DOJ orders Pennsylvania county to change ballot practices after 'troubling' findings - Sam Dorman

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by Sam Dorman

'It is the vital duty of government to ensure that every properly cast vote is counted,' DOJ said

VIDEO: Mail-in voting sparks debate in PA

The presidential election is less than eight weeks away and all eyes are on battleground states like Pennsylvania. Board of Elections officials there are anticipating at least 50 percent of voters will vote by mail.

The Justice Department sent a letter to a Pennsylvania county on Thursday, ordering it to change its practices after multiple military ballots were found discarded.

The issue surfaced earlier in the day when the DOJ announced that it had recovered a small number of discarded ballots. While the Justice Department would not say where they had found the ballots, they did say there were nine recovered -- seven of which were cast for President Trump, while the other two were sealed by Luzerne County before the FBI recovered them,

In his letter to Luzerne County officials, U.S. attorney David Freed indicated that additional ballot materials were found in a dumpster. Freed said their investigation yielded "troubling" 
findings, including that the county allegedly improperly opened ballots.

PENNSYLVANIA ELECTION OFFICIALS SOUND ALARM OVER 'NAKED BALLOT' RULING, WARNING IT COULD JEOPARDIZE 100,000 VOTES

"Even though your staff has made some attempts to reconstitute certain of the improperly opened ballots, there is no guarantee that any of these votes will be counted in the general election. In addition, our investigation has revealed that all or nearly all envelopes received in the elections office were opened as a matter of course," Freed's letter read.

"It was explained to investigators the envelopes used for official overseas, military, absentee and mail-in ballot requests are so similar, that the staff believed that adhering to the protocol of preserving envelopes unopened would cause them to miss such ballot requests. Our interviews further revealed that this issue was a problem in the primary election--therefore a known issue--and that the problem has not been corrected," he added.

"While the assigned investigators are continuing their work including reviewing additional discarded materials, it is imperative that the issues identified be corrected."

On Monday, Luzerne County District Attorney Stefanie Salavantis requested the investigation, which involves cooperation with the FBI and the U.S. Attorney's Office. Her office claims it opened an investigation after hearing about issues surrounding the ballots last week, on Sept. 17.

Freed said that in additon to the military ballots, "investigators recovered four (4) apparently official, bar-coded, absentee ballot envelopes that were empty. Two (2) of those envelopes had the completed attestations and signatures on the reverse side.  One (1) envelope with a handwritten return address was blank on the reverse side. The fourth empty envelope contains basic location information and the words “affirmation enclosed” on the reverse side."

The majority of the recovered materials, he said, were found in an outside dumpster.

In a statement provided to Fox News, Chief County Solicitor Romilda P. Crocamo said: "Luzerne County thanks the Luzerne County District Attorney’s Office, the United States Attorney’s Office, the Federal Bureau of Investigations and the Pennsylvania State Police for quickly accepting our request and for their professional work in this matter. The County will continue to work in cooperation with the authorities throughout their review. Due to the fact that this is an ongoing investigation, it is not appropriate for the County to provide further comment at this time."

 

pic.twitter.com/kjVDSQIUXR

— District Attorney Stefanie Salavantis (@salavantis) September 22, 2020

The incident touched on widespread concerns about election integrity amid social distancing restrictions that arose during the coronavirus. "It is the vital duty of government to ensure that every properly cast vote is counted," DOJ's release read.

Republicans have generally resisted calls for mail-in ballots due to concerns surrounding potential fraud and error. Democrats have pushed the mail-in alternative as a way to ensure voters can cast their ballots safely -- although Axios reported on Thursday that party leaders are increasingly pushing in-person voting.

That could be especially problematic for swing states like Pennsylvania, which Trump won by less than a percentage point.

Luzerne has been held up as an example of Trump's appeal to swing voters. He won the mid-state county after former President Obama won it during 2008 and 2012.

State election officials recently sounded the alarm that thousands of votes could be tossed out in November after a state Supreme Court ruling last week that "naked ballots" cannot be counted.

The Court ruled that officials in the battleground state can reject mail-in ballots sent without a secrecy envelope, which prevents the poll workers from seeing how someone voted. The ruling rescinded previous guidance allowing counties to count "naked ballots," or those ballots not placed in the proper security envelope.

More than 100,000 ballots could be thrown out as a result of the decision, according to Lisa Deeley, the chair of the Philadelphia city commissioners. President Trump won Pennsylvania by just more than 44,000 votes during the 2016 election.

Fox News' Megan Henney contributed to this report.


Sam Dorman

Source: https://www.foxnews.com/politics/military-ballots-trump-pennsylvania

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Cultural Marxism For The Kids - Larry Sand

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by Larry Sand

The Left’s plan to disfigure America moves forward.

The results of a survey released last week revealed that two-thirds of 18-39 year-old Americans do not know that 6 million Jews were killed during the Holocaust. One-half of the respondents could not name a single concentration camp. One-fourth said the holocaust was a myth and one-tenth blamed it on the Jews.

I guess this shouldn’t come as a surprise. It is very much in line with other recent polls which find that just 27 percent of those under the age of 45 nationally can demonstrate a basic understanding of American history. Additionally, 57 percent  of all Americans don’t know we have nine Supreme Court justices, 60 percent don’t know which countries we fought in WWII, and only 32 percent can correctly name all three branches of government.

Instead of cleaning up its act, the education establishment is doubling down. In fact, America’s children are in the process of having their brains scrubbed clean. Instead of teaching actual history, we are seeing more and more curricula that is pointedly critical of America and its traditional values. Facts are irrelevant. Objectivity is non-existent. Lies are truth.

The new indoctrination is for the most part of the far-left race-obsessed variety. In Virginia, the state Board of Education is in the process of discussing recommendations set forth in a report commissioned by Governor Ralph Northam. It proposes revamping Virginia’s school curriculum, to include “critical race theory,” which claims that “whiteness” is a moral blight and that all white people are complicit in oppressing people of color.

The largest school district in North Carolina has just launched a website that provides Black Lives Matter lessons for teachers. Yes, the appropriately named Wake County will tell white kids to recognize the fact they are privileged, and importantly instruct them on how they can recruit allies to the BLM cause.

Perhaps the biggest splash made by the cultural Marxists is “The 1619 Project,” which is making its way into classrooms across the country. The core of this agenda-driven fantasy claims that one of the primary reasons the colonists revolted against England was to preserve the institution of slavery. However, this was a bridge too far even for Nikole Hannah-Jones, the creator of the fraud, who now claims that she meant to say “some of” the colonists fought to preserve slavery, not all of them.  Hence, the thrust behind the project has been eviscerated, but that change will not deter the zealots from forcing the bogus project on kids all over the country.

In California, where “wokeness” supersedes godliness as an admired attribute in some circles, it’s coming down to crunch time for the embattled Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum (ESMC). As I wrote last month, the 2020 adaptation of the guidelines is somewhat better than last year’s version, but there are still many problems with it. The ESMC is still advising that students study “modern day movements and intersectional struggles for social Justice like the Immigrant Rights Movement, The Black Lives Matter Movement, the Environmental Justice Movements, Feminist Movements, LGBTQIA Queer Movements, and others.” Also, kids will learn about “strategies and approaches of these movements and apply them to problem solving struggles, challenges, or problems that we identify in our communities. In addition to rigorous reading assignments, information is drawn from student life experiences, major newspapers, culturally conscious musicians, and alternative media. The current information will allow us to see historical trajectories, contemplate social action, and make course material relevant.”

So not only is there an obvious far left slant to the curriculum, students are directed to become social justice warriors.

The good news is that many groups are up in arms about the ESMC. Jewish organizations are outraged that the ESMC states that America’s Jews and Irish have gained “racial privilege.”

The Alliance for Constructive Ethnic Studies, “a grassroots group of parents, teachers, students and immigrants representing all backgrounds, races, ethnicities and political affiliations,” is on the case. Its press release quotes Vera Hartford, a lawyer and political refugee from communist Czechoslovakia. “For those of us that grew up in Soviet bloc countries, the ESMC is like déjà vu. We are dumbfounded by a curriculum that consistently elevates Socialism, Marxism, and Communism as the way students are encouraged to become socially responsible. We are familiar with an educational system that proselytizes this specific political dogma that is proven to be unworkable and discriminatory in itself. It grooms and conditions impressionable minds to an ideology in service of a political agenda. Intolerance, bullying, and loss of freedom inevitably follow.”

Governor Gavin Newsom has until September 30^th to sign AB 331, the bill mandating that a one-semester ethnic studies course become a high school graduation requirement for California public school students even though the course contents are not finalized. In fact, the ESMC proponents are in the midst of a “public comment period” which will end on September 30^th. Then, in November, the Instructional Quality Commission will consider revisions, and pass its findings along to the state Board of Education. In March 2021 the Board will take action on the proposed curriculum.

The ESMC is nothing more than a Marxist blueprint whose purpose is to indoctrinate California’s children, and it’s now time for all of us to voice our opinion on the manifesto. If there are no major changes and you are a parent, please, please consider homeschooling your kids if at all possible.

Originally posted on California Policy Center.

Larry Sand

Source: https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2020/09/cultural-marxism-kids-larry-sand/

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New Flynn Document Dump Poses Huge Trouble for Dems - Lloyd Billingsley

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by Lloyd Billingsley

“Stalinist tactics mandate immediate dismissal of this case,” Flynn’s attorneys say.

In early September, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit rejected Gen. Michael Flynn’s petition for dismissal and voted 8-2 to send the case back to judge Emmet Sullivan. The judge, who rejected the Department of Justice dismissal of the case, must now consider documents Flynn’s attorneys filed with the court on Thursday.

“General Flynn has a Sixth Amendment right to a public exoneration regarding the proceedings against him,”  the documents state, “and the American people have a right to know the truth about the nefarious conduct and the people who committed it. The defense objects to any redactions and demands that the Government file these documents unredacted on the public record.”

In messages exchanged on the FBI’s “Lync” messaging system in October of 2016, FBI employees exchanged messages about the “Crossfire Road Show,” stating that they were “interested to see how this all plays out.” They knew exactly how bad it was: “I’m telling man, if this thing ever gets FOIA’d, there are going to be some tough questions asked.”

According to the documents, the “investigation” of General Flynn was first closed by November 8, 2016. The FBI agents write: “he said shut down Razor” [the operation against Flynn] and “so glad they’re closing razor,”  closing Razor.” However [redacted] “was silent though, so who knows what he will want.” Was that Andy [McCabe]?”

FBI employees noted “that the decision to nsl [national security letter] finances for razor bought him time.” This shows their recognition that the issuance or request for national security letters for General Flynn’s financial information was a ruse to get more time to keep the “investigation” against him open. These Stalinist tactics mandate immediate dismissal of this case. Analysts recognized by December 5, 2016, it was not even a “logical investigative step” to seek General Flynn’s financial records at that time and that “this is a nightmare.

On that same day, analysts discussed NSLs as a pretext to buy time that also increased the risk of leaks. They also noted it was a topic that “makes no sense” since the argument was made back in August. 

FBI employees discussed the January 5, 2017, briefing of Obama: “What’s the word on how O’s briefing went”? asked one employee, to which the other replied, “Don’t know but people here are scrambling for info to support certain things and it’s a mad house.” “Trump was right. Still not put together…why do we do this to ourselves. What is wrong with these people.”

FBI analysts knew it was so bad that they “all went and purchased professional liability insurance.”

The “concern when we got it was that there was a big leak at DOJ and the NYT among others was going to do a piece.” Further, “the new AG might have some questions…then yada yada yada…we all get screwed.” On January 13, 2017, FBI employees messaged that “someone leaked the Flynn calls with Kislyak to the WSJ.” In a response reeking with sarcasm, an FBI employee messaged “I’m so sorry to hear that. I’ll resume my duties as Chief Morale Officer and rectify that.”

Newly produced notes of Peter Strzok show that Strzok met with [deputy assistant attorney general] Bruce Swartz, Lisa, and George at DOJ on March 28, 2017, where he noted Flynn Intel Group “satisfied the registration obligation” and “no evidence of any willfulness.” Nonetheless, “Bruce” decided to issue subpoenas to Flynn Intel Group “and more.” 

According to exhibits C and D: “The new Strzok-Page text messages show that Strzok played games with the FBI Sentinel serialization system and entry of 302s, Strzok and Page were pulling talking points from a Lawfare article, and “F’in Pamela Brown knows there were two phone call memos.” Further, “these text message reinforce how zealously Strzok and Page were working to oppose Trump’s election and subvert the peaceful transfer of power.”

Newly produced notes of Andrew McCabe show that at 5:15 p.m. on May 10, 2017, McCabe briefed the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. They were trying very hard to pin something on General Flynn. According to an exhibit in the documents blackmail was “theoretically possible, not the strongest theory.”

According to Flynn’s attorneys Jesse Binnal and Sydney Powell, “The Government provided copies of the production with all necessary redactions for public dissemination. These documents evidence stunning government misconduct that mandates the immediate dismissal of this wrongful prosecution.” As the attorney’s conclude:

“There was no case against General Flynn. There was no crime. The FBI and the prosecutors knew that. This American hero and his entire family have suffered for four years from public abuse, slander, libel, and all means of defamation at the hands of the very government he pledged his life to defend. For these reasons and all those previously briefed, the Government’s Motion to Dismiss should now be granted with prejudice Instanter for multiple violations of Brady and the wrongful prosecution of General Flynn when the agents and prosecutors knew there was no crime. This hideous abuse of power and travesty of  justice has only been exacerbated by the unprecedented and baseless rulings of this court, and it should not continue another day.”

As President Trump likes to say, we’ll have to see what happens.

Lloyd Billingsley

Source: https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2020/09/new-flynn-document-dump-poses-huge-trouble-dems-lloyd-billingsley/

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Hezbollah's Growing Terror Network in Europe - Con Coughlin

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by Con Coughlin

Mr Sales said that US intelligence reports showed that Hezbollah had weapons based in Belgium, France, Greece, Italy, Spain and Switzerland, while "significant" ammonium nitrate caches had either been discovered or destroyed in France, Greece and Italy.

• According to Nathan Sales, the U.S. State Department's counterterrorism coordinator, Hezbollah has been steadily building up its weapons stockpiles in Europe with the aim of preparing for any future acts of terrorism that may be ordered by Tehran.
• Describing Hezbollah's arms build-up in Europe as posing a "clear and present danger to the US" and its allies, Mr Sales said that US intelligence reports showed that Hezbollah had weapons based in Belgium, France, Greece, Italy, Spain and Switzerland, while "significant" ammonium nitrate caches had either been discovered or destroyed in France, Greece and Italy.
• Further evidence of Hezbollah's expanding terrorist presence in Europe has emerged in Ireland, where ten members of an Irish dissident group known as the New IRA (NIRA) were arrested on terrorism charges last month, following claims they met with Hezbollah officials at Iran's embassy in Dublin.
• At a time when tensions are increasing between Iran and the West over Tehran's controversial nuclear programme, the expansion of Hezbollah's terror operation in Europe should certainly be a major cause for concern. Iran, after all, has a long history of resorting to terrorism to put pressure on its adversaries, and Europe is an obvious target for future Iranian terror attacks.

The conviction in absentia of two terrorists with links to the Iranian-backed Hezbollah militia for murdering five Israeli tourists in Bulgaria in 2012 has shed new light on the organisation's expanding terror network in Europe. Pictured: A truck carries the bus damaged in the attack on Israeli tourists at Burgas Airport in Bulgaria, on July 19, 2012, the day after the bombing. (Photo by Nikolay Doychinov/AFP/Getty Images)

The conviction in absentia of two terrorists with links to the Iranian-backed Hezbollah militia for murdering five Israeli tourists in Bulgaria in 2012 has shed new light on the organisation's expanding terror network in Europe.

The convictions, which were announced earlier this week by the Specialised Criminal Court in Sofia, the Bulgarian capital, relate to a suicide bomb attack against a bus carrying Israeli tourists on July 18, 2012.

The attack took place at the airport in the Bulgarian Black Sea resort of Burgas, killing five Israelis, as well as the bus driver.

Bulgarian investigators subsequently identified two prime suspects in the case, Meliad Farah, a Lebanese-Australian, and Hassan El Hajj Hassan, a Lebanese-Canadian, whom they claimed carried out the attack on behalf of Hezbollah.

While Hezbollah has consistently denied any involvement in the murders, the court nevertheless found the two men guilty of the attack, and sentenced them to life imprisonment without parole.

As the whereabouts of the convicted men is unknown, they are unlikely ever to serve their sentences. The evidence uncovered by Bulgarian prosecutors, however, pointing to Hezbollah's involvement in the attack has been sufficient to persuade European Union officials to place the organisation's so-called military wing on its terrorism blacklist.

The convictions, moreover, shed fresh light on Hezbollah's burgeoning terror network in Europe, which US officials believe is part of Iran's attempts to expand its global terror capabilities.

In the early years of Iran's Islamic Revolution, the regime mainly confined its terrorist activities to the Middle East. But since the 1990s, Tehran has gradually been expanding its global terror network, the most infamous example being the 1994 bombing of the Argentine Israelite Mutual Association (AMIA) in Buenos Aires, killing 85 people and injuring hundreds.

This means that today Iran has a global network ranging from Latin America, where Hezbollah has been accused of involvement in lucrative drug-smuggling activities, to Africa and Asia.

Now new evidence has emerged that suggests Hezbollah, with the help of its Iranian backers, is busy expanding its terror network in the heart of Europe.

According to Nathan Sales, the U.S. State Department's counterterrorism coordinator, Hezbollah has been steadily building up its weapons stockpiles in Europe with the aim of preparing for any future acts of terrorism that may be ordered by Tehran.

Speaking during a video appearance at the American Jewish Committee earlier this month, Mr Sales warned that recent American intelligence reports showed that Hezbollah was storing caches of weapons in countries throughout Europe.

This included stockpiles of ammonium nitrate, the same material responsible for the devastating explosion at Beirut's port last month.

Describing Hezbollah's arms build-up in Europe as posing a "clear and present danger to the US" and its allies, Mr Sales said that US intelligence reports showed that Hezbollah had weapons based in Belgium, France, Greece, Italy, Spain and Switzerland, while "significant" ammonium nitrate caches had either been discovered or destroyed in France, Greece and Italy.

"We have reason to believe that this activity is still underway," Mr Sales said. "Why would Hezbollah stockpile ammonium nitrate on European soil? The answer is clear. It can conduct major terror attacks whenever its masters in Tehran deem it necessary."

Further evidence of Hezbollah's expanding terrorist presence in Europe has emerged in Ireland, where ten members of an Irish dissident group known as the New IRA (NIRA) were arrested on terrorism charges last month, following claims they met with Hezbollah officials at Iran's embassy in Dublin.

A joint undercover operation mounted by British and Irish security officials found that the group was attempting to acquire Iranian-made weapons for use against the British security forces.

The ten people charged with a variety of terrorism offences include a Palestinian activist, Dr Issam Hijjawi Bassalat, who travelled to Ireland to give lectures on the Palestinian territories.

Two NIRA supporters who were arrested during the operation are reported to have attended a commemoration event at the Iranian Embassy in Dublin held following the death of Qassem Soleimani, the Iranian terrorist mastermind killed by a US drone strike in January.

At a time when tensions are increasing between Iran and the West over Tehran's controversial nuclear programme, the expansion of Hezbollah's terror operations in Europe should certainly be a major cause for concern. Iran, after all, has a long history of resorting to terrorism to put pressure on its adversaries, and Europe is an obvious target for future Iranian terror attacks.

Con Coughlin is the Telegraph's Defence and Foreign Affairs Editor and a Distinguished Senior Fellow at Gatestone Institute.

Source: https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/16549/hezbollah-network-europe

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Is Nancy Pelosi deliberately trying to stir up riots across America? - Andrea Widburg

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by Andrea Widburg

Following the Louisville grand jury's decision not to indict three policemen for murder, Nancy Pelosi sides with the mob.

It's up to God to decide if Nancy Pelosi is a truly terrible person, but she's giving an excellent imitation of one here on Earth. Pelosi seemingly believes that 2020 has given her license to violate all political norms. In the past two months, Pelosi has called federal law officers "stormtroopers," violated the mask rule she insists upon for others, claimed that she was a victim of a hair salon "setup," and blamed California's fires, which are the product of natural heat waves and abysmal land management, on an "angry" Mother Nature. Her worst act ever, though, could be her siding with the mob with the lie that the Louisville police involved with Breonna Taylor's death are murderers.

We know now that the media and the authorities in Louisville lied about everything. This is the story they told: Breonna Taylor was a completely innocent, law-abiding E.R. technician. For no reason whatsoever, three policemen did a no-knock raid on her apartment. When they broke down the door, her valiant boyfriend tried to defend her by firing at these intruders. The police responded with a volley of bullets that killed the innocent Taylor as she lay in her bed.

The real story, which relies on independent civilian witness evidence, a long-running investigation into a narcotics ring, police body cameras, and forensic evidence, is different. Taylor's ex-boyfriend, who had a lengthy criminal record, was being investigated for running a drug and illegal weapons ring. Not only did Taylor frequently talk to him, but there was also reason to believe that he used her apartment to store the drugs and money.

The police had a search warrant to enter and search Taylor's apartment. When they arrived, they knocked and announced themselves so loudly that a neighbor — a disinterested, third-party witness — was able to testify under oath that it was not a no-knock raid. When no one answered at Taylor's door, the police broke it open.

Things happened quickly at that point. The first police officer through the door saw Taylor and a man, later identified as her boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, standing at the end of the hall. Walker had a gun and was holding it with his arms extended.

Walker fired, hitting the police officer in the femoral artery, an injury that can be fatal. Faced with a deadly threat, the three officers ended up firing 32 rounds, six of which hit Taylor as she stood in the hallway, having watched her boyfriend try to kill a police officer. Interestingly, none of the 32 rounds hit Walker. It makes one wonder where he was.

On these facts, the grand jury and Kentucky's attorney general, Daniel Cameron, concluded that the police had acted appropriately by announcing their presence and firing only when they were under fire. Charging them with murder would be dishonest and immoral.

That didn't stop the mob, which went crazy in Louisville and other Democrat cities across America. In Louisville, Larynzo Johnson deliberately shot two police officers. Despite his manifest intent to assassinate public officials, he's facing only assault and wanton endangerment charges.

We've come to the point where we expect nothing but violence from the mob and cowardice from the prosecutors. However, if we are to have some semblance of a functional nation, we should expect our federal politicians to do their best to calm the American landscape, lest a civil war start and our major cities end up looking like Aleppo, Syria:

But looking out for the good of the nation isn’t San Fran Nan’s style. Her style is that she will do anything, including destroying America if it means achieving political power. That’s why she went full demagogue, insisting that Taylor was “murdered by the police”:

Speaker Pelosi: "Justice was denied for Breonna Taylor and her family. Just think if it were your daughter, your sister, your cousin, your relative, your friend who was murdered by the police and the charging decision held no one accountable for her death." pic.twitter.com/ZpyC5tWBHN

— The Hill (@thehill) September 24, 2020

Incidentally, there's nothing in the Democrats' George Floyd Justice in Policing Act that would have prevented what happened. The police entered under the color of law, loudly announced themselves, and responded to an attempt to kill them. Taylor, a young woman who was either a criminal or dumb enough to consort with criminals, paid the price. (The Act wouldn't have saved Floyd, either, because he was already dying from a massive fentanyl overdose when the police found him.) 

If enough people vote for the Republican candidate in their House district, Nancy Pelosi will no longer be the most powerful woman in America. That's just one more reason for you to make sure to vote a straight Republican ticket at your polling place on November 3.

Image: Nancy Pelosi calls police murderers. Twitter screen grab.


Andrea Widburg

Source: https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2020/09/is_nancy_pelosi_deliberately_trying_to_stir_up_riots_across_america.html

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Complaining about the Transition Integrity Project's Election Theft Plan Can Be Dangerous - Chris Farrell

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by Chris Farrell

The brutality and viciousness of Marxism and its adherents is on display. Those that may have held reservations or harbored some doubt on my analysis of what TIP really had in store for the election now have their answers.

• It seems that criticizing the Transition Integrity Project (TIP) and their plan to disrupt and steal the 2020 presidential election can be dangerous.
• So -- the leadership of TIP has spoken. Now you know their thinking, their motives and their true objectives. It seems Nils Gilman wants Michael Anton executed.
• The brutality and viciousness of Marxism and its adherents is on display. Those that may have held reservations or harbored some doubt on my analysis of what TIP really had in store for the election now have their answers.
• If Gilman advocates executing someone by firing squad for daring to question TIP, what other penalties and extraordinary measures were discussed by the supposed bipartisan arbiters of the electoral process? How is this "normal?"
• Are you disturbed by how your news information is "curated?"

Now we have the real, unvarnished thinking of Transition Integrity Project co-founder Nils Gilman. Gilman likes execution by firing squad. (Image source: iStock)

It seems that criticizing the Transition Integrity Project (TIP) and their plan to disrupt and steal the 2020 presidential election can be dangerous. Michael Anton, a former Trump administration official and now of the Claremont Institute, published an article titled, "The Coming Coup" that seems to have caught the attention of TIP co-founder Nils Gilman. According to the journalist Natalie Winters:

"Gilman, who serves as Vice President of Programs at the Chinese Communist Party-linked Berggruen Institute, took to Twitter to express his desire that Anton be executed in the same fashion as Robert Brasillach.
"Specifically, he insisted 'Michael Anton is the Robert Brasillach of our times and deserves the same fate.'"

I'll save you the effort of searching for Brasillach -- he was a French author and journalist who advocated for the fascists and was executed by firing squad in 1945. So -- the leadership of TIP has spoken. Now you know their thinking, their motives and their true objectives. It seems Gilman wants Anton executed.

Gilman's tweet is a refreshingly frank declaration. All the usual pretense and guile are set aside. No virtue signaling, no coded language, no projection, no dog whistles to the party faithful and the stenographers at WaPo, CNN, et al.

The brutality and viciousness of Marxism and its adherents is on display. Those that may have held reservations or harbored some doubt on my analysis of what TIP really had in store for the election now have their answers. I would rather have been wrong.

Oh, to have been "backstage" at the June "war games" of TIP! One can only guess at the fevered imaginings that had to be cooled and edited into the 22-page report. What sort of Bolshevik fantasies floated about the Zoom-connected strategy sessions? If Gilman advocates executing someone by firing squad for daring to question TIP, what other penalties and extraordinary measures were discussed by the supposed bipartisan arbiters of the electoral process?

How is this "normal?" Where is the 24/7 news media reporting on Gilman's conduct? Go ahead and do a news search on Gilman and this tweet. It won't take long -- there is virtually no reporting, other than the Twitterverse. What does that tell you? Are you disturbed by how your news information is "curated?"

What about questions and comments to other leaders of the TIP operation? One is always left wondering about the proverbial shoe being on the other foot. What would the reporting look like if a Trump advocate or leader of a similarly situated group on the other side of the political spectrum had tweeted the same thing about an opposite number? I think you already know the reactions and the answers.

More broadly -- how long does the American public put up with this sort of unchecked lethality? What about the not-so-thinly veiled calls for execution by firing squad of one's political opponents? When does the favored elite stop getting a pass for unlawful, unethical conduct? When does the reaction stop being, "Oh, well!"? Is there a gag level? A breaking point? Do Gilman's fantasies have to be acted upon before people understand the dangers of this sort of vicious thinking and communication?

I am a strong supporter of the First Amendment, even on occasions when people get out on thin ice or test the limits of what is "acceptable." Gilman's tweet is something else. There is the tweet itself -- which is a repulsive and dangerous smear against Anton and a call to violence -- but there is also what it means against the backdrop of what TIP is all about, how it is organized, funded, promoted in the media, and used as a rallying point by the Left for disruption of a presidential election.

You already know what TIP plans to do in the coming election. You can read Anton's analysis. Now you have the real, unvarnished thinking of TIP co-founder Gilman. Gilman likes execution by firing squad. Election Day is coming. TIP wants it to be Election Season. Beware of how much else they want that comes to fruition. It could be dangerous.

Chris Farrell is a former counterintelligence case officer. For the past 20 years, he has served as the Director of Investigations & Research for Judicial Watch. The views expressed are the author's alone, and not necessarily those of Judicial Watch.

Source: https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/16542/transition-integrity-project-nils-gilman

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Gay Palestinian-American man comes out swinging for Donald Trump - Sarah Chemla

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by Sarah Chemla

"I know terrorists fear [Trump], that's why I support him."

Hazem Farraj 370                                                                (photo credit: Courtesy Facebook)

Hazem Farraj, a former Muslim and Palestinian-American whose family abandoned him when he became a Christian as a teenager, came out supporting Donald Trump ahead of the November 3 elections. 

"As an American citizen, I have hope, because someone like Trump sits in the Oval Office," he claimed in a video shared on Twitter by Richard Grenell, former US ambassador to Germany and former acting US director of national intelligence who was the first openly gay member of a presidential cabinet.

This is a must watch. A gay Palestinian American comes out swinging for @realDonaldTrump.

My friend @Hazem_F is one brave man! @getoutspoken20 pic.twitter.com/q2R7GxHob4

— Richard Grenell (@RichardGrenell) September 23, 2020

A journalist and reporter for 20 years, Farraj is explaining in the four-minute video how him and his "Muslim friends" are thankful for Trump's leadership, saying that "through his policies for peace in the Middle East, he is allowing freedom to flourish."

"In just three years," he continued, "Trump has completely crushed ISIS, brought home the troops just like he promised, and took out two of the region's most brutal terrorists, ISIS leader [Abu Bakr] al-Baghdadi and Iranian General [Qasem] Soleimani, who was responsible for the death of 600 American troops.

"Donald Trump is the right leader to bring peace to a war-torn Middle East, the only candidate who will create the possibility for change in the Middle East.

"I know terrorists fear [Trump], that's why I support him," he continued.

"The Obama administration, on the other hand, secretly sent $400 million in cash to Soleimani's government. At the same time, those leaders were openly chanting 'Death to America.'

"The disastrous nuclear deal that [former president Barack] Obama signed, and that [former vice president Joe] Biden wants to return to, will make us less safe. This deal all but guarantees a nuclear Iran, and that's an existential threat to the people of Israel and the West Bank.

"You may think it strange to hear a Palestinian voice concern for Israelis but the truth is peace between Israel and the Palestinians is possible.

"Palestinian leaders themselves don't want peace, they want power! And the truth is 'Trump values the lives of Palestinians more than the [Palestinian] leaders do themselves, more than Hamas and more than Fatah.'

"In September 2019, the Trump administration went to the UN and announced it's global initiative to decriminalize homosexuality in 69 nations, many of them Islamic nations, that still make same sex relations a crime including nine countries where it is punishable by actual death."

He concluded the video declaring that: "I am not bigot, nor is Donald Trump. He doesn't see race, color, religion or sexuality. And I know that firsthand. Because I'm gay."

Sarah Chemla
 

Source: https://www.jpost.com/american-politics/a-gay-palestinian-american-comes-out-swinging-for-donald-trump-643345

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Netanyahu: 'Mistakes were made along the way' - Arutz Sheva Staff

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by Arutz Sheva Staff

Prime Minister defends decision to carry out full lockdown; decries 'populist decisions in Knesset to repeal restrictions.'

Netanyahu: We are in an emergency situation                                                          Screen shot

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu tonight released a video in which he claimed that full closure was necessary.

"Mistakes were made along the way," Netanyahu said. "The decision to open the banquet halls was too quick, perhaps also the decision to open the entire education system. The populist decisions in the Knesset to repeal the restrictions we, the government, imposed, after seeing the morbidity rising were completely wrong."

On the eve of Yom Kippur, which will take place tomorrow, Netanyahu exclaimed: "Do not go to synagogues this year, pray outside."

The Supreme Court Thursday rejected the petition by scientists and academics against the COVID-19 lockdown.

The judges ruled that “the petition’s underlying factual and legal infrastructure is no longer relevant," referring to the petition’s claims of inflated morbidity and mortality data, biases, and lack of transparency. The judges ruled the points were moot, as the government has already tightened measures and imposed full lockdown based on the same data.

The Court said it cannot examine the substantive arguments presented by the petitioners, and therefore defers to the "competent bodies".

Arutz Sheva Staff

Source: http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/287962

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Toward a Transformational Peace in the Middle East - Guy Millière

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by Guy Millière

Palestinian leaders are suddenly discovering that, as the Arab saying goes, "The dogs bark but the caravan moves on" – possibly without them.

• Both Arab countries and Israel will benefit immensely.
• Palestinian leaders are suddenly discovering that, as the Arab saying goes, "The dogs bark but the caravan moves on" – possibly without them.
• "We [realists] understand that only defeat will convince Palestinians like Mrs. Ashrawi, and through them Iranian, Turkish, Islamist, leftist, fascist, and other anti-Zionists, that the century-plus conflict is over, that Israel has prevailed, and that the time has come to give up on futile, painful, and genocidal ambitions." — Daniel Pipes, Middle East Scholar.
• If President Trump is able to continue following the bold, unconventional path he has traced, he will most likely succeed where all his predecessors have failed. What he has accomplished already -- in less than four years, with so many forces determined to undermine him... is extraordinary.
• "Trump has done more for peace in the Middle East in four years than any other American President in seventy-two years." — Meyer Habib, member of the French National Assembly, i24 News, September 14, 2020.

Pictured from left to right: Bahrain Foreign Minister Abdullatif al-Zayani, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, US President Donald Trump, and UAE Foreign Minister Abdullah bin Zayed Al-Nahyan participate in the signing of the Abraham Accords in Washington, DC on September 15, 2020. (Photo by Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images)

On September 15, two peace agreements with Israel and known as The Abraham Accords – one with the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and one with Bahrain, and -- were made official at a White House ceremony. President Donald J. Trump spoke of a "historic breakthrough" and a "previously unthinkable regional transformation". Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu added that the world is witnessing "the dawn of a new Middle East ".

The agreements, which come 26 years after the last peace treaty, between Jordan and Israel, mark a further step towards the integration of Israel in the region.

The UAE and Bahrain are the first Arab countries to recognize Israel without requiring any concession from Israel (Netanyahu said that the extension of Israeli sovereignty to parts of Judea-Samaria and the Jordan Valley was suspended, not canceled) and without any American financial contribution involved.

The UAE and Bahrain are also the first Arab countries to establish fully normal country-to-country diplomatic relations with Israel. Embassies will open soon. Direct flights will connect Ben Gurion Airport to Abu Dhabi and Manama. Both Arab countries will establish financial and economic relations with Israel, invest in Israel and have already signed contracts with Israeli companies.

Israel, one of the world's most inventive countries and a world leader in high technology, has much to offer wealthy countries. Both Arab countries and Israel will benefit immensely.

The UAE may also reportedly be openly entering into military cooperation with Israel. The defense of the UAE and Bahrain would be significantly improved. Perhaps Israel will be better able to ward off the "Death to Israel" attack that Iran has been threatening since its 1979 Revolution.

The text of the signed document speaks of the need to continue "the efforts to achieve a just, comprehensive, and enduring resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict", but the Emirates and Bahrain apparently did not consider the Israeli-Palestinian conflict an obstacle to peace or to full cooperation with Israel. Neither the UAE nor Bahrain received the slightest condemnation from other Arab countries. In fact, they received congratulations.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al Sisi said on Twitter: "I value the efforts of those in charge of the deal to achieve prosperity and stability for our region."

The Arab League, which, at the Khartoum Conference of 1967, delivered the three "nos" -- no peace, no recognition, no negotiations [with Israel] -- this year rejected the Palestinians' demand to reject the Abraham Accords.

Although the Palestinian Authority spoke of "betrayal," support for the Palestinian cause from leaders of the Arab world has been collapsing for years. Palestinian leaders are suddenly discovering that, as the Arab saying goes, "The dogs bark but the caravan moves on" -- possibly without them.

Over the past decade, in fact, a geopolitical earthquake has swept through the Middle East that changed almost everything.

The Muslim Brotherhood seized power in Tunisia and in Egypt (although they were soon rejected). Libya's Gaddafi regime was destroyed and the country found itself abandoned to Islamist gangs. A jihadist "Islamic State" was created in northern Iraq and eastern Syria and quickly became the rear base for attacks against Saudi Arabia and the West. Syria was ravaged by an atrocious civil war. Lebanon came under the control of Hezbollah. The mullahs' regime in Iran showed ever more clearly its expansionist goals, nuclear ambitions and its will to become the regional hegemon.

Saudi leaders and Gulf monarchs presumably feared being overthrown -- and reacted. They helped General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi to seize power in Egypt and weaken the Muslim Brotherhood. They are currently helping Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar, who holds eastern Libya, to fight the Islamist militias and Turkish troops that support Fayez al Sarraj in Tripoli.

Saudi leaders and Gulf monarchs had the sophistication and foresight to see that the Obama administration had accepted and even encouraged Iran's regime, as well as the Muslim Brotherhood's rise to power in Tunis and Cairo, and had led the destruction of the Gaddafi regime. President Obama seemed intentionally powerless in the face of ISIS, the civil war in Syria and Hezbollah's takeover of Lebanon. He signed the Iran nuclear deal that gave the mullahs access to tens of billions of dollars, which they used to tighten their grip on their citizens, the region, and to finance Islamic terrorist groups threatening the Sunni world.

Saudi leaders and Gulf monarchs saw that they and Israel have a common enemy. The Iranian regime, their main enemy, was also Israel's enemy. They saw that Israel was a regional economic and military superpower, the Middle East's "Silicon Valley". They saw that, unlike Iran, Israel has no regional ambitions and is no threat to them. They began to see that it would be greatly in their interest to get closer to Israel and that the "Palestinian cause" had long since ceased to be an asset and had instead become an ungrateful burden. They remember that the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) in 1970 attempted to overthrow Jordan's King Hussein and assassinate him. They remember that the Palestinians backed Saddam Hussein during the Iraqi invasion and occupation of Kuwait, which until then had peacefully been employing nearly half a million Palestinians.

Saudi leaders and Gulf monarchs, who were already engaged in discreet, unofficial ties with Israel, had tried pressuring the Palestinian Authority to soften its positions -- to no avail.

On coming to power in January 2017, President Trump saw opportunities to move forward and found in Prime Minster Netanyahu a reliable ally who shared his strategic vision.

Trump also decided to quickly destroy the Islamic State, and a few months later he eliminated its leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. On May 8, 2018, Trump also removed the United States from the Iranian nuclear deal; put in place strict sanctions against the Iranian regime to try to limit the internal and external damage it was doing and planning to do, and took out the Iran's terror chief General Qassem Soleimani.

In May 2017, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Trump announced his desire to "discard the strategies that have not worked"; proposed that the leaders of the Sunni Arab world "build new partnerships in pursuit of peace to act for "stamping out extremism and vanquish the forces of terrorism", and "to choose between two futures". He told them that if they fought terrorism and reformed, the United States would be on their side against Iran. He also suggested that they move closer to Israel. Trump's flight from Riyadh to Jerusalem was the first between the two capitals, and he was the first sitting President to visit the Western Wall in Jerusalem. He said the United States officially recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, went to Bethlehem to meet with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and, breaking with the previous diplomacy of self-flagellation and appeasement, accused Abbas of being responsible for inciting hatred and terrorism.

Trump also asked that the Palestinian Authority stop payment to terrorists and their families. When the PA refused to do so, he slashed US funding and ceased all dialogue with PA leaders. On May 14, 2018, he moved the US Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, and shortly after, announced that because UNWRA employs members of Palestinian terrorist groups, it is thus an "irredeemably flawed operation" which the US would no longer fund. He asked the State Department to publish a statement clarifying that from now on the United States will regard as refugees only the people who left the territory of Israel in 1948-49, and not their descendants.

His decisions did not provoke the general uprising of the Arab street that many so-called "experts" had predicted, and led only to mild reactions from Sunni Arab leaders.

Trump also refused to give in to the crippling delusions that had wrecked the now defunct Oslo Accords. He refused to make any concession to terrorists or to subvert the imperatives of security or the historical rights of Israel. He entrusted a group led by his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, to develop a plan to establish peace between Israel and the Sunni Arab countries and to solve the Palestinian problem. The plan, presented in Washington on January 28, 2020, proposed to the Palestinian Authority a state that would be fully demilitarized, on the strict condition that the PA completely renounced terrorism, teach children peace and tolerance, and accepted Israeli control for everything related to security and defense. As expected, the Palestinian Authority rejected the proposal.

Few commentators noted that the ambassadors of the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Oman were present at the White House that day, and few noted that the plan had the support of seven Sunni Arab states (Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain, Oman, Qatar, and Morocco).

Other agreements appear set to follow. President Trump has noted that "seven, eight or nine more countries are ready to join the deal".

Saudi foreign minister Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud said on August 19 that Saudi Arabia remained "committed to peace with Israel on the basis of the 2002 Arab Peace Initiative". Helpfully, Abu Dhabi's Prince Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan is close to Saudi Crown Prince Mohamed bin Salman; Prince bin Zayed undoubtedly did not make a decision without speaking to Prince bin Salman. The King of Bahrain, Hamed bin Issa Al Khalifa, is also close to Prince bin Salman. When asked if Saudi Arabia had approved Bahrain's signing the Accord, a spokesman for the kingdom replied that "it remains committed to working with all of its strategic partners to achieve a just and enduring peace within the region".

It is reasonable to think that Saudi Arabia will wait to know the outcome of the US presidential elections and work out the priorities of Saudi royal family members before a further commitment.

They can clearly see that, depending on the result in the US on November 3, the process can either continue smoothly or be threatened. They can also doubtless see that the strict sanctions against Iran put in place by President Trump in 2018 must not be removed if peace is to advance, but that the Democrats, if they win, are considering removing them. The Saudi rulers can also see that Iran recently made an agreement with China, and that President Trump intends to pursue an intransigent policy towards China. They also may justifiably fear that the Democrats, should they win, will revert to their previous policy of trying to persuade hostile regimes to change by appeasing them.

If the US initiative continues, a regional peace could take shape within the next few years. The Iranian regime would be contained and presumably prevented from developing nuclear weapons. The Palestinian Authority would be faced with a choice: either accept what was proposed -- which may dwindle to less than what was proposed on January 28 -- or suffer the consequences of further intransigence, further irrelevance, and even defeat.

For now, the Palestinian Authority is stubbornly sticking to its intransigence. "There is," Palestinian negotiator Hanan Ashrawi recently said, "an erroneous assumption that the Palestinians are defeated". Middle East scholar Daniel Pipes, in a reply to Ashrawai's statement, wrote:

"We [realists] understand that only defeat will convince Palestinians like Mrs. Ashrawi, and through them Iranian, Turkish, Islamist, leftist, fascist, and other anti-Zionists, that the century-plus conflict is over, that Israel has prevailed, and that the time has come to give up on futile, painful, and genocidal ambitions."

Meanwhile, Norwegian MP Christian Tybring-Gjedde has proposed President Trump, the driving force behind the accords, for the Nobel Prize for Peace. A few days later, a Swedish MP, Magnus Jacobsson, also proposed that President Trump receive the Nobel Peace Prize -- this time for agreements he obtained between Kosovo and Serbia (Kosovo, a Muslim state, intends to establish diplomatic relations with Israel and to locate its embassy in Jerusalem). President Trump would be a deserving choice that would shed a renewed honor on the Nobel Committee.

If President Trump is able to continue following the bold, unconventional path he has traced, he will most likely succeed where all his predecessors have failed. What he has accomplished already -- in less than four years, with so many forces determined to undermine him (for instance, here, here and here) -- is extraordinary.

Deploring that France and the European Union refused to recognize the importance of the event and chose to continue supporting the Palestinian Authority unconditionally, French MP Meyer Habib said on television, "In less than four years, Trump has done more for Israel and for a real peace in the Middle East than any other American President in seventy-two years."

British journalist Melanie Philips wrote:

"If the moderate Arab world now finally understands that Israel is not its enemy but its ally, this could begin to undermine the foundations of irrational and self-defeating hatred that has fueled the Islamist war against the West. While intractable Islamic fanaticism will not just disappear, the Abraham Accords might give Arab and Muslim reformers wind in their sails to bring their culture into an accommodation with the rest of the world."

"Western Europe and the American left," she added, "will be the last people on earth to realize this."

Dr. Guy Millière, a professor at the University of Paris, is the author of 27 books on France and Europe.

Source: https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/16538/middle-east-transformational-peace

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