The whistleblower alleges top Department of Homeland Security political appointees told career officials to alter intelligence assessments, but emails and witness to contradict that claim

The Trump administration is producing documents and a senior Homeland Security Department witness to undercut allegations made by the latest federal whistleblower to be championed by House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff.

The developments Tuesday involve a whistleblowing complaint filed by Brian Murphy, Homeland's former head of intelligence, who alleged Trump officials sought to censor or manipulate intelligence for political purposes.

After two months of digging for evidence that Russia's government paid bounties to Taliban forces to kill American forces in Afghanistan, as reported by the New York Times, the US military has found no corroboration.

"It just has not been proved to a level of certainty that satisfies me," General Frank McKenzie, the commander who oversees US troops in Afghanistan, reportedly told NBC News on Monday. Investigators continue to look into the matter, he said.

The investigation already has reviewed intelligence concerning every attack on US troops in Afghanistan in the past several years, and none has been tied to Russian incentive payments. "I just haven't seen anything that closes that gap yet," McKenzie said.

The New York Times reported the bounty allegation back in June, citing unidentified intelligence sources. Media outlets and Democrat politicians attacked President Donald Trump for failing to punish Russia over the alleged bounties, but Trump and named intelligence and military officials have said that the information had not been validated and was solid enough to use as a basis to take action against Moscow.

Ironically, even after NBC's report showed the military had no evidence to back up the bounty story, Democrat Senator Tammy Duckworth tweeted that Trump has gone 80 days without condemning Putin for the alleged payments. "This is unforgivable," she said.

A lie told a thousand times becomes the truth. In reading countless articles from the Atlantic Council press outlets (NYT, WaPo, VICE News, et al), we take for granted that modern Russia is a right-wing regime controlled by an authoritarian personality bent on total domination. As a result, the debate then gets framed on why or whether its right for leftists to attack it as such, since this is used to further justify collective punishment (sanctions) against a whole people.

What escapes us is why creating propaganda that will result in collective punishment is in any way the business of self-declared leftists in the first place. Historically, it hadn't been, which raises big questions about who is really controlling the narrative and providing career paths and publishing opportunities for those who posture on the radical, even 'anarchist' left. We all know what happened to the self-imploded reputation of the Trotskyist Christopher Hitchens, that war-criminal scoundrel who offered some kind of left-cover for the crown's imperial pretensions in Iraq. Millions died in part as a direct product of his work. Those who didn't attend his funeral will tell you why.

Adding insult to injury is the fact that Russia is a social democracy, a fact erased from the collective understanding as a result of the insidious psychological operation being carried out on western audiences and Russians alike.

Home Secretary Priti Patel has told Sky News she would call the police if her neighbours were hosting a party that broke coronavirus restrictions.

Under the new "rule of six", which came into force on Monday, social gatherings of more than six people are now illegal in England.

People face fines of up to £3,200 if they do not abide by the new measure, which aims to curb an increase in COVID-19 cases.

Asked what she would do if she saw her neighbours breaking the new rule, Ms Patel told the Kay Burley @ Breakfast show: "I'm rarely at home but if I saw something that I thought was inappropriate then, quite frankly, I would call the police."

She added: "It's not dobbing in neighbours, it's all about us taking personal responsibility."


The home secretary stressed it was a "personal choice" for people to report their neighbours if they wanted to do so.

But she added if there was a "big party taking place" then "it would be right to call the police".

"Anyone that is effectively defying the rules, they will be helping to spread coronavirus," Ms Patel continued.

"That is not a good thing and obviously we all have a role to play.

"We're all taking personal responsibility, we all have to be conscientious to one another."

Australia will run out of homegrown rice by Christmas, which may help to explain why their police are kettling people at farmers markets (which clearly doesn't help social distancing) and becoming more violent in general -- if the state expects food shortages, they must bolster the police presence and acclimate people to increased totalitarianism, particularly around food. They are preparing -- are you? Start growing food today.


Sources

President Trump cast doubt on the science of climate change and its role in the devastating western wildfires during a briefing with federal and local authorities in California on Monday, predicting that it would soon get "cooler."

State officials who met with Trump in McClellan Park, Calif., emphasized the increase in temperatures in California in recent years, saying that climate change has been a primary factor driving the wildfires ravaging parts of the Pacific Northwest.

California Secretary for Natural Resources Wade Crowfoot said Trump and state officials agree that vegetation management needs to be an area of focus, but he said it would be a mistake to put one's "head in the sand" and ignore how climate change is exacerbating the fires.

"We want to work with you to really recognize the change in climate and what it means for our forests. And actually work together with that science. That science is going to be key because if we ignore that science and sort of put our head in the sand and think it's all about vegetation management, we're not going to succeed together protecting Californians," Crawford said at the briefing.

"It'll start getting cooler, you just watch," Trump replied.

"I wish science agreed with you," Crowfoot replied.

"I don't think science knows, actually," Trump said, without providing any further explanation.


Trump was joined at the briefing by California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) as well as other state and local officials.

Newsom discussed the devastation of the fires and the progress toward extinguishing them, thanking Trump for the federal support and what he called a "profoundly significant" move to issue a disaster declaration last month. Newsom said 44,000 individuals had been evacuated, 24 people killed and 24 structures destroyed as a result of the fires.

The California governor also used his remarks to strongly emphasize the need to tackle climate change, asking Trump to respect their "difference of opinion" on the issue.

"We've known each other too long, and as you suggest, the working relationship, I value. We obviously feel very strongly the hots are getting hotter, the dries are getting dryer," Newsom said. "Something has happened to the plumbing of the world, and we come from a perspective, humbly, where we submit the science is in and observed evidence is self-evident that climate change is real and that is exacerbating this."

"I think there is an area of at least commonality on vegetation, forest management, but please respect — and I know you do — the difference of opinion out here as it relates to this fundamental issue on the issue of climate change," Newsom said.

"Absolutely," Trump replied.

Trump has argued that forest mismanagement has result in the damaging fires that are currently devastating California and Oregon. The wildfires have burned millions of acres of land, forced residents from their homes in droves and left over 30 people dead.

"When trees fall down after a short period of time, about 18 months, they become very dry, they become really like a matchstick," Trump told reporters upon arriving in California on Monday. "Also leaves, when you have years of leaves, dried leaves on the ground, it just sets it up, it's really a fuel for a fire. They have to do something about it."

Asked if California had a climate change problem, Trump said it was a question for Newsom, saying he didn't want to "step on his toes."

Newsom noted during his remarks at the briefing that a majority of land in California is federally-owned, and that as a result the federal government has a significant responsibility in helping to better forest management in the state.

While in California, Trump also awarded seven members of the California National Guard the Distinguished Flying Cross.

President Donald Trump sparred with a California official about the 'science' of the weather affecting wildfires that have raged across the state, but won praise from Governor Gavin Newsom for federal help in battling the blazes.

"It'll start getting cooler. You just watch," Trump said on Monday, during a roundtable in Sacramento with Newsom and other California officials, mostly Democrats.

"I wish science agreed with you," responded Wade Crowfoot, the state secretary for natural resources, to which the president replied, "Well, I don't think science knows, actually."

Biochemical engineer, Ivor Cummins exposes the official government SAR-CoV-2 narrative as fundamentally false.

The German government claimed on Monday that the presence of a substance from the Novichok family of poisons in the system of Russian opposition figure Alexey Navalny has now been confirmed by three different laboratories.

Two of them are its European Union partners France and Sweden, according to Berlin, which says it has brought in the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) to analyze the samples. Officials renewed their demand that Russia explain the incident. A German government statement read:

"The federal government involved the OPCW in the analysis of evidence from the Navalny case. The OPCW took samples from Navalny and took the necessary steps to study them in its laboratories. The federal government has also asked its European partners France and Sweden to conduct an independent study. The results of these tests are now available and confirm the German evidence. Independent of the ongoing OPCW investigations, three laboratories have now independently demonstrated the presence of a nerve agent from the Novichok group as the cause of Mr. Navalny's poisoning.

"We again call on Russia to explain what happened. We are in close contact with our European partners regarding further steps."

The head of German intelligence, Bruno Kahl, said last week that the poison used was stronger than previously known. This raised eyebrows in Russia, given that previous variants of Novichok were supposed to have been devastatingly lethal, and Navalny has survived his alleged poisoning.

To the liberal media, special counsel Robert Mueller was the sharp, seasoned, no-nonsense prosecutor who would get to the bottom of "collusion." But when Mueller testified before Congress on July 24, 2019, many were stunned to see a man struggling to answer basic questions.

Had his cognitive abilities declined during the probe?

The 76-year-old Mueller, members of President Trump's defense team recalled, appeared to be a figurehead investigator, a man who seldom spoke or was even seen. On those rare occasions Trump's lawyers had a chance to talk to the special counsel, Mueller's aides appeared to be covering for his lapses in memory. So who was really in charge of the Mueller probe?

There were questions about Mueller's mental condition even before he was appointed special counsel in May 2017. Chris Swecker spent 24 years in the FBI. He left the agency in 2006 with the highest respect for his old boss, with whom he had extensive daily contact for more than two years. "Mueller was super sharp," Swecker remembered.