Category: Question O’ The Day

Question O’ The Day.
So was Milley lying to Trump, or was he actually that clueless?

General Milley told Trump the George Floyd protests were no big deal.

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley dismissed the George Floyd riots as “penny packet protests” — insisting they weren’t an insurrection because the mobs only “used spray paint,” according to a new book.

The under-fire general — accused of going behind President Donald Trump’s back to contact his Chinese counterpart — wildly downplayed the riots when Trump raised fears they were “burning America down,” according to Fox News excerpts from the new book, “Peril.”

“Mr. President, they are not burning it down,” he told the alarmed commander-in-chief, according to authors Bob Woodward and Robert Costa.

“They used spray paint, Mr. President, that’s not an insurrection,” he told Trump.

It was not immediately clear when the conversation happened, but violent, fiery protests broke out in cities across the US soon after Floyd’s death at the hands of Minneapolis police in May 2020.

New York City saw mass looting and fires in the street, including torched police vehicles, while other cities saw deadly shootings within days, and thousands of National Guard members were ultimately deployed in at least 15 states, Fox News also noted.

Milley, however, gestured to a portrait of President Abraham Lincoln as he tried to dismiss Trump’s clear fears over the violence.

“We’re a country of 330 million people. You’ve got these penny packet protests,” he said, using a term for something insignificant, according to the book being published Sept. 21.

Milley insisted it was not an issue for the US military — and instead said the protests were understandable given systemic racism, according to the Fox excerpts.

“That’s pent up in communities that have been experiencing what they perceive to be police brutality,” Milley reportedly told Trump.

But when the Jan. 6 Capitol riot happened, Milley believed it “was indeed a coup attempt and nothing less than ‘treason,’” the book said.

He feared that Trump might be looking for a “Reichstag moment” and believed the attack “so unimagined and savage, [it] could be a dress rehearsal for something larger,” the authors wrote.

Milley’s spokesperson told Fox News that his office was not commenting on the book.

Question O’ The Day

Why Isn’t the Attack on Larry Elder the Biggest Story in America?

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Question O’ The Day

Would Biden Veto a Move at UN To Repeal Taliban’s Status as Terrorist Organization?

The next diplomatic move on Afghanistan may well occur at the United Nations, where the Taliban is still designated a terror organization. But is it?

Over the weekend the UN humanitarian chief, Martin Griffiths, flew to Kabul for meetings with Taliban leaders, including the group’s political honcho, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar.

None of his interlocutors asked him to remove the Taliban from the UN Security Council’s terror list, Mr. Griffiths told me, adding that Afghanistan isn’t the only place where UN humanitarian activity happens despite such listing.

To avert what the world body’s secretary general, Antonio Guterres, is calling a “looming humanitarian catastrophe,” an international conference to raise funds for UN relief efforts in Afghanistan is due to convene on September 13 at Geneva. That’s two days after the world marks the 20th anniversary of 9/11, which was hatched in Afghanistan under the Taliban rule.

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Applying Sun Tzu’s axioms, knowing what your enemy is up to is half the battle.

We thank this author, and the authors of the articles for self identifying and providing such excellent evidentiary material.

Does Expanding Gun Access Threaten US Stability?

Commentators have pointed to the recent uptick in gun violence to push for looser gun laws and greater access to weapons for self-defense.

But the authors of an essay collection published by the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law argue that expanding access to guns will undermine safety, stability and democracy in the U.S.

Titled “Protests, Insurrection and the Second Amendment,” the 13 essays “probe the complicated relationship between guns and race, policing, domestic violence, and republican government,” writes Brennan Center fellow Eric Ruben.

The Crime Report spoke with the authors of three essays: Stanford University Law Professor John J. Donohue, Duke University Law Professor Darrell A. H. Miller and Cornell University Law Professor Sherry F. Colb.

The full collection — which includes contributions from 14 scholars — is available here.

I’ll take questions that have an affirmative answer for $500, Alex.

Urban Violence: A Problem of Dem Administrations?

ABC News is reporting that “At least four major U.S. cities were reeling from an onslaught of mass shootings over the weekend that left at least 38 people wounded, six dead and police officials alarmed that the surge in gun violence is a prelude to a bloody summer.

But is there more to the story, which mentions Austin, Cleveland, Chicago and Savannah?

What about the politics of the people running those cities? Liberty Park Press checked. All four have Democrat mayors. In Cleveland, Mayor Frank Jackson has already announced he will not seek another term.

Cleveland City Councilman Mike Polensek was quoted by WOIO News noting, “Gun confiscations are up 120%, and we are ten more homicides (as of yesterday) ahead of where we were last year –and last year, we were on our way to set a record number of homicides. It’s not acceptable.”

According to ABC News, “Austin Mayor Steve Adler tweeted that the mass-casualty shooting occurred even as police initiated multiple violence prevention programs intended to combat a recent increase in shootings in the Texas capital city.

“But this crisis requires a broader, coordinated response from all levels of government,” Adler said. “One thing is clear – greater access to firearms does not equal greater public safety.”

Last week in Orlando, Joe Biden was in town to observe the fifth anniversary of the Pulse nightclub mass shooting, during which he declared, “It is long past time we close the loopholes that allow gun buyers to bypass background checks in this country, and the Senate should start by passing the three House-passed bills which would do exactly that.”

But the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms is firing back at Biden.

“Joe Biden told reporters it is time to close loopholes that allow gun buyers to bypass background checks, but it is well-documented that the Orlando mass killer had passed background checks when he legally purchased the rifle and pistol used in the attack,” said CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb. “Biden was either stupid, or intellectually dishonest with his remarks, and I’m livid the establishment media omitted this key fact in its reporting.”

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Question O’ The Day

Was it “innocent” gain-of-function research, or was it intentional bioweapon work? And was the leak accidental, or deliberate?

Bear in mind that secret military programs often have nested cover stories, where when one is penetrated, it leads to a new one.
[and how well I know that technique]

Natural germ in “wet market” –> lab leak –> deliberate release?
Who knows?
That last may be impossible to determine, unless a Chinese defector spills the beans or something. One way to address this in the future is to ban gain-of-function research, so that if it happens you know it’s illicit. Too late for that in this case, of course, since U.S. taxpayers, through the NIH, were actually funding this research.

Why is the Postal Service, which can’t seem to do its actual job, functioning as an internal security agency surveilling American citizens?

Report: USPS ‘Internet Covert Operations Program’ Is ‘Much Broader in Scope Than Previously Known’
The program ‘includes analysts who assume fake identities online, use sophisticated intelligence tools, and employ facial recognition software.”

Last month, Yahoo News ripped the lid off of a government surveillance program run by a division of the USPS. The program monitors, scans, and collects information on social media postings considered “inflammatory” enough to pass along to other government agencies. It includes posts promoting the coordination and planning of upcoming political demonstrations.

The program’s existence came out after the news outlet obtained a copy of a March USPS bulletin that was “distributed through the Department of Homeland Security’s fusion centers.” It warned of the possibility of violence at upcoming protests though they acknowledged they had no reliable intelligence to suggest any alleged threats were legitimate:

“Analysts with the United States Postal Inspection Service (USPIS) Internet Covert Operations Program (iCOP) monitored significant activity regarding planned protests occurring internationally and domestically on March 20, 2021,” says the March 16 government bulletin, marked as “law enforcement sensitive” and distributed through the Department of Homeland Security’s fusion centers. “Locations and times have been identified for these protests, which are being distributed online across multiple social media platforms, to include right-wing leaning Parler and Telegram accounts.”

[…]

“No intelligence is available to suggest the legitimacy of these threats,” it adds.

The bulletin includes screenshots of posts about the protests from Facebook, Parler, Telegram and other social media sites. Individuals mentioned by name include one alleged Proud Boy and several others whose identifying details were included but whose posts did not appear to contain anything threatening.

“iCOP analysts are currently monitoring these social media channels for any potential threats stemming from the scheduled protests and will disseminate intelligence updates as needed,” the bulletin says.

The report about the previously unknown iCOP sparked an outcry among Congressional Republicans. A House Oversight and Reform Committee hearing was held a week later where a USPS official confirmed its existence without going into a lot of detail:

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