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- DNA Evidence Reportedly Proves Ilhan Omar married her brotherIs this the proof that Ilhan Omar married her own brother to bypass US immigration rules? DNA test from ‘congresswoman’s cigarette butt’ purports to show 99.99% match to her second husband Ahmed Elmi By Martin Gould In Washington, D.c. A supposed DNA match between Rep. Ilhan Omar and her second husband Ahmed Elmi allegedly proves that the two are siblings. The match says that Omar’s DNA was taken from a cigarette butt, while Elmi’s purportedly came from a drinking straw. Omar has never before … Continue reading DNA Evidence Reportedly Proves Ilhan Omar married her brother
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Category Archives: News
Ilhan omar connected cash-for-ballots harvesting scheme EXPOSED “Money is the king in everything”; harvester boasts harvesting HUNDREDS of 2020 absentee ballots ILLEGALLY! “Numbers do not LIE…
A ballot-harvesting racket in Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar’s Minneapolis district — where paid workers illegally gather absentee ballots from elderly Somali immigrants — appears to have been busted by undercover news organization Project Veritas.
One alleged ballot harvester, Liban Mohamed, the brother of Minneapolis city council member Jamal Osman, is shown in a bombshell Snapchat video rifling through piles of ballots strewn across his dashboard.
“Just today we got 300 for Jamal Osman,” says Mohamed, aka KingLiban1, in the video. “I have 300 ballots in my car right now . . .
“Numbers don’t lie. You can see my car is full. All these here are absentee ballots. . . . Look, all these are for Jamal Osman,” he says, displaying the white envelopes.
“Money is the king in this world . . . and a campaign is driven by money.”
The video, posted on July 1, was obtained by Project Veritas and included in a 17-minute video expose released Sunday night.
Under Minnesota law no individual can be the “designated agent” for more than three absentee voters.
The allegations come just five weeks before a presidential election plagued with predictions of voter fraud. Both President Trump and Attorney General Bill Barr have warned that the increased use of mail-in ballots, due to COVID-19 concerns about in-person voting, are vulnerable to fraud, especially when unsolicited ballots are mailed to all voters in certain states.
Project Veritas’ investigation in Minneapolis will pour gasoline on the fire, only 48 hours before Trump debates Joe Biden in the first presidential debate Tuesday, addressing topics including election security.
“Our investigation into this ballot harvesting ring demonstrates clearly how these unscrupulous operators exploit the elderly and immigrant communities” said James O’Keefe, founder and CEO of Project Veritas.
The alleged involvement of Ilhan Omar, a controversial member of the Squad, and frequent Trump target, is claimed on camera by two people in Veritas’ investigation, including whistleblower Omar Jamal, a Minneapolis community leader and chair of the city’s Somali Watchdog Group.
He claims Mohamed is “one of” Ilhan Omar’s “many people.”
“It’s an open secret. She will do anything that she can do to get elected and she has hundreds of people on the streets doing that,” he told Veritas in an on-camera interview last Tuesday.
“It’s not only her. It’s all this DFL [Democratic-Farmers-Labor] machine [that’s] in . . . the state of Minnesota . . .
“The regulations, if you ignore that and you let corruption and fraud become a daily business and then tough luck, the country will not exist as they [Americans] know it.”
Also implicating Ilhan Omar’s campaign in the scheme is an anonymous Minneapolis-based former political worker, who told Project Veritas that, before Minnesota’s primary elections, August 8, ballot harvesters “took every single ballot” from elderly people in a Minneapolis public housing complex — the Charles Horn Towers.
“Knock on the door and say, ‘your ballots come? Give it to me.’ ”
She alleges Ilhan Omar’s long-serving staffer, campaign deputy district director Ali (Isse) Gainey, was “coordinating everything.”
Gainey, “who is working in Ilhan’s campaign, is the one who is managing the voting place. They bring them. They line them. They put the open ballots in there and then they take them in and say, ‘Here,’ and the people mark [the ballots] . . .
“They have perfected this system,” she said. “They will tell you we are applying for your ballot. They take a picture of your social security and your driver’s license. They have a database. When the ballot comes, they track it. Sometimes, they make fake emails. They track the ballot. Then they come and pick up the ballot, unopened . . .
“They don’t give a s–t about any Somali . . . The DFL wants to win this state at all costs . . . and the victims is the Somali people.”
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She also alleged that young people and women were paid for their ballots before last month’s Minnesota primary.
“Cash, cash, cash. They were carrying bags of money. . . . When you vote and they mark you off, then you get in the van, they give you the cash.”
Federal laws forbid paying someone to vote or register to vote, or intimidating voters.
Jamal, who has worked with Minnesota’s Ramsey County Sherriff’s Office on deradicalization education, helped Project Veritas investigators unveil what he calls “ongoing election fraud” which victimizes his community. He secretly recorded conversations with alleged ballot harvester Mohamed and a member of the DFL, Minnesota’s version of the Democratic party.
In one call, Mohamed allegedly explains ballot harvesting: “You request for the ballot. It will be sent to your house. You will fill it out and then send it.”
Omar asks: “So they request for the elderly?”
Mohamed says: “Yes, they request for them.”
Omar: “And it is taken away from them?”
Mohamed: “Yes, it is taken away from them.”
In another call, Mohamed says: “I’m working for Jamal Osman [who is] running for city council in Minneapolis. That’s my young brother.”
Osman, a member of the DFL, won the Ward 6 race for Minneapolis City Council in August.
Another grab from Mohamed’s Snapchat with the time stamp 1:59 am, July 2, shows a man brandishing a wad of about 30 ballots with the words “OFFICIAL ABSENTEE BALLOT” on the front of envelopes. “Two in the morning, still hustling,” he says.
Project Veritas’ investigation raises serious concerns about the security of mail-in ballots, and intimidation of vulnerable voters.
While FBI Director Christopher Wray told the Senate last week, “we have not seen, historically, any kind of coordinated national voter fraud effort in a major election,” troubling examples have arisen in recent months.
In Paterson, New Jersey, two officials were charged with election fraud last month after hundreds of mail-in-ballots were discarded. In Pennsylvania, nine military ballots from the 2016 election, most for Trump, were found in a dumpster, it was revealed last week.
A ‘Supreme’ marriage
There is much to admire about Amy Coney Barrett. But let’s start with her marriage.
In her speech in the Rose Garden Saturday to accept the president’s nomination to the Supreme Court, the 48-year-old mother of seven paid tribute to her husband of 21 years, Jesse Barrett.
“At the start of our marriage, I imagined that we would run our household as partners.
“As it has turned out, Jesse does far more than his share of the work. To my chagrin, I learned at dinner recently that my children consider him to be the better cook!
“For 21 years, Jesse has asked me every single morning what he can do for me that day. And though I almost always say, ‘Nothing,’ he still finds ways to take things off my plate.
“And that’s not because he has a lot of free time. He has a busy law practice. It is because he is a superb and generous husband, and I am very fortunate”.
It must be disappointing for leftists that this is not the “Handmaid’s Tale” nightmare they like to paint of faithful Christian marriages, but a respectful partnership, with mutual generosity and love, between a woman who does not deny her femininity and a man who has not sacrificed his masculinity.
Successful marriages are not celebrated enough, and yet they are everything to a healthy society.
ILHAN OMAR’S MINNEAPOLIS DISTRICT — WHERE PAID WORKERS ILLEGALLY GATHER ABSENTEE BALLOTS FROM ELDERLY SOMALI IMMIGRANTS
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congresswoman Ilhan Omar married her own BROTHER|somali community leader said
- Wheelchair-bound Abdihakim Osman came forward last month to confirm to DailyMail.com that Ilhan Omar married her own brother
- A woman close to Omar has posted a YouTube video packed with degrading insults about Osman
- Malyun Ali pressed members of her Somali-American clan to go after him
- ‘Why are you not protecting us from this nasty man who is composed only of a head and a stomach,’ she said
- Osman has a ‘big bell, small udder, pillar-like head’, she added, and mocked his disability which was caused by contracting polio as a child in Somalia
- ‘Why don’t you stop this crippled dog?,’ she asked
- Osman has made a complaint to the Minneapolis police
The man who came forward to say on the record that leftist congresswoman Ilhan Omar married her own brother has told DailyMail.com he is now in fear for his life.
A woman close to Omar posted a YouTube video packed with degrading insults about wheelchair-bound Abdihakim Osman and pressed members of her Somali-American clan to go after him.
Abdihakim Osman says he has been threatened since blogger Malyun Ali posted a video on YouTube inciting members of her clan to go after him +20
Abdihakim Osman says he has been threatened since blogger Malyun Ali posted a video on YouTube inciting members of her clan to go after him
Osman has made a complaint to police in Minneapolis and repeatedly demanded that YouTube take down the offending video — which was met with silence from the media giant until DailyMail.com asked why it was still on the site.
It finally removed it on March 10, replacing it with a note saying: ‘This video has been removed for violating YouTube’s policy on harassment and bullying.’
In the video, the woman, Malyun Ali, asked members of Omar’s Majeerteen clan ‘What is wrong with you?
Witten in the Somali language and translated of a special in African languages at the University
‘Why are you not protecting us from this nasty man who is composed only of a head and a stomach,’ she added, insulting his disabled status.
‘You Majeerteen men…why don’t you defend us from this person…this fat ram who gets money taken from the taxes we pay.’
She went on to say Osman has a ‘big bell, small udder, pillar-like head’ and mocked his disability which was caused by contracting polio as a child in Somalia.
‘You Majeerteen men, we despise you,’ she added, talking to her clan members. ‘You are letting this ox seated on the ground harass us.
‘Why don’t you stop this crippled dog?’
Ali did not respond to an email sent by DailyMail.com for comment. Instead she posted the email on her Facebook page under a picture of herself captioned: ‘I cannot be silenced.’
Ilhan Omar and Abdihakim Osman, here during her 2016 election campaign for he Minnesota House of Representatives, had been close friends for years. +20
Osman, 40, came forward last month in a DailyMail.com exclusive to confirm that Omar, a freshman congresswoman from Minnesota, had married her own brother, Ahmed Elmi, to allow him to get student loans in the United States.
Elmi and Omar both went to North Dakota State University.
Osman said Elmi suddenly appeared in the Somali community in Minneapolis in the late 2000s and both Omar and her then-husband Ahmed Hirsi told him that Elmi was her brother.
He said no-one knew they had married until the press uncovered their marriage certificate many years later, which showed they had gone to a Christian minister to perform the service even though they are both Muslim.
Osman was particularly close to Hirsi — the father of Omar’s three children — and occasionally helped out at his hookah bar.
Now though, he says he is living in fear. ‘I am very careful where I go. I have changed all my routines, he told DailyMail.com through an interpreter.
‘I am sure they will do something and make it look random. I am very worried and I am very scared. But I want to make it clear — I’m pre-reporting so when it does happen people will know it is because of this video.’
He said he believes followers of Ali — a popular Somali YouTube personality — will eventually get him.
‘They will retaliate either by setting me up for a crime or something or they will physically harm me,’ he said.
‘YouTube will have to bear the consequences if anything happens to me. I am a disabled man and she is threatening me. It has been shared thousands of times,’ he said before the video was removed.
YouTube only took down Ali’s post after DailyMail.com asked the company, part of the giant Google empire, why it was still on the site
It has long been rumored that Omar and Elmi (pictured) are siblings, but because of a lack of paperwork in war-torn Somalia, positive proof has never been uncovered +20
It has long been rumored that Omar and Elmi (pictured) are siblings, but because of a lack of paperwork in war-torn Somalia, positive proof has never been uncovered
Osman said: ‘When [Hirsi] and Ilhan got married, a lot of people were invited. It was a big Islamic wedding uniting two large clans in the Minneapolis community. I would say there were 100-150 people there.’ But, he said: ‘When she married Elmi, no one even knew about it.’ Pictured: Omar (left) with Elmi (right) +20
Osman said: ‘When [Hirsi] and Ilhan got married, a lot of people were invited. It was a big Islamic wedding uniting two large clans in the Minneapolis community. I would say there were 100-150 people there.’ But, he said: ‘When she married Elmi, no one even knew about it.’ Pictured: Omar (left) with Elmi (right)
‘Squad’ congresswoman Ilhan Omar told friends years ago that the man who went on to become her second husband was in fact her brother, DailyMail.com can confirm. And now for the first time one of those friends has come forward to reveal exactly how Omar and Ahmed Elmi scandalized Minneapolis’s large Somali community – while she was still married to her first husband Ahmed Hirsi (pictured together) +20
‘Squad’ congresswoman Ilhan Omar told friends years ago that the man who went on to become her second husband was in fact her brother, DailyMail.com can confirm. And now for the first time one of those friends has come forward to reveal exactly how Omar and Ahmed Elmi scandalized Minneapolis’s large Somali community – while she was still married to her first husband Ahmed Hirsi (pictured together)
Elmi and Omar married on February 12, 2009 at a Hennepin County office in Eden Prairie, Minnesota, southwest of Minneapolis, their license shows. The marriage was conducted by Christian minister Wilecia Harris. When DailyMail.com approached her last year, she would not discuss the ceremony or why a Muslim couple would have asked her to marry them +20
Elmi and Omar married on February 12, 2009 at a Hennepin County office in Eden Prairie, Minnesota, southwest of Minneapolis, their license shows. The marriage was conducted by Christian minister Wilecia Harris. When DailyMail.com approached her last year, she would not discuss the ceremony or why a Muslim couple would have asked her to marry them
A company spokeswoman told DailyMail.com: ‘Nothing is more important than protecting the safety of our community.’
Despite the threats he has received, Osman said he does not regret his decision to come forward and tell what he says is the truth about 37-year-old Omar.
‘I decided to out her and to use my name and I am proud and happy that I did.’
Osman is a member of the Dhulbahante clan, many of whom resent the Majeerteen for allegedly lording it over them for too long. ‘The Majeerteen think they’re royalty,’ one Somali leader said.
Rep. Ilhan Omar’s second husband was her brother
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Hirsi, Omar’s ex-husband, is a member of a third clan, the Habargidir. He has kept quiet since he and the congresswoman divorced in November, leading to claims he received a six-figure settlement to stay mum. Soon after the agreement was reached he swapped out his old Nissan Maxima for a BMW 528i, which sells for $54,000 new.
Omar is believed to have received a large advance for her memoir This Is What America Looks Like which is due out in May.
The divorce came after DailyMail.com revealed that Omar was having an affair with her chief fundraiser, Tim Mynett. Mynett and his wife Beth Jordan divorced in December.
In his only public comment, Hirsi posted on Facebook last month: ‘Ilhan and I had an amicable divorce. We are focused on being great parents to our children. That is the most important thing to us.’
He said he has not and will not attack his ex-wife or back any of her three primary rivals. ‘I am not supporting or involved in the campaigns of any of Ilhan’s opponents, contrary to what you might hear,’ he wrote.
Facebook photos of Somalian YouTube star Malyun Ali, who said Rep. Ilhan Omar is free to marry 50 men if she wants to +20
Facebook photos of Somalian YouTube star Malyun Ali, who said Rep. Ilhan Omar is free to marry 50 men if she wants to
Ali Feer, who refers to herself as M. M. S (Mama Malyun Suuban), pronounces her nickname like a rapper promoting her album and then adds, “BAM!” +20
Ali Feer, who refers to herself as M. M. S (Mama Malyun Suuban), pronounces her nickname like a rapper promoting her album and then adds, “BAM!”
Abdihakim Osman (pictured with Hirsi) is the first person to go on record to speak of how Omar said she wanted to get her brother papers so he could stay in the United States, at a time when she was married to Ahmed Hirsi. But hardly anyone realized that meant marrying him +20
Abdihakim Osman (pictured with Hirsi) is the first person to go on record to speak of how Omar said she wanted to get her brother papers so he could stay in the United States, at a time when she was married to Ahmed Hirsi. But hardly anyone realized that meant marrying him
‘No one knew there had been a wedding until the media turned up the marriage certificate years later,’ Osman, 40, told DailyMail.com +20
‘No one knew there had been a wedding until the media turned up the marriage certificate years later,’ Osman, 40, told DailyMail.com
‘Using our divorce to go after Ilhan isn’t something I will even condone.’
Osman said since his interview he has received support from Hirsi’s clan. ‘I have had Habargidir come up and kiss me in the supermarket. I now go to where the Habargidir go, the same coffee shops and malls.
‘I have even changed my mosque,’ he added.
Ali’s video is the culmination of a long-running feud between her and Osman, who runs a popular Somali-language Facebook blog called Xerta Skekh. ‘They are both people who like to stir things up,’ another Somali leader said.
Osman said his page has been inundated with threatening messages since DailyMail.com published his accusations about Omar. Many, he said, are purporting to be from people with Anglicized names, but he believes they are Somalis with false accounts.
One man, using the name Allan Landman, posted a message saying: ‘Shariah law will allow his accusers to kill him.’
‘That’s ironic,’ said Osman. ‘Ilhan Omar having an affair with a married man is much more against Shariah law than anything I have done.’
He also said Omar supporters have threatened to report him to the Minneapolis Public Housing Authority for his anti-gay postings, in a bid to get him kicked out of his home.
Osman, who describes himself as a devout Sunni Muslim — he broke away from the interview to pray at one point — admits he is anti-gay rights because Islam forbids homosexuality. ‘It is haram,’ he said, using the Islamic term for a prohibited activity.
In her video, Ali describes herself as Omar’s aunt, but sources say the
two are not blood relations, merely members of the same clan.
‘But a clan relative is just as close as a real relative,’ one Somali leader told DailyMail.com. ‘She is insulting the men of her own clan, calling them effeminate for not doing anything about what Abdi has said.’
Ilhan Omar’s ex-husband has officially remarried
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Osman is a member of the Dhulbahante clan, many of whom resent the Majeerteen for allegedly lording it over them for too long. ‘The Majeerteen think they’re royalty,’ one Somali leader said +20
Osman is a member of the Dhulbahante clan, many of whom resent the Majeerteen for allegedly lording it over them for too long. ‘The Majeerteen think they’re royalty,’ one Somali leader said
Malyun Ali is an American citizen, who lived in Minneapolis for several years before relocating to Arizona. More recently she has been living in Kenya. +20
Malyun Ali is an American citizen, who lived in Minneapolis for several years before relocating to Arizona. More recently she has been living in Kenya.
Malyun Ali is an American citizen, who lived in Minneapolis for several years before relocating to Arizona. More recently she has been living in Kenya. +20
Malyun Ali is an American citizen, who lived in Minneapolis for several years before relocating to Arizona. More recently she has been living in Kenya.
YouTube eventually took down Malyun Ali’s video on March 10, nearly three weeks after it was first posted, saying it violated the company’s policy on harassment and bullying +20
YouTube eventually took down Malyun Ali’s video on March 10, nearly three weeks after it was first posted, saying it violated the company’s policy on harassment and bullying
In the video, Ali, speaking in Somali, said: ‘I am addressing the wise Majeerteen elders and the religiously educated men, why are you watching this crushed metal can-like man abuse us?
‘Don’t we have young men? Don’t we have elders? If we fail to be protected by the law, we better be protected by your five fingers,’ she said using a Somali phrase meaning personal strength.
‘Oh, you Majeerteen men in the streets, stop this man from what he is doing. You are camped in the town of Minnea-hopeless from which I moved because of curses. May the curse be on you.
‘Why are you afraid? Are you afraid of being arrested? Are you afraid of prison?’
She also accused Osman of being an alcoholic and a drug addict, both of which would go against the tenets of Islam. ‘I have never had a single drink of alcohol or taken any illegal drugs,’ Osman said.
‘Even when I go to a hookah bar I only smoke the nicotine-free stuff.’
Ali is an American citizen, who lived in Minneapolis for several years before relocating to Arizona. More recently she has been living in Kenya. She runs her YouTube page under the pseudonym MMS —Mama Malyun Suuban. Suuban was her mother’s maiden name.
Osman did not claim that Ilhan Omar herself is behind the threats or knew of them in advance.
When allegations that Omar’s husband was also her brother first appeared, the congresswoman said the idea that the spouses were also siblings were ‘baseless, absurd rumors’, accusing journalists of Islamophobia, but has since stayed quiet.
Her spokesman now says she does not discuss her personal life, ignoring the fact that marriage fraud is a federal crime.
In her video attacking Osman, Ali barely addressed that controversy: ‘He said she married one man — let her marry 50. She has her freedom.’
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Somaliland’s president has reportedly rejected a conditional offer by a delegation of Chinese “wolf warrior” diplomats to cut ties with Taiwan
Bihi refused to meet with “the oppressive ambassador
TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Somaliland’s president has reportedly rejected a conditional offer by a delegation of Chinese “wolf warrior” diplomats to cut ties with Taiwan, and added that he is taking steps to strengthen relations with the country.
On Monday (Aug. 3), news broke that President Muse Bihi Abdi has directed “close confidants” to examine ways of bolstering Somaliland’s relations with Taiwan, including “the possibility of mutual recognition between Taiwan and Somaliland.” On Tuesday, reports surfaced that a Chinese delegation would visit Somaliland on Wednesday (Aug. 5), while China’s ambassador, Qin Jian (覃儉), has reportedly been in the self-ruled state since Saturday (Aug. 1) attempting to arrange a meeting with Bihi.
Researcher and analyst Rashid Abdi on Tuesday posted a tweet in which he wrote that Qin “started putting on the ‘warrior diplomacy’ act and threatening Somaliland,” but that Bihi rebuffed his tactics and hours later ordered his ministry of foreign affairs to begin the process of recognizing Taiwan. Twitter account Somalia News on Wednesday stated local reports indicated that Bihi refused to meet with “the oppressive ambassador.”
On Thursday (Aug. 6), the Somaliland Chronicle cited government sources as saying that Bihi met with the delegation, which included Qin, for several hours. During the meeting, the Chinese side offered a development deal which included road and airport infrastructure projects and the installation of a liaison office in Somaliland on the condition that Bihi sever ties with Taiwan.
Bihi reportedly rejected the Chinese offer and informed them that rather than cut ties with Taiwan, his country is actually “working to strengthen diplomatic ties with Taiwan.” The newspaper on Monday reported the president has ordered an analysis of the TAIPEI Act, which was signed into law in the U.S. in March, and to present him with options and an assessment of “the pros and cons of unilateral recognition of Taiwan.”
What is of particular interest to Bihi is Section 3, Item 2 of the TAIPEI ACT, which states that the U.S. government should consider “increasing its economic, security, and diplomatic engagement with nations that have demonstrably strengthened, enhanced, or upgraded relations with Taiwan.” Bihi’s government may be particularly emboldened after the White House National Security Council (NSC) on July 10 posted a tweet lauding Taiwan for increasing its engagement in East Africa and included a link to a U.S. News & World Report article announcing the establishment of Taiwan-Somaliland ties.
In response to reports of Somaliland considering diplomatic recognition of Taiwan, MOFA spokesperson Joanne Ou (歐江安) on Monday said the ministry does not comment on reports by the Somaliland media that have not cited their sources. She added that MOFA and its Somaliland counterpart will “continue to consult on establishing future bilateral cooperation plans based on the principle of mutual benefit and reciprocity and to promote the economy and people’s livelihoods.”
When Tsai took office in 2016, she refused to recognize the 1992 Consensus and only acknowledged that the 1992 Taiwan-China talks were a “historical fact.” In response, China has been seeking to punish Taiwan by stealing away diplomatic allies through its debt-trap diplomacy tactics.
Since the outbreak of the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, Chinese diplomats have started to lash out at critics and attempt to intimidate their counterparts with a new “wolf warrior” ploy. The term “wolf warrior” refers to a Chinese propaganda film that depicts People’s Liberation Army (PLA) soldiers fighting foreign mercenaries who are led by a character named “Tom Cat.”
Shakir Essa served as manager at somaliland press media and Somali news tv
How Immigrant Twin Brothers Are Beating Trump’s Team on Facebook
Occupy Democrats, a Facebook page that Rafael and Omar Rivero started eight years ago, has emerged as a counterweight to right-wing meme machines.
endorsement of Joseph R. Biden Jr. was viewed more than four million times.
But another Facebook page, run by twin brothers who immigrated from Mexico, reached substantially more eyes. Their reposting of Mr. Obama’s endorsement, with a simple “BREAKING” text over the video, clocked over 23 million views.
Meet Rafael and Omar Rivero, the co-founders of Occupy Democrats, the social media mavens of the left who are quickly emerging as a counterweight to the dominance of right-wing online sites.
In a presidential race playing out on iPhones and screens more than any in history, in part because of the coronavirus pandemic, these digital entrepreneurs can drive the political conversation online and influence how candidates are seen as much as a campaign’s well-funded digital advisers can.ADVERTISEMENT
The twins, 33, started the Occupy Democrats Facebook page eight years ago and, combined with an accompanying website, they have reached a digital dominance rarely seen among liberals — one that keeps pace with viral news sites and regularly outperforms President Trump’s own page, as well as the Daily Caller, Fox News and other right-wing websites or personalities. What was once a hobby between gigs has grown into a full-fledged, full-time operation with five additional staffers.
Over the past month, nearly half of the 40 top-performing videos on Facebook that mention “Trump” were from Occupy Democrats. They have had a top-10 performing post on Facebook regularly for months. A video they recently posted called “The Liar Tweets Tonight,” sung by a choir of individually recorded voters to the tune of “The Lion Sleeps Tonight,” was viewed 41 million times, among the most-watched videos on Facebook over the last month.
“Democratic voters are tired of the Democratic Party kind of taking barrages from Republicans on the right on social media and Trump himself, taking that lying down and not fighting back,” Omar Rivero said. “So we fight back with the truth. But we make sure that we punch them in the mouth with the truth.”
Though they claim not to have taken tactics from the right, there are some clear commonalities between the Occupy Democrats posts and some of the right-wing sites that have mastered the art of writing shareable copy that acts like gasoline on a social media outrage fire — amplified by anger-inducing adjectives contextualizing the news, or an all-caps “BREAKING” to introduce a post.ADVERTISEMENT
They also are relentless in their posting on Facebook. On Sunday, a relatively slow news day by the Trump-era pandemic standards, the Facebook page published 80 items, a mix of original, text-heavy memes; cross-posts from Mr. Biden’s social media pages; commentary with links to mainstream news stories and videos; and links to original posts on the Occupy Democrats website.
It has helped them earn 25 million more interactions than Mr. Trump’s page, and 63 million more interactions than Mr. Biden’s over the past 30 days on Facebook, according to CrowdTangle, a Facebook-owned data tool.
Occupy Democrats is a rare bright spot for a party and political wing that once was proudly “the party of tech” but has since ceded nearly every digital stronghold to the right. As Mr. Biden, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, is moving headlong into a general election with a digital operation that is dwarfed by the Trump campaign, the Occupy team has started to step in.
“I think one of the big mistakes of 2016 was not immediately embracing Hillary as a change agent and as someone to get excited about,” Rafael Rivero said.
Rafael also wanted to prove that, yes, Mr. Biden could indeed go viral.
On the same day Senator Bernie Sanders suspended his campaign, Rafael started the “Ridin’ with Biden 2020” page, employing meme tactics, social media copy and video promotion similar to those that power the central Occupy Democrats page.
An Avengers-esque meme of Mr. Biden, Jill Biden, Mr. Obama and Michelle Obama striding across the White House lawn overlaid with the text “When America Was Great” reached 2.2 million viewers.
Soon, the “Ridin’ With Biden” page was outperforming the campaign’s own account, with their own content.
A digital video ad released by the Biden campaign received more than one million views on Facebook, a successful showing for most campaigns. But on “Ridin’ With Biden,” it got 8.6 million views, with little added window dressing than text on the video that read: “Holy cow … this Biden ad is GOOD 🔥🔥🔥.”
When the Occupy page shared the live video of Hillary Clinton endorsing Mr. Biden, the live viewership jumped from 15,000 to 25,000 in a matter of minutes.
Democratic campaign operatives note that these types of booming online communities benefit from being a bit rougher around the edges.
“They’re able to say things that are not quite as polished as what the parties are going to produce or what the Biden campaign is going to produce, or any campaign,” said Kenneth Pennington, a Democratic digital strategist who was Mr. Sanders’ digital director in 2016. “But it’s kind of the unvarnished, unpolished stuff that actually does really well online because people are seeking that kind of authentic sass.”
Mr. Pennington added that these types of pages can help boost a campaign as well, crediting a different Facebook page — The People for Bernie Sanders — as one of the reasons Mr. Sanders catapulted “from a no-shot candidate into an online sensation that raised $230 million in 2016.”
While the social media dominance of Occupy Democrats may surprise some, social media experts note that there has always been a liveliness among liberal groups online, but they just get less attention.
Whitney Phillips, a media studies and communications professor at Syracuse University, said the reported distress on the left about “losing the edge on social media” wasn’t the full picture. “The framing is maybe not fully representing all of the activity and all the vibrancy that’s happening on the left because all the stories get written about what Ben Shapiro is up to,” she said, referring to the popular conservative writer.
Occupy Democrats, a Facebook page that Rafael and Omar Rivero started eight years ago, has emerged as a counterweight to right-wing meme machines.
The video of former President Barack Obama endorsing former vice president Joseph R. Biden Jr. was viewed more than 23 million times on Occupy Democrats’ Facebook page.
Occupy Democrats does try to give readers their vegetables, too. A post about Senator Mitch McConnell’s comments on the newest Democratic proposal for a coronavirus relief package, for example, included highlights from the Democratic proposal.ADVERTISEMENThttps://e9a82a00fde94b3b898e9c9acfe89e55.safeframe.googlesyndication.com/safeframe/1-0-37/html/container.html?n=0
“People clicked to be mad about McConnell, but while they read about that, they learn about what the Democrats are doing,” said Colin Taylor, the editor in chief of Occupy Democrats. “In this kind of outrage-heavy online sphere, it’s kind of hard to get people’s attention with the more wonky stuff.”
The group’s origins date to the movement that informs its name — and a dissatisfaction with it. The Rivero twins found themselves in Zuccotti Park back in 2012, when the Occupy movement had camped out in Lower Manhattan and quickly garnered a national news profile. Both brothers were drawn to the ideals of the movement — economic equality, social justice and addressing climate change — but they saw the Occupy movement’s leaderless ethos as a critical failure, and one that would never allow it to grow.
“I looked around and thought, wow, there’s not a single Occupy congressman,” Omar Rivero said. “In the end, we’re not pulling the levers of power. So I thought, well, you know, maybe we should try to make Occupy a force that not only helps Democrats but also keeps them honest. Similar to what the Tea Party is doing to Republicans.”
Omar turned to his twin brother, who was running his own real-estate rental business in Miami at the time, to put his graphic design background to use and join the effort.
“My mom staged an intervention, literally, with my aunt and uncle,” Rafael said. “They thought, you guys got the scholarships to Swarthmore and Cornell, and you guys are throwing all that away to focus on something called a Facebook page.”
But with Rafael making memes, the page began to grow. Quickly. The two moved to California and lived in a friend’s pool house. When the demand for content grew beyond the twins’ capabilities, they posted hiring ads on Craigslist. Mr. Taylor, a former line cook who blogged on the side, was their first hire, and the pool house soon doubled as the Occupy newsroom, now with multiple writers churning out dozens of posts a day, building both the Facebook page and the website into traffic machines.
They survived the reorientation of the Facebook algorithm after the 2016 election — which pushed down independent, less verified sites in favor of more mainstream news content — by repeatedly boosting and sharing mainstream news articles, introduced with their own spin. Though they had to lay off a few writers in the wake of those Facebook changes, they have kept churning out content.
And, of course, countless memes.
The memes and videos are what generate the most engagement, and Occupy Democrats’ white-and-yellow text on a black background both grabs the eye with its harsh color contrast and conveys a sense of urgency. Distilling the news into a single shareable photo that remains on Facebook has quickly caught on, particularly among older users.
But with this newfound power, the Rivero brothers want to expand and build a broader network with other Democrats.
“We’re not only the largest political network on Facebook, but we’re the largest partisan political network on Facebook,” said Omar. “And I think that the Democrats should take advantage of that.
SHAKIR SERVED AS MANAGER AT ALLAFRICAS.COM and NEWS MEDIA TV,
Shakir Essa
His latest work is A Life Well-Lived, a selection of photos and stories of people across Nebraska highlighting their stories from the past 70 years. These are photographs and stories of those who might be forgotten in the rush of history.
Omar Implies Somali Community Leader Was Paid To Say She Married Her Brother
Democratic Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar on Thursday denounced allegations by a Somali individual in Minnesota who says he knows Omar married her brother, with the congresswoman suggesting that the man is being paid to make the accusations.
Abdihakim Osman — who is a member of the Somali community in Minneapolis and says he has long known Omar’s family — told the Daily Mail that she admitted to friends years ago that the second man she married was her brother, and that the marriage was conducted in order to score immigration benefits. In response, Omar suggested Osman was paid to make up the story.
“Paying people to generate fake new stories in order to delegitimize me and those I represent isn’t a good look,” Omar tweeted Thursday, following publication of the Daily Mail story. “Desperation is a sad mobilizing tool.”
The tweet was in direct response to a now-deleted tweet by “The View” co-host Meghan McCain, who had shared the story on her account.
Ilhan Omar tweet. 2.20.20
Omar has long faced accusations that her second husband, Ahmed Elmi, is actually her brother. Conservative journalist David Steinberg has, since at least 2018, cited social media posts to argue that Omar and Elmi are siblings.
Traffic records, marriage certificate records and divorce records obtained by the Washington Examiner indicate Omar was living with her first husband while being legally married to Elmi, despite saying she was separated from her first husband at the time.
Evidence obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation suggests Elmi helped Omar’s sister build a website, undermining an oath taken by Omar that she was unable to make contact with him.
Osman noted to the Daily Mail that Omar, a devout Muslim who wears a hijab, had a Christian minister conduct her 2009 wedding with Elmi.
Unlike her first wedding with Ahmed Hirsi — which was widely celebrated among the local Somali community and conducted in the Muslim tradition, her wedding with Elmi was conducted in relative secrecy by a Christian minister and registered with the state, Osman said.
Osman said locals weren’t even aware of the wedding ceremony until media unearthed the marriage certificate years afterward. Omar conducted a Christian wedding because an imam would have known the two were brothers and would’ve refused to marry them, he added.
Omar, for her part, has adamantly denied the accusations and mounting evidence, calling allegations that she married her brother “absurd and offensive.” The Democratic congresswoman has since refused to address the issue, saying she does not speak about personal matters.
Osman operates a Facebook account called Xerta Shekh, according to the Daily Mail. He denied Omar’s claim that he was paid to make the allegation, calling the congresswoman a “pathological liar” in a Facebook post Thursday.
Rep. Omar (Alex Wong/Getty Images)
“I am going to declare under perjury of law that I have not received one single penny from anyone to discuss Ilhan Omars [sic] issues. Ilhan Omar is a pathological liar who has lied about many people in different elections,” Osman wrote on Facebook, although it’s not clear if he has taken any sort of oath.
“Ilhan has lied to the people of America [sic] specifically the poor Somali people who trusted her to be their helper in Congress. She lied through her teeth to elderly people who stood in line for hours to vote for their dreams which they saw in her,” he continued.
Screen shot of Xerta Shekh’s (aka Osman) Facebook post.
The DCNF reached out to Omar’s office about her accusation, but did not receive a response.
Osman first arrived in the United States in 2004, and said he became acquainted with Hirsi during his first few years in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The two first met when Hirsi worked at a local barber shop, and the two frequently ate at the now-closed Indian Ocean restaurant, Osman told the Daily Mail.
Osman also said he helped Hirsi when he opened up his own business, Urban Hookah, working at the till on occasion. That establishment has since closed down.
Speaking through an interpreter, Osman told the Daily Mail that, years ago, Omar told friends that she would “do what she had to do to get [Elmi] ‘papers’ to keep him in U.S.”
“She said she needed to get papers for her brother to go to school. We all thought she was just getting papers to allow him to stay in this country,” Osman said, becoming the first person to publicly come forward and say that Omar once admitted to marrying her brother. (RELATED: Ilhan Omar Continues To Dump Big Bucks Into Alleged Boyfriend’s Firm)
The accusations against Omar have been difficult to confirm because of a lack of paperwork in war-torn Somalia, her country of birth.
The New York Post reported in January that the FBI was investigating whether Omar married her brother to fraudulently score him a green card, and that any information gleaned from the investigation would be shared with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), citing a source with knowledge of the events.
Steinberg, who has been tracking the Omar saga for years, was the first to report that the congresswoman was under FBI investigation.
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Somaliland rejects proposed visit by Ethiopia PM, Somali president
Somaliland rejects proposed visit by Ethiopia PM, Somali president
©AfricaNews
2 hours ago
Somalia
Somaliland has rejected a planned joint visit by Somali president Mohamed Abdulahi Farmaajo and Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed.
A high-ranking official in Somaliland had confirmed a proposed visit to Hargeisa by Abiy and Farmaajo on the initiative of the PM. Hargeisa is capital of Somaliland, an autonomous region of Somalia.
Voice of America journalist and author of “Inside AlShabab,” Harun Maruf posted a tweet that said Somaliland’s chairman of House of Elders Suleiman Mohamoud Aden as saying PM Abiy Ahmed was “pushing for a joint visit to Hargeisa by him and Somalia President Mohamed Abdullahi Farmajo.”
It is the first concrete report of an information that started making the rounds on Twitter on Saturday evening when a post to that effect was made by one Khaalid Foodhaadhi.
A meeting between leaders of Somalia and Somaliland in Addis Ababa was brokered by Abiy last week after the 33rd African Union summit.
The Somali presidential spokesman confirmed that the “ice-breaking” meeting had indeed taken place between Farmaajo and Somaliland’s Muse Bihi.
Days later, Farmaajo made a public admission over excesses by the Siad Barre regime in the late eighties against Somaliland. An admission that received largely good comments on social media.
The planned joint visit to Hargeisa has also received positive traction as many people on social media see it as a positive first step towards finding an amicable solution to the longstanding rift between Somalia and Somaliland.
Bihi, Farmajo Meeting To Feature In Ethiopia PM’s Talks
Bihi, Farmajo Meeting To Feature In Ethiopia PM’s Talks
14th February 2020
The expansion of the Somaliland Port of Berbera and the meeting between Somaliland and Somalia leaders will be among the discussions points between Ethiopia Prime Minister Aby Ahmed and the United Arab Emirates leadership this weekend.
Ethiopia Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed landed in Abu Dhabi on Thursday evening for a round of talks with the hosting government over trade partnerships and efforts to find peace in the horn of Africa.
Abiy was received at the Presidential Airport by Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed, Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Co-operation, and Sheikh Theyab bin Mohamed, Chairman of Abu Dhabi Crown Prince’s Court.
Sheikh Abdullah welcomed Abiy and discussed relations and co-operation between the two countries and ways to tackle issues of mutual interest.
Abiy is accompanied by his wife, Zinash Tayachew, Dr Hirut Kassaw, Minister of Culture and Tourism, Adanech Abebe, Minister of Revenues, and Muferiat Kamil, Ethiopian Minister of Peace.
Ethiopia and the UAE have partnered with Somaliland in the expansion of the port of Berbera which once completed will be the biggest in the region.
UAE’s DP World is expanding the port at a cost of USD 442 Million and is also expected to set up an economic free zone complement the growth of the Port of Berbera as a regional trading hub.
Somalia has been against the expansion of the port claiming Somaliland has no right to enter any international agreements.
Somaliland separated from Somalia in 1991 and declared its own independence. The two countries have been at loggerheads since then.
But early this week, the Ethiopian Prime Minister brokered a meeting between Somaliland president Musa Bihi and Somali president Abdullahi Farmajo in Addis Ababa, talks that lasted for an hour.
Ethiopia and the UAE believe that a lasting solution between Somalia and Somaliland is vital for their interests in the horn of Africa.
This is Abiy’s second trip to UAE in less than one year.
UAE was one of the Gulf nations Abiy visited last year as part of pooling regional support, especially for economic reforms. The Crown Prince also visited Addis Ababa in 2018.
Ethiopia – UAE relations have been on an upward trajectory over the course of 2018.
Over the last decade, the UAE has gradually increased its presence in the Horn of Africa, using development and humanitarian projects to boost its prominence.
It has significantly invested in ports, logistics and trade developments, to secure its port empire across the strategic Bab el-Mandeb Strait by the Red Sea, to profoundly boost its international trade and regional soft power.
The Emirati-owned company DP World’s opening of a port in Djibouti in 2008 signalled a developing presence in the relatively then-untouched Horn of Africa.
Ethiopia has served as a key platform for growing UAE influence, where Abu Dhabi alongside Saudi Arabia helped broker a peace deal with Eritrea, after a two-year state of war between the two states.
It has since continued to shower Ethiopia with aid, also carrying out key development projects. The UAE had also built an oil pipeline between Eritrea and Ethiopia, and Emirati companies have increased investment particularly in Ethiopia.
Such moves are also an attempt to compete with Turkey, Iran and Qatar, whose increasingly positive ties with east African states are met with unease by Abu Dhabi.
A setback for the UAE’s political ambitions in the Horn of Africa, however, are its ties with Somalia who have grown closer to Turkey, a key Emirati rival.
In response, the UAE has focused its support on Somalia’s autonomous regions.
The UAE and Ethiopia last February agreed to cooperate to turn Somaliland into a “major regional trading hub,” which helps the UAE’s ally Ethiopia gain greater trading access, and subsequently boost the UAE’s own trading and economic capabilities.
Furthermore, its alliance with Ethiopia, which also invests in Somaliland’s Berbera port, has helped the UAE gain greater control over it.
The UAE has also attempted to build a military and naval base in Somaliland.
Leaders of Somalia, Breakaway Somaliland Meet for First Time
Leaders of Somalia, Breakaway Somaliland Meet for First Time
By The Associated Press
Feb. 12, 2020
Updated 7:23 a.m. ET
MOGADISHU, Somalia — The current leaders of Somalia and the breakaway territory of Somaliland have met for the first time in the latest diplomatic effort by Ethiopia’s Nobel Peace Prize-winning prime minister.
Somali presidential spokesman Abdinur Mohamed confirmed Tuesday’s meeting to The Associated Press, saying it was brokered by Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia’s capital.
“It was behind closed doors and no communique is being released. It was an ice-breaking one,” the spokesman said.
Ethiopia’s government has not commented publicly on the talks, which occurred on the sidelines of an African Union gathering.
Continue reading the main story
Somaliland broke away from Somalia in 1991 as the country collapsed into warlord-led conflict, and it has seen little of the violence and extremist attacks that plague Somalia to the south. Despite lacking international recognition, Somaliland has maintained its own independent government, currency and security system.
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Somalia considers Somaliland as part of its territory. Several rounds of past talks over possible unification have failed to reach a breakthrough.
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This week’s meeting is the first since Somali President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed and Somaliland leader Muse Bihi Abdi took office in 2017.
Somali officials have blamed Somaliland leaders over the failure of past talks, accusing them of failing to show seriousness. Somaliland leaders have dismissed the allegations and insisted that their sovereignty is nonnegotiable.
Continue reading the main story
Since taking office in 2018, Ethiopia’s leader has worked to achieve a number of diplomatic breakthroughs in the long-turbulent Horn of Africa region.
Somalia’s president faces a number of challenges in the months ahead. The country hopes to achieve its first one-person-one-vote election by the end of this year. It would be the first in 50 years. But the United Nations envoy for Somalia has pointed out the lack of “effective cooperation” between Somalia’s central government and its states as a major obstacle.
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Shakir Essa 