In an election season that has already seen two assassination attempts on one major party candidate and the drop-out of the incumbent commander-in-chief after the primary, the third-party candidate (RFK) joined with the former commander-in-chief in a repudiation of his family’s legacy party, etc., one could be forgiven for thinking that there exists little room for more genuinely shocking events that might alter the dynamics of the race.
And yet, in the past week alone, Americans have been bombarded with a series of precisely that, from a catastrophic hurricane ravaging an ill-prepared mountain region to a labor strike effectively shutting down shipping all along the East Coast to a significant escalation in the Middle East, to a bombshell (more lawfare) court filing in a criminal case against a former president.
With each event firing within days of one another, media outlets have pivoted quickly to cover each, leaving little time for the public to process the impact of any one development. It would be cool if an Intersolar spacecraft from (pick your solar system) somewhere out there landed in Central Park, NY, NY (because that’s where they seem to land), and whatever emerged to proclaim, “Take me to your leader!” I guess the passers-by would take them to Trump Tower.
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The FBI – Working on their Surprise
The Islamic Republic has it out for Trump, but it seems this most recent Iranian plot to kill the Republican candidate was hatched by the FBI.
Last month, the DOJ announced it had charged a Pakistani national with ties to Iran in connection to a plot to assassinate a politician or U.S. government official on U.S. soil. According to reports, Trump was the target.
The suspect, Asif Merchant, entered the country in April and was arrested on July 12 as he prepared to leave. It appears that Merchant was the Iranian threat the Secret Service was briefed on before the July 13 rally in Butler, PA.
The FBI arranged his entry into the U.S. According to an August Twitter post from Fox correspondent Bill Melugin, Merchant “was admitted into the U.S. via parole for ‘significant public benefit’ when [Customs and Border Patrol] encountered him at the airport in [Texas] in April after he flew in from overseas.” The sponsor of his parole, Melugin reported, “was the FBI’s Dallas office, for ‘security interests.’”
Melugin’s sources told him the FBI had intelligence on Merchant “before he arrived in the U.S. and needed him to physically come into the country to develop the case on him and arrest him, and that if they had arrested him at Customs, they would not have been able to gather evidence and information about his plot.”
However, to date, there’s little evidence that the FBI developed a case based on intelligence collected before Merchant’s entry. Instead, it seems more likely that federal law enforcement imported a terrorist entrapment target to fabricate a plot. Former FBI agent turned whistleblower Steve Friend says the Bureau’s playbook is simple: “Identify a vulnerable person. Establish fake friendships with undercover agents and informants. Encourage him to agree to commit a terrorist act he is otherwise incapable of committing. Arrest him.” Surprise!
The Federal Government’s Generous Bounty
Many flood-ravaged victims in the Southeast were surprised by the generous $750.00 one-time payment offered by their federal government to assist them as their homes and businesses were utterly destroyed. “Surprise!”
Many of them don’t qualify for the $750. It’s income-based, not across the board. Many people who lost everything and their jobs won’t get a penny. The $750 payment is taxable, too, so even though FEMA gives with one hand, the IRS will take with the other. Surprise!
The Department of Homeland Security announced that they’re out of money, having spent what they have processing, housing, and providing benefits to illegal aliens. That’s no surprise because the wetbacks are more likely to vote democrat illegally. After all, that’s why they’re here, and it’s why your tax dollars are supporting them, feeding them, housing them, giving them free healthcare and an ObamaPhone rather than giving aid and comfort to your fellow citizens in crisis.
Electric cars are not a big hit in flood-ravaged portions of America these days since there is no electricity to charge them. If they’re on “charge” in garages, some have caught fire and burned the flooded houses to the ground. That’s not much of a surprise either.
Parting Shot
I’m betting that an unfortunate number of mail-in ballots will be lost from Helene-ravaged areas. On account of the bad roads and all, of course. It’s probably too late to change the election laws at this point (unless some Emergency Declaration?), but if they could, they’d insist on in-person voting in the wrecked areas, for “election integrity” which will suddenly matter to them.
I live in Tattnall county in Georgia. We were one of the original 11 counties listed as disaster area to FEMA. I was fairly lucky as I have minor wind damage and a yard full of limbs and pine cones. I did loose power for 6 days.
The FEMA hand out of $750 to those of us in the listed disaster areas is difficult to apply for. It is an on-line application. There is a lot of legalese double talk in filling it out. It will send you off in one direction only to find yourself back at an earlier menu. IMO the web site was designed to frustrate those applying. But what do I know? I only have 36 years in IT and communications.
Adding insult to injury…glad you weathered the crazy. Oh, read the $750 is taxable. Really galling.
Maybe if you offered 10% ($75) to The Big Guy, you could get a pass on paying taxes.
FBI – asif we could believe them…
Exactly
…but people still do!
The FBI’s first job is to maintain their brand and to suck up to the mainstream media. They do love to call press conferences and explain how cool they are.
They spend a lot of money on that TV show, AFAICT.
Advertising apparently works, and people seem to think the TV people are the real agency,
and Always Get Their Man.
*
– Kle.
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P.S. – looked it up, as I have never watched. Apparently there are now 3 concurrent FBI
TV shows? Our tax dollar at work…
I don’t think that anyone watches their FBI propaganda shows anymore. The ratings suck.
I’m surprised they didn’t bring Merchant in to really to the deed.
“do the deed”
How in God’s name can FEMA be short of money on the fourth day of a new fiscal year? They can’t since they still have 361 days of funding left. What may have happened is that they have allocated it to certain things like paying alien benefits through the rest of the year. Pretty easy to reallocate funds. The powers that be don’t want to do it and just want more tax dollars to gain yet more power. Same thing with the FBI , “oh we are too short of funds to do our primary job we need more money”.
750 bucks, what the heck is that supposed to do? Buy you some 2x4s and a couple of sheets of waferboard to make yourself a shack for the winter?
Tsquared, glad you weren’t hit too hard. Neither of my sisters, one in Georgia, one in Florida suffered any damage thank goodness.
>Buy you some 2x4s and a couple of sheets of waferboard
Or one could buy a few 6×6’s and some stout rope. Lots of uses for rope in an emergency situation….
I like the closing infographic, but that’s just me.
I miss the days of the old Big Boy burgers. I even miss Sambo’s, which would be politically incorrect in 2024, but wasn’t a bad place to get flapjacks.
Oh, man, I just can taste a French’s Big Boy burger with a side of their thick-cut fries cooked in beef tallow. And maybe a chocolate shake. Dammit. I remember when restaurant hamburgers just tasted great, even fast food burgers.
A lot of them taste like cardboard now, Beans. You can get great hamburgers, but the chains are somewhat of a disappointment.