ACTION

When Baltimore’s FOX45 affiliate of Sinclair Broadcast Group opened its “Project Baltimore” investigation of a suspected grade-inflation scheme in Baltimore City Schools, a charade to create the appearance that the school system’s performance is much better than it actually is, the city refused to release relevant records. (I know, you’re shocked.) FOX45 filed suit, and a Baltimore judge ruled that school bureaucrats “knowingly and willfully” violated the law when refusing to release those records.

Apparently, school-system officials did not want to release information that might incriminate those involved with fraudulently advancing students through the system who don’t merit advancement.

Of course, Baltimore bureaucrats have more pressing issues than educating children, like providing cover for their corrupt mayor, or taking cover to dodge bullets and robbers, or defending the city’s LGBTQ agenda.

Responding to the judge’s ruling, FOX45’s counsel, Thomas and Libowitz attorney Scott Marder, declared, “It’s a victory for teachers, parents, taxpayers, but most of all, students. I hope that this is the first step towards some accountability.” Marder added, “The judge heard all of the evidence and found … that they intentionally violated the law. … Decisions like this are critical to accountability in government. Oftentimes, government will think that it’s above the law, and in this case, the judge said in fact that the school system thought they were above the law.”

Sinclair executive Scott Livingston added, “These alleged deceptions used to create an image of improved performance are a disservice to the children of Baltimore, who deserve an education system that provides them with the tools they need to succeed in life.”

Baltimore city-school spokesperson Anne Fullerton rebutted, “We believe the Court’s ruling … will have a chilling effect on investigations. … We are currently reviewing the ruling to determine possible next steps.”

“Next steps” is legal speak for how to further obfuscate evidence of corruption and fraud. But indeed, this ruling will have a “chilling effect” — there are school administrators in other corrupt urban centers who are feeling that chill. Perhaps Baltimore will now become a model for something good — how Sinclair’s investigative journalists can expel corruption from other government-school bureaucracies across the country. I nominate Detroit as their next target.  ~The Patriot Post

https://patriotpost.us/articles/62330?mailing_id=4195&utm_medium=email&utm_source=pp.email.4195&utm_campaign=snapshot&utm_content=body  

Assange has spent the last seven years hiding away in Ecuador’s embassy, but evidently, President Lenin Moreno had had enough. “The discourteous and aggressive behavior of Mr. Julian Assange, the hostile and threatening declarations of its allied organization, against Ecuador, and especially the transgression of international treaties, have led the situation to a point where the asylum of Mr. Assange is unsustainable and no longer viable,” Moreno said.

In 2010, info anarchist Assange conspired with U.S. Army PFC Bradley Manning (now “Chelsea” after his taxpayer-funded gender reassignment while he was in prison for treason) to dump 750,000 purloined classified U.S. military documents on the Web. It was the most significant intelligence compromise in United States history, but Barack Obama, as a gift to his constituents  suffering from chronic gender dysphoria, actually  commuted Manning’s sentence just before departing office in January of 2017 — one of the most inexcusable actions of scumbag/liar-nObama’s tenure. Astoundingly, emboldened by that commutation, in 2018 Manning mounted a run for Senate in Maryland.

Assange’s WikiLeaks was also involved in the 2016 release of hacked DNC emails, which was timed “to heighten their impact on the 2016 presidential election” and was allegedly coordinated with Russian military intelligence. That was a topic of interest in the Mueller investigation, now concluded and on life support. That connection to 2016 means Assange is one or all of three things: a bright, shiny distraction from Bob Barr’s spy statement, the opening salvo of the Great Russia Collusion Correction, or a peace offering from the Brits. One thing’s for sure: Donald Trump will not be commuting any future conviction and sentence Assange receives.  ~The Patriot Post

https://patriotpost.us/articles/62338?mailing_id=4195&utm_medium=email&utm_source=pp.email.4195&utm_campaign=snapshot&utm_content=body  

Barr then noted, “I think spying on a political campaign is a big deal. It’s a big deal.”

It is a big deal, which is why Democrats immediately attacked Barr’s credibility. House Speaker Nancy Pulosi led the way, grousing, “I don’t trust Barr. I trust dirty cop-Mueller.” House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer charged, “[Barr] is acting as an employee of the president. I believe the attorney general believes he needs to protect the president of the United States.”

House Intelligence Committee Chairman scumbag-Adam Schiff — the man currently in hot water for notoriously claiming to have evidence that Trump was guilty of Russian collusion while producing none — offered this downright laughable response: Barr “should not casually suggest that those under his purview engaged in spying on a political campaign,” scumbag-Schiff lectured. “This type of partisan talking point may please Donald Trump, who rails against a deep-state coup, but it also strikes another destructive blow to our democratic institutions.” Please.

The fact of the matter is that the FBI admitted to spying, as has been documented via the FISA warrants for surveillance of members of Trump’s campaign — specifically Carter Page. The only reason the Democrats are so up in arms over Barr’s use of the term “spying” is that in common parlance it evokes more sinister imagery. However, what Democrats are actually more worried about is that Barr is doing what any good AG would do — investigating the investigators to determine whether they were justified in their actions. He’s begun to turn the tables on the Democrats’ longrunning anti-Trump narrative, which could prove that the Washington establishment engaged in a coordinated effort to oppose Trump from the get-go.  ~The Patriot Post

https://patriotpost.us/articles/62340?mailing_id=4195&utm_medium=email&utm_source=pp.email.4195&utm_campaign=snapshot&utm_content=body  

African Front

Harold Hutchison:  When we think of confronting Russia and China, the usual places we think of those confrontations taking place are either Europe or the Pacific. But the real conflicts are happening someplace few might expect: Africa.

This might sound surprising to many who are familiar with the usual stories of starving children. It is true — many countries, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa, probably fit a certain scatological descriptive term allegedly uttered by President Donald Trump last year. But there is more to Africa than meets the eye.

One big issue: There are a lot of natural resources on and under that continent. Among them are gold (important for the obvious reasons), diamonds (also obviously important), uranium (for nuclear power and nuclear weapons), coal (for energy), and iron (which can be turned into steel for ships, tanks, and other items). And according to MiningAfrica.net, much of Africa’s natural resources are untapped.

China and Russia are greedily eyeing those natural resources. The ChiComs need the resources to propel an economy with more than one billion people. Russia, with its own wealth of natural resources, is going after it for pocketbook reasons: As we explained when discussing the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, American natural-gas exports shrink the Russian portion of the pie.

The more of the market share of natural gas, oil, or minerals, Russia controls, the easier it is for Vladimir Putin to not only rake in the money, but to also use it as leverage. China had the ability to do the same with rare-earth minerals, until Japan found a motherlode around Marcus Island.

China has been very active in Africa, pushing the so-called “One Belt, One Road” strategy. According to The Daily Signal, China has used debt racked up by countries like Zambia and Djibouti to extract concessions, including the expansion of military bases. Russia has turned to exporting arms in exchange for votes in the United Nations.

National Security Advisor John Bolton, who revealed the new strategy in an event at The Heritage Foundation, pointed out that the Russian and Chinese actions “stunt economic growth in Africa; threaten the financial independence of African nations; inhibit opportunities for U.S. investment; interfere with U.S. military operations; and pose a significant threat to U.S. national security interests.”

The good news is that President Trump has unveiled a new strategy to counter these moves and help get sub-Saharan Africa out from under the thumb of dictators in Moscow and Beijing. According to The Daily Signal, the three-pronged strategy includes enhancing commercial ties, countering radical Islamic terrorism, and taking steps to make the foreign aid we provide effective and efficient.

The fact of the matter is that America has largely ignored sub-Saharan Africa — not out of malice but due to the fact that between the Cold War and the War on Terror, there were bigger fish to fry. But now, Africa is becoming a key geopolitical battleground, and it’s time for America to get on the field.  ~The Patriot Post

https://patriotpost.us/articles/62285?mailing_id=4191&utm_medium=email&utm_source=pp.email.4191&utm_campaign=snapshot&utm_content=body  

In a seemingly coordinated effort to advance this narrative, The New York Times last week ran an article  claiming that “Attacks by White Extremists Are Growing.” The story highlighted the attack in Christchurch, New Zealand, where a self-proclaimed white supremacist murdered 50 people in an act of terror aimed at Muslims. The article then claimed that the Christchurch murderer “drew inspiration” from “an informal global network of white extremists whose violent attacks are occurring with greater frequency in the West.”

Once again we have a case of the narrative leading the story. It’s clear that the narrative the Times is pushing is that violence perpetrated by white supremacists is a serious and growing threat that is worse than people may believe. But do the facts support such a conclusion? Well, as is often the case with Leftmedia outlets like the Times, not so much.

The Times excluded several important contextualizing details, which immediately calls into question the reliability of the entire narrative. For example, no numbers were provided so as to establish the total number of extremist-related violent incidents globally. In 2017 alone, nearly 20,000 people were murdered by groups associated with radical Islamic extremists — a number not provided by the Times.

Meanwhile, the Times offers a nine-year timeline that notes 15 incidents of “white extremist” violence resulting in 194 people killed that were purportedly committed by individuals motivated by white racism. However, after a closer look into these attacks, one quickly finds that the motive of “white extremism” is not entirely clear … or even there at all.

As Seth Barron, writing for City Journal, observes, “Some of the most prominent killings … resist categorization as acts of white racial terror. Ali Sonboly, the son of Iranian Shi'ite Muslim immigrants and visibly a racial minority, carried out the 2016 Munich mall shooting. The 2016 Umpqua Community College shooting was carried out by a self-identified ‘mixed-race’ man, as was the 2014 Isla Vista massacre, whose perpetrator believed that being half-Chinese made him unattractive to women. The 2018 Toronto van massacre was perpetrated by a white man who declared that he was part of an ‘Incel Rebellion’ against the ‘Chads and Stacys’ of the world — in other words, he was angry that he could not get a girlfriend and was committed to overthrowing the ‘beautiful people.’ The killer mowed down pedestrians in Toronto’s business district at random. The Times’ inclusion of these four incidents calls into question the value of its diagnosis of ‘white extremist killers.’”

Finally, as The Wall Street Journal reports, “Since 1990, far-right extremists have killed 477 people in 214 attacks in the U.S., according to the crime data. A majority of the assaults targeted minorities, with 241 people dying in 170 attacks. (In the same period, the Global Terrorism Database records 31 far-right attacks with one or more deaths.)” In other words, violent attacks committed by “white extremists” are not on the rise — rather, the frequency of these violent hate crimes has remained relatively steady for the past 50 years. In any case, the crimes are dwarfed by attacks perpetrated by Islamofascists.  ~The Patriot Post

https://patriotpost.us/articles/62284?mailing_id=4191&utm_medium=email&utm_source=pp.email.4191&utm_campaign=snapshot&utm_content=body  

Knowing what to expect? It was virtually a suicide mission given that the B-25s couldn’t land on aircraft carriers.

Immediately following the raid, Cole was able to parachute to safety where he was helped by Chinese partisans; his seven fellow crew members were not so fortunate. All seven died — three during the mission, three were captured by the Japanese and executed, and one died in captivity. However, the bold action and sacrifice made by these American heroes in punching back at Imperial Japan proved monumental in lifting the country’s spirits.

In 2015, all the Raiders were honored with the Congressional Gold Medal for their “outstanding heroism, valor, skill and service to the United States.” That same year, Cole published a book entitled Dick Cole’s War: Doolittle Raider, Hump Pilot, Air Commando (American Military Experience). In it he detailed his military service.

As J. Christian Adams aptly put it, “Richard Cole deserves a salute from all Americans today. An American hero in the truest sense of the word has passed.”  ~The Patriot Post

https://patriotpost.us/articles/62315?mailing_id=4195&utm_medium=email&utm_source=pp.email.4195&utm_campaign=snapshot&utm_content=body  

The IRGC was established after the 1979 Iranian Revolution as a paramilitary group charged with the security of the ruling class of mullahs. It answers only to the country’s supreme leader, and neither the government nor the military has any jurisdiction over its actions.

The IRGC’s unique position in the Iranian power structure gives it influence over a significant portion of the country’s economy, especially in banking. These ties to domestic and foreign businesses have allowed the IRGC to provide materiel support to terrorists throughout the Middle East and beyond. It also controls the nation’s ballistic-missile program.

The new terrorist designation opens up IRGC front companies to sanctions, as well as bans any companies or governments that do business with the U.S. from doing business with the IRGC. “This action will significantly expand the scope and scale of our maximum pressure on the Iranian regime,” President Donald Trump said in a statement. “It makes crystal clear the risks of conducting business with, or providing support to, the IRGC. If you are doing business with the IRGC, you will be bankrolling terrorism.”

The U.S. government has known for years that the IRGC takes part in terrorist activities, so this move is a long time coming. Back in 2015, then-Secretary of State Ash Carter testified that the Iranians, largely through the IRGC’s Quds Force, were responsible for the deaths of at least 500 American service personnel in Iraq. That number was recently revised to 608.

Trump’s predecessor, Barack scumbag/liar-nObama, chose to actually reward Iran’s terrorist behavior by signing on to a horribly weak nuclear deal and paying the Iranians $1.7 billion in cold, hard cash that he insisted at the time was not a ransom. Spoiler alert: it was.

At the time, scumbag/liar-nObama, who fancied himself an astute statesman, wanted to cement his legacy by creating better relations with Iran. The Iranians, seeing him for a sucker, made a complete fool out of Obama by getting the U.S. to agree to a payout to cover a $400 million business deal gone bad from around the time of the 1979 revolution, padded with 37 years of interest totaling $1.3 billion.

While scumbag/liar-nObama tried to insist that this was not a ransom payment, it was coincidentally timed with the release of foreign prisoners held in Iranian jails. The money was delivered on pallets in several different currencies via a military transport in the middle of the night. The deal had all the appearances of something you might see in a South American narco state, not a legitimate deal between two nations. But there was nothing legitimate about this deal, and nothing substantive was gained from it, either.

Iran did not alter its behavior. Shocking, we know. In fact, as is virtually always the case when going soft on totalitarian regimes, the Islamic regime doubled down. And why not? scumbag/liar-nObama basically rewarded them for taking U.S. sailors hostage, for pursuing nuclear weapons despite the so-called nuclear deal, and for supporting terrorism. In fact, scumbag/liar-nObama ended up supporting terrorism, too, because that’s almost certainly where much of the $1.7 billion ransom he paid out ended up.

At the time, we reported that scumbag/liar-Obama’s feckless foreign policy would only embolden our enemies. Thankfully, Donald Trump has worked to reverse that trend, first by pulling out of the sham nuclear deal, and now by ratcheting up sanctions against businesses tied to the IRGC.

The IRGC has threatened to retaliate against the U.S. for being labeled a terrorist entity, which essentially proves that the IRGC is indeed a terrorist entity. This should not stop America from acting in its own best interest. The IRGC has been actively plotting against the United States for the better part of four decades. At least now we’re calling it as we see it and doing something about it.  ~The Patriot Post

https://patriotpost.us/articles/62262?mailing_id=4188&utm_medium=email&utm_source=pp.email.4188&utm_campaign=snapshot&utm_content=body