S. imposing 25 per cent tariffs on Canadian imports and 10 per cent on energy resources.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inCanada, USA