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If I were a carpenter...
By Silvio Canto, Jr.
Climate Alarmism is the existential threat to humanity
By Chris Talgo
A New York City travel warning for Jews
By Ronn Torossian
Donald Trump’s bold investment in American workers paid off
By Joseph Ford Cotto
Jihadi indoctrination of American children is active and spreading
By Barry Shaw
We have witnessed indoctrination taking place in America’s elite universities, creating a conveyor belt of brainwashed Hamas-supporting activists.
Now evidence is emerging that Jihad promoters are poisoning the elementary educational system in America, too.
The jihadi savagery of Oct. 7, 2023, when thousands of Palestinian armed terrorists, eagerly followed by Gaza's citizens, stormed across their border into Israel in an orgy of murder, torture, rape, robbery, and hostage-taking.
This had been predicted by organizations dedicated to gathering the evidence of a generational anti-Semitic brainwashing in schools and summer camps across the Palestinian divide from Gaza to Ramallah. The warnings of these NGOs were ignored by Western decision-makers despite the evidence shown to them about Palestinian intentions.
Organizations, such as the Center for Near East Policy and UN Watch, documented the Palestinian schoolbooks filled with Jihadi indoctrination in classrooms and summer camps, leading children to pledge themselves to the annihilation of Israel and the murder of Jews.
The material, the evidence, is freely available, but Western organizations and governments continued to plow millions of dollars and euros into the Palestinian industry of hate and death.
Hamas propaganda on elite American campuses is well known, but now the target is American schoolchildren.
This brainwashing is being introduced into high schools and even into the elementary educational system in America.
One example, quoted in a Jerusalem Post article on June 7, 2024, titled ‘Portland’s teacher union creates anti-Israel program,” reported that the Portland Association of Teachers are promoting an indoctrination program for children as early as pre-kindergarten to high school in which the next generation of Americans will be brainwashed to delegitimize Israel, describing it as an “illegitimate settler-colonial state.”
American children are being taught to participate in Palestinian protests turning them into anti-Israel activists.
Together with a group known as Oregon Educators for Palestine (OGP) they have created a curriculum that includes courses such as “Know your Rights in Teaching,” “Organizing for Palestine within Portland Public Schools,” and “Teach Palestine! Resources for Portland Public Schools” lesson guide.
Their document provides counter definitions to reduce the legitimacy of Israel by using key terms. For example, they deduce Anti-Semitism as being a “European Christian phenomenon” and Zionism as “a settler colonial political ideology and movement.”
Their guide recommends teachers to have the academic freedom (restriction) to select (reduce) writings on Palestine only to that written by Palestinian authors, as they put it, “to offer content and context based on the authors backgrounds and opinions.”
Part of their indoctrination removes words such as “terrorism” particularly when applied to acts of Palestinian terrorism. Instead, they replace it with the word “resist.”
Everything is wrapped around concepts such as “Occupation” even if that applies to areas from which Israel withdrew its citizens in the search for peace.
Based on that novel concept, the barbarous attacks of Oct. 7, or mass killing by Palestinian suicide bombers and gunmen, can be translated into acts of “resistance to the occupation,” even when committed by Palestinians emerging out of their self-governing territories to kill thousands of Israelis in their hometowns inside Israel.
I know. I became one of the members of the Netanya Terror Victims Association after a procession of suicide bombers and gunman targeted my hometown that hugs the clifftops of the Mediterranean, the sea defined by their slogan of a Palestine “from the River to the Sea.”
In the quest for this homeland, they murdered dozens of Netanya folk, some of whom I knew.
Now social studies lessons for grades 3-5 in America will include a week-long curriculum on “settler colonization and Palestine.”
The Portland Association of Teachers represents over 4,500 educators. In their description of the events of Oct. 7, we can clearly define what they consider progressive to be utterly regressive.
PAT educators handed out documents claiming that the horrendous massacres, tortures, rapes, and hostage-taking were, in the words of PAT, justified “resistance.”
In May, Mosaic magazine featured an article entitled “Anti-Israel Indoctrination Starts in Elementary Schools.”
This is the opening phase of a Jihadi education in America. One that accurately copies Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad brainwashing.
There is a battle going on in the California school system. Last September, a law suit claimed that a California school district tried to impose an anti-Israel curricula.
As I predicted, the Jihadi indoctrination has leapt across the pond from the Middle East, engineered and financed by people with an agenda to convert America based on a curriculum practiced in schools and summer camps under the regimes of Hamas and the PLO Palestinian Authority.
This is the brainwashing that has prevented the mutual peace once desired by Israel but killed by incessant hate-educated Palestinians, a blind hatred that has blocked all hope for a better future for frustrated Israelis and hated-filled Palestinians.
It is now taking root in the American elementary education system.
It must be stopped before it inflicts permanent damage both to the children, to the American psyche, and to American Israeli relations, which is the ultimate aim of the haters.
https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2024/06/jihadi_indoctrination_of_american_children_is_active_and_spreading.html
Massive Government Spending Equals Broken Elections
By Jack Gleason
Most people think “government” is just something that runs in the background. We pay taxes once a year (or four times a year, or...), and for that we get our roads paved, police come when we really need them, and our kids have schools to go to.
This is a view from the 1950s that has persisted for the last 70 years. “Focus on our families, and let our elected leaders do their jobs.”
America is the richest country in the world, and, sadly, there are people who want to take advantage of our wealth for their own benefit. The money we spend on just roads and schools is enormous ($206 billion and $927 billion in 2022), so the contracts awarded for government work are highly coveted. So those who do government work will often make campaign contributions to office-seekers in hopes of getting lucrative business deals.
Fast-forward seventy years, and we find a vast network of lobbying firms, industry associations, and special interest groups desperately trying to influence elections to put their guys in office and get a piece of the federal budget, which was $65 billion in 1955 and is now $6 trillion in 2023. That’s an increase of almost 100 times.
Another important function of government is law enforcement. In 1955, law enforcement meant keeping our streets safe and fighting crime. Now our Department of Justice is involved in social issues and politics.
So our view of government as the paver of roads, builder of schools, and manager of our legal justice system is vastly outdated.
Our new government now has a finger in every aspect of our lives.
Social issues, like abortion, who competes in girls’ sports, and who can marry whom
Law enforcement issues: combatting inner-city crime and shoplifting, or prosecuting people for their political beliefs
Environmental issues: clean air and water, or an obsession with ending oil and natural gas in favor of electric cars
Education issues: life skills, math and science, or social justice and gender confusion
Health care issues: what treatments are recommended, how much people have to pay
Every one of these areas now has a constituency in Washington, D.C., with lobbyists and activists constantly pressuring our elected officials to spend tens of billions of dollars for their businesses or their causes.
The average American has no money to spend on lobbying, yet we are the ones who fund the government.
Our only control comes once every two years, when we elect representatives in local, state, and federal government to speak for us. Candidates campaign and tell us what they promise to do, and we cast our votes based on the interests of ourselves and our families. If these politicians don’t follow through, we vote them out next time.
But when we consider how much money the federal government controls, there is tremendous pressure from special interests to interfere in elections to help the candidates they prefer. Even ten or twenty thousand extra dollars spent on a local race for county commissioner or school board member can be enough to swing a close election. From state legislators to congressmen to senators, money spent by outside interests now plays the dominant role in who represents us. And if our leaders are beholden to outside donors to get elected, they no longer fear getting voted out of office.
The result is that our government spending is out of control, and much of it is fraudulent, corrupt, wasteful, or unnecessary.
And our elected representatives who vote to choose this wasteful spending continue to be elected. Open Secrets reports re-election rates of 94.5% for House members and 100% for Senators in 2022!
How can the interests of the taxpayers and voters be honored when the campaigns are financed by those interested in the spending?
Here’s where it gets much, much worse.
Our voting system itself has been corrupted. We are constantly told that our elections are “fair and honest,” and “there is no proof that there was anything wrong in 2020 or 2022.”
A December survey by veteran pollster Scott Rasmussen destroyed that narrative once and for all.
When asked, more than 20% of voters who used mail-in ballots in 2020 admitted that they had participated in at least one form of election fraud.
21% of likely U.S. voters who voted by absentee or mail-in ballot in the 2020 election say they filled out a ballot, in part or in full, on behalf of a friend or family member, such as a spouse or child. ...
Nineteen percent (19%) of those who cast mail-in votes say a friend or family member filled out their ballot, in part or in full, on their behalf. Furthermore, 17% of mail-in voters say that in the 2020 election, they cast a ballot in a state where they were no longer a permanent resident. All of these practices are illegal.
And the safeguard for mail-in voting — signature matching — has now been minimized or ignored in many states.
This means that our entire election system has fallen apart. Anyone can fill in an absentee ballot for someone else, with no repercussions.
Unless we demand a return to elections that follow all mandated procedures to the letter, our votes won’t be counted accurately, and the will of the voters will be ignored in favor of those who are willing to cheat.
But the American people aren’t the only ones who are cheating. Independent nonpartisan research groups such as United Sovereign Americans have sprung up across the country and are finding millions of illegal entries in state voter databases that facilitate voting manipulation. Here is a tiny sample of their findings.
Florida: 270,804 incomplete addresses; 11,819 instances where 10 to 15 people are reported to be living at a single home; 10,988 cases where 6 to 80 people are living at a single apartment or vacant lot
Illinois: 219,046 voters with incomplete addresses
New York: 48,784 voters with blank addresses
Texas: 166,983 duplicate registrations; 74,202 invalid addresses; 10,092 voters with a P.O. box listed as their address
There is so much money at stake that the attraction of manipulating voter rolls is understandable. Create fake voters with fake addresses, mail them ballots, and fill them out for your candidate — by the thousands!
United Sovereign Americans is filing lawsuits in federal court demanding that election officials follow all established federal laws.
Final question: Billions are spent on international affairs, so other countries have a major interest in our elected officials. How many foreign countries might be hacking into our elections, and who is making sure they don’t?
This is not the 1950s. We must wake up to the fact that our elections are compromised.
Very few Americans are truly nonpartisan, but all sides should be able to agree that elections must be accurate. It should be American citizens who decide our elected officials through fair and accurate elections, not special interests or foreign governments.
Our legislators are in charge of each state’s voting laws. Demand that they tighten signature verification rules and fix database errors. Insist on proper security measures for elections.
Honest voting is the most basic of our civil rights. Support groups who are filing lawsuits to demand that elections be conducted according to the law. Even one person can make a difference.
https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2024/06/massive_government_spending_equals_broken_elections.html
Don’t Overrely on National Presidential Polls
By Brian C. Joondeph
Election season is well underway. President Joe Biden is mumbling, bumbling, and stumbling his way toward his party’s nomination for a second term, the final nail in the coffin of American greatness and exceptionalism.
Former President Trump is supposedly so unlikeable that his opponents are trying to arrest and imprison him in the style of a banana republic dictatorship, which America is rapidly becoming.
Opinion polls are a snapshot of public sentiment and preferences. In the case of presidential election polls, polls reflect the views of a hopefully representative sample of the U.S. voting population which when extrapolated, mirror the views of the entire country.
But are national polls truly relevant? The president is not selected based on a national popular vote, despite efforts from the left to decide elections in this manner.
Otherwise, a handful of large Democrat-controlled cities could control the election outcome through votes and voter fraud. What about the rest of the country?
The Founding Fathers, in one of their many acts of genius, devised the Electoral College. Each state is allocated some of the 538 electors, corresponding to the state’s number of congressional (House and Senate) representatives.
The winner of the popular vote of each state is typically assigned all the electors in a winner-takes-all manner. In other words, the presidential election is a series of 50 state elections, not one big national election.
As such, even small states have enough electoral college votes to be relevant whereas in a national popular vote, smaller states would be drowned out by large metropolitan population centers.
Most states are reliably Democrat or Republican, blue or red, and their electoral college votes are a foregone conclusion. But a handful of battleground states may tilt one way or the other, depending on the year. It’s these swing states where the election is often decided, a battle between the two parties, hence the battleground designation.
In 2000, George W. Bush lost the popular vote to Al Gore by a half of a percent. In 2016, Donald Trump lost by 2 percent to Hillary Clinton. The Electoral College “trumped” the popular vote in these outlier elections.
National polls are certainly favorable for Trump and his supporters. Rasmussen Reports late May survey results are an example, with this headline regarding likely U.S. voters, “Trump +5 Over Biden.”
CNN confirms this. In their recent poll among registered voters, Trump’s support sits at 49% compared to Biden at 43%.
The Real Clear Politics average shows Trump a point ahead of Biden. This is post-conviction from Judge Merchan’s kangaroo court.
A post-trial Morning Consult poll gives Trump a one-point lead over Biden. A NYT/Sienna poll found that Trump’s New York conviction made no difference in the presidential race.
While good news for Republicans, at least those who prefer to win rather than pouting over Trump’s name calling and brash personality, the election comes down to a half dozen or so battleground states. What do those state level polls say?
Let’s ask Real Clear Politics, that tracks and averages these polls.
State
Trump (R)
Biden (D)
Spread
Wisconsin
47.4
47.3
Trump +0.1
Arizona
48.3
44.1
Trump +4.2
Georgia
48.5
43.7
Trump +4.8
Michigan
47.0
46.7
Trump +0.3
Pennsylvania
47.8
45.5
Trump +2.3
North Carolina
47.8
42.5
Trump +5.3
Nevada
48.3
43.0
Trump +5.3
RCP Average
47.9
44.7
Trump +3.2
It’s these seven states that will likely determine who will be in the Oval Office a year from now. These seven states represent 93 electoral college votes, a third of the necessary 270 votes for victory.
These are the states where Trump will be holding his rallies. This is where the campaign money and ads will be laser focused.
Liberty Daily confirms these battleground state polls, as do the voters,
Trump is beating President Joe Biden by 13% among likely Nevada voters, 9% in Georgia, 6% in Arizona, 3% in Pennsylvania and 1% in Wisconsin, according to New York Times/SienaCollege polling published in May.
Wisconsin voters told CNN chief national affairs correspondent Jeff Zeleny in a segment aired Wednesday that the conviction of former President Donald Trump will not influence who they cast ballots for in the presidential election.
The point is to not focus solely on the headline-grabbing national polls. Although they are useful in terms of high-level sentiment and trends, that’s not how presidential elections are decided.
Democrats are unhappy with this fact, especially after Al Gore and Hillary Clinton lost their presidential bids via the Electoral College despite winning the national popular vote.
When the left doesn’t like the outcome of the game, they endeavor to change the rules. Hence the National Popular Vote bill,
The presidential candidate receiving the most popular votes in all 50 states and DC will get all the electoral votes from all the enacting states. That is, the candidate receiving the most popular votes nationwide will be guaranteed enough electoral votes to become President.
A constitutional amendment abolishing the Electoral College is not even necessary. According to Article 2, Section 1 of the U.S. Constitution,
Each state shall appoint, in such manner as the legislature thereof may direct, a number of electors, equal to the whole number of Senators and Representatives to which the state may be entitled in the Congress.
States could simply appoint electors who agree to vote for the candidate who wins the national popular vote. Sixteen states have enacted such legislation, fortunately all blue states that will more than likely be giving their electoral votes to the Democrat candidate under both current procedures or the new proposed scheme.
Red states would be foolish to sign onto this scheme as rigged elections in a handful of Democrat stronghold cities would guarantee the Democrat winning the popular vote.
Trump leading in the important battleground states is the political landscape today. But much can and will change over the next five months before the election. President Biden and his policies are becoming increasing unpopular. Stagflation, an open border, and the world inching ever closer to nuclear war are not issues Biden wants to run on.
Rasmussen Reports in their May 29 Presidential Tracking Poll found that only 44% of likely U.S. voters approve of Biden’s job performance whereas 55% disapprove.
32% of likely U.S. voters believe the country is heading in the right direction compared to 64% who feel we are headed down the wrong track.
Lastly from Rasmussen Reports, “Nearly half of voters -- including a majority of Democrats -- think it’s okay for the Democratic Party to replace President Joe Biden with some other candidate.”
Biden’s cognitive decline is becoming obvious, even to the Trumpophobic Wall Street Journal, which recently noted, “Participants in private meetings with 81-year-old President Biden say he has shown signs of slipping.” Ya think?
Will the Democrat ruling class make Joe an offer he can’t refuse? Or invoke the 25th Amendment?
A change of batter would shake up the above poll numbers, whether the new player is Kamala Harris, Michelle Obama, Gavin Newsom, Jay Pritzker, or some other Democrat governor.
Biden’s fading fortunes are causing Democrat dyspepsia. In fact, “Dems in full-blown ‘freakout’ over Biden” according to Politico.
Regardless of candidate popularity, voting shenanigans may negate the preferences of American voters. A recent study found that “25% of non-citizens are illegally registered to vote.”
With 17 million illegal immigrants living in America, this 25% translates to over 4 million votes, or 2.5 % of the 155 million votes cast. Four million votes in battleground states would alter the election, considering many states had a winning margin in the tens of thousands of votes.
While the national polls provide a shot of adrenalin if one’s preferred candidate is leading, this is not how the next president will be chosen. Keep an eye on those battleground state poll numbers for the real state of the electorate.
https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2024/06/don_t_overrely_on_national_presidential_polls.html
Young Americans Have No Faith in the Nation’s Future
Can you blame them?
by Joe Schaeffer | Jun 12, 2024
Young Americans have no faith in the nation’s future, according to a new survey. Democratic polling firm Blueprint asked 943 registered voters aged 18-30 a series of questions about the US political system, and 64% of them believe that America is in decline. Forty-nine percent agreed that elections don’t represent people like them, and 51% said the political system in general “doesn’t work for people like me.”
“Nearly all politicians are corrupt, and make money from their political power” was backed by 65% of respondents, with just 7% disagreeing. There’s not a lot of ambiguity to these numbers.
“I think these statements blow me away, the scale of these numbers with young voters,” Blueprint lead pollster Evan Roth Smith said. “Young voters do not look at our politics and see any good guys. They see a dying empire led by bad people.”
It’s more disastrous news for an already reeling Joe Biden in a presidential election year. But while it is tempting to throw this rising disillusionment entirely at the feet of the current administration, the sad truth is that there are profound basic societal conditions fueling young Americans’ cynicism.
The System Doesn’t Work for Me
Housing affordability has cratered for young adults over the course of recent decades to such a degree that many cannot ever imagine living out the traditional American dream of home ownership.
Young Americans are less healthy than ever before, and obesity rates continue to skyrocket. “In 1976-1980, only 5.5% of young adults had obesity (Body Mass Index of 30 or higher). However, this number more than quintupled by 2017-2018, as nearly 33% of this age group had obesity,” MedPageToday reported in 2023.
New banner Perpective 1Americans are more doped up on legal prescription drugs, too. “An American born in 2019 will spend a larger share of their lifetime taking prescription drugs than being married or receiving an education, according to new research by Jessica Ho, associate professor of sociology and demography at Penn State,” Science Daily reported in October 2023. Ho “found that American males will spend approximately 48% of their lives taking prescription drugs. The number jumped to 60% for females,” the news site relates.
The destruction of social bonds and shared communal values that once tied Americans together also plays a key part. The decline in religion, family, and close-knit neighborhoods in an increasingly urban and heavily developed suburban culture has made for a colder, less connected world.
The Young and the Jaundiced
“Around three-quarters (73%) of US adults under 30 believe people ‘just look out for themselves’ most of the time,” a 2019 Pew Research Center poll found. “A similar share (71%) say most people ‘would try to take advantage of you if they got a chance,’ and six-in-ten say most people ‘can’t be trusted.’ Across all three of these questions, adults under 30 are significantly more likely than their older counterparts to take a pessimistic view of their fellow Americans.”
Given all this and the impression of lofty elitist detachment being reinforced in Washington, DC, on a daily basis, is it any wonder young Americans are miserable?
“[Americans] under the age of 30 are so unhappy, in fact, that they’ve dragged the United States out of the top 20 happiest countries in the world for the first time in the [Gallup World Happiness Report’s] history,” Spectrum News reported in March of this year.
“Overall, the United States now ranks 23rd. Last year, it held the 15th spot. For those under the age of 30, the United States is the 62nd happiest place on earth,” the news site writes. “The report, which ranks countries by age group for the first time, shows the US decline is at least partly attributable to Americans under age 30 feeling worse about their lives.”
Americans of any age should be able to understand the anguish of their younger fellow citizens. Governing, health, and social outcomes are crumbling in what was once known as the Land of the Free. No matter which party captures the White House in November, it is going to take far more than one election to restore faith in a nation that far too many Americans believe has fully lost its way.
https://www.libertynation.com/young-americans-have-no-faith-in-the-nations-future/
Does Trump Have the Post-Conviction Mojo?
The former president appears to have found his groove.
by Mark Angelides | Jun 12, 2024
In the wake of 34 guilty verdicts, the Trump campaign team would likely have been suffering night sweats and palpitations trying to fathom just how negatively the label “convicted felon” will impact their candidate. Just two weeks down the line since the former president took the hit, and the fallout has failed to land. In fact, much to the chagrin of the Fourth Estate, the slings and arrows of outrageous politicking appear to have energized rather than eviscerated Donald Trump’s hopes for re-election.
Post-Conviction Polls
Since the jury handed down the verdict on Trump, pollsters have been feverishly gathering data to determine what kind of hit 45 will receive from the electorate due to his new status as the first felon to run for office since Eugene Debs ran his prison campaign in 1920. The results are more than a little surprising and perhaps indicate that Trump’s prior support already had a guilty verdict baked in.
National: In both 2016 and 2020, Donald Trump failed to come first in any national polling – hence the shockwave of his successful presidential bid. He has been leading Joe Biden somewhat consistently since the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel, but what about since the damning court verdict on May 30?
Of the ten polls conducted from the date of conviction through to today (June 12), five have broken for Trump, four for Biden, and one tie. An average of these surveys hand Trump a lead of 0.4% – a figure very much in line with the Real Clear Politics average of 0.5% nationally. Interestingly, when only polls that count “likely Voters” (this being the gold standard preference), Trump’s lead increases to 0.6%.
But although the November election is a national contest, it is a handful of swing states that will determine the ultimate result.
New banner Liberty Nation Analysis 1Battleground: Polling the seven* key battleground states, the former president holds a lead in each. In Nevada, North Carolina, Georgia, and Arizona, he edges out Joe Biden by more than the margin of error (5.3%, 5.3%, 4.8%, and 4.2% respectively). Combined with states that are almost certainly red, these four contests should be enough to put Trump over the all-important 270 Electoral College vote threshold.
In Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and Michigan, Trump still beats Biden, according to the RCP average, but by a much slimmer margin. If the incumbent president hopes to remain so, he will need to win all three of these states – and one of the other four.
Since Trump’s conviction, only one poll has not given him a lead, a MNS/Mitchell research survey that declared a statistical tie (Trump at 48.2% and Biden at 47.8%).
Five-Way: There are, of course, other contenders in the race. Jill Stein reclaiming the mantle for the Green Party, Cornel West as an independent, and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., all hope to advance their causes. In reality, each of these hopefuls could prove a spoiler to one of the main party candidates.
When all five presidential candidates are matched up in the six polls conducted since the verdict, Donald Trump comes first in four, with two declaring a tie. This gives him an average lead of 2.3% – which is 0.3% ahead of the overall RCP average.
Trump’s to Lose?
A week is a long time in politics and five months is an eternity. There are several factors that could swing the election away from Donald Trump – most notably, Donald Trump himself. President Biden could still swing the electorate back to his side, and RFK’s nascent campaign could still implode. Each element means that current polling is an indicator rather than a prediction.
But one must wonder, if even a 34-count felony conviction cannot derail Trump’s campaign, what can?
https://www.libertynation.com/does-trump-have-the-post-conviction-mojo/
Mixed Reactions to Hunter Biden Conviction on Federal Gun Charges
Joe Biden's son was found guilty on three counts – but that hasn't silenced the skeptics.
by Graham J Noble | Jun 12, 2024
A Delaware jury deliberated for a total of three hours – beginning on the afternoon of June 10 – before returning a verdict on June 11 in the Hunter Biden gun felony trial. Biden had been charged with three federal crimes relating to a false statement on a background check form he completed for the purchase of a revolver in October of 2018. The president’s son was found guilty on all counts – a perhaps unsurprising outcome that drew mixed reactions from Joe Biden’s political opponents.
The case was prosecuted by David C. Weiss, a Department of Justice (DOJ) special counsel appointed to investigate the first son for possible tax-related crimes. Biden was convicted of making a false statement related to information required to be kept by a federally licensed gun dealer, making a false statement in the purchase of a gun, and possession of a gun by a person who is an unlawful user of or addicted to a controlled substance.
Put together, the three charges carry a maximum prison sentence of 25 years, plus a fine of up to $250,000 for each charge. The Department of Justice frequently declines to prosecute private citizens suspected of lying on a background check form for a gun purchase. That could be why several of Joe Biden’s critics have called the trial and the verdict a “distraction.” Some of them, such as Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC), have suggested that prosecuting Hunter Biden on these charges amounted to an attempt by the DOJ to prove that the criminal justice system has not been weaponized along ideological lines.
Hunter Biden Verdict Met with Cynicism
Mace described it as “the veil of fairness,” while Rep. Andrew Clyde (R-GA) wrote on the X social media platform, “Hunter Biden’s guilty verdict is nothing more than the Left’s attempt to create the illusion of equal justice. Don’t fall for it.”
Another Republican, Rep. Jason Smith of Missouri, seemed a little less skeptical, writing, “Today’s verdict is a step towards ensuring equal application of the law, regardless of one’s last name.” However, Smith also pointed out, “If it were not for the IRS whistleblowers coming forward to the Ways and Means Committee, Hunter Biden would have never faced accountability for the crimes he has committed [emphasis Smith’s].”
Donald Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign released a statement shortly after the verdict was announced:
“This trial has been nothing more than a distraction from the real crimes of the Biden Crime Family, which has raked in tens of millions of dollars from China, Russia and Ukraine. Crooked Joe Biden’s reign over the Biden Family Criminal Empire is all coming to an end on November 5th, and never again will a Biden sell government access for personal profit.”
Still others weren’t going to let the DOJ off the hook, pointing out that, in 2023, Hunter Biden almost obtained what many called a “sweetheart deal.” He was ready to plead guilty to certain tax crimes in exchange for the gun charges being dropped. A judge nixed that deal after seeing that a clause in the fine print would have granted Biden virtual immunity from all future charges.
Hunter Biden also released a statement saying he was “disappointed” in the outcome of the trial but grateful for the support he had received from his family. He faces another trial on tax charges, set to begin in Los Angeles on Sept. 5.
Making any prediction about the sentence for his gun felonies – which, of course, Hunter Biden will be able to appeal – would be entirely speculative. However, if Joe Biden’s son avoids jail time, it would not be a vindication of the widely held suspicion that Biden’s DOJ is operating a politically motivated two-tier system of criminal justice. Not only are these types of crimes seldom prosecuted, but it is rarer still for a private citizen to be incarcerated for such a transgression.
https://www.libertynation.com/mixed-reactions-to-hunter-biden-conviction-on-federal-gun-charges/
FBI Tried to Unmask Employee as Trump Supporter
Matt Margolis | 12:31 PM on June 11, 2024
According to internal documents, FBI officials, as part of a confidential security clearance assessment for a longtime employee, probed into the individual's political inclinations, stance on COVID-19 vaccination, and participation in Second Amendment gatherings. The internal memo triggered a complaint to the Justice Department's internal oversight body.
Months after these inquiries, the FBI revoked the employee's security clearance. Internal records obtained by Just the News indicate that the interviews corroborated the employee's alignment with former President Donald Trump, advocacy for gun rights, and apprehensions regarding the COVID vaccine.
The memos show that agents for the FBI’s Security Division asked at least three witnesses in spring 2022 whether the employee, whose name and job title was redacted from the memos, had been known to “vocalize support for President Trump” or “vocalize objections to Covid-19 vaccination.” Agents ascertained from at least one witness that the worker, in fact, had declined to get the coronavirus inoculation.
The latter questions about the vaccine were asked in spring 2022, a few months after the U.S. Supreme Court had struck down vaccine mandates in corporate workplaces and a separate federal court had issued an injunction on federal employee vaccine mandates.
The agents also asked witnesses whether the FBI worker had “attended the Richmond Lobby Day event” in January 2021, a rally for supporters of the Second Amendment in Virginia. The agents’ notes referred to the colleague they were vetting as a “gun nut” but who in engaged in “no promotion of violence.”
FBI officials refused to comment on why an employee's endorsement of Trump and the Second Amendment or their reluctance to receive the COVID-19 vaccine was relevant to their security clearance. They also wouldn't comment on whether there were any analogous queries about an employee's support for Joe Biden or traditionally left-wing positions.
In a letter to the DOJ inspector general, the FBI employee’s lawyer, Tristan Leavitt, revealed his client made made protected whistleblower disclosures to both Congress and the DOJ about the politicization of the security clearance process, which he alleged he was put through simply because he self-reported having taken a vacation day to go to Washington D.C. for the Jan. 6, 2021 rally.
Leavitt, who runs the nonprofit Empower Oversight center specializing in whistleblower cases, said his client did not engage in any criminal acts nor did he enter the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, and he called the security review process that ensued evidence of political bias against conservatives inside the bureau.
“Instead of limiting its investigation to legitimate issues, SecD (Security Division) acted as if support for President Trump, objecting to COVID-19 vaccinations, or lawfully attending a protest was the equivalent of being a member of Al Qaeda or the Chinese Communist Party,” Leavitt wrote in a letter to Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz on Monday.
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“The FBl’s intentions are made clear by the questions it chose to put in black and white on a government document,” added Leavitt, whose group has represented the IRS whistleblowers in the Hunter Biden case as well as several FBI agents and analysts who claim that their security clearances were suspended or revoked because of their political views.
https://pjmedia.com/matt-margolis/2024/06/11/fbi-tried-to-unmask-employee-as-trump-supporter-n4929784
Breaking News: House Committees Demand Justice, Fling Numerous Bidens into the Jaws of Criminal Prosecution!
Posted byby Benjamin Ashcroft
BREAKING: Six suspected terrorists with ISIS ties ARRESTED in sting operation by ICE after coming over Biden’s open border
Jun. 11, 2024 2:45 pm by The Right Scoop
Gaslighted again: After Biden announces border crackdown, Border Patrol told to go back to catch-and-release
By Monica Showalter
Hit parade of lies from the Left
By M.B. Mathews
Truth in all its permutations is under attack.
For the last decades, but especially in the last four years, Americans have been treated to one lie after another, generated by Leftists, amplified by the White House and disseminated by the Leftist propaganda machine, their media.
For four years, we have been lied to that the border is closed and secure. In reality, 10 million illegals have landed on American soil, some of whom are Islamic radicals chafing at the bit to take down another American symbol. Or our power grids. Or our banking system.
Sadly, even the Left can no longer rely on Leftist media to tell the truth and so we on the Right have had to go out and get our own platforms such as Rumble, Truth, etc. We, loving the truth, have few weapons with which to fight this gargantuan attack on the truth, but things are starting to turn around. It's in the wind. You can feel it in your viscera.
Here are just a few of the lies the Left have been force-feeding us.
Men can be women: Lie.
Men can get pregnant: Lie.
Men can nurse: Lie.
Trans is good: Lie.
Trans is not a neurosis: Lie.
Fat is beautiful: Lie.
2020 was not stolen: Lie.
Vaccines work as promised: Lie.
Drag queen story hour is good for little kids: Lie.
Democrats are “for the little guy”: Lie.
You can be anything you want to be: Lie.
Diversity is our strength: Lie.
Donald Trump was not railroaded: Lie.
Gays are born that way: Lie.
Systemic racism exists: Lie.
Prosecuting black crime is racist: Lie.
White people are racists, especially when they deny it: Lie.
Merit is anachronistic: Lie.
American public schools educate: Lie.
Trump is a criminal: Lie.
Israel was the aggressor on October 7th: Lie.
Vaccines are good: Lie.
The Chinese spy balloon was a weather balloon: Lie.
The border is secure: Lie.
The women of The View can think rationally: Lie.
All these lies and far too many more have been generated on the Left for mass consumption.
Happily, recent news reports are leaking out, first as a trickle, and now more forcefully, that all those lies are being recognized as lies.
Vaccines do not work. Diversity and DEI destroy competence and productivity. Israel is getting the truth out. Mayorkas is obviously delusional given his recent appearance on Capitol Hill. Voter fraud cases are popping up like zits on a teenaged boy. Boys and girls are de-transitioning. Disney, Target and Hollywood in general are destroying their bottom lines with wokeism. The truth is finally coming out, the Right having finally reached critical mass and the end of their patience.
An election that will determine the future or lack of one for America is drawing near. Without truth, the host dies. Given Biden's plethora of lies and his present incontinent state of body and mind, convince just one person to vote for Trump and let's bring back some measure of sanity and of the truth to American culture and politics.
https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2024/06/hit_parade_of_lies_from_the_left.html
First-of-its-kind luxury apartment building for the homeless set to open in a matter of weeks, costing taxpayers $165 million
By Olivia Murray
It’s a greenie conundrum: Massive amounts of lithium detected in ‘fracking wastewater’
By Olivia Murray
Trump’s VP: The magnificent 7, rated
By M. Joseph Sheppard
Media are reporting that V.P. vetting paperwork has been sent out to the following people:
1. Doug Burgum
2. Marco Rubio
3. J.D. Vance
4. Tim Scott
5. Byron Donalds
6. Elise Stefanik
7. Ben Carson
Accepting that the media has this right, which is always circa 50/50 — though yes, the list seems reasonably accurate — how would the prospects rank?
1. Ben Carson.
Positives: What’s not to like? Everyone’s favorite uncle. Well mannered, dignified, well spoken, accomplished in his tenure at HUD, loyal to Trump. Vetted, passionate Christian and would signal to the black community Trump’s commitment to advancing their interests, which could be vital in the key states of Pennsylvania, Michigan (Michigan native), and Wisconsin.
Negatives: May be seen as too extreme on abortion, a key Dem talking point. Perceived as presidential material if something happened to Trump? Open to attack as an ”Uncle Tom” by the extreme Dem partisans, but that could work against them.
2. Marco Rubio
Positives: Vastly experienced, perceived as capable of stepping into the office if required. Would further solidify the Hispanic shift to the GOP, which could be vital in Arizona; Nevada; and Georgia, which has one of the fastest growing Hispanic communities.
Negatives: Apart from the Dems endlessly bringing up Trump’s 2016 attacks on “Little Marco,” etc. and his SOTU response perceived failure, there are no negatives. There is a (Dem-promoted) perception that he is lacking energy, but the campaign would take care of that. The “both from the same state” meme would be easily handled.
3. Tim Scott
Positives: Much the same as Dr. Carson’s, but with the addition of being younger and coming across as more vital.
Negatives: Again, somewhat the same as Carson’s, but with even more Dem scurrilous attacks on his relationship with his girlfriend. South Carolina brings nothing Electoral College–wise.
4. Doug Burgum
Positives: From central casting as a V.P. or president. Very wealthy, which could assist the campaign. Solid in his media work, ”safe pair of hands” if required. Positive job as governor.
Negatives: Not widely known, not strongly media-vetted. North Dakota brings nothing to the Electoral College. Trump and the GOP open to “passes by person of color, woman, for boring white man.” Does nothing for the WWC, Hispanic, black voters.
5. J.D. Vance
Positives: Young, vibrant, accomplished intellectual with an appeal to young voters.
Negatives: Not widely known, little appeal to non-white voters, not blowtorch-vetted.
Ohio is safe GOP, and having a Senate election with who knows the outcome is not a plus. May not be perceived as ready to step into the presidency with such a short tenure in the Senate behind him.
6. Elise Stefanik
Positives: A woman. Experienced in the House of Representatives, a Trump loyalist, endorsed by him for House conference chair.
Negatives: For most Americans, “Elise who?” Unlikely to be seen as ready to take over as president if required. Not media-vetted and likely to be “Palin-ized” and attacked as a token as “an insult to women. Just because Trump chose a woman, it doesn’t mean women would vote for him.” It is what it is. New York is safe Dem.
7. Byron Donalds
Positives: Again, much of the same positives as Carson and Scott, and with the Vance youth positives.
Negatives: As Carson and Scott, but with “Byron who?” Ticket may not be well served with two firebrands. “Donalds described himself as a ‘Trump-supporting, gun-owning, liberty-loving, pro-life, politically incorrect black man.’” Not widely vetted, and his criminal charges would be a major Dem talking point. “A ticket with two convicted criminals” is the last thing a campaign needs to combat.
In the end, history shows that not a single president owed his election to his V.P. winning his home state — not even JFK with LBJ’s help — and voters choose the president based on their perceptions of him. But on the margins, as with Pence and the Evangelical vote in 2016, the V.P. choice may matter in 2024.
UPDATE (by Andrea Widburg): One other strike against Rubio and Donalds is that, like Trump, they're Florida residents. As a reminder, both Art. II, Sec. 1 and the 12th Amendment say that electors must vote for at least one person on the presidential/vice presidential slate who is from a state other than their own. This goes back to the days when the president and vice president ran separately. It's never been tested now that they're part of a joint ticket. Wisdom suggests that, if Trump has Rubio or Donalds as his Veep, Democrats will try to invalidate Florida's Electoral College count. Of course, if Trump does select one of those men, Trump himself can change his state of residency. The others can't because they're still elected officials in Florida.
https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2024/06/trump_s_vp_the_magnificent_7_rated.html
Combatting Our Homegrown Enemy
By Ed Thompson
Hostages Rescued, and Many Truths Revealed
By John F. Di Leo
Combatting the ‘Long Count’
By Jonathan Gault
The Trump era has seen a new election phenomenon: Modern-day American Bolsheviks in blue cities have been distorting local elections by counting votes well past election day. Fortunately, there are ways to combat this election distortion plague.
Remember how the Democrat mantra was “every vote must be counted” rather than every legal vote being counted? In my August 1, 2023 essay, Beware the ‘Long Count’, I discussed the mechanics of this new phenomenon.
With modern computer technology and high-speed scanners, we’re told we must count votes well past election day, even with early voting available long before election day. This is true in many jurisdictions, particularly and notably in big, “blue” Democrat cities. We know that, in November 2024, Democrats will inevitably re-employ long counts in these cities in hopes of again creating enough chaos to distort the process and enable counting until our corrupt, doddering, senile “President” might again miraculously be declared “victorious” after lightly campaigning around naps, feedings, and diaper changes.
In “Beware the ‘Long Count,’ I also introduced the concept of the “bogey,” another of the keys to voter fraud. The bogey represents the vote differential between the Republican candidate (who is leading) and the Democrat (who is trailing) when the in-person election polls close.
Once the polls close and Democrats determine the bogey, they continue counting, either by repeatedly scanning the same [Democrat] ballots or by bringing in additional pre-printed ballots from outside until enough ballots are “counted” (really created, retrieved, or recounted), until they’ve assured a Democrat victory. We all remember in 2020 in Atlanta, Las Vegas, Milwaukee, Philadelphia, and Phoenix that the ‘Long Count’ resulted in a Democrat win—every single time. The same technique and outcome played out in Phoenix in 2022.
Therefore, the bogey must be made undeterminable until counting in lawless jurisdictions is completed and certified, regardless of how long counting takes. Let’s use Pennsylvania in 2020 as an example. Was what happened logical?
It has often been said that, for electoral purposes, Pennsylvania is “Philadelphia and Pittsburgh with Alabama in-between.” Pittsburgh falls completely within Allegheny County. Philadelphia within Philadelphia County. There are 65 other counties for a total of 67 counties. In 2020, Biden “won” 13, with Trump winning 54. Below is the 2020 Presidential electoral map:
We all remember going to bed late on election day, November 3, 2020, with President Trump leading in Pennsylvania by roughly 600,000 votes, only to wake up on November 4, 2020, and learning that not only was Philadelphia still counting, but it had somehow miraculously found slightly more than 600,000 votes that night, when nobody was watching, throwing the election to Biden.
In November 2020, there were approximately 13 million Pennsylvanians, 10m of whom were of voting age. If we assume that 10% either are ineligible (for various reasons) or just do not vote, the pool of voters shrinks to 9 million, almost equal to the number of registered voters.
Roughly 7 million votes were cast, an unusually strong 78% voter turnout. It was up (a fishy) 17% from the 2016 presidential election, which had a [closer to historical] 66% voter turnout. This was “explained” to us as either “cuz Covid” or by having any questions about the turnout labeled as a racist, white supremacist, or a “conspiracy theory.”
Does it make sense that more than 600,000 votes, equal to 6.7% of all votes cast statewide, miraculously appeared after midnight, after election day, after all other counties had reported, in two overwhelmingly blue eastern counties, Montgomery and Philadelphia, almost all of which went to Biden, a staggering flood of overnight votes that enabled Biden to overtake President Trump and ultimately snatch victory from the jaws of defeat?
That is a rhetorical question. Of course, it doesn’t make sense. Libertarian Icon Ayn Rand once said, “Reason is not automatic. Those who deny it cannot be conquered by it. Leave them alone.” Nevertheless, this is what we are facing once again.
So, what to do?
Most importantly, the Supreme Court’s decision in 1997’s Foster v. Love, which prohibits long counts, must be honored and long counts disallowed and, if they happen, nullified. See, “Elections Undecided by Midnight are Void & Preempted by Federal Law.”
However, given the GOP’s fecklessness in enforcing the Supreme Court’s mandate, there must be no bogey. The Republican-led county commissioners and election officials who conduct and control the elections in these 54 conservative Pennsylvania counties must refuse to report their results until Pittsburgh and Philadelphia have completed counting, reported, and certified their results, even if it means withholding their own results for weeks post-election day. Indeed, this must happen in all states, particularly the battleground states of Arizona, Georgia, and Wisconsin.
Without a bogey, what will the Philadelphia and Pittsburgh Bolshevik Democrats do? Without knowing whether they have enough votes to ensure a Democrat victory, do they keep counting? Stop counting? Find more votes for insurance purposes? And for how long?
In this scenario, without the bogey, they don’t know how many votes they need. What should they do? Go nuclear? What would that mean? 120% voter turnout in Allegheny, Montgomery and Philadelphia counties? Might that be considered reasonable evidence of voter fraud, even if a “Democrat” is elected? It would certainly create a situation that will be interesting to observe.
Naturally, this approach to ending counting fraud requires a spine and immense moral courage on the part of the elected officials in the Republican counties, which is by no means guaranteed. These officials must remain steadfast and united because it currently seems that this is one of a very few techniques that can assure at least a modicum of fairness in an election where voter rolls are notoriously dirty, mail-in ballots are again sent out indiscriminately, harvesting and drop boxes are deployed, and the ‘Long Count’ is again employed. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.
https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2024/06/combatting_the_long_count.html
Have Fake Meats Exceeded Their Shelf Life?
Faux meats battle market realities
by John Klar | Jun 11, 2024
Following years of marketing hype proclaiming that fake meats would transform the food industry and modern diets, sobriety has descended on the industry as manufacturers wrestle with declining sales, dissatisfied customers, and difficulties achieving profitability. As the remaining plant-based-meat players scramble to bolster sales and preserve a dwindling market share, meat substitutes are shaping up to be a short-term fad that could not meet expectations. Fake meats will likely remain in stores and some restaurants as a vegan consumer niche but will unlikely displace the animal livestock industry anytime soon.
A Tale of Two Fakes
Fake meats include simulated meat products fashioned from plant and other substitute ingredients (plant-based proteins) and animal cells cultured or lab-grown from plant matter (“cultured” meats, or cell-based proteins). The three chief selling points for both categories have been animal welfare, climate rescue, and improved human health. The products have run aground on issues of affordability and taste. Meat substitutes cost more than real meat but don’t stack up on taste or health benefits. Cultured meats may taste like natural ones but offer no health improvements for their higher price. They are currently more harmful to the climate than cows or chickens because of technological hurdles that require massive energy and enormous externalized environmental costs.
Impossible Foods, a maker of cultured meats, has thus far found profitability impossible. Beyond Meat, a leader in fashioning meat substitutes from plant ingredients, has faced consumer and industry pushback on company claims its products are healthier than natural meats. In response, it has reformulated many of its products to attract consumers with improved taste and nutritional content but continues to suffer a dramatic loss of sales. Its stock price reflects this shift, down from $234.90 a share on July 26, 2019, to $7.19 on May 17, 2024, a nearly 97% drop.
The Fading Novelty of Fake Meats
As one commentator said, fake meats seem “less a world-changing innovation than another food trend whose novelty is wearing thin.” Making plant proteins taste like animal flesh involves additives for flavoring and texture that concoct not an alternative meat but an alternative processed food. Even vegans are turned off by high prices and dubious health benefits. Meat lovers, meanwhile, are passionately resistant to products that seek to ape mother nature, leading several US jurisdictions to prohibit misleading advertising of fake meats or ban the sale of the stuff outright.
The struggles of these bellwether manufacturers of fake meats bode ill for the sector, which broke out with massive venture capital funding and Utopian marketing promises but have crashed on the shoals of dubious health claims, high pricing during a period of sharp food inflation, concerns about claims of sustainability, and consumer taste buds. Promises of widespread fast-food restaurant consumption of meat alternatives have fallen flat as national chains have found sales anemic. Grocery stores and restaurants have pared back shelf and menu space for meat substitutes.
In the long run, fake meats have already passed their brief zenith in consumer popularity. Product novelty has waned while claims of fraud and unhealthiness wax along strongly. Once turned off to products by glowing promises that turn out dim, consumers are not likely to be easily lulled into a repeat expenditure. They may not even sample new products when the taste of the failed ones still lingers on the tongue. Vegans are not enamored with fake blood; meat lovers are not enamored with fake anything.
Health, Cost, Taste
Fake meats, whether cell-grown or plant-processed, have failed to deliver on promises of improved health, environmental benefits, cost, or taste. This leaves perceptions of animal welfare benefits as the sole remaining selling point. But most consumers will not pay extra money for bad-tasting, unhealthy, processed substitutes that hurt the environment in order to spare cows and chickens from perceived hardship.
Beyond Meats is in the fourth ingredient iteration of its burgers, having reduced the salt content, switched out canola oil for healthier avocado oil, and replaced environmentally destructive soy with a mixture of peas, red lentils, brown rice, and fava beans. Still priced higher than a real burger, the factory alternative will have to be mighty tasty and healthy to woo consumers who are determined not to be fooled again.
The world has surpassed Peak Fake Meat and must begin to look beyond faux foods for real solutions.
https://www.libertynation.com/have-fake-meats-exceeded-their-shelf-life/
Can the G7 Keep Globalism From Running Aground?
European Union election results give world leaders the jitters.
by Mark Angelides | Jun 11, 2024
This week (June 13), President Joe Biden will attend a G7 meeting in Italy to coordinate with his peers the international response to current events. Or at least that’s what the press releases say. In reality, the era of Globalist First politics appears to be waning, and, with it, the notion that any group of nations should be deciding domestic policy.
The summit comes hot on the heels of the European Union elections that saw not one but potentially two major governments fall to the populist right. It is in this wake that the group of seven leaders must determine just how much influence they can risk expending before a similar blowback ensues. Let’s consider the precarious positions of those with a more globalist inclination.
The Real French Press
President Emmanuel Macron of France saw his party lose massively in the EU elections to Marine Le Pen’s National Rally. Le Pen stood against Macron twice for the presidency and is the hot favorite to win when the incumbent’s term ends in 2027. Her party decimated Macron’s, earning more than twice the vote share and forcing the president to call for a snap national election.
This does not mean that Macron will be stepping down but rather that his party must vie for the parliamentary seats in the national government. If he loses – which the EU results suggest is a real possibility – he will be unable to pass any legislation for the next three years without the support of Madame Le Pen’s so-called “far right” members.
Germany Falters
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz’ Social Democrats came in third behind the center-right Christian Democrats and, notably, the AfD – Alternative for Germany Party. The AfD is described as a “far-right” party and over the last few years has enmeshed itself in German politics to the point where it is the main opposition.
This is not merely an embarrassment for Scholz; it represents a potential collapse of his governing coalition. German political partnerships are common and relatively stable, but his grouping encompasses three parties rather than the customary two, meaning his pals in government could see him as more of a liability than an asset.
A collapse could result in the AfD becoming the powerbrokers in the Bundestag.
Italy and the G7
Prime Minister Georgia Meloni is the exception in the G7. She is the only attending leader to have been consistently labeled as “far right” by the world’s media. Her Brothers of Italy party won a staggering victory in the EU elections, cementing her power base back home.
“I am proud that Italy will present itself to the G7, to Europe, with the strongest government of all,” Meloni said. “This is something that has not happened in the past but is happening today, it is a satisfaction and also a great responsibility.” And – while relishing the position of being significantly more popular than her counterparts – she added:
“It’s a spur for [the government] to move forward. Italians are giving us a loud and clear message to go ahead with our work … and if possible with greater determination.”
Indeed, the recent election results suggest that she is in a unique position.
And What of the UK?
While the United Kingdom is no longer in the European Union, it remains a member of the G7 and has its own electoral crisis to deal with. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak called a snap general election to be held on July 4 this year. The opposition Labour Party is polling at more than double Sunak’s Conservative Party and will – almost certainly – be forming the next government. But this is not because the policies of the left-leaning Labour have suddenly become popular. Rather, it is that the Tories have failed to deliver on their pledge to reduce legal and illegal immigration.
Into the fray steps the mastermind of Brexit, Nigel Farage.
Farage is returning to frontline politics this election and – if polling is correct – his Reform Party (nee Brexit Party) is just two points behind the Conservatives. Due to the concentrations of support across the 650 constituencies that make up the British Parliament, Reform will win few seats, even if it earns more individual votes than Sunak’s party. However, success in this election could position Reform as the official party of opposition when the next election cycle comes around.
Sunak’s confidants have denied rumors that he will step down before the election, even though such a move could stave off the outright collapse of his party. He attends the G7 as the de facto outgoing PM.
The Rise of the Right
The New York Times rationalized the result of the elections, stating that despite the major gains for parties they deem “far-right,” business as usual is underway:
“Even so, the radical right-wing wave dreaded by the European political establishment did not fully materialize; the center of European Union politics held.”
While technically correct, the spirit of the message is somewhat different. In fact, the center did hold but the left collapsed, pushing the overall leaning of the 720-seat parliament toward the ideological right. In almost every sense, it was a rejection of the progressive tilting of the institution. Indeed, the only reason that the European People’s Party (a center-right coalition comprising various nations) maintained its majority is that it tacked further right in its policies and positions on immigration to counter the growing populist threat.
Beyond Europe
If one assumes this is merely a European phenomenon, one would be sorely mistaken.
Canada will be holding its general election in October next year, and early polling indicates that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is set to be ousted by Conservative firebrand Pierre Poilievre. It has been more than one year since Trudeau’s Liberal Party came out ahead in a national poll. It seems Trudeau’s days are numbered.
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, posted a new polling low on June 10, dropping to just 21% approval. He faces a scheduled party leadership race which – based on his current trajectory – he is sure to lose.
Biden Not Exempt
Just 25% of Americans believe the country is on the “right track” under Joe Biden’s leadership, a figure echoed by his popularity, which currently sits underwater by 16 points – not a great position for someone hoping to win another term in office. On every one of the top “issues of concern” for voters, Biden places second behind Donald Trump. From immigration to the economy, it seems the public prefers the last guy.
So what does this mean for the G7 summit?
With the exception of Meloni, the leaders of these countries are in a bad way politically, with either themselves or their parties (or both) rejected by the people they represent. And yet they will attend this meeting with all the pomp and circumstance of grandees determining the future for a world that has determined they are surplus to requirements.
Will they approach the deliberations and planning with humble hearts and an understanding that they are potentially headed for the door? Or will it be hubris and grandiose visions of a globalist future? If history is any judge, the smart money is on the latter.
https://www.libertynation.com/can-the-g7-keep-globalism-from-running-aground/
Courting the Young American — Campaigns Blitz TikTok
Desperate for their vote, campaigns pander to the young and the restless.
by Leesa K. Donner | Jun 11, 2024
Presidents Joe Biden and Donald Trump have expressed concerns about the Chinese-owned app TikTok but have given up the fight for now, surrendering their national security concerns to more practical affairs. Both campaigns are waging a pitched battle for the young American vote and have begun TikToking. Why? Because if you want to win over those under 30, that’s the place to go.
Liberty Nation News has been closely following the noticeable shift as young Americans seem to be abandoning the Democrats. This doesn’t mean they are storming the gates of the Republican National Committee; however, more than any other demographic, young voters are registering as independents and refuse to pitch their tents with the Democratic Party and its standard-bearer, Joe Biden. This comes as a bit of a shock to the Dems as young people have historically voted left of center. It is not lost on campaign strategists at Biden headquarters that their nemesis, Trump, is picking up a sizable share of the youth vote, and they are scrambling to stanch the bleeding.
Numerous polls show Trump gaining ground with young people and minorities. Now, we can see it in living color on apps, where young folks go to get their news fix. Pew Research Center studied how Americans get their political and cultural information and found those between 18 to 29 are more likely to consume news from digital sites than television or print media. Instead, they surf on over to their favorite websites like Reddit (48%), TikTok (44%), X (36%), Instagram (42%), YouTube (25%), and Facebook (22%). The data also split along gender lines, with more men tuning in to Reddit, YouTube, and X, whereas young women frequent Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook.
Statistics like these are made in heaven for digital campaign operatives. If they want to appeal to young women, they know to head over to TikTok; for young men, Reddit or YouTube is the best bet. In terms of political predilections, all of these online sites tilt or lean Democratic, according to Pew.
If You Can’t Beat ‘Em …
Earlier this month, despite the philosophical seesaw that Trump had with the Chinese-owned app, his campaign threw in the towel and started a TikTok account. As strategist Steven Cheung told CBS News, “Team Trump will leave no front undefended.” Lo and behold, it’s paying off.
In less than three days, the Trump account crushed the Biden campaign account, quickly landing 5 million followers, to 355,000 for the sitting president. As of June 10, Trump’s account has posted 6 million followers. Meanwhile, his first TikTok video showed a UCF crowd in Las Vegas going wild with applause as he glad-handed his way through the audience. That brief video clocked in (are you sitting down?) 87.2 million views.
It’s also worth noting that Robert F. Kennedy Jr. enjoys robust popularity with young independents. His TikTok campaign account has 1.3 million followers.
On June 10, Politico’s Elena Schneider wrote about a new super PAC launched to help Biden’s listing ship with young people. The political action committee will be called Won’t PAC Down and is expected to spend $20–25 million selling Biden to the under-30 set.
With a bit of help from their friends in Hollywood, young producers, writers, and directors plan to generate positive messages about Biden. They aim to place these ads on digital sites like TikTok and Instagram. Still, they know it’s an uphill battle to pitch the octogenarian to the young and the restless. Pollster John Della Volpe admitted to Politico, “The challenge is immense, and that’s why we’re doing this.”
Courting the Young American
Despite best-made plans, Democrats must be reeling from the lackluster numbers Biden has been posting with the younger generation. Both in 2016 and even more so in 2020, the number of young people voting reached epic levels. However, as Liberty Nation News pointed out in a recent article, the high turnout can be directly attributed to ease of voting, which included massive numbers of mail-in ballots. Some states will continue to post ballots, but not at the pandemic-fueled level experienced in 2020.
Based on his initial TikTok reception, it does appear young people have some mojo for Trump. Voters who are enthusiastic about a candidate are more likely to get out and vote. Meanwhile, Don’t PAC Down better get a move on as time is running out. Whether it will be able to gin up some passion and energize the young American voting bloc for Biden is uncertain. Will its $20 million make a difference, or will it be a case of – as the Beatles sang — “Money can’t buy me love.”
https://www.libertynation.com/courting-the-young-american-campaigns-blitz-tiktok/
Tuesday's Energy Absurdity: Reuters Almost Concedes to Reality of EU Election
David Blackmon
Jun 11, 2024
The propaganda media’s reporting on the conservative wave that roiled across the EU in the weekend’s elections focused on the angle that mass immigration was the only issue at play. This was obviously not correct, but it was the preferred globalist narrative of the wave event.
But both farming policy and climate policy - which are interrelated to one another - were also major issues that led to the uprising against the EU’s increasingly authoritarian governance on the European continent. This is an inconvenient truth the pushers of climate alarm propaganda would prefer to ignore, but the folks over at Reuters have decided to report on it nonetheless.
Naturally, Reuters puts the globalist spin on all of it, categorizing the election outcome as a threat rather than what it actually was, which is an outpouring of voter disgust with the ruling globalist elites.
Here’s an excerpt from the story headlined “EU climate policies could be slowed in future after rightward shift in election”:
Harder to pass new green laws, but most existing ones to stay
New EU parliament may try to weaken certain green measures
EU's core climate change targets won't be undone
Political focus seen shifting to security, industry
BRUSSELS, June 10 (Reuters) - A more rightward-leaning European Parliament will make it harder to pass ambitious EU climate policies, but the majority of Europe's current world-leading green policies are likely to stay put, lawmakers, officials and analysts said.
Provisional results in the European Parliament election on Sunday night showed centrist parties holding a majority, but gains for right-wing and far-right parties sceptical of the EU's "Green Deal" package of environmental policies, and heavy losses for Green parties.
"I don't think that we'll be rolling back on (climate) policies. But I do think that it will be more complicated to get new policies off the ground," Bas Eickhout, head of the European Parliament's Greens lawmaker group, told Reuters.
EU climate measures over the next five years will depend on the incoming European Commission, which is responsible for proposing EU laws. But the newly-elected European Parliament will get a say on every new green policy.
[End]
Basically, this new narrative holds that the status quo suite of brutal EU farming and climate policies against which voters were clearly rebelling will remain safely intact despite voter frustration, and that further authoritarian “progress” will only be slowed but not stopped.
The inevitable outcome of that, of course, will only be increased frustration among the rubes out there in Euro-flyover country.
Call me silly, but it seems at least notable that the EU is headquartered in Brussels, Belgium, where the conservative wave was perhaps stronger than in any other EU nation. Globalist Belgian PM Alexander de Croo was so shocked by the election results that he chose to resign his office in their wake.
In light of that reality, one might think that the new EU parliamentary members might want to pay close attention to what is happening all around them when they convene in a few weeks.
But if you think that, you obviously don’t work at Reuters. Go figure.
That is all.
https://blackmon.substack.com/p/tuesdays-energy-absurdity-reuters?publication_id=712558&post_id=145532607&isFreemail=true&r=rd9j8&triedRedirect=true
GOP releases Jan. 6 clip of Pelosi saying 'I take responsibility' as she discussed National Guard absence
'It's stupid that we should be in a situation like this,' Pelosi says in the video
By Elizabeth Elkind
Published June 10, 2024 11:09pm EDT
A previously unreleased video taken on Jan. 6, 2021 shows then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., saying she takes "responsibility" for law enforcement's lack of preparedness when a mob stormed the U.S. Capitol that day.
A tweet on X by a House Republican panel contains video that appears to show a frustrated Pelosi being evacuated from the Capitol complex and in intense conversation with Chief of Staff Terri McCullough about how the evacuation was conducted.
"We have responsibility, Terri. We did not have any accountability for what was going on there. And we should have," Pelosi says in the video, which was reviewed in its original form by Fox News Digital. "This is ridiculous. You’re going to ask me in the middle of the thing when they’ve already breached…that, should we call the Capitol Police? I mean the National Guard? Why weren’t the National Guard there to begin with?"
Her aide appeared to reply that Capitol security did believe they were prepared, to which Pelosi continued, "They clearly didn’t know, and I take responsibility for not having them just prepared for more."
Pelosi then appears to take a shot at former President Trump's supporters, who ransacked part of the Capitol including her office.
"It’s stupid that we should be in a situation like this, because they thought they had what- they thought these people would act civilized? They thought these people would give a damn?" Pelosi said. "What is it that is missing here in terms of anticipation? They give us a piece of paper that says walk through the tunnel, don’t walk outside. That’s your preparation?"
When reached for comment on the video, a spokesperson for Pelosi told Fox News Digital, "Numerous independent fact-checkers have confirmed again and again that Speaker Pelosi did not plan her own assassination on January 6th."
"As the footage in its entirety plainly shows, Speaker Pelosi sprang into action in response to the attack on the Capitol — mobilizing the defense of the Capitol, urging the Administration to deploy the National Guard and coordinating the continuity of government. Cherry-picked, out-of-context clips do not change the fact that the Speaker of the House is not in charge of the security of the Capitol Complex — on January 6th or any other day of the week," the spokesperson said. "Three years later, House Republicans are still attempting to whitewash the deadly insurrection."
House Republicans, however, say the clip undercuts Pelosi's assertions that Trump was to blame for the Jan. 6 riot.
Rep. Barry Loudermilk, R-Ga., chair of the House Administration Subcommittee on Oversight, accused the now-defunct House January 6 select committee of trying to hide evidence that contradicted a certain narrative.
"As Nancy Pelosi was being evacuated from the Capitol on January 6, 2021 she admitted that, as Speaker of the House, she was ultimately responsible for the security failures, and for not having the National Guard at the Capitol that day. Then, she proceeded to spend nearly 20 million of taxpayer dollars for her Select Committee to blame President Trump for her failures," Loudermilk said.
"The Democrats’ partisan January 6 select committee went to great lengths to suppress and hide any evidence that didn’t support their predetermined narrative about that day, including a video of Speaker Pelosi admitting her responsibility. My committee will continue to investigate and expose all the facts we find, because the American people deserve to know the truth."
Fox News Digital reached out to the Jan. 6 committee's former chair, Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., for comment.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/unearthed-jan-6-clip-shows-pelosi-saying-i-take-responsibility-capitol-police-being-unprepared-mob
GM Gmenfan-
An upgrade to a 200 amp system can be very expensive. I have a 200 amp system here. I have 3 outbuildings that have electricity going to them. My well and pump are located inside the largest building and has a separate breaker box also. Nat gas runs my furnace, hot water and stove. My electric bill is higher than the gas bill, but we use a lot of lights in a seed starter room I built inside the large outbuilding. I'm looking at a new hot water heater in the next 2 years but if any restrictions come down from our asshole guv I'll go for it sooner.
.................al
Forget Stoves! The Biden Admin Is Working Overtime To Phase Out All Your Gas Appliances
Nick Pope
Contributor
June 09, 2024 7:13 PM ET
The Biden administration contends that it is not targeting gas stoves and other domestic conveniences afforded by fossil fuels, but its “building electrification” agenda is poised to effectively do just that, several energy policy experts told the Daily Caller News Foundation.
The notion that the federal government would like to ban gas stoves is a “myth” and “misinformation,” according to the Department of Energy (DOE), which uploaded the blog post in May 2023 after Consumer Product Safety Commission Commissioner Richard Trumka Jr. suggested that a gas stove ban is “on the table” in a January 2023 Bloomberg interview. However, the administration is also working to advance its “building electrification” agenda that would bring about similar outcomes under a different name, energy policy experts told the DCNF.
“The whole ‘building electrification’ effort is part of the centralized control impulse of people who gravitate to government or stand to cash in on the latest fad, irrespective of its costs or impacts on regular Americans. It’s also part of the ‘electrify everything’ agenda of planners and masterminds,” Dan Kish, a senior research fellow for the Institute for Energy Research, told the DCNF. “The U.S. established a Constitutional Republic to limit government control, and yet control freaks want to tell us how to live by expanding the government’s reach.”
REP. CORI BUSH: “This proposed rule is not a ban on gas stoves! We are regulating indoor air pollution.”
And they called you paranoid for thinking they were coming for your gas stoves…They’re just ‘regulating indoor air pollution.’ pic.twitter.com/5ZkMKLSPvr
— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) May 24, 2023
The DOE released a report in April describing all of the ways it would like to decarbonize America’s building stock in the coming decades by pushing electric vehicles, electric appliances and substantial changes to how the utility industry operates. The Biden administration has also banned the use of natural gas in new federal buildings starting in 2030 and spent considerable sums of money to help state and municipal governments craft their own ambitious green building codes.
On Thursday, the DOE announced its official definition for “zero-emissions” buildings. Two of the three minimum criteria that a building must meet to fit into the definition are that it is “free of on-site emissions from energy use” and “powered solely from clean energy.”
“The feds are outlining yet another set of ‘rules’ for decarbonization, this time focused on zero-emissions buildings,” Steve Everly, a senior managing director for FTI Consulting’s energy and natural resources practice, wrote in a post to X addressing the DOE’s Thursday announcement. “But remember there is no federal effort to ban or restrict natural gas use, so stop the culture war or something.”
REPORTER:
“We’ve seen them go after gas stoves…how many more home appliances will Americans eventually have to replace?” pic.twitter.com/JgjQyiPGK0
— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) July 24, 2023
OH Skinner, the executive director of the Alliance for Consumers, echoed Everly’s suggestion that “building electrification” is a backdoor to significantly changing how Americans live, including by distorting markets in ways that disadvantage consumers.
“Basically, they’re saying, ‘We’re not banning gas stoves, we’re just pushing broad housing efficiency and building code standards for health and safety that make it nearly impossible for normal consumers or businesses to access products they may want, but we’re not banning anything,'” Skinner told the DCNF. “I think a good example that applies to the spirit of the green buildings agenda is the fuel efficiency standards for vehicles. Bureaucrats say, ‘We’re not trying to ban gas powered cars, but we are going to impose efficiency standards that can only be met if the vast majority of cars sold are electric cars.’ So, in theory, you can still, right now, get a gas powered car, but they are making it so that that access is not going to be actually possible for everyday people, just an elite and ever-shrinking few.”
The administration has also issued a bevy of regulations targeting household appliances, including furnaces, water heaters, dishwashers, portable gas-powered generators pool pump motors and more. In many cases, these standards are designed to push more energy efficient, and often electric or more expensive, appliances on consumers over time.
“The Biden administration doesn’t think its policies are being challenged or are unpopular, but the reality is pretty clearly the opposite,” Gabriella Hoffman, the director of the Center for Energy and Conservation at the Independent Women’s Forum (IWF), told the DCNF. “Attacking your constituents is not really a recipe for success in terms of winning over people to support your policies. And that’s why people are not supporting this administration’s regulations and electrification push. That’s why people don’t want to be dictated choices, especially with personal decisions like what type of stove you use, what car you drive, your gas furnace and so on.”
IWF has kept track of the administration’s appliance rules and estimated that the total costs of upgrading a home to align with the administration’s regulations are in the thousands of dollars. These expenses may not be especially onerous for the well-to-do, but they figure to weigh heavily on average Americans already feeling inflation’s pinch, Hoffman told the DCNF.
The DOE did not respond immediately to a request for comment.
https://dailycaller.com/2024/06/09/biden-electrify-buildings-appliances-regulation-misinformation/
Left-wing Twitter was mourning the death of a doctor in Gaza who imprisoned hostages in his home.
Here's some free advice: if you don't want to be killed by commandos rescuing hostages, don't imprison hostages in your home.