Beet L. Jooz

Grumpy Cat, the feline known for her permanent scowl, has died, according to her owners. 

Chimeric Antigen Receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy might be the cancer cure patients have been waiting for—if only the government would get out of the way.

Obama's media echo chamber is hyping Iran’s bluster about U.S. sanctions. But their insistence that the only options are appeasement or war offers a false choice.

In the latest provocation against Tehran by the US, two Navy destroyers have entered the Persian Gulf as the American military continues to add to its assets in the region to head off any planned 'aggression', USNI reports.

The USS McFaul and USS Gonzalez traveled through the Strait of Hormuz Thursday afternoon without being challenged by IRGC forces in the are. They join the USS Abraham Lincoln, which is stationed in the Gulf of Oman, as well as a strike force that includes several B-52 bombers, as the US continues to build up its military presence in the region. Another Aircraft Carrier, the USS Kearsarge, is anchored off the coast of the UAE. 

According to USNI, if the US wanted to attack Iran from the water, its ships would be better off outside of the Persian Gulf, where it would be more difficult for Iranian missiles to reach them, and where they would be outside of Iran's "domain awareness."

The move comes after the US government has continued to warn about heightened threats from Iran. These fears have already prompted the evacuation of non-essential embassy personnel from the Baghdad embassy and the Erbil consulate.

Secret satellite photos of Iranian missiles on a small boat in the Gulf have helped ratchet up tensions, and the US has threatened to attack Iran if the regime starts stockpiling enriched uranium and heavy water again, as it has warned it would abandon the Iran deal if its European partners don't make good on promises to buy Iranian oil and other financial considerations. CENTCOM has maintained that Iran is a 'growing threat' in the region.

An investigation into the source of attacks on two Saudi tankers that Iran is suspected of having orchestrated.

ISRAELI SPYWARE AT CENTER OF WHATSAPP SURVEILLANCE STORM https://www.jpost.com/International/Israeli-spyware-at-center-of-WhatsApp-surveillance-storm-589640 https://gab.com/BeEtLjOoZ/posts/57257909

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Would-be terrorist performed Hitler salute in court as he was led down to cells

In his first pair of interviews since being sworn in, Attorney General Barr told Fox News and WSJ that he was pursuing the investigation into the origins of the Trump-Russia probe - an investigation he has tasked 

John Durham, the US Attorney from Connecticut, with leading - because Americans need to know whether the government "put a thumb on the scale" to try and undermine President Trump both during the campaign and during the first two years of his term, just like "we need to ensure that foreign actors don't influence the outcome of our elections."

Separately, he told WSJ that "government power was used to spy on American citizens...I can't imagine any world where we wouldn't take a look and make sure that was done properly."

Barr has doubled-down on using the term 'spying', which has angered Democrats, after first using it during Senate committee testimony from April 10, where he uttered the now-infamous phrase "I think spying did occur."

The AG has declined to elaborate on what prompted these concerns, though he has said he'd be interested to see the underlying intelligence that sparked the FBI decision, in the summer of 2016, to open a counterintelligence investigation. At this point, Durham's review isn't a criminal investigation, and Barr hasn't offered a timetable for when the investigation might be completed. Ultimately, the probe could lead to changing FBI protocols involving investigations into political campaigns.

Appearing to respond to Barr's interviews, President Trump declared that his campaign was "conclusively" spied on.

My Campaign for President was conclusively spied on. Nothing like this has ever happened in American Politics. A really bad situation. TREASON means long jail sentences, and this was TREASON!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 17, 2019

As far as we know, the FBI first started investigating the campaign after an Australian ambassador told his superiors that George Papadopoulos had appeared to know about Russian plans to release 'dirt' on Hillary Clinton. The FBI later sent an informant, Stefan Halper, and a woman who identified herself as a research assistant, to meet with Papadopoulos and push him to say whether Russia was helping the Trump campaign.

Watch the Fox interview below:

Watch the latest video at foxnews.com

Joe Scarborough accused President Donald Trump of trying to suppress U.S. intelligence in order to diminish the impact of Russia’s cyber campaigns against American institutions.

On Wednesday, Morning Joe held a discussion on Florida Governor Ron DeSantis‘ (R) announcement that Russian hackers managed to access voter databases in two counties ahead of the 2016 election. This led to Scarborough snarking that Trump and various members of his administration cry “fake news” and ignore intelligence reports in order to dismiss the seriousness of Russian election-meddling.

As Mika Brzezinski asked why DeSantis is supposedly forbidden to say which counties were breached because of an NDA, Scarborough answered: “Donald Trump and those working for Donald Trump believe that transparency in this process is actually a danger.” From there, Scarborough concocted up a metaphor by saying the administration’s handling of Russian interference is like if the government forbid cameras from documenting the 9/11 terror attacks.

“‘We’re not going to let anybody know so they won’t be prepared next time,'” Scarborough said. “This is really crazy and, once again, points to the fact that Donald Trump is aggressively trying to cover up any evidence that intel chiefs, or his own cabinet agents he has, are trying to pass along to him that the Russians tried to subvert American democracy.”

Watch above, via MSNBC.

THE WASHINGTON TIMES: Another New Mexico community has declared an emergency in response to the increasing number of migrants crossing [READ MORE]

The post New Mexico city declares state of emergency over migrant surge appeared first on The Savage Nation.

NEW YORK (AP) — Tim Conway, the impish second banana to Carol Burnett who won four Emmy Awards on her TV variety show, starred aboard “McHale’s Navy” and later voiced the role of Barnacle Boy for “Spongebob Squarepants,” has died. He was 85.

Carlson specifically called out former Texas Rep. Beto O’Rourke.

"Two strikes, the first strike and the last strike."

Fighting violent crime one kitchen utensil at a time.

Against the wishes of many Republicans, Donald Trump Jr. has agreed to provide another round of testimony to the Senate intelligence committee.

What was she thinking?

Iran's ambassador to Britain lashed out at the United States on Tuesday, accusing it of dragging Iran "into an unnecessary war" in the Middle East.

An awkward public exchange unfolded between the US military and its closest allied military coalition force during a Pentagon press conference on Tuesday wherein a top British commander in charge of anti-ISIS coalition forces rebuked White House claims on the heightened Iran threat. 

“No – there’s been no increased threat from Iranian-backed forces in Iraq and Syria,” British Army Maj. Gen. Christopher Ghika, a deputy head of the US-led coalition, asserted confidently in a videolink briefing from Baghdad to the Pentagon in response to a CNN question. “We’re aware of that presence, clearly. And we monitor them along with a whole range of others because that’s the environment we’re in. We are monitoring the Shia militia groups. I think you’re referring to carefully and if the threat level seems to go up then we’ll raise our force protection measures accordingly.”

The British commander's words prompted a rare and swift rebuke from the US side hours later into the evening when US Central Command (CENTCOM) issued its own statement slamming Gen. Ghika's words as inaccurate, insisting coalition troops in Iraq and Syria were an a "high level of alert" due to the "Iran threat". 

“Recent comments from OIR’s deputy commander run counter to the identified credible threats available to intelligence from US and allies regarding Iranian-backed forces in the region,” the CENTCOM statement said.

“US Central Command, in coordination with OIR, has increased the force posture level for all service members assigned to OIR in Iraq and Syria. As a result, OIR is now at a high level of alert as we continue to closely monitor credible and possibly imminent threats to US forces in Iraq.”

"No. There's been no increased threats from ... etc"
British general Combined Joint Task Force #OIR May 14#Iraq #Iran #Syria Christopher Ghika pic.twitter.com/5sg4AFfsMO

— M27 (@M27Unchained) May 14, 2019

The US statement went so far as to imply the British general didn't have a grasp of troop readiness and the state of alert of the very soldiers under his command. 

And further, it's saying something when you've even lost The Guardian, which has over the past years sought to crush any level of dissent or skepticism of the western mainstream narrative on Syria. The Guardian noted: 

The remarkable comments heightened concerns that fabricated or exaggerated intelligence may be being used by administration hawks led by the national security adviser, John Bolton, to further the case for war against Iran, in a manner reminiscent of the buildup to the Iraq invasion.

The incredible public clash among allies came as the USS Abraham Lincoln carrier strike group is en route to the Persian Gulf, along with a B-52 bomber group monitoring the air from Qatar, and new Patriot missile batteries.

This is wild. CENTCOM just put out a press release calling out the UK's top general in the anti-ISIS Coalition after he stated that there was "no increased threat from Iranian-backed forces in Iraq and Syria." pic.twitter.com/mZX4DtoSWo

— Samuel Oakford (@samueloakford) May 14, 2019

Also overnight the State Department ordered the immediate evacuation of all non-essential personnel from the US embassy in over unspecified Iranian threats.

Washington and Tehran have recently exchanged threats of direct conflict while jostling to assert control over the vital Strait of Hormuz narrow oil shipping passage, which has further left global oil markets on edge and rattled. 

The military build-up is claimed to be in response to intelligence the White House says confirms that US troops face imminent threat of attack by Iran and its regional proxy forces in places like Iraq, Syria, and the gulf. 

Don't get too excited. The bill would not permit smoking marijuana.

Ford Motor Co said Wednesday it is recalling 270,000 Ford Fusion cars in North America that could roll away.

'Abortion is a nightmare at its best'

Fox & Friends ripped Joe Biden on Wednesday by suggesting the former vice president didn’t handle himself gracefully during an exchange with a supporter of his who called Donald Trump an “illegitimate” president.

The hosts started the 8 A.M. hour by covering Trump’s latest speech in Louisiana, during which, the president went all out and slammed several of his Democratic challengers for the 2020 election. As Brian Kilmeade talked to his colleagues talked about whether Biden is a possible threat to Trump’s re-election, he ripped the ex-Veep on several fronts before grumbling about Biden’s indulgence of the idea that Trump’s presidency is false.

“When somebody yells out from his audience some anti-Trump slogans like he’s illegitimate as a president, instead of pushing back in John McCain fashion, he joins in.”

The conversation continued with the curvy couch panning Biden over his pushback against Trump and his attorney, Rudy Giuliani. Steve Doocy concluded by noting that questioning Trump’s presidential legitimacy “feeds the base” among Democrats.

Kilmeade was clearly referencing the famous moment from the 2008 presidential election when McCain rebuked a supporter of his at a town hall for saying Barack Obama was an “Arab.” Putting aside that fact that Trump and McCain despised each other throughout the last years of the Arizona senator’s life, Kilmeade’s complaint about Biden’s lack of a “John McCain” moment is peculiar for a lot of reasons.

Throughout his political history, Trump pushed birtherism against Obama in order to delegitimize the presidency of his predecessor. Not only did Trump repeatedly suggest that Obama wasn’t a natural born U.S. citizen who was ineligible for the Oval Office, but Trump also has an extensive record of attacking Obama by suggesting he’s secretly a Muslim.

The relevance to McCain for both points come from the fact that Trump was negatively compared to the late senator for one of his most prominent moments of anti-Muslim fearmongering during the 2016 election.

During a town hall event in New Hampshire, Trump laughed and grinned when he took a question from a man who said “We have a problem in this country—it’s called Muslims. We know our current president is one. You know he’s not even American.” Political observers noted at the time that this was a far cry from McCain since Trump failed to challenge the questioner’s insinuations as McCain did.

So then, with the American sociopolitical climate the way it is right now, is there anyone left who can claim they consistently push back against unsavory aspersions “in John McCain fashion,” or is that element of political discourse a thing of the past?

Watch above, via Fox News.

Billionaire Mark Cuban said yesterday that “nobody” currently running in 2020 has a chance of beating President Donald Trump in 2020, while also leaving the door open for his own entry into the race.

“We’ll see what happens. I’ve said it many times, it would take the perfect storm for me to do it,” the Dallas Mavericks owner told CNBC’s Scott Wapner after being asked about his personal interest in the race.

“There are some things that could open the door, but I’m not projecting or predicting it right now,” he added in the phone interview. “I still think there’s a real opportunity for somebody who is in the middle but has some charisma, has the ability to relate to both sides but is not a politician. The reality is people don’t trust politicians.”

When asked by Wapner who “on the Democratic side has the best chance against President Trump,” Cuban replied, “Nobody right now.”

“If you look at why people voted for Donald Trump, in my opinion, first and foremost it was because he wasn’t a politician,” he continued. “If you look at the Democratic field, it’s all politicians. Politicians are the least trusted of every profession.”

While noting that it is “too early to tell,” Cuban, who said he would run as an independent if he did enter the race, against insisted that “nobody [in the Democratic field] really stands out even though Biden is leading the polls.” He also accused most of the 20 Democratic candidates of just seeking “headline porn” in their campaigning rather than proposing realistic policies.

“I don’t think they believe what they’re proposing is passable,” Cuban said.

Watch above, via CNBC.

France has granted asylum to the wife of a former head of the international police cooperation agency Interpol, after he was charged in his native China with corruption, the wife's lawyer said on Wednesday.

Isaac Kappy, an actor who had small roles in films such as "Thor" and "Terminator Salvation," has died at the age of 42.

Fire crews are attempting to rescue two people stuck in what appears to be window washing lift that got caught in high winds in Oklahoma City.

Washington ordered the departure of non-emergency American employees from its diplomatic missions in Iraq on Wednesday in another apparent show of concern about what it describes as threats from Iran.

BAGHDAD, Iraq, May 15 (Reuters) – Washington ordered the departure of non-emergency government employees from Iraq on Wednesday, after repeated U.S. expressions of concern about threats from Iranian-backed forces.

The U.S. State Department has ordered the pullout of the employees from both the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad and its consulate in Erbil, the embassy said in a statement.

“Normal visa services at both posts will be temporarily suspended,” it said, recommending those affected depart as soon as possible. It was unclear how many staff would leave.

The post U.S. pulls some workers from Iraq appeared first on WND.

‘It’s not that they failed, they made no effort’