Trump's world....

[concha]

[DBP66]

Freshman Democrat Puts Rep. Jim Jordan On Blast Over Whistleblower Claims

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Ben Blanchet

Fri, February 10, 2023 at 12:43 AM EST

 

 

Rep. Dan Goldman (D-N.Y.) quizzed Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) over his claims that “dozens” of whistleblowers had come to his office ahead of the Weaponization of the Federal Government committee meeting on Thursday.

The committee aims to look at federal agencies allegedly targeting conservatives, and Jordan claimed Thursday that there are dozens of whistleblowers who describe a “political nature” in the Justice Department.

Jordan chairs the committee that’s been dubbed the “tin foil hat committee” by Rep. Pete Aguila, chair of the House Democratic Caucus.

Goldman, in a tense exchange with Jordan, grilled the Republican on his claims and asked why information ― and testimony ― from the whistleblowers hadn’t been made available to Democrats on the committee.

Jordan, in response, said information from the whistleblowers would be available to Democrats “when they testify,” but Goldman wasn’t having it.

“You don’t have any transcriptions of their interviews?” asked Goldman, who was the lead counsel to the House managers in Donald Trump’s first impeachment inquiry. He won a House seat in November.

“We have the first ones, and we have the dozens who’ve come and talked to our office,” replied Jordan, who added that there will be interviews in the coming week.

“You just said dozens. Do you have notes from those? Or are they just talking to your staff?” Goldman later asked.

Jordan assured Goldman that he and everyone on the committee will be able to access transcripts of whistleblower interviews.

Goldman, however, circled back to bring up Jordan’s claim about the dozens he said his office spoke to.

 

[DBP66]

Trump’s former national security adviser subpoenaed in special counsel probe: report

 

Julia Shapero

Thu, February 9, 2023 at 9:43 PM EST

 

 

Former national security adviser Robert O’Brien has been subpoenaed by the special counsel investigating former President Trump, CNN reported on Thursday.

O’Brien, who served under Trump from September 2019 through the end of his presidency, was reportedly asked for information in connection with both the Justice Department’s investigation into Trump’s handling of classified materials and its probe into the former president’s role in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, according to CNN.

Reports also emerged Thursday that special counsel Jack Smith, who was appointed in November to head up the investigations into Trump, had subpoenaed former Vice President Mike Pence.

O’Brien reportedly considered resigning in the wake of the Jan. 6 riot, as several other members of the national security team stepped down. However, he ultimately stayed on for the final weeks of the Trump administration.

 

In the immediate aftermath of the event, O’Brien defended Pence, who notably refused Trump’s requests to block the certification of the 2020 election.

“I just spoke with Vice President Pence. He is a genuinely fine and decent man,” O’Brien tweeted at the time. “He exhibited courage today as he did at the Capitol on 9/11 as a Congressman. I am proud to serve with him.”

The Justice Department did not immediately respond to The Hill’s request for comment.

[DBP66]

Mike Pence subpoenaed by DOJ special counsel related to Trump investigations.

 

Kevin Johnson and David Jackson, USA TODAY

Fri, February 10, 2023 at 6:52 AM EST·2 min read

 

 

 

WASHINGTON – Former Vice President Mike Pence has been subpoenaed by the Justice Department's special counsel overseeing inquiries into Donald Trump's efforts to subvert the 2020 election and the former president's retention of classified documents, a person familiar with the matter said Thursday.

It was not immediately clear what special counsel Jack Smith is seeking from Pence, but the demand likely marks a major escalation in the inquiry since Smith was appointed to manage the inquiries in November by Attorney General Merrick Garland.

The subpoena to Pence was first reported by ABC News.

The Justice Department declined comment. A Pence spokesperson also declined comment late Thursday.

[DBP66]

Not a good day for Mike...

FBI searches former VP Mike Pence's Indiana home for classified documents

 

Kevin Johnson and Bart Jansen, USA TODAY

Fri, February 10, 2023 at 11:57 AM EST

 

 

WASHINGTON – The FBI on Friday searched former Vice President Mike Pence’s home in Indiana for classified documents, following the discovery last month of a small number of records with classified markings, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Carmel, Indiana, police also said the FBI arrived at Pence's Carmel-area home Friday morning. Police said they were providing traffic control in the area and not assisting in the search.

The FBI did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

 

Former Vice President Mike Pence speaks during an interview in New York City on Nov. 15, 2022 about his new autobiography, "So Help Me God," that chronicles his life and his time in the Trump administration.

The Pence search followed the voluntary search of President Joe Biden’s former office in November; his home in Wilmington, Delaware, in December; and his Rehoboth Beach house; and the seizure of more than 100 classified documents at former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate during the execution of a search warrant in August.

A handful of classified documents were found Jan. 16 at Pence’s home and placed in a secure safe until the FBI retrieved them, a Pence representative told the National Archives in a letter. Pence’s lawyer characterized the records as “a small number of bearing classified markings that were inadvertently transported to the personal home of the former vice president at the end of the last administration.”

[DBP66]

Surprise...surprise....

Research Firm Hired By Trump To Prove 2020 Election Fraud Came Up Empty: Report

 

 

Sara Boboltz

Sat, February 11, 2023 at 6:31 PM EST

 

 

A research firm investigated Donald Trump’s assertion that the presidential election was fraudulent, but its findings were suppressed because they found nothing to support his claims, The Washington Post reported citing four sources familiar with the matter.

The Berkeley Research Group, hired by the former president’s 2020 campaign, gathered a team of around a dozen people to look into alleged voter fraud and irregularities in six states, according to the Post.

The team reportedly briefed Trump, his former chief of staff Mark Meadows and others on a conference call held in the last days of 2020 — before Trump held a rally urging his supporters to march on the Capitol preceding the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection. The call reportedly became contentious.

But the researchers had looked at “everything,” one source told the Post.

“Literally anything you could think of. Voter turnout anomalies, date of birth anomalies, whether dead people voted. If there was anything under the sun that could be thought of, they looked at it,” the source said.

As recently as Saturday morning, Trump has claimed that the 2020 presidential election was “rigged” or “stolen” from him, pushing various conspiracy theories about voting machines and election workers.

He has made these claims even as dozens of lawsuits filed by Trump’s campaign or his allies were tossed out for lack of evidence in the weeks after President Joe Biden’s victory.

Trump continued to make his claims throughout the House select committee’s monthslong investigation, which revealed that people close to Trump repeatedly tried to tell him there was no evidence of fraud.

And apparently, he made them despite knowing that a team of professional researchers he paid to try and find evidence of fraud came up empty-handed.

The Post’s source added: “Just like any election, there are always errors, omissions and irregularities.” But the person stressed that they were not nearly enough to sway the election.

“It was nowhere close enough to what they wanted to prove,” the source said, “and it actually went in both directions.”

[Warrior]

[DBP66]

7 hours ago, Warrior said:

yea...only tough guys vote for Trump!...LOL...guys with rocks for brains...😉

[Warrior]

1 hour ago, DBP66 said:

yea...only tough guys vote for Trump!...LOL...guys with rocks for brains...😉

Good One1!

[concha]

Damning report finds there are 23 public schools in Baltimore where NONE of the children understand basic math - as parents blame Dem-led city's 'fraud and corruption'

 

 

 

[Warrior]

56 minutes ago, concha said:

Damning report finds there are 23 public schools in Baltimore where NONE of the children understand basic math - as parents blame Dem-led city's 'fraud and corruption'

 

 

 

I believe this is one if the most expensive per student $$ spent school system in the country. With leaders making $300 to $400k per year. 

[concha]

11 minutes ago, Warrior said:

I believe this is one if the most expensive per student $$ spent school system in the country. With leaders making $300 to $400k per year. 

 

"... CEO of Baltimore Public Schools, Sonja Santelises, was earning a base salary of $333,125 - which rose to $444,875 with allowances - yet students were still failing."

[DBP66]

[concha]

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11749631/Just-12-Democrats-want-Biden-leader-party.html

Just 12% of Democrats want Biden to be leader of the party: Dire new poll shows President's backing dwindling among his own supporters ahead of 2024 announcement

[concha]

 

https://www.fox13news.com/news/record-number-of-401k-hardship-withdrawals-seen-in-2022-amid-cost-of-living-crunch

Record number of 401(k) hardship withdrawals seen in 2022 amid cost-of-living crunch

 

 

[DBP66]

Judge upholds Donald Trump contempt order, sanctions in New York civil probe

 

FILE PHOTO: Midterm elections night at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach

 

Jonathan Stempel

Tue, February 14, 2023 at 1:45 PM EST

 

 

By Jonathan Stempel

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A New York state appeals court on Tuesday upheld an order finding Donald Trump in civil contempt for having failed to comply with a subpoena from New York Attorney General Letitia James in her probe of his business practices.

In a 5-0 decision, the Appellate Division in Manhattan said James had established by "clear and convincing evidence" that Trump's response to the Dec. 1, 2021, subpoena was inadequate.

The court said Trump's claim that a diligent search had failed to uncover relevant documents in his possession, without explaining what steps were taken to ensure nothing would be lost or discarded, "prejudicially violated the lawful, clear mandate of the court, of which he had knowledge."

 

It also said Justice Arthur Engoron, who oversees the case in a state court in Manhattan, had discretion to impose a $10,000 daily fine until Trump complied with the subpoena.

Trump accumulated, and later paid, $110,000 in fines.

Lawyers for the former U.S. president did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

James said Tuesday's decision "sends a clear message that there are consequences for abusing the legal system."

The attorney general sued Trump, his three oldest adult children and the Trump Organization for $250 million in September for an alleged decade-long scheme to manipulate asset values and Trump's net worth in order to win better terms from banks and insurers.

Last month, she called for new sanctions against Trump, saying his claims to lack sufficient knowledge about many specific accusations in the lawsuit were "demonstrably false," frivolous or otherwise improper.

Trump has called James' probe a politically motivated witch hunt.

He ended two legal challenges to James' lawsuit last month, after a Florida judge imposed $937,989 of sanctions against Trump and his lawyer for filing a "completely frivolous" lawsuit accusing Hillary Clinton of trying to rig the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

[DBP66]

NY court nixes Fox News’ bid to end voting tech firm’s suit

 

 

JENNIFER PELTZ

Tue, February 14, 2023 at 1:57 PM EST

 

 

NEW YORK (AP) — A New York appeals court on Tuesday rejected Fox News’ bid to shut down a multibillion-dollar defamation lawsuit accusing the network of spreading lies that a voting-technology company helped “steal” the 2020 election from then-U.S. President Donald Trump.

A five-judge panel ruled unanimously against the network, host Maria Bartiromo and former host Lou Dobbs. They said they were simply reporting the news when they broadcast unsupported claims from Trump lawyers Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell about Smartmatic USA. The claims were false.

The state Supreme Court’s Appellate Division, a mid-level appeals court, said there were “significant allegations” that Giuliani and Powell defamed the company.

“The complaint alleges in detailed fashion that in their coverage and commentary, Fox News, Dobbs, and Bartiromo effectively endorsed and participated in the statements with reckless disregard for, or serious doubts about" whether there was any reliable evidence for them, the judges wrote. They also reinstated similar claims against Fox News host Jeanine Pirro, claims a lower court had thrown out.

 

Messages seeking comment were sent to Smartmatic and Fox News; the network's lawyers are also representing the hosts.

Fox News had argued that it and its hosts did what the media do and the First Amendment protects: inform the public about newsworthy, if controversial, claims that an important figure was making about a matter of public concern.

Smartmatic maintained that Fox News can’t claim free speech protections for inviting guests to circulate damning falsehoods, without evidence, as part of what the voting company calls a “disinformation campaign.”

Federal and state election officials, exhaustive reviews in battleground states and Trump’s own attorney general found no widespread fraud that could have changed the outcome of the 2020 election. Nor did they uncover any credible evidence that the vote was tainted. Trump’s allegations of fraud were also roundly rejected by dozens of courts, including by judges whom Trump had appointed.

Smartmatic isn't alone in suing Fox News over its election coverage. The network is also fighting a $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit in Delaware from another voting machine company, Denver-based Dominion Voting Systems; and a federal defamation case filed by a Venezuelan businessman who said he was wrongly accused of trying to corrupt the election.

Florida-based Smartmatic said it played a small role in the 2020 U.S. national election: Its technology and software were used only in California’s Los Angeles County. The heavily Democratic county and state weren’t considered battlegrounds and went, as expected, for Democratic nominee and now-President Joe Biden.

But Smartmatic says Fox News and the three prominent hosts at the time — Bartiromo, Dobbs and Pirro — repeatedly allowed Trump's lawyers to falsely portray Smartmatic as a foreign company involved in a sprawling, multi-state operation to “flip” votes to Biden from the Republican incumbent.

During a series of appearances following the Nov. 3, 2020 election, Giuliani asserted that the company had been “formed in order to fix elections.” Powell called it a “huge criminal conspiracy” and the two jointly claimed that proof would be forthcoming.

Fox News eventually aired an interview with an election technology expert who said there was no evidence that Smartmatic’s technology had monkeyed with the election results. He refuted various claims that Giuliani and Powell made. That interview came after Smartmatic’s lawyers demanded a retraction.

The company says business tanked and executives and customer-support workers received death threats because of the bogus allegations. It's seeking more than $2.7 billion in damages.

“These reports by these three anchors were not objective pieces. These were endorsement pieces of something that they knew was not true,” Smartmatic lawyer J. Erik Connolly told the appeals judges during arguments in December.

But Fox News lawyer Paul Clement said the lawsuit “strikes at the heart of the First Amendment.”

“When the sitting president of the United States and his lawyers make allegations of fraud and indicate that the president’s legal team will be challenging the results of the election in multiple states, those allegations are unquestionably newsworthy. They remain newsworthy whether or not they seem plausible or likely to succeed,” Clement told the appeals court.

A message seeking comment on Tuesday's ruling was sent to Giuliani’s lawyer. He has said Giuliani's statements were protected by the First Amendment and other laws and principles, and his lawyers asked the appeals court to dismiss all the claims against him.

A lower court dismissed claims against Powell, a Texan who argued that she couldn’t be sued in New York over the matter.

[DBP66]

DOJ seeks to force Trump attorney to testify in documents probe, say sources

5h ago

Justice Department investigators probing former President Donald Trump's handling of classified documents after leaving office have asked a judge to overrule attorney-client privilege and compel one of Trump's attorneys to appear before a grand jury, multiple sources have confirmed to ABC News.

The DOJ is making the request on the basis of the crime-fraud exception, sources said, which allows for attorney-client privilege to be suspended in cases where it is suspected that legal services were rendered in the commission of a crime.

The development was first reported by the New York Times.

As previously reported by ABC News, DOJ officials said in a filing last summer that lawyers for Trump certified in early June that a "diligent search" of Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate turned up just 38 classified documents, all of which were safely secured in one storage room. Two months later, when FBI agents raided the premises, they found more than 100 additional classified documents -- some of which were located outside of the storage unit, including in Trump's office desk, the DOJ said.

 

 

[DBP66]

Trump has been asking his advisers questions like 'what do you think of firing squads' when planning his campaign messaging: Rolling Stone

 

 

Cheryl Teh

Tue, February 14, 2023 at 11:30 PM EST

 

 

 

Donald Trump.Brandon Bell/Getty Images

• Sources tell Rolling Stone Trump has been talking about how executions could fit in campaign messaging.

• Trump asked advisers about bringing back the firing squad and the use of guillotines, sources said.

• Sources also told Rolling Stone that Trump has discussed the idea of group executions.

Former President Donald Trump has been asking advisers what they think of bringing back firing squads and other banned execution methods, Rolling Stone reports.

Rolling Stone spoke to three anonymous sources about the campaign-related conversations Trump has been having with his associates. According to these sources, Trump has on more than one occasion asked his aides questions like: "What do you think of firing squads?"

Two Rolling Stone sources say Trump has had discussions with his advisers about everything from bringing back group executions to using banned execution methods like the guillotine.

A third source who spoke to Rolling Stone said Trump has also privately considered if it would be possible to launch an ad campaign to promote these execution methods. This ad campaign would involve airing footage from the executions, the source said.

"The former president believes this would help put the fear of God into violent criminals," the source told Rolling Stone. "He wanted to do some of these things when he was in office, but for whatever reasons didn't have the chance."

A Trump spokesperson told Insider that Rolling Stone's third source's recount of a possible Trump ad campaign featuring televised executions is "ridiculous" and "fake news."

"Either these people are fabricating lies out of thin air, or Rolling Stone is allowing themselves to be duped by these morons," the Trump spokesperson told Insider.

But when asked about the sources' comments about Trump's interest in alternative execution methods, the spokesperson referred Insider to Trump's 2024 campaign announcement in November. During that speech, Trump was heard calling for the death penalty for anyone who "gets caught selling drugs."

At a rally in September, Trump also urged Congress to immediately institute the death penalty for drug dealers. This is despite Trump himself having granted pardons to people who served time for drug trafficking charges.

Trump ended his term in office with a raft of federal executions — his administration executed 13 people between July 2020 and January 2021. Trump's administration also amended the federal execution protocols before he left office, charting a path for the government to use poison gas and firing squads in future executions.

Trump isn't the only GOP figure who's expressed interest in making it easier to execute people.

In February, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis tabled a change to Florida's law that would eliminate the need for a jury to agree unanimously before someone can be sentenced to death. DeSantis' move came after a jury could not agree unanimously on whether the Parkland shooter should be sentenced to death. The shooter was given a life sentence for killing 17 people at Florida's Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on February 14, 2018.

"We're going to reform the capital sentencing procedure in Florida," DeSantis said at a press conference in Florida on Tuesday — the fifth anniversary of the Parkland shooting. "You kill 17 people – what other penalty can you get other than the ultimate penalty?"

[DBP66]

Fox News hosts called 2020 election fraud 'total BS' in private, new Dominion court filing says

 

 

OLIVIA RUBIN and LUCIEN BRUGGEMAN

Thu, February 16, 2023 at 6:37 PM EST

 

 

Fox News anchors and producers privately acknowledged that former President Donald Trump and his allies' allegations of election fraud in the aftermath of the 2020 election were false despite their network's promotion of those claims, according to a new court filing by Dominion Voting Systems.

In a nearly 200-page document filed as part of its billion-dollar defamation suit against the network, Dominion Voting Systems shared emails, texts, testimony, and other private communications from Fox News personnel that cast doubt on claims that Dominion's voting machines had somehow rigged the presidential election in Joe Biden's favor.

The voting company is suing Fox News for $1.6 billion for allegedly defaming the company in the aftermath of the 2020 election.

MORE: Dominion files $1.6 billion lawsuit against Fox News over false election fraud claims

"Fox knew," according to the filing, which cited excerpts of evidence gathered as part of the suit. "From the top down, Fox knew 'the Dominion stuff' was 'total BS.' Yet despite knowing the truth -- or at minimum, recklessly disregarding that truth -- Fox spread and endorsed these 'outlandish voter fraud claims' about Dominion even as it internally recognized the lies as 'crazy,' 'absurd,' and 'shockingly reckless.'"

Fox News, in a statement, said, "There will be a lot of noise and confusion generated by Dominion and their opportunistic private equity owners, but the core of this case remains about freedom of the press and freedom of speech, which are fundamental rights afforded by the Constitution and protected by New York Times v. Sullivan."

In its motion for summary judgment filed Thursday, Fox wrote that "statements Dominion challenges are not actionable defamation because Fox News' coverage and commentary are not only not defamatory, but also protected by the First Amendment and New York doctrines emanating from it."

"Dominion has come nowhere close to producing the 'clear and convincing' evidence that the relevant individuals at Fox News made or published any challenged statement with actual malice," the Fox motion said.

 

PHOTO: In this Nov. 28, 2018 file photo a headline about President Donald Trump is shown outside Fox News studios in New York. (Mark Lennihan/AP, FILE)

In an amended counter claim, Fox News also called into question Dominion's damage claim, writing that "even under the most optimistic projections, Staple Street has never estimated Dominion’s value as a business to be anywhere near $1.6 billion." Staple street is the majority owner of Dominion.

Dominion's Thursday filing lays out its top evidence against Fox News, which Dominion claims pushed false accusations that the voting company had rigged the 2020 election, in order for the news channel to boost its rating and make a profit. The filing contains material Dominion has obtained via discovery from Fox News over the past few months, including text messages, internal emails, and depositions.

The court documents cite some of the network's top anchors and hosts, many of whom quietly shared misgivings about claims of election fraud and discussed how to address them on-air.

In mid-November 2020, host Tucker Carlson texted one of his producers that "there wasn't enough fraud to change the outcome" of the election, and later said that Sidney Powell, one of Trump's attorneys and a vocal promulgator of election denialism, "is lying."

Months later, on Jan. 6, Carlson called Trump "a demonic force, a destroyer," in a text message to the same producer.

MORE: Fox News' Sean Hannity set to be deposed as part of billion-dollar election lawsuit

Dana Perino, an anchor, called allegations of voter fraud against Dominion "total bs," "insane," and "nonsense."

In some cases, Fox News personnel raised red flags internally about their own colleagues. After host Maria Bartiromo tweeted about election fraud on Nov. 5, anchor Bret Baier pleaded to a network executive, "We have to prevent this stuff ... We need to fact check."

The Fox suit is one of several lawsuits launched by the Denver-based voting company after it became the center of far-reaching false conspiracy theories surrounding its involvement in the 2020 election, fueled largely by right-wing figures close to then-President Trump as part of the effort to overturn the results of the election.

Among the Fox News hosts who were scheduled to be deposed in the suit were Carlson, Sean Hannity and Jeannine Pirro, as well as former Fox Business host Lou Dobbs.

"The critical issue here is the state of mind of Fox and those individual people," Floyd Abrams, one of the country's leading experts on First Amendment law, told ABC News last summer. "What did they say about Dominion, and did they believe it?"

"In order for Dominion to win, it has to show that what was said was not just false, but that it was known or suspected to be false," Abrams said.

In a statement issued in response to the suit, Fox News officials said, "FOX News Media is proud of our 2020 election coverage, which stands in the highest tradition of American journalism, and will vigorously defend against this baseless lawsuit in court."

[DBP66]

Ann Coulter tells Nikki Haley to ‘go back to your own country’ in racist rant against new GOP presidential candidate

 

Sakshi Venkatraman

Thu, February 16, 2023 at 8:26 PM EST

 

 

Conservative pundit Ann Coulter is under fire for a racist tirade against new Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley.

In an appearance on the "The Mark Simone Show" podcast this week, Coulter made several xenophobic comments about Haley, the former governor of South Carolina who was born in the U.S. to Indian immigrant parents. "Why don't you go back to your own country?" Coulter said.

Coulter, known for her racist and anti-immigrant stances, attacked India, as well.

"Her candidacy did remind me that I need to immigrate to India so I can demand they start taking down parts of their history," she said. "What's with the worshipping of the cows? They're all starving over there. Did you know they have a rat temple, where they worship rats?"

Haley did not respond to a request for comment.

Coulter also called Haley a "bimbo" and a "preposterous creature," criticizing her for having advocated removing the Confederate flag from the grounds of the South Carolina Statehouse in the wake of the 2015 shooting at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston.

"This is my country, lady," she said. "I'm not an American Indian, and I don't like them taking down all the monuments."

Haley announced her candidacy Tuesday, making her the first Republican opponent for former President Donald Trump, for whom Coulter has been a vocal proponent.

[Warrior]

Below is what happens when diversity, equity, and inclusion over ensuring the best qualified employees are hired on the basis of racially and gender-blind competitive tests and experience. We will be a safer America once this administration is far from the White House. Joe Biden has always made decisions based on what is in his best interest not what is best for the American people. He doesn't care about the American people. 

A recent epidemic of airline near misses deserves both attention and reflection.

In mid-December, a San Francisco-bound United Airlines Boeing 777-200 airliner, just a little over a minute after taking off from Maui, Hawaii, suddenly dived. It lost more than half its altitude and came within 800 feet of crashing into the Pacific Ocean before pulling up.

About a month later, an American Airlines jet crossed the runway at New York City’s John F. Kennedy International Airport just as a Delta Air Lines plane was accelerating for takeoff. The two aircraft nearly collided.

Then in February, a FedEx cargo jet at the Austin, Texas airport just missed crashing into a Southwest Airlines airliner by a mere 100 feet.

The same month an American Airlines Airbus A321 was being towed out of the gate at Los Angeles International airport, and smashed into a bus carrying passengers between terminals, injuring five.

These near and actual accidents come amid a general landscape of aviation chaos.

After Christmas, Southwest Airlines simply canceled 71 percent of its flights. It blamed staff shortages due to storms. The airline seemed incapable of ensuring enough of their pilots, attendants, crews, and airport staff could get to work.

The Federal Aviation Administration in January canceled all flight departures from the United States for two hours due a computer safety system collapse. Thousands of additional flights were canceled, many for over 24 hours.

Something has gone terribly wrong.

Either the Department of Transportation and its Secretary Pete Buttigieg, or the head of the FAA, or the quality of either ground crews, pilots, or air traffic controllers – or all combined – are putting American travelers at mortal risk.

If not corrected, these near-death airline experiences and the near collapse of the U.S. commercial aviation system presage catastrophes to come.

Similar problems are plaguing the U.S. military.

On July 21, 2021 the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley assured the country that “The Afghan security forces have the capacity and capabilities needed to fight and defend their country.”

Those forces utterly collapsed in a matter of hours less than a month later.

On the eve of the war in Ukraine, the Pentagon wrongly warned Congress that Kyiv could fall within 72 hours of a general Russian invasion.

This month, the Defense Department officials apparently allowed a series of surveillance balloons to enter U.S. airspace. President Joe Biden claims he was advised by the military not to shoot down a Chinese survival balloon craft as it crossed with impunity much of the United States.

In the aftermath, Pentagon spokespeople gave incomplete, mutually contradictory, and absurd explanations for these serial violations of U.S. airspace, most likely perpetrated by the Chinese communist government.

The Pentagon likewise disputes details of recruitment shortfalls. But the military brass concedes that many branches of the military are still between a third to a quarter short of their recruitment goals – despite the military steadily lowering standards for enlistment. It denies that the new woke military culture has alienated future recruits, although polls suggest otherwise.

The same shortfall is true of U.S. weapon arsenals. Between cuts in the defense budget, poor procurement planning, incompetent administration, and massive arms shipments to Ukraine, the military suffers dangerously low inventories of anti-tank and anti-aircraft missiles, artillery shells, rockets, missiles, and mines.

America’s security, safety, prosperity, and postmodern lifestyles are not our birthright.

They are the dividends of centuries of prior hard work, unfettered freedom of speech, disinterested research, and a meritocracy.

Tamper with any of that and the system begins to fall apart.

The United States will then resemble the miasma we see in most of the world abroad where ideology suppresses free inquiry, political correctness warps research, and tribalism trumps meritocracy.

Many of the major airlines have established racial and gender quotes for government pilot training programs. United Airlines has set quotas to ensure half of its trainees will be minorities or women. Since 2013, the FAA has been lowering standards for air traffic control qualifications to achieve de facto race and gender quotas.

In testimony before Congress our top military brass has bragged not of their reduction in standards for enlistment, but of their “diversity” hiring, as they purportedly ferret out “white supremacy” and “white rage.”

In sum, our government is playing with our lives as it prefers diversity, equity, and inclusion over ensuring the best qualified employees are hired on the basis of racially and gender-blind competitive tests and experience.

Keep it up, and there are going to be a lot more Afghanistan-style surrenders, Chinese surveillance craft in our skies, and airline nightmares.

Victor Davis Hanson 

[DBP66]

1 hour ago, Warrior said:

Below is what happens when diversity, equity, and inclusion over ensuring the best qualified employees are hired on the basis of racially and gender-blind competitive tests and experience. We will be a safer America once this administration is far from the White House. Joe Biden has always made decisions based on what is in his best interest not what is best for the American people. He doesn't care about the American people. 

A recent epidemic of airline near misses deserves both attention and reflection.

In mid-December, a San Francisco-bound United Airlines Boeing 777-200 airliner, just a little over a minute after taking off from Maui, Hawaii, suddenly dived. It lost more than half its altitude and came within 800 feet of crashing into the Pacific Ocean before pulling up.

About a month later, an American Airlines jet crossed the runway at New York City’s John F. Kennedy International Airport just as a Delta Air Lines plane was accelerating for takeoff. The two aircraft nearly collided.

Then in February, a FedEx cargo jet at the Austin, Texas airport just missed crashing into a Southwest Airlines airliner by a mere 100 feet.

The same month an American Airlines Airbus A321 was being towed out of the gate at Los Angeles International airport, and smashed into a bus carrying passengers between terminals, injuring five.

These near and actual accidents come amid a general landscape of aviation chaos.

After Christmas, Southwest Airlines simply canceled 71 percent of its flights. It blamed staff shortages due to storms. The airline seemed incapable of ensuring enough of their pilots, attendants, crews, and airport staff could get to work.

The Federal Aviation Administration in January canceled all flight departures from the United States for two hours due a computer safety system collapse. Thousands of additional flights were canceled, many for over 24 hours.

Something has gone terribly wrong.

Either the Department of Transportation and its Secretary Pete Buttigieg, or the head of the FAA, or the quality of either ground crews, pilots, or air traffic controllers – or all combined – are putting American travelers at mortal risk.

If not corrected, these near-death airline experiences and the near collapse of the U.S. commercial aviation system presage catastrophes to come.

Similar problems are plaguing the U.S. military.

On July 21, 2021 the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley assured the country that “The Afghan security forces have the capacity and capabilities needed to fight and defend their country.”

Those forces utterly collapsed in a matter of hours less than a month later.

On the eve of the war in Ukraine, the Pentagon wrongly warned Congress that Kyiv could fall within 72 hours of a general Russian invasion.

This month, the Defense Department officials apparently allowed a series of surveillance balloons to enter U.S. airspace. President Joe Biden claims he was advised by the military not to shoot down a Chinese survival balloon craft as it crossed with impunity much of the United States.

In the aftermath, Pentagon spokespeople gave incomplete, mutually contradictory, and absurd explanations for these serial violations of U.S. airspace, most likely perpetrated by the Chinese communist government.

The Pentagon likewise disputes details of recruitment shortfalls. But the military brass concedes that many branches of the military are still between a third to a quarter short of their recruitment goals – despite the military steadily lowering standards for enlistment. It denies that the new woke military culture has alienated future recruits, although polls suggest otherwise.

The same shortfall is true of U.S. weapon arsenals. Between cuts in the defense budget, poor procurement planning, incompetent administration, and massive arms shipments to Ukraine, the military suffers dangerously low inventories of anti-tank and anti-aircraft missiles, artillery shells, rockets, missiles, and mines.

America’s security, safety, prosperity, and postmodern lifestyles are not our birthright.

They are the dividends of centuries of prior hard work, unfettered freedom of speech, disinterested research, and a meritocracy.

Tamper with any of that and the system begins to fall apart.

The United States will then resemble the miasma we see in most of the world abroad where ideology suppresses free inquiry, political correctness warps research, and tribalism trumps meritocracy.

Many of the major airlines have established racial and gender quotes for government pilot training programs. United Airlines has set quotas to ensure half of its trainees will be minorities or women. Since 2013, the FAA has been lowering standards for air traffic control qualifications to achieve de facto race and gender quotas.

In testimony before Congress our top military brass has bragged not of their reduction in standards for enlistment, but of their “diversity” hiring, as they purportedly ferret out “white supremacy” and “white rage.”

In sum, our government is playing with our lives as it prefers diversity, equity, and inclusion over ensuring the best qualified employees are hired on the basis of racially and gender-blind competitive tests and experience.

Keep it up, and there are going to be a lot more Afghanistan-style surrenders, Chinese surveillance craft in our skies, and airline nightmares.

Victor Davis Hanson 

Victor is a 🤡...he's a regular on the Laura Ingraham show. He tries to sound smart...but it doesn't work....😉

[DBP66]

Here's a nice read for the Fox news gang here....you've been played.

Tucker Carlson Calls Trump ‘Demonic Force’ in New Legal Filing

 

 

Charisma Madarang

Thu, February 16, 2023 at 10:15 PM EST

 

 

 

President Trump Holds News Conference In New York As World Leaders Gather In NYC For United Nations General Assembly - Credit: Drew Angerer/Getty Images

Fox news hosts and producers privately shared misgivings about former President Donald Trump’s false claims of fraud in the 2020 election despite their networks promoting his claims, Dominion Voting Systems alleged in a new court filing, the New York Times reports.

The newly disclosed messages are part of a $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit against the media giant; Dominion, an election technology company, is seeking damages from Fox News for airing conspiracy theories about voting machine fraud.

Host Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity, and Laura Ingraham, as well as others, disparaged Trump’s henchmen, including  Sidney Powell and Rudy Giuliani in messages — casting doubt on claims that Dominion’s machines had rigged the presidential election in Joe Biden’s favor, according to the legal filing made public on Thursday. Dominion alleges that the network’s hosts gave Sidney Powell and Rudy Giuliani a platform to lie about the voting process.

“From the top down, Fox knew ‘the Dominion stuff’ was ‘total BS,'” the filing states, which cited excerpts from evidence collected in the suit. The nearly 200-page court filing includes text messages, internal emails, and depositions Dominion gathered via discovery from Fox News over the past few months.

Fox was the first cable news network to project Biden’s win in Arizona, triggering a slew of angry messages from Trump’s camp and a drop in ratings as viewers defected to conservative alternatives Newsmax and OAN.

Carlson texted his producer, Alex Pfeiffer, two days after Election Day 2020 warning that the network’s decision to call the state of Arizona for Joe Biden on election night would have severe repercussions for Fox News.

“We worked really hard to build what we have,” Carlson messaged Pfeiffer on Nov. 5, 2020 according to the filing. “Those fuckers are destroying our credibility. It enrages me.”

Pfeiffer responded that “many on ‘our side’ are being reckless demagogues right now.”

“Of course they are,” Carlson wrote. “We’re not going to follow them.” He added that Trump was good at “destroying things. He’s the undisputed world champion of that. He could easily destroy us if we play it wrong.”

On Nov. 13, per the document, Carlson texted Pfeiffer that Trump needed to concede “that there wasn’t enough fraud to change the outcome” of the election, and later texted that Powell, one of Trump’s lawyers, was “lying” about having evidence for election fraud.

In another text exchange a few days later, as stated in the legal filing, Carlson repeated his concerns to Ingraham, writing that “Sidney Powell is lying by the way. I caught her. It’s insane.” Ingraham replied, “Sidney is a complete nut. No one will work with her. Ditto with Rudy.” Carlson responded, “It’s unbelievably offensive to me. Our viewers are good people and they believe it.”

The filing also alleges that Powell told Fox employees and host Maria Bartiromo that she relied on sources that made her unreliable. The suit states that before Powell’s Nov. 8, 2020 appearance on Bartiromo’s Sunday Morning Futures show, the “evidence” Powell provided to back her false accusations that Dominion manipulated the election was from an individual who described herself as “internally decapitated” and capable of “time travel in a semi-conscious state.”

Following a Nov. 19 broadcast of a press conference where Giuliani and Powell echoed their false claims that the election was rigged, Carlson went on his show to say that Powell had described “the single greatest crime in American history.” Yet Carlson also admitted that “she never sent us any evidence, despite a lot of requests,” and closed his show by expressing his hope that “Sidney Powell will come forward soon with details on exactly how this happened, and precisely who did it.”

The broadcast received backlash from viewers, the filing states.

On Jan. 6, 2021 Carlson messaged Pfeiffer, and called Trump “a demonic force, a destroyer,” adding, “But he’s not going to destroy us.” Despite this, just three weeks later, the host invited his leading sponsor Mike Lindell on his show; Lindell proceeded to repeat Powell’s conspiracies on air, even previewing them for Carlson’s staff.

Fox, in a statement to ABC News, wrote, “There will be a lot of noise and confusion generated by Dominion and their opportunistic private equity owners, but the core of this case remains about freedom of the press and freedom of speech, which are fundamental rights afforded by the Constitution and protected by New York Times v. Sullivan.”

In its motion for summary judgment filed Thursday, per ABC, Fox claimed that “statements Dominion challenges are not actionable defamation because Fox News’ coverage and commentary are not only not defamatory, but also protected by the First Amendment and New York doctrines emanating from it.”

By Nov. 12, the consequences of the accusations of the voter fraud narrative sunk in. In a message that day to Carlson and Ingraham, per the filing, Hannity wrote, “In one week and one debate they destroyed a brand that took 25 years to build and the damage is incalculable.”

[DBP66]

Attorneys for Proud Boys move to subpoena Trump

 

 

Catherine Garcia, Night editor

Thu, February 16, 2023 at 7:32 PM EST

 

 

 

Donald Trump. Scott Eisen/Getty Images

Attorneys for five members of the Proud Boys plan on asking the Department of Justice for help in serving a subpoena to former President Donald Trump.

Enrique Tarrio, the leader of the far-right extremist group, and four other members are facing seditious conspiracy charges in connection with the Jan. 6 Capitol attack. One of those defendants, Joe Biggs, is a Proud Boys organizer from Florida. His lawyer, Norm Pattis, said on Thursday that he intends on subpoenaing Trump to appear in court in March, and wants the Justice Department to help ensure Trump is served and follows through.

"Donald Trump called on patriots to stop the steal," Pattis said. "We're calling on Donald Trump to take the stand."

Dustin Thompson, a Jan. 6 defendant who was convicted in late 2022 of six counts related to the attack, wanted to subpoena Trump in his case, but the judge ruled the former president's testimony was inadmissible and stopped Thompson's lawyer from issuing a subpoena. It's not clear if the judge in the Proud Boys' case, U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly, will make a similar ruling or permit the subpoena.

Biggs, Tarrio, and their co-defendants Ethan Nordean, Zachary Rehl, and Dominic Pezzola, have been accused of plotting to use force to stop the transfer of presidential power. Their trial began in January, and during opening statements, Tarrio's lawyer, Sabino Jauregui, said it was Trump who "unleashed the mob" on Jan. 6.