Thursday PM ~ thefrontpagecover

TheFrontPageCover
~ Featuring ~ 
  Lack of Accountability for Abuses 
Sowed Present Discord
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Harold Hutchison 
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State Department IG Called ‘Urgent’ Meeting 
To Share Months-Old News Stories
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by AMBER ATHEY
{ dailycaller.com } ~ The State Department’s Inspector General shared a packet of months-old news stories and other Ukraine-related documents during an “urgent” briefing with Congressional staffers on Wednesday... sources told the Daily Caller. Sources familiar with the meeting said the IG handed over a packet containing, among other old materials, news articles written this past spring by The Hill’s John Solomon about Democratic ties to Ukraine. The packet was allegedly given to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in May and was  intended to smear the former US ambassador to Ukraine. An administration official noted to the Caller that the packet was properly dealt with at the time, and questioned the “urgent” nature of the briefing. The IG announced the “urgent” meeting after Secretary of State Mike Pompeo accused House Democrats of trying to “bully” the State Department by requesting impeachment-related interviews with various officials. “The matter is from four months ago. They’ve been sitting on it for four months. The urgent-ness of this seems a little contrived,” the official told the Caller. “This was handled the exact way it should have been. The information was turned over by a senior official to a career lawyer who then gave it to the IG. That was four months ago.” The briefing was a huge blow to Democrats, who were expecting bombshell information regarding the Trump administration’s contact with Ukraine and investigations into former Vice President loose lips liar-Joe Biden. In fact, several news outlets reported earlier in the day that the briefing would be about State Department leadership retaliating against career employees who wanted to cooperate with the Democrats’ investigation into Trump.Maryland Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin, who was in the briefing with the IG, said the meeting “raises more questions than it answers,” but confirmed that it had nothing to do with President Donald Trump...
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The Key Point About Whistleblowers’ 
First-Hand Knowledge Isn’t The Law, 
It’s The Shady Regulation Changes 
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By Margot Cleveland
{ thefederalist.com } ~ On Monday, the Office of the Inspector General of the Intelligence Community issued a four-page news release seeking to smother concerns of its handling of the recently revealed whistleblower complaint filed against President Trump... Following The Federalist’s reporting last week on the changes to the “urgent concern” whistleblowing form, IG Michael Atkinson’s office has been under fire. Sean Davis—who broke the story on Friday—reported yesterday that the IG has now acknowledged it modified the form in response to the Trump “whistleblower,” stating: “In the process of reviewing and clarifying those forms, and in response to recent press inquiries regarding the instant whistleblower complaint, the ICIG understood that certain language in those forms and, more specifically, the informational materials accompanying the forms, could be read – incorrectly – as suggesting that whistleblowers must possess first-hand information in order to file an urgent concern complaint with the congressional intelligence committees.” While ICIG’s admission vindicates a huge story that the mainstream media quickly downgraded to a debunked conspiracy theory, the news release left unanswered the larger question: Had the Inspector General of the Intelligence Community’s office adopted a policy that whistleblower complaints must be supported by first-hand knowledge? The evidence suggests as much and the news release, rather than providing clarity, obfuscated the question. “Although the form requests information about whether the Complainant possesses first-hand knowledge about the matter about which he or she is lodging the complaint, there is no such requirement set forth in the statute,” the news release says. But, in fact, the form did more than request information about whether the individual possessed first-hand knowledge: The form emphatically stated “FIRST-HAND INFORMATION REQUIRED.” The ICIG’s office did, however, accurately note that the Intelligence Community Whistle Protection Act (ICWPA) does not require “first-hand knowledge.” And the ICIG’s office is correct that it “cannot add conditions to the filing of an urgent concern that do not exist in law.” But why then formerly include the directive “first-hand information required?” Here Atkinson, the current inspector general, rests blame on his predecessor, noting that the form that used that language has been “in place since May 24, 2018,” and that it “went into effect before Inspector General Atkinson entered on duty as the Inspector General of the Intelligence Community on May 29, 2018.”...
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liar-Pelosi's Plan to Slash
Drug Prices Will Backfire
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By Michael R. Strain
{ bloomberg.com } ~ House Speaker liar-Nancy Pelosi introduced legislation last month to lower the price of prescription drugs. That’s a worthy and achievable goal. Unfortunately... she gave a misleading explanation of how the law would work, obscuring its probable counterproductive effects. Instead of pushing down prices by forcing drug companies to compete more vigorously, it would put them in the hands of government bureaucrats in a way that’s likely to restrict innovation and reduce access to many important medications. liar-Pelosi claims that her bill would allow drug prices to be “negotiated by Medicare.” Most accounts accepted this explanation, as for example the New York Times did in its Sept. 19 headline, “liar-Pelosi’s drug plan would let U.S. negotiate prices of 250 medications.” A more accurate headline would have read, “liar-Pelosi’s drug plan would give the U.S. government the power to set the prices of 250 medications.” Government price-setting, not negotiating, is called for by the bill. Here’s how it would work. Each year, the Department of Health and Human Services would identify up to 250 brand-name drugs that do not have a generic or biosimilar competitor. Insulin, which has seen large price increases in recent years and has been the subject of much attention, would also be included on the list. HHS would be required to “negotiate” prices for at least 25 drugs per year. Drugs would be selected based on their costs — taking into account both price and sales volume — to Medicare and the broader U.S. health-care system. The maximum price a drug manufacturer could receive would be no higher than 1.2 times the average of the prices charged in six countries: Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Japan and the U.K. The goal would be to push prices below the maximum, according to an outline of the proposal...
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Navy Fires New Littoral Combat Ship 
Missile in Pacific SINKEX
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By Sam LaGrone
{ news.usni.org } ~ The Navy has tested its latest anti-ship missile in a sinking exercise off of Guam, the service announced on Tuesday... Littoral Combat Ship USS Gabrielle Giffords (LCS-10) fired a Naval Strike Missile at the ex-USS Ford (FFG-54) as part of a joint SINKEX with the Republic of Singapore Navy about 170 nautical miles off of the U.S. territory on Monday. Exercise Pacific Griffin was the first SINKEX shot for the Navy following a $14.8 million 2018 contract award to the Raytheon-Kongsberg team for the first round of missiles for both classes of LCS. The addition of an over the horizon anti-surface missile for LCS is a major lethality boost for both versions of the ships that had been optimized for smaller surface threats – like small fast attack craft, officials have told USNI News. “That’s a game-changer for LCS: they still have their mission, they still have their focused mission and all the things that they’re going to do in the surface warfare world and in anti-submarine warfare and mine countermeasures,” Rear Adm. Casey Moton, the program executive officer for unmanned and small combatants, told USNI News earlier this year. “Now, every LCS that’s out there can’t be ignored.” Commander of Naval Surface Forces Vice Adm. Richard Brown told USNI News that the missile aboard the LCS would complicate the way adversaries will have to handle the U.S. Navy. “They really just had to figure out where the aircraft carrier was, now in conjunction with everything we’re doing, not just in LCS but in the cruisers and destroyers, any potential adversary has to worry about where all the ships are because of the reach of the weapons systems we’re putting on them,” he told USNI News. The NSM has been in service with the Royal Norwegian Navy since 2012. The subsonic missile has a range of about 100 miles and costs a little less than a Raytheon Tomahawk Block IV cruise missile about $868,000 in 2018 dollars...
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"Anti-Normalization" With Israel: The True Goal
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by Bassam Tawil
{ gatestoneinstitute.org } ~ Arabs who dare to greet Jews in public on the Jewish New Year are being denounced by their fellow Arabs as traitors... Arabs who dare to engage in sports activities with Jews are also being condemned by their fellow Arabs as traitors. In the past week, many Arabs have taken to social media to express outrage over a Jewish New Year greeting by Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation of the United Arab Emirates (UAE). On September 29, the minister posted on his Twitter account "Shana Tova" "Good Year" in Hebrew. His greeting to Jews celebrating the Jewish New Year has triggered a wave of condemnations from many Arabs, including Palestinians, who accused the minister of promoting normalization with Israel. The vicious ad hominem attacks on the UAE foreign minister included prayers that God allow him to burn in hell and several posters comparing him to a monkey. Because of the greeting, the minister is also being denounced as a "Zionist," "war criminal," "dog," "traitor" and "pig." Some Arabs  expressed hope that the UAE will vanish "just like Israel will cease to exist." Others seized the opportunity to remind the "shameless" minister of the Qur'an verse Al-Ma'idah, 51 that says: "O you who believe, do not take the Jews and the Christians as allies. They are allies of one to another when against you, and whoso from amongst you takes them for allies, is indeed one of them." The attacks on the UAE foreign minister came as many Arab social media users strongly condemned Qatar for allowing Israeli athletes to participate in the 2019 World Athletics Championship, held at the Khalifa International Stadium in Doha from September 27- October 6... This shows the world the Arabs do not want peace.
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Chris Matthews: We Gotta Impeach Pence Too!
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By Scott Whitlock  
{ newsbusters.org } ~ For Chris Matthews, impeaching and removing Donald Trump was now a given. The Hardball host on Wednesday moved on to impeaching and removing Mike Pence... Matthews repeatedly pressed his new obsession with Democratic senators and liberal journalists. Talking to Chris Coons, he demanded, “The Vice President now, according to reporting as of tonight, seems to be engaged in the same thing Trump was engaged in, which is basically shaking down a foreign leader to get dirt on a political candidate, the candidate you're supporting, loose lips liar-Joe Biden. Shouldn't he be the subject of an impeachment inquiry as well at this point?” A confused Coons responded, “I think it’s important we focus on the facts.” Matthews huffed, “I’m talking the facts.” Speaking with certitude as to exactly what’s going on, Matthews declared Pence guilty: “I realize Trump has got William Barr, the Attorney General in cahoots with him. He’s got Secretary of State, Pompeo, in cahoots with him. Now, he’s got the Vice President dragged into this cabal.” As though he was writing political fan fiction, the MSNBC host speculated to Senator and 2020 Democrat lowlife-Kamala Harris on the removal of Pence: You know, if possible, if it comes to a Senate trial, and it may well by the end of this year where you'll be a juror in that trial for removal of the President from office after he's impeached, if that develops as the history of this year, you're going to a Vice President of the United States who would take the presidency after having been involved personally in the cabal that we'd be impeaching the President for. How does that make sense historically? If Pence was part of this how could he survive as president when Trump goes? Talking to liberal journalist David Corn, he bought up the subject of impeaching Pence yet again: What about the conundrum here? If this President is impeached, which I think is pretty likely right now and if he's removed from office, which there's less chance of that perhaps, but if he is removed from office in favor of Mike Pence, Mike Pence is involved in the same cabal which is using U.S. foreign policies to get dirt on rivals. Not mentioned in all of this is that if Trump and Pence are impeached and removed, liar-Nancy Pelosi becomes president. That couldn’t have anything to do with Matthews’s fixation, could it? How about Mathews retiring from the airway.
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Lack of Accountability for Abuses Sowed Present Discord
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Harold Hutchison:  The country seems ready to tear itself apart as the Democrat-led House of Representatives prepares to impeach President Donald Trump (and let’s be honest, they will have an impeachment vote that will lead to at least some charges). Patriots need to engage in some self-reflection. The upcoming fight will be very bitter, and we will never be able to affect what healing (if any) can be done unless we know how we got here.

What got us here was a lack of accountability on multiple fronts. Americans, by a slim margin, elected Trump to address problems that were not being addressed, and which they believed the political establishment had no intention of addressing. For many Patriots, there was also a frustration with a clear double standard.

Much of this came into focus with the scumbag/liar-nObama administration. That featured Operation Fast and Furious, in which the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives literally allowed a large number of modern multi-purpose semiautomatic firearms to fall into drug cartel hands. That exploded into the public’s consciousness with the murder of CBP agent Brian Terry. No one — and by that we at The Patriot Post do not refer to Faceless Men — was ever held accountable.

Then came the big one — the IRS targeted Tea Party groups. That took place at high gear from the Citizens United ruling to when liar-Lois Lerner outright admitted it in 2013. liar-Lerner, it was later discovered, quarterbacked the abuses committed against the Tea Party groups. After initial feigned outrage by some on the Left, including Barack scumbag/liar-nObama, nothing happened. liar-Lerner has retired with a six-figure pension.

As that went on, conservative activists in Wisconsin who had successfully supported Scott Walker in budget battles and recall elections were targeted by left-wing prosecutors. Eventually, the Wisconsin Supreme Court stepped in, ruling the “John Doe” investigations illegal. Our Arnold Ahlert did a masterful job covering those abuses, but the prosecutors who ran them never faced consequences.

Then, in 2016, there was Spygate. The intelligence community’s capabilities were turned on the presidential campaign of the party out of power. The initial reasons for the probe were flimsy. The investigators’ texts revealed flagrant bias. Robert Mueller found nothing, but aside from a couple of firings that are being contested, no real consequences have been imposed.

In 2018, there was New York Democrat Gov. scumbag-Andrew Cuomo’s assault on the NRA. His actions — that nobody disputes are taking place — make the unfounded allegations Stacey Abrams has peddled against Georgia Governor Brian Kemp look like tiddlywinks. scumbag-Cuomo has been open about his desire behind the abuses: To silence dissent from his anti-Second Amendment agenda. And his efforts arguably swung a number of House seats, two Senate races, and a governor’s race. Consequences for his blatant abuse of political opponents? None.

Those are just the abuses of power. Just about every Republican presidential nominee or prominent legislative leader has also been smeared one way or another. Remember how rino-Mitt Romney was labeled a tax cheat who would bring back slavery and abuse dogs? Or the way John Lewis defamed rino-John McCain in 2008? How many times were George W. Bush, Bob Dole, George H.W. Bush, and Ronald Reagan labeled “racists”? Remember when rino-Paul Ryan was portrayed pushing an old woman in a wheelchair off a cliff? Or what Newt Gingrich was called when he led the 1994 Republican takeover of the House of Representatives? Heck, Republicans can’t even fix a botched school-lunch program without being smeared.

There has been no accountability for these leftist smears, either. Clearly, leftists are the perpetrators, but a big chunk of the blame falls on leadership of both the conservative movement and the Republican Party. Restraint in the name of civility became unilateral disarmament and a projection of weakness. Donald Trump, for all his character flaws, at least fights back against the smears. He punches back — harder than any of those past Republicans who were defamed. This past weakness is fundamentally why we are at the place we are at today.

If Republicans had committed even a fraction of the alleged abuses — say against Planned Parenthood or any of Michael Bloomberg’s anti-Second Amendment groups — we’d never hear the end of it. And we get the usual scolding from when Trump fights fire with fire. But the harsh truth is that the lack of accountability has created a double standard, both in the application of Rule of Law and in terms of public discourse. America can survive a lot of mistakes, but it is the double standards that are tearing this country apart.   ~The Patriot Post

https://patriotpost.us/articles/65806?mailing_id=4562&utm_medium=email&utm_source=pp.email.4562&utm_campaign=snapshot&utm_content=body  

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