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Wednesday April 24th, 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

Biden sitting on hundreds of millions of dollars in unspent border wall money

                                                                             President Joe Biden walks along the U.S.-Mexico border in El Paso, Texas, Sunday, Jan. 8, 2023. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik) ** FILE **

The government’s top watchdog ruled that President Biden has not broken the law by slow-walking construction of the border wall, but did say he has left hundreds of millions of dollars still unspent.

The Government Accountability Office said that while Mr. Biden has said he doesn’t want to build more wall, his actions have belied that and he is moving ahead with construction of some wall-based projects, even if it is too slow for Republicans’ tastes.

Some congressional Republicans have said Mr. Biden‘s slow-walking violates the Impoundment Control Act, which orders the president to spend money the way Congress designed in its appropriations bill.

GAO is the official arbiter of violations of the act, and it ruled that Mr. Biden has not crossed any lines yet.



Morning Consult Poll: Economic Worries Put Trump Ahead in 6 Swing States


Former President Donald Trump has moved ahead of President Joe Biden in six of seven key battleground states largely due to pessimism about the economy, Bloomberg reported.

Trump, the presumptive 2024 Republican presidential nominee, leads Biden in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Georgia, Arizona, Nevada, and North Carolina, according to the latest Bloomberg News/Morning Consult poll.

Among the seven swing states that likely will determine the outcome of November's presidential election, Biden only leads in Michigan, where the president is ahead by 2 percentage points in the Morning Consult poll.

The survey found Trump has a 6-point popular-vote lead in a head-to-head matchup with Biden across the seven battleground states. The margin between the two men is similar when third-party or independent contenders are included.



New York trial can keep Trump off campaign trail but not off the stump

                                                                  Former President Donald Trump speaks after leaving Manhattan criminal court, Tuesday, April 23, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura, Pool)

Former President Donald Trump is settling into a routine of taking a motorcade from Trump Tower to the courthouse in lower Manhattan, passing through security and making his way up to the 15th floor where a bank of cameras waits to collect his daily musings about the hush money trial and campaign politics.

This is Mr. Trump‘s routine for the next month or so. It has forced the presumptive GOP presidential nominee to make the most of being confined in the halls of justice and yanked off the campaign trail for large swaths of time.

And yet, Mr. Trump has shown an uncanny ability to grow politically stronger in the face of numerous legal challenges that threaten to land him in jail and would almost certainly have doomed more conventional candidates.

His supporters insist that Mr. Trump can withstand being stuck in the courtroom most days.




Israel Strikes Hamas Rocket Launchers in Gaza's Humanitarian Zone


Israeli Air Force fighter jets destroyed two Hamas rocket launchers embedded in a humanitarian zone in southern Gaza, the army said Wednesday, as the war started by the terrorist group entered its 200th day.

The Israel Defense Forces said the launch pads were loaded with rockets and were struck before they could be used to attack the Jewish state.

The strike in the heart of a humanitarian zone was carried out following efforts to prevent harm to civilians, the military added.

On Tuesday morning, as Israelis celebrated the Passover holiday, air-raid siren sounded in the southern border communities of Ashkelon, Sderot, and Zikim, sending close to 190,000 people running for shelter.



Key Bridge salvage effort advances with new channel on horizon

                                                                         Aboard the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers‘ debris removal ship Reynolds provided a glimpse of Baltimore's decimated Francis Scott Key Bridge and the effort to clear a major channel for waiting ships. Photo credit: David Gordon / The Washington Times.

In the sun-dappled water below where the Francis Scott Key Bridge once stood, signs of disaster are impossible to miss.

Street lights poke improbably above the surface, and speed limit signs stand dutifully atop concrete pillars that once supported the span’s frame.

The bridge’s distinct metalwork, twisted and bent, angrily pins the container ship that toppled it nearly a month ago to the day.



Senate passes bill forcing TikTok’s parent company to sell or face ban, sends to Biden for signature


The Senate passed legislation Tuesday that would force TikTok’s China-based parent company to sell the social media platform under the threat of a ban, a contentious move by U.S. lawmakers that’s expected to face legal challenges and disrupt the lives of content creators who rely on the short-form video app for income.

The TikTok legislation was included as part of a larger $95 billion package that provides foreign aid to Ukraine and Israel and was passed 79-18. It now goes to President Joe Biden, who said in a statement immediately after passage that he will sign it Wednesday.

A decision made by House Republicans last week to attach the TikTok bill to the high-priority package helped expedite its passage in Congress and came after negotiations with the Senate, where an earlier version of the bill had stalled. That version had given TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, six months to divest its stakes in the platform. But it drew skepticism from some key lawmakers concerned it was too short of a window for a complex deal that could be worth tens of billions of dollars.



Sen. Thom Tillis slams MTG’s ouster threats in House: ‘Horrible leader’

Sen. Thom Tillis said he’s fed up with Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene‘s actions in the House, accusing her of giving the Republican Party a bad name.

“She is a horrible leader,” Mr. Tillis, North Carolina Republican, said in audio played on CNN’s “Erin Burnett OutFront.” “She is dragging our brand down. She — not the Democrats — are the biggest risk to us getting back to a majority.”

He said the Georgia Republican is “uninformed [and] a total waste of time.”

Ms. Greene has been the driving force behind the motion-to-vacate threat against House Speaker Mike Johnson, which she has been threatening since last month after he supported the bipartisan government funding bill.



Columbia University Cites Progress With Gaza War Protesters


Columbia University said early Wednesday that it was making “important progress” with pro-Palestinian student protesters who set up a tent encampment and that it was extending a deadline to clear out, yet standoffs remained tense on the Ivy League campus in upper Manhattan.

Student protesters “have committed to dismantling and removing a significant number of tents,” the university said in a statement. A smaller encampment remained on campus Wednesday morning.

Across the country, protesters at California State Polytechnic University, Humboldt, some 300 miles (480 kilometers) north of San Francisco, started using furniture, tents, chains and zip ties to block the building’s entrances Monday evening.




Khamenei’s war aims: Iranian ruler intends to establish an empire, exterminate Israelis


I’m sure you’ve heard commentators describe Iran and Israel as “rivals” engaged in a “tit-for-tat” conflict. That misinterprets reality.

Ali Khamenei, Iran’s “supreme leader” since 1989, seeks to establish a new Middle Eastern empire.

Israelis, by contrast, only want to survive as an independent nation within a slice of their ancient Jewish homeland.

They would like nothing better than to enjoy amicable relations with Iranians, as they did before Iran’s Islamic Revolution of 1979.



While the 2nd Amendment Sets Rules, Blue States Play Games

Despite the clear language of the Second Amendment and the Supreme Court’s interpretations of it, state and local lawmakers continue defying these rights, and denying their citizens of the ability to lawfully keep and bear arms.

This practice keeps national gun rights organizations like the Second Amendment Foundation and theFirearms Policy Coalition busy filing federal lawsuits on behalf of aggrieved law-abiding gun owners.

But state and local governments defying black-letter law is nothing new, according to Heritage Foundation senior legal fellow Amy Swearer, who specializes in Second Amendment law.

"This isn’t some bold new strategy by gun control activists.

It’s the exact same strategy they had after Heller and McDonald — water the opinions down, misapply them, or just straight up ignore them to get the desired result, and then dare the Supreme Court to do something about it," she told Newsmax.


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/



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