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.
The Israel Guys: 100 Aid Trucks Were Just BLOCKED From Entering Gaza & Joe Biden is Furious
Last week, the families of hostages still held in Gaza and as well as the families of soldiers who are fighting in the strip succeeded in blocking over 100 trucks of humanitarian aid from entering the Gaza strip. Their chant was that no more aid be sent into Gaza until the hostages be released.
This demonstration enraged President Joe Biden that Israelis would be allowed to practice free speech and protest something they consider to be furthering the suffering of their loved ones inside of Gaza. Also, a BREAKING report just came out about talks of a hostage/ceasefire deal with Hamas. . .The propositions of this deal at best are absolutely ridiculous.
https://m.jpost.com/israel-hamas-war/article-784268
Israeli commandos, dressed as doctors, foil terror attack in Jenin hospital
They dress like IDF soldiers; turnabout is fair play.
Brussels’ plan to sabotage the Hungarian economy. The EU politburo is using the same m.o. as Biden freezing Russian assets and Trudeau freezing bank accounts. Nothing like a pattern to reveal truth. Announcing a gold-backed forint would be a hilarious retort. (Of course, this is a joke, but given the existential threat to Hungary that the EU communists seem willing to execute, such a proportionate response would shake the world. All fiats would tank.)
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/jan/29/secret-eu-plan-to-sabotage-hungarian-economy-revealed-as-anger-mounts-at-orban
Further analysis reveals the Hungarian economy may be less vulnerable than the politburo believes it to be:
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/orban-hits-back-after-secret-eu-plan-sabotage-hungarian-economy-revealed
Orban responds:
https://rmx.news/european-union/orban-accuses-brussels-of-waging-ideological-war-against-hungary-following-damaging-leaked-report/
A Bram Stoker character defends Dear Needer’s “gifted” holiday:
Where is Van Helsing when you actually need the guy.
An aggregate of various sounds skillfully assembled may provide temporary relief from the aggregate of chaotic noise also skillfully assembled:
Very daring attack on Hamas by Israeli commandos:
https://www.reuters.com/world/this-is-moment-israeli-commandos-disguised-palestinians-walked-into-jenin-2024-01-30/
Somehow this bit doesn’t sound very dated. The divorce rate since Covid has increased:
Woody Allen’s Love Letter
Yesterday a chicken farm. Now a pipeline. Are invading sleeper agents responsible?
https://abc7amarillo.com/news/local/flames-shoot-500-feet-into-the-air-after-gas-pipeline-fire-near-darrouzett-booker-fire-department
Good call they might be but do could antifa
Just have to contrast Woody Allen with this:
Human carbon units beget bad carbon units:
https://modernity.news/2024/01/30/video-eco-loon-tells-brits-there-is-a-moral-issue-with-having-children/
This is apropos of nothing at all. Just something I found really interesting about 20 years ago. It took a lot of thinking at the time to understand why Hall’s Paradox is the way it is explained here. But I tested it for hours using 3 cups, a loonie and everyone I could get to play and it is absolutely in practice, the way it is described here in theory.
The satisfaction from the TV show’s PoV is that people always chose to stick instead of switch thinking they are being tricked into switching, when in fact, simply switching actually doubles your odds of winning.
Unless of course, for religious reasons, you actually want a goat. Then switching means you’re odds of losing just doubled and you may be stuck with a car.
https://youtu.be/dOQowCeAnRs
I remember those fights over Hall’s Paradox to this day!
The female brain might be better wired for that sort of intuitive logic. One of those problems that can’t be parsed neatly in chains of greek symbols on a chalkboard. Gendered brain – ask Perfectchild.
Well gender or not, I have had dozens of arguments over it with people as well, who can’t accept that the odds are not 50 50 once a door is opened.
But when I do the actual test with people it takes less than ten tries till it’s obvious.
Some people can never get the way it works, but eventually they accept that it does. Like an aircraft.
Massive Gas Pipeline Explosion in Oklahoma Panhandle — Pipeline Erupts Into 500-Foot Flames (VIDEO)
by Jim H?ft Jan. 31, 2024 7:30 am283 Comments
A catastrophic gas pipeline explosion rocked the Oklahoma panhandle late last night, sending towering flames over 500 feet into the night sky.
The incident occurred before 9:45 p.m. in southern Beaver County, Oklahoma, near the border between Oklahoma and Texas, abc7 News reported.
Authorities have identified the pipeline operator as DCP Midstream, a Fortune 500 company and a major player in the midstream petroleum industry.
“Booker Fire Department is responding with other agencies to a pipeline explosion north of Darrouzett,” the post read.
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2024/01/massive-gas-pipeline-explosion-oklahoma-panhandle-pipeline-erupts/
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MAGA War Room
@MAGAIncWarRoom
Former NSA @robertcobrien
: “Just three short years ago we had peace in the middle east… and now everything in the world is aflame. It’s because President Biden moved away from a peace through strength posture that President Trump had, into an appeasement posture.”
https://twitter.com/MAGAIncWarRoom/status/1752430391124721817
Even Tankers Carrying Russian Fuels Have Started Avoiding the Red Sea
Some tankers transporting Russian fuels have started to avoid the Suez Canal route to Asia as ship-tracking data shows operators of vessels carrying Russian oil products may have reached the risk tolerance for passing close to Houthi missiles in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden.
The Red Sea/Suez Canal route is the shortest route for tankers from Russia’s western ports to Asia. Until recently, traders and operators were relatively sure that cargoes of Russian origin wouldn’t be targeted. But last week’s attack on a U.S. and UK-linked tanker carrying Russian naphtha may have prompted the re-routing of some Russia-originated cargoes.
Several tankers loaded from the Baltic and Black Sea ports in Russia have diverted destinations while in the Mediterranean and instead of the Suez Canal, the vessels are now headed toward Gibraltar and further down along the African coast, according to LSEG data and market sources quoted by Reuters.
https://oilprice.com/Latest-Energy-News/World-News/Even-Tankers-Carrying-Russian-Fuels-Have-Started-Avoiding-the-Red-Sea.html
BREAKING: “Saint” Benitez Declares California “Assault Weapons” Ban Unconstitutional
By Cam Edwards | 3:47 PM on October 19, 2023
BREAKING: “Saint” Benitez Declares California “Assault Weapons” Ban Unconstitutional
(AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)
U.S. District Judge Roger Benitez delivered another scathing rebuke to the state of California on Thursday, just weeks after declaring the state’s ban on “large capacity” magazines unconstitutional. This time around it was the state’s ban on “assault weapons” that was before the judge, in a case known as Miller v. Bonta. Benitez was unsparing in his criticism of the law, which he says bars ordinary Californians from possessing commonly-owned arms that are protected by the language of the Second Amendment.
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Benitez’s 79-page decision is far too long and so full of juicy goodness like this that it would be impossible for me to quote all of the highlights, so take the time and read it for yourself when you’ve got a half-hour or so.
Even though the Bruen test does not require (and in fact prohibits) interest-balancing, Judge Benitez engages in a bit of his own to rebut California’s argument that banning commonly owned firearms because they are sometimes used in high-profile and shocking assaults on groups of innocent people will have no impact on law-abiding citizens.
It does not require much imagination to think what would have happened next if the woman had lived in California and could not possess such a firearm. People do not remember the disabled 61 year-old man living alone on a 20-acre property in Florida with dense woods and a long dirt driveway. After the homeowner had gone to bed, three men armed with a shotgun, pistol, and BB gun invaded. One wore a “Jason” hockey mask. The disabled victim said he was awakened by a loud noise and grabbed the AR-15 laying near his bed. He saw the masked man and a second man coming toward him inside his home. Gunfire was exchanged. By the time police arrived, one attacker had run away, one lay wounded outside, and one was dead on the dining room floor. Police found the disabled man in his bedroom alive, but bleeding from a gunshot wound to the stomach. The AR-15 lay across his legs. Without his modern rifle, the victim would have become an evidence tag and a forgotten statistic.
People do not hear about the AR-15 used by a young man in Oklahoma to defend himself from three masked and armed home invaders clothed in black. The three intruders broke through a rear glass door. Though outnumbered, the homeowner put up a successful defense with his AR-15.18 People do not hear about the AR-15 that was needed when seven armed and masked men burst through a front door at 4:00 a.m. firing a gun. Outnumbered seven to one, it took the resident 30 rounds from his AR-15 to stop the attackers.
California’s “assault weapon” ban takes away from its residents the choice of using an AR-15 type rifle for self-defense. Is it because modern rifles are used so frequently for crime? No. The United States Department of Justice reports that in the year 2021, in the entire country 447 people were killed with rifles (of all types). From this one can say that, based on a national population of 320 million people in the United States, rifles of any kind (including AR-15s) were used in homicides only 0.0000014% of the time. Put differently, if 447 rifles were used to commit 447 homicides and every rifle-related homicide involved an AR-15, it would mean that of the approximately 24,400,000 AR15s in the national stock, less than .00001832% were used in homicides. It begs the question: what were the other AR-15 type rifles used for? The only logical answer is that 24,399,553 (or 99.999985%) of AR-15s were used for lawful purposes.
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The Second Amendment Foundation’s Alan Gottlieb said shortly after Benitez’s decision came down, “We’ve known all along the state ban could not hold up under constitutional scrutiny and we were encouraged by last year’s Supreme Court ruling in the Bruen case, which rejected the notion of ‘interest balancing’ when it comes to Second Amendment challenges. Judge Benitez came down on the side of the Constitution and history.”
He did indeed. So what happens next? Benitez granted a 10-day stay on his permanent injunction, so if the past is any prologue California Attorney General Rob Bonta will appeal the decision to the Ninth Circuit and request a stay, the Ninth Circuit will grant the stay and allow the law to remain in place during the appeal, and then a majority of Ninth Circuit judges will start to play keep-away-from-the-Supreme-Court with the case. Meanwhile, California Gov. Gavin Newsom will bizarrely bloviate about the “rights regression” in Benitez’s decision, even though it’s California’s rights suppression that’s the issue. And sooner or later the Supreme Court will get ahold of this case, though not nearly as quickly as we’d like. The “assault weapons” case that should get to SCOTUS first is Bianchi v. Brown, which has been pending in the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals for almost a year now. Even if Bianchi gets there first, Judge Benitez’s opinion is going to be extensively cited by the plaintiffs challenging Maryland’s “assault weapons ban,” and he’s given them plenty of legal ammunition to use before the Supreme Court when the time comes.
https://bearingarms.com/camedwards/2023/10/19/breaking-saint-benitez-declares-california-assault-weapons-ban-unconstitutional-n76315
Talk about a waste of money:
https://www.zerohedge.com/energy/trillions-spent-climate-change-based-faulty-temperature-data-climate-experts-say
(Richard: The US has always had a written contract between the Government and the Citizens, this contract is the US Constitution it was written to limit what the Government Federal and otherwise can do while protecting what the Citizens can do. The Federal Government is suppose to be limited to the enumerated powers given to them by the Constitution with all other powers forbidden to them. While the People were allowed all rights not specifically forbidden to them, some of the powers are so important that they are specifically protected by the Constitution in the Bill of Rights. Starting in the 1890s the followers of Marx and Engels begin a slow process of amending the Constitution to either give the Federal Government more power then they are allowed or to create the situation where unelected bureaucrats were allowed to usurp the power of Congress and write laws stripping the People of freedom they had enjoyed since the adoption of the Constitution. Part of this process was a slow chipping away at the Right of the People to be armed to be able to act in self defense against criminals and Government abuses. The early State and City weapons laws were designed to stop people of specific genetic identities from acquiring weapons. In 1934 the National Firearms Act was passed and was enforced on the lie that the weapons forbidden weren’t commonly used by the US military. Over the past 90 years this attack as morphed into the People shouldn’t be allowed to posses firearms that are militarily useful, this in effect will ban all firearms from civilian possession. This is because all firearms of all types have been used by the military at some time in the past. All action types and all calibers are either direct copies of military weapons or are modified version of military weapons or calibers. All
victim disarmamentgun control laws are unconstitutional and are evil because they allow the government to oppress the People at will. There is no such thing as total safety this side of the grave, all attempts to achieve total safety will only allow the government to steal more of our precious freedom.)Madison on the 2nd Amendment & militia clause
By glyon | 4:24 PM on October 05, 2013
The Supreme Court in the Heller decision explained that the second amendment guarantees an individual right of the people to keep and carry arms for their defense in the event of a confrontation.
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The anti-gun crowd, however, refuses to accept this common sense reading of the amendment. The best way to interpret the Constitution begins with actually reading it. The next best thing is to read what the Constitution’s chief drafter, James Madison, had to say about America’s founding document. Madison was the chief author of the Federalist Papers, along with John Jay and Alexander Hamilton. The Federalist Papers offer great insight into the political theories of the day that led to our system of government.
Students of the second amendment should be familiar with both Federalist 29 and 46, which discuss the role of an armed populace in protecting the precious freedom which had so recently been won. It was that thinking that led to the adoption of the second amendment.
Madison was also the original drafter of the Bill of Rights, including what would become the second amendment. The anti-gun crowd regularly accuse second amendment supporters of only focusing on what Justice Scalia called the operative clause of the second amendment, the phrase “the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.” They assert that we ignore the prefatory clause that reads, “A well-regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state.” To them the prefatory clause confirms that the purpose of the amendment was to protect the right of the states to have militias or as they sometimes phrase it, the right to bear arms when in militia service.
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However, beyond that, they never exactly explain what is meant by “the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.” The anti-gun crowd cling to the so-called collective rights view of the amendment that held sway with a number of federal circuit courts pre-Heller. However, beyond denying an individual right to keep and bear arms, those courts said precious little on exactly what the amendment actually protected.
It was commonly stated outside the court room that the operative clause meant that the federal government could not disarm the state militias. But that is not what the amendment says and no federal circuit court actually provided any reasoned discussion supporting such an interpretation. In any event, if that were what the amendment was meant to accomplish, one would think the amendment would have been written in some way like “A well-regulated militia being necessary for a free state, Congress shall not infringe the right of the states to arm the militia.” However, this interpretation of the amendment would have worked a radical transformation of Congress’s power over the militia. The Constitution addresses the militia in Article I, Section 8. It states “The Congress shall have the power … To provide for calling forth the Militia to execute the Laws of the Union, suppress Insurrections and repel Invasions; To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining, the Militia, and for governing such Part of them as may be employed in the Service of the United States, reserving to the States respectively, the Appointment of the Officers, and the Authority of training the Militia according to the discipline prescribed by Congress.”
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Thus, it was Congress’s responsibility, not the states, to organize and arm the militia, with the states having only the responsibility to appoint officers and train the militia as Congress mandates. The militia is not treated by the Constitution as a creature of the several states, but of the nation as a whole to be organized, armed and disciplined by Congress, while being trained by the states as Congress directs.
Congress has in fact exercised this authority.
Title 10 of the United States Code, Section 311 defines the militia of the United States with certain exceptions as “all able-bodied males at least 17 years of age and … under 45 years of age who are, or who have made a declaration of intention to become, citizens of the United States and … female citizens of the United States who are members of the National Guard.” The National Guard is the organized militia and the unorganized militia consists of those militia members not in the Guard. In the Second Militia Act, passed in 1792, Congress specified the arms militia members were to have. It was incumbent on militia members to report for training and duty with their own arms. The second amendment did not change Congress’s authority over the militia, nor was that the intent of the amendment. Most notably, the second amendment did not provide that the states would or could arm the militia. If that were the meaning of the second amendment, then states could be free to arm the militia in any way they saw fit. States could for instance under the collective rights view of the second amendment, authorize each member of the unorganized militia to own a fully automatic weapon such as the M-16. That would raise issues with respect to the provisions of the National Firearms Act of 1934, which greatly restricts the ownership and transfer of automatic weapons. States could also abrogate many other federal firearm restrictions. It is certainly the case that some founders, such as Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts, feared that Congress would neglect its responsibility to arm the militia. And so it is not an unreasonable view that a primary purpose of the second amendment was to ensure that the militia would not be disarmed by taking guns away from the people who constituted the militia.
However, that view is perfectly consistent with the wording of the operative clause, “the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.” The amendment thus ensured that there could be a body of the people armed and available to serve in the militia. It had nothing to do, however, with transferring to the states the right to arm or specify the arming of the militia. That remains the prerogative of Congress. Review of the legislative history of the second amendment confirms that it was designed to protect an individual right of the people generally to possess and carry arms.
When Madison initially introduced the various proposed amendments that would later become the Bill of Rights, he proposed to insert the bulk of them, including what would later become amendments one through five, part of the sixth amendment, and amendments eight and nine, into Article I, Section 9, between Clauses 3 and 4. His speech to Congress can be found here.
This is the portion of the Constitution which limits Congressional power over individuals. Clause 3 is the prohibition on Bills of Attainder and ex post facto laws.
Clause 4 is the limitation on the imposition of taxes directly on individuals as oppose to excise taxes on economic transactions. This clause has been substantially abrogated by the sixteenth amendment, authorizing the federal government to tax incomes. In other words, Madison proposed to put these amendments into that part of the Constitution that protected individual rights of the people from the federal government. The context of Madison’s original introduction to Congress of the Bill of Rights, including the second amendment, is powerful evidence supporting the conclusion that the right to keep and bear arms was intended to confirm an individual right of the people to arms.
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Madison did not propose to place the second amendment in that part of the Constitution that governs Congress’s power over the militia. The obvious reason is that Madison was seeking to protect an individual right to keep and bear arms, not some undefined right of the states to arm or control militia members within their borders. Indeed, it was Madison himself who coined the phrase “Bill of Rights” to refer to the amendments he was proposing, including what would become the second amendment. States do not have rights. They have powers. Individuals have rights. In any event, the second amendment guarantees in its own words a right of the people, not a right of the states.
https://bearingarms.com/glyon/2013/10/05/madison-on-the-2nd-amendment-milita-clause-n22070
There is no such thing as total safety this side of the grave, all attempts to achieve total safety will only allow the government to steal more of our precious freedom.
Grabbing power with covid, for example.
People are still saying Stay safe! instead of Have fun!
Hamas, Inc.: The Property Empire That Funded Militant Attack on Israel
By examining business records and cross-referencing them with the sanctions lists, Newsweek’s investigation shows how Hamas is using some of its key personnel to set up such companies around the Middle East and elsewhere to run its financial empire—often in places where, one expert said, it may find tacit approval for such operations. They include businesses in the United Arab Emirates, Turkey, Algeria, Saudi Arabia and Sudan, and may even reveal how the group is expanding into Western Europe.
It also illustrates that while the unprecedented aerial and ground assault on Gaza, which Israel says is necessary to ensure Hamas’ destruction, may paralyze the militant group there, it seems unlikely to stop the flow of funds from abroad.
This task – cutting off Hamas funding at source – appears to have become an urgent priority for the Biden administration, which on January 5 announced it is offering a reward of up to $10 million for information that could dismantle the group’s economic foundations.
https://www.newsweek.com/2024/02/09/hamas-inc-property-empire-that-funded-militant-attack-israel-1860890.html
……….
Alleged Hamas financier holds stake in Cyprus company that mines Egyptian gold
Leaked files reveal Sudanese businessman Abdelbasit Hamza — whose company holdings feature in Cyprus Confidential documents — has been accused of being “a central figure in Hamas’ investment portfolio.”
https://www.icij.org/investigations/cyprus-confidential/alleged-hamas-financier-holds-stake-in-cyprus-company-that-mines-egyptian-gold-leaked-files-reveal/
____________
whatabout QATAR?
I'd like that $10M in cash, please.Early December, lotta noise:
Did Hamas make millions betting against Israeli shares before October 7 Massacre?
Hamas’ attack on Israel on October 7 caught the Israeli army unprepared. But somebody seemingly knew in advance and made billions betting against Israeli shares traded locally and on Wall Street five days before the attack.
Short-selling Israeli shares – betting that they will fall – spiked in the days before October 7, far exceeding the short selling during “numerous other periods of crisis,” Robert J. Jackson, Jr., Joshua Mitts and colleagues wrote in a paper titled “Trading on Terror?” published Sunday on SSRN. (Haaretz)
__________
US and Gulf nations target ‘secret’ Hamas investment portfolio worth up to $1 billion
https://www.cnn.com/2023/10/24/business/hamas-secret-investment-portfolio-israel/index.html
Trading on Terror?
Recent scholarship shows that informed traders increasingly disguise trades in economically linked securities such as exchange-traded funds (ETFs).
Linking that work to longstanding literature on financial markets’ reactions to military conflict, we document a significant spike in short selling in the principal Israeli-company ETF days before the October 7 Hamas attack.
The short selling that day far exceeded the short selling that occurred during numerous other periods of crisis, including the recession following the financial crisis, the 2014 Israel-Gaza war, and the COVID- 19 pandemic. Similarly, we identify increases in short selling before the attack in dozens of Israeli companies traded in Tel Aviv.
https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4652027
__________
^^^ No! Comments about this Prof ^^^
Note that this professor is hired by corporations to attack critics, and has previously had his sham “research” debunked by exchanges.
It is reprehensible that this Columbia professor has used Hamas’ brutal massacre of Israelis to further his agenda.
__________
Huge errors in US study about TASE short sellers
Tel Aviv Stock Exchange EVP head of trade Yaniv Pagot: The researchers did not realize that TASE shares are quoted in agorot not shekels.
https://en.globes.co.il/en/article-huge-errors-in-us-study-about-tase-short-sellers-1001464098
An argorot is equal to 0.01 of a shekel.
Odd that a Prof at Columbia would make such an error.
Anybody read Robert Kennedy Jr.’s take on the Plandemic Event 201
“War-gamed-how to use police powers to detain and quarantine citizens, how to impose marshal law, how to control messaging by deploying propaganda, how to employ censorship to silence dissent, and how to mandate masks, lockdowns, coercive vaccinations, and construct track and trace surveillance among potential reluctant populations. Militarizing medicine and introducing centralized autocratic governance”.
Interesting read SPARS Pandemic 2025-2028; A Futuristic Scenario for Public Health Risk Communicators.
Question: “What the next pandemic? WHO answer: Filoviruses like Ebola, Margburg, SARS, and Nipah are on the WHO’s list of priority pathogens, noted to cause the next pandemic. But the Ebola-like Machupo virus is also a contender. The authors of the new study argue”.
Mad soothsayers abound at the WHO.
BREAKING: Fani Willis and Lover Nathan Wade SUBPOENAED to Testify in Upcoming Hearing According to New Lawsuit Filed by Trump RICO Co-Defendant
by Cristina Laila Jan. 31, 2024 2:20 pm144 Comments
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis and her paramour Nathan Wade, a top Trump prosecutor she hired, both got subpoenaed to testify at an upcoming evidentiary hearing according to a new lawsuit filed by Trump’s RICO co-defendant Michael Roman.
Fani Willis’ office was accused of “intentionally withholding information” in a new lawsuit filed by Ashleigh Merchant, the attorney representing Trump co-defendant Michael Roman.
The subpoenas may force Fani Willis and Nathan Wade to give sworn testimony during a televised hearing on February 15 in response to a motion filed by Michael Roman seeking to have the RICO charge dismissed as well as disqualify Willis over her romantic relationship with Wade. The hearing was scheduled earlier this month. Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee told Fani Willis to respond to Michael Roman’s allegations of misconduct by Friday.
The new lawsuit filed this week by Michael Roman also accused Fani Willis of “stonewalling” attorney Ashleigh Merchant.
“It is evidence that the [Fulton County District Attorney] has withheld the records without substantial justification,” the complaint stated, according to ABC News. “Indeed, it appears that [Fulton County DA’s Office] is acting intentionally and in an effort to hide from public view public documents showing how [the office] has spent public monies related to the operation of the office.”
New Deals At The Gateway Pundit MyPillow Discounts Page – Plus Free Shipping With Promo Code TGP!
According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Fani Willis “financially benefited” from a romantic relationship with Nathan Wade, a top prosecutor she hired to go after President Trump.
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2024/01/breaking-fani-willis-lover-nathan-wade-subpoenaed-testify/
NEW: James Biden to Testify in Biden Impeachment Probe
by Cristina Laila Jan. 31, 2024 2:00 pm62 Comments
Joe Biden’s slimy brother James Biden will testify to lawmakers in the Biden impeachment inquiry on February 21.
“James Biden will appear for a transcribed interview on February 21, 2024. We look forward to his testimony,” the House Oversight Committee said on Wednesday.
James Biden made a fortune off the Biden family name and received a lot of money from companies linked to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2024/01/new-james-biden-testify-biden-impeachment-probe/
Transgenderism and Reverse Discrimination Negatively Impacts the U.S. Military, According to Hundreds of Service Members
by Guest Contributor Jan. 31, 2024 12:40 pm372 Comments
Over 200 men and women currently serving in the U.S. military took part in an independent survey conducted by the author. Through part of the anonymous questionnaire, service members were able to anonymously express their views about Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) training in the military.
Nearly 86 percent of the survey’s 229 participants, representing all branches of the military, said they have been required to participate in DEI training. One of the survey’s participants, Lt. Col. Randy Davis (a pseudonym), has served in the Marine Corps for over 15 years.
He shared his views with The Gateway Pundit using a pseudonym because of concern about reprisals. The Marine Corps officer also emphasized that his views don’t reflect those of the Department of Defense, Department of the Navy, or U.S. Marine Corps.
Although he was not required to participate in training specifically identified as DEI training, Lt. Col. Davis admitted, “I was clearly exposed to the sharing of material that was undoubtedly part of the DEI movement without having the label.”
For example, he cited flyers handed out at career fairs and Pride Month billboards that have “gone out of their way” to promote diversity.
A Military Forced to Confront Transgenderism
The acceptance of a person’s gender identity, which may not be their biological gender, is integral part of the DEI movement.
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2024/01/transgenderism-reverse-discrimination-negatively-impacts-u-s-military/
Joe Biden Victim Tara Reade Files Tort Claim Against FBI for ‘Operation Cassandra’ Involvement in Stalking Sex Abuse Victim
by Guest Contributor Jan. 31, 2024 1:20 pm180 Comments
Tara Reade, the Joseph Biden sexual abuse victim though her London based attorney, Dr. Jonathan Levy, has filed a tort complaint with the United States Department of Justice seeking $10 million in damages for invasion of privacy, emotional distress and violation of state and federal constitutional rights.
Tara Reade was sexually victimized by then Senator Joseph Biden in 1993. Her case was suppressed by Congressional investigators to protect Senator Biden and the records remain sealed.
When Tara spoke out again in 2019, she was immediately subjected to an ongoing FBI Operation to revictimize her a second time. The FBI Operation “Cassandra” was opened in order to retaliate, intimidate, discredit and if possible, eliminate Tara as a threat to President Biden. The tort complaint provides the details.
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2024/01/joe-biden-victim-tara-reade-files-tort-claim/
Scoop: State Department reviewing options for possible recognition of Palestinian state
Secretary of State Tony Blinken asked the State Department to conduct a review and present policy options on possible U.S. and international recognition of a Palestinian state after the war in Gaza, two U.S. officials briefed on the issue told Axios.
Why it matters: While U.S. officials say there has been no policy change, the fact the State Department is even considering such options signals a shift in thinking within the Biden administration on possible Palestinian statehood recognition, which is highly sensitive both internationally and domestically.
For decades, U.S. policy has been to oppose the recognition of Palestine as a state both bilaterally and in UN institutions and to stress Palestinian statehood should only be achieved through direct negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority.
Yes but: Efforts to find a diplomatic way out of the war in Gaza has opened the door for rethinking a lot of old U.S. paradigms and policies, a senior U.S. official said.
The Biden administration is linking possible normalization between Israel and Saudi Arabia to the creation of a pathway for the establishment of a Palestinian state as part of its post-war strategy. This initiative is based on the administration’s efforts prior to Oct. 7 to negotiate a mega-deal with Saudi Arabia that included a peace agreement between the kingdom and Israel.
Saudi officials have publicly and privately made clear since Oct. 7 that any potential normalization agreement with Israel would be conditioned on the creation of an “irrevocable” pathway towards a Palestinian state.
Some inside the Biden administration are now thinking recognition of a Palestinian state should possibly be the first step in negotiations to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict instead of the last, the senior U.S. official said.
https://www.axios.com/2024/01/31/palestine-statehood-biden-israel-gaza-war
US warship had close call with Houthi missile in Red Sea
ec. 5, 2023.
Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Janae Chambers/US Navy
CNN —
A cruise missile launched by the Houthis into the Red Sea on Tuesday night came within a mile of a US destroyer before it was shot down, four US officials told CNN, the closest a Houthi attack has come to a US warship.
In the past, these missiles have been intercepted by US destroyers in the area at a range of eight miles or more, the officials said. But the USS Gravely had to use its Close-In Weapon System (CIWS) for the first time since the US began intercepting the Houthi missiles late last year, which ultimately succeeded in downing the missile, officials said.
The CIWS, an automated machine gun designed for close-range intercepts, is one of the final defensive lines the ship has to shoot down an incoming missile when other layers of defense have failed to intercept it.
The episode underscores the threat the Houthis continue to pose to US naval assets and commercial shipping in the Red Sea, despite multiple US and British strikes on Houthi infrastructure inside Yemen. The close call also comes just days after three US service members were killed in a drone attack by Iran-backed militants at a US outpost in Jordan.
https://www.cnn.com/2024/01/31/politics/us-warship-close-call-houthi-missile/index.html
Biden gun rule being drafted to effectively ban private sales: ATF whistleblowers
By Social Links for Steven Nelson
Published Jan. 31, 2024, 1:09 p.m. ET
WASHINGTON — A watchdog group is demanding documents from the Biden administration after whistleblowers alleged that a regulation is under development that would effectively ban private gun sales.
The group, Empower Oversight, said Wednesday that two sources have claimed that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) is preparing to propose a rule requiring background checks for most or all gun sales.
President Biden has campaigned for stricter gun laws and in August proposed a regulation to clarify that people who “repetitively” sell guns must register as federally licensed gun dealers subject to background checks.
The revised rule purportedly being crafted by the ATF would be even broader, Empower Oversight president Tristan Leavitt said in a series of posts on X.
Empower Oversight “has learned through whistleblowers within ATF that at the direction of the White House, ATF has drafted a 1,300-page document to justify a rule effectively banning the private sale of firearms,” Leavitt wrote.
President Joe Biden speaks at South Carolina’s First in the Nation dinner at the South Carolina State Fairgrounds in Columbia, S.C., Jan. 27, 2024.
https://nypost.com/2024/01/31/news/biden-gun-rule-drafted-to-all-but-bar-private-sales-whistleblowers/
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James O’Keefe
@JamesOKeefeIII
BREAKING VIDEO: Top White House Cyber Official tells O’Keefe in Disguise “they can’t say it publicly” the White House wants to replace Kamala Harris and Confirms President @JoeBiden
mental decline: “Biden is definitely slowing down.”
“I’m just telling you what I’ve heard… they’re really concerned about it” …“I think they need to get rid of him or her.”
“But no one in modern history has ever said, like, ‘We’re not going to renominate the president for a second term.’”
Charlie Kraiger @CharlieKraiger, a Cybersecurity policy analyst and Foreign affairs Desk Officer in the Executive Office at the White House, tells O’Keefe “I had a meeting with Michelle Obama @michelleobama
…. Someone asked her, ‘Will you ever run for office?’ And she said, ‘No’ Empathically.” She was like, ‘I’ve seen all this shit my husband has had to go through and that does not interest me.’
“@VP
@KamalaHarris
hemorrhages black staff. She can’t keep black staff. They quit on her en masse”
“She will be the vice president nominee. There was a debate about removing her from the ticket, but sadly they didn’t, she’s not popular, but you can’t remove the first black lady to be vice president from the Goddamn presidential ticket. Like what kind of message are you going to send to like African-American voters…People would be like, “What the fuck?” Like she’s a woman and she’s multiracial.”
MORE… FULL STORY…
https://twitter.com/JamesOKeefeIII/status/1752786076320600511
Robby Starbuck
@robbystarbuck
The short version of Kurt Russell on gun control is basically “you’ll take it from my cold, dead hands buddy”.
He was on ? with this woke writer.
Didn’t know he was this cool but it makes sense since Tombstone is the best western film in human history.
https://twitter.com/robbystarbuck/status/1752230412644999594
Image: PxHere
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https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2024/01/the_deevolution_of_the_west.html
Assessing Donald J. Trump
By G. Murphy Donovan
“By the pricking of my thumbs, something wicked this way comes.” — William Shakespeare.
If you are cynical and look at the Donald J. Trump phenomenon, you could say to yourself, “Who cares, it doesn’t matter; even if he wins in 2024, he will be gone in four years.”
Yet, many folks are just not comfortable with conflict, civic or otherwise; especially the kind of angst that comes and goes, only to blister again like a civic boil. To be honest, when we are most comfortable, change gives us the willies. In the end, the comfort game is a prayer for more of the same.
Politics reflect our affinity for the status quo. A Bush family vote was a comfort vote. Indeed, politics were the Bush family business. The Billary vote was a comfort to the point of complacency. If you liked Bill; why not Hillary? Alas, a smug American left tripped over its assumptions in 2016—then prudently kicked Bill’s wife to the curb. A Barack Hussein Obama vote provided the ultimate comfort, a prostrate virtue signal. A vote that said America is not racist.
Good luck with that.
And today with the Biden family, we are witnessing the compound dividends of toxic tenure, “being there,” as they say, with a family of grifters. Indeed, being in the political swamp long enough for the patriarch to rot and float to the top—like a cadaver that has been in the water too long.
Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. never held a real job outside of politics. Joe literally stayed on, inside the Beltway, long enough to get lucky in 2020; albeit, with a tail wind from a frantic, if not, hysterical establishment and a plague, politicized by a partisan media, Big Pharma, and doctors alike. (Tony Fauci takes a bow here.)
In Donald J. Trump’s first act, Covid is a deus ex machina!
Somehow a political party, indeed a country, seems to get what it deserves. Albeit, in theory, with democracy, eventually the wisdom of crowds prevails.
If Trump had lost in 2016, it would not have hurt his brand. He would still be a celebrity, a player, and a successful business tycoon. But the Donald, being Trump, would not stay down for the count after 2020; guys like Trump do not go quietly into the night.
So in 2024 Trump is leading a crusade for justice—garnished with déjà vu and sugarplums of justice, if not revenge. Surely, DT doesn’t need a job, money, or another hobby… and his many partisan detractors have pretty much given him another full-time job now as a defendant.
In many ways, chaps like Donald Trump and Elon Musk are brothers by another mother, victims of their own success; some might say excess. Unlike oligarchs on the Davos left, Trump and Musk are unapologetic entrepreneurs, believing as they do, like JFK, that a rising economic tide floats all boats.
Unfortunately for social “democrats” and their dependent camp followers, success is a river that courts envy on both shores. As we now see in the Levant, the green-eyed monster is keen on anti-Semitism. Envy is the vice that demonizes extraordinary success, be it national, like Israel, or personal, like Trump and Musk.
Alas, the vanquished heirs of Marxism, communism, and the Internationale have few arrows left in their quivers today except envy, hate, and bigotry.
The American presidential election of 2024 is sure to be, as they say in Ireland, a “shite” show. So win or lose, how are we to assess the Trump phenomena?
Trump is not a Republican or Democrat. He just wears a red hat and goes his own way.
We could give Trump credit for the Abraham Accords and for putting a leash on Iran; Shia and Sunni terrorists saw team Biden as at first weak, and now as a lame duck. Islamists helped to unravel most of what Trump achieved. Indeed, America is now fighting two proxy wars with no ends in sight.
Still, there are some Trump bells that can not be unrung:
Donald J. Trump, in the first instance, made Hillary a historical footnote. Hillary’s exit was good for America and fortunate for the world.
The attempt by the D.C. establishment to undermine the Trump administration also exposed the ugly truth of partisan incest. Indeed, we now know, in some detail, just how biased and corrupt the Justice Department, the FBI, the Intelligence Community, and the Department of Defense have become. DEI, BLM, and gender-bender campaigns say all that needs to be said about the cultural and social dumpster fire inside the Beltway.
Surely, Trump blowback also validated the “deep state” theory. Americans now know how they are ruled (and routinely abused) by smug, unelected, tenured, privileged apparatchiks, all masquerading as honest cops or civil “servants.” Federal service is “civil” to the extent that it serves partisan agendas. Over the years, D.C. has become, like most of urban America, a partisan political Democrat party monoculture.
Likewise, the Trump drama exposed the toxic threats to democracy posed by unofficial and largely partisan collusion between the feds and Silicon Valley to manage news, narratives, and elections. Indeed, before Trump, we never knew how many big sisters worked with Big Brother.
And speaking of sisters, add one last credit to the Trump ledger.
D.J. Trump may have created a sure lane for the next vice-president, or president, to be a conservative woman. Not because sex matters, but because there is such a plethora of worthy ladies-in-waiting on the common sense, conservative side of the American bench these days.
And finally in 2024, for voters, the “wisdom of crowds” will finally get a bona fide and much needed acid test. And here we give Joe Robinette the last word. Democracy is indeed “on the ballot” in 2024. So good luck with that too.
https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2024/01/assessing_donald_j_trump.html
Hunter Biden Attempts to Get Out of Federal Gun Charges by Pointing Blame at Trump and His ‘MAGA Allies’
by Jack Davis, The Western Journal Jan. 31, 2024 4:20 pm0 Comments
Federal gun charges against Hunter Biden should be thrown out because the special counsel appointed by the Biden administration to bring those charges is doing the will of former President Donald Trump and his allies, according to a court filing from Hunter Biden’s attorneys.
Hunter Biden has pleaded not guilty to a charge of lying about his drug use in October 2018 when he completed a federal form to buy a gun, according to The Associated Press.
The charge had been set to be resolved last summer as part of a plea deal that included the tax charges against Hunter Biden, but the plea deal collapsed.
U.S. Attorney David Weiss, who had led the investigation that resulted in the plea deal, was then appointed a special counsel to investigate the case and filed new indictments against Hunter Biden in December.
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2024/01/hunter-biden-attempts-get-federal-gun-charges-pointing/
I made notes for the entire month of January;
When it was predicted that people in my area might see the northern lights — I checked 5 times through the night and could see only grey looking sky.
One night I saw some stars.
One day there was a partial blue sky for a few hours. another morning there was some blue sky for about an hour.
Grey skies smiling on me, nothing but solid grey blanket smiling on me.
I used to pull the curtain in the morning when I was reading on my iPad. It was always too bright. Now no sun in windows.
In the morning when I feed the deer, the air smells like metal. I used to love the smell of the trees. I wonder if the damage from this constant drone of planes spraying will have a long term grey permanent sky.
Tomorrow they say will be sunny. It seems like I am living in a science fiction movie.
Are parts of Northern Ontario part of the Climate Crisis Experimental Research Project? Block out the sun, why did they cut down the trees, to plant solar panels? Anybody?
Selections, edited.
How Russia Stopped Ukraine’s Momentum: A Deep Defense Is Hard to Beat
Many held high hopes for Ukraine’s 2023 summer offensive. Previous Ukrainian successes at Kyiv, Kharkiv, and Kherson encouraged expectations that a new effort, reinforced with new Western equipment and training, might rupture Russian defenses…
The results fell far short of such hopes… It is now clear that the offensive failed.
Why? And what does this mean for the future…?
[The] best answer for now lies in the way the two sides, and especially the Russian defenders, used their available forces. By late spring, the Russians had adopted the kind of deep, prepared defenses [aka “active defense”] that have been very difficult for attackers to break through for more than the last century of combat experience.
Breakthrough has … required permissive conditions that are now absent in Ukraine: a defender, in this case Russia, whose dispositions are shallow, forward, ill prepared, or logistically unsupported or whose troops are unmotivated and unwilling to defend their positions.
That was true of Russian forces in Kyiv, Kharkiv, and Kherson in 2022. It is no longer the case…
The resilience of deep, prepared defenses in modern warfare will make it very hard for Ukraine to achieve a decisive breakthrough any time soon.… War-winning weapons are very rare in land warfare. The difficulty of offensive maneuver in 2023 was not a product of any radical new technology, and it is unlikely that any radical new technology will overturn it.
This pattern poses a dilemma for the United States. The U.S. military has long privileged quality over quantity…
Quality is necessary for opportunity but may be insufficient in itself for success. And if so, the United States may need to rethink its balance of quality and quantity…
https://www.foreignaffairs.com/ukraine/how-russia-stopped-ukraines-momentum