Retired Marine speaks out in support of Maj. Matt Golsteyn, charged in Afghanistan killing: 'He is not a murderer!'

NY Daily News

Mike Ramirez

"A retired U.S. Marine who worked with former Green Beret Mathew Golsteyn — who’s charged with murdering a suspected Afghan bomb maker — recalls the once-decorated hero as extremely respectful and unlikely to slay in cold blood.

"Emir Hadzic‏, a retired infantry gunnery sergeant who has served in Afghanistan and Iraq, worked briefly with Golsteyn at the 29 Palms training camp in the Mojave Desert in California.

“ 'He chose to take time away from his family to train my Marines in Unconventional Warfare, in prep for our Afghan deployment,” Hadzic tweeted in a message of support Sunday. “His love for fellow servicemen and tremendous respect for Afghans was crystal clear. He is not a murderer!”

"Hadzic told the New York Daily News on Monday what it’s like to serve in Afghanistan — including what could have happened if the alleged bomb maker was let go. He said a murder charge does not make sense, even if Golsteyn did kill the man, as he has admitted.

“ 'If he violated anything, it would be rules of engagement,” Hadzic said. “I think that he knew that this person that he killed was a bad actor.' ” . . .

The shutdown is as fake as most of the news Official Washington reports.

Don Surber

. . . "But everyone knows that is BS. Some government offices will close, some government employees will stay home, and Congress will make sure they get back pay. Anywhere else that is called a vacation.
"This means the Post's precious advertisers will stay in business.
"The shutdown is as fake as most of the news Official Washington reports.
"President Trump's plan is simple. Shut the government down when the holidays have closed the offices anyway. Only 6 of the first 15 days of the shutdown are workdays.
"Besides, not much of the government gets shut down.
"NPR reported, "Three-quarters of the government will not be affected, because budget bills funding those operations had already been approved. But the remaining 25 percent subject to the shutdown includes Homeland Security, Justice, Commerce, Interior, Agriculture, Housing and Urban Development, and Transportation departments.
" 'Even among those affected, some personnel are deemed essential and will be expected to report to work without pay, for now. That includes FBI officers, Border Patrol agents and Transportation Security Administration agents — during one of the busiest travel periods of the year. In the past, however, Congress has approved back pay for furloughed federal workers.' " . . .

US government shutdown appears set to continue until Thursday as fight over Trump's border wall stalls spending talks

CNBC

• Parts of the U.S. government shut down early Saturday as Congress missed a deadline to pass spending bills.
• A disagreement over whether to fund President Donald Trump's border wall stalled efforts to keep the government running.
• Lawmakers will try to come to an agreement to reopen the government over the weekend.

A senior Trump administration official offered no signs of compromise. He told reporters on Saturday, "We continue to articulate our expectations of $5 billion for border security and physical barriers."  A spokesman for Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said his boss would be meeting with Vice President Mike Pence. He said Schumer "intends to remind the Vice President that any proposal with funding for the wall cannot pass the Senate."

"President Donald Trump threatened a government shutdown for weeks. He got one when the clock turned to Saturday.

"Congress missed a Friday midnight deadline to fund nine departments, or about a quarter of the government, and the Senate adjourned for Christmas without voting on a deal to bridge the impasse. Parts of the government closed after lawmakers failed to strike an agreement on seven spending bills.

"Lawmakers failed to reach a funding agreement as Trump demanded $5 billion for his proposed wall along the border with Mexico. Democrats refused. Then House Republicans dug in, declining to pass a bill to keep the government running into February after the president threatened to veto it Thursday.

"Trump took to Twitter on Saturday morning, threatening a "long stay" if he does not get the "Border Security" he's demanding." . . .

Feds spend more in food stamps in ONE month than POTUS wants for entire YEAR of wall funding

. . . “In October, according to the Monthly Treasury Statement, the federal government spent $5,892,000,000 on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), which is also known as the food stamp program,” Bannister writes.“In November, according to the statement for that month, the federal government spent another $5,428,000,000 on the food stamp program, bringing the total so far for fiscal 2019 (after only two months) to $11,320,000,000—or an average of $5,660,000,000 per month,” he added. . . .

When Democrats mention "green", hold onto your wallet. They want their power and your money

Daily Caller  "As they assume control of the House, Democrats are pushing a carbon tax as part of a “Green New Deal.” A carbon tax means new hard power for the federal government. It means more taxpayer money flowing to Washington. It means everything will cost more.

"This will turn off voters, and that’s why Democrats will pull out all the stops to get Republican fingerprints on a carbon tax in 2019. "Democrats will work with a compliant media to kick up a dust cloud labeled “bipartisanship” in the hopes voters won’t know who to blame.

All Republicans should steer clear.

"A carbon tax is both bad policy and bad politics. As a simultaneous tax and spending hike, carbon taxes raise the cost of living and hit lower-income workers and small businesses hard. They give the government more control over private decisions.

"It’s no wonder all but six House Republicans voted for a resolution noting a carbon tax is detrimental to the U.S. economy. "Only seven Democrats supported the resolution.

"There is a clear contrast between the two parties, and voters favor the Republican position." . . .

California transformed its justice system. But now crime is up, and critics want rollbacks

LA Times

Stolen objects are displayed while Capt. Lillian Carranza, second from left, commanding officer of the Los Angeles Police Department's Commercial Crimes Division, shares details about arrests made in connection with recent burglaries at the homes of celebrities.

"Over the last decade, California has led the nation in reducing its prison population.
"The state has shortened sentences and diverted some offenders to the counties for incarceration and supervision, transforming California’s criminal justice system into what supporters hope will become a humane model around the country.
"But amid the changes, crime has increased in recent years, sparking debate about the causes and giving ammunition to those leading a new effort to roll back some of the reforms. 
"An analysis by the Marshall Project and the Los Angeles Times found that California’s crime rates remain near historic lows, but overall crime spiked in both 2012 and 2015, the years that immediately followed two major statewide measures aimed at decreasing the number of people in prison. Those jumps were mainly driven by increases in property crimes, particularly thefts from motor vehicles.

The California Experiment  This is one of an occasional series examining the impact of recent justice measures aimed at reducing incarceration. It is a collaboration between the Los Angeles Times and the Marshall Project, a nonprofit news outlet.

"After decades of mirroring national downward trends in violent crime, California saw a 12% increase from 2014 to 2017, while the violent crime rate in the other 49 states together increased only 3%, the analysis showed. In 2014, California voters approved a ballot measure that reduced sentences for many low-level drug and property crimes."

. . . Three years later, California voters approved Proposition 47, which turned drug use and most theft convictions from felonies to misdemeanors. In 2016, voters overhauled the state parole system by backing Proposition 57, which gave thousands of inmates the chance to earn an earlier release from prison.The undeniable result of all these measures is that people are on the street today who would have been locked up in previous years.

. . .
Speaking of California voters:  Bienvenidos a Mexico: California's ballot-harvesting, sure enough, is borrowed from Mexico

Most congressional elections there showed Republican candidates in the lead on election night in the last midterm, but all of them flipped to Democrats as the Democrat-led ballot-harvesting brought in votes and votes and votes from supposed precincts, harvested by their political operatives, until the result went the other way.  

. . .