Each day at just after midnight Eastern, a post like this one is created for contributors and readers of this site to upload news links and video links on the issues that concern this site. Most notably, Islam and its effects on Classical Civilization, and various forms of leftism from Soviet era communism, to postmodernism and all the flavours of galloping statism and totalitarianism such as Nazism and Fascism which are increasingly snuffing out the classical liberalism which created our near, miraculous civilization the West has been building since the time of Socrates.
This document was written around the time this site was created, for those who wish to understand what this site is about. And while our understanding of the world and events has grown since then, the basic ideas remain sound and true to the purpose.
So please post all links, thoughts and ideas that you feel will benefit the readers of this site to the comments under this post each day. And thank you all for your contributions.
This is the new Samizdat. We must use it while we can.
For those interested, please check out https://vladtepesblog.substack.com/ as an another avenue of expression.
GOP Rep. Brandon Williams Also Swatted Christmas Day, in Addition to Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene and Jack Posobiec
by Kristinn Taylor Dec. 26, 2023 8:00 am143 Comments
Conservatives and Republican members of Congress were swatted over the long Christmas weekend, with police responding to bogus calls intended to provoke a police killing of the targets.
In addition to Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) who was swatted Christmas morning and Jack Posobiec whose parents were swatted again on Monday during a family gathering, Rep. Brandon Williams (R-NY) was swatted early in the afternoon. Fortunately, no one was injured and police went away with Christmas cookies
Williams posted, “Our home was swatted this afternoon. Thanks to the Deputies and Troopers who contacted me before arriving. They left with homemade cookies and spiced nuts! Merry Christmas everyone!”
Rep. Brandon Williams
@RepWilliams
·
Follow
Our home was swatted this afternoon. Thanks to the Deputies and Troopers who contacted me before arriving.
They left with homemade cookies and spiced nuts! Merry Christmas everyone!
https://twitter.com/RepWilliams/status/1739368231998013825
Williams posted an update later on Monday, “UPDATE: Capitol Police & local police are investigating the Swatting incident at our home on this Christmas Day. Thankful for law enforcement working today (& every day). 5 cars responded to our home. The deputies & troopers were polite, professional, & prompt. God bless them.”
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/12/gop-rep-brandon-williams-also-swatted-christmas-day/
After Christmas Swatting Incident, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene Reveals Sick Death Threats Made Against Her and President Trump
by Kristinn Taylor Dec. 26, 2023 11:15 am79 Comments
After being swatted for the eighth time, this time on Christmas Day, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene revealed she, her boyfriend Brian Glenn, and President Trump were recently the target of sick death threats made by a deranged man–whom police have not arrested even though he threatened to shoot her in the head and skin her body to make a “parasol,” referencing serial killer Ed Gein. The man also said he wanted to bash in the heads of Trump and Glenn.
Frustrated with the inability of the FBI to track down and make arrests in the swatting incidents, Greene said she will be introducing legislation to “track down swatters.”
Also swatted on Monday was Rep. Brandon Williams (R-NY) and the parents of Jack Posobiec who were swatted during a family gathering Jack was attending.
Posobiec posted a call for new laws to address swatting, “It is clear federal law is currently inadequate on swatting incidents whether to schools, public figures, or Members of Congress. Such law must be updated. In addition, Congress must address the total failure of federal law enforcement agencies to deal with these violent threats.”
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/12/after-christmas-swatting-incident-rep-marjorie-taylor-greene/
What to know about the recent swatting incidents against members of Congress
Multiple political figures said their homes were the target of “swatting incidents” on Christmas Day, where multiple law enforcement officers were called to their residences for false calls of an emergency.
What is “swatting”?
Swatting incidents occur when a person or multiple individuals call in a false report of an emergency, crime, mass shooting, or kidnapping in progress to prompt a large police response. Swatting attempts have become more common in recent years, often targeting celebrities, political figures and internet livestreamers as a form of online harassment.
Responding law enforcement are often told there is a threat inside the home, putting the victim of such attempts in danger.
The FBI in June launched a national database to track these incidents following a push from Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), who called the attacks “dangerous, disturbing and downright terrifying.”
The latest swatting attempt against Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.)
Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (Ga.) on Monday said her residence was targeted on Christmas Day, following a series of previous swatting attempts against the conservative lawmaker.
Greene revealed on social media that someone reported a fake crime at her home, marking what she said was about the eighth swatting attempt on her home.
“I was just swatted. This is like the 8th time. On Christmas with my family here. My local police are the GREATEST and shouldn’t have to deal with this,” she said in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter.
Multiple calls into a crisis hotline cited Greene’s address in Rome, Ga., prompting a local police response, a spokesperson for the police said. Coordinating with Greene’s security detail, local police determined there was no emergency at the address.
Greene’s home has been the target of multiple swatting incidents since last year. In one instance in August 2022, a caller claimed a shooting occurred at Greene’s home and the next day, another caller suggested they possibly shot Greene’s family.
Rep. Brandon Williams (R-N.Y.) says home swatted on Christmas Day
Rep. Brandon Williams (R-N.Y.) on Monday said his home was swatted on Christmas Day, prompting the Cayuga County Sheriff’s Office to contact him and confirm it was a false alarm before arriving at the residence.
“Our home was swatted this afternoon,” he said Monday on X. “Thanks to the Deputies and Troopers who contacted me before arriving. They left with homemade cookies and spiced nuts! Merry Christmas everyone!”
“The deputies & troopers were polite, professional, & prompt,” he added. “God bless them.”
It was not immediately clear whether Williams’s case is related to Greene’s incident. Police in Rome, Ga. confirmed they received multiple reports of an emergency at Greene’s address in Georgia and the same address in Rome, N.Y. — Williams’s district.
Boston Mayor Michelle Wu’s home reportedly swatted on Christmas Day
The Boston Police Department on Monday said they received a report of a shooting at an address matching Boston Mayor Michelle Wu’s home in Roslindale, a neighborhood of Boston, according to multiple media reports.
Authorities determined the shooting was a hoax, the Boston Herald reported. The Hill reached out to the Boston Police Department and the Boston mayor’s office for comment.
https://au.news.yahoo.com/know-recent-swatting-incidents-against-194244535.html
Denver Police Investigating ‘Hoax’ Threat to Colorado Justices After Trump Ruling; FBI ‘Aware’
Denver police said officers responded to a justice’s residence ‘on what appears to be a hoax report.’
Local and federal law enforcement are investigating a “hoax report” of threats made against Colorado Supreme Court justices who recently ruled that former President Donald Trump cannot appear on the state’s primary ballots in the 2024 presidential election.
The Denver Police Department said law enforcement responded to a justice’s residence on Dec. 21 in the evening “on what appears to be a hoax report.”
“Everything checked clear and we are continuing to investigate this report. Due to security and privacy considerations and the ongoing investigation, we are unable to provide any additional information at this time,” Denver police said in a statement, reported CNN.
Story continues below advertisement
Denver police had reportedly provided “extra patrols around justice’s residences,” reported Axios.
A Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) spokesperson said the bureau was “aware of the situation and working with local law enforcement.”
“We will vigorously pursue investigations of any threat or use of violence committed by someone who uses extremist views to justify their actions, regardless of motivation,” the FBI spokesperson said in a statement.
The Epoch Times contacted the FBI, Denver PD, and the Colorado Judicial Branch for further comment.
The incident comes in the wake of the ruling by the Colorado high court, which is composed entirely of Democrat appointees, that President Trump is ineligible to appear on the state’s primary ballot because he had engaged in “insurrection” during the Jan. 6, 2021, breach of the U.S. Capitol.
Legacy media outlets have pointed to a non-public analysis they obtained from the nonprofit Advance Democracy, which reportedly notes the existence of “incendiary” rhetoric—but not specific threats—in online posts originating from the user accounts of purported Trump supporters.
US Supreme Court Hands Win to Trump | Facts Matter
The Epoch Times contacted Advance Democracy for a copy of the analysis and for a comment.
Denver police said they would continue to work with “our local, state, and federal law enforcement partners to thoroughly investigate any reports of threats or harassment,” and provide further safety support if and as requested.
‘Peacefully & Patriotically’
President Trump has denied being an “insurrectionist,” and in a Dec. 24 post on Truth Social, he said his critics always fail to acknowledge that in his Jan. 6, 2021, speech in Washington, D.C., he urged for “peaceful” protest.
He stated that the Jan. 6 House panel “of political hacks and thugs” never “show that I used the words ‘peacefully & patriotically in my speech.'”
“They actually pretended that these words were never uttered,” he wrote on Dec. 24. “Crooked politics!!!”
On Dec. 21, two days after the state’s Supreme Court ruling, President Trump denied being an “insurrectionist” while asserting that the label in fact belongs to President Joe Biden due to his border policies.
He noted that he urged members of the crowd to “peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard” in his Jan. 6, 2021, speech, in which he told members of the crowd to head to the Capitol building.
The Trump campaign denounced the ruling as partisan, with President Trump calling it a “shame for our country.”
His attorneys vowed to appeal the decision to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Story continues below advertisement
Meanwhile, President Trump has claimed that the many indictments against him are part of a political “witch hunt” and “election interference,” noting that he is rising in the polls while President Biden’s approval ratings are slipping.
President Biden declined to comment on the Colorado Supreme Court decision but told reporters there was “no question” that the former president was an insurrectionist.
“Now, whether the 14th Amendment applies, I’ll let the court make that decision,” President Biden said. “But he certainly supported insurrection, no question about it, none, zero. And he seems to be doubling down on everything.”
The Colorado Supreme Court ruling is expected to be overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court.
https://www.theepochtimes.com/us/denver-police-investigating-hoax-threat-to-colorado-justices-after-trump-ruling-fbi-aware-5553056?src_src=epochHG&src_cmp=CFP
Invasive Asian ‘Cow-Killing’ Tick Has Rapidly Crept Across America, CDC Warns
by Stefanie Ladner, The Western Journal Dec. 26, 2023 8:30 am108 Comments
Invasive Asian ‘Cow-Killing’ Tick Has Rapidly Crept Across America, CDC Warns
by Stefanie Ladner, The Western Journal Dec. 26, 2023 8:30 am108 Comments
Truth
Tweet Share
Gettr
Gab Telegram
The Asian longhorned tick is rapidly gaining a foothold in the United States and “poses a serious threat to livestock” according to the USDA.
Since its discovery and proper identification in 2017, the coverage area of the tick has spread to 19 U.S. states, the USDA reported.
The deadly consequence of their expansion was shared by Ohio State University researchers in the Journal of Medical Entomology: Two cows and one large bull died from exsanguination by the ticks, meaning drained of blood to the point of death.
Each unfortunate cow likely endured tens of thousands of bites.
Popular Science
@PopSci
·
Follow
“Some cattle get swarmed so fast they die of exsanguination—the ticks drain the cow’s blood so fast they die.”
The nightmarish Asian longhorned tick has invaded the U.S.—and it can reproduce without mating http://pops.ci/longhorn
https://twitter.com/PopSci/status/1149320138937851904
How did they get here? They didn’t fly all that distance. Only one answer: released or escaped from American labs (Bill Gates).
Could be a foreign bio weapons attack.
‘Chilling’: Smart Toys Are Increasingly Recording and Tracking Your Kids, Warns Watchdog Report
by Ole Braatelien, The Western Journal Dec. 26, 2023 7:45 am81 Comments
Santa’s watchful eye will have an unyielding rival this Christmas: smart toys, according to a November watchdog report.
In an article titled, “Trouble in Toyland 2023,” the U.S. Public Interest Research Group Education Fund warned of the threat of increasingly popular toys loaded with artificial intelligence.
The report listed a number of playthings and their concerning spy-like technology, and also gave advice as to what to do about them.
Nowadays, even “simpler” toys and games are equipped with data-gathering A.I. They’re often rigged with cameras and microphones for facial and vocal recognition and even GPS tracking.
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/12/chilling-smart-toys-increasingly-recording-tracking-kids-warns/
2. Cockwomble
Noun — A person, usually male, prone to making outrageously, stupid statements and / or inappropriate behaviour while generally having a very high opinion of their own wisdom and importance.
Read more: https://www.ammoland.com/2023/12/judge-benitez-hammers-activist-professor-donohue-miller-v-becerra/#ixzz8N0wEq2UZ
Under Creative Commons License: Attribution
Follow us: @Ammoland on Twitter | Ammoland on Facebook
ICYMI: Judge Benitez Hammers Activist Professor Donohue in Miller v Becerra
Ammoland Inc. Posted on December 26, 2023 by Dean Weingarten
Opinion
Professor John Donohue III youtube 20FGDY9vBKA
Professor John Donohue III IMG: youtube 20FGDY9vBKA
In mid-October of 2023, Judge Benitez, in a powerful ruling, took longtime activist Professor Donohue to task in Miller v Becerra.
John J. Donohue III is a lawyer and economist who has published numerous papers. Many of those papers were statistical studies about guns and crime. He is a professor at Stanford Law School. Some of his prominent papers dispute the findings of John Lott, who found an increase in the issuance of carry permits led to a decrease in homicides.
Professor Donohue’s findings have also been disputed. His analysis focuses on state-level statistics, while John Lott’s analysis uses finer-grained county-level statistics.
Professor Donohue submitted a supplemental declaration to the court in support of Becerra and the State of California. Unlike his articles about concealed carry, there is no esoteric mathematics involving state-level synthetic controls.
Judge Benitez carefully considered Professor Donohue’s. He finds it has little to do with the California ban on “assault weapons.
ADVERTISEMENT
SCROLL DOWN TO CONTINUE READING
From Miller v Becerra, page 69:
John J. Donohue is a professor of law. His supplemental declaration is not particularly helpful. For example, professor Donohue describes a 2018 medical study published on the Jama Network Open about 511 gunshot victims in Boston. He opines that study “applies directly to bans on assault weapons and high capacity magazines. Yet the study noted that only one of the 511 victims studied was shot with a rifle caliber round (7.62 x 39 mm.) Why the study applies directly to bans on “assault weapons,” as professor Donohue opines, is not at all obvious. Handgun wounds were the main point of the study. Professor Donohue also opines that the dangers of weapons like the AR-15 will outpace any legitimate crime-reducing benefit the firearms provide, citing the 2017 Sutherland Springs Baptist Church shooting. He picked an ironic example. a neighbor, Stephen Willeford, stopped the mass shooter in that tragedy with four shots from his own AR-15.
Professor Donohue previously commented on the lawful-to-own Ruger Mini-14 rifle wich is similar to the banned rifles. He offered that the Mini-14’s current legality is because the firearm restrictions are to be increased “incrementally.” He concludes with abject conjecture imagining the January 6, 2021 Capitol rally would have turned out like the Kent State University shootings, but for the District of Columbia’s prohibition on “assault weapons”. Professor Donohue’s opinions are entitled to no weight.
Judge Benitez shows Professor Donohue as pushing a number of gunshot victims (shot almost entirely with handguns) as an emotional ploy.
Emotional ploys are used when you do not have a logical argument. It is also a push for interest balancing, forbidden in the Heller and Bruen Supreme Court cases. The information that shows Professor Donohue did not find the exception for the Mini-14 Rifle relevant is highly revealing because the gun banners had simply not gotten around to banning it yet. It exposes the “slippery slope” argument as valid. It shows at least one prominent professor and lawyer conspicuously referenced by those who oppose a strong Second Amendment views gun restrictions as best done “incrementally.” It is reminiscent of the overused boiling frog analogy. The weird hypothetical about the January 6th Capitol Rally and Kent State is particularly strange. Kent State happened in 1970. There were no privately owned firearms involved. The U.S. government would have owned the only “assault weapons” involved. Judge Benitez makes the obvious judgment.
Professor Donohue’s opinions are entitled to no weight.
With Judge Benitez, those pushing for a disarmed population have found a jurist who is knowledgeable about firearms and firearms history, who rigorously does his homework and applies the law as the Constitution and the Supreme Court require. Meanwhile, Professor Donohue is exposed as either a freedom-hating ant-gun hack or just ignorant and in no position to be providing declarations to the courts.
2024—the Year of our Reckoning
Will we meet the challenges or ensure the ongoing decline?
By Victor Davis Hanson
December 25, 2023
We should remember the now modern proverb of Nixon-era economic advisor Herb Stein to the effect that what cannot go on (without destroying the nation), simply will not go on.
In some sense, the country for recent years has been cruising on the fumes from prior and likely better wiser generations and institutions. In 2024, the tab for our current apathy, toxic politics, and incompetence will come due.
So next year we will likely see the climax to a number of current dangerous ideas, events, and forces, which finally will either overwhelm us or be addressed and remedied. We live in a Neronian age but can recover if we first understand how we got here and the nature of the suicide we are committing.
In 2023, it became clear, to even the most loyal supporters of the Biden administration, that the U.S. has simply lost or indeed forfeited American deterrence abroad. Our enemies do not fear us; our friends do not trust us; and neutrals do not care either way.
After the 2021 Kabul debacle, the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, the 2023 brazen Chinese spy balloon’s uncontested trajectory over the United States, the recent Hamas invasion of Israel, the serial Iranian-fueled terrorist attacks on U.S. installations in the Middle East, and the terrorist Houthis’ veritable absorption of the Red Sea, many of America’s opportunistic enemies drew conclusions and adopted strategies that would have been previously unthinkable.
Either adversaries will be so emboldened to start regional wars—an impotent Iran now brags it will block the entire Mediterranean—or a United States will be shocked into action and have to deter Iran, the Houthis, and Islamic terrorism, while dealing with an opportunistic China eager to annex Taiwan, and Russia determined to finish off Ukraine.
Those challenges will force the military to staunch its recruitment hemorrhaging, rectify low morale, and rearm. Such rebooting in turn will require discarding the woke agenda, stopping the DEI proselytizing and virtue signaling, and returning to a meritocracy focused on military preparedness and battlefield efficacy.
Since January 2021, the Biden administration has flagrantly and unapologetically dismantled federal immigration law. It destroyed the border as we once knew it. It has already greenlighted more than 8 million illegal entrants—with another quarter-million entering each month.
No one in government has offered any projected costs to states and federal agencies of offering health, food, housing, legal, and education subsidies to millions—who broke the law by entering the U.S. and continue to do violate it while residing unlawfully here. Is that the sign of a promising American citizen—that the first thing he does upon entering America is to break his host’s law?
Incredibly, no one has even explained to Americans why millions of illegal aliens are exempt from the vaccine mandates, background checks, and adherence to the law that is demanded of U.S. citizens and legal immigrants. We will soon demand “real” IDs of American citizen airline travelers, while we fly illegal aliens all over the states without any identification?
In fact, those who blew up the border can’t honestly even explain to the American people why they did so. Was it to ensure future (or even present) political constituents? Cheap labor? To ensure higher taxes to pay for more government services and to “spread the wealth?” Obeyance to the diversity/equity/inclusion lobbies? To make up for fleeing blue-state population?
The United States has now exceeded, both in real numbers and in percentages, all past numbers of non-native born American residents—at a time when civic education, the idea of the melting pot, and adherence to assimilation have never been more under assault.
In 2024, either the border will close, or the United States will suffer radical political realignments, sheer chaos in our major cities, protests from Americans furious over the complete flaunting of federal law by their own elected officials, and a likely impeachment of Joe Biden for deliberately forsaking his oath to “faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States.”
The October 7 Hamas invasion of Israel and premodern massacring of nearly 1,200 Jews—and the virulent anti-Semitism that swept our elite campuses and big cities even before the October 27 Israeli Defense Forces’ retaliatory invasion of Gaza—was a wakeup call about the racialized hatred and anti-Semitism now endemic on the Left.
Campus protestors dropped the prior protestations that they were not anti-Semitic in their hatred of Israel. Instead, they now call out Jews by name. They disrupt their homes and businesses, regardless of their views on Zionism. Pro-Hamas protestors feel free to harass Jews, and with impunity and arrogance chant genocidal chants promising the destruction of Israel and its Jewish population.
The main campus culprits for these sudden unabashed hatreds are tripartite. First, wealthy, mostly white leftist students—increasingly as ignorant of history as they are arrogant in their zealotry—feel it pays psychological and careerist dividends on campus to mouth orthodoxies of hating Israel and de facto siding with the Hamas killers.
Most have no idea of the Hamas charter, where flows the Jordan River, or what the British Mandate for Palestine or the Balfour Declaration were. Few of the loudest could never even find Jordan, Israel, the West Bank, or Gaza on a map. No matter: being heard and seen on campus hating Israel is considered a necessary fad like 1970s bellbottoms or pet rocks.
Second, huge numbers of full-tuition-paying Middle-Eastern visiting students and green-card holders, along with Gulf-fueled and endowed faculty, assume that they are exempt from any legal consequences. So they often deface the federal monuments of their hosts, shut down traffic, swarm Jews on campus and in the street, break the law, and battle with police—with absolute impunity.
Third, just as startling are the undisguised hatreds emanating from radical diversity/equity/inclusion students and faculty. As the declared oppressed, they too feel exempt from any charge that they are mouthing racist and anti-Semitic venom, as they conflate Israel with the now maligned stereotyped “white” people.
The apogee of such extremism was evident in the congressional testimony of three ethically challenged Ivy-League presidents. They reminded the nation that no campus president would unequivocally condemn, much less punish, any anti-Semites on a campus, who openly called for the destruction of Israel and its Jewish population. And they lied about “free speech” constraints on their punishment of mainstreaming anti-Semitic and genocidal threats—given they routinely expel, censure, and variously punish all sorts of “hate speech,” but only if it is directed against their own DEI constituencies.
All this is not tenable.
Our top universities are facing a perfect storm. Declining pools of students, crushing student loan debt, spiraling tuition and room and board costs, administrative bloat, defecting donors, and the public’s distrust of such people being entrusted with their children’s higher education, will all soon lead to a general reexamination of the very need of these universities in the first place, at least as they are presently constituted.
Their racialist admissions, hiring, retention, and promotion protocols are destroying meritocracy. Their mediocre curricula, grade inflation, and campus polarization have convinced the public that they are no longer deserving of the many taxpayer indulgences that shield campuses from market realities—such as massive federal research grants and subsidies, tax-free billions of dollars in private donations, tax-free endowment income in the tens of billions of dollars, and taxpayer subsidized $2 trillion in student loans.
So insulated are these atolls of privilege that they cannot recognize growing public anger over the damage they are doing to the country. Iconic Harvard University cannot even fire its DEI president Claudine Gay, despite serial instances in her own past of plagiarism (which prompted Harvard’s sycophantic board to defend her by embracing a new euphemism— “duplicative language” as if to signify the tiny clerical lapse of stealing the ideas and prose of others).
In 2024, radical changes in university administration and values will begin to be made, or higher education will face a reckoning from the public and a newly elected government.
Currently, Colorado has tentatively removed Donald Trump from its 2024 ballot on the specious grounds that he is an “insurrectionist.” Thus, the state insists that he is subject to the 14th Amendment, Section 3 clause of 1868, that calls for the disbarment from future government employment or service those former federal officials and employees who had joined the Confederacy.
Aside from the misapplication of the spirt and letter of that post-Civil War legislation, those responsible for erasing Trump know that he has never been charged with, much less convicted of “insurrection. And he never will be.
They understand that half the country knows the January 6 “riot” was the work of unarmed, overzealous, and buffoonish protestors, who broke the law by entering the Capitol, but otherwise had no master insurrectionary plan. And the majority surrounding the Capitol did in fact obey the president’s call to protest “peacefully” and “patriotically.”
The left privately understands that their latest weaponization of government follows their “Russian collusion hoax,” their “laptop disinformation” farce, their two politicized impeachments, their performance-art Mar-a-Lago documents raid, and thus are all part of a systematic degradation of our campaigns, elections, and political customs, tradition, and discourse.
A jaded public knows too well that such punitive measures never applied to the 2016 Hillary Clinton crimes of destroying subpoenaed emails and devices, or the FBI’s illegal alteration of FISA documents or its contracting out social media to suppress news stories, or its hiring of a foreign national Christopher Steele, who compiled a fake “dossier” to destroy the candidacy of Donald Trump.
A majority of Americans further know that had Donald Trump not chosen to run for office in 2024, state and federal prosecutors such as the publicity-seeking and partisan Alvin Bragg, Letitia James, Jack Smith, and Fani Willis would never have indicted him.
All privately know that the entire Biden family, including the President, could just as easily be indicted on state and local felonies, but the Biden consortium finds itself exempt both for its leftist ideology and its current control of the Department of Justice.
What then do the campaign and election of 2024 foreordain?
We will be in entirely new and completely dangerous territory. The likely Republican nominee who currently leads incumbent president Joe Biden will be for most of 2024 the constant target of a coordinated state and local Soviet-like effort to destroy his candidacy before the voters can even vote for or against him in the November election.
The United States 2023 annual budget deficit is about $1.7 trillion; the nation is burdened by a $34 trillion national debt—even though the federal government since 2021 has raised all sorts of new income and excise taxes.
The era of printing money, zero interest rates, “modern monetary theory,” and spending wildly is drawing to a close. The mounting interest on the national debt is now crowding out optional but soon essential annual federal spending. At some point soon, one generation of Americans is going to have to exercise spending restraint or accept a continuing decline in its living standards.
In sum, in 2024, we will either see the destruction of presidential electoral politics as we have known them or a complete repudiation of lawfare. The current new normal that the party in power indicts the leading candidate of the opposition is not sustainable or compatible with the idea of America.
Either the military will have to deter dramatically our growing number of opportunistic enemies, or it will descend into something like the French army between the world wars—plagued by ideology, ossified brass, corruption, mediocrity, misplaced investments, and bankrupt strategies.
If there are not radical changes in higher education, our Ivy League and self-identified elite campuses will go the way of Bud-Light, Disney, and Target—once premier brands reduced to red ink and laughing-stock caricatures.
The United States is cracking under 8 million illegal entries; it cannot sustain another year and 2 million more illegal entrants—or a total of 55-60 million foreign-born residents, with no idea of how many are U.S. citizens, illegal aliens, or green card holders–or how many are employable, or free of criminal records or in need of massive federal and state subsidies.
In 2024, the U.S. will begin to see that to meet its spiraling debt, it will either keep inflating its currency, or slash spending, or raise even further taxes to the degree that even the lower middle class will have to pay 50 percent of their income in state and federal taxes, or renounce its debt, and thus go full-Third World.
Will we meet these challenges or ensure the ongoing decline?
If what we saw after October 7, or the wild and out-of-control reign of weaponized local and state prosecutors, or what we watch nightly on television at the border, or the paralyses we witness abroad of our military, or the breezy way in which our officials promise groups here and abroad billions of dollars in easy money, continues into 2024, then the country as we knew it will become unrecognizable.
https://amgreatness.com/2023/12/25/2024-the-year-of-our-reckoning/
British Warship Deployed to the Coast of Guyana, in Major Escalation of the Dispute Against Venezuela for the Oil-Rich Essequibo Region
by Paul Serran Dec. 26, 2023 9:15 am27 Comments
All over the world, national borders between countries have become the focus of geopolitical tensions, as frontier disputes going back decades or even centuries are reignited.
In South America, the hundred year-old territorial boundaries between Venezuela and Guyana are once again a source of regional tensions.
Caracas renewed its claims to the 62,000-square-mile Essequibo region, which is internationally recognized as part of Guyana, after 11 billion barrels of recoverable oil and gas were found off the coast of Guyana in recent years.
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/12/british-warship-deployed-coast-guyana-major-escalation-dispute/
Biden Border Crisis: Illinois Paying for Hotel Rooms for Chicago’s Illegal Immigrants
The state said it’s temporary but that word doesn’t exist in the government’s dictionary. Nothing from the government is temporary.
Gov. J.B. Pritzker announced on Christmas Eve that the state would send money to Chicago to “temporarily” house the illegal immigrants in hotel rooms.
Of course Pritzker announces the move on Christmas Eve. No one is paying attention!
I put quotes around temporarily because who knows how long it will last. Nothing is temporary when it comes to government.
The State made approximately 30 hotel rooms available Saturday night with the remaining hotel rooms for up to 200 people coming online today. The Illinois Department of Human Services (IDHS) is working closely with the City of Chicago to identify hotel spaces, and the City is providing transportation. Those in hotels will be moved to a former CVS in Little Village when construction of that shelter is completed in January. Additional shelter sites are being explored and work is underway.
“IDHS continues to welcome our new neighbors with support services and assistance with work-permit applications, which will ultimately hasten their journey to self-sufficiency,” said Dulce Quintero, IDHS Secretary Designate.
Funding for the hotels will come from the additional $160 million Governor Pritzker announced in November to address the ongoing humanitarian crisis presented by the arrival of over 30,000 asylum seekers from the U.S. Southern Border.
https://legalinsurrection.com/2023/12/biden-border-crisis-illinois-paying-for-hotel-rooms-for-chicagos-illegal-immigrants/
As California and Others Move to Bar Trump From Ballot, Remember: Biden Said This Would Happen
Maybe he’s just remarkably prescient?
December 26, 2023 by Robert Spencer 20 Comments
Newsletter
[Make sure to read Robert Spencer’s contributions in Jamie Glazov’s new book: Barack Obama’s True Legacy: How He Transformed America.]
Now that Colorado has gone full Soviet Republic and barred Donald Trump from the 2024 ballot for his supposed leadership of a nonexistent “insurrection,” other Stalinist states are preparing to follow suit. And as we sit back and enjoy the spectacle of our republic being destroyed in order to save “our democracy,” it’s illuminating to recall what Biden said about all this a year ago. Old Joe saw it coming. Is he remarkably prescient, or have plans been afoot for quite some time to bar his foremost opponent from the ballot?
Nobody in his right mind, of course, would credit Old Joe with being insightful or perceptive. He’s a desperately corrupt, senescent apparatchik acting in the service of malevolent anti-American forces, and so that leaves us the other option: all this has been carefully planned. The Russian Collusion hoax didn’t work, the Ukraine phone call didn’t work, even the fake Jan. 6 “insurrection” didn’t, in the second impeachment proceeding, accomplish its purpose of ensuring that Trump couldn’t become president again.
Yet despite the fact that videos of what actually happened on Jan. 6 have abundantly discredited the “insurrection” narrative, the Democrats are still running with it. If enough states bar Trump from the ballot and the Supreme Court goes as wobbly as it did in the face of challenges to the integrity of the 2020 election, the establishment left will have finally driven a stake through the heart of their number one nemesis, and can, presumably, proceed unhindered to implement their plans to turn our nation into the socialist internationalist hellhole of their dreams.
Old Joe seemed to know all about this when he spoke at a press conference on Nov. 9, 2022. He was asked, “So the entire genesis of that G7 conversation was tied to your predecessor, who is about to launch another campaign. So how do you reassure them, if that is the reason for their questioning, that the former President will not return or that his political movement, which is still very strong —”
At that, Biden laughed sardonically and interjected, “Oh, yeah?” But he was offering more than just derision.
The questioner continued, “— will not once again take power in the United States?”
Biden replied, “Well, we just have to demonstrate that he will not take power by — if we — if he does run. I’m making sure he, under legitimate efforts of our Constitution, does not become the next President again.”
And here we are. The efforts to ban Trump from the ballot are being presented to the public as “legitimate efforts of our Constitution.” The Reconstruction-era Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution says this:
No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any state, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any state legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any state, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability.
This was designed to keep former Confederate officials from becoming senators and congressmen. It was seldom used at that time, was superseded by the Amnesty Act of 1872 that removed the ban except for some of the Confederacy’s top leaders, and hasn’t been used at all since then. Until now. But applying it to Trump is palpably absurd. He did not try to overthrow the government or engage in open revolt against it. He famously told the Jan. 6 protesters to proceed “peacefully.” Nor has there been a legal proceeding — even a politically slanted, biased, or bogus one — convicting him of doing so. Colorado has banned Trump from the ballot for committing a crime for which he has neither been charged nor convicted. Other states are now poised to follow suit.
The Nov. 2022 statement from Biden makes it clear: the real destroyers of democracy are in the White House. They’ve weaponized the “justice” system to take out the president’s chief opponent. Their plan has been in the works for a considerable period, and now all their hard work is bearing the bitter fruit they have hoped to see for so long.
https://www.frontpagemag.com/as-california-and-others-move-to-bar-trump-from-ballot-remember-biden-said-this-would-happen/
Can the Pope Overrule God?
A reflection on where the Catholic Church is headed.
December 26, 2023 by Michael Brown 3 Comments
Newsletter
If you have followed my writing and speaking over the decades, you will know that Catholicism has not been a focus of my ministry, either praising it or criticizing it. At the same time, I recognize the important role of the Catholic Church in standing for the sanctity of life and the meaning of marriage. That’s what makes the recent pronouncement of Pope Francis, allowing priests to “bless” same-sex couples, especially distressing. What act of apostasy will be next?
My Catholic colleague John Zmirak wrote on Tuesday, “Today I got one of those emails nobody wants to receive. You know, the ones where a journalist informs you that the leader of your church has authoritatively endorsed grave, unrepented sin; mocked not just timeless and current church teaching but the natural law itself; and opened up faithful clergy to persecution by the State. And by the way, would you like to comment?” (Later in his article, Zmirak references “Pope Francis’ poisonous reign of error.”)
Specifically, quoting from the Washington Times,
“Pope Francis on Monday approved letting priests bless same-sex couples, sparking criticism from conservative Catholics and praise from the LGBTQ community.
“Such blessings would not rise to the level of church-sanctioned same-sex marriages, the Vatican cautioned, but would offer gay Catholics the opportunity to seek God’s mercy without being subjected to ‘an exhaustive moral analysis.’
“The Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith issued the declaration, ‘Fiducia supplicans,’ with the pope’s approval but not his signature less than three months after a papal letter said such blessings were possible so long as they ‘do not transmit a wrong conception of marriage.’”
This is not just a step in the wrong direction. It is theological double-talk, spiritual drivel, and a mockery of the Word of God. Surely, faithful Catholics around the world will reject this apostate message. It has no support in Scripture, in divine morality, or in historic Church tradition, whether Catholic, Orthodox, or Protestant.
And so, rather than try to parse the theological nuances of the Pope’s statement, which in the end helps no one and harms many, let me be straightforward.
No priest or Pope or pastor or spiritual leader can bless something that God Himself does not bless. Their words are empty and void of divine power or authority. They are human utterances and nothing more.
As much as a gay couple may be in love, as much as they may revere the traditions of their Church (at least, some of the traditions), and as much as they may be models of kindness and loyalty, the fact is that male + male or female + female represents a fundamental violation of the meaning of marriage, not to mention a fundamental violation of the nature and purpose of humanity.
How then, can a priest bless a couple whose very relationship goes against the order and plan of God? And, speaking in particular of two gay men, how can a priest, representing the Lord, bless them when the Lord Himself deems their sexual relationship to be something detestable in His sight (Leviticus 18:22) and when Paul says that those who practice such things will be excluded from the kingdom of God (1 Corinthians 6:9-10).
You might say, “You fundamentalists are always attacking homosexuality. What about adultery? What about other kinds of sexual immorality? What about all you Bible-thumping Christians who are addicted to porn?”
But that’s the whole point.
If a Christian leader said, “We are now blessing couples living in adultery,” there would be outrage.
If that leader said, “We are now offering special blessings for all the couples living together out of wedlock,” there would be pushback.
If a church had a weekly porn night where after worship and prayer, the congregants would watch porn, it would set the internet ablaze.
But that is not happening, except perhaps in the case of divorces without biblical justification, followed by illegitimate marriages which are sometimes “blessed” by compromised clergy.
Otherwise, no major Church leaders are sanctioning adultery or fornication or pornography. But some are sanctioning same-sex unions (or, in more compromised settings, same-sex “marriages”). That is why we respond as we do.
It’s the same thing with LGBTQ+ activism in general.
That activism is affecting children in our nursery schools and young adults on our college campuses. It is everywhere in our society, from social media to the world of sports, and from TV and Hollywood to the business world.
We cannot avoid confronting LGBTQ+ activism and ideology wherever we turn, so we either push back with our own values or we cave in and capitulate.
It’s the same with the Pope’s ridiculous pronouncement. There must be a reply.
The fact that, “Such blessings would not rise to the level of church-sanctioned same-sex marriages” is meaningless.
The “blessings” would sanction something God does not sanction and give false assurances to the couples involved. And is there a gay Catholic on the planet who would not see this as another step in the direction of the ultimate goal, namely, the full acceptance of gay relationships by the Catholic Church?
As for the notion that these blessings were possible as long as they “do not transmit a wrong conception of marriage,” my response is short and sweet: Are you kidding me?
Really now, is the Pope telling us a gay couple can live together, can be emotionally and physically intimate, and can commit to lifelong faithfulness without transmitting a wrong conception of marriage? What is the big difference between the two – other than the obvious fact that two men or two women cannot marry in God’s sight?
In August, I addressed the Church of England’s decision to allow Anglican clergy to “bless” same-sex couples, yet another apostate step made by this rapidly declining faith group.
What will now happen with the Catholic Church?
That is for Catholics to answer, but without question, this could lead to a major rift of sorts, as the strong, conservative elements of the Church will reject this pronouncement outright, whatever the cost. The effects could be seismic. (As I noted in that August article, it is “progressive” Christianity that is dying; the real gospel is thriving.)
As for the gay Catholic couples who see this as a beacon of hope and a sign of the humanity and compassion of the Church, I don’t pretend to see the world through their eyes, and I don’t claim to understand the pain and the struggle they have endured.
I will just say this, with brokenness, not with triumphalism: I don’t doubt your love for each other. I don’t doubt that part of you really wants to honor the Lord. But I can only tell you the truth. God has a better way, and He never intended you to unite with someone of the same sex.
If you will lay your life before Him, surrendering fully to Jesus as Lord, He will forgive all your sins and give you a fresh new start. Cry out to Him today!
https://www.frontpagemag.com/can-the-pope-overrule-god/
Open Borders Leads to Massive Surge in Baby Syphilis
CDC blames racism for record number of cases in border states.
December 22, 2023 by Daniel Greenfield 24 Comments
Newsletter
[Make sure to read Daniel Greenfield’s contributions in Jamie Glazov’s new book: Barack Obama’s True Legacy: How He Transformed America.]
Last month the CDC revealed that the number of babies born with syphilis had increased tenfold. The Centers for Disease Control blamed this on racism and inequity.
But the real issue isn’t racism even though the syphilis epidemic does affect minorities far more than white people. The number of babies born with ‘congenital syphilis’ did not rise from 365 in 1986, 529 in 2000 to 2,855 in 2021 because America was more racist in 2021 than in 1986.
In 2022, congenital syphilis shot up further to 3,700 resulting in 51 deaths and 231 stillbirths. Was America ten times more racist in 2022 than it had been in the eighties?
The federal health bureaucracy has put its top people on this medical mystery, dispatching Admiral Rick ‘Rachel’ Levine, a man whose claims to really be a woman rewarded him with an admiralship and a top health position in the Biden administration, to Georgia to promote a “sex positive harm reduction framework” and “LGBTQI+ health concerns”. What those concerns had to do with babies being born with syphilis to presumably heterosexual mothers was not addressed, but equity, if not the babies, were serviced by the transgender fake admiral.
In the 90s, the CDC unveiled a “National Plan to Eliminate Syphilis from the United States”. During the Obama administration the plan was finally abandoned far short of its original goal of reducing “cases to 1,000” and increasing “the number of syphilis-free counties to 90% by 2005.”
70% of the population now lives in counties with high syphilis rates. Not only have we not defeated syphilis, but the country is seeing the highest rates in 80 years.
It’s another triumph for the Biden administration which saw syphilis cases rise 26% in its first year. It’s a long way from the 90s when the CDC could optimistically argue that eliminating it was possible because “nationally, it is at the lowest rate ever recorded and it is confined to a very limited number of geographic areas.” It’s an accomplishment worse than Bidenomics.
What possible phenomenon could account for a massive increase in such a short time?
The number of syphilis cases doubled in Texas in five years. They’re up by 4,000 in just one year. What possible phenomenon in a border state might have caused such a drastic increase in so few years? Was it a sudden massive rise in racism or a massively open border?
In 2022, Texas reported 950 congenital syphilis cases accounting for nearly half the total in the entire country.
Arizona had the nation’s highest rate where the number of babies born with syphilis shot up from 17 in 2016 to 219 in 2022.
New Mexico had a 660% increase in congenital syphilis, for the second highest rate in the country for both syphilis and congenital syphilis, with 76 cases in 2022.
California is in sixth place where congenital syphilis cases rose 1,500% with 528 cases reported in 2019. “Hispanic babies made up nearly 50% of all cases” and the epicenter of the outbreak is in Fresno.
Who knows why the massive outbreak in congenital syphilis cases was clustered around border states during the same period when a mass migration of illegal aliens was underway.
You don’t have to be a public health expert to solve this one. It actually helps if you’re not.
None of the billions we spend on the CDC, the NIH and all the other acronym public health bureaucracies could explain why congenital syphilis in the Northeast only amounted to 121 cases in 2021, 296 cases in the Midwest, but 939 cases in the West and 1,499 cases in the South.
Why does Alabama have 37 cases while Arizona had 181 cases in 2021? What does Arizona have that Alabama lacks?
Racism, inequity or a border?
The CDC certainly has no idea and no clue how to solve this medical mystery. The experts have concluded that it’s a “socioeconomic problem”. Medical surveys have carried out groundbreaking research showing that congenital syphilis cases mostly involve poor minorities with low education levels living in rural areas. And therefore the answer is more social welfare.
“While newborn syphilis cases are increasing overall, babies born to black, Hispanic, or American Indian/Alaska Native mothers were up to 8 times more likely to have newborn syphilis in 2021 than babies born to white mothers,” the CDC argued. “Such disparities stem from decades of deeply entrenched social determinants of health that… result in health inequities such as higher rates of syphilis in some communities.”
This is the same rhetoric that the CDC has been deploying over the years including in its abandoned national plan to end syphilis. Despite all the funding allocated to testing and community outreach, all of which were supposed to solve “health inequities”, congenital syphilis rates tend to reflect overall syphilis rates, and syphilis rates reflect social stability.
Import millions of illegal alien migrants, most of them young men, and syphilis rates will spike.
In times of social upheaval, such as war, STD rates climb. Our current syphilis rates echo those of former eras such as the Great Depression or WWII when millions of men were displaced from home. The current syphilis spike isn’t caused by a war, or if it’s a war, it’s one that we’re losing.
The syphilis rates are the result of an invasion by millions of military age men. And the women brought along from south of the border or around the world. Some of the highest rates of previous syphilis exposure among pregnant women were found in high migrant countries like Venezuela and Haiti.
We don’t have to have crazy rates of a disease that, especially in newborns, could have been dealt with long ago. The cure was securing the border so millions of migrants couldn’t cross it.
Leandro Mena, the head of the CDC’s Division of STD Prevention, blamed the syphilis problem on stigma. “We, as a society, have a tremendous difficulty talking about sex and recognizing that sex is a normal activity and part of our human experience,”
The issue is not that we don’t talk about sex — we hardly talk about anything else. It’s that the experts and the public health bureaucrats pretend that syphilis outbreaks are caused by Americans being too puritanical to discuss where babies come from. Surely when sexuality studies are imposed on every kindergarten, this whole STD thing will finally go away.
But the CDC’s social welfare proposals are no substitute for a stable family life.
Syphilis rates are due to personal choices. They begin with parenthood. 64% of black children, 49% of American Indian, 42% of Latino and 24% of white children live in single parent households. The CDC refuses to consider the possibility that the same pyramid that governs single parent households is also reflected in syphilis cases including those of babies.
The issue is not that we don’t talk about sex; it’s that we don’t talk about family or the culture of nations. There is no stigma in talking about sex, but there is a stigma in talking about values or border security. The American family has gone on falling apart. Babies, killed in the womb or born with syphilis, are the collateral damage of a disastrous culture war. Flood the country with a mass invasion of people from failed states and the situation will get worse, not better.
It’s such a stigma that Mena won’t talk about it. Neither will anyone in the Biden administration.
We live in a society of mysteries that baffle the experts. Why does the public hate Bidenomics? Why do people think that there’s a lot of crime? Where is the inflation coming from? And why is there a sudden syphilis explosion? The usual answer to all of these questions is ‘racism’.
Why won’t Americans listen to the experts who can’t seem to ever find the “root cause” to any of the problems even when they’re staring them right in the face? It’s another mystery. The answer is probably “disinformation” with a side order of “racism”. Give the CDC a few billion and they’ll get to work on solving it.
https://www.frontpagemag.com/open-borders-leads-to-massive-surge-in-baby-syphilis/
America’s Armed Populace: Why Owning an AR-15 Rifle is a Moral Imperative
By
TTAG Contributor –
December 26, 2023 1
By Mike Nowland
The howler monkeys of the anti-self defense rights crowd constantly blast us with weepy, blood-spattered reminders of the costs of an armed society. Those same people, however, are remarkably well disciplined about never, ever mentioning the historical costs of disarmament.
Every major policy choice has both positive and negative effects, some planned or anticipated and some unintentional. The Founders’ decision to maintain an armed population is an example.
An honest reading of the Second Amendment and the contemporaneous writings of the people who formulated it make clear the Founders intended Americans to be an armed populace as a counter to the power of government. Most of the people who participated in those discussions were highly educated, including in political history. Most modern Americans, it’s safe to say, aren’t.
I own an AR-15, ammunition for it, and tools for its care and maintenance. I have owned a fighting rifle for decades and will until I’m no longer able to use one. When that day comes, it will be passed to a descendant or young friend who understands why every capable American is morally obligated to own one.
The Founders understood fundamental truths of human nature. They knew most people are decent and want to be left alone. They knew a dangerous few people have always wanted and will always want to exploit other people. A smaller but much more dangerous proportion are willing to do absolutely anything in pursuit of such exploitation.
Dangerous criminals are only too happy to assault, rob, rape, and murder others. As tyrannical governments have demonstrated throughout history, killing millions of innocent people doesn’t bother them in the slightest. Genocide, democide, ethnic cleansing, slavery, colonial exploitation, terrorism, and wars of conquest have been the norm through human history.
The only thing that the dangerous — individuals, politicians, or governments — truly fear is violence that could affect them directly. The more common, rational exploiters can be deterred. They will proceed only if a sufficient imbalance of lethal force is in their favor.
When there’s a real risk that attempted genocide, democide, ethnic cleansing, exploitation or imposition of slavery will backfire, rationally self-interested tyrants are likely to revise their plans. Deterrence is the primary reason America’s Founders chose an armed populace as a key component of maintaining a free society.
Would Hamas have attacked southern Israel if the locals had been as well armed as typical American towns of similar size? When groups have comparable ability to apply lethal force and defend themselves, nonviolent means of conflict resolution become much more likely.
That kind of deterrence won’t always work. Irrational, wildly narcissistic, and unrealistic tyrants will plow ahead regardless. Virtually nothing can be done to deter them. Effective armed resistance by an armed populace can be the only way to stop them. That’s the second reason Americans are armed.
The AR-15 rifle disperses lethal capability just as swords, shields, bows, and spears did in the past. When a targeted population is armed well enough to defeat a dangerous attacker, aggression is far less likely. That’s why deterrence of victimization, aggression, and oppression is a duty of every capable adult.
Every living thing has the natural right to defend itself as best it can. Denial of that right is grotesquely immoral. So why do so many oppose self-defense rights?
Elites have done all they can to disarm commoners since hunter gatherer clans first merged into tribes. The tribal chief and his brothers took the best food, shelter, and women for themselves, and killed or disarmed competitors and rivals in the tribe.
Rulers of cities from Tenochtitlan to Nineveh have lived in circumstances far better than those of their populations by monopolizing lethal force capability. Modern elites from New York to Beijing continually strive to do the same. Armed peasants are threats to their positions and power, especially when their exploitation becomes excessive.
Elites co-opt as many of the people they rule as they can by providing various benefits like government employment and wealth transfers, but the more common opponents of armed self-defense rights come in three flavors.
Some are genuinely persuaded that an armed population is less safe than one capable of resisting criminal exploitation and tyranny. Elite-owned media constantly report on criminal firearm misuse as shrilly as possible, and dishonestly include common suicides when discussing ‘gun violence.’ Very few of the persuaded have ever considered the past and present realities of subjugation, genocide, ethnic cleansing, and terrorism, or other aggressive attacks despite seeing them on the news every day…if they watch news at all.
Some oppose armed self defense solely because their political “team” — in America, the elite-dominated Democrat party — opposes it. People like to belong to groups and will adopt the policy positions of their party in order to be accepted, and to feel like they’re somehow contributing by helping to achieve some collective good.
Many more are perpetually frightened, often of many aspects of real life. Civilian-owned firearms and people who might use them scare some people enough that they just want them to go away, in the way children try to wish away what frightens them.
Violent death is real. Democide killed more than a quarter billion people in the twentieth century alone per R.J. Rummel. While many if not most of America’s 8,000 or so murders each year would probably happen without guns, the others are a significant cost of our armed population policy. Still, they’re a tiny fraction of the number of annual civilian defensive gun uses, never mind government-committed murders.
Effective deterrence is impossible to quantify. Some people believe America is immune to the horrors other people suffer. Those things could never happen here…except for isolated instances like the systematic genocide of Native Americans, the enslavement of African Americans, the ethnic cleansing of Japanese Americans, criminalization of gay Americans and so on.
Given the impossibility of knowing how many aren’t victimized because bad people are deterred, we can only make crude comparisons. How many Americans have killed each other since our establishment as a country? How many Europeans have been killed by other Europeans in the same period? How many Asians by other Asians? Over the long run, Americans kill each other at much lower rates than other societies. That’s not because we’re inherently better people, but because we can’t.
Every political, religious, ethnic, or other subgroup of Americans is armed well enough to deter any other group from attempting to subjugate or kill them, force them out of the country, or put them in camps.
Armed populations are stable and more peaceful by comparison. America’s thoroughly armed populace is our only real guarantee of relative peace and stability. If you don’t like mass murder and don’t want to be victimized by others who are willing to do so, ownership of an AR-15 and the means of armed self-defense is a moral imperative.
https://www.thetruthaboutguns.com/americas-armed-populace-why-owning-an-ar-15-rifle-is-a-moral-imperative/
~Candy for Richard ~
The Israeli inventor who turns every soldier into a sharpshooter
The SMASH smart fire control system has successfully countered drones and terrorists in Gaza
https://www.ynetnews.com/business/article/hkpuon4pp
Thank You, SciFi comes to life.
India Sends Three Warships to Arabian Sea After Another Attack on Tanker
India is deploying three guided missile destroyers to the Arabian Sea after a drone last week hit an “Israel-affiliated” merchant vessel off its western coast.
MV Chem Pluto was attacked about 200 nautical miles off the coast of the western state of Gujarat in just the latest example of global shipping routes being targeted by terrorist groups eager to choke world trade.
A spate of attacks on commercial vessels in the Red Sea by Houthi terrorists, who are opposed to Israel’s military campaign in Gaza, have triggered concerns for the global shipping industry.
https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2023/12/26/india-sends-three-warships-to-arabian-sea-after-another-attack-on-tanker/
Iran Adds to Pressure on U.S. With Nuclear Program Acceleration
U.N. says Tehran has increased output of near-weapons-grade uranium after summer slowdown
Iran has tripled production of nearly weapons-grade uranium in a move likely to deepen its confrontation with the West as Tehran helps allied militias to attack Israel and U.S. forces in the region.
Iran’s decision to triple its production rate of near-weapons-grade uranium marks the collapse of quiet diplomatic efforts between Washington and Tehran to ease tensions. It comes amid a proliferation of flashpoints between the U.S. and Iran, whose proxies have repeatedly traded fire with U.S. forces in the Middle East since the bloody conflict between Israel and Hamas erupted on Oct. 7. U.S. and European navies are also shooting down drones launched by the Iran-backed Houthis in the Red Sea.
The Pentagon said Saturday that a drone launched from Iran struck a chemical tanker in the Indian Ocean, signaling a widening risk to shipping after Yemeni rebels started attacking vessels in the Red Sea.
In a report to International Atomic Energy Agency member states, Director-General Rafael Grossi said that agency inspectors had confirmed on Dec. 19 and Dec. 24 an increased production of highly enriched uranium at both of Iran’s main nuclear facilities that the agency said Tehran had started on Nov. 22.
The increase took Iran’s production of 60% enriched uranium back to the rate of nine kilograms a month, where it stood early this year, before Tehran curbed work on the most dangerous part of its nuclear program.
Iran is the only country in the world that isn’t a declared nuclear power currently producing 60% enriched uranium, which can be converted to weapons-grade material within days. U.S. officials have said it would take Iran less than two weeks to convert enough 60% material into a form that could be used in a nuclear weapon.
Experts say Iran already has a sufficient stock of highly enriched uranium to fuel three weapons.
Iran says its nuclear program is for purely peaceful civilian use. U.S. officials have said in recent months that they have no evidence Tehran is currently working on completing its ability to build a nuclear weapon.
In its confidential report to member states, the agency also said that Iran had also linked its centrifuges again in a way that would allow it to start producing weapons-grade material even faster, a move likely to deepen concerns that Tehran is considering stepping over the 90% weapons grade threshold.
The agency said that Iran had connected up two sets of advanced centrifuges using so-called modified sub-headers. The agency discovered in January that Tehran had previously produced a small amount of 83% highly enriched uranium, a level just shy of weapons grade.
https://www.wsj.com/world/middle-east/iran-adds-to-pressure-on-u-s-with-nuclear-program-acceleration-9ce226c5?mod=djemalertNEWS
https://www.wsj.com/world/middle-east/iran-adds-to-pressure-on-u-s-with-nuclear-program-acceleration-9ce226c5?mod=djemalertNEWS
The massive migrant caravan making its way through Mexico to the US border is the largest in more than a year — with an estimated 8,000 asylum seekers en route.
Migrant families — primarily from Cuba, Haiti and Honduras — set off for the United States on Sunday, walking more than nine miles from the Mexican southern border city Tapachula to get to Alvaro Obregón.
Their Christmas Eve dinner comprised sandwiches, a bottle of water and a banana handed out by a local church, and they spent Christmas night sleeping on cardboard or plastic under awnings and tents.
They are once again inching toward the US southern border, marking the largest migrant caravan approaching the US since June 2022.
But radical migrant rights activist Luis Garcia Villagran, who is accompanying the group, has warned that the caravan could grow to 15,000 people, carrying signs reading “Exodus from poverty,” by the time it reaches the border.
https://nypost.com/2023/12/26/news/migrant-caravan-heading-to-us-mexico-border-is-largest-in-more-than-a-year/
Well it has been quiet, I guess all those flights that fly over my house and turn around and the when they remember where they are going turn around again, only to forget where they are going and have to turn around again……I know that sounds odd, but oh so many laugh at the thought of cloud seeding, so I must be wrong. Anyway, there must have been a lot of cancelled flight for Christmas and Boxing Day.
What are the dangers of cloud seeding (just in case I am right), and the constant plane noise is a result of cloud seeding.
Well spraying can lead to health problems for humans — respiratory issues, skin irritation, gastrointestinal problems, renal and pulmonary lesions, and Argyia-discolouration of skin.
Balance of Nature —WEF clowns don’t care.
Artificial rain might eventually change climate patterns. It has been blamed for floods, droughts, tornadoes, famine.
What about wildlife, birds, aquatic life, mammals, and the water we drink and he air we breathe?
Steven Guillbeault will probably tell us spraying calcium chloride, acetone and ice flares ( combination of acetone, silver iodide, sodium perchlorate, paradichlorobenzine and ammonium iodine that create an ice nucleus of iodide-silver, chloride-salt and carbon dioxide are positive steps to fighting climate change.
Geeeeeez
WHO’s Tedros Declares War on Meat, Traditional Farming (VIDEO)
by Cristina Laila Dec. 26, 2023 1:40 pm573 Comments
World Health Organization (WHO) head, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus declared war on meat and traditional farming.
“Our food systems are harming the health of people and planet. Food systems contribute to over 30% of greenhouse gas emissions, and account for almost one-third of the global burden of disease. Transforming food systems is therefore essential,” Tedros said in a video message published last Thursday for the COP28 official event.
WATCH:
Earlier this month the United Nations Food & Agriculture Organization (FAO) rolled out its food guidance for first-world countries in an effort to reduce carbon emissions.
The message to ‘rich’ countries? Consume less meat.
“Nations that over-consume meat will be advised to limit their intake, while developing countries — where under-consumption of meat adds to a prevalent nutrition challenge — will need to improve their livestock farming, according to the FAO.” Bloomberg reported a few weeks ago.
The globalists are pushing for commoners to eat bugs, weeds and synthetic ‘meat’ because bugs “consume fewer resources than traditional livestock.”
A WEF article from 2016 says it all: “Welcome To 2030: I Own Nothing, Have No Privacy And Life Has Never Been Better”
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/12/whos-tedros-declares-war-meat-traditional-farming-video/
Tesla Robot Suffers Malfunctions and Allegedly ‘Attacks’ Engineer at Texas Factory, Leaving ‘Trail of Blood’
by Jim H?ft Dec. 26, 2023 1:00 pm505 Comments
A robotic malfunction at Tesla’s Giga Texas factory resulted in a violent encounter where an engineer was attacked by one of the company’s robots, resulting in significant injuries and leaving a ‘trail of blood.’
According to the Daily Mail, while working on software programming for non-functional Tesla robots, the engineer was suddenly pinned against a surface by a robot tasked with manipulating aluminum car components, with its metal claws inflicted an injury that left an ‘open wound’ on the worker’s left hand.
“Two of the robots, which cut car parts from freshly cast pieces of aluminum, were disabled so the engineer and his teammates could safely work on the machines. A third one, which grabbed and moved the car parts, was inadvertently left operational, according to two people who watched it happen. As that robot ran through its normal motions, it pinned the engineer against a surface, pushing its claws into his body and drawing blood from his back and his arm, the two people said,” The Information reported.
Quick action was taken by Tesla workers who intervened and triggered the emergency shutdown button to halt the malfunctioning robot and prevent further injury to the engineer.
This incident came to light through a 2021 injury report filed to Travis County and federal regulators, which Daily Mail reviewed. Tesla is legally required to report such incidents to ensure the continuation of state-provided tax incentives.
Despite claims by Tesla that the engineer did not require time off following the event, an attorney representing the factory’s contract laborers suggests otherwise. Evidence hints at possible underreporting of workplace accidents, casting doubt on the official records.
Daily Mail reported:
Elon Musk has yet to issue a formal statement in response to these allegations.
Just recently, Tesla revealed the second generation of its humanoid robot, Optimus Gen 2.
Optimus Gen 2 stands at a height of 5 feet 11 inches and weighs in at a light 121 pounds, shedding 22 pounds from the first model. It’s not just its frame that’s been upgraded; this robot can reach speeds up to 5 mph, which is a substantial 30% increase in velocity.
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/12/tesla-robot-suffers-malfunctions-attacks-engineer-texas-factory/
Apocalypse Now? Russian Tactical Nuclear Weapons in Position in the Territory of Belarus
by Paul Serran Dec. 26, 2023 12:40 pm314 Comments
Among the many disturbing geopolitical signs of tension between Russia and the Western powers, very few are as disturbing as the displacement of Russian tactical nuclear weapons to the territory of Belarus.
The positioning of the nukes is intended as a defense against both Ukraine and Poland.
Tactical nuclear weapons are designed for battlefield use and carry a smaller payload for specific location attacks – as opposed to much more powerful strategic intercontinental nuclear missiles.
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/12/apocalypse-now-russian-tactical-nuclear-weapons-position-territory/
Old news.
Why are they repeating it now?
Blast rattles Israeli embassy in India; ‘abusive’ letter to envoy said found nearby
No injuries in explosion, which comes amid rising threats to Israeli and Jewish targets abroad; Israeli security officials, Indian police working together on investigation
An explosion occurred near the Israeli embassy in New Delhi on Tuesday, the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
There were no injuries as a result of the blast.
Indian news networks said that a letter addressed to the Israeli ambassador was found close to the scene of the explosion. The Indian Express reported that the letter was typed and “abusive.” No further details were given.
The report said investigators were working to establish if there was a connection between the letter and the explosion.
The Foreign Ministry said Israeli security officials were working with local Indian authorities on the investigation.
In an interview with Indian television, embassy spokesman Guy Nir said staff heard the explosion from within the building.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/blast-rattles-israeli-embassy-in-india-abusive-letter-to-envoy-said-found-nearby/
(Richard: Liberal/Marxist economics strikes again, they raised the minimum wage so high the restaurants had the choice of firing people or going out of business.)
Pizza Hut franchisees lay off more than 1,200 delivery drivers in California as restaurants brace for $20 fast-food wages
Two Pizza Hut operators in California are eliminating their in-house delivery services at hundreds of stores, resulting in more than 1,200 driver layoffs, according to federal-employment notices reviewed by Business Insider.
The layoffs, effective throughout February, affect Pizza Hut delivery drivers across California, including at Sacramento, Palm Springs, and Los Angeles locations. The Pizza Hut franchisees are reducing staff as fast-food chains in the state brace for a new law that increases worker pay to $20 an hour in April.
“PacPizza, LLC, operating as Pizza Hut, has made a business decision to eliminate first-party delivery services and, as a result, the elimination of all delivery driver positions,” a federal WARN Act notice filed by the fast-food operator with the state’s Employment Development Department said.
The Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act requires employers to give notice of plant closures or mass layoffs.
Other PacPizza affiliates filing notices included Southern PacPizza LLC, CalPac Pizza LLC, and Pac Partners LLC.
A second Pizza Hut franchisee, Southern California Pizza Co., and its affiliates are also discontinuing its in-house delivery services and laying off about 841 drivers, according to a WARN Act notice from December 1.
The company operates dozens of stores in Orange, Los Angeles, Riverside, Ventura, and San Bernardino counties.
A driver who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation told BI that he was offered $400 severance pay if he stuck around through his February 5 layoff date.
He’s been a driver for nine years.
“The money they are giving us as severance pay is a slap on the face,” he said. “It comes to $3 a month for nine-plus years of service.”
Gene Erdman, the chief people officer at American West Restaurant Group, did not respond to a request for comment. The franchise also operates under the names SoCal South OC LLC and SoCal Pizza Holdings LLC.
Lisa Hough, the director of human resources for PacPizza in San Ramon, California, was listed as the contact on all five WARN Act notices that the company’s president, Brian E. Thompson, signed. Hough and Thompson did not respond to a request for comment.
Customers will have to rely on third-party delivery apps to get Pizza Hut delivered from these locations. Most Pizza Hut restaurants in the state work with third-party delivery apps, such as DoorDash, Uber Eats, and GrubHub.
It’s unclear whether other Pizza Hut franchisees plan to scrap in-house delivery in California.
Pizza Hut, owned by the Taco Bell parent company Yum! Brands, said the company was “aware of the recent changes to delivery services at certain franchise restaurants in California.”
“Our franchisees independently own and operate their restaurants in accordance with local market dynamics and comply with all federal, state, and local regulations while continuing to provide quality service and food to our customers via carryout and delivery,” Pizza Hut told BI.
Mark Kalinowski, a restaurant-industry analyst, wrote in a note this week that he expected “more harm to come” in various ways as fast-food chains “take action in an attempt to blunt the impact of higher labor costs.”
Chains such as Chipotle and McDonald’s said they planned to pass the costs of higher wages in California to customers by raising menu prices.
In 2022, Gov. Gavin Newsom of California signed the FAST Act into law. It called for the minimum wage for fast-food workers to increase to $22 an hour in 2023. But corporate chains such as McDonald’s, Chipotle, Chick-fil-A, and franchise-advocacy groups fought the law. A coalition of restaurant-industry organizations said the law could raise costs for fast-food restaurants by $3 billion. They rallied to get a referendum on the ballot.
A new law, AB 1228, replaced the controversial FAST Act this year. The minimum-wage increase for fast-food workers was changed to $20 an hour. The new law was viewed as a compromise between the labor unions representing fast-food workers and the restaurant industry.
The law affects 557,000 fast-food workers at 30,000 restaurants in California.
https://www.businessinsider.com/california-pizza-hut-lays-off-delivery-drivers-amid-new-wage-law-2023-12
World’s Most Dangerous Combination: China and Russia
by Gordon G. Chang
December 25, 2023 at 5:00 am
facebook sharing button
twitter sharing button
email sharing button
whatsapp sharing button
linkedin sharing button
telegram sharing button
Truth Social Gettr
China and Russia are more than just working together. They are forming the core of a new axis. Around this core are proxies and proxies of proxies, such as Iran, North Korea, Algeria, and a host of terrorist groups.
The Chinese and Russian leaders are forming this grouping because they believe the United States, the final guarantor of the international system that frustrates them both, must be taken down. Xi, by, among other things, declaring a “people’s war” on America, has made it clear that the U.S. must be destroyed and Americans exterminated. Putin is less ambitious, only wanting the U.S. out of his way as he recreates the Russian Empire at its greatest extent.
“Washington has little leverage over Russia. There are no carrots to offer to Putin, and the sticks haven’t worked.” — Rebekah Koffler, author of Putin’s Playbook and former Defense Intelligence Agency analyst, to Gatestone, December 2023.
In other words, China and Russia are preparing to go to war together. As no country threatens either of them, they are undoubtedly thinking of perpetrating more acts of aggression.
China and Russia are more than just working together. They are forming the core of a new axis. Around this core are proxies and proxies of proxies, such as Iran, North Korea, Algeria, and a host of terrorist groups. Pictured: Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping meet in Beijing on February 4, 2022. (Photo by Alexei Druzhinin/Sputnik/AFP via Getty Images)
Republican presidential hopeful Vivek Ramaswamy knows how to end the greatest threat to American national security. That threat would be the combination of the world’s two most dangerous states: China and Russia.
“I would freeze the current lines of control,” the candidate told Fox News’s Jesse Watters during his prime time show, referring to the battlefields in Ukraine. “I would further make a hard commitment that NATO will not admit Ukraine to NATO. That’s enough to get Putin to do the deal.”
“But I would require something even greater in return, Jesse,” Ramaswamy said. “Russia has to exit its military alliance with China.”
Putin will take the deal, the charismatic candidate assured Watters: “He’s gonna say, ‘Ok’ because I’m going to say, ‘We’ll reopen our economic relations with Russia and further, we’ll end the Ukraine war and also make sure NATO never admits Ukraine.’ ”
The interview occurred in late August, but these themes are often heard, in America and elsewhere. Is Ramaswamy on the right track?
In theory, it should be possible to separate Moscow from Beijing. After all, China and Russia have for centuries been competitors, adversaries, and even enemies. Take something as fundamental as their common border. After border skirmishes, they finally settled the boundary only in 2008, when Moscow formally transferred various parcels to China.
Vladimir Putin knows, however, that no border is ever finally fixed, and Chinese migrants are pouring into the sparsely populated Russian Far East. There, many of them hope to “retake” lands ceded by the Qing dynasty to Moscow in the 1850s and 1860s in what Chinese officials now call “unequal treaties.” Beijing has made no formal claim to Vladivostok and surrounding areas, but it has been continually pushing the idea nonetheless.
In short, China poses the greatest threat to Russia, at least over the long term.
The Ramaswamy proposal, however, ignores the reality that as long as Putin and Xi Jinping rule, there is no realistic possibility of breaking up the two states. Both dictators view the world in similar terms; believe that their short-term interests coincide; and identify the same adversary, the United States of America. As Xi said on December 20 as he welcomed Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin to Beijing, “Maintaining and developing China-Russia relations well is a strategic choice made by both sides based on the fundamental interests of the two peoples.”
The two regimes, Xi’s words reveal, have been on the same page for some time. They declared their closeness with the 5,300-word joint statement issued after Putin met Xi in Beijing on February 4 of last year, just 20 days before Russia’s attack on Ukraine. That is when they declared their “no-limits” partnership.
China and Russia are more than just working together. They are forming the core of a new axis. Around this core are proxies and proxies of proxies, such as Iran, North Korea, Algeria, and a host of terrorist groups.
The Chinese and Russian leaders are forming this grouping because they believe the United States, the final guarantor of the international system that frustrates them both, must be taken down. Xi, by, among other things, declaring a “people’s war” on America, has made it clear that the U.S. must be destroyed and Americans exterminated. Putin is less ambitious, only wanting the U.S. out of his way as he recreates the Russian Empire at its greatest extent.
Moreover, Xi and Putin believe that the United States is in terminal decline. “Change is coming that hasn’t happened in 100 years,” the Chinese dictator said on March 22 to the Russian dictator in Moscow while bidding farewell after their 40th in-person meeting. “And we are driving this change together.”
Even if Xi and Putin were not so confident there are reasons for the Russian leader to reject the overtures of a President Ramaswamy. “Washington has little leverage over Russia,” Rebekah Koffler, the author of Putin’s Playbook and former Defense Intelligence Agency analyst, told Gatestone. “There are no carrots to offer to Putin, and the sticks haven’t worked.”
Yes, the Biden administration could drop sanctions and abandon Ukraine, but even those actions, which would be deeply injurious to the U.S. and the international system, would not be enough to break Putin’s bond with Beijing. “Russia does not trust the U.S. and Europe,” Koffler says. “Russia believes the West will continue to try to weaken it economically and militarily. Moscow believes that regardless of who occupies the White House, a Democrat or a Republican, the U.S. will pursue an anti-Russia policy.”
Democrats and Republicans should pursue “anti-Russia” policies: Russia has refused to abide by the rules and norms of the international system. Russia is not only an aggressor state, but it is also engaging in barbaric acts in Ukraine, some of which constitute “genocide” as defined in Article II of the 1948 Genocide Convention.
Ramaswamy says “we have wrongfully cut off Russia from the West.” It is true that Americans and Western actions, as Koffler remarked, “hit the key revenue drivers of the Russian economy,” but how could any nation allow Putin to, among other things, use its banks and financial system while his soldiers were torturing, raping, and killing Ukrainian women and children; committing acts of mass murder in town after town; and abducting hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian children to Russia in an apparent attempt to eliminate Ukrainian identity?
To finance acts of aggression and barbarism in the face of sanctions, Putin has found support from China. By November, China-Russia trade hit $218.2 billion in 2023, exceeding their announced target of $200 billion by the end of 2024. Trade during the first 11 months of 2023 was double the volume in 2018 of $108.3 billion, which itself represented an increase of 24.5% over 2017. Putin will not break this established and fast-growing trade relationship for mere promises from a West he neither likes nor trusts.
China does not, as Ramaswamy tells us, have a “military alliance” with Russia—China has no formal alliances except the one with the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea—but the Chinese and Russian militaries are nonetheless close.
The two forces are worrying the commander of the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, Admiral John Aquilino. This month in Tokyo, he publicly stated that he was “very concerned” about their joint exercises: “I view it as far beyond the marriage of convenience at this point in time.”
In other words, China and Russia are preparing to go to war together. As no country threatens either of them, they are undoubtedly thinking of perpetrating more acts of aggression.
Would Putin join Xi if China were to invade some neighbor? That is not clear, but it is highly likely that the Russian leader will help China. “Russia could conduct shows of force to stretch U.S. and allied surveillance,” Rebecca Grant of defense consultant IRIS Independent Research told Gatestone. “Posturing military moves by Russia could also make U.S. leadership balk.” She points out there could be, for instance, Russian bomber flights or even nuclear weapons exercises.
Russia could also help China by trying to grab even more of the Kuril Islands chain from Japan or moving against a NATO member, such as one of the three Baltic republics, engulfing the Eurasian landmass in conflict, from one end to the other.
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/20257/china-russia-dangerous-combination
Ordinary Russians hate it. China is no friend.
Forget huaqiao or the bright image of a Chinese tourist
And in the end?
The development of the Far East is a Russian problem, not a Chinese one. The Chinese know why they need the Russian Far East. They need: a peaceful border – one, the raw materials of the Far East – two, a transport artery – three. First of all, the south of the Far East.
So, it is hardly worth relying on China so much. No one can help us but ourselves. We can skillfully use China’s interests, China’s potential and learn from China to use this potential. Here you just need to answer the question: “Why do we need China?”
I would especially like to emphasize that the exchange of raw materials for finished products is not an option. We need a completely different approach, a different level of our relationship. And don’t expect China to sacrifice anything for Russia. He has his own national interests and state nationalism.
For the Chinese, China is above all: the Chinese idea, the Chinese dream, the rebirth of the great Chinese nation. And what can we do to counter this? So far, alas, nothing! …
The only thing that can be noted is that China is now strengthening its position as a global power. And here the support of Russia is important for him. Here we have a vision of the world approximately the same as China. That’s all.
https://en.topwar.ru/213272-zabyt-huacjao-ili-o-svetlom-obraze-kitajskogo-turista.html
………
A comment from somewhere or other:
China penetrates Communist Party organizations all over the world to make sure it knows what competing parties are up to, and to spread disinfo about pro-Soviet ops.
The struggle between pro-Chinese and pro-Russian forces has been very intense for several decades, and is likely to continue. Newfound friendship hasn’t brought peace to the two powers, as they compete for global hegemony. Limited cooperation, nothing like a strategic alliance. No treaty between them, no detailed agreement on how to wage a mutual war against their common enemies in the West.
………..
Where Is Bolshoy Ussuriysky? Island at Heart of Russia-China Border Dispute
https://www.newsweek.com/bolshoy-ussuriysky-island-russia-china-map-dispute-territory-1823763
………
What is remarkable about Big Ussuriysky Island?
Big Ussuri Island is a hot topic today. He owes such popularity to some circumstances that were made public by the media a year ago. The text of this article will help to reveal the essence of the problem.
https://travelwaiting.com/17301046-what-is-remarkable-about-big-ussuriysky-island
Kansas High School Approves Satan Worship Club Despite Pushback from Students, Parents
by Cristina Laila Dec. 26, 2023 6:40 pm126 Comments
A Kansas high school approved a Satan worship club despite an online petition with over 7,000 signatures to stop group.
Olathe School District this month approved a “Satan Club” after the club application “met the criteria.”
Parents and students were outraged by the approval of the “Satan Club” but Olathe Public Schools said it approved the club because it is protected under the First Amendment.
Fox 4 Kansas City reported:
Despite a petition against it, a “Satan Club” has been approved by the Olathe School District.
An Olathe Public Schools spokesperson stated, “the club application met the criteria to establish a student-initiated club and is now recognized as a student-initiated club at Olathe Northwest High School.”
In mid-December, the Olathe School District confirmed that a student had applied to develop a “High School Satan Club.”
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/12/kansas-high-school-approves-satan-worship-club-despite/
Here We Go Again: Scientists Propose Radical ‘Sunshade’ Plan to Fight ‘Climate Change’
by Andrew Jose, The Western Journal Dec. 26, 2023 6:20 pm290 Comments
A group of scientists has proposed building a giant space curtain to reduce global warming and shield Earth from solar radiation.
Spanning as much as 4 million square kilometers, this megastructure aimed to fight “climate change” would be located about 1 million miles from Earth, in an area known as the Sun-Earth Lagrange-1 point, according to The Messenger, a news website launched in May.
The point marks the area between the sun and the Earth where the combined gravitational forces of the star and planet create equilibrium that allows a spacecraft to be “parked,” according to Space.com.
Upon installation, the structure could reduce the amount of heat from the Sun trapped on Earth due to greenhouse gases by deflecting sunlight toward outer space, Space.com reported.
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/12/go-scientists-propose-radical-sunshade-plan-fight-climate/
They are bullshitting us. Solar wind would knock the thing out of place way way before it could ever be positioned. And they have to know that.