No one was hurt in the incident, but three Biden campaign events were canceled in Texas, citing safety concerns.
President Donald Trump is praising the “Trump train” of supporters who surrounded a Biden bus this weekend in Texas.
In a tweet on Sunday night, Trump wrote, “In my opinion, these patriots did nothing wrong. Instead, the FBI & Justice should be investigating the terrorists, anarchists, and agitators of ANTIFA, who run around burning down our Democrat run cities and hurting our people!”
Biden-Harris campaign volunteer Eric Cervini filmed and tweeted his experience, saying, “These Trump supporters, many of whom were armed, surrounded the bus on the interstate and attempted to drive it off the road. They outnumbered police 50-1, and they ended up hitting a staffer’s car.”
Trump was responding to a tweet from journalist Tony Plohetski of the Austin American-Statesman, who tweeted a statement from the FBI San Antonio office that they are “investigating” the incident.
The moment in question occurred Friday, when nearly 100 trucks outfitted with Trump campaign flags surrounded the Biden-Harris campaign bus, which was headed from San Antonio to Austin to a campaign event supporting Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden, vice presidential hopeful Sen. Kamala Harris and other down-ticket Dems.
I flew down to Texas to help with the Biden/Harris bus tour, intended to drum up enthusiasm at polling locations. Instead, I ended up spending the afternoon calling 911. 1/ pic.twitter.com/gKAjv7gv85
Eric Cervini, a Biden campaign volunteer, said that he called 911 as the incident occurred. He tweeted his experience, saying, “These Trump supporters, many of whom were armed, surrounded the bus on the interstate and attempted to drive it off the road. They outnumbered police 50-1, and they ended up hitting a staffer’s car.”
According to Cervini, “The police refused to help. When I flagged down one officer, he said his hands were tied: ‘not my jurisdiction.’ He was wearing a blue stripe bandana.”
Senator Marco Rubio spoke to a large crowd in his state of Florida, where he said, “I saw yesterday a video of these people in Texas. Did you see it? All the cars on the road, we love what they did.”
Naomi Narvaiz, a member of the Texas GOP, also tweeted her support of the drivers’ actions. “We sent the @JoeBiden @KamalaHarris bus out of Hays!” she contended. “Your kind aren’t welcome here! This is #TrumpCountry.”
No one was injured in the incident, but three Biden campaign events were subsequently canceled in Texas, citing safety concerns.
Tariq Thowfeek, communications director for the Biden campaign, told CNN that “rather than engage in productive conversation about the drastically different visions that Joe Biden and Donald Trump have for our country, Trump supporters in Texas today instead decided to put our staff, surrogates, supporters and others in harm’s way.”
Other Democrats pointed to the two recent incidents in which Trump supporters were left in freezing temperatures after Trump buses failed to pick them up after rallies.
Biden spokesperson Bill Russo mentioned the occurrences on Twitter, saying, “For the second time in a week your campaign has left your supporters stranded in the cold with no transportation at one of your superspreader rallies.”
Added Russo: “Maybe you should spend more time worried about those buses than ours.”
Ten Black leaders who represent the District of Columbia, Maryland, and Virginia area will be selected to receive monetary and meaningful support to assist with their activism. Each fellow will receive a personal grant of $30,000 to support their living expenses for a year. The nominations for the first cohort are now open and can be submitted via an online form at www.blackjusticefellows.org.
The initiative is being led by visionary committee leaders Angela Rye, Linda Wilson, Tonia Wellons, Cherrelle Swain, and Darius Baxter.
“Black leaders have been actively working for years to create a more just America, yet too many are underestimated, underfunded, and underrepresented,” says fund co-chair Baxter in a written statement. “We declare the success of Black leaders will not be determined by how much they can fundraise or their proximity to whiteness.”
Co-Chair Wellons also states, “Historically, we know that there has been an under-investment in Black leaders who are on the front-lines of fighting for justice and equality. We are excited to help scale the work of emerging leaders in the Greater Washington region by providing financial support so they can continue to live while they lead. This initiative will help elevate the voices of Black leaders and invest in solutions led by Black leaders to fuel their efforts to address structural and systemic racism.”
The Black Voices for Black Justice Fund (DMV) has been funded by the Bridge Alliance Education Fund and Greater Washington Community Foundation. This local initiative stemmed from the national Black Voices for Black Justice Fund, which was launched from a partnership between many philanthropic organizations across the country.
“We are pleased to support communities and leaders in the Washington, D.C. area by partnering with the Greater Washington Community Foundation to provide resources to Black leaders at the forefront of community work that is strengthening our communities and our nation,” says David Nevins, chairman of the Board of Bridge Alliance Education Fund.
from Black Enterprise https://ift.tt/34Q4txU
via Gabe's Musing's
Over Christmas | Official Trailer | Netflix Unlucky at cards - and then also unlucky in love. For Basti (Luke Mockridge) things get really tough in the festive season: his career as a musician is not crowned with success and the prospect of having to celebrate a rather depressing Christmas after separating from his girlfriend Fine (Cristina do Rego) pulls the general mood down even more. A visit over the holidays to meet his family promises a welcome distraction - but when his brother Niklas (Lucas Reiber) suddenly appears with ex Fine at his side, Basti even loses the last bit of hope for a happy future. SUBSCRIBE: http://bit.ly/29qBUt7 About Netflix: Netflix is the world's leading streaming entertainment service with over 195 million paid memberships in over 190 countries enjoying TV series, documentaries and feature films across a wide variety of genres and languages. Members can watch as much as they want, anytime, anywhere, on any internet-connected screen. Members can play, pause and resume watching, all without commercials or commitments. Over Christmas | Official Trailer | Netflix https://youtube.com/Netflix Down-and-out musician Bastian battles the holiday blues as he returns home for Christmas — and encounters a series of not-so-cheery surprises.
There are tons of monitoring tools that are used for keeping an eye on systems performance and sending notifications in case something goes wrong. However, the installation and configuration steps involved are often tedious.
‘We can put an end to this presidency,’ said Biden
During a campaign stomp in his home state of Pennsylvania on Sunday, Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden said Donald Trump is “terrified” of the possible election results.
Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden speaks during a drive-in campaign rally at Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR) Park on November 01, 2020 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Biden is campaigning in Philadelphia on Sunday, in the key battleground state of Pennsylvania that President Donald Trump won narrowly in 2016. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
According to the New York Post, Pennsylvania proves to be one of the most pivotal battleground states in the presidential election. Biden urged his supporters to vote during a drive-in rally in a Philadelphia church parking lot.
“President Trump is terrified of what will happen in Pennsylvania,” Biden said. “He knows if you have your say, he doesn’t stand a chance.”
He then told the crowd that there’s “too much on the line to sit it out” and added, “we only have two more days. In two more days, we can put an end to this presidency that has from the very beginning sought to divide us, to tear us apart.”
Biden also warned of the Republican Party’s efforts to “suppress” voter turnout while addressing how Trump gained Pennsylvania in the 2016 election by nearly 44,000 votes.
That’s a pic of me in Pennsylvania when I lived in Lancaster. I LOVE THIS STATE. I’m here now! This place is filled with good hearted people—good hearted people that @JoeBiden loves. He’s a good friend. He’s the President this country needs to bring us back together. #vote#Bidenpic.twitter.com/3Yo4XddYId
“Every day — every day — is a new reminder of how high the stakes are, of how far the other side will go to try to suppress the turnout, especially here in Philadelphia,” Biden said.
Biden also addressed African American voters about the impact COVID-19 has had on their communities, in an article from The Washington Times.
“One in one thousand Black Americans have died from COVID-19, and if we don’t change between now and January, it’s estimated one in 500 by the end of this pandemic,” he said. “That is a mass casualty event in the Black community, and it’s totally unnecessary – totally uncalled for.”
Biden has seven paths to the White House. Trump has one. He has to win Florida, Pennsylvania, Georgia, North Carolina, and Arizona. A loss in any of these states means Joe Biden is the next President Of The United States. pic.twitter.com/O4Yo2nnJNk
“I see in all the protests here in Philadelphia and across the country a cry for justice. Protesting is not burning or looting, and violence must never be tolerated and won’t,” he said. “But the names of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Jacob Blake, Walter Wallace Jr., they will not soon be forgotten.”
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Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden is spending his finals days to get Black voters to show out in droves on Election Day
Joe Biden was spending the final days of the presidential campaign appealing to Black supporters to vote in-person during a pandemic that has disproportionally affected their communities, betting that a strong turnout will boost his chances in states that could decide the election.
Biden was in Philadelphia on Sunday, the largest city in what is emerging as the most hotly contested battleground in the closing 48 hours of the campaign. He participated in a “souls to the polls” event that is part of a nationwide effort to organize Black churchgoers to vote.
“Every single day we’re seeing race-based disparities in every aspect of this virus,” Biden said at the drive-in event, shouting to be heard over the blaring car horns. He declared that Trump’s handling of COVID-19 was “almost criminal” and that the pandemic was a “mass casualty event in the Black community.”
His running mate, Sen. Kamala Harris, was in Georgia, a longtime Republican stronghold that Democrats believe could flip if Black voters show up in force. The first Black woman on a major party’s presidential ticket, she encouraged a racially-diverse crowd in a rapidly growing Atlanta suburb to “honor the ancestors” by voting, invoking the memory of the late civil rights legend, longtime Rep. John Lewis.
Democratic Vice Presidential Nominee Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) speaks during a drive-in campaign event at the Infinite Energy Center on November 01, 2020 in Duluth, Georgia. With two days to go until election day, Kamala Harris is campaigning in Georgia.
But even as 93 million Americans have cast ballots and election officials prepare to count, President Donald Trump was already threatening litigation to stop the tabulation of ballots arriving after Election Day. As soon as polls closed in battlegrounds such as Pennsylvania, Trump said, “we’re going in with our lawyers.”
It was unclear precisely what Trump meant. There is already an appeal pending at the Supreme Court over the counting of absentee ballots in Pennsylvania that are received in the mail in the three days after the election.
The state’s top court ordered the extension and the Supreme Court refused to block it, though conservative justices expressed interest in taking up the propriety of the three added days after the election. Those ballots are being kept separate in case the litigation goes forward. The issue could assume enormous importance if the late-arriving ballots could tip the outcome.
Biden is focusing on turning out Black voters in the final stretch in part to avoid a narrow outcome that could prompt Trump to seek an advantage in the courts.
It’s a challenging dynamic because Democrats have spent months pushing their supporters to vote by mail. But their energy has shifted to urge Black supporters who have long preferred to vote in person or distrust voting by mail to get out on Tuesday.
Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden makes a visit to a voter mobilization center on October 29, 2020 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Biden is campaigning in Florida on Thursday, with drive-in rallies in Tampa and Broward County. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
A Biden path toward victory must include Black majority cities, including Philadelphia and Detroit, which will be crucial in determining the outcome in Pennsylvania and Michigan. Those are states where both candidates have spent a significant amount of time in the final days of the 2020 election.
“The historical but also cultural reality for our community is that Election Day represents a collective political act and it’s a continuation of our struggle for full citizenship in this country,” said Adrianne Shropshire, the executive director of BlackPAC. “Black voters are showing up in ways that they did not in 2016 and we can take heart in that.”
In Detroit, officials are projecting a 50% voter turnout, which would be higher than 2016, yet lower than 2008 and 2016 when Obama’s candidacy drew record voter participation. Grassroots organizers in the Philadelphia area have spent months engaging potential voters, many of whom they expect will be casting ballots for the first time on Election Day.
“Most Black voters in Philly have been skeptical of mail-in voting,” said Joe Hill, a veteran Democratic operative-turned-lobbyist from the city. “A lot of us have gotten our ballots already,” Hill said, but added, “Election Day has always been everything in Philadelphia.”
Healthcare Pennsylvania, a local union chapter of the Service Employees International Union, is working to increase turnout by at least 10,000 in west Philadelphia and spent the weekend knocking on more than 600 doors. West Philadelphia has a majority Black population and has experienced firsthand the convergence of the pandemic’s disproportionate impact on Black Americans and protests in recent days against police brutality, mirroring what’s occurred nationwide.
Protestors seek justice in the Breonna Taylor case. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
Biden has also drawn a sharp contrast to Trump through a summer of unrest over the police killings of Breonna Taylor in Kentucky and George Floyd in Minneapolis. Their deaths sparked the largest protest movement since the civil rights era. Biden responded by acknowledging the systemic racism that pervades American life, while Trump emphasized his support of police and pivoted to a “law and order” message that resonated with his base but did little to broaden his appeal.
Four years ago, Trump made his pitch to voters of color by bellowing “What have you got to lose?” in supporting the Republican candidate and aides have pointed to pre-pandemic economic gains by people of color.
He only won 8% of the Black vote, but in a development that has haunted Democrats for four years, Clinton’s margin fell 7 percentage points from Obama’s in 2012, according to Pew Research Center.
There’s little chance that Trump will win all that many more Black voters this year, though his campaign believes it has made inroads with young Black men. The president’s primary strategy has been to erode Biden’s support with a barrage of negative advertisements.
President Donald Trump addresses supporters at a campaign rally on November 01, 2020 in Washington, Michigan. Only days before the U.S. election, President Trump and Democratic nominee Joe Biden campaigned in crucial swing states. (Photo by John Moore/Getty Images)
One replays Biden’s eyebrow-raising “you ain’t Black” comment, in which the former vice president questioned how African Americans could support Trump. Another uses the Democrat’s own past words in support of the 1994 crime bill against him. The bill, which Biden helped write, led to stiffer prison sentences that disproportionately incarcerated Black men.
Trump, in a tweet Sunday, claimed that Biden called young Black man “superpredators” — which he did not do, though he used the term “predators” in a 1993 floor speech to describe criminals.
Biden, who has a massive cash advantage over Trump, has flooded the airwaves with uplifting ads that prominently feature African Americans. One minute-long spot detailing Biden’s proposals to help Black people begins with Biden explicitly stating, “Black lives matter. Period. I’m not afraid to say it.”
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Floyd’s death caused huge voter turnout among African Americans in parts of the country
Advocates in Houston, Texas are actively trying to ensure that members of the community, which has a 25% Black population according to census data, turn out to the polls for the presidential election on Tuesday.
Dexter Faircloth, a corporate trainer and friend of the late George Floyd is one of the people working every day to make sure his community votes.
He said he was always an advocate for his community but recognized that the role became more urgent when his friend Floyd, fellow Third Ward native, was killed.
A heart is painted in front of a mural dedicated to George Floyd, located a couple of miles from where Floyd grew up in Houston’s Third Ward, on June 10, 2020 in Houston, Texas. (Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images)
The 46-year-old Houston native who moved to Minneapolis was pinned down by Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, who pressed his knee in Floyd’s neck while he was face-down in handcuffs.
His death lead to one of the largest movements with Black Live Matter protests erupting across the country in response.
In Houston, Faircloth walked the streets of the Third Ward, a historically Black neighborhood where he was born and raised, to ask people an urgent question.
“Y’all vote?! Did you?” Faircloth, 35, yelled at people, who smiled when they recognized him, according to Reuters.
The anger and demands for justice ignited by Floyd’s death have transformed into a huge voter turnout among African Americans in parts of the country. “That is especially true of the Third Ward, where hopes for change have energized many in the final days of the race between President Donald Trump, a Republican, and Democratic rival Joe Biden,” the publication said.
Early voting located at three polling stations in the Third Ward experienced more than 650% increase compared to 2016 figures, according to data analysis from the Harris County Clerk’s office.
“Look, man. Voting is not the end-all-be-all. It’s just the start but we’re telling people: ‘If you want change, this is how you begin to change things,’” Faircloth said.
In an article from the Minnesota Star Tribune, Floyd’s death inspired a “voting push” among athletes and teams.
“They’re trying to stop us, but standing together they can’t stop us,” Philonise Floyd, brother of George Floyd, told the crowd. “Silence is violence. If you don’t vote, you’re leaving your future in someone else’s hands.”
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On Saturday, Harrison made stops in northwestern South Carolina, a heavily Republican area
Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham and Democratic candidate Jaime Harrison crisscrossed South Carolina on closing-argument bus tours this weekend, the incumbent pointing to his ability to get things done for constituents and the challenger arguing that change is needed in the Senate to benefit the state.
Graham “was a senator that I had some respect for, because I thought, at the end of the day, he would do what was in the best interest of the nation and the people of South Carolina,” Harrison said Sunday as he campaigned. “But I was disappointed. I think many of you were disappointed as well.”
Graham, who has won his previous general election contests by double-digit margins, admits the race with Harrison has been more challenging than he expected.
On Saturday, Harrison made stops in northwestern South Carolina, a heavily Republican area. Graham stumped in the Republican stronghold of Horry County, where 67% of votes cast went for Donald Trump in 2016.
“You know what I’ve got going for me? You,” Graham told supporters Saturday, saying the area represented a ”red wave” of GOP support.
On Sunday, Graham planned to campaign along the state’s coast, while Harrison was in the Charleston County town of Hollywood, which is 59% Black and in a county that Hillary Clinton won by about 8 percentage points in 2016.
First @LindseyGrahamSC said that Black folks can do anything in SC… as long as they're conservative.
Now he says young women can have a place in America if they're pro-life and come from "traditional families."
More than 1 million people had already cast their ballots in a race that drew sums of money unheard of in South Carolina politics. In October, Harrison became the first-ever U.S. Senate candidate to raise more than $100 million, continuing to bring in contributions in the weeks since. On Saturday, Graham told The Associated Press that he had “passed the $100 million” mark in terms of his own fundraising, chuckling in disbelief both at the monetary demand his race had necessitated, and the fact he’d been able to meet it.
Throughout the campaign, including several times during Sunday news shows, Graham made televised pleas for more contributions, which he says have continued to roll in.
“I’m in demand right now, our campaign — ‘how’d you do it, what are you doing, could you help us?’” Graham told the AP Saturday, of other Republicans asking him how he was able to raise his own fundraising toward Harrison’s levels. “So when this is over, we’re going to sit down and figure out how we did it ourselves.”
Republican incumbent Sen. Lindsey Graham speaks to supporters at the Charleston County Victory Office during a campaign bus tour on October 31, 2020 in Charleston, South Carolina. Graham is in a closely watched race against democratic challenger Jaime Harrison. (Photo by Michael Ciaglo/Getty Images)
The confirmation of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett, which Graham oversaw as Senate Judiciary Committee chairman, also allowed him to maintain high national visibility. Yet her nomination and that of Justices Neil Gorsuch in 2017 and Brett Kavanaugh in 2018 gave Harrison an opportunity to highlight some of what he characterized as the senator’s changing opinion on how to deal with nominations.
Part of Harrison’s argument against Graham has also been what he’s portrayed as the senator’s malleability, an over eagerness to do President Trump’s bidding despite having harshly criticized him during the 2016 campaign.
It’s a critique Graham has faced in the past from some South Carolina conservatives, seeing his bipartisan work on issues like immigration reform as weakness. Now, some of those ultra conservatives are rallying around Graham, endorsing him as the contest with Harrison tightened, and some surveys showed a neck-and-neck contest. Last week, a group composed of voters from myriad organizations with tea party roots endorsed Graham against the “socialist” Harrison, citing “right to life” issues and Graham’s work to confirm conservative justices as some of their reasons.
Not all Republicans support Graham, though. Joe Reynolds, a Merchant Marine chief engineer who ran against Graham in this year’s primary, and describes himself as a moderate, said he voted for Harrison and still sees the senator as too eager to attach himself to whoever is in power, for his own advantage.
“The problem with Sen. Graham is that, if Trump is president, he’s going to be all in with Trump,” Reynolds told the AP on Saturday. “But conservatives, they’re fooling themselves if they think Joe Biden is elected, and Lindsey Graham won’t be the first one through the White House door of a Biden administration. … He’ll change his stripes in a heartbeat if it’s going to suit Lindsey Graham.”
Did y'all see the lifelong friend of Lindsey Graham who said he's voting for Jaime Harrison? That was deep.
On Saturday, Graham told the AP he’s used to that criticism but sees it as nothing more than politics in an ever-more-contentious environment, reiterating his stance that he does whatever he feels is in the best interest of his constituents.
“People who want outcomes are going to be with you when you’re on their side,” Graham said. “Sometimes they don’t agree, but they always know I’m trying. Liberals applaud me when I do things like immigration reform and I vote for their judges. Now they want to destroy me because I dared vote for Trump and I stood up for Kavanaugh. I’ve got conservatives coming back stronger than ever.”
On Sunday in Hollywood, Harrison closed out by citing what he saw as South Carolina’s ongoing struggles during Graham’s tenure, like hospital closures and infrastructural problems.
“It only takes common sense, folks,” Harrison said. “If he’s been there that long, and he ain’t delivering, then it’s time to send him home.”
On Monday, both Graham and Harrison planned additional stops before campaign-ending rallies in their respective hometown areas.
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According to Axios, confidants said he will make an announcement if he’s ‘ahead’
As reported by Axios, President Donald Trump has told confidants that he plans to declare victory during Tuesday’s Presidential election if it appears he’s “ahead,” according to three sources that are aware of his private comments.
President Donald Trump works the crowd after speaking at a campaign rally Monday, Oct. 19, 2020, in Tucson, Ariz. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)
Sunday evening, Trump denied the claims, adding, “I think it’s a terrible thing when ballots can be collected after an election. I think it’s a terrible thing when states are allowed to tabulate ballots for a long period of time after the election is over.”
President Trump: "I think it's terrible that we can't know the results of an election the night of the election." pic.twitter.com/YTAlDRjNzE
Axios also reported that Trump has privately spoken about the scenario by describing his plans to “walk up to a podium on election night and declare he has won.” In order for this to happen, he would have to either win or have a strong lead in Ohio, Florida, North Carolina, Texas, Iowa, Arizona and Georgia.
“Trump’s team is preparing to falsely claim that mail-in ballots counted after Nov. 3 – a legitimate count expected to favor Democrats – are evidence of election fraud,” the publication said.
On Sunday, Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden responded to the reports by saying Trump “is not going to steal this election,” according to The Hill.
Trump and Biden both campaigned in Pennsylvania during the weekend, with Trump holding four rallies in the state. Biden has headlined multiple events and is preparing to spend all of Monday campaigning in his home state.
According to The Hill, “Pennsylvania’s early count is likely to favor Trump because of state laws against counting mail-in ballots before Election Day. However, that margin is expected to narrow.”
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Prosecutors say Michael Hari led the White Rabbits in a campaign of bombings, home invasions and armed robberies
Jury selection is scheduled to begin Monday in the trial of the leader of an Illinois anti-government group who is accused of being the mastermind behind the 2017 bombing of a suburban Minneapolis mosque.
Michael Hari, 49, of Clarence, has pleaded not guilty to multiple civil rights and hate crimes stemming from the pipe bombing of Dar al-Farooq Islamic Center in Bloomington.
No one was injured, but the attack damaged the mosque and frightened local Muslims. Hari’s alleged accomplices, who have pleaded guilty, said they followed Hari’s lead and carried out the bombing to scare Muslims into leaving the U.S.
White Rabbit militia alleged leader Michael Hari is planning a trial defense that will claim his day job was to find terrorists on the FBI's Most Wanted list in his upcoming trial over a deadly mosque bombing in Minnesota. https://t.co/24d1qlvF4a
Several men were gathered at Dar al-Farooq for early morning prayers on Aug. 5, 2017, when a pipe bomb was thrown through the window of an imam’s office. A seven-month investigation led authorities to Clarence, Illinois, a rural community about 120 miles (190 kilometers) south of Chicago, where Hari and his co-defendants, Michael McWhorter and Joe Morris, lived.
Authorities say Hari was the leader of a group called the White Rabbits, which included McWhorter, Morris and others, and that Hari came up with the plan. Prosecutors say Hari rented a truck, loaded it with a pipe bomb, guns, and other gear and drove more than 500 miles (805 kilometers) to carry out the attack.
Hari was charged with five counts, including damaging property because of its religious character, forcibly obstructing the free exercise of religious beliefs, conspiracy to commit felonies with fire and explosives, using a destructive device in a crime of violence, and possessing an unregistered destructive device.
Prosecutors say Hari led the White Rabbits in a campaign of bombings, home invasions and armed robberies in which they used illegal automatic rifles. The mosque was the group’s first target, according to prosecutors.
Hari, McWhorter and Morris were also charged in a failed November 2017 attack on an abortion clinic in Champaign, Illinois; and plea agreements for McWhorter and Morris say the men participated in an armed home invasion in Indiana, and the armed robberies or attempted armed robberies of two Walmart stores in Illinois.
Morris and McWhorter also admitted to attempting to extort Canadian National Railway by threatening to damage tracks if the railroad didn’t pay them money.
In this Aug. 15, 2017, file photo, law enforcement officials investigate the site of an explosion at the Dar Al-Farooq Islamic Center in Bloomington, Minn. Jury selection is scheduled to begin Monday, Nov. 2, 2020, in the trial of the leader of an Illinois anti-government group who’s accused of being the ringleader behind the bombing. (David Joles/Star Tribune via AP File)
Hari, a former sheriff’s deputy and self-described entrepreneur and watermelon farmer, has written self-published books, including essays on religion, and has floated ideas for a border wall with Mexico. He gained attention on the “Dr. Phil” talk show, after he fled to the South American nation of Belize in the early 2000s during a custody dispute. He was convicted of child abduction and sentenced to probation.
Hari also sued the federal government for allegedly cutting in on his food-safety business.
Before his 2018 arrest in the mosque bombing, he used the screen name “Illinois Patriot” to post more than a dozen videos to YouTube, most of them anti-government monologues. In one video just days before his arrest, Hari said FBI and local law enforcement were terrorizing Clarence and he asked “freedom-loving people everywhere to come and help us.”
Court papers say Hari promised his accomplices $18,000 for helping in the mosque attack. But criminal complaints do not portray him as well off, citing an informant who said Hari frequently stayed at his parents’ home because he had no running water or electricity.
It’s not clear how the White Rabbits became aware of Dar al-Farooq, but the mosque was in headlines in the years before the attack: Some young people from Minnesota who traveled to Syria to join the Islamic State group had worshipped there. Mosque leaders were never accused of any wrongdoing.
Hari allegedly picked Dar al-Farooq because it was far enough away from the White Rabbits’ central Illinois hometown that he thought they wouldn’t be suspected.
Mohamed Omar, executive director of the Dar Al-Farooq Islamic Center, said he and other community members plan to attend the trial. He wants justice “for these people who attacked our sense of security and place of worship.”
After the attack, the mosque began locking its doors and requiring people to use access codes so worshippers would feel more secure. It’s unnerving, he said, to know that the mosque may be a target for unknown groups from anywhere.
“I’m hoping that this trial will give us some sort of a sense of understanding — why they did it — and send a message to those other crazies out there that it’s not OK. We are Americans too, and we can worship freely.”
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President Donald Trump’s repeated stance that the United States is “rounding the turn” on the coronavirus global pandemic has increased concerns among the government’s top health experts.
Many have warned that the country is heading towards a long and potentially deadly winter with “an unprepared government unwilling to make tough choices,” according to The Washington Post.
Until November 4th., Fake News Media is going full on Covid, Covid, Covid. We are rounding the turn. 99.9%.
Anthony S. Fauci, the country’s leading infectious-disease expert, warned in a wide-ranging interview late Friday of what’s to come for the country in the winter months during the pandemic.
“We’re in for a whole lot of hurt. It’s not a good situation,” Fauci said. “All the stars are aligned in the wrong place as you go into the fall and winter season, with people congregating at home indoors. You could not possibly be positioned more poorly.”
Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, testifies at a hearing of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee on September 23, 2020 in Washington, DC. The committee is examining the federal response to the coronavirus pandemic. (Photo by Alex Edelman-Pool/Getty Images)
Fauci said the United States needed to make an “abrupt change” in its public health practices and behaviors in response to the virus. He said the country could surpass 100,000 new coronavirus cases a day and predicted fatalities in the next coming weeks.
His response comes as the country hit a new daily record Friday with more than 98,000 confirmed cases, according to The Washington Post.
During his campaign stop in Waterford Township, Mich., Trump downplayed the virus and mocked those who take it seriously, saying that some doctors record more COVID-19 deaths than others because they receive more money.
“I mean our doctors are very smart people. So what they do is they say, ‘I’m sorry but everybody dies of COVID,’ ” Trump said.
ALL THE FAKE NEWS MEDIA WANTS TO TALK ABOUT IS COVID, COVID, COVID. ON NOVEMBER 4th, YOU WON’T BE HEARING SO MUCH ABOUT IT ANYMORE. WE ARE ROUNDING THE TURN!!!
By contrast, the Biden-Harris campaign has taken strides to follow protocols by wearing masks in public and having socially distanced events. Harris cancelled travel for several days when two people who travelled with her tested positive in October, as reported by NPR. When asked about the difference in approaches, Fauci commented that Biden’s campaign “is taking it seriously from a public health perspective.”
Current and former senior administration officials said the White House is entirely focused on a vaccine though health experts warn that it is “unlikely to be a silver bullet” that will end the pandemic.
“Right now, the public health aspect of the task force has diminished greatly,” Fauci said.
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Space City Shows, the first and only Black-owned drive-in movie theater in Houston, Texas, is open for business. 26-year old Khairi Sharif says he launched the venue to provide entertainment in the midst of the pandemic for people who love going to the cinemas just like him.
“I enjoy going to the movies, whether it’s to see a new movie or even an old movie,” Sharif told Chron. “You know, the blue ICEE, some nachos, some candy. I wasn’t able to do that with coronavirus going on. So my mind got to wandering, and I thought of [starting] a drive-in movie theater.”
From there, Sharif began searching for a location and pushed through with the process of acquiring movie licenses and finalizing other paperwork to make his dream theater come true.
As the city’s newest pop-up drive-in movie theater, Space City Shows is located at 2300 Runnels Street in Houston’s East Downtown (EADO) area. It offers a wide range of movies, from old to new, that will be shown every weekend. Moviegoers also get to enjoy the skyline view of the city, as well as various food choices from food trucks and a live DJ before and after each film showing.
