Iran Deal - Reportedly "Off the Table" - Would Not Have Prevented a War - Majid Rafizadeh

 

by Majid Rafizadeh

The new "Iran nuclear deal," it appears, is "off the table for the time being." Let us hope that the report is accurate.

• In spite of the opposition from US allies in the Middle East as well as many US Congressman -- both Democrats and Republicans -- the Biden administration appeared determined to reward the ruling mullahs of Iran whose policies and ideology are anchored in "Death to America" and "Death to Israel".

• The Biden administration seemed to hope that if they could just "contain" Iran with a "deal" -- put Iran "in a box" even for a few years -- it would "free up" the US to deal other problems, such as China, Russia, North Korea, Venezuela and the Indo-Pacific, with one less distraction. If only.

• "If the regime in Iran, the world's leading state sponsor of terror, has proven anything, it's that it can't be trusted. The IRGC has directly, or through its proxies, including Hezbollah, Hamas, Ansar Allah (Houthis), Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), and scores of Shiite militias in Iraq, killed hundreds of Americans, and attacked our bases and our allies in the region." — Congressional bipartisan letter to US President Joe Biden, September 1, 2022.

• It is estimated that the Biden administration's new nuclear deal would have provided $1 trillion to the Iranian regime over a decade, making the IRGC and its militia and terror groups vastly wealthier and a far more savage threat to the national security of the Iranian people, the US, its allies, and American people everywhere.

• It is also mind-boggling that the Biden administration was trusting Russia to be the sole country to oversee the compliance of the nuclear deal and to keep Iran's highly enriched uranium -- and able to return it to Iran if the mullahs requested it.

• Fifty bipartisan US lawmakers had asked the Biden administration "not to permit Russia to be the recipient of Iran's enriched uranium nor to have the right to conduct nuclear work with the Islamic Republic, including a $10 billion contract to expand Iran's nuclear infrastructure. We should not let war criminal Vladimir Putin be the guarantor of the deal or the keeper of massive amounts of Iran's enriched uranium."

• If the Biden administration believed that a deal with the Iranians would "free up" America to focus on China, and that the Middle East would just have sat quietly while Iran kept enriching uranium, they were living in a dreamworld. The Americans would instead have found themselves with hot wars on three fronts: Ukraine, China and the Middle East.

• If the report is true, kudos to the Biden administration for a most wise decision.

It is also mind-boggling that the Biden administration was trusting Russia to be the sole country to oversee the compliance of the nuclear deal and to keep Iran's highly enriched uranium -- and able to return it to Iran if the mullahs requested it. Pictured: Russian President Vladimir Putin and Iran's President Ebrahim Raisi hold a meeting in Tehran on July 19, 2022. (Photo by Sergei Savostyanov/Sputnik/AFP via Getty Images)

The new "Iran nuclear deal," it appears, is "off the table for the time being." Let us hope that the report is accurate.

In spite of the opposition from US allies in the Middle East as well as many US Congressman, both Democrats and Republicans, the Biden administration appeared determined to reward the ruling mullahs of Iran, whose policies and ideology are anchored in "Death to America" and "Death to Israel."

The Biden administration seemed to hope that if they could just "contain" Iran with a "deal" -- put Iran "in a box" even for a few years -- it would "free up" the US to deal other problems, such as China, Russia, North Korea, and Iran's growing influence in Venezuela and the Indo-Pacific, with one less distraction. If only.

Like the Obama administration, the Biden administration kept the US Congress, the American people and US allies in the Middle East in the dark about what was being negotiated with the ruling mullahs of Iran. A group of 50 US House Representatives, mostly Democrats, were urging the Biden administration to release the nuclear deal text:

"We are writing to respectfully request that your Administration provide Congress with the full text of any proposal to rejoin the Iran nuclear agreement, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), including any side agreements, and consult with Congress prior to reentering that agreement."

The congressmen were right to be concerned. When President Joe Biden was vice president, and the Obama administration was all too eager to grant concessions to the Iranian regime, it turned out that they had made multiple secret deals with the mullahs. One of the secret deals consisted of permitting the Iranian regime to have access to US dollars by sidestepping sanctions. "The Obama administration misled the American people and Congress because they were desperate to get a deal with Iran", said Senator Rob Portman (R-OH), who chaired the Senate panel conducting the investigation at the time.

In addition, the Obama-Biden administration had secretly agreed to lift sanctions on several Iranian banks, including Bank Sepah and Sepah International. Another major concession was that the deal had paved the way for Iran legally to become a full-blown nuclear state. The sunset clauses, which enshrined that commitment, had set a firm expiration date for restricting Iran's nuclear program, after which the country's leaders would be free to have, legitimately, as many nuclear weapons as they liked.

Another critical concern was the Biden administration's concession to allow non-US persons to do business with Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), designated as a terrorist organization by the US State Department. It was leaked that:

"Non-U.S. persons doing business with Iranian persons that are not on the [U.S. sanctions list] will not be exposed to sanctions merely as a result of those Iranian persons engaging in separate transactions involving Iranian persons on the [U.S. sanctions list] (including Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), its officials, or its subsidiaries or affiliates)."

Such a provision would have empowered the IRGC financially and allowed it to carry out even more terrorism abroad and suppress the Iranian people even more savagely at home. As the letter by the Congressmen accurately noted:

"[T]he aforementioned reported provision creates a troubling precedent. We are concerned that it could significantly dilute the effectiveness of terrorism-related sanctions on the IRGC, Iran's paramilitary terror arm and provides the organization with a pathway for sanctions evasion.

"If the regime in Iran, the world's leading state sponsor of terror, has proven anything, it's that it can't be trusted. The IRGC has directly, or through its proxies, including Hezbollah, Hamas, Ansar Allah (Houthis), Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), and scores of Shiite militias in Iraq, killed hundreds of Americans, and attacked our bases and our allies in the region."

It is estimated that the Biden administration's new nuclear deal would have provided $1 trillion to the Iranian regime over a decade, making the IRGC and its militia and terror groups vastly wealthier and a far more savage threat to the national security of the Iranian people, the US, its allies, and American people everywhere.

It is also mind-boggling that the Biden administration was trusting Russia to be the sole country to oversee the compliance of the nuclear deal and to keep Iran's highly enriched uranium -- and able to return it to Iran if the mullahs requested it.

The 50 bipartisan US lawmakers added:

"Additionally, we strongly urge your Administration not to permit Russia to be the recipient of Iran's enriched uranium nor to have the right to conduct nuclear work with the Islamic Republic, including a $10 billion contract to expand Iran's nuclear infrastructure. We should not let war criminal Vladimir Putin be the guarantor of the deal or the keeper of massive amounts of Iran's enriched uranium. Iran supports the illegal war in Ukraine and has been supplying Russia with drones used to kill Ukrainians."

The Biden administration seemed committed to leaving a legacy that included a nuclear-armed Iran, an empowered Russia, the flow of a trillion US dollars to the mullahs, strengthening the IRGC and its terror and militia groups, and endangering the lives not only of the Iranian people who have been suffering for decades under this brutal dictatorship, but also of the entire Middle East, and not least -- from bases in Venezuela -- all Americans.

If the Biden administration believed that a deal with the Iranians would "free up" America to focus on China, and that the Middle East would just have sat quietly while Iran kept enriching uranium, they were living in a dreamworld. The Americans would, instead, have found themselves with hot wars on three fronts: Ukraine, China and the Middle East.

If the report is true, kudos to the Biden administration for a most wise decision.

• Follow Majid Rafizadeh on Twitter

Dr. Majid Rafizadeh is a business strategist and advisor, Harvard-educated scholar, political scientist, board member of Harvard International Review, and president of the International American Council on the Middle East. He has authored several books on Islam and US Foreign Policy. He can be reached at Dr.Rafizadeh@Post.Harvard.Edu

Source: https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/18875/iran-deal-war

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Manchin in the middle: Coal state senator caught between voters and anti-fossil fuel Democrats - Nicholas Ballasy

 

by Nicholas Ballasy

Democrats' congressional leaders had promised oil and gas permitting reform in next spending bill if West Virginia lawmaker voted for $740 billion tax and spending bill, but progressives are now in revolt against the deal.

Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) — the Senate's perpetual man in the middle — now finds himself caught between progressives opposed to expedited oil and gas permitting and angry constituents deserting him after he agreed to vote for the Democrats' $740 billion Inflation Reduction Act in exchange for a leadership promise to add permitting reforms to the next spending bill.

The mammoth tax and spending bill, which President Biden signed into law on Aug. 16, included an expansion of Obamacare subsidies, a program to lower prescription drug costs for seniors, and more than $380 billion for climate-related initiatives such as tax credits and rebates.

After voting for the legislation in August, Manchin's favorability rating dropped 29 points. In a new poll conducted Aug. 24-26 by the Jackson County radio station WMOV 1360 AM and Oregon-based Triton Polling and Research, 66% of respondents had an "unfavorable impression" of the senator. 

In a statement announcing his support for the Inflation Reduction Act, Manchin said Biden, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi had "committed to advancing a suite of commonsense permitting reforms this fall that will ensure all energy infrastructure, from transmission to pipelines and export facilities, can be efficiently and responsibly built to deliver energy safely around the country and to our allies."

Under the framework of the agreement, Congress would "require the relevant agencies to take all necessary actions to permit the construction and operation" of the Mountain Valley Pipeline, a project that Manchin has long sought to deliver for his state.

Addressing reporters at the White House after Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act, Manchin explained why he thinks Congress should pass permitting reform.

"I want to make sure it's a balance between the fossil energy that we need and the clean energy we should be investing in," he said. "People might put more emphasis on one or the other. Whatever they do, you're going to have to have permitting reform to get it done."

As an example, Manchin said a transmission line "out in the middle of the desert," a major wind farm or major solar farm can't be built "unless there's an awful lot of permitting cooperation that goes on."

He emphasized that he wanted to "make sure that we get the permitting language that allows us to do what needs to be done in a shorter amount of time."

Schumer said earlier this week that he plans to include permitting reform that would fast-track the development of energy projects in the continuing resolution Congress has to pass before the end of the month to keep the government funded.

Schumer and Pelosi had offered to add oil and gas permitting reform to the next spending bill if Manchin voted for the since-enacted Inflation Reduction Act, but the Democratic caucus hasn't united behind the deal.

Manchin's vote helped put the legislation over the finish line. Democrats used budget reconciliation to pass it along a party-line vote to avoid the legislative filibuster. 

Independent Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, who caucuses with Senate Democrats, vowed to vote against the CR if it includes permitting reform language. He described the deal Democratic leaders reached with Manchin as a "giveaway" to the fossil fuel industry. 

Arizona Rep. Raul Grijalva and 70 House Democrats wrote a letter to Pelosi on Friday urging her not to include permitting reform in the CR.

"The inclusion of these provisions in a continuing resolution, or any other must-pass legislation, would silence the voices of frontline and environmental justice communities by insulating them from scrutiny," they wrote. 

Manchin has said he intends to run again in 2024. According to the findings of the recent WMOV/Triton poll, Manchin would lose to GOP West Virginia Rep. Alex Mooney and Republican Attorney General Patrick Morrisey if the election were held today.

The poll also found that Manchin would lose to Republican-turned-Democrat-turned-Republican Gov. Jim Justice in a hypothetical match-up. Justice switched from the Republican Party to the Democratic Party to run for governor. He then switched back to the GOP and ran for a second term.

Nicholas Ballasy

Source: https://justthenews.com/government/congress/manchin-middle-senators-poll-numbers-sink-after-accepting-oil-permit-deal-thats

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Russia gives up key northeast towns as Ukrainian forces advance - Reuters

 

by Reuters

Russia's worst setback since Kyiv push abandoned in March • Ukraine capture of railway hub cuts supplies

 

A man stands next to a business and entertainment centre heavily damaged by a Russian military strike, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Kharkiv, Ukraine September 9, 2022

(photo credit: REUTERS/VIKTORIIA YAKYMENKO)

Moscow abandoned its main bastion in northeastern Ukraine on Saturday, in a sudden collapse of one of the war's principal front lines after Ukrainian forces made a rapid advance.

The swift fall of Izium in Kharkiv province was Moscow's worst defeat since its troops were forced back from the capital Kyiv in March. Ukraine hailed it as a turning point in the 6-month-old war, with thousands of Russian soldiers leaving behind ammunition stockpiles and equipment as they fled.

Russian forces used Izium as the logistics base for one of their main campaigns - a months-long assault from the north on the adjacent Donbas region comprised of Donetsk and Luhansk.

The state-run TASS news agency quoted Russia's defense ministry as saying it had ordered troops to leave the vicinity and reinforce operations elsewhere in Donetsk.

The head of Russia's administration in Kharkiv told residents to evacuate the province and flee to Russia to "save lives," TASS reported. Witnesses described traffic jams of cars with people leaving Russian-held territory.

If the reported gains are held, it would be a serious blow for Russia, which Western intelligence services say has suffered huge casualties. It would also be a big boost for Ukraine, which is keen to show Western nations supplying it with weapons it deserves their continued support.

There is pressure on Kyiv to demonstrate progress before winter sets in, amid threats by Russian President Vladimir Putin to halt all energy shipments to Europe if Brussels goes ahead with a proposal to cap the price of Russian oil exports.

Ukraine's Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said in Kyiv that Ukrainian forces had demonstrated they were capable of defeating the Russian army with the weapons given to them.

"And so I reiterate: the more weapons we receive, the faster we will win, and the faster this war will end," he said.

In his nightly video address on Saturday, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Ukraine's armed forces had recovered around 2,000 square kilometers (770 square miles) of territory since its counter-offensive was launched earlier this month.

"The Russian army is claiming the title of fastest army in the world ... keep running!" Andriy Yermak, Zelenskiy's chief of staff, wrote on Twitter.

Ukrainian officials stopped short of confirming they had recaptured Izium, but Yermak earlier posted a photo of troops on its outskirts and tweeted an emoji of grapes. The city's name means "raisin."

The Russian withdrawal announcement came hours after Ukrainian troops captured the city of Kupiansk farther north, the sole railway hub supplying Russia's entire front line across northeastern Ukraine. Ukrainian officials posted photos early on Saturday of their troops raising the country's blue-and-yellow flag in front of Kupiansk's city hall.

That left thousands of Russian troops abruptly cut off from supplies along a front that has seen some of the most intense battles of the war.

Oleksiy Arestovych, an adviser to Ukraine's presidential office, in a video posted on YouTube, said the Russians in Izium were almost isolated.

Igor Girkin, a former commander of pro-Russian forces in eastern Ukraine, called the Russian pullback "a major defeat" in remarks on Telegram.

Ukraine has for weeks been talking up a big counteroffensive in the south, which also is under way though details are sparse.

Russia still occupies extensive territory in the Donbas and in the south near the Crimean Peninsula it seized in 2014.

An ammunition boxes are seen near a house damaged by shelling, as Russia's attack on Ukraine continues, in the village of Hrakove, recently liberated by Ukrainian Armed Forces, in Kharkiv region, Ukraine September 9, 2022 (credit: REUTERS/VYACHESLAV MADIYEVSKYY)

Days ago, Kyiv's forces burst through the front line in the northeast and have since recaptured dozens of towns and villages in a swift mechanized assault, surging forward dozens of kilometers (miles) a day.

Ukraine's deputy defense minister, Hanna Malyar, sounded a cautionary note, urging people not to report prematurely that towns have been "taken" just because Ukrainian troops were sighted. Troops entered Balakliia a few days ago, she said, but it was only on Saturday that Ukraine established control in the city.

In Hrakove, one of dozens of villages recaptured in the Ukrainian advance, Reuters saw burnt-out vehicles bearing the "Z" symbol of Russia's invasion. Boxes of ammunition were scattered along with rubbish at positions the Russians had abandoned in evident haste.

A boy waves a national flag atop of armoured personal carrier at an exhibition of destroyed Russian military vehicles and weapons, dedicated to the upcoming country's Independence Day, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in the centre of Kyiv, Ukraine August 21, 2022. (credit: REUTERS/VALENTYN OGIRENKO)

Ukraine to investigate Russian war crimes in occupied cities

"Hello everyone, we are from Russia," was spray-painted on a wall. Three bodies lay in white body bags in a yard.

The regional chief of police, Volodymyr Tymoshenko, said Ukrainian police moved in the previous day, and checked the identities of local residents who had lived under Russian occupation since the invasion's second day.

"The first function is to provide help that they need. The next job is to document the crimes committed by Russian invaders on the territories which they temporarily occupied," he said.

A witness in Valuyki, a town in Russia's Belgorod region near the border with Ukraine, told Reuters she saw families from Kupiansk eating and sleeping in their cars along roads.

"I was at the market today and saw a lot of people from Kupiansk. They say half of the city was taken by the Ukrainian army and Russia is retreating ... the fighting is getting closer," the witness said.

Belgorod governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said officials were giving food and medical aid to people queuing at a crossing into Russia. Senator Andrey Turchak, from the pro-Kremlin United Russia party, reported more than 400 vehicles at the frontier.

Russian rocket fire hit Kharkiv city on Saturday evening, killing at least one person and damaging several homes, part of a surge in shelling since Kyiv's counter-offensive, Ukrainian officials said.

Reuters could not independently confirm the battlefield accounts.

"The advance is enormous. There are sporadic battles, but mostly the occupiers are fleeing," Luhansk regional governor Serhiy Gaidai told Ukrainian television on Saturday.

Reuters

Source: https://www.jpost.com/international/article-716823

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Little recourse, little consequence: Court rulings signal impunity for Spygate perpetrators - Aaron Kliegman

 

by Aaron Kliegman

As efforts by Trump, former aides to hold Clinton, FBI accountable falter in courts, those at center of scandal enjoy prominence largely unscathed.

Over a one-week period, both Donald Trump and former Trump 2016 campaign aide Carter Page saw federal judges dismiss their separate lawsuits alleging improper conduct by the FBI, Hillary Clinton, and others during the Russia collusion investigation.

The dual dismissals on back-to-back Thursdays — one this week, one last week — shine a particularly harsh light on what critics say has become a pattern in the aftermath of the Trump-Russia probe: a lack of accountability.

Since former Special Counsel Robert Mueller found no evidence of collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign to sway the 2016 presidential election, no one aiding or conducting the government's investigations has faced serious consequences for what transpired in the preceding three years of probes.

Former FBI attorney Kevin Clinesmith was the only one convicted of a crime. In 2020, he pleaded guilty to making a false statement after he altered the language of an email about Page while preparing an application for a warrant under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act to place him under federal surveillance.

The federal government infamously used the Steele dossier, which contained many since-debunked claims about Trump and his alleged ties to Russia, to obtain the FISA warrant in 2016.

Mueller found no connection between Page and Russia's interference in the 2016 election. Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz later concluded the FBI made numerous errors or omissions in its FISA applications

Still, despite the guilty plea, Clinesmith received no prison time and even retained his law license. Instead, he received 12 months of probation and 400 hours of community service. Since the end of last year, he's been able to resume practicing law.

Meanwhile, many of the most high-profile players in the Russia investigation are enjoying prominent positions in media and academia while raking in dollars from speaking fees and book deals.

Former FBI Director James Comey, for example, is now a No. 1 New York Times bestselling author, prominent Twitter personality, highly paid public speaker, and big-name faculty member at multiple colleges.

Shortly after being fired from the FBI in May 2017, Comey through a friend leaked notes of a sensitive meeting he had with then-President Trump, admitting explicitly in congressional testimony and to the Justice Department's inspector general that the purpose of the leak was to force the appointment of a special counsel to investigate Trump-Russia collusion.

In December 2018, Comey said in an interview that he had sent FBI agents to the White House in January 2017 to interview then-National Security Advisor Michael Flynn, boasting that he was able to take advantage of the disorganization of the nascent Trump administration. Comey added that Flynn didn't know what the interview would be about.

Flynn initially pleaded guilty to making false statements to the two agents who interviewed him at the White House about his communications with Russian officials.

In 2020, however, the Justice Department dropped its case against Flynn as more evidence indicated the FBI may have entrapped him. The department said the FBI's interview of Flynn was "untethered to, and unjustified by, the FBI's counterintelligence investigation into Mr. Flynn" and not "conducted with a legitimate investigative basis."

The judge presiding over the case later formally dismissed the prosecution but expressed skepticism about the Justice Department's reasons for dropping the case.

Andrew McCabe, Comey's No. 2 at the FBI and, later, acting director of the bureau during the Russia probe, has also enjoyed post-government rewards, becoming a CNN contributor, bestselling author, and visiting professor at George Mason University.

A lengthy Justice Department inspector general report from December 2019 found that as deputy director of the FBI McCabe argued "strongly" to include information from the Steele dossier not as an appendix but in the "main body" of an intelligence community assessment on Russian efforts to interfere in the 2016 election.

After leaving government, McCabe disclosed in an interview that he and top Justice Department officials discussed whether to recruit cabinet members to invoke the 25th Amendment to remove Trump from office after he fired Comey.

Former FBI agent Peter Strzok was another senior FBI official involved in the Trump-Russia probe. He's currently an adjunct professor at the Georgetown School of Foreign Service and a New York Times and Washington Post bestselling author for his book on his time running the FBI's probe into Trump as head of the counterintelligence division.

Strzok exchanged a series of partisan text messages disparaging Trump with former FBI lawyer Lisa Page, with whom he was having an extramarital affair. In the texts, Strzok referred to Trump as "awful," an "idiot," and wrote "F Trump" among other insults.

According to Justice Department inspector general reports, Strzok advocated using the Steele dossier to obtain FISA warrants to surveil Page. However, he met some resistance early on from other FBI officials who demanded more probable cause.

Some texts between Strzok and Page reportedly contained discussions about how to get senior FBI leadership — namely, McCabe — to push through the FISA warrant process.

Strzok was eventually fired from the FBI in 2018.

Meanwhile, longtime Justice Department official Andrew Weissmann — now an MSNBC legal analyst and New York University law professor — was tapped by Mueller to be a senior prosecutor in the special counsel's investigation.

Weissman later wrote a book on his time during the Mueller probe and became a bestselling author. In the book, Weissmann called out his colleagues for being too cautious during the probe — earning Weissmann rebuke from some former federal prosecutors for "violating the norms about how prosecutors should behave."

Weissmann reportedly attended Hillary Clinton's election night party in 2016 and sent Sally Yates, the acting U.S. attorney general, a supportive email in January 2017 after Trump fired her for refusing to enforce his ban on residents from seven African and Middle Eastern countries entering the U.S. over security concerns.

In April 2017, weeks before joining the Mueller investigation, Weissmann, then a senior Justice Department official, met with Associated Press reporters one day before the AP published a story highlighting former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort's business dealings with Ukrainians. 

Perhaps most striking, Weissmann was briefed in August 2016 on the Democrat-funded opposition research behind the Steele dossier.

One month later, then-Clinton campaign lawyer Michael Sussmann met with the FBI and presented the agency with information insinuating concealed Trump-Russia links. The night before the meeting, Sussmann texted an FBI official saying, "I'm coming on my own — not on behalf of a client or company — want to help the bureau," according to John Durham, who was appointed special counsel in October 2020 to investigate the origins of the FBI's Trump-Russia collusion probe.

Durham called Sussmann's claims that he was not meeting with the FBI on behalf of any clients a "lie," hiding from the bureau that the Trump-Russia claims originally came from Clinton's 2016 campaign. He charged Sussmann with lying to the FBI, but the high-powered attorney was found not guilty in a highly publicized trial.

Multiple jurors in the case reportedly donated to Clinton's campaign. Additionally, the federal judge presiding over the case, Christopher Cooper, said he and Sussmann were "professional acquaintances" while at the Justice Department in the 1990s. And the judge's wife represents former FBI lawyer Page.

Another lawyer central to the Trump-Russia saga who got off scot-free was Marc Elias, the Democrats' top election lawyer. Like Sussmann, Elias during the 2016 campaign was a partner at the law firm Perkins Coie, which represented Clinton's campaign in 2016.

Elias headed the firm's political group and served as the Clinton campaign's general counsel. He testified both during a House Intelligence Committee investigation in 2017 and recently during Durham's ongoing investigation that he was the one who hired the opposition research firm Fusion GPS to dig up dirt on then-candidate Trump.

Fusion GPS went on to solicit former MI6 agent Christopher Steele to create the infamous Steele dossier.

Elias met with Steele during the 2016 campaign and periodically briefed the Clinton campaign about his research. Elias was also involved in the financing and dissemination of the Trump research, which was designed to show collusion between Trump's team and Russia. The high-powered lawyer also testified he was aware of Fusion GPS' plans to have Steele brief reporters on his anti-Trump findings.

Since then, Elias has founded the Elias Law Group and spearheaded a wave of lawsuits to oppose Republican election reform proposals and push through Democrat-backed voting changes.

Then, of course, there's Hillary Clinton herself, who according to her 2016 campaign manager personally approved her team's plans to share unfounded allegations about covert communications between Trump associates and a Russian bank.

"It was one of the most successful disinformation campaigns in American politics," wrote constitutional scholar Jonathan Turley of the Clinton campaign's scheme.

Since the election, Clinton has written a bestselling memoir and founded a political action committee dedicated to fundraising for progressive causes.

Trump had filed a lawsuit alleging Clinton, the FBI, and others colluded to contrive Russia allegations against him during the 2016 campaign.

U.S. District Judge Donald Middlebrooks, who sits on the bench in Florida and was appointed by former President Bill Clinton, dismissed the suit on Thursday, offering a stinging rebuke to the lawsuit's length and legal reasoning.

Trump attorney Alina Habba pledged in a statement Friday morning to "immediately" appeal the decision. She added that Middlebrooks' order was "rife with erroneous applications of the law" and ignored "numerous governmental investigations which substantiate" Trump's allegations.

One week earlier, U.S. District Judge Dabney Friedrich of the D.C. District Court dismissed a suit filed by Page alleging Comey, other current and former FBI officials, and the bureau itself improperly surveilled him under a FISA warrant.

Horowitz found in a 2019 report that the FBI concealed exculpatory evidence against Page during the process to obtain a FISA warrant to wiretap him.

These and other thwarted efforts to hold those involved in the Trump-Russia investigation accountable for alleged wrongdoing have led to a view among critics that the country has a politicized, two-tiered justice system riddled with double standards.

"Americans are painfully aware that a double standard is in play," said lawyer Sidney Powell, whose representation of Flynn led to the collapse of the federal case against him. "It is destroying our 'justice system' and the rule of law. Being able to obtain justice through our courts is a crucial element of protecting individual rights and our republic and to avoid violence."

Aaron Kliegman

Source: https://justthenews.com/accountability/russia-and-ukraine-scandals/little-recourse-little-consequence-key-moral-russia

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'We Did That': Afghanistan a Year after the US Surrender - Guy Millière

 

by Guy Millière

What happened to the "humanitarian aid" that the Biden administration has sent to Afghanistan over the past 12 months?

• Other men... may prove even more harmful than Zawahiri. Before Zawahiri was chosen, for instance, Saif al-Adel, a former Egyptian Special Forces officer, was appointed its provisional "caretaker." His name is often cited as that of the probable next leader of al-Qaeda.

• In addition to al-Qaeda's having a new base in Afghanistan, the terrorist group also appears to have had, for years, a significant base in Iran.

• By lifting many of these sanctions, the Biden administration has re-empowered the mullahs to finance the Islamic groups they have funded in the recent past. Al-Qaeda is clearly one of them.

• After the death of Zawahiri, the Biden administration issued a press release blaming the Taliban for having allowed "Afghan territory to be used by terrorists to threaten the security of other countries". Did members of the Biden administration actually expect anything else from the Taliban and the Haqqani network?

• The Biden administration also blamed the Taliban for not respecting the Doha agreement , a peace deal between the US and the Taliban.... Did the Biden administration honestly expect ruthless terrorists to honor the agreement without the US showing at least a little determination to use force if necessary?

• Over the past twelve months, the Biden administration has sent hundreds of millions of dollars to Afghanistan, supposedly for humanitarian assistance to the Afghan people. How, could one not know, however, that most of the funds were embezzled by the Taliban and used to finance the Taliban regime and its terrorist activities?

• The Biden administration almost never talks about Iran's financing Islamic terrorism and never mentions that the Biden administration's lifting sanctions on the regime has contributed to financing the very terrorist organizations that the US claims to be fighting.

• US Special Representative for Iran Robert Malley continues to negotiate with the Iranian regime. Worse: Malley is not even the one doing the negotiating. Negotiating with Iran on behalf of America is -- Russia! The Americans are not even allowed in the room.

• Moreover, all this is taking place while the US is half-heartedly helping Ukraine to defend itself against a ruthless Russian scorched earth onslaught. Malley nonetheless persists in separating the Biden administration's desire to sign a new disastrous nuclear deal from the regime's terrorist activities.

• A year after the Biden administration abandoned Afghanistan to the Taliban and the Haqqani network, Afghanistan is back to being a terrorist state. It hosts and supports al-Qaeda while giving it the opportunity to organize terrorist attacks from Afghan soil.

• The US, for its part, not only ran from Afghanistan a year ago, it also ran from its last watchtower in Central-South Asia, and, by not even leaving a small residual force as strongly advised, abandoned countless people be slaughtered and enabled the country to be plunged into economic collapse, chaos and starvation.

• Iran, on the other hand, has been significantly strengthened. It supports al-Qaeda and now serenely threatens the United States. On August 1, the mullahs sent a message saying that Iran is building nuclear warheads that could turn New York into "hellish ruins".

August 15, 2022 saw the first anniversary of the takeover of the presidential palace in Kabul by the Taliban. It was a dismal anniversary. What happened in the past year throughout Afghanistan were countless atrocities committed by the Taliban. Pictured: Taliban fighters stand on a US-supplied Humvee military vehicle that they captured in Herat, Afghanistan on August 13, 2021. (Photo by AFP via Getty Images)

July 31^st 2022. Kabul, Afghanistan. Ayman al-Zawahiri is killed by an American drone strike. His death is described as a victory against Islamic terrorism and a success for the Biden administration. Zawahiri was an Islamic terrorist, head of al-Qaeda; his death was good news. America's intelligence services showed they still could obtain precise intelligence in hostile countries and strike enemies of the United States wherever they are. Was the elimination of Zawahiri, however, really a victory against Islamic terrorism?

The US military took out Osama bin Laden, founder of al-Qaeda, in 2011 raid in Pakistan, and brought back to the US many documents to analyze the operational capacity of the terrorist organization and its various plans for attacks, many of which, thanks to that information, may have been thwarted.

Zawahiri, however, was killed by a missile launched from a drone; no documents were seized. Islamic terrorist organizations communicate little secret information, if at all, by electronic means, so physical documents are valuable to see what they are up to. The abandonment of Afghanistan a year ago, however, created conditions that make commando raids such as the one on bin Laden arguably impossible. Potentially useful documents remained in Kabul.

Worse, Zawahiri's presence in Kabul further reveals the dire consequences of the US surrender. When the United States surrendered, Kabul again became again a city where terrorist leaders could live and feel safe. The Taliban regime probably did not simply ignore the presence of Zawahiri; it may well have protected him.

In addition, that Zawahiri could live in a house belonging to a top aide to Sirajuddin Haqqani -- the leader of the Haqqani network and acting interior minister of the Taliban regime -- in an elegant district, not far from the U.S. embassy that American diplomats had to leave in a hurry, says quite a lot. The Haqqani network -- an ultra-violent terrorist group that had been independent before joining the Taliban -- enjoys a close relationship and shared ideology with al-Qaeda's leaders. The Haqqani network appears to have a predominant weight in the Taliban government, which today is even closer to al-Qaeda than the Taliban government of 2001.

While in Kabul, Zawahiri was doubtless in contact with other members of both the al-Qaeda and Haqqani networks. The result is that Kabul is once again a relatively safe haven for al-Qaeda.

Afghanistan, in fact, appears ruled by people who have ties to al-Qaeda. What becomes problematic is that the declared goal of Islamic terrorists is to spread Islam, an ambition that unfortunately includes attacking the West. It is therefore impossible to think that the members of al-Qaeda in Kabul have given up these dreams and no longer contemplate mass murder or the West's destruction. It is also impossible to imagine that the Afghan government knew nothing about any of this.

What took place in August 2021 shows that even while the American military was carrying out evacuations at Kabul Airport, the city was already under the control of the Haqqani network and other Islamic terrorists. Thirteen American service members, 11 of them Marines, paid with their lives. The situation since then has only worsened; the US leaving the Taliban billions of dollars' worth of sophisticated weapons and military vehicles also has not helped. Afghanistan today shows all the features of being a terrorist state.

On August 16, 2021, US President Joe Biden, in a seeming attempt to justify his decision to abandon Afghanistan, declared that the United States had come to Afghanistan to "make sure al Qaeda could not use Afghanistan as a base from which to attack us again. We did that", he said. A year later, however, Afghanistan is in the hands of a government close to al-Qaeda. Al-Qaeda is once again firmly established in Afghanistan and again able to use it as a base from which to organize attacks against the US.

Worse, the elimination of Zawahiri is probably not even a major blow to the terrorist organization he led. Al-Qaeda is not really a structured organization. It operates, rather, as an informal network whose different branches act autonomously. The leaders can give directives and organize major attacks, but the branches of the organization also manage and carry out their own actions.

Al-Qaeda has branches almost everywhere Islam is present. Once powerful in Yemen, al-Qaeda has now weakened there; but in the Islamic Maghreb and in sub-Saharan Africa, al-Qaeda is still extremely active. It plays a major role in destabilizing Mali, Chad, Burkina Faso, and southern Algeria.

Al-Shabaab as well has carried out countless attacks in Somalia (here, here and here). Al-Shabaab attacked Kenya in 2020 and Ethiopia in 2022. In addition, Al-Shabaab collects large amounts of money through extortion and plays a major role in funding al-Qaeda's leadership.

Zawahiri had taken over the role of bin Laden, who had served mainly as a guide and a mentor. Zawahiri's legitimacy came from his having been at bin Laden's side from the beginning. He had, however, never shown any particular skill. During his leadership, however, there was no major terrorist attack against the West. He released a few recordings, but often gave no sign of life for months at a time. Analysts sometimes speculated that he was dead.

Other men also at bin Laden's side from the beginning may prove even more harmful than Zawahiri. Before Zawahiri was chosen, for instance, Saif al-Adel, a former Egyptian Special Forces officer, was appointed its provisional "caretaker." His name is often cited as that of the probable next leader of al-Qaeda. Al-Adel played a major role in several attacks, including the bombings of US embassies in Africa in 1998. In 2004, he published online a terrorism manual called "The Base of the Vanguard", detailing how to infiltrate and organize attacks in enemy countries.

Al-Adel has lived for years in Iran, a circumstance that has been presented as an obstacle to the possibility of his succeeding Zawahiri. Affiliates of al-Qaeda seem to have questioned orders coming from him because of his location in Iran. The reality, however, could be far different.

Although tensions exist between the Taliban regime in Kabul and the mullahs' regime in Iran, all available data show that Iran still plays a major role in al-Qaeda. In addition to al-Qaeda's having a new base in Afghanistan, the terrorist group also appears to have had, for years, a significant base in Iran.

In January 2021, then US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said that Iran has become the new home base of al-Qaeda:

"Tehran has allowed al-Qaida to fundraise, to freely communicate with al-Qaida members around the world, and to perform many other functions that were previously directed from Afghanistan or Pakistan... As a result of this assistance, al-Qaida has centralized its leadership inside of Tehran... al-Qaeda today is operating under the hard shell of the Iranian regime's protection".

Many of the sanctions that President Donald J. Trump imposed on Iran considerably hampered the ability of the mullahs to finance the Islamic terrorist groups they had previously supported. By lifting many of these sanctions, the Biden administration has re-empowered the mullahs to finance the Islamic groups they have funded in the recent past. Al-Qaeda is clearly one of them.

After the death of Zawahiri, the Biden administration issued a press release blaming the Taliban for having allowed "Afghan territory to be used by terrorists to threaten the security of other countries". Did members of the Biden administration actually expect anything else from the Taliban and the Haqqani network?

The Biden administration also blamed the Taliban for not respecting the Doha agreement, a peace deal between the US and the Taliban stipulating that the US would withdraw from Afghanistan if the Taliban negotiated a peace agreement with the Afghan government and prevented terrorist groups from gaining a foothold in Afghanistan. Did the Biden administration honestly expect ruthless terrorists to honor the agreement without the US showing at least a little determination to use force if necessary?

Over the past year, the Biden administration has sent hundreds of millions of dollars to Afghanistan, supposedly for humanitarian assistance to the Afghan people. How could one not know, however, that most of the funds were embezzled by the Taliban and used to finance the Taliban regime and its terrorist activities?

The Biden administration almost never talks about Iran financing Islamic terrorism and never mentions that the lifting sanctions on the regime has contributed to financing the very terrorist organizations that the US claims to be fighting.

US Special Representative for Iran Robert Malley continues to negotiate with the Iranian regime. Worse: Malley is not even the one doing the negotiating. Negotiating with Iran on behalf of America is -- Russia! The Americans are not even allowed in the room.

Moreover, all this is taking place while the US is half-heartedly helping Ukraine to defend itself against a ruthless Russian scorched earth onslaught. Malley nonetheless persists in separating the Biden administration's desire to sign a new disastrous nuclear deal from the Iranian regime's terrorist activities.

A year after the Biden administration abandoned Afghanistan to the Taliban and the Haqqani network, Afghanistan is back to being a terrorist state. It hosts and supports al-Qaeda while giving it the opportunity to organize terrorist attacks from Afghan soil.

The US, for its part, not only ran from Afghanistan a year ago, it also ran from its last watchtower in Central-South Asia, and, by not even leaving a small residual force as strongly advised, abandoned countless people be slaughtered and enabled the country to be plunged into economic collapse, chaos and starvation. A recent report indicates that 78,000 Afghans who worked for the American government and applied for special visas were left behind in August 2021. The Biden administration even abandoned Americans. Thousands of Americans and green card holders have been condemned to live under constant threat. In addition, it turns out that 75% of Afghans airlifted from Kabul were not even American citizens, green card holders or Afghan Special Immigrant Visa holders.

Iran, on the other hand, has been significantly strengthened. It supports al-Qaeda and now serenely threatens the United States. On August 1, the mullahs sent a message saying that Iran is building nuclear warheads that could turn New York into "hellish ruins". The US recently arrested an Iranian operative, accused of having plotted to assassinate former National Security Adviser John Bolton and former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, in addition to a separate plot to kidnap an Iranian-American journalist, Masih Alinejad. All the same, Iran's President Ebrahim Raisi plans to travel to New York for the UN General Assembly this month.

On August 12, in Chautauqua, New York, the Indian-born author Salman Rushdie was the victim of an assassination attempt by a young American Shiite Muslim of Lebanese origin. "The hand of the man who tore the neck of God's enemy must be kissed", gushed Iran's leading newspaper, Kayhan, whose editor-in-chief is appointed by Iran's Supreme Guide Ali Khamenei.

On July 19, 2022, the United Nations released a report saying that "the international context is favorable to Al-Qaida, which intends to be recognized again as the leader of global jihad".

August 15, 2022 saw the first anniversary of the takeover of the presidential palace in Kabul by the Taliban. It was a dismal anniversary. What happened in the past year throughout the country were countless atrocities committed by the Taliban.

Biden's words a year ago -- "We did that." -- fittingly describes all of this.

"It's a year later," US four-star General Jack Keane recalled , "and it's still hard to fathom what we actually did here."

"The president made a huge strategic error, in my judgment, in declaring an unconditional withdrawal with a date certain in Afghanistan, which turned out to be an unconditional surrender. And now we have the Taliban in charge doing what they were doing twenty plus years ago and that is providing sanctuary to al-Qaida.... What a debacle this decision has created. It's an accelerant for our adversaries, as we can see... Russia and Ukraine, China and Taiwan and the mischief that the Iranians are up to in the Middle East.... It's a sad situation."

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/18874/afghanistan-a-year

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Dismantling the Transgender Establishment - James Stansbury

 

by James Stansbury

Parents and legislators are finally targeting gender madness.

The kids may be back in school, but this year parents are more fearful thanks in part to the courageous parents in Loudoun County Virginia who nearly two years ago brought to national attention the transgender policy, pro-LGBT Sex Ed, and divisive CRT indoctrination in public schools.  Although their exercise of free speech earned them threats from Biden’s increasingly militarized DoJ, more parents nationwide learned that their kids, from K-12 and college, are likely to be indoctrinated with radical leftist woke ideology, including the absurd idea that sexual identity is a personal choice. 

In Virginia, the top issue remains transgender bathroom policy.  A clear majority of parents showing up at school board meetings the last two years don’t want biological males who identify as female in girl’s private areas and vice-versa.  All legislators should take heed of the lesson learned by Clinton crony Terry McAuliffe (D Va.) who lost a seemingly shoo-in governor’s race to novice politician Glenn Youngkin (R) after telling concerned parents they have no say in their kid’s education!  

As usual, the left-leaning local news media covering a recent contentious school board meeting in Hanover County, VA, ignored the majority parent concerns and instead focused on one mom’s impassioned claim that her ‘non-binary’ six-year-old would be traumatized by the school board’s proposed restrictive policies.  Thankfully, on August 31^st the school board approved the restrictive rules just in time for schools to reopen.  Parent pressure made the difference!

Consider for a moment the above soundbite the news media used to reinforce a belief that a six-year-old has the intellectual maturity make a life-altering decision that they are non-binary.  This thought is absurd, unless, of course, the kid was coached by some authority figure (i.e., woke parent, woke teachers, or woke medical professionals).  And true or not, how can any teacher remember each student’s made-up and ever-changing gender pronouns?  The pronoun game is reminiscent of the hysterical 1940s comedy routine “Who’s on First” by Abbot and Costello, only this time it’s not funny.

How did we get to this point?  One cause of today’s gender madness was described in an article in the Washington Stand covering a recent study by the Wisconsin Institute for Law & Order. The research included a wide-ranging records search across all public universities in Wisconsin that train future teachers and documented the tactics used by the radical left-dominated education establishment to implement the remarkably successful cult like belief in gender fluidity and other woke doctrine.  Three short sentences sum it up:

“State universities indoctrinate future teachers in controversial transgender, racial, and political theories -- and instruct them to teach these principles to children beginning in preschool.”

“Once the university changes students’ personal morality, it instructs them to begin introducing radical gender theory to children as young as three.”

“These criteria mean that teachers will be “discussing racial politics, gender politics, sexual identity, transgenderism, ahistorical anti-American history, and culturally revolutionary ideas with children as young as five or six years old…”

It is obvious the Dem’s woke agenda goes well beyond our schools.  The Federalist published a chilling article on how the transgender movement isn’t just targeting kids, it’s targeting families.  “The point isn’t just to break down the ‘gender binary.’ It’s to break down the family in order to reshape society.”  The Biden administration is also actively undermining the unity of the military with the same woke absurdities.  No wonder recruitment goals are far below requirements.  Biden was likely advised by multicredentialed Rachel Levine, a splendid role model of a trans-woman, four-star admiral in the United States Public Health Service Commissioned Corps, pediatrician, and assistant secretary at Health and Human Services (HHS).  ‘She’ proclaimed recently that sex reassignment surgery and puberty blockers were “lifesaving, medically necessary, age appropriate, and a critical tool.”  It’s no surprise then that Biden wanted his HHS to mandate all hospitals and doctors perform gender-affirming treatments.  Thankfully a federal judge blocked that scheme. 

With Democrats and their MSM propaganda arm fully in support, the medical/pharmaceutical industrial complex has eagerly boarded the gender transition gravy train.  One new example is Yale University’s Pediatric Program. The Epoch Times called them out for helping ‘Gender Expansive’ three-Year-olds on their 'Gender Journeys'.   With the demise of medical ethics during COVID, many others are cashing in as well.

Despite growing evidence that transitioning doesn’t fix depression as claimed, hospitals continue to sign up.  After proclaiming the opposite, medical personnel at University of Washington Medicine quietly admit mutilating trans kids doesn’t fix their depression and results in severe regrets for many. Meanwhile, across the Atlantic, the UK has wised up to the long-term harms caused by these early gender affirming procedures and is shutting down its largest gender transition facility. 

What can be done to stop the woke indoctrination process?  Parental involvement with schools is essential but unlikely to convince the medical establishment to back away from the transgender cash cow.  And little help seems to be coming from most state or federal legislators.  Are they afraid of being cancelled on social media, called homophobes or raided by the FBI? 

Why did it take the Left’s most hated junior Republican congresswoman, Marjorie Taylor-Green of Georgia, to sponsor some bold legislation?  The Natural News reported “The legislation, which has, of course, been shunned by culture-destroying Democrats, would make it a Class C felony, punishable by up to 25 years in prison and a $250,000 fine, to prescribe pharmaceutical “gender affirmation” to minors. It would also ban any and all taxpayer-funded insurance from paying for any similar treatment while banning institutions of higher learning from teaching the practices.” 

A related article described an earlier Senate proposal.  “Senator Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) and Rep. Jim Banks (R-Ind.) have introduced legislation giving teens with regrets up to 30 years to file suit against those who performed gender-transition on them before the age of 18.” 

Neither bill is likely to get past the Dems or clueless RINOs, but after the Biden speech in Philly with its hellish red lighting, there should be no doubt in anyone’s mind that the Dems want to create a woke totalitarian government that will eagerly partner with the globalist elite WEF’s Great Reset nightmare.  Biden’s ‘Battle for the Soul of America’ is a fitting campaign slogan.  Satan has been battling for souls from the beginning of humanity. 

Never forget the Dems are united and play dirty.  Therefore, all will be lost unless conservative and libertarian voters show up at the polls en masse and if our milquetoast Republican legislators can stop their virtue-signaling bipartisanship and campaign on issues the majority of Americans actually care about.  

Image: Quinn Dombrowski

James Stansbury

Source: https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2022/09/dismantling_the_transgender_establishment.html

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Costly exodus: Jobs continue to flow from pro-union states to right-to-work states - The Center Square Staff

 

by The Center Square Staff

Right-to-work (RTW) states have added 1.3 million jobs since 2020, while the others lost 1.1 million.

Jobs continue to pour out of pro-union states like Illinois and into states with more free-market policies, a report based on Bureau of Labor Statistics data shows.

Right-to-work (RTW) states have added 1.3 million jobs since 2020, while non-RTW states lost 1.1 million jobs, according to a study by economist Todd Nesbit and public policy analyst Michael LaFaive. RTW laws bar the termination of an employee for refusal to pay union dues if they don't want to.

“During the pandemic, there was a huge out-migration from states like Illinois, New York, New Jersey and California into the southern states like Texas, Florida, North Carolina an others, and all of those states happen to be right-to-work,” said Lee Schalk, vice president of policy at the American Legislative Exchange Council.

Schalk notes that Illinois recently lost major companies like Caterpillar and Boeing to right-to-work states.

“It is something that is on the checklist when they’re considering to invest and what states to relocate to, right-to-work is on that list,” Schalk said.

Union membership has been on the decline for a decade in Illinois. To halt the decline of union jobs nationwide, House Democrats in March 2021 approved the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act, which would force union membership on all workers at unionized companies and nullify state RTW laws. The PRO Act “allows collective-bargaining agreements to require all employees represented by the bargaining unit to contribute fees to the labor organization for the cost of such representation, notwithstanding a state law to the contrary.”

While praising the PRO Act, President Joe Biden stated that “nearly 60 million Americans would join a union if they get a chance.” But a new Gallup poll shows 58% of nonunion workers in the U.S. say they are not interested at all in joining a union.

Unions took a big blow in 2018 with the U.S. Supreme Court’s Janus v. AFSCME Council 31 decision, which allows state and local government workers to stop paying for the collective bargaining, legal, and related services that they receive from their unions.

“Janus says that no government employee can be forced to pay dues but here we are still litigating cases where unions are still doing it, and we are litigating all across the country on that issue,” said Mark Mix, president of the National Right to Work Foundation.

The report found that 16 of the 28 RTW states have now fully recovered the jobs lost during the pandemic, a distinction Illinois cannot claim. Of the non-RTW states, only Colorado and Montana have recovered all the lost jobs.

The Center Square Staff

Source: https://justthenews.com/nation/states/center-square/data-jobs-continue-flow-pro-union-states-illinois-right-work-states

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