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Uber and Lyft Hire Somali Muslim Driver Accused of War Crimes, Torture and Attempted Murder

First of all, what is this guy doing in the United States?

Uber and Lyft hired a Somali Muslim war criminal who is currently living in Virginia, to shuttle passengers around.

Yusuf Abdi Ali is accused of torture and directing mass executions and he was not only allowed to enter the US, but he’s listed on Uber’s app as an “Uber Pro Diamond” driver with a 4.89 rating, reported CNN.

Ali’s dangerous past is easy to find — all it takes is Googling his name, but apparently this was too much work for Uber and he worked as one of their ride-hailing drivers for 18 months.

Via CNN:

“I do this full time,” said Ali, who drives in suburban Virginia. He explained that he prefers to drive during weekends because “that’s where the money is.”

Ali said he has driven for Lyft, too, but he prefers working for Uber. His white Nissan Altima had only an Uber sticker on it. Asked if the application process was difficult, Ali replied that it was a breeze.

“They just want your background check, that’s it,” said Ali, who was unaware that undercover CNN reporters were riding with him and recording the trip on video. “If you apply tonight maybe after two days it will come, you know, everything.”

Ali’s work as a ride-share driver raises new questions about the thoroughness of Uber and Lyft’s background check process and the ease with which some people with controversial pasts can get approved to drive.

CNN previously reported that Uber and Lyft have approved thousands of people who should have been disqualified because of criminal records. Some of those Uber drivers have included a murderer on parole and a convicted felon who was later convicted for sexually assaulting an Uber passenger.

Both Uber and Lyft have since suspended Yusuf Abdi Ali as a driver.

What was Ali doing before he drove for Uber? He was working as a security agent at Dulles International Airport. Had enough yet, America?

Notice CNN is only concerned that Ali is driving for Uber and doesn’t ask how or why the US govt permitted this dangerous war criminal to enter the US.

WATCH:

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Trump Admin Will ‘Shed Light’ on a Secretive Practice That Costs Taxpayers Millions of Dollars

The Interior Department will publicly list attorneys’ fees paid out, often to environmental activist groups, for legal settlements, according to a recent memo from Principal Deputy Solicitor Daniel Jorjani.

Jorjani’s memo states the Interior Department will develop a webpage within 30 days to publicly list details of legal settlements and cases, which the agency says is a big step in bringing sunshine to a nontransparent practice that the public is largely unaware is happening.

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“This is a big deal that will shed light on the millions of dollars the DOI pays out every year in attorneys’ fees” under federal laws, an Interior Department official said in an email.

“This is your tax money and only by shining a light on this process can you decide if it is being put to good use,” the official said.

The memo was signed May 10, but made public Wednesday. Jorjani issued the memo in response to a 2018 order from Interior Secretary David Bernhardt while he served former Secretary Ryan Zinke’s No. 2. Zinke resigned earlier this year and has since been replaced by Bernhardt as head of the Interior Department.

Environmental groups have been particularly successful using “citizen suits” to sue the federal government into taking an action, then getting taxpayers to pay their attorneys’ fees. A 2016 Daily Caller News Foundation investigation found federal agencies paid out $49 million for 512 citizen suits filed under three major environmental laws during the Obama administration.

Those laws—the Clean Air Act , the Clean Water Act, and the Endangered Species Act—allow certain groups to recoup attorneys’ fees, which can run into the hundreds of thousands of dollars per case.

There’s also the Equal Access to Justice Act, which was enacted in 1980 to help people, small businesses, and groups recoup the costs of defending their rights in court. Groups can get Equal Access to Justice Act attorneys’ fees awarded by suing under environmental laws.

The Equal Access to Justice Act caps what agencies can pay out for attorneys’ fees at roughly $200 per hour, and the law stipulates payments should only go to individuals or groups with a net worth under $7 million.

The Interior Department is a frequent target of environmental litigation. Groups often sue under the Endangered Species Act to get the agency to, for example, consider listing a species. When litigation ends, environmentalists can get their attorneys’ fees paid at taxpayer expense.

The group Earthjustice, for example, raked in more than $2.3 million from taxpayers suing the Interior Department under the Endangered Species Act, The Daily Caller News Foundation found in 2016. Earthjustice is also financially well-endowed—the group’s net assets totaled $68 million in 2015.

Another group, the Center for Biological Diversity, has sued the Trump administration alone more than 100 times, including to stop the building of a southern border wall. The center has also won attorneys’ fees from the Interior Department despite having $19 million in net assets as of 2016.

Often “citizen suits” result in federal agencies, like the Interior Department, taking more regulatory actions favored by environmental activists. Critics say such lawsuits allow activists to profit off pushing their agenda in the courts.

“EAJA was never intended to be used to make a profit from suing the federal government, but only as an attorneys’ fees reimbursement for small businesses and individuals who have to sue the federal government to protect their rights,” the Interior official said.

The Department of Treasury’s Judgment Fund database tracks what federal agencies pay out in attorneys’ fees for legal settlements, but it suffers from many shortcomings.

For example, The Daily Caller News Foundation found the database doesn’t always record the plaintiffs’ names or their legal counsel. Half the payments made to plaintiffs under the Endangered Species Act and other environmental laws between 2009 and 2015 went to unnamed law firms, The Daily Caller News Foundation found.

Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities for this original content, email licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

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Trump To Unveil New Merit-Based Immigration Plan Today

President Trump on Thursday will lay out a new immigration plan that would push the United States toward the kind of merit-based system many other nations use to control who comes into their countries.

The proposal wouldn’t change the number of immigrants who come into America or illegal immigration, but would seek to change who comes into the U.S. Trump will announce the new plan at 2:30 p.m. today in the White House Rose garden.

Under the new proposal, the number of immigrants admitted into the country based on job skills would rise from 12% to 57%. In order to make room for more merit-based immigrants, the percentage of people allowed entry because they have family here would drop from 66% to 33%. In addition, the number allowed in via claims of asylum would also be cut, from 22% to 10%.

“During the last couple years I’ve heard a lot of people try to explain the president’s immigration policy,” a senior White House official told reprtoers at the White House, Politico reported. “And a lot of what people say is not reflective of what he says to his team and to us. What we have put together is the president’s immigration policy.”

The number of legal immigrants, though, would stay the same at about 1.1 million every year.

“If you look at our immigration system, it’s basically a coat of paint on top of a coat of paint on top of a coat of paint — what we want to do is sand it down,” a senior administration official told about two dozen reporters at the White House on Wednesday, The Washington Examiner reported.

The plan calls for elimination of the diversity lottery system, that currently admits about 55,000 people a year from underrepresented countries, and the streamlining of the asylum system. Family unification will prioritize spousal and parental relationships, another long-held Trump priority.

The proposal calls for three high-skilled immigrant categories, recognizing extraordinary talent, professional and specialized vocations, and exceptional students. Applicants in each category would gain points if they achieve certain benchmarks, such as passing U.S. civics and English proficiency tests, a health screen, and a criminal background check.

The points system would also reward offers of employment, youth, and educational and vocational certifications. There additionally would be points awarded for “diversity” to those from countries with historically low rates of immigration, though that qualification alone would not allow for entry.

“We think this is all very pro-immigrant, moving away from the Byzantine bureaucratic system that we have today and instead laying out very clear objectives and metrics as a country. You want to come to the U.S.? Here are the markers you have to hit, and we think they are all pretty attainable,” one official told reporters.

Another official said Trump has been personally involved in the planning, the Washington Post reported. “‘This is his proposal,’ said a senior administration official who, like others in this report, spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations. ‘He’s been intimately involved in crafting it. We’ve shown him kind of where some of the criticism might come from on the right, and his response is, ‘I’m happy to talk to them and I’ll convince them of why this is the right thing.’ ”

While Democrats control the House and some political pundits say the new plan will be dead on arrival, Rep. Steve Scalise, Louisiana Republican and House Minority Whip, said the proposal may find some moderate Democratic supporters. And he said the system now is highly flawed.

“Right now, we’ve got some of the dumbest laws on the books. If we educate somebody in America to be a computer scientist or engineer … we force them to leave the country to compete against us, while we’ve got the ‘visa lottery’…” Scalise said on Fox News’ “The Ingraham Angle.”

“Why don’t we flip that narrative?” Scalise said.

 

 

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NY AG’s Office Hiding Climate Activist’s Emails Behind Whistleblower Defense

The New York attorney general’s office is trying to use a whistleblower defense to keep emails between their office and a third-party attorney sealed and out of public view, despite the person at issue’s active efforts to persuade governments across the country to sue large energy producers.

Last October, then-New York Attorney General Barbara Underwood filed suit against Exxon alleging the company had misled its investors by not disclosing future risks the company might face due to climate change.

Exxon is hoping emails can be made public between the attorney general’s office (OAG) and outside attorney Matt Pawa, who has been a leading figure in the effort to convince government agencies to pursue lawsuits against companies like ExxonMobil, BP, and Chevron.

"As ExxonMobil is well aware, the publication of such documents [from Pawa] will discourage other third parties and potential whistleblowers from communicating information about potential wrongdoing or illegality," lawyers with the New York OAG wrote in a court filing.

However, media reports and filings from other court cases show Pawa is an eager and willing participant in efforts to initiate legal action against energy producers, as has happened now with cities such as San Francisco, and states like Rhode Island.

A judge "signed off on findings of fact that document the role Matt Pawa, an attorney at Hagens Berman, had in pushing a strategy unveiled in 2012 at a conference in California," a Forbes report from last year noted.

During the 2012 conference just mentioned, "participants discussed strategies to ‘[w]in [a]cess to [i]nternal [d]ocuments’ of energy companies, like ExxonMobil, that could be used to obtain leverage over these companies," the judge determined.

The emails in question have been turned over to Exxon as a part of discovery, but under seal. The company is asking the judge to remove the seal so it would be able to refile the documents and thereby put them into the public domain.

Apart from the strategy of suing energy producers, Pawa has also been a force behind the broader #ExxonKnew campaign, which has tried to undermine the company’s reputation by alleging that its corporate scientists knew as early as the late 1970s and early 1980s about climate change and engaged in a cover-up and propaganda effort to hide culpability.

Further evidence that Pawa has collaborated with state attorneys general stems from a March 2016 meeting in which 17 AGs, as well as former vice president Al Gore, were briefed on legal strategies the state top lawyers could use based on the notion that Exxon misled the public about climate change.

After the meeting, then-New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, Gore, and others conducted a lengthy press conference announcing their intentions.

"I thank you for joining us here today for what we believe and hope will mark a significant milestone in our collective efforts to deal with the problem of climate change, and put our heads together and put our offices together to try and take the most coordinated approach yet undertaken by states to deal with this most pressing issue of our time," Schneiderman said.

Emails later revealed that Pawa was a presenter to the AGs behind closed doors at that meeting in New York prior to the press conference, something Pawa later tried to keep from being discovered.

One of those emails shows a Wall Street Journal reporter contacted Pawa the next day and inquired about his attendance.

"I may not even talk to her at all but if I do I obviously will have no comment on anything discussed at the meeting," Pawa wrote to someone inside the New York attorney general’s office as he sought guidance on the matter. "What should I say if she asks if I attended? No comment? Let me know."

"My ask is if you speak to a reporter, to not confirm that you attended or otherwise discuss the event," the lawyer replied to Pawa.

Other emails obtained via open records requests by the Competitive Enterprise Institute in D.C. show a wealthy Democratic donor reaching out to the Illinois attorney general’s office to arrange a presentation by Pawa in the spring of 2016.

Requests for comment to the New York attorney general’s office as well as to Pawa were not returned.

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Chuck Todd Only Cites Polls Suggesting Public Support for Abortion

On Wednesday’s MTP Daily, host Chuck Todd cited two polls suggesting the public was mostly supportive of abortion. By contrast, a couple of days earlier when Steve Kornacki was fill in host for the same show, he was more accurate in admitting that polling can also be found that suggests most Americans oppose abortion.

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China Arrests Man for ‘Insulting’ Officials by Naming Dogs After Them

Police in China on Monday arrested a man and detained him for ten days for the “crime” of “picking quarrels and making trouble” by mocking public officials with the name he gave his dogs.

The South China Morning Post explained the detainee, whose last name was given as “Ban,” is a professional dog breeder who decided to advertise his dogs on social media under the name “chengguan.”

Chengguan is the name commonly used for China’s Urban Administrative and Law Enforcement Bureau, which is basically a Communist Party goon squad with franchise operations in every city. The chengguan enforce all the little ordinances Chinese authorities write to micromanage the lives of their citizens and have a habit of using excessive violence to do it. Imagine a code enforcement bureau that not only hassles you for selling watermelons without a permit but beats you to death on the spot in front of your wife.

The central government knows how unpopular the chengguan are and has taken some unusual steps to improve their image, such as fitting the enforcers with body cameras to cut down on wanton violence.

Some defend the urban administrative police as necessary to maintain order as large numbers of rural Chinese migrate to cities, unaware of their complex laws and inclined to unpleasant responses when apprised of violations. Of course, in China, the easiest way to deal with complaints about abusive public officials is to abuse those who complain.

Ban was charged with sending “outrageous messages” by comparing the chengguan to dogs and tossed in jail without much in the way of legal process, a move the South China Morning Post said has become divisive on Chinese social media:

“I think it’s too much to name dogs chengguan. Are you so sure that your family members, friends and children won’t take up this job in future? After all, chengguan have made some contributions to our cities,” wrote one person on Weibo, China’s Twitter-like website.

“Cities would be in a mess without chengguan,” commented another internet user.

But a third person wrote, “It’s not appropriate to call dogs chengguan, but is it so serious to put him in custody?”

Another online commenter said: “I take my pet for baths at pet stores and meet many cats and dogs. Some of them are called President or General and one is even named Trump. Shall I remind their owners or report to police directly?”

Zhang Xinnian, a lawyer from Beijing Jingshi Law Firm, told Chengdu Business News that Ban had offended chengguan but questioned his punishment.

“He should be condemned or receive a verbal warning, without necessarily being charged for making trouble,” Zhang said.

Although Ban claimed he did not mean his social media posts as insults and did not realize he was violating any laws, his labeling of dogs as chengguan might have seemed like an especially pointed jab because they are frequently accused of cruelty to animals who break the strict licensing laws and regulations on pets in Chinese cities.

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HUGE! Nellie Ohr Deleted Emails Exchanged With DOJ Husband Bruce Ohr, “I’m Deleting These Emails Now”


Nellie Ohr, Bruce Ohr

Judicial Watch strikes again!

Conservative watchdog group Judicial Watch obtained 339 heavily redacted DOJ documents through a March 2018 FOIA lawsuit filed after the Justice Department failed to respond a December 2017 request (Judicial Watch v. U.S. Department of Justice (No. 1:18-cv-00490)).

Nellie Ohr, wife of twice-demoted DOJ official Bruce Ohr, who worked for oppo research firm Fusion GPS was actually caught trying to destroy documents relevant to the targeting and attempted coup of Trump.

Via Judicial Watch:

From: Nellie Ohr

Sent: Wednesday, April 20, 2016 12:49 PM

To: Ohr, Bruce (ODAG)

Subject: Re: Analyst Russian Organized Crime – April 2016

Thanks! I’m deleting these emails now

Nellie Ohr’s email has the same subject line as an email exchange with the subject line “Analyst Russian Organized Crime – April 2016” in which Bress initiates a discussion with Bruce Ohr and his top aide, Lisa Holtyn, proffering some “Russian analysts” to discuss a variety of topics with Ohr, Holtyn, and other DOJ officials. Among those topics to be discussed is “Impact of Russian influence operations in Europe (‘PsyOps/InfoWar’).”

Holtyn responds with, “I haven’t had a chance to confer with Bruce yet, but would certainly love to meet with the ‘A Team’!” Bruce Ohr then says, “That time works for me as well.” Bress then provides the personal details/passport numbers of the German analysts who will be meeting with Holtyn and Ohr. Holtyn tells Bress that the Ohr’s would like to host the German delegation for dinner and notes that Joe Wheatley and Ivana Nizich (a husband/wife team of DOJ Organized Crime prosecutors and friends of the Ohr’s) would join them as well.

Bruce Ohr was a top official in the DOJ working as an Assistant Deputy Attorney General and was ultimately demoted twice for his connection to Christopher Steele and for promoting the phony dossier.

Bruce Ohr’s wife Nellie Ohr was contracted by oppo research firm Fusion GPS to “assist in cultivation of opposition research on Trump” and her hubby Bruce passed along her Hillary Clinton/DNC-funded dirt to the FBI.

The phony Hillary-funded dossier was eventually used to obtain a FISA warrant on Trump campaign advisor Carter Page.

Congressman Mark Meadows recently criminally referred Nellie Ohr to the Justice Department after hundreds of new emails surfaced, contradicting her previous statements to Congress.

A series of “Hi Honey” emails from Nellie Ohr to her top DOJ husband Bruce Ohr surfaced and suggested Hillary-funded oppo research was being funneled into the DOJ during the 2016 election through a backchannel between the happily married Ohr couple.

“This email is disturbing and suggests documents relevant to the improper targeting of President Trump were destroyed,” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton.

You can support Tom Fitton and Judicial Watch by clicking here.

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RATs: Republicans Against Trump

RATs: Republicans Against Trump

There’s Something Happening Here…What it is ain’t exactly clear.

Come along for the ride from the 60s as we can see that “…there’s a man with the law over there, tellin’ us we’ve got to be’ware. Think it’s time we STOP…! Children, what’s that sound, everybody look what’s goin’ down…”

And, therein lies the trillion dollar question (updated to coincide with our National debt). The Democratic/Communists, controlled and financed by the Deep State cabal’s long term goal to divide and conquer the former ‘United’ States of America into their false illusion of a socialistic utopia is nearly complete. And, you and I are the only ones who can prevent them from completing their mission. You and I, with a little help from President Trump and AG Barr, that is.

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Code Pink activists forcibly removed from Venezuelan embassy

A group of left-wing protesters calling themselves the Embassy Protection Collective had occupied the Venezuelan embassy as part of the “Hands Off Venezuela” movement. Today the remaining four were evicted and arrested by police:

Carlos Vecchio, the Guaidó-appointed ambassador who has been recognized by the U.S. government, tweeted that the embassy had been liberated. Federal authorities and D.C. police arrived at the embassy this morning and entered the building, but haven’t commented today on the situation.

Code Pink organizers identified the four activists arrested as Kevin Zeese, Margaret Flowers, Adrienne Pine and David Paul.

Here’s what these four dead-enders look like. Note they are posing in front of a photo of Hugo Chavez:

In theory, this movement was about avoiding US intervention in Venezuela. In reality, it is offering support to the country’s embattled dictator Nicolas Maduro. There have been ongoing skirmishes between the protesters inside the embassy and anti-Maduro protesters outside who wanted them ejected. This will give you a sense of what has been happening for the past month:

Last week the occupation took a turn when an ambassador representing Juan Guaido, the recognized interim president of Venezuela, ordered PEPCO to cut power and water to the embassy. The protesters were outraged at having to live in conditions not that different from how many Venezuelans have been living for months. The standoff turned a legal corner Monday when protesters were served with an eviction notice.

Protesters outside also made it difficult for the people inside to get food. There was a scuffle yesterday as Jesse Jackson brought food which Code Pink supporters tried to send up to the embassy on a rope:

But it was all for naught. The four remaining Maduro supporters have been removed and arrested.

Finally, here’s a Vice report on the situation from last week featuring an interview with Medea Benjamin who sidesteps the question of whether or not she supports Maduro (Hint: She does). Toward the end of this a Venezuelan woman tells Vice, “I really feel like these people have a savior complex.” She’s right about that. Now that they’ve been ejected they can move on to saving someone else.

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