Source: NY Daily News

Barbra Streisand is under fire for comments she made about two men accusing Michael Jackson of sexually assaulting them as children.

The legendary singer and actress said that Wade Robson and James Safechuck — whose allegations against the late King of Pop resurfaced in the recent documentary “Leaving Neverland" — “were thrilled to be there” and that what allegedly happened to them “didn’t kill them"

Streisand, 76, made the strange comments to British newspaper The Times in a piece out Friday, in which she also said that Jackson’s “sexual needs were his sexual needs.”

She says she “absolutely” believes the allegations of abuse by Robson and Safechuck, but puts more blame on their parents than The Gloved One.

Read more: https://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/ny-barbra-streisand-michael-jackson-accusers-thrilled-sexual-needs-20190323-7z3b2dqgbzh7jfs4yyhqhdfjyi-story.html?outputType=amp&__twitter_impression=true

Source: USA TODAY NETWORK

Southern Poverty Law Center President Richard Cohen said in a statement Friday he has asked the board of the troubled organization to "to immediately launch a search for an interim president in order to give the organization the best chance to heal," and took responsibility for problems that have swept out the senior leadership of the group in just a week.

Cohen, who has worked at the SPLC since 1986 and served as president since 2003, said in the statement that "we'll emerge stronger" after an audit of the organization's practices by Tina Tchen, a former White House official and Chicago-based lawyer.

"Given my long tenure as the SPLC president, however, I do not think I should be involved in that process beyond cooperating with Tina, her team, and the board in any way that may be helpful," the statement said. "Whatever problems exist at the SPLC happened on my watch, so I take responsibility for them."

When reached for comment on Friday evening, an SPLC spokesperson said the center cannot comment on the specifics of individual personnel decisions.

Read more: https://amp.montgomeryadvertiser.com/amp/3251224002?__twitter_impression=true

A spokeswoman for Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign apologized Tuesday after questioning whether the “American Jewish community has a dual allegiance to the state of Israel” — a comment condemned by Jewish leaders across the political spectrum as having anti-Semitic overtones.

"In a conversation on Facebook, I used some language that I see now was insensitive. Issues of allegiance and loyalty to one's country come with painful history,” Belén Sisa, Sanders’ national deputy press secretary, told POLITICO. "At a time when so many communities in our country feel under attack by the president and his allies, I absolutely recognize that we need to address these issues with greater care and sensitivity to their historical resonance, and I'm committed to doing that in the future"

Sisa posed the question Sunday during a discussion in a Facebook thread in which she said that, like Sanders, she stood with Rep. Ilhan Omar. She deleted the post after POLITICO began asking about it.

Source: Politico

A spokeswoman for Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign apologized Tuesday after questioning whether the “American Jewish community has a dual allegiance to the state of Israel” — a comment condemned by Jewish leaders across the political spectrum as having anti-Semitic overtones.

"In a conversation on Facebook, I used some language that I see now was insensitive. Issues of allegiance and loyalty to one's country come with painful history,” Belén Sisa, Sanders’ national deputy press secretary, told POLITICO. "At a time when so many communities in our country feel under attack by the president and his allies, I absolutely recognize that we need to address these issues with greater care and sensitivity to their historical resonance, and I'm committed to doing that in the future"

Sisa posed the question Sunday during a discussion in a Facebook thread in which she said that, like Sanders, she stood with Rep. Ilhan Omar. She deleted the post after POLITICO began asking about it.

Omar's repeated comments about Israel led to a messy fight in the House as many of her fellow Democrats accused the first-term congresswoman’s of using anti-Semitic language, while her defenders have said Omar was making valid criticisms of the nation’s government and allies that were being stifled.

Read more: https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.politico.com/amp/story/2019/03/12/bernie-sanders-jews-israel-1218781

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Another "different experience in the use of words?"

This is how we lose Jewish voters.

Source: Vanity Fair

Even as the Twitter commentariat continues to litigate whether Rep. Ilhan Omar’s latest comments about Israel were merely poorly phrased or fully anti-Semitic, the freshman congresswoman ignited another controversy Friday when Politico published part of an interview in which Omar appeared to bash Barack Obama, the patron saint of the Democratic Party, as some sort of war-mongering, neoliberal shill:

Omar says the “hope and change” offered by Barack Obama was a mirage. Recalling the “caging of kids” at the U.S.-Mexico border and the “droning of countries around the world” on Obama’s watch, she argues that the Democratic president operated within the same fundamentally broken framework as his Republican successor.

“We can’t be only upset with Trump . . . His policies are bad, but many of the people who came before him also had really bad policies. They just were more polished than he was,” Omar says. “And that’s not what we should be looking for anymore. We don’t want anybody to get away with murder because they are polished. We want to recognize the actual policies that are behind the pretty face and the smile.”

For some, those comments may prove to be more incendiary than Omar’s criticisms of Israel and the pro-Israel lobby in Washington, which left Republicans and more than a few Democrats fuming. Obama, after all, remains astoundingly popular within his party. In a recent Harvard-Harris Poll survey, a plurality of Democrats said they would label themselves an “Obama Democrat”; fewer identified themselves as “progressive,” and even fewer as “democratic socialist.” If the AIPAC flap was successful in turning off the more hawkish members of the Democratic Party, going after one of its most popular members as a “pretty face”—or, at the very least, giving conservatives enough ammo to build that message—could end up being just as damaging for Omar, whose district voted for Obama by about 50 percent both in 2008 and 2012.



Read more: https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.vanityfair.com/news/2019/03/ilhan-omar-barack-obama-pretty-face/amp

Source: Reuters

Chelsea Manning on Tuesday lost a bid to quash a subpoena compelling her to testify in front of a grand jury, according to media reports and a group supporting her.

Manning is a transgender U.S. Army soldier who served seven years in military prison for leaking classified data while she was working as an intelligence analyst in Iraq. She was granted clemency by former U.S. President Barack Obama.

Manning is expected to return to the courthouse in Alexandria on Wednesday, according to Chelsea Resists!, a group that supports her.

It is not clear why Manning is being compelled to appear in court. In remarks made outside the Virginia courthouse, Manning said she opposed grand juries in general and that her team thinks they "still have grounds to litigate," the Washington Post reported.

Read more: https://mobile.reuters.com/article/amp/idUSKCN1QM2MV?__twitter_impression=true

Source: CNN

(CNN) The Justice Department is contending that an American-born ISIS bride who drew President Donald Trump's ire last month as she made public pleas to return home with her young son is not a US citizen.

In their first response to a lawsuit that Hoda Muthana's father brought last week in a federal court in Washington, DC, prosecutors said that Muthana was never a US citizen because the UN had not notified American authorities that her father was no longer a diplomat until after her birth.

The Justice Department's filing on Monday doubles down on a claim made last month by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and narrows her chances of repatriation.

"Muthana is not and has never been a U.S. citizen, and her son likewise is not a U.S. citizen. Settled law applied to the relevant events clearly demonstrates that Plaintiff enjoyed diplomatic-agent-level-immunity until February 6, 1995—after Muthana's birth," prosecutors wrote.

Read more: https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.cnn.com/cnn/2019/03/04/politics/hoda-muthana-us-citizen-justice-department/index.html

Source: Politico

Rep. Ilhan Omar is drawing criticism again for comments about Israel — this time suggesting that pro-Israel activists and lawmakers hold “allegiance to a foreign country.”

In a lengthy and blistering rebuke late Friday, Rep. Eliot Engel, the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said Omar’s remarks amounted to a “vile anti-Semitic slur” and called on the Minnesota Democrat to apologize“

I welcome debate in Congress based on the merits of policy, but it’s unacceptable and deeply offensive to call into question the loyalty of fellow American citizens because of their political views, including support for the U.S.-Israel relationship,” said Engel (D-N.Y.), who is Jewish. “Her comments were outrageous and deeply hurtful, and I ask that she retract them, apologize, and commit to making her case on policy issues without resorting to attacks that have no place in the Foreign Affairs Committee or the House of Representatives."

A spokesman for Omar did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Read more: https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.politico.com/amp/story/2019/03/01/ilhan-omar-anti-semitic-slur-1199495

Source: KPIX-TV

BERKELEY (CBS SF) — A man being sought for the assault of a conservative activist on the University of California, Berkeley campus last month has been arrested.

A statement from UC Berkeley Public Affairs said a warrant was issued for suspect Zachary Greenberg and UC police arrested him Friday, booking him into jail at 1 p. m.

Greenberg was identified as one of two men who confronted a conservative activist who had set up a table in Sproul Plaza. Hayden Williams, volunteer with conservative group Talking Points USA was displaying signs that read, “Hate Crimes Hoaxes Hurt Real Victims” – a reference to the Jussie Smollett case – and another saying “This is MAGA Country.”

Greenberg was seen on video landing two punches on Williams – one a glancing blow and another much harder directly on his face.

Read more: https://www.google.com/amp/s/sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2019/03/01/conservative-activist-attack-uc-berkeley-arrest/amp/

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Protip: This is not the best way to win an argument.