Biden and Harris abandon Helene victims for political show



Hurricane Helene devastated the Southeastern United States late last month, destroying entire towns, displacing families, and leaving a level of destruction not seen in generations. The flooding was historic — a “once-in-a-thousand-years” event — but it’s only part of the problem. A huge and looming issue is the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s total failure to respond effectively. When Americans needed help most, FEMA was absent.

The agency’s response? Offering just $750 to people who lost everything. How is that supposed to help anyone rebuild their lives?

Can we really survive another four years of this kind of mismanagement?

To make matters worse, less than a day after communities in North Carolina and Florida were inundated and submerged, Congress sent $8 billion to Ukraine, alongside millions more to Israel and Lebanon. Meanwhile, Kamala Harris offers struggling American citizens — the taxpayers funding the government — a pitiful $750, and that’s only if they “qualify” for assistance. Where are the government's priorities? Certainly not here.

Adding insult to injury, while FEMA drags its feet in assisting Americans, the agency has spent more than $1.5 billion since 2022 to house illegal immigrants. This year alone, the Biden-Harris administration allocated $640 million to address the migrant crisis the government fueled with open-border policies.

Meanwhile, Americans who lost their homes, businesses, and sense of security to Helene are being told to scrape by with almost nothing. Prioritizing illegal immigrants over our own citizens during a crisis isn’t just wrong — it’s a disgrace. Our government should put Americans first. Period.

This disaster has made one thing painfully clear: FEMA is not fulfilling its mission. The agency responsible for helping Americans rebuild after disasters is failing, plain and simple.

While FEMA makes excuses, private citizens and companies, like Elon Musk’s Starlink (a division of SpaceX), are stepping up to fill the gap. Musk offered to deploy Starlink communication systems, a vital resource for those cut off from services, but FEMA's bureaucracy has stood in the way. Instead of facilitating aid, the agency is trying to micromanage every detail, which only delays the recovery process. People are waiting for help, but FEMA is tangled in its own red tape.

This goes beyond a FEMA failure — it’s a national embarrassment. Our government is meant to support us in times of crisis, but time and time again, it’s leaving Americans behind.

In the face of such a disaster, where is the president? Nowhere near the areas hardest hit. Instead, he flew over the devastation in Appalachia last week on his way to Raleigh, North Carolina, for a political meet-and-greet with state leaders. He couldn’t even be bothered to land and see the damage in Asheville for himself. This just shows what we’ve all been feeling for a while now: Our national leaders have abandoned us.

Families have lost everything — homes, jobs, loved ones. Instead of offering comfort and support, Joe Biden merely flew over, treating the devastation below as a distant inconvenience. His focus wasn’t on the thousands of Americans struggling to rebuild their lives; it was on checking off his political agenda in Raleigh.

And where is Vice President Kamala Harris? Posturing and complaining on cable news that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis — who is dealing with a second disaster this week with Hurricane Milton — won’t take her calls. Even Biden had to admit this week, “The governor of Florida has been cooperative.”

How much more incompetence can we tolerate from this so-called leadership? From the border crisis to inflation to disaster relief, this administration has repeatedly shown that it lacks direction. Our officials have no plan, no strategy, and certainly no accountability. It’s clear that they care more about foreign affairs and photo ops than about American lives. When we need them most, they are nowhere to be found.

Every day, it’s clearer that this administration is flying by the seat of its pants. And now, with the botched response to Hurricane Helene, it’s obvious the administration isn't competent — or even willing — to put Americans first.

FEMA’s failure is just one more glaring example of a government that’s completely out of touch with the people it’s supposed to serve. While American families are left scrambling for necessities, Biden and Harris are busy sending billions overseas and fumbling their responsibilities here at home. They talk about “building back better,” but when disaster strikes, their actions tell a very different story. Americans are left behind to pick up the pieces, while this administration carries on as if everything is fine.

The truth is that it’s the everyday Americans who are paying the price for this incompetence — from the families in the Southeast devastated by flooding to the many millions more struggling under the weight of inflation, rising crime, and a border out of control. Can we really survive another four years of this kind of mismanagement?

Former attorney general pulls rug from under DOJ's defense for keeping Biden tapes hidden



On the counsel of Attorney General Merrick Garland, President Joe Biden asserted executive privilege last month to keep recordings of his troubling interview with special counsel Robert Hurt hidden.

In defense of this secrecy, Biden's counsel and Garland cited a 2008 opinion from former Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey.

Unfortunately for Biden's executive privilege play, Mukasey issued a declaration in the Heritage Foundation Oversight Project lawsuit against the Biden Department of Justice late Friday night, revealing Garland and his associate deputy to have misapplied his Bush-era argument and to be wrong about keeping the tapes from the American people.

Having described the declaration in advance as a "thermonuclear bomb," Mike Howell, executive director of the Oversight Project, wrote Saturday morning, "Boom[.] Merrick Garland's House of Cards just colapsed."

Background

Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed Robert Hur as special counsel in President Joe Biden's classified documents case, tasking him in January 2023 with examining "the possible unauthorized removal and retention of classified documents or other records discovered" at Biden's Delaware residence and Washington, D.C., think tank.

Hur concluded his investigation this past February, recommending no charges against Biden. He did, however, note in his 388-page report that his investigation "uncovered evidence that President Biden willfully retained and disclosed classified materials after his vice presidency when he was a private citizen."

While that acknowledgment was enough to make headlines, the report's suggestion that Biden was too decrepit proved the more alarming.

The Hur report noted Biden's "limited precision and recall during his interviews with his ghostwriter and with our office" and suggested prospective jurors might be disinclined to convict him of a "serious felony that requires a mental state of willfulness."

The report further noted that the Democratic president — whose mental state is apparently too far gone for him to be able to consciously execute a crime — presented himself in October 2023 interviews with Hur's team "as a sympathetic, well-meaning elderly man with a poor memory."

Elsewhere in the report, it said "Biden's memory ... appeared to have significant limitations — both at the time he spoke to [his ghostwriter] in 2017, as evidence by their recorded conversations, and today, as evidenced by his recorded interview with out office."

While Biden's 2017 interview was reportedly "painfully slow" and dragged down by Biden's inability to remember events or even read his own notebook entries, his interview with the special counsel's office was far worse.

"He did not remember when he was vice president" or "when his son Beau died," said the report.

The tapes

Upon learning about the recordings, multiple House GOP chairmen requested on Feb. 12 that Attorney General Merrick Garland turn over the Biden-Hur interview tapes and other materials. Garland failed to do so, prompting the chairmen to respond with subpoenas, which Marland defied, resulting ultimately in a congressional vote to hold him in contempt.

Prior to the vote, Garland told Biden in a May 15 letter to "assert executive privilege over the subpoenaed recordings," stressing such an assertion could only be overcome if congressional investigators establish that they have a "sufficient need for the subpoenaed materials."

Sure enough, the White House took Garland's advice, keeping the tapes hidden.

Edward Siskel, counsel to the president, told House Republicans in a May 16 letter, "The Attorney General has warned that the disclosure of materials like these audio recordings risks harming future law enforcement investigations by making it less likely that witnesses in high-profile investigations will voluntarily cooperate. In fact, even a past President and Attorney General from your own party recognized the need to protect this type of law enforcement material from disclosure."

Just as Garland had in his defense of Biden's assertion of executive privilege, Siskel too specifically cited a 2008 opinion from former Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey, titled, "Assertion of Executive Privilege Concerning the Special Counsel’s Interviews of the Vice President and Senior White House Staff."

In a May 31 court filing, Associate Deputy Attorney General Bradley Weinsheimer put additional emphasis on Garland's use of this opinion.

'The assertion of executive privilege made here goes well beyond the limits of any prior assertion.'

In the opinion, Mukasey asked President George Bush to assert executive privilege with respect to DOJ documents subpoenaed by a congressional committee, noting "such a production would chill deliverations among future White House officials and impede future Department of Justice criminal investigations involving official White House conduct."

It was unwise to lean too heavily on this opinion.

The Oversight Project sues

The Heritage Foundation's Oversight Project filed a lawsuit in March to compel the release of the Biden-Hur recordings and other pertinent materials.

Mike Howell said in a statement at the outset, "We are suing not only to find out why Special Counsel Hur gave President Biden the kid gloves treatment but also for the records he relied upon to determine that President Biden is too old and senile to face accountability for his egregious mishandling of our nation’s most important secrets."

"The American people deserve to know how the Special Counsel came to his conclusion. That's why we are suing for them to obtain those records and restore transparency to our government," added Howell.

Part of the reason the Oversight Project is keen to hear the tapes is because the White House admitted to doctoring the Biden-Hur interview transcripts to make Biden appear more coherent. The apparent need to clean up the transcript speaks clearly to the Oversight Project's sense that it is in the interest of the American people to have some insight into the "mental fitness of their president."

The Oversight Project's public records lawsuit was ultimately consolidated last month with suits filed by Judicial Watch and CNN. Other outfits have followed suit.

Mukasey pulls the rug from under Biden and Garland

In a declaration dated June 18 and filed overnight Friday, Mukasey noted that Garland had placed "heavy reliance" on his 2008 analysis of the law enforcement component of executive privilege — to a fault.

'The Department has lost sight of the true institutional interests of the presidency and is putting at risk the important traditions and principles on which the doctrine of executive privilege rests.'

While supportive for the president's constitutional responsibility to assert executive privilege "when necessary to protect sensitive information in the possession of the Executive Branch, Mukasey indicated that "the assertion of executive privilege made here goes well beyond the limits of any prior assertion and is not supported by the 2008 Executive Privilege Letter or other precedents relied upon by the Department."

Mukasey indicated there could be considerable fallout from the Biden DOJ and White House's attempt to hide the tapes using executive privilege.

The reasons given for invoking the privilege are entirely unconvincing, and I believe that by pressing this flawed privilege assertion, the Department has lost sight of the true institutional interests of the presidency and is putting at risk the important traditions and principles on which the doctrine of executive privilege rests, and thus the ability of this and future Presidents to invoke that doctrine when necessary and appropriate.

Mukasey highlighted various glaring differences between Biden's case and the circumstances in 2008.

For starters, he noted that the FBI reports and interview notes at issue in 2008 contained "frank and candid deliberations among senior presidential advisers" regarding White House business, including sensitive decisions on Bus's part as well as communications with the president.

The Biden-Hur interview, on the other hand, "did not touch on official White business, let alone the sensitive deliverations of presidential advisers, but only private conduct."

Mukasey made mince meat of the notion that the release of the Biden-Hur document would discourage "voluntary cooperation with future Department criminal investigations involving official white House actions" as would have been the case in 2008, and noted further the Bush-era documents of interest had still all been confidential, whereas a supposedly verbatim transcript of Biden's interview has already been released.

"I believe the public has an overwhelming interest in hearing the audio recording and that that interest in disclosure overwhelms any conceivable intrusion on the President's privacy interests," added Mukasey.

Mukasey echoed the suggestion of some lawmakers, noting that audio recordings provide additional insights that cannot otherwise be gleaned from a "cold transcript about the witness' demeanor, credibility, mental acuity, and other attributes" — insights that evidently played a role in Hur's ultimate determination not to recommend charges.

'This is the very reason for the existence of the Freedom of Information Act in the first place.'

According to the former attorney general, the effort to hide the tapes strongly suggests that the Biden administration believes its release "would prove embarrassing to the President and politically damaging" — which is hardly a justifiable reason to assert executive privilege or shrug off FOIA requests.

After briefly touching on Garland's intimation that the release of the Biden recordings would be akin to releasing the recording of the dying Challenger astronauts, Mukasey kneecapped the Biden attorney general's suggestion that if released, then the Biden-Hur interview recordings could be manipulated, noting there is ample stock of Biden audio to create "deep fakes."

"[Garland's] case crumbled tonight, "the Oversight Project stressed online. "No one is above the law."

"Despite the Government's voluminous briefing, fanciful arguments, and notwoethy attempts to invent new legal authority, this remains a simple case," said the Oversight Projet's brief. "This is the very reason for the existence of the Freedom of Information Act in the first place."

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Millions of emails containing sensitive US military information have been sent to a Russian ally for years because of a typo



Military personnel have not only intentionally shared sensitive information with adversaries in recent years but have done so unwittingly as well.

According to a new Financial Times report, millions of U.S. military emails have been incorrectly sent to a close Russian ally over the course of at least a decade.

Messages intended for ".MIL" accounts, which are connected to an American-owned internet domain, were instead sent to the ".ML" domain, which is alternatively associated with the West African country of Mali.

These emails have reportedly included highly sensitive information, including "diplomatic documents, tax returns, passwords and the travel details of top officers."

The CIA's "World Factbook" indicates that Mali has increased security ties with Russia in recent years. Moscow has also provided the Islamic terrorism-plagued nation with substantial military equipment and training. There are presently an estimated 1,000 Russian military contractors in Mali.

Johannes Zuurbier, the Dutch internet entrepreneur who serves as managing director of the Amsterdam-based Mali Dili, has managed Mali's internet domain since 2013. He reportedly raised this issue with the U.S. nearly 10 years ago and has collected well over 100,000 misdirected messages since.

In his latest attempt to press the U.S. to take corrective action, he stated, "This risk is real and could be exploited by adversaries of the US."

That risk of exploitation will now greatly increase because as of Monday, Zuurbier will no longer manage the domain. Instead, Mali's government will be directly intercepting stray American military emails.

The Times noted that while many of the misdirected emails are spam, some contain "X-rays and medical data, identity document information, crew lists for ships, staff lists at bases, maps of installations, photos of bases, naval inspection reports, contracts, criminal complaints against personnel, internal investigations into bullying, official travel itineraries, bookings, and tax and financial records."

The travel itinerary for Army Chief of Staff Gen. James McConville's May trip to Indonesia was among the misdirected emails, right down to his hotel room number.

Another email in Zuurbier's collection was reportedly from an FBI agent intended for a Navy official with regard to a visit at an FBI facility.

Another misdirected message sent by an FBI agent reportedly detailed an "urgent Turkish diplomatic letter to the US state department about possible operations by the militant Kurdistan Workers' party (PKK) against Turkish interest in the US."

The same federal agent also sent along a "sensitive" briefing concerning efforts by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps to co-opt Iranian students and the Telegram messaging app to wage espionage operations in America.

Such data could help America's enemies plan attacks, assassinations, extortion campaigns, and more.

Mike Rogers, a retired four-star Navy admiral and the second commander of the U.S. Cyber Command, told the Times, "If you have this kind of sustained access, you can generate intelligence even just from unclassified information," adding, "It's not out of the norm that people make mistakes but the question is the scale, the duration and the sensitivity of the information."

Rogers intimated that the transfer of the domain's control to the Mali government poses a serious problem, particularly if it "sees it as an advantage that they can use."

Steven Stransky, a lawyer who previously served as senior counsel to the Department of Homeland Security's Intelligence Law Division, told the BBC, "Those sorts of communications would mean that a foreign actor can start building dossiers on our own military personnel, for espionage purposes, or could try to get them to disclose information in exchange for financial benefit. ... It's certainly information that a foreign government can use."

Pentagon spokesman Lt. Cmdr. Tim Gorman told CNN in a statement Monday, "The Department of Defense (DoD) is aware of this issue and takes all unauthorized disclosures of Controlled National Security Information or Controlled Unclassified Information seriously."

Gorman also suggested that the DOD "has implemented policy, training, and technical controls to ensure that emails from the '.mil' domain are not delivered to incorrect domains."

Deputy Pentagon Press Secretary Sabrina Singh revealed Monday that the DOD has preemptively blocked its email accounts from emailing the Mali addresses.

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Student was accused of being a rapist and bullied into suicide. His elite boarding school knew he was innocent but didn't bother to clear his name.



Jack Reid, 17, was falsely accused of being a rapist and driven to despair at an elite boarding school in New Jersey. With a Bible on his person and a note of direction to his parents in his pocket, he committed suicide last year.

The Lawrenceville School, the tuition for which is roughly $76,000 per year, admitted over the weekend that it failed the boy, falling "tragically short" of prioritizing his "physical, social, and emotional health, safety, and wellbeing."

Not only did it fail to curb the boy's abuse by other students, the school withheld evidence of Reid's innocence from both the public and from Reid's family.

What's the background?

Reid first evidenced his qualities as a compassionate leader at the Buckley School on Manhattan's upper east side, serving as chairman of the student council. Reid went on to attend Lawrenceville as a 10th-grader in 2020, making friends and the dean's list.

The school, located between Trenton and Princeton, has approximately 830 students and is touted as one of the nation's top 10 boarding schools.

The New York Times reported that things went well for Reid until the spring of 2021, when his apparent greatness inspired envy and cruelty in at least one student, who trafficked the rumor that Reid was a rapist.

This rumor reportedly spread widely, eliciting further nastiness and abuse from other students.

Notwithstanding the unrelenting and unwarranted personal attacks, Reid still managed to secure the student presidency of Dickinson House, one of the school's five boarding houses.

The ostensible support of the student electorate apparently inspired Reid's bully to double down on his attacks.

The bullying manifested in various ways. Around Christmas, when students engaged in a secret Santa gift exchange, Jack was gifted a rape whistle and a book about how to make friends, reported the Times.

Attacks directed at Reid also circulated online.

Reid asked his father whether this will "ever go away?" and whether the false accusation would "ever get off the website?"

Injustice upon injustice

The school released a statement on April 30, 2023, detailing the conclusions of five-month investigation undertaken by its board of trustees' special oversight committee, noting, "Jack was a victim of bullying and other forms of cruel behavior at Lawrenceville over the course of a year, including in the form of false rumors in person and online."
"When these behaviors were brought to the attention of the School, there were steps that the School should in hindsight have taken but did not," said the statement.
Reid reportedly sought help from school officials, asking for relief.
The school launched an inquiry into both the abuse and the rape claims. In the case of the latter, they found that Reid was wholly innocent. Despite determining that Reid was a man traduced, the Lawrenceville School did not bother publicizing the fact of his innocence, telling neither the school body nor the Reid family.
Following its initial investigation, the school did, however, expel one of the students who had been involved in spreading the rumors.
This apparent justice was hollowed by the fact that the bully was allowed to hang around campus unsupervised for several hours after receiving news of his ousting. During the bully's expulsion tour, Reid was targeted again with more scorn and blamed for the bully's exile.
Just as school administrators had failed to clear Reid's name, they failed to check on him after the bully's departure.
Reid's suicide took place on the same day as the bully's expulsion. He told a friend "he could not go through this again."
"The School acknowledges that bullying and unkind behavior, and actions taken or not taken by the School, likely contributed to Jack’s death," said the Lawrenceville School's statement.
Following Reid's death, the school circulated a document for students and staff, which stated, "Blaming others for the suicide is wrong, and it's not fair. Doing that can hurt another person deeply."

Too little, too late

The Lawrenceville School indicated that in the aftermath of its fatal failure to protect Reid, it will bring on a specialist to help construct anti-bullying policies; contribute to the Jack Reid Foundation, an educational and anti-bullying foundation set up in his memory; hire a dean of "campus wellbeing"; hold workshops and trainings to promote awareness of adolescent mental health; and pursue other anti-bullying initiatives.

These measures and the statement issued by the school over the weekend are part of a negotiated settlement with the boy's parents, Elizabeth and Bill Reid, reported the Times.

Elizabeth Reid said of her son's death, "We feel like we both have life sentences without the possibility of parole. ... The only thing I’d love to change here is to get Jack back. I can’t."

"I do know if he were alive, he would want me — both of us — to try to make something good out of this and honor him in the way he lived his life," she added.

Stephen Murray, the head of the school, said, "This happened on my watch and I’m grief stricken. And yet I can’t begin to compare that to the grief and sorrow of Bill and Elizabeth Reid."

Welcome to Lawrenceville! youtu.be

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