Gun Rally Underway at Virginia State Capital – LIVESTREAM

Gun Rally Underway at Virginia State Capital – LIVESTREAM

In Virginia, large crowds are gathering at the state’s capital for a gun rally. The protest is in opposition to gun control laws, and has come with many threats of violence, prompting Gov. Ralph Northam to declare a ‘state of emergency’. They began the morning reciting the second amendment, and are dividing into two groups, those willing to lay down their weapons to enter the capital and those that wish to stay armed in the streets of Richmond. 

We may add information as it comes. 

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‘Pete Takes Money From Fossil Fuel Billionaires’: Climate Activists Disrupt Buttigieg Rally in New Hampshire 

‘Pete Takes Money From Fossil Fuel Billionaires’: Climate Activists Disrupt Buttigieg Rally in New Hampshire

“We are really concerned about candidates who have taken money from fossil-fuel executives. So that includes Joe Biden as well as Pete Buttigieg.”

By Jon Queally

Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg was interrupted at a campaign rally in New Hampshire on Friday by climate activists angered by the former South Bend, Indiana mayor’s lackluster approach to the climate crisis and his campaign’s continued reliance on fossil fuel money.

“I can’t make out your song, but we definitely want the same things,” Buttigieg told the group of climate action advocates who broke out in song and held up signs reading “Pete Takes Money From Fossil Fuel Billionaires” during the candidate’s remarks at the event in Concord.

Watch:

Buttigieg countered the protest and criticism by tell the crowd there was some “inaccurate information going up here” and noting that he “took the fossil fuel pledge” and is “determined to bring about solutions on climate change.”

While Buttigieg has, in fact, signed the “No Fossil Fuel Money” pledge, critics of the candidate point out that his continued openness to PACs and high-dollar bundlers means it’s impossible to know exactly which individuals and what kind of corporate interests are backing and funding his campaign.

It has been widely noted that billionaire Craig Hall, host of the infamous “wine cave” fundraiser for Buttigieg late in 2019, amassed much of his fortune with investments in the fossil fuel sector. Mayor Pete’s campaign, as HuffPost reports, has argued that someone like Hall doesn’t count against the pledge “because he is a real estate executive who invested in fossil fuels, not the other way around.”

Griffin Sinclair Wingate, a spokesperson for New Hampshire Youth Movement, one of the groups behind the protest, told Fox News: “We are really concerned about candidates who have taken money from fossil-fuel executives. So that includes Joe Biden as well as Pete Buttigieg.”

Buttigieg, said Wingate, “hosted a fundraiser in a wine cellar or wine cave with Craig Hall, who runs a firm that funds fossil fuel infrastructure projects. As a young person who’s really concerned about climate change and knows that our lives are threatened by the climate crisis, we cannot have a president who is taking money from fossil-fuel executives.”

Kevin Donohoe, the campaign’s New Hampshire communications director, pushed back on the accusations. “We do not accept contributions from registered federal lobbyists, corporate PACs or the fossil fuel industry,” Donohoe said, “and the only promise any donor will ever get from Pete is that he will use their donations to defeat Donald Trump.”

Source: ‘Pete Takes Money From Fossil Fuel Billionaires’: Climate Activists Disrupt Buttigieg Rally in New Hampshire | Common Dreams

After Days of Claiming Soleimani Posed “Imminent” Threat to US, Trump Finally Declares “It Doesn’t Really Matter”

After Days of Claiming Soleimani Posed “Imminent” Threat to US, Trump Finally Declares “It Doesn’t Really Matter”

“If this is the case, then nothing matters.”

By Julia Conley

After NBC News reported that President Donald Trump approved the assassination of Iranian military commander Qasem Soleimani last June—undercutting administration claims that Soleimani was targeted for a drone strike because of an immediate threat—the president claimed his rationale for unilaterally killing a foreign leader was irrelevant if he deemed the assassination necessary.

Trump concluded several tweets about his impeachment, the 2020 presidential campaign, and other topics by reiterating his administration’s claim that Soleimani posed an “imminent” threat to the U.S., but added that “it doesn’t really matter because of his horrible past.”

“In one tweet, Trump is blowing apart his administration’s rationale for killing Soleimani,” tweeted Washington Post national intelligence reporter Shane Harris.

Administration officials have spent more than a week making various claims about the danger Soleimani posed, including that he was plotting to bomb U.S. embassies—a claim with Defense Secretary Mark Esper wouldn’t confirm on record Sunday. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo openly mocked reports from Iraq’s prime minister that Soleimani was in Baghdad at the time of his killing to discuss easing tensions with Saudi Arabia. 

But a White House briefing last week in which officials shared intelligence about so-called “imminent” threats posed by Soleimani was condemned as “insulting” and “utterly unconvincing” by members of Trump’s own party.

On social media, some observers wrote that Trump’s phrasing of his tweet on Monday could be applied to many of his decisions and his treatment of the truth.

“It doesn’t really matter,” tweeted MSNBC political analyst Richard Stengel. “He’s not saying that just about Soleimani, but about the truth. Those who lie for Trump are then undercut by him.”

“If this is the case, then nothing matters,” added anti-Trump activist Andrew Wortman. “He can assassinate anyone anywhere and bring us to the brink of war for no reason and face no accountability.”

The unraveling of the White House narrative about Soleimani’s assassination was reminiscent of Trump’s treatment of the murder of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018. After spending weeks assuring the public that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman had nothing to do with the killing, the president finally told reporters, “Maybe he did and maybe he didn’t… In any case, our relationship is with the kingdom of Saudi Arabia.”

A recent USA Today/Ipsos poll found that 52% of respondents view the killing of Soleimani as “reckless.”

Source: After Days of Claiming Soleimani Posed “Imminent” Threat to US, Trump Finally Declares “It Doesn’t Really Matter” | Common Dreams News