Friday July 19th, 2024

"It Is Not A Question of Who Is Right Or Wrong But What Is Right Or Wrong That Counts."
--Geoff Metcalf
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World & Nation

‘Wow, what was that — it can only be a bullet’: Trump talks for first time of assassination attempt

                                                Watch: Trump makes appearance at the ...

Former President Donald Trump revealed Thursday that the thing that saved his life last weekend was that he was turning his head to look at one of his immigration charts.

That motion of his head caused the would-be assassin’s bullet to graze his head, rather than hit the target squarely, Mr. Trump said at the Republican National Convention.

“Without that chart, I would not be here today,” Mr. Trump said.

The chart shows changes in illegal immigration at the border over time. It shows a massive drop in illegal activity at the end of his administration, followed by the worst numbers in U.S. history beginning with President Biden.



FBI: Rally Shooter May Have Scoped Site 6 Days Earlier

                                                  Trump rally gunman: What we know about ...

Rally shooter Thomas Matthew Crooks may have been scoping out the site of the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump six days before the Pennsylvania campaign event took place, according to federal investigators.

Geolocation data found on a cell phone linked to Crooks, 20, showed that he could have been near the Butler Farm Show grounds in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 7, a week before the shootings that injured Trump and two rallygoers and killed local firefighter Corey Comperatore, who was shot as he tried to shield his family from the gunfire, reports The New York Times.

The FBI shared the information this week during a congressional briefing




Worldwide Technical Outage Disrupts Flights, Banks, Media

                                            Azure, Microsoft 365 Outages

A software update wreaked havoc on computer systems globally on Friday, grounding flights, forcing some broadcasters off air and hitting services from banking to healthcare.

An update to a product offered by global cyberscurity firm CrowdStrike appeared to be the trigger, affecting customers using Microsoft's Windows Operating System. Microsoft said later on Friday the issue had been fixed.

CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz said on social media platform X that the company was "actively working with customers impacted by a defect found in a single content update for Windows hosts" and that a fix was being deployed.


Homeland Security Dept. says it is working with companies to fix internet outages

Microsoft, CrowdStrike identify software update glitch, say it's not a cyberattack

The Department of Homeland Security said it is working with CrowdStrike and Microsoft to “fully assess and address” system outages that crippled air traffic, impacted businesses and disrupted 911 emergency services.

The department said Friday its Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency is working with state and federal partners to assess the situation.

The global outage impacted some operations overseas and created long lines at U.S. airports, a nightmare for travelers.

President Biden, who faces pressure to drop his candidacy, was briefed on the situation while he was quarantined in Delaware due to a COVID-19 diagnosis.



Obama tells allies Biden’s path to winning reelection has greatly diminished

                                              Joe Biden: Is Barack Obama behind ...

Former president Barack Obama has told allies in recent days that President Biden’s path to victory has greatly diminished and he thinks the president needs to seriously consider the viability of his candidacy, according to multiple people briefed on his thinking.

Obama has spoken with Biden only once since the debate, and he has been clear in his conversations with others that the future of Biden’s candidacy is a decision for the president to make. He has emphasized that his concern is protecting Biden and his legacy, and has pushed back against the idea that he alone can influence Biden’s decision-making process.

Behind the scenes, Obama has been deeply engaged in conversations about the future of Biden’s campaign, taking calls from many anxious Democrats, including former House speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), and has shared his views about the president’s challenges, according to people with knowledge of the calls, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations.

OBAMA LOWERS THE BOOM...
Biden's family discussing his exit plan from race...
White House denies...
Campaign Calls All-Hands Meeting...
KAMALA RALLIES NORTH CAROLINA!


Hunter Biden cites Trump ruling in seeking dismissal of gun and tax cases


Lawyers for Hunter Biden on Thursday asked federal judges in California and Delaware to dismiss the criminal tax and gun cases against him in their courts, citing a recent opinion by Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and the related dismissal this week of the criminal classified documents case against former President Donald Trump.

Biden’s lawyers in motions filed in both courts pointed to those two opinions — which questioned the legality of the appointment of special counsel Jack Smith to prosecute Trump — in arguing that the appointment of U.S. Attorney David Weiss as special counsel for prosecutions of the son of President Joe Biden was unconstitutional.

The motions follow the ruling Monday by Florida federal court Judge Aileen Cannon tossing out Smith’s prosecution of Trump over his retention of classified documents after leaving the White House.



MSNBC acknowledges leftist radicalism by benching ‘Morning Joe’ for a day

Executives feared outrageous on-air reactions to Trump assassination attempt

It’s rare that a news network publicly acknowledges, through its actions, that it is populated by radicals.

But in the days following the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump, an unexpected twist came when MSNBC demonstrated an awareness of its own place in the national political discourse. The leftist network did preventive damage control by yanking some of its biggest stars off the air on the first weekday morning after the Saturday attack at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.

“Morning Joe,” the MSNBC show that regularly fans the flames of fringe discontent, was singled out and barred from the airwaves on Monday.

The reason? According to reporting from rival CNN, it was because the large cast of characters that cycle through the show daily could not be trusted to refrain from saying outrageous things about Mr. Trump following his brush with death.



Is DEI what’s ailing the Secret Service?

Distractions from the agency's mission can be deadly

On July 13, Americans watched the horrific video of the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump. Mr. Trump was shot in the ear but otherwise unscathed and may come away from the incident politically stronger. The gunman was killed — too late to save Corey Comperatore, an innocent member of the crowd who was killed, covering his wife and daughter from the bullets. Too late for others who were injured.

Americans saw brave Secret Service agents shield the former president from the gunfire and lead him from the stage, admirably doing what they’re trained to do. But there is much — on video and off — that went terribly wrong that day.

Ultimately, the attempt was a failure of the Secret Service, which came within a centimeter of utter disaster. Other, more knowledgeable people have asked the tactical questions, and procedures will be reexamined and tightened. Some people may even be fired, though accountability seems scarce in the Biden administration.



From the Archive....

            TO KILL OR FEED A MOCKINGBIRD
                 By Geoff Metcalf
                 July 29, 2002

            Two mutually exclusive and under reported stories have been troubling me.

               *   The apparent penchant for political operatives to leak classified information that jeopardizes national security.
               *   The generational control of information dissemination by powerful controllers.

            So we have another ‘Catch-22’.

            The complicity of the mainstream media to spin, cover, and obfuscate government abuse of power under the color of authority was not unique to the Clinton administration.  It may have been more ubiquitous, and at times even clumsy, but it was not unique.

            It has been reported that in June 1991 David Rockefeller allegedly told a Bilderberg meeting in Baden Baden German, "We are grateful to the Washington Post, the New York Times, Time Magazine and other great publications whose directors have attended our meetings and respected their promises of discretion for almost forty years." He went on to explain: "It would have been impossible for us to develop our plan for the world if we had been subjected to the lights of publicity during those years. But, the world is more sophisticated and prepared to march towards a world government. The supernational sovereignty of an intellectual elite and world bankers is surely preferable to the national autodetermination practiced in past centuries."

            Some argue that quote is apocryphal urban legend.  However, although I have never been able to find three corroborating independent sources for it, it IS consistent in content and tone with other Bilderberg quotes I HAVE been able to confirm.

            “If we had been subjected to the light of publicity….” Indicates the one world, globalist, wannabe controllers were/are successful in managing the message.

            Operation ‘Mockingbird’ was a program supposedly conceived by a brilliant Machiavellian State Department official, Frank Wisner.  Wisner selected Philip Graham, then publisher of the Washington Post to manage the program.  According to Deborah Davis, author of ‘Katharine the Great’, "By the early 1950s, Wisner 'owned' respected members of the New York Times, Newsweek, CBS and other communications vehicles, plus stringers, four to six hundred in all, according to a former CIA analyst."

            Over twenty five major newspapers and wire services became willing house organs for the CIA media manipulation.

            Investigators digging into MOCKINGBIRD have been flabbergasted to discover FOIA documents in which agents boast (in CIA office memos) of  pride in having placed "important assets" inside every major news publication in the country.

            I know, this is the stuff of Ludlum novels conspiracy wackos, but not until 1982 did the ‘Company’ finally concede that reporters on the CIA payroll have been case officers to field agents.

            I have too often observed, “Some people don’t like to be confused with facts that contradict their preconceived opinions.”  I have also noted (and struggle to maintain) “It is not WHO is right or wrong…but WHAT is right or wrong.”

            Anyone with almost ‘any’ military experience has no doubt seen the once ubiquitous posters cautioning “Loose Lips Sink Ships”.  It is a left over phrase from WWII and among “lessons learned”.

            In the complex world of intelligence loose lips can and have cost lives.

            Once upon a time, not so long ago, Senator Patrick Leahy (currently the Senate Judiciary committee’s lead obstructionist) used to be the Vice Chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee in the mid 80s.  Leahy allegedly ‘inadvertently’ exposed a top-secret intercept of Egypt’s President Hosni Mubarak that led to the capture of the Achille Lauro terrorists.  That supposed slip of the tongue “cost the life of at least one Egyptian operative.” http://www.newsmax.com/showinside.shtml?a=2001/1/31/85757

            Loose Lip Leahy was forced to resign in disgrace 14 years ago in the wake of having to acknowledge he leaked secret intelligence to the press.   However today he lords his power over the Senate Judiciary committee.  Congress’ institutional memory must be as short as some of Jennifer Flowers former paramours.

            In our contemporary environment in which whistleblowers have become in many cases heroes it is important to make the distinctions between the appropriateness of corporate and political whistleblowers and the idiot or miscreant who leaks information with genuine national security implications.

            Currently the FBI is investigating national security leaks from specifically the House and Senate Select Intelligence committees.  This is serious stuff.

            Defenders of the indefensible will argue it is a political witch-hunt by politicians in a heavy C.Y.A. mode.  That is not true but a convenient political spin job.

            Sure it is true the white house is p.o.-ed over media reports that the National Security Agency had received but not acted on two early warning messages to 9/11.  Dick Cheney reportedly went ballistic and ripped congressional leaders.  Both House and Senate Select Intelligence committees asked the Attorney General to conduct an investigation (and no doubt quietly prayed it would be botched).

            Justice said in a statement, “…the appropriate department officials will expeditiously review this matter and take any appropriate action.”  Not if congress has anything to say about it.  Don’t expect anything fast.  Remember Leahy resigned in disgrace 14 years ago and today has the chutzpah to pontificate ad nauseum to the Judiciary committee and stall any and all Bush judicial appointments.

            More on Operation Mockingbird http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/RANCHO/POLITICS/