THE NEW YORK TIMES CONFIRMS IT: IRS WHISTLEBLOWER TOLD THE TRUTH

THE NEW YORK TIMES CONFIRMS IT: IRS WHISTLEBLOWER TOLD THE TRUTH

BY ELIZABETH STAUFFER IN DEMOCRATS, DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE, HUNTER BIDEN, MERRICK GARLAND

I admit it. I hate Attorney General Merrick Garland so much I can barely stand to hear him speak.

But there’s a reason for my strong feelings. We can’t trust a word he says. And on Tuesday, The New York Times confirmed it.

Last week, the House Ways and Means Committee released the transcribed interviews of two IRS whistleblowers who worked on the Hunter Biden case. The testimonies of IRS Criminal Supervisory Special Agent Gary Shapley Jr. and an anonymous whistleblower who was part of his team, bolster the widely-held belief that U.S. Attorney for the District of Delaware David Weiss, appointed by former President Donald Trump in 2018, was blocked by DOJ prosecutors at several turns during his five year investigation into the first son.

In particular, Shapley and his anonymous colleague alleged that, during a 2022 meeting, Weiss said he had sought to charge Hunter Biden in Washington, D.C., and in Los Angeles, California, and that both requests had been rebuffed by DOJ prosecutors. Weiss also allegedly claimed he had asked to be granted special counsel status, but had been turned down.

Contrary to Shapley’s testimony, in a June 7 letter to members of the House Judiciary Committee, Weiss wrote that he had been “granted ultimate authority over this matter, including responsibility for deciding where, when and whether to file charges” against Hunter Biden.

Speaking to reporters on Friday, Garland strongly denied Shapley’s claims.

As I said at the outset, Mr. Weiss, who was appointed by President Trump as the U.S. attorney in Delaware and assigned this matter during the previous administration, would be permitted to continue his investigation and to make a decision to prosecute any way in which he wanted to and in any district in which he wanted to. Mr. Weiss has since sent a letter to the House Judiciary Committee confirming that he had that authority.

I don’t know how it would be possible for anybody to block him from bringing a prosecution, given that he has this authority.

He was given complete authority to make all decisions on his own behalf.

In an article titled “Competing Accounts of Justice Dept.’s Handling of Hunter Biden Case,” the Times reported it had independently confirmed that Weiss did indeed make those claims.

But in mid-2022, Mr. Weiss reached out to the top federal prosecutor in Washington, Matthew Graves, to ask his office to pursue charges and was rebuffed, according to Mr. Shapley’s testimony. A similar request to prosecutors in the Central District of California, which includes Los Angeles, was also rejected, Mr. Shapley testified. A second former I.R.S. official, who has not been identified, told House Republicans the same story. That episode was confirmed independently to The New York Times by a person with knowledge of the situation.

Unsurprisingly, Fox News noted that you had to read to the 21st paragraph of the Times’ article to find this information.

In a March Senate hearing, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) questioned Garland quite forcefully about the autonomy – or the lack thereof – of Weiss’ investigation. Grassley asked the attorney general if Weiss had “sought the permission of another U.S. Attorney’s Office, such as in the District of Columbia or in California, to bring charges? If so, was it denied?”

Grassley told Garland, “If the Delaware U.S. Attorney must seek permission from a Biden-appointed U.S. Attorney to bring charges, the Hunter Biden criminal investigation isn’t insulated from political interference as you’ve publicly proclaimed.”

In the video below, Garland assured lawmakers that Weiss had operated with complete autonomy.

The whistleblowers’ testimony – and the Times’ confirmation of Weiss’ remarks in a 2022 internal meeting – call Garland’s veracity into serious question.

 

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IMPEACH MERRICK GARLAND

IMPEACH MERRICK GARLAND

BY JOHN HINDERAKER IN BIDEN ADMINISTRATION, MERRICK GARLAND

The corruption of the U.S. government is exemplified by the Biden administration. The corruption of the Biden administration is exemplified by its Department of Justice. And the corruption of the Department of Justice is presided over by Attorney General Merrick Garland.

But that isn’t the worst of it. Corruption of the Department of Justice goes to the heart of American democracy. It makes a mockery of the rule of law. It thumbs its nose at the Constitution. Corruption of some agencies might only a costly annoyance. Corruption of the Department of Justice threatens our republic.

We have written about the controversy that recently has engulfed Merrick Garland here and here. There is substantial reason to think that Garland has lied to Congress.

But that isn’t the half of it. Garland has been central to the weaponization of government–specifically, the Department of Justice–to attack the Democratic Party’s political enemies, and run interference on behalf of its well-connected members. Garland has swung into action against the Democratic Party’s foes even when they are just parents who express concern at school board meetings. This is intolerable.

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, citing the evidence of Garland’s perjury that we have written about, today signaled willingness to take action against the Attorney General:

We don’t yet know how the specific inquiry into Garland’s role in the Hunter Biden cover-up will turn out, but on the broader issue of the weaponization of the Department of Justice, the verdict is in. Garland should be impeached. Let’s hope the House has the will and the votes to do it

https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2023/06/impeach-merrick-garland.php

DISNEY’S DOWNHILL SLIDE

DISNEY’S DOWNHILL SLIDE

BY JOHN HINDERAKER IN WOKE CAPITALISM

At Breitbart, David Ng notes that the Walt Disney Company has “lost a stunning $890 million on its last eight studio releases, including The Little Mermaid and Elemental, according to a box office analyst.” No doubt that is why Disney’s stock has lost over half of its value since its March 2021 peak.

Wokeness has not been working well for Disney. Has the company learned its lesson? Of course not:

Disney’s Star Wars has cast its first transgender actor in a major role, hiring British male-to-female YouTube personality Abigail Thorn for the role in the upcoming Disney+ series The Acolyte, according to multiple reports.

Abigail Thorn is reportedly set to play a character named Ensign Eurus in the series, which is expected to begin streaming sometime next year. The Acolyte reportedly takes place during the High Republic period, which is set before the events of the Star Wars movies.

The series has already cast “non-binary” actress Amanda Steinberg in its lead role.

I will hazard a wild guess that Disney has another bomb on its hands.

It is often assumed that the people who run large corporations are only interested in making money. Unfortunately, this is not true. In many cases, their top priority is advancing a political agenda. Making money for their owners, the shareholders, is at best a distant second.

https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2023/06/disneys-downhill-slide.php

Two Stories Show Crisis of Leftist Political Hatred—and Indifference to Suffering

Two Stories Show Crisis of Leftist Political Hatred—and Indifference to Suffering

BY CATHERINE SALGADO  

AP Photo/Noah Berger

Too many people in America now seem either possessed of a violent antipathy toward those who disagree with them, or are governed by a complete indifference to the victimizing of others. We appear already to have reached a crisis level, and the Democrats continue to gin up yet more anger.

We can all think of examples of leftist-fueled violence, including Antifa’s looting and burning, state capitol “transurrections,” and the transgender mass shooter in Tennessee. But two recent stories, while not examples of deadly force, particularly struck me. Both show young people demonstrating unprovoked violence toward innocent victims. The second story shows how indifferent many Americans have become to such scenes of brutal injustice.

First is this video of an angry leftist man violently attacking at least two individuals, including an elderly and peaceful pro-lifer, in Baltimore, courtesy of MRCTV:

The leftist obsession with abortion on demand—and as common as possible, a sort of pro-death mania—has led to many violent attacks on pro-life pregnancy centers and pro-life protesters. I remember being outside an abortion clinic once praying when an elderly lady in our group was violently assaulted by a young pro-abort, just like in the video above. Democrats have hammered it into young people that abortion is a sacred right and infringing on it is the height of evil. Young people sometimes take that to the next level and assault those they perceive as undermining the sacred right to abortion.

So it’s not unheard of for Democrats to exercise widescale violence to achieve their ends, and I’m not talking just about pro-abortion crazies or the “Summer of Love” (and mostly peaceful) protests in 2020.

The Civil War was started by Southern Democrats, for whom Abraham Lincoln’s election was the final straw. Democrat violence continued to be a severe problem in many parts of the South against both white Republicans and black Americans years after the Civil War ended (a history the Democrat leaders of today would sure love for you to forget, which is partly why they tear down monuments to their own former Confederate and Democrat heroes). But it is very disturbing that the Democrat Party has come full circle, returning to violence as a political weapon and with an even more perverted philosophy now than in the 1800s.

But it’s not just explicit leftists who are committing shocking violence now, though Democrats’ soft-on-crime policies facilitate their violence. The growing crime crisis in America is not, of course, purely political.

Another recent story highlighting this ongoing American crime crisis was of a white teenager being beaten up by six black teenagers. It is not clear whether race was a motivating factor, since the victim was also robbed, but the story does emphasize that too many Americans are either full of violent hatred or full of apathetic indifference. While the crowd of attackers beat the teenager up, multiple bystanders simply stood around with their phones and recorded the event instead of even trying to intervene. None of them reportedly called 911, according to the report from MRCTV, which would’ve been the least they could do, even if the individuals didn’t want to get physically involved.

MRCTV’s Nick Kangadis explained:

[S]ix black teens — aged between 14 and 17 — beat the crap out of a 15-year-old white teen Monday night in Havertown, Pennsylvania, stole his expensive shoes and then kept attacking him. If they had just beaten him, taken his shoes and left, I would be less inclined to believe this was racially motivated. However, since they kept attacking him after the theft, one might surmise that race played a factor.

Possibly the worst part of the whole ordeal is that the other kids that were around did nothing but stand there, watch and record the attack.

Haverford Township Police Department Deputy Chief Joseph Hagan said the bystanders neither called 911 nor intervened. “It’s kind of disturbing that these other individuals were standing around, just filming it [sic] this poor kid on the ground.” No kidding.

But that is where we have gotten to in America now. Too many Americans—particularly young people—either believe it is all right or even praiseworthy to attack peaceful individuals for having a different opinion, or they care so little about other people that they are willing to stand around and film a brutal beating as if it were some sort of entertainment.

We desperately need cultural and political renewal if America is to avoid descending into wholesale chaos.

https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/catherinesalgado/2023/06/23/two-stories-show-crisis-of-leftist-political-hatred-and-indifference-to-suffering-n1705831

GARY SHAPLEY ON CAMERA

GARY SHAPLEY ON CAMERA

 BY SCOTT JOHNSON IN BIDEN CORRUPTION, CHINA, HUNTER BIDEN, MEDIA

In the matter of the Biden family business — CBS News has covered the testimony of IRS whistleblower Gary Shapley. This is a significant development. The story is posted under the headline “IRS whistleblower in Hunter Biden probe says he was stopped from pursuing investigative leads into ‘dad’ or the ‘big guy.'” I have posted video of the segment below.

Something is happening here. The New York Times has confirmed Shapley’s testimony regarding David Weiss’s inability to file charges against Hunter Biden in California notwithstanding Attorney General Merrick Garland’s assertion that Weiss had full authority to do so. The confirmation made it all the way up to paragraph 21 of the Times story by Glenn Thrush and Michael Schmidt.

In the tweet below, Chuck Ross finds the Times to be burying the news. I may be overoptimistic, but I think it’s number 21 with a bullet. The tempo of revelations is picking up. The New York Post gives us a preview of more to come.

Republicans on the House Oversight Committee released a few more WhatsApp messages from the eloquent Hunter Biden. Hunter wanted the big bucks from CEFC. In a 2017 message to Gongwen Dong, a CEFC China Energy associate who used the nickname “Kevin,” Hunter explained: “I’m tired of this Kevin. I can make $5 million in salary from any law firm in America. If you think it’s about money, it’s not. The Biden’s [sic] are the best at doing exactly what Chairman wants from this partnership. Please let’s not quibble over peanuts.”

The Daily Mail puts the messages in context in this story. The Daily Mail reports that Republicans identified the “Chairman” as missing Chinese oil tycoon Ye Jianming, who disappeared in February 2018 after being taken into custody by Chinese authorities.

The Unmissable Liberal Tilt of the 'Fact-Checkers'

The Unmissable Liberal Tilt of the 'Fact-Checkers'

Tim Graham

 

AP Photo/Alex Brandon

Conservatives on Twitter are mocking CNN fact-checker Daniel Dale again, especially since his Twitter bio explains his work as "fact-checking the president." Fox News reported on June 16 that Dale hadn't published a fact-check of President Joe Biden since March 30, and that was only online, not on TV. "Since that time, though, his database shows 21 bylined stories or on-air appearances that fact-checked claims made by Republicans, most of them by Trump."

One of the reasons you can laugh at the phrase "independent fact-checkers" is the apparent tilt in targeting. CNN may not be paid by the Democrats, but the target list makes it look like they are. CNN's obsession with Trump always prompts the question, "Who is the president now?" Because CNN acts like Trump never lost. Biden simply isn't someone powerful enough to evaluate.

Biden can repeatedly suggest the Republicans are pushing "Jim Crow 2.0" -- as if they were all segregationists -- and Dale and his colleague say nothing. An actress can wisecrack on CBS live coverage of the Tony Awards that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is a "Grand Wizard" of the Ku Klux Klan, and nobody objects.

On June 16 in Hartford, Connecticut, Biden falsely claimed, "Every damn day in America -- in areas that are poor, mostly minority -- there's a mass shooting." Fact-checkers, assemble?

PolitiFact is also an obvious example of tilt. For example, Ted Cruz and Elizabeth Warren were both elected to the Senate in 2012. Through 2016, Cruz was assessed for truth on 114 occasions by PolitiFact, and while he ran for president, Ted Cruz landed on the "False" side of their "Truth-O-Meter" 65% of the time.

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But Warren at that time? Only four checks and not a single "False." Amazingly, PolitiFact never evaluated Warren on the "Truth-O-Meter" when she claimed to be part-Cherokee Indian.

Today, four years after Warren's own presidential campaign launched, Cruz has 167 fact checks, and 106 of them (63.4%) are "Mostly False," "False," or "Pants on Fire." Warren has only 35 checks, and only six of them (17.1%) are on the "False" side.

Check that number of "False" checks again -- Cruz, 106, Warren, six. Cruz was tagged as a "Pants on Fire" liar 11 times, and Warren -- "Fauxcahontas" -- never drew one.

We found that overall, in 2017 and through November 2018, conservatives and Republicans were tagged as "Pants on Fire" liars in 96 articles. Liberals and Democrats? Fifteen. That's a margin of more than six to one.

Over his first 20 months in office, Biden had 58 fact-checks, while Biden's critics were checked 338 times. Overall, there were 5.8 fact-checks of Biden's critics for every one of the presidents.

In an interview with the liberal website The Verge, NBC's Chuck Todd exemplified the media's defiance of anyone who dares to assert a liberal bias. "I hear the attacks on fact-checkers where they 'fact-check Republicans six times more than they fact-check Democrats.' Yeah. Perhaps the Republicans are being factually incorrect more often than the Democrats."

Someone who asserts the Republicans lie six times more often than Democrats sounds like a Democrat. Chuck Todd is obviously a Democrat. And so are the "independent fact-checkers."

https://townhall.com/columnists/brentbozellandtimgraham/2023/06/23/the-unmissable-liberal-tilt-of-the-fact-checkers-n2624884?utm_source=thdaily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl&bcid=15803c7fc8c68b6fd1f0a5e7f4b59fc49df45d48335d4339ad60f7b0a0c7404d&recip=28668535

Is the ‘Great Reset’ for America Already Here?

Is the ‘Great Reset’ for America Already Here?

By definition, a reset is a quick action, marked by an interruption or sharp divergence from the past with distinct instructions for going forward

U.S. dollar banknotes in front of displayed stock graph. (Dado Ruvic/Reuters)

By James Gorrie

June 22, 2023Updated: June 22, 2023

biggersmaller 

Print

0:006:09

Commentary

I’ve never been comfortable hearing others talk about the unseen, unknowable “they,” as if “they” were a cluster of faceless, soulless puppeteers directing our fates, against which we are powerless.

The whole idea always had a disturbing and distasteful tinge of paranoia about it to me.

But one must be clear-eyed about events and policies going on in the world, and in this case, in the United States, and about who’s making the decisions.

In this instance, the “they” are our own leaders. We know their names.

Is the Great Reset Real—or Conspiracy?

Recall that the so-called “Great Reset” coming from the World Economic Forum (WEF) gang is supposed to be a global event or process, which it may well be. It also seems as if it’s well underway, especially in the United States.

Sounds like a conspiracy theory, doesn’t it?

According to Logically.ai, an AI-driven Threat Intelligence platform, “While the World Economic Forum has been criticized by many on legitimate grounds, allegations that it is covertly orchestrating or facilitating societal upheaval are unfounded.”

But that denial is simply not plausible.

After all, resetting the global society is exactly what a Great Reset is all about. That sounds like upheaval on a global scale to me.

The question is, “What does a Great Reset mean for the United States and the American people?”

US Financial Fragility

As the term implies, the current world order, which has been based on U.S. economic, diplomatic, and military leadership, is to be reset.

One could argue that it’s already in process.

For example, the petrodollar era is over. OPEC has stated that it will accept a variety of currencies for its oil, in particular, the yuan, ending the dollar-only policy it put in place in 1973. As a result, dollar demand in the world is falling and will continue to do so, because nations don’t have to buy oil in dollars anymore. That has huge implications for the U.S. Treasury bond market, the strength of the dollar, our ability to fund our government, and interest rates.

Dollar Decline Well Underway

Furthermore, the dollar is undermined by trillions in debt. The United States created more dollars in the past three years than it did in all of its history as a nation. This makes U.S. bonds and the dollar undesirable, especially compared with the growing power and attraction of the gold-backed digital yuan.

As a result, many of the world’s nations are signing on to new currency arrangements with the Chinese yuan and a new BRICS currency. The “petroyuan” replacing the petrodollar is a real possibility.

Also driving de-dollarization abroad are the punitive sanctions that the United States imposes on nations that don’t agree with U.S. geopolitical or economic policies and the exported inflation caused by excessive U.S. debt. In short, the dollar’s dominance over trade and global finance is diminishing and could suddenly go away altogether.

As the world moves away from the dollar, the U.S. economy will suffer greatly, as will the American people, from possible hyperinflation, layoffs, and shortages.

US Military Readiness at Risk

In other words, the financial stability of the United States is under threat in ways it hasn’t been since the Great Depression.

Directly related to the threats to U.S. financial stability is its military capabilities. As U.S. financial health declines, so too does its ability to fund the armed forces. That means a decline in our ability to pay for advanced defensive innovations, upgrades, replacements, deployments, and other critical functions.

As our financial health and military readiness continue to degrade, our ability to project diplomatic power around the world declines as well. The correlation is undeniable, and the world sees it.

What’s important to understand, however, is that this decline isn’t inevitable, nor is it irreversible. It is a choice that our leaders continue to make.

Reducing deficit spending isn’t rocket science. Neither is promoting innovation and economic activity with lower taxes. They’re simply economic decisions that are made for political expedience. Diminishing the size and budget of the federal government is economically doable, but our leaders lack the political will or desire to do so.

Reducing NATO’s membership in Eastern Europe isn’t difficult, either. Nor is it in our strategic interest to drain our military stockpiles and deplete our political influence in Ukraine. Cutting our naval forces has also been a choice, as was leaving billions of dollars in military hardware—and our global reputation—in Afghanistan.

China Replacing the United States?

On the flip side, China is now driving development throughout much of the world–affecting most of the world’s population–through its Belt and Road Initiative. It’s the largest development project in history, and the United States isn’t a part of it at all.

These events and policies are just the tip of the iceberg in terms of what could accurately be called the “Great American Reset” that’s been unfolding before our eyes in the past three years. The speed of our decline has been stunning, and it appears to be accelerating.

Perhaps the worst part of it is knowing that it’s being done deliberately by our “leaders.” Choices are being made that will affect all Americans in a variety of negative ways.

It sure seems like a Great Reset for America is underway as we speak.

How’s that for a conspiracy theory?

https://www.theepochtimes.com/is-the-great-reset-for-america-already-here_5348630.html?utm_source=Morningbrief&src_src=Morningbrief&utm_campaign=mb-2023-06-23&src_cmp=mb-2023-06-23&utm_medium=email