On March 2, InSight Crime held a Facebook Live session to discuss current events related to organized crime in Latin America. Our main topic was the creation of a mafia state in Guatemala, and the recent US indictment against former top Guatemalan officials on drug charges. We have published the transcript of the introduction to our conversation.
In response to the Colombian government's disputable claim that it has "already won" the battle to occupy former FARC guerrilla turf, InSight Crime has mapped just one of the threats the state still faces.
After Obama leaves office, when you hear about how good a job he did for America, show those people this post. When you hear about how he changed America for the better, show them shit post. And when you hear that Obama was there when America needed him most, show them this post.
Obama did nothing to better America. He drove a racial wedge between people that set race relations in America back 50 years. he made deals with terrorist countries all while spiting and shunning our greatest allies for pro-radical Islamic ideologies. And He plunged America further into debt by $6-7 TRILLION more dollars than when he took over. And what did he do to help alleviate that debt?
He took the most vacations and spent the most money that any president ever has. Oh yea, and he promised he wouldn’t.
President Obama’s travel expenses cost taxpayers more than $96 million during his time in office, according to a report from the watchdog group Judicial Watch.
The group obtained documents from the Secret Service and Air Force that revealed President Obama’s travel over the last eight years totaled $96,938,882.51.
What’s more, one SINGLE trip cost well in excess of $2 million.
President Obama’s trip to the Florida Everglades on Earth Day in 2015 to give a speech about global warming cost a total of $1,012,367.76. While the speech was touted as an opportunity to talk about global warming, the president used the trip to attack Republican presidential candidates.
Later in 2015, President Obama traveled to San Diego where he spent time at the luxurious Rancho Sante Fe resort, which boasts a private golf course. This fundraising trip cost taxpayers $2,181,655.99.
This has a lasting effect on the Secret Service.
“The Obamas’ notorious abuse of presidential travel perks wasted military resources and stressed the Secret Service,” said Tom Fitton, president of Judicial Watch. “Judicial Watch estimates that the final costs of Obama’s unnecessary vacation and political travel will well exceed $100 million. President-elect Trump can immediately save taxpayers money by reforming presidential travel.”
So the next time you hear that Obama helped America from some liberal spouting mouthpiece, answer with this: I can’t remember, how many times was Obama on a golf course when a global tragedy happened and he continued his round?
A group of counter protesters gathered nearby, separated from the rally by police tape. They chanted “No Trump. No KKK. No fascist USA” and held signs with messages like “Your vote was a hate crime.”
[While] Hundreds gathered in rallies on both ends of Pennsylvania to show support for Trump.
Democrat super-lobbyist Tony Podesta was paid $170,000 over a six-month period last year to represent Sberbank, Russia’s largest bank, seeking to end one of the Obama administration's economic sanctions against that country, The Daily Caller News Foundation's Investigative Group has learned.
Laureate Education, the for-profit education company with close ties to former President Bill Clinton that faces charges for being part of the the Clinton Foundation "pay-to-play"enterprise, has been in a free fall on the stock exchange since its Initial Public Offering (IPO) Feb. 1.
Eight days after the 2016 presidential election, Douglas Schoen -- President Bill Clinton’s past pollster and advisor -- charged that former defense intelligence chief Michael Flynn was “dangerously pro-Russian” because he participated in the 10th anniversary celebration of RT, the Russian state-owned Television network formerly known as Russia Today.
USA –-(Ammoland.com)- Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and the Democrats continue to snub President Trump by slowing down Senate confirmation of his Cabinet appointments.
Their underlying goal is to allow remaining Obama-appointed bureaucrats to do as much damage to the Trump administration as they can before leaving.
CNN reported last week that “Trump is noticeably behind the last three presidents when it comes to securing the confirmation of his Cabinet and other top appointments that require Senate approval.”
The Senate confirmed Governor Rick Perry on Thursday to lead the U.S. Department of Energy, leaving only former Governor Sonny Perdue and Alexander Acosta awaiting confirmation to lead the Department of Agriculture and the Department of Labor respectively.
But Schumer is only stalling top cabinet picks to further block the appointments of nearly 2,000 other political vacancies within the administration. CNN said as of February 23, Trump had 1,987 vacancies throughout his administration.
Many of these positions are empty. Attorney General Jeff Sessions said yesterday that much has happened at the Department of Justice in the three weeks he’s been in office, and he wished more of his staff had been confirmed by now.
To be clear: Senate Democrats are keeping the Department of Justice from functioning at full capacity.
But other seats are currently filled by Obama appointees quietly working behind the scenes to sabotage Trump’s efforts by continuing their previous leader’s agenda while Schumer works to hamstring Trump’s presidency. These include deputies, managers and political appointees who are meant to keep the government running while a new administration comes into power.
A clear example of this is occurring in the Department of Education, where bureaucrats are continuing what the Washington Post called Obama’s “ideological crusade” on for-profit colleges.
During President Obama’s term, his administration forced ITT Technical Institutes out of business after the school helped train American workers for half a century. This left about 40,000 students displaced and about 8,000 employees jobless, according to a September 20, 2016 Washington Post editorial.
And two months before the end of Obama’s term, his education department abruptly stripped authority from the Accrediting Council for Independent Colleges and Schools, which is one of the oldest national accreditors of academic institutions in the country.
The Obama administration took this action without giving the ACICS a standard 12-month grace period to address the Department of Education’s complaints and imposed intentionally unattainable deadlines on private colleges and work training programs accredited through ACICS.
Secretary Betsy DeVos is now leading the Department of Education, but Obama-appointed lawyers in the department are still enforcing these unreachable mandates for career training institutions.
One such deadline requires 690 privately-owned schools to prove they have applications to other accreditors by March 12. Not only is this forcing private schools to leave ACICS before its appeal is adjudicated, but not meeting this deadline will mean these schools will lose the ability to receive federal Title IV funding, which is bureaucrat-speak for federal student aid.
This means more than 600,000 students at 725 schools will have to either quickly find other educational programs and restart their degrees or certificates; pay off their federal loans with their own money; or find a private lender to accept their debt. All of these options are terrible and punish hard-working people. And the last resort is having taxpayers cover the cost of forgiving the now-useless loans.
The Obama administration made a mission out of demonizing private for-profit colleges and universities, but many of these students are single parents or people who were failed by college-focused federal education policies.
Pulling the rug out from under organizations like ACICS is a blatant, misguided effort by Obama administration bureaucrats who are focused on destroying this industry.
Many of these students are working adults who are trying to improve their lives for the sake of their children. Not only will these Obama-led efforts hurt Americans, but without these colleges and career training programs, our ability to fill the jobs President Trump is working to bring to this county will be severely hindered.
Senate Republicans should make every effort to break the Democrat blockade, so President Trump can swiftly fill these positions.
And then the president’s cabinet members should take a close look at Obama staffers who have “burrowed in” by moving from appointed positions to career jobs.
The Washington Times reported in November that there were “69 Obama political appointees who moved into career jobs from 2010 to 2015, and 17 of them didn’t receive the required approval from the Office of Personnel Management.”
The bold changes President Trump is bringing to the federal system will require complete loyalty within the ranks of the executive branch. Republicans in the Congress and the president’s cabinet should work doubly hard to ensure the administration is at top working order as soon as possible.
Your Friend, Newt
Duplicity by Newt Gingrich : http://tiny.cc/5abr9x
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About Newt Gingrich
Newt Gingrich is well-known as the architect of the “Contract with America” that led the Republican Party to victory in 1994 by capturing the majority in the U.S. House of Representatives for the first time in forty years. After he was elected Speaker, he disrupted the status quo by moving power out of Washington and back to the American people.
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Two illegal alien members of the MS-13 gang were arrested in Texas and charged Thursday with killing a woman as part of a Satanic ritual, according to reports.
The New York Post reports the El Salvadoran suspects, Diego Rivera, 18, and Miguel Alvarez-Flores, 22, smiled and waved at cameras while in court. The two face charges they allegedly killed a woman they were holding hostage in an apartment when she spoke out against the group’s devil worship.
After the woman, known only as “Genesis,” made the comments, Alvarez-Flores attempted to give a cigarette to a Satanic statue as an offering, ABC 13 reported.
But he claimed Satan wasn’t having the offering, telling his fellow gang members that “the Beast” wanted a soul instead.
Alvarez-Flores and Rivera then brought the woman to the side of a road, where Alvarez-Flores, handed his accomplice a gun, according to offcials.
The two then allegedly shot the victim. Her body was discovered on Feb. 16th.
Officials say a 14-year old kidnapping victim who alleges MS-13 gang members held her and sexually assaulted her in an apartment, provided the evidence that links the two illegal aliens to the murder.
U.S. Gives Soros Groups Millions to Destabilize Macedonia’s Government
Even as we pursue the truth about former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s emails from a recalcitrant State Department, we are learning of another of the department’s nefarious activities. Our Corruption Chronicles blog has the story.
The U.S. government has quietly spent millions of taxpayer dollars to destabilize the democratically elected, center-right government in Macedonia by colluding with leftwing billionaire philanthropist George Soros, records obtained by Judicial Watch show. Barack Obama’s U.S. Ambassador to Macedonia, Jess L. Baily, has worked behind the scenes with Soros’ Open Society Foundation to funnel large sums of American dollars for the cause, constituting an interference of the U.S. Ambassador in domestic political affairs in violation of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations The cash flows through the State Department and the famously corrupt U.S. Agency of International Development (USAID), which is charged with providing global economic, development and humanitarian assistance. USAID has allocated about $5 million to leftwing Soros groups in Macedonia since 2012, documents show, and at least $9.5 million has been earmarked by the agency to intervene in the Balkan nation’s governmental affairs for 2016-2021. State Department figures have been tougher to come by and Judicial Watch has filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for the numbers. Judicial Watch also fired off a public records request to USAID because the preliminary figures, obtained through various sources in both the U.S. and Macedonia, appear to be incomplete. Here’s how the clandestine operation functions, according to high-level sources in Macedonia and the U.S. that have provided Judicial Watch with records as part of an ongoing investigation. The Open Society Foundation has established and funded dozens of leftwing, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in Macedonia to overthrow the conservative government. One Macedonian government official interviewed by Judicial Watch in Washington D.C. recently calls it the “Soros infantry.” The groups organize youth movements, create influential media outlets and organize violent protests to undermine the institutions and policies implemented by the government. One of the Soros’ groups funded the translation and publication of Saul Alinsky’s “Rules for Radicals” into Macedonian. The book is a tactical manual of subversion, provides direct advice for radical street protests and proclaims Lucifer to be the first radical. Thanks to Obama’s ambassador, who has not been replaced by President Trump, Uncle Sam keeps the money flowing so the groups can continue operating and recruiting, sources in Macedonia and the U.S. confirm. With a population of about 2 million, Macedonia has one of the more conservative governments in Europe. This includes the lowest flat tax in Europe, close ties with Israel and pro-life policies. The country recently built a border fence to crackdown on an illegal immigration crisis that overwhelmed law enforcement agencies. Between 10,000 and 12,000 illegal aliens were crossing the Greek-Macedonian border daily at the peak of the European migration crisis, a Macedonian official told Judicial Watch, and the impact was devastating. This is likely of big interest to Soros, a renowned open borders advocate who pushes international governance, diminished U.S. global power and an increase in Muslim immigration. Soros spent tens of millions of dollars to support Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign. Just this month Hungary’s prime minister lashed out against Soros for funding groups to secretly influence the country’s politics. “Large-bodied predators are swimming here in the waters,” said Viktor Orban in his annual state of the nation speech. “This is the trans-border empire of George Soros, with tons of money and international heavy artillery.” This appears to be the case in Macedonia with the help of American financing. There have been a number of violent protests in recent months that have been coordinated by Soros’ Open Society Foundation through its U.S.-funded NGOs, sources tell Judicial Watch. Some U.S. members of Congress have expressed interest in the issue and have demanded answers from Ambassador Baily, USAID and the State Department. In typical fashion, the State Department has stonewalled the inquiries and USAID hasn’t been much more forthcoming. Last month Utah Senator Mike Lee sent Ambassador Baily a letter asking questions involving the U.S. Mission to Macedonia’s involvement in the political process and its connections to the Open Society Foundation. It’s unlikely that Americans will receive answers, especially since Baily is probably on his way out. The fact remains however, that millions of U.S. taxpayer dollars have already been spent on this illicit operation and the government agencies need to be held accountable.
It became increasingly clear toward the end of the Obama administration, as it gave up all pretense of being a traditional administration operating somewhere near the center of political thought, that Rules for Radicals was its guiding bible. Our new secretary of state, Rex Tillerson, has his work cut out for him.
