Category Archives: Federalist

Quintez Brown, a 21-year-old Black Lives Matter activist, allegedly marched into the office of Louisville, Ky., mayoral candidate Craig Greenberg on Valentines Day and opened fire, sending a bullet through Greenbergs clothing before fleeing the scene. Despite the storys shock value, corporate media cant be bothered to do much reporting on the story and we all know exactly why.

Despite Browns history as a BLM activist and his flirtation with black nationalism on social media, most media outlets have shrugged off his motive for the shooting with a who knows? or even tried to pin it on Republicans. Brown was also a vocal gun-control advocate and was interviewed by Joy Reid on MSNBC at an anti-gun march in 2018.

The Las Vegas Sun completely whitewashed Browns far-left associations, asininely writing that While theres been no indication yet that the activist had ties to any right-wing organizations, the shooting comes amid a rise in threats against politicians fueled by increasingly violent rhetoric coming from extremist Republicans. After backlash, the Sun tweaked the sentence to admit, [I]ts been reported that the activist was involved in the Black Lives Matter and gun-safety movements but still followed the line with the original sentence in its entirety rather than issuing a correction.

ABC simply called Brown a social justice activist, and after the local BLM chapter helped bail him out, David Muir vaguely referred to the group as a community organization.

The New York Times wrote one single article on the shooting, as of Friday morning, but nowhere is any language of assassination. In contrast, federal prosecutors freely slandered the rioters on Jan. 6, 2021, as planning to assassinate officials, a claim corporate media happily parroted until the feds walked it back from lack of evidence.

The Washington Post also deigned to publish only one write-up on the Louisville incident, likewise avoiding any language of assassination and merely referring to Browns checkered activist past as having previously worked with violence prevention groups and participated in racial justice protests in 2020. Neither paper referred to Browns alleged crime as any sort of terrorism, even though the left has liberally doused Republicans, down to parents at school board meetings, with the incendiary term.

Its easy to imagine how outraged the headlines would be if the shooter were a Republican. Trumpist White Supremacist Domestic Terrorist Assassination Attempt Shows Dangers of Republican Rhetoric, Need for DOJ Hate Crimes Investigation would be splattered across every page (shoot, the Las Vegas Sun is practically writing that anyway!). When a troubled high schooler tragically shot and killed classmates at his school in Michigan, news outlets were quick to dig up his moms pro-Trump blog posts.

But in Browns case, even though we know his history as a BLM and gun-control activist, the corporate press is signaling that his motive is either unknown or just not all that relevant (when they mention the story at all). And its not the first time leftist outlets have memory-holed a sensationally horrifying story because the attackers motive or background was politically inconvenient.

Just two months ago, when a radical who had repeatedly called for violence against white people drove his truck through a Christmas parade in Waukesha, Wis., killing six people, the press corps quickly downplayed or buried not just the suspects problematic past but the story itself. Many blamed it on the car while MSNBC analyst Clint Watts went so far as to call the attack an accident.

In April 2021, when Noah Green a devout follower of Louis Farrakhans antisemitic, black nationalist group, the Nation of Islam rammed into barriers at the U.S. Capitol armed with a knife and murdered Capitol Police officer Billy Evans, the media cabal couldnt be bothered either. Greens motives are not entirely clear, The Hill said. The suspects motive isnt known, but he posted on social media about his struggles during the pandemic, wrote The New York Times.

Although Green murdered a Capitol Police officer unlike anyone on Jan. 6 his act was quickly scuttled by media while the events of Jan. 6 were hysterically broadcast as acts of terrorism and insurrection. Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker even issued a commemorative statement on the one-year anniversary of Jan. 6 mistakenly blaming Trump supporters for Evans death.

And when Bernie bro James Hodgkinson shot up a baseball game of Republican congressmen in 2017, corporate media either blamed Trump or insisted we all share some of the blame. Even though Hodgkinson was part of Facebook groups like Terminate the Republican Party and had written Its Time to Destroy Trump & Co on his own page, talking heads concluded that his violence was incited not by their own anti-Trump vitriol but leaders and political commentators who set an example that led us into an abyss of violent rhetoric.

Any debate about civility in politics begins with Trump, was New York Times political reporter Glenn Thrushs very bad take.

After a neighbor assaulted Kentucky Republican Sen. Rand Paul in 2018 while he was mowing his lawn, breaking five ribs and forcing the senator to undergo surgery to remove part of his lung, blue checkmarks on Twitter flippantly cheered the attempt, with Nancy Pelosis daughter going so far as the say the assailant was right.

Not only are leftists double standards apparent in the reality-defying theatrics theyre pulling to escape association with the Louisville would-be assassin, they are also visible in the efforts to post bail for the shooter.

When donors tried to crowdsource funds to post the outrageously high $2 million bail set for Kyle Rittenhouse, a teenager who has since been acquitted of all charges after shooting multiple people in self-defense, leftist platform GoFundMe shut down the fundraising campaigns. GoFundMe also neutralized the fundraising campaign for Canadian truckers protesting their governments Covid mandates, and after the groups efforts to fundraise on another platform were hacked, media gleefully doxxed and shamed private donors whose information was posted online.

But in Browns case, with a bail set at one-twentieth of Rittenhouses bail, Black Lives Matter Louisville and the Louisville Community Bail Fund helped Brown post his $100,000 bail on Wednesday, two days after the shooting. CNNs Rex Chapman has repeatedly fundraised for the two groups but dont hold your breath waiting for Chapman to face doxxing or cancellation over his support for an attempted murder suspect.

Elle Reynolds is an assistant editor at The Federalist, and received her B.A. in government from Patrick Henry College with a minor in journalism. You can follow her work on Twitter at @_etreynolds.

Original post:

Media Dismiss Assassination Attempt Because It Doesn't Fit The Narrative - The Federalist

If you hadnt heard, Democrats and the experts have decided its time to return all the things they took from you. For your own good. Well, some of it. At least for a little while.

President Bidens Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Rochelle Walensky said Wednesday (surely after careful consideration of The Science) that Americans have earned a treat. We want to give people a break from things like mask-wearing when these [Covid hospitalization] metrics are better, she said, and then have the ability to reach for them again should things worsen.

That same day, Saint Anthony Fauci likewise noted the growing portion of the public that is just up to here with COVID and just really need to somehow get their life back.

Democrat Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney of New York declared last week that it was time to give people their lives back.

For two years these people demanded that we (but not necessarily themselves) keep masks strapped over our mouths (preferably two), stay home, and forego anything that might resemble fun or pleasure. It looks like now that were heading into the midterms, they want to give us a reward. The prize: your rights.*

*Well, some of them!

Fox News on Wednesday played the clip of Walensky and to my shock and horror, the accompanying segment wasnt about the scary, dictatorial language that Democrats and the experts use were ready to give you a break! but how there might be better days ahead? (question mark included).

That anyone in government feels free to talk like this aloud without flinching, let alone the fear of being shot, speaks to just how much trouble were in and how deadly earnest the midterm elections are.

It apparently needs to be said in 2022 that freedom in this country is not (yet!) a reward. Its a right. No political party should feel emboldened to say that the things were entitled to are for them to give and take as they see fit.

Walensky certainly gave the game away. There is no new science to suggest she should have changed her mind about masks reducing the spread of Covid. She simply thinks its time for a break, something she believes is hers to give. A break should be understood for what it is a pause. How convenient that that pause would coincide with the upcoming midterms. Its no mystery as to when that pause would end.

Theres only one way to be sure this wont continue after November. If it fails, enjoy the break while it lasts.

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Dems' 2022 Slogan: Enjoy This Small Break From Covid Tyranny We Bestow Upon You - The Federalist

The Black Lives Matter plot thickened this week with some particularly partisan developments after a longtime Clinton family ally and a top Russia hoaxer essentially took over the organization.

According to recent filings asreportedby The Washington Examiner, Marc Elias, a Democrat lawyer known for funding the bogus Steele dossier while he was general counsel for Hillary Clintons 2016 campaign, looks to be representing BLMs Global Network Foundation through his law firm. Additionally, Minyon Moore, a top Clinton ally, is now on BLMs board of directors.

In other words, the corrupt Democrat establishment has effectively taken over a major left-wing organization committed to radical left-wing policies and race-hustling.

This might not seem like a big deal. Its not like BLM was a neutral or centrist entity thats suddenly going to be run by Democrats. On the contrary, the organization, which is under intense scrutiny right now for leadership corruption, shady finances, and disclosure delays, has long been upfront about its extreme aims. Its founder admitted the groups embrace of Marxism, and its webpage used to broadcast its disdain for the traditional nuclear family.

The problem arises in the stickiness of the Black Lives Matter name and what it means that figures within the Democrat establishment now explicitly own that brand.

The genius and frustration of the Black Lives Matter organization has always been that by virtue of its very name, it cannot be easily battled, for its irrefutable that black lives do indeed matter. In dubbing itself Black Lives Matter, the organization grants legitimacy to its actions and those of its broader movement including even the violent riots carried out by its followers. Whats more, it automatically retains a rhetorical edge on its opponents: Only racists would argue with Black Lives Matter, they shout over their critics.

Its for this reason that support for the organization goes unquestioned where other political sloganeering isnt tolerated. Schoolchildren can wear masks that say Black Lives Matter but are forced to remove them if they say Jesus Loves Me instead. As part of my former apartment lease term, no flags could be flown from the balcony, but BLM flags waved proudly from adjacent units without a peep from the management office. Arson, murder, and property destruction by BLM rioters are described with sanitary fiery but mostly peaceful protests chyrons on network television.

Amid the 2020 summer of rage, even an independent agency of the federal government tried to suggest that supporting Black Lives Matter isnt political or partisan.

Except now thats even more demonstrably false. The slogan that trumps every argument and the organization it represents once implicitly belonged to the left, but now theyre explicitly owned and controlled by Democrats. Where once you couldnt disagree with Black Lives Matter, now you cant disagree with the Democrat establishment itself. Its the ultimate power of narrative-setting.

Whats worse than Democrats with lots of power? Democrats with lots of power and lots of cash. When BLM founder Patrisse Cullors stepped down from her post and the two activists she appointed to replace her turned down the offer, she left behind BLM accounts full of roughly $60 million, and it was unclear exactly what would become of these massive finances and who exactly would be in charge of handling them.

Given the money involved here, this is really unbelievable, CharityWatch Executive Director Laurie Styron told the Examiner. To not know who is in charge of $60+ million collected by the national charity arm of arguably the most prominent social justice movement in the country is the worst transparency issue I have seen in my 18 years as a charity watchdog.

BLMs newly reported charitable organization filing, however, states that its books are in the care of the organization that is located at c/o Elias Law Group. Bingo.

The sanitized cover that once applied to the activities of the racial justice organization will now surely apply in the same manner to the race-hustling Democrats shielded by Black Lives Matters sticky name and its loads and loads of green.

More here:

Dems' BLM Takeover Means A New Multimillion-Dollar Race Hustling Hub - The Federalist

Chinese leader Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin issued a defiantjoint statementlast week. They affirmed their strong mutual support for the protection of their core interests and openly opposed the U.S.-led world order and value system. Many international observers saw the statement as a manifesto for a new multipolar world order in which Russia and China are united against the United States.

To demonstrate the strength of their unofficial alliance, Russia pledged it supports a successful hosting by the Chinese side of the Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games in Beijing in 2022, undoubtedly snubbing at the U.S.-led diplomatic boycott of both games. Russia also affirms, Taiwan is an inalienable part of China, and opposes any forms of independence of Taiwan. In return, for the first time in history, China joined Russia in opposing any further enlargement of NATO.

The joint statement claims that the friendship between [Russia and China] knows no limits. But the questions remain how strong their alliance really is and how long it will last.

Russia and China share a border that is more than 2,000 miles long and have fought numerous wars over border disputes. After Joseph Stalin died in 1953, the ideological divisions and power struggle between Chinas leader Mao Zedong and USSRs leader Nikita Khrushchev led to a drastic fallout between the two nations.

The USSR ceased economic and military aid to China and pulled out all Soviet technicians helping China industrialize its economy. Mao responded by severing the diplomatic ties with the USSR in 1967 and began to plot a pivot to the United States. The Soviets accused Mao of biting the hand that fed him. The two nations fought abitter border warbetween 1968 to 1969, which almost led to World War III.

The two nations have only begun to deepen their relationship in recent years out of both fear and necessity. The biggest fear of both Xi and Putin is that colored revolutions, with the backing of the United States, will take place in their countries and overthrow their authoritarian regimes.

Both Xi and Putin face pressure from the West over their aggressions and human rights violations. Both wish to do away with Americas leadership, and the liberal world order America helped establish. Undoubtedly, this shared goal has brought China and Russia closer.

Since 2005, China and Russia have heldjoint military drills. They have also strengthenedeconomic ties. Russia is the second-largest supplier of crude oil to China and the third-largest provider of natural gas. Bilateral trade reached $140 billion in 2021. Trade with China has helped Russia evade economic sanctions imposed by the U.S. and western allies.

But there are plenty of reasons the Sino-Russia alliance is fragile in the long run.

Xi and Putin dont fully trust each other, partially due to the long history of disputes and betrayal between the two nations. In addition, they have different policy goals based on their nations strengths and weaknesses.

Xi doesnt see Russia as an equal partner but as a pawn to realize his vision for China, to replace the United States as the only superpower in a Sino-centered and autocracy-friendly new world. While China is Russias largest trade partner, Russia amounts to less than2 percent of Chinas total trade volume.

Xi has no intention of helping Russia become an economic powerhouse. According toJon Yuan Jiang, a Chinese-Russian relations analyst in Australia,an economically weak but militarily aggressive Russia suits Xis vision. He prefers that the Russian military keeps the west, primarily the United States, occupied and draws attention from Beijings geopolitical expansion. At the same time, he hopes that Russias economic dependency on China will deter Putin from challenging Chinas dominance.

Putin has no delusions that a new world order dominated by China will not bode well for Russia in the long run. His goal is to return Russia to what he sees as the glorious past of the USSR by all measures, including territories, military strength, and economic power. Putin is unsatisfied that Russia is a junior partner in the Sino-Russia economic relationship, and he recognizes that Russias economic dependency on China is a barrier to his goal.

These competing interests goals, alongside historical disputes, mean the Sino-Russia cooperation is limited.

There are three things the Biden administration should do to exploit the friction between China and Russia. First, the Biden administration must reverse its energy policies that have benefited Russia.

Since coming into office, President Biden has imposed ruinous energy policies, including establishing a moratorium on leasing federal lands for oil and gas production and rescinding the permit for the Keystone XL pipeline, which would have added 830,000 barrels of oil a day to the world market.These policies resulted in skyrocketing gas prices, hurting U.S. consumers and economic recovery while creating awindfallfor Russia, and providing Putin the financial resources to cause nuisance worldwide.

The Biden administration should instead lower the cost and remove the regulatory barriers for domestic energy producers to ramp up production. Since the energy sector represents 60 percent of Russias economy, lower oil and gas prices will hurt Russias economy. They may cost Putin the widespread support from the Russian people over Russias possible invasion of Ukraine.

Lowering energy prices worldwide will cause some clashes between China and Russia. As the worlds largest oil and gas importer, China welcomes any opportunity to pay less for energy resources. Beijing will rely on Russian partners less if it can find cheap energy imports elsewhere. Even if, for strategic reasons, Beijing has to maintain imports from Russia, the Chinese will drive a hard bargain on prices, which will undoubtedly cause resentment among Russians.

The second thing the Biden administration should do is focus on economic sanction tools that will drive China and Russia apart. Suppose Russia invades Ukraine, and the West responds by cutting Russia from the international banking system. In that case, China may want to put a distance between itself and Russia because Chinas export-oriented economy is heavily dependent on such a system. Xi will have little appetite to jeopardize Chinas economic growth to save Russia.

Finally, the United States should avoid outcompeting Russia in weapon exports in specific strategic markets. Russias economy is about the size of Italy, and it relies on two types of exports: energy and weapons. Putin has tried to diversify Russias economy to reduce Russias economic dependency on China, even if it means irritating China.

Russia exported$7.5 billionworth of military equipment to India from 2015 to 2019. Russia and India signed a new trade agreement in 2021, pledging to increase bilateral trade to $30 billion by 2025. India and China are rivals. With more than 1.4 billion people and nuclear weapons, India is the only Asian country that checks Chinas growing geopolitical ambitions in Asia. China and India fought a bloody border war in the 1960s. Since 2020, the two nations have engaged incontentious border disputes.

India has been purchasing weapons from both the United States and Russia. China is particularly annoyed that Russia is arming India and expanding trade relations with Beijings rival. As long as India maintains a good relationship with the United States, the United States should not try to outcompete Russia in weapon exports in India. Russias continuing weapon exports to India naturally limit Moscow and Beijings cooperation.

As the saying goes, There are no permanent friends, or permanent enemies; only permanent interests in international relations. The United States should take the cooperation between China and Russia seriously while continuing to exploit opportunities to drive the two apart.

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China And Russia Are Forming A Bond The US Would Be Wise To Exploit - The Federalist

One of the more horrific backdrops in George Orwells Nineteen Eighty-Four is how adults fear children indoctrinated via Hitler Youth-type organizations into denouncing even their mothers and fathers for the slightest deviation from the party line.

For those who think this is the stuff of Cold War fiction, there is the real-life example of Pavel Trofimovich Morozov, a 13-year-old member of the Young Pioneers who turned his father into the government for allegedly hoarding grain during Stalins state-sponsored famine of the countryside in the early 1930s. The result of the denunciation was his fathers death by firing squad. Morozov was then killed by the surviving members of the family.

But a precedent was established. The regime, erecting statues of Morozov and praising him in poems, encouraged Soviet children to emulate Morozovs example and even go beyond denouncing ones parents to all adults in general.

In an era when todays youth support far leftists like Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a new book should help correct what happens to even the most basic of relationships when state socialism is in action.

A hyper-paranoid universe where adults fear children as ideologically driven monsters is brilliantly captured in Ruta Sepetys new historical fiction novel, I Must Betray You. Set in 1991 in the dying days of the Ceausescu regime in Romania a regime that, along with East Germany, was considered horrific even by Soviet standards the novel presents a nightmare world of wild dogs attacking starving children, orphans dragooned into abusive state-run orphanages, and scarce food. Meanwhile, the nations repressive dictator Nicolae Ceausescu lives in Oriental splendor.

The regime becomes even more repressive as the reforms of Mikhail Gorbachev inadvertently cause anti-communist rebellions in Warsaw Pact nations. As each succeeding communist regime collapses, Ceausescus grip becomes tighter.

Into this noxious and desperate atmosphere comes 17-year-old Cristan Florescu, who has managed to create a civil space for himself. He rebels by spiking his hair and reading Western poetry.

But he is soon forced into spying on his friends American diplomat family by a hovering secret agent. The paltry evidence of Florescus treason a dollar bill found in one of Florescus notebooks is all the more horrifying because it is so desperately mundane. Stalin also engaged in such horrific pettiness when he arrested a Soviet woman for dancing with a traveling American jazz band.

The dollar bill symbolizes the heresy of Westernization, one of the many things that activated communist paranoia, in which citizens were imprisoned, tortured, and murdered for being exposed to the corrupting influences of the West. These victims of communist regimes had seen individual liberty in action.

Sepetys has clearly done her homework. The novel is heavily documented with primary sources. She is skillful in telling the story through secret police memos and Florescus poetry, which becomes more and more confrontational as the regime crumbles.

Sepetys is at her best when she shows how this blackmailed teenager, who before the collapse of communism would have been owned by the secret police for life, goes from closet poet to full-throated rebel who, with fellow teenagers, overthrows one of the most repressive regimes in history.

Despite its sophisticated story, Sepetys novel is marketed to young adults and this is sorely needed. Polls conducted by the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation not only found large numbers of millennials ignorant of the history of communist repression, but willing to vote for a communist (half of Americans between the ages of 16 and 20 said they would vote for a socialist, while 21 percent said they would support a communist). Even more startling, the poll found one-third of millennials believed former President George W. Bush had killed more people than Stalin.

Hopefully, Septyss novel will show that, once upon a time, teenagers and college-age people saw communism for what it really was and ended it.

Ron Capshaw is a writer based in Florida.

Excerpt from:

'I Must Betray You' Illuminates For Teens The True Evils Of Communism - The Federalist

Long before FBI computer contractor and Clinton operative Rodney L. Joffe allegedly trolled Internet traffic for dirt on President Trump, he mined direct-marketing contact lists for the names and addresses of unwitting Americans to target in a promotional scam involving a grandfather clock.

Not just any clock, mind you, but a world famous Bentley IX model, according to postcards his companies mailed out to millions of people in the late 1980s claiming theyd won the clock in a contest they never entered. There was just one hitch: the lucky winners had to send $69.19 in shipping fees to redeem their supposedly five-foot mahogany prize.

Tens of thousands of folks forked over the fees, only to discover the grandfather clock that arrived was nothing as advertised. It was really just a table-top version made of particle board and plastic and worth less than $10. Some assembly was required.

The scheme generated thousands of complaints, sparking federal and state investigations. Joffe and his then-California partner, Linda M. Carella, were eyed by federal postal authorities and several state attorneys general for allegedly operating a multi-state mail-order scheme. Joffe settled several state lawsuits by agreeing to refund hundreds of thousands of dollars mainly to elderly victims, according to several published reports at the time.

Joffe and his attorney did not respond to requests for comment. But in a phone interview, Carella told RealClearInvestigations that Joffe ran the operation. I was just the secretary, the receptionist, Carella, 76, said from her home in Florida, where she is now retired. She did say she picked up the returned postcards and checks from mailboxes.

Carella said she quit after the investigation: I said I dont want anything more to do with this I have not seen Rodney since then. But Joffe pressed on with his direct-mail marketing business before packing up for Arizona a few years later. Federal and state tax lien records reveal Joffe who also sent out mailers for skincare and other beauty products owed more than $110,000 in back taxes on his property in Los Angeles in 1995.

Joffes checkered past now has national security ramifications after the South African-born computer expert was outed as a key player in Special Counsel John Durhams ongoing Russiagate probe. To date he has not been charged with a crime. But in a September indictment of former Clinton campaign lawyer Michael Sussmann, and a court filing last week, Durham has suggested that Joffe (identified as Tech Executive-1) was at the center of an effort to monitor President Trumps communications and then share the information with Clinton associates.

Former prosecutor and assistant FBI director Chris Swecker said the credibility issues that cropped up from Joffes early career raise questions about how he managed to pass an FBI personal background check and obtain the governments highest security clearances and win several bids for sensitive federal contracts, although he noted that such background checks were often ridiculed in the bureau as a joke. In addition, the federal mail-order probe involving Joffes companies might not have raised serious red flags since the case was opened decades earlier and was settled without any charges or judgments against Joffe.

The FBI declined comment.

Another part of the answer as to why Joffes past remained buried may involve how successfully he appears to have reinvented himself during the 1990s.

He relocated then to Phoenix from Los Angeles and changed the name of his mass-marketing firm American Computer Group to Whitehat Data Services. Instead of targeting consumers, he developed a reputation as a cyber-security expert and, ironically, a champion of consumers battling abusive direct-marketers and spammers.

Perhaps it was a sign of his redemption. But Joffe soon joined the board of PlasmaNet Inc., a marketing network that until recently operated FreeLotto.com, an online sweepstakes game. PlasmaNet has had to pay millions of dollars in fines for deceptive advertising. Echoing the grandfather clock scam, PlasmaNet led consumers to believe they won free prizes when in fact they had to pay $14.99 a month to claim them. RCI has learned that FreeLotto.com was a customer of UltraDNS, an Internet resolution company founded by Joffe. Business incorporation records show Joffe remains a PlasmaNet director.

A decade later, Joffe moved to Washington, where he eventually landed lucrative security-related contracts with the FBI and Pentagon requiring top-secret clearance.

In 2006, Joffe joined Neustar Inc., a Beltway computer contractor that, among other things, secures and maintains Internet servers for federal agencies, including the White House. This high-level position gave the alleged former grandfather clock wheedler access to a proprietary archive of Internet traffic records both public and nonpublic known as DNS logs. These logs reveal the back-and-forth pinging that computers and cellphones generate when they communicate with Internet servers, including ones transmitting emails.

It also put him in the same orbit with political VIPs. Joffe started advising not only FBI brass but White House officials, including President Obama, on cybersecurity matters. By 2016, his access to proprietary internet logs became of interest to operatives for the Hillary Clinton campaign, who appear to have offered him a plum job in a Clinton presidency for help on an opposition-research project against Donald Trump. (Shortly after Clintons loss to Trump in November 2016, Joffe said in an email: I was tentatively offered the top [cybersecurity] job by the Democrats when it looked like theyd win. I definitely would not take the job under Trump.)

One of those operatives was ex-Clinton attorney Sussmann, indicted by Durham last fall in connection with allegations of lying about his work on the project for the campaign.

In the indictment and recent court filings that widen the case, Durham accused Joffe of exploiting Neustars nonpublic data to monitor Trumps Internet activities even after the 2016 election through early 2017. He shared the sensitive information with Sussmann, who in turn gave it to the CIA. The prosecutor said Joffe mined data from Trump Tower, Trumps Central Park West apartment building, and even the Executive Office of the President for the purpose of gathering derogatory information about Donald Trump.

According to court papers, Joffe cherry-picked data to create a narrative that Trump was secretly communicating with the Kremlin as part of the Clinton campaigns effort to make the GOP nominee look like he was compromised by Russia, a foreign adversary. Before the election, Joffe led a team of computer researchers vying for a major Pentagon contract to link Trump to Russian Alfa Bank through private DNS logs. He handed off their findings to Sussmann who fed the data to the FBI to drive an investigation and bad press against Trump.

The data was highly manipulated, said Robert Graham of Atlanta-based Errata Security, an independent cyberforensics expert who examined the logs and debunked the link at the time. He suspects Joffe and his biased crew set out to invent a connection between Trump and Russia.

A link between Trump and Alfa bank wasnt something they accidentally found, it was one of the many thousands of links they looked for, he added. The purpose was to smear Trump.

Though Graham as a Clinton supporter shares Joffes disdain for Trump, he said the suspicious server data were easily explained as innocent spam traffic. Graham noted that Trump didnt even have control over the domain in question: trump-email.com. It was created by a hotel marketing firm that inserted Trumps name in the domain.

Hints of a Trump-Alfa connection have always been the dishonesty of those who collected the data, Graham said.

Even though Joffe encouraged Sussmann to present the server data to the FBI as possible evidence of foreign espionage, he privately confessed to his researchers in an August 2016 email obtained by Durham that the host for the trump-email.com domain is a legitimate valid [marketing] company Boca Raton, Florida-based Cendyn. We can ignore it, Joffe said, together with others that seem to be part of the marketing world. He urged his team to keep searching for data that would give the base of a very useful narrative.

In previous statements, lawyers for Joffe and the researchers he recruited have said they had no political ax to grind but were monitoring Trump to track a credible national security threat related to Russia. But Joffes lead researcher Manos Antonakakis of the Georgia Institute of Technology revealed in one email obtained by Durham that the only thing that drives us is that we just dont like [Trump]. Other emails, released this week by Judicial Watch through a Freedom of Information Act request, show that Antonakakis believed even the most salacious and debunked rumors in the Clinton-commissioned Steele dossier.

Recent court filings indicate Durham and his prosecutors arent buying their concerned patriot defense. Some see a crime in exploiting high-security government contracts for political purposes.

In my opinion, Joffe is someone who should be indicted and probably will be, former FBI official Swecker said in an RCI interview.

As I see it, Swecker explained, Joffe, who worked for Neustar at the time, had a contract with either the Executive Office of the President or the [presidential] transition team, and he used information gleaned from his contractual relationship to provide that private information to the Clinton campaign. Depending on the actual facts on the ground, it could constitute mail or wire fraud, and if it were an actual government contract, perhaps fraud against the government that is, the Executive Office of the President.

Added Swecker: There could be other criminal statutes [invoked] as well including conspiracy but to me, the key issue is his contractual relationship. He also engaged researchers at Georgia Tech who were working on a government contract and being paid by the U.S. government.

In a public statement, a spokesman for Joffe argued that the then-Neustar executive had authority to mine the White House data: Under the terms of the contract, the data could be accessed to identify and analyze any security breaches or threats, including concerns about Russian interference in the election.

While not charged with a crime, Joffe, despite being subpoenaed, does not appear to be actively cooperating with Durhams investigation. He does not show up on a discovery document recently filed by Durham listing people interviewed by investigators or the grand jury. Asked if Joffe has received a target letter, his attorney Steven Tyrrell did not answer. On Twitter, Joffe has removed all his tweets dating back to 2014.

Sources told RCI that Durhams office is looking closely at Washington-based Neustar which Joffe left in September following Sussmanns indictment and two Internet firms Joffe operated while still working there: Packet Forensics and Vostrom Ventures, both of which are controlled by Vostrom Holdings Inc. and also have offices in the greater Washington area.

Durhams investigators have interviewed several current and former employees at all three companies, and obtained thousands of pages of subpoenaed documents from them, recent court filings reveal. In September 2016, Sussmann billed Neustar for communications regarding confidential project, a reference to Joffes mission to find a secret hotline between Trump and the Kremlin via Alfa Banks servers. That Sussmann billed Neustar for this work suggests a level of involvement by the company that has not been explained.

A month earlier, Joffe had tasked employees at his two small Internet startups to search for any Internet data (including private DNS holdings) reflecting potential connections or communications between Trump or his associates and Russia. Joffe emailed them a five-page dossier the Trump Associates List to guide their queries. As RCI first reported, the list included highly personal information on Trump campaign advisers Michael Flynn, Paul Manafort, George Papadopoulos, and Carter Page. Steve Bannon appears to have been added to the list later as another target, the emails released by Judicial Watch reveal.

Packet Forensics reportedly landed a recent Pentagon contract to manage a large chunk of Internet domains owned by the military. The bid was awarded the day Joe Biden was inaugurated president. The massive cyberspace will allow Joffes firm to set up dedicated digital infrastructure, including servers and software, to comb through private Internet traffic for the purported purpose of monitoring suspicious activity.

Joffes company also sells wiretapping equipment that allows federal authorities to spy on private web-browsing through fake Internet security certificates, instead of real ones that websites employ to verify secure connections. Once installed, Packets device lets agents see an individuals online transactions without obtaining a warrant.

Over the past decade, Packet Forensics has landed almost $40 million in federal contracts, according to publicly disclosed contract information. Joffes firm counts the FBI and the Pentagons Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA, among its customers. The contracts generally involve cybersecurity. Joffe monitors the computers of government officials for threats, including as it turns out, even investigators in the office of Justice Department watchdog Michael Horowitz, recent court filings reveal.

State incorporation records show that Joffe has created more than two dozen startups across 20 states, some of which have no employees, revenue, or even offices.

Joffes second-act success in government seems rooted in a simple fact: He has friends in high places, proferred a career Justice Department official. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, pointed out that Joffe personally advised President Obama on cybersecurity and other issues, and was also close to former FBI Director James Comey.

Secret Service entrance logs reveal Joffe visited the White House several times during the Obama administration. And in 2013, Comey gave Joffe an award recognizing his work helping agents investigate a cybersecurity case. Sources told RCI that Joffe has also worked as an FBI informant on various cybersecurity cases opened by the bureau over roughly the past 15 years.

Sussmanns attorneys have pointed to that acclaim to explain why Sussmann trusted the findings from Joffe he shared with the FBI. Far from being a stranger to the FBI, [Joffe] was someone with whom the FBI had a long-standing professional relationship of trust and who was one of the worlds leading experts regarding the kinds of information that Mr. Sussmann provided to the FBI, Sussmanns lead defense lawyer Sean Berkowitz of Latham & Watkins said in a court filing last year.

A recent court paper filed by Durham in the Sussmann case suggests he may be looking into Joffes relationship with the FBI. The document, which discloses information to Sussmanns lawyers as part of the discovery process, reveals that a criminal grand jury in D.C. has obtained approximately 226 emails from within the FBIs holding involving a company founded by [Joffe]. Durham does not identify the company, but sources told RCI it is Packet Forensics. The 226 emails were generated in 2016 alone. All told, the FBI has a total of approximately 17,000 emails that reference Joffes company and those are just from a search of the bureaus unclassified files.

Durham said that his investigators are also conducting other searches and communicating with other government agencies regarding [Joffes] companies.

The 67-year-old Joffe is commonly described as an award-winning and highly respected computer expert. But colleagues say he is more of an operator.

Graham said hes a quite average computer programmer and network analyst. Hes more of an executive than an operations guy.

In a 2015 promotional video by Neustar, Joffe disclosed that his real gift is recruiting other experts, making phone calls to people in high places, and providing the resources needed for projects.

Im not the smart guy in the room. Im really the dumb guy that carries the bags but fortunately in those bags, I have a lot of money, Joffe said with a grin. So my role has really been carrying the bags of money to help whenever I can when folks in the [cyber-security] community want things. Im really happy to be able to do that kind of thing.

So those are the things I really do, he added. Im not really good at actually understanding spam and finding that. Im not any of those things. I couldnt have an intelligent conversation about the techniques and methods used.

This article was originally published by RealClearInvestigations.

Investigative journalist Paul Sperry is a regular contributor to RealClearInvestigations and has written news or op-ed pieces for the New York Post, New York Times and Wall Street Journal. His books include 'The Great American Bank Robbery' (2011), and 'Crude Politics: How Bush's Oil Cronies Hijacked the War on Terrorism' (2003).

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The FBI's Trump Cyber Spy Has A History Of Shady Deals And Dirty Tricks - The Federalist

Switching to a cheaper cell phone plan. Buying chicken instead of steak, or canned vegetables instead of fresh ones. Giving up vacations, and taking on an extra job to make ends meet.

These represent some of the hardships and sacrifices faced by millions of working-class American families. Even the leftist media has started to acknowledge the ways inflation gives a proverbial kick in the teeth to struggling households.

Yet the Biden administration continues to advocate for its tax-and-spend agenda, ignoring the fact that rapid money-printing by both Congress and the Federal Reserve has left many Americans worse off.

A recent Washington Post analysis of consumer buying patterns found that lower-income households spent more than higher-income households on eight of the ten categories with the greatest amount of inflation in the last year. Only on furniture and cars did high earners spend more than lower earners.

It stands to reason that lower-income families face greater hardship from inflation than wealthier ones, for several reasons:

The latest price and earnings data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) highlights the problem. While real hourly earnings increased by 0.1 percent in January, they fell by 1.7 percent over the past year, because prices continue to rise higher than wages.

To put it another way: A worker earning $1,000 in January 2021 would have earned $1,057 in January 2022, based on the 5.7 percent average increase in wages nationwide. But based on the 7.5 percent average increase in prices over that time span, that worker would have needed $1,075 to buy the same goods that had cost $1,000 just one year earliermaking the worker worse off than before.

A monthly chart from the BLS report shows how, over the last year, workers continue to fall farther and farther behind every month, with prices rising faster than wages:

Little wonder then that the Post quoted one hourly worker as saying that we havent been able to enjoy life, but are rather in survival mode.

Compare this misery to a stunning statistic from a Census Bureau report: In 2019, the last year before the pandemic, real median incomes rose by 6.8 percent. Thats a $4,400 jump, after accounting for inflation, in a single year.

Also, those income gains were widespread: African Americans, Hispanics, foreign-born individuals, and women all saw greater income growth than did white males. While Democrats occasionally treat voters as fools, most Americans can recognize and recall the prosperity they had not long agoand whose policies trapped them into a spiral of skyrocketing prices and tighter budgets.

Four decades ago, Ronald Reagan put the final nail in Jimmy Carters political coffin by asking a devastatingly simple question: Are you better off than you were four years ago? He followed up with another particularly pertinent query: Is it easier for you to go and buy things in the stores than it was four years ago?

For the millions of Americans struggling to afford the basics of life, the answers are obviousas should be the verdict on the Democrat agenda.

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Ruling Class Inflationary Policies Hurt America's Working Class The Most - The Federalist

While attending the recent opening of Holbein: Capturing Character, the new exhibition dedicated to the German Renaissance master Hans Holbein the Younger (c. 1497-1543) that just opened at the Morgan Library and Museum in New York, I observed a visitor asking the security guards, Where are the pictures of Henry VIII and Thomas Cromwell?

This was a fair question since Holbein, although born in Augsburg and for many years a citizen of Basel, is most famous for the portraits he executed in London, where he eventually became Kings Painter to Henry VIII (1491-1547). If you imagine Tudor England in your minds eye, chances are the way you envision its people stems directly from the work of this artist.

Striking up a conversation with the questioner, a man of somewhat Henrician proportions himself, I learned that he had driven all the way up from southern New Jersey that morning to see the show before having lunch with old school friends. He found it odd that not only were there no images of the Tudors in the exhibition, but Holbeins famous 1527 portrait of St. Thomas More (1478-1535) was in the show, while his 1530s portrait of Mores rival Thomas Cromwell (c. 1485-1540) was notyet both paintings reside at the Frick Collection, just some blocks away up Madison Avenue.

Hans Holbein the Younger (1497/98 1543)Sir Thomas More.1527, Oil on panel. 29 1/2 x 23 3/4 in. (74.9 x 60.3 cm)The Frick Collection, New York, 1912.1.77Photo: Michael Bodycomb

While these were perfectly valid observations, this is not a show about creating artistic propaganda on behalf of a ruling family, as with the Medici portraits at the Met last year. Rather, this exhibition attempts to give the visitor a broad overview of the type of work Holbein created throughout his career.

To that end, the shows organizers have put together the largest assemblage of Holbeins work ever mounted in the United States. Its clear from the catalog, however, that this isnt fully the show the organizers had planned.

Given the rare, sometimes delicate state of surviving Holbeins, whose ability to travel is now further impinged by the vagaries of those still preoccupied with Covid, putting this show together outside of the United Kingdom or Europe was always going to be difficult. Simply too few pieces by Holbein reside in the United States.

For example, there are perhaps 100 drawings by Holbein left in existence, and the only one that resides in the United States is at the Getty Museum, where the show ran prior to coming to New York. Meanwhile, the queen owns around 80 Holbein drawings and generously lent several to the exhibition. As a result, the catalog is more than just an afterthought or a nice souvenir: its a kind of might-have-been-but-for. Its also a useful way to get to know Holbein the artist, without getting overly distracted by the Tudors scandals.

The closest we get in the exhibition to a member of the Tudor dynasty, albeit by marriage, is a circa 1538-42 drawing of William Parr, marquess of Northampton (1513-1571), the younger brother of Henry VIIIs sixth and surviving wife, Catherine Parr (1512-1548). The marquess was known for being a snappy dresser, a fact borne out in Holbeins drawing.

Parr sat for his session with Holbein in a jaunty, feathered hat covered with jewels, and a fur-lined, velvet and satin gown, a garment that in real life was purple and white striped. We know this because here, as in many of his portrait drawings, Holbein made notes to himself about the colors he would need to use in completing a subsequent painting of his subject.

For sheer, unabashed dandyism, the star of the entire show is unquestionably Holbeins striking roundel portrait of Simon George of Cornwall, painted circa 1535-40. I was completely unfamiliar with this piece, partly because no one at present knows very much about the sitter, and the picture resides in the Stdel Museum in Frankfurt, Germany, a city Ive never visited.

Hans Holbein the Younger (1497/98 1543)Simon George, ca. 1535 40.Mixed technique on panel. 12 3/16 in. (31 cm)Stdel Museum, Frankfurt am Main, 1065. Photo: Stdel Museum

Speculation says George may have been a poet, or the painting may have been executed as an engagement gift. Visitors to the show will be fortunate enough to see the change in Holbeins subject between the drawing and painting phases, since by the time his portrait was painted, George had let his previously trim beard grow to full hipster length.

As in Holbeins drawing of Parr, George sports a similarly rakish, feathered hat covered in gold and jewels. He wears a white undertunic with black vines embroidered around the collar, under a coral pink jerkin embroidered in gold. Over this, we see a cream-colored tunic with thin blue stripes along the seams, and over this, he wears what can best be described as a black leather puffer jacket.

Its a bold, edgy look for someone who was neither royal nor, so far as we know, an aristocrat. If this was indeed a present to Georges future bride, we have to assume that she was just as fashion-forward as he was, in order to catch the eye of this peacock.

Not all of the men in the show were as flashy. Paintings depicting members of the German merchant community in London, for example, show serious, bearded men dressed in the kind of sober clothing that was expected of and indeed legislatively mandated of the mercantile class, who were not permitted to dress in finery in public.

Distinguished from one another primarily by their features and expressions, these werent the sorts of fellows to pick up a lute and sing love songs written by the king or make merry at a hunting party. Yet without them and others like them, London would never have become a center for world trade.

On the whole, the ladies of the exhibition do not fare as well as the men; indeed, some of them appear quite dour. The completed 1527 portrait of Mary, Lady Guildford from the St. Louis Art Museum showcases a great deal of Renaissance finery and symbolism.

Yet its just not as visually appealing as the original, more mischievously flirtatious image of Lady Guildford that Holbein drew of her from life, and which is now in the Kunstmuseum Basel. Its a pity this drawing could not travel to New York for the exhibition, as contrasting two images of the same lady in the same attire side-by-side, but in different poses and moods, would have been a great opportunity.

That said, I was very pleased to see the image of one lady Im familiar with who was able to come to New York from London, and who is usually referred to as A Lady with a Squirrel and a Starling (c. 1526-28). I havent seen this picture in person for many years.

Hans Holbein the Younger (1497/98 1543)A Lady with a Squirrel and a Starling (AnneLovell?)ca. 1526 28. Oil on panel29 3/4 23 1/6 4 1/16 in. (75.5 58.5 10.3 cm)National Gallery, London, NG6540 The National Gallery, London.

As I suspect is the case for most viewers, Ive always been charmed by the pet red squirrel the sitter holds in her lap. Both it and the starling are probably a reference to the sitters coat of arms and family seat, so that increasingly scholars are persuaded she may well be Lady Anne Lovell, whose husband Sir Francis Lovell was a close companion and quasi-bodyguard of Henry VIII.

On this viewing, I was struck for the first time by the wonderful detail Holbein works into his depiction of the ladys cap, which appears to be made of warm, luxurious white fur. Notice how, with subtle variations in shading, Holbein captures the effect of the channeled stitching that runs from the front to the back of the hat. Holbeins mastery of representing the tactile in two dimensions is such that you can easily imagine just what that would feel like if you were to run your fingers along those indentationsnot while Anne was wearing it, of course.

Perhaps another exception should be made for the lovely circa 1535-40 portrait of an unidentified young woman, believed to be a member of the Cromwell family, lent by the Toledo Museum of Art. While the young lady is elegantly dressed and charmingly demure, the piece is particularly interesting in the context of the exhibition because it hangs next to a sheet of jewelry designed by Holbein.

One of these designs is for the large gold medallion on the front of the sitters gown. The jewel depicts the biblical story of an angel leading Lot and his family away from the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, and incorporates a rectangular gem in the center. This stone symbolizes Lots wife who, as described in Genesis 19:26, was turned into a pillar of salt. To decipher the symbolism of why one would want to wear such a bauble, youll have to do a bit of reading and thinking.

More importantly, as this juxtaposition of portrait and jewel in the exhibition demonstrates, Holbein was not only a master painter but also an extraordinarily gifted designer. From luxury items such as gold-encrusted hat badges and solid silver fountains to illuminated capital letters, book illustrations, to ephemeral party decorations, Holbein did not limit himself to working in only one or two creative genres.

The show provides a wide selection of examples of artistic productions in which Holbein was involved, ranging from one-off precious objects commissioned by courtiers as gifts for the king, to mass-produced, woodcut prints illustrating the medieval fascination with death.

The section on the Dance of Death is unique to the Morgan version of the show, and sets a very different tone to the explorations of humanism, courtly life, and fashion that otherwise predominate in the exhibition. The artistic exploration of mans ultimate fate, from an age when the acceptance of mortality was not intentionally absented from the public square as it is at present, may strike the contemporary viewer as macabre. Yet Holbein knew well how to make the most of widely disseminated, popular images on this subject, using the printing press.

From the early, so-called Death Alphabet printed after Holbeins designs in 1523 to later woodblock prints from 1538 in which Holbein shows how death comes for everyone regardless of station, from pope to nun, duchess to plowman, Holbein never ran away from death artistically. With Europe in a near-constant state of war during the 16th century, the spread of poorly understood infectious diseases through urban environments, and Holbein having to work under the reign of a deranged megalomaniac, the possibility of an unexpected death was always around the corner, at all levels of society. In the end, death came all too early for Holbein himself, for he died in London at about the age of 45, probably of the plague.

Hans Ltzelburger (1495? 1526), after designsby Hans Holbein the Younger (1497/98 1543)Death and the Plowmanca. 1526. Woodcut. 2 9/16 x 1 15/16 in. (6.5 x 4.9 cm)The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 19.57.37 The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Image source: Art Resource, NY

During the height of his career and fame in England, Holbein somehow managed to survive and thrive under the despotism of Henry VIII. Unlike More, Cromwell, and others who had also been his artistic patrons, Holbein continued to be in demand right up until he died.

While this first major American exhibition to examine the breadth of Holbeins artistic output is not what it might have been had it been put on before 2020, its a long-overdue assessment on these shores of an artist whose inventiveness, observation, and technical skill not only defined how we all imagine the Tudor age, but whose work continues to delight and dazzle the eye.

Holbein: Capturing Character is at the Morgan Library and Museum in New York through May 15, 2022.

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Henry VIII's Painter Gets His Biggest Show Ever In The United States - The Federalist

Itis appropriate that we celebrate George Washingtons birthday and Abraham Lincolns birthday together. Washington was the founder of our nation and Lincoln was its savior. Washingtons task was completed with the winning of the American Revolution and the installation of our government, but Lincolns taskof saving the union,despite its successful conclusion at, is one that is really never-ending if we would retain ourdemocracy.

Right now there is renewed danger to our nation: the discrediting of our election process.This is weakening faith in our democratic system and fostering bitter division in our society. I believe we can look to Lincoln for inspiration in these trying and divisive times.

In 1863 at the site of the Civil War battle of Gettysburg, Abraham Lincoln said, Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation ... now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation, so conceived and so dedicated can long endure.In so saying, he indicated that our democracy was being tested and implying that to endure we would have to withstand continued testing in the future.He referred to our nation as an on-going experiment in self-government.

Those of us who have been raised in the United States and have attended elementary and secondary schools here, have been inculcated in the history and the customs of our nation.In the process, by learning to salute the flag, singing the national anthem, etc., I believe the feeling has become ingrained in us that our nation is strong, steadfast and perpetual.

But history, as our founding fathers noted, casts doubt on the likely success of democracies.James Madison, the major contributor to the writing of our Constitution, spoke of the fragility of democracies.In the Federalist Papers he pointed out that the famous republics of Greece and Rome had eventually resulted in anarchy.Both had been overthrown by military leaders: Athens by Alexander the Great and his successors and Rome by Julius Caesar.

Lincoln presided over a rebellion which put the existence of our nation in its greatest peril: the Civil War.Slavery and its possible extension were the major causesof the war.Lincoln, in his first inaugural address, tried to prevent the war by attempting to allay the fears of the southern states, saying he would not interfere with slavery where it existed.This offer wasrejectedand the war came on.

After a year of bloody fighting, the abolitionist editor, Horace Greeley, criticized Lincoln for not yet having freed the slaves.Lincoln responded, I would save the union.My paramountobject is to save the union and not either to save or destroy slavery.He hated slavery, but, first things first.He noted that the nation must be saved to enable it to eliminate slavery by amending the Constitution, and further, to quote the Constitution, to bring the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity.

But isnt the foundation of our nation being severely tested at this time?Free and fair elections and the acceptance of their results are the underpinnings of our democracy. Even now, fifteen months after the presidential election, a significant portion of American citizens appearsto believe that the results of the election were fraudulent; their doubts and fears must be dispelled.How can this be done?For openers, it is imperative that we realize that perpetuating our democratic republicshould be ouroverwhelming concern, so we must be civil to each other to accomplish this goal.

In these times of serious division in which friends have become seeming enemies and even relatives have become uncomfortable with each other, I believe the words of Lincoln would be helpful.He used them to try to reconcile north and south, and we can take them to heart in thoughtfully applying them tothose associates with whom we may differ:We are not enemies, but friends.We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not beak our bonds of affection.This spirit will not only benefit our personal relationships, it will be vital to restore the national solidarity.

Ed Jones is a member of the Thousand Oaks City Council.

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Guest column: Look to Lincoln for inspiration in divisive times - VC Star

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is seeking to block federally funded housing organizations from incentivizing child trafficking promoted by President Joe Bidens border crisis by stripping their licenses to operate.

The Republican first directed the Florida Department of Children and Families to look into the situation in September, followed by an emergency rule in December that halted issuing and renewing the licenses of organizations that accepted federal money to house unaccompanied migrant children. In September 2021 alone, border officials encountered 14,358alien minors along the Southern U.S. border.

It wasnt until last week that the DCF released a permanent rule proposal solidifying the states intent to cut off licensing for organizations harboring unaccompanied alien children at the request of the federal government. While the state will continue to participate in refugee resettlement programs with federal agencies, DCF Secretary Shevaun Harris confirmed that Florida will no longer be complicit in Bidens border crisis which funnels more than $66 million to childcare and child-placing agencies in the Sunshine State.

As border apprehensions reach record-breaking highs nearly every month, the Biden administration has been conducting covert ghost flights to ship and resettle illegal aliens including minors across the country with little to no transparency or vetting. As a result, federal officials have lost track of almost 40 percent of migrant children who were released from border officials custody between January and May of last year.

DeSantis, however, made it clear that he doesnt want Florida involved with the federal governments attempts to incentivize illicit practices at the Southern border, including human smuggling, which is often facilitated by drug traffickers and criminal gangs.

The current [unaccompanied alien children] process smuggles in illegal immigrants from many different countries with no vetting, no transparency, and no consideration for child and public safety, DeSantis explained last week.

During an event with Cuban Americans who were ushered into Florida under Operation Pedro Pan, a pre-planned mission in the early 1960s designed to rescue unaccompanied minorsfrom the communist regime in Cuba and bring them to the U.S., DeSantis explained that the Biden administration is endangering migrant children by spreading them across the country.

I just think theres a lot of bad analogies that get made in modern political discourse. But to equate whats going on with the Southern border with mass trafficking of humans, illegal entry, drugs, all this other stuff with operation Pedro Pan, quite frankly, is disgusting. Its wrong. It is not even close to the same thing, DeSantis said.

Like many times before, corporate media and leftist activists quickly attacked the Republican based on lies. Among those opposed to the new rule is Catholic Archbishop Thomas Wenski of the Archdiocese of Miami, who accused DeSantis of participating in political theater and lied about the governors comments.

At Governor DeSantis Monday meeting with a few former Pedro Pan kids in Miamis Museum of the Cuban Diaspora, he described any comparison of unaccompanied minors from Cuba in the early 60s with those from Central America today as disgusting,' Wenski falsely claimed. This was a new low in the zero-sum politics of our divisive times. Children are children and no child should be deemed disgusting especially by a public servant.

DeSantis, a father to three kids, never said children are disgusting but Wenskis comments fit the Democrat narrative too well for pro-illegal immigration activists to pass up.

TheAmerican Business Immigration Coalition Action quickly sprung to action and released a six-figure buy radio advertisement using Wenskis false claims to smear DeSantis.

Disgusting is that Gov. DeSantis is trying to benefit himself politically by attacking innocent immigrant children who are only seeking refuge and to top it off, he did it in Miami, Floridas own Ellis Island, an English translation of the ad script states.

One thing the archbishop didnt mention in his now-prolific falsehood about DeSantis was that the Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Miami, which he presides over, received millions of dollars from the Biden administration to harbor child migrants.

Financial documents obtained by The Federalist via an open records request indicate that in 2021 alone, CCAM raked in $10,048,439 from the federal government to serve 352 unaccompanied alien children in the state of Florida more than $28,500 per child.

The reliance on federal funding for cooperation with illegal activity worries some Catholic leaders that the Catholic church is replacing religion with profitable political positions.

As Federalist Senior Editor and devout Catholic Chris Bedford recently wrote:

But more than any other religious group, it is Americas Catholic bishops who lend moral support and cover to the current border situation, and who thunder against any change in the status quo that might possibly mean fewer illegal immigrants and fewer victimized children in tents run by criminal gangs just praying to God to protect them and their mothers.

This is a distinction with meaning: Its important to separate guilt from responsibility, just as its crucial for us to understand what our duty as faithful Catholics is to our country and her people, to our just laws and our future, to our brothers and sisters around the world who are suffering and in distress, and to our salvation.

Despite opposition from some Catholic leaders who profit off of Bidens lucrative border crisis, the new rule proposed by DeSantis is expected to move forward without issue and stop Florida-based organizations from participating in a system that aids and abets the smuggling of minors.

Jordan Boyd is a staff writer at The Federalist and co-producer of The Federalist Radio Hour. Her work has also been featured in The Daily Wire and Fox News. Jordan graduated from Baylor University where she majored in political science and minored in journalism. Follow her on Twitter @jordangdavidson.

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DeSantis Blocks Biden Admin's International Child-Trafficking Scheme In Florida - The Federalist