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Economy

workers-manufacturing-factory

(Photo: Reuters)

The Labor Department reported that the number of first-time unemployment benefit applications fell last week to a seasonally-adjusted 276,000 from an upwardly revised 284,000 the week prior. Economists expected claims to fall to 279,000 from an initially reported 282,000.

The weekly jobless claims report released by the Labor Department is essentially the firing rate for U.S. employers, thus the report tells us that more employers are holding on to their workers longer than the previous week.

“The advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate was 1.6 percent for the week ending May 23, a decrease of 0.1 percentage point from the previous week’s unrevised rate,” the report said. “The advance number for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment during the week ending May 23 was 2,196,000, a decrease of 30,000 from the previous week’s revised level.”

While this is the lowest number since Nov. 11, 2001, the number of Americans long-term employed, which increased slightly to 2.5 million last week, does impact the number since the amount of eligible persons to file decreases over time.

The 4-week moving average — which is widely considered a better measurement as it irons out volatility — was 2,214,250, a decrease of 8,250 from the previous week’s upwardly revised average. This is the lowest level for this average since November 25, 2000 when it was 2,211,250. The previous week’s average was revised up by 1,250 from 2,221,250 to 2,222,500.

The Labor Department reported that the number

Video

In the Duggar interview Wednesday, the family sat down with Megyn Kelly on the “Kelly File” to recount the “shocking” story of their then-14 year-old son Josh. Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar, the stars of the reality TV show “19 Kids and Counting” on TLC, open up and reveal how their son told them he had inappropriately touched his younger sisters while they were sleeping, and their the difficult decision to help their son while protecting their girls.

Megyn Kelly discusses why Josh’s story was released to the media — consequently breaking laws on juvenile record release, and victimizing the victims all over again — asking the Duggars why they think the outgoing Sheriff did so 14 years later.

In the Duggar interview Wednesday, the family

Opinion

nsa-headquarters

June 6, 2013: A sign stands outside the National Security Agency (NSA) campus in Fort Meade, Md. (Photo: AP)

In their continuous efforts to create the impression that the government is doing something to keep Americans safe, politicians in Washington have misled and lied to the public. They have violated their oaths to uphold the Constitution. They have created a false sense of security. And they have dispatched and re-dispatched 60,000 federal agents to intercept the telephone calls, text messages and emails of all Americans all the time.

In the process, while publicly claiming they only acquire identifying metadata — the time, date, location, duration, telephone numbers and email addresses of communications — they have in fact surreptitiously gained access to the content of these communications.

On June 1, one of the three claimed legal authorities for all this, Section 215 of the Patriot Act, expired, as Congress was unable to agree on either its reinstitution or the enactment of a substitute. At the time that Section 215 was about to expire, President Obama, Attorney General Lynch and FBI Director Comey warned that the NSA’s computers would go dark and the American public would be at the mercy of our enemies. Their warnings were nonsense.

The NSA is a military entity that utilizes the services of military computer experts and agents, employs civilians, and hires companies that provide thousands of outside contractors. After nearly 14 years of spying on us — all authorized by a secret court whose judges cannot keep records of what they have ordered or discuss openly what they know — the NSA now has computers and computer personnel physically located in the main switching offices of all telecom and Internet service providers in the United States. It has 24/7 access to the content of everyone’s telephone calls, emails and text messages.

The data amassed thereby is so vast that the government cannot sift through it quickly or effectively enough to stop such notorious events as the Boston Marathon bombings, the Ft. Hood massacre and the attempted massacre last month outside of Dallas. The Justice Department acknowledged this last month when it revealed that all this spying has not succeeded in stopping any terrorist plots and has not aided any federal prosecutions of terrorism.

Then why do it? Because the feds want to calm American nerves by giving the impression that they are doing something — even though we know that they know that what they are doing fails to keep us safe. They are giving us a false impression. But they owe us the truth, not falsehoods designed to make themselves look like they are doing what they claim. Their spying has failed to enhance our safety.

It also has failed to protect our freedoms. The Constitution requires probable cause as a precondition for all search warrants. That is a level of evidence about the place to be searched or the person or thing to be seized sufficient to induce a judge to conclude that a crime probably has been committed. Without this probable cause requirement, nothing would stop the government from searching and seizing whatever it wants. Yet that is where we are today. The NSA’s unconstitutional standard of “government need” reinstitutes the general warrants — search where you wish and seize what you find — which the Fourth Amendment was written to prohibit.

Both the Patriot Act and the Freedom Act, the substitute law enacted by Congress, do away with the probable cause requirement. Both of those laws permit the FISA court to issue general warrants based on the government’s needs, rather than probable cause. It is the government-need standard, which is no standard at all, that has resulted in spying on all persons all the time.

When Section 215 of the Patriot Act expired, the NSA’s legal (yet unconstitutional) authority to spy did not. The propaganda that its computers were shut down is false. Section 702 of the FISA law and President Bush’s October 2001 executive order were and are still valid, and both have been interpreted to unleash the NSA.

Section 702 permits warrantless surveillance of Americans who speak with foreigners, and the NSA has gotten FISA warrants to intercept the calls of the folks to whom those Americans speak, to the sixth degree. That alone encompasses all persons in the United States. Bush’s executive order was given to all military intelligence agencies — of which the NSA is but one. It instructed the military to intercept the calls and emails of whatever Americans it needs to listen in upon to enhance safety. That executive order still stands. This is why the hand wringing and false claims that the NSA computers went dark is untruthful. The computers violate our privacy and assault our liberty and fail to enhance our safety, but they are not dark.

Last week, one of the pro-spying politicians was clever, even cute, when he issued the one-liner: “You can’t enjoy civil liberties from a coffin.” His statement was a craven articulation of failure. The government’s job is to keep us free and safe. If it keeps us safe but not free, it has failed to do its job. Today it does neither. I suggest to him Patrick Henry on this: “Give me liberty or give me death.”

Which one-liner better embodies American values, history and traditions?

Judge Andrew Napolitano weighs in on the

Opinion

Sheryl Sandberg - Washington, DC

WASHINGTON, DC – MARCH 14: Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook COO and the author of “Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead” poses for a portrait at the Willard InterContinental Washington on Thursday March 14, 2013 in Washington, DC. (Photo: Matt McClain/Washington Post)

Like so many people, my past 30 days have been full of the usual mishmash that makes life so crazy normal.

I wrote two letters to my 7-year-old grandson, covered a peace march through the streets of Cleveland and cut dog hair out of the vacuum roller. I watched LeBron lead the Cleveland Cavaliers into the NBA Finals, cooked a few dinners from scratch and fought tears the first time I saw my beloved friend smiling after major surgery that saved her life. I planted basil, scheduled a haircut and giggled as my husband drove us home with a car full of mandevilla and a dog who acted as if it were perfectly normal to be surrounded by vines in full bloom.

In those same 30 days, Sheryl Sandberg was clawing through the fog of a widow’s grief. One moment her husband, David Goldberg, was exercising. The next moment he had collapsed on the floor. He was 47 and the father of their two young children. Even if we know nothing else about them, we can comprehend the magnitude of this loss. But only if we dare.

Sandberg is the chief operating officer of Facebook and the author of the best-selling book Lean In, which spawned a movement. On Wednesday, at the end of sheloshim, a Jewish rite that marks the end of 30 days of religious mourning for a spouse, Sandberg posted on her Facebook page an essay about what this loss has done to her. It is as raw as it is hopeful, and if you’re on Facebook, you’ve most likely seen a link to it. When I began to write this Wednesday afternoon, nearly 76,000 had already shared it, and numerous news organizations had linked to it, too. Twenty minutes later, that number had climbed to nearly 85,000.

I’m drawing attention to Sandberg’s essay in case you aren’t on Facebook or are afraid to read it. I understand that fear; believe me. We’re talking about to-the-bone grief. Most of us want to avoid feeling any part of that for as long as we can.

“I have lived thirty years in these thirty days,” Sandberg wrote. “I am thirty years sadder. I feel like I am thirty years wiser.”

She offered glimpses into what her life has been like in the immediate aftermath of her husband’s death. Those who love her stepped up fast for this woman used to being in charge but paralyzed with grief. “They planned,” she wrote. “They arranged. They told me where to sit and reminded me to eat.”

She attended a parents night at her children’s school but averted the eyes of others. “I looked down the entire time so no one could catch my eye for fear of breaking down. I hope they understood.” She encouraged her closest colleagues, their faces full of fear, to ask their questions and share how they feel.

A hundred people could read Sheryl Sandberg’s essay and find a hundred different reasons to grab the arms of their chairs and try to remember to breathe. For me, it was this passage:

“I have gained a more profound understanding of what it is to be a mother, both through the depth of the agony I feel when my children scream and cry and from the connection my mother has to my pain. She has tried to fill the empty space in my bed, holding me each night until I cry myself to sleep. She has fought to hold back her own tears to make room for mine. She has explained to me that the anguish I am feeling is both my own and my children’s, and I understood that she was right as I saw the pain in her own eyes.”

I’m not a Buddhist, but I have long admired the teachings that emphasize the value of contemplating our deaths to fully experience the gift of our lives. After I first read Sandberg’s essay, I said a prayer for her and her family. Selfishly, my mind then raced to how differently I had spent my previous 30 days.

One person’s darkest days are another person’s ordinary jumble of life. This is a fact of grief, as immutable as it is confounding. Live long enough and each of us has that moment, those moments, when we look around in shock at the rest of the world, which just keeps on moving.

Without a hint of bitterness, Sheryl Sandberg is warning us to take it all in while we still can.

Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg, author of Lean

Politics

Dennis-Hastert-Getty-Images

Former Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., is in the Illinois delegation at the 2012 Republican National Convention at the Tampa Bay Times Forum. (Photo: Getty Images)

I don’t like former House Speaker Dennis “Denny” Hastert. But not because of any personal interactions. I don’t think I’ve every even been in the same room as him, much less ever met him.

But I know that he did nothing to restrain the reckless expansion of government when he had power during the Bush years. Indeed, he fought against those who tried to throw sand in the gears.

So I’ll admit a certain Schadenfreude now that he’s in legal trouble. But I’m also irked. He’s being charged with something that shouldn’t be a crime, while getting (at least so far) a free pass for the bad things that he has done.

As is so often the case, Tim Carney has the right perspective. Here’s some of what he wrote for the Washington Examiner.

If the the stories that have leaked in the media are true, the true sin Hastert committed is unspeakable, but possibly unprosecutable. There is one aspect of the Hastert scandal, however, that reflects a problem that is more troubling than “structuring” bank withdrawals
 How in the world could a school-teacher-turned lawmaker afford to pay, reportedly, $3.5 million in hush money?

Tim answers his own question, citing the government’s corrupt ban on incandescent light bulbs.

Hastert monetized his public service into a lucrative lobbying career — largely by increasing government. One telling episode begins in May 2007. Hastert at that time was a chief cosponsor of the “light bulb ban,” the law that effectively outlawed the traditional incandescent bulb, forcing consumers to buy more expensive fluorescent bulbs and LEDs. 
in March 2008, Hastert joined Polybrite “as a strategic advisor,” according to a company press release. A year later, after he had joined K Street lobbying firm Dickstein Shapiro, Hastert officially registered as a lobbyist for Polybrite
 Hastert’s first lobbying work for Polybrite
was his job to try to get stimulus money for Polybrite.

Hmmm
 I wonder is Polybrite was part of the $27 bulb stimulus scandal?

But nanny-state light bulbs are just the tip of the iceberg. Here’s another example.

Ethanol subsidies were another Hastert special. In the first three months of 2015, the ethanol industry lobby group, Fuels America, paid Dickstein Shapiro $60,000 for ethanol-mandate lobbying by Hastert and another lobbyist. All the House members Hastert had rewarded with committee assignments, earmarks and co-sponsorships were now taking phone calls from their former commander on behalf of green-tinted subsidy sucklers. This is part of how Washington turned a school teacher into a millionaire.

In other words, Hastert is a poster child (along with Harry Reid, Bob Dole, and countless others) for the proposition that Washington is basically a giant scam operated for the benefit of insiders who get rich by taking money from earners and producers and giving it to those with political connections.

Which is my message in this video from the Center for Freedom and Prosperity.

[brid video=”8397″ player=”1929″ title=”Mitchell Want Less Corruption Shrink the Size of Government”]

But now let’s return to the main topic. Hastert wasn’t charged with being a sleazy insider who used connections to pillage money from taxpayers and steer it to corrupt clients.

Instead, he’s being charged with violating “money laundering” laws that shouldn’t even exist. Here’s some of what Warren Coats (a colleague on the Editorial Board of the Cayman Financial Review) wrote on this topic.

Mr. Hastert is being charged with violating our Anti Money Laundering (AML) laws. These laws allow arresting and convicting people for moving money (as Mr. Hastert was doing) that the government thinks was the proceeds of crime (not the case with Mr. Hastert, his crime was failing to report what he planned to with his money), when they are not able to prove that there was a crime in the first place. As far as I know, paying a blackmailer (which is what Mr. Hastert apparently did) is not a crime, though demanding and receiving such money is. The United States has pushed such legislation and the new bureaucracies needed to enforce it all over the world at the cost of billions and billions of dollars (that could have been used for poverty reduction or other more pressing things) with very little if any benefit to show for it. Charging Dennis Hastert with AML violations is a rare exception. Wow, what a benefit for such intrusions into our private lives. I consider AML laws more than a costly waste of money. They are another expansion of the arbitrary power of governments that can be used for good or ill with limited oversight.

For more information, here’s the video I narrated on why it’s inefficient and intrusive to require banks to spy on their customers.

[brid video=”9365″ player=”1929″ title=”The Failure of AntiMoney Laundering Laws”]

I suppose the bottom line is that Dennis Hastert is a bad person who did bad things, so he deserves some payback. And that’s exactly what he’s getting.

But I can’t help but wish he was punished for the right reason.

P.S. Like most fans of the New York Yankees, I’m not a big fan of the irrelevant quasi-Major League team on Long Island.

But I confess my allegiances are just an accident of birth, family, and geography.

However, I now have a policy reason to dislike the Mets.

The New York Mets have become the first sports team to join the nationwide anti-gun campaign, aligning with celebrities like Piers Morgan and Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel to back today’s National Gun Violence Awareness Day. Sponsored by the Michael Bloomberg-backed Everytown for Gun Safety, people with some 200 organizations are wearing orange to draw attention to the issue. According to the group, the Mets even dressed in orange to show their support.

It’s both amazing and disappointing that there were no real Americans on the team who refused to participate in this attack on the Constitution.

To offset this bad news, here’s some anti-gun control humor to brighten your day.

Denny Hastert is a poster child (along

Polls

living-presidents

From left to right: Former Presidents George H.W. Bush, Barack Obama, George W. Bush, Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter. (Photo: Reuters)

Democrats are flipping out over a new CNN/Opinion Research poll that found a majority of Americans now view George W. Bush favorably. By a 52 to 43 percent margin, Americans for the first time since the 43rd President left office (in the CNN Poll) have a favorable impression of him.

In fact, Americans now like W. more than the current — President Barack Obama — who is less like than, well, any of the living presidents.

There is little doubt that this represents a marked shift and is bitterly ironic considering much of Obama’s political success can be attributed to his successful scapegoating (fairly or not) of President Bush. But, from an analyst’s point of view, there is both reason for the Democrats to flip out and for Republicans to proceed with extreme caution.

First, historically speaking, Americans’ views have always grown more favorably toward U.S. president’s as their time from the Oval Office grows distant, including former President Richard Nixon. There are a few reasons for this, the first of which simply being that they are no longer in the day-to-day dirty game of politics.

In that respect, Democrats can take a bit of solace.

That being said, there is another component to this that they cannot take solace in, and actually became pretty clear long before the release of the CNN/Opinion Research poll. In 2013, Gallup tracking found Bush’s favorability ratings hovering just under a 50-percent majority during the April opening of his presidential library at Southern Methodist University in Dallas. However, not only was he above water (49 – 46 percent), but he was bouncing back faster than unpopular presidents historically have done in modern American politics.

Bush favorability rating

Worth noting, the voters of Ohio began to wish they had Bush back as early as 2010, according to a survey conducted in the weeks leading up to the 2010 Tea Party landslide.

Why?

I wouldn’t attribute the marked shift to one factor per se, but rather it is more accurate to view Bush’s image among Americans through a “then and now” perspective. Because he left office with such abysmal approval and favorability ratings — only 50 percent of self-described conservatives holding a favorability opinion of him — we more often than not forget that he was once held in the highest regard, more so than any other president.

It’s true.

Before the house of cards fell down, Americans viewed Bush more favorably than unfavorably, including an astonishing and record 87 percent who held a favorable view of the commander-in-chief in a November 2001 survey. It the days and months after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the nation rallied behind him. His favorability rating was just one percentage point below the all-time high Gallup has ever measured for any public figure, and shared by only Colin Powell in 2002 and the golf star Tiger Woods in 2000, before he was scrutinized in the public for indiscretions.

And then there is the now.

The polls unequivocally demonstrate that Americans do not feel safe under President Obama, have the highest level of anxiety regarding radical Islam than ever before, and simply do not trust the 44th President to calm their fears. This is an across-the-board problem for Obama, and it’s one that has benefited Bush among nearly every segment of the American people.

In the CNN Poll, which is less favorable to Bush than other surveys, the former president has gained 21 points among non-whites since leaving office; 22 percent among liberals; 15 percent among Democrats and 10 points among voters under 35 years old.

Lastly, the blame Bush mantra is no longer working for President Obama, who Americans overwhelmingly disapprove of on general matters of foreign policy. For the first time, when asked whose policies were more at fault for the current problems the U.S. faces in Iraq, slightly more blamed Obama than Bush.

Sometimes, seeing really is believing.

Democrats are flipping out over a new

Economy

US-Trade-Deficit-Reuters

Stacked shipping containers in U.S. trade port. (Photo: Reuters)

The Commerce Department on Wednesday said the U.S. trade deficit shrunk by 19.2 percent in April, the sharpest drop in more than six years. The West Coast port strike, which was resolved in February, caused big swings in the trade gap the first several months of the year.

The latest report sent equities even higher on Wall Street Wednesday. If the data holds up to scrutiny and future revisions, it will no doubt be a boon to U.S. economic growth, or second quarter gross domestic product (GDP). The trade deficit increased to its highest level in more than six years in March, slicing off a percentage point from first quarter GDP, which in at a negative 0.7 percent.

Still, it is feared the contraction will continue, technically sending the economy into another recession. Consequently, polling surveys find that the American people still believe the U.S. economy is in a recession, and pluralities believe it never truly came out of one since the Great Recession.

 

The Commerce Department on Wednesday said the

Economy

service-sector-cubicle-reuters

(Photo: Reuters)

Growth in U.S. non-manufacturing sector lost some momentum in May, according to the Non-Manufacturing ISM Report On Business Survey released Wednesday. But the report noted employment was still growing, a positive sign ahead of Friday’s May payrolls report.

“The NMI registered 55.7 percent in May, 2.1 percentage points lower than the April reading of 57.8 percent,” Anthony Nieves, CPSM, C.P.M., CFPM, chair of the Institute for Supply Management Non-Manufacturing Business Survey Committee said. “This represents continued growth in the non-manufacturing sector although at a slower rate.”

Economists polled by The Wall Street Journal had expected last month’s service sector index to be little changed at 57.1.

Earlier Wednesday, data provider Markit said its service-sector composite slowed to 56.2 in May from 57.4 in April. As with the ISM, Markit readings above 50 indicate activity is expanding.

In the ISM report, the indexes of various business activities were still relatively positive and remain in growth territory, unlike the higher paying manufacturing sector data released by ISM this month. The ISM’s Chicago barometer found Midwest manufacturing contracted last month.

“Slowing service sector growth adds to signs that the US economy has lost some momentum after an initial bounce-back from weather-related weakness at the start of the year,” Chris Williamson, Chief Economist at Markit said. May’s PMI data showed service sector activity rising to a slightly smaller degree than signalled by the flash reading. Alongside the slowdown in manufacturing, the services PMI points to the weakest pace of US economic growth since January.

Production also slowed but not by much after a large gain in April, while the business activity/production index fell to 59.5 from 61.6. New orders slowed to 57.9 last month from 59.2 in April, and the exports index increased to 55.0 after tanking to 48.5 in April, down from 59.0 in March.

Unlike the Markit survey, the ISM report was portrayed on the Street as upbeat regarding payroll reports ahead of Friday’s employment number. The ISM employment index fell only a bit to 55.3 from 56.7 in April, and earlier Wednesday, payroll processor ADP said it’s National Employment Report estimated U.S. service providers had created 192,000 new jobs in May.

The ISM nonmanufacturing report is comprised mainly of comments from service-sector companies that make up the bulk of the U.S. economy, but it also includes construction and public administration.

Growth in U.S. non-manufacturing sector lost some

Economy

jobs-report-getty

SAN FRANCISCO, CA – MAY 30: A job seeker holds a pamphlet during a job and career fair at City College of San Francisco southeast campus on May 30, 2013 in San Francisco, California. Hundreds of job seekers attended a career fair hosted by the San Francisco Southeast Community Facility Commission. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

The U.S. private sector job creation stood at 201,000 jobs in May, which is 1,000 jobs more than the 200,000 jobs Wall Street expected. The ADP National Employment Report was welcome news during an otherwise abysmal economic month on Wall Street, which saw equities jump on the data.

Perhaps the most optimistic piece of data in the report was the 122,000 jobs that came from small business companies with 49 or fewer employees. Under much of the Obama administration tenure, and for the first time in U.S. history, small business creation lagged behind small business failure.

May 2015 Small Business Report Highlights*

Total Small Business Employment: 122,000

By size:

  • 1-19 employees 75,000
  • 20-49 employees 47,000

By sector for 1-49 employees:

  • Goods producing 12,000
  • Service providing 110,000

By sector for 1-19 employees:

  • Goods producing 7,000
  • Service providing 67,000

By sector for 20-49 employees:

  • Goods producing 5,000
  • Service providing 42,000

* Sum of components may not equal total, due to rounding.

The ADP National Employment Report found U.S.

US

Ibrahim-Rahim-facebook-image

Imam Ibrahim Rahim, the older brother of Usaama Rahim, 26, who was shot outside a CVS Pharmacy in Roslindale, Mass. at approximately 7 a.m. local time Tuesday June 3 after the Joint Terrorism Task Force approached Rahim to question him about “terrorist-related information” they had received. (Photo: Facebook)

Imam Ibrahim Rahim, brother of Boston terror suspect shot by cops appears to have questionable ties, as well

Imam Ibrahim Rahim, the brother of the Boston terror suspect who as shot dead after he attacked police with a knife, claims his brother was unjustly murdered. But Rahim, who studied Islamic law at the University of Medina (KSA), has made a number of questionable or concerning remarks in the past online.

Ibrahim- Rahim-Facebook-screenshot

Boston Police Commissioner William Evans said officers, who wanted to question his role in a plot to attack Boston police officers, repeatedly ordered Rahim to drop the knife. However, he continued to move toward them, according to Evans, who said task force members hit Rahim once in the torso and once in the abdomen. Rahim was taken to Brigham and Women’s Hospital, where he was pronounced dead. A law enforcement official with intimate knowledge of the case told PPD that Rahim had been plotting to behead Boston law enforcement personnel and members of their families.

Here are a few responses from friends on imam Rahim’s Facebook page:

  • Akh, our prayers are with u and your family as u partake in this trial. Verily this ummah is as one body… Inna lillahi wa Ina ilayhi rajioon. May he be received in Hannah as a martyr.
  • Ű„ÙÙ†ÙŽÙ‘Ű§ لِلّهِ ÙˆÙŽŰ„ÙÙ†ÙŽÙ‘Ù€Ű§ Ű„ÙÙ„ÙŽÙŠÙ’Ù‡Ù Ű±ÙŽŰ§ŰŹÙŰčون May Allah grant our brother Jannat al Firdous (the virgin paradise) and humiliate & destroy his murderers. Ameen
  • Wow just got a channel 5 update. News is reporting it as a terrorist investigation with FBI and police.
  • ina lillahi wa inna llilayhi rayoon (“Surely we belong to Allah and to Him shall we return”) Brother Imam. This is a heartbreaking circumstance! May Allah give your family patience and justice against those who target our people unjustly!!! ALLAHUMA AMEN
  • I am so sorry for your loss–My thoughts and prayers are with you and Usaama. Heaven will serve these murderers justice.

It took all of a few minutes of looking through his Facebook posts to find that the imam, himself, holds some questionable views and very questionable ties. Mr. Rahim has repeatedly posted them online for all to see. However, it remains a mystery why the same media outlets reporting his aforementioned claim have yet to report on his social media activity. Instead, they have given him a platform to cast doubt on the Boston Police Department’s story.

Rahim’s Facebook timeline is filled with the same double-talking, Jew-hating, terror group-supporting rhetoric we have come to hear from CAIR, and other so-called moderate muslims that seek to turn radical Islam into the victim, and pretend to refuse to recognize reality.

Ibrahim- Rahim-Facebook-screenshot-1

Bin Bayyah, a controversial pro-Hamas scholar, was the vice president of the International Union of Muslim Scholars, a group founded by a radical Egyptian cleric. Yusuf Qaradawi, the man with the money, is a Muslim Brotherhood leader who has called for the death of Jews and Americans. He was banned from visiting the U.S., and the International Union of Muslim Scholars said in 2004 that it was the duty of Muslims to kill U.S. soldiers in Iraq.

Because of Rahim’s praise of Bayyah, it should come as no surprise that Israel-bashing is another hot topic on his social media sites. In a March 26 post, he expresses outrage over what he claims is an injustice regarding the treatment of Palestine juxtaposed to the events in Yemen. Naturally, unlike Palestine, the Yemeni people didn’t elect radical Islamists to rule their country, but rather they forcefully overthrew the secular government and forced Iran’s proxy rule on the strategically vital country.

Ibrahim- Rahim-Facebook-screenshot-3

On May 3, 2015, he posted a link to the CNN story about the thwarted terror attack on the Muhammed drawing contest in Garland, Texas. Yet, despite follow up posts commenting on the protests outside of the Phoenix mosque where the terrorists attended, in which he claims to support American laws and the U.S. Constitution, his chief complaint wasn’t the fact two radicals tried to gun down a room full of unarmed people exercising their First Amendment rights. Instead, he saw the event as an attack on Islam and the latest example of Islamophobia in Christian America.

Ibrahim- Rahim-Facebook-screenshot-2

They didn’t just happen “to have the entire building on lockdown and SWAT team waiting.” They were prepared due to the open and credible threats on Pamela Gellar and the event, which were widely known to law enforcement.

“Does NOT get any more transparent than this! Wake up!” he wrote on May 4, 2015, signing the post “Imam.”

(On Aril 11, 2015: “One day Allah Willing, I will go to Senegal and sit at the doorway of no-return where my ancestors were taken away to America as slaves. In that doorway, I will recite the entire text of the Holy Quran in Arabic from Fajr until Maghrib (sunrise-sunset) to announce to my forefathers that their taken-son has returned!”)

Ibrahim- Rahim-Facebook-screenshot-4

The Imam Suhaib Webb, of the Islamic Society of Boston, is a so-called “moderate” and darling of the politically correct “mainstream” media. Yet, it didn’t find us to long to dig up this video of his openly calling for an Islamic state, trashing secularism as a a “radical lunatic ideology.”

[brid video=”9348″ player=”1929″ title=”Imam Suhaib Webb of the Islamic Society of Boston Calls for Islamic State”]

You may remember the Islamic Society of Boston from the Boston Marathon bombing headlines. In addition to the Tsarnaev brothers, they have been investigated and remain under certain investigations for their numerous ties to those who have committed acts of Islamic terrorism.

Webb dismisses the American ideal that government derives its just powers from the consent of the governed, and the embracing of the idea that the law of Allah constitutes the only legitimate constitution and government. He also calls Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a Somali-born female activist and victim of female genital mutilation for her criticism of Islam, an “idiot.”

Coincidentally, the Islamic Society of Boston Cultural Center said its security firm hired Rahim, the deceased terror suspect, as a security guard for a month in mid-2013. As far as PPD has learned, he served only as a loss prevention officer at CVS. Executive director Yusufi Vali, the head of a center that has been surrounded by controversy in the past due to their connection to known jihadis, said Rahim didn’t regularly pray at the center and didn’t volunteer there or serve in any leadership positions.

That excuse has been the Center’s go-to response following similar revelations in the past.

Later Tuesday, the FBI and local police arrested a man at a home in Everett, Mass., in an action authorities said was related to the Roslindale shooting. Christina Diorio-Sterling, a spokeswoman for U.S. Attorney Carmen Ortiz, said David Wright was taken into custody from his home in suburban Everett. She said Wright will face federal charges and is expected to appear in U.S. District Court on Wednesday.

Imam Ibrahim Rahim, the brother of the

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