[AmericanGreatness] Never in U.S. history has a president-elect been welcomed as the real president before his January 20 inauguration. And never has the incumbent president so willingly surrendered his last two months in office and all but abdicated—to the relief of his nation and the rest of the world.
One reason so many are welcoming Trump’s return is the universally desperate hope that his election spelled an end to a collective madness at home and its ripples abroad during the last four years. And why not?
Nations overseas had never quite witnessed anything like the lethal August 2021 American flight from Afghanistan. That utter humiliation and impotence of the U.S. military likely signaled to Russia there would be no consequences if it invaded Ukraine—and it did; to Iran that it could now unleash Hamas and Hezbollah on Israel—and it did; and to China that it could daily threaten Taiwan and send a spy balloon across the United States with impunity—and it did.
The result was the current global chaos perhaps not seen since the late 1930s when a confused United States was similarly a bystander to the rise of bellicose regimes and wars. The Biden administration shrugged that the Red Sea, the Black Sea, the South China Sea, the Straits of Hormuz, and the Eastern Mediterranean Sea all became dangerous to the U.S. Navy and unsafe to world shipping.
A disparate group of nuclear and near-nuclear powers—Russia, China, North Korea, and Iran—are either at war with Western allies or threatening war with them. Their confidence was predicated on the assumption that the U.S. after 2020 was engaged in a Maoist-like cultural revolution that warred on its own security, energy, military, universities, and social unity—and would continue with a second Biden term.
The Biden-era cultural revolution has done great damage to the United States. The U.S. border was systematically and deliberately destroyed to allow some 10-12 million illegal entrants to pour into the U.S. without legality or background checks. Never has an outgoing administration spitefully sold taxpayer-purchased border wall material for pennies on the dollar—rather than see it used for the purposes for which it was purchased.
Never had the U.S. experienced such an immigrant surge. And never had more than 50 million, and over 15 percent of the resident American population been foreign-born.
Why did Biden and Alejandro Mayorkas erase the border? What madness and hate drove them to dismantle federal immigration law? Was it sheer nihilism? Or a desperate but calculated effort to alter American demography for political purposes?
For four years, the public, elected officials, and pundits have all warned that Joe Biden was dangerously cognitively challenged and indeed completely unfit to fulfill the duties of the presidency.
A long-suffering nation winced as Biden slurred his words, spoke in unintelligible sound bites, stood frozen and mute, screamed at and libeled half the country, tripped, fell, wandered aimlessly, became bewildered, and more or less proved a global embarrassment. All knew Biden was not able to run the country; yet none knew exactly who was actually in charge of America in his stead. The Obamas? Leftists like Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, the Squad, Jill Biden, and the Biden staff?
Our allies worried that the usually resilient American president was now all but demented. Our enemies enjoyed these leaderless years of opportunity. And the left serially misled the public that the decrepit Biden, whom they feared in private was senile, was "dynamic," "energic," and "fit as a fiddle."
Never has a president so deserved to be removed by the 25th Amendment or through impeachment and conviction. And never has even his inner circle finally but silently agreed as they left office, the very enablers who had done their political best to mask his dementia for four long years.
Rarely have the FBI, the CIA, the IRS, the Department of Justice, and the Pentagon become weaponized and so flagrantly and with impunity broken the law, abandoned their mission statements, and served political agendas rather than the American people. Not since the J. Edgar Hoover era has the FBI hierarchy serially lied under oath, stonewalled Congress, forged a court affidavit, or partnered with the media to suppress the news. Has the FBI ever raided an ex-president’s home, spied on parents at school board meetings, monitored Catholics, or tried to terrify and harass pro-life activists?
Never has the justice system, from local to state to national jurisdictions, so systematically and coordinately, sought to bankrupt, render inert, and jail an ex-president and current presidential candidate.
Never has a presidential family so brazenly profited by selling its influence to foreign interests. Never has it used the powers of the FBI and DOJ to cover up its crimes and to ensure the family filial bagman would be for years exempted by the DOJ and later pardoned by the president himself, the father of the family miscreant and privy to the family syndicate’s illegal activities.
Seldom has a president and his administration sought to fuel a veritable cultural revolution to change the fabric of the nation by institutionalizing a third, transexual gender, violating civil rights law, and systematically admitting, hiring, and promoting Americans on the basis of their race and gender.
Never since the Civil War era had local and state insurrectionist governments established 600 nullification zones, in which they vowed to break federal law and consider it null and void within their jurisdictions. Never have rioters looted, burned, killed, assaulted, and occupied large swaths of cities for over 120 days, and largely with impunity.
Never had the U.S. Treasury borrowed so much money so quickly and owed $37 in national debt—and been so intent on borrowing continuously nearly $2 trillion a year in annual deficits.
Never has a political party sought to systematically violate long-standing traditions, customs, and often the law itself to destroy a political opponent: hiring a foreign national to spread smears among the media and bureaucracies, impeaching a president twice, trying an ex-president in the Senate, seeking to remove a presidential candidate from 16 state ballots, using five different judicial jurisdictions to try an ex-president, and serially so defaming a candidate and ex-president as a dictator, fascist, and Nazi to create a climate that encouraged two near-miss assassination attempts on him.
In sum, for the last four years, the world has watched aghast as the United States lost its collective mind and became a radical Jacobin revolutionary society.
So why is there not a sense of almost ecstatic relief, not just among conservatives but even among Democrats, that the years of darkness and madness are ending?
The global public believes that the United States will again become lawful, have a secure border, return as a beacon of free-market economics, protect its allies, deter its enemies, win over its neutrals, return to the rule of law, restore the professionalism and prestige of its government agencies, check predatory nations abroad with a new deterrent military, and prepare to lead the world in energy production, exploration of space, and scientific and technology development.
Summed up, the welcomed counterrevolution is one of restoration—to dream again that nothing is impossible, and the dreary age of stasis, envy, cynicism, and nihilism is ending, replaced again by a world without limits. No one knows quite what is ahead, but all know that it is at least better already than the current nightmare.
Posted by: Grom the Reflective ||
12/16/2024 04:05 ||
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#1
No, I suspect the next two years will truly be the years of madness as the left goes berserk before being pimp-slapped back into their hidey holes.
#3
No one has been punished and there are no safe guards to prevent this abuse from occurring in the future so to think the madness has ended is lunacy.
[KansasCityStar] In a Time magazine interview published this week, Donald Trump ...Never got invited to a P.Diddy party... continues to stand by his plan to deport millions of undocumented immigrants colonists in the United States to their home countries beginning the day he takes office. Vice President-elect J.D. Vance says that they will start at a minimum target of 1 million immigrants colonists a year.
Critics say the effort will cost $1 trillion and a CNN ...formerly the Cable News Network, now who know what it might stand for... analysis of research on the subject says even deporting 1 million a year is "unrealistic." That’s bunk.
The deportation deniers offer four reasons we can’t do it: It will cost too much; we don’t know who to deport and we’ll have to grossly violate civil liberties to get it done. Moreover, they argue, foreign countries won’t take them back. None of those are true or they don’t have to be.
I am not making a judgment on whether Trump should make a record-setting mass deportation effort. I am saying that too many analysts have confused what they want to be true with what actually is true.
MYTH 1: IT COSTS TOO MUCH
To begin with, in 2009 and 2010, Immigration and Customs Enforcement deported 250,000 people a year from the interior of the U.S. each year. Those are the hardest cases, not like people we turn away just over the border or those we apprehend, process and then return home, which are sometimes reported as deportations.
The budget for these 500,000 deportations was $7.5 billion over two years or $3.74 billion annually in 2024 dollars, in what is called ICE’s Detention and Removal Budget. It was bipartisan, happening under the leadership of Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama That’s just how white folks will do you.... . In the years since then, that budget has gone up by 20% to $4.5 billion but we’re deporting a fraction of the number of immigrants colonists we did before.
All we have to do is get back to the same efficiency we had in 2009 and 2010 to deport 300,000 (20% more than 250,000). Say the next 300,000 cost twice as much to deport — $9 billion and the next 300,000 cost twice as much again, or $18 billion. That’s 900,000 deportations a year for $31.5 billion annually. That doesn’t seem too crazy. And over a decade, that’s a third the cost critics complain of.
Moreover, even the lowball estimates of researchers who say Trump’s goals are impossible accept that such a national effort would cause more than a 100,000 immigrants colonists a year to leave on their own to avoid getting entangled with ICE. That’s your million a year.
MYTH 2: WE DON’T KNOW WHO TO DEPORT
We know enough right now to handle the first five or six years. The federal government knows of 1 to 2 million undocumented immigrants colonists in the country who are wanted or convicted criminals, depending on your definition. There are already 1.5 million undocumented immigrants colonists who are not criminals, but who have been through the immigration court system and been denied legal status. At the same time, there are nearly 4 million cases lumbering their way through our immigration court system — what’s often called the "backlog."
We don’t have to identify a single new individual as an undocumented immigrant for six years of deporting 1 million a year. That’s half the undocumented migrants colonists in the country.
MYTH 3: WE’LL VIOLATE CIVIL RIGHTS
Critics of the Trump plan argue that there simply aren’t enough resources to give everyone who gets caught up in the ICE net due process. Not enough lawyers, judges and ICE agents.
To begin with, there’s no serious argument that the Bush and B.O. regimes were violating civil rights willy-nilly when they deported 250,000 undocumented immigrants colonists a year 15 years ago. Trump’s plan can do the same due diligence as it ramps up to a million a year by spending up to four times as much per immigrant — that’s a lot of extra resources. Trump told Time that he wants to follow the law to get this done. It wasn’t that long ago that ICE quadrupled removals without systematically violating civil rights. The Biden administration did it between 2020 and 2024.
For the first six years, the people who would be targeted for deportation have already gotten their due process or are in the process of getting it already from the system in place under President Joe The Big Guy Biden ...46th president of the U.S. We hold these truths to be self-evident. All men and women created ... by the — you know — you know, the thing... MYTH 4: COUNTRIES WON’T TAKE BACK CITIZENS
According to Pew researchers, two-thirds of what they believe are 12 million undocumented immigrants colonists in the United States come from Mexico, Central America, the Caribbean and South America. All those countries get billions a year in remittances from immigrants colonists who work in the U.S. and send home part of their earnings.
In many cases, a country’s economy is dependent on this $200 billion in leverage. Trump can deliver a simple message: If you don’t take back your undocumented immigrants colonists, our financial system will cut off the remittances. This tool would work just as well with much of Asia, the Middle East and Africa where, among others, Pakistain, Vietnam and Nigeria each get billions of dollars.
The Trump administration has powerful winds at its back that might allow it to launch roundups and deportations at an even faster pace. Computer technology and surveillance have both advanced markedly since 2009. There are more police than there were 15 years ago and crime is much lower — allowing more boots on the ground to enforce immigration laws if local police cooperate as they do in much of the country, and which Trump says he will encourage. The economy is much more digitized, making it harder to live a life where your identity is off the grid.
And there are powerful tools to make the United States much less welcoming to undocumented immigrants colonists that the U.S. has never wielded. For instance, undocumented migrants colonists paid federal, state and local governments nearly $100 billion in taxes in 2024, billions of which is returned to them in refunds fueled by tax breaks targeted at low-income earners. The U.S. could require proof of legal presence to pay refunds and hold the money until the immigrants colonists agree to return to their home countries. Companies could be required to provide proof of legal presence for each employee whose salary they claim as an expense on their taxes. Such a move would hit farmers and hotels where undocumented workers frequently work, as each is dependent on undocumented migrants colonists for workers, and the salaries of which are deducted on their taxes.
Donald Trump’s plans for dealing with undocumented immigration are big, and they could be undone by the competence problems that were rife in his last administration. But they are not as unrealistic as his critics proclaim.
Opinionating about what they’ve been doing in Somalia while our attention was on Israel, Syria, and domestic American politics:
[Garowe] The recent military offensive in Raskamboni, where the Somali National Army clashed with Jubaland forces, stands as a glaring misstep in the federal government’s handling of Somalia’s delicate political fabric. This ill-advised confrontation not only highlights the growing divide between Mogadishu and the federal member states but also jeopardizes the tenuous stability that Somalia has painstakingly built over the years.
The roots of this conflict lie in a deepening mistrust between the federal government and its federal member states. At the heart of the disagreement is President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud’s insistence on implementing a universal suffrage model for Somalia’s elections—a move vehemently opposed by federal member states like Jubaland and Puntland ...a region in northeastern Somalia, centered on Garowe in the Nugaal province. Its leaders declared the territory an autonomous state in 1998. Puntland and the equally autonomous Somaliland seem to have avoided the clan rivalries and warlordism that have typified the rest of Somalia, which puts both places high on the list for Islamic subversion... . These states have voiced legitimate concerns that such a model could pave the way for unconstitutional term extensions and a dangerous centralization of power in Mogadishu. The federal government’s refusal to acknowledge the autonomy of these federal member states has only exacerbated tensions, further eroding trust.
The situation in Jubaland is particularly telling. Ahmed Madobe, Jubaland’s leader, has long been at odds with Mogadishu’s policies, especially after securing a third term in an election that the federal government deemed illegitimate. Mogadishu’s deployment of elite GorGor troops to Jubaland territory under the pretext of assuming African Union ...a union consisting of 53 African states, most run by dictators of one flavor or another. The only all-African state not in the AU is Morocco. Established in 2002, the AU is the successor to the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), which was even less successful... Transition Mission in Somalia bases has been widely interpreted as a veiled attempt to undermine Madobe’s authority. For Jubaland, this was not about security or collaboration—it was a direct challenge to their autonomy as a federal member state. The subsequent military defeat of the Somali National Army, which saw hundreds of its soldiers surrender and seek refuge across the Kenyan border, marked a humiliating failure for the federal government’s strategy.
The fallout from this reckless assault is immense. Trust between Mogadishu and the federal member states has been severely damaged, with Jubaland’s defiance likely to embolden other states to resist federal overreach. This growing resentment risks pushing Somalia closer to fragmentation, as federal member states increasingly view the government not as a partner but as an aggressor intent on undermining their autonomy. Meanwhile,
...back at the wine tasting, Vince was about to start on his third quart... the conflict has created an opening for al-Shabaab ... al-Qaeda's tentacle in East Africa... , diverting critical resources and attention away from the fight against the murderous Moslems. As Somalia’s primary security threat, al-Shabaab is poised to exploit this vacuum, further destabilizing the country.
The international response to this crisis has been one of alarm. Somalia’s key partners, including the United States, have condemned the violence and urged dialogue between the federal government and its federal member states. However,
there's more than one way to skin a cat... Mogadishu’s apparent disregard for the principles of federalism risks alienating its allies, potentially jeopardizing the foreign aid and international support that Somalia desperately needs. Domestically, the political fallout has been equally severe. The defeat in Raskamboni has weakened the Somali National Army, exposing its vulnerabilities and undermining its morale. The political polarization stemming from this crisis has further paralyzed efforts to address critical issues such as drought, famine, and poverty.
Mogadishu’s decision to resort to force against Jubaland has backfired spectacularly. Instead of consolidating its authority, the federal government has only deepened divisions and fueled resistance among federal member states. This strategy of confrontation is not sustainable. Somalia’s future depends on a governance model that respects the autonomy of its federal member states while fostering collaboration and unity. The federal government must abandon its combative approach and prioritize dialogue, reconciliation, and inclusivity. President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud should urgently convene a national forum with the leaders of all federal member states to address their grievances and reaffirm the principles of federalism enshrined in Somalia’s provisional constitution.
Somalia stands at a crossroads. The path chosen now will determine whether the country continues its slow march toward stability or slides back into the chaos of the past. Respecting the autonomy of federal member states and fostering a spirit of cooperation are not just political necessities—they are the keys to ensuring Somalia’s survival as a united and peaceful nation. The lessons of Raskamboni must not be ignored. Failure to act decisively and wisely risks undoing decades of progress, leaving the Somali people to pay the price for their leaders’ misjudgments.
#1
2/2/2014 report: The Raskamboni brigade which helped Kenya to push al-Shabab militants out of Kismayo in 2012 is led by Ahmed Madobe, a Somali warlord who has established a local administration in Kismayo that is independent of the central government. Madobe is a key power broker around Kismayo, although he is not backed by the federal government in Mogadishu.
Posted by: Albert Pelosi3459 ||
12/16/2024 5:53 Comments ||
Top||
15-12-2024
[Garowe] The Somali National Army ( SNA) unleashed against Jubaland regional forces in the Raskamboni area of Lower Juba region after weeks of mobilisation, in what could escalate into a full-blown war following a political dispute between Villa Somalia and Ahmed Madobe.
For the better part of Wednesday, elite soldiers from SNA clashed with Jubaland forces, just days after Jubaland leader Ahmed Madobe called for their withdrawal, accusing them of interference with a 'legally elected administration'.
Officials in Jubaland accused the Somali army of a drone attack on its forces near Raskamboni leading to festivities, adding that dozens of Ottoman Turkish-trained Gorgor soldiers surrendered during Wednesday's battle. After the battle, as many as 83 captured SNA soldiers were released and airlifted to Mogadishu.
Also, the Kenyan military said it would send back more than 600 Somali soldiers who surrendered at their base in Lamu county after suffering a major defeat in the Raskamboni area and fled to the Kenyan-Somali border for safety.
Jubaland deputy security minister Aden Ahmed described as unfortunate the use of the weapons and drones provided by the International Partners against "a peaceful" federal state, instead of the intended al-Shabaab ... Somalia's version of the Taliban, functioning as an arm of al-Qaeda... war.
Mogadishu had insisted that the elite troops are set to take over Forward Operating Bases left vacant by the outgoing African Union ...a union consisting of 53 African states, most run by dictators of one flavor or another. The only all-African state not in the AU is Morocco. Established in 2002, the AU is the successor to the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), which was even less successful... Transition Mission in Somalia (ATMIS) troops, a claim Jubaland dismisses as a 'political narrative to pursue ouster of Madobe'.
Despite Jubaland's outcry, which has persistently accused President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud of conspiracy to overthrow Madobe, the government distanced itself from Wednesday's bloodbath, claiming that Madobe engineered it.
Jubaland said Raskamboni had been freed from al-Shabaab more than a decade ago and it was under its full control but Somali troops' deployment was a politically motivated move aimed at de-stabilization of security and destroying the current administration in Kismayo ...a port city in the southern Lower Juba province of Somalia, at the extreme southern end of the country (always assuming Somalia can be called a country). It is the commercial capital of the autonomous Jubaland region.... "The Ministry of Defence has been monitoring Ahmed Madobe’s alarming collision with al-Shabaab," read the statement. "The alliance has enabled al-Shabaab to grant passage to the groups he has mobilised for assaults against national forces."
The Ministry of Defence further threatens to charge Madobe with 'treason' adding that 'all those involved shall face legal consequences'. But the fighting comes after Madobe warned against mobilisation of troops in Raskamboni and El-Wak, arguing that 'we cannot allow you to destabilise the state'.
Either side had issued arrest warrants a few days ago against Hassan Sheikh and Ahmed Madobe, with Jubaland accusing the federal government of 'sabotaging' the fight against al-Shabaab. A quick check on the ground shows that the SNA contingent is yet to take over any FOB vacated by ATMIS.
The US and other international partners are calling for the cessation of hostilities and asking both parties to embrace dialogue. President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud had vowed to intensify operations against Madobe, whom he accuses of conducting indirect elections.
Just as Madobe won the third term, the federal government vowed to teach him 'a lesson'. The warning was followed by the deployment of elite GorGor troops to Jubaland, triggering tensions in strategic towns and subsequently leading to the mobilisation of troops.
Somali PM Hamza Abdi Barre has Called the Jubaland Election held last month in Kismayo Illegitimate and illegal Before the Raskamboni Clashes.
For Madobe, the universal suffrage model would trigger unconstitutional term extensions for federal and regional leaders, thus his decision to stick with the indirect arrangement. Analysts believe the animosity between the two former allies could create a governance gap that could be exploited by al-Shabaab.
First time on a pony and then a Zamboni,
She was dressed in only her hair.
Losing direction, she stopped for correction,
Then said "Raskamboni is where?"
Ukrainian mortars and artillery were one of the few bright spots of the Ukrainian defense against the Russian invasion.
[VK] Another example of a defective 120mm mortar mine of Ukrainian manufacture, supplied to the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
After firing, the mine flew only a few meters and fell on the roof of a barn where the mortar crew was hiding.
The footage shows one of the reasons for this outcome - half of the main propellant charge is simply filled with cardboard instead of propellant, which does not burn completely and results in a colossal undershoot.
Text taken from a post on the V Kontakte page of Irina Belokolos
[VK] Seryozha Aleshkov was six years old when the Germans executed his mother and older brother for their connections with the partisans. This happened in the Kaluga region.
Seryozha was saved by a neighbor. She threw the child out of the window of the hut and shouted at him to run as fast as he could. The boy ran into the forest. It was autumn 1942. It is hard to say how long the child wandered, hungry, exhausted, frozen in the Kaluga forests. He was encountered by scouts from the 142nd Guards Rifle Regiment, commanded by Major Vorobyov. They carried the boy in their arms across the front line. And left him with the regiment.
The hardest thing was to find clothes for the little soldier: where would you find size thirty boots? However, over time, both shoes and a uniform were found - everything as it should be. Young unmarried Major Mikhail Vorobyov became a second father to Seryozha. Incidentally, he later officially adopted the boy.
- But you don’t have a mother, Seryozhenka, - the major said sadly, stroking the boy’s short-cropped hair.
- No, it will be like this, - he answered. – I like the nurse Aunt Nina, she is kind and beautiful.
So, thanks to the child, the major found his happiness and lived with Nina Andreyevna Bedova, the senior medical officer, all his life.
Seryozha helped his older comrades as best he could: he carried mail and ammunition to the soldiers, sang songs between battles. Seryozhenka turned out to have a wonderful character – cheerful, calm, he never whined or complained about trifles. And for the soldiers, this boy became a reminder of peaceful life, each of them had someone at home who loved and waited for them. Everyone tried to caress the child. But Seryozha gave his heart once and for all to Vorobyov.
Seryozha received the Medal "For Military Merit" for saving the life of his adopted father. Once, during a fascist raid, a bomb tore apart the regiment commander's dugout. No one except the boy saw that Major Vorobyov was under the rubble of logs.
– Daddy! - Seryozha screamed in a voice that was not his own, ran up to the dugout and pressed his ear to the logs. A muffled groan was heard from below.
Swallowing his tears, the boy tried to move the logs to the side, but only tore his hands until they bled. Despite the continuing explosions, Seryozha ran for help. He led soldiers to the collapsed dugout, and they pulled out their commander. And Guards Private Seryozha stood nearby and sobbed loudly, smearing dirt over his face, like the most ordinary little boy, which, in fact, he was.
The commander of the 8th Guards Army, General Chuikov, having learned about the young hero, awarded Seryozha with a combat weapon - a captured Walther pistol. Later, the boy was wounded, sent to the hospital and never returned to the front. It is known that Sergei Aleshkov graduated from the Suvorov Military School and the Kharkov Law Institute. For many years he worked as a lawyer in Chelyabinsk, closer to his family, Mikhail and Nina Vorobyov. In his last years he worked as a prosecutor. He died early, in 1990. The war years took their toll.
The story of the son of the regiment, Aleshkov, seems like a legend, if not for the old black-and-white photograph, from which a smiling, round-faced boy with a cap pulled jauntily down over one ear looks at us trustingly. Guards Private Seryozhenka. A child who got caught in the millstones of war, survived many troubles and became a real person. And for this, as we know, not only strength of character is needed, but also a kind heart.
[PJ] The silence over the Jan. 6, 2021, pipe bomb incident is deafening. The radio silence on what we've been assured are "viable" pipe bombs planted outside the DNC and near the RNC on J6 continued in the Inspector General's report when he offered only a few treacly paragraphs on the issue. Keeping the pipe bomb issue on the DL raises the spidey senses of those who believe that the pipe bomb incidents, far from being a J6 sideshow, were a planned diversion by — who, exactly? — to stop the Electoral College counting when Republican senators were to be offering proof of shady ballot counting and calling for an audit of the 2020 election.
All available cops would be sent to the bomb reports, the count would stop, Kamala Harris, the nation's first woman of color who ascended to the nation's second most powerful position and could have been killed by a "viable" pipe bomb, would be feted as a woke heroine and survivor. Joe Biden would be officially declared the winner. Game over.
But they didn't need a diversion. The people who brought you the information and active measures campaigns in "color revolutions" around the world had succeeded in starting a riot at the Capitol Complex.
The January 6 Committee mentioned the pipe bomb only five times — in its index, not even in the body of the report.
The Chairman of the January 6 Committee, Bennie Thompson, admitted he wasn't "privy" to much information about the pipe bomb. He had never seen the video of the person "planting it" and chatting on his cell phone the night before, nor had he seen the lackadaisical way in which the Secret Service treated the "discovery" of the pipe bomb the next day, as Harris sat inside the building.
#2
Classic case of Plan A being OBE (Overcome by Events)? Namely, either Plan B or just freelancing by some of the govt embeds in the crowds around the Capitol?
Some representative excerpts as the essay wanders across a variety of topical topics:
There’s been a lot of buzz this week about the appearance of SUV-sized drones over the Atlantic Coast states, particularly New Jersey. They exhibit some characteristics not previously observed, and speculation is rampant. The most commonly voiced of these is that they were launched by Iran from a ship parked off our coast, but that doesn’t seem true. I’m inclined to accept the speculation of Scott Adams, Dilbert’s creator and a man who has spent a great deal of time exploring psychological tools of persuasion:
This is a good week to practice your lie detection skills because we know the government is lying about drones. For example, Mayorkas says, ". . . no evidence of anomalous activity." Right. It's not "anomalous" to Mayorkas because he knows what the truth. (I assume is our military.) John Kirby says the sightings they could confirm were all regular airplanes. That's pure weasel. The government also says they are investigating, with the FBI, etc. That's also probably true, but only because whatever is happening is not being shared to every part of the government. Watch for overly specific answers. That's how normies (non-psychopaths) lie.
On the other hand, it could be outgoing SEC chair Gary Gensler pretending to launch a fleet of spaceships at us to foil Musk’s plan of transporting people to Mars -- just in case his lawfare against Musk fails.
In the Middle East, autocracy and butchery seem to be meeting a match in the IDF and IAF. In 11 days, the Israelis erased a barbaric Assad regime that had lingered after a civil war for 13 years. Unlike the Biden administration, which left in the hands of the Taliban billions of dollars worth of weapons and military supplies, or the Obama administration, which left Libya’s war stocks untouched, the Israelis systematically destroyed most of the Assad arsenal. They’ve now opened a clear corridor to Iran and its nuclear facilities:
While there’s some press coverage portraying the Syrian “rebels” and suggesting there will be substantial improvement in the areas under their control, I believe that is far-fetched. The HTS -- aka “rebel” forces led by Al-Joulani -- are only minimally an improvement over Assad.
“The terrorists responsible for forcing Assad out are called HTS, or Hayʼat Tahrir al-Sham. Roughly translated to “Levant Liberation Committee.” Meaning that they want to control the entire “Levant.” This includes Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Jordan, Egypt, Greece, Cyprus, and Turkey.”
The country seems, in fact, to be divided along ethnic lines, with the Kurds in the North, the Alawites along the coast, the Al-Joulani forces in the middle, and the Druzes (and many Christians) in the south. To my mind, it is altogether possible that Syria may divide up on ethnic lines. At least one analyst seems to agree with this:
Will incoming President Trump pardon all those convicted in connection with the January 6 riot at the Capitol? There’s lots of speculation about whether he will or should pardon them all or just those whose actions included claims of property damage or violence. I think Bill Shipley makes the best argument for pardoning them all.
...it is based on the refusal of the Biden DOJ to consider moving the trials outside DC, and for no one being willing to acknowledge that all DC residents, including those working in the Courthouse, were quasi-victims of the events of Jan. 6. In 30+ years doing federal criminal trial practice -- including 21 as a federal prosecutor -- I never handled a bench trial. But because of the overt bias of the DC juror pool, and the inability of normal voir dire to screen out biased jurors, defense attorneys -- including me -- have abandoned jury trials for our clients. They are pointless. There has been only one jury that acquitted a Jan. 6 defendant on all the felonies the Govt charged him with -- my client Michael Greene, a 34 year old black combat veteran who came to DC on Jan 6 for work -- and was paid -- performing a task for the Oath Keeper organization. He testified he didn't vote, has never voted, does not care about politics at all, doesn't like Trump, doesn't like Biden, he was only in DC because it was a job -- something the Oath Keepers had paid him to do in the past at other events. If that is the only guy where a jury in DC can find reasonable doubt, then there is no jury trial right in DC because there is no way to find 12 unbiased jurors in a city of only 400,000+ registered voters. You begin with the problem that 93% didn't want Trump for a second term. Then you add the layer that 60% either work for or have jobs linked directly to activities of the federal government. I have had 3 jury trials -- I've had attorneys with DOJ and family of attorneys with DOJ on my juries. They were better than other jurors I had to strike before them. It is not a question of getting "good jurors" -- it is a question of keeping only the "least bad" jurors. You are hearing this from a guy who reviewed probably close to 600 lengthy juror questionnaires in the three Oath Keeper trials. To be a defendan[t] reading through those and thinking "These are the people who are going to judge me knowing I came here to support Trump" is a nightmare. Almost everyone consumes news from the WaPo, NYT, NPR and MSNBC. So, if J6 defendants -- all J6 defendants -- did not have a basic right to a fair jury trial in DC, how can anyone be said to have had a trial process that comported with due process? Your "no blanket pardon" position assumes the opposite to be true. It is not -- 100+ bench trials proves my point.
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/16/2024 00:00 ||
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Link ||
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Top|| File under: Tin Hat Dictators, Presidents for Life, & Kleptocrats
#1
A dirty bomb is being searched out on the East Coast and West Coast. People are not to shoot them down.
#5
the drones are hunting out either a gas leak or 'radioactive material.'"
The Sniffing For Something theory makes sense. Drones are used to inspect infrastructure like power lines and pipelines. But that is easier to do during the day, plus no need for secrecy. Sure is a lot of sniffing going on for an inspection.
In addition to gas and radiation, a drone could also sniff for electromagnetic signals. We have planes that can do that but you cannot fly low in civilian areas, whereas a drone can take advantage of the inverse square law by getting up close.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
... al-Qaeda's tentacle in East Africa...
... Somalia's version of the Taliban, functioning as an arm of al-Qaeda...
