Beet L. Jooz

The president of a teachers union has confirmed the union is protecting a faculty member who had sex with a student, a new undercover video by James O’Keefe’s Project Veritas shows.

“This file right here is from a teacher who had sex with a student. This file is about whether or not the teacher gets to keep his pension. Is he going to jail? No. How come? Because the child’s not pressing charges. There’s no proof.”

Those are the words of Kathleen Valencia, president of the Union City Education Association.

It was the second video released in a developing series about teachers’ unions prompted by teachers walking off the job in several states and demanding more pay.

The first featured Hamilton Township Education Association President David Perry, who admitted that to protect accused teachers, he would “bend” the truth, change a “punch” to a “shove,” backdate statements, warn teachers to “not tell a soul” and stall proceedings to ensure security cameras record over a contested incident.

The video of Valenica:

Project Veritas revealed on Thursday that after the video of Perry was released, the union president was suspended by Supt. Scott Rocco, who said in a statement, “The true beliefs and values of this school district are not represented in this video and are not aligned with who we are as faculty, staff, administration, and community.”

Project Veritas said Rocco had opened an internal investigation.

In the latest video, the union president Valencia is shown promising protection for a teacher who physically abused a student.

She explained why a teacher who bruised a student in school would not be reprimanded: “Did the kid’s parent come in? No? Nothing happened. … There’s no video? Nothing happened. … [The teacher] is fine.”

Project Veritas said that when its undercover journalist asked if unions normally help teachers who abuse students, Valencia said, ‘It happens, yes it does!'”

Faced with an accusation, Valencia said: “I’m going to get your brother a lawyer. Your brother’s not going to admit anything happened. The only witness is the scumbag kid … he’s got a record.”

O’Keefe said the Union City Education Association “must reveal the identity of the teacher the union is protecting.”

“Any and all parents should be paying attention. This union would rather protect their teachers than their students,” he said.

After the first video was aired, Fox News host Sean Hannity asked, “Who are they protecting, unions or children?”

The New Jersey Education Association declared the video should not be given any “credibility whatsoever,” because it “has something like 26 edits and cuts in it.”

Project Veritas confirmed there were six cuts but insisted the material was not presented out of context.

“We challenge the NJEA to explain in what possible context they find the statements ‘I’m here to defend even the worst people,’ or ‘I need to know the truth, so that we can bend the truth’ acceptable,” Project Veritas said.

After Project Veritas released the first video, ‘Keefe said the unions “would argue that they are protecting the institutions to protect the children.”

“But their actions and words are corrupt. The institutions are not the children. Teachers unions are interested in protecting themselves. It would be nice if [Hamilton Township Education Association President David] Perry were just one bad apple. That is certainly what we will hear in the media. But don’t believe it. If you do, then watch the rest of this series.”

The first video:

The video, recorded March 27, shows Perry detailing the “steps the teacher’s union would take to protect a teacher who physically abused and threatened middle school students from losing their job.”

“Perry says he would misrepresent the events of altercations between teachers and students by back-dating reports and instructed the teacher to not tell anybody about incidents with students,” Project Veritas said.

“By failing to report this incident, Dr. Perry may have broken the law. According to New Jersey’s Department of Children and Families, ‘In New Jersey, any person having reasonable cause to believe a child has been subjected to abuse or acts of abuse should immediately report this information.'”

The report said Perry “stressed that a teacher who abuses his students needs to come to the union after any incident so that they can create a report that would best protect them from students that come forward about abuse.”

When the Project Veritas undercover journalist asked what could be done to protect a teacher who severely abused a student physically, Perry said he would “bring it down a level” by misrepresenting the facts of the incident.

“We do turn [these reports] around to where, if it was a physical punch, it wasn’t a punch. It was a shove,” he said. And, “If [the teacher] comes to me tomorrow, I’m gonna date the report to the day after the incident.”

There’s a reason.

“I’m gonna strongly advise … [if] the kid’s gonna turn around and say ‘Well [the teacher] threatened me.’ … I can say ‘No. No no no. On March 22nd, the day after the incident, [the teacher] came over to me and told me [what happened.] And we just wanted to put it on record so that nothing more would come about it.'”

Perry said: “It covers [the teacher!] Because he came in and reported it right away and that he was afraid. In other words, if you threatened the kid, you didn’t threaten the kid. You said ‘Knock it off or else.’

He explained he’s working to “defend even the worst people,” and he always requires a teacher who has misbehaved to tell him everything. He said he “need[s] to know the truth so that we can bend the truth.”

(Breitbart) Canadian columnist and host of the Glazov Gang, Jamie Glazov, was suspended from Twitter after he posted direct quotes from the Quran and Hadith.

Jamie Glazov’s Twitter account was temporarily suspended and he was forced to delete tweets he posted which directly quoted Islamic religious texts. Glazov’s account was suspended for violating Twitter’s rules relating to “hateful conduct.”

The tweets that resulted in Glazov’s temporary suspension related to Sahih Bukhari’s texts discussing Mohammed’s marriage to Aisha when she was six years old and a quote posted by Glazov from the Quranic Suras that mandates the Hijab for women and sanctions sexual slavery. These direct quotes from Islamic religious texts were apparently enough to result in Glazov’s account being locked until he deleted the offending tweets.

The teen was identified as Tyronne Bradley, the New Orleans Coroner's Office said Thursday morning.

A number of people seem to be under the impression that investigating Donald Trump is the most vital project undertaken by this nation since the Founding. Perhaps. But their feelings shouldn’t override the Constitution. Because for all the principles allegedly being whittled away by this administration, its antagonists seem to be doing everything they can to keep pace.

For instance, while it might come as a surprise to many, the Justice Department is not an “independent” entity. Presumably those who work for the DOJ have fealty to law and justice first, yes, but they are subordinates, ultimately, of the president of the United States, who was elected legally and has the identical powers to Barack Obama or George W. Bush.

Or, in other words, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein doesn’t work for CNN personalities or Vox explainer writers. He works for Trump.

And while it might also come as a surprise to some people, Congress — a separate, co-equal branch of government, run, for the moment, by Republicans — is tasked with oversight of the executive branch, which includes the Justice Department. Now, you may deem them scandalously incompetent or hopelessly partisan, but it’s within the purview of a congressional committee to ask the FBI for documents pertaining to an ongoing investigation. They aren’t breaking the law or “extorting” anyone, as Rosenstein recently asserted, by asking for more transparency.

Yet, most Democrats (and Never Trumpers) have taken the exceptionally convenient position that not only shouldn’t the president (well, this president) have a say over the goings on at the Justice Department but that Congress (well, this congress) has no right to demand oversight, either. Most of the media frame their work accordingly, creating the impression the FBI doesn’t answer to anyone.

Fact is, Rosenstein has a habit of slow-walking documents to Congress that make the FBI look bad. This is a political consideration. The Deputy Attorney General is now refusing to hand over redacted documents that pertain to former Trump aide Michael Flynn’s statements about interacting with Russians. Will Flynn’s statements magically change if the public or Congress sees them? Rosenstein has yet to explain why he’s not cooperating with a congressional inquiry. Instead, he plays martyr to a friendly media.

Last time we went through this charade, in fact, Democrats and their allies were claiming that releasing congressional findings on alleged FBI abuses would be a reckless attack on the nation’s security. Whatever you make of the veracity of the claims in the Devin Nunes memo, this claim turned out to be untrue. We went through a similar circus with the release of the Comey memos, which ended up giving Americans more context to the endless leaks that have consumed news coverage for the past year and half.

The idea that partisans and journalists who’ve made a living using favorable leaks regarding the investigations into the Trump administration are suddenly concerned about the sanctity of a criminal investigation are ludicrous. Moreover, Congress, whether you like it or not, is also conducting an investigation. Let’s see more, not less.

Which bring me to special counsel Robert Mueller. There has been a continued effort in congress to pass a law insulating the special counsel, creating a super prosecutor with wide-ranging autonomy that allows him to investigate whatever he likes for as long as he likes. I’m not sure such a law would be constitutional, but it’s certainly an attack on the separation of powers.

Let’s face it, most Democrats or Republicans have acted in partisan ways during collusion investigation because much of it is a partisan concern. The only thing left is to try and save the already tattered process. Because by creating the impression that wholly constitutional actions are abuses, we are also creating precedents that undermine norms governing oversight.

Now, firing Mueller would almost surely have major political ramifications, giving Democrats fodder to seek impeachment without any proof of criminality, much less “collusion.” And considering the questions Mueller reportedly wants to ask Trump — a net-casting expedition that has almost nothing to do with collusion, the impetus for the investigation — to do so would probably be an act of self-destruction on the president’s part.

Or maybe, Mueller will uncover criminality. Maybe Trump will abuse his office in an effort to bury the investigation. If the House believes so, it can impeach the president. If the Senate believes so, it can remove him. If the Republicans believe it, they can nominate someone else. If the American people agree, they can elect another president. This is all proper. But changing how government works by effectively stripping embedded constitutionally oversights for political reasons is just another kind of corruption.

Former Trump campaign aide and Republican consultant Michael Caputo had some harsh words for the Senate Intelligence Committee on Tuesday.

"God damn you to hell," Caputo said in his closing statement, obtained by the Washington Examiner, telling the panel that their investigation "forced" his family out of their home, leaving his children "crushed" over the mounting legal costs due to the inquiry. 

"Today, I can’t possibly pay the attendant legal costs and live near my aging father, raising my kids where I grew up,” Caputo said. “Your investigation and others into the allegations of Trump campaign collusion with Russia are costing my family a great deal of money — more than $125,000 — and making a visceral impact on my children."

Caputo said that Senate Intelligence Committee members are working together and contributing to the "swamp," pointing to the fact that a former Senate Intelligence staffer to Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) - Daniel Jones, was one of two sources in a recent McClatchy report about Michael Cohen, Trump's personal attorney whose office, home and hotel room were raided last month at special counsel Robert Mueller's request.

“But who is McClatchy’s second source? It couldn’t be Dan; he was the first source ... So who could it be — perhaps one of his former Senate Intelligence colleagues? I mean, you’re all in this together. You’re the swamp.”

Jones, a former FBI investigator who was previously one of Feinstein's top aides, is conducting an ongoing, private investigation into Trump-Russia claims using $50 million supplied by George Soros and a group of 7-10 wealthy donors from California and New York. Jones is working with opposition research firm Fusion GPS - and Christopher Steele, the former UK spy Fusion commissioned to create the infamous "Steele Dossier" which former Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe said was instrumental to the Trump-Russia investigation.

Caputo called for an "investigation of the investigators," demanding to know who was "coordinating this attack on President Donald Trump." 

“Forget about all the death threats against my family. I want to know who cost us so much money, who crushed our kids, who forced us out of our home, all because you lost an election,” Caputo said. “I want to know because God damn you to hell."

Former First Lady Michelle Obama described herself as America’s “Forever First Lady” at an event at Temple University in...

More patients could be eligible for medical marijuana treatments after a Louisiana Senate committee advanced two medical marijuana bills Wednesday.

Louisiana schools would no longer be gun-free zones under a measure that won approval in the House.

Three companies are vying to replace Louisiana's decade-old voting machines, with a winning bidder expected to be chosen by June 20.

Authored by Mac Slavo via SHTFplan.com,

Regulatory powers have just been dangerously weaponized against the National Rifle Association. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo’s recent directive to financial regulators wants them to pressure private companies to break ties with the NRA, “or else…”

New York has never been known as a bastion of freedom, yet this is even highly reminiscent of all-out fascist tactics to eliminate basic fundamental human rightsthrough weaponized regulations. And although no person should ever have the kind of power Cuomo exerted to “decree” private businesses and banks follow his orders, don’t be surprised if they cave to the tyranny.

“I am directing the Department of Financial Services to urge insurers and bankers statewide to determine whether any relationship they may have with the NRA or similar organizations sends the wrong message to their clients and their communities who often look to them for guidance and support,” the governor wrote in a statement.

The Department of Financial Services, which regulates the banking and insurance industries in New York, followed up with guidance letters to insurance companies and banks, according to Reason. 

The guidance then includes slight variations on the following language from the banking letter:

The Department encourages its chartered and licensed financial institutions to continue evaluating and managing their risks, including reputational risks, that may arise from their dealings with the NRA or similar gun promotion organizations, if any, as well as continued assessment of compliance with their own codes of social responsibility.

The Department encourages regulated institutions to review any relationships they have with the NRA or similar gun promotion organizations, and to take prompt actions to managing these risks and promote public health and safety.

Why is this such a terrifying ordeal? The regulatory body that oversees these industries is warning companies under its power that they may be assuming reputational risk (a regulated area that draws official attention) by doing business with legal organizations such as the NRA. This reputational risk is said to exist because these groups are “gun promotion organizations,” which boils down to nothing more than them taking public policy positions at odds with those favored by the state’s political leaders.  Meaning the New York State government is weaponizing itself against any business it deems a political enemy…does this sound like East Berlin circa 1939 yet?

But this is hardly the first time government regulatory agencies have been weaponized against the public. “My father may have been the originator of the concept of employing the IRS as a weapon of political retribution,” Elliott Roosevelt observed of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. The federal tax agency remains a handy bludgeon for politicians from that day through the present, including its recent deployment against Tea Party groups and its power to financially punish (at gunpoint of course) those who can’t afford or don’t wish to purchase government-approved health care plans. 

As Reason noted, yes, weaponizing regulatory agencies has been done before.  But making it explicit strips regulatory authority of any legitimacy. Punishing political opponents is a less compelling argument for such power than claims—valid or otherwise—that you’re enforcing good business practices. If it becomes standard practice, people are entitled to view regulators as nothing more than partisan hitmen and treat them accordingly.

New York’s long-established culture of corrupt and weaponized use of government power is a stain on the state, not something to be made official policy and extended to the country as an example to emulate.

Louisiana's sheriffs could get 7 percent pay raises in 2020 under a bill that sailed through the Legislature and heads to the governor.

At least four people were reportedly injured and were taken away by ambulance, including one SWAT officer.

One man is dead and one man is still missing after a boating accident Wednesday morning in Plaquemines Parish.

A new warning from the CDC states diseases spread by ticks, mosquitoes and fleas are increasing.

Hawaii's legislature has sent a bill to the governor that bans sunscreens containing oxybenzone and octinoxate believed to harm marine life and coral reefs.

(KXAS) A 17-year-old North Texas student is accused of criminal solicitation of capital murder and making a terroristic threat in an Islamic State-inspired plot to carry out a mass shooting at suburban Dallas mall, officials said.

The teen, Matin Azizi-Yarand, who lives with his parents in Plano, was arrested Tuesday at Plano West Senior High School and is now being held at the Collin County Jail on $3 million bond. Under Texas law he’ll be tried as an adult and faces up to life in prison for criminal solicitation and up to 10 years in prison for making a terroristic threat.

Matin Azizi-Yarand, 17, faces life in prison if convicted of an Islamic State-inspired plot to carry out a mass shooting at Stonebriar Centre mall in Frisco.

Officials said in an arrest affidavit Azizi-Yarand talked online with a FBI source starting in December 2017 and told the informant how he wanted to conduct a terrorist attack. Over the course of four months, investigators said the suspect communicated with two informants and an undercover agent about possible targets that included an unnamed school, a Hindu temple and then Stonebriar Centre mall in Frisco.

(Washington Post) Political candidates have long appeared with guns in campaign ads — holding guns, firing guns, and even assembling guns blindfolded. Earlier this month, Georgia gubernatorial candidate Hunter Hill aired an ad showing him loading an assault rifle. The video title? “Liberals won’t like this.”

Now, a new ad in the race for Georgia governor — in which a candidate points a gun at a teenager — did not sit well with some Georgians. After all, it aired just one state away from the Florida high school where 17 people were killed in a mass shooting

In the campaign ad, Brian Kemp, Georgia’s secretary of state, sits in a room surrounded by firearms — handguns on a table to his right, rifles on the table in front of him, and what appear to be two AR-15-style guns leaning on the wall behind him. Across his lap he holds a double-barrel shotgun, cleaning it off as he speaks into the camera. Next to him sits a young man in khakis and a tucked-in flannel shirt.

(Daily Caller) Black male support for President Donald Trump doubled in just one week, according to a Reuters poll on presidential approval.

A poll taken on April 22, 2018 had Trump’s approval rating among black men at 11 percent, while the same poll on April 29, 2018 pegged the approval rating at 22 percent. It should be noted that Reuters only sampled slightly under 200 black males each week and slightly under 3,000 people overall.

Trump experienced a similar jump in approval among black people overall, spiking from 8.9 percent on April 22 to 16.5 percent on April 29.

Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani (R) said Wednesday that President Trump fired former FBI Director James Comey because Comey wouldn't tell Trump that he wasn't a target of the FBI investigation into Russia's elect...

(Dumfermline Press) A man ended up behind bars after being found in a Dunfermline street with an offensive weapon, a potato peeler.

Scott Walker, 39, of the James Bank Hostel, James Street, appeared from custody at Dunfermline Sheriff Court.

He admitted that on Saturday in Appin Crescent, a public place, he was in possession of an object that which had a blade or was sharply pointed, namely a potato peeler.

Glenn Jacobs, otherwise known as the masked wrestler "Kane," has officially traded a shot at the belt for a shot at mayor.

(London Independent) A climate change group is raising half a million dollars with the goal of carving President Donald Trump’s face into an arctic iceberg.

The Finnish group Melting Ice is spearheading the initiative with the intention of carving a 115-foot ice sculpture of Mr Trump’s face, and have dubbed the effort “Project Trumpmore”.

They hope that they will be able to illustrate the dangers of climate change by watching to see how long the sculpture takes to melt.

Owners of video poker truck stops won passage in the state House Wednesday night of their main legislative goal this year, a bill that lowers the minimum amount of fuel that they have to sell each month to remain in…

With no discussion, the Louisiana House on Wednesday night approved legislation that would allow the dredging of the Comite River, which in August 2016 flooded hundreds of Baton Rouge-area homes.

"As everybody is aware, the past Administration has long been asking for three hostages to be released from a North Korean Labor camp, but to no avail," read the tweet.

Trump had told reporters that he was not aware of the payment and that he didn't know where Cohen had gotten the money.