Day: August 16, 2023

The Highly Dangerous Georgia Indictments OF TRUMP

By Ben Shapiro 12:56 AM on August 16, 2023
SEE: https://pjmedia.com/columns/benshapiro/2023/08/16/the-highly-dangerous-georgia-indictments-n1719593;Republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, & research purposes.

The Highly Dangerous Georgia Indictments
(AP Photo/John Bazemore)
This week, Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis launched a 98-page missile directly into the heart of American politics. That missile was a 41-count indictment charging former President Donald Trump and 18 alleged co-conspirators with violation of the Georgia version of the Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act — acts in furtherance of a conspiracy to commit a criminal act. In this case, the criminal act, according to the indictment, was “knowingly and willfully (joining) a conspiracy to unlawfully change the outcome of the election in favor of Trump.” 

Whether this amounts to a crime comes down to the question of whether Trump himself knew that he had lost the election; if he believed that he had won, then all the other accusations about him fall away. After all, it is not a crime to pursue a spurious legal strategy in furtherance of a delusion. But by charging RICO, Willis extends the case to people who may have admitted that Trump lost the election. This accomplishes two purposes. First, it puts these alleged co-conspirators in serious legal jeopardy, giving them a reason to flip on Trump himself. Second, it may allow Willis to charge Trump as part of a criminal conspiracy even if he personally believed he won the election — after all, case law suggests that co-conspirators can be charged under RICO even if they didn’t agree on every aspect of the conspiracy, so long as they knew the “general nature of the enterprise.”

The Georgia case also presents a unique danger to Trump because it is a state case. The Manhattan case against Trump rooted in campaign finance allegations is incredibly weak and is an obvious stretch; the Florida and D.C. cases against Trump are federal, which means that if elected president, he could theoretically pardon himself. The Georgia case is both wide-ranging and state-based: if convicted, Trump would go to state prison and would have no ability to pardon himself. Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp does not have unilateral pardon power, either: In Georgia, pardons work through an appointed board. So, the very real prospect exists that even were Trump elected, he’d start his term from state prison.

But even that discussion is premature: The Georgia case, along with all the other indictments against Trump, are going to lock him into courthouses for the rest of the election cycle. What’s more, every waking moment for the media will be coverage of those court cases. That will make it impossible for Trump — even if he were so inclined, which has shown no evidence of being — to talk about President Joe Biden rather than his legal peril. And there has yet to be a single piece of data suggesting that Americans are driven to vote for Trump because of his legal troubles. To pardon yourself, you have to be elected president. But spending your entire presidential race in the dock makes that a radically uphill battle. 

Related: WATCH: Hillary Cackles Like a Hyena on MSNBC About Latest Trump Indictments

All of this is quite terrible for the country. No matter what you think of Trump’s various legal imbroglios — from mishandling classified documents to paying off porn stars to calling up the Georgia secretary of state in an attempt to “find” votes — the glass has now been broken over and over and over again: Political opponents can be targeted by legal enemies. It will not be unbroken. If you think that only Democratic district attorneys will play this game, you have another thing coming. Prepare for a future in which running for office carries the legal risk of going to jail — on all sides. This means that only the worst and the most shameless will run for office.

The Biden Administration Brags About Leaving Americans Behind in Afghanistan

By Matt Margolis 12:10 PM on August 16, 2023
The Biden Administration Brags About Leaving Americans Behind in Afghanistan
Drew Angerer/Pool via AP
Nothing defines the disastrous Biden presidency more than the botched withdrawal from Afghanistan. It’s been two years since that watershed moment, which sent Joe Biden’s approval ratings underwater for the first time in his presidency, and that’s where they have remained ever since.

Biden, desperate for a 9/11 anniversary photo op, ignored the advice of his military advisors and lied about the situation on the ground in order to push ahead with a withdrawal that quickly descended into chaos, left 13 U.S. service members dead, and resulted in the government falling, the Taliban taking over, and billions in military equipment and weapons abandoned.

Biden and his administration have repeatedly insisted that they wouldn’t have done anything differently, doubling down every opportunity they get on the absurd claim that the withdrawal was a success, even though countless Americans were left behind when U.S. forces left.

How many exactly did the administration leave behind? An exact number isn’t quite clear because the Biden administration desperately tried to cover up the truth. Biden knew that there were still hundreds — maybe even thousands — of Americans stuck in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan, yet his administration assured the American people otherwise.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken even told Congress that “there were only 100 American citizens left in Afghanistan who wanted to leave.” However, the number of Americans evacuated after the withdrawal grew in the subsequent months, well above that initial 100 number.

Flashback: The Biden Admin Considers Afghanistan Withdrawal a Success. For Real.

Months after the withdrawal, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee released a report showing that as many as 9,000 Americans were left behind in Afghanistan, and a House Foreign Affairs Committee investigation a year after the withdrawal put the number closer to 1,000. Whatever the real number, this wasn’t a case of incompetence. The Biden administration didn’t suddenly find thousands of previously unknown Americans still in the Taliban-controlled country. It knew. And now members of the administration are bragging about it.

On the second anniversary of the botched withdrawal, Secretary of State Antony Blinken actually bragged about the withdrawal, and how “virtually all of the Americans citizens” wanted to leave the country.

“As you know, we brought back virtually all of the American citizens who said they wanted to depart in the course of the withdrawal, and that effort continued well after and continues to this day. And I believe some 900 or so additional American citizens, who told us at one point or another that they wanted to leave, we’ve made sure to get home,” Blinken said in remarks marking the anniversary.

Imagine thinking that bringing home “virtually all” Americans — which is still debatable — is considered a talking point, instead of bringing home all Americans. That’s the Biden administration for you.

Biden Allowed Major Donor to Hand Advanced Military Tech to China

He refused to meet with national security officials warning against the deal.

by

SEE: https://www.frontpagemag.com/biden-allowed-major-donor-to-hand-advanced-military-tech-to-china/;

Republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, & research purposes.

“When I was in another State they would slip and say ‘now I want to introduce the Senator from DuPont–I mean Delaware’”, Joe Biden had joked at a Senate Subcommittee on Crime session.

There’s a certain truth to the joke. DuPont is the corporation that defines Biden’s career. His first Senate bid was staffed with DuPont employees, including future chief-of-staff and senator Ted Kaufman, who was conveniently allowed to take a “leave of absence” from DuPont to help elect Biden. Biden celebrated his victory at the Hotel DuPont and bought a former DuPont mansion.

DuPont figures in a lot of Biden’s stories. He even claims to have gotten on board with gay marriage when his father showed him a gay couple kissing at DuPont. And Biden figures in the latest DuPont story which involves handing over advanced military technology to China.

Last year, DuPont sold off its biomaterials unit to the Huafon Group of China. Huafon, a massive chemical and finance organization,

Biden’s own defense secretary warned that the sale would put technology that could be used for advanced explosives in China’s hands. Those concerns were not unreasonable. DuPont had been born as a gunpowder firm that came to dominate the American defense industry in the 19th century. DuPont was there handling plutonium on the ground floor of the Manhattan Project even though its former president, Irénée du Pont, had admired Hitler. DuPont has since tried to avoid associations with weapons, but its biomaterials had potential military applications.

Houfan, a massive Chinese chemical and finance organization, which dominates the spandex market (spandex was originally developed by DuPont), boasts in its own spandex division that its commitment to “social responsibility” derives from Communist leadership within the company.

The deputy secretary of the Communist Party branch within Houfan was quoted as emphasizing the role of “Communist Party members and youth league members”.

America has been falling behind Communist China in the explosives race. The Ukraine war had demonstrated all too clearly the limitations of our military production capabilities and our reliance on outdated technologies. In 2021, a factory in Louisiana responsible for making all the Pentagon’s black powder blew up. The factory was originally part of DuPont.

China dominates the mass production of CL-20, the deadliest non-nuclear explosive, and America has struggled to catch up. A report during the Trump administration had warned that “China is also the sole source or a primary supplier for a number of critical energetic materials used in munitions and missiles.” Austin and the Pentagon warned about the deadly consequences of handing over DuPont’s technology which, like CL-20, was developed in America, but would be appropriated by China leading to a grave risk of American deaths in possible future conflicts.

Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin has generally been a loyal political soldier. He had previously toed the line on nearly every Biden initiative. But on DuPont, he broke ranks. National security officials tried to meet with Biden to warn him that the DuPont deal might be good for the Delaware company but was bad for America. Biden however refused to meet with them.

And the deal went through. Despite the supposed safeguards which were supposed to prevent Covation Biomaterials, the name of the new Chinese-controlled company, from getting its hands on the production process, it happened anyway. And the FBI launched an investigation.

Nothing is expected to come of that.

This is far from the first time that advanced American technology has fallen into the hands of our enemies in China, but it’s particularly outrageous because top defense officials, including the secretary of defense, had warned of the consequences, and it happened anyway.

And because there is no company closer to Joe Biden than DuPont.

The Biden family had already been involved in the intersection of China and DuPont when Hunter Biden introduced George Duko, a DuPont executive, to a Chinese businessman who had founded a Communist-linked firm. While Hunter has been sidelined, there’s a history there.

DuPont has been kind to Biden, donating $250,000 to his inauguration committee alone, and the Biden family has been kind to DuPont. When Robert H. Richards IV, a DuPont heir, admitted to raping his 3-year-old daughter, Attorney General Beau Biden defended the judge who refused to lock him up because he has “strong family support” and “will not fare well in prison.”

Beau Biden went on to die (of cancer in the United States, not in Iraq, as Joe Biden has repeatedly lied) and the Biden clan decided that the best way to memorialize the man who let a child rapist walk was to set up the Beau Biden Foundation for the Protection of Children. The foundation, currently holding its ‘Child Protection Classic’ at the DuPont Country Club, became famous when laptops bearing its sticker turned up filled with pornographic materials featuring its chairman, Hunter, including allegations of supposed inappropriate behavior with underage girls.

There is no understanding of the Bidens without understanding Delaware and DuPont. The decline of DuPont was a pivotal moment for Joe Biden’s political career. The Bidens have never been national figures and though Joe, his brother, and his son crisscrossed the world, they were always local grifters. DuPont’s troubles caused them to turn to China.

Hunter Biden’s firm had bet on Fisker: one of the companies that the Bidens hoped would replace DuPont. Biden, then Obama’s veep, had announced a $529 million low-interest loan (and another $20 million from the state), to the European electric car company that was supposed to build a massive manufacturing facility in Delaware. Joe Biden had promised that “this is seed money that will return back to the American consumer in billions and billions and billions of dollars in good new jobs.” “It’s our fund that’s in the deal,” Hunter wrote.

An investment banker emailed congratulations to Hunter on Fisker’s purchase of a former Delaware GM plant and offered a “sincere thanks for any and all help provided concerning Fisker”.

Fisker only sold 2,000 of its ‘Karma’ electric cars and went out of business. Americans lost $139 million on the Biden project. One of the $142,000 cars went to Hunter Biden alongside Leonardo DiCaprio and other connected figures. The car was paid for by a Kazakh businessman allied with the regime and with Putin’s Chechen warlord whom Joe and Hunted Biden dined.

With Fisker going under, Hunter turned to Chinese investors. Fisker was gobbled up by Wanxiang. Two executives from the massive Wanxiang Chinese automotive company had met with Joe Biden at the White House that year. Hunter had been financially linked to Wanxiang and an executive who met with Joe Biden emailed Hunter offering to help him get his Fisker fixed.

The fate of Fisker helps shed light on how our national security was sold out with the DuPont deal. Joe and Hunter Biden are far more interested in what’s good for DuPont than what’s good for America. Biden’s decision is likely to increase China’s military edge and weaken our own.

China didn’t have to buy the President of the United States, just the “Senator from DuPont”.

Philadelphia: Muslim teen was plotting to launch major jihad attack in US, had access to guns and was building bombs

By

SEE: https://www.jihadwatch.org/2023/08/philadelphia-muslim-teen-was-plotting-to-launch-major-jihad-attack-in-us-had-access-to-guns-and-was-building-bombs;

Republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, & research purposes.

They claim he was “radicalized on the internet,” which FBI Special Agent in Charge Jacqueline Maguire presents as a radical change when actually authorities have been claiming this for years and ignoring the uncomfortable possibility that this kind of activity might be encouraged in at least some mosques in the U.S.

“Philadelphia teen charged with planning a national terrorist attack,” by Chris Eberhart, Fox News, August 14, 2023:

Heavily armed law enforcement officers swarmed the Philadelphia home of a teenager who was plotting to launch a national terrorist attack, authorities said.

The suspect, an unnamed 17-year-old, was in contact with a global terrorist group affiliated with al Qaeda and had access to a “significant” number of guns and was building bombs, FBI Special Agent in Charge Jacqueline Maguire said during a Monday press conference.

The teen, who was arrested Friday, “conducted general research” into potential targets that weren’t confined to one location, and they were not just in Philadelphia, she said.

“Most concerning was the evidence to his access to firearms and purchased items and materials commonly [used] for constructing improvised explosive devices,” Maguire said. “Among the items he purchased were tactical equipment, wiring, chemicals and devices often used as the detonators.”

These purchases were made within the last few weeks, which quickly escalated this case “in both threat and priority,” she said.

Investigators monitored the suspect’s activity after learning he was in contact with the terrorist group Katibat al Tawhid wal Jihad (KTJ), an al Qaeda-affiliated group that primarily operates in the Idlib province in Syria.

He allegedly sent and received media to and from the KTJ on Instagram in March and April that contained terrorist propaganda and guidance on committing to criminal acts, including how to construct a bomb.

He “appeared to be taking steps to travel overseas for the purpose of joining or supporting terrorist activity,” she said….

“The charges we have filed against this individual represent the most serious alleged terrorist activity prosecuted in Philadelphia County court in recent history,” Krasner said in a statement after the arrest….

“It used to be that years ago you’d have to travel overseas to go to training camps, and that’s not the case anymore because you can very easily sit at home, sit in this country and be radicalized on the internet,” Maguire said. “The threat has changed, and it’s changed drastically over the past couple of decades.

“What hasn’t changed is these foreign terrorist organizations, again, having their sights set on America and being willing to not only recruit people from within this country but to target our citizens and our equities and interest here, too.”…

Biden Regime Says Iran Won’t Able to Buy Weapons With $6,000,000,000 Ransom, Iran Says It Will

By

SEE: https://www.jihadwatch.org/2023/08/biden-regime-says-iran-wont-able-to-buy-weapons-with-6000000000-ransom-iran-says-it-will;

Republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, & research purposes.

“Iran will have full and direct access to its released assets”

Tough question. Whom do you believe, the terrorists or their accomplices?

After announcing a $6 billion ransom for 5 hostages, the Biden administration is claiming that the money, stored in Qatar, an ally of Iran, will only be used for “humanitarian purposes”.

Iran is denying that.

White House spokesperson John Kirby told reporters that the United States would have “full visibility” into where any released Iranian funds are directed and used. An estimated $6 billion in Iranian assets are now held in South Korea.

“Essentially, the funds can only be accessed for food, medicine, medical equipment that would not have a dual military use,” he said. “And there will be a rigorous process of due diligence and standards applied with input from the U.S. Treasury Department.”

I’m old enough that I remember when Kirby and the administration were promising the same thing in Afghanistan. Then the State Department decided it wouldn’t cooperate with the Afghanistan watchdog or let employees talk to investigators without a lawyer present.

So I’m sure we can trust these fine folks who have never blatantly lied to us before and never will again.

“This is a dishonest claim manufactured by bitter people. Iran will have full and direct access to its released assets, there will be no Qatari companies involved, Iranian banks will have full control, and they can purchase goods and services without any limitation or restriction,” a top advisor to the Iranian negotiating team tweeted.

No need to worry. Humanitarian aid never funds terrorism. Never, ever.

Between January 2012 and March 2018, USAID provided $2.6 billion in funding to public international organizations and an additional $2 billion to NGOs operating in Iraq and Syria. A partial audit by USAID’s Office of the Inspector General of funds given to public international organizations revealed that the agency provided nearly $700 million in awards without an adequate system in place to ensure that members of terrorist groups would not be beneficiaries. As of January 2018, official investigations resulted in the blacklisting of several dozen individuals and organizations and the suspension of at least $239 million in program funds in the region.

Other recipients of American funding have run into difficulty identifying groups with ties to barred terrorist organizations. When such instances come to light — like World Vision’s payment of $125,000 to the Islamic Relief Agency in Sudan, a group with alleged ties to al-Qaeda — publicly available details are often murky.

In August 2016, Israeli prosecutors charged a manager of World Vision’s Gaza branch for allegedly funneling $43 million in funding over a period of six years to Hamas’s military wing.

In 2010, the United Nations investigated the World Food Programme’s operations in Somalia following reports of corruption, piracy, and the diversion of food aid to al-Shabaab. The United Nations identified a food aid fraud scheme in which approximately 30 percent of food aid was diverted to local personnel employed by the World Food Programme, 10 percent went to the contracted ground transporter, and 5 to 10 percent went to al-Shabaab.

I’m sure the same “rigorous process of due diligence” used to release terrorists into the U.S. will be applied when it comes to sending money to an Islamic terrorist state through another Islamic terror state.

Biden Moves Forward With Plan to Cancel $39 Billion in Student Loan Debt

By Anthony Gonzalez 11:32 PM on August 14, 2023
SEE: https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/anthony-gonzalez/2023/08/14/biden-moves-forward-with-plan-to-cancel-39-billion-in-student-loan-debt-n1719285; Republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, & research purposes.

Biden Moves Forward With Plan to Cancel $39 Billion in Student Loan Debt
AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File
President Joe Biden announced on Monday that he would be moving forward with his administration’s plan to cancel $49 billion in student loan debt for over 800,000 borrowers.

“On Day One of my Administration, I promised to fight for hardworking families and to fix problems in the student loan system that have been failing borrowers for too long,” Biden said in a statement released by the White House.

“I’m proud that my Administration is delivering on that promise and has already approved over $116 billion in debt cancellation for 3.4 million Americans – no matter how many lawsuits, challenges, or roadblocks Republican elected officials or special interests put in our way,” he added.

Biden said the loan cancellation plan, which was announced by Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona in July, seeks to address “errors and administrative failures of the student loan system that started long before I took office.”

“When I came into office, hundreds of thousands of borrowers weren’t accurately getting credit for student loan payments that should have delivered them forgiveness under Income-Driven Repayment plans or were placed into forbearance by loan servicers in violation of Department of Education rules,” Biden claimed. “Under these plans, if a borrower makes 20 or 25 years’ worth of payments, they get the remaining balances of their loans forgiven.”

On Monday, ABC News reported that some of the 800,000 borrowers who are eligible for the plan will receive an email containing the subject line: “Your student loans have been forgiven.” The outlet noted that the email process would be completed in a “matter of weeks.”

Approximately 614,000 individuals are expected to have their student loan debts nullified.

Biden said on Monday that his latest effort to cancel student loan debt is an example of one of the “alternative” paths his administration has taken to provide relief to several borrowers.

Related: ‘Bidenomics’ Is One Major Fail After Another

“As I announced earlier this summer in the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision on our student debt relief plan, we will continue to pursue an alternative path to deliver student debt relief to as many borrowers as possible as quickly as possible. We will use every tool at our disposal to get student loan borrowers the relief they need to reach their dreams,” the president said. “We will use every tool at our disposal to get student loan borrowers the relief they need to reach their dreams.”

Since Biden took office in January 2021, the Department of Education has forgiven over $116 billion in federal student loan debt held by more than 3.4 million students.

Trump Attorneys Blast Latest Sham Indictment, DA Fani Willis

By Matt Margolis 10:08 AM on August 15, 2023
SEE: https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/matt-margolis/2023/08/15/trump-attorneys-blast-latest-sham-indictment-da-fani-willis-n1719378;Republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, & research purposes.

Trump Attorneys Blast Latest Sham Indictment, DA Fani Willis
(Kent D. Johnson/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP, Pool)
On Monday night, Fulton County, Ga., District Attorney Fani Willis handed down ten new indictments of former president Donald Trump over his alleged interference in the 2020 presidential election.

Trump’s attorneys Drew Findling, Jennifer Little, and Marissa Goldberg released a statement early Tuesday, blasting the indictment, as well as the circumstances around it.

“The events that have unfolded today have been shocking and absurd, starting with the leak of a presumed and premature indictment before the witnesses had testified or the grand jurors had deliberated and ended with the District Attorney being unable to offer any explanation,” the statement began. “In light of this major fumble, the Fulton County District Attorney’s Office clearly decided to force through and rush this 98-page indictment. This one-sided grand jury presentation relied on witnesses who harbor their own personal and political interests— some of whom ran campaigns touting their efforts against the accused and/or profited from book deals and employment opportunities as a result. We look forward to a detailed review of this indictment which is undoubtedly just as flawed and unconstitutional as this entire process has been.”

The Trump campaign separately released a fact sheet blasting Willis, calling her a radical Democrat who has been campaigning and fundraising on her “bogus indictments” of President Trump.

The fact sheet noted that her partisan political activities even resulted in her disqualification from investigating an election witness last year. The Washington Post reported last year that the judge in the case ruled that her actions constituted a “plain — and actual and untenable — conflict,” and even commented that “It’s a ‘What are you thinking?’ moment. The optics are horrific.”

The Fulton County Superior Court Judge described the grand jury investigation as “one-sided” with “very limited due process” for those facing charges.

Wilis even launched her 2023 reelection campaign website mere days before the indictment dropped and has been bragging about her efforts to take down Trump to the media, which have no doubt contributed to her receiving 90% of her campaign contributions from out-of-state despite being a state prosecutor with only one county in her jurisdiction. Questions have also arisen as to whether Willis slow-walked the investigation in order for the indictment to interfere with the presidential election.

A few years ago, it was hard to imagine just how corrupt our nation’s justice system could become. To make matters worse, outlets like PJ Media face suppression and censorship for not pushing the preferred narrative.

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