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Wednesday December 4th, 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

Pentagon Nominee Hegseth: Trump Told Me to 'Keep Fighting'

                      Pentagon Nominee Hegseth: Trump Told Me ...

President-elect Donald Trump's pick to lead the U.S. Department of Defense, Pete Hegseth, on Wednesday said he is not backing down even as his nomination to lead the Pentagon faces trouble in Congress over allegations about his personal and professional life.

“I spoke to the president elect this morning. He said, keep going, keep fighting," Hegseth told reporters Wednesday morning. "Why would I back down? I've always been a fighter."

Hegseth's remarks came hours after he made a defiant post on social media.




Chad Chronister, Trump Pick to Run the DEA, Withdraws Name

                                 Trump's pick for DEA administrator ...

Chad Chronister, Donald Trump's pick to run the Drug Enforcement Administration, said Tuesday he was withdrawing his name from consideration, becoming the second person selected by the president-elect to bow out quickly after being nominated for a position.

Chronister, the top law enforcement officer in Hillsborough County, Florida, said in a post on X that he was backing away from the opportunity, which he called “the honor of a lifetime.”

“Over the past several days, as the gravity of this very important responsibility set in, I’ve concluded that I must respectfully withdraw from consideration,” Chronister wrote. He did not elaborate, and Trump's transition team did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment.




Russian warship fires at German helicopter

                                  Russian warship fires warning shot at ...

A Russian warship has fired at a German helicopter over the Baltic Sea- sparking new WW3 escalation fears, it has been reported.

The crew of the Russian ship fired signal ammunition, the German Press Agency in Brussels has learned.

According to the German newspaper Bild, the warning shots were fired at the NATO reconnaissance aircraft. 



South Korea’s Warning for Washington

                                                South Korea's Warning for Washington ...

Aright-wing wannabe authoritarian president—a leader who attacks the press, is accused of abusing power for personal gain, uses his power to block investigations into his family’s potential corruption, hopes to stay in office to avoid heading to prison, and only seems to have concepts of a plan to address his nation’s inflation and health care—declared martial law earlier today.

This is not a dystopian fever dream for what may soon come to pass in the United States, but instead a rapidly unfolding crisis in South Korea, where President Yoon Suk Yeol shocked his nation with a hastily executed surprise power grab under the pretext of an unspecified military threat from North Korea and enemies within. Late Tuesday evening in Seoul, Yoon issued a statement calling the country’s National Assembly a “den of criminals” and claiming that it was undermining governance. Martial law was needed, Yoon claimed, to stop the “anti-state forces that are plundering the freedom and happiness of our people.”

Within hours, protests broke out around the assembly building, and the lawmakers within it unanimously voted to overturn Yoon’s martial-law declaration. Clashes between protesters and law enforcement have continued since the announcement, and the demonstrations are likely to keep growing, demanding Yoon’s resignation.



South Korean President Faces Impeachment After Martial Law Debacle


South Korean lawmakers submitted a bill on Wednesday to impeach President Yoon Suk Yeol after he declared martial law before reversing the move hours later, triggering a political crisis in Asia's fourth-largest economy, a major U.S. ally.

The surprise declaration of martial law late on Tuesday caused a standoff with parliament, which rejected his attempt to ban political activity and censor the media, as armed troops forced their way into the National Assembly building in Seoul.

The main opposition Democratic Party (DP) called for Yoon, who has been in office since 2022, to resign or face impeachment.





China Retaliates After US Sanctions

                                         China Dials Up US Trade Tension With ...

The US Commerce Department received a swift response to its latest round of export controls meant to "impair" China's chipmaking industry. Shortly after the restrictions were announced Sunday, Beijing banned exports to the US of critical minerals used in military and civilian applications, including gallium, germanium, and antimony, Reuters reports. It also instituted stricter reviews of shipped items containing graphite, a component of EV batteries. Beijing began limiting exports of the minerals earlier this year, but this latest step, aimed only at the US, is seen as a direct response to Washington's new export controls on some 140 Chinese chipmaking tool manufacturers, including Huawei, per the Hill.

US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said the restrictions were meant to "impair" China's "ability to indigenize the production of advanced technologies that pose a risk to our national security," per the Hill. "They're the strongest controls ever enacted by the US to degrade the People's Republic of China's ability to make the most advanced chips that they're using in their military modernization," she told reporters on Sunday, per Business Insider. But Chinese foreign ministry rep Lin Jian on Tuesday accused the US of "overstretching the concept of national security, abusing export controls, and wantonly imposing illegal unilateral sanctions and 'long-arm jurisdiction' over Chinese companies." He said the US was "maliciously suppressing China's technology progress."



Lead Daniel Penny prosecutor secured light sentence for thug who killed 87-year-old in ATM robbery

Assistant Manhattan DA Dafna Yoran pushed 'restorative justice' for suspect in deadly mugging
                                            Lead Daniel Penny prosecutor secured ...

Assistant Manhattan District Attorney Dafna Yoran, who urged jurors at Daniel Penny's subway chokehold trial to convict him of manslaughter on Tuesday, once sought reduced punishment for a Manhattan mugger who killed an 87-year-old over $300 in 2019 under the concept of "restorative justice."

Matthew Lee, 57, snuck up on the victim, a former Lehman College professor named Dr. Young Kun Kim, from behind at a Citibank ATM on Broadway on May 13, 2018, video shows. The fatal blow, a punch to the head from behind, appears to have occurred off-camera.

Kim was hospitalized and later died from his injuries. Police eventually identified Lee as the suspect and arrested him within a week.



King Charles excluded Prince Harry from Christmas, feels son makes 'too many demands': expert

Ingrid Seward, author of 'My Mother and I' said she isn't surprised the Duke and Duchess of Sussex weren't invited to Sandringham for Christmas

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle reportedly weren’t invited to spend Christmas with the royals – and for one expert, it’s easy to see why.

Ingrid Seward, editor-in-chief of Majesty magazine and author of "My Mother and I," claimed to Fox News Digital that extending an invitation to the Sussexes was "too much" for King Charles.

"No, I’m not a bit surprised they weren’t invited," said Seward. "I think the general feeling is that it would’ve just created an unwarranted atmosphere, and Christmas isn’t about that. Christmas is about everybody being happy and getting on with each other. And… I just think that King Charles just couldn’t deal with the [drama]."



Hunter Biden pardon raises new questions over 5th Amendment ‘loophole’

Hunter Biden's prosecutorial immunity from his presidential pardon could be used to compel his testimony in congressional hearings, some believe
                                         What is the legal effect of President ...

President Biden’s sweeping pardon of his son, Hunter Biden, touched off a flurry of fresh legal speculation Tuesday over how, or if, the younger Biden can move to assert his Fifth Amendment privileges that protect against self-incrimination — and how the broad immunity granted to Hunter could be twisted against him.

While Hunter Biden is indeed shielded against prosecution for any federal offenses he "committed or may have committed" between Jan. 1, 2014, through Dec. 1, 2024, those around him are not — which means that Hunter Biden could theoretically be called on to testify in any potential cases brought against family members or others in his inner circle.

In these cases, Hunter Biden’s pardon could actually limit his ability to assert Fifth Amendment privileges, since he is no longer at risk of facing criminal charges.



Federal judge accuses President Biden of attempting to 'rewrite history' in Hunter Biden pardon

Scarsi accused President Biden of 'rewriting history' with the pardon of his son, Hunter

The federal judge overseeing Hunter Biden’s tax case issued a sharp rebuke of President Biden's claim that his son was unfairly treated as well as the president's delivery method following the president's last-minute pardon.

U.S. District Judge Mark Scarsi, who is based in the Central District of California and was nominated by President-elect Trump, accused President Biden in a scathing five-page order of "rewriting history" with the pardon and suggested that the breadth of the pardon granted to his son is unconstitutional.

"The Constitution provides the President with broad authority to grant reprieves and pardons for offenses against the United States, but nowhere does the Constitution give the President the authority to rewrite history," he wrote.



Fani Willis ordered to give watchdog all communications with special counsel Jack Smith


A Georgia judge ordered Fulton County District Attorney Fani Williams to hand over records related to her communications with special counsel Jack Smith and the U.S. House January 6 Committee after failing to comply with a request under the

The nonprofit group Judicial Watch filed a lawsuit against Willis in March after her office claimed it did not have any documents and communications on file between Willis and Smith or Willis and the January 6th Committee.

But it turned out her office did have communications, and on Monday, Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney ordered Willis to produce them within five business days. McBurney also determined in his ruling that Willis violated Georgia’s open records act by failing to respond to Judicial Watch’s lawsuit.



Joe Biden’s predictable pardon of Hunter didn’t threaten his reputation – it cemented an already corrupt legacy


At a noisy holiday party, a friend pulled me aside for a quiet conversation. He’s long been a major Democratic donor in New York and nationally but has grown increasingly disenchanted with the party’s far-left policies.

“You were right about Trump,” he whispered, before delivering the bombshell: “And I voted for him.”

We shook hands and laughed.

Claims that the Hunter pardon threatens Biden’s legacy suggests the suckers actually believed the Hitler-hysteria that Trump was a threat to all that is pure and good and that Biden was an honorable and honest man.



Elon and Vivek should tackle US funding for this boondoogle organization and score a multimillion dollar win

Let's take a close look at the enormous sums that flow to the United Nations from U.S. taxpayers' wallets

In the search to eliminate waste and unaccountable spending, a $20 billion annual savings plan is immediately available to incoming President Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE): American taxpayer dollars flowing to the United Nations.

Each year the U.S. provides nearly a quarter of the U.N.’s total expenses, including assessed or mandatory "regular" funding of more than $3 billion and voluntary contributions that have vacillated between $10 and $15 billion in each of the past two years. Taking into account in-kind support services, the total is likely even higher. U.N. demands and U.S. subsidies have ballooned, with U.S. payouts almost doubling over the last decade.

Alarm bells ought to ring out for Americans both because of how the money gets spent and where it is going.



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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