[Breitbart] Former intelligence officer James Clapper slammed Politico for “deliberately” distorting the infamous letter he signed saying Hunter’s laptop was possible Russian disinformation. The letter signed by 51 intel officials was intended to discredit the New York Post’s report by Emma-Jo Morris that revealed the Biden family engaged in foreign business affairs while Joe Biden was a U.S. official.
The letter was peddled before the 2020 presidential election by Politico under the title by reporter Natasha Bertrand, “Hunter Biden story is Russian disinfo, dozens of former intel officials say.” Most establishment media organizations then used the Politico article to discount the revelations from Hunter’s laptop, such as those about corruption that allegedly involve now-President Joe Biden.
“More than 50 former senior intelligence officials have signed on to a letter outlining their belief that the recent disclosure of emails allegedly belonging to Joe Biden’s son ‘has all the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation,” the article read in support of the Biden family.
“We want to emphasize that we do not know if the emails, provided to the New York Post … are genuine or not and that we do not have evidence of Russian involvement,” the letter linked in Bertrand article said.
#2
James Clapper is an American hero who did everything he could to prevent Russian disinformation from interfering with our election. Good job. They're going to throw tomatoes at you but just ignore them.
#5
We know that Clapper lies and perjures himself whenever it suits his purposes. If we had a DoJ that was concerned with justice, which we don't, Clapper would be in jail where nobody would care about his lies.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
02/14/2023 12:36 Comments ||
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#6
Why is it necessary that we continue to hear from this feral toad ?
[Epoch Times] After more than two years of debate, the City Council of Eugene, Oregon, voted on Feb. 6 to ban natural gas hookups in new residential construction, becoming the state’s first city to prohibit new homes from using gas furnaces, water heaters, or appliances.
More for residents of pre-existing housing stock if they don’t have to share with newcomers...
During a closed meeting, the council first decided to deny a request by opponents to put the issue on the May ballot. According to DHM Research, 70 percent of those surveyed oppose the ban. Stoopid peons! You'll get what you voted for - in the last election!
The council then voted 5—3 in favor, citing concerns about climate change and public health, and saying the ban would reduce carbon emissions and eliminate the air quality hazards of gas stoves.
NW Natural, which supplies natural gas to more than 2.5 million Oregon homes, or 80 percent of natural gas in the state, fought the ban. "It has been alarming to see the extent to which some organizations will go to make misleading or inaccurate claims based on poorly constructed studies that are used to justify sweeping conclusions to support electrification," the company wrote.
[JonathanTurley] I recently wrote about how public schools and boards are making the case for school choice advocates with failing scores and rising controversies. The latest shocking statistic was released this week that 23 schools in Baltimore City had zero students who tested proficient in math. Those schools include 10 high schools, eight elementary schools, three Middle/High schools and two Elementary/Middle schools. The state found that 2,000 students who took the state test could not do math at grade level.
We previously discussed the Baltimore public educational system as an example of where billions of dollars have been spent on a system that continues to have appalling scores and standards. Recent data now offers another chilling statistic: 41 percent of students in the Baltimore system have a 1.0 (D) GPA or less.
We also discussed how a high school student almost graduated near the top half of his class after failing every class but three in four years. He had a 0.13 GPA. His mother objected and went public.
The top spending public school districts are also some of the worst performing school districts. New York topped the per capita spending at $24,040 per kid. Washington, D.C. is close at $22,759. Baltimore is often ranked in the top three per capita spending districts. The total budget for Baltimore public schools is roughly $1.2 billion. That is for a city with a total population of roughly 600,000 (The greater Baltimore metropolitan area is 2.8 million). In 2015, the school population was 84,000 kids.
Faced with school boards and teacher unions resisting parental objections to school policies over curriculum and social issues, states are on the brink of a transformative change. For years, boards and teacher unions have treated parents as unwelcome interlopers in their children’s education.
That view was captured this month in the comment of Iowa school board member Rachel Wall, who said: "The purpose of a public ed is to not teach kids what the parents want. It is to teach them what society needs them to know. The client is not the parent, but the community."
State Rep. Lee Snodgrass (D-Wis.) tweeted: "If parents want to ’have a say’ in their child’s education, they should home school or pay for private school tuition out of their family budget."
As public schools continue to produce abysmal scores, particularly for minority students, board and union officials have called for lowering or suspending proficiency standards or declared meritocracy to be a form of "white supremacy." Gifted and talented programs are being eliminated in the name of "equity."
Once parents have a choice, these teachers lose a virtual monopoly over many families, and these districts could lose billions in states like Florida.
Reports like the one out of Baltimore only fuel this trend to allow desperate parents to find alternatives for their children. It is a failure on a colossal scale. Yet, there is little accountability for the elected officials in these cities as generations are left with little future without basic skills.
Teachers and boards are killing the institution of public education by treating children and parents more like captives than consumers. That cannot continue much longer before parents look for alternatives.
Is he shooting for the next VP slot?
Maybe slot is a bad choice of words.
[FoxNews] Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg focused on racial disparities in construction during a Monday conference, claiming that construction sites are not employing local workers in minority communities and outsourcing to White people.
During the National Association of Counties Conference, Buttigieg urged those in attendance to work with their contractors and community colleges to build a workforce that reflects the community.
"We have heard way too many stories from generations past of infrastructure where you got a neighborhood, often a neighborhood of color, that finally sees the project come to them, but everyone in the hard hats on that project, doing the good paying jobs, don't look like they came from anywhere near the neighborhood," Buttigieg said.
He added that Americans could help shrink wealth gaps in the country by "tearing down those barriers" on the delivery level.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
02/14/2023 7:05 Comments ||
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#8
Buttigieg needs a talk with his party's special interest group, the teachers' unions. Scroll up to "23 Baltimore Schools Had Zero Students Proficient in Math". If you can't do math, you can't do construction. "hi hello im the problem its me"
#16
I work in construction
The vast majority of the workers are Hispanic
It’s hard work and no one works harder than a Hispanic in construction
They are complete warriors
Not so many blacks
#20
Funny, though, I figured Pete would be a little more concerned with this...
Mostly white people in a flyover area are affected. (G)ayor Pete don't care...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
02/14/2023 12:56 Comments ||
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#21
Many moons ago I was working temporarily in Beaverton, Oregon and stayed in a mote. Every Saturday about noon the migrant workers brought out their grills and coolers and we had a fiesta. It was great. With my limited Spanish and their limited English we still understood each other and had a great time. Kids playing, musicians playing, dancing, beer. Nobody got unruly, the kids were there. This was way before Oregon went woke.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
02/14/2023 14:09 Comments ||
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#22
^ Been in similar situations. Very enjoyable and reaffirming of my basic faith in humanity.
I can get along with anybody who is not voting for gummint cudjel access to my wallet.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
02/14/2023 14:11 Comments ||
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#23
What's happening is that construction sites are not employing as many local workers, ie illegal Mexicans, instead are increasing hiring illegal migrant El Salvadorians who will do it cheaper than established illegal mexicans.
#33
Down here, contractors hire illegals with the promise of work. Half the job, here's a check for half the promise. Then they call the bank and stop the check. Next day they come in with a new crew to finish the job.
Or buy 12 packs for the 10 guys in a van at the end of the day. Then call the police about a van of that color speeding and swerving lanes. When they don't show up the next day, the contractor is out the cost of two 12 packs, not their wages.
#34
^^^ In my neck of the woods you don't mess with Meskins by stealing their pay. In WWII the Mexicans in my father's unit took out Jap fortification guards I the dark with out making a sound. They are masters of the blade.
[GatewayPundit] AT&T removed Newsmax from its Direct TV platform this year. TGP reported that at the same time that the media conglomerate de-platformed Newsmax, the same group was paying the cable license fee for 22 liberal organizations.
Since DirecTV dropped Newsmax on Jan. 24, AT&T’s stock has fallen by almost 7%, wiping nearly $10 billion from its market value.
The S&P 500 actually rose 0.37% between Jan. 25 and Feb. 10, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average declined just 1.84% between those dates.
Newsmax has been alerting its supporters about AT&T’s decision through its network, the fourth highest-rated cable news channel, reaching 25 million Americans, according to Nielsen. Laughing so hard...
Senators Rand Paul and Ted Cruz and other leaders — including former Arkansas GOP Gov. Mike Huckabee; Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis.; Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla.; Dennis Prager — have encouraged Americans to switch their service providers.
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] A United Airlines flight from Hawaii to San Francisco plummeted in the air and came within just 775 feet of the Pacific Ocean in a terrifying incident.
The previously unreported incident on December 18 follows multiple near-misses at U.S. airports in the last three months.
Just 71 seconds after takeoff from the Kahului Airport in Maui, the United Airlines Flight UA1722 bound for San Francisco reached 2,200 feet began a steep nosedive, according to NBC News and first reported by The Air Current. The ordeal lasted 45 seconds from takeoff till the aircraft stabilized.
A spokesperson for United confirmed the incident and said a formal internal safety report was filed upon landing.
The report comes as the aviation industry faces 'the biggest disaster in its history' after twice in less than a month that a catastrophic collision has nearly happened at a U.S. airport.
#3
A friend was on a Republic Airlines jet years ago and he dozed off during takeoff....he awoke suddendly to no noise (dead quiet).'Pilot forgot to turn on main fuel tank and they fell over 7000 ft.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
02/14/2023 12:59 Comments ||
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#5
Juan Browne thinks it’s not unlikely that the autopilot was set for zero altitude and no one figured it out when then plane started a descent after it was switched on. That’s happened before.
Spin, Spin, Spin
[FoxNews] President Biden's administration hit former President Donald Trump's administration for failing to detect China's ongoing surveillance balloon program on Monday.
National Security Council strategic communications coordinator John Kirby delivered an update on the issue after the U.S. shot down four high-altitude objects over the past week, including China's surveillance balloon over the coast of South Carolina. Kirby noted that China's high altitude surveillance program was operating during Trump's administration, but said "they did not detect it."
"When President Biden came into office, he directed the U.S. intelligence community to do a broad assessment of Chinese intelligence capabilities and ensure and to ensure that we were working to detect and to protect against them," Kirby said during a White House press briefing.
"We were able to determine that China has a high altitude balloon program for intelligence collection that's connected to the People's Liberation Army. It was operating during the previous administration, but they did not detect it. We detected it. We tracked it. And we have been carefully studying it to learn as much as we can," he added.
Weren’t we told that the DoD knew at the time, but chose not to inform President Trump?
Given all the Trump bashing that has happened the last 6+ years. The LSD's now suddenly find Trump is to blame for something discovered on BIDEN/Deep State Coup's watch. A discovery that we were told initially had the WH was tossing its arms up in the air to understand?
If they KNEW, as claimed, it happened under Trump?
Then wouldn't that mean they clearly knew of the threat and still FAILED to address the issue for days?
[Breitbart] A top United States senator focused on government corruption is pushing the Pentagon inspector general to reopen an investigation into allegations that a former top defense official engaged in ethical misconduct related to a multi-billion dollar defense contract, citing new evidence.
Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA), the top Republican on the Judiciary Committee, is requesting that the Department of Defense Office of Inspector General (DOD OIG) reopen its investigation, claiming that a former DOD official, Sally Donnelly, failed to disclose a potential conflict of interest to the DOD OIG when it was investigating the allegations of ethical misconduct surrounding a contract which involved billions of American taxpayer dollars.
The DOD OIG published its final report on April 13, 2020, which said, “We determined that Ms. Donnelly did not violate any ethical agreements and obligations regarding Office of Government Ethics financial disclosures, [and] did not give preferential treatment to Amazon officials or restrict access to Secretary Mattis for other industry leaders.”
However, Grassley says Donnelly did not disclose to the DOD OIG exactly who purchased her consulting firm just prior to beginning her employment at the DOD, which he argues was relevant to the DOD OIG’s investigation and could have affected its findings.
NEW EVIDENCE OBTAINED BY GRASSLEY
Grassley presented the new evidence in his October 24, 2022, letter.
Just before entering the DOD in 2017, Donnelly sold her consulting firm SBD Advisors, according to her publicly available financial disclosure forms. However, Donnelly never revealed on her forms or in public reporting exactly who had purchased her firm.
According to Grassley, Donnelly never told the DOD OIG who purchased her firm either.
After pressing the DOD OIG for the Purchase and Sale Agreement for Donnelly’s company, Grassley found that the DOD OIG only had a copy with the identity of the purchaser’s name redacted, and that the DOD OIG had argued to him that the identity of the purchaser was not relevant to their investigation. Grassley said he finally obtained an unredacted copy of the Purchase and Sale Agreement in October 2022 — long after the DOD OIG ended its investigation — which revealed that an entity named VMAP Investor, LLC (VMAP) had purchased her firm. The “AP” in VMAP are the initials of its part-owner, Andre Pienaar.
Grassley argued that this would indeed have been relevant to the DOD OIG’s investigation.
Pienaar is not only the CEO and founder of C5 Capital — one of Donnelly’s clients — but at the time he was also dating — and later married — the Amazon Web Services executive who was then in charge of the company’s bid for the lucrative defense contract, Teresa Carlson.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
02/14/2023 6:34 Comments ||
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#2
22 October 2021 BY TIMESLIVE André Pienaar.
South Africa-born André Pienaar has been much maligned in the country of his birth. He’s been called an evil foreign agent by former president Jacob Zuma, and been vilified by journalists as a conniving intelligence operator.
He quotes US statesman Franklin D Roosevelt when asked how he feels about this. “Judge me by my enemies,” he says, “not my friends.”
Pienaar, the founder and managing partner of C5 Capital, an international investment group specialising in technology.... He’s a major player in cybersecurity, and in the space and nuclear power industries. He leads the Limitless Space Institute and is on the boards of several cybersecurity companies; he’s on the advisory council of the US Institute of Peace; and he’s served on the president’s council of the transnational non-profit, International Crisis Group.
[Mishtalk.com, hat tip to Bobby's brother] On Friday, February 10, the BLS quietly revised the CPI higher for four of the past five months, with one month unchanged.
All Items as Reported and Revised
December as Reported -0.1, As Revised +0.1
November as Reported +0.1, As Revised +0.2
October as Reported +0.4, As Revised +0.5
September as Reported +0.4, As Revised +0.4
August as Reported +0.1, As Revised +0.2
Hmm. It seems the bit of celebratory deflation in December didn't happen. Let's look further. Charts and tables at the link, easier to comprehend that the BLS data dump.
Posted by: Bobby ||
02/14/2023 11:27 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11123 views]
Top|| File under: Tin Hat Dictators, Presidents for Life, & Kleptocrats
#1
Surprising only the people who don't check the egg carton for breaks.
#3
IF the Socialist G-Income does happen, will it be the 1st step in setting up a Virtual $$$$ economy? As businesses will need GOV. approved connected systems to handle the V-$$$$$$?
#7
Nobody believes the money will ever run out here in the US. I think that's up there with believing you will live forever.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
02/14/2023 13:54 Comments ||
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#8
#6 Yeah, Cloward Piven had their moment. We're dealing with the results now.
Posted by: Rex Mundi ||
02/14/2023 14:38 Comments ||
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#9
“The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public's money.”
― Alexis de Tocqueville
- or -
“Democracy extends the sphere of personal independence; socialism confines it. Democracy values each man at his highest; socialism makes of each man an agent, an instrument, a number. Democracy and socialism have but one thing in common—equality. But note well the difference. Democracy aims at equality in liberty. Socialism desires equality in constraint and in servitude.”
― Alexis de Tocqueville
"There is no truth to the rumor that aliens from the planet Zedsnarn have destroyed Winnipeg. Half of the city is untouched. Besides, it's someplace in Canada."
Posted by: Fred ||
02/14/2023 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11129 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
So she is implying that they're of domestic origin?
I thought the WH approved alien hordes crossing the borders?
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.
[Epoch Times] After more than two years of debate, the City Council of 
[JonathanTurley] I recently wrote about how public schools and boards are making the case for school choice advocates with failing scores and rising controversies. The latest shocking statistic was released this week that 23 schools in 
[GatewayPundit] AT&T removed 
