RFK Jr. sought meeting with Kamala Harris on Cabinet job in exchange for endorsement

 Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. attempted to arrange a meeting with Vice President Kamala Harris last week in which he would offer to drop out of the 2024 race and endorse her in exchange for a spot in her administration – potentially a Cabinet-level position. 

But Harris, 59, has not demonstrated any interest in meeting with Kennedy, let alone taking him up on his offer, the Washington Post reported on Wednesday. 

“From the beginning of this campaign, we were saying people should be talking to each other,” Kennedy told the outlet. “That is the only way of unifying the country.”

Harris has not expressed any interest in meeting with Kennedy.AFP via Getty Images

The 70-year-old White House hopeful argued that it would be a “strategic mistake” for the Harris campaign to not consider his proposal. 

“I think they ought to be looking at every opportunity,” he said. “I think it is going to be a very close race.”

A spokesperson for the Kennedy campaign suggested that the independent candidate is open to making the same proposal to former President Donald Trump. 

“Mr. Kennedy is willing to meet with leaders of both parties to discuss the possibility of a unity government,” the campaign official told The Post. 

Trump, 78, reportedly met with Kennedy in Milwaukee last month, on the first day of the Republican National Convention, in an effort to gain his endorsement.   

The Harris campaign did not respond to The Post’s request for comment. 

Kennedy reportedly met with Trump last month.AP

Kennedy’s campaign has floundered since peaking at 15% support last November, according to a Fox News poll released Wednesday. 

The outlet’s latest survey shows Kennedy mustering only 6% support. 

The same poll showed the independent pulling more support away from Trump than Harris, with 9% of voters that backed Trump in a two-way race going for Kennedy when given that option and 7% of Harris supporters doing the same. 

An Albany court ruled Monday that RFK Jr., will not appear on New York ballots in November because he does not actually live at the  Westchester County address he listed as his place of residence in election filings.

The ruling, made in response to a lawsuit filed by a super PAC that had backed President Biden, spoiled Kennedy’s bid to appear on ballots in all 50 states, and it could have repercussions in other states where he listed the address as his home. 

Kennedy told the Washington Post that he has not had any contact with the Democratic Party since launching his campaign other than through litigation. 

“The only contact I have with the DNC is them suing me through intermediaries,” he said.

https://nypost.com/2024/08/14/us-news/rfk-jr-sought-meeting-with-kamala-harris-to-discuss-cabinet-job-in-exchange-for-endorsement/

Danish justice minister denounces gangs who hire teenage Swedes to kill in Denmark

' Last year, Swedish authorities estimated that 62,000 people in Sweden were linked to criminal gangs. They often recruit members in socially disadvantaged immigrant neighborhoods and most of the violence occurs in Sweden’s three largest cities: Stockholm, Goteborg and Malmo.'

Danish Justice Minister Peter Hummelgaard on Monday denounced organized criminal gangs who hire Swedish teenagers to carry out deadly shootings in Denmark, saying it “reflects a totally sick, depraved culture of violence.”

Hummelgaard said that since April there have been 25 episodes where young Swedes have been hired by Danes to commit crimes in Denmark.

Hummelgaard was reacting after broadcaster TV2 showed him a printout from an encrypted Swedish chat that said hitmen were sought to shoot named people in Denmark, together with a price list ranging from 300,000 to 500,000 kronor ($28,500 to $47,500).

“It’s terrifying in every way and it makes me angry. Really, really angry,” Hummelgaard said, adding he would “put pressure on Sweden so that they also take responsibility for these things.”

Sweden has grappled with gang violence for years, while in Denmark, police have also seen violence between gangs but on a lesser scale.

Last year, Swedish police noted an increase in the number of teenagers under 18 who were recruited to carry out hits because they do not face the same police controls as adults and are often shielded from prosecution.

Hummelgaard met Monday with the head of Denmark's national police, Thorkild Fogde. They discussed ways to tackle the issue, including introducing facial recognition technology and software to access encrypted messages.

“It’s about technology, about digital tools, the dark web. The technology that is at our disposal. There is a whole catalog of technical tools to use,” Fogde told reporters.

Hummelgaard called facial recognition technology “a very, very good idea” but said that the law needed to be changed to permit it. He said that would be done as soon as possible.

One of the main criminal gangs in Denmark is Loyal to Familia which was banned in 2021. Danish police say it is feuding with an unnamed gang.

“Their members are probably the ones who are stopped and searched most often by the police,” sociologist Aydin Soei told Danish broadcaster DR last week after two Swedish teenagers — aged 17 and 16 — were held in pre-trial detention for shootings in Kolding, western Denmark, and in Copenhagen respectively.

“It is convenient (for them) to be able to use Swedish children as cannon fodder, unfortunately,” Soei said.

Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said that it was “an eerie example that cynical criminals hire Swedish youths to commit crimes in Denmark. We will not accept that.”

Last year, Swedish authorities estimated that 62,000 people in Sweden were linked to criminal gangs. They often recruit members in socially disadvantaged immigrant neighborhoods and most of the violence occurs in Sweden’s three largest cities: Stockholm, Goteborg and Malmo.

In 2022, Sweden saw figures for gang-related shootings skyrocketing to 391, with 62 deaths, according to official police statistics, though the number has fallen somewhat since, with 164 shootings and 22 deaths recorded in the first seven months of this year.

In Denmark, some 1,257 people were known to authorities for having connections to organized crime at the end of last year, according to official figures. Most of the violence in Denmark takes place in Copenhagen and its suburbs.

Danish police recorded 21 cases of gang-related shootings in 2023, with four deaths, down from 33 with six deaths two years earlier. Police recorded two shootings and one death in the first quarter of 2024.

https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/danish-justice-minister-denounces-gangs-hire-teenage-swedes-112772285

'US military sex assault cases much higher than official estimates, study finds'

 The number of sexual assaults in the U.S. military is likely significantly higher than official government estimates, according to a new study released on Wednesday.

The Department of Defense estimated approximately 35,900 sexual assault cases in 2021 and 29,000 in 2023, but the study's author said a synthesis of independent data yielded estimates of 75,569 cases in 2021 and 73,695 in 2023, more than twice as high.

On average, nearly one-quarter of active-duty women and 1.9% of active-duty men experienced sexual assault during the years of the Afghanistan war from 2001 to 2021, according to the study, which was published by the Costs of War project at Brown University's Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs.

Black women and LGBTQ service members were more likely to experience sexual harassment and assault, according to the paper.

The prevalence of sexual assault has remained high despite years of efforts to address the problem, the study said.

"During the post-9/11 wars, the prioritization of force readiness above all else allowed the problem of sexual assault to fester, papering over internal violence and gender inequalities within military institutions," the study's author, University of Sheffield Professor Jennifer Greenberg, wrote.

In a statement, the Pentagon said it would be "inappropriate to comment on the methodology of studies not conducted by the Department."

"The Department continues our sustained progress to build strong command climates and prevent sexual assault, assist sexual assault survivors with recovery, and hold alleged offenders appropriately accountable," the statement added. "Sexual violence will not be tolerated, condoned, or ignored within our ranks."

In 2021, U.S. lawmakers approved a defense bill that included an overhaul of the military justice system, taking decisions on whether to prosecute cases of rape or sexual assault out of the hands of military commanders.

Those provisions were inspired by the case of Vanessa Guillen, a 20-year-old Army specialist who was murdered after reporting sexual harassment.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/us-military-sex-assault-cases-183201603.html

Israel publishes plan for new West Bank settlement as regional tensions simmer

  Israel has published plans for one of its proposed new settlements in the occupied West Bank, finance minister Bezalel Smotrich said on Wednesday, upping the ante a day before planned new Gaza peace talks seen as vital to preventing a regional war.

The far-right minister said the move was a response to actions by the Palestinian West Bank leadership and countries which have recognised a Palestinian state.

"No anti-Israel or anti-Zionist decision will stop the development of the settlement. We will continue to fight against the dangerous idea of a Palestinian state. This is the mission of my life," said Smotrich.

Most United Nations member states consider settlements built in the West Bank and other territory Israel captured in the 1967 Middle East war to be illegal under international law. Israel disputes this, citing the Jewish people's historical and biblical ties to the land.

Israel announced in June it was going to legalise five outposts in the West Bank, establish three new settlements, and seize huge swathes of land where Palestinians seek to create an independent state, further inflaming Palestinian anger.

The Palestinian Authority, which exercises limited authority over the West Bank under Israeli military occupation, reiterated that settlement construction and the demolition of Palestinian homes constituted ethnic cleansing, an allegation Israel has denied.

In May, Spain, Ireland and Norway joined the majority of U.N. states that have recognised a Palestinian state, viewing the establishment of such a state alongside Israel as the only way to secure lasting peace between Israel and the Palestinians.

Israel criticised their move as bolstering Hamas, the militant group that controls Gaza, and has condemned the Palestinian Authority for backing an international case accusing it of genocide, a charge which Israel firmly denies.

A new round of internationally mediated talks to try and end the 10-month-old war between Israel and Hamas and secure the release of Israeli hostages held in Gaza is due to take place in Qatar on Thursday, although Hamas has said it will not attend.

The new 60 hectare settlement called Nachal Heletz will form part of the Gush Etzion settlement cluster and connect the region with nearby Jerusalem, said Smotrich, who heads a pro-settler party and who himself is a settler.

Peace Now, an Israeli NGO, said: "Smotrich continues to promote de facto annexation, disregarding the UNESCO Convention that Israel is a signatory to, and we will all pay the price."

The Gaza war threatens to spill into a regional conflict involving Iran and its proxies, including Hezbollah in Lebanon. Israel is braced for significant Iranian and Hezbollah attacks following the killing of a senior Hezbollah commander in Beirut and the political leader of Hamas in Tehran.

Little progress has been made on achieving Palestinian statehood since the signing of the Oslo Accords in the early 1990s.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/israel-publishes-plan-west-bank-122838581.html

Taliban Flexes US Weapons In Military Parade, Left Behind By Biden-Harris' Botched Afghan Exit

 The Biden-Harris administration's poor planning and execution in Afghanistan resulted in the botched withdrawal that killed 13 US service members, left Americans stranded, and allowed billions of dollars in US military equipment to flow into the hands of the Taliban terror group.

Since the Afghan government's collapse in August 2021 under Biden-Harris, the war-torn nation (thank you, Bush/Cheney), landlocked in the Middle East, has once again become a safe haven for terrorism. The chaotic withdrawal allowed Taliban fighters to commandeer Black Hawk helicopters, A-29 Super Tucano attack aircraft, armored Humvees, and 600,000 weapons, including grenade launchers, machine guns, and rifles.

There has been zero accountability from President Biden or Vice President Kalama Harris over these colossal failures. Even to the extent that Biden made the stunning claim during the presidential debate in June that he was "the only president this century" and "this decade" that did not have any troops "dying anywhere in the world."

Meanwhile, Americans might get fired up after learning that Taliban fighters have showcased all of Biden-Harris' gifts from the botched exit in a massive military parade, marking the third anniversary of the takeover of Afghanistan. 

What were those gifts? 

Here's what X users are saying:

• "If this doesn't raise your BP and your temperature, then you don't realize what the Biden/Harris Administration did: they have made the Taliban a 21st century kinetic warfare force," one X user said. 

• Another person said, "The Democrat’s presidential nominee made it possible for this Taliban parade to happen. Yes, those are our vehicles and weapons, left behind by Biden/Harris." 

Harris' presidential campaign has been running far from her 3.5-year toxic track record as VP, with elderly Biden guiding rudderless foreign policy that has led the world to the brink of war. 

The Biden-Harris duo has little to show for their time in office. Even White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre could not name one of Harris' accomplishments. 

All Harris needs to do - is continue to avoid all press conferences and hide under the cloak of far-left corporate media that has launched a massive info war to convince the American people the person who pushed terrible economic, domestic, and foreign policy is the best choice in November. 

https://www.zerohedge.com/military/taliban-flexes-us-weapons-military-parade-left-behind-biden-harris-botched-afghan-exit

'Physician-owned hospitals could boost rural healthcare: AMA'

 A bill calling for the establishment of physician-owned hospitals would improve access to healthcare in rural areas, the American Medical Association wrote in an Aug. 14 article.

The Physician Led and Rural Access to Quality Care Act would allow the creation of certain physician-owned hospitals, as outlined in the article.

Physicians would be allowed to open a hospital in a rural area that is a 35-mile drive or farther from another hospital, or a 15-mile drive in areas with secondary roads or mountainous terrain, according to the bill. Existing physician-owned hospitals would also be able to expand services.

The bill proposes changes to the Affordable Care Act, which effectively halted expansions of existing physician-owned hospitals and prevented the opening of new ones, the AMA wrote.

Physician-owned hospitals grew from fewer than 70 across the U.S. in the early 2000s to about 250 by 2010, according to the organization.

"That growth was spurred by demand for general acute care hospitals in some markets and opportunities to boost clinical operations and surgical procedures through facility specialization," the AMA wrote.

Michael Burgess, MD, Tony Cardenas, Morgan Griffith and Vincent Gonzalez introduced the bill in the House on July 11. 

The AMA also supports the Patient Access to Higher Quality Health Care Act, which would remove the ban on new or expanded physician-owned hospitals, according to the article.

https://www.beckershospitalreview.com/:physician-owned-hospitals-could-boost-rural-healthcare-ama