Daily Archives: October 3, 2023

SET UP

This lesson offers several options for you to use with your students whether you are teaching in class, using a hybrid model, or engaging through distance learning. It can be completed in steps as a class or students can move at their own pace and complete the activities independently.

You can post links to the videos in the lesson along with the related handout and slides and engage in discussion to share responses on a discussion board or learning management system.

You can also save and share the following Google resources for students to use with this lesson.

Graphic Organizer: "The Federalist" (Google Doc)

Bingo Board Questions: "The Federalist" (Google Doc)

Bingo Board Answers: "The Federalist" (Google Doc)

In Google, choose "File" then "Make a Copy" to get your own copy. You can make any needed adjustments in the instructions such as which activities students need to complete, when it is due, etc. and then make it available to them via Google.

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Book That Shaped America - "The Federalist" - C-SPAN

Most of us are familiar with the infamous vanishing commissar photo of Stalin and Nikolai Yezhov, the secret police official who organized mass arrests, torture, and executions in the Soviet Union in the late 1930s, but was himself later arrested and executed. Yezhovs likeness was subsequently removed from all official photos, including the one of him and Stalin at the Moscow Canal. Today, Yezhov is the primary example of how the Soviet regime would make someone disappear, as if they never existed, literally erasing them from the historical record.

Disappearing people in this way is something tyrannical dictatorships do because they feel no accountability to the people over whom they rule. Whatever the regime says, no matter how outlandish or patently false, is reality. If you dissent, then you might be disappeared too.

A milder but nevertheless disturbing version of the vanishing commissar played out over Sunday and Monday in Washington, D.C. Heres what happened. During a series of contentious spending votes on Saturday ahead of a looming government shutdown, while House Democrats were trying to slow-walk a vote, Democrat Rep. Jamaal Bowman pulled a fire alarm in a House office building on Capitol Hill, forcing an evacuation.

Bowmans stunt, which is under investigation by Capitol Police, was caught on a security camera. Its clear he pulled the fire alarm as a delaying tactic, precisely to force the evacuation of the building and disrupt official congressional business (the kind of thing the media would call an insurrection if a Republican had done it.) Indeed, theres no other reasonable way to interpret his actions. Everyone who has ever attended school knows what a fire alarm is and what happens when you pull it including Bowman, a former school principal.

Heres where things get a little Soviet. In the aftermath of the evacuation, Bowman insisted it was an accident not that he pulled the alarm by accident, since the video footage clearly shows him doing so intentionally, but thathe didnt know what would happen when he pulled it. I was just trying to get to my vote, he said. The door thats usually open wasnt open. I didnt mean to cause confusion. I didnt know it was going to trip the whole building. I thought [the alarm] would help me open the door.

(On a side note, Bowman later called the Republicans trying to punish him Nazis, and thenpretended that was a mistake when it blew up in his face.)

But heres the important thing: Bowmans claim is that he thought pulling the fire alarm would open the door.That sounds like an outlandish lie, doesnt it? The sort of patently false thing no one in his right mind would ever believe or even try to explain. Just a bone-crushingly idiotic fiction that requires us to believe Bowman is mentally ill or psychotic. Every single person in Washington knows its not true.

And yet, every single Democrat and the entire corporate news media immediately responded as if it were a reasonable and acceptable explanation for Bowmans actions, like ofcoursehe didnt know what would happen when he pulled the alarm. He thought it would open the door, OK? How many of us have encountered a locked door and immediately pulled the nearest fire alarm? Right? The fire alarm going off took him by total surprise!

Heres Chris Hayes of MSNBC, for example, saying this whole thing is silly and embarrassing, and not that big a deal. But then he cites a Capitol Police statement, that Bowman tried to open the door before pulling the alarm, and claims it lines up with Bowmans explanation.

The purpose of this little legerdemain by Hayes is to lend Bowmans account credibility, to suggest that he is telling the truth that he was just trying to get out of the building, didnt do anything wrong, etc. In other words, Hayes wants you to suspend your judgment and common sense, and instead believe what is clearly, provably a lie.

Thats the real problem here the blatant lying with the expectation that you just have to accept it and pretend its OK. Over the last few years of the Biden administration, this sort of thing has become commonplace. Democrats, sometimes President Biden himself, will do or say something outrageous and unbelievable, and the press will either ignore it and pretend it didnt happen or offer an explanation so disconnected from reality that only a total lack of accountability or any respect for their audience can explain it.

Thats how you get major media outlets trotting out the line, amid mounting and undeniable evidence of Biden family corruption, that Hunter Biden only sold the illusion of access to his father. Thats how you get coverage that suggests 17 or 22 years in prison for participating in the Jan. 6 Capitol riot is somehow normal and justified. Thats how you get news panels debating the merits of the criminal charges against Trump, as if the charges themselves are the story and not the unprecedented targeting of the presidents chief political rival ahead of an upcoming election. And on and on.

When the government and the establishment press just spout the most outlandish lies and excuses, demanding we believe them, its much more dangerous and frankly tyrannical than a government and press that subtly or believably lies.

When governments and politicians and the media dissimulate reality in this blatant way, it suggests they no longer respect or feel accountable to the populace, and are confident that all pretense to the naked exercise of power can be dropped. They will simply tell you what to believe, what reality is, and you will accept it no matter what your lying eyes tell you.

If they tell you Bowman was trying to open the door by pulling the fire alarm, you will accept it. If they tell you Joe Biden never discussed or had any knowledge of his sons overseas business schemes, you will accept it. If they tell you Yezhov was never at the Moscow Canal with Stalin, you will accept it. Youd better accept it, or else.

More than jack-booted government thugs in the streets, more than a weaponized DOJ and FBI, that kind of lying is a naked exercise of power over and against the American people. And under Biden, its becoming the new norm.

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The Media's Lies About Rep. Jamaal Bowman Should Concern You - The Federalist

Paul Krugmans latest unhinged column in The New York Times wreaks of bad faith.

On Tuesday, the papers economic columnist from the City University of New York Graduate Center wrote a nearly 900-word piece outlining a false binary when it comes to aid for Ukraine. Republicans who oppose another multi-billion-dollar aid package to the war-torn country, he wrote, just want Putin to win.

They view the Putin regimes cruelty and repression as admirable features that America should emulate, Krugman told the subscribers of The New York Times. They support a wannabe dictator at home and are sympathetic to actual dictators abroad.

Opponents of the generous aid packages might also be trying to avoid American involvement in another overseas war, but for Krugman, that would be giving his political rivals too much credit.

Krugman penned the column after conservative Republicans successfully ripped out another round of funding for Ukraine in the latest budget showdown last week. The compromise bill to keep the government open for another 45 days passed both chambers Saturday with bipartisan support. Absent from the measure was another $6 billion for Ukraine demanded by both Democrats and Senate Republican leadership. Lawmakers have until Nov. 17 to come to another agreement before a government shutdown.

Krugman criticized the conservative effort to eliminate more Ukraine aid, arguing the amount of tax dollars sent to Eastern Europe is a small budget item.

Total federal outlays are currently running at more than $6 trillion a year, or more than $9 trillion every 18 months, so Ukraine aid accounts for less than 1 percent of federal spending (and less than 0.3 percent of G.D.P.), Krugman wrote, as if $6 trillion was nothing to sneeze at. With a national debt of more than $33 trillion and rising, it might be time to question whether spending $9 trillion every 18 months is really sustainable. Instead, his focus is on whether taxpayer spending is a good deal for Ukraine.

The Biden administration committed more than $113 billion in aid to Ukraine last year, according to the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. How much more money does Ukraine need? A blank check, apparently.

[READ: While You Pinch Inflated Pennies, Congress Sent $900 Of Your Household Income To Ukraine]

Pay no attention to all those complaints about how much were spending in Ukraine, Krugman wrote. They arent justified by the actual cost of aid, and the people claiming to be worried about the cost dont really care about the money. What they are, basically, is enemies of democracy, both abroad and at home.

In other words, anything less than unchecked funding for the war effort, according to Krugmans view, is antithetical to democracy. But is Ukraine even a democracy? In March, Federalist Senior Editor David Harsanyi outlined how it isnt.

Ukraine which, before the war, regularlyslotted insomewhere beneath Burma, Mexico, and Hungary on those silly democracy matrixes left-wingers used to love isnt any kind of liberal democracy, Harsanyi wrote. Today Ukraine stillshutterschurches andrestrictsthe free press. Maybe you believe those are justifiable actions during wartime, but under no definition are they liberal. Ukraine has never been a functioning democracy.'

Supporters of unlimited funding, meanwhile, are touchy when it comes to substantive aid oversight. In December, then-Democrat House Armed Services Chair Adam Smith said claims over lack of oversight makes me a little crazy.

Number one, the focus on that is part of Russian propaganda. All these stories about how the money isnt being spent wisely, Smith said at the Reagan National Defense Forum. Second, Ukraine is spending the money really well Thats why theyre winning.

The fact that Ukraine hasnt lost the war, apparently, is all the evidence the Washington lawmaker needs.

In August, Democrats went on to block an effort to implement greater oversight of Ukraine funding. A leaked memo from the Biden administration published this week by Politico raised more concerns about where the tax dollars indeed went.

Biden administration officials are far more worried about corruption in Ukraine than they publicly admit, a confidential U.S. strategy document obtained by POLITICO suggests, the paper reported. The administration wants to press Ukraine to cut graft, not least because U.S. dollars are at stake. But being too loud about the issue could embolden opponents of U.S. aid to Ukraine, many of them Republican lawmakers who are trying to block such assistance.

Put simply, dont talk about the transparency of taxpayer aid. Its bad politics.

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Krugman Smears Anyone Opposed To Ukraine Aid As Pro-Putin - The Federalist

Perhaps you saw the news last week that two women in their 70s, Jean Marshall and Joan Bell, are eachfacing up to 11 years in federal prisonfor blocking the entrance to an abortion clinic in 2020. Federal prosecutors charged the pair for violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act, which Bidens Justice Department has been aggressively enforcing against pro-life activists, convicting 26 people last year alone.

You might have also seen, a few weeks earlier, that a 42-year-old North Dakota man who ran over and killed an 18-year-old kid for being a Republican wassentenced to just five years in prisonon a manslaughter charge, and with credit for time already served on house arrest, will spend only about four years behind bars.

Seeing these two things, maybe you wondered how it could be that two grandmothers might well spend twice as many years in prison for the nonviolent offence of sitting in front of an abortion clinic as a man who intentionally killed another man for his political beliefs. Maybe you thought, as @politicalmathput it on X(formerly Twitter), that the left needs to start looking at this situation and admitting that this is not justice. They need to shake themselves awake and realize that their team is utilizing the justice system for political punishment and that this is destabilizing our entire culture.

You might have thought the same thing recently about the Trump indictments. The hypocrisy is after all outrageous. Questioning an election is okay if Hillary Clinton and Democrats do it (as they did in 2016, 2004, and 2000) but its a criminal conspiracy if Trump and Republicans do it.

Or consider the draconian prison sentences for Jan. 6 rioters (22 years in one case) compared to the leniency shown to Black Lives Matter and Antifa rioters, one of whom wassentenced to just 10 yearsdespite setting a deadly fire in a Minneapolis pawn shop during the 2020 George Floyd riots and this only after federal prosecutorsinvoked Martin Luther King Jr. and asked the judge to show leniency.

Or again consider the role of Bidens Justice Department and FBI in protecting Hunter Biden and the president from congressional investigations that are, as of this writing, still uncovering damning evidence of corruption connected to Hunters overseas business schemes. Just this week we learned that two payments totaling more than a quarter-million dollars were wired to Hunter Biden from China, and the beneficiary address listed on the wires wasJoe Bidens home address in Delaware. (At the time the wires were sent,Hunter was living in California.)

Surely, you might be thinking, not even the most rabid partisans on the left can think that this is justice, or that this will end well for the country. Surely they see the danger of supporting a politicized federal law enforcement bureaucracy that criminalizes the opposition and uses the justice system as a weapon. Even if they dont denounce it publicly, certainly theyre talking amongst themselves about how terrible this is and how to stop it. Right?

Wrong. To think this way is to misunderstand Democrats and the left completely. No, theyre not worried about any of this. No, they dont want it to stop, they want it to continue and intensify. They dont want justice, they want power.

You dont have to take my word for it. Increasingly, Democrats will readily admit as much. For example, nearly half of them dont believe in freedom of speech. A recentRealClear Opinion Research pollfound that while solid majorities of Republicans (74 percent) and Independents (61 percent) believe speech should be legal under any circumstances, only 55 percent of Democrats agreed.

The same survey found that a third of Democrats think Americans have too much freedom, and a majority of them approve of the government censoring social media content under the rubric of protecting national security. Worse, about three-quarters of surveyed Democrats think the government has a responsibility to limit hateful posts on social media, and they are far more likely than Republicans or Independents to support censorship of political views.

Thats just one survey of course, but it captures a growing trend of authoritarianism on the left. We see it in polls, on college campuses and corporate boardrooms, on social media, and in how the left wields the power of the institutions it has captured, like the FBI and DOJ.

When you see these glaring disparities in how opponents of the Biden regime are treated by the Justice Department and the courts, when you see how corporate media cover the Trump indictments versus how they refuse to cover the Biden corruption scandal, when you see them calling for government censorship of misinformation on social media, understand that they are never going to take a step back and consider whether all of this is justice or injustice.

Despite the outdated moniker of social justice warrior, leftist Democrats arent interested in real justice. Theyre interested in gaining and using power. Once they have it, theyll use it against their enemies. Appealing to their desire for civil comity is futile. They have no use for comity so long as they have power.

This is to say, they wont stop this until what they are doing to their enemies is in turn done to them. You dont like left-wing district attorneys indicting the Republican frontrunner ahead of election season? Better find some GOP state attorneys general to indict Hunter and Joe Biden.

You dont like Attorney General Merrick Garland using the Justice Department to protect a corrupt Biden administration? Better impeach him along with Biden. Dont like a woke U.S. military funding abortions and gender surgeries on the defense secretarys say-so? Better do as Sen. Tommy Tuberville of Alabama has done anduse all available leverage to stop them.

Power is the only language the left understands. So if Americans on the right want to be anything more than a managed opposition and lets be honest, plenty of elected Republicans are happy to be exactly that they had better figure out how to wield the limited power they do have. And they had better hurry.

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Democrats Have Become The Party Of Authoritarianism. They Only ... - The Federalist

My dad is dying. This is a fact many American families will be sharing over the next few years as the last of the Greatest Generation and the first of the Baby Boomers ride off into the sunset. My father, Carl Westcott, is an 83-year-old veteran of the U.S. Army 101st Airborne and is mostly known in the business community for his successful entrepreneurial ventures.He was inducted into the Horatio Alger Society of Distinguished Americans in 2003, joining Oprah Winfrey, Henry Kissinger, and Michael Bloomberg.Not bad for a guy from Vicksburg, Mississippi, who grew up in a home without indoor plumbing and whose formal education was a GED.

Yet, like all human beings, age eventually caught up with him, rendering my dad elderly and frail. Adding to the burden, he also suffers from Huntingtons Disease, which hes been battling since 2015, symptoms of which include dementia. It is in this vulnerable state that he found himself ensnared in a heart-wrenching real estate contract that would soon pit our family against international popstar Katheryn Elizabeth Hudson, whose stage name is Katy Perry.

On July 18, 2020, in the aftermath of a serious back surgery, while experiencing extreme pain and under the influence of opioid painkillers and numerous drugs for pain and mental issues, my father sat in his dream home, which he had bought just two months prior as his intended final primary residence. On this day, in my fathers dream house and under the influence of pain medication, he formed a contract to sell the home to Bernie Gudvi, an agent for the real buyer, Perry.

Approximately two days later, after the fog of the opioid painkillers lifted, he realized what had happened and acted to cancel a contract that had been signed while he was not of sound mind.

My father wrote an email to Katy Perrys agents explaining the circumstances under which he had signed the contract. Brushing aside my fathers plea, his acknowledgment of his vulnerability, and his stated inability to properly consent at the time of signing, Perry did not care. Instead, she demanded the sale of the property and threatened to sue if my father did not comply.

As the legal battle dragged on for three long years, my fathers health deteriorated, leaving him bedridden. During a time when we should be cherishing our remaining moments with him, we find ourselves entangled in a fight against Perrys swarm of lawyers to preserve our familys legacy.

When his time comes, I want my father to be remembered for the years he spent serving his country, his numerous successful businesses, his robust family life, and his kind, caring heart. I dont want him to be remembered as Katy Perrys latest victim he wouldnt even be the first to die during a real estate battle with her.

Sadly, this story will be familiar to many sons and daughters.For our family, this tragic incident is no longer just a personal ordeal. It symbolizes the broader challenges faced by our aging society. I believe it is of the utmost importance that the law recognizes the vulnerability of elderly citizens and extends its protection in the wake of serious medical events and episodes of mental illness.Far too often, the unscrupulous take advantage of the elderly in moments of weakness or infirmity.

Nevertheless, the notoriety that her involvement tragically brings to my fathers condition can benefit all of us by underscoring the necessity of prioritizing compassion and fairness for the elderly in the law. We must ensure their voices are heard.My father has no voice and cannot speak clearly anymore because his mind has left him.What remains is a frail body and the beautiful, weathered soul of a man who lived a full life.My family will speak for him and for all others who find an elder family member in a similar situation.

Ultimately, we all share this common destiny: to grow old and infirm, and eventually depart from this world. I call upon California and all other state legislatures around the country to pass the Protecting Elder Realty for Retirement Years (PERRY) Act to give any party in a contract for sale of a personal residence, in which one party is over the age of 75, at least a 72-hour cool-down period in which either party has the right to rescind the contract. This would protect senior citizens from making an irreversible mistake during moments of medical vulnerability and would give their loved ones time to make sure they are making the right choice.

Let us treat our elders with the same courtesy and respect we hope to receive when we too are at the end of our lives. By protecting our elders and cherishing their contributions, we sow the seeds of a compassionate society for their grandchildren and our own.

Chart Westcott is a private investor and attorney. Mr. Westcott has a history of public service including a six-year term on the Texas Real Estate Commission and serving on the Board of the Dallas County Historical Foundation, which is the governing body of Sixth Floor Museum.

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Katy Perry Is Fighting To Kick My Dying Dad Out Of His Home - The Federalist

The corporate news media all but refused to cover the opening hearing of the House impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden on Thursday, and to the extent they did, it was only to repeat,at the behest of the White House, the exhausted mantra that theres no evidence connecting Biden to his son Hunters international bribery scheme.

(The New York Timesranwith a cursory and misleadingly headlined article, First Impeachment Hearing Yields No New Information on Biden, that boasted even their [Republicans] witnesses said the case for impeachment hadnt been made. Which, of course the case hasnt been made yet. Thats why you launch an inquiry, of which Thursday was day one.)

But if the media had actually covered it, the American public might have heard more about the mounds of damning evidencenow piling up by the day, includingthe release on Wednesday by the House Ways and Means Committeeof reams of text messages and emails between Hunter Biden, his uncle James Biden, and a colorful array of foreign oligarchs, business associates, and bagmen. All told, House Republicans presented more than two dozen pieces of evidence on Thursday linking Joe Biden to his sons overseas business dealings.

This evidence was the centerpiece of the hearing Thursday, which served to lay the groundwork for the impeachment inquiry. So far, the evidence suggests the Biden family business is exactly what it appears to be: an influence-peddling scheme on a scale never before seen in American history. George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley, who testified at the hearing, said that even though Washington, D.C., is awash in influence-peddling, hes never seen anything of this size and complexity, and that Congress has a duty to determine if the president is involved in what is a known form of corruption.

Based on what we already know, its hard to see how Joe Biden couldnt have been involved or couldnt have benefited from his sons corrupt dealings. Consider just a few items of evidence mentioned during Thursdays hearing. In one text exchange with his uncle in June 2017, Hunter refers to his father as his familys brand and only asset. That echoes something Devon Archer, Hunters former business partner, said in his July testimony to the House Oversight Committee, that the value of adding Hunter to the board of the Ukrainian energy firm Burisma was the brand clearly a reference to then-Vice President Joe Biden. (Hunter had no experience in the energy sector and brought no value to the company other than access to his father.)

Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolinabrought up an FBI memoreleased Wednesday by the House Ways and Means Committee about another former business partner of Hunters, Tony Bobulinksi. In an FBI interview, Bobulinksi said that in 2015-16 Hunter and Hunters uncle James did business with CEFC, a Chinese company with close ties to the Chinese government. But because Biden was still vice president, Hunter and James werent paid right away. There was a concern it would be improper, Bobulinksi said, because of the companys affiliation with the Chinese Communist Party.

But Hunter and James wanted to get paid. According to Bobulinksi, they believed CEFC owed them money for the benefits that accrued to CEFC through its use of the Biden family name to advance their business dealings. Once Biden left office, Hunter and James were paid more than a million dollars by CEFC. Now we know why, said Mace. Because it was back-pay.

Later in the hearing, Rep. Byron Donalds of Florida showed organizational charts of Hunter Bidens businesses created by the IRS team investigating the presidents son, including from 2014, when Joe Biden was vice president, and 2018, when he was a private citizen. The charts show a dizzying array of interrelated companies none of which involved real estate or any other industry where you would typically see this kind of complex matrix of different business entities and shell companies. Donalds then shared a text message between Hunter and James Biden in which Hunter, discussing a business deal, tells his uncle, Youve been drawn into something purely for the purpose of protecting Dad.

This is just a sample, but you get the idea. Hunter was engaged in a patently corrupt scheme that involved selling access to his father, one of the most powerful politicians on the planet. The question the impeachment inquiry has to answer is whether Joe Biden knew about the scheme, whether he profited from it, whether he intentionally helped Hunter, and whether he changed U.S. policy as part of rendering that help. On every count, there is mounting evidence that the answer is yes.

But dont expect Democrats to take any of this more seriously than the corporate media are. Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, never one to miss an opportunity for self-parody, gravely asked all three Republican witnesses whether they were presenting any firsthand witness account of crimes committed by the president of the United States, as if the only evidence that counts is video footage of Joe Biden stuffing cash into a duffel bag marked $$$ from China.

Not to be outdone in performative stupidity, Rep. Jasmine Crockett, a Democrat from Texas, went ona bizarre, emotional rantclaiming President Biden is only guilty of loving his child unconditionally, which is the only evidence Republicans have brought forward. She added, And honestly, I hope and pray that my parents love me half as much as he loves his child. Ah yes, Joe Biden loved his son so much that he made him the frontman of an international bribery scheme and money-laundering operation.

So much for the opposition (including the corporate press). They arent going to take this seriously, even if the impeachment inquiry turns up audio recordings of Joe Biden saying, Why yes, I did fire that Ukrainian prosecutor for $5 million from Burisma. Democrats and the media dont care about Bidens corruption and wont tell the truth about it, no matter what evidence comes to light. After Thursdays hearing, at least that much is clear.

Excerpt from:

Biden Impeachment Hearing Had Ample Evidence Of Corruption - The Federalist

Addis AbebaThe Sidama Federalist Party (SFP) issued a strongly worded six-point position statement yesterday, drawing attention to the ongoing political and social issues in Ethiopias Sidama region and calling for investigations and accountability.

According to the statement, the SFP alleges that since the establishment of the Sidama region, the people have experienced mismanagement, corruption, injustice, arbitrary arrests, and divisions along ethnic lines. These issues have resulted in broader social and economic challenges, as claimed by the party.

The position statement provides specific examples, such as discriminatory practices that hinder qualified professionals from obtaining public service roles. It also highlights the mistreatment of young people and emphasizes the partys peaceful efforts to mobilize the community and combat corruption within the legal framework.

The SFP further accuses the regional security bureau of creating an informal terrorist force called Sidamas Freedom Army last year with the aim of targeting and suppressing opposition. The party states that they have submitted evidence to federal prosecutors and security services, documenting the alleged plans of this group to commit terrorist crimes against civilians and disrupt the peace.

The SFPs statement raises concerns about inaction by the federal government on these accusations, which could potentially disrupt peace and restrict lawful political activities in the region. To address these issues, the political party calls for independent federal investigations into the allegations, along with international monitoring, media coverage, and solidarity from human rights organizations and Ethiopian citizens regarding the ongoing situation in Sidama.

In a previous statement released in February 2023, the SFP made serious allegations against the regional administration. The party criticized the widespread administrative failures, including corruption, human rights abuses, and the failure to address unemployment.

It also accused the authorities of suppressing dissent by intimidating its supporters and limiting its lawful activities. The opposition party pointed out specific plans by the Sidama Special Security Force to target the SFP and intimidate civilians using an unofficial militia group. The SFP claimed that evidence of these criminal plans, including the establishment of the terrorist force, had been submitted to the authorities. AS

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News: Sidama Federalist Party calls for investigations, accountability ... - addisstandard.com

Now that Congress has funded the federal government for the next month and a half, the White House and lawmakers on Capitol Hill are hard at work looking for ways to pour more U.S. taxpayer money into Ukraines forever war with Russia.

During a White House press briefing on Monday, Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre fretted that the administration is running out of the money needed to bankroll its continuing proxy war with Moscow. Government officials estimate there is approximately $6 billion remaining in military funds for Ukraine.

It is enough to for us to meet the meet Ukraines urgent battlefield needs for a bit for a bit longer, Jean-Pierre told reporters.

Even though a majority of Americans oppose continued U.S. funding for Ukraine, congressional Democrats spent a significant portion of this past weekends spending fight arguing that more aid be shipped to the Eastern European nation. It was thanks to House Republicans and a handful of GOP senators that Congress ultimately approved a 45-day continuing resolution devoid of such funding.

Of course, this hasnt stopped President Joe Biden or congressional leadership from professing their support for shipping more U.S. tax dollars to Ukraine. While discussing the spending fight, Biden suggested hed reached an agreement with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy to continue funding the conflict. Despite pushing back on the presidents insinuation that a deal had been made, McCarthy did proclaim to reporters on Monday that hes always supported arming Ukraine and believe[s] Ukraine is very important.

Congress and the Biden administration committed more than $113 billion in U.S. taxpayer dollars to Ukraine in 2022, accordingto the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget.

But while Washington overzealously focuses on Ukraines military, concerns affecting Americas own armed forces have gone by the wayside. On Thursday, the U.S. Marine Corps announced it is lowering its uniform standards to compensate for a shortage of camouflage attire typically worn by service members. According to Commandant Gen. Eric Smith, local battalions are authorized to wear alternate attire contrary to Marine regulations to mitigate an ongoing manufacturing shortfall thats left service members struggling to acquire woodland-patterned cammies.

What we cannot have is a situation where a Marine is wearing unserviceable cammies, because that looks bad for the Corps, and we cant have a situation where that Marine is being given a hard time about those unserviceable cammies. Were going to get this fixed, Marines, but its going to take a little patience, Smith said, adding that the problem wont be fixed until the fall of 2024.

According to the Marine Corps Times, service members normally receive three sets of woodland cammies and two sets of desert cammies. Due to the ongoing shortage, however, the service has been providing Marines two woodland sets and one desert set. Meanwhile, new enlistees have reportedly been forced to undergo entry-level training in flame-resistant organizational gear, which are typically reserved for deployments, to compensate for the shortages.

Shawn Fleetwood is a staff writer for The Federalist and a graduate of the University of Mary Washington. He previously served as a state content writer for Convention of States Action and his work has been featured in numerous outlets, including RealClearPolitics, RealClearHealth, and Conservative Review. Follow him on Twitter @ShawnFleetwood

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As Congress Funds Ukraine War, US Marines Run Out Of Clothes - The Federalist

When Hillary Clinton was (praise the Lord!) denied the presidency on Nov. 8, 2016, the country was spared a wicked fate under the heel of her sensible comfort pumps. Dodging that Hillary-sized bullet was Americas greatest geopolitical victory of the last 50 years.

So why is Nikki Rodham Haley following the haggard Hillary playbook?

Maybe its because no one in American history has ever managed to dodge raindrops quite like Hillary Clinton and stayed dry. HRC set the contemporary female path to the presidency: kick and claw your way to financial security by swimming in the sewer with the other rats, then turn and smile and lie your way into political power.

The former first lady was Nikki Haleys inspiration to get into politics. According to Vogue Magazine, It was a speech by Hillary Clinton at a 2003 conference at a local university that inspired her to run. She said there will be all of these reasons that people tell you you cant do it. She said that theres only one reason for you to do it, and its because you know its the right thing. I walked out of there thinking, Ive got to do this.

Ladies, how did we ever get saddled with Mrs. Clinton as our model of female political ambition? The devil surely holds in his vault a smoking piece of parchment with her signature on it in blood.

Let me give you a few of my reasons for why I am #NeverNikki and why she should be kept far away from elected office, forever.

To paraphrase what Auntie Em said to Almira Gulch (the Wicked Witch), for years Ive been dying to tell you what I think of Nikki Haley, and now, being a Professional Political Pundit, I can finally say it.

First, there is the personality problem.

Hillary, of course, battled this deficit too. Hillary and Haley both fell prey to the weird impulse to act like a man to look tough. (Or you might say, act like the worst, stereotypical middle-aged HR boss.) I was told feminism meant women didnt need to act like men to succeed. I thought feminism meant we could present as feminine women and still get taken seriously. Guess not.

Trigger warning: In the second Republican debate, Haley, in true Hillary fashion, came across as shrill. Angry. And yes, unlikeable. Im sure in real life she is a lovely person, a wonderful mother, etc. But politics is an unforgiving charisma contest, and to win it you have to have a personality that doesnt make people wince. You need to be charming and warm, or glib and witty, or incredibly charismatic. The biggest political winners manage to put all this together in a package no one can resist.

Haley, like Hillary, projects few of these qualities. She exhausts me the minute she opens her mouth. I brace for the hectoring she is about to unleash. Does this make me sexist? Is this my internalized misogyny talking? Nope my misogyny is fully externalized. Of course, I would absolutely vote for a woman as president, but the pickings so far are pretty slim.

Second, Crooked Hillary is as corrupt as they come, but Crooked Haley is no slouch either. Until recently, I knew almost nothing about her other than shes from South Carolina and never saw an unwinnable foreign war she didnt like.

But did you also know that like Mrs. Clinton, Mrs. Haley has spent the years since leaving the Governors Mansion earning millions of dollars from speaking events ($11 million so far, and counting)?

Shes been on the board of companies like Boeing, which paid her $300,000 a year. Im sure this is totally unrelated to the fact that as governor, she fast-tracked $120 million to Boeing to get them to invest in South Carolina.

Forget her enormous six-figure advances for books no one buys. Why doesnt anyone ask her about her deep and lucrative connections to the military-industrial complex? Lee Fang did a deep dive into Haleys sudden wealth and her significant defense connections on his Substack:

Haley also works as a consultant to Prism Global Management, a New York-based investment fund run by Richard Kang, a position that earned $708,335. While the investment fund has no substantial online presence, Kang is active in the defense world and serves as an advisor to Americas Frontier Fund, a new group backed by former Google chief executive Eric Schmidt and run day-to-day by Gilman Louie, the former head of In-Q-Tel, the CIAs venture capital arm.

At a launch event for the fund last year, a participant openly discussed the fact that Americas Frontier Fund is investing strategically in choke points in case of war between China and Taiwan, in which case the funds portfolio would increase 10x, like overnight.

Look out, Hillary theres a new war hawk on the way, and shes got pockets almost as deep as yours.

Oh, and Mr. Haleys got his hands in the missile cookie jar too. Michael Haley earns up to $500,000 from a company called Allied Defense. An investigation from the Daily Beast showed that Allied Defense appears to overlap with a sister company, Defense Engineering Services, that helps clients navigate political and legal concerns to allow for defense system acquisition.

Sounds profitable to me! Gee whiz, Nikki, leave some DOD kickbacks and weapons contracts for the Clintons, OK?

Finally, like Hillary, Haley is an unrepentant establishment stooge through and through. There is zero daylight between her foreign policy ambitions and the Benghazi Babe herself. Nikki Haley, the Clintons, the Obamas, the Bidens, and the rest of the D.C. swamp are committed to winning the Ukraine war and defeating Russia and funding it for as long as it takes. If you disagree and want to stop the bloodshed or halt a nuclear war you are literally Hitler, a Putin apologist, and a Russian stooge.

This attitude should disqualify you from elected office. Ladies, please dont saber rattle unless you actually know how to wield a saber.

Nikki also likes to remind us that she was the UN Ambassador under President Trump. Imagine bragging about your UN credentials, as if we didnt all know that the UN is the Legion of Doom, headquarters of international supervillains. Has anything good ever come out of the UN except war, famine, and disaster? Ill wait.

If you follow me on the platform formerly known as Twitter, you know Ive actually always been #NeverNikki. But after her two GOP candidate debate performances, I am happy to report I am more never than ever.

Therefore, when it comes to the Republican GOP contest, may the best man win!

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Nikki Rodham Haley: The Hillary Clinton Of The GOP - The Federalist