Wednesday March 27th, 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

Hunter Biden Seeks Dismissal of Tax Charges

                                                          Hunter Biden, left, son of President Joe Biden, arrives with attorney Abbe Lowell at the O'Neill House Office Building for a closed-door deposition in a Republican-led investigation into the Biden family, on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, Feb. 28, 2024. Lawmakers from the House Oversight and Accountability Committee and the House Judiciary Committee are conducting the inquiry. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

President Joe Biden's son Hunter will ask a U.S. judge on Wednesday to dismiss the criminal case accusing him of evading $1.4 million in taxes, arguing that prosecutors bowed to political pressure from Republican lawmakers investigating his father.

Hunter Biden's lawyers will appear before U.S. District Judge Mark Scarsi in federal court in Los Angeles to press several legal challenges to the charges, including an argument that he was selectively targeted by prosecutors in response to Republican criticism over alleged earlier lenient treatment.

Hunter Biden, 54, pleaded not guilty to failing to pay $1.4 million in taxes between 2016 and 2019, while spending millions of dollars on drugs, escorts, exotic cars and other big-ticket items. His lawyer has said he paid back the money in full.

The trial is due to start in June, a few months before Americans vote in a November presidential election that looks set to be a close and deeply divisive contest between Joe Biden, himself the subject of an impeachment probe, and Donald Trump, who faces four criminal trials.



Key Bridge collapse closes Baltimore’s busy economic artery to shipping traffic

                                                                    A container ship as it rests against wreckage of the Francis Scott Key Bridge on Tuesday, March 26, 2024, as seen from Dundalk, Md. The ship rammed into the major bridge in Baltimore early Tuesday, causing it to collapse in a matter of seconds and creating a terrifying scene as several vehicles plunged into the chilly river below. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)



The collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore has closed one of the East Coast’s busiest ports to shipping traffic, delivering a severe blow to the region’s economy.

The underwater wreckage of the steel bridge in the Patapsco River has clogged the only water route into the Port of Baltimore, which handled 11.7 million tons of cargo at its public terminals last year. The port leads the nation in the shipping of automobiles and serves an active cruise industry.

The bridge collapsed early Tuesday when the Dali, a Singapore-flagged container ship, slammed into a column after appearing to lose power. President Biden said the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers had been sent to the scene to prepare to clear the 50-foot-deep shipping channel.

Bridge collapse
Six workers presumed dead after crippled cargo ship knocks down Baltimore bridge
Police radio captures calm, then panic, as bridge collapses
The Baltimore bridge collapse is raising some big policy questions



Split-ticket voters spell bad news for Biden but good news for Senate Democrats


Voters in several battleground states are showing a desire to elect Democratic Senate candidates but are less willing to give President Biden a second term, according to recent polling.

The split-ticket results are a warning for the president’s reelection campaign but better news for Senate Democrats who are not getting dragged down by Mr. Biden.

Polling in recent weeks from Emerson College/The Hill in Arizona, Michigan, Wisconsin, Nevada and Pennsylvania shows presumptive GOP nominee Donald Trump with an edge over Mr. Biden ranging from 1 to 4 points. But in the same states, the leading Democratic candidates for the Senate are beating their Republican opponents by 2 to 4 points.




Texas’ migrant arrest law is on hold for now under latest court ruling

                                                              A gate leading to Bone Water Crossing on the Rio Grande River is seen, Thursday, March 21, 2024, in Terrell County, Texas. (AP Photo/Erik Verduzco)

A Texas law that allows the state to arrest and deport migrants suspected of illegally entering the U.S. will remain on hold for now, a federal appeals court ruled.

The order late Tuesday from the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals followed a March 20 hearing by a three-judge panel of the court. It’s just the latest move in a seesaw legal case that is not yet over.

The Justice Department has argued that Texas’ law is a clear violation of federal authority and would create chaos at the border. Texas has argued that President Biden’s administration isn’t doing enough to control the border and that the state has a right to take action.



Congress’ far-left ‘Squad’ amassed $224 million in earmarks

                                                              Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., speaks during a news conference by the Congressional Progressive Caucus on the threat of default, Wednesday, May 24, 2023, on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin) ** FILE **

Watchdog group Open the Books found that Congress’ far-left “Squad” has secured $224 million in earmark spending requests in the last two years.

The Squad consists of eight of the most progressive members of the House — Democratic Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Jamaal Bowman, both of New York, Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts, Cori Bush of Missouri, Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, Greg Casar of Texas and Summer Lee of Pennsylvania.

“Washington is addicted to spending taxpayer money. After House Republicans took a secret vote to bring back earmarks a couple of years ago, the Squad took full advantage. These democratic socialists have earmarked a stunning $220 million in the last two years of your money spent in their districts,” the organization’s founder & CEO, Adam Andrzejewski, said in a statement.




IDF Claims Up to 1,000 Terrorists Hiding in Gaza Hospital

                                                     This image taken from a video released by the Israeli Defense Forces, Wednesday, Nov. 15, 2023, shows a bullet proof vest with a Hamas insignia that was found along with weapons the IDF says were found in a medical closet at the MRI center at al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City. (Israel Defense Forces via AP)

The Israel Defense Forces' Military Intelligence Directorate on Tuesday released footage of captured Palestinian terrorists admitting to interrogators that 600 to 1,000 Hamas operatives have been hiding out in Gaza City's Shifa Hospital.

The detainees, identified as Nabeel Rajab Abed Shteivi and Bakr Ahmed Bakr Qanita, were captured during an IDF operation at Shifa launched last week in an attempt to root out a resurgent Hamas presence in the compound, which Israeli forces first captured in mid-November.

"Shifa, or schools and places like that, are our shelters," says Shteivi, who worked on producing missiles for Palestinian Islamic Jihad. He notes that Hamas controls all of Shifa's buildings, and has a vast presence in the specialist departments.

"You might see someone who doesn't look like a nurse but is dressed in a nurse's uniform," the PIJ terrorist explains.

Qanita, a senior Hamas leader who commanded 143 other terrorists in the Gaza Strip and spent almost a month at Shifa before being captured, tells interrogators from the IDF's Unit 504 that between 600 and 1,000 operatives were holed up at the hospital at various times.

Hamas uses the hospital's specialist division as one of its main hubs, he says, confirming Shteivi's claim, and also uses the management offices.



'Creepy' footage of P Diddy with Justin Bieber at 15 resurfaces as fans share concerns

                                                              Sean "Diddy" Combs appears at the premiere of "Can't Stop, Won't Stop: A Bad Boy Story" on June 21, 2017, in Beverly Hills, Calif.   Combs’ charter school will relocate to a larger campus in New York City.. The music mogul announced Thursday that Capital Preparatory School will move to the Church of All Saints and School building in Harlem. The relocation will allow the school’s capacity to grow from 500 to 700 students from grades 6th through 12th beginning with the 2022-2023 school year. (Photo by Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP, File)

A video clip of Diddy with a young Justin Bieber has resurfaced online amid his ongoing sex trafficking investigation.

In the footage, Diddy is seen standing alongside 15-year-old Justin as he tells viewers how he "can't really disclose" what they will be doing as they spend 48 hours together. Talking to the camera the rapper - real name Sean Love Combs - said: "He's having forty-eight hours with Diddy, where we hanging out and what we're doing we can't really disclose, but it's definitely a 15-year-old's dream."

Diddy - who was 40 at the time - then goes on to claim how he had been "given custody" of Justin as he referenced his past mentor relationship with Usher. He continued: "I have been given custody of him. He's signed to Usher and I had legal guardianship of Usher when he did his first album.

DIRTY DIDDY BLASTS RAIDS...
The untouchable gets touched...
He Settled Case, but Troubles Were Just Beginning...
New photos show trail of destruction at mansion...
Inside sex-trafficking investigation...
Megachurch pastor named in suit...



Pro-Palestinian protesters interrupt speech by Biden, who says they have ‘a point’

President Biden somewhat agreed with Pro-Palestinian protesters who interrupted his speech in North Carolina Tuesday by demanding that he do more to address the spiraling humanitarian crisis in Gaza.

Mr. Biden was speaking in Raleigh about the Affordable Care Act when the protesters began shouting him down roughly five minutes into his speech. As Mr. Biden began pledging his commitment to the Obama-era law that provides health care for Americans, the demonstrators erupted.

“What about health care in Gaza?” protesters shouted.

“Everyone deserves health care,” Mr. Biden responded.



Don’t believe Biden’s spin on job creation

Bureau of Labor Statistics is cooking the books

The Labor Department in 2023 announced robust new employment numbers each month, garnering splashy pro-Biden headlines.

By year’s end, the Bureau of Labor Statistics, which does the numbers gymnastics, revised those bulletins downward by 360,000.

Another item: The Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia said on March 14 that the BLS greatly overestimated job growth in the third quarter of that year. The BLS said 640,000 jobs were created. The Fed said 187,000.

Another blemish is the types of jobs. The number of full-time jobs is shrinking. Part-time employees are increasing, suggesting that people need multiple jobs to keep pace with high inflation for such things as the food we eat.



Israelis will fight Hamas on their own if they must


“Israel Alone” is the headline on the cover of the March 23 issue of The Economist, a British weekly. The illustration shows an Israeli flag buffeted by a sandstorm.

I wonder if Yahya Sinwar, the Hamas leader in the Gaza Strip, is sitting in a tunnel under Rafah gazing at that image and if it’s brought a smile to his lips.

Perhaps, when he was planning the Oct. 7 attack on Israel, one of his deputies advised that their fighters target only soldiers and spare Israeli civilians, at least children and babies; that they not rape women and mutilate corpses; that they conduct themselves, in short, as honorable warriors rather than barbarians.


Medal of Honor
See the source image
THOMAS JEROME HUDNER JR.

RANK: LIEUTENANT, J.G.
CONFLICT/ERA: KOREAN WAR

MILITARY SERVICE BRANCH: U.S. NAVY
MEDAL OF HONOR ACTION DATE: DECEMBER 4, 1950

MEDAL OF HONOR ACTION PLACE: CHOSIN RESERVOIR, KOREA
CITATION

For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty as a pilot in Fighter Squadron 32, while attempting to rescue a squadron mate whose plane, struck by antiaircraft fire and trailing smoke, was forced down behind enemy lines. Quickly maneuvering to circle the downed pilot and protect him from enemy troops infesting the area, Lt. (j.g.) Hudner risked his life to save the injured flier who was trapped alive in the burning wreckage. Fully aware of the extreme danger in landing on the rough mountainous terrain, and the scant hope of escape or survival in subzero temperature, he put his plane down skillfully in a deliberate wheels-up landing in the presence of enemy troops. With his bare hands, he packed the fuselage with snow to keep the flames away from the pilot and struggled to pull him free. Unsuccessful in this he returned to his crashed aircraft and radioed other airborne planes, requesting that a helicopter be dispatched with an ax and fire extinguisher. He then remained on the spot despite the continuing danger from enemy action and, with the assistance of the rescue pilot, renewed a desperate but unavailing battle against time, cold, and flames. Lt. (j.g.) Hudner's exceptionally valiant action and selfless devotion to a shipmate sustain and enhance the highest traditions of the U.S. Naval Service.


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/

            MOCK/mockingbird.html 

            http://www.grandconspiracy.com/library.html#operation

            2002 Geoff Metcalf - All Rights Reserved

            Geoff is a veteran media performer. He has had an eclectic professional background covering a wide spectrum of radio, television, magazine, and newspapers.  A former Green Beret and retired Army officer he is in great demand as a speaker. Metcalf has hosted his radio talk show on the ABC/Disney owned and operated KSFO and in worldwide syndication. www.geoffmetcalf.com