Op-ed: 
Filling the Mainstream Media Void 
By: Diane Sori / The Patriot Factor / Right Side Patriots on American Political Radio

As we were all focused on Passover and Easter preparations and celebrations, and as the fire at the Cathedral of Notre Dame dominated the 24/7 news cycle, three other key news stories slowly started making the rounds including last Friday's political bombshell concerning former presidential candidate and now Utah Senator Mitt Romney.

So let me start by saying that I volunteered and campaigned for Romney twice...when he ran for the nomination against John McCain and when he ran for the presidency against Barack HUSSEIN Obama. Romney's message and platform were strong as well as his having political experience as the Republican governor of a blue state. He was business savvy and ever so handsome...the epitome of a loving husband and family man. I worked hard as a campaign volunteer and even got to watch Romney debate Obama at a special “invite only” debate watching party. And while I felt he was not forceful enough against Obama at certain points in that particular debate, I held out hope that he'd pull off a presidential win...he truly was the better candidate...the better man...for the job after all.

Never did I think Americans would be so misguided or foolish enough to elect a community organizer, let alone an islamic condoner, to the presidency of these United States. But then I never thought the liberal media would be so successful in anointing a seemingly politically inexperienced half-black man as America's supposed “saviour-in-chief.”

And sadly, I too was fooled for the man I thought Mitt Romney was back then has now morphed into nothing but the late RINO John McCain's Senate replacement. And Romney is worse than McCain for McCain's disdain for Donald Trump could be called a somewhat “righteous stand” against Trump's uncalled for POW comments. But Romney...an early critic of candidate Trump...put on a grand show of pretending to mend fences when he was asked by now President Trump to interview for the position of Secretary of State...which fortunately he did not get.

Fool me once...shame on you. Fool me twice...shame on me. Fool me three times...and it's time for me to set right a grievous wrong as my head hangs in shame for ever having supported this man. And why...because Romney never moved on from his anti-Trump stance...it grew and festered as he became just another RINO come home to the Senate to roost.

A RINO indeed for Mitt Romney could not keep his mouth shut or his tweeting finger still after reading the redacted version of the Mueller report. Choosing to criticize President Trump, his administration, and the report itself, Romney, last Friday, tweeted that he was “sickened” by the “dishonesty and misdirection by individuals in the highest office of the land including the President.”

“Sickened” by what...that no evidence of “collusion” either by Trump or his campaign was found...“sickened” that no chargeable “obstruction of justice” was found...“sickened” to such a degree that even proverbial “nice guy” former AR Gov. Mike Huckabee felt he had to jump to Trump's defense by saying that what made him “sick” was the thought that, “Mitt Romney might have become president in 2016.” 
 
But Mike Huckabee is right...for what Mitt Romney did was give the Democrats fodder to keep the “collusion” now morphing into “impeachment” nonsense going...but maybe that was RINO Romney's intention all along...payback for Trump's publicly criticizing him after losing to Obama most likely. Any thing's possible in today's heated political climate with Romney likely continuing to spew his anti-Trump rhetoric.

Next up and coming on the heels of the Notre Dame fire, the Indian Ocean island nation of Sri Lanka saw a wave of eight early Sunday morning explosions rocking three Catholic churches holding Easter services as well as three upscale tourist hotels. At least 359 people were killed (as per the latest count) with 500+ more injured, including at least two Americans (one being 40-year old Dieter Kowalski from Denver CO) and eight British citizens among those listed as killed.

Now believed to be in response to last month's Christchurch, New Zealand mosque massacre, the well coordinated attacks, as per Sri Lanka’s Defence Minister Ruwan Wijewardene, were carried out by Sri Lankan “muslim extremists” from "National Thowheed Jama'ath" (NTJ)... a local group that is both the fairly new islamist faction of the two decades old less extremist group Thableekh Jamaat, the group previously known for vandalizing Buddhist statues, and who in 2016 saw one of its leaders being arrested for “inciting racism.”

And with said attacks being highly suspected of having help from an “international terror network”...to that affect ISIS' news agency Amaq announced earlier this week on Telegram (via the NAshir News Agency) that the attacks in Sri Lanka were carried out by ISIS fighters. Also of note is that "National Thowheed Jama'ath” has on numerous occasions not only threatened to kill Sri Lankan nonbelievers but to bring islamic fundamentalism to the country as well.

And to date over 40 arrests have already been made, and two of the seven suicide bombers...including Mohamed Azzam Mohamed, who blew himself up at the Cinnamon Grand Hotel's Taprobane Restaurant as people were eating breakfast and Zahran Hashim, a well-known muslim “preacher” who claimed, “Allah created this land for Muslims”...have been identified as members of said goup. But to make matters worse, local intelligence had received warnings a full ten days prior to the attacks that “prominent churches” could be the target of suicide bombers. In fact, "National Thowheed Jama’ath" was specifically named in a police advisory to local security services as one they believed posed a threat to Catholic churches.

However, due to what he called “friction” within opposing factions of the government leadership, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe issued a statement saying that neither he nor his cabinet ministers had been notified about those warnings so little to nothing was done to keep the churches safe...safe from what Finance Minister Mangala Samaraweera called “a well-coordinated attempt to create murder, mayhem and anarchy.”

Mission accomplished I'd say...mission accomplished because like within the different sects of Christianity who are constantly at odds with each other over just whose version of Christianity is the version Jesus intended...Sri Lanka has also seen religious issues arising from its own 1983-2009 civil war...a war between Hindu separatists from the minority Tamil ethnic group vs. the Sinhalese ethnic Buddhist majority. And as long as religious odds exist within a given country, islam will continue making inroads into that country whether or not they had significant numbers population wise, as now witnessed in Sri Lanka, a nation of 23 million people that currently is less than ten percent muslim...less than ten percent now but whose numbers are rapidly growing.

And as Sri Lanka starts to bury its dead, more bombs were discovered...bombs that thankfully did not go off. Found by Sri Lankan police were 87 bomb detonators at the capital of Colombo's main bus station, and on Monday a large bomb was defused on an access road leading to the country's international airport.

So as the scale of the intent to do as much carnage as possible becomes reality, Sri Lanka is being held hostage in fear of those who truly are out to kill us all.

And lastly, a big news item this week saw President Trump again standing strong not just against Iran herself but against Japan, South Korea, Turkey, China, and India saying that they will no longer be exempt from U.S. economic sanctions and could face economic penalties themselves if they continue to import oil from Iran.

Announced in a televised news conference this past Monday by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, the decision not to reissue those country's waivers when they expire this May 2nd, was made after already having granted those countries extra time...as in eight waivers...to find other oil suppliers. Being done to “bring Iranian oil exports to zero” by “squeezing Tehran’s government” of even more much needed revenue...revenue that had been $50 billion a year before the sanctions ...while at the same time trying to both force political change in the islamic nation as well as trying to get Iran to “rein in” its military actions across the Middle East, most especially in Syria.

However, while U.S. officials say they don't expect to see any significant reduction in the actual “supply of oil” given production increases by other countries including Saudi Arabia and the UAE...and with Saudi Energy Minister Khalid a-Falih saying that his country "will coordinate with fellow oil producers to ensure adequate supplies are available to consumers while ensuring the global oil market does not go out of balance"...I still must play “devil's advocate” for a bit as we must be forewarned that this move could...and I only say could...still lead to higher oil and gas prices at the pump...at least temporarily...as sometimes prices have nothing to do with “supply” but have everything to do with simple “demand.”

 

And that “demand” was reflected by Monday's global crude prices rising three percent in Asia to more than $74 a barrel, the highest they've been since October, as soon as word of what Trump was doing leaked out. And let's not forget that this move...as rightful as we feel it may be...will indeed draw the ire of some of our allies while at the same time seeing a White House shuffling of some policy priorities, including maybe putting the all-important, ongoing trade talks with China and the garnering of China's assistance in helping to contain Kim Jung-un's nuclear ambitions, on the back burner for a bit.

So while Italy, Greece, and Taiwan, three other countries also originally waivered in, have stopped importing oil from Iran, the a fore mentioned five “big boys” have not. In fact, those five have actually begun lobbying for said waivers to be extended yet again no matter that Trump said “time's up.” And as for our NATO (supposed) ally Turkey, they continue to claim that Iranian oil is critical to meeting Turkey's energy needs and that as Iran's neighbors they cannot completely cut economic ties or close its economy to Iranian goods nor can Iran's economy be closed to Turkish goods.

Well obviously they can be or else President Trump would not be doing what he is doing...as in cutting off the head of the snake while its body withers and dies on the ground. A hoped for fitting end to the mother of all snakes...Iran.

So there you have it...three of this week's top stories as we move away from Notre Dame a bit...confident that it will be rebuilt...and back we go to stories that do have a greater and more direct impact on our country than does 850-year old Notre Dame.

 
Copyright @ 2019 Diane Sori / The Patriot Factor / All Rights Reserved.

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For more political commentary please visit my RIGHT SIDE PATRIOTS partner Craig Andresen's blog The National Patriot to read his latest article, Collusion Delusion.

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RIGHT SIDE PATRIOTS...LIVE!

Friday, April 26th from 7 to 9pm EST on American Political Radio, RIGHT SIDE PATRIOTS Craig Andresen and Diane Sori discuss 'Filling the Mainstream Media Void'; 'Collusion Delusion'; and important news of the day.

Hope you can tune in at: http://listen.samcloud.com/w/73891/American-Political-Radio#history...or on Tune-In at: https://tunein.com/radio/American-Political-Radio-s273246/

Iran IRGC Commander has defected to the West

By Pamela Geller / THE GELLER REPORT

This is quite a coup for the Trump administration. Best to keep him far away from the Democrats. They would return him to the murdering mullahs.

A senior Iranian military officer affiliated with the country’s Revolutionary Guard Corps, or IRGC, has fled the Islamic Republic with a cache of secret documents said to contain information on Tehran’s military plans, according to reports.

Ali Nasiri, a former IRGC brigadier general who once headed Iran’s counterintelligence operations, is reported to have fled Iran and requested political asylum at a U.S. embassy in an unnamed Gulf country, according to a report carried in Iran Commentary, an online news portal that publishes information about Iran’s human rights abuses and illicit activity.

Read entire article here: https://gellerreport.com/2019/04/iran-irgc-commander-has-defected-to-the-west.html/

Joe Biden officially launches 2020 presidential bid

By Paul Steinhauser | Fox News

 

Former Vice President Joe Biden, in an online video Thursday, officially declared his candidacy for president in 2020, capping off weeks of intrigue and media speculation.

He enters a crowded field of Democratic contenders aiming to unseat President Trump -- nearly 32 years after he announced his first campaign for president. The campaign is Biden’s third for the White House, having also unsuccessfully run in 1988 and 2008.

"The core values of this nation, our standing in the world, our very democracy, everything that has made America -- America -- is at stake. That’s why today I’m announcing my candidacy for president of the United States," Biden tweeted early Thursday.

With the announcement, which followed months of deliberations, Biden becomes a front-runner in an incredibly crowded field of Democratic presidential contenders all vying to face off next year against Trump.

Read entire article and see videos here: https://www.foxnews.com/politics/biden-officially-launches-2020-presidential-bid