The State Department announced a new $600,000 taxpayer-funded study that suggests “ideals of masculinity” in Kenya are contributing to terrorism.
The department’s Bureau of Counterterrorism is seeking a nonprofit group to “explore gender identities of boys and men in Kenya.” The grant proposal states that men being “tough, heterosexual, aggressive, unemotional, and achieving” can make them vulnerable to joining Islamic extremist groups.
“Gender is increasingly recognized as an essential aspect to understanding and countering violent extremism throughout the world,” the State Department said. “To date, research and interventions on gender in Kenya have predominantly focused on the role of women and girls in violent extremism. However, men and boys are disproportionately recruited by and join terrorist groups and carry out terrorist operations. In Kenya, there currently exists no CVE [countering violent extremism] programming dedicated to the role of gender of boys and men and vulnerability to violent extremism.”
To remedy this, the State Department will spend up to $592,500 on the “Masculinity and Violent Extremism” study, which will be awarded to an American nonprofit or nongovernmental organization later this year.
The study will “determine existing knowledge and gaps on male gender and violent extremism as well as explore gender identities of boys and men in Kenya.”
The grant proposal blames Kenya’s “patriarchal” society of “tough, heterosexual” men for problems facing the developing country.
“In Kenya, boys and men are disproportionately recruited by al-Shabaab and more likely to be both operators and victims of terrorist acts,” the State Department said. “Kenyan society, while diverse in its ethnic and cultural composition, is uniformly patriarchal and highly prescriptive of gender expressions and identities.”
“Kenyan males are expected to head the household as well as provide for, protect, and maintain the family,” the department continued. “Socially, males are expected to be tough, heterosexual, aggressive, unemotional, and achieving. The practical and social pressures to fulfill these expectations can be immense and create vulnerabilities that are exploited by violent extremist groups who appeal to these characteristics and offer the opportunity to fulfil [sic] these roles.”
The State Department added that the research would involve fathers and community leaders in Kenya in the hopes to “shape existing cultural narratives on masculinity, gender, and violent extremism.”
“Funds will support male-to-male dialogue and training on issues of gender and encourage stronger social and familial support structures,” the department said.
Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” host Chuck Todd questioned Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) about his claim President Donald Trump did not call some counties “shitholes.”
Thus, Todd accused Cotton of calling Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) “liars.”
Partial transcript as follows:
TODD: I’ve got to ask you about the infamous meeting of ten days ago. Did the president use a vulgarity?
COTTON: Chuck, I’m not going to get into every word that was or was not said. I will say, as many people have said, Kirstjen Nielsen under oath, a lot of strong language was used. I think it is fair to say there was cursing behind closed doors.
TODD: What I don’t understand is in the first 48 hours if there was a controversy about whether it was said, you implied it wasn’t said at all. you didn’t — and it made it seem as if you were accusing Dick Durbin of being a liar and Lindsey Graham of being a liar.
COTTON: As far as I know Lindsey Graham hasn’t spoken on the record about this, Chuck. Here’s the point that Senator Durbin represented that President Trump used repeatedly, repeatedly used vile, racist, lays if the language. That’s not the case. If he was, why didn’t he slam anything and slam his paper up and get up and walk out. What Trump and others in that meeting expressed was astonishment that Senator Durbin and Senator Graham would bring a proposal that won’t move us towards a skill-based system but towards a system where we’re rewarding people based on where they come from, not who they are. the point of immigration reform is to judge people as individuals based on who they are and what they can contribute to society, not who they are and who they are related to.
TODD: But to go back to the issue of trust on both sides, You let it sort of hang out there that Dick Durbin and Lindsey Graham were misleading the public completely and only now are you admitting, well, yeah, there was some vulgarity used. That isn’t what you said a week ago or ten days ago at the time. Why?
COTTON: Chuck, I’ve never denied that there wasn’t strong language used in the meeting by lots of people. You know, I’m not a shrinking violet about these things. I’ve been in a command post overseas and I’ve heard salty language before. What I’m saying it’s a gross mess representation.
TODD: Were you offended? Lindsey Graham appears to be offended. He said his piece. Were you offended by what the president said.
COTTON: I was not offended and nobody in the meeting expressed their offense.
TODD: Lindsey Graham didn’t make his peace?
COTTON: Lindsey Graham made a case about immigration policies, not about what the president was saying.
TODD: He said he said his peace about what American ideals are about.
COTTON: Yes, he did and that’s part of immigration policy because immigration policy is a part of who we are, who we’re going to bring to this country to become new American citizens.
These hypocrites want the tax-cut money from a President they hate.
SACRAMENTO — California lawmakers are targeting the expected windfall that companies in the state would see under the federal tax overhaul with a bill that would require businesses to turn over half to the state.
A proposed Assembly Constitutional Amendment by Assemblymen Kevin McCarty, D-Sacramento, and Phil Ting, D-San Francisco, would create a tax surcharge on California companies making more than $1 million so that half of their federal tax cut would instead go to programs that benefit low-income and middle-class families.
“Trump’s tax reform plan was nothing more than a middle-class tax increase,” Ting said in a statement. “It is unconscionable to force working families to pay the price for tax breaks and loopholes benefiting corporations and wealthy individuals. This bill will help blunt the impact of the federal tax plan on everyday Californians by protecting funding for education, affordable health care, and other core priorities.”
As a constitutional amendment, the bill would require approval from two-thirds of the Legislature to pass, a difficult hurdle now that Democrats have lost their supermajority. If passed and signed by Gov. Jerry Brown, it would then go to voters for final approval.
Democrats lost their supermajority following resignations of two Assembly Democrats, Matt Dababneh of Encino (Los Angeles County), and Raul Bocanegra of San Fernando Valley (Los Angeles County) amid sexual misconduct allegations. Another Assembly Democrat, Sebastian Ridley-Thomas of Los Angeles, resigned citing health issues. In the Senate, Democrat Tony Mendoza of Artesia (Los Angeles County) is taking a leave of absence pending an investigation into sexual misconduct allegations.
California Democrats have been exploring ways to help those in the state who could end up paying higher federal taxes next year under the Republican tax overhaul.
The GOP overhaul caps state income taxes and local property tax write-offs on the federal income tax return at $10,000, a move expected to hurt high-local-tax states such as California, where the average state and local tax write-off in 2016 was $22,000.
State Senate President Pro Tem Kevin de León introduced legislation this month that would allow Californians to get around the state and local tax cap with a voluntary donation to a charitable fund created by the state of any amount of owed taxes above $10,000. That donation — in lieu of taxes — would allow donors to write off the gifts on their federal tax returns.
I’m sure it is okay because Allah told him to do it.
CLEVELAND, Ohio — A man was sentenced Thursday to 25 years in prison after admitting to strangling his ex-wife in 2016, then stuffing her body into a duffel bag and burying her remains as their 3-year-old son watched.
Fahad Saeed, 28, showed little remorse before Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court Judge Pamela Barker imposed the sentence.
“Things happen,” Saeed said through an Arabic interpreter.
Cuyahoga County prosecutors and Saeed’s lawyers struck a deal on Thursday that would see him plead guilty to involuntary manslaughter, kidnapping and burglary charges, and serve the maximum time in prison on each charge for a total of 25 years.
Prosecutors agreed not pursue an aggravated murder charge that would put Saeed behind bars for life.
The court hearing offered details into Al-Dhannoon’s October 2016 disappearance from her apartment on Lakewood’s Gold Coast, and the months-long search that ended when investigators found her body in May 2017.
Prosecutors noted for the first time that Saeed took the couple’s toddler son with him to bury the mother’s remains in a patch of thick woods near the apartment where Saeed once lived, across the street from the Memphis Kiddie Park.
The toddler told FBI agents in a November 2016 interview that “daddy put mommy in the pickies near the horses,” an apparent reference to the park’s carousel, Assistant Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Blaise Thomas said.
Five months would pass before a tipster from the county jail came forward with a detailed map that Saeed drew while serving a sentence on charges dating back to before Al-Dhannoon’s disappearance.
Saeed, an Iraqi national in the U.S. on a green-card visa, will be subject to deportation once he is released from prison.
Al-Dhannoon and Saeed married in 2011. She filed for the protection order in November 2015 after he became increasingly violent, according to court records.
Investigators say Saeed broke into Al-Dhannoon’s apartment in August 2016 and took cellphone video as he commented about the state of the house, Al-Dhannoon’s weight and her mothering capabilities.
Two months later, Saeed again went to the home, where he attacked Al-Dhannoon.
Surveillance cameras caught him and a friend, Ammar Sami, buying shovels from a Walmart the night of Al-Dhannoon’s disappearance. The next day, he took his son to a Home Depot and bought a small hand digging tool, prosecutor said.
Investigators focused on Saeed early and learned that he had been to Al-Dhannoon’s Gold Coast apartment building in the days before she disappeared.
Saeed was arrested, charged and eventually sentenced to six months in Cuyahoga County Jail for violating a restraining order that Al-Dhannoon took out against him.
A community college professor in Texas frightened several of his students when he walked into class Tuesday night with his face covered and incoherently mumbled about the Koran, the moon and the dark night.
Students attending a lecture at Tarrant County College called the police after adjunct professor Daniel Mashburn walked into his astronomy class and started acting out of character.
Students told FOX4 that Mashburn walked in about 20 minutes late and promptly turned off the lights. He was wearing a baseball hat, a beanie, a scarf over his face and gloves.
“The kid next to me had said he was acting very strange, and I looked over at the girl next to me and she seemed very scared,” student April McLeod said.
The students said Mashburn then started talking about the Muslim holy book the Koran and the moon and the dark night.
“Mostly he was talking about different things of the Muslim faith,” McLeod said. “I was in class for about five minutes. He kept messing with his pocket and you could tell there was an object in the right-hand pocket. And whenever he went to pull out his hand, I started having this really bad feeling and jumped up and ran out of the classroom.”
She added: “At one point he stood face-to-face with the board of the classroom and was just talking to the board.”
Eventually campus police arrived and searched Mashburn, who didn’t take off the scarf or baseball hat. Police found no harmful or illegal objects on the professor.
McLeod filmed police searching Mashburn outside the classroom. He was not arrested.
When reached by FOX4 News, Mashburn seemed to deflect many questions and said several times his teaching of astronomy goes hand-in-hand with Islam.
“I keep it secret. I keep it safe. I do my best, but I am tired of hiding in the shadows,” he said when asked if he explained his teaching philosophy when he interviewed for the position. “I am tired of fearing their law. I fear Allah.”
Trump Says ‘Nice Present’ for One Year Anniversary if they Shut It Down.
President Donald Trump boasted that the Democrats were giving him a political gift after they voted against a bill that would fund the government late Friday night.
“This is the One Year Anniversary of my Presidency and the Democrats wanted to give me a nice present,” Trump wrote on Twitter with the hashtag #DemocratShutdown.
Trump challenged Democrats for focusing more on amnesty for illegal immigrants than funding the government.
“Democrats are far more concerned with Illegal Immigrants than they are with our great Military or Safety at our dangerous Southern Border,” he wrote. “They could have easily made a deal but decided to play Shutdown politics instead.”
On Friday afternoon, Trump met with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer over cheeseburgers at the White House to discuss a possible deal, but it was ultimately rejected.
The president urged Americans to vote more Republicans into the Senate in 2018 to push forward his agenda.
“For those asking, the Republicans only have 51 votes in the Senate, and they need 60,” he wrote. “That is why we need to win more Republicans in 2018 Election! We can then be even tougher on Crime (and Border), and even better to our Military & Veterans!”
Democrats are far more concerned with Illegal Immigrants than they are with our great Military or Safety at our dangerous Southern Border. They could have easily made a deal but decided to play Shutdown politics instead. #WeNeedMoreRepublicansIn18 in order to power through mess!
For those asking, the Republicans only have 51 votes in the Senate, and they need 60. That is why we need to win more Republicans in 2018 Election! We can then be even tougher onCrime (and Border), and even better to our Military & Veterans!
