June 21st, 2019

Does this "Hannity" seem out of place? Does you smell a good cop bad cop situation? Have Graham and Hannity talk up a fight and threaten the Iranian's, then have Trump come in with a tempered approach. Trump knows to put the biggest pitbull on the leash to make his (our) enemies think twice. The leash is the important part.

A SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket is set to launch Monday night from Kennedy Space Center in Florida, carrying 24 government satellites and kicking off a busy summer of space activity.

It will be the third launch for the Falcon Heavy, the most powerful rocket in use today. SpaceX is calling the launch one of its most challenging ever, because it must release satellites into three different orbits.

It's also the first time that a Falcon Heavy will use previously flown side boosters, which have been refueled and fitted again after the Arabsat 6A satellite launch in April...

President Donald Trump has scored his highest approval rating ever in a key national poll, but the media outlet that produces it, USA Today, never mentioned that fact in its write-up. This week’s USA/Suffolk poll, taken from June 11 through June 15 and presented by RealClearPolitics along with other polling, had the president at a 49 percent approval rating versus 48 percent who disapprove.

[Houcine] Ghoul, a citizen of Tunisia, entered the U.S. in 2001 on a tourist visa. After overstaying his visa, Ghoul married a U.S. citizen, whom he later divorced, and obtained status as a legal permanent resident... The investigation into Ghoul’s conduct began in April 2014 when Ghoul posted a photo online that explicitly displayed support for the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS), a designated foreign terrorist organization. This photo displayed an individual holding a sign with the Arabic phrase, “The victory of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria,” and then below in English, “ISIS,” and “N. Carolina, USA,” the state where Ghoul was then residing. The photo later appeared in an online propaganda video posted by others to display worldwide support for ISIS.

In an address at a banquet on Thursday night, Xi noted that the nation under leader Kim Jong-un had "initiated a new strategic line of economic development and improving people's livelihoods, raising socialist construction in the country to a new high tide", according to China's official Xinhua News Agency.
[...]
China has agreed to UN economic sanctions over the North's nuclear and missile programs but is wary of any measures that could push its economy towards collapse, potentially unleashing instability and chaos on its border.

Xi's speech also touched on the nuclear issue, saying all sides agreed to "stick to peace talks so as to make even greater contributions to peace, stability and prosperity in the region and the wider world", Xinhua said...

If you’re in the Northern Hemisphere, the June solstice is your signal to celebrate summer. If you’re in the Southern Hemisphere, winter starts at this solstice. This 2019 June solstice takes place on June 21 at 15:54 UTC... In North America and U.S. time zones, that’s June 21 at 12:54 p.m. ADT, 11:54 a.m. EDT, 10:54 a.m. CDT, 9:54 a.m. MDT, 8:54 a.m. PDT, 7:54 a.m. AKDT (Alaskan Daylight Time) and 5:54 a.m. HAST (Hawaiian-Aleutian Standard Time)... The solstice happens at the same instant for all of us, everywhere on Earth; only our clocks and calendars are different...

The June solstice gives us the year’s northernmost sunrise and northernmost sunset. The northernmost sunrise and sunset deliver the year’s longest period of daylight to the Northern Hemisphere yet the shortest period of daylight in the Southern Hemisphere. North of the Arctic Circle, the sun neither rises nor sets but stays above the horizon for 24 hours around the clock. South of the Antarctic circle, the sun neither rises nor sets but stays beneath the horizon for 24 hours.

As late as 7 p.m., military and diplomatic officials were expecting a strike, after intense discussions and debate at the White House among the president’s top national security officials and congressional leaders, according to multiple senior administration officials involved in or briefed on the deliberations.

Officials said the president had initially approved attacks on a handful of Iranian targets, like radar and missile batteries.

The operation was underway in its early stages when it was called off, a senior administration official said. Planes were in the air and ships were in position, but no missiles had been fired when word came to stand down, the official said.

Inside an Indiana aquafarming complex, thousands of salmon eggs genetically modified to grow faster than normal are hatching into tiny fish. After growing to roughly 10 pounds (4.5 kilograms) in indoor tanks, they could be served in restaurants by late next year. The salmon produced by AquaBounty are the first genetically modified animals approved for human consumption in the U.S... AquaBounty hasn’t sold any fish in the U.S. yet, but it says its salmon may first turn up in places like restaurants or university cafeterias, which would decide whether to tell diners that the fish are genetically modified. “It’s their customer, not ours,” said Sylvia Wulf, AquaBounty’s CEO.

Iranian officials told Reuters on Friday that Tehran had received a message from U.S. President Donald Trump through Oman overnight warning that a U.S. attack on Iran was imminent.

“In his message, Trump said he was against any war with Iran and wanted to talk to Tehran about various issues ... he gave a short period of time to get our response but Iran’s immediate response was that it is up to Supreme Leader (Ayatollah Ali) Khamenei to decide about this issue,” one of the officials told Reuters on condition of anonymity.

The second official said: “We made it clear that the leader is against any talks, but the message will be conveyed to him to make a decision ... However, we told the Omani official that any attack against Iran will have regional and international consequences.”

The defense has sought to conduct a forensic extraction of data and claimed the entire exchange would clear Spacey of charges. They said it would show the interactions between the actor and the then-18-year-old accuser were nothing more than consensual flirting...
Girlfriend: "I thought you were serious" "Taking advantage of my gullible-ness" uhg haha "Haha tell him the gf says back off" [emoji]
Accuser: "No I'm serious" "He's gay" "He pulled my zipper down" "And he invited me to his house" "I'll talk to u later"
Girlfriend: "What the f--- is happening?" [emojis] "Have fun but not too much fun if you know what I mean" [emoji]
Accuser: "Jesus Christ he reached down my pants" "Help" "No this is Kevin ducking spacey" "He's gay" "Hes buying me yet another drink" "Help me" "He's gotten me so many" "I'm drunk" "Help" "Molly" "He grabbed my d---" "Keving spacey is gay" "Check snap" "seriously help" "I'm gonna get he pic" "I got the autographs and a hell of a stout" "Story" "Help me"...

The resolution comes after more than six years of settlement talks between Walmart and the U.S. government.

The deal requires Walmart to return $144 million in gains to the Securities and Exchange Commission and pay a $138 million penalty to the Justice Department. The SEC said the company's actions violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, which effectively forbids U.S.-listed companies from paying bribes to win business abroad.

The Justice Department began its investigation as a result of a series of 2012 New York Times articles that described payments Walmart made in Mexico to obtain permits to build stores there. The probe later examined Walmart's business across the globe, including in Brazil, China and India...

In an emergency phone conversation on Thursday night with the Swiss Ambassador to Tehran Markus Leitner, Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said that there was "indisputable" evidence that a US drone had violated Iran's airspace.

"Even some parts of the drone’s wreckage have been retrieved from Iran’s territorial waters," Araghchi told the Swiss envoy...

The Iranian diplomat reiterated that Iran does not seek a war and conflict in the Persian Gulf, warning the American forces against any unconsidered measure in the region...

...Saying the men demonstrated "callous and reckless disregard for the lives and safety of U.S. personnel in the field," federal prosecutors had asked U.S. District Judge Anthony Trenga to send both Lounsbury and Lopez-Munoz to prison for three years.

"He engaged in a potentially catastrophic deadly game by vowing to supply the U.S. Government with a specific type of body armor and instead deliberately provided them falsely-labeled, out-of-warranty, cheaper body armor," assistant U.S. attorneys Raj Parekh and Grace Hill wrote of Lopez-Munoz. They made similar comments about Lounsbury...

How much should descendants of the 360,000 Union soldiers, who lost their lives fighting to free the slaves, pay to the descendants of the slaves they freed? #reparations

— Larry Elder (@larryelder) June 19, 2019