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TODAY
Monday March 18th, 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

Biden accused of election-year meddling in housing market to combat high mortgage rates

                                                      President Joe Biden speaks during a St. Patrick's Day reception in the East Room of the White House, Sunday, March 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough) **FILE**

President Biden, whose spending policies have been blamed for triggering skyrocketing mortgage rates, is seeking ways to cut costs for homebuyers by trimming the fees associated with loans and eliminating title insurance for some borrowers.

The move has rattled the mortgage industry and brought swift backlash from title insurance companies who say the president’s plan “smacks of pure politics” and will do little to lower housing costs while raising risks for buyers and taxpayers.

Mr. Biden has made lowering housing costs central to his reelection campaign platform as Americans cope with high rent as well as mortgage rates that have more than doubled under his administration, pushing homeownership out of reach for many homebuyers.

The Federal Reserve has raised rates several times during the Biden administration to help stabilize near-record inflation, which economists pin on massive government spending that began in the Trump administration during the COVID-19 pandemic and continued under Mr. Biden.



North Korea welcomes Blinken with ballistic missile barrage

Launches show lack of U.S. leverage: Could military drill halts lure Kim back to talks?
                                                        A TV screen shows a file image of North Korea's missile launch during a news program at the Seoul Railway Station in Seoul, South Korea, Monday, March 18, 2024. North Korea fired multiple short-range ballistic missiles toward its eastern waters Monday morning, its neighbors said, days after the end of the South Korean-U.S. military drills that the North views as an invasion rehearsal. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

North Korea test-fired a trio of short-range ballistic missiles into the Sea of Japan on Monday, a provocation coming as U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken appeared in South Korea to partake in the third Summit for Democracy — a Biden administration initiative that Seoul is hosting this week.

Mr. Blinken made no explicit mention of North Korea in remarks as the summit got underway in Seoul. He told an audience of dignitaries that democracies in the region and beyond are determined to stand together to “deliver a safer, healthier, more prosperous, more inclusive future for our people and for people around the world.”

The secretary of state focused the brunt of his remarks on the threat posed by divisive “disinformation” spread by nondemocratic powers including China and Russia.



Israel Again Raids Gaza Hospital After Hamas Regrouped There

                                                         Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks during a gathering of Jewish leaders at the Museum of Tolerance in Jerusalem, Sunday, Feb. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)

Israeli forces launched another raid on the Gaza Strip's largest hospital early Monday, saying Hamas terrorists had regrouped there and had fired on them from inside the compound, where Gaza officials say tens of thousands of people have been sheltering.

Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, the chief Israeli military spokesperson, said the army launched a "high-precision operation" in parts of the medical complex. He said senior Hamas terrorists had regrouped there and were directing attacks from the compound.

The army released a aerial video of what it said were terrorits firing on its forces from inside the hospital, as well as video of a rocket-propelled grenade striking an armored vehicle. It said its forces had detained around 80 people.



Hur Says Biden White House Tried to Interfere in Special Counsel’s Report


Hur's report has raised questions about Biden's memory and the potential implications for his fitness to serve as president. Let's delve into the key findings and reactions surrounding this contentious issue.

Hur confirmed that the White House wrote to Attorney General Merrick Garland and Associate Deputy Attorney General Bradey Weinsheimer, who were supervising Hur’s work, asking for changes to Hur’s comment on Biden’s poor memory.

Hur had cited Biden's claim of poor memory as a reason not to prosecute for mishandling classified information, upsetting Democrats.

Though Democrats said Biden cooperated fully, the revelation of attempted interference could prompt further scrutiny of political meddling in DOJ investigations, contrasting with the Mueller probe which found no collusion but wanted to entrap Trump in an interview.



Behind the scenes, Biden has grown angry and anxious about re-election effort

Biden locked up the Democratic nomination last week, but looking ahead to the general election, anxiety has seemed to increase.

President Joe Biden was seething.

In a private meeting at the White House in January, allies of the president had just told him that his poll numbers in Michigan and Georgia had dropped over his handling of the war between Israel and Hamas.

Both are battleground states he narrowly won four years ago, and he can’t afford any backsliding if he is to once again defeat Donald Trump. He began to shout and swear, a lawmaker familiar with the meeting said.

History suggests it will be tough for him to recover. Biden’s 38% approval rating at this stage in the calendar is lower than that of the last three presidents who went on to lose re-election: Trump (48%), George H.W. Bush (39%) and Jimmy Carter (43%), according to Gallup survey data.



Machete-wielding militias battle gangs in Port-au-Prince as Haiti’s elites vie for power


The wide road that passes in front of Haiti’s Toussaint Louverture International Airport has a post-apocalyptic stillness these days. Where cars and crowds of people once massed, only tendrils of smoke rise from smoldering piles of trash, sending a bitter taste into the air.

An armored police vehicle hulks nearby; the few police officers on watch cover their faces with balaclavas. This street looks nearly abandoned, as if in the wake of a disaster – an experience that people in Port-au-Prince know better than most. But leaving the city isn’t an option this time; the airport, under siege by gangs, has been forced to close.

Since the start of the month, criminal groups have been attacking with unprecedented coordination the last remnants of the Haitian state – the airport, police stations, government buildings, the National Penitentiary. The culmination of years of growing gang control and popular unrest, their joint assault forced Prime Minister Ariel Henry to resign last week, a stunning capitulation that has nevertheless proven futile in restoring calm.



Chinese government escalates its own push to police generative AI

As in U.S., a push to rein in hot new tech without stifling industry

China’s communist regime, mirroring a debate in the U.S., is taking steps to regulate the exploding field of generative artificial intelligence and has announced plans to enforce rules to label and restrict information created by powerful new technological tools.

The Cyberspace Administration of China said Friday that enforcement would include clear indications marking AI-generated content, policing internet news and information produced without approval, and a fresh crackdown on information the regulator determines to be false.

The Chinese regulator’s “special actions” will focus on specific areas of the internet and research and include heightened scrutiny for internet “trolls” and rumors that the communist regime dislikes, according to an English-language translation of the regulatory notice.



Putin Hails Reelection, Russian Resolve: 'No One Has Ever Managed to Frighten Us'

                                                  Russian President Vladimir Putin gestures while speaking on a visit to his campaign headquarters after a presidential election in Moscow, Russia, early Monday, March 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko)

Election commission results on Monday showed President Vladimir Putin has secured a fifth term with an overwhelming number of votes, in an election that held little suspense after the harshest crackdown on the opposition and free speech since Soviet times.

After facing only token challengers and harshly suppressing opposition voices, Putin was set to extend his nearly quarter-century rule for six more years. Even with little margin for protest, Russians crowded outside polling stations at noon Sunday, the last day of the election, apparently heeding an opposition call to express their displeasure with the president.

Putin has led Russia as president or prime minister since December 1999, a tenure marked by international military aggression and an increasing intolerance for dissent.


‘Very few have balls’: How American news lost its nerve


There’s too much to read and watch, too many places to read and watch it. It’s enough to distract you from the biggest news in journalism right now: In 2024, it’s harder than ever to get a tough story out in the United States of America.

A landscape of gleefully revelatory magazine exposés, aggressive newspaper investigations, feral online confrontations, and painstaking television investigations has been eroded by a confluence of factors — from rising risks of litigation and costs of insurance, which strapped media companies can hardly afford, to social media, which has given public figures growing leverage over the journalists who now increasingly carry their water.

The result is a thousand stories you’ll never read, and a shrinking number of publications with the resources and guts to confront power.

“Very few owners have balls any more,” the former Vanity Fair and New Yorker editor Tina Brown told Semafor, “a very sorry fact for journalism.”



Biden’s rage is the only thing about him that’s real

President's State of the Union rant was nothing if not authentic

Some wonder if the anger on display in the State of the Union address was contrived — macho posturing designed to convince the party faithful that President Biden is Give ’Em Hell Harry who, like Harry S. Truman in 1948, will beat the odds to win the election.

But the president’s hourlong rant was nothing if not authentic. Mr. Biden’s rage is legendary, as his aides can attest.

In a new Forbes/Harris poll, 54% said the State of the Union raised questions about the president’s age. So, a performance meant to reassure us did the opposite.

At least subconsciously, Mr. Biden must realize that he’s a mediocre man whose job far exceeds his abilities.

He has been successful only as a grifter who, with the help of his son, scammed tens of millions of dollars from foreign entities to benefit his extended family.



How to prevent future deaths like Laken Riley’s

Immediately deport immigrants who commit crimes

President Biden seems more upset about using the term “illegal” to describe the illegal immigrant who is accused of killing Laken Riley than he is over her death. Truly stunning and outrageous.

Legal immigration is good. More than 1 million people legally immigrate to the United States each year. Our country has four times as many foreign-born citizens as the next closest country. We love immigrants who follow a legal path to America.

In contrast, 2023 was the worst year for illegal immigration in our recorded history. The 2.45 million illegal aliens encountered at the border in fiscal 2023 outpaced the previous record high of 2.37 million in fiscal 2022.


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


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