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California Democrat Lawmaker Wants to Decriminalize Welfare Fraud Under $25,000

Welfare fraud under $25,000 in California could be decriminalized due to Senate Bill 560, which was introduced by State Sen. Lola Smallwood-Cuevas (D) in February.

The bill would decriminalize welfare fraud under that amount in the state for administrative errors, Fox News reported on Monday.

According the outlet’s Bill Melugin, “Smallwood-Cuevas represents a large chunk of Los Angeles County, including Mar Vista, West LA, Baldwin Hills, Ladera Heights, Century City, Playa Vista, and part of downtown LA.,” he wrote in a social media post on Monday.

Smallwood-Cuevas told Fox the state’s safety net should help residents and not keep them in poverty. She also wrote in a recent social media post, “This bill is about keeping families out of the criminal justice system from making administrative errors on raising the threshold for welfare fraud prosecutions.”

The bill is set for a hearing on May 5. The Legislative Counsel’s Digest regarding the bill reads:

Existing law establishes criminal penalties for welfare fraud, defined as willfully and knowingly, with the intent to deceive, by specified means, including a false statement or representation, obtaining or retaining aid through designated public social services for oneself or for a child who is not in fact entitled thereto, as specified. Existing law makes any person who knowingly uses, transfers, sells, purchases, or possesses CalFresh or federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits in any manner not authorized, as specified, guilty of a misdemeanor or felony depending on the face value of the benefits.

This bill would delete the provision that establishes criminal penalties for an attempt to commit welfare fraud. The bill would delete criminal penalties for welfare fraud when the total amount of aid obtained or retained is above or below $950, and instead make welfare fraud when aid was obtained or retained in the total amount of $25,000 or more punishable by specified imprisonment in a county jail, by a fine, or by imprisonment and fine.

“In Los Angeles County, field investigators handle 15,000 to 20,000 fraud cases or referrals, according to the Department of Public Social Services,” Monday’s Fox article said.

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Amnesty International: Israel Carrying Out ‘Live-Streamed Genocide’ in Gaza

Amnesty International said in its annual human rights report that Israel is carrying out a “live-streamed genocide” as the world looks on.

“Since 7 October 2023 – when Hamas perpetrated horrific crimes against Israeli citizens and others and captured more than 250 hostages – the world has been made audience to a live-streamed genocide,” Amnesty Secretary-General Agnes Callamard said in an introduction to the report.

“States watched on as if powerless, as Israel killed thousands upon thousands of Palestinians, wiping out entire multigenerational families, destroying homes, livelihoods, hospitals, and schools,” Callamard added.

The report said that Israel was committing the crime of genocide by “killing Palestinian civilians, causing serious bodily or mental harm, and deliberately inciting conditions of life calculated to bring about Palestinians’ physical destruction by causing mass forced displacement, obstructing or denying lifesaving aid, and by damaging or destroying life-sustaining infrastructure.”

Amnesty first concluded Israel was committing genocide in Gaza in a report published in December 2024. The US has rejected the conclusion and has opposed the genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice since US officials are implicated due to US military aid and other types of support for Israel.

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Unity Message Backfires: Racist AOC Tweet Turns Heads

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s (D-NY) campaign account on X is facing significant backlash over a social media post that capitalized “Black” and “Latino” while leaving “white” in lowercase.

The post has since sparked accusations of hypocrisy and divisiveness.

The controversial post appeared on the “@TeamAOC” account, which is managed by the New York Democratic congresswoman and her staff members, drawing immediate criticism from users across the platform.

The message accompanied a video from Ocasio-Cortez’s recent “Fighting Oligarchy” tour, where she has been appearing alongside Bernie Sanders at anti-Trump rallies in traditionally conservative states across the country.

“Do not let them trick you into thinking we are enemies,” stated the post featuring footage from a Boise, Idaho event. 

“Do not let them trick you into thinking that we can be separated into rural and urban, Black and white and Latino. We are one.”

Social media users quickly pointed out the apparent contradiction between the unity message and the selective capitalization choices in the text, with many suggesting the typographical choice undermined the very message of togetherness.

One X user’s reply, which garnered more likes than the original post, questioned: “If we are one, why did you capitalize ‘Black’ and not ‘white’?” 

This sentiment was echoed by numerous commenters who saw the capitalization disparity as problematic.

Another popular response accused the campaign of deliberate racism, stating: “We see you, you f***ing racist POS. Don’t act like it was an accident that you left the word ‘White’ uncapitalized,” reflecting the intensity of reactions to what some viewed as a calculated slight.

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CIA “Can Neither Confirm Nor Deny” Whether Secret Virginia Site Is Theirs

A low-profile government complex in northern Virginia – long rumored to be a CIA spook site – briefly appeared on a federal real estate for-sale list last month, only to disappear from the market within hours, in a mysterious vanishing act worthy of a spy novel.

The nondescript Parr-Franconia warehouse complex, tucked just off I-95 a few miles from the Pentagon, popped up on a Trump administration list of “non-core” federal properties slated for potential sale, Bloomberg reports, noting that the list was yanked down less than 24 hours later – including more than 400 other buildings and offices, some housing cabinet-level agencies.

But it was the Springfield cluster that raised eyebrows — 14 buildings, some going by names like “Franconia Building B” and “Butler Building 12,” which don’t appear on any other public database of government real estate.

The CIA’s official response? A non-denial denial.

“The CIA can neither confirm nor deny the existence or nonexistence” of records related to the proposed sale, the agency said Monday in a response to a Freedom of Information Act request filed by Bloomberg News – deploying its classic “Glomar” language, coined during a Cold War submarine recovery op in 1974.

That’s spy-speak for: Don’t ask us – we’re not telling.

The site, which dates to 1952, has been the subject of decades of local speculation. Foreign Policy once identified it as a heavily guarded compound used to store “classified files, equipment, and supplies.” Marc Ambinder of The Week called it “perhaps the worst-kept secret in Springfield,” where neighbors talk openly about the strange security measures and rotating surveillance.

“It’s been identified in numerous public forums. The bad guys know it exists; the CIA and the Air Force often assign counter-surveillance teams to the area,” wrote Armbinder.

Even Fairfax County assigns a hefty valuation: the 1.2 million-square-foot property is tax-exempt but carries an appraisal of over $115 million.

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House passes “Take it Down Act,” sending revenge porn bill backed by Melania Trump to president’s desk

The House passed a bipartisan bill Monday that makes it a federal crime to post real and fake sexually explicit imagery online of a person without their consent, sending the legislation that was backed by first lady Melania Trump to the president’s desk. 

The bill, known as the “Take It Down Act,” cleared the lower chamber in a 409-2 vote. The two “no” votes came from Republicans. The Senate unanimously passed the measure in February. 

The legislation requires social media companies and other websites to remove images and videos, including deepfakes generated by artificial intelligence, within 48 hours after a victim’s request. 

“If you’re a victim of revenge porn or AI-generated explicit imagery, your life changes forever,” Sen. Ted Cruz, a Texas Republican, said at a March 3 roundtable promoting the bill. 

Cruz, who introduced the bill, recalled the experience of a teenage victim, Elliston Berry, whose classmate used an app to create explicit images of her and then sent them to her classmates. Berry’s mother had tried unsuccessfully to get Snapchat to remove the images for months before she contacted Cruz’s office for help. 

“It should not take a sitting senator or sitting member of Congress picking up the phone to get a picture down or video down,” Cruz said. 

The first lady, who rarely appears in public, attended the March discussion at the U.S. Capitol to advocate for the bill’s passage in the House. 

“It’s heartbreaking to witness young teens, especially girls, grappling with the overwhelming challenges posed by malicious online content like deep fakes,” she said. “This toxic environment can be severely damaging.” 

The first lady applauded Congress after its passage and said the bipartisan vote made a “powerful statement that we stand united in protecting the dignity, privacy, and safety of our children.” 

“I am thankful to the Members of Congress — both in the House and Senate — who voted to protect the well-being of our youth,” she said in a statement. 

According to the FBI, in recent years there have been an alarming number of cases where victims have been extorted that have ended in suicide. Lawmakers said they hope the bill will save lives by providing recourse for victims. 

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Louisiana Lawmaker Proposes Marijuana Legalization Pilot Program As ‘Revenue Source’ For The State

Louisiana lawmakers are gearing up for another push to legalize marijuana in the state, with at least two proposals now filed to enact cannabis-related reform this session.

Rep. Candace Newell (D)—who has made repeated attempts to end criminalization—discussed her latest legislation in an interview with Louisiana First News that aired on Saturday, describing a proposed three-year pilot program that is “designed to test and evaluate parameters of the implementation of a permanent adult-use cannabis program,” according to a legislative analysis.

“Aside of just wanting to have legalized recreational marijuana, I’m also looking at another revenue source in the state of Louisiana,” Newell said. “I’m talking about statewide, across the board, education on the product—the use of the product, the dangers of it and how it can be beneficial.”

The sponsor added that, from her perspective, “what we’ve seen is the states where they’ve done just the full blanket legalization and regulation that that is failing.”

At the same time, she emphasized the potential revenue stream from legalizing and taxing cannabis for adults.

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Nebraska Senators Schedule Town Halls To Discuss Medical Marijuana Bills

State lawmakers scheduled three eastern Nebraska public forums this weekend to allow the public to weigh in on medical cannabis and proposed state legislation.

State Sens. John Cavanaugh (D) of Omaha, Rick Holdcroft (R) of Bellevue and Ben Hansen (R) of Blair plan to host the series this Saturday in La Vista, Sunday in Omaha and Monday in Lincoln. Attendants will be able to hear updates on the status of medical cannabis legislation, namely Hansen’s Legislative Bill 677, and “share their thoughts.”

The schedule is as follows:

  • Saturday, May 3, from 1–3 p.m. at the Carpenters Union Hall in La Vista (10761 Virginia Plaza, La Vista).
  • Sunday, May 4, from 1–3 p.m., at the University of Nebraska at Omaha Thompson Alumni Center (8800 Dodge St., Omaha).
  • Monday, May 5, from 5–7 p.m., at Southeast Community College (8800 O St., Lincoln).

The hosts plan to accommodate everyone who wishes to speak during the two-hour events.

In November, about 71 percent of Nebraskans legalized medical cannabis with a physician’s recommendation, and 67 percent of Nebraskans voted for a regulatory scheme.

“Since the legislature has failed to act at this point, I want to give the citizens an opportunity to have their voices heard by their elected representatives,” Cavanaugh told the Nebraska Examiner.

Hansen said the town halls are meant to help inform the public about the legislative process and receive feedback, answering questions and hearing concerns.

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A Monstrous Media & Murder in Gaza

Here is yet another example of stunningly craven journalism from The Guardian, entirely illustrative of what is going on across the British establishment media in its coverage of Israeli war crimes in Gaza for the past 18 months.

We are now a month on from Israel executing 15 paramedics and hiding their bodies in a mass grave. Since then, video footage has surfaced of that atrocity, showing Israeli soldiers firing on a convoy of emergency vehicles that were clearly marked and with their warning lights on.

We have had postmortems of the victims showing they were shot from close-range in the head and torso. And we’ve had eye-witness accounts of the killings.

All of that, of course, is on top of compelling circumstantial evidence. Israel sought to destroy the evidence of its war crime by crushing the emergency vehicles and then burying them, along with the bodies of the 15 crew members, presumably in the hope that they would decompose and make it hard to forensically determine exactly what had happened.

The latest evidence to emerge, reported by Israel’s Haaretz newspaper this week, shows that Israeli soldiers fired continuously for three and a half minutes on the convoy, despite the emergency vehicles being clearly marked.

According to details from an internal investigation by the Israeli military leaked to the paper, the soldiers fired from near-point-blank range and even while the emergency workers were trying to identify themselves.

(Not surprisingly, the other parts of the investigation, those made public, have been a whitewash, suggesting only “professional failures” and “operational misunderstandings”.)

In other words, this new evidence confirms that Israeli soldiers intentionally murdered most of the occupants of the emergency vehicles with a prolonged hail of bullets.

Those who survived, the postmortems suggest, were executed with shots to the head or torso. Then the evidence was hurriedly buried.

None of this is surprising. We have known for some time, as repeatedly reported by the Israeli media, that the Israeli military has created undeclared “kill zones”, where anything that moves is shot — even children, aid workers and emergency crews.

As has also been evident for most of the past 18 months, Israel is implementing a policy to destroy Gaza’s health sector, including its hospitals and ambulances, and killing or kidnapping medical staff —on top of wrecking the rest of the enclave’s infrastructure.

The goal is to force the Palestinian population out of Gaza, driving them into the neighbouring Egyptian territory of Sinai.

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How to…Rig Your Rigged Elections

Are you an aspiring oligarch, dictator or autocrat? Do you want to wield power whilst maintaining a façade of popular support and democratic mandate? Do you want to make your proles believe they have a choice?

Well then, welcome to the first of our “How to…” series. A selection of articles dedicated to teaching aspiring authoritarians how to hide tyranny behind a reassuring mask of  freedom.

Here we’ll go into the finer points of how it’s possible to have “elections” that mean almost nothing.

What we talk about when we talk about rigging an election

First things first, we need to establish what we mean when we talk about “election rigging”.

Controlling the outcome of an election is a comparatively simple, even vulgar, process. All you need to do is manipulate the count and/or simply lie about the result.

However doing this efficiently  – rigging an election with as little effort as possible and disguising that fact is more difficult.

In short, if your rigged election is entirely reliant on simply forging ballots you have done something wrong. If you want to reliably and consistently control the results of your “elections” you need to be more creative than that.

The vast majority of your work pre-election will be dedicated to laying the groundwork, building infrastructure, and lubricating the public.

The vote itself is the final destination in a long journey that starts with…

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