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Friday, February 17, 2023

Wake-Up Call: No Widespread GA Election Fraud Found

A special grand jury in Georgia has concluded unanimously that there was no widespread voting fraud during the 2020 presidential election. But, it said, it believes that one or more of the witnesses called to testify before it committed perjury during their testimony. In excerpts from their report that were released yesterday, the panel recommended that unnamed witnesses be indicted for lying to the grand jury. The panel was created to look into whether former President Donald Trump and his allies tried to unlawfully interfere with the election results in Georgia but that matter was not addressed in the portion of the report that was made public.

 Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis should “seek appropriate indictments for such crimes where the evidence is compelling,” according to portions of the special grand jury’s final report that were released on Thursday. Those sections are silent on key details, including who the panel believes committed perjury and what other specific charges should be pursued. But it marks the first time the grand jurors’ recommendations for criminal charges tied to the case have been made public. And it’s a reminder of the intensifying legal challenges facing the former president as he ramps up his third White House bid amid multiple legal investigations. 

Trump is also under investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice for holding classified documents at his Florida estate.

➤KARI LAKE LOSES ANOTHER ARIZONA ELECTION CHALLENGE: An appeals court has rejected Arizona Republican governor candidate Kari Lake’s challenge of her election defeat to Democrat Katie Hobbs last November. It is the second court ruling to find no evidence to support Lake’s claims that she actually won the election. Lake said she’ll appeal to the Arizona Supreme Court.


➤OFFICIALS 'REASSURE' RESIDENTS: State and federal officials including Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Michael Regan visited East Palestine on Thursday to speak to residents and assess the response to the Norfolk Southern train derailment. At a press conference, officials sought to reassure residents that they would have access to aid and health monitoring and that the company would be held responsible for the accident. “All families deserve access to clean air and safe drinking water,” Mr. Regan said. Lawmakers from Ohio and Pennsylvania separately sent a letter Thursday to Alan Shaw, chief executive of Norfolk Southern, asking for details on determining financial compensation for towns, residents and businesses and how it manages staffing and train inspections.

➤ONE SPY BALLOON AND THREE UNIDENTIFIED OBJECTS: President Joe Biden yesterday said that three of the four aerial objects brought down by the U.S. military recently are believed to be unconnected with any nation’s surveillance operations. These three objects were most likely balloons tied to private companies, recreation, or research institutions,” the president said in his first formal remarks on the incidents. The fourth object, a large balloon, has been identified as a Chinese spy balloon. Biden said he ordered the objects brought down because they could have endangered civilian air traffic and might have had a foreign surveillance purpose. We may never know. The three objects have been lost while pieces of the Chinese balloon are still being recovered.
  • In possibly related news, the Northern Illinois Bottlecap Balloon Brigade says that one of its balloons went missing in the same area of Alaska where the U.S. military took down one of the flying objects with a Sidewinder missile. The FBI is reported to be speaking to members of the hobby group.

➤BIDEN SET FOR 'BALLOON' TALK WITH XI: President Joe Biden said on Thursday he expects to speak with China's president, Xi Jinping, about what the United States says was a Chinese spy balloon that a U.S. fighter jet shot down early this month after it transited the United States. "We are not looking for a new cold war," Biden said. Biden, in his most extensive remarks about the Chinese balloon and three unidentified objects downed by U.S. fighters, did not say when he would speak with Xi, but said the United States was continuing to engage diplomatically with China on the issue.

President Joe Biden said Thursday that the U.S. is developing “sharper rules” to track, monitor and potentially shoot down unknown aerial objects, following three weeks of high-stakes drama sparked by the discovery of a suspected Chinese spy balloon transiting much of the country. The president has directed national security adviser Jake Sullivan to lead an “interagency team” to review U.S. procedures after the U.S. shot down the Chinese balloon, as well as three other objects that Biden said the U.S. now believes are most likely “benign” objects launched by private companies or research institutions.

➤BIDEN TERMED 'FIT' FOR AN 80-YEAR-OLD: President Joe Biden is a 'healthy' and 'vigorous' 80-year-old who is fit for office, his doctor said after his annual physical on Thursday at Walter Reed. White House physician Colonel Kevin O'Connor provided an update on his health amid concerns over his age as he prepares to announce a 2024 run for president. The results were largely unchanged from last time, aside from a lesion on his chest that has been sent for cancer screening.   O'Connor said Biden's gait 'remains stiff', but insisted it has not worsened since the last examination. There was also a detailed 'neurologic exam' that found nothing 'consistent with any cerebellar or central neurological disorder'. 

➤FETTERMAN SEEKS HELP:  PA Sen. John Fetterman checked himself into Walter Reed National Military Medical Center to receive treatment for clinical depression, the second hospitalization for the freshman senator this month. The senator’s chief of staff, Adam Jentleson, said Thursday that the Democratic lawmaker had experienced severe depression in recent weeks. Jentleson said that on Monday the attending physician for Congress, Dr. Brian P. Monahan, recommended inpatient treatment. On Wednesday, Fetterman checked himself into Walter Reed.  He “is receiving treatment on a voluntary basis,” Mr. Jentleson said. “After examining John, the doctors at Walter Reed told us that John is getting the care he needs and will soon be back to himself.” Jentleson said that Mr. Fetterman has experienced depression off and on throughout his life.  

Daily Mail Composite (2/17/23)

➤BULLYING DETAILED AT SCHOOLS: An anguished teenager has told of how she self-harms thanks to bullying at a New Jersey high school where a 14 year-old girl committed suicide after being bullied. Danielle Ledesma, 17, poured her heart out in front of current and former students, parents and members of the Central Regional School district breaking down in front of the board on Thursday night while detailing her own experience. The 17-year-old and her mother were among the hundreds who spoke to the systemic issues of bullying being seen in the region Danielle saying that self-harm was her 'only escape.'

Meanwhile, A Virginia mother has shared horrifying footage online showing the moment her 12-year-old son was strangled and bullied by an older girl on a school bus. In the one minute-long video that mother Taylor Brock, posted on her business's website on Monday, her son can be seen being hit by the girl and being grabbed by the mouth. The pair have a brief exchange when the girl begins choking the boy. Both are in the seventh grade at Whitman Middle School. Now Brock says that the protective order she had issued by a Fairfax County judge against the girl following the attack is being ignored by teachers as her son regularly encounters his tormentor in school.

Daily Mail Composite (2/17/23

➤KILLER MOM FLIPS THE BIRD AT HER SENTENCING: A killer mom snarled 'I'm innocent, f**k you all, you're garbage,' in court as she was jailed for life for killing her six year-old son by blasting him nine times with a shotgun. Julissa Thaler, 29, launched into the vile diatribe as she was sentenced to life without parole by a Minneapolis judge Thursday for the May 2022 murder of her son Eli Hart. The warped murderess was also seen giving the finger after being sentenced for obliterating Eli with the weapon while he sat in the back of her car. She bought the gun six days after her son's father Tory Hart filed for custody. Thaler was given the chance to speak after being sentenced, and stunned the hushed courtroom with a stream of invective that Judge Jay Quam branded 'inappropriate.' The killer's own sister Nikita Kromberg called her a 'monster' while giving a victim impact statement. 

➤TODDLER DIES AFTER SHOOTING HIMSELF: A three-year-old boy has died after shooting himself with a handgun that was left in a nightstand in his parents’ bedroom in Volusia County, Florida. The trigger on the type of 9 mm firearm he used takes only 4.6 pounds of pressure to pull.

➤WILLIS FAILING: Bruce Willis has been diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia, his family said on Thursday, nearly a year after the "Die Hard" franchise star retired from acting due to aphasia that hampered his cognitive abilities. "Unfortunately, challenges with communication are just one symptom of the disease Bruce faces. While this is painful, it is a relief to finally have a clear diagnosis." The statement, to which the family attached a photo of a smiling Willis at the beach, said there are no current treatments for the disease. The family said that they hoped Willis' diagnosis at the age of 67 would bring more focus to battling FTD.

➤TRADITIONAL CATHOLICS INSIST THEY'RE 'NOT EXTREMISTS': Carol Rhodes, a member of a conservative Catholic media organization based outside Detroit, was shocked recently to learn that her group was one of nine traditional Catholic groups being cited by the FBI as radical and extremist. “We don’t hate anyone. We’re very peaceful,” Rhodes is  a member of the traditional Catholic media site Church Militant. “This is America. We have the right to practice our faith. It was really over the top to hear all this. This is crazy and doesn’t make any sense.” An eight-page dossier leaked by former FBI agent Kyle Seraphin earlier this month indicated that the FBI’s Richmond, Va., office, at the behest of the Department of Justice, was going after “radical traditionalist” Catholics and their possible ties to “the far-right white nationalist movement.” 

➤NOT FIT TO PRINT: The New York Times admonished its staff and contributors who accused the newspaper of “bias” in its coverage of transgender issues, according to an internal email sent to staff that was obtained by The Post. “We do not welcome, and will not tolerate, participation by Times journalists in protests organized by advocacy groups or attacks on colleagues on social media and other public forums,” the email from Executive Editor Joseph Kahn and Opinion Editor Kathleen Kingsbury said. An open letter sent to the Times on Wednesday from hundreds of contributors and advocates accused the paper of “editorial bias in the newspaper’s reporting on transgender, non⁠-⁠binary, and gender nonconforming people,” and even called out some reporters by name.

➤ANOTHER RUSSIAN OFFICIAL DIES IN FALL OUT OF A WINDOW: Russian defense official Marina Yankina was found dead on Wednesday after falling out of the window of a St. Petersburg high-rise building. Her death was the latest of a number of untimely and unusual deaths among prominent Russian officials and allies of President Vladimir Putin.
 

➤KENTUCKY SUPREME COURT UPHOLDS ABORTION BAN: The Kentucky Supreme Court has ruled that the state’s near-total ban on abortion procedures will remain in place while a lawsuit over it continues. The decision is notable because the state’s voters, just last month, signaled support for abortion rights by rejecting a proposed constitutional amendment making the ban permanent.

🏀GIANNIS BREAKS A RECORD, AND SPRAINS HIS WRIST: Giannis Antetokounmpo broke the Milwaukee Bucks’ career assists record last night in the Bucks’ game against the Chicago Bulls. But he left the game soon after with a sprained right wrist. There’s now a question mark about his participation in Sunday’s NBA All-Star Game, where he was picked to be a captain.The record he broke was set by Paul Pressey, who recorded 3,272 assists from 1982 to 1990.
The Bucks won last night’s game against the Bulls 112-100.

🏀MAZZULA NAMED BOSTON CELTICS HEAD COACH: Joe Mazzulla has been named head coach of the Boston Celtics on a permanent basis. The announcement makes it official that Mazzulla is replacing Ime Udoka, who was suspended in June 2021 for violating team policy.

🎾KUDERMETOVA UPSETS GAUFF: Russian tennis player Veronika Kudermetova defeated American teen sensation Coco Gauff 6-2, 3-6, 6-1 yesterday at the Doha Open semifinals. In the doubles semifinals, top-seeded Gauff and Jessica Pegula easily defeated Guiliana Olmos and Zhang Shuai 6-1, 6-3.

✞TIM McCARVER DIES AT AGE 81: Tim McCarver, a two-time World Series champion and a two-time All-Star with the St. Louis Cardinals, has died at the age of 81. McCarver played in the major leagues for 21 seasons before retiring in 1980. He then turned to sports broadcasting for a second career at Fox, ABC and CBS, winning three Emmys.



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