Month: May 2019

One hand clapping.  That’s the sound after the Mueller report’s release.  Why?

Because one of the questions we would have hoped to see answered in the report is, what, exactly, was the charge against President Trump; what, exactly, is he supposed to have done?  It is astonishing that the word used for his alleged activity has been, from start to finish, “collusion.”

“Collusion” is a characterization of a charge, not a description of one.

If, for instance, Vladimir Putin had come ashore in a dinghy on a remote patch of the Maine coastline and had handed Trump a briefcase with $1 billion in it, that would be the charge.  Poets could characterize that as “collusion” between Trump and Putin, but the charge would be that Trump had accepted from Putin — a foreigner — a contributed of $1 billion to Trump’s campaign.

We can narrow things down because we know what did not happen and thus could not have been collusion with the Russians or anybody else.

1. That George Papadopoulos could have opened the investigation into the Trump campaign is absurd. Papadopoulos allegedly told Alexander Downer that the Trump campaign knew that the Russians had Hillary’s 33,000 deleted emails.

Our intelligence guys would have laughed themselves sick if they believed this.  Why?  Because Hillary had already turned back in to the State Department all the emails containing Official Business!  The 33,000 emails that she deleted contained only “wedding arrangements and yoga appointments.”  How do we know this?

Hillary told us!

2. In addition to that, the FBI was convinced of it by means of the FBI’s investigation.  Would the agents have cleared Hillary of prosecution if they thought Official Business/secrets of the country had been conveyed to the Russians due to her use of her private server while secretary of state?  Obviously not!  And we know that the FBI must have been extremely careful, because it had to account for the massive amount — $500,000 — the Russians had paid for a speech by Bill.

3. There is one more thing that locks this up tight.  James Comey — at that time director of the FBI — broke with normal practice and made himself responsible for the investigation of Hillary’s emails.  No more need be said!

4. We know that “hacking” of the DNC computers could not have been an issue because that never rose to the level of a formal complaint through channels.  There were some mutterings about hacking having taken place, but when the FBI sought to investigate — that is, when the authorities wanted to initiate a criminal investigation — the DNC would not permit the FBI to examine its computers.  Thus, the DNC, whatever may have happened with its computers, had not a criminal problem, but rather an I.T. problem.

5. Some of the emails from John Podesta — Hillary’s campaign chairman — were published by WikiLeaks.  By Podesta’s own account, he was phished.  That is not a hack.  And, in any case, “sunshine is the best disinfectant.”  There would be no activities that a campaign chairman would be involved in that the public does not have a “right to know” about.

Mueller cleared President Trump of all charges, but that still leaves his report a disappointment because we still don’t know what charges it is that Trump was cleared of!

Look at it this way.  Our quadrennial elections for president are the most important ritual of the U.S. of A.  People in the intelligence community — Brennan, Comey, Clapper — knew that there was “unprecedented interference” by the Russians in the 2016 election.  How do we know this?  They’ve told us so!

Well, who was in charge of seeing that that did not happen?  The CIA, the FBI, and the director of National Intelligence, who coordinates all our intelligence.

But they have not told us what the Russians did or what they — Brennan, Comey, Clapper — did about it and what they directed their organizations to do about it.

The point of intelligence is to inform the president so he can direct the affairs of the country.  A matter this grave would have been reported upward to President Obama.

What did he know, and when did he know it?  And why didn’t he do anything?   

After Hillary lost the election, the Democrats, examining their souls in light of 150 years of machine politics, wondered what trick Trump used to fool the public.  Not being able to find one, they made one up — with the support of the Intelligence Community, which turned on the country.

Trump offered himself as a citizen, at great personal risk, to lead the country.  He made the case to the public on critical issues that had been ignored or on which the country was being sold out by its permanent leadership and about which the public was gravely concerned.

Trump picked up the trampled flag and hollered, “Follow me.”

One hand clapping.  That’s the sound after the Mueller report’s release.  Why?

Because one of the questions we would have hoped to see answered in the report is, what, exactly, was the charge against President Trump; what, exactly, is he supposed to have done?  It is astonishing that the word used for his alleged activity has been, from start to finish, “collusion.”

“Collusion” is a characterization of a charge, not a description of one.

If, for instance, Vladimir Putin had come ashore in a dinghy on a remote patch of the Maine coastline and had handed Trump a briefcase with $1 billion in it, that would be the charge.  Poets could characterize that as “collusion” between Trump and Putin, but the charge would be that Trump had accepted from Putin — a foreigner — a contributed of $1 billion to Trump’s campaign.

We can narrow things down because we know what did not happen and thus could not have been collusion with the Russians or anybody else.

1. That George Papadopoulos could have opened the investigation into the Trump campaign is absurd. Papadopoulos allegedly told Alexander Downer that the Trump campaign knew that the Russians had Hillary’s 33,000 deleted emails.

Our intelligence guys would have laughed themselves sick if they believed this.  Why?  Because Hillary had already turned back in to the State Department all the emails containing Official Business!  The 33,000 emails that she deleted contained only “wedding arrangements and yoga appointments.”  How do we know this?

Hillary told us!

2. In addition to that, the FBI was convinced of it by means of the FBI’s investigation.  Would the agents have cleared Hillary of prosecution if they thought Official Business/secrets of the country had been conveyed to the Russians due to her use of her private server while secretary of state?  Obviously not!  And we know that the FBI must have been extremely careful, because it had to account for the massive amount — $500,000 — the Russians had paid for a speech by Bill.

3. There is one more thing that locks this up tight.  James Comey — at that time director of the FBI — broke with normal practice and made himself responsible for the investigation of Hillary’s emails.  No more need be said!

4. We know that “hacking” of the DNC computers could not have been an issue because that never rose to the level of a formal complaint through channels.  There were some mutterings about hacking having taken place, but when the FBI sought to investigate — that is, when the authorities wanted to initiate a criminal investigation — the DNC would not permit the FBI to examine its computers.  Thus, the DNC, whatever may have happened with its computers, had not a criminal problem, but rather an I.T. problem.

5. Some of the emails from John Podesta — Hillary’s campaign chairman — were published by WikiLeaks.  By Podesta’s own account, he was phished.  That is not a hack.  And, in any case, “sunshine is the best disinfectant.”  There would be no activities that a campaign chairman would be involved in that the public does not have a “right to know” about.

Mueller cleared President Trump of all charges, but that still leaves his report a disappointment because we still don’t know what charges it is that Trump was cleared of!

Look at it this way.  Our quadrennial elections for president are the most important ritual of the U.S. of A.  People in the intelligence community — Brennan, Comey, Clapper — knew that there was “unprecedented interference” by the Russians in the 2016 election.  How do we know this?  They’ve told us so!

Well, who was in charge of seeing that that did not happen?  The CIA, the FBI, and the director of National Intelligence, who coordinates all our intelligence.

But they have not told us what the Russians did or what they — Brennan, Comey, Clapper — did about it and what they directed their organizations to do about it.

The point of intelligence is to inform the president so he can direct the affairs of the country.  A matter this grave would have been reported upward to President Obama.

What did he know, and when did he know it?  And why didn’t he do anything?   

After Hillary lost the election, the Democrats, examining their souls in light of 150 years of machine politics, wondered what trick Trump used to fool the public.  Not being able to find one, they made one up — with the support of the Intelligence Community, which turned on the country.

Trump offered himself as a citizen, at great personal risk, to lead the country.  He made the case to the public on critical issues that had been ignored or on which the country was being sold out by its permanent leadership and about which the public was gravely concerned.

Trump picked up the trampled flag and hollered, “Follow me.”

The House Freedom Caucus on Monday evening formally denounced Rep. Justin Amash (R-MI), one of the group’s founding members, over his recent remarks regarding President Donald Trump and impeachment.

House Oversight Committee ranking member Jim Jordan (R-OH), who previously served as chairman of the Freedom Caucus, told reporters that all 30 members in attendance of the caucus’s weekly meeting voted to condemn the libertarian-leaning Michigan congressman. “It was every single person who totally disagrees with what he says,” said Jordan. “What concerns me is Justin was viewed as a leader, right, on protecting privacy rights first to First Amendment rights.”

The conservative lawmakers were said to have taken turns expressing frustration over comments made by Amash, who claimed special counsel Robert Mueller’s report on now-debunked collusion between the 2016 Trump campaign and Russia had shown President Trump committing “impeachable” offenses. He also accused Attorney General William Barr of mischaracterizing Mueller’s findings.

“Contrary to Barr’s portrayal, Mueller’s report reveals that President Trump engaged in specific actions and a pattern of behavior that meets the threshold for impeachment,” Amash tweeted on Saturday. The lawmaker then contended that the report “identifies multiple examples of conduct satisfying all the elements of obstruction of justice, and undoubtedly any person who is not the president of the United States would be indicted based on such evidence.”

On Monday, Amash doubled down on his impeachment remarks, stating those who assert President Trump did not commit any crimes are relying on “several falsehoods,” then asserting that the Mueller Report shows an “underlying crime” that Trump was attempting to obstruct. Mueller’s team conclusively stated that there was no underlying crime of collusion with foreign nationals; that conspiracy theory only continues to live on in the fever swamps of far-left pundits and celebrities.

Amash’s comments were met with fierce blowback from top Republicans, including the president himself, who hit back at the Michigan congressman in a pair of tweets Sunday. “Never a fan of @justinamash, a total lightweight who opposes me and some of our great Republican ideas and policies just for the sake of getting his name out there through controversy, the president said. “Justin is a loser who sadly plays right into our opponents [sic] hands!”

In an interview with the Fox News Channel, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA ) said Amash drummed up talk of impeachment because he is an attention seeker. “You’ve got to understand Justin Amash. He’s been in Congress quite some time,” the Republican said. “I think he’s asked one question in all the committees that he’s been in. He votes more with Nancy Pelosi than he ever votes with me. It’s a question whether he’s even in our Republican conference as a whole.”

Unsurprisingly, Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT) broke with Republicans in offering praise for Amash, branding his statements “courageous.” “I respect him. I think it’s a courageous statement,” Romney said Sunday on CNN’s State of the Union.

Meanwhile, Amash’s remarks have earned him a primary challenge from a Michigan state representative.

Michigan State Rep. Jim Lower (R) on Monday announced he will try to unseat Amash, moving up the announcement in the wake of Amash’s comments.

“Congressman Justin Amash tweets yesterday calling for President Trump’s impeachment show how out of touch he is with the truth and how out of touch he is with people he represents,” said Lower, according to the Detroit Free Press. “He must be replaced and I am going to do it.”

Islamic terrorists have carried out an estimated 76 attacks in nearly 15 countries since the beginning Ramadan this month, killing at least 364 people and injuring 404 others in the first two weeks of the holiest month for Muslims, a Breitbart News tally shows.

That means, on average, jihadis killed at least 25 people and injured about another 30 each day since Ramadan began at sunset on May 5. This year, the holy period is expected to last through sundown on June 4.

Breitbart News’ count this week covers the 14 days of May 6 through May 19.

The tally includes a total of 768 casualties (364 deaths, 404 injuries) in 14 countries: Afghanistan, Benin, Burkina Faso, Chad, Egypt, Iraq, Pakistan, Kenya, Somalia, Libya, Mali, Nigeria, Pakistan, and Syria.

Afghan Taliban narco-jihadis surpassed their Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) rivals as the world’s chief perpetrators of terrorist attacks during Ramadan this year, with 29 attacks that killed 146 and wounded 156.

ISIS closely trailed the Afghan Taliban with 23 assaults that resulted in 105 fatalities and 132 injuries.

The Taliban is responsible for 40 percent of all fatalities while ISIS was behind an estimated 30 percent.

Overall, the Taliban carried out nearly 40 percent (302) of all casualties, including injuries.

Breitbart News found that, so far, Afghanistan (160 deaths, 189 injuries), Nigeria (50 deaths, 33 injuries) and Iraq (46 deaths, 54 injuries) are the bloodiest countries during the holy month.

Jihadis and other Islamists encourage their followers and supporters to escalate attacks during the holy month, arguing that Allah exceptionally rewards martyrdom during Ramadan.

The Afghan Taliban rejected a Ramadan ceasefire offer by the Afghan government this month. Instead, Zabihullah Mujahid, a spokesman for the narco-jihadi group, proclaimed, “As jihad is … the best part of worship, doing it on Ramadan is rewarded more than in other months.”

The vast majority of Ramadan attack victims are Muslims in Africa and the Middle East.

Breitbart News primarily gleans its data for its Ramadan death tally from the Religion of Peace website, but it also relies upon other databases as well as media and government reports.

News outlets and officials may update some of the casualty figures as some of the wounded victims succumb to their injuries, potentially altering the count after Breitbart News publishes this report.

Most Muslims follow the peaceful Ramadan tradition of abstaining from eating, drinking, smoking, having sex, and other physical needs each day, starting from before the break of dawn until sunset. Nevertheless, the number of attacks at the hands of jihadis tends to escalate during the month when compared to other times of the year.

Breitbart News removed the May 11 attack in Pakistan by the ethnic separatist group Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) as experts disagree on whether the group is primarily jihadist or secular separatist in nature.

Breitbart News has documented the following attacks during Ramadan:

May 6 — North Waziristan, Pakistan — Suspected Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) jihadis kill four security forces, injure ten others. 

May 6 — Kirkuk, Iraq — Suspected ISIS kill three police officers, wound one other.  

May 6 — Takhar, Afghanistan — Taliban kills eight security force members.

May 6 — Farah, Afghanistan — Taliban storms army checkpoint, killing 20, abducting two.  

May 7 — Borno, Nigeria — Boko Haram razes homes and businesses in Molai village, killing 11, including four soldiers, and wounding another 12.

May 7 — Pendjari National Park, Benin — Unknown jihadis from neighboring Burkina Faso kidnap two French tourists across the border in Benin and kill their guide in the Pendjari National Park that straddles both countries. 

May 7 — Yatenga, Burkina Faso — Suspected al-Qaeda jihadis kill toll booth operator and wound two others in the provincial capital of Ouahigouya.  

May 7 — Laghman, Afghanistan — Taliban-linked bomb blast kills four police officers, including chief, and wounds four others.  

May 7 — Salahuddin, Iraq — Suspected ISIS terrorists attack police officer’s house in the village of Mazarei, killing three and wounding five others. 

May 8 — Nineveh, Iraq — Suspected ISIS jihadis kill five family members and wound two others inside their home in the Hammam al-Alil area south of Mosul.

May 8 — Diyala, Iraq — Bomb attack linked to suspected ISIS terrorist wounds two members of the Baghdad-sanctioned Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF).

May 8 — Manbij, Syria — Suspected ISIS terrorists target the U.S.-backed and Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in Aleppo province, killing two and injuring four others, including at least one child. 

May 8 — Manbij, Syria — Suspected ISIS bomb attack kills three civilians in Aleppo province, reportedly all children.  

May 8 — Kabul, Afghanistan — Taliban attacks U.S. aid group, killing nine, wounding 24 others. 

May 8 — Punjab, Pakistan — TTP attacks pilgrims at an 11th-century Sufi shrine in Lahore, killing at least 13, including at least one child, and injuring 21 others. 

May 8 — Ghazni, Afghanistan — Taliban ambushes military convoy in the Qarabagh district, killing three police officers and wounding two others.  

May 9 — Wajir, Kenya — Al-Qaeda’s East Africa affiliate al-Shabaab claims attack on security forces near the border with Somalia, killing at least one soldier.

May 9 — Saladin, Iraq — Suspected ISIS jihadis target grain silo in the town of Shirqat, killing one guard. 

May 9 — Nineveh, Iraq — ISIS kills a family of eight in Mosul, including the couple and their six children. 

May 9 — Fezzan, Libya — Suspected ISIS jihadis kill two and kidnapped a third person from the town of Ghadduwah.  

May 9 — Baghdad, Iraq — ISIS suicide bomber kills eight, wounds 15 others as they broke their Ramadan fast at the Jamila market.

May 10 — Mopti, Mali — Suspected al-Qaeda jihadis kill four civilians, wound two others at the market in the town of Bandiagara. 

May 10 — Badghis, Afghanistan — Taliban targets two outposts, killing 25 security personnel and wounding 11 others in Bala Murghab district. 

May 10 — Borno, Nigeria — ISIS West Africa kills 11 troops in the town of Gajiganna.  

May 10 — Bari, Somalia —Suspected ISIS wounds ten in a failed assassination attempt against a local judge in the port city of Bosaso. 

May 10 — Balkh, Afghanistan — Taliban attacks army outpost in Balkh District, killing one local police officer and wounding four soldiers and a police officer.  

May 11 — Borno, Nigeria — Boko Haram attacks the Moranti village near Maiduguri, leaving nine dead, at least one wounded, and four missings. 

May 11 — Baghdad, Iraq — Suspected ISIS-linked bomb blast kills one child, wounds two others in the Jisr Diyala neighborhood located in the southern part of the capital. 

May 11 — Nangarhar, Afghanistan — Suspected Taliban terrorists kill deputy intelligence director for the Afghan National Police (ANP) in the Kama district. 

May 11 — Takhar, Afghanistan — Taliban kills four police officers and wounds five others in a security outpost in Khwaja Ghar District.

May 11 — Sar-i-Pul , Afghanistan — Taliban kills one police officer in Sancharak District,

May 11 — Nangarhar, Afghanistan — Taliban ambushes and kills a police officer as he drove home in the Kama District. 

May 11 — Samangan, Afghanistan — Taliban narco-jihadis kill three pro-Kabul militiamen in Khuram Ao Sarbagh district. 

May 11 — Samangan, Afghanistan — Taliban rocket attack kills five civilians, including women, and wounds ten others in Dara-i-Suf Payan district. 

May 12 — Mogadishu, Somalia —Al-Shabaab kills Turkish civil engineer. 

May 12 — Baghlan, Afghanistan — Suspected Taliban jihadis kill province’s deputy intelligence director and injure an intelligence officer in the Dushi district.

May 12 — Hama, Syria — Suspected former al-Qaeda affiliate Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) fires a rocket into Christian-majority town of Suqaylabiyah, killing five, including four children and a woman, and injuring six other children. 

May 12 — Sanmatenga, Burkina Faso — Unknown jihadis attack Catholic church, set it ablaze, and kill six, including the priest. 

May 12 — Paktika, Afghanistan — Hundreds of Taliban jihadis storm outposts in the districts of Mata Khan and Zurmat, killing 13 police officers and wounding 19 others.

May 12 — Wardak, Afghanistan — Taliban targets members of the Shiite Hazara community in the Hesa-e-Dowom-e-Behsod district, leaving 5 civilians dead, 12 others wounded, and five missings. 

May 13 — Baghlan, Afghanistan — Suspected Taliban shoots teacher in Nahren district. 

May 13 — Borno, Nigeria — Improvised explosive device (IED) planted by Boko Haram on a road in Damboa district killed three Nigerian troops, including a commander, and wounded four others.  

May 13 — Nangarhar, Afghanistan — ISIS carries out three explosions in its main South Asia stronghold that rocked the provincial capital of Jalalabad, killing 9 and wounding more than 30 others.  

May 13 — Diyala, Iraq — ISIS kills father and son. 

May 13 — Balochistan, Pakistan — Pakistani Taliban, or TTP, targeted a police vehicle near a mosque with an improvised bomb rigged to a motorcycle, killing four and wounding 11 in the provincial capital of Quetta. 

May 13 — Hama, Syria — Al-Qaeda affiliate HTS, under siege by Syrian regime forces, suspected of firing more rockets into Christian-majority town of Suqaylabiyah, killing one child. 

May 13 — Yatenga, Burkina Faso — Unknown jihadis killed four Catholics, burned Virgin Mary during a procession in the town of Ouahigouya in the Muslim-majority nation. 

May 13 — Sar-i-Pul, Afghanistan — Taliban kills seven pro-Kabul militiamen, wounds six, and kidnaps three others in the provincial capital of Sar-i-Pul city. 

May 13 — Badakhshan, Afghanistan — Taliban kills four ANDSF troops, including commander, and wounds one other in  Shahri Buzurg district. 

May 14 — Nayrab Camp, Syria — Suspected members of al-Qaeda affiliate HTS lobbed missiles into a Syrian-regime held camp for displaced people in Aleppo province, killing at least 6 and wounding at least 11 others, including children, as they broke their Ramadan fast. 

May 14 — Kandahar, Afghanistan — Improvised explosive device (IED) attached to a vehicle killed a police officer in the Taliban birthplace and wounded another.

May 14 — Baghlan, Afghanistan — Unknown terrorists attached IED to a vehicle, killing one civilian and wounding three others.

May 14 — Jowzjan, Afghanistan — Taliban kills one pro-government militiaman and wounds six others in Qarqin district. 

May 14 —  Tillaberi, Niger – ISIS kills 28 soldiers and wounds at least two near the Mali border. 

May 14 — Ghor, Afghanistan — Taliban kills shopkeeper in Dolina district. 

May 14 — Mogadishu, Somalia — Al-Shabaab suicide bomber kills four office workers and injures at least nine other civilians in the Warta Nabadda district. 

May 15 — Paktia, Afghanistan — Taliban kills ANDSF soldier and wounds two others. 

May 15 — Kandahar, Afghanistan — Unknown terrorists in the Taliban birthplace of Kandahar province kill a police officer in charge of the provincial capital. 

May 15 — Kirkuk, Iraq — ISIS kills two policemen and wounds another in the town of al-Rashad.  

May 15 — Kirkuk, Iraq — ISIS kills four federal policemen near the town of Hawijah. 

May 16 — Zabul, Afghanistan — Taliban kills six Afghan National Defense and Security Forces (ANDSF) and wounds six others in attacks on two military checkpoints in Shamulzayi district. 

May 16 — Zabul, Afghanistan — Taliban kills three police officers, wounds two others in the provincial capital.  

May 16 — Kabul, Afghanistan — Unknown jihadis kill four members of the Public Protection Forces in the outskirts of the Afghan capital.  

May 16 — Adamawa, Nigeria — Boko Haram jihadis massacre five people, including farmers and fishermen, in the Madagali district. 

May 16 — Borno, Nigeria — Boko Haram terrorists massacre nine people, including farmers and fishermen, in the Maichulmuri village.  

May 16 — Lake Chad, Chad — Boko Haram kills 13 villagers in the village of Ceilia.

May 16 — Manbij, Syria — Suspected ISIS jihadis carry out suicide vehicle-borne improvised explosive device (SVBIED) attack, kills one U.S.-backed Kurdish fighter and injuring ten civilians. 

May 17 — Diyala, Iraq — Suspected ISIS jihadis killed two civilians, including a teacher and an elderly man in the district of Khanaqin.

May 18 — Fezzan, Libya — Suspected ISIS jihadis kill two guards and a soldier and kidnap four other people at the Zella oilfield. 

May 18 — Herat, Afghanistan — Suspected Taliban kills five children, wounds 20 other civilians in the main the market of Obe district.

May 18 — Takhar, Afghanistan — Taliban kills nine militiamen and wounds seven in Rustaq district. 

May 18 — Helmand, Afghanistan — Taliban roadside bomb kills two police officers and injures two others in Washer district.

May 18 — Borno, Nigeria — Boko Haram attacks refugee camp, killing two people and injuring 12 others. 

May 19 — Giza, Egypt — Suspected ISIS jihadis target a tourist bus with a bomb, injuring  17. 

May 19 — Diyala, Iraq — Suspected ISIS terrorists, kill seven Baghdad-sanctioned PMF troops and injures 26 others. 

May 19 — Timbuktu, Mali — Suspected jihadis kill one United Nations peacekeeper soldier and wound six others.