Eight months after taking office, the mayor of a small Texas town has become the first transgender elected official to come out publicly in the state’s history.
“As your Mayor I must tell you about something that has been with me since my earliest memories, I am Transgender” said Jess Herbst, the mayor of New Hope in Collin County.
She gave the message in an open letter posted on the town’s website.
Herbst, who has been documenting her transition on her personal blog JessHerbst.com., also talked about how her decision affected her family:
“It is gender identity not sexual preference that applies to me. I love my wife, and she loves me, we have no intention of change. My daughters have been adamant supporters of me and are proud to tell people their father is transgender.”
“I live my life as a female now, and I will be performing my duties to the town as such,” Herbst wrote.
She also welcomed the great strides made in the transgender community in recent years, pointing to the growing number of high-profile trans figures in sports and media.
With “celebrities like olympic gold medalist Caitlyn Jenner, Laverne Cox from the show ‘Orange is the new Black’ [sic] and popular shows like ‘Transparent’, society finally has a chance to see and learn about who we are” she wrote.
Contrary to most in the LGBTQ community, Herbst said she was not particularlysensitive to which pronouns people use when addressing her, and encouraged constituents to email her if they had any questions.
Herbst’s announcement comes as transgender rights have become the focus of an intense battle between state and federal lawmakers over so-called bathroom bills, including Texas’ Senate Bill 6.
According to the Texas Observer, Herbst criticized Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick on Facebook in January for pushing SB 6 as one of his priorities for 2017:
“Mr. Patrick: Let me get this straight, are you saying that right now, without your bill being passed, anyone can assault someone in the bathroom without breaking the law?” she wrote. “That [sic] some some kind of weird screwed-up loophole if so.”
While this is normally an elected position, Herbst, who was already serving as Mayor pro tem, was appointed by the town council last summer to replace the previous mayor Johnny Hamm after he died.
She is believed to be the first transgender official to have held public office in Texas, according to the Observer.
New Hope has 640 registered voters and is located in one of the Texas’ most conservative counties.
"Choose a job you love and you will not have to work a day in your life" (Confucius)
In a breathtaking shift for a state that had been mired in five years of punishing drought, 25 feet of new snow has fallen on Heavenly ski resort in South Lake Tahoe since New Year’s Day. Freeways and schools across the Sierra have been closed at times, and firefighters are having trouble finding fire hydrants.
“Some are buried under 12 or 13 feet of snow,” said Eric Guevin, fire marshal at the Tahoe-Douglas Fire Protection District in Zephyr Cove, Nevada, just north of the California state line. “We’ve had to use metal detectors to find them.”
After a week to dry off, a new round of storms is set to roll into California. A Pacific system will dump up to 3 more feet of new snow in the Sierra by this weekend.
“It’s a solid storm, not quite as big as some earlier this month, but it will still bring a decent amount of snow,” said Tony Fuentes, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Reno.
On Thursday, officials with the state Department of Water Resources are scheduled to escort reporters up to a Phillips Station, a meadow off Highway 50 near Lake Tahoe, for the monthly manual snowpack reading. The event is largely a photo opportunity that measures only one site.
But daily readings from more than 100 electronic sensors across the famed Sierra range, which stretches 400 miles from Lassen County to the Tehachapi Pass in Kern County, show that the water content in California’s vast “frozen reservoir” is already 108 percent of the April 1 historic average, with another two months still to go in the winter.
On Jan. 1, it was just 64 percent of the historic average for that date, and 23 percent of the April 1 average.
“We’ve had a tremendous increase in rainfall and snowfall so far this season,” said Doug Carlson, a spokesman for the state Department of Water Resources. “It’s way up there compared to a month ago.”
State officials are still urging caution, however, and say that Gov. Jerry Brown isn’t likely to make a decision on whether to amend or rescind the state’s emergency drought declaration from January 2014 until April, when the full winter season is over. After his administration eased state drought regulations last summer, most cities dropped surcharges, fines and lawn watering limits.
“We’re hoping people don’t get carried away by these figures and fail to recognize how quickly things can change,” Carlson said. “They can change on a dime. We are still encouraging people to be water conscious and consider water conservation to be a California way of life.”
The U.S. Drought Monitor, a weekly report put out by federal officials, reported last Thursday that 49 percent of California is no longer a drought, including every Northern California county from the Bay Area and Lake Tahoe to the Oregon border, although significant parts of Southern California and the San Joaquin Valley remain in drought.
The storms have filled reservoirs around the state. And as the year progresses and the snow melts, the runoff will send billions of gallons of additional water into rivers, streams, groundwater tables and reservoirs.
The snow also has been a bounty for Sierra ski resorts, which struggled mightily during the worst part of the drought. On Feb. 1, 2014, for example, the statewide Sierra snowpack was just 9 percent of the historic average, the lowest ever measured at that time of year — and even worse than the dismal 1976-77 drought, when it hovered in the mid-20s.
“It looks like we are headed into a record-breaking season and will be skiing well into July,” said Lauren Burke, a spokeswoman for Mammoth Mountain Ski Resort in Mammoth Lakes.
At 177 percent of average now, the Sierra snowpack is the biggest since it reached 207 percent on Feb. 1, 1995, according to state records. Since 1950, that year was the third largest snowpack, behind 1952, when it was 267 percent and 1969, when it was 230 percent, on Feb. 1.
This year, the Sierra snowpack so far ranks seventh.
Although water managers and resorts are celebrating, there have been hardships. Last week, Squaw Valley ski patrol member Joe Zuiches was killed while working to reduce avalanche risk with ammonium nitrate charges. Zuiches, 42, was an emergency medical technician and experienced mountaineer who was originally from Washington state. He died when a hand charge he was carrying exploded prematurely.
In January, Interstate 80 and Highway 50 were closed multiple times, stranding thousands of motorists, and the snow was so overwhelming at times that major ski resorts closed for several days.
“After going through five years of drought and low snowpack, initially people up here were really excited and enthused,” said Fuentes, of the National Weather Service. “We really need the water. But after a point, people started to get a little tired of it and wanted a break. It’s kind of a mixed bag. There can be too much of a good thing.
(mercurynews.com)
By Tony Cartalucci
As the world remains mesmerized by the antics of US President Donald Trump, his national security adviser Michael Flynn brazenly linked Iran to Yemeni fighters who attacked a Saudi warship, as well as cited an Iranian missile test as grounds to reverse course on US rapprochement with Tehran, concluding that Iran was “put on notice.”
Flynn would state:
In these and other similar activities, Iran continues to threaten US friends and allies in the region.
Flynn, who was head of the US Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) when a memo was published acknowledging the West, Turkey, and the Persian Gulf monarchs sought the rise of what was at the time called a “Salafist principality” in eastern Syria – precisely where the Islamic [Salafist] State [principality] now occupies, is surely aware that America’s “friends and allies in the region” include state sponsors of terrorism, including the state sponsors of the Islamic State itself.
As Flynn furiously flipped through the pages of his statement, he was signifying the predictable betrayal of the so-called “Iran deal,” meant before it was even introduced the public – as early as 2009 – to serve as a pretext not for peace, but for war with Iran.
US corporate-financier funded think tank, the Brookings Institution, in a 2009 policy paper titled,“Which Path to Persia? Options for a New American Strategy Toward Iran” (.pdf) would lay out in detail various means of provoking war and regime change against Iran.
In it, Brookings explicitly revealed how a “superb offer” would be given to Iran, only to be intentionally revoked in a manner portraying Iran as ungrateful:
…any military operation against Iran will likely be very unpopular around the world and require the proper international context—both to ensure the logistical support the operation would require and to minimize the blowback from it. The best way to minimize international opprobrium and maximize support (however, grudging or covert) is to strike only when there is a widespread conviction that the Iranians were given but then rejected a superb offer—one so good that only a regime determined to acquire nuclear weapons and acquire them for the wrong reasons would turn it down. Under those circumstances, the United States (or Israel) could portray its operations as taken in sorrow, not anger, and at least some in the international community would conclude that the Iranians “brought it on themselves” by refusing a very good deal.
The so-called “Iran deal,” introduced during the administration of US President Barack Obama,represents precisely this “superb offer,” with Flynn’s accusations serving as the “turn down” ahead of the “sorrowful” war and attempted regime change the US had always planned to target Tehran with.
In fact, Flynn would seemingly draw almost verbatim from the ploy described by Brookings in 2009, by stating:
Instead of being thankful to the United States for these agreements, Iran is now feeling emboldened … As of today, we are officially putting Iran on notice.
Flynn’s statement is particularly surreal – considering Yemeni fighters are only targeting Saudi warships because Saudi Arabia is currently waging full-scale war on Yemen. Accused on all sides of war crimes, and with the US itself even restricting weapon sales to Riyadh – if only symbolically – in response to Saudi Arabia’s aggression – Flynn still claims that the attack on Saudi Arabia’s warship constitutes justification for putting Iran “on notice.”
Claiming that Iran is “sponsoring terrorism” throughout the region, when it is currently a major member of the coalition fighting the DIA’s “Salafist principality” in both Iraq and Syria is also surreal.
Another prerequisite mentioned in the 2009 Brookings document was the need to move Syria out of the way. It appears that the US’ attempts at regime change in Syria have reached their final conclusion, failing overall, but weakening Syria significantly in the process. War on Iran – a nation taxed greatly in fighting US, European, and Persian Gulf-backed terrorist organization in Syria – may be perceived now as more preferable than before the 2011 conflict began.
Meanwhile, the political climate in the West has been so expertly manipulated that the public is either so distracted with identity politics that they are unaware and unconcerned with the prospect of war with Iran, or so hysterical over “Islam” that any nation perceived as being Muslim is seen as justifiably a target of US military aggression – regardless of how divergent any of these alternate realities are from actual reality.
Flynn’s statement encapsulates a documented conspiracy drafted under President Bush, implemented under President Obama, and finally coming into full fruition under President Trump, once again illustrating the continuity of agenda that transcends party politics, presidencies, and political rhetoric – driven by immense corporate-financier special interests, not the will of the American public.
Tony Cartalucci’s articles have appeared on many alternative media websites, including his own atLand Destroyer Report, Alternative Thai News Network and LocalOrg.
Image Credit: Pixabay.com
(activistpost.com)
The U.S. military has said that it likely killed civilians during a raid on an al-Qaeda affiliate in Yemen Sunday, with the casualties possibly including children.
In the first military operation authorized under President Donald Trump, U.S. commandos conducted a raid on a stronghold of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula(AQAP) in the al-Bayda province Sunday.
The military initially said that 14 AQAP militants, including senior al-Qaeda commander Abdulraoof al-Dhahab, were killed, while U.S. serviceman William “Ryan” Owens also died in the raid. Trump traveled to Dover Air Force Base in Delaware Wednesday to meet the family of the deceased soldier.
Marine One with U.S. President Donald Trump flies to Dover Air Force Base on February 1 in Dover, Delaware, for the dignified transfer of Navy Seal Chief Petty Officer William 'Ryan' Owens, who was killed in Yemen on January 29. The U.S. military said that civilians, including children, may have been among the casualties.BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP/GETTY
In a statement Wednesday, U.S. Central Command (Centcom) said that an investigation has concluded that “civilian non-combatants were likely killed in the midst of a firefight during a raid in Yemen,” the BBC reported. The casualties may include children, the Centcom statement said.
The casualties may have included the eight-year-old daughter of Anwar al-Awlaki, a U.S.-Yemeni militant killed in a 2011 U.S. drone strike, according to The Guardian. The girl’s grandfather, Nasser al-Awlaki, a former Yemeni government minister, toldThe Guardian that his granddaughter had been shot in the neck during the raid and died two hours later. He said that he did not think the U.S. military intended to kill his granddaughter, but also that the village targeted in the raid was not an AQAP stronghold.The civilians are thought to have been caught up in aerial gunfire, which was called in to assist the U.S. ground forces who came under heavy fire from AQAP operatives, including armed women, according to the statement.
A civil war is currently raging in Yemen between Iranian-backed Houthi rebels, who have seized much of the west of the country, including the capital Sanaa, and the exiled government of Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, which is being supported by a Saudi-led coalition. More than 10,000 people have been killed since the conflict erupted in March 2015, according to the U.N.
Various militant groups, including AQAP and the Islamic State militant group (ISIS), have taken advantage of the chaos to establish strongholds in Yemen. AQAP organized the Charlie Hebdo magazine attack in Paris in 2015, in which 12 people were killed.
(Newsweek)
Feb 1, 2017
474 people have been arrested in California in a 3 day sting operation called “Operation Reclaim and Rebuild.” Over 30 federal, state and local law enforcement agencies and task forces participated in the operation, which saved 28 children and 27 adults.
“You are worthy of more. And we will work tirelessly with our partners…to provide you services and help you rebuild your life,” Sheriff Jim McDonald said, addressing the victims during a news conference on Tuesday.
While this is a massive success for the movement to end human and child trafficking, there remains much work to be done. This huge operation will once again bring more conversation around this topic and the need for this issue to be taken even more seriously by the public. Child and human trafficking is extremely real and is prevalent, even in higher levels of governance, politics and finance.
This latest operation makes it clear too that the alleged Pizza-gate story is one that should not be dismissed without due investigation. We can’t just ignorantly dismiss something because we don’t want to believe it isn’t happening and that it might involve high level politicians and well known elites. We as a society owe all victims of this terrible crime thorough investigations into possible or suspected trafficking cases.
With that said, even if a person doesn’t believe there is a Pizza-gate happening, the topic and conversation itself deserves attention and proper investigation. Remember, there has been no official investigation one way or the other regarding the alleged Pizza-gate story that broke due to Wikileaks release of emails from John Podesta back in October 2016.
We must also remember back to when it was alleged that former BBC broadcaster Jimmy Savile was sexually abusing children, but was put off as a “conspiracy theory” only until after he died, when literally hundreds of people came forward to prove that he did sexually abuse children.
Additionally, over the years, the Vatican has paid nearly $4 billion dollars to victims of pedophilia, which stemmed from clergy members abusing children. When it comes to the elite, it doesn’t get much higher than the Vatican. If the Vatican is involved, there are certainly lower level, but still powerful, groups and organizations involved. The lies and cover-ups are unraveling.
Back in November of 2016, there were also two famous UK footballers who went public with information relating to sexual abuse they suffered as children at the hands of elites within the UK football circles.
Also back in the Fall of 2016, the FBI rescued 82 children in a nationwide child-trafficking sting operation.
What we’ve seen in recent months is this topic not only being discussed by many more people around the world, but we are seeing rescues and the truth of the situation come to light. We are seeing more momentum around this topic. Certainly, at some point the right dot will connect and it will bring down very well-known people and organizations. Additionally, the more arrests that are made, the more likely that one of those people will also be connected with some powerful people and organizations. Let’s hope that those arrested spill the beans on everything they know and everyone who has been or is involved.
Again, this is a very positive sign for all people involved and for humanity itself. The terrible crimes of human and child trafficking are coming to light. And because more is coming out, it prepares the world for even darker revelations about child trafficking and the global elite syndicate. Fascinating times we are in.
(themindunleashed.com)