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.
JUSTIN’s closing speech at the NATO meeting in Washington DC.
So many people in attendance… not.
https://x.com/i/status/1811484701133275241
Orban far out on his limb, but so is the world.
He takes Hungary’s balancing-act diplomacy to a new level. He’s in an interesting position: too small to matter, but a head of state who has license to speak with all leaders. He is constantly criticized by the Left, yet he keeps on plugging away, because he knows his country can get blown off the map with a sneeze. The danger to his opponents is that he is very effective, and the punchline would be that he somehow succeeds. For now, he has no equivalent. From legacy media:
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/hungary-s-nationalist-leader-to-visit-trump-at-mar-a-lago-following-nato-summit/ar-BB1pOvxs
Here is Viktor Orban speaking truth to communist power in 1989. It is extraordinary how it resonates today, and how he deftly and simultaneously flatters and criticizes the regime while moving the country forward. It is his diplomacy then continuing now. It is his own history repeating, at peril and with courage. In 1989 he knew he could have been arrested, stage left:
Michelle Rempel Garner, conservative MP, kicks Dear Leader right in his caucus with more info on yesterday’s throwing of his midget-Nazi-globalist-ornithologically-challenged-HellBitch Finance Minister under the bus:
If you were absolutely appalled with the actions of feckless Freeland freezing the Patriots/ TRUCKERS bank accounts during the “Emergency Act “, just try and imagine what the global climate clown Carney will do to all you worthless, little eaters.
It is time for Canadians to DEMAND that traitors who belong to the World Economic Forum are not allowed to hold a government position, and anyone who believes in Shari’ah law should not EVER be allowed to hold any government position.
Excellent insight from this fellow on the EU. It seems Brussels has now decided to cauterize Hungary’s rotating EU leadership role because it doesn’t like what Orban is doing. I see this as similar to what they are doing in stealing Russian sovereign funds. Short-term gain for long-term pain, because all the other EU countries will witness Brussels’ dictatorship in action. European sovereign nations will have only regional governors under this regime. I believe this action against Orban makes inevitable the beginning of the EU end. This will be accelerated by a sovereign debt crisis with one of its member states (France?). Another salient observation is that we are witnessing a struggle between the Eastern and Western globalist brands.
Hungary’s Hotel California will burn to the ground within the year. No need for a HEXIT.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQQN0HjXfIU
oops
For all you globalist fuckers, happy Friday!
https://youtu.be/U0mjlDDk3tE?si=gIdB99lz_AcXZpxT
LOL the temperature is rising and it has absolutely nothing to do with the weather. The peoplekind whose Momma never dropped them on their heads are starting to speak out.
Cancer rates in very young people are soaring, why?
Court Just Nailed Hillary for FEC Violation 45x Bigger Than Trump’s $130k So-Called Violation
thegatewaypundit.com/2024/07/court-just-nailed-hillary-fec-violation-45x-bigger/
Jul. 12, 2024 10:00 am
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The Washington D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Tuesday that the 2016 Hillary Clinton campaign and an affiliated super PAC violated federal election law in spending that totaled close to $6 million.
The amount in question is more than 45 times the $130,000 a Manhattan court convicted former President Donald Trump of misreporting in business records during the same 2016 campaign.
It should be noted that the Federal Election Commission and the Justice Department looked at the payments Trump made through his personal attorney at the time, Michael Cohen, to adult film star Stormy Daniels as part of a nondisclosure agreement and declined to prosecute him.
But Democrat Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg chose to bring the case under New York law, bootstrapping the alleged FEC violation as an underlying crime to the state business record violations.
The reimbursement payments made to Cohen were listed by the Trump organization as legal expenses. Bragg argued these payments made to Daniels initially by Cohen amounted to an illegal contribution to the Trump campaign.
Regarding the Clinton campaign case, the D.C. Circuit found the super PAC Correct the Record “set out to engage in a wide range of coordinated activities to support Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign.”
“In an administrative complaint filed with the Federal Election Commission, nonprofit watchdog Campaign Legal Center alleges that Correct the Record spent close to $6 million in coordination with the Clinton campaign during the lead-up to the 2016 election, including to conduct polls, hire teams of round-the-clock factcheckers, and connect Clinton media surrogates with radio and television news outlets,” the Court said.
The three-judge panel noted that Correct the Record coordinated all these activities with Clinton’s campaign.
“But it characterized all of the committee’s myriad expenditures — from staff salaries and travel expenses to the cost of commissioning polls and renting offices — as ‘inputs’ to unpaid communications over the internet. For that reason, neither Correct the Record nor the Clinton campaign designated any of Correct the Record’s expenditures as contributions to the campaign,” the ruling said.
In other words, Correct the Record committed FEC “business record” violations, if you will, by failing to properly account for money spent to help the Clinton campaign.
The FEC had dismissed the complaint against the Clinton campaign and Correct the Record, citing an internet exemption had allowed them not to list the coordination between the two, but the D.C. Circuit Court found that decision was in error.
“We hold that the Commission acted contrary to law in dismissing the complaint. Because we conclude that the internet exemption cannot be read to exempt from disclosure those expenditures that are only tangentially related to an eventual internet message or post, the Commission’s reading of the internet exemption stretches it beyond lawful limits,” the ruling read.
“As to those expenditures that it deemed not to be covered by the internet exemption, the Commission acted contrary to law in dismissing the complaint for want of reason to believe the relevant expenditures were coordinated with the campaign, despite plausible allegations that Correct the Record coordinated all its expenditures with Hillary for America — and openly acknowledged doing so.”
They upheld a federal district court’s ruling concluding the same and directed the FEC to conform its findings consistent with the judge’s decision.
In a separate matter, the Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee agreed in 2022 to pay $113,000 to settle an FEC investigation into alleged violations of campaign finance law in relation to funding the infamous Steele dossier during the 2016 race, according to the Associated Press.
“The Clinton campaign hired Perkins Coie, which then hired Fusion GPS, a research and intelligence firm, to conduct opposition research on Republican candidate Donald Trump’s ties to Russia. But on FEC forms, the Clinton campaign classified the spending as legal services,” the AP said.
That’s interesting, because that’s exactly the violation Bragg said the Trump Organization committed in relation to paying Cohen.
The initial complaint, according to the AP, charged that “[b]y intentionally obscuring their payments through Perkins Coie and failing to publicly disclose the true purpose of those payments,” the campaign and DNC “were able to avoid publicly reporting on their statutorily required FEC disclosure forms the fact that they were paying Fusion GPS to perform opposition research on Trump with the intent of influencing the outcome of the 2016 presidential election.”
Trending: They Know It’s Over: Watch Blinken, Lloyd Austin and Jake Sullivan React as Joe Biden Calls Kamala Harris “Vice President Trump” (VIDEO)
“The Clinton campaign and DNC had argued that the payments had been described accurately, but agreed, according to the documents, to settle without conceding to avoid further legal costs,” the news outlet noted.
Trump made the same point in relation to the payment for Cohen, but on stronger grounds. Cohen was his personal attorney at the time and in addition to paying the lawyer’s fees, the money had gone to reimburse him for funds paid to Daniels as part of a non-disclosure agreement, i.e., a contract.
How else was the Trump Organization accountant supposed to list the payment?
So Clinton and the DNC pay an FEC administrative fine and the matter is done with, but Trump has to go through a six-week criminal trial and faces potential jail time.
And Democrats wonder why they’re accused of overseeing a two-tiered system of justice.
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2024/07/court-just-nailed-hillary-fec-violation-45x-bigger/
BREAKING: Georgia State Election Board Calls Emergency Meeting as Fulton County Unlawfully Creates “Team of Monitors” for 2024 Election That Was Not Approved by the State
thegatewaypundit.com/2024/07/breaking-georgia-state-election-board-calls-emergency-meeting/
Jul. 12, 2024 12:20 pm
The Georgia State Election Board has called for an emergency meeting today, July 12.
The move comes in response to reports that Fulton County officials have unlawfully established a team of monitors for the upcoming 2024 elections without state approval.
“BREAKING: The Georgia State Election Board has scheduled an emergency meeting today. Why? Because corrupt Fulton County officials have created a team of “monitors” for the 2024 election that HAVE NO APPROVAL FROM THE STATE. They’re getting ready to cheat. Again,” former Newsmax and OANN White House Correspondent Emerald Robinson wrote on X.
BREAKING: The Georgia State Election Board has scheduled an emergency meeting today.
Why? Because corrupt Fulton County officials have created a team of “monitors” for the 2024 election that HAVE NO APPROVAL FROM THE STATE.
They’re getting ready to cheat. Again.
— Emerald Robinson ?? (@EmeraldRobinson) July 12, 2024
Former Trump administration chief spokeswoman, Liz Harrington, confirmed this on social media platform X, stating:
“In response to SEB2023-025, Fulton County and Raffensperger’s office are trying to ram through a ‘monitoring team’ that would put those who helped cover up 2020 in charge of observing Fulton County in 2024.”
Harrington further detailed her concerns about the proposed monitoring team’s members.
“The list includes Ryan Germany, Raffensperger’s general counsel in 2020 Matt Mashburn, former SEB member who sicced the FBI on the author of the SEB2023-025 complaint Monica Childers, who worked on the hand count audit for Voting Works, whose software ARLO included fraudulent entries amounting to at least 4,081 false Biden votes,” Harrington wrote.
Screenshot: Liz Harrington/X
Harrington further highlighted screenshots allegedly showing bias on the part of Childers. She called for real transparency and accountability over these elections, arguing that nothing will change with the same cover-up artists in charge.
Some of the screenshots below:
Screenshot courtesy of Liz Harrington
Screenshot courtesy of Liz Harrington
But there’s a problem. According to the documentation Harrington referenced, the establishment of such a team required prior agreement before a critical July 9 State Election Board meeting—a stipulation evidently bypassed by the county.
“Fulton County voted to approve this proposal yesterday. But there’s a problem. At the May 7 State Election Board meeting, a monitoring team was contingent on being agreed to BEFORE the July 9 meeting. This did not happen,” Harrington wrote. “Now they’re trying to ram through a 2020 Clean Up Crew to make sure 2024 is “legit,” she added.
The objectives of this Monitoring team are as follows:
Program Objectives
Following recognized standards for election observation, the Monitoring Team’s goal is to provide systematic, comprehensive, and accurate gathering of information regarding Fulton County’s administration of the 2024 election; to compile and issue timely, accurate, and impartial statements and reports presenting those findings; and to make recommendations to help improve the process. The Monitoring Team’s observation will be process and compliance-oriented and not concerned with any particular result of the election. The Monitoring Team will not obstruct or otherwise interfere with the election process.
Objective 1: Provide process and compliance-oriented monitoring, including quality assurance processes, of all aspects of election administration in Fulton County, including:
Security and Chain of Custody Procedures
Poll Worker Training
Ballot Proofing
Logic and Accuracy Testing
Warehouse and Equipment Storage and Delivery Procedures
Processing Absentee Ballot Applications
Preparing and Issuing Absentee Ballot Packages
Receiving and Verifying Absentee Ballots Absentee Ballot Drop Box Management
Early Processing of Absentee Ballots
Advance Voting
Election Day Voting and Polling Place Readiness
Polling Place Management including Recap Sheets and other Required Documentation (for Advance and Election Day Voting)
Poll Watcher Transparency and Management
Batch Management
Tabulation of Ballots (including Early Tabulation)
Reporting of Results
Canvassing and Reconciliation
Auditing
Post-Election Processes and Certification
Objective 2: Provide periodic statements of findings and a final report, including appropriate recommendations to help improve the election process, to the State Election Board, Secretary of State’s Office, Fulton County, and the public.
Scope of Work
The scope of the Monitoring Team’s work includes observing all aspects of election related activities in Fulton County, with a focus on the activities listed above. The monitoring will include review of written and unwritten policies and procedures, analysis of policies and procedures, observation of whether policies and procedure are being followed, and review of whether sufficient quality assurance mechanisms are in place to ensure that policies and procedures are being followed.
The Monitoring Team and its partners will also conduct in-person observation of as much of Advance Voting, Election Day voting, and tabulation as possible.
Timing
In order to conduct a robust and thorough observation, it is crucial that the Monitoring Team begin its work prior to ballots going out. The latest the Monitoring Team should start its work is August 2024.
Trending: They Know It’s Over: Watch Blinken, Lloyd Austin and Jake Sullivan React as Joe Biden Calls Kamala Harris “Vice President Trump” (VIDEO)
In the interest of issuing a timely report and recommendations, the Team will seek to issue its Final Report by the end of November 2024.
Joint Accountabilities
The Monitoring Team will not hinder or obstruct the administration of the election and will follow the instructions of Fulton County elections personnel to ensure the Team is not obstructing the process. The Monitoring Team understands that it has no supervisory authority, and it will not instruct Fulton County personnel to do or not do a certain action.
Fulton County will grant the Monitoring Team unimpeded access to all parts of the election process. Fulton County will provide the Monitoring Team with a point of contact for all the subtopics listed above (which may be the same person or different people for different topics) who shall assist the Monitoring Team in achieving the needed access to conduct a thorough observation.
Such person shall also be available at reasonable times for questions from the Monitoring Team and will be responsive to those questions.
Cost
The fee for our proposed services is a total of $99,600 payable by Fulton County in four monthly installments of $24,900, beginning in August 2024 and ending in November 2024. Contracting and payment will be administered through the law firm of Gilbert, Harrell, Sumerford & Martin, P.C.
The cost reflects the substantial amount of time that the Monitoring Team will spend on these services. The cost will be used to compensate Monitoring Team members for their time and to defer expenses such as travel and parking. Team Member Monica Childers will not be accepting any compensation for her services.
In response to SEB2023-025, Fulton County and Raffensperger’s office are trying to ram through a “monitoring team” that would put those who helped cover up 2020 in charge of observing Fulton County in 2024
The list includes Ryan Germany,
Raffensperger’s general counsel in… pic.twitter.com/GMV8N6or2D
— Liz Harrington (@realLizUSA) July 12, 2024
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2024/07/breaking-georgia-state-election-board-calls-emergency-meeting/
BREAKING: “Coordinated Democrat Rebellion” to Unfold Over the Next 48 Hours as the Largest Pro-Biden Super PAC Freezes $90 Million in Pledged Donations
thegatewaypundit.com/2024/07/breaking-coordinated-democrat-rebellion-unfold-next-48-hours/
Jul. 12, 2024 1:20 pm
Here we go.
A “coordinated Democrat rebellion” will be underway over the next 48 hours as the largest pro-Biden super PAC freezes $90 million in pledged donations if Biden remains on the ticket, according to The New York Times.
This comes after Joe Biden’s disastrous “Big Boy” solo press conference Thursday evening where he called Kamala Harris “Vice President Trump.”
“Some major Democratic donors have told the largest pro-Biden super PAC, Future Forward, that roughly $90 million in pledged donations is now on hold if President Biden remains atop the ticket, according to two people who have been briefed on the conversations,” The New York Times reported.
“The frozen contributions come as he had hoped to turn the page on a weekslong crisis within his party following a nearly hourlong news conference on Thursday evening. That appearance — in which he delivered a few gaffes but also demonstrated a command of foreign policy — did not immediately seem to worsen Democrats’ fears about his viability, but it also did not silence the calls for him to drop out. After he was done speaking, three more House members joined the ranks of elected Democrats calling for Mr. Biden to end his campaign,” the Times reported.
BREAKING: Major Democrat donors to the largest pro-Biden super PAC have frozen $90 million in pledged donations, per the NYT, until Joe Biden steps down. Reports say a “coordinated Democrat rebellion” will be underway over the next 48 hours. pic.twitter.com/4e4aWmaHOj
— Charlie Kirk (@charliekirk11) July 12, 2024
Democrat lawmakers Thursday evening and Friday morning came forward and called for Joe Biden to step aside after his dumpster fire press conference.
Biden Snarls at reporters asking why he called Zelensky “President Putin”
Old Joe botched the first question when he called Kamala Harris “Vice President Trump.”
This was literally right after Joe Biden called Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, “President Putin.”
At one point Joe Biden told reporters that he’s following the advice of his “Commander-in-Chief” in response to a question about his future.
“I’m following the advice of my Commander-in-Chief– my–my chief of staff of the military as well as the Secretary of Defense and our Intelligence people,” Biden said.
There is no chief of staff of the military. Biden botched that too. Biden meant to say Joint Chiefs of Staff but his brain is fried.
Ranking Member of the House Intelligence Committee Jim Hines called for Joe Biden to step aside Thursday night.
Joe Biden’s record of public service is unrivaled. His accomplishments are immense. His legacy as a great president is secure.
He must not risk that legacy, those accomplishments and American democracy to soldier on in the face of the horrors promised by Donald Trump. pic.twitter.com/FMMrTK8pb8
— Jim Himes (@jahimes) July 12, 2024
More Democrat lawmakers are expected to call for Joe Biden to step down this weekend.
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2024/07/breaking-coordinated-democrat-rebellion-unfold-next-48-hours/
Former Pelosi Staffer Accused of Raping Ex-Senate Aide
by Anthony Scott Jul. 12, 2024 1:40 pm155 Comments
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A former staffer of Rep. Nancy Pelosi has been accused of raping an ex-Senate aide, according to a bombshell report by the San Fransisco Chronicle.
In the report, it was revealed Kevin Ortiz, who is the current co-president of the Latinx Democratic Club and former staffer for Rep. Nancy Pelosi, has been accused of sexually assaulting Zahra Hajee, a former aide to U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla.
In the report, Hajee accused Ortiz of sexually assaulting her in March and April of 2021.
Ortiz has denied all of the allegations and claims the sexual encounters between him and Hajee were consensual.
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2024/07/former-pelosi-staffer-accused-raping-ex-senate-aide/
NEW: White House Staffers Say They’re Trying to Keep Joe Biden “Stitched Together” Until the Election
thegatewaypundit.com/2024/07/he-seemed-altered-abc-news-runs-new-hit/
Jul. 12, 2024 12:00 pm
This is hilarious.
ABC News ran a new hit piece on Joe Biden’s disturbing appearance at last month’s Juneteenth concert.
Last month Joe Biden and Kamala Harris hosted a Juneteenth concert featuring Gladys Knight and Patti LaBelle on the South Lawn of the White House.
81-year-old Biden had just returned to the White House after a 5-day trip to Paris, France, and immediately made his way to the South Lawn for the Juneteenth concert.
He looked exhausted.
Biden awkwardly stood still as everyone around him danced. It looked like his drug cocktail was wearing off.
WATCH:
Why isn’t Biden moving? pic.twitter.com/DA78820xcd
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) June 11, 2024
ABC News on Thursday evening ran a hit piece on Joe Biden – nearly one month after the Juneteenth concert.
Recall that just a couple of weeks ago news outlets were attacking conservative media for posting “cheap fakes” of Joe Biden.
Now the same outlets are suddenly reporting on Joe Biden’s cognitive decline.
“Multiple people who attended a Juneteenth concert at the White House last month — just 17 days before the presidential debate — told ABC News in interviews that they had concerns about Pres. Biden after personally watching him at that event,” ABC News reported.
“We didn’t know quite what to make of it, but we thought that it was different and that it was — he seemed altered,” said Democrat Texas state Rep. Ron Reynolds.
Staffers told a Democrat lawmaker that they are trying to keep Biden “stitched together” until the election.
“Together, the individuals ABC News spoke with — which include state lawmakers and a former Obama White House official — described Biden at the event as “aloof” and “stiff” and his speech as “garbled.” One lawmaker said her assessment of the president at the event came after she had privately raised concerns to White House staffers months before — jokingly saying they could keep the president “stitched together” until the election.” – ABC News reported.
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2024/07/he-seemed-altered-abc-news-runs-new-hit/
KASSAM: Is The October Surprise Biden’s Demise?
Raheem Kassam, Editor-in-Chief of The National Pulse, believes Joe Biden’s death could prove to be the ‘October Surprise’ in the U.S. election, even if the so-called “Clinton diaspora” has to “make it happen.”
Citing an Axios report that quotes a Bill Clinton administration official as saying the “Clinton diaspora is freaking the hell out” about Biden’s reelection prospects, Kassam referred his social media followers to a podcast from Thursday where he raised the possibility of the 81-year-old dying.
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“You had a snap election in the UK, and you had a snap election in France,” Kassam said on the podcast. “There’s a globalist theme for 2024. I just would not be surprised—do not put it past them—to watch Joe Biden die on his feet in front of the American public. Maybe not literally, but literally to pass away, a week, two weeks, three weeks before an election, and then, boom, it’s a snap election, it’s a snap candidate.”
In these circumstances, Kassam said, the Democrats could strongly benefit from a “sympathy vote.”
“And the sympathy vote… Go and look at that [Barry] Goldwater blowout if you need reminding of that,” he advised.
“A sympathy vote just can take enough away from the moderates and the independents. Can [bring out] a lot to the people who were going to stay at home, not vote for Biden. Suddenly, you’re in a different situation,” he stressed.
Barry Goldwater was the Republican challenger to Lyndon B. Johnson, who became President after the assassination of John F. Kennedy Jr, in 1964. Goldwater had been expecting to challenge Kennedy, having been the frontrunner for the Republican nomination prior to his 1963 assassination. He faced heavy backlash because he publicly criticized Kennedy before his death, despite their personal friendship.
Johnson carried all but six states.
https://thenationalpulse.com/2024/07/12/kassam-is-the-october-surprise-bidens-demise/
Home Invasion Illustrates Why Gun Control Is Stupid
By Tom Knighton | 2:29 PM | July 11, 2024
AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli
Gun control advocates who try to justify restrictions on law-abiding citizens may sometimes look at how violent crimes unfold to justify their argument. They might say that most gun fights only involve a few rounds, for example, so why would you need a 15-round magazine?
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I’ve had that conversation.
And, to be fair, most gunfights actually are over after just a few shots. Most don’t even need to hit to end the fight because most bad guys are cowards who want easy meat, not someone ready to fight back.
The problem with this is that it assumes the average is universal. The average gun battle may only have, say, three shots fired, but a lot of them only have one round discharged. That means some involve a whole lot more.
And a recent home invasion in Texas illustrates one way that happens.
Police say four armed men broke into a man’s home on the southwest side and demanded money at gunpoint.
The attack happened around 12:30 p.m. in the 400 block of Wilcox. Police say the door to the home was unlocked when four men with guns and masks barged in and held the man at gunpoint.
They took the money and pistol-whipped the victim and are currently at-large.
Now, either this gentleman didn’t have a firearm or couldn’t get to it in time, so it didn’t turn into a defensive gun use. However, let’s say, for the sake of argument, that he did.
Do you think one shot would have ended the threat? There were four of them. According to this report, all four were armed.
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That means an armed resident in such a situation would need to take on all four with his firearm.
Now, let’s say he had a 10-round magazine. That would leave him with a little over two shots per bad guy. That might sound like enough if your knowledge of fighting with a firearm begins and ends on a static range where you have all day to shoot non-moving targets. In reality, you’re going to miss. You’re probably going to miss a lot.
So now that 10-round magazine only let’s you successfully engage one or two of the bad guys before you need to reload. That still leaves two armed criminals who want you dead. Even if they’re empty, too, that’s still enough folks to just beat you to death.
Not a pleasant thought, now is it?
Especially since it’s likely that reloads aren’t going to be readily available.
This is why more rounds in a single magazine are good. No one ever survives a gunfight and thinks, “I wish I’d had fewer rounds.” It just doesn’t happen. However, quite a few victims wish they’d had just a few more shots left in their magazines.
Anti-gunners aren’t gun people. They don’t understand firearms, as we’ve seen all too often. That’s especially true when the anti-gunners are working for the ATF, but it’s pretty true across the board in general. Because they’re not gun people, they don’t understand what we’ve seen regarding gun fighting as a general thing. If the anti-gunner is being generous, they figure you being prepared for the average encounter is sufficient.
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But an average is just that, an average. Some people deal with less than that but some have to deal with far worse. Being prepared for the average encounter means you’re completely unprepared for the above-average fight.
Yet for someone, that’s the engagement they’re going to find themselves in. That might be you or me, though I pray it’s not. If it is, though, we have a God-given right to defend ourselves, and that means having the means with which to do so. If that means a 30-round magazine in an AR-15, then so be it. No one should have the ability to prevent that.
https://bearingarms.com/tomknighton/2024/07/11/home-invasion-illustrates-why-gun-control-is-stupid-n1225559
Biden’s Anti-Gun Quips Show Us That The Campaign’s On The Ropes
By
Jennifer Sensiba –
July 12, 2024 8
Joe Biden
AP Photo/Evan Vucci
?Previous Post
When it comes to U.S. politics, there are two big phases in a campaign: the primary and the general election. During the primary season, a candidate has to prioritize appealing to the people in his or her own party. This means that most candidates will appear more extreme, because winning that primary means building a coalition of people in the party.
But, once the primary is over, the rules of the game change. Instead of appealing to their political parties, candidates instead need to appeal to all voters, with particular attention paid in swing states. Inability to shift gears and start appealing to voters between and across the aisle means certain defeat, but the candidate must also balance this without alienating voters on the fringes of their in-party coalition who might be tempted to stay home.
Normally, an incumbent president is in a great position to appeal to the broader public by July of an election year. Incumbents generally don’t have to face a grueling primary season the way a challenger does, so they even get the advantage of being able to start that shift earlier and more aggressively.
This is not a normal election year, and seems to be getting weirder by the minute. For one, it’s a race between two incumbents, as both major candidates have spent time in the Oval Office. We’re also seeing Trump almost completely ignore the usual playbook, working to appeal to and grow the Republican base instead of trying to appeal to moderates and Democrats. Now, we’re seeing Biden slip in serious ways.
If it weren’t for a very poor recent debate performance, Biden would probably be in the driver’s seat. With Trump and his followers working to build a more solid right-wing coalition and stamp out dissent among conservatives, Biden should have been able to use his incumbent primary advantage to pull in massive numbers of independents, moderates and even less committed conservatives who are skeptical of MAGA. So, the only softening Trump has had to throw in so far has been a slightly softened stance on abortion and gay marriage.
Instead of being able to press the advantage, Biden is shifting back into primary mode, fighting to keep the Democratic coalition together. Not only is he facing trouble from the left, as newly-minted Hamas supporters vow to not vote for him over Israel policy, but he’s also facing calls for him to step down due to age and a general inability to look and act presidential on the stage.
Worse for Biden and the Democrats, there’s no clear alternative candidate. Ask any Democrat, and instead of telling you who they think would beat Trump, most of them will tell you who their favorite alternative is. Among the stronger candidates would be Vice President Kamala Harris, but she was roundly rejected during the primaries in her own party, and would probably fail to keep the coalition together once everyone is reminded that she’s anything but a “progressive prosecutor.” So, there’s really no good alternative out there that Democrats can pull out of their collective butts.
While everyone has been focused on Biden’s overuse of “anyways” and confusing Zelenskyy for Putin, it’s his little quips on guns that really show the peril he’s now in as a presidential candidate. Any honest polling in recent years show that gun ownership and gun rights has gone mainstream. The days of appealing to moderates and centrists with gun control are over, and many segments of the communist far left are even skeptical of it now, as they know they’d need guns for a revolution.
The only crowd a candidate can impress with talk of gun control are hard-core big government progressives who want to continue the FDR revolution and put the United States back on the road to a collectivist utopia. Everyone else, even the communists, knows that it’s not a policy that would serve their interests in the long run.
Arguably, one of the biggest advantages Biden had going for him was distaste with red state abortion bans that didn’t have sufficient exceptions for rape, incest, etc. Seeing Biden tie this advantageous policy situation to gun control with a “Protect Girls Not Guns” slogan shows us that he’s so desperate to keep the big government progressive coalition together that he’s willing to even throw in his best card. What could have been used to save him in the general election is instead getting flushed down the toilet with gun control to impress the wrong people.
Obviously, we’re still months out from the big day in November, and a lot can happen, but if Biden can’t move out of primary mode and start appealing to the broader electorate while playing to his few big strengths that can reach across the aisle, he’s got no chance to survive as a candidate.
https://www.thetruthaboutguns.com/bidens-anti-gun-quips-show-us-that-the-campaigns-on-the-ropes/
Case dropped: Deputy PM not prosecuted for saying Jew hatred is part of Muslim culture
https://nltimes.nl/2024/07/12/case-dropped-deputy-pm-prosecuted-saying-jew-hatred-part-muslim-culture
The group insult case against Deputy Prime Minister Mona Keijzer has been dropped, the lawyer representing the complainants told NU.nl. She won’t be prosecuted for saying that “hatred of Jews is almost part of the culture” in countries where Islam is the dominant religion. She made that statement on Sophie & Jeroen on May 17th, before being sworn in as Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Housing and Spatial Planning.
Keijzer apologized for the statement after criticism from other guests on the talk show, but a group of lawyers and a historian with a Muslim background still pressed charges against her. They believe that a Cabinet member cannot be allowed to get away with such statements with nothing more than a quick apology after criticism.
The complainants are disappointed that the case was dropped but don’t feel like they achieved nothing. “The Public Prosecution Service (OM) confirmed that Keijzer made unsubstantiated statements in the program and therefore behaved irresponsibly,” lawyer Reinout Sterk told NU.nl, speaking on behalf of the complainants. “That behavior can create a breeding ground for intolerance and undermine respect for the equality of others.”
Historian Kasim Tekin, who was involved in the charges, said he was not surprised by the dismissal. “Unfortunately, it has become quite normalized to make strong statements about Muslims,” he told the newspaper. “This has to do with the fact that society is not aware of what such statements do to Muslims. Unfortunately, this apparently also applies to the OM.”