U.S. Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon aka "defund the police" carjacked

Democratic congresswoman who sponsored police 'reform' bill carjacked in crime-surging Philadelphia

Scanlon was the second elected Democrat to be carjacked in a major city in 24 hours

U.S. Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon, D-Pa., was carjacked at gunpoint in Philadelphia on Wednesday as crime continues to surge in major cities across the country.

"Wednesday afternoon, at around 2:45 p.m., Congresswoman Scanlon was carjacked at gunpoint in FDR Park following a meeting at that location," Scanlon’s office said in a statement. "The Congresswoman was physically unharmed. She thanks the Philadelphia Police Department for their swift response, and appreciates the efforts of both the Sergeant at Arms in D.C. and her local police department for coordinating with Philly PD to ensure her continued safety."

Scanlon's phone and purse were stolen by the attacker, according to WPVI-TVof Philadelphia.

Police say Scanlon was approached by two Black males, aged approximately 20-30,

OMG they were Black! 

(Rarely mentioned by the MSM)

as she walked to her vehicle before they demanded she hand them the keys. Scanlon handed over the keys to her blue 2017 Acura MDX and one of the suspects drove away in it while the other drove away in a dark-colored SUV. 

Scanlon represents Pennsylvania's 5th Congressional District, which includes part of South Philadelphia.

So far in 2021, the Philadelphia Police Department has reported 521 homicides, which is a 13% increase compared to 2020 and the city's highest number of killings since at least 2007. Incidents involving a shooting have also increased by 4.4%, and the number of people who are victims of a shooting has risen by almost 3% over the past year.

The City of Philadelphia is seeing at least an 80% increase in carjackings in 2021, compared to the total number in 2020, police told FOX 29 earlier this month.

DEMOCRATIC MAYORS UNDER FIRE AS CRIME, VIOLENCE PLAGUES CHICAGO, NEW YORK, PHILADELPHIA

Scanlon was not the first prominent Democratic official to be carjacked in a crime-ridden city in the last 24 hours. On Tuesday night, Illinois’ Democratic state Senate Majority Leader Kimberly Lightford and her husband were carjackedin Broadview, Illinois, in the Chicago area, where crime has been surging.

"First and foremost, I am thankful that my husband and I are alive and physically unharmed," Lightford said in a statement. "I am trying to process the trauma of what happened. I want to thank everyone who has offered their love and support." 

Concerned police officers 

Both Scanlon and Lightford have been staunch supporters of police reforms in the aftermath of the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis in May 2020. 

"We have seen too many lives taken and communities devastated by police brutality and racial profiling," Scanlon tweeted shortly after Floyd's death. "Action is long overdue. @HouseDemocrats are fighting for REAL reform in our country’s police departments. #JusticeInPolicing."

Scanlon is one of 125 co-sponsors of the Mental Health Justice Act, which aimed to place some police officers as first responders with mental health specialists. All of the bill's sponsors are Democrats. The bill's text says its purpose is "To authorize the Secretary of Health and Human Services to award grants to States and political subdivisions of States to hire, employ, train, and dispatch mental health professionals to respond in lieu of law enforcement officers in emergencies involving one or more persons with a mental illness or an intellectual or developmental disability, and for other purposes."

At the time the Mental Health Justice Act was introduced in February 2021, with Scanlon on board as one of its original co-sponsors, The Hill reported, "Congress wants to make it easier for state and local governments to defund the police by instead funding mental health services and empowering them to respond to emergency calls instead of armed officers."

U.S. Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon aka "defund the police" carjacked

Probably the reason I don't own any Bitcoin

 On a tip from Ed Kilbane

Video 654

Probably the reason I don't own any Bitcoin

Nancy Pelosi DEFENDS members of Congress trading stocks after report said 49 have violated conflict of interest law and with her husband Paul buying thousands of shares

Let's be honest here. Does anyone honestly believe she didn't use her  position and influence in Congress to make them rich? 

BTW... She always knocked Capitalism but now she's worth millions defends "The Free-market economy".

Paul Pelosi bought 4,000 shares of Google parent Alphabet in June, with an initial gain of $4.8 million

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi defended rules that allow members of Congress to own individual stocks, batting down concerns about lawmakers using insider information to juice their portfolios.

The liberal congresswoman from San Francisco said lawmakers should be able to own stocks because the US is a “free-market economy.”

Her comments Wednesday came amid rampant apparent violations of the STOCK Act, which is supposed to reign in lawmakers’ trades. 

When asked whether the opportunity to profit on trades could create a conflict of interest, the speaker flatly said “no” to the idea of supporting a ban on trading individual stocks.

“We’re a free-market economy,” Pelosi told reporters. “They [members of Congress] should be able to participate in that.”

The speaker conceded that lawmakers needed to follow rules on public disclosure of the trades.

“If people aren’t reporting [stock trades], they should be,” she said.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi said that lawmakers should be allowed to take part in stock dealings as long as they follow the federal rules. 

Lenin Nolly/Sipa USA

Still, Pelosi’s reaction was seen as flippant by some given the rash of apparent stock trade violations. 

Pelosi’s most recent financial disclosure shows her husband has millions of dollars worth of holdings. That includes stock in Amazon and Apple that are each worth between $5 million and $25 million. Other assets she reported include stock options held in Google’s parent company worth between $1 million and $5 million, Comcast stock worth between $1 million and $5 million and stock in Visa worth between $5 million and $25 million.

Pelosi’s husband, Paul Pelosi, is a businessman who runs a venture capital and investment firm Financial Leasing Services Inc. Over the years he’s made countless bets on high-profile companies his wife is supposed to regulate, like Amazon, Apple and Google.

Pelosi has long said she has no involvement in or prior knowledge of her husband’s trading decisions and does not own any stock herself.

Critics slammed Nancy Pelosi’s response saying that it was flippant given the number of violations. 

AP Photo/Seth Wenig, File

Speaker Nancy Pelosi defended lawmakers saying that the US is a “Free-market economy” and lawmakers should be allowed to buy stocks even though there has been a surge in STOCK Act violations. 

Lenin Nolly/Sipa USA

Pelosi’s position contradicts sharply with the position of most liberals, including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York and Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts. 

In the past month both lawmakers have slammed the idea of members of Congress trading stocks as “brazen” and “ludicrous.” 

The issue of congressional stock trading has taken on new urgency since the beginning of the pandemic, when suspiciously timed stock trades by lawmakers in both parties provoked outrage and led to multiple investigations.

To date, no one has been charged in connection with stock trading investigations undertaken by the Justice Department and the Securities Exchange Commission.

But the often lucrative trades nonetheless shine a spotlight on the inadequacies of a 2012 law called the Stock Act, which bars members from using inside information to make investment decisions and requires that all stock trades be reported to Congress within 45 days.

The 2012 law was passed with bipartisan support in the wake of a stock trading scandal. Yet in the nearly 10 years since it was enacted, no one has been prosecuted under it even as many members continue to conspicuously trade.

In some recent cases, lawmakers have failed to report their trades altogether, as required by the law.

Nancy Pelosi DEFENDS members of Congress trading stocks after report said 49 have violated conflict of interest law and with her husband Paul buying thousands of shares

Just another fine example of how stupid he is...

So he goes to Kentucky where 74 people were killed (including seven children on one street) by a devastating tornado undoubtedly the worst in history, supposedly to support the people of Mayfield and give them comfort, total destruction is all around him, and what does the asshole do???

Breaks out into a speech about voting rights!!!

'There's nothing more important, domestically, than voting rights. It's the single biggest thing,' President Joe Biden said Wednesday as Democrats feverishly sought to negotiate a rules change to allow legislation to move

(He said this after people lost family, friends, and their home right before Christmas)

Think this woman right here typifies what most people were thinking!

Just another fine example of how stupid he is...

Biden admin, House GOP scrutinize Ilhan Omar's Islamophobia bill

Islamophobia bill?

Yes my friends... this was a figment of our imagination. 

911 aka..."The day some people did something."

Perhaps she may be a little jealous and is trying to draw more attention towards Islam because currently BLM is doing a better job of destroying America than the Muslims. Americans will NEVER look at Islam in the same light as they do Catholics, Methodists, Protestants, Lutherans, etc... and for damn good reason.

PS:

To bad we can't sell Minnesota to Canada. We would all be better off.

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The Biden administration has outlined several issues it has with Omar's bill

Sam Dorman14 hours ago

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Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., is pushing a controversial Islamophobia bill, but not everyone – including the Biden administration – seems completely onboard with the proposal.

The Combating International Islamophobia Act directs the State Department to create a special envoy and office on the issue. Under the bill, those entities would monitor and combat Islamophobia around the world. 

Additionally, the legislation would update current law regarding how the department reports on human rights and international religious liberty.

According to a House aide, the State Department sent congressional staff a series of concerns it had with Omar's bill.

"While we share the sentiments of the bill, in order to preserve the Secretary’s flexibility to manage the Department, revisions would be appropriate to make mandates and prescriptive provisions into permissive authorities, such that the Secretary would be authorized to set up the office and envoy," the department said in a message last week.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken speaks during a photo opportunity on Nov. 8, 2021, in Washington, D.C. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, Pool).

"Similarly, the longstanding preference is not to amend the human rights annual report authority to add in specific topics, as reporting would capture such activities already, and the specification of narrow reporting topics can give the impression of a less than comprehensive scope. It would seem in keeping with the timeliness of the topic, to instead provide for an annual report on the specific topic for a stated period of time, such as [three] years. We note that in several places the bill refers to the 'right to religious freedom' which is formulated under international law as ‘the right to freedom of religion or belief.’" 

The House Foreign Affairs committee approved the legislation along party lines last week and encountered fierce opposition from Republicans. The bill is expected to reach the House floor for consideration on Tuesday.

Mitch Hailstone, communications director for the Republican Study Committee, argued on Tuesday that multiple State Department positions were already tasked with combating anti-Muslim bigotry.

In addition, House Foreign Affairs Committee Ranking Member Michael McCaul, R-Texas, told Fox News Tuesday, "The U.S. State Department has requested multiple, substantive changes to this legislation before the House passes it."

"One of their requested changes is to not mandate the creation of the Special Envoy. This indicates the State Department has fundamental concerns with even establishing this office." 

Omar's office and the State Department did not immediately respond to Fox News' request for comment.

On Tuesday, the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) expressed support for the bill, but indicated it sought additional flexibility on creating the special envoy and office provided under the bill.

OMB's statement read: "The Administration supports passage of H.R. 5665, the Combating International Islamophobia Act. Religious freedom is a fundamental human right. This freedom is enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and is also part of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution."

"The Administration looks forward to working with Congress to ensure the Secretary of State has the necessary flexibility and permissive authority to designate such an office and special envoy and to provide for an annual report monitoring concerning acts of Islamophobia in foreign countries."

The White House and OMB did not immediately respond to Fox News' requests for clarification on where the administration now stands on the bill.

Biden admin, House GOP scrutinize Ilhan Omar's Islamophobia bill