- Tuesday July 23rd, 2024
- "It Is Not A Question of Who Is Right Or Wrong But What Is Right Or Wrong That Counts."
- --Geoff Metcalf
- Providing an on line Triage of the news since 1998
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World & Nation
Trump shooter flew drone just two hours before assassination attempt, says FBI chief
The
man who came within an inch of killing former President Donald Trump
flew a drone near the rally site just two hours before Mr. Trump took
the stage, FBI Director Christopher A. Wray revealed Wednesday.
Mr.
Wray, testifying to Congress, also said the shooter fired at least
eight rounds and had constructed at least three explosive devices,
including two that were found in his vehicle at the rally in Butler,
Pennsylvania.
FBI agents still haven’t found any evidence that
anyone else was involved in planning or executing the shooting, Mr.
Wray said. The shooter, Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, was shot and killed
by Secret Service.
'Dumb' and a 'DEI' candidate: Trump and allies attack Kamala Harris based on her race, gender
When
President Joe Biden announced he was dropping his re-election bid and
throwing his support to his vice president, Kamala Harris, the dynamics
of the entire presidential race radically shifted.
No longer
was it two white men born in the 1940s facing off — again — for who
should return to the White House. Instead, it’s between Trump, a man
who is 78, against Harris, who is 59 and would make history as the
first woman and first woman of color to be president if she is elected.
And within a day, Harris was already facing attacks that
centered on her race and gender, making it clear that while Republicans
may try to tie her to some of Biden’s policies, she will face
criticisms he never did.
Netanyahu’s visit inflames political divisions among Democrats
Israeli
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu came to the U.S. to shore up support
for its war against Hamas, but many Democrats don’t want to hear what
he has to say.
Republicans are largely united in support of Mr.
Netanyahu, but Democrats are sharply divided with a growing
pro-Palestinian faction challenging the party’s longtime support of
Israel. The rift has been exacerbated by Israel’s war in Gaza that has
raged since Hamas’ deadly terrorist attack on Oct. 7.
Scores of
Democratic lawmakers are boycotting Mr. Netanyahu’s address Wednesday
to a joint meeting of Congress — perhaps as many as 100 — including
Sen. Richard J. Durbin of Illinois, Sen. Patty Murray of Washington and
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York.
USSS Advises Trump Campaign to Hold Fewer Outdoor Rallies
Former
President Donald Trump's campaign has been advised by the Secret
Service to stop holding outdoor rallies and events that draw large
crowds following the assassination attempt against him on July 13 in
Butler, Pennsylvania.
Trump's team is scouting indoor venues,
such as basketball arenas and other large spaces where thousands of
people can fit, for upcoming events, The Washington Post reported
Tuesday, citing people familiar with the request. The campaign is not
currently planning any large outdoor events, a person close to Trump
said.
Trump is scheduled to hold a rally Wednesday in Charlotte,
North Carolina, at the Bojangles Coliseum, an indoor venue with a
capacity of just under 11,000.
Never mind: Musk lowers his $45 million monthly promise to pro-Trump PAC
Tech
billionaire Elon Musk walked back his commitment to give $45 million a
month to support former President Donald Trump’s White House bid,
saying he plans to give much less.
During a sit-down interview
with conservative pundit Jordan Peterson, Mr. Musk threw cold water on
reports that he planned to donate that much to a pro-Trump political
action committee, saying the figure was “simply not true.”
Mr. Musk elaborated later on X, criticizing the reporting on his initial commitment to support the PAC.
“I
am making some donations to America PAC, but at a much lower level and
the key values of the PAC are supporting a meritocracy & individual
freedom,” he wrote. “Republicans are mostly, but not entirely, on the
side of merit & freedom.”
Convicted 9/11 terrorist seeks transfer to France over fears of Trump-ordered execution
The
only person ever convicted in the Sept. 11 terrorist attack has asked
to be transferred from federal prison in Colorado to France, saying he
fears he will be executed if Donald Trump is elected president in
November.
Zacarias Moussaoui, 56, now serving a life sentence at
the Administrative Maximum Facility in Florence, said in a handwritten
letter on file in the court docket that he worries he will be deemed a
“threat to national security” under a Trump administration.
“Your
honor, as presinding [sic] and sentencing judge your Court sentenced me
at life without parole,” said Moussaoui in the May 13 note, which was
reposted Tuesday on the Legal Insurrection website.
“Instead
your Honor might concur that there is a possibility if not a
probability that if the Ex US President Donald Trump was to be
reelected He will sentence me to death by presidential executive
order,” Moussaoui said in his note, which frequently reflected that he
is not a lawyer and does not speak English well.
Donald Trump: Cheatle Should Have Been Fired 'in an Hour'
Secret
Service Director Kimberly Cheatle should have been fired "within an
hour" for having allowed a would-be assassin take a shot at him, but
President Joe Biden "doesn't fire anybody for anything," Donald Trump
told Newsmax in an exclusive interview Tuesday night.
"It should
have happened, I would say, within an hour — not nine days, 10 days,"
Trump told "Rob Schmitt Tonight" guest host Sebastian Gorka of
Cheatle's ouster earlier Tuesday, which he called "inevitable."
"She
left, probably she left, because Biden doesn't ever fire anybody," he
said. "He didn't fire anybody for Afghanistan. He doesn't fire anybody
for anything which is one of his problems. So that was a rough time."
Israel Launches New Raids in Gaza as Netanyahu Visits US
Israeli
forces carried out new raids in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday, hours
before Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was due to address the U.S.
Congress.
The latest Israeli attacks destroyed homes in towns
east of Khan Younis in southern Gaza and thousands of people were
forced to head west to seek shelter, residents said.
The
Palestinian Civil Emergency Service said it had received distress calls
from residents trapped in their homes in Bani Suhaila, east of Khan
Younis, but were unable to reach the town.
US Rejects Hamas-Fatah Deal: 'No Role for Terrorists'
The
U.S. State Department on Tuesday rejected the idea of a Hamas-Fatah
unity government in the Gaza Strip, following the announcement of a
Palestinian Arab unity deal in Beijing.
"Hamas has long been a
terrorist organization. They have the blood of innocent civilians —both
Israeli and Palestinian — on their hands," U.S. State Department
spokesman Matthew Miller said at a press briefing on Tuesday. "There
can't be a role for a terrorist organization."
The "Beijing
Declaration" was signed by 14 Palestinian factions that took part in
negotiations hosted by Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi.
America held hostage by dictators
Rewarding thugs is unacceptable
To
no one’s surprise, Evan Gershkovich, a U.S. citizen and accredited
foreign correspondent for The Wall Street Journal in Russia, was
sentenced last Friday to 16 years in a high-security penal colony on
charges of espionage.
Mr. Gershkovich, 32, was “wrongfully
convicted in a hurried, secret trial that the U.S. government has
condemned as a sham,” the Journal reported.
Since his arrest in March 2023, Russian authorities have produced not a shred of evidence against him.
What
comes next is “hostage diplomacy,” an Orwellian term, an admission of
American weakness, an acknowledgment that the U.S. has no intention of
punishing anyone for imprisoning an innocent American, nor any plan to
deter those who will do so in the future.
Federal Reserve shouldn’t rush to cut interest rates
Easing them now risks establishing expectations of future volatility, rising inflation over time
Inflation
has improved lately, and investors are optimistic that the Federal
Reserve will soon lower interest rates. Whether that’s prudent comes
down to three questions.
Are we there yet?
In June, the
consumer price index was up 3% over the last year. We’ve had no better
reading since March 2021, but that’s still above the Fed’s 2% inflation
target. And we have some good reasons to be cautious.
Most of
the gains were in the goods sector — food and energy were up only 2.2%
and 1%, and other goods were down 1.8%. Inflation in the services
sector remains stubborn.
Though decelerating a bit, the cost of
housing — 36.2% of the index — is still rising at a 5.2% annual pace.
Other services — everything from brain surgery to theater tickets and
accounting for 26.7% of the CPI — are up 5%.
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/
