What's The Story With The Secret Service?

July 14, 2024 Francis Menton @ Manhattan Contrarian 

The attempted assassination of Donald Trump is not the kind of event that I would normally write about at Manhattan Contrarian. Like many other newsworthy events, it’s not that it’s not important; it’s that I don’t have any special expertise or insights to offer.

But there is one aspect of this attempted assassination that cries out for comment. That is the truly incredible failure of the Secret Service that enabled the shooter to gain access to the vantage point to shoot.

I don’t claim to have ever been involved in the security business, or to have any particular knowledge about how to secure what they call the “protectee” at a campaign rally or other event. But it certainly does seem obvious to me that among the most important security precautions to be taken, if not the very most important, would be to restrict access to any nearby vantage points from which a would-be assassin could have a clear shot at the target.

If that wasn’t obvious from just thinking about it, there is also the fact that the previous most famous failure of security involving a President turned on exactly this issue. That would be the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in 1963. In that case, Lee Harvey Oswald was able to get himself a spot on the 6th floor of the Texas School Book Depository with a clear line of sight at Kennedy’s passing motorcade. The failure to have taken obvious security precautions to secure that site has led to decades of accusations that the intelligence community was somehow involved in planning or facilitating the assassination. After all, could they really have been this stupid?

But actually, the Kennedy assassination presents a much less clear instance of failure of security than does the recent attempt on Trump. On the fateful day in 1963, Kennedy’s motorcade, including the open limousine in which he rode, moved through several blocks of downtown Dallas, passing some dozens of buildings that could have served as a perch for an assassin. Fully securing all of them would understandably have been very difficult. (For that very reason, it would be unthinkable today for a President (or candidate) to move through a downtown area in an open car.).

By contrast, at the Butler, PA, farm show venue where the attempt on Trump’s life took place, Trump was stationary during the rally, and there was only one nearby cluster of buildings that could potentially serve as an assassin’s nest. Here is a map of the Butler site from the BBC website:

 

From Bongino’s X account as quoted at the Daily Signal:

“This is an obviously catastrophic failure and NO excuses should be made, or even attempted,” Bongino posted on X. “The failures are profound and questions must be answered about ground surveillance, air surveillance, post-stander support, and counter-sniper advance work and response. We have ONE job, and we came within inches of a deadly failure today. An uneventful failure is NOT a success.”

If you think that Bongino is too much of an obvious Trump partisan to be objective, then you may be interested in the view of Erik Prince. Prince is known as the founder of the Blackwater firm that has famously provided security services to the U.S. government in some of the most dangerous places in the world.

DJT was not saved by USSS brilliance. The fact that USSS allowed a rifle armed shooter within 150yds to a preplanned event is either malice or massive incompetence. Clearly there was adequate uncontrolled dead space for a shooter to move into position and take multiple aimed shots. . . . In my old business of providing Diplomatic Security in two active war zones we were expected to execute the basics or we would be fired. Clearly USSS failed at the basics of a secure perimeter. . . .

And Prince finds plenty more to criticize in the performance of the Secret Service team:

[O]nce shots were fired their extraction was clumsy and left DJT highly exposed to follow on attacks. It looked like they had never drilled together because those responses should be effectively autonomic.

Prince concludes:

Will there be accountability? That's not the Washington way. Unserious and unworthy people in positions of authority got us to this near disaster.

Is Prince justified in suggesting “malice” as a possibility? Certainly there is a level of failure that makes mere “incompetence” a difficult inference to reach.

In the same vein, note that to this day the Biden/Mayorkas Homeland Security Department continues to refuse Secret Service protection to independent candidate Robert Kennedy, Jr. Kennedy has polled as high as about 15% in some polls (although as low as 4% in others, and at 9.5% in the RealClearPolitics average over the last two weeks. 

Biden polls a few points worse in the 5-way polls that include Kennedy than in head-to-head polls against Trump. Refusing Secret Service protection to Kennedy effectively prevents him from holding big rallies. Is there anything political in the Biden/Mayorkas decision to deny the protection? The alternative hypothesis is that they are just trying to save the taxpayers a little money — something they have shown no inclination to do in any other context for the past three plus years.

Let's Just Call it For What it is: Treason

By Rich Kozlovich

Okay, let's start with the Constitutional definition of treason:

"Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying War against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort. 

While Biden's actions, and the actions of his administration certainly are treasonous in principle, they may not be treason in law.  Having said that, it still doesn't alter the fact he and his administration are guilty of High Crimes and Misdemeanors.  

High Crimes sounds really terrible, but that phrase doesn't mean a more serious crime.  When the Constitution was written it was understood a "high crime" was a crime of high office, including failure to uphold their oath of office.  All of which I explain here.  Not only Biden, but many of his appointees deserve to be impeached for the High Crime of failing to uphold their oath of office, including federal judges, whether he appointed them or not.  And yet it took two votes to impeach Mayorkas, an appointee who is clearly guilty of High Crimes and Misdemeanors, by the nitwits in the Republican House

Conservatives only have to concern themselves with facts. What's right and what's wrong based on history and what they see going on in reality.  Just like one and one is two. Try making it three or four or fifty without sounding insane. This kind of mental gymnastics is something only the left can excel at with the goal of making insanity seem rational to the casual observer.  Why?  Because the left has no parameters, no boundaries, and no moral foundation except to do and say whatever it takes to get and hold power, even if it means the abandonment of the rule of law.

I watched O’Reilly occasionally in those days - I couldn't take too much of O’Reilly because I thought he’s a phony, and time seems to support that.  At any rate, he had Monica Crowley and Alan Colmes on his show.  Colmes did the five things that are common among the leftists. He wouldn’t stop talking, he interrupted, he talked over everyone, he subtly changed the subject and spewed out logical fallacies by the minute.

Changing the subject is a red herring fallacy leftists use constantly in order to prevent a response to their already insane views. If you doubt me all you had to do is watch Geraldo or one of the other leftists on these talk shows. They won’t shut up, they won’t let others have their say without zings that have nothing to do with the subject at hand, they use personal insults, and smugly at that, as if their personal attacks are intellectually substantive.  

I find them to be self righteous, obnoxious, rude, smug, inaccurate in their statements, and nothing but a leftist stooges for the Democrat party.  This is a common problem when dealing with leftists.  They’re talking when they should be listening. They remind me of unruly children, and like all unruly children a good slap would do them a world of good.

It really is true….…

“Brought up on lies, a society cannot mature or take on responsibility. It is an adolescent society, with all the characteristics of adolescence—needing a leader and his imitators, being aggressive and quick to take offense, simultaneously lying and trusting.” 

That is the left. That's what we see on the news. Children behaving badly! This is why the Main Stream Media identify so readily with the youthful losers in the Occupy Wall Street movement and justify the violence of BLM, Antifa, and the wild ravings of the Squad, while the rest of the country readily identify with the adults in what was the Tea Party Movement, a trend that's becoming a tidal wave against the leftist vileness the Democrat party is imposing on the nation. The media are the real threat to America and the world!

Definition leads to clarity, so let's try to get his right....just once....please.   The left isn't just wrong, it's evil.  Once we grasp that everything else falls into place.

 

Top Republicans Call for the Impeachment of Joe Biden

By Admin December 29, 2022

Top republicans are calling for the impeachment of President Joe Biden for his utter failures and potentially criminal actions as president. One of these Republicans is Representative Claudia Tenny.  “How I feel about Joe Biden? I see this guy as a talentless, career politician and completely derelict in his duty, which is why I’ve called for him to be impeached! One of the things about the Republicans that is kind of frustrating at times is, we don’t fight. We have to fight every single day, right now. I stand up to the status quo in both parties, I have a core set of principles. Can we preserve this Republic? It is all on the line. It’s not easy to fight the fight that patriots fight, but it’s worth it,” she said.

“Whether it is Joe Biden’s dereliction of duty at the Southern Border or his disastrous retreat in Afghanistan, I have called for Joe Biden to answer to the American people in Impeachment hearings. I will not stand by while Biden and Pelosi trample on our constitution to push their far-left agenda. I look forward to working with a Republican House Majority next Congress to impeach Biden and hold his administration accountable for their numerous failures,” she continued.

Even GOP leader Rep. Kevin McCarthy supports the idea of impeachment......To Read More.....

My Take - If the House impeaches Biden will it matter?  Yes and no.  He's clearly been in serious violation of the Constitution and it needs to be established beyond any doubt for the record, and for his ultimate historical condemnation and the condemnation of the Democrat party, because the Senate under the Democrats will not take up this valid impeachment, unlike the fraudulent impeachments of Donald Trump.   History will condemn Biden even if the Democrats will not. 

And quite frankly, that goes for Alejandro Mayorkas, Secretary of Homeland Security, Lloyd J. Austin III, Secretary of Defense, and most of all, Merritt Garland, Attorney General.  Establish the facts and let history condemn them and the Democrat party forever.  

And if the Republicans ever get their act together and take the Senate, the House and the White House, and grow a spine, they need to prosecute them for the crimes they've committed.   

They're Beyond the Peter Principle: They're Criminals

The Peter Principle: People are promoted to their level of incompetence. 

By Rich Kozlovich

Since Biden became President of the United States I've tried in some small way to track Biden's picks to important positions in the federal government.  From the cabinet, to the judiciary, the military, and to the various agencies, there are two things that stand out to those who've paid attention: They're weird and they hate America, and we're seeing the madness of King Brandon on display. 

On June 29, 2022 it was reported that Energy Secretary Granholm violated the Hatch Act by encouraging votes for Democrats during interview, and that conclusion was the result of an investigation by the U.S. Office of Special Counsel.  Clearly an independent federal agency.  And she "received appropriate training and the office has advised her that any future violations will be considered a "willful and knowing violation of the law, which could result in further action."  Wow!  They were really tough on her!  Just a little snark.

 

But anyone whose paid any amount of attention to these people and watched the Senate hearings where they were questioned there's only one conclusion.  They were already at the peak of the Peter Principle before they were appointed.  But the quality of their competence is only part of the problem.

 

Secretary of Home Land Security Mayorkas has been in the news a lot these days regarding his

• Ministry of Misinformation: Freedom is Slavery!
• Ministry of Misinformation: Freedom is Slavery! Part II
• Ministry of Misinformation: Freedom is Slavery! Part III

Did he lie?  There's been a pattern of lies to Congress by Mayorkas, as the Washington Post Says Mayorkas’s ‘Prompt Deportation’ Claim Is ‘Mostly False’.  Immigration at the border has been in reality open treason by Mayorkas and the Biden administration.  That breeds the obvious conclusion expressed by Sen. Rick Scott: Mayorkas Has Lied to Congress & the American People – He Must Resign. 

 

Silvio Canto, Jr. says there are 51 reasons for Mayorkas to resign because he's in charge of this immigration mess and recently 51 people were found dead in a trailer roasted to death, and its all on Mayorkas, but especially Joe Biden.  Their blood is on their hands. 

Then there's the energy crisis.  No advanced society can exist and prosper without sufficient energy.  America was a nation that was not only energy independent but an energy exporter less than two years ago, is now facing an energy crisis and even black outs.  Why?  America has more oil than all the Middle East combined, but we have to drill for it.  

 

We have energy issues because Biden and his crew are nuts over something that's not occurring, , and blaming something that has absolutely no impact on the world's climate, manmade and claim we need to end use and become totally green.

Kelly Haughton posted this piece, Fire Kerry, fire McCarthy, fire Granholm "Ending the "energy crisis" requires serious housecleaning."

 

“Joe Biden can end the global energy crisis in 3 easy steps: 1. Promise to stop his anti-fossil fuel-fuel agenda for the remainder of his administration. 2. Withdraw from the Paris Agreement. 3. Encourage other countries to do 1 and 2. Production will surge, prices will plummet.”

She outlines three steps in fixing that problem, First fire John Kerry for his opposition to fossil fuels, and his efforts to destroy oil producing companies.  Second, fire Gina McCarthy, Biden’s National Climate Advisor. McCarthy, a one time EPA administrator who was a disaster then and still is, is part of this insane green cabal.  She and the position she holds should be assigned to the ash heap of  history and finally, fire Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm. 

 

All of these people are in opposition to America's energy production and independence.  All of these people are demanding America totally transition into alternative energy production and "go green" in our use of energy, which is scientifically and factually  impossible, and they have to know it. No amount of incremental wind and solar power can ever provide energy independence.

• Biden’s electric caravan to Green utopia runs out of gas
• Which Country Or U.S. State Will Be The First To Hit The Renewable Energy Wall?
• And The Winner Is, Germany! 

Conclusion? If what I've said about energy production is true, and it is, and if their policies and actions are in direct opposition to that, and they are, then we must conclude they're consciously and deliberately working to destroy America. 

 

Why should they be allowed to continue?

GOP Senator Moves to Defund DHS' Disinformation Hit Squad

 Matt Vespa May 06, 2022 

It has no shot of success but something has to be done. Something has to be said. I’m not a big moral victories guy since our side decided in the McCain-Romney days that those would suffice. It didn’t. That’s partially why Trump won in 2016.  This disinformation secret police the Department of Homeland Security is establishing is beyond outrageous. It won’t overreach they said. Really? The government literally has no standing here—no credibility. 

Everything in DC has been weaponized to attack the enemies of the political class. Every agency with law enforcement capabilities or the ability to jail people has been used to go after conservatives for the past decade or so. It started with Obama. It’s coming back to finish the job with Biden. The IRS and DOJ are compromised. They’re long gone. Now, the DHS is next.........To Read More....

 Editor's Note:  Please view my 

DHS Chief Mayorkas Denies Biden Resettled Afghans with Terrorism Ties in U.S. Despite Defense Dept. Findings

John Binder 6 May 2022

Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas seemed to deny that President Joe Biden’s administration resettled unvetted Afghans, flagged for their ties to terrorism, across the United States despite a Defense Department Inspector General report that revealed otherwise.

Following the U.S. Armed Forces’ withdrawal from Afghanistan in August 2021, Biden opened a refugee and parole pipeline for tens of thousands of Afghans to quickly be flown into American communities without being screened or interviewed in person beforehand.

As Breitbart News reported, a Department of Defense Inspector General report reveals that Biden’s agencies failed to properly vet Afghans arriving in the United States. As of November 2021, the report states that 50 Afghans already in the United States had been flagged for “significant security concerns.”

Most of the unvetted Afghans flagged for possible terrorism ties, the report states, have since disappeared into the nation’s interior. In one instance, the report noted that only three of 31 Afghans flagged months ago for security concerns could be located.

During a Senate Homeland Security Committee hearing this week, Mayorkas slammed the Defense Department Inspector General report, claiming that it includes “factual inaccuracies” and seeming to deny that such resettlement of unvetted Afghans with terrorism ties has taken place.........To Read More....

My Take - And this is the man who will have oversight on an agency that's in charge of ending misinformation on the internet, the newspapers and news shows of America?  And how's he going to do that?  He's appointed a jaw dropping lunatic who believes in government censorship of anything she disagrees with.  

As I've watched this loon over these many months it's clear he's either totally clueless or blatantly an anti-American liar deliberately doing everything in his power to destroy the Constitution and bring into being a totalitarian socialist state.  Or both, which I'm inclined to think is more likely than not.  As a result it's clear I need to make everything he says and does a project to appear on P&D from now on.

Ministry of Misinformation: Freedom is Slavery! Part III

By Rich Kozlovich

I have to say these Bidenites must get sick to their stomachs when Senators John Kennedy and Josh Hawley question them.  I've published two pieces on this "Ministry of Misinformation", which if allowed to come into existence would be the Ministry of Propaganda. 

Here are the links to Part I and Part II.  You may wish to refer back to them as you follow these exchanges between Senators John Kennedy and Josh Hawley asking Homeland Security Secretary Mayorkas how it was possible the department could hire Nina Jankowicz to head up this agency.  

Some things becomes clear.  Mayorkas has no idea what he's doing, has no idea what's going on and won't answer questions. I think it's because he doesn't know the answers.  This is one of the most dangerous efforts to America's freedom and the Constitution this administration has instigated.  

Senator Kennedy starts out saying:  

I am in awe of Miss Jankowicz.  I have watched her with slack jawed astonishment!  Who picked her?

Mayorkas' answer is less than acceptable.  Kennedy's comment to Mayorkas was when he gets back to his office he need to fire whomever is responsible for this woman being hired.  My view is after doing that he needs to resign and stop stinking up the place. 

Now, in the second video Senator Hawley challenges are devastating to Mayorkas, and you will see Mayorkas feels the devastation.  You will want to watch that.

 

Senator Hawley, just like Senator Kennedy, just can't get answers. 

Truth be told, none of this should surprise us. On November 7, 2021 Rick Fuentes published this piece, The Pick of the Left's Litter  discussing the destructive incompetence of Biden's administration, and his insane choices to head up the departments and agencies of the federal government.  Regarding Mayorkas he says:   

Aly Mayorkas has bewildered all by prioritizing homeland security assets to root out a chimera of white bogeymen while outright rejecting a border crisis in plain view. When the regime media finally turned an embarrassing light on the unvetted, unvaccinated, and often sick migrants huddled under the Del Rio Bridge, Mayorkas immediately emptied the makeshift encampment, distributing worthless notices to report and offering free bus rides and flights to the American heartland. Before moving on, he took a swipe at his own mounted Border agents, further demoralizing the force by gaslighting adroit horseback skills as the racist horsewhipping of Haitians. 

So, now we know how and why Nina Jankowicz was picked.  She's the pick of the left's litter, and fits in perfectly with the rest of the ignorant, not too bright, anti-American leftist incompetents working for Biden.  

Update: DHS Chief Mayorkas Denies Biden Resettled Afghans with Terrorism Ties in U.S. Despite Defense Dept. Findings John Binder 6 May 2022 - Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas seemed to deny that President Joe Biden’s administration resettled unvetted Afghans, flagged for their ties to terrorism, across the United States despite a Defense Department Inspector General report that revealed otherwise. Following the U.S. Armed Forces’ withdrawal from Afghanistan in August 2021, Biden opened a refugee and parole pipeline for tens of thousands of Afghans to quickly be flown into American communities without being screened or interviewed in person beforehand. As Breitbart News reported, a Department of Defense Inspector General report reveals that Biden’s agencies failed to properly vet Afghans arriving in the United States. As of November 2021, the report states that 50 Afghans already in the United States had been flagged for “significant security concerns.” Most of the unvetted Afghans flagged for possible terrorism ties, the report states, have since disappeared into the nation’s interior. In one instance, the report noted that only three of 31 Afghans flagged months ago for security concerns could be located.  During a Senate Homeland Security Committee hearing this week, Mayorkas slammed the Defense Department Inspector General report, claiming that it includes “factual inaccuracies” and seeming to deny that such resettlement of unvetted Afghans with terrorism ties has taken place.........To Read More....

And this is the man who will have oversight on an agency that's in charge of ending misinformation on the internet, the newspapers and news shows of America?  And how's he going to do that?  He's appointed a jaw dropping lunatic who believes in government censorship of anything she disagrees with.  

As I've watched this loon over these many months it's clear he's either totally clueless or blatantly an anti-American liar deliberately doing everything in his power to destroy the Constitution and bring into being a totalitarian socialist state.   Or both, which I'm inclined to think is more likely than not.  As a result it's clear I need to make everything he says and does a project to appear on P&D from now on.

The Pick of the Left's Litter

November 7, 2021 By Rick Fuentes

The cascade of unforced domestic and international policy errors of the current administration, each more damaging to our economic well-being and national security than any fabricated misstep of the Trump presidency, has not dissuaded most Republican senators from allowing radical ideologues to assume positions of power. Juxtapose that to the mistreatment of Trump nominees, when Democrats flashed a middle finger across the aisle at those who had previously anointed the way for Obama’s cabinet picks.

In the catbird seat, Biden seems more a cat’s paw president, a career politician who upended mathematics and political history by winning more votes than voters after a bumbling basement campaign that sparked little public interest.  He has brought both sympathy and worrisome attention to the cognitive plight of the elderly.  Reflexively, he rubber-stamps executive orders that appear out of nowhere and level a wrecking ball at the American economy.  Without White House meddling, the legacy economy would have sailed out of the COVID storm.  Instead, the concurrence of inoculation mandates, supply gridlock, needless energy dependency, putting the unvaxxed labor force on the breadline, and government alms that encourage unemployment in a favorable job market papered over with Help Wanted signs, all have the economy circling the drain.

Biden is most troublesome when he wanders away from the teleprompter and the country.  Recently, he jetted off to Glasgow with an entourage of 13 cabinet members and hundreds of staffers.  Along the way, he took a convoy of gas guzzlers to the See of Rome to charm the papacy with his devoutness to climate change. Biden was blessed to feast on the Lord’s host, a sure sign that Marxist kinship trumps the sanctity of life and values expected of all good Catholics...........To Read More....