TYB
8/12/23
Police in Kansas Execute 'Chilling' Raid on Small-Town Newspaper, Seizing Phones and Computers
Police in the small Kansas town of Marion have raided a local newspaper office and the home of its publisher, seizing equipment and sparking claims of abuse of power and threats of legal action.
Eric Meyer, the owner and publisher of the Marion County Record, said in an Aug. 9 edition of the newspaper that four Marion police officers and three sheriff's deputies recently carried out a raid on his home and the Record office, seizing personal cell phones and computers.
Mr. Meyer said that the police also seized the newspaper's file server and equipment that was unrelated to their search but which was needed to continue publishing work.
"Our first priority is to be able to publish next week," Mr. Meyer was cited by the Record as saying. "But we also want to make sure no other news organization is ever exposed to the Gestapo tactics we witnessed today."
A reporter for the Record said on social media that she was injured in the raid, which she called "chilling."
"The chief of the Marion, Kansas Police Department, Gideon Cody, forcibly yanked my cell phone out of my hand, so heads up that I will be without it (my phone, not my hand) for a while," reporter Deb Gruver wrote in a post on Facebook.
"I've filed a report with the Kansas Bureau of Investigation because a previously dislocated finger was re-injured," she added.
"I thought I lived in the United States," she wrote.
…
https://www.theepochtimes.com/us/police-in-kansas-execute-chilling-raid-on-small-town-newspaper-seizing-phones-and-computers-5461508
On-the-Ground report: Real "MAGA Extremist" Housewives of Iowa
I went to the Iowa Fair to see Trump. They gave the volunteers who had pre registered some very nice hats and shirts that were MADE IN THE USA! People were stopping me all day to ask when Trump would arrive. Most did not know he planned to attend until today. I was standing at…
…the pork tent when Ron arrived with the RINOS @KimReynoldsIA and @SenJoniErnst. I told Joni she should endorse Trump as she walked by. She said she is not allowed to endorse anyone. I don't know if that is true? Then I was standing there when suddenly Ron and Casey walked…
RIGHT passed me. She was wearing way too much makeup for an outdoor event on a hot day! He saw my sign and smirked he is always SMIRKING not smiling. The people around me were screaming Go Back To Florida! but I just said welcome to Iowa. It was already SO Awkward…
I forgot to mention right when Ron and Kim came out, Trump's plane flew over and took everyone's attention. It could not have been more perfectly timed as if by God. So then Trump arrived he signed so many of peoples nasty sweaty hats right off their heads. He's so generous!
I know this was a record breaker for the fair because the guy who owns the pork restaurant told me: "I ALWAYS get to cook with the candidates. This is the first time I can't, there's just too damn many of you to watch."
He was making sure we were not blocking his fire exits
My first time seeing Trump in person he looked GREAT! So did Matt Gaetz. I saw Dan Scavino he looks tough as nails! The crowd loved @ByronDonalds
I saw the lovely @Lily4Liberty looking beautiful as always. I met some super cool kids from Louisiana who have attended every rally
Michelle Wayman Art@SLCartistchelle
That is so exciting. Thanks for sharing!!
Real "MAGA Extremist" Housewives of Iowa
Thanks for reading it we had a blast! Energy for Trump was HIGH HIGH HIGH and I'll tell you, half the people I met who came to see him didn't look like I expected. I would have guessed they were liberals! NEVER DOUBT that we are indeed the silent majority! đź©·
MJ @MJOracleCJ
Thank you so much for sharing your experience. I watched it online and I couldn’t believe the number of people there. What a wonderful memory!
6:31 PM · Aug 12, 2023·32.5K Views
https://twitter.com/fairfield_iowa/status/1690491290780127232
rest of the "story"
Illegal Search?
The search warrant, which was viewed by The Epoch Times, identifies several pages of items that law enforcement officers were allowed to seize and indicates that the raid was related to suspicion of having participated in identity theft of local business owner Kari Newell.
Questions have been raised about the legality of the search warrant, which was signed by Marion County District Court Magistrate Judge Laura Viar, as there are protections in federal law against searching and seizing materials from journalists. Normally, law enforcement is required to obtain a subpoena for such materials.
Ms. Viar's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on questions about the legality of the warrant.
The Marion County police chief told The Epoch Times in an emailed statement that he cannot give details of what he said was a criminal investigation, but explained that there are exceptions to a subpoena, namely when "when there is reason to believe the journalist is taking part in the underlying wrongdoing."
"I believe when the rest of the story is available to the public, the judicial system that is being questioned will be vindicated," Mr. Cody said.
More Details
The raid was based on a search warrant that focuses on allegations that there was probable cause of identity theft and "unlawful computer acts" targeting Ms. Newell.
A confidential source had contacted the Record with evidence that Ms. Newell had been convicted of drunken driving and continued to operate her vehicle without a license, according to the Kansas Reflector.
A reporter with the Record reportedly verified the information provided by the source but Mr. Meyer decided not to publish a story about the information, telling the Kansas Reflector that he thought "we were being set up." Instead, he said he contacted the police.
However, after the police notified Ms. Newell about the sensitive information provided by the source to the Record, she reportedly publicly accused the paper at a city council meeting that it had illegally obtained and disseminated the documents.
Ms. Newell's public remarks at the meeting prompted Mr. Meyer to write an article apparently seeking to set the record straight, with the police raid taking place one day after.
While Ms. Newell was unavailable for comment, she said in a statement cited by the Kansas Reflector that the "entire debacle was brought forth in an attempt to smear my name, jeopardize my licensing through ABC (state Alcoholic Beverage Control Division), harm my business, seek retaliation, and for personal leverage in an ongoing domestic court battle."
Mr. Meyer said he plans to sue the city of Marion and individuals involved in the raid.
"We will be seeking the maximum sanctions possible under law," he said, per the Record.
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Reactions
Journalist Joel Mathis, who writes for the Kansas City Star, said in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, that his first-ever newspaper job was for the Record.
"Since we don’t know the full details behind the raid … I’m not going to get into all the nitty-gritty," he wrote in an Aug. 12 op-ed in the Kansas City Star. "But it’s scary when police raid a newspaper. It looks and smells like a threat to the First Amendment. Investigators had better have a damned good—even extraordinary—justification for the search warrant. God help them otherwise."
Clay Wirestone, the opinion editor for the Kansas Reflector, said in a post on X that the raid amounts to a threatening message being sent to journalists.
"No matter how the story shakes out—if officials return all the seized computers and cellphones this afternoon—a message has been sent," he wrote. "That message conflicts with the tenets of an open society. It shuts down the ability of democracy’s defenders to do their jobs."
In an op-ed in the Kansas Reflector, Mr. Wirestone called the "outrageous" raid a "grim threat to Kansans' First Amendment rights."
Emily Bradbury, executive director of the Kansas Press Association, said in a statement cited by Mr. Wirestone in the Kansas Reflector that the raid represented a crackdown on free speech.
“An attack on a newspaper office through an illegal search is not just an infringement on the rights of journalists but an assault on the very foundation of democracy and the public’s right to know. This cannot be allowed to stand,” Ms. Bradbury was cited as saying.
In a statement obtained by The Epoch Times, the Marion Kansas Police Department said in its defense that the "victim asks that we do all the law allows to ensure justice is served" and that the department will do "nothing less."
The department said it "believes it is the fundamental duty of the police is to ensure the safety, security, and well-being of all members of the public" and that its commitment to doing so must remain "steadfast and unbiased, unaffected by political or media influences, in order to uphold the principles of justice, equal protection, and the rule of law for everyone in the community."
>https://www.theepochtimes.com/us/police-in-kansas-execute-chilling-raid-on-small-town-newspaper-seizing-phones-and-computers-5461508
A DuPont China Deal Reveals Cracks in U.S. National-Security Screening
U.S. officials crafted a compromise to address worries about China’s military. It didn’t go as planned.
paywalled
https://www.wsj.com/articles/a-dupont-china-deal-reveals-cracks-in-u-s-national-security-screening-665cb50c
Ezra A. Cohen Retweeted
Kate O'Keeffe@Kate_OKeeffe
NEW: U.S. officials forged an uneasy compromise to let DuPont sell its biomaterials business to a Chinese company while ensuring the tech behind it never left the U.S.
It didn't go as planned.
>https://wsj.com/articles/a-dupont-china-deal-reveals-cracks-in-u-s-national-security-screening-665cb50c
U.S. officials crafted a compromise to address worries about China’s military. It didn’t go as planned.
9:10 PM · Aug 12, 2023
https://twitter.com/Kate_OKeeffe/status/1690531353123557376
Class war at its best.
The folks who are getting the free stuff don't like the folks who are paying for the free stuff, because the folks who are paying for the free stuff can no longer afford to pay for both the free stuff and their own stuff.
And the folks who are paying for the free stuff want the free stuff to stop.
And the folks who are getting the free stuff want even more free stuff on top of the free stuff they are already getting!
Now.. The people who are forcing the people who pay for the free stuff have told the people who are RECEIVING the free stuff that the people who are PAYING for the free stuff are being mean, prejudiced, and racist.
So.. The people who are GETTING the free stuff have been convinced they need to hate the people who are paying for the free stuff by the people who are forcing some people to pay for their free stuff and giving them the free stuff in the first place.
We have let the free stuff giving go on for so long that there are now more people getting free stuff than paying for the free stuff.
Now understand this…..All great democracies have committed financial suicide somewhere between 200 and 250years after being founded. The reason?
The voters figured out they could vote themselves money from the treasury by electing people who promised to give them money from the treasury in exchange for electing them.
The United States officially became a Republic in 1776, 243 years ago.
The number of people now getting free stuff outnumbers the people paying for the free stuff .
Failure to change that spells the end of the United States as we know it.
from [FB]
In August 2010, six years before taking over Donald Trump's winning presidential campaign, Steve Bannon, then 57 and a producer of right-wing political films, answered his phone.
"What are you doing tomorrow?" Asked David Bossie, a longtime House Republican investigator and conservative activist who had chased Bill and Hillary Clinton scandals for almost two decades.
"Dude," Bannon replied, "I'm cutting these fucking films I'm making for you."
The 2010 midterm congressional elections were coming up. It was the height of the Tea Party movement, and Republicans were showing momentum. "Dave, we're literally dropping two more films I'm editing. I'm working 20 hours a day at Citizens United," the conservative political Action Committee Bossie headed to churn out his anti-Clinton films.
"Can you come up with me to New York?"
"For what?"
"To see Donald Trump," Bossie said.
"What about?"
"He's thinking of running for president," Bossie said.
"Of what country?" Bannon asked.
"No, seriously," Bossie insisted. He had been meeting and working with Trump for months. Trump had asked for a meeting.
"I don't have time to jerk off, dude," Bannon said. "Donald Trump's never running for president. Forget it. Against Obama. Forget it. I don't have time for fucking nonsense."
"Don't you want to meet him?"
"No, I have no interest in meeting him."
Trump had once given Bannon a 30-minute interview for his Sunday afternoon radio show called The Victory Sessions, which Bannon had run out of Los Angeles and billed as the thinking man's radio show.
"This guy's not serious," Bannon said.
"I think he is serious," Bossie said. Trump was a TV celebrity and had a famous show, The Apprentice, that was number one on NBC some weeks. "There's no downside for us to go and meet with him."
Bannon finally agreed to go to New York City, to Trump Tower. They rode up to the 26th-floor conference room. Trump greeted them warmly, and Bossie said he had a detailed presentation. It was a tutorial. The first part, he said, lays out how to run in a Republican primary and win. The second part explains how to run for president of the United States against Barack Obama. He described standard polling strategies and discussed process and issues.
Bossie was a traditional, limited government conservative and had been caught by surprise by the Tea Party movement. "It was an important moment in American politics," Bossie said, "and Tea Party populism was sweeping the country. The little guy was getting his voice. Populism was a grassroots movement to disrupt the political status quo in favor of everyday people."
"I'm a business guy," Trump reminded them. "I'm not a professional ladder climber in politics. If you're going to run for president," Bossie said, "you have to know lots of little things and lots of big things." The little things were filing deadlines, the state rules for primaries, minutiae. "You have to know the policy side and how to win delegates."
"But first," he said, "you need to understand the conservative movement."
Trump nodded. "You've got some problems on issues," Bossie said.
"I don't have any problems on issues," Trump said. "What are you talking about?"
"First off, there's never been a guy win a Republican primary that's not pro-life," Bossie said. "And unfortunately, you're very pro-choice."
"What does that mean?"
"You have a record of giving to the abortion guys, the pro-choice candidates. You've made statements. You've got to be pro-life, against abortion."
"I'm against abortion," Trump said. "I'm pro-life."
"Well, you've got a track record that can be fixed," Trump said. "You just tell me how to fix that. I'm what do you call it? Pro-life. I'm pro-life, I'm telling you."
Bannon was impressed with the showmanship, and increasingly so. As Trump talked, Trump was engaged and quick. He was in great physical shape. His presence was bigger than the man and took over the room. A command presence. He had something. He was also like a guy in a bar talking to the TV. Street smart from Queens. In Bannon's evaluation, Trump was Archie Bunker, but a really focused Archie Bunker.
"The second big thing," Bossie said, "is your voting record."
"What do you mean, my voting record?"
"About how often you vote."
"What are you talking about?"
"Well," Bossie said, "this is a Republican primary."
"I vote every time," Trump said confidently. "I've voted every time since I was 18—20 years old."
"That's actually not correct. You know there's a public record of your vote." Bossie, the congressional investigator, had a stack of records. "They don't know how—no, no, not how you vote. How often you vote."
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https://twitter.com/simonateba/status/1690560613917855744
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Bannon realized that Trump did not know the most rudimentary business of politics.
"I voted every time," Trump insisted.
"Actually, you've never voted in a primary except once in your entire life," Bossie said, citing the record.
"That's a fucking lie," Trump said. "That's a total lie. Every time I get to vote, I voted."
"You only voted in one primary," Bossie said. "It was like in 1988 or something in the Republican primary."
"You're right," Trump said, pivoting 180 degrees, not missing a beat. "That was for Rudy Giuliani ran for mayor in a primary in 1989. Is that in there? Yes."
"I'll get over that," Trump said. "Maybe none of these things matter. Maybe none of it matters."
If you're going to move forward, you have to be methodical.
Bannon was up next. He turned to what was driving the Tea Party, which didn't like the elites. Populism was for the common man, knowing the system is rigged. It was against crony capitalism and insider deals, which were bleeding the workers.
"I love that. That's what I am," Trump said.
"A popularist," he mangled.
"No, no," Bannon said. "It's populist."
"Yeah, yeah," Trump insisted.
"A popularist." Bannon gave up. At first, he thought Trump did not understand the word, but perhaps Trump meant it in his own way, being popular with the people. Bannon knew "Popularist" was an earlier British form of the word "populist" for the non-intellectual general public.
An hour into the meeting, Bossie said, "We have another big issue."
"What's that?" Trump asked, seeming a little more wary.
"Well," he said, "80% of the donations that you've given have been to Democrats."
To Bossie, that was Trump's biggest political liability, though he didn't say so.
"That's bullshit."
"There's public records," Bossie said.
"There's records of that?" Trump said in utter astonishment. "Every donation you've ever given, public disclosure of all political giving was standard."
"I'm always even," Trump said. He divided his donations to candidates from both parties. "You actually give quite a bit, but it's 80% Democratic. Chicago, Atlantic City. I've got to do that," Trump said. "All these fucking Democrats run all the cities. You've got to build hotels, you've got to grease them. Those are people who came to me."
"Listen," Bannon said, "here's what Dave's trying to say. Running as a Tea Party guy, the problem is, that's what they are complaining about, that it's guys like you that have inside deals."
"I'll get over that," Trump said. "It's all rigged. It's a rigged system. These guys have been shaking me down for years. I don't want to give. They all walk in if you don't write a check."
"There was a poll in Queens," Trump said. "An old guy with a baseball bat. You go in there and you've got to give him something, normally in cash. If you don't give him anything, nothing gets done, nothing gets built. But if you take it in there and you leave him an envelope, it happens. That's just the way it is. But I can fix that."
Bossie said he had a roadmap. "It's the conservative movement. Tea party comes and goes. Populism comes and goes. The conservative movement has been a bedrock since Goldwater. Second," he said, "I would recommend you run as if you were running for governor in three states: Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina. They were the first three caucus or primary states. Run and sound local, like you want to be their governor. A lot of candidates made the huge mistake of trying to run in 27 states. Run three governor's races, and you'll have a really good shot. Focus on three. Do well in three, and the others will come."
"I can be the nominee," Trump said. "I can beat these guys. I don't care who they are. I got this. I can take care of these other things. Each position could be revisited, renegotiated. I'm pro-life," Trump said.
"Here's what you're going to need to do," Bossie said. "You're going to need to write between $250,000 and $500,000 worth of individual checks to congressmen and senators. They'll all come up here, look them in the eye, shake their hand. You're going to give them a check because we need some markers. You've got to do one on ones so these guys know, because later on that'll be at least an entry point, that you're building relationships," Bossie continued, saying, "this check is for you for $2,400. The maximum amount. It's got to be individual checks, hard money to their campaign so they know it's coming from you personally. Republicans now know that you're going to be serious about this."
"All the money," Bossie said, "was central to the art of presidential politics. Later, that's going to pay huge dividends. Give to Republican candidates in a handful of battleground states like Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Florida. In addition," Bossie said, "you're going to have to do a policy book. You ought to do a book about what you think about America and these policies."
Bannon gave an extended brief on China and its successful efforts to take jobs and money from the United States. He was obsessed with the threat.
"What do you think?" Bossie later asked Bannon.
"I'm pretty impressed with the guy," Bannon said. "As for running for president? Zero chance. First off, those two action items, the fucker will not write one check. He's not a guy who writes checks. He signs the back of checks when they come in as payments to him. It was good you said that because he'll never write a check."
"What about the policy book?"
"He'll never do a policy book. Give me a fucking break. First off, nobody will buy it. It was a waste of time. Except for the fact that it was insanely entertaining."
Bossie said he was trying to prepare Trump if he ever did decide to run. Trump had a unique asset: he was totally removed from the political process. As they walked on, Bossie found himself going through a mental exercise, one that, six years later, most Americans would go through. "He'll never run. He'll never file. He'll never announce. He'll never file his financial disclosure statement. Right? He'll never do any of those things. He'll never win."
"You think he's going to run?" Bossie finally asked Bannon.
"Not a chance. Zero chance," Bannon repeated. "Less than zero. Look at the fucking life he's got. Dude, come on. He's not going to do this. Get his face ripped off," Bob Woodward writes in his controversial book, "FEAR."
Trump went on to win the presidency!
end
>Notable but needs to be continued in multiple breads to reach the masses Monday!
Also would be good if an anon with a WSJ sub could CAP or post text of the story, by Monday.
I was just saying that it would be good to have the actual information, that ECW has, before the information was elevated in status on qResearch.