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TheFrontPageCover
~ Featuring ~
No Durham Findings Before the Election
Thomas Gallatin
Twitter's Jack Dorsey says company botched
blocking NYP article on alleged emails on Hunter Biden's laptop
By Nick Givas
{ foxnews.com } ~ Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey addressed the controversy surrounding actions the company took on Wednesday to block the spread of a New York Post article critical of Hunter Biden, calling them "unacceptable."..."Our communication around our actions on the @nypost article was not great," he tweeted. "And blocking URL sharing via tweet or DM with zero context as to why we’re blocking: unacceptable." He was also asked by Dave Rubin on the same Twitter thread if the company shadow bans certain users in an attempt to stifle their online influence due to their political beliefs, and Dorsey only replied, "No." Twitter had issued a statement about the incident earlier in the day after Fox News reached out about the story. The tech giant claimed it took action against the article due to the company's "Hacked Materials Policy." Twitter is blocking the post from being shared on its platform. "In line with our Hacked Materials Policy, as well as our approach to blocking URLs, we are taking action to block any links to or images of the material in question on Twitter," a spokesperson said. Fox News attempted to send via direct message the article titled "Smoking-gun email reveals how Hunter Biden introduced Ukrainian businessman to VP dad" to another user multiple times but was continually met with the same error message. The article, which Fox News hasn't independently verified yet, also claimed that the outlet had been given emails showing Hunter had introduced his father scumbag drumbling lips liar-Joe to a top executive at the energy firm Burisma Holdings, less than a year before a top Ukranian prosecutor was forced out for looking into the matter. On Wednesday afternoon, NY Post business reporter Noah Manskar said the outlet's official Twitter account had been locked due to the Biden story being sourced from allegedly "hacked" information." The Post's primary Twitter account (@nypost) has also been locked because the Hunter Biden stories violate its rules against 'distribution of hacked material,' per email we received from Twitter," he wrote. News of Dorsey's comments come after Rep. Ken Buck, R-Colo., sent a letter to the Department of Justice asking that it look into the censorship tactics employed by both Twitter and Facebook -- which had also taken steps to limit the article's reach while intimating that the story needed fact-checking. He also suggested revoking the prosecutorial immunity enjoyed by big tech companies, after repeated complaints about their handling of political speech and their apparent disregard for the First Amendment. "I write to express my concerns regarding Twitter and Facebook’s recent actions to censor a prominent American news outlet," Buck began. "These actions violate the platform’s immunity under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act and threaten to chill free speech throughout our nation." He added, "As such, I urge the DOJ to open an investigation into Twitter and Facebook’s harmful actions to censor free speech and curtail Americans’ access to a free press. I also urge the DOJ to consider removing Section 230 immunity for social media platforms that engage in political content moderation.".
Is Mohammed Dahlan the next Palestinian president in waiting?
By NEVILLE TELLER
{ jpost.com } ~ On September 17, Hamas and Fatah, rivals for the leadership of the Palestinian people but united in their opposition to the Arab-Israeli normalization deals, agreed to hold the first general Palestinian elections since 2006...If their agreement does not go the way of numerous similar deals in the past and simply falls apart, polls will take place in March or April 2021. “We have agreed first to hold legislative elections,” said Jibril Rajub, a senior Fatah official, “then presidential elections of the Palestinian Authority, and finally elections to the Central Council of the Palestine Liberation Organization.” Two days later a statement was issued by a prominent Palestinian politician, now living in exile in the United Arab Emirates: “I am Mohammed Dahlan,” he announced. “I believe that Palestine is in urgent need of a renewal of legitimacy for its leaders and institutions, and this will not be achieved except through comprehensive, transparent, and national elections.” Perhaps perceiving this innocuous statement as an opening bid in the forthcoming presidential election, on September 21, PA security forces arrested seven Dahlan supporters in the West Bank. Mohammad Dahlan has lived in the UAE since being driven out of the West Bank in 2011 after a bitter row with PA President Mahmoud Abbas. He is an adviser to the crown prince, Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan. There has been widespread speculation, which Dahlan has not denied, that he played a key role in bringing the UAE-Israel normalization deal to fruition. Palestinian officials are quoted as saying they have no doubt about it. Dahlan’s statement was actually in response to a reported comment – later denied – by US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman to the effect that the US was considering replacing Abbas with Dahlan. Dahlan was quick to say that no outside power could simply impose a leader on the Palestinian people, and that legitimacy could flow only from open elections. Who is Mohammed Dahlan? Born in 1961 in the Khan Yunis refugee camp in the Gaza Strip, as a teenager he helped set up the Fatah Youth Movement. While in his 20s, he was arrested by the Israeli authorities on numerous occasions for political activism, but never for terrorist activities. He put his time in Israeli prisons to good use by learning Hebrew, which he speaks fluently. After the Oslo Accords in the early 1990s, Dahlan was chosen to head the Preventive Security Force in Gaza. Building up a force of 20,000 men, he became one of the most powerful Palestinian leaders. He had regular dealings with the CIA and Israeli intelligence. During this period Gaza was nicknamed “Dahlanistan,” reflecting the extent of his authority, an authority severely dented in 1997 when it emerged that he had been diverting taxes to his personal bank account. That incident appeared to have effected a sea change in Dahlan. In 2001, in a virtual challenge to Yasser Arafat, he began calling for reform in the Palestinian National Authority. A year later he resigned and, portraying himself as an outspoken critic of Arafat, repeatedly tried to campaign on a reform and anti-corruption ticket. THE 2006 Palestinian elections saw Hamas gain a majority in Gaza. Dahlan called their election victory a disaster, and in January 2007 held the biggest-ever rally of Fatah supporters in the Gaza Strip, where he denounced Hamas as “a bunch of murderers and thieves.” His instinct was vindicated six months later when Hamas staged a bloody coup in Gaza, seized power and expelled those Fatah officials it had not murdered. Years later it was revealed that Dahlan played a key role in an abortive US plot to remove Hamas from power. In October 2007 the Bush administration reportedly pressured PA president Abbas to appoint Dahlan as his deputy. Some Fatah officials asserted that the US and some European Union countries made it clear that they would like to see Dahlan succeed Abbas. Aware of this, Abbas perceived Dahlan as his rival for office, and in June 2011 took action. Charged with financial corruption, Dahlan was tried in absentia by the PA, found guilty and expelled from Fatah’s ruling body. In addition, Abbas accused Dahlan of murdering the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. Over the years rumors have persisted about Dahlan’s involvement in all manner of conspiracies. For example, his name became attached to the 2016 attempted coup in Turkey against the regime of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. In December 2019, Turkey offered a $1.7 million reward for tracking down Dahlan, and issued warrants charging him with perpetrating the coup attempt. As for the PA presidency, whenever the issue of a successor to Abbas comes up, Dahlan’s name appears, often embedded in a cloud of intrigue. Now, with the new UAE-Israel deal, the idea of a Dahlan bid for the Palestinian presidency resurfaces, stronger than ever. Dahlan has set himself at odds with the current Palestinian establishment by coming out in somewhat equivocal support for the deal. “The UAE,” he said, as if speaking for the administration as a whole, “will use its efforts to directly pressure the American administration and others to end the annexation plan completely and replace Trump’s settlement plan with decisions of international legitimacy and the Arab Peace Initiative.” More than 10 years ago Abbas announced that he would not run for president again, but would stay in office until new elections were held. These have been scheduled and postponed on many occasions since then, and he may well have forgotten his pledge by now. If he has not, then the PA presidential poll will be wide open. Should Dahlan succeed this time in establishing himself as Abbas’s successor, he may prove to be the new broom so long needed on the Palestinian political scene. Dahlan is no “conviction politician.” He is a wheeler-dealer rather in the Trump mold. He, more than any Palestinian politician, seems to have the qualities needed to sweep aside the outworn attitudes of the leadership that has shackled the Palestinian people for decades, and embrace a more realistic approach to reaching an accommodation with Israel and the brighter future that is surely attainable for the whole region..
IDF Special Forces carry out covert operation, destroy two Syrian outposts
By TOBIAS SIEGAL
{ jpost.com } ~ In a secret operation that took place last week and was made known to the public on Tuesday, IDF Special Forces crossed the border into the demilitarized zone between Israel and Syria and destroyed two outposts belonging to the Syrian army...The operation was carried out following Syria’s continued violation of the disengagement agreement between Israel and Syria from 1974, which determines that a designated buffer zone between the borders would only be occupied by a special UN force called the Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF). Recently, however, the Syrian military returned to the buffer zone in the Golan Heights and spread its forces across the border, leading the IDF to take action and launch the unusual operation. The operation included combat soldiers from the Nachal Brigade and commando soldiers from Yahalom – a special unit that specializes in combat engineering – crossing the border and destroying two Syrian outposts without being detected. “You’re facing the enemy, you’re about 500 meters away,” Cap. Michael Zilberg from the Nachal Brigade told news outlet N12. “A mission like this requires you to be very focused.” A team commander from Yahalom described the operation and said it included “making our way in a silent and covert manner to the targets, placing a system of explosives on both outposts and blowing them up simultaneously.” Lt.-Col. Tal Goritzki from the brigade explained the broader purpose of the mission, other than “punishing” the Syrians for violating the agreement. “We know about the collaboration between the Syrian military and Hezbollah,” Goritzki told N12. “Every Syrian military establishment has the potential to become a dual military establishment. We won’t allow southern Syria to become southern Lebanon.” The IDF has been focused in recent years on preventing Hezbollah and Iran from establishing terrorist positions on the Syrian side of the Golan Heights, including launching attacks from the air against their positions. https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/idf-special-forces-carry-out-covert-operation-destroy-two-syrian-outposts-645624?utm_source=ActiveCampaign&utm_medium=email&utm_content=IDF+Special+Forces+carry+out+covert+operation%2C+destroy+two+Syrian+outposts&utm_campaign=Oct+14+day.
New Maps Show How Climate Change is Making California’s “Fire Weather” Worse
by Al Shaw & Elizabeth Weil
{ projects.propublica.org } ~ As California continues battling its worst wildfire season on record, new research shows that fall fire weather days — days with high temperatures, low humidity and high wind speeds — will double in parts of the state by the end of the century and will increase 40% by 2065...On these days all it takes is a spark from a downed power line, or a hammer hitting a metal stake. A small fire can grow into an inferno at startling speed. The biggest increases in the number of these fall fire weather days will come along the coast and in the Sierra Nevada. That means more fires in places like Yosemite National Park, which had to close last month due to smoke, and in the Los Angeles-Orange County megalopolis. By 2050, if emissions continue unabated, L.A. could see up to 12 days of severe fire weather each fall, and Yosemite as many as 14. California's fire season typically runs from July to December, but September through November are especially deadly — and this September was the hottest and the most fiery on record. The Creek Fire, Bobcat Fire, El Dorado Fire, Glass Fire, Slater/Devil Fire, Zogg Fire … the burning never stopped, the smoke never cleared. They won’t for some time.The fall is when the state’s trees, shrubs and grasses are already dry from summer drought and heat, and the hot Santa Ana and Diablo winds start blowing west over the mountains toward the ocean. These fall conditions are what caused two deadly fires in 2018: the Camp Fire, which destroyed the town of Paradise, in the Sierra foothills, and the Woolsey fire, which burned in the Santa Monica Mountains north of Los Angeles. Fall days with fire weather conditions are steadily growing more frequent with climate change, according to the research. For example, in the 1970s, the Sierra foothills around Paradise experienced about eight days with prime fire weather conditions each fall. Paradise now sees about 10 fire weather days each fall — a 25% increase. According to the research, by midcentury, parts of Northern California could see as many as 14 fire weather days each fall in the high emissions scenario, a worst case for climate change in which we keep emitting greenhouse gases at high levels... https://projects.propublica.org/california-fire-weather/.
Democrats Threaten to Destroy Supreme Court
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Amy Coney Barrett’s most powerful moments at SCOTUS hearing, day 2
By M. Dowling
{ independentsentinel.com } ~ Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) asked Supreme Court nominee Judge Amy Coney Barrett what was on her notepad in front of her. The Judge has answered detailed questions from memory without once looking at notes...When he asked, she held it up and it was blank. Responding to what was on it, she said, “The letterhead that says United States Senate.” That was very impressive and the senator made note of it. Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) asked how it feels to be nominated to the Supreme Court of the United States. Her answer was outstanding: When she was asked about the George Floyd case by Senator scumbag-Dick Durbin (D-IL), her answer was even more powerful, caring, sensitive, and personal”: Her answer on Roe vs. Wade to Senator Dianne Fein-stein (D-CA) is also worth noting: Early during Tuesday’s hearing, Barrett was asked about her views on Roe v. Wade. Barrett argued that expressing a view on a precedent would signal to litigants “that I might tilt one way or another in a pending case.” “Do you agree with Justice Scalia’s view that Roe v. Wade was wrongly decided?” Sen. Dianne Fein-stein (D-CA) pressed. “Senator, I do want to be forthright and answer every question so far as I can. I think on that question, I’m going to invoke Justice Elena Kagan’s description, which I think is perfectly put. When she was in her confirmation hearing, she said that she was not going to grade precedent, give a thumbs-up or a thumbs-down. … It would be wrong and a violation of the cannons for me to do that as a sitting judge.” “If I express a view on a precedent one way or another, whether I say I love it or I hate it, it signals to litigants that I might tilt one way or another in a pending case,” said Barrett. Fein-stein pressed her twice more, framing the question as of most importance for “half the population,” noting that it was “distressing not to get a straight answer.” Barrett gave the same answers and added, “…I can’t express views on cases, or pre-commit to approaching a case any particular way.” The judge was also asked during the hearing about how she felt about being referred to as a “female Scalia.” “I would say that Justice Scalia was a mentor. As I said when I accepted the president’s nomination that his philosophy is mine, too,” she responded, according to ABC News. “He was a very eloquent defender of originalism and it was also true of textualism, which is the way that I approach statutes and their interpretation and similarly to what I just said about originalism.” “If I’m confirmed, you would not be getting Justice Scalia, you would be getting Justice Barrett.” https://www.independentsentinel.com/amy-coney-barretts-most-powerful-moments-at-scotus-hearing-day-2/.
Supreme Court Rules On 29 Senators Suing Trump – Their Case Against Donald Has Been Denied
By Adam CasalinoNo Durham Findings Before the Election
Thomas Gallatin On Friday, President Donald Trump and Republicans received the bad but sadly predictable news that U.S. Attorney John Durham would not release the findings of his criminal investigation into the origins of the Russia-collusion hoax until after the election in November. So much for timing.
Trump learned of Attorney General William Barr’s reported announcement while live on Rush Limbaugh’s radio program. He frustratedly responded, “If that’s the case, I’m very disappointed. I think it’s a terrible thing. And I’ll say it to [Barr’s] face. It’s a disgrace. It’s an embarrassment.” Trump then hit the proverbial nail on the head, arguing, “See, this is what I mean with the Republicans. They don’t play the tough game.”
Like so many Americans, Trump is fed up with what he sees as the intentional dragging out of an investigation into the deep-state actions of Barack scumbag/liar-nObama’s administration. Team scumbag/liar-nObama first sought to prevent Trump’s election and subsequently engaged in an attempted coup against a legitimate and duly elected president.
Trump’s criticism of Barr and Durham is understandable, as Trump and the American people deserve to see what evidence Durham has collected before the election. This is not a call to politicize the Justice Department, as Democrats and much of the mainstream media have disingenuously claimed. Rather it’s a call for the truth to be revealed about the biggest political scandal in U.S. history. It’s a call for transparency so voters can be fully informed.
Beyond that, there’s the legitimate concern that if Trump fails in his reelection bid, Joe Biden and company will terminate the Durham investigation and either suppress or spin its most damning findings. At the same time, scumbag drumbling lips liar-Biden and Democrats will work to affirm scumbag/liar-Hillary Clinton’s dubious and false narrative — which she trotted out yet again last week — that Trump’s 2016 victory “was not on the level.” Of course, scumbag/liar-Hillary is fighting to prevent the full exposure of just how corruptly she acted in creating the entire Russia collusion hoax — all in a devious effort to distract attention from her own blatant and illegal email scandal. Yet she has the gall to complain, “We still don’t know what really happened.” Without Durham’s full report, that’s more true than she intended.
~The Patriot Post
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