Earlier this week, NewsBusters was the first to report that the defamation suit against CNN could cost the network upwards of $1 billion. The possible cumulative damages were able to be that high because a Florida appeals court affirmed that plaintiff, security contractor, and Navy veteran Zachary Young was able to prove malice on behalf of CNN. And what few have seen, was the video from inside the oral arguments leading up to that ruling where two judges grilled CNN’s lawyer on their use of the term “black market” and if the network’s oversight board owned dictionaries.
At the top of his statement in oral argument, CNN’s counsel Charles D. Tobin seemingly tried to suggest that CNN’s negative attitude toward Young was warranted because he wouldn’t answer their questions regarding his efforts to get corporately sponsored Afghans out of the country, Judge L. Clayton Roberts interrupted and made the point, “that we with regard to the allegations that CNN called – said Mr. Young's prices were too high. That's kind of a subjective thing, right? You know whether something costs too much, it seems like mostly opinion. Right?”
FBI Raids Oakland Home Tied to Campaign Contribution Laundering Scheme: High-Profile Political Connections Including Biden, Harris, Newsom, Bonta, and Becerra Under Scrutiny
A temporary election worker for Maricopa County in Arizona was arrested after he allegedly stole items from an election center.
Law enforcement officials revealed that 27-year-old Walter Ringfield was arrested on Friday after he reportedly stole a security fob and keys from the Maricopa County Tabulation and Election Center, according to KTAR News.
Ringfield, who was on probation for a previous felony, was booked into jail on charges of “theft and criminal damage,” according to the outlet.
The Maricopa County Elections Department said in a statement to ABC15 that election workers who had been conducting “daily inventory” on Friday morning, realized that “an item” was missing “from the Ballot Tabulation Center and had been taken the night before.”
“On Friday morning, when completing a daily inventory, Maricopa County election workers identified that an item was taken from the Ballot Tabulation Center on Thursday evening,” the Maricopa County Election Department said. “Staff took immediate action to investigate the matter and contacted the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office. The stolen item has been recovered but to ensure the integrity of the Maricopa County Elections, election workers are reprogramming and reconducting logic and accuracy testing of all equipment.”
Security footage reportedly showed an employee taking the security fob and keys off a desk before placing the items in his pocket.
When questioned, Ringfield reportedly denied taking the items. However, law enforcement officers who arrived at his home the following day spotted “part of the keys” in his car.
The security fob was reportedly not found, according to the outlet.
Ringfield is reportedly not eligible for bond due to being on probation.
For the first time in 30 years, Argentina experienced a zero-percent increase in the inflation rates of food and drinks during the third week of June, President Javier Milei confirmed on Monday morning.
A study published on Sunday by Econométrica, a private Argentine consulting firm, first reported the no-inflation week. In its study, Econométrica analyzed 8,000 prices in local online supermarkets and found no change when compared to the preceding week — something that has not happened in Argentina in three decades. In addition to the lack of variation in prices in one week, the study found that the prices of food and drinks only experienced an increase of 0.1 percent in the past 15 days.
Last week, we published an editorial arguing that government data didn’t support various claims about climate change. And we predicted Google would demonetize it. We were right. (See: Heat Wave Sets Off New Round Of ‘Climate Crisis’ Lies.)
Shortly after that article was published, Google’s AdSense informed us that it had “disabled ad serving” on that page because the article contained “unreliable and harmful claims.” (We have one spot on our pages for AdSense ads, mostly to track Google’s efforts to demonetize content. See the list of related editorials below.)
So what was “unreliable” or “harmful” about that editorial? Google doesn’t say. It just says we have to “fix” it if we want their ads to run on that page.
What we can say is that Google has effectively labeled official government data as “unreliable and harmful,” since all the evidence we provided was from official sources.
The editorial pointed out that claims about more frequent heat waves, tornadoes, hurricanes, and wildfires – claims that get repeated ad nauseam by the mainstream press and by climate activists – are not supported by the official data.
We included charts and cited the sources of the data – sources such as the Environmental Protection Agency, the National Interagency Fire Center, the government-run GlobalChange.gov, etc.
Here’s how Google defines “unreliable and harmful.”
It’s the last line that Google uses to censor any content that doesn’t toe the climate “crisis” line.
Anything that “contradicts authoritative scientific consensus” just means whatever the climate change fanatics say it means, since there is in truth no “consensus” about many of the claims made about global warming.
In truth, the very notion of an “authoritative scientific consensus” violates the basic principle of science.
“Doubt in science is a feature, not a bug,” notes an article in Scientific American. “Indeed, the paradox is that science, when properly functioning, questions accepted facts and yields both new knowledge and new questions — not certainty,”
Imagine if Google had been around when Einstein contradicted the “authoritative scientific consensus” about Newtonian physics.
Or when Copernicus contradicted the “authoritative scientific consensus” that the Sun revolved around Earth.
Or when, in 1543, Andreas Vesalius challenged the “authoritative scientific consensus” about human anatomy that had been in place for 1,300 years.
What Google is doing here (supposedly on behalf of advertisers who use its ad network) isn’t protecting the public against false information – it is attacking true information that undermines climate change dogma.
It is, in other words, just a thinly veiled attempt to enforce a pseudo-religious orthodoxy. Google is nothing more than a 21st-century version of the Spanish Inquisition.
Mike Morell was the Deputy CIA Director when the Benghazi attack happened under Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. {GO DEEP} Clinton and CIA Director Leon Panetta used Qatar to organize the sale of shoulder fired missiles to al-Qaeda in Libya. At the time of the Benghazi attack Ambassador Chris Stephens was working with the CIA in Eastern Libya trying to buy-back the missiles.
General David Petraeus became CIA Director shortly before the 9-11-12 Benghazi attack (Panetta moved to Defense Secretary) and had no risk from the previous missile sales as they took place before his tenure. This made Petraeus a risk.
After Benghazi, the Intelligence Community, supported by Mike Morell, quickly organized a removal operation to get rid of Petraeus using the blackmail they held over him from CBS correspondent Paula Broadwell.
Petraeus was threatened and eventually removed, Mike Morell took his place as Acting CIA Director to protect the CIA, Hillary Clinton, Leon Panetta and the larger Obama administration, from the aftermath of the Benghazi mess.
After the cleanup operation was successful, Morell then went to work for Hillary Clinton and CBS. Morell is a deeply professional liar. He knows I watch him.
When working for Hillary Clinton in August of 2016, Mike Morell published the first outline of the Trump-Russia collusion conspiracy in the New York Times. It was all a lie; we all know it – no one ever held him to account.
Four years later, in the 2020 presidential election cycle Mike Morell did it again; this time organizing the 51 intelligence officers to claim the Hunter Biden laptop was Russian disinformation. Morell led this effort with the State Dept and CIA. Again, it was all a lie; we all know it – no one ever held him to account, and Mike Morell remains working for CBS to this day.
2024 is another presidential election year. The problem for the Intelligence Community (IC), is their prior lies have caught up with them. They cannot lie Biden back into office. The IC needs something else, something more severe. Something more dramatic. Mike Morell is now saying a terrorist attack is about to happen on USA soil. WATCH:
[TRANSCRIPT] – MARGARET BRENNAN: We’re joined now by former CIA Deputy Director, Mike Morell. He’s also our CBS News senior national security contributor. Good to have you here.
MIKE MORELL: Good to be here, Margaret.
MARGARET BRENNAN: You just had that Foreign Affairs article that got all this attention, “The Terrorism Warning Lights are Blinking Red Again.” You compare the moment we are in now to what happened in the lead up to 9/11. And I want to play something FBI director Chris Wray said earlier this month.
[START SOUND ON TAPE]
FBI DIRECTOR CHRISTOPHER WRAY: Our most immediate concern has been that individuals or small groups will draw a twisted inspiration from the events in the Middle East to carry out attacks here at home. But now, on top of that, increasingly concerning is the potential for a coordinated attack here in the homeland, not unlike the ISIS-K attack we saw at the Russia concert hall back in March.
[START END ON TAPE]
MARGARET BRENNAN: That’s chilling. The White House says the president is briefed regularly on threats. If that is true, do you think he’s doing enough?
MIKE MORELL: Hard for me to say whether he’s doing enough because a lot of what needs to be done we wouldn’t see publicly. What I would say is, I ran into a lot of current- former intelligence- current intelligence officers and current policymakers. After we published the article, the response was almost universal. And we’re glad you wrote this. It’s really important. I read that as maybe there’s a lack of sense of- of a sense of urgency here. And that’s really important.
MARGARET BRENNAN : A lack of sense of urgency among members of the public? Or the government?
MIKE MORELL: The administration. Yeah. And Congress, quite frankly. There needs to be a sense of urgency about this. And I think the American public needs to understand what the threat is. That’s why we called for a public congressional hearing just on the terrorist threats to the homeland. Right, not a hearing on threats broadly, but threats to the homeland. And then we need to hear what the administration is doing about this in a broad sense, right. Not the details, but in a broad sense.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Well, I asked the chair of the House Intelligence Committee, Republican Mike Turner, about exactly your proposal, and he- he really kind of dismissed it. He said, Oh, we’ve covered that.
(CROSSTALK)
MIKE MORELL: He said- we already covered that. They haven’t.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Right, he did call for the administration to declassify information. Our colleague, Sam Vinograd who ran vetting at the border for DHS, said basically that the information that feeds those vetting lists, the watch lists, is dependent on how much good intelligence is collected, and that has been under-resourced. Do you agree with that?
MIKE MORELL: I- I agree with that 100%. We’ve shifted resources from the counterterrorism community to the China community. Now, that’s understandable to some degree, it’s been significant. So I think there’s a cost to the intelligence we’re collecting. The vetting system beyond not having the information- the vetting system does not provide all of the information that the government has. There was just a DHS inspector general report that outlined all the problems with the vetting system. So it’s lack of information and it is the system itself.
MARGARET BRENNAN: That- and we have it on a graphic, the report said Customs and Border Protection could not access all federal data necessary to enable complete screening and vetting of non-citizens seeking admission into the United States. This is the government saying we can’t vet everyone properly.
MIKE MORELL: Right. And Customs and Border doesn’t have the technology, right? To even connect. There are all sorts of issues here that need to be resolved.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Mike Morell, stay with us. I have to take a break but there’s much more I want to talk to you about.
[COMMERCIAL BREAK]
MARGARET BRENNAN: Welcome back to Face The Nation. We return now to our conversation with CBS News senior national security contributor, Mike Morell. Mike, I want to ask you about some video that CBS broadcasted earlier this week, 60 Minutes obtained it. It’s Saudi national Omar al-Bayoumi walking around the US Capitol back in 1999. We’re seeing that video now. It was shot within 90 days of the time when senior al Qaeda planners were deciding on 9/11 targets according to the FBI. At the time you were at the CIA. We know now the FBI identified this man, al-Bayoumi, as an intelligence operative with close ties to two of the 9/11 hijackers. But in that 9/11 commission report it said there was no credible evidence that he was a violent extremist or aided extremists. Now that you have seen this video, what do you think it reveals?
MIKE MORELL: No doubt in my mind, that it is a casing video, that it is a casing video for some sort of terrorist attack. Number one. Number two, pretty clear to me that al-Bayoumi was- was either working for al Qaeda, or was Al Qaeda. Did he know about the 9/11 attacks? Probably not. Did he know that the two individuals he was interacting with were 9/11 hijackers? Probably not. But- but no doubt in my mind that al Qaeda tasked him to do this casing video. The video is chilling. It’s chilling in terms of what he was- what he was videotaping, his narration over the top of it which- which is part what tells you it was a casing video. And his- his- his extremist comments. Let me just give you two examples, Margaret. On- on the casing part. At one point he says I will get over, he’s looking at the Washington Monument, I will get over there and I will report. I will report to you in detail what is there. He’s talking to somebody, right? He’s- and- and he’s talking about a plan–
MARGARET BRENNAN: — Not like a tourist would?
MIKE MORELL: Not like a tourist video. And then in terms of the extremism, he’s- he’s- he’s looking at the Capitol. And he says they say that our kids are demons. However, these are the demons, what he’s looking at.
MARGARET BRENNAN: So the FBI concluded he was not a threat. The 9/11 commission report concluded he was not a threat. You’re saying it’s clear he was Al Qaeda and living under the noses and examination of law enforcement undetected. He’s now living in Saudi Arabia as we speak. That’s pretty- that’s a pretty big oversight by US law enforcement and intelligence. Did the CIA know about this video?
MIKE MORELL: We did not. You know, I’m 99.9% confident that we did not have this video. I was the President’s briefer at the time. If somebody had shown me this video, I would have shown it to the President.
MARGARET BRENNAN: It was, as I understand it, UK officials- UK intelligence that scooped up this video?
MIKE MORELL: Yes, just so- so- so when he left the United States, he went to the UK. And after- after 9/11, the FBI discovered that he had signed- helped- helped- helped the two 9/11 hijackers get their first apartment. He- and the FBI learned that they learned that he was in the UK. So they go to the UK Government and they say- they share all this information. The British government arrests him, detains him, interrogates him, gets all this material. They say they provided it back to the FBI.
MARGARET BRENNAN: And it just stayed at the FBI.
MIKE MORELL: It looks- it looks that way.
MARGARET BRENNAN: A lot more to come on this including on 60 Minutes in the fall. Thank you so much for your analysis Mike Morell. We’ll be right back.
If Tucker Carlson is correct about what lies ahead in the future of Donald Trump, the investigators would be wise to immediately check the schedule, calendar, contact communications and general SIGNIT that swirls around Mike Morell. History rhymes, and Mike Morell is our Adolf Eichmann.
We’re reducing our standard of living — including everything that makes us human — while China and India burn coal with abandon.
The world is said to be in a climate emergency. Illegal immigration, aircraft turbulence, and even your dog's behavior are all blamed on climate change.
The prescribed solutions are the forced adoption of so-called green technologies that are less reliable and more expensive, driving up costs and lowering living standards. The enforcers of climate orthodoxy frown on eating red meat, having babies, and, in general, being human because doing so emits greenhouse gases that supposedly will overheat the planet.
Why must people in the West forego their access to affordable energy sources when coal-guzzling China and India aren't going to give up fossil fuels for the next 40 years?
None of it makes sense, particularly when juxtaposed with the massive and growing emissions of such gases from new coal plants in India and China. Western governments are punishing their citizens for no good reason.
Keep these in mind as you contemplate the direction of the American government over the past 50 years and especially since the Obama election.
The Goals of Communism
(as read into the congressional record January 10, 1963, from "The Naked Communist" by Cleon Skousen)
1. U.S. acceptance of coexistence as the only alternative to atomic war.
2. U.S. willingness to capitulate in preference to engaging in atomic war.
3. Develop the illusion that total disarmament of the United States would be a demonstration of moral strength.
4. Permit free trade between all nations regardless of Communist affiliation and regardless of whether or not items could be used for war.
5. Extension of long-term loans to Russia and Soviet satellites.
6. Provide American aid to all nations regardless of Communist domination.
7. Grant recognition of Red China. Admission of Red China to the U.N.
8. Set up East and West Germany as separate states in spite of Khrushchev's promise in 1955 to settle the German question by free elections under supervision of the U.N.
9. Prolong the conferences to ban atomic tests because the United States has agreed to suspend tests as long as negotiations are in progress.
10. Allow all Soviet satellites individual representation in the U.N.
11. Promote the U.N. as the only hope for mankind. If its charter is rewritten, demand that it be set up as a one-world government with its own independent armed forces. (Some Communist leaders believe the world can be taken over as easily by the U.N. as by Moscow. Sometimes these two centers compete with each other as they are now doing in the Congo.)
12. Resist any attempt to outlaw the Communist Party.
13. Do away with all loyalty oaths.
14. Continue giving Russia access to the U.S. Patent Office.
15. Capture one or both of the political parties in the United States.
16. Use technical decisions of the courts to weaken basic American institutions by claiming their activities violate civil rights.
17. Get control of the schools. Use them as transmission belts for socialism and current Communist propaganda. Soften the curriculum. Get control of teachers' associations. Put the party line in textbooks.
18. Gain control of all student newspapers.
19. Use student riots to foment public protests against programs or organizations which are under Communist attack.
20. Infiltrate the press. Get control of book-review assignments, editorial writing, policymaking positions.
21. Gain control of key positions in radio, TV, and motion pictures.
22. Continue discrediting American culture by degrading all forms of artistic expression. An American Communist cell was told to "eliminate all good sculpture from parks and buildings, substitute shapeless, awkward and meaningless forms."
23. Control art critics and directors of art museums. "Our plan is to promote ugliness, repulsive, meaningless art."
24. Eliminate all laws governing obscenity by calling them "censorship" and a violation of free speech and free press.
25. Break down cultural standards of morality by promoting pornography and obscenity in books, magazines, motion pictures, radio, and TV.
26. Present homosexuality, degeneracy and promiscuity as "normal, natural, healthy."
27. Infiltrate the churches and replace revealed religion with "social" religion. Discredit the Bible and emphasize the need for intellectual maturity which does not need a "religious crutch."
28. Eliminate prayer or any phase of religious expression in the schools on the ground that it violates the principle of "separation of church and state."
29. Discredit the American Constitution by calling it inadequate, old-fashioned, out of step with modern needs, a hindrance to cooperation between nations on a worldwide basis.
30. Discredit the American Founding Fathers. Present them as selfish aristocrats who had no concern for the "common man."
31. Belittle all forms of American culture and discourage the teaching of American history on the ground that it was only a minor part of the "big picture." Give more emphasis to Russian history since the Communists took over.
32. Support any socialist movement to give centralized control over any part of the culture--education, social agencies, welfare programs, mental health clinics, etc.
33. Eliminate all laws or procedures which interfere with the operation of the Communist apparatus.
34. Eliminate the House Committee on Un-American Activities.
35. Discredit and eventually dismantle the FBI.
36. Infiltrate and gain control of more unions.
37. Infiltrate and gain control of big business.
38. Transfer some of the powers of arrest from the police to social agencies. Treat all behavioral problems as psychiatric disorders which no one but psychiatrists can understand.
39. Dominate the psychiatric profession and use mental health laws as a means of gaining coercive control over those who oppose Communist goals.
40. Discredit the family as an institution. Encourage promiscuity and easy divorce.
41. Emphasize the need to raise children away from the negative influence of parents. Attribute prejudices, mental blocks and retarding of children to suppressive influence of parents.
42. Create the impression that violence and insurrection are legitimate aspects of the American tradition; that students and special-interest groups should rise up and use united force to solve economic, political or social problems.
43. Overthrow all colonial governments before native populations are ready for self-government.
44. Internationalize the Panama Canal.
45. Repeal the Connally reservation so the United States cannot prevent the World Court from seizing jurisdiction over nations and individuals alike.