How We Get to the Bottom of the Obama White House’s Domestic Spying

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Michael Flynn did not seem to be the best choice President-elect Donald Trump could have made for his first national security adviser.

My own publication, The Daily Caller, broke the story of Flynn writing an op-ed praising Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan just before Trump’s election. The op-ed was a clear break from Flynn’s past comments criticizing Turkey for its policies toward the ISIS terrorist group.

The most troubling part was Flynn’s failure to disclose the fact that his private-sector intelligence consulting firm had just signed a lucrative contract with a company closely aligned with Erdogan before the op-ed was published. The whole thing looked a lot like a paid foreign influence campaign.

Short of some sort of crime, though, Trump could have picked anyone he wanted to be his national security adviser. Trump won the presidential election. In doing so, he won the right to put together his White House team.

In these trying times, we must turn to the greatest document in the history of the world to promise freedom and opportunity to its citizens for guidance. Find out more now >>

A peaceful transition of power and respect for the will of the voters are fundamental to our system of government. New revelations are increasingly calling into question whether the Obama team abused this basic precept in the wake of Trump’s election. It’s now clear that numerous top Obama officials were spying on Flynn.

In the intelligence world, the government has a system in place to spy on foreigners using less than the normal due process needed to spy on Americans.

The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act authorizes the government to collect information on foreign powers and agents of foreign powers. Using this law, the Obama administration was spying on Russia’s ambassador to the United States. Good for them. That’s their job.

In monitoring the Russian ambassador, they picked up conversations he was having with Flynn, Trump’s incoming national security adviser.

Finding American communications in foreign intelligence in this way is referred to as “incidental collection.” When this happens, we have “minimization” rules, which mandate that any American communications caught up in foreign surveillance be redacted to protect the American citizens involved. These redactions can be overturned, however, through a process called “unmasking.”

We have now learned, thanks to a recent release by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, that a stunning 39 different Obama administration officials requested the unmasking of Flynn’s communications in the time period between Trump’s election and his inauguration.

Those making the request included numerous ambassadors, Treasury Department officials, and White House political staff, including the chief of staff and, just one week before Trump’s inauguration, Vice President Joe Biden. Not surprisingly, in the wake of these unmaskings, Flynn’s communications were then leaked to the press.

Such a high number of requests for information related to a rival political party is troubling to any but the most hardened anti-Trump partisan.

As a former heavy consumer of intelligence reporting in my days as assistant to Vice President Dick Cheney for special projects, I can state categorically that top White House staff do not do this as a matter of course. Checking in with former colleagues confirmed that nobody recalls any unmasking related to rival political figures.

Regardless of how anyone on Team Obama may try to spin this, such high levels of unmasking requests from top White House officials related to political rivals is completely and totally unprecedented.

None of this means we know for sure that the Obama requests were political, or even improper. We only know they were highly unusual and highly troubling because they present the distinct possibility of using our national security apparatus for political ends.

There are a number of possibilities as to what was driving these requests. Maybe Flynn was involved with communications that, in the eyes of the Obama staff, raised such serious national security concerns that the unmasking was somehow proper, despite its political appearance.

It’s important to state here that it’s common, and even necessary, for the incoming team during a presidential transition to begin outreach to those they will be working with, including foreign government agents. It’s what’s supposed to happen, so absent something more damning, Flynn speaking with the Russian ambassador should not be alarming.

The only way to get to the bottom of this matter is to release to the public the communications and unmasking requests in question and to thoroughly question each official involved.

This transparency is not just advisable but absolutely necessary in order to restore the public’s confidence that one party’s leaders were not abusing the system for political ends.

Intelligence is declassified all the time, and it can be done in a way that doesn’t endanger our intelligence sources or their methods.

In the wake of 9/11, numerous sensitive intelligence reports were declassified to establish what the Bush administration had known ahead of time about any potential attack. A similar process is needed now.

Given what appears to be a violation of some of our most basic liberties—and to ensure that our system was not hijacked for political purposes—the information surrounding these unmaskings must be declassified so the American people can see what is really happening.

Trump has the authority to do this himself. So do numerous members of his team. They should use that authority and set this record straight.

If anyone on the Obama team misused our national security apparatus to spy on their political opponents, it would be the greatest political abuse in our country’s history.

Anyone who asked for an unmasking involving an incoming national security adviser would have known the risks going in. Hopefully, they did it for some legitimate reason. If that’s the case, they should be at the front of the line asking for all this to be made public so everyone can see that there were no abuses at hand.

COPYRIGHT 2020 CREATORS.COM

COMMENTARY BY

Neil Patel

Neil Patel is co-founder and managing director of Bluebird Asset Management, a hedge fund investing in mortgage-backed securities. He previously served in the White House from 2005 to 2009 as the chief policy adviser to Vice President Dick Cheney.

A Note for our Readers:

This is a critical year in the history of our country. With the country polarized and divided on a number of issues and with roughly half of the country clamoring for increased government control—over health care, socialism, increased regulations, and open borders—we must turn to America’s founding for the answers on how best to proceed into the future.

The Heritage Foundation has compiled input from more than 100 constitutional scholars and legal experts into the country’s most thorough and compelling review of the freedoms promised to us within the United States Constitution into a free digital guide called Heritage’s Guide to the Constitution.

They’re making this guide available to all readers of The Daily Signal for free today!

GET ACCESS NOW! >>

EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Signal column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

VIDEO: Tik Tok and Chinese propaganda

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Thank you Pepi

Now wouldn’t it be great if this guy did one one Canada’s CBC?

OH WAIT! HE DID!

EDITORS NOTE: This video posted by Eeyore on Vlad Tepes Blog is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

See what Nancy Pelosi stuffed in her partisan ‘Coronavirus’ bill

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Nancy Pelosi’s left-wing wish list

If House Democrats are focused on helping Americans get through this global pandemic safely, they sure have a funny way of showing it.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s latest extravagant, $3 trillion spending proposal is Washington at its worst—and most predictable. While President Trump, governors of both parties, and frontline workers band together to fight this virus as one country, House Democrats see an opportunity to exploit this crisis to pass their partisan agenda.

Millions of Americans are out of work. President Trump is trying to get them back on the job by safely reopening our country. Instead of helping him do it, here is what Democrats in Congress have decided is worth holding Coronavirus relief hostage for:

  • A BAN on information about low-cost health insurance. That’s right—House Democrats want to forbid the government from sharing any information with you about lower-cost health options such as association plans or short-term plans. Even as families try to cope with job and wage losses, Speaker Pelosi doesn’t want them to learn about options that are up to 60 percent cheaper than Obamacare.
  • Mass voting by mail. A “Coronavirus relief” bill might seem like the wrong time and place to dictate how states run their elections. Democrats disagree.
  • Stimulus checks for illegal aliens. Rather than protect American citizens by requiring a Social Security Number for taxpayer-funded stimulus, Pelosi’s bill would give illegal immigrants the ability to receive up to $1,200 in direct payouts.
  • Bailouts… for government. Democrats want more than $1 trillion in cash for state and local governments, mostly in the form of unrestricted aid that doesn’t need to be used to offset Coronavirus costs. They also threw in a $25 billion bailout for the Post Office.

The list goes on. At a moment when Americans most need Washington to look out for them and cut the partisan drama, Democrat leaders once again chose to put their far-left base first.

MORE: “Democrats’ new $3 trillion Coronavirus spending wishlist is another embarrassing farce”

President Trump is protecting our national stockpile

When the Coronavirus struck, President Trump knew that America needed to act quickly. He worked with Congress to secure $16 billion to build up our national stockpile with ventilators, masks, respirators, pharmaceuticals, and other critical supplies.

As a result, America today has an abundant supply of ventilators, N95 respirators, and resources for testing—a crucial area where we now lead the world.

But that’s only the start. President Trump knows that America’s long-term self-reliance depends on our supply chain. “Our goal for the future must be to have American medicine for American patients, American supplies for American hospitals, and American equipment for our great American heroes,” he says.

“Now, both parties must unite to ensure the United States is truly an independent nation in every sense of the word.”

Today, the President traveled to Pennsylvania, visiting a distribution center that’s played a key role in helping to restock America.

Just since February, the Owens & Minor Distribution Center in Upper Macungie has deployed 1.75 million N95 respirators, 3.4 million gowns, 80 million gloves, and much more across our country. “You’re making America proud,” President Trump told them.

President Trump: “We are reclaiming our heritage as a nation of manufacturers!”

WATCH: Our supply chains need to be HERE, not overseas

Videomaker Sues Planned Parenthood, Kamala Harris for Suppressing Exposé

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David Daleiden, founder of the Center for Medical Progress, filed a lawsuit Tuesday against Planned Parenthood (PP), the former and current California Attorneys General Kamala Harris and Xavier Becerra (respectively), the National Abortion Federation, and others for suppressing his undercover video exposing PP’s trafficking of the body parts of aborted babies.

The complaint “seeks justice for a brazen, unprecedented, and ongoing conspiracy to selectively use California’s video recording laws as a political weapon to silence disfavored speech.”

Daleiden wrote, “The California Attorney General first admitted that they are enforcing the video recording law solely based on how they feel about the message being published, and then further admitted they are not even trying to follow the text of the law as written.”

Breitbart News reports that emails showed Harris’s office collaborated with PP to produce legislation targeting Daleiden, who was accused of 14 felonies related to his damning undercover videos.

Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA)

201 Known Connections

In an undercover video that was made public on July 14, 2015, Dr. Deborah Nucatola, who had been PPFA’s senior director of medical services since February 2009, spoke to investigators posing as buyers from a human biologics company and told them that her organization was selling — for $30 to $100 per specimen — intact fetal body parts that it harvested from abortion procedures. Trafficking in human body parts, however, is a federal felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison and a fine of $500,000.

In the undercover video (filmed by the Center for Medical Progress, or CMP, an anti-abortion group), Nucatola revealed that although “a lot of people want intact hearts these days,” she also had received requests for lungs and “lower extremities.” And while emphasizing that PPFA affiliates “absolutely” wanted to offer such organs, she noted that “[t]hey just want to do it in a way that is not perceived as, ‘The clinic is selling tissue. This clinic is making money off of this.’”

To learn more about Planned Parenthood, click on the profile link here.

EDITORS NOTE: This Discover the Networks column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

PODCAST: A Three-Star Conspiracy. . .

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Was the Michael Flynn saga ever about him? Or was it just another way to get to the president?

Andrew McCarthy has been following the case for three years, and he says there’s no doubt. Find out what Democrats were up to — then and now — in this special sit-down with the former federal prosecutor. Hear about all of the new developments, including one judge’s decision not to drop the case.

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HEROES with 12 Zeroes

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White House Treads a Fine Guideline

EDITORS NOTE: This FRC-Action podcast is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

VIDEO: Imam on Terror Watch List Delivers Opening Prayer at Utah State Senate Session

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Did the person from the Utah Senate who invited Yussuf Awadir Abdi to deliver this prayer know that he was on the terror watch list? Did he or she care? Or was virtue-signaling the paramount imperative here, overriding all other considerations?

“Imam on terrorist watch list delivers opening prayer during Utah Senate Session,” Deplorable Kel, May 8, 2020 (thanks to George):

Yussuf Awadir Abdi, an Imam who is on a federal government terrorist watch list, delivered the opening prayer at a Utah Senate Session in February 2020.

After delivering the prayer, Abdi took to Facebook to praise “allah”. He wrote:

All praises is due to Allaah who gave me to mention his name and his prayer front of our state senators. Thank you UTAH Muslim Civic league for giving me this opportunity.

Abdi was placed on the terrorist watch list in 2014 and later fought in court to be removed from the list, but his request was denied by the Judge.…

Abdi is the imam of Salt Lake City’s Madina Masjid Islamic Center.

RELATED ARTICLES:

Ramadan in Poland: Four Muslim migrants detained for recruiting converts to Islam to carry out jihad terror attacks

Iran’s Staggering Incompetence: The Islamic Republic Does It Yet Again

Ibn Warraq Pens Extraordinary New Study of Atheism in the Islamic World

Why doesn’t Pakistani feminist Malala care about abductions and forced conversions of non-Muslim girls in Pakistan?

EU Home Affairs Commissioner: Europe must go ‘back to the future’ of open borders after coronavirus is under control

Italy: Illegal Muslim migrant rapes pregnant coronavirus care nurse as she waits for bus after work

EDITORS NOTE: This Jihad Watch column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

4 Big Unanswered Questions About the ‘Unmasking’ Scandal

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As the “unmasking” scandal unfolds, the Senate Judiciary Committee will delve into the conduct of the Obama administration and the intelligence community in secretly investigating the incoming Trump administration.

Two Senate Republicans released previously secret information Wednesday listing top Obama administration officials who made the same request in early 2017: that the intelligence community disclose to them that retired Army Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn was the American whose phone conversation with the Russian ambassador had been intercepted by intelligence officials.

Flynn at the time had been chosen by President-elect Donald Trump as his first national security adviser. Flynn’s “unmasking” at the request of some of outgoing President Barack Obama’s closest advisers set in motion events that led to Flynn’s resignation after only 23 days in office during the new Trump administration.

Sens. Charles Grassley of Iowa and Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, both Republicans, released the names of the Obama officials requesting Flynn’s identity as part of information declassified by Richard Grenell, acting director of national intelligence.

In these trying times, we must turn to the greatest document in the history of the world to promise freedom and opportunity to its citizens for guidance. Find out more now >>

Senate Judiciary Chairman Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., announced Thursday that his committee would hold hearings in June examining issues surrounding the Flynn case and related to the initial FBI investigation of possible ties between the Trump campaign and the Russian government.

In a joint statement, Johnson, chairman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, the Senate’s chief oversight panel, and Grassley, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, said:

Our investigation of these matters has been ongoing for years, and as information finally comes to light, our focus on these issues is even more important now. The records are one step forward in an important effort to get to the bottom of what the Obama administration did during the Russia investigation and to Lt. General Flynn. We will continue to review this information and push for additional relevant disclosures until we are satisfied that the American people know the full truth.

Meanwhile, U.S. Attorney John Durham of Connecticut continues to look into the origins of the Russia investigation, and the Justice Department has said that the Flynn unmasking requests is one part of that probe.

Here are four big unanswered questions as the Senate and the Justice Department scrutinize actions taken by the Obama administration between Trump’s election on Nov. 8, 2016, and his inauguration on Jan. 20, 2017.

1. Can Obama Be Compelled to Testify?

It might well be must-see TV, but at this point it seems highly unlikely that Obama himself would be subpoenaed to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Trump made the demand in a tweet Thursday.

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1260938381254701060?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1260938381254701060&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.dailysignal.com%2F2020%2F05%2F14%2F4-big-unanswered-questions-about-the-unmasking-scandal%2F

“If I were a Senator or Congressman, the first person I would call to testify about the biggest political crime and scandal in the history of the USA, by FAR, is former President Obama,” Trump said in the tweet. “He knew EVERYTHING. Do it @LindseyGrahamSC, just do it. No more Mr. Nice Guy. No more talk!”

The previously classified documents released this week show that in the waning days of the Obama administration, these six well-known officials each submitted an unmasking request that would reveal Flynn’s otherwise protected identity under U.S. law: FBI Director James Comey, White House chief of staff Denis McDonough, Vice President Joe Biden, United Nations Ambassador Samantha Power, CIA Director John Brennan, and Director of National Intelligence James Clapper.

The Justice Department’s case against Flynn for lying to the FBI about his conversations with the Russian ambassador largely fell apart after other documents recently surfaced. They included notes of a discussion among Comey and two other top FBI officials about whether the goal in questioning Flynn at the White House was to “get him to lie” so that he could be fired or prosecuted.

The Justice Department last week dropped the case against Flynn for misleading the FBI, but a federal judge this week called in outside authorities to dispute that action.

Graham, in a statement Thursday, appeared to be reluctant about Trump’s call for Obama to testify.

“I am greatly concerned about the precedent that would be set by calling a former president for oversight,” Graham said. “No president is above the law. However, the presidency has executive privilege claims against other branches of government.”

Graham continued:

To say we are living in unusual times is an understatement.

We have the sitting president (Trump) accusing the former president (Obama) of being part of a treasonous conspiracy to undermine his presidency. We have the former president suggesting the current president is destroying the rule of law by dismissing the General Flynn case.

All of this is occurring during a major pandemic.

As to the Judiciary Committee, both presidents are welcome to come before the committee and share their concerns about each other. If nothing else it would make for great television. However, I have great doubts about whether it would be wise for the country.

Graham is striking the correct balance, said Charles Stimson, a senior legal fellow for national security at The Heritage Foundation.

“Chairman Graham should go after the facts, and see where that leads. He’s going to hold hearings,” Stimson told The Daily Signal on Thursday. “To take the president up on that suggestion [of calling Obama to testify] would risk looking political and could delegitimize the inquiry.”

2. What Are the Legal Issues?

Graham said the first part of his committee’s comprehensive inquiry would be of the Flynn matter.

“Our first phase will deal with the government’s decision to dismiss the Flynn case as well as an in-depth analysis of the unmasking requests made by Obama Administration officials against General Flynn,” Graham said in his written statement. “We must determine if these requests were legitimate.”

If Obama administration officials engaged in improper conduct, it’s not clear whether a law was broken, or who violated the law if one was broken.

Under Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, U.S. intelligence agencies may intercept and listen to the telephone calls of foreign citizens, including foreign officials. That would include Flynn’s call with then-Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak on Dec. 29, 2016, roughly three weeks before Trump’s inauguration.

If a foreign citizen is speaking to an American citizen on the intercepted call, the law requires the name of the American citizen to be blacked out, or masked, in documentation.

So unmasking is the process by which authorized federal officials request to see information regarding American citizens mentioned anonymously in classified transcripts of calls or other communications involving foreigners.

However, someone leaked Flynn’s communication with the Russian ambassador to the media shortly after the unmasking requests were made. Leaking classified information is a crime.

Brennan, Clapper, Comey and the others named in the documents released by Grenell were authorized to ask for the unmasking. The question is whether there was a legitimate reason to ask for the unmasking, Stimson said.

Another question is whether the unmasking was an attempt by officials of the outgoing Obama administration to undermine the incoming Trump administration.

“I’m not there yet. I want to see more facts,” Stimson told The Daily Signal.

Stimson added that congressional hearings typically seem political, but could produce further lines of inquiry.

He said he is more focused on the probe by Durham, whose career has been as a “stand-up, just-the-facts-ma’am, Joe Friday type of guy.”

3. How Did FISA System Go ‘Off the Rails’?

Graham said the next phase of the Judiciary Committee’s inquiry will revisit the apparent abuse of the process for obtaining warrants under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, highlighted in a scathing report late last year by Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz.

Horowitz testified to the committee in December about his report’s findings. Among the most startling: The FBI relied almost entirely on the so-called Steele dossier, an opposition research document financed by Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign, as the basis for a FISA warrant to surveil Trump campaign aide Carter Page.

The inspector general’s report also determined that FBI overreach wasn’t limited to Page, but included other Trump campaign aides such as Flynn, then an adviser; George Papadopoulos, a campaign volunteer; and one-time campaign chairman Paul Manafort.

“Our next area of inquiry, later this summer, will be oversight building upon the Horowitz report about FISA abuses against Carter Page,” Graham said. “My goal is to find out why and how the system got so off the rails.”

4. What Was the Point of the Mueller Probe?

After an investigation lasting nearly two years and costing taxpayers $32 million, special counsel Robert Mueller, Comey’s predecessor as FBI director, determined that the Trump campaign did not conspire with the Russian government to influence the 2016 election.

The problem, critics of the Mueller probe say, is that prior to Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein’s appointing him as special counsel, no evidence existed to suggest a Trump-Russia conspiracy.

Thus, the Judiciary Committee will look into the predicate of initiating a special counsel probe, Graham said.

“Finally, we will look at whether Robert Mueller should have ever been appointed as Special Counsel,” he said. “Was there legitimate reason to conclude the Trump campaign had colluded with the Russians?”

Mueller secured grand jury indictments against some two dozen Russian operatives—none of whom is expected ever to stand trial because they are in Russia.

The special counsel’s team also scored a conviction of Manafort for financial crimes unrelated to the presidential campaign.

COLUMN BY

Fred Lucas

Fred Lucas is the White House correspondent for The Daily Signal and co-host of “The Right Side of History” podcast. Lucas is also the author of “Tainted by Suspicion: The Secret Deals and Electoral Chaos of Disputed Presidential Elections.” Send an email to Fred. Twitter: @FredLucasWH.

RELATED ARTICLES:

Flynn Judge Disagrees With Own Rulings by Letting Outsiders Fight Dropping Charges

Biden, Comey, Brennan Submitted Flynn ‘Unmasking’ Requests

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A Note for our Readers:

This is a critical year in the history of our country. With the country polarized and divided on a number of issues and with roughly half of the country clamoring for increased government control—over health care, socialism, increased regulations, and open borders—we must turn to America’s founding for the answers on how best to proceed into the future.

The Heritage Foundation has compiled input from more than 100 constitutional scholars and legal experts into the country’s most thorough and compelling review of the freedoms promised to us within the United States Constitution into a free digital guide called Heritage’s Guide to the Constitution.

They’re making this guide available to all readers of The Daily Signal for free today!

GET ACCESS NOW! >>

EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Signal column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

1% of Counties Home to Half of COVID-19 Cases, Over Half of Deaths

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As Heritage Foundation researchers have demonstrated throughout the pandemic, the spread of COVID-19 in the U.S. has been extremely concentrated in a small number of states—and among a small number of counties within all states.

As of May 11, for example, 10 states accounted for almost 70% of all U.S. cases and nearly 75% of all deaths (but only 52% of the population). Together, New York and New Jersey alone account for 35% of all cases and 44% of total COVID-19 deaths, though only 9% of the U.S. population.

These state-level figures do not, however, adequately describe the concentrated nature of the spread of COVID-19.

When can America reopen? The National Coronavirus Recovery Commission, a project of The Heritage Foundation, is gathering America’s top thinkers together to figure that out. Learn more here>>>.

In these trying times, we must turn to the greatest document in the history of the world to promise freedom and opportunity to its citizens for guidance. Find out more now >>

The 30 counties with the most COVID-19 cases, for example, account for 48% of all the cases in the U.S. and 55% of all deaths, three to four times greater than their 15% share of the U.S. population.

That is, just 1% of all counties, representing 15% of the U.S. population, are responsible for almost half of the country’s COVID-19 cases and more than half of the deaths.

Of those 30 counties, 24 are in the Northeast corridor between Philadelphia and Boston, the passageway served by a commuter railway system that runs through Manhattan.

Overall, only about 10% of all counties contain 95% of all the COVID-19 deaths, even though they account for 64% of the population.

Just as important, 50% of all counties (with 10% of the U.S. population) have zero COVID-19 deaths as of May 11. In fact, 63% of all counties (with 15% of the population) have no more than one COVID-19 death each.

So, while 1% of counties (mostly in the Northeast) have more than half of all COVID-19 deaths in the U.S., 63% of counties have no more than one COVID-19 death each—and both groups represent the same share of the U.S. population.

With many state and local governments starting to relax stay-at-home orders, it’s instructive to examine just how concentrated the spread of COVID-19 has been in the U.S.

The Heritage Foundation’s interactive COVID-19 tracker helps put these levels of concentrated cases in perspective. It provides county-level data that includes total cases, total cases as a percentage of the population, where that percentage ranks among all 3,145 counties, and a population density measure.

The tracker also describes whether the trend of cases is increasing or decreasing over the prior 14 days, and provides a visual depiction of new cases during this time period.

The information shows just how difficult it can be to use only one metric to gauge whether a county is doing well.

For instance, Jersey County, Illinois, on the state’s border with Missouri, has had an increasing case trend during the past 14 days. As the chart shows, however, the county has not had more than one new case per day since April 26.

Furthermore, the fact that Jersey County ranks almost squarely in the middle of all U.S. counties with a case total of just 0.08% of its population affirms that most counties have a relatively small number of COVID-19 cases.

Readers are invited to explore the information in the tracker and check back frequently for updates.

COLUMN BY

Norbert Michel

Norbert Michel studies and writes about housing finance, including the reform of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, as The Heritage Foundation’s research fellow in financial regulations. Read his research. Twitter: @norbertjmichel.

Drew Gonshorowski

Drew Gonshorowski focuses his research and writing on the nation’s new health care law, including the repercussions for Medicare and Medicaid, as a policy analyst in the Center for Data Analysis at The Heritage Foundation. He also studies economic mobility and the Austrian school of economics. Twitter: @Gonshorowskd.

RELATED ARTICLES:

What We Know About the Link Between COVID-19 and a Rare Children’s Disease

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A Note for our Readers:

This is a critical year in the history of our country. With the country polarized and divided on a number of issues and with roughly half of the country clamoring for increased government control—over health care, socialism, increased regulations, and open borders—we must turn to America’s founding for the answers on how best to proceed into the future.

The Heritage Foundation has compiled input from more than 100 constitutional scholars and legal experts into the country’s most thorough and compelling review of the freedoms promised to us within the United States Constitution into a free digital guide called Heritage’s Guide to the Constitution.

They’re making this guide available to all readers of The Daily Signal for free today!

GET ACCESS NOW! >>

EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Signal column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

Greasing the Skids Toward Socialism?

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One fallout of the Covid-19 crisis is its severe thrashing of our economy. Not only have all the impressive economic gains of the Trump administration evaporated, but we are now adding to our national debt in scary ways. I hope that all the bailouts are temporary means to solve a temporary problem.

To use an analogy: One of the saddest things about a midlife crisis is that permanent damage can be done to “solve” what turns out to be only a temporary problem. I pray that America won’t adopt the permanent solution of socialism to solve our temporary coronavirus crisis.

One of the most frightening things about the bailouts is that some people find that they are receiving more money for not working than they did when they were working.

Long before the crisis, we have seen the rise of popularity of socialism among the young in America. A Gallup poll about a year ago found that four in ten Americans embrace some form of socialism. Yipes.

In short, if we are not careful, this crisis could end up greasing the skids toward socialism.

President Trump wants to see us “inch” back to work and to recovery. But many Americans want to see us embrace socialism. Long before the aLL crisis, NYC socialist Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was arguing that the “super wealthy” should be taxed up to 70 percent of their income in order to fund the “green new deal.”

Dr. Richard Land, the president of Southern Evangelical Seminary in Charlotte, N.C., knows firsthand what it is like to live in a socialist country. After graduating Princeton, he studied at Oxford to earn his Ph.D. He lived in the U.K. from 1972-1975 and experienced socialism there before Margaret Thatcher turned things around, beginning in the late 1970s. He said, “It was horrible.”

In a radio segment warning against socialism, he told me, “In Great Britain, nothing worked.”

Some people had been paying 91 percent taxes before Thatcher’s policies lowered it to 29 percent. She also privatized a lot of industries.

The results were amazing. Before Thatcher’s capitalist reforms, notes Land, England had the lowest per capita income in Western Europe. Because of her reforms, they ended up having the highest per capita income.

But, someone might ask, “What about Scandinavia?” Land notes that they too abandoned socialism because it doesn’t work. Instead, they have capitalism with a “liberal welfare state.”

What about all the young Americans who claim to embrace socialism? Land notes that they are thinking of socialism as just being “share and share alike.” But that’s not what it is. In socialism, the state becomes god. In a nanny state, you get the people more and more dependent upon the government for their very living.

That is what makes this present meltdown of the economy so frightening. There may be many on the marginal side of life who are content to rely upon the government—even as a way of life beyond the crisis.

Some people claim that the Scriptures advocate socialism. The Bible certainly promotes “share and share alike.” However, sharing is voluntary. Socialism involves government coercion and theft from Citizen A’s property on behalf of Citizen B. Meanwhile, the socialist government makes more money than either citizen in the administration of this theft by taxation and coercion.

Dr. Land observes, “Some people have said that the Bible teaches socialism. They’re wrong. They’re simply wrong and they’re very simplistic. The Bible tells us a great deal about the nature of man, which is pretty basic. And the heart of man, according to Jeremiah, is ‘deceitful and desperately wicked; who can know it?’”

Dennis Prager, founder of PragerU, once told me in a TV interview, “[Socialism] is against human nature. The moment you tell people that the community will take care of you, they work less. It undermines character.”

During the heyday of the Obama administration and their over-abundant spending on domestic programs, I asked Stephen Moore, an economist who has served both Presidents Reagan and Trump, about those who promote socialistic solutions because “it’s the Christian thing to do.”

Moore answered, “I always laugh and sometimes frown when people say the Christian thing to do is to continue to spend money recklessly like we are doing now….If the government spends a dollar, that dollar has to come from somebody or somewhere….The real problem here is people say, ‘Oh, it’s so Christian to be spending all of this money on all these programs,’ and I say, ‘Wait a minute. Who’s going to pay the cost? Isn’t it Christian to care about your kids and your grandkids?”

May the coronavirus crisis be a temporary one. And may we be on our guard against any socialist framework that will do irreparable damage as a “solution” to this, Lord-willing, temporary problem.

©All rights reserved.

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Deep State Judge Denies Relief to Lieutenant General Flynn

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“Look at the orators in our republics; as long as they are poor, both state and people can only praise their uprightness; but once they are fattened on the public funds, they conceive a hatred for justice, plan intrigues against the people and attack the democracy.”–  Aristophanes

“Every time we turn our heads the other way when we see the law flouted, when we tolerate what we know to be wrong, when we close our eyes and ears to the corrupt because we are too busy or too frightened, when we fail to speak up and speak out, we strike a blow against freedom and decency and justice.” – Robert Kennedy

“When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice: but when the wicked beareth rule, the people mourn.”  – Proverbs 29:2

Relief was short lived for Lt. General Michael T. Flynn.  The federal judge in his case has signaled he won’t immediately dismiss the Flynn case despite the DOJ dismissal of same.

Judge Emmet Sullivan said he’ll receive written arguments that are likely to oppose the DOJ’s bid to dismiss General Flynn’s prosecution.  The Judge’s decision to allow third parties (only those he deems worthy) to submit friend-of-the-court briefs is absolutely egregious.  Attorney Sidney Powell has argued that it should not be allowed.  She has already proven the General’s innocence with her efforts to get Brady exculpatory evidence from the FBI.

Judge Sullivan himself acknowledged that the local criminal procedure rules do not provide for third parties to file amicus briefs in criminal matters, but he claimed that the local rules governing civil cases — which do allow for amicus briefs — “govern all proceedings in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia.”

“The proposed amicus brief has no place in this Court,” Powell and other attorneys for Flynn wrote, objecting to an amicus brief that a group identifying itself as “Watergate Prosecutors” had said on May 11th that it intended to submit.

The former Watergate special prosecutors this week resurrected the Ghost of Watergate Past in a last-ditch effort to keep alive the federal court case against former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn.

Sidney Powell pointed out, “This Court has consistently, on 24 previous occasions, summarily refused to permit any third party to inject themselves or their views into this case.”

The exculpatory documents brought forth by Attorney General Barr’s appointee, U.S. Attorney Jeffrey Jensen, prove that Michael Flynn is innocent of the charges and was set-up and railroaded by Obama and his FBI minions.

Watergate Prosecutors

Sixteen of the former prosecutors in the Watergate case have told Judge Sullivan they believe he has the authority to sentence Michael Flynn to prison despite the fact that the DOJ dismissed the case.

These sixteen are part of the Democratic Deep State who wish to see Donald Trump’s associates and supporters punished for helping him in the 2016 election

They have laid out their legal documents which state that they believe Judge Sullivan has to reject the dismissal request and sentence Flynn who had pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI.  They never mention that Robert Mueller’s gang of thugs including Andrew Weissman used the same old modus operandi of threatening family members, in this case the General’s son, Michael, to elicit a guilty plea from the General.

These Watergate prosecutors compared the current situation at the DOJ to Watergate which is an atrocity in itself.

Director Wray

It was FBI Director Wray who was refusing exculpatory Brady evidence to the Flynn defense despite Judge Sullivan’s directive. Now that we have those documents, the General’s attorneys still must fight this judge for the righteous total dismissal of this case.

Christopher Wray has been the Director of the FBI for nearly three years and has defied Congress by refusing to produce documents exposing the dishonest acts of his predecessor, James Comey and the rest of his corrupt comrades.  It is Wray who held back and suppressed documents that proved General Michael T. Flynn’s innocence.

It took AG Barr’s appointed U.S. Attorney and former FBI agent, Jeffrey Jensen to successfully attain the Brady evidence.

DNI Rick Grenell

Richard Allen Grenell, acting Director of National Intelligence who replaced VP Pence’s transition-chosen Indiana friend, Dan Coates, made the decision to declassify information about Obama administration officials who were involved in the “unmasking” of former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn whose calls with the former Russian ambassador during the presidential transition were picked up in surveillance and later leaked.

The list of Obama officials doing the unmasking was declassified in recent days by Grenell and then sent to GOP Sens. Chuck Grassley and Ron Johnson, who made the documents public.

The roster features top-ranking figures including then-Vice President Joe Biden, a detail already being raised by the Trump campaign in the 2020 presidential race where Biden is now the Democrats’ presumptive nominee.

The list also includes former FBI Director James Comey, former CIA Director John Brennan, former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, and Obama’s former chief of staff Denis McDonough.  Read the Documents.

Officials in the Obama administration have acknowledged that they moved to unmask some Americans in intelligence reports, but insisted that their reasons were legitimate.  Yeah right…their reasons were to undermine the incoming administration. Those officials include Obama National Security Advisor Susan Rice, former ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power and former deputy national security advisor Benjamin Rhodes.

The DOJ said that after reviewing newly disclosed information and other materials, it agreed with Flynn’s lawyers that his Jan. 24, 2017, interview with the FBI should never have taken place because he had not had inappropriate contacts with Russians. The interview, the department said, was “conducted without any legitimate investigative basis.”

Exactly, this entire charade was to destroy both Lt. General Michael T. Flynn, a three-star general with 33 years of service to his country, both in combat and decades in intelligence.  And even more to destroy the General’s ability to help the duly elected President to clean out the corruption from the intelligence community within the DOJ.

Judge Sullivan

Judge Sullivan belongs to the Deep State globalist cabal.  He is doing the bidding of those who wish to destroy truth, justice, and the American way.  Yes, that’s it, I’m not making this up.  This Clinton appointee hates a man who gave his life to his country and who loves America.

There is no prosecutor in the Flynn case; Brandon Van Grack resigned the very day the DOJ dismissed the Flynn case.  Judge Sullivan looks incompetent and complicit with former prosecutors.  The more the DOJ found that Flynn was innocent, the more they went after a smear campaign.

And today we learned that Paul Manafort has been released to serve the rest of his sentence at home.  It took them long enough to release this elderly man so that he wouldn’t contract Covid-19 in prison.  Throughout the country criminals guilty of rape, murder, burglary, etc. were released weeks ago and many have committed the same crimes, including murder and rape.  It took until today to release Paul Manafort who at his age should not be imprisoned and should have had his federal charges pardoned long ago.

The rush to imprison Trump supporters, Roger Stone and Michael Flynn, shows they are targeted by the millions of Marxist-Leninists within our government.

Conclusion

Lt. General Michael T. Flynn was targeted before he even joined the White House administration.  Flynn was chosen by President Trump to restructure the entire intel community.

Fred Fleitz, former Chief of Staff and Executive Secretary of the National Security Council for Donald Trump stated in his Fox News article that the list released today is of 39 top Obama officials who made 53 requests to unmask Lt. Gen. Flynn’s name from intelligence reports between election day (Nov. 8, 2016) and Jan. 31, 2017.  While many of the requesters were Obama political appointees who resigned by Jan. 20, 2017, some were career officers at CIA, the Pentagon and other agencies.

Judge Sullivan should recuse himself from this case. It’s obvious who he is working for and it’s certainly not for true justice.

Three-star General Michael T. Flynn has endured enough at the hands of these demons of the dark state.

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RELATED ARTICLE: Flynn Judge Faces Ethics Complaints After Shock Move

Deliver Us from Evil Democrats

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Despite 30 million Americans losing their jobs, domestic violence and suicides on the rise, Democrats and fake news media are terrifying Americans into believing the lock-down must continue. These evil wicked people are fully committed to using coronavirus to stop Trump’s reelection.

I scratch my head thinking, “Don’t these wacko leftists realize that if they destroy America, their livelihood is destroyed as well?” Democrats and fake news media’s hatred for Trump and his voters and their desire to block him from making America great again, again, overrules logic. Their behavior is like the wicked queen in the Disney “Snow White” movie. Her hatred for Snow White was so great that she sacrificed her beauty, transforming herself into an ugly old witch to deceive and destroy Snow White.

Democrats and fake news media will sacrifice America if it means destroying Trump. These people must be defeated.

Sadly, half the country still does not realize that Democrats and fake news media are tag-team partners in transforming America into a socialist/communist nation.

Before my lifelong Democrat dad, Dr Rev Lloyd E. Marcus passed away at age 90, I tried to inform Dad that his working-man party had been hijacked by 1960s hippies. Hippies (Democrats) also took over Hollywood, mainstream media and public education decades ago. Consequently, they created a generation of young adults who hate America, hate the God of Christianity and believe their parents are stupid, racist, sexist and homophobic.

Long gone is the mindset of the TV show, “Father Knows Best”. “Family Feud” game show surveyed 100 people. “Who would you ask for advise?” Not one person of those surveyed said their would seek counsel from their father. Wow!

For many years, I have tried to educate my family and friends to the truth that Democrats are not our friends. Everything they desire to do is harmful to Americans. The Democratic party has been taken over by a spirit of anti-Christ. Every policy they seek to implement is rooted in their belief that they are smarter than God, desire to overrule God’s original intent and mission to ban God from our culture.

Daring to be an independent thinker speaking the truth about Democrats gets me called names; a self-hating n*****, stupid, Republican and Uncle Tom sellout. I challenge you to research and prove my observation of Democrats wrong.

Democrats and fake news media are all over TV absurdly saying that because of covid-19, we can never return to normal life in America. For crying out loud, viruses have been around since the beginning of time. Suddenly, because of one flu virus, Democrats say we must wear masks and social distance forever. God did not design or intend for us to live like that. But then, Democrats believe they are smarter than God. Folks, there is no scientific data which supports social-distancing.

Knut Wittkowski, PhD said the elderly and people with immune issues should be protected. Wittkowski said forcing the masses to social distance is harmful because it delays herd immunity which makes the virus last longer. “…we should not believe that we are more intelligent than mother nature was when we were evolving. Mother Nature (God) was pretty good at making sure that we’re a good match for the diseases that we happen to see virtually every year.” 

Dr Judy Mikovits said by wearing masks, we are breathing in our own germs. I witnessed this at a local store. The clerk was struggling to breath. “What is wrong with you?” I asked with concern. She said the mandatory requirement that she wear a mask was stupid because it blocked her from breathing fresh air.

Virologists say we are doing the opposite of what we should be doing to deal with coronavirus. We are lowering our immune system by sheltering-in-place, wearing masks and killing our good bugs by over using hand sanitizer. https://bit.ly/2LeGdLp

And yet, Democrats are using coronavirus to implement crazy policies such as never again allowing church gatherings over 50 people. These Democrats are crazy and evil.

Most of my family and friends who are Christians still do not realize that Democrats are obsessed with overruling God’s original intentions. A Democrat memo exposed their desire to legalize 12 new perversions which include pedophilia and bestiality.

Democrats are masters of deceiving and bullying the public into surrendering to anti-God cultural norms. Here’s how they will normalize pedophilia and bestiality.

I’ve seen articles and heard college lectures that pedophiles are born that way. Therefore, pedophilia is simply another god-given sexual orientation. Hollywood will produce movies portraying pedophiles as victims of our intolerance. Expect a new “groundbreaking” TV sitcom titled something like, “Suzy Loves Daddy”, a hilarious comedy about a goofy lovable dad who married his daughter.

Democrats and fake news media will gang attack anyone who dares to criticize the immoral show. They will say, “love is love”. Sadly, Christians will say, “Suzy Loves Daddy is so funny!” Then, they will say, “Jesus loves everyone” which means good Christians should embrace every perversion. Suddenly, pedophilia and incest are normalized, featured in movies, TV shows and commercials from home improvement to diet and exercise. Pedophilia and incest will skyrocket. Your kids will view you as an out-of-touch dinosaur for not embracing “loving” pedophile and incestuous relationships.

Next up, Democrats will force us to normalize bestiality; sex between humans and animals. The Oscar winning movie, “The Shape of Water” is a major step in normalizing bestiality.

Believing they are smarter than God, Democrats outrageously seek to legalize aborting babies even after they are born to save the planet from overpopulation. Democrats outrageously say it is not a human being with rights unless the mother says so. How can any Christian think this is right? God said, “Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you…” (Jeremiah 1:5)

I could go on and on with examples of how Democrats and fake news media believe themselves smarter than God. “Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools.” ( Romans 1:22)

Democrats are hellbent on prolonging this insane unscientific lock-down for as long as they can get away with it. It is Democrats’ most destructive effort thus far to attack America, destroy Trump and assume the role of God.

©All rights reserved.

Lessons for Liberators

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“A Little Piece of Ground,” by Elizabeth Laird, is a propagandist book available to all children in many libraries across the country. It concerns 12-year-old Karim who lives in Ramallah, historically an Arab Christian town, now a Palestinian city in central West Bank (Judea and Samaria), 10 km north of Jerusalem, Israel. He hears of nothing but violence and aspires to be the Liberator of Palestine.

Karim resides with his parents and three siblings on the fifth floor of an apartment building. He hates living under the occupation, yet no one has told him that the Israelis ceased its occupation three years before he was born. He knows that a Palestinian gunman shot two people in an Israeli café two weeks ago and, as a consequence, the next building was demolished. His building is on lockdown, guarded by an Israeli tank to ensure that no one may enter or leave until further notice. The residents may not go to work or shop for food, and his school was levelled, the computers confiscated.

More recently, a Palestinian gunman opened fire in Jerusalem, gravely injuring five adults and three children. Three days later, new curfew hours were announced for his area, allowing two hours for shopping and errands. That evolved into free daytime hours, but confinement continues from evening through dawn. Now his father may tend his store and inventory, his mother may take the baby to the doctor, and Karim and Joni meet a new friend, Hopper, with whom to play soccer – until dusk.

Karim’s father does not understand why the children must also be punished or why he can’t tend his store when others committed a crime. The Palestinians are not remorseful of the killings; Laird writes of no regrets. There is no family discussion to correct the occupation narrative, to discredit the violence, or confirm the value of life. An effective way for the Israelis to discourage suicidal crimes is to ruin the homes of terrorists’ families, although Mahmoud Abbas reverses the effect with largesse and new homes to the martyr’s family, appropriated from generous humanitarian aid.

The children hear only of their inconveniences. Karim’s father curses the Israeli occupation that began when he was ten years old, that actually resulted from his own parents’ pivotal decision. It was 1948 when the United Nations granted statehood to Israel on a little piece of ground, 1/6th of one percent of Arab land, that had always been inhabited by Jews but ruled by a succession of foreign powers. The Jews accepted the offer, the Arabs rejected it, and five Arab armies set out – but failed – to destroy the new Israeli state. Some of the Arabs welcomed becoming citizens of Israel; Karim’s ancestors chose to remain in Judea and Samaria, renamed West Bank under Jordan’s 19-year rule. After years of deadly attacks, the armies again mobilized for a full-scale war against Israel in 1967. Israel was victorious again and captured Sinai, Gaza and Judea and Samaria (Left Bank), and became a reluctant occupier. As often as Israel offered a land trade for peace, the Arabs refused. They are waiting for their fail-safe victory over the Jews to fulfill Mohammed’s vision.

Since then, the Arabs renamed themselves Palestinians as a strategic tie to the land, living first under Arafat’s Palestinian government rule that began in 2000, followed by Abbas. Israel is not an occupying force, but its forces will control all who may endanger Israeli citizens, by checkpoints and any means necessary.

During some free time, the family decides to visit their family during olive-picking season. On the way, they are redirected to a new road that has been cut through the main road, which is now prohibited to non-Israelis. Karim and the young readers know only that Palestinians are forbidden to use that road; the author does not explain this as a security measure. Palestinian youths have been hurling rocks and explosives at passing cars for years, causing accidents and death. The road is now safer, and the Palestinians may use this new route to their destination. Karim’s parents view this as another deliberate inconvenience because it increases the driving time. Further down, they come to a roadblock; Palestinians had been killed and one “settler” wounded, the causes left unexplained. Adult men are asked to leave the car and made to strip down to their underwear. Karim hates to see his father ridiculed, hates that the IDF are dominant over his people. Again, no one clarifies this as a response to a confrontation, or that the term “settler” is used to delegitimize the centuries of Jewish connection to the land.

At his grandparents’ home, after dining and socializing, the visitors learn that the olives are no longer theirs to harvest. Palestinians had been hurling firebombs at Jews, and the IDF seized the little piece of ground on the hill and announced its zoning for a new Israeli development. The construction has begun. The culprits had been apprehended and imprisoned, but these Arab residents are not peaceful or trustworthy. Later, Karim’s aunt proudly recounts that their cousins and neighbors continue to throw stones and Molotov cocktails at the soldiers. We are uncertain that Karim makes the connection of criminality and consequences.

Karim still dreams of being the Liberator of Palestine, of being the one to return the olive trees of four generations to his family. He has never been told that this little piece of ground had belonged to the Jews through many centuries. Another announcement on TV states that a suicide bomber has killed eleven Israelis, four of them secondary-school students. The family deliberates the reprisals, while Karim considers the bomber’s heroism. The author allows a voice of reason, as though to suggest that there are Palestinians who seek peace. As the lone voice of conscience and temperance, his uncle speaks privately to Karim, that had the Arabs won the war of 1967, they would be doing precisely what the Israelis are doing now. He appears to suggest that Karim consider that there is no morality to bombing Israelis, causing blindness, severe disabilities, death and misery to so many, and that it may be time to seek a peaceful solution to their existence, but the opportunity of meaningful conversation is short-lived. They are called to dinner, where the group recounts the Arabs’ past victimization, the Turks, the English, now the Israelis. There is no mention of Hamas, the terrorist branch of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood. On the way home, the newscaster reports of tanks entering Bethlehem, and clashes between Arab youth and the IDF in Ramallah. This, then, is what surrounds Karim.

Back home with Hopper, his friend talks about his family’s expulsion in 1948, not that they had expected to return victorious to Judea and Samaria after waging and losing their aggressive war against Israel. At home, he hears of the reprisals for suicide bombers in Bethlehem, eight people killed by tank shells, three houses demolished by bulldozers. Ramallah is open, but there are roadblocks. He has time to meet his friends, passes a crowd looking at the bridge and at the bomb affixed to its underside. When he finds Hopper, he learns that Hopper attached a fake bomb, and Hopper rejoices that the IDF has been called to disassemble a sham. At Hopper’s house, he sees the grandfather’s key from the home they left behind in 1967, in Ramle, which is now in Israel. It endures as a constant reminder of injustice and victimhood.

The three friends had their own little piece of ground near Hopper’s camp, which they have been working to clear for a soccer field. Hopper had found cans of red and green paint amid the rubble and on his own time, painted stones and positioned them to form the Palestinian flag. Joni and Karim marveled at his ingenuity. They had also camouflaged the cab of what was once a car with debris for a perfect hideout.

Today, as they play on their land, a voice suddenly blares, “Being outside is forbidden.” All but Karim could leave the field quickly. There are Israeli tanks on higher ground, and his only refuge is the car’s cab. With nothing but orange drinks to sustain him over two full days and nights, and the companionship of a mother cat and her kittens, he is well hidden. He suffers from a stray bullet in the back of his leg and bandages it with a piece of clothing, but he remains quiet and concealed until the curfew is lifted and his older brother, Jamal, comes looking for him. When the small Ramallah hospital staff learns of Karim’s experience and wound, he is hailed as the conquering hero, and permitted to return home on crutches after two days.

Karim, home, hears the news, “Israeli tanks fired shells into a crowded building in Rafah last night, killing nine people and injuring . . .” His friend Joni comes to visit Karim, to tell him that Hopper was shot at last night, but only his arm was grazed, and he would be fine. Joni also came to say goodbye; he and his family, Christian Arabs, have no future here and are leaving for America.

The lesson learned by the vulnerable reader is that if you suffer nothing but a minor injury in your youth, you may go on to become a full-fledged terrorist.

But the more thoughtful reader should learn that there is nothing to counter the corrosive indoctrination that they are receiving in schools, in their homes, in their mosques, in the news reports. Ramallah and similar cities in Judea, Samaria, and Gaza, are breeding grounds for terrorism.

©All rights reserved.

PODCAST: Elon Musk and the Growing Populist Revolt!

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GUESTS AND TOPICS:

JUDGE ROY MOORE

Judge Roy Moore, Alabama former Chief Justice of the Alabama Supreme Court and former U.S. candidate.

TOPIC: Central pastor sues over coronavirus restrictions’

STEVE TURLEY, PhD

Steve Turley (PhD, ) is an internationally recognized scholar, speaker, and author who is widely considered one of the most exciting voices in today’s Intellectual Dark Web.

TOPIC: Elon Musk and the Growing Populist Revolt.

LINDA PAINE

Linda Paine is President of Election Integrity Project California, Inc. (EIPCa)Election Integrity Project California, Inc. (EIPCa), and The Election Integrity Project, Inc (EIP) and President, Co-Founder election Integrity Project California, Inc.

TOPIC: Hundreds of California Voters Mailed Two Ballots Each in May 12 Special Elections.

FBI reveals name of Saudi official suspected of directing support for 9/11 jihadis

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What is known about the Saudi involvement in 9/11 is detailed in The History of Jihad. But much more is not known, and the people who should be investigating, and should have investigated long ago, are clueless, compromised, or complicit.

“EXCLUSIVE: In court filing, FBI accidentally reveals name of Saudi official suspected of directing support for 9/11 hijackers,” by Michael Isikoff, Yahoo News, May 12, 2020

WASHINGTON — The FBI inadvertently revealed one of the U.S. government’s most sensitive secrets about the Sept. 11 terror attacks: the identity of a mysterious Saudi Embassy official in Washington who agents suspected had directed crucial support to two of the al-Qaida hijackers.

The disclosure came in a new declaration filed in federal court by a senior FBI official in response to a lawsuit brought by families of 9/11 victims that accuses the Saudi government of complicity in the terrorist attacks.

The declaration was filed last month but unsealed late last week. According to a spokesman for the 9/11 victims’ families, it represents a major breakthrough in the long-running case, providing for the first time an apparent confirmation that FBI agents investigating the attacks believed they had uncovered a link between the hijackers and the Saudi Embassy in Washington.

It’s unclear just how strong the evidence is against the former Saudi Embassy official — it’s been a subject of sharp dispute within the FBI for years. But the disclosure, which a senior U.S. government official confirmed was made in error, seems likely to revive questions about potential Saudi links to the 9/11 plot.

It also shines a light on the extraordinary efforts by top Trump administration officials in recent months to prevent internal documents about the issue from ever becoming public.

“This shows there is a complete government cover-up of the Saudi involvement,” said Brett Eagleson, a spokesman for the 9/11 families whose father was killed in the attacks. “It demonstrates there was a hierarchy of command that’s coming from the Saudi Embassy to the Ministry of Islamic Affairs [in Los Angeles] to the hijackers.”

Still, Eagleson acknowledged he was flabbergasted by the bureau’s slip-up in identifying the Saudi Embassy official in a public filing. Although Justice Department lawyers had last September notified lawyers for the 9/11 families of the official’s identity, they had done so under a protective order that forbade the family members from publicly disclosing it.

Now, the bureau itself has named the Saudi official. “This is a giant screwup,” Eagleson said….

In a portion describing the material sought by lawyers for the 9/11 families, Sanborn refers to a partially declassified 2012 FBI report about an investigation into possible links between the al-Qaida terrorists and Saudi government officials. That probe, the existence of which has only become public in the past few years, initially focused on two individuals: Fahad al-Thumairy, a Saudi Islamic Affairs official and radical cleric who served as the imam of the King Fahd Mosque in Los Angeles and Omar al-Bayoumi, a suspected Saudi government agent who assisted two terrorists, Khalid al-Mihdhar and Nawaf al-Hazmi, who participated in the hijacking of the American Airlines plane that flew into the Pentagon, killing 125.

After the two hijackers flew to Los Angeles on Jan. 15, 2000, al-Bayoumi found them an apartment, lent them money and set them up with bank accounts.

A redacted copy of a three-and-a-half page October 2012 FBI “update” about the investigation stated that FBI agents had uncovered “evidence” that Thumairy and Bayoumi had been “tasked” to assist the hijackers by yet another individual whose name was blacked out, prompting lawyers for the families to refer to this person as “the third man” in what they argue is a Saudi-orchestrated conspiracy.

Describing the request by lawyers for the 9/11 families to depose that individual under oath, Sanborn’s declaration says in one instance that it involves “any and all records referring to or relating to Jarrah.”

The reference is to Mussaed Ahmed al-Jarrah, a mid-level Saudi Foreign Ministry official who was assigned to the Saudi Embassy in Washington, D.C., in 1999 and 2000. His duties apparently included overseeing the activities of Ministry of Islamic Affairs employees at Saudi-funded mosques and Islamic centers within the United States.

Relatively little is known about Jarrah, but according to former embassy employees, he reported to the Saudi ambassador in the United States (at the time Prince Bandar), and that he was later reassigned to the Saudi missions in Malaysia and Morocco, where he is believed to have served as recently as last year.

Jarrah has been on the radar screen of the lawyers for the 9/11 families for some time and is among nine current or former Saudi officials who they suspect have important information about the case and have sought to either question them or get access to FBI documents that mention them.

The families have also tapped former agents to help investigate the activities of the potential witnesses, including Jarrah.

Jarrah “was responsible for the placement of Ministry of Islamic Affairs employees known as guides and propagators posted to the United States, including Fahad Al Thumairy,” according to a separate declaration by Catherine Hunt, a former FBI agent based in Los Angeles who has been assisting the families in the case.

Hunt conducted her own investigation into the support provided to the hijackers in Southern California. “The FBI believed that al-Jarrah was ‘supporting’ and ‘maintaining’ al-Thumairy during the 9/11 investigation,” she said in her declaration….

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EDITORS NOTE: This Jihad Watch column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

PODCAST: The First Thing We Do, Let’s Kill All The Bean Counters

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Nope, its not the lawyers; its the “bean counters” that are ruining business. Let me give you an example, I know of a large machine-tool operation in the Midwest who used to be heralded for producing quality products. To this end, the company established an in-house school who taught their machinists how to build products, not just any old way, the company’s way. The school was led by the senior craftsmen of the business who took pride in their workmanship and passed this on to the new employees. When an employee graduated from the school, a machinist not only knew his job, but took pride in his work and became loyal to the company due to its reputation. Even if an employee dropped out and went elsewhere, he would always recommend his former company’s products because he knew they were built with quality. This school went on for a number of years and became a part of the corporate culture. However, in the 1980’s the company hired a team of MBA’s to look over their operations and make recommendations for improvement. You must remember, this was a time when cost cutting was the norm. After looking over the financial statements of the business, the management consultants concluded the school represented a costly overhead and convinced the company to close it down.

Shortly after the school’s closure, the company started to experience a drop in morale, absenteeism and tardiness began to rise, and craftsmanship began to deteriorate. Product quality dropped significantly and the company began to lose customers, so much so, they eventually sold off their machine-tool operations and went into a totally new line of business. Keep in mind, prior to this the company was a leader in the machine-tool industry and generated substantial profits from it.

Obviously this story isn’t unique as we have witnessed several such changes in the corporate landscape during the 1980’s and 1990’s. The point is, the bean counters have taken charge of business which has triggered sweeping changes in how we deal with our customers, our vendors, and our employees.

LOSING THE PERSONAL TOUCH

Under the bean counter approach to business, numbers are all that matter. Of course, paying attention to the bottom-line is always important, but this should not result in a callous way of operating a business. To me, studying the numbers is analogous to watching the dials and gauges of a machine. It is like watching the speedometer of an automobile, but if I observe an emergency vehicle approaching or see a drunk driver nearby, I am going to ignore the gauge and do what is proper. I am going to make a human decision and do what is best for my passengers and myself, as well as the other surrounding vehicles. If I only did what the dials and gauges told me, I would probably harm others.

The bean counter approach to business represents a very mechanical way of operating. Let me give you an illustration. I have a friend here in Florida who is the state sales manager for a home health business (a lucrative business for a retirement state like Florida). The company was recently purchased and a new management team put into place run by bean counters. After studying sales figures, management found a salesman who wasn’t making his quota and, consequently, instructed my friend to terminate his employment. My friend knew the salesman in question and realized he was experiencing some personal problems. After considerable discussion with corporate management, he convinced them to let him (the Sales Manager) work with the salesman a while longer to see if he could help him. He pointed out to management, the alternative was to start the laborious and costly process of recruiting and teaching a replacement. Management acquiesced and granted the salesman a stay of execution. Over the next few weeks, the Sales Manager was able to work with the salesman, helped him overcome his personal problems and rebuilt his confidence. Since then, the salesman has gotten back on track and has been exceeding quota ever since.

Bean counters do not understand or appreciate the true business of a company. They make knee-jerk reactions based strictly on numbers, not on human intuition or social interaction. It is no small wonder the corporate world has become dehumanizing. I know of a medium sized semiconductor business in the Southeast who also experienced a similar phenomenon. The company was founded by a man with little formal education, but a lot of “street smarts.” He took a hands-on approach to the startup of the company which grew in leaps and bounds. As the company settled into maturity, the founder began to slow down and brought in a new management team to take over the reins. His new management team had some pretty slick business school credentials but, inevitably, they were nothing more than bean counters. Under their watch, corporate growth was arrested and the company’s stock diminished radically. Today, a company that was at one time a robust and thriving business with loyal customers and dedicated employees is a mere shadow of its old self.

Conducting business is more about our interpersonal relations with customers, vendors and employees, than it is about watching dials and gauges. As the famed W. Edwards Deming once said:

“Profit in business comes from repeat customers, customers that boast about your project or service, and that bring friends with them.”

Keep in mind, Deming understood the need for statistical analysis and watching the bottom-line, but he also realized they were nothing more than the dials and gauges of the business.

CONCLUSION

Under the bean counter approach we have lost the personal touch for conducting business. Companies have become cold and calculating, certainly not the types of businesses we want to work for or with. Always remember that bean counters believe conducting business is simply manipulating numbers, not in building products or servicing customers. Yet, for some unfathomable reason, we have put them on a pedestal and expect them to competently guide our companies, but the only thing I see them guiding is our foreign competitors who take over our market share.

To paraphrase William Shakespeare, “The first thing we do, let’s kill all the bean counters.”

“Business is about people, not just numbers.” – Bryce’s Law

Keep the Faith!

P.S. – Also, I have a NEW book, “Before You Vote: Know How Your Government Works”, What American youth should know about government, available in Printed, PDF and eBook form. DON’T FORGET GRADUATION DAY. This is the perfect gift!

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