UPDATE: The body of the unidentified man has been confirmed to be Barack and Michelle Obama’s personal chef, Tafari Campbell, aged 45.

The original age of the victim was incorrect in the initial reporting.  Despite the Obama family vacationing on the island, the Obamas were not at their home in Martha’s Vineyard at the time of the incident.

(Chicago Sun Times) – […] Tafari Campbell, 45, known as one of the chefs who brewed White House honey ale beer while Obama was in office — using honey from Michelle Obama’s famous South Lawn garden — went to work for the former first couple when they left the White House.

In a statement, the Obamas said of one of the top chefs in the White House kitchen: “Tafari was a beloved part of our family. When we first met him, he was a talented sous chef at the White House — creative and passionate about food, and its ability to bring people together. In the years that followed, we got to know him as a warm, fun, extraordinarily kind person who made all of our lives a little brighter.

“That’s why, when we were getting ready to leave the White House, we asked Tafari to stay with us, and he generously agreed. He’s been part of our lives ever since, and our hearts are broken that he’s gone.

“Today we join everyone who knew and loved Tafari — especially his wife Sherise and their twin boys, Xavier and Savin — in grieving the loss of a truly wonderful man.”

The Obama’s have been spending part of the summer in Martha’s Vineyard for years.

Massachusetts State Police said Campbell was from Dumfries, Va., and “was visiting Martha’s Vineyard at the time of his passing. President and Mrs. Obama were not present at the residence at the time of the accident.” (read more) 

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Devon Archer was a good friend and business associate of Hunter Biden. According to reports from the New York Post, Archer is now scheduled to deliver witness testimony that he was present during approximately two dozen phone calls where Joe Biden was organizing business operations with his son Hunter Biden.

Joe Biden has previously denied any involvement with the business affairs of Hunter Biden. The business of Hunter Biden essentially boils down to Hunter selling various business executives on the ability of his father to use his political position to influence government action. Devon Archer was part of the conversations and a witness to the phone calls between various executives, Hunter and Joe.

(Via New York Post) – […] Hunter Biden would dial in his father, then-Vice President Joe Biden, on speakerphone into meetings with his overseas business partners, according to testimony expected before Congress this week from Devon Archer, the first son’s former best friend.

Archer, 48, who is facing jail for his role in a $60 million bond fraud, is scheduled to testify to the House Oversight Committee about meetings he witnessed that were attended by Joe Biden either in person or via speakerphone when Hunter would call his father and introduce him to foreign business partners or prospective investors.

“We are looking forward very much to hearing from Devon Archer about all the times he has witnessed Joe Biden meeting with Hunter Biden’s overseas business partners when he was vice president, including on speakerphone,” said Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.), the committee chairman.

One such meeting was in Dubai late in the evening of Friday, Dec. 4, 2015, after a board meeting of the Ukrainian energy company Burisma, which was paying Hunter $83,000 a month as a director.

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In an effort to keep the Daily Open Thread a little more open topic we are going to start a new daily thread for “Presidential Politics”. Please use this thread to post anything relating to the JoeBama Administration and Presidency.

“This is no small thing, to restore a republic after it has fallen into corruption. I have studied history for years and I cannot recall it ever happening. It may be that our task is impossible. Yet, if we do not try then how will we know it can’t be done? And if we do not try, it most certainly won’t be done. The Founders’ Republic, and the larger war for western civilization, will be lost.”

“But I tell you this: We will not go gently into that bloody collectivist good night. Indeed, we will make with our defiance such a sound as ALL history from that day forward will be forced to note, even if they despise us in the writing of it.”

~ Mike Vanderboegh

This thread will refresh daily and appear above the Open Discussion Thread.

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Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy Name. Thy kingdom come. THY WILL BE DONE, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but DELIVER US FROM EVIL.

For Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory, forever and ever. Amen †

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This poll seems to align with the previous forecast predictions.  Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has spent a great deal of time in South Carolina over the past two weeks.  The result, he’s dropped from second to third place.  The more voters get to see DeSantis, the lower his in-state polling becomes.

DISCLAIMER – South Carolina is an open primary, vulnerable to Big Club shenanigans.

President Trump has a clear lead in the Palmetto state at 48% according to the latest Fox (Shaw Research) poll [DATA HERE]. Nikki Haley has entered first loser position at 14%, followed closely by Ron DeSantis at 13% and Tim Scott at 10%.

Candidate I Don’t Know (4%) is now ahead of Mike Pence, Vivek Ramaswamy, Chris Christie and Asa Hutchinson. While Gas Station Sushi is polling ahead of Doug Burgum, Larry Elder, Will Hurd and Francis Suarez

[Source]

At 48%, President Donald Trump is 16 points higher in the polls than he was when he won the South Carolina primary in 2016.

NATIONAL OUTLOOK – The latest Harvard Harris national poll [DATA HERE] shows Donald Trump beating Joe Biden 45% to 39%, which includes President Trump holding a massive 18-point advantage with independent voters 45% to 27%.

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Robert Kennedy Jr. appears on Fox News with Maria Bartiromo to discuss his Democrat campaign for the Democrat presidential nomination.  Within the interview, RFK Jr. outlines his perspective on the national security state control over Washington DC and his campaign platform.  WATCH:

RFK Jr’s positions on the First Amendment (speech) and Fourth Amendment (privacy) are good.  However, do not be lulled into thinking his positions on the Second Amendment (gun ownership) and/or his positions on radical climate change, can be reconciled against the prior two.

As a rabid anti 2nd amendment voice who believes in gun confiscation as a government power over the people, in combination with his radical positions on the urgency of climate change/global warming, a position that by its own nature is anti-economic freedom, RFK Jr. positions himself more to harm liberty and freedom more than protect it.

The corporate agenda behind Fox News promoting RFK Jr. is likely an effort to shave a few more voters away from the America First platform by lulling voters into the position of RFK Jr. as a moderate alternative.  Robert Kennedy Jr. is in alignment with the far left on most issues, other than Speech and Privacy.

To me, it looks like the corporate BIG CLUB agenda is using RFK Jr. as a tool to pull MAGA Democrats away from Trump – not an intent to pull centrist Democrats away from Biden.

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Finding solid information, accurate data, to update the perspective of the ongoing boycott of Bud Light products is a little challenging. You would think the data would be easily found; alas, in this era of hyper partisanship, data that would reflect the truth of the situation is less visible. Go figure.

That said, this market share report from Union does give us a little more perspective on the outcome.  According to the market share report, the decline in Bud Light sales overall is 34.2% over the past six months.  Interestingly, some regions have much larger declines than others. For California, “Union reported only minor changes in market dominance in the state. Bud Light’s sales share in California slid by 0.8 points to 6.6%, while Miller Lite’s sales share increased by 1.7 points to 12%.”

(Via MSM) – The hospitality consumption data platform Union reported a significant decline in Bud Light’s sales share in the Carolinas. From April through June 30, the brand’s sales share dropped by 6.9 points, falling from 19.4% to 12.5%. This decline has been attributed to the fallout from Bud Light’s partnership with Dylan Mulvaney, which sparked controversy and calls for a boycott.

[…] Local bar owners in the Carolinas have also reported a significant impact on Bud Light’s sales. For instance, Chris Dimattia, the owner of Recovery Room Tavern in Charleston, SC, mentioned that he used to sell 10 cases of Bud Light each week, but now only sells one to three cases of the boycott brew, resulting in a 70% to 90% drop in sales. At Blind Tiger Pub, another Charleston bar, Bud Light sales are described as “almost non-existent” by general manager Clayton Dukes. Dukes expressed his concern that the boycott may persist for an extended period, prompting him to replace Bud Light draft with Michelob Ultra due to the low sales.

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There is a major issue within the use of the FISA-702 authority that must be immediately understood.  A silo problem that is not being discussed within Congress as the potential for FISA-702 reauthorization is looming.

I’m setting aside my opinion of the entire process in order to just outline the facts as they appear.  I am not in support of any of this FISA process; nor do I support the baseline premise of the NSA database capturing the private electronic communication of Americans, which I do not believe is legislatively authorized to exist.

The Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) recently released the 2023 FISC opinion on FISA-702 activity as reported by the NSA, FBI and to a lesser extent CIA and NCTC [REPORT HERE].

In this report, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) is reviewing legal compliance by the NSA and FBI in accessing the NSA database that houses the private electronic records, metadata, of every American.  This is the core of the FISA-702 authorization, where 702 indicates an American citizen protected from illegal searches and seizures by the Fourth Amendment.

The NSA database contains the private electronic data (metadata) of every single American – including emails, text messages, social media posts, instant messages, direct messages, phone calls, geolocation identifiers, purchases by electronic funds, banking records and any keystroke any American person puts into any electronic device for any reason. [A big issue here is the use of Two-Factor Authentication (2FA) but that’s for a different article.]

The 2023 FISC report reviews the action of the FBI and NSA to ensure compliance with rules and restrictions in the search of this database.

The NSA and FBI report violations of the process to the FISA Court; this is somewhat of an honor system.  You may have heard FBI Director Christopher Wray recently saying they have reduced the number of unauthorized searches of this database by 80%.  The FBI has presumably tightened up the rules and restrictions on who and how this database can be searched.

The ODNI release only covers the compliance of the NSA and FBI (and the CIA and NCTC) to the FISA-702 rules.  The CIA and NCTC are foreign mission authority only, therefore they should never even be involved in searching American citizens.

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In an effort to keep the Daily Open Thread a little more open topic we are going to start a new daily thread for “Presidential Politics”. Please use this thread to post anything relating to the JoeBama Administration and Presidency.

“This is no small thing, to restore a republic after it has fallen into corruption. I have studied history for years and I cannot recall it ever happening. It may be that our task is impossible. Yet, if we do not try then how will we know it can’t be done? And if we do not try, it most certainly won’t be done. The Founders’ Republic, and the larger war for western civilization, will be lost.”

“But I tell you this: We will not go gently into that bloody collectivist good night. Indeed, we will make with our defiance such a sound as ALL history from that day forward will be forced to note, even if they despise us in the writing of it.”

~ Mike Vanderboegh

This thread will refresh daily and appear above the Open Discussion Thread.

(more…)

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy Name. Thy kingdom come. THY WILL BE DONE, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but DELIVER US FROM EVIL.

For Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory, forever and ever. Amen †

.

(more…)