Left a ‘Mark’: FBI Responds to Claim Agency’s Warning Led to FB Limiting Hunter Laptop Story

/0 Comments/in , /by

An appearance by Mark Zuckerberg on Joe Rogan’s podcast last week stoked controversy after the Meta CEO admitted that Facebook limited the bombshell Hunter Biden laptop story ahead of the 2020 election because the FBI had warned about “Russian propaganda.”

After the release of the episode on Thursday, the FBI said it “routinely notifies U.S. private sector entities, including social media providers, of potential threat information, so that they can decide how to better defend against threats.”

In a statement released to FOX Business, the agency said it has provided companies with “foreign threat indicators to help them protect their platforms and customers from abuse by foreign malign influence actors.”

“The FBI will continue to work closely with federal, state, local, and private sector partners to keep the public informed of potential threats, but the FBI cannot ask, or direct, companies to take action on information received,” the agency said.

Meta said later Friday night that nothing about the Hunter Biden laptop story was new.

(Read more from “Left a ‘Mark’: FBI Responds to Claim Agency’s Warning Led to FB Limiting Hunter Laptop Story” HERE)

Photo credit: Flickr

Delete Facebook, Delete Twitter, Follow Restoring Liberty and Joe Miller at gab HERE.

Trump Spy Chief ‘Surprised’ by Zuckerberg’s FBI Story

/0 Comments/in , /by

Former Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe says Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg surprised him with his version of events concerning an FBI warning about Russian disinformation that preceded Facebook throttling the Hunter Biden laptop story before the 2020 election.

The Trump-era spy chief insisted to Fox News host Tucker Carlson on Friday that FBI Director Christopher Wray gave him a different impression at the time and suggested the bureau’s actions amounted to election interference.

“I was actually surprised to hear Mark Zuckerberg say that, because what he related the FBI told him was exactly the opposite of what my conversations with the FBI director himself at the time were about,” Ratcliffe said.

Facebook took action to limit the spread of reporting on the laptop believed to have belonged to the son of President Joe Biden on the eve of the election after the FBI alerted the social media giant of Russian propaganda, Zuckerberg said in an interview with podcast host Joe Rogan released Thursday. Although Zuckerberg did not say the FBI’s warning was about the laptop in particular, his comments sparked outrage among Republicans, with some lawmakers saying they want Zuckerberg to come before Congress as they raise concerns about whether his Big Tech company “colluded” with the FBI. The bureau defended its actions. (Read more from “Trump Spy Chief ‘Surprised’ by Zuckerberg’s FBI Story” HERE)

Photo credit: Flickr

Delete Facebook, Delete Twitter, Follow Restoring Liberty and Joe Miller at gab HERE.

Vatican Chief Praises Italy’s Law Legalizing Abortion as a ‘Pillar of Society’

/0 Comments/in , /by

The president of the Pontifical Academy for Life called Italy’s notorious Law 194 legalizing abortion “a pillar of society” this weekend, insisting that no one is looking to overturn it.

Interviewed by Italian state television Rai Tre, Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia lauded the 1978 law allowing abortion in Italy, a move that critics called a new “ground zero of morality.”

The president of the Pontifical Academy for Life called Italy’s notorious Law 194 legalizing abortion “a pillar of society” this weekend, insisting that no one is looking to overturn it.

Interviewed by Italian state television Rai Tre, Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia lauded the 1978 law allowing abortion in Italy, a move that critics called a new “ground zero of morality.”

“It is as if the president of the Jewish Anti-Defamation League declared itself in favor of the holocaust,” wrote Tommaso Scandroglio, in a piece for La Nuova Bussola Quotidiana. (Read more from “Vatican Chief Praises Italy’s Law Legalizing Abortion as a ‘Pillar of Society’” HERE)

Photo credit: Flickr

Delete Facebook, Delete Twitter, Follow Restoring Liberty and Joe Miller at gab HERE.

CENTCOM Commander Who Oversaw Afghanistan Pullout Blames Biden and Trump

/0 Comments/in , /by

Retired Gen. Frank McKenzie, who oversaw the U.S. troop withdrawal from Afghanistan as commander of U.S. Central Command, placed blame on both President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump for how the war ended in an interview Sunday.

McKenzie made the comments in a wide-ranging discussion with defense journalist Jennifer Griffin on Fox News Sunday about the end to the nation’s longest war and the fallout from it. McKenzie, who retired in April after 42 years of service, was asked about Biden and Trump individually. He reiterated that he opposed a complete military exit from the failed state, arguing to Griffin after she asked about the chaotic August withdrawal that the decision to eliminate any troop presence was largely responsible for what went wrong.

“Subsequently, after we made the decision to go to zero, the decision to try to maintain an embassy platform until far too late contributed also to what happened in August,” McKenzie said. “Those are, I think, two of the big decisions that led us to the events that you just described.”

Asked if Trump’s Doha Agreement, the U.S.-Taliban withdrawal deal, was responsible for the collapse of the Afghan government, McKenzie offered his most pointed criticism of both commanders-in-chief. (Read more from “CENTCOM Commander Who Oversaw Afghanistan Pullout Blames Biden and Trump” HERE)

Photo credit: Gage Skidmore via Flickr

Delete Facebook, Delete Twitter, Follow Restoring Liberty and Joe Miller at gab HERE.

Judge Might Grant Something ‘Special’ for Trump Following FBI Raid

/0 Comments/in , /by

. . .It seems the core of this raid was to warn the former president not to run again in 2024 and that they want some documents back, papers which Trump quite possibly was allowed to possess.

Spencer wrote that Trump wanted a “special master” to review the seized records, which isn’t an abnormal motion. Trump also wants to prevent federal agents from reviewing the documents until a special master is appointed. A federal judge granted a premilitary motion to do just that on Saturday (via Fox News):

A federal judge on Saturday announced her “preliminary intent to appoint a special master” to review records seized by the FBI during its unprecedented raid of his Mar-a-Lago home earlier this month, at the request of former President Trump and his legal team, citing the “exceptional circumstances.”

Trump and his legal team filed a motion Monday evening seeking an independent review of the records seized by the FBI during its raid of Mar-a-Lago earlier this month, saying the decision to search his private residence just months before the 2022 midterm elections “involved political calculations aimed at diminishing the leading voice in the Republican Party, President Trump.”

(Read more from “Judge Might Grant Something ‘Special’ for Trump Following FBI Raid” HERE)

Delete Facebook, Delete Twitter, Follow Restoring Liberty and Joe Miller at gab HERE.

DEADLY DISCOVERY: Border Protection Agents Seize Enough Fentanyl to Kill Millions

/0 Comments/in , /by

U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents seized an estimated $4.3 million worth of fentanyl pills on Wednesday evening.

The seizure happened in the Tuscon, Arizona Sector when agents conducted a vehicle stop on a white Chevy Equinox and observed several duffel bags in the car, according to a press release. Agents also noticed that the female driver was “noticeably nervous as she was questioned.” Another female was in the car, and both are U.S. citizens, according to officials.

CBP agents then searched the vehicle with her consent, and found three bags that contained packages wrapped in black tape, in addition to being coated in axle grease, according to the government agency.

It was later determined that the 340 packages of fentanyl pills weighed a total of 187 pounds and was estimated to have been worth $4.3 million.

(Read more from “DEADLY DISCOVERY: Border Protection Agents Seize Enough Fentanyl to Kill Millions” HERE)

Delete Facebook, Delete Twitter, Follow Restoring Liberty and Joe Miller at gab HERE.

Biden Uses the F-Word to Describe MAGA Republicans

/0 Comments/in , , /by

This week, President Joe Biden rolled out a new adjective to describe Republicans in the mold of former President Donald Trump: “semifascist.”

Biden first publicly used the term at a Democratic National Committee reception ahead of an end-of-summer rally for the coming midterm elections.

While exuding confidence that the forces of democracy were defeating the Trump Republicans, on the heels of recent Democratic momentum, Biden warned that “the entire philosophy that underpins” their politics is “almost like semifascism, the way in which it deals.”

Despite the “almost,” “like,” and “semi” qualifiers, it was a major rhetorical escalation from Biden.

Biden has long suggested that Trump’s political movement was anti-democratic, especially following the former president’s 2020 election challenges, the Jan. 6 Capitol riot to disrupt the certification of the Electoral College results, and the enactment of Republican voting laws in several GOP-run states. (Read more from “Biden Uses the F-Word to Describe MAGA Republicans” HERE)

Photo credit: Gage Skidmore via Flickr

Delete Facebook, Delete Twitter, Follow Restoring Liberty and Joe Miller at gab HERE.

Here’s What We Still Don’t Know After Release of Redacted FBI Trump Raid Affidavit

/0 Comments/in , /by

Friday’s unsealing of the affidavit tied to the FBI’s raid on former President Donald Trump’s Florida estate has raised more questions than answers.

West Palm Beach US Magistrate Judge Bruce Reinhardt had ordered the Justice Department earlier in the week to prepare a redacted version of the document in which authorities laid out their reasons for the controversial Aug. 8 search-and-seizure operation at Mar-a-Lago. . .

Reports have said an informant tipped off authorities about official documents that remained in Trump’s possession even though they were supposed to have been turned over to the National Archives and Records Administration when he left office last year. . .

The blacked-out-affidavit doesn’t provide any new details about the 11 sets of classified records seized during the raid, but it alleges that 14 of the 15 boxes of records recovered from Trump’s West Palm Beach mansion earlier this year contained classified documents. . .

The blacked-out affidavit doesn’t reveal the targets or subjects of the Justice Department probe, but anyone who allegedly moved or hid classified records could face prosecution, according to USA Today. (Read more from “Here’s What We Still Don’t Know After Release of Redacted FBI Trump Raid Affidavit” HERE)

Delete Facebook, Delete Twitter, Follow Restoring Liberty and Joe Miller at gab HERE.

79% Say ‘Truthful’ Coverage of Hunter Biden’s Laptop Would Have Changed 2020 Election

/0 Comments/in , /by

Nearly four of five Americans who’ve been following the Hunter Biden laptop scandal believe that “truthful” coverage would have changed the outcome of the 2020 presidential election, according to a new poll.

A similar percentage also said they’re convinced that information on the computer is real, with just 11% saying they thought it was “created by Russia,” according to the survey conducted by the New Jersey-based Technometrica Institute of Policy and Politics.

And an even higher number — 81% — said US Attorney General Merrick Garland should appoint a special counsel to investigate matters related to the first son’s infamous laptop, the existence of which was exclusively revealed by The Post in October 2020.

The poll results, published Wednesday, are based on responses from 437 adults who said they were following the laptop story “very” or “somewhat” closely when they were surveyed online earlier this month, according to the TIPP.

On the subject of the 2020 election, 79% overall said it was “very” or “somewhat” likely that “a truthful interpretation of the laptop” would have resulted in the reelection of former President Donald Trump instead of the election of President Biden. (Read more from “79% Say ‘Truthful’ Coverage of Hunter Biden’s Laptop Would Have Changed 2020 Election” HERE)

Delete Facebook, Delete Twitter, Follow Restoring Liberty and Joe Miller at gab HERE.

Two More States Follow California’s Ban on New Gas Cars

/0 Comments/in , , /by

Washington and Massachusetts are following a policy from California to ban the sale of new gasoline-powered cars by 2035.

Rules from the California Air Resources Board (CARB) require 35% of new vehicles to produce zero emissions by 2026 before rising to a 68% benchmark by 2030 and a 100% level by 2035. Both Washington and Massachusetts had enacted legislation conforming the states to recommendations from CARB as of 2019, according to the agency.

“If you are low income, you can get your home entirely weatherized through the expansion from the bipartisan infrastructure laws,” Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said earlier this month on Fox News. “If you are moderate income, today you can get 30% off the price of solar panels. Those solar panels can be financed, so you don’t have to have the big outlay at the front … If you don’t qualify for the weatherization program, you will be able to, starting next year, get rebates on the appliances and equipment that will help you reduce your monthly energy bill by up to 30%. That is all about reducing costs for people.” (Read more from “Two More States Follow California’s Ban on New Gas Cars” HERE)

Delete Facebook, Delete Twitter, Follow Restoring Liberty and Joe Miller at gab HERE.