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So much for the lunatic charge that Trump is ‘in Putin’s pocket’

Die-hard Trump haters continue to maintain that the President of the United States is in thrall to, or maybe being blackmailed by Russia’s President Putin. As a corollary, they still push the notion that Russia will corrupt the 2020 presidential election, so that if and when Trump wins, they will deny him legitimacy.

The crashing and burning of the Mueller effort to prove this thesis means nothing to the deluded dead-enders. But the stupidity of this charge is refuted by the power play President Trump’s Secretary of Energy Rick Perry carried out over the holiday weekend. Via Reuters:

“We’re helping Poland to reduce its dependence on Russian gas,” U.S. Energy Secretary Rick Perry told a news conference in Warsaw after meeting officials from Poland and Ukraine.

The Polish government official responsible for energy infrastructure, Piotr Naimski, said Poland, which has increased purchases of liquefied natural gas (LNG) from the United States in recent years, would be able to send six billion cubic meters of gas to Ukraine starting from 2021 compared to the current capability of 1.5 bcm.

“We will take every effort to diversify gas supplies to Ukraine, which is now completely dependent on Russian deliveries,” Naimski told the same conference.

Perry, Naimski and Ukraine’s Secretary of National Security Oleksandr Danylyuk signed a memorandum of understanding to enhance security of gas supplies in the region via LNG supplies from the U.S. through Poland’s and Ukraine’s infrastructure which still has to be expanded.

Russia’s domination of natural gas supply to Europe, with multiple pipelines running through Ukraine, has long been a strategic weapon.

Natural gas pipelines from Russia to Europe

Image credit: Samuel Bailey

The threat to let Europeans freeze to death during winter months has been exercised before, and remains active, as this article entitled “Ukraine Faces a Bleak Winter as Russia Prepares to Cut Off Gas” demonstrates.

The ability of the United States to check Putin’s energy weapon is the result of the fracking boom that President Trump has unleashed. Instead of President Obama’s claim that it is impossible “to drill our way out” of energy dependence, President Trump has embraced – and strategically exploited – the mushrooming energy production that the United States is experiencing.

So, pause for a minute and ask yourself which president was behaving as if he were in Putin’s pocket? The one who protected Putin’s energy weapon against Europe (and also enriched the faltering Russian economy that mainly depends on oil and gas exports)? Or the one that checkmated Putin’s energy weapon and impoverished his economy?

Die-hard Trump haters continue to maintain that the President of the United States is in thrall to, or maybe being blackmailed by Russia’s President Putin. As a corollary, they still push the notion that Russia will corrupt the 2020 presidential election, so that if and when Trump wins, they will deny him legitimacy.

The crashing and burning of the Mueller effort to prove this thesis means nothing to the deluded dead-enders. But the stupidity of this charge is refuted by the power play President Trump’s Secretary of Energy Rick Perry carried out over the holiday weekend. Via Reuters:

“We’re helping Poland to reduce its dependence on Russian gas,” U.S. Energy Secretary Rick Perry told a news conference in Warsaw after meeting officials from Poland and Ukraine.

The Polish government official responsible for energy infrastructure, Piotr Naimski, said Poland, which has increased purchases of liquefied natural gas (LNG) from the United States in recent years, would be able to send six billion cubic meters of gas to Ukraine starting from 2021 compared to the current capability of 1.5 bcm.

“We will take every effort to diversify gas supplies to Ukraine, which is now completely dependent on Russian deliveries,” Naimski told the same conference.

Perry, Naimski and Ukraine’s Secretary of National Security Oleksandr Danylyuk signed a memorandum of understanding to enhance security of gas supplies in the region via LNG supplies from the U.S. through Poland’s and Ukraine’s infrastructure which still has to be expanded.

Russia’s domination of natural gas supply to Europe, with multiple pipelines running through Ukraine, has long been a strategic weapon.

Natural gas pipelines from Russia to Europe

Image credit: Samuel Bailey

The threat to let Europeans freeze to death during winter months has been exercised before, and remains active, as this article entitled “Ukraine Faces a Bleak Winter as Russia Prepares to Cut Off Gas” demonstrates.

The ability of the United States to check Putin’s energy weapon is the result of the fracking boom that President Trump has unleashed. Instead of President Obama’s claim that it is impossible “to drill our way out” of energy dependence, President Trump has embraced – and strategically exploited – the mushrooming energy production that the United States is experiencing.

So, pause for a minute and ask yourself which president was behaving as if he were in Putin’s pocket? The one who protected Putin’s energy weapon against Europe (and also enriched the faltering Russian economy that mainly depends on oil and gas exports)? Or the one that checkmated Putin’s energy weapon and impoverished his economy?

via American Thinker Blog

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‘Devastated’ Vegan Takes Neighbor to Court over BBQ Smoke and Odor

A “devastated” Australian vegan has taken her neighbors to court alleging they deliberately waft barbecue smoke rich in meat and fish smells across their shared boundary fence and into her property.

She also cited the smell of cigarettes and the sound of children playing with basketballs as adding to her profound discomfort.

The woman from Perth, Western Australia, said the amenity of her backyard has been destroyed because her meat eating neighbors on either side deliberately allow their cookout smells to waft into her yard.

“They’ve put it there so I smell fish, all I can smell is fish … I can’t go out there,” complainant Carden Carden told local outlet Nine News.

The massage therapist has been embroiled in her battle since late 2018.

After her claims were rejected by a tribunal on lack of evidence, she applied to the Supreme Court of Western Australia for right of appeal. It was also turned down in July.

Lawyer John Hammond said going to a higher court was an “extreme option” — but it hadn’t stopped Carden from seeking further legal relief and redress.

She told Nine News she believed her neighbors were “absolutely deliberate” in allowing their smells to cross into her yard. She highlighted the smell of cigarettes and the sound of children playing with basketballs as adding to her distress.

“It’s been devastating, it’s been turmoil, it’s been unrest, I haven’t been able to sleep,” Carden said.

This is not the first time a vegan has claimed to be victimised by a neighbor’s barbecue smoke.

As Breitbart News reported, in 2015 a Pinellas County, Florida, environmental specialist was recorded in a video telling a resident that it was illegal for the smoke from his home barbecue to leave his property. He offered no evidence to back the legal side of his argument.

A video released at the time shows Pinellas County environmental specialist Joe Graham issuing a warning to resident Scotty Jordan, saying he can be cited for allowing the smoke and odor of his cookouts to leave his property. The video has been viewed on Jordan’s Facebook page over 4 million times.

Pinellas County authorities insist Jordan could have violated air quality rules, although on the video, one of Jordan’s friends can be heard offering a simpler explanation, “We can’t control the wind, God does that.”

Follow Simon Kent on Twitter: or e-mail to: skent@breitbart.com

via Breitbart News

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Ted Cruz Accepts Alyssa Milano’s Challenge to Debate Gun Violence

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) accepted a challenge from actress Alyssa Milano to debate gun rights and the Constitution following the left-wing activist’s request to expose his “bullshit” to the American people.

“I’d be happy to sit down & visit next week about uniting to stop gun violence & about the Constitution. If we can have a civil & positive conversation—in the spirit of 1 Peter 4:8 as you suggest—despite our political differences, that might help resolve the discord in our Nation,” Cruz said Monday evening responding to Alyssa Milano.

Cruz’s acceptance follows a tense exchange between the Texas senator and the left-wing actress, who prompted the conversation after snarkily asking Christians to “cite which passage of the Bible God states it is a god-given right to own a gun.”

Cruz chose to address Milano’s question from every angle, using scripture, the founding documents, and real-life examples in defense of the liberty that upholds the Second Amendment.

“An excellent Q, worth considering carefully w/o the snark of Twitter. It is of course not the right to a modern-day firearm that is God-give but rather the right to Life & the right to Liberty. Essential to that right to life is the right to DEFEND your life & your family,” Cruz began.

He continued:

Stephen Willeford exercised that fundamental right when he risked his own life to stop the Sutherland Springs murderer, saving countless others as a result. St. George Tucker, one of the most important scholars in early America, explained the reasons behind the Second Amendment as follows: “This may be considered as the true palladium of liberty. The right of self defence is the first law of nature….”…in most govts it has been the study of rulers to confine this right w/in the narrowest limits possible. Wherever…the right…to keep & bear arms is, under any…pretext whatsoever, prohibited, liberty, if not already annihilated, is on the brink of destruction. That’s also why, post Civil War, disarming Black Americans was a critical objective of the KKK, and was memorialized in countless Jim Crow laws—to strip African-Americans of their God-given right to self-defense from violence.

Cruz ended his thread, discouraging Alyssa Milano and her ideological allies from “playing politics” and using these crimes to “as an excuse to violate the constl [constitutional] rights of law-abiding citizens”:

Milano did not immediately respond to the individual points Cruz made in the thread, dismissing his response and instead requesting a live-streamed meeting so she can expose his “bullshit” to the American people. She also cited 1 Peter 4:8 – “And above all things have fervent love for one another, for ‘love will cover a multitude of sins’” – and posted a graphic, showing Cruz’s support from pro-gun groups:

Alyssa Milano has yet to respond to Cruz’s latest tweet.

Cruz has also been under fire from the mayor of Chicago after tweeting a Breitbart News article, detailing the violence that unfolded in the Democrat-controlled Windy City over Labor Day weekend.

“Gun control doesn’t work. Look at Chicago. Disarming law-abiding citizens isn’t the answer,” Cruz tweeted. “Stopping violent criminals—prosecuting & getting them off the street—BEFORE they commit more violent crimes is the most effective way to reduce murder rates. Let’s protect our citizens”:

Mayor Lori Lightfoot took issue with Cruz’s tweet and attempted to blame the mass violence in her city on nearby Republican states.

“60% of illegal firearms recovered in Chicago come from outside IL—mostly from states dominated by coward Republicans like you who refuse to enact commonsense gun legislation,” she wrote. “Keep our name out of your mouth”:

via Breitbart News

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Soros Spends Nearly $9 Million Lobbying, Now Targets Guns

Liberal billionaire George Soros’s advocacy organizations are lobbying lawmakers on Capitol Hill to repeal an act protecting firearms manufacturers from liability for gun crimes including murder, disclosure forms show.

The Open Society Policy Center is Soros’s D.C.-based 501(c)4 nonprofit that works on domestic and international advocacy and is affiliated with the much larger Open Society Foundations. The center has poured nearly $9 million into lobbying a range of issues so far this year.

Soros’s group reported spending $2.6 million on lobbying throughout the first quarter, covering international, military, and appropriations issues. In addition, the center moved into gun control advocacy and reported lobbying on "issues related to a bill to repeal the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act."

The Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act (PLCAA) was passed as a bulwark against frivolous lawsuits attempting to hold gun companies responsible for criminal acts committed by third parties—sometimes decades after the first legal sale of the firearm.

The National Shooting Sports Foundation, the gun industry’s trade group, pushed to pass the bill in 2005. The group said the legal protections are necessary to keep gun control activists from bankrupting the industry through suits they believe have no legal standing.

"The National Shooting Sports Foundation worked with Congress to get the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act passed with broad bipartisan support and signed into law by President George W. Bush," Mark Oliva, a spokesman for the group, told the Washington Free Beacon. "This law correctly protects the firearms industry against frivolous lawsuits that seek claims against manufacturers for the criminal misuse of a firearm. Those who commit crimes with a firearm are the ones who bear the responsibility for the horrific effects of their actions. The PLCAA ensures this is the case."

The PLCAA does not shield the firearms industry from traditional liability. Firearms companies can be sued for making or selling defective products. Remington recently settled a class-action suit related to defective triggers in their 700 bolt-action rifle.

Instead, the PLCAA protects gun companies from being held liable "for the harm solely caused by the criminal or unlawful misuse of firearm products or ammunition products by others when the product functioned as designed and intended."

Oliva compared holding gun companies liable for crimes committed with guns to holding car companies liable for drunk drivers.

"Seeking redress against a firearms manufacturer instead of the criminal is no different than a drunk-driving victim holding Ford responsible for that crime," he told the Free Beacon.

Soros’s center reported $5.92 million in expenditures throughout the second quarter, which included lobbying the House of Representatives and Senate for the Equal Access to Justice for Victims of Gun Violence Act.

The Equal Access to Justice for Victims of Gun Violence Act was introduced in the House by Rep. Adam Schiff (D., Calif.) and seeks to "repeal the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act, and provide for the discoverability and admissibility of gun trace information in civil proceedings."

Schiff previously appeared at a secretive gathering of Democracy Alliance, the left’s largest donor club cofounded by Soros, in D.C. last November. He gave the group a closed-door briefing, the Free Beacon reported. The president of Democracy Alliance, Gara LaMarche, was previously the director of Soros’s lobbying outfit and now sits on its board of directors.

The Senate version of Schiff’s bill was introduced by Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D., Conn.), also to "repeal the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act."

Soros has drastically ramped up his lobbying efforts since Donald Trump took office. The financier broke his yearly lobbying record within the first three quarters of 2018 and pushed a total of $31,520,000 into advocacy efforts that year. Gun control has become a higher priority for Soros-funded groups in recent months.

"The Open Society Foundations supported several groups working to reform gun laws in the aftermath of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, but this issue has not been a major area of emphasis for the foundations in the past because other organizations have been and are focused on this effort," said Jonathan Kaplan, the communications officer for the Open Society Policy Center. "In the past few months, we have held discussions with Congressional staff about the Equal Access to Justice for Victims of Gun Violence Act."

The policy center, which this year has utilized two lobbyists, does not have any direct employees. Instead individuals from the Open Society Institute, the legal name for the Open Society Foundations, perform services for the center, according to its most recent tax forms.

Update: This post has been updated to reflect that Soros’s nonprofit has spent $9 million lobbying on a range of issues this year.

The post Soros Spends Nearly $9 Million Lobbying, Now Targets Guns appeared first on Washington Free Beacon.

via Washington Free Beacon

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