“Congressman Ryan wasn’t protesting and didn’t mean to make any statement last night in Detroit, it was a moment of absentmindedness while on a debate stage that won’t happen again,” the Ryan campaign said in a statement.“He was, in fact, singing along with the choir to honor our country. Congressman Ryan loves our country and will continue to honor the flag during the anthem in future events, as he has in countless events in the past,” the statement adds.
Following the introduction of the ten candidates, a local choir performed the National Anthem, during which Ryan was the only candidate not to put his hand over their heart during the anthem, which is an American custom.
“No, not really,” the Ohio Democrat told ABC News when asked if he had any thoughts on the stir he caused. “I love this country as much as everybody else”
Of the move by Ryan, former White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer said the candidate was “appealing to the Kaepernick wing of the Democratic Party.”
Rep. Tim Ryan didn’t put his hand over his heart during the national anthem. I guess he’s appealing to the Kaepernick wing of the Democratic Party.
A four member delegation from the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU), all active supporters of the #RedforEd movement, traveled to Venezuela earlier this month to provide support for the socialist regime of Nicolas Maduro.
The delegation consisted of Richard Berg, a former Teamsters Union official who currently works for the CTU, and “rank and file” CTU strike captains Sarah Chambers, Fabiana Mariel, and V Voeta Vargas, according to press reports.
Berg confirmed he was a member of the CTU delegation that made the Venezuela trip in this tweet last week:
Chambers tweeted on July 27 that she was honored to be on the same stage as the grandson of Nelson Mandela at a rally in Venezuela, apparently held that same day:
Today, I had the honor of standing behind Nelson Mandela’s grandson at a Venezuelan rally. He spoke strongly in support of Maduro. Mandela & his org were on USA’s terrorist list when they fought against apartheid. Lesson is don’t trust USA propaganda#CTUAgainstVezInterventionpic.twitter.com/asezqhQVVZ
FightBack!News, a Minneapolis, Minnesota based organization which says it is a “newspaper [that] exists to build the people’s struggle! We provide coverage and analysis of some of the key battles facing working and low-income people,” reported on July 23 in a story with a Caracas, Venezuela dateline that “A delegation of members from the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) arrived in Caracas, Venezuela last week. Their goals were to learn what they could from Venezuela’s Bolivarian Revolution, exchange views on effective education and to show solidarity with the students, teachers and social movements of Venezuela.”
The trip falls on the heels of a union resolution that was passed by the CTU Executive Board and House of Delegates. The resolution calls for an end to U.S. intervention in Venezuela. Delegation member and CTU Area Vice President Sarah Chambers explains, “Through major economic hardships, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro never closed a single public school or a single health clinic. This stands in stark contrast to our experience in Chicago, where Mayor Rahm Emanuel closed 50 public schools and several mental health clinics in a single year.”
The teachers’ delegation met with leaders from the Venezuelan Foreign Ministry, Ministry of Communes, Ministry of Education, Adult Education Teachers, and students, as well as on-the-ground activists.
One important meeting was when the delegation sat down with Vladimir Castillo, the Venezuelan Director of International Affairs. They learned that Chavez started to talk about socialism in 2005, at the World Social Forum in Brazil, and that a few years after 2007 and 2008, community councils emerged as a result.
Writing at WirePoints, Mark Glennon confirmed the CTU delegation’s visit to Venezuela, despite some initial skepticism:
Surely this must be a parody, I thought when I first saw a story on it. A reader here sent me a link to something called FightBack!News. But I read it twice and plenty of other sources confirm it: The Chicago Teachers union has a delegation in Venezuela to show their solidarity with Nicolás Maduro’s socialist regime. . .
Delegation members are personally sharing their wonderment at Venezuelan socialism on a blog called “Radical Educator Collective.” The communes they visited particularly impressed them.
They quoted a Venezuelan official saying communes make society less individualistic since groups of people are working together to decide their needs and how to work collectively towards solutions. “This is why Venezuela became a threat to the USA, wrote delegation member Sarah Chambers. “The USA does not want people to realize that another world is possible with justice and love.”’
The OrinocoTribune, which describes itself as “an outlet created in 2018 and specially designed to provide relevant progressive information about Venezuela or related to Venezuela in the form of news articles and opinion pieces for English speakers around the world,” confirmed the pending visit of the CTU delegation in this June 16 article:
Orinoco Tribune contacted Richard Berg in Chicago and he indicated that the CTU has taken a very straighforward posture about Venezuelan current events and in that sense their rank and file were very interested in learn first hand about labor movement in Venezuela and the efects of the US unilattelar cohercive sanctions.
“We are interested in show solidarity with the Bolivarian Revolution and the Venezuelan people and at the same time we want to interact with Venezuelan labor union leaders with focus on teacher unions to learn from them how they have counter US sanctions and to inform them about our recent victories in the US, like the recent strike CTU organized in Chicago”, answer Berg to our request about the delegation.
Breitbart News asked delegation member Richard Berg for comment, but did not receive a response.
CTU was the first local teachers union to affiliate with the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), the second largest teachers union in the country, which has lent vigorous support to the #RedforEd movement.
A well-funded and subversive leftist movement of teachers in the United States threatens to tilt the political balance nationwide in the direction of Democrats across the country as Republicans barely hang on in key states that they need to hold for President Donald Trump to win re-election and for Republicans to have a shot at retaking the House and holding onto their Senate majority.
This teachers union effort, called #RedforEd, has its roots in the very same socialism that President Trump vowed in his 2019 State of the Union address to stop, and it began in its current form in early 2018 in a far-flung corner of the country before spreading nationally. Its stated goals–higher teacher pay and better education conditions–are overshadowed by a more malevolent political agenda: a leftist Democrat uprising designed to flip purple or red states to blue, using the might of a significant part of the education system as its lever.
In March, the Chicago Teachers Union passed a resolution to oppose any U.S. intervention in Venezuela. A publication called Marxist-LeninismToday provided the details of that resolution shortly after it passed.
The resolution claimed, in part, that “the current Trump administration . . . has recently made menacing pronouncements against the sovereign state of Venezuela by discrediting the result of the May 20, 2018, Venezuelan presidential election of Nicolas Maduro, and have backed the self-declared “Presidency” of Juan Guaido, President of the National Assembly of Venezuela.”
It also claimed that:
President Trump’s current Special Envoy to Venezuela, Elliot Abrams was involved in the April 11, 2002, attempted coup in Venezuela that removed then Venezuelan Hugo Chavez from power for less than 48 hours before a popular uprising put him back in office; and the current National Security Advisor John Bolton has accused Venezuela of being part of a “troika of evil” that includes Cuba and Nicaragua; and another major actor in this U.S. foreign adventure, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo along with Elliot Abrams was a key player in the so called “dirty wars” in Latin America 1980s that involved Nicaragua, El Salvador, and Chile; and [that] the U.S. has recently attempted to provoke a border incident with the Maduro government by moving $20 million worth of “aid” to Venezuela after it has 2 frozen the foreign assets of that country, discouraged other countries from doing business with Venezuela, and imposed sanctions that increase the poverty and misery of the general population by costing the Venezuelan government billions ever year.
The resolution had these three specifics:
RESOLVED, that the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) publicly states its opposition to any military invasion of the sovereign state of Venezuela, and insists on dialogue, diplomacy, and negotiation as the means to resolve this crisis; and
RESOLVED, that the CTU advocate for the suspension of the current sanctions against Venezuela, and for the U.S. to cease all threats, military mobilization, and interference in the economic and internal politics and affairs of the Venezuelan people; and respect the right of self-determination of this sovereign nation in accordance with U.S. stated commitment to the rule of law; and be it finally
RESOLVED, the CTU stands in solidarity with the Venezuelan labor organizations Sindicato Nacional Fuerza Magisterial (SINAFUM) , Colectivo Clasista de Trabajadores y Trabajadoras de la Educación , “Carmen Conzoño” y al Frente Nacional de Lucha de la Clase Trabajadora (FNLCT), and other organizations that oppose the interference in Venezuela’s sovereign affairs and the consequent threat of military intervention.
In June, the four members of the CTU delegation, using the name “Hands Off Venezuela” posted this information about the trip on Facebook:
CTU delegation member Sarah Chambers organized the Hands off Venezuela GoFundMe account, which raised $2,000 for the delegation’s trip expenses, $1,000 short of the goal of $3,000. In addition to Chambers, delegation members Fabiana Marel, V Voeta Vargas, and Richard Berg were listed as beneficiaries of the funds raised.
The CTU has close ties to the Arizona teachers who launched the #RedforEd movement in Arizona in March of 2018. One Arizona #RedforEd leader, Rebecca Garelli, was a CTU member and union union activist in Chicago for about a decade before moving to Arizona.
In May 2018, CTU teachers, staff and leadership showed their support for the #RedforEd movement actions in Arizona and other states in this YouTube video:
Last October, the CTU further solidified its support for the #RedforEd movement with this press release:
Over a thousand CTU charter educators have been negotiating with their managements for months for new contracts—and those negotiations have increasingly hit a wall as operators dismiss issues related to compensation and classroom resources. Average salaries for teachers at some charters is barely $47,000—less than the average salary for Arizona teachers, who staged massive protests and walkouts against low education funding this year. With Chicago’s cost of living as much as 30% higher than in states like West Virginia and Oklahoma—and with vastly higher housing costs—that puts educators’ wages well below teachers in the nation’s most militant and underfunded #RedForEd states. Paraprofessionals in Chicago charters, who provide critical classroom supports and are overwhelmingly Black and female, earn on average even less.
The CTU is pushing back with a press conference and rally at 5PM on Wednesday, October 24, at the upcoming board meeting of Acero—the largest unionized operator in CPS.
The CTU is currently threatening a strike if its demands for a “fair contract” are not met by the city of Chicago.
The Department of Justice on Monday released a statement announcing it had arrested two men who had conspired to assist ISIS.
The two men, who originally came to the U.S. as refugees from Somalia, had spoken with an undercover FBI agent “whom they believed was a supporter of ISIS ideology,” the DOJ press release said.
If you thought the Democratic presidential debate Tuesday night in Detroit was an exercise in futility, you weren’t alone. But you may be surprised to know that other observers who weren’t impressed included Hollywood liberals, as Fox News reported. While the Motown debates were slated to wrap up Wednesday with the likes of leading contenders…
The national conversation over the decrepit state of Baltimore is heating up now that an official from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development is joining the fight. Lynne Patton, a HUD regional administrator, went off on “crooked” Baltimore politicians and activists such as the Rev. Al Sharpton during an appearance on Fox News on…
Google is the world’s No. 1 search engine and it can reveal important information even when it’s not being used. That was the case with the huge Google Camp Summit on climate change that went from being a way to lecture on global warming to a reminder how hypocritical liberals can be about the issue.
Mario Lopez’s comments about it being “dangerous” for parents to allow their young children to choose their own gender have prompted a wave of blowback, with TV personalities, journalists, and other activists on the left criticizing the TV host on Twitter.
Lopez’s comments were made in a June video from PragerU in which the Extra TV host was interviewed by Candace Owens. “I’m never one to tell anyone how to parent their kids,” said Mario Lopez. But, he added, “if you’re three years old and you’re saying you’re feeling a certain way — you think you’re a boy or a girl…. I just think it’s dangerous as a parent to make that determination — OK, well, then you’re going to be a boy or girl.”
He added: “It’s sort of alarming. Just think of the repercussions later on.”
Owens noted that many kids and adolescents go through phases in which they explore their identities but quickly outgrow them.
Lopez responded that kids “don’t know anything about sexuality. You’re just a kid.”
Evidently it’s now *scandalous* to say that a child probably shouldn’t be making their own life-altering decisions at 3 years old. ♂️ Mario Lopez and Candace Owens discuss.@MarioLopezExtra@RealCandaceOpic.twitter.com/2Wdc79SrjW
The blowback crested on Tuesday after Yahoo! Lifestyleran an article about the interview.
Netflix’s Queer Eye host Karamo Brown said: “I’m disappointed to read @MarioLopezExtra comments about parent’s who support their child’s openes about their gender identity. As a social worker I am trained to identify abuse or neglect of a child. Healthy & safe dialogue w/ kids is neither abusive, neglectful or ‘dangerous.’”
I’m disappointed to read @MarioLopezExtra comments about parent’s who support their child’s openes about their gender identity. As a social worker I am trained to identify abuse or neglect of a child. Healthy & safe dialogue w/ kids is neither abusive, neglectful or “dangerous.” https://t.co/aTkL2sLm4u
“I don’t think @MarioLopezExtra should be ‘canceled’. But I do believe he should be given the opportunity to learn why his comments are harmful to trans youth and their parents. Mario, I’m ready to talk when you are,” Brown added.
Holly Figueroa O’Reilly, a journalist who has written for The Washington Post and The Guardian, and is a founder of the Democratic activist group Blue Wave Crowdsource, lashed out angrily at Lopez, noting that 2 of her five children are queer.
“Parents can tell the different between a 3 year old who pretends to be another gender for fun and one who feels they are living in the wrong body,” wrote Figueroa O’Reilly. “STFU Mario Lopez.”
Of our 5 kids, 2 are queer. They both came out in their early teens but we knew who they were way, way before then.
Parents can tell the different between a 3 year old who pretends to be another gender for fun and one who feels they are living in the wrong body. STFU Mario Lopez https://t.co/pKXketgy6P
— Holly Figueroa O’Reilly (@AynRandPaulRyan) July 31, 2019
Human Rights Campaign, the country’s largest LGBTQ civil rights organization, also weighed in on the Mario Lopez interview, saying that his comments are “dangerous.”
The organization said its Parents for Transgender Equality Council “would be more than happy to educate you on this very subject of supporting trans youth.”
.@MarioLopezExtra, @HRC‘s Parents for Transgender Equality Council would be more than happy to educate you on this very subject of supporting trans youth. https://t.co/iT6FByDSbl
Iran’s Central Bank announced Wednesday that the nation would rename the national currency, the rial, as the “toman” and “delete four zeros” from its value.
The move follows months of intense American sanctions on Iran’s oil industry and mimics a similar move to bolster the bolívar currency in Venezuela.
“The council of ministers, at a meeting presided by President Hassan Rouhani this morning, approved the central bank’s proposed bill to change the national currency from the rial to the toman and delete four zeros,” the Iranian Islamic regime said in a media statement, according to the government news outlet PressTV. As the reevaluation of the currency must pass through the dictatorship’s rubber-stamp legislature, it will not be confirmed until a final vote in the Iranian parliament.
PressTV admitted the plan to remove the zeros, an attempt to strengthen the currency’s value, “found traction after the national currency lost more than 60 percent of its value in 2018,” after the United States withdrew from the international nuclear deal with Tehran. The outlet blamed Washington for sending the rial into a “tailspin” and prices of basic goods in the country “through the roof.”
The administration of President Donald Trump walked out of the nuclear deal, formally the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), after collecting significant evidence that Iran was violating the provisions of the deal and using its windfall from sanctions relief to fund Hezbollah, support Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad, and spread the influence of Shiite terrorist organizations throughout the Middle East and Latin America.
While the Central Bank of Iran blamed Trump for having to change the value of the rial, changing the currency’s name was reportedly a matter of convenience.
“The reversal to the toman – in use until the 1930s – does away with a duel denomination which many visitors of Iran find confusing. While the rial is the official name, Iranians still make their calculations in toman,” PressTV noted. One toman will still be worth 100 rials, potentially suggesting that the name change is also a way of making the true collapse of the rial’s value less obvious.
Abdolnaser Hemmati, the governor of the Central Bank of Iran, claimed in remarks to Iran’s Mehr news agency that economic instability in the country’s foreign exchange market was an “illusion” created by Iran’s enemies. Mehr claimed that the Iranian economy had already begun to improve even though “nothing is felt at supermarkets, chain stores, bazaars, etc.” Citing a domestic expert, Mehr claimed that the U.S. sanctions currently starving the Iranian elite “can be an opportunity for Iran to reduce its reliance on oil revenues and move towards an … indigenous economy.”
Iran’s oil exports have reportedly fallen by 77 percent currently, compared to the same timeframe last year. Its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) fell 4.9 percent over the fiscal year ending March 21 – significantly more than the World Bank’s prediction of a 1.9-percent drop.
The U.S.-funded Radio Farda reported last week that point-to-point inflation in Iran hit a record high that week at 48 percent, increasing at a slightly slower rate than it had in recent months but nonetheless significantly impacting the average Iranian’s ability to buy basic food and household goods.
“According to estimates made by the Iranian Statistical Center, a quarter of the income of an Iranian family is spent on foodstuff and beverages,” Radio Farda noted. “The increase in the price of food has been higher, nearly twofold, compared with other goods and services.”
In cutting zeros from the value of its national currency, Iran has adopted the policies of close ally Venezuela. Dictator Nicolás Maduro announced in March 2018 that, in response to the collapse of Venezuela’s economy after two decades of socialism, his government would cut three zeros from the value of the bolívar.
“I have decided to remove three zeroes from our currency and take all current currency out of circulation and instead implement a new currency with three fewer zeroes,” Maduro announced. Maduro ultimately removed five zeros, not three, and introduced the confusing “sovereign bolívar,” which triggered chaos at Venezuelan banks, as Maduro had also introduced a cryptocurrency, the “petro” recently to stabilize the economy.
Last month, Venezuela printed a 50,000-bolívar note to help citizens buy products, as their value has become too high to carry the necessary amount of money for purchases in a wallet. It is not clear at press time if the bolívar currently in circulation is the original or the “sovereign” variety.
Iran’s economy appears to be going the way of Venezuela’s after months of sanctions, which Tehran simultaneously claims have not harmed the glorious Islamic revolution while laying blame on them exclusively for the country’s economic woes. The sanctions, American officials have revealed, have damaged Iran’s ability to fund Shiite terrorist activities in the region that it invested heavily in following the signing of the JCPOA.
“Today by nearly every metric the regime and its proxies are weaker than when our pressure began. … Our pressure campaign is working. It is making Iran’s violent and expansionist foreign policy cost prohibitive,” Brian Hook, the State Department’s special representative for Iran, told Congress last month.
“In March, Hezbollah’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, went on TV and made a public appeal for donations,” Hook noted. “Hezbollah has placed piggy banks in grocery stores and in retail outlets seeking the spare change of people.”
A 10-year-old Michigan boy was reportedly charged with aggravated assault after he hit another boy during recess when they were playing a game similar to dodgeball.
The Disney Channel is apparently breaking barriers by featuring the first teenage gay couple on the show "Andi Mack."
According to Pink News, the revolutionary moment occurred during the show’s series finale, when the character Cyrus Goodman confessed to one of his classmates, TJ Kippen, that he has a crush on him. From the report:
